So sense friday I have been in Tokushima (the pot capitol of japan if your into that kind of thing (also that's a joke if anyone didn't get it toku sounds like toke, in Japanese, although it is apparently easier to get pot here than in other parts of japan. That's what you get for being in the country I guess) at the largest dance festival in Shikoku, if not japan.
The days kind of run together, and I didn't really do any super touristy stuff so I'll just give the highlights.
Getting there was probably the hardest part. The last I wrote I was on a too small night bus not getting sleep as it drove from Fukuoka to Kobe. The plan from there was to take a bus from Kobe to Tokushima, arrive around 11am and nap until the festivities started that night.
Well we got into Kobe alright, but failed to book bus tickets in advance. We were at the bus counter when it opened in the morning, and thought we would be fine, however when we to book our seats everything was sold out. In our sleep deprived state it took about another minute to realize that not just the bus we wanted, but every bus for the next two days was sold out. Remember when I said this thing was big? I wasn't joking.
So we explored other options but they were all fairly pricey, so we decided to buy a youth pass the cheapest and slowest option that, in the best case it would take 7 hours by local trains.
So we got started, because it was summer vacation everyone was riding our trains, I was literally falling asleep on my feet for the first 4 hours.
After the four hours of hell there was an hour transfer at okayama (岡山), not to be confused with ookayama (大岡山) which is my schools station. We recharged our batteries there, figuratively as well as literally, my iPhone was almost dead. And from there promptly missed our scheduled train.
We didn't realize this was a problem as we were island hopping over the Pacific Ocean on a train getting to Shikoku. Words and train photography don't do the route justice. I probably should have stayed awake for more of it, but we finally had a seat so I just kind of passed out.
Sadly once that leg of the trip was over we realized by missing the previous transfer we had screwed ourselves. This is getting a bit boring so to make a long story shorter we arrive in tokushima 5 hours later than expected and 8000 yen lighter.
As we arrive, before we can even shower and recover from two days of very hard traveling beers were placed in our hands and we were informed that we needed to start drinking because we were going to dance (awa-odori literally translates to awa dance) in the festival that night.
Well we do as we are told and go with a whole bunch of other foreigners in the tokushima international association to "practice" which meant drinking more beers.
We finally get to the dance, which is more of a parade / slow forward moving dance and I still have no idea what I'm doing. It's then that I'm given a tall lantern post thingy and told that I'm just perfect for leading the group.
Queue about 15 million pictures from stunned Japanese people and just as many people asking how tall I am. I actually got quite sick of it. There are only so many ways you can say "I am 2m tall and am from Seattle, yes I like Ichiro"
So the dancing and questions continued for basically the rest of the night. Sadly my phone was dead so no pictures, but my friends got some so those will go up on Facebook soon hopefully.
After the dancing we went to "Ingrids international bar" for the after party. I mention the name for two reasons. First, I've never seen such an explicitly named gaijin bar in Tokyo second the friend we were staying with loved it and we went there for the next 4 nights.
The next day was fairly uneventful. We stayed out fairly late so slept in fairly late, went to go actually watch the dancing, which was way less exciting than being in the dancing, I couldn't even get very good pictures :( then went to an all you can eat / drink place for dinner. We stayed out fairly late again, and as a result woke up late, just in time for a BBQ the next day.
The BBQ was great, Ingrids is mostly a singles place and a place for friends to meet. The BBQ was all the older lifelong English teachers and their wives.
An odd thing about Tokushima is that unlike Tokyo people like to stick around and teach English here. Most people had lived in Tokushima for 6 or more years. Unlike the one or two year stints that most Tokyo teachers appear to do. I think it might have something to do with actually being a fairly prominent figure in a small community. Also life here is easy and laid back, more like the states than other places, I can see it's draw.
Anyway back to the BBQ, we chatted, and I got to see a glimpse into the life of a grown up gaijin, after they stop fooling around and settle down with their Japanese wife. Not going to lie it looked like fun, but there is something about my personality that makes me think I wouldn't be happy teaching English and raising a family until the end of my days.
The kids were great though, once they weren't scared of me anymore of course. Kids are always scared of me at first. We had a squirt gun fight.
I should stop and mention that I'm eternally grateful to Tashi for putting me and Michael up for 4 nights even though he had no idea who I was.
So that night we went out to a karaoke bar (American style) with one of Tashi's students. This guy was really cool, he was like 60 and so were the rest of his friends. Like normal everyone was shy until they realized we could speak Japanese. After that people really opened up.
Our friends were 60 so they hadn't really kept track of pop culture from the last 20 years. We were stuck singing songs from the 50's and 60's which was an interesting and challenging task. Still great fun.
Near the end of the night we made friends with the Japanese version of white trash, I think. Which is ironic because they were dressed up very properly in kimonos. In any event they talked in a really annoying style and one of the girls only stayed with her strict controlling boyfriend because he was "macho" (in this case that means he can carry an 18 pack of beer up three stories with one arm, what a catch) they knew all of two words in English and one of them was "wow" I swear the first thing English teachers need to do when teaching English from now on is kill the always responding habit, it sounds fine in Japanese, but in English its just painful to listen to.
So eventually they went hone, Michael and Tashi were having fun but my contacts where killing me so I went home before them. It was then that I ran into my least favorite form of foreigner. A guy that I met earlier in the night, and was a fairly nice guy, but this time I see him, start walking with him, and within 30 seconds he starts bragging about how he got a blowjob in a club earlier that night and about how much "he just loves the culture here". People always talk about how easy it is to get laid in Japan, like it's something special and unique to this country. I really hate this, Japan is no different from any other country, if you know where to go, and find the right girl it's just as easy to get laid in America and Europe, and other parts if Asia as well. I could rant about this for days but I'll leave it at that. Japanese girls like all other girls are all very different, some are easy some are, um what's the word, not so easy.
Anyway that ended my night at 4am.
The next day we again slept in, relaxed, went to some tourist things, got some pictures and went out again. This time we went to a girls bar, basically a bar with cheap drinks, a cover and cute bar tenders whose job it is to give you a bit more attention than a regular bartender. Its a poor mans version of a snack bar where you pay a lot of money to get a lot of attention. For my American readers, attention is not a metaphor for sex, Japan has a strange bit culture of where both guys and girls will pay large amounts of money for a conversation with an attractive member of the opposite sex.
In any event I ignored the girls and had a very nice conversation with David one of Tashi's friends. We bassically talked about everything above plus the annoying points of American culture. I always here people my age talk about this stuff, it was fun hearing some more developed opinions about why staying here is great, and why someone choose that life. Thankfully we called the night early and went to bed, so we could catch an early bus to Kobe the next morning.
The ride was uneventful except apparently we drove over the longest suspension bridge in the world. I mostly slept through that...
Also what was a 7 hour train ride there became a 2 hour bus ride.
From Kobe we met two of Michael's friends, and went straight to Kyoto. Because everyone else there had lived in Kyoto before we basically dicked around the city until 6:00 when we headed for a temple I still can't remember the name of in kanji it was 出町柳 don't ask me to read it for you. Anyway that temple area was the main event for the night. We were there to see the daimonji festival, which involves lighting a giant 大 as well as a 法 and some other characters in fire on the mountains around Kyoto. It was cool, but again iPhone and cheap digital camera tech can't capture it well.
Oh yah I met Yurika for like half an hour, she is as cute as ever :)
Once daimonji was over I went back to my hostel, bid goodby to everyone and went upstairs to the common room to make friends. There I ran into Axel, a guy from my Japanese class two years ago. He was just kind of traveling with his dad and we randomly met in the same hostel. Anyway we sent the rest of the night chatting with other folks in the hostel and I woke up early, 5am to catch my flight to shanghai. I'm at Kansai airport now excited to see at least a part of china. I got here fine, but we'll see if my luck holds up when finding my way to my hostel.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Day 9
Day 8
Today was great, we woke up at ten, and after having a bit of trouble finding lockers at hakata station (the first 3 places we looked were all full) we went down to the beach.
We basically spent the entire day just hanging out there. We made some friends because some Japanese highschool students wanted to practice English. Once they realized we could speak Japanese thought it was game over. They loved us.
I went swimming for a bit, had a great time doing all my old drills and stuff to the stares of Japanese people, and when I got out Michael had made a new friend.
This guy was nice enough (he bought us beers) but otherwise was a bit creepy. He kept on doing the standard foreigner speech about how you can get Japanese girls, but he took it to another level when he mentioned he had a wife and several girlfriends. Not that it matters to much but did I mention he was from west Africa?
Anyhow after a bit Michael's real other friend joined us, she was super nice and had a great sense of humor. I've noticed that people from Fukuoka laugh more. The guy I met on the ferry was born there, and so was this girl. I really liked the fact that people have a sense of humor. Screw serious Tokyo folks.
To much time passed and we tried to go to a famous shrine, but it was already closed. So instead we went to a tinny local sento for a bath before dinner. It was great to get really clean before the yako (night) bus that we are ridding tonight.
After the bath we thought there wasn't much time before the bus so we quickly had dinner at hakata station said goodby to Aoi and got ready to get on. We then realized we miss read the departure time and instead of leaving at 9:30 we left at 11:30. To kill some time we went to a Internet cafe.
Now I'm riding the night bus due to get into Kobe at 7:00am. This is 10 times more cramped and hot than the sleeper train I took to Vennis. It's a horrible ending to a great day.
Today was great, we woke up at ten, and after having a bit of trouble finding lockers at hakata station (the first 3 places we looked were all full) we went down to the beach.
We basically spent the entire day just hanging out there. We made some friends because some Japanese highschool students wanted to practice English. Once they realized we could speak Japanese thought it was game over. They loved us.
I went swimming for a bit, had a great time doing all my old drills and stuff to the stares of Japanese people, and when I got out Michael had made a new friend.
This guy was nice enough (he bought us beers) but otherwise was a bit creepy. He kept on doing the standard foreigner speech about how you can get Japanese girls, but he took it to another level when he mentioned he had a wife and several girlfriends. Not that it matters to much but did I mention he was from west Africa?
Anyhow after a bit Michael's real other friend joined us, she was super nice and had a great sense of humor. I've noticed that people from Fukuoka laugh more. The guy I met on the ferry was born there, and so was this girl. I really liked the fact that people have a sense of humor. Screw serious Tokyo folks.
To much time passed and we tried to go to a famous shrine, but it was already closed. So instead we went to a tinny local sento for a bath before dinner. It was great to get really clean before the yako (night) bus that we are ridding tonight.
After the bath we thought there wasn't much time before the bus so we quickly had dinner at hakata station said goodby to Aoi and got ready to get on. We then realized we miss read the departure time and instead of leaving at 9:30 we left at 11:30. To kill some time we went to a Internet cafe.
Now I'm riding the night bus due to get into Kobe at 7:00am. This is 10 times more cramped and hot than the sleeper train I took to Vennis. It's a horrible ending to a great day.
Day 8
Day 8
Today which was actually yesterday I got up at a normal time!
It was the day that Michael and I left Korea so we had to leave nicks house before he went off to work.
Michael left at 9 for his 10am ferry but I scheduled my ferry for 2:30 getting in at 5 huge mistake. I basically dicked around a giant department store for 3 hours until it was time to go. A friend wanted me to go to a beach but it was an hour away by train so I decided not to go. Trust ne when it comes down to an hour at the beach or 3 as a department store choose choose the beach.
Anyway I got on the ferry to go home. There was a shy Japanese guy next to me until he couldn't fasten his seatbelt. Then he realized I could speak Japanese and everything changed. It turns out he lived a station away from me in Tokyo and studied a bit of biology. We talked for the rest of the 3 hour ride. I wish I had some time to meet up with him when I go back to Tokyo.
I got into hakata station (Fukuoka) like an hour late, after making Michael wait there by himself for like 2 hours. We went to the hostel, which was very quiet but a nice place to sleep. We didn't really meet anyone, but that's alright.
For dinner we had ippudo (一風堂) ramen which is easily the best ramen I've ever had in my life. Their tonkstsu was ten times better than nanashi ramen in Aobadai.
After that we decided to continue my now 7 day bender by going for a drink in the main shopping / entertainment district of Fukuoka, Tenji. We couldn't really find a place we liked so we wandered around until some Korean kids asked us to help them find clubs because we spoke better Japanese then them.
We took them to a club, but one of them didn't have his ID so they got kicked out. We weren't really feeling it so we left shortly after. At that point we decided to keep drinking and ended up at a british pub that was not the hub. I was really surprised, it was nice so we just chatted for a bit and headed home early.
Today which was actually yesterday I got up at a normal time!
It was the day that Michael and I left Korea so we had to leave nicks house before he went off to work.
Michael left at 9 for his 10am ferry but I scheduled my ferry for 2:30 getting in at 5 huge mistake. I basically dicked around a giant department store for 3 hours until it was time to go. A friend wanted me to go to a beach but it was an hour away by train so I decided not to go. Trust ne when it comes down to an hour at the beach or 3 as a department store choose choose the beach.
Anyway I got on the ferry to go home. There was a shy Japanese guy next to me until he couldn't fasten his seatbelt. Then he realized I could speak Japanese and everything changed. It turns out he lived a station away from me in Tokyo and studied a bit of biology. We talked for the rest of the 3 hour ride. I wish I had some time to meet up with him when I go back to Tokyo.
I got into hakata station (Fukuoka) like an hour late, after making Michael wait there by himself for like 2 hours. We went to the hostel, which was very quiet but a nice place to sleep. We didn't really meet anyone, but that's alright.
For dinner we had ippudo (一風堂) ramen which is easily the best ramen I've ever had in my life. Their tonkstsu was ten times better than nanashi ramen in Aobadai.
After that we decided to continue my now 7 day bender by going for a drink in the main shopping / entertainment district of Fukuoka, Tenji. We couldn't really find a place we liked so we wandered around until some Korean kids asked us to help them find clubs because we spoke better Japanese then them.
We took them to a club, but one of them didn't have his ID so they got kicked out. We weren't really feeling it so we left shortly after. At that point we decided to keep drinking and ended up at a british pub that was not the hub. I was really surprised, it was nice so we just chatted for a bit and headed home early.
Half of day 7
Day 7 again with the getting up late. Today I got my day started at 2 and waked up a big fucking hill to democracy park. Great view up here, also the typhoon stopped so I could actually see.
Sadly the walk, and enjoying the view, and writing this post took two and a half hours so I've got to head back or else nick will be locked out of his apartment again.
Nick told me this was a city of moutuans. He wasn't kidding, I had to walk over two in order to make it back to his house people that talk about cougar calves should visit busan and see what a town of real hills looks like, seriously this place is worse than Seattle.
Tonight Michael gets here and tomorrow we head to Fukuoka. Should be an interesting night...
Random thoughts: when ever I visit Korea I'm always reminded how the threat of war and communisum here is actually real and how it influences all the tourist areas, if not daily life as well.
Lots and lots of old dudes just sit and play Chinese chess with each other all day, I've seen at least 10 games.
In the evening we again went out drinking, but this time to a bar literally built into a cave. I got dripped on quite a few times. It would have been a great place except for the tables were made out of stone and build for Koreans... Not the best. Anyway it was still a cool place.
Sadly the walk, and enjoying the view, and writing this post took two and a half hours so I've got to head back or else nick will be locked out of his apartment again.
Nick told me this was a city of moutuans. He wasn't kidding, I had to walk over two in order to make it back to his house people that talk about cougar calves should visit busan and see what a town of real hills looks like, seriously this place is worse than Seattle.
Tonight Michael gets here and tomorrow we head to Fukuoka. Should be an interesting night...
Random thoughts: when ever I visit Korea I'm always reminded how the threat of war and communisum here is actually real and how it influences all the tourist areas, if not daily life as well.
Lots and lots of old dudes just sit and play Chinese chess with each other all day, I've seen at least 10 games.
In the evening we again went out drinking, but this time to a bar literally built into a cave. I got dripped on quite a few times. It would have been a great place except for the tables were made out of stone and build for Koreans... Not the best. Anyway it was still a cool place.
Day 6
Day 6
Well today I got up early, walled through a typhoon to get my stuff from busan station, walked back through a typhoon chilled out on the Internet while my stuff dried and decided it was time for a nap until 3. When I finally got out to see the city. I decided to walk to Seoul tower, fairly close, where the event that made my day happened.
I was actually kind of bored due to the typhoon and lack of visibility, when some kid like maybe 10 is eyeing me and I can tell he wants to know how tall I am. I flash up a two thinking he is Korean, and then he asks me in Japanese how tall I am, turns out I ran into a school trip from nagoya. I of course answer in Japanese, and that's when the rest of the group just goes insane. I get like 30 kids surrounding me and asking me my height, and taking pictures, and basically just having a good time. I was really enjoying it. As I walked away some kids were still trying to jump up and be at my height. Best observation tower ever. Oh also it didn't hurt that they had a picture of the space needle.
After that, just for Geoff, I walked into the world model boat display. The displays were not as good as his, but I got some pictures anyway.
Then I tried walking from Seoul tower to a place called democracy park. It was 4 at the time and I had to be back at 5 so I didn't quite make it.
In the evening nick and I had a very Korean night of eating pizza drinking beer and watching archer and the usual suspects. At least I had an asahi black. That makes it more Korean right?
Well today I got up early, walled through a typhoon to get my stuff from busan station, walked back through a typhoon chilled out on the Internet while my stuff dried and decided it was time for a nap until 3. When I finally got out to see the city. I decided to walk to Seoul tower, fairly close, where the event that made my day happened.
I was actually kind of bored due to the typhoon and lack of visibility, when some kid like maybe 10 is eyeing me and I can tell he wants to know how tall I am. I flash up a two thinking he is Korean, and then he asks me in Japanese how tall I am, turns out I ran into a school trip from nagoya. I of course answer in Japanese, and that's when the rest of the group just goes insane. I get like 30 kids surrounding me and asking me my height, and taking pictures, and basically just having a good time. I was really enjoying it. As I walked away some kids were still trying to jump up and be at my height. Best observation tower ever. Oh also it didn't hurt that they had a picture of the space needle.
After that, just for Geoff, I walked into the world model boat display. The displays were not as good as his, but I got some pictures anyway.
Then I tried walking from Seoul tower to a place called democracy park. It was 4 at the time and I had to be back at 5 so I didn't quite make it.
In the evening nick and I had a very Korean night of eating pizza drinking beer and watching archer and the usual suspects. At least I had an asahi black. That makes it more Korean right?
The rest of day 5
The rest of day 5
Well I got into busan without a hitch, it was after I exited the train station that the hitches started...
As a side note I really really need a working cellphone.
Anyway, I called up nick and he was out drinking with some friends. Unfortunately I didn't think I would be able to being all my luggage into the bar he was at (turns out I totally could have) so I sent a half hour looking for a locker to put my shit in (turns out there were lockers at the station he was drinking near) I eventually found one in Seoul station. So I hopped on the 45min subway ride to get to his station (a very nice beach) and got off a station to early. I figured out I wasn't in a drinking area after about a half hour of wandering around a yhat club. Anyway I got to the station finally, and took two more wrong turns before finding the complex that held the bar. Turns out the bar was on the second floor, unlabeled, and behind not one but two blind turns.
When I finally got there thought it was really nice, actually like walking into a little slice of America.
So we sat and drank and played cranium and had a great time. When I was leaving though there was this guy who over the course of the night had been saying things that I found oddly familiar. When we were walking out the door he started talking about his friend that lived in tokyo, and went to George tech. He kept on saying stuff like "a town down" finally I asked him if his friend was named Julian Prokay by any chance. Turns out it was, Julian, the guy who lived 3 doors down from me for a year had visited this guy in busan no more than two months ago. After that my mind was so blown I went home.
Before I got hone thought I had to pick um my luggage from Seoul station, turns out the station closes at 23:00 so my stuff was stuck there until the next day, kind of a bummer meant I had to sleep in contacts.
After that I was so bummed had mcdonalds (fairly good here, but doesn't compare to japan) and went to bed.
Well I got into busan without a hitch, it was after I exited the train station that the hitches started...
As a side note I really really need a working cellphone.
Anyway, I called up nick and he was out drinking with some friends. Unfortunately I didn't think I would be able to being all my luggage into the bar he was at (turns out I totally could have) so I sent a half hour looking for a locker to put my shit in (turns out there were lockers at the station he was drinking near) I eventually found one in Seoul station. So I hopped on the 45min subway ride to get to his station (a very nice beach) and got off a station to early. I figured out I wasn't in a drinking area after about a half hour of wandering around a yhat club. Anyway I got to the station finally, and took two more wrong turns before finding the complex that held the bar. Turns out the bar was on the second floor, unlabeled, and behind not one but two blind turns.
When I finally got there thought it was really nice, actually like walking into a little slice of America.
So we sat and drank and played cranium and had a great time. When I was leaving though there was this guy who over the course of the night had been saying things that I found oddly familiar. When we were walking out the door he started talking about his friend that lived in tokyo, and went to George tech. He kept on saying stuff like "a town down" finally I asked him if his friend was named Julian Prokay by any chance. Turns out it was, Julian, the guy who lived 3 doors down from me for a year had visited this guy in busan no more than two months ago. After that my mind was so blown I went home.
Before I got hone thought I had to pick um my luggage from Seoul station, turns out the station closes at 23:00 so my stuff was stuck there until the next day, kind of a bummer meant I had to sleep in contacts.
After that I was so bummed had mcdonalds (fairly good here, but doesn't compare to japan) and went to bed.
Friday, August 5, 2011
Vacation day 2
Day two so far
So I figured out where I was going to sleep last night, a capsule hotel. Everything there was great except for bed. They had a fantastic rooftop sento (a type of onsen or hottub) and free toothbrushes and razors. I think there was even free porn, but I was to stupid to realize that video in Japanese is code for porn.
The bed however sucked. It was to small, to hard, and most importantly there was no ac in my room meaning it was hot as balls the entire night. I don't think I've slept so badly sense I was in a hammock camping illegally in the middle of Tokyo getting eaten alive by bugs.
Thankfully i didn't have to sleep that long I woke up at 7 to get to the international terminal on time. Thankfully I stayed close to hakata but even so I had a hell of a time finding the bus stop (there are like 10 stops all spread out) and as a result cut it very close (10 min to spare) making it on the boat.
The boat was great, it was a hydrofoil so there wasn't any turbulence and I was able to catch up on the sleep I didn't get in the capsule hotel.
Making into busan was uneventful except I think it's going to become tradition to be had by taxi scams in this damn country. I suffered an off by one bug when paying the cabbe and instead of giving him 3000 won for a 5 min trip I gave him 30000. About 30$ Damnit.
After that I wandered around the city a bit before my train ride to Seoul. Fairly uneventful, the cities port is beautiful if not a bit run down in places. Thankfully no more scams where to be had.
For lunch I played it safe and ate at mall food. Holy fuck I forgot how spicy food can be. This will take some getting used to. I'll figure it out after my mouth stops smoking.
As I write this last part I'm waiting for a train to seoul. I'm meeting up and staying with Michael tonight and we'll see where things go from there. I'm excited to see another face from Seattle.
Well I got into Seoul without a hitch, it was after that the hitches started. I needed to get into contact with Michael, but my phone was at 10% battery life, so there was a time limit. On top of that I couldn't find wifi in the station so I had to wander around for like 30min before finding anything I could use.
I finally got through, and it turns out Michael was halfway across the city. So over I went. When I got there I realized we hadn't set a meeting time or place and worse yet, there wasn't any Internet so I couldn't contact him or find his number. Queue wandering to each exit for the next half-hour before finally finding free Internet and being able to make contact. I met Michael with 2% battery life on my phone, talk about cutting it close.
The rest of the night was uneventful. We had dinner and caught up. Tomorrow I guess I'll go hiking in the afternoon, and drinking in the evening.
Here are my random thoughts of the day:
If you thought english in japan was bad, come to Korea. I've seen more engrish errors here in 2 hours than in the last 2 months I spent in japan.
I've also realized that I overpacked, badly. Who needs two coats, gloves and a hat in the middle of summer, my bag is already pushing 20kg. Anyway I'm working on a plan to get this stuff out of my pack, but in the mean time it's a bitch to carry around.
Korea, at least the parts I woke up to see is a really beautiful country once you get out if the cities. The same can be said about the islands around fukuoka. When I go back I want to visit them. I might dedicate a day here just to hiking as well.
I forgot just how much Seoul loves it's high-rise apartments. In japan due to earthquakes it costs a lot of money to build to far up. So the suburbs are generally only 10-12 stories high. Here it looks like 20 stories is the minimum.
So I figured out where I was going to sleep last night, a capsule hotel. Everything there was great except for bed. They had a fantastic rooftop sento (a type of onsen or hottub) and free toothbrushes and razors. I think there was even free porn, but I was to stupid to realize that video in Japanese is code for porn.
The bed however sucked. It was to small, to hard, and most importantly there was no ac in my room meaning it was hot as balls the entire night. I don't think I've slept so badly sense I was in a hammock camping illegally in the middle of Tokyo getting eaten alive by bugs.
Thankfully i didn't have to sleep that long I woke up at 7 to get to the international terminal on time. Thankfully I stayed close to hakata but even so I had a hell of a time finding the bus stop (there are like 10 stops all spread out) and as a result cut it very close (10 min to spare) making it on the boat.
The boat was great, it was a hydrofoil so there wasn't any turbulence and I was able to catch up on the sleep I didn't get in the capsule hotel.
Making into busan was uneventful except I think it's going to become tradition to be had by taxi scams in this damn country. I suffered an off by one bug when paying the cabbe and instead of giving him 3000 won for a 5 min trip I gave him 30000. About 30$ Damnit.
After that I wandered around the city a bit before my train ride to Seoul. Fairly uneventful, the cities port is beautiful if not a bit run down in places. Thankfully no more scams where to be had.
For lunch I played it safe and ate at mall food. Holy fuck I forgot how spicy food can be. This will take some getting used to. I'll figure it out after my mouth stops smoking.
As I write this last part I'm waiting for a train to seoul. I'm meeting up and staying with Michael tonight and we'll see where things go from there. I'm excited to see another face from Seattle.
Well I got into Seoul without a hitch, it was after that the hitches started. I needed to get into contact with Michael, but my phone was at 10% battery life, so there was a time limit. On top of that I couldn't find wifi in the station so I had to wander around for like 30min before finding anything I could use.
I finally got through, and it turns out Michael was halfway across the city. So over I went. When I got there I realized we hadn't set a meeting time or place and worse yet, there wasn't any Internet so I couldn't contact him or find his number. Queue wandering to each exit for the next half-hour before finally finding free Internet and being able to make contact. I met Michael with 2% battery life on my phone, talk about cutting it close.
The rest of the night was uneventful. We had dinner and caught up. Tomorrow I guess I'll go hiking in the afternoon, and drinking in the evening.
Here are my random thoughts of the day:
If you thought english in japan was bad, come to Korea. I've seen more engrish errors here in 2 hours than in the last 2 months I spent in japan.
I've also realized that I overpacked, badly. Who needs two coats, gloves and a hat in the middle of summer, my bag is already pushing 20kg. Anyway I'm working on a plan to get this stuff out of my pack, but in the mean time it's a bitch to carry around.
Korea, at least the parts I woke up to see is a really beautiful country once you get out if the cities. The same can be said about the islands around fukuoka. When I go back I want to visit them. I might dedicate a day here just to hiking as well.
I forgot just how much Seoul loves it's high-rise apartments. In japan due to earthquakes it costs a lot of money to build to far up. So the suburbs are generally only 10-12 stories high. Here it looks like 20 stories is the minimum.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Ryokoo (vacation) pt1
After one final frantic day of preparations I'm finally on my way. I woke up in Tokyo today early to try and finish my errands and checking out early.
Things were going well until I realized my duffel bag was way to big to ship by post. I ended up having to make a very expensive detour to donki (a kind of superstore) and buying a piece of luggage for 100$. I then had to ship both prices of luggage for 200$, ouch. At least they are going to my new home in San Diego.
That detour lasted for a good 4 hours. I finally set off to catch my train at 6. I said goodby to everyone went out with my luggage, which is already to heavy, and promptly realized I forgot my keys so I had to go back.
Turns out they weren't there, or anywhere else I looked. Thankfully there was nothing of value on the keychain so I just forgot about it and went on my way.
I'm now riding the nozoni Shinkansen (the one that regular tourists can't ride) to Fukuoka (also apparently known as balata). It's super nice, quiet, fast and maybe even cleaner than a regular Shinkansen. I can see why they keep tourists out.
I have no idea where I will stay tonight, hopefully that will work itself out. I'm thinking magakisa (basically like an Internet cafe)
Tomorrow I leave for busan by ferry, and maybe Seoul. We'll see what I feel like doing.
Oh for people who don't know my schedule it's this:
Aug 4 - arrive in Korea
Aug 10 - back in Fukuoka
Aug 17 - fly to shanghai
Aug 19 - Beijing by rolling death aka their Shinkansen
Aug 24 - shanghai again by the fastest way to die on the planet
Aug 28 - Taiwan
Sept 2 - Tokyo
Sept 5 - Seattle
Sept 13 - San Diego to start grad school
All blog posts will be typed from an iPhone so as normal don't expect high quality, but hopefully the mobileness will let me post fairly quick updates.
Things were going well until I realized my duffel bag was way to big to ship by post. I ended up having to make a very expensive detour to donki (a kind of superstore) and buying a piece of luggage for 100$. I then had to ship both prices of luggage for 200$, ouch. At least they are going to my new home in San Diego.
That detour lasted for a good 4 hours. I finally set off to catch my train at 6. I said goodby to everyone went out with my luggage, which is already to heavy, and promptly realized I forgot my keys so I had to go back.
Turns out they weren't there, or anywhere else I looked. Thankfully there was nothing of value on the keychain so I just forgot about it and went on my way.
I'm now riding the nozoni Shinkansen (the one that regular tourists can't ride) to Fukuoka (also apparently known as balata). It's super nice, quiet, fast and maybe even cleaner than a regular Shinkansen. I can see why they keep tourists out.
I have no idea where I will stay tonight, hopefully that will work itself out. I'm thinking magakisa (basically like an Internet cafe)
Tomorrow I leave for busan by ferry, and maybe Seoul. We'll see what I feel like doing.
Oh for people who don't know my schedule it's this:
Aug 4 - arrive in Korea
Aug 10 - back in Fukuoka
Aug 17 - fly to shanghai
Aug 19 - Beijing by rolling death aka their Shinkansen
Aug 24 - shanghai again by the fastest way to die on the planet
Aug 28 - Taiwan
Sept 2 - Tokyo
Sept 5 - Seattle
Sept 13 - San Diego to start grad school
All blog posts will be typed from an iPhone so as normal don't expect high quality, but hopefully the mobileness will let me post fairly quick updates.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Asahi Beer Tour
I should really emphasize that everything here was at amazing scale. I don't think that comes out in my writing.
Asahi Beer
Factory Study Tour
For our second factory study tour of the quarter we went to the Asahi Beer Factory in Kanagawa prefecture. The Asahi Beer Factory is an eco friendly factory where the Asahi beer that gets shipped to the Kanto region is produced. Recently the emphasized lots of eco and energy friendly technologies to make the production of beer more efficient.
This factory study tour was much more touristy than the other tours that we have gone on. The guide was a paid guide who spoke very good english, and the walkway that we went on had posters and signs describing all sorts of information pertaining to the brewing, or in this case production of beer.
The introduction was a video produced to give an overview of the brewing process and also was one giant advertisement for Asahi beer and its various products. The video covered all aspects of brewing, from raw goods acquisition to the bottling and shipping of the finished product.
After the video we started the tour. The first stop on our tour was the mash room. Mash is what later gets fermented into beer by yeast. To create mash one must first bring the barely to a boil and physically mash it up. After the barley has been mashed it is then added to another vat that contains hops. The whole thing is stirred until its dissolved and then the solid seeds of the barely and hops are filtered out, leaving only the mash.
The mash is then transferred to fermentation units outside. These units are where the mash is converted to beer by yeast fermentation. It takes about 10 days to ferment the mash into beer. The process is carefully controlled and watched to make sure the entire process occurs at 0 C. A single fermenting column contains something like 50,000L of beer
When the beer has been created the yeast must then be filtered out of the final product. Yeast makes beer taste bad, and has, various other health effects. Therefore the yeast is filtered out.
After the filtering process, the beer is moved into the sterile bottling area. I found out something new about metal bottles that day, they originally come in two parts, the top and the bottom. The bottom is filled with beer, the top is placed on and then the top has a lip that gets folded and pressed into the bottom to seal the can.
When the bottling is done packing occurs. Because the demand for beer in Tokyo is very high one 24 pack of Asahi beer is produced every second in the plant. It was a really cool sight to see.
The tour ended with a 30min nohihoadai, which was a lot of fun. The tour guide showed us how to pour a beer the “proper way” although I disagree. Her instructions were as follows: first you need a chilled mug (I agree with this), then pour the beer into the cup so that a head is formed. Then til the cup so head is no longer created while pouring and fill the cup up all the way. The end result should have about 1/3 of the cup filled with head, and the rest beer. In my opinion thats way to much head on a beer. Actually beer should be so thick it doesn't even form a head.
Asahi Beer
Factory Study Tour
For our second factory study tour of the quarter we went to the Asahi Beer Factory in Kanagawa prefecture. The Asahi Beer Factory is an eco friendly factory where the Asahi beer that gets shipped to the Kanto region is produced. Recently the emphasized lots of eco and energy friendly technologies to make the production of beer more efficient.
This factory study tour was much more touristy than the other tours that we have gone on. The guide was a paid guide who spoke very good english, and the walkway that we went on had posters and signs describing all sorts of information pertaining to the brewing, or in this case production of beer.
The introduction was a video produced to give an overview of the brewing process and also was one giant advertisement for Asahi beer and its various products. The video covered all aspects of brewing, from raw goods acquisition to the bottling and shipping of the finished product.
After the video we started the tour. The first stop on our tour was the mash room. Mash is what later gets fermented into beer by yeast. To create mash one must first bring the barely to a boil and physically mash it up. After the barley has been mashed it is then added to another vat that contains hops. The whole thing is stirred until its dissolved and then the solid seeds of the barely and hops are filtered out, leaving only the mash.
The mash is then transferred to fermentation units outside. These units are where the mash is converted to beer by yeast fermentation. It takes about 10 days to ferment the mash into beer. The process is carefully controlled and watched to make sure the entire process occurs at 0 C. A single fermenting column contains something like 50,000L of beer
When the beer has been created the yeast must then be filtered out of the final product. Yeast makes beer taste bad, and has, various other health effects. Therefore the yeast is filtered out.
After the filtering process, the beer is moved into the sterile bottling area. I found out something new about metal bottles that day, they originally come in two parts, the top and the bottom. The bottom is filled with beer, the top is placed on and then the top has a lip that gets folded and pressed into the bottom to seal the can.
When the bottling is done packing occurs. Because the demand for beer in Tokyo is very high one 24 pack of Asahi beer is produced every second in the plant. It was a really cool sight to see.
The tour ended with a 30min nohihoadai, which was a lot of fun. The tour guide showed us how to pour a beer the “proper way” although I disagree. Her instructions were as follows: first you need a chilled mug (I agree with this), then pour the beer into the cup so that a head is formed. Then til the cup so head is no longer created while pouring and fill the cup up all the way. The end result should have about 1/3 of the cup filled with head, and the rest beer. In my opinion thats way to much head on a beer. Actually beer should be so thick it doesn't even form a head.
Factoty Study Tour report Kawasaki Eco town
As normal I figure people might want to see this so I'm posting it as well as turning it in.
I really should keep this more updated. I've done a lot of cool things recently, stated dating, went to the gibiri museum, walked around some really nice parks, and I'm planning on going on a crazy fun vacation soon. Maybe I'll post here with more memories when I get some free time.
With that here is my really really badly written Kawasaki Eco Town report.
Kawasaki Eco Town
Factory Study Tour
For our first factory study tour of the quarter we went to the Kawasaki Eco Town in Kawasaki city. The Kawaasaki Eco town is actually a combination of a few different factories in the same area that are all united in providing ecologically friendly factory conditions, and recycling of materials. It is probably the greenest factory we have been to so far.
We began the visit by waiting briefing room for a bit before we were introduced to the a factory head. He gave a brief introduction, and then described the basic layout of the factory and the techniques and technology used inside.
The introduction and the tour followed the same basic pathway so I will describe them in simultaneously.
The factory that we toured that day was a factory for making toilet paper out of recycled goods. All the toilet paper was 100% recycled and they were able to make many different kinds of paper, which I will describe later on.
The first part of the tour we saw the reciving area, where the factory received the goods that have been recycled and fed them into the rest of the supply chain. In the receving area there were trucks and boxes of various things, paper from companies, train tickets, and milk containers . Milk containers were the best paper to make toilet paper out of because of their high fiber count.
Right after the reviving area there was a basic separation station. There the paper and large metal objects were separated out, via centrifuge. However this was not enough to create pure paper for recycling. Staples and other things that can't be recycled were still left in the paper.
That brought us to the next container, which was a giant vat of water + chemicals that dissolved the paper into its constituent fibers making it so the metal settled to the bottom and the paper itself remained at the top. It takes about 12 hours for one run to be totally dissolved and moved on for further processing.
After the paper is dissolved it must be bleached to remove dyes and inks that made the paper useful, this was done with H2O2 in smaller vats, this processing was much faster.
After the fibers were fully processed it was time to turn them back into paper. This was done by quickly spinning and drying new paper at the same time on rollers, I'm not exactly sure how this was done but it was really cool to watch. Also the paper rolls generated were giant, over 1.8m in diameter. It was really cool to see. Each of these rolls were then spun down, into smaller rolls for the purposes of making toilet paper. The smaller rolls were about 2m long, but the diameter of toilet paper rolls.
These smaller rolls were then cut up in many different places, leaving a roll of paper the size of a toilet paper roll remaining. They were then sent to a packaging system that packages them 24 at a time and move to the distribution section of the warehouse.
The plant in total produces about 1million rolls a day, which I though was really cool, but actually its not so much if you think about it.
I really should keep this more updated. I've done a lot of cool things recently, stated dating, went to the gibiri museum, walked around some really nice parks, and I'm planning on going on a crazy fun vacation soon. Maybe I'll post here with more memories when I get some free time.
With that here is my really really badly written Kawasaki Eco Town report.
Kawasaki Eco Town
Factory Study Tour
For our first factory study tour of the quarter we went to the Kawasaki Eco Town in Kawasaki city. The Kawaasaki Eco town is actually a combination of a few different factories in the same area that are all united in providing ecologically friendly factory conditions, and recycling of materials. It is probably the greenest factory we have been to so far.
We began the visit by waiting briefing room for a bit before we were introduced to the a factory head. He gave a brief introduction, and then described the basic layout of the factory and the techniques and technology used inside.
The introduction and the tour followed the same basic pathway so I will describe them in simultaneously.
The factory that we toured that day was a factory for making toilet paper out of recycled goods. All the toilet paper was 100% recycled and they were able to make many different kinds of paper, which I will describe later on.
The first part of the tour we saw the reciving area, where the factory received the goods that have been recycled and fed them into the rest of the supply chain. In the receving area there were trucks and boxes of various things, paper from companies, train tickets, and milk containers . Milk containers were the best paper to make toilet paper out of because of their high fiber count.
Right after the reviving area there was a basic separation station. There the paper and large metal objects were separated out, via centrifuge. However this was not enough to create pure paper for recycling. Staples and other things that can't be recycled were still left in the paper.
That brought us to the next container, which was a giant vat of water + chemicals that dissolved the paper into its constituent fibers making it so the metal settled to the bottom and the paper itself remained at the top. It takes about 12 hours for one run to be totally dissolved and moved on for further processing.
After the paper is dissolved it must be bleached to remove dyes and inks that made the paper useful, this was done with H2O2 in smaller vats, this processing was much faster.
After the fibers were fully processed it was time to turn them back into paper. This was done by quickly spinning and drying new paper at the same time on rollers, I'm not exactly sure how this was done but it was really cool to watch. Also the paper rolls generated were giant, over 1.8m in diameter. It was really cool to see. Each of these rolls were then spun down, into smaller rolls for the purposes of making toilet paper. The smaller rolls were about 2m long, but the diameter of toilet paper rolls.
These smaller rolls were then cut up in many different places, leaving a roll of paper the size of a toilet paper roll remaining. They were then sent to a packaging system that packages them 24 at a time and move to the distribution section of the warehouse.
The plant in total produces about 1million rolls a day, which I though was really cool, but actually its not so much if you think about it.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
More Earthquake Stuff
So I found this paper on reconstruction. http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-smillie-sendai-earthquake-20110412,0,7242281.story
There is a problem when writing about the after effects of the Sendai quake. When one is writing they have to balance three sides of the story, without sounding overly biased towards any one.
Well, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit. When talking about Fukushima anything goes, the actual earthquake might as well have not happened. Whats important now is that the plant is damaged and what those effects are. Its really a second dasaster in itself and its being covered as one.
However when talking about the actual quake, discussing the loss of life and the rebuilding there is a really delicate balancing act. I personally can't wrap my head around the fact that 30,000 people are still dead or missing. That number doesn't really click for me, especially when Tokyo looks perfectly fine. Hearing about amount of land area that was damaged still doesn't click, I know that its all stuff near the water, but I don't know how near. Its really hard for me to conceptually understand the scale of destruction (I would say grasp, but that implies I understand that its to large for me to imagine I really just don't understand what scale we are talking about here).
Anyhow the stories I can understand are the stories about Japan putting itself back together again, quickly. This is something I can identify with, people going about their lives and restoring things back to normal. I think those types of stories are under reported right now. No one really wants to hear about a first world country getting back on its feet after damage. It doesn't make for very good headlines. But I get the impression that that is exactly what is happening up north. As always time will tell.
As a side note, the aftershocks around Tokyo and Fukushima still continue. They are as strong as ever, but less frequent, yurekuru my iPhone app that warns me of impending earthquakes keeps me updated. I really don't care unless its a shindo 5 or higher these days.
For those of you not in Japan reading this Shindo is the Japanese system of measuring earthquake power. It goes from a 1-7 scale, one being basically nothing and 7 being complete destruction. Its is based on the damage caused. Once you've lived with earthquakes for a while it makes a lot more sense to talk about what Shindo something is rather than its Magnitude.
There is a problem when writing about the after effects of the Sendai quake. When one is writing they have to balance three sides of the story, without sounding overly biased towards any one.
Well, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit. When talking about Fukushima anything goes, the actual earthquake might as well have not happened. Whats important now is that the plant is damaged and what those effects are. Its really a second dasaster in itself and its being covered as one.
However when talking about the actual quake, discussing the loss of life and the rebuilding there is a really delicate balancing act. I personally can't wrap my head around the fact that 30,000 people are still dead or missing. That number doesn't really click for me, especially when Tokyo looks perfectly fine. Hearing about amount of land area that was damaged still doesn't click, I know that its all stuff near the water, but I don't know how near. Its really hard for me to conceptually understand the scale of destruction (I would say grasp, but that implies I understand that its to large for me to imagine I really just don't understand what scale we are talking about here).
Anyhow the stories I can understand are the stories about Japan putting itself back together again, quickly. This is something I can identify with, people going about their lives and restoring things back to normal. I think those types of stories are under reported right now. No one really wants to hear about a first world country getting back on its feet after damage. It doesn't make for very good headlines. But I get the impression that that is exactly what is happening up north. As always time will tell.
As a side note, the aftershocks around Tokyo and Fukushima still continue. They are as strong as ever, but less frequent, yurekuru my iPhone app that warns me of impending earthquakes keeps me updated. I really don't care unless its a shindo 5 or higher these days.
For those of you not in Japan reading this Shindo is the Japanese system of measuring earthquake power. It goes from a 1-7 scale, one being basically nothing and 7 being complete destruction. Its is based on the damage caused. Once you've lived with earthquakes for a while it makes a lot more sense to talk about what Shindo something is rather than its Magnitude.
Friday, March 11, 2011
My expereance on the Sendai earthquake
If your looking for doom and gloom go else where. This is my personal perspective. Things appear fairly bad elsewhere, but for me everything was fairly normal. I'm writing this so I remember, not so everyone else can. As such I'm going to use proper place names and not try to be nice to a foreign audience.
That said here is my story. When the shaking started I was in lab, like normal. For about 2min we thought it was kind of fun. Then it got bad enough that it looked like stuff might start falling, so we got under out desks. One of the lab mates said something along the lines of "This isn't fun anymore make it stop". However Nothing fell, nothing at all. I had brought some beer back from the states as a gift to my lab. It was just sitting on top of the fridge, it didn't even move.
After the quake we all went outside, I was on facebook 30 second after the thing happened and already saw 10 statuses up. We waited outside for about 15 min, it was cold. We made sure all of our lab mates were accounted for and then started checking the internet. That was the extent of how much my Japanese friends worried. I was trying to figure out what was going on with my shitty Japanese. American news sources hadn't picked up the story yet so I was fairly in the dark. Basically I used it as an excuse to learn some earthquake vocab.
After 15 min we went back inside, checked the lab, there was some spilled water from an water bath, and a file cabinet drawer was open. That was the extent of the damage to my lab. Hell even our yeast cultures hadn't tipped over.
The building was slightly worse off. Buildings B1 and B2 are connected, the connection past the 6th floor was slightly cracked.
After checking we all went back to the lab. Chatted for about 5 min and went back to work. An aftershock hit about 10 min later. We all quickly went outside again (while the earthquake was going on, probably not the best idea) and stayed out for another 10 min before being allowed to go back in again.
At that point half the lab was on twitter or other news sites. There were continous small aftershocks that occurred once about every 20 min. After the first one people were phaseed. I was on facebook talking to friends. Slowly people started getting back to work. I couldn't focus so I just stayed on facebook and twitter. One of the guys in my lab was pissed when he found out the trains weren't running. He had a part time job that he needed to get to.
We were in the holding pattern until 5. I decided I wasn't getting any work done so I walked home with my lab mate. We tried to catch a train, but they still weren't running so we walked home 4km. We walked through a blackout area, including one 7-11 that had no power but was still open. People were casually walking around and buying things, business as usual, without power.
That was the extent of the damage I saw when walking home. There was a giant traffic jam, but thats expected when the trains stop running. When we got back to Aobadai we saw a long line for taxis and people milling around the station, but that was about it.
My lab mate and I decided to eat dinner at Matsuya, it was full (never seen that before) and due to the earthquake half of their menu was sold out. Other than that it was business as usual.
After that I went home and watched Japanese news like everyone else. We felt some more after shocks (I feel them now a day later actually) there was even a small party in my dorm.
All and all I, and the majority of my friends were largely unaffected by the quake one of my friends had to walk home (like 20km) but only walked half way because the trains started running again.
One of my friends is still stuck in Ueno because his train isn't running.
Thankfully two acquaintances I have in Sendai are alive and well, but without power.
As of now 75% of Tokyo's trains are running and Aobadai appears to be back to normal.
That about sums the entire thing up. I expect to be able to go back to work on Monday.
Now as for the rest of the country, I can't speak to that. I don't trust America news sources right now, and can't understand enough Japanese to really get a feel for whats going on. It appears elsewhere that this was actually a huge deal. I hope the Sendai and Fukushima situations resolve themselves without to many problems.
That said here is my story. When the shaking started I was in lab, like normal. For about 2min we thought it was kind of fun. Then it got bad enough that it looked like stuff might start falling, so we got under out desks. One of the lab mates said something along the lines of "This isn't fun anymore make it stop". However Nothing fell, nothing at all. I had brought some beer back from the states as a gift to my lab. It was just sitting on top of the fridge, it didn't even move.
After the quake we all went outside, I was on facebook 30 second after the thing happened and already saw 10 statuses up. We waited outside for about 15 min, it was cold. We made sure all of our lab mates were accounted for and then started checking the internet. That was the extent of how much my Japanese friends worried. I was trying to figure out what was going on with my shitty Japanese. American news sources hadn't picked up the story yet so I was fairly in the dark. Basically I used it as an excuse to learn some earthquake vocab.
After 15 min we went back inside, checked the lab, there was some spilled water from an water bath, and a file cabinet drawer was open. That was the extent of the damage to my lab. Hell even our yeast cultures hadn't tipped over.
The building was slightly worse off. Buildings B1 and B2 are connected, the connection past the 6th floor was slightly cracked.
After checking we all went back to the lab. Chatted for about 5 min and went back to work. An aftershock hit about 10 min later. We all quickly went outside again (while the earthquake was going on, probably not the best idea) and stayed out for another 10 min before being allowed to go back in again.
At that point half the lab was on twitter or other news sites. There were continous small aftershocks that occurred once about every 20 min. After the first one people were phaseed. I was on facebook talking to friends. Slowly people started getting back to work. I couldn't focus so I just stayed on facebook and twitter. One of the guys in my lab was pissed when he found out the trains weren't running. He had a part time job that he needed to get to.
We were in the holding pattern until 5. I decided I wasn't getting any work done so I walked home with my lab mate. We tried to catch a train, but they still weren't running so we walked home 4km. We walked through a blackout area, including one 7-11 that had no power but was still open. People were casually walking around and buying things, business as usual, without power.
That was the extent of the damage I saw when walking home. There was a giant traffic jam, but thats expected when the trains stop running. When we got back to Aobadai we saw a long line for taxis and people milling around the station, but that was about it.
My lab mate and I decided to eat dinner at Matsuya, it was full (never seen that before) and due to the earthquake half of their menu was sold out. Other than that it was business as usual.
After that I went home and watched Japanese news like everyone else. We felt some more after shocks (I feel them now a day later actually) there was even a small party in my dorm.
All and all I, and the majority of my friends were largely unaffected by the quake one of my friends had to walk home (like 20km) but only walked half way because the trains started running again.
One of my friends is still stuck in Ueno because his train isn't running.
Thankfully two acquaintances I have in Sendai are alive and well, but without power.
As of now 75% of Tokyo's trains are running and Aobadai appears to be back to normal.
That about sums the entire thing up. I expect to be able to go back to work on Monday.
Now as for the rest of the country, I can't speak to that. I don't trust America news sources right now, and can't understand enough Japanese to really get a feel for whats going on. It appears elsewhere that this was actually a huge deal. I hope the Sendai and Fukushima situations resolve themselves without to many problems.
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