Meeting old friends, an epic bicycle trip, and the results of the "corn sandwich" poll!

Today is more of a "life" update rather than a "look at the crazy things in Japan!" update, but I'll try my best to keep you all entertained.
Saturday was a mini "Kyoto get-together" - three of my friends from Ritsumeikan University all visited Tokyo, so we went out for dinner.













From left to right: Jason, Junko, and Johanna

Wow, that's a lot of J's... Jason was in Tokyo because he's a ninja and was here for weekend training, Junko wants to become an OL (office lady...I'm pretty sure she doesn't read this blog, so the joke is kind of wasted, but...), so she was up here for some job seminars, and Johanna is working as an English language teacher in Saitama, about an hour and a half outside of Tokyo.

We met up in Ikebukuro and went to an Izakaya for about two hours, which was a lot of fun. Izakaya are basically drinking halls + snacks that you can order to accompany your food. Me being me, I went hardcore and ordered 4 mugs of good, old-fashioned, Coca Cola, because that's how I roll. I think Jason ended up getting pretty drunk because he'd spent the day working out, so that was entertaining... Everyone exchanged work stories, laughed about the "old days," and generally had a good time. Oddly, the Izakaya were in a rush to kick us out at our appointed two hour mark, and Jason was like "I want to give you more money!! Why are you rushing us out!!?" Anyway, although I'm nowhere near an expert on Izakaya, I'm pretty sure they're something we don't have in America. They're not really bars, and often you can get a private room for your group. Usually they have "all you can drink" specials for an hour or two, so people can get pretty wild. When you hear about Japanese people going out to drink after work or whatever, they're usually talking about these places. If I'm totally wrong on this, I'm sure people won't hesitate to correct me, so check the comments section to find out what a "real" Izakaya is.

After we were finally forced out by the Izakaya staff, since it was still only 9, which was way too early, we decided to go try and find a coffee shop. For this, we relied on Junko, our native Tokyo-ite. She promptly succeeded in getting us lost and bringing us to three different coffee shops that were completely full and had no sitting room at all, but eventually we tracked down a nice little spot that was even kind enough to add whiskey to Jason's non-alcoholic drink... Funnily enough, my drink DID have alcohol in it, which I didn't realize when I ordered it, but again the staff was really nice and switched the drink for a non-alcoholic one at no charge. Jason was in charge of baby-sitting us international students during my year there, so he had some pretty funny (and shocking!) stories to tell about the crazy things that we idiot kids got up to during our stay over there.

Eventually it got late and we had to say goodbye. I had forgotten about my camera, so unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the Izakaya for all of you, but I managed to remember to get a picture of the group in the train station before we parted. Then, unfortunately, they managed to drag me into a picture as well, which you can see here:

















Sorry you all had to see that...

Now, as for the epic bicycle trip on Sunday!
I actually don't have a picture of the bike, but I'll post one at a later date...
I found a used bike on craigslist Tokyo for about $50, which is an awesome deal considering most used bikes go for $120+. The only drawback was that I had to go get it, and they lived an hour away...by train. According to google maps, the station was 40 or 50 kilometers away. I have no idea how many miles that is, but an hour by train sounds pretty far to me. Still, $50 is an great price, and it's not like I had anything better to do with my Sunday, so I figured it'd at least give me something to do, get me some exercise, and I'd have something to blog about! Yay!
Now, they lived in Kasukabe, which means nothing to any of you, but if you've seen the anime "Lucky Star," that's actually the train stop that the main characters live at. So I was kind of thinking "Oh cool, I can go to Kasukabe!" But, they were kind enough to meet me at Sengendai station instead...which was one station closer. Wow, thanks so much. I'll just go the other 10 stops on my own... I think I'd have almost rather just gone all the way to Kasukabe so I could at least take a picture of the station to satisfy the nerd in me. Instead, you get a picture of Sengendai station:













Really exciting, huh? Interestingly, although I didn't take any pictures of it, the suburbs outside of Tokyo look exactly like the suburbs outside of Kyoto. This is only really interesting because inside the city proper, they look completely different. There's a limit to how high buildings in Kyoto can be built, so as not to disturb the "historic feel" of the city, and McDonalds are all brown instead of red, since red is just too gaudy a color for a city so steeped in ancient traditions.

In any case, I started on my way, and only really knew that I had to follow the train line to get back. Unfortunately, I quickly hit a dead end. Fortunately, the lady behind me knew where she was going, so I just followed her. Although that did make me feel like a stalker...
In general though, it was pretty easy to figure out where I needed to go:

















How convenient! There was actually a main road about two minutes to my left, but I decided to play it safe and follow this path, since I knew that following this would bring me back to Tokyo, whereas the road might slightly veer off course without me knowing. The person I bought the bike from was kind enough to supply me with a map of Tokyo however, so I was able to check my position whenever I wasn't quite sure where I was.

Something that I've always found interesting about suburbs in Japan are these:













It's the middle of the winter, so this isn't a particularly thrilling picture, but scattered among houses you'll see these small mini-fields, often filled with rice, although occasionally they'll also grow the usual vegetable crops. As far as I can tell, these are not private gardens, and are in fact small farm fields, although I'm not sure about that. If anyone knows the truth behind these things, please feel free to inform everyone in the comments section!

Eventually, the path next to the train line disappeared and I had to join the main road, but it wasn't too hard to figure out where I needed to go. At one point, I came to a long road-side park/walking path:













This area continued on for quite a long stretch, and was a very nice change from just staring at stores and houses the entire time. Around now, I also noticed that there was another biker that was keeping pace with me, and eventually we started racing. Or "racing." I don't know if it became a competition for him (it sure seemed like it though), but it definitely became a competition for me, and we raced from stop light to stop light, trying to see who would ultimately finish first. We stayed more or less even until shortly after entering Tokyo proper, when he turned off sooner than I did...which was a bit sad! I didn't have anyone to keep me company anymore... The good side to racing him was that I definitely made faster time than I would have otherwise. The bad side was that I actually saw three or four really interesting things that I wanted to take pictures of for all of you, but couldn't because stopping would mean that my rival would get so far ahead of me that I'd never catch up! So, apologies again everyone!

Eventually I came to Ueno Park, which is (I believe) the largest and most famous park in Tokyo. It's really quite nice, and I wanted to walk around for a while, but there were people EVERYWHERE, and when I got off my bike, I was like "Oh my god I can't move." Riding a bike for three and a half hours straight will do that to you...













I did take a few pictures of the park entrance, however. In this picture, you can see a Japanese man staring at me thinking "What the hell is that crazy guy doing?" Now imagine that there are people like that every time I stop to take a random picture for all of you, and you'll have a good idea of what it's like to be me ^_^;
Actually, in this case, I think the reason I got that look was because everyone ELSE was taking a picture of this:













Cherry blossoms, or "sakura," are easily the most popular flower in Japan. As I understand it, sakura are often symbols of how transient and brief life is, and you hear about them a lot in Japanese literature (or alternatively, just go watch that scene from 'The Last Samurai'). In any case, sakura are hands down the most famous and popular flowers in Japan, and every year in the early spring people will get together and go flower viewing, or "Hanami." This entails going to a park with a bunch of friends, sitting under the sakura trees, drinking lots and lots of alcohol, and generally having a good old time. Once again, feel free to comment if you have more to add on the subject, since I confess I don't know much about sakura aside from the fact that there are tons of songs and anime characters named 'Sakura' and that if you ask any Japanese person what their favorite flower is, they will answer 'sakura' without hesitation.
So one last photo before moving on...













Eventually, I managed to get home - all told the trip took somewhere between four and five hours, so it was quite the epic journey, although I got very lucky. It was a beautiful day out, so I actually had a really nice time, and it's something that I wouldn't mind doing again, assuming I can find somewhere to bike to... Maybe one day when the weather gets a bit warmer I'll take a weekend biking trip off to the mountains!

Now then, the moment you've all been waiting for! The results of the corn sandwich poll! I knew I could count on my faithful readers not to disappoint me, and as expected you did not let me down. The pro-corn voters swept the polls; it wasn't even a contest. So thanks everyone, for once again, three weeks running, coming out against my opinion, this time en masse. Now my friend has gotten me suckered into agreeing to eat yet ANOTHER strange food item that I'd be happier avoiding... Roy in particular deserves honorable mention, because I'm pretty sure he knew I was anti-corn, admitted that he himself would not eat corn on a sandwich, and yet still voted pro-corn, just to spite me. Thanks buddy, that means a lot.
I do want to share this email I received from my sister, however:

and uh alex, if you think corn on a sandwich would taste good..... then you are the weirdest person i know... thats so weird.

Just thought I'd throw that out there for all of you.
As it stands, however, the final tally is as follows:
For: 6
Against: 4
It was actually less of a blowout than I thought, but the majority of the initial voters were pro-corn, while most of the latter ones were in the "I've never had it before, but corn on pizza is terrible" camp, so I just assumed they were anti-corn sandwich as well. To be fair, that is also where my opinion on corn sandwiches comes from. I've never tried corn on a sandwich, but corn and mayonaisse pizzas are frightening abominations that shouldn't be allowed to exist in the world.

Well, that concludes today's update! Sorry you had to wait until mid-week for it, but look on the bright side! You only have to wait half as long for the next update! (assuming I post on time anyway...)

See you again soon!

Okay, haters, this time I have something that's Japan-only!

Not to point any fingers, Julie and Seah, but there have been some haters here saying things like "We have duvets in America, duh" and "Those types of parking garages are everywhere in New York City, why don't you visit here for a change Alex." So, this time I have something new!
And I know we don't have them in America.

Without further ado, I present to you the kotatsu:













A kotatsu is basically a small, low table with a heater on the underside of it. When you drape a blanket over the frame of the table (like in the picture), the heat is preserved within the enclosed space, which keeps you nice and toasty warm during the winter months. Heating can be really expensive in Japan (as I just found out...) and a kotatsu can be a nice, cheap alternative to turning the heater on. Also, while you're not *really* supposed to do it, falling asleep with most of your body under a kotatsu can be soooo nice. As a result, using a kotatsu can be kind of dangerous if you have a test to study for... In conclusion, kotatsu are totally awesome, and it's so freaking great not to be using a giant cardboard box with a towel on it as a table any more.
Plus, that chair you see in the picture? Best purchase I've made so far in Japan. For the last few weeks I've been sitting on my hard, cold, wooden floor, and it's really uncomfortable. I finally have something soft to sit on! And I can lean back! Oh, it's so wonderful~

...Now, I suppose the haters are going to say "but I already knew about kotatsu!" Yes okay, that's true, but we don't have them in America! So hah! But yes, if you watch anime, or are interested in Japan, you've probably heard the legends before. But if not, just trust me when I say that kotatsu are awesome.

Okay, that was a pretty short post, so here's an extra picture for you:













Hey, it's Alex's kitchen! Not pictured: My dishes. Also, one of them fell and broke while I was straightening up to take this picture, so enjoy it! I really liked that dish too... :( And yes, my kitchen is even tinier than it looks. That stove is built into the kitchen, so I essentially have no counter space, it's pretty tough to make anything complicated, but I've been improvising.

So, yesterday was Valentine's Day! I hope everyone had a nice day! My day consisted of sleeping really late, and then cleaning my whole room to set up my kotatsu. Cleaning this room is a lot more work than you'd think; it's really dusty in here. I also threw out some cardboard boxes that had been accumulating. Now that I have real furniture, I have no need for cardboard tables anymore! Begone with you! In any case, as you can tell, I had a totally awesome Valentine's Day. ...although it wasn't so bad, it had it's good points ;)













(They do look pretty similar, huh? Incidentally this is just a random picture I found online, not my own.)
But, I mention Valentine's Day because it's a bit different in Japan. See over here, girls give chocolate to the guys, not the other way around. It can be a pretty big to-do too; if she really likes him, she'll go and make him homemade chocolate for Valentine's Day. Alternatively, there's also "Friend-chocolate" which can be exchanged between friends, and "duty-chocolate" which is basically chocolate that you have to give to co-workers, classmates, and that sort of thing. Sound's like a pretty sweet deal for the guys right, getting all that chocolate from a bunch of girls? Except next month, on March 14th, there's White Day, and you have to repay the favor, and give gifts back to every girl that gave you chocolate for Valentine's Day. Since V-day was on a weekend, I was safe and didn't have to worry about receiving any of that scary "duty chocolate" from my co-workers (scary because my office is like 90% women, and that's a LOT of repaying I'd have to do next month!) ...although I did go out (today) and buy some chocolate to eat by myself. Oh and yesterday I ate a chocolate that I'd made a few days earlier... Hm, eating chocolate alone on Valentine's Day, somehow that seems kind of lonely... :D But it had a good ending~

Also! I need your help, faithful readers! My dear friend and I want to know: Is corn on sandwiches totally normal and absolutely delicious, or does it it an abomination - no sandwich should ever have corn on it, and that sounds absolutely horrible.
To keep from biasing you, I'll not say which viewpoint is mine, and which is my friend's, but let me know what you think! Help us settle this disagreement!

Finally, I just want to thank everyone that's left comments on the last two posts, or on facebook. Although I never reply (I don't know why, I'm always online..) I really enjoy reading your comments, and it's nice to know that people are enjoying this! So please leave comments! And I'll try harder to respond ^_^; I do want to add though - Ashley, you're totally right about how it's completely impossible to throw out anything that isn't a plastic bottle, since the garbage cans near vending machines are recycling bins, not "real" garbage cans. I totally was thinking "I have to remember to say that!" and somehow I forgot, so thanks for pointing that out! Really, nothing is worse than blowing your nose, or having a random pamphlet that you took by accident, and then having to carry it for an HOUR because there are absolutely no public garbage cans anywhere in this entire country.

Apologies on the somewhat boring entry this time around, but hopefully next week will be better! I might be making an epic four hour trip to get a bicycle on the cheap; don't miss it!

Second Post! At last!

Hey everyone! Sorry for the delay in this post... If you want pictures, I can really only do one post a week since it's dark by the time I get out of work, and then last week I was busy playing Magic all weekend...oh, and I was sick. Well I was sick during the week but let's pretend it was over the weekend so that I don't seem quite as irresponsible and "lazy" ^_^;

First things first! Sunday morning there was an earthquake! My first one ever! I didn't even realize what was going on at first, I was just like "Why is the building shake....oooh right." I wanted to run to the window and look out and see if I could see anything outside shaking, but I know that's a bad idea in case the glass breaks... Anyway it was a pretty small earthquake. Then on Monday apparently a volcano erupted near Tokyo. No one mentioned either one at work. I guess it's just business as usual in Japan - earthquakes, volcanoes, giant atomic monsters. Still, I guess that gives the Japanese Defense Force something to do.














Well, with that out of the way, time to get down to business! For today's update...you get a tour of my trip to work! Haha! Sounds exciting, doesn't it! I'll throw in random observations to keep it interesting.

First up, we have a pretty epic-looking Bridal store. Japanese girls take their princess-fantasy weddings seriously apparently.
Not pictured: The other bridal store across the street.















Turning to my left, we find a staple of the Japanese diet:













The vending machine drink.

Vending machines are omnipresent in Japan. I'm not exactly sure why, but they are EVERYWHERE. Which is the meaning of omnipresent, so yes, I just repeated myself.
I'll discuss these more momentarily, but for now I want you to take notice of three important things - firstly, the number of machines; second, the fact that there are two of each drink in each machine, and third, the presence of the garbage cans in this picture.
Notice taken? Then let us continue on our way...

Next we have the "conbini," or convenience store.













These, much like vending machines, are like cockroaches in Japan. You will see at least ten of them on every street. When Japanese people want a "convenience store", they want it as convenient as damn possible. In other words, every house, apartment building, office complex, and hotel has at least one conbini within a five second walk.

Also, please note the garbage cans on the left side of the picture.

"Alex," you might say, "this is the second time you've mentioned garbage cans. What's so special about them?" What's special about garbage cans in Japan is the fact that, although convenience stores and vending machines are everywhere, garbage cans are not. They are rare. And when I say rare, we aren't talking Giant Panda almost-extinct rare, we're talking Loch Ness monster I've-heard-rumours-that-it-existed-but-I-never-really-believed-them rare. "But Alex, they're right there in the picture!" Yes, that's what you think NOW. Now that you're holding your unopened drink that you so foolishly purchased from that Lawson. But once that bottle is empty? Those garbage cans will be GONE. There will be nary a garbage can in sight, for so far as the eye can see. And IF by chance you see one, you will know the joy that Christopher Columbus felt when he finally saw land after so many days at sea.
Because garbage cans in Japan do NOT exist. They're creatures of myth, that exist only while your bottle is full. But once you have something to throw out, they vanish with the winds.
"Now wait a minute Alex, you just said that vending machines and conbini are omnipresent, surely that means the garbage cans that accompany them are omnipresent as well." And you would be correct to assume so! ...if Japan was a place where logic held any sway. Alas, it is not. While your drink is full, you will continue to see conbini and vending machines, tempting you to buy more of their evil products, but once you've spurned them and drank your fill, they will vanish down the dark holes from whence they came, never to be seen again by the eyes of man.

Ahem...for now, let us continue on our journey.

Next up is this oddity:













I don't know where you come from, but where I come from, cars don't park on top of each other. I walk past this parking lot every day, and I've yet to see just HOW those cars get up there...or down from there, for that matter.

If this is something that is, in fact, common knowledge, like duvets apparently are, someone please enlighten me.

Why, hello there!
Once again, please note the fact that there is two of every drink in this machine. Also, these machines are refilled every day. I'm not sure how a vending machine can run out so quickly, especially when there is one every five feet, but apparently they do.

Also, there is a distinct lack of garbage cans here.


Five! Five!
Truly, the mind is boggled.











Something different for a change...
Apparently every day is Christmas in Japan! This is the Tokyo Biz Tower, home to all sorts of expensive restaurants and expensive clothing stores.










Another shot of the area around the Tokyo Biz Tower:













This cafe is extremely popular with foreigners after work; there are always tons of them when I pass in the evening. It's a weekend, so no one is here today. Also yes, I took these pictures in the evening, around the same time I would be getting out of work, so technically yes, I could take pictures after work and update my blog during the work. No, that still doesn't mean that I'm lazy for not updating sooner.

This here is a pachinko parlor.













Pachinko parlors are basically gambling halls, only instead of slot machines there are pachinko machines. They're hard to explain, and I've never actually played pachinko, but I'll find you all a picture eventually.
Also, instead of money or tokens, you collect little metal balls, which you can then trade for various items like designer bags, electronics, and so on.

An extremely large shrine right in the heart of the business district.













Although I keep meaning to go there, I've yet to visit it. I'll get there eventually though, since it looks like it's probably pretty cool...

And to the left of the shrine...

















And to the right...













And we've arrived at work!













I'm on the 9th floor of the middle building. The gigantic building to the right is the Prudential Tower, and the one on the left is a hotel.

Oddly, although my big boss has his own private office, it is entirely windowless. I can't understand that.
I mean if I was the evil mastermind of a demonic company that imposed horrible standardized tests upon the unwashed masses, I'd want to be able to look out across my country and bask in the misery of millions of broken souls crying out in anguish.

...I'm just kidding! If you're reading this, you're a great guy, really! Please don't fire me!

Well, that concludes our tour for the day!

Before ending, I want to add that, in addition to passing the two Bridal stores and multiple conbini, I also passed no less than four flower shops, and two spas - directly across the street from each other. I'm not exactly sure why you need more than one spa, though I can see the convenience in multiple flower stores. Also, medical clinics and dentist's offices are almost as common as conbini, which makes me wonder how they can possibly all stay in business with enough customers to keep everyone satisfied.
Everyone says Japanese people are so hard working, but they must be really lazy if they can't walk an extra thirty seconds to get a drink, buy some flowers, or go to the dentist! Although perhaps its because they're so hard-working, and live in their offices, that they need everything within close reach so that they can run there during their lunch breaks. But that is a question for another day...

I hope you enjoyed today's slightly more epic post! Apologies for still not uploading larger pictures of my apartment...so I guess that still makes me lazy after all?