Tim’s Ramblings

For some reason, this hotel apparently uses something like cable internet which means, when somenoe is using a popular Japanese peer to peer software like Winny and such, it means I actually LOOK like I have a connection but I can’t get out on the ‘net.

I’m updating this using my new wireless network card that’s ridiculously expensive for only 150 hours…. Grrr. I was only going to use this when I was at the office or when I’m at my parents….grrrr….at least this will take less than 2 minutes to upload.

So. Last night I was beat…got some food and then watched some TV but by 11 I was passed out. Of course the TV was on as were all the lights. It’s as if my body knew….because it decided to wake me up rudely at 12:30am by deciding to give me a horrible knot in my calf. It’s been a while since I’ve had this happen. It hurt. More than I remember. I can reach down and actually feel a huuuuuuuge knot in my left calf. All I could do was grit my teeth and slooowly stretch out that muscle to help it loosen up a bit. Ugh. Sucked.

Anyway, today was a full day of walking/sightseeing/getting the hell out of the hotel. A new shopping center named Lazona opened up at the Kawasaki station. It’s literally connected to it. I always passed by the construction wondering what it would look like. Well…let me tell you…it looks fantastic. The shopping center is huuuuuuuge and even the outdoor courtyard area looks fantastic. I’ll post pics when I can.

Oh yeah…and now there’s a Bic Camera in this shopping center too. 4 stories of electronic fun. Just like Yodobashi Camera on the other side of the train station. Now I’m torn. I’ve always been partial to Yodobashi…but man….if Bic Camera is closer, even by only 3 minutes or so….urrrrm…

Inside the building are a bunch of restaurants as well. Some familiar names for people in the US too like Californa Pizza Kitchen and Cold Stone. Cold Stone was crazy…the line was huge at 10:30am. Eeeesh. I mean…I like icecream and all but still…goddamn…

Anyway, after looking around there, I headed out to Nakano to see if I can find more volumes of that cooking comic book Oishimbo. Still missing a bunch of volumes and even the main Mandarake store in Nakano didn’t have it. Finding these are going to be a PAIN. Oh yeah, and walking to the store, they have music playing in the little covered shopping area leading up to the mall and what do I hear? Cusco. It’s a newage German group that did a fusion of electronica, orchestra, and traditional Incan music. I haven’t heard Cusco in ages! Never thought I’d hear them in Japan.

Ate lunch there and then moved on to Shinjuku to stop by a Hello Kitty store to get some gifts for S’s nieces as well as some undies…not for ME! *ahem*

From there, it was off to Akihabara, the electronic town/geek heaven. This trip I didn’t really have anything to buy (well..I do but I will do that next weekend), I decided to take my time and really browse alot of the shops and such. Usually I know the area enough that I just go to where I need to go and that’s it.

Unfortunatley, I have a feeling the maid thing is starting to slow down. I mean…there are still the maid girls outside of the station but you just don’t see the main filled insanity of earlier this year. Ah well. I knew it wouldn’t last….

So, I walked down the main street and then turned down the many side streets. There were some interesting electronic stores. There were some creepy stores too…as well as the diiirty ones. I even stopped by to check out the bootleg DVD’s that the shady guys were selling in the side streets. They basically have a binder full of adult videos and if you find one you like, you write down the number on a piece of paper and he’ll dissappear for a bit and come back with a burned unlabeled DVD. Fun! Oh, and it’s usually about 500 yen and obviously they take only cash. I…of course…have never used their services. I just know how it works. This time, I did look through the binder but alas, most of the videos that he had today were of hidden bathroom cameras…and as much as I know there are lots of guys that enjoy the whole peeping while peeing thing…yeah…it really doesn’t do it for me. Or at least I don’t get a thrill out of it.

Even had what passes for a gyro here. It wasn’t lamb but beef. And they didn’t call it a gyro. But the dudes were all from some Middle Eastern area or around Turkey and the guy that took my order looked surprised that I asked for no tomatoes. It was pretty tasty too but the whole cabbage, strips of beef, onions, in a pita bread just wasn’t the same as a good tasty drippy lamb gyra.

Also stopped by the biiig Yodobashi Camera there and then on the way out, I was pleasantly surprised when I ran into a band doing a free concert outside. A group called Lemmy Crisis, it was like a rock/pop-punk band with a girl vocalist. They were actually pretty good. The girl actually sang well and didn’t do the whole “sing in horrible English or sing Japanese with a horrible English accent” thing and was able to sound good singing outside with some pretty cheap equipment. The guitarist sounded a bit muddy but probably because I was standing on the other side of him. The bassist though was really really good. He didn’t use a pick (good start) and was fast with his fingers and kept the beat well. The drummer kicked ass too. All in all, it was fun. I bought a CD. There will be a “support your local band!” post soon once I get the damn network working from the hotel room since I took alot of pics and even a movie.

After that I made my way back to the hotel where I was able to use the internet just long enough to download some very very important files for work tomorrow and then had a nice dinner at my favorite ramen shop and then blew lots of money at the arcades playing the drums and cursing at the stupid machine for not dropping the chocolates that should have been mine. Grrrrr….

Now I’m waching TV where my favorite favorite TV personality, Maya Masai, is hosting. She’s so hot. Mmmm. And hot in a “I bet she’s really smart…I can just sit and watch her talk all day long” sort of way. (^_^)

Oh well. Tomorrow is work. Got a meeting at 10 that should go for a while, and then another at 2. We’ll see if I can grab lunch sometime in between.

Getting sleepy though…might go to bed at 11 or so since I’ll be up at 6 tomorrow anyway. Now if I can only get this goddamn internet working!

More updates to come! Hopefully with pictures next!