February 16, 2004

• It’s Just Too Damn BIG

  
  

  Don’t get me wrong… I really enjoyed Tokyo. It’s the kind of place that’s so much fun to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there. I like big cities, but Tokyo is just too massive. You have places like Washington, where you know where the city ends and the suburbs roughly begin. Tokyo, well… the city is just everywhere.

  
  

  Anyway, it was plenty of fun visiting my relatives–getting to eat and stay somewhere for free was part of the benefit. I went around Akihabara, Ueno Park, Shibuya, and a little bit in Shinjuku.

  
  

  About Akihabara… that place is dangerous. Everywhere I went I wanted to buy something. Hell I even bought the Lunar Legend GBA game–and I don’t have a GBA (but believe me, I was quite close to correcting that problem, too). But yes, there are quite a few great shops around there: manga/bookstores, anime goods, arcades, electronics, etc. etc.

  
  

  Shibuya, I got to spend some time in with my cousin and her friends this time around. We ate out at a Mexican restaurant (where they say ƒrƒGƒ“ƒxƒjƒh[ƒX as you enter) and did some karaoke afterwards.

  
  

  I never mentioned how I am at karaoke before, I think… ‘cept I might have said how awful my singing voice is. Anyway… I usually like to pick plenty of Japanese songs. Though, the combination of fast-scrolling text plus kanji now and then I don’t recognize results in something like:

  
  

  EEE‰´‚Í“Œ‹ž¶‚Ü‚êHIP-HOP‚ƈ炿Aˆ«‚»‚¤‚È“z‚Í‚¾‚¢‚½‚¢—F’BB
  ˆ«‚»‚¤‚È“z‚Æ‚¾‚¢‚½‚¢“¯‚¶EEEsomethin’ somethin’ blah blah
  EEE‰½X‚±‚ÌŠXI
  a’J@˜Z–{–Ø@‰½X can’t read that kanji ‰½X@scrollin’ too fast…

  
  

  and so on. But it’s still fun. I think I’ll start picking more SMAP songs, those tend to be simple enough to read. But, I’ll practice until I can get down stuff like Grateful Days (Dragon Ash) or maybe even that new Rhymester song uƒUEƒOƒŒ[ƒgEƒAƒ}ƒ`ƒ…ƒAƒŠƒYƒ€v (“The Great Amateur Rhythm”). Once I can rap in Japanese, I’m set.

  
  

  Plus that, my cousin’s friends had to get some puri-kura’s after dinner. If you’re unfamiliar, those are these little picture booths that take snapshots of you and your friends, then print up little sticky pictures you can divide up and put on the inside of notebooks or whatever. But, in the last few years they’ve gotten mad complicated… I mean, now you pick your background, take a dozen shots, pick 3-4 of them, how many prints, what style of prints, play a little minigame, pick out what to draw on the photo… etc. etc. etc. The fun part is figuring out where the hell your pictures are once they’re done.

  
  

  So… I’m back at Nanzan now, after a long break. This day has actually been quite the shitty one, but it’s all good. Just need some time to get used to going to school again. Wednesday we have a trip/assignment to Osu, and in the afternoon an IES trip to a local middle school. I’ll likely make another post after that. ‘Til then.

  
  

  By the way, I’m now up at Rice Bowl Journals, check the link to the left or the previous post. Also, there’re more photos up to the right; no new Engrish though. KF

  • 1:26 am
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