hey everyone. well, this is my last week and i am soaking up as much japan as i can. as a result, this entry is very long and ACTION PACKED! (or not). i've also been taking a lot more random photos. here are some examples:


lady at station reading.



school kids at station. the crazy thing is, these kids get around all by themselves at age 5 or 6 from school all the way to their homes by train and public bus.


rainy weather in tokyo.


hmmm, interesting choice for a name.


one of the intersections in shibuya. i watched this from the train station. it's crazy how many ppl there are. where did they all come from and why did they all decide to cross at that intersection? i guess that is the bottleneck to the station.


here's a shot from down below.


later that night, atsu and i were at the church's building fund party. they played the promotional video i made 3 times. i guess ppl really liked it. but hey, i had fun doing it. the church just handed me a shiny new G4 12" powerbook, a sony handycam, and all the software i needed. definitely a win win situation.


me and my exchange student from 4 years ago - YUMA KOGA!!! we used to go to high school together, since he was our exchange student in indiana. after he went back to japan 4 years ago i visited his family for 2 weeks in mishima. 4 years later, i came back and met him in tokyo. it was way cool catching up.


here he is in yokohama where he is currently living.


my last gig with moha garden. :_ ( man, i can actually say now that i have played with a real japanese band. they were really nice ppl.


this week i came to mishima to visit both atsu's family and yuma's family who both happen to live in the same town. on the train ride there, i got to pass along the coast and got to see japan's more rural side.

in mishima, we went to a super-sized americanized shopping center/clothing store/whatever you need. it was just like super wal-mart in every way. well, except for the still japanese-sized shopping carts...



here's another view.



and we couldn't believe this. a single melon for 2980yen!!! that is like $25! who is going to buy that melon? someone who is really hungry for melons obviously.






this is me by the rocky mishima.  the tide sounded really cool, like an audience clapping as it rushed through all the big rocks.

after i spent the night at atsu's parents' house, we went to shizuoka to visit some relatives. on our way there, we passed through the smoggy industrial center of japan. it looked like on the matrix reloaded when neo flew through the city real fast to catch morpheous and the keymaker. don't you remember that part? it was just this tangly mess of buildings and pipelines and factories. atsu's dad was telling me about how american and japanese manufacturing standards and customs differ.


i guess the camera doesn't really capture it, but you'll just have to use your imagination.


after that, we went through a long twisty road in the country side


atsu's mom mixing the veggies and "rakki" or "lucky" the dog staring.


here's what we drove in. a very common example of a japanese automobile. "you mean they don't drive hummers and suv's?" you may ask. no. however, i have seen a couple in tokyo. it was really funny. a hummer is about 2 1/2 times as big as the average japanese car.



here's a real ocha/green tea field.


here's a japanese tree farm/forest. all of these trees were planted, as you can see by their consistent size and straight rows.


incredibly ugly and scary spider that was at the house in shizuoka. i saw it while atsu's mom was talking to me.


me and the relatives. atsu's dad is taking the picture.


this one's for you, duck! sorry, we were making a turn so i couldn't get a better shot.

when we got back, atsu's mom went to dance lessons and atsu's dad and i went to a japanese equivalent of lowe's or home depot. they sold all sorts of home improvement supplies and so forth and even had a...

PET SHOP?

this was really sad. all the cats and dogs were in little cages and some of them had pooed all over the place and looked really sick.


once again the giant beetle proves to be a popular collectable item in japan.


they also had japanese-sized lawn mowers, if you want to call them that. they are the size of vacuum cleaners, but for cutting your grass. more than weed-whackers, not quite lawn mowers.

after that, we went to a sushi boat place and i had some new items i'd never had before such as...


i forget what this was called, but it was basically an egg based pudding with one of those pink spirally fish-paste slices.

there are more photos to come, i just need to get all my stuff organized.    

hey everyone,

it's another week in tokyo.  this week i've been mostly lazy, but i have gotten out and done some stuff.  i'm just trying to figure out what my nitch is here in japan.  i went into the church office and it turns out that i may get a job as a graphic designer or animater or whatever they have for me.  they may even be able to arrange for me to get a visa and work here long-term.  that is not set in stone yet though, but it is a possibility.

this week i had my first bike ride through tokyo.  here is atsu's super compact japanese fold-upable bile.  pretty cool, huh?

i decided to ride down to the capital building.

they had a park there where i sat down and studied the bible and japanese.  there were all these pigeons there that started surrounding me.  i tried clapping at them and kicking at them, but they wouldn't go away.

i got a chance to mess around with my camera's features and turns out there are quite a few more than i initially realized.  so here's some shots i took.

atsu's man bag


atsu playing bass


empty bowl

after i talked to the ppl in the church office about getting a job, we all went out and had a small group meeting and then basketball.

here's some of the ppl at small group.

here's basket ball.  the thing about japanese gyms is that you have to wear a seperate pair of shoes in the gym and also afterwards, you have to sweep the gym.  i thought that was kind of cool.

that night, i got on the VERY LAST train to sasazuka (our apartment) and it was literally packed full.  the train ppl were on megaphones yelling at everyone to get on the last train.  we were all running to the train and when i got to it, ppl were hanging out of the edge of every single train car.  i was running down the train until i found a spot and then i packed myself into a little gap.  it was seriously like on the videos where you see the conductor stuffing ppl into the train.  i actually saw that happen!  they were packing the ppl in the train. 

i got home at around 12:30 and then atsu got home later because he had gone somewhere else, but then realized that he left his bike at the station.  so i accompanied him there and back which took maybe 45 minutes.  when we got home, we cooked something and then talked for a while until i noticed that there was a blue light outside shining on the building next to us.  i got up and looked out and it was actually the morning sun coming out.

i will let you know the rest of the details later.  tonight: moha garden concert!

cya