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So today I went to shinjuku to go shopping. Specifically I went with Tracy from NTT Com China. I needed to purchase a business card wallet for handing out business cards. Unfortunately I couldn’t find anything I liked that was reasonably priced. Everything was over 100 dollars. So I spent alot of time walking around shinjuku. Later I met back up with Tracy and we went to a local temple, then caught two bands playing where we had drinks and watched them play. Later another NTT Com worker from Gin met up with us and took us to a yakitori restaurant where we drank and ate more.

I’ve attached a gallery of the event but I think it will only show up on the actual website, so make sure you visit the website to view the pictures.

I’ve been trying to buy a manga for the past 24 hours and it is not working. I seem to fail at every attempt. I think there is a law against selling manga to アメリカ陣(americajin). At my first attempt, I went to a very big book store in Kawasaki that sold everything, picked up a few travel books for tokyo, “Finding Edo in Tokyo”, “The pocket subway guide”, and “Some other guide to tokyo with lots of pictures”. I then tried to find the manga. I found a section that had manga called “Pocket Books” but at this time I was looking for a specific one. I was looking for a series called “Bleach” which I think is called “ビリチュ” or something similiar in Japanese. But I couldn’t find it so I left thinking I would go to a Manga store and just ask for it “Sumimasen, Bleach or ビリチュ arimasu ka?” but I couldn’t find the manga store by the station and my feet were killing me. So I went home. Then I ran out of orange juice so I went for a walk to the convenience store. They had a manga section so I looked at all the covers and found one that looked interesting. Sooooo. I picked it up and my OJ and my Chilli Sticks and went to the counter. The guy couldn’t find a price on it so he went looking. I showed him where I got it and he said “Seto” and took my copy and all the copies on the selfs away and put them behind the counter. I walked out with no manga.

How am I supposed to learn the language if they won’t sell me manga..

So a few other things to update on.

Tokyo is a very lonely place. Besides the people I know and work with that is all that will even look at me. They have this habbit of looking away from people and not making eye contact. And if they do make eye contact, they immediatly look down as if ashamed. It makes the place feel very lonely as you can’t even get a nod or a smile from people as you walk by them. On the subway you are squished next to 100 other people but none of them talk to each other. No one says “Hey your armpit in my face smells better than yesturday.” I miss the random conversations you could have with total strangers in the states. In the states if you sit down next to someone on the subway people usually end up talking about the weather and stuff. In tokyo I don’t think even neighbors talk to each other when they see each other on the streets. The other side to that though is that if you get a few drinks in the japanese they become your best friends and can’t shut up . Example, we had a welcoming party where we were introduced to alot of people. At the party everyone talked and drank up quite a storm. These same people you meet later and they all keep their heads down and don’t say a word. So in short. Tokyo is a lonely place. But I am working on changing that.

On the americajin subject. The few people who do make eye contact and smile it seems to be only because of the novelty of an americajin living in a suburb of tokyo. I guess most come to visit and stay in tokyo and don’t make it out this far. I had a kid say to his parents today “Sore ga americagin desu.” Which means that is an american. Her parents quickly shut her up and brushed her on the head while I just laughed and loved it. At least this kids are still friendly and outgoing until their parents change them. My ultimate strategy is to turn tokyo into a more friendly place and I am doing it through the children. When ever a small child makes eye contact with me I wave at them and smile. Hopefully this will help open up the parents too .

So the moral of the story is. If you go to tokyo, make friends fast over びいる　because it is really hard to make relationships here and don’t try to buy manga because it is off limits for アメリカ陣。。。。

Today we took a trip to the cable landing. This is where the cables from japan-us under sear cables and apnet2 cables come in. Luckily enough they are so far away(160 kilometers) that they are very casual there. So i was able to wear a pair of kahki’s and sneakers. My blisters thanked me for that.

The trip there required taking an express or shinkansen. It wasn’t a “True” bullet train but it was still pretty quick. Afterwards we took an alternate subway home so we could see what kawaski looks like. This was a very nice city. It is closer than tokyo, and much less crowded. The best part is it is very close, only 6 subway stops on the same line that my apartment is on.

While there I picked up a ipod charger for my iphone as I use it as my alarm clock and forgot my charger at home. I also picked up a japanese <–> english electronic translator so i can start reading and speaking more Japanese.

Another interesting thing I found out. If you go to the markets later, like tonight, they discount almost all their food. So you can get a bento box, tempura or sushi for over half off and it is all still very fresh.

Picture time..

Here is a picture of Shimbashi from the train station. This is pretty low traffic for shimbashi.

This is the beach and a group picture of some members of the expedition:

This is where the Japan-us and asian cables come into the landing station:

This is where the divided fiber is redistributed to the rest of Japan.

This is Cho-san climbing up the ladder:

And the most important photo.. Me cutting the Japan-us cable with my fingers:

So there is alot of walking and standing in tokyo. And of course it is all done in dress shoes. I was smart and brought my comfortable shoes witht he Dr. Scholls inserts, they came that way. But even so I now have a blister on the bottom of my foot. This kept me from going to shinuku last night. I’m guessing I am going to need to find the japanese equivalent of epson salts and soak my feet now after work..

For those of you wondering what has been going on.

Monday — Introduction to company structure and history. Welcome Reception party. WARNING… NEVER finish your glass in front of japanese. There will be 3 or 4 people there ready to refill it. Very easy to get tipsy here. It sneaks up on you when you least expect it.

Tuesday — Security Training and Visit to Research and Development. Security is basically the same as home.  R&D was fun, learned alot of new things about where the company is hoping to go, and visited the Historical museum where we could see all the past tech.

Will write more soon, have cross cultural training today, and they are keeping me very busy.

So most of you know i switched my schedule to japanese time before I left in an effort to avoid too much jet lag and the such.

Well, it didn’t work. On friday I slept from 11:00 PM till 8:00 AM woke up went for a walk around the neighborhood, picked up some goods, got back to the house and then slept from 2:00 PM till about 4:00 am.

Sunday, woke up at 4:00 am went to the store got some more stuff i needed. got back and at 2:00 PM i couldn’t stay awake any more. Fell asleep and woke back up at 5:00 am.

So I guess I am still jet lagged pretty bad. I hope it stops though since the work week is starting now.

BTW, it doesn’t help that it starts getting light here at 4:00 AM.

I’ve got alot of comments so i thought i would answer them all in one post:

Tania asked, “if I had been squished in a subway yet.”

Not to the point of having police push us all in, but I have been squished in to the point I couldn’t move. I imagine today will be the real test though as I am going to work during rush hour.

Par asked: “stephen and i don’t think your ass can fit on the toilet!!!!!!! what does the remote control do? why is the door like a steel one? are you in a bad area?”

It is not a bad area. it is actually a really nice area. And all of japan crime is next to non-existent. My ass does fit on the toilet.. I just can’t squeeze anything else in so I have to pee before I sit down .. And the remote provides a gentle to stiff massaging water clense to your ass and private parts.

Jenn asked: “did your ass look like a japanese flag?”

Why yes it did.. except it had a happy cartoon squid bursting out of the red spot waving his hand.

And finally Tania asked: “So how exactly to you pick up the watery parts with the chop sticks?”

You don’t. You pick up what you can with the chop sticks and shovel or slurp the rest.

So i went to the local walmart(“Seiyu”) to pick up some stuff i still needed like plates, bowls, sandals, wash cloth, and such. And when i got back i decided to cook one of the rice bowls i had picked up:

Well all the instructions are in kana.. so how do you cook it? I quickly look up time in one of my japanese books and learned the kanji for minutes and found a line that said: 4分　which means 4 minutes. so now my bowl is sitting there for 4 minutes with hot water in it.. lets see how it is..

So how does it taste??

ラメンがとても生石です

ramen ga oishi desu.

Or ramen is delicious.

So i decided to try to translate my retarded children at play sign on my street. and to the best i can come up with it says:

“Be relaxed(careful) of lots of things that might jump out at you”

In other words. be careful of playing children and the such.

That is assuming i translated the kanji correctly. which may or may not have happened

and its the shits… some part of the chicken is fighting me now…. it wants out fast …

on the plus side… that ass washin toilet was made for moments like these.. nothing like hot water to massage your ass after you push out a hurried squirt…

Ok, so I took some photos on a walk today, and here is my apartment and some of the streets.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/damaged1130/sets/72157605985078371/

I wish I knew how to make those flickr embedded thingies so you didn’t have to click to go to it.. But I’m too tired to figure it out right now