So here's a picture of a Pearl Harbor poster that we passed on the street the other day. It seems really odd that they would advertise and release this movie in Japan. It was even more odd to hear that it opened huge in Japan.
Hung out with my Amherst-peep Yo Kobaiyashi tonight in Roppongi. Awesome. Check out the pics on heehorse.com
First of all, the interview went really well. It lasted the whole day and was really tiring, but I left with a really good feeling. I won't delve into too much detail, until I know the outcome, but I felt good about it afterwards, my interviewers seemd to be positive - they say I should find out in a couple of days.

I'm posting up all the pictures we've taken with Mandy's camera as I upload them, so you can see the album at heehorse.com.
Thursday:
Mandycurlie arrived at noon. I went out to Ebisu to pick her up, and we promply hit the town, heading out to Shinjiku - the hi-rise-shopping-redlight district section of Tokyo. Went to the observation deck of the Government Center Building - one of the tallest buildings in Tokyo. Afterwards, we headed over to the other side of Shinjiku, we walked around looking at all the cool Japanese electronics, popping into arcades (they're hip in Japan, and all over the place) and playing all the funky japanese arcade games. One of the games we played was a remake (almost exact) of "House of the Dead", but was called, "Typing of the Dead". Instead of wielding guns, the two agents are carrying dreamcast consoles on their back, with keyboards, and instead of shooting a gun at the screen, you type words that they flash up on the screen. Totally wierd. Another one was this game where your task is to walk a dog. You walk on this treadmill thing, and hold a doggie leash. Wierd, huh?
Friday:
We woke up at a decent hour (11am), and headed out to Harajuku - a Tokyo shopping district with wider streets, fewer flashing lights, and generally less sensory-overloading. Also, next to the train station is Yoyogi park with the Meiji temple in the middle. We first went here after starting off with a lunch at a Chinese restauraunt (we actually didn't know it was a chinese restauruant, until the waiter, impatient with my sub-standard Japanese, offered to speak chinese to me). Yoyogi park was extremely peaceful, and the temple was amazing. Saw lots of locals - especially kids - dressed up in their traditional kimono. We also got to see a whole wedding party entering the Meiji temple, presumably to pay their respects to ...umm... someone (a god? their parents? I don't know Japanese religion well enough to say). After Yoyogi park, we walked around Harajuku, doing some shopping, but mainly looking for an ATM machine, since we realized a little late, that we were completely out of cash (cash-burn in Tokyo is a big problem, as everything here is mad-expensive). That night, we went out to pick up Mandy's friend Huan, who is teaching english in Japan as part of the JET program, from Tokyo Station. We promptly headed out (stopping by the hotel first to drop of Huan's stuff), to Rippongi (Tokyo's gai-jin (foreigner) hang-out district) to meet Huan's friend, Doris, and her group. We then lived it up, going clubbing at Yellow until 5:30 am in the morning. Super-fun.
Today:
Today we got up way-late (around 2ish). We went out to Ginza (Tokyo's upscale shopping district) to eat at a Vietamese restauraunt, since Huan had a Pho craving. Alas, we arrived too late (4:30pm) for lunch, so settled instead at a Korean restauraunt and ate some of the most tasty bibimbap I've ever had in my life. Afterwards, we went to the big Sony building (a massive Sony showroom), and played with all their gadgets. Afterwards, we went to a coffee shop and drank cofffee the rest of the day. It was raining pretty hard the whole day, so it was cool not really doing that much sight-seeing. Now we're back at the hotel, resting up before going out again. Yay! We miss everybody who might be reading this! Cheers!

Great!
I just saw this commercial where a woman walks up to her parked car, and there's a big wood-pecker drilling holes into her car. She freaks as the wood-pecker turns around and has a human face. She then takes the car to a body-shop (the company being advertised), who quickly fixes it. Then the mechanic and her do an Irish jig. I swear, they did an Irish jig.
I have a new love, and her name is Mos Burger. It's a yummy burger joint - Japan's version of In-n-Out burgers, if you will, except like things Japanese, it's small, cute, colorful yet very yummy. When I walked in, and looked at a menu containg at least 30 different types of burgers. Still resistant to reading japanese (and whipping out the dictionary and deciphering the kanji), I relegated my self to pointing at the pictures. I pointed to an especially colorful one, and said, in Japanese, "I'd like one of these". She smiled, and said something. I'm pretty sure it was "You only want one?". then I was confused. Maybe they're they're small burgers, like those at White Castle, and you're supposed to order more than one. So I asked her, "Chisai desu-ka? (are they small?)." She looked confused back at me, chatted with her friend, who turned to me and said "Iie, ooki desu (no, they're big)". Fine, I said, I'll just have one. Later, she brings the burger out to me (it's fast food, but they bring the burger out after you've sat down (?)), and the burger was tiny. Chalk one up for cross-cultural relations. Anyways, I stopped by 7-11 on the way home and picked up some seasoned rice wrapped in seaweed thingies.

On TV, there's this game show thing where the host is holding a blue devil on a stick, dancing around, and interviewing people who are half-japanese, and asking audience members if they think they're cure. Hmmm.

Doing some interview prep, and going to bed. Oyasuminasai!

In Japan now!
Flew a...l...l day yesterday, landed around 4pm Japan time. I'm very excited - I had forgotton the thrill of traveling in a totally foriegn country armed only with a lonely planet in one hand and a dictionary in the other. Last night, I went out and had some yum yum tonkatsu at a small mom-n-pop noodle shop last night. My japanese is quickly coming back, but I'm still having problem understanding people. I'll ask someone something in Japanese, they'll respond, and then I'll look at them blankly and say "huh?". I finished my meal, paid, and left unscathed. Afterwards, I walked around town, and went to buy some things I needed - which turned out to be more difficult than I assumed it would be. I walked around a small drugstore for almost half an hour looking for contact solution and shaving cream. The thing is, out here they package things differently, and I had absolutly no idea what I was looking at. I could have tried to read the labels, but I was too tired for that, I probably wouldn't have understood what I was reading, and I was afraid of being seen in the store scrutinizing something potentially embarassing (e.g. feminine products). It turns out that the shaving cream looked like hair gel, the hair-gel looked like a can of beans, and the contact lens looked like hair-spray. Anyways, I made it out okay.

Spending today preping for the interview.
Wish me luck folks!