GREENFIELD: The Tour in Japan

The Last Post

2010-06-03T22:05:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone.

As you may or may not know, I'm coming back to America tomorrow (as of writing this). So, it's with a heavy heart that I say goodbye to Japan.

These past nine months have been some of the most amazing of my life. I've experienced so many things. I've farmed rice, I've gone to Disneyland, I rode Japan's highest rollercoaster. It's been so fantastic. I also got the chance to meet tons of fascinating people and made friends along the way, and I'll miss all of you.

I also had a chance to learn about myself. I figured out what I really wanted. I figured out that I what I thought I wanted in life really wasn't what I wanted at all. It was a bit disillusioning, but it was something that I'm glad happened sooner rather than later.

Really though, this is has been the greatest time of my life. I cannot thank the people involved in this enough. Yukari Okuno, Kensuke Tsutsui, Tamaki Tsutsui, Mr. Tsutsui, Shinobu Koiwai, Haruka Koiwai, Nozomi Koiwai, Grandpa Koiwai, and Mr. Koiwai. I cannot thank you enough for taking me in and treating me like family. I don't think I could've gotten through the year without you. I also want to thank Mr. Akahane for securing my host families and getting me into the school. I want to thank the entire faculty of Matsumoto Misuzugaoka High School for helping me adapt to my surroundings and trying to include me in all of their classes. I also want to thank the entire global rotary community for letting me experience this.

I also want to thank you, the reader for showing your care and support by reading my blog whenever it updates (which admittedly hasn't been very often). But we all must move on. So this is it for this blog, there will be no more updates on this blog. But you can still follow me and what I do at my new blog: The Life and Times of S. Greenfield.

Again. Thank you all...and Goodbye.

Be sure to visit The Life and Times of S. Grenfield.

Monthly recap

2010-06-03T21:49:00.000-07:00

First off, A quick recap of the month. First there was cherry blossom viewing. Then my host family and I went to Karuizawa to do some shopping. I bought some very weird shoes there from Puma outlet. After that, the rotary district and I went to Takayama and saw a museum of carriages and some old-style stores. Then we went to Shirakawago where we got to see some of the old-style housing and saw some museums of what it would be like to live there. We finished up the night with a Yakiniku and Karaoke. After that, we went to Kanazawa to see a park and a restored, ancient castle. We finished off with a visit to a famous food-market.

Instead of Posting pictures, I'm just going to link to the Picasa photo album of the whole thing.

http://picasaweb.google.com/otaku9000/Dooodooodod?feat=directlink

Until next time.

University-wise.

2010-04-29T03:50:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody.

You may know that now, I'm nearing the end of my senior year at Boulder High School, where I will be graduating from. Like many others, I've been applying to Universities. The stay in Japan has complicated things quite a bit.

I have not been able to get a transcript for this year of school until recently for reasons such as ____________. I have gotten my transcript but unfortunately it was much too late. Not only had I already been rejected or wait-listed from all of my schools, but it was also received by BHS after the final consideration/reconsideration deadlines. Without any documentation of my any actual academic work being done during my senior year, my schools rejected me.

Now, yes it is a bummer, but it's just a little setback for me. I just wanted to let you guys know in case you were still wondering. I'm not sure what I'll be doing for this next academic year, but it'll be alright and I'm planning on re-applying in the Fall.

Well, that's all for now.

Picture Dump

2010-04-14T02:30:00.000-07:00

Hey guys. I re-organized my photos, so my Picasa web albums had to be updated and I lost pictures from earlier posts. So I'm just going to put the pictures that were lost (and a couple of extras) in a one post with minimal captions.

First, the flight there and the hotel I stayed at the first night.

At the airport. Jake, Mom, and Dad come to see me off.

In the Plane.

The Hotel.

My Cell phone.

My first trip to Matusmoto castle.

Street performers

My School

Deodorant spray.

Possibly the best name for a company ever.

Left to right: Florian (Germany), Me, Marc (Australia), Christine (Long Island, NY), Anna (Germany)

Here's my first host home.

My Bike.

From the Sunday Nerd fest posts

And Here's my first host mother.

That's all.

Other stuff that happened last month.

2010-04-14T02:05:00.000-07:00

First off, there was a skiing retreat in Hakuba with the other rotary students. There were also students from a neighboring district and they were all pretty cool. I only went skiing on the first day. The second day, I went down once and said to myself, 'There's no way you're going down this slope without hurting yourself seriously.' So I stopped and spent the rest of the day at the Ski Lodge. Anyway, Picture Time!

Here's a display at our hotel for the 1998 olympics.

Here's another display for those same olympics.

Our room was at the end of this hall...

Which led to this hall. Again, our room was at the end.

Here's the worst picture I think I've ever seen of myself. This was shortly after I stopped skiing.

This is the rash I got from my coat. I think it's a rash... It did go away though.

Here's Christine as she enjoys some delicious Iced Cream.

This was an exchange student to Australia. I don't know quite how to spell her name but it sounds like 'Kaytee'.

Here was another exchange student from Germany. His name is Dominic.

...and it's Kaytee again (Seriously, I have no idea how to spell that name)!

Here's the Gondola entrance. You can see most of the Mountain, and that's really the point. You can't really tell, but most of the top of the mountain is covered in clouds and heavy snowfall. We had to go back so that we wouldn't risk being caught in a whiteout.

Here's the hotel lobby. Nice, eh?

Here's a view from the back deck of the hotel. It looks pretty nice, I have to admit.

Here's another view, with the flash on my camera on.

Here's the hotel entrance and that wraps up all the stuff I have on Hakuba.

About a week after that, my host family and I went to Fuji-Q Highland. Home of Japan's Tallest rollercoaster (yes, I did ride it), and Japan's fastest rollercoaster (No, I didn't ride it (it wasn't open)).

Here's the view from the highway.

Here's the entrance to Fujiyama, Japan's tallest rollercoaster.

Here's a picture of two giant golden cats. Yeah, I don't know either.

Around that same attraction they had posters of ceramic cats. Here's a picture of one of the pictures.

That's it for now.

My Mom's Trip

2010-04-05T21:43:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone. As you may know my mother was visiting me in Japan for two weeks and we went to see Tokyo, Matsumoto, and Kyoto (in that order).

Here are some Photos.

First up, Tokyo.

No, you are not dreaming. That is real and in Odaiba (Toyko).

Here's my mom posing in front of the Statch.

After this, we went to Matsumoto to stay at my host family's Inn.

Here she is at my host family's inn about to eat dinner.

My host sister (Nozomi), my mother (Patsy), my host mother (Shinobu).

After this stop, we went down to Kyoto.

The view from outside our hotel in Kyoto.

The hotel.

The waterfall in the Hotel.

A cart in the hotel.

Flower shop in the Hotel.

The gallery in the hotel.

More of the Gallery.

The Gift shop in the hotel.

The Hotel Lounge.

The Hotel room.

More of the Hotel room.

The Subway in Kyoto.

The Path to Kinkaku-ji (the golden temple).

More of the path.

The Golden Temple, itself.

The lake in front of the temple.

A spring in the temple garden.

The pathway to Ginkaku-ji (the Silver temple).

Still part of the pathway.

The temple itself. Kind of disappointing considering the name.

The Zen garden outside the temple.

The Lake in front of the temple.

Bamboo in the Temple.

The view from the temple's garden.

This may not be an official attraction, but the juxtaposition of chemistry instruments and a sticker reading "Sports For All" is just too good to pass up.

Our hotel room in Kyoto. (lol)

Tee-hee.

Part of the Kiyomizu-Dera Temple.

An entire portion of the temple was under construction so...

The view from the stage of the Kiyomizu.

My Mom at Kiyomizu.

One of the buddhas.

The view from Kiyomizu.

The stage of the Kiyomizu-Dera.

A sacred spring.

In Kyoto, of all places.

Coors! In Japan.

No, wait. False alarm.

By far, the best part of the Hotel.

Something about what's written on the bottom makes this all the better.

The Nijo castle outside of our hotel.

More of the Castle.

Mom at the Lake outside of the castle.

Also there were some wooden sculptures inside.

More of the castle.

Mom, at the castle.

What is any good castle without a moat.

Cherry Blossom Trees.

More.

Well that's all. Check in later for more.

Hakuba, The

2010-02-08T22:47:00.000-08:00

IF you are wondering why I haven't updated recently it's really because nothing interesting has been happening. Sorry...I guess?

Anyways, here are some photos of when I went to Hakuba at the beginning of January. Hakuba is a ski town just north of Matsumoto.

This is the Hotel room I stayed in at Hakuba. The Skala lodge.
The Mountains remind of Colorado....
So does the electricity grid.
Here's a view of Skala from the Outside.

Sadly, you won't find Frodo OR Bilbo behind the counter. I'd even settle for Pippen.
This has to be one of the best looking places I've seen in a while.
Huh. That's just so.....huh.
Where's Mad Max when you need him?
Skala, covered in Snow.
Lot's of snow.
And the best way to warm up? Why with Sake, of course!
Check out all that snow.

After staying at the Skala lodge for a couple of nights, I stayed at one of the rotarians' place. We then went on a road trip to Nagano City.
The back of a car in Nagano. This is just so great. Look at it. Engrish in it's native habitat.
This is actually a really swanky coffee house. It was pretty nice.
This is the room that I stayed in.
And for some reason, it was also where they were storing their samurai armor.
This is the other half of that same room.
And this is their house from the outside.
And this, of course is the JR station. The trains that would take me back to Matsumoto City.

I would like to thank the Yamadas for letting me stay there with them.

Well that's all. I also have photographs of a Power Rangers stage show, but no one wants to see that.

Other than that I'll be returning to Colorado on June 5th. My Flight arrives at DIA at 2:49 PM.

Random Thoughts: The Top 100 of the Past Decade

2009-12-28T05:42:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone, I'm starting a new feature, not based on anything happening in Japan, just some thoughts. Since it is the last year of the '00s, I figure I'd make an arbitrary list like everyone else seems to be doing.

So here it is!

The Top 100 of the past decade (try not to think about this too hard):

100. The Internet

99. Television

98. Patton Oswalt

97. TaB

96. Up up down down left right left right B A enter

95. LCD Soundsystem

94. Double cheesy beef burrito

93. Chipotle

92. Y2k

91. LOL

90. The word "blogosphere"

89. xkcd

88. Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, all on a sesame seed bun.

87. Tom Goes to The Mayor

86. Maria Bamford

85. SOCKS

84. Arrested Development (the TV show)

83. Canned Heat

82. Wolverines!

81. The Colbert Report

80. Imma let you finnish

79. "What do you mean 'No Onions'?"

78. $40, a can of beer, and a doctor with a monkey wrench

77. Portal

76. Spicy Sweet Chili Doritos

75. Scott Aukerman

74. The number 78

73. Palm Pilot

72. McIntosh

71. My Ex-Wife (am I right, or what?)

70. Dr. Tran

69. Black Eye Peas Vs. Giant Killer moths!!!

68. Audiopamphlet

67. Playstation? I hardly know her!

66. Name that tune

65. If it weren't for E.T. video games would've advanced way beyond what they are today.

64. THESE ARE MY SHOES

63. Pepsi Blue (anyone?)

62. Windows ME

61. If Phone?

60. Blackbury

59. Google

58. UP TOP!

57. British people

56. Flight of the Conchords

55. Eugene Mirman

54. DEXTER

53. Texting

54. Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, and even friendster! All that and more at the tip of your fingers!

53. This hand of mine glows with an awesome power! Take! My love! My Anger! And all of my Sorrow! SHIIINING FIIIINGER!!

52. XBOX 1080

51. Cake (liar)

50. Barack Obama

49. Oh Sheesh Y'all!

'twas a dream

48. Andy, Jorma, Akiva

47. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 2: The Revenge

46. Lord of the Rings? I hardly know her!

45. Hershey's Cookies 'n Cream

44. Burger King Windows 7 Burger

43. Little to no Puncuation

42. ROFLMAO

41. AOL Keyword

40. Razor Scooter

39. The Mighty Boosh

38. Cheesy Fiesta Potatoes

37. Nacho Libre ( A new low!)

36. FedExKinkos

35. Burn Notice

34. CBS (the Communist Broadcasting System)

33. Human Giant

32. TRON

31. 007 Goldeneye

30. the Synce Fyction Channel

29. That time with the one guy and he just goes, "Those aren't my teeth!"

28. Google Planet

27. Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell

26. Calvin Harris

25. "She's SMOOTH. Like ice: Cold to the touch and isn't very nice"

24. pwnage

23. Spencer Greenfield and the Captains of Industry 2093

22. Dr. Tran

21. Corn Soup

20. You Have died of dysentary

19. HDDVD2

18. Melted chocolate

17. That time Christams fought Hannakuh.

16. Crank, Crank 2: High Voltage, and Crank 3: Shoot 'Em Up 2

15. Social Networking vs. Actual networking

14. Amazon.co.uk

13. Gigli

12. Never Gonna Give You Up

11. Turn Around, Bright Eyes

10. The Room

9. Tim, Eric, and Raz

8. Hey. Mambo. Mambo Italiano. Isn't that your nickname.

7. Have c.2 bhk

6. Rollitos? I hardly know her!

5. Segway

4. World War 3.5: The Battle Beyond the Stars

3. Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman

2. Halo 6: Kramer Vs. Kramer

and of Course number 1....

Domino's Oreo Cookie Pizza!

The most ___________ of the past decade!

Tokyo, Disneyland

2009-12-26T23:48:00.000-08:00

Alright! More updates. How lucky for you. A couple weeks ago, my fellow exchange students and I went to Tokyo seeing a few sights and ended up Disneyland on the last day. Here are some pictures of said trip.Mark (Australian) and Chris (American). Here we are in Matsumoto Station heading towards the shuttle that will take us to Tokyo. A van that was poorly air-conditioned!
Here's a picture of mark in front of the Christmas Display at a department store somewhere in Tokyo. (He didn't know I was taking the picture).
In front of the same department store we saw this guy. With his PET MONKEY. Awesome.Aw, Tokyo Tower. It's larger than the Eiffel Tower. Take that, The French.

A view from 100 M up at the Tokyo tower.
Check out that skyline.
Even more of it.
And still a bit more.
Again more buildings including a temple.
I have no idea what that pyramid structure is. All I really know is that it reminds me of Pyramid Head from Silent Hill (don't feel to bad if you don't get that reference).
More buildings.
Here we are 200 M up. Mark does not look impressed.
Check out the train!
Here is a photograph of our group. Right to left: Girl whose name I cannot remember but is travelling to the US next year, ME, Chris, Mark, Anna (Germany), Florian (Germany), Boy whose name I cannot recall but who is travelling abroad as well.
They let you see through to the bottom of Tokyo Tower.
The Marketplace in front of the Largest Temple in Japan.
And here's the gate of that same temple.
The Temple itself (closed).Tokyo streets at night. We went for dinner somewhere around here.

Karaoke!
Mark felt as though it was his duty to chime in for everyone's songs.
Yamada, a rotarian, sings his heart out to the tune of Barbra Streisand (seriously).
What's this you ask? Tokyo Disneyland of course! All decked out for Christmas.Again, All decked for christmas.

A marching band for Disneyland.
Some say that on cold nights, the ghost of Walt Disney still haunt this castle. Others say, "Stop making things up, stupid."
Pirates of the Caribbean. The ride on which the movie is based. Fun Fact: I still haven't seen the movie. From what I can tell it involves Skeletons and Pirates shooting each other in caves over some treasure. I was told that my guess was surprisingly accurate.
Big thunder Mountain. Disney seems to have a disproportionate amount of 'Mountain' themed rides.
The Old West.
The Railroad...yeah...
"New Zealand... Rocks"
SPACE MOUNTAIN! This was by far the best ride. Taking place entirely in the dark with only some lights for decoration. Straight up insane.
Here we are at the escalator for SPACE MOUNTAIN.Why does the logo make me want to get an energy drink? And why does it also remind me of Spawn?

A duck. Spotted just outside when we were about to leave.
Once again, Merry Christmas.

Updates soon.

2009-12-22T20:20:00.000-08:00

Sorry for not updating yet, but things have been way too crazy. I spent a lot of time at Christmas Parties or doing Christmas shopping. Then I caught a cold.

I will try and and update as soon as possible, but for now you'll just have to wait.

Yo, Dawg

2009-11-25T04:56:00.000-08:00

Hey, I jsut wanted to make sure you guys knew that I moved into a new host family's house at the beginning of November. My new house is a Japanese-style inn, so I get to stay in one of the rooms (personal TV AND refrigerator, SCORE).

The new family has two indoor cats and five outdoor cats. There are two host sisters, a host mother, a host father, and host grandfather. The Oldest sister is Nozomi who goes to a different high school. Haruka is still in middle school and is partially hearing-impaired. The mother runs the inn, and actually stayed in US for about a month or two in the early 80's. All I really know about the father is that he is happy that the Yankees won the world series. The grandfather does some farming on a small plot of land, just in case you wondering what he does.

Other than that, not much has changed, although I'll be missing this year's thansksgiving festivities. Also, RIP, Sugar, my family's dog in Boulder.

See ya later.

WhatSup

2009-10-30T06:56:00.000-07:00

First I'd like to start off with some pictures of things that you may have wanted to see. First up, the currency of the internet, pictures of Cats.This is Torakichi, the cat.
His favorite hobbies seem to be attacking my appendages or electronics.
Koi at Matsumoto Castle! I went there a second time with Mrs. Tsutsui (current host mother) because she is a part-time english tour guide there.
This is Mrs. Tsutsui in front of an arangement at Matsumoto Castle.
This is me in front of the same arangement.
Ah Matsumoto castle. Look at it being all Castle-y.
For some reason, at the festival (early in October) I kept winning Airsoft guns.
I actually sold them to 何でも買います the next day only to get...150 yen. Also, some pictures from my weekend at Mrs. Tsutsui's Mother's home in Oomachi.
This is the Coin-op TV in the room I stayed in. Did I mention, it's also a Japanese-style inn?
And Here's the rest of the room.
We also went to Hakuba, considering that it's about 4 minutes away from Oomachi. This is where they held the Olympic Ski Jump in 1998.

Now up to the recent stuff.

Just last weekend I went with Neal (the ALT) to see Misuzugaoka's semifinal round. We had quite a bit of trouble getting there and ended up wandering aimlessly.
We even found the fabled metal horses of Ellah.
This is my school's side.
Soccer! Our team is in blue.
Will this rag-tag group of heroes win during the Final game? Are they the destined to reign as Supreme Champions? I'll find out on Sunday, that's for sure. Also Halloween fest tomorrow.

On another note, I'm changing host families every month, so I'll be in a new home next Tuesday.

UPDATES (lots)

2009-10-16T19:49:00.001-07:00

It's been awhile so here's what's been happenin' y'all.

On Oct. 1st, I moved to a new host family, the Tsutsui's. There's my host mother Tamaki, my host brother, Kensuke, and my host father who I still haven't learned the name of. It has a lot to do with the fact that he's around about as much as a guest star on a weekly TV show. Also there's a cat. The allergies aren't really anything but it is still way annoying as it spends many a chance attacking my legs or computer wires.

Later that week there was a festival where I entered some raffles and won some airsoft guns (which I then sold at a local store for 150 yen). The festival had something to do with carrying burning bundles of reeds through the streets to the temple. I was told the smoke was holy, as were the ashes but really I had to focus on it not getting into my eyes.

I also went to Matsumoto castle again where it turns out my host mother volunteers part time as a tour guide. It was more informative this time knowing what things were.

Last weekend we got monday off and spent it Mrs. Tsutsui's mother's house in Omachi (the town I originally thought I was going to stay in). It was fine and all, I got to meet the extended family and it was fun for the most part. After staying the night, we all went down to the rice fields to help with the harvesting of... well, rice, what exactly were you expecting, corn? No, no, no. That's what would happen in America. I have to say though, I didn't really like it, though we harvested 16 sacks of rice so that's something.

Yesterday we had a 23km walk/run event at school. Again, I didn't really like it, but I got to know Taku, a 3rd-year student who had spent last year in Alaska. We chatted a bit and that was pretty nice, but only lasted a half-hour on my 4.5-hour journey. But I did have the Comedy Death-Ray Radio podcast on my Zune so it wasn't too bad. Until the end that is. My les were so stiff I could barely walk, let alone ride my bike home. Today I ache a little but not nearly as much.

That's all for now, sorry I didn't update sooner (sort of).

Silver Week

2009-09-27T06:47:00.000-07:00

First off, I'd just like to apologize for not updating as often as I should. I know you guys are all coming buy day by day to see how I'm doing so...yeah.

So, that aside, I'd like to focus on what happened during a Japanese string of Holidays known as Silver Week. They span from the 21-23 of September starting with "Respect for the Elderly Day" and ending with the Equinox. The day in between only serves to connect the other two to each other. I'm not making that up, that's literally what the holiday is.

My host mother Yukari had to go to a different prefecture to meet up with her family so I spent my Silver Week with her friends the Hasegawas. Left to right: Yuko Hasegawa, Koyuki (the dog), Yashihiro Hasegawa, and that weird white guy. They were really very nice and weren't hesitant to try to use Englsih and Japanese.

Also, their dog is by far the best I've seen in Japan so far. It just reminds me so much of Ein from Cowboy Bebop (don't feel too bad if you didn't get that reference).On the first day of Silver Week, we went to Nagano, Nagano to visit The Zenkoji Temple. The picture above is the smaller gate which has about 200 yards between the gate and the Actual Temple.
The other bigger gate of Zenkoji Temple that can only be accessed after going through the food vendor-filled street between gates.
Buddhas? What religion is this?!
What you're seeing is the front of the temple and what that big puff of smoke is is incense. A lot of it. It's believed that it will give you good grades and a better life. As a result of desperate students trying to get into college, it's become a popular spot.

Also, inside the temple is a pitch black underground passage way with a key in the side of the wall somewhere. It's believed if you touch the key, your dreams will come true. Yuko said she didn't want to go through because she is claustrophobic. I didn't find it really frightening so much as annoying. That's because everyone keeps bumbing into each other because you can't see ANYTHING. After we did that, we went back into town to stop by a famous shop that sells a certain kind of pepper.
What you don't see is that inside of the shop are pepper lined Kit Kats and other snacks. You may think it strange but let me be quick to remind you that America sells Chocolate-covered bacon. This isn't strange at all compared to that.

The next day we stopped by a cowboy restaurant known as Keyspring. They blasted bluegrass and had a giant tepee outside (sorry, no pictures). Despite that, they actually know how to serve a good burger in fries, so I can't blame them too much.

Hey, Zima! Did you know that Zima is no longer sold anywhere else on earth (it's true). Hey mom, take a good look at the Japanese yen that helps pay for our internet access!

At the end of the day, we stopped at a shopping town which I still can't remember the name of, but had a train that went to the highest point in the JR rail system so.... there's that.

The third day I had to leave and come back home to Yukari's place. There, we had lunch with a friend of hers and a student and her friend's kid. It was a lot of fun making Takoyaki with them and I got to play Silent Hill: Origins on the PSP. I can't figure out why everything's written in english with Japanese subtitles. On a related note, don't ever play Silent Hill: Origins. It's not scary, it's just plain bad.

Well, that's all for now. Check later for some more updatage.

Sunday Nerd Fest. (Part the last)

2009-09-05T22:43:00.000-07:00

The last part of the day is here (yay).

It looks like the other Tsutaya but...
It's got a ton of slot machines.

Yes, even an evangelion slot machine (sigh).

I ended my journey on a high note though, visiting Mos Burger for lunch.

Mos Burger can be described as McDonald's only classier. It's a chain, it's got burgers, it's got pimply-faced teenagers working the cash register, but it also has waiters and busboys. I got the Hamburger, Fries, and Pepsi NEX. Pepsi NEX is basically the Pepsi version of Coke Zero (Which is also very popular in Japan).

Well that's all for now. Check in next time for more!

Sunday Nerd Fest (Part 3)

2009-09-05T22:16:00.001-07:00

Alright, this is gonna be a long one so buckle up.

This is (by far) my favorite store that I've been to in Matsumoto. It's Nandemo Kaimasu or "Buy Anything".
When walking into the store you are immediatley greeted by UFO catcher machines and a vast array of Video games spread out in front of you.

See? See how vast it is? That's wicked vast. Especially when you consider those are PSP games.

To live up to it's name, Nandemo Kaimasu also carries used electronics like these. iPods, TVs, Digital Cameras, you name it.
The upper level of the store has Manga. Lot's of Manga. All the Manga you could ever want. What you're seeing now are prepackaged sets of Manga (containing entire series worth of Manga).
Ooh.
Aah.
Wow...
What? Oh right. There's also a Pachinko and Slots parlor on the second floor. Technically gambling for money directly is illegal. But you can get prizes that can be exchanged for money so it kind of defeats the purpose of the law.
One of the Pachinko Machines. Honestly I just took a picture of this one because it jut seems so inappropriate to make an Evangelion Pachinko Machine...
Or Slot machine for that matter. These just a testament to people who have a vague idea of what the series is about but haven't actually seen it.
Ah yes. Individual manga. If you want an image of how much of it there is. Take that picture up above...
times this picture here.
There's more than I could ever want! And to think in America we only have one entire bookshelf filled with manga....
Also you'll be greeted by a vast array of Gundam kits on the second floor. It's great if you know all of the robots of each series (if you do, get help immediatley).
I couldn't help to take a picture of this. It's from the Japanese Live-action Spider-man TV show in the seventies. In Japan, they gave him a mech which automatically makes it superior to the US live-action Spider-man TV show.
As I mentioned, this store is no stranger to the UFO catchers. They give out all sorts of things, from PSPs to...instant...ramen....kind of dissapointing really.
The stairs to the second floor are lined with Gasaphon and Convience store manga. (Convience store manga is cheaper and lower quality than regular manga).
Hey Video games! From the Sega Saturn and Dreamcast (they even had the wonderswan system)
AH! Nintendo. And that wraps up the visit to Nandemo Kaimasu. But you may be asking yourself what I got from the store. Well the answer is of course Gasaphon! (Gasaphon are figures that come in tiny bubbles).

First I got this great Reborn! Collectable.
Then I got another. After that I decided to change it up a bit and I got...Asuka from the newer evangelion movies! It's a great figure an all, but her face just looks so... unnatural.

Anyways there's only one more installment in the Sunday Nerd Fest hold on.

Sunday Nerd Fest. (Part 2)

2009-09-05T21:58:00.000-07:00

Next I stopped by the local mall...

While it may seem a little small on the outside, from the amount of bikes, you'd have to think that there may be more to it than just that.Lo and Behold. It has three levels, and one metric ton of shops. There's a grocery store, a book store, an Arcade, a foodcourt, a (sort of) computer store, and the most important part, A 100-yen shop.The aforementioned 100 yen shop. It's sort of like the dollar store in America only higher quality and much more selection. It's also the most important part of any mall. After going there I went to the Used Book store...

Book-off. I can't help but feel that this name wouldn't really be appealing to U.S. customers...

But, at least they had a classsic of American Cinema, Snake Flight. Ugh...

Sunday Nerd Fest. (Part 1)

2009-09-05T21:47:00.000-07:00

Today I went down the main road of Matsumoto and Saw all the shops that appealed to me and you'll get to see just what I did.

First stop is Tsutaya. Tsutaya is a book store chain that also carries CDs, DVDs, and Video Games.

What I really liked about Tsutaya is that they had a whole lot of Manga.

Really....
An awful lot...
of Manga. They also had a section of Manga for rent.... which is sort of like the section above only...

Much...

Larger. Also they had a whole lot of anime but I won't show it as I'm sure you're already sick of seeing aisles of merchandise. Well next up is the local mall.

More about the new home

2009-09-05T21:24:00.000-07:00

Here are some more pictures and word about the new home that I'm staying in.

This is the kitchen (obviously). It's where the food happens. That's right. Where it happens.

This is the shower/tub. When showering, you do NOT go into the tub, but rather stand next to the drain as you use the detatched shower head.

This is the Toilet. It used to be a squat toilet, but thankfully, Yukari got a western-style adapter for me. Trust me when I say that this is a definite necessity when you're not used to taking a dump in the woods.
This is the Sink outside the toilet. It's also where I brush my teeth and hair and shave and blah blah blah...

This is the bike that the Rotary club sent me. Though it may not look like much it is still better than my bike back in the U.S. This bike has three gears a reliable kickstand and a basket which is good when I spend my money on manga and convience store drinks.

Well that's all you need to know about my everyday life. Next up is my trip on the weekend.

A Weekend in the City and New Host

2009-09-02T03:22:00.000-07:00

Hey yo. Here's some stuff that happened.

This weekend I got to meet the other exchange students. There's one from New York, one from Australia (that's been here for seven months), and two from Germany. It was nice getting to know the others and learning that I was the second best when it came to Japanese (remember how the Australian had been here for seven months?). Afterwards I had a lot free time, so I decided to visit the shops.

Touch is a shop that specializes in Video Games, and is really great for all my Video Game needs (of which I have none). PARCO is a multilevel department store. On one of the floors there is a really great music store, and the top floor there is a "book store". I put "book store" in quotes, because really they have pretty much anything including an Andrew W.K. CD that I'm so getting.

After all of that, I met my next host, Yukari Okuno. Yukari is a middle-aged english teacher and lives very close to my school. Her house is a little small, but really it's alright.

At school, there was some swimming classes held where all of the students got to complain about how cold the water was. (They'd obviously never been to Eldorado Springs Pool). Also, I taught some people how to play slapjack and they've started getting better at it.

Well, that's all for now, check in later for more info!

(And for some pictures.)

And the Vlog comes crashing down.

2009-08-21T02:19:00.001-07:00

Sorry about that awful first video, I'll be sure to make something better. I'm doing great in Japan though.

VISA

2009-08-14T10:54:00.001-07:00

Alright. Things are going into motion. I just got my visa in the mail and should get my itinerary tomorrow.

It should be
D.I.A. to San Francisco

to Narita Japan

on the 19th.

Alright. Check in later for more about Japan.

Launch!

2009-07-27T13:41:00.000-07:00

Hello, welcome to the blog to find out about what I'm doing in Japan.

Keep in mind, I leave for Japan on August 19th, so until then this blog won't really be happening.

Anywaste, check in later.