First stop...TOKYO!!!!

Well if I ever told anyone I wasn't scared to go on this trip I was lying. I was the last one in line to board my 10.5 hour flight from Seattle. Talk about nervous. The realization of leaving for 4 and half months hit and it hit hard. Once on the plane though I settled down a bit.The flight was good though, movies, sleep, and food. What isn't good about that? After landing it was instantly another world, nerves/excitement took over as I boarded my bus to downtown Tokyo, Shinagawa, from the airport. All those nervous feelings vanished the second I saw a familar face with Yoshi waiting for me at the hotel in his classic Captain Morgan's drinking shirt. The night was on. The hotel was NICE, first thing I thought was this is going to be the nicest place I'd stay for the entire trip hands down. I was welcomed to the room with Kirin beers and a delicious 8% lemonade soda. Classic.

We were out the door quickly and into the crazy nightlife of hundreds of people. We headed to meet Yoshi's friends for Sushi and all you can drink, yes that's right, ALL YOU CAN DRINK. Game on. I've never had so much great food and drank such a shit mix of liquors before in my life. Beers, Sake, wheat grass and vodka, and playing quarters for mugs of blue lemonade deliciousness.

After a mix of all that we hit the town and headed out make some stories.Of course with a combination of Yoshi, me, and liquor hilarity ensued. "Borrowed" umbrellas, our own version of a Tuk Tuk, and a plethora of bad "Konichiwa"s followed. Thankfully we caught the last train home and made it back to the hotel. The way the train system works here is if you miss the last train home, between 12 and 1, you sleep, well pass out on the train station floor until 4 or 5 am when the trains start running again. Which from what Yoshi said, is NOT uncommon.
We woke from our coma of a sleep and headed down for our all you can eat breakfast. Keep in mind that I'm 16 hours behind on West coast time and I just drank from 1 to 6 am my time, so my body is hating me to say the least right now. We ate our fill of weird scrambled eggs, bacon, miso soup, fish, and rice the returned to the room for a much needed nap. After a lil rest we went and started wandering the streets again and headed to Harajuk, the the fashion district of Tokyo. Again TONS of people, intense fashion and awesome hats.

We wandered around and made our way to Shibuya. There is an intersection there that is the busiest in the world. With every light change over 1000 people cross at once. See my versions of "Where's Waldo below. Hint....I'm the white kid.

Next up after a much needed power nap was Roppongo, an area full of tourists, bars, clubs, and annoying people on the street who tired to get you into their gentlemen clubs. I've been many places with this type of thing going on, but these guys were intimidating. HUGE Nigerian guys dressed in suits following you half way up the block, and Yoshi and I got picked out of the crowd EASY. I'm sure it was a combo of being hungover and tired, but neither of us could deal with it so we left the area quickly and headed back to Shibuya for a quick bite to eat and headed home. Fast food is not the same here, there is the option of McDonalds, but no way. Better fast food is BBQ pork and rice bowls you order from a vending machine type of thing and they bring it out to you in minutes. Unreal. After all day seeing the city we thought we'd get a good nights sleep, but nope...we were interrupted by my first earthquake experience. ( sorry mom, I might have forgot to mention this on the phone...my bad :) It was a small one though, people weren't even talking about it the next day. Still an experience to check off the list. We were up early and on our way to Akihabara, Tokyo's nerd central. Its a famous area for electronics and anime. With the classic saying of "a picture is worth 1000 words," I'll leave you guys with these:

 

Tokyo was A BLAST, but time to hit Osaka, Yoshi's home town. Sayanara for now!

And…….I'm Off!

Today, July 28th, 2011 - a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America suddenly and deliberately sent an ambassodor to the Empire of Japan and its neighbouring nations. South East Asia is not ready for what is about to go down….


Well I may not be Roosevelt or any creditable writer so I cannot promise you proper grammar, correct speelling, or a well put together "piece", but I can guarantee some great stories that will make you smile, laugh, cringe, and most likely shake your head at. I'll be "blogging" as frequently as I can so watch for posts. I will also be trying my hand at a "mockumentary" on YouTube, but who knows if that will actually happen. Either way, check back to this site for new posts and pictures. I will miss you all and I'll See You When I See You!!!


Tyler