I’ve heard a lot about how long the Japanese live. Friends and family (and even myself, at times) have remarked on how Tokyo is, mostly, devoid of fat people. Of course, rural towns are likely a different story, but I am not familiar with the trends in such places, and so will choose to ignore them for the purposes of this post. Besides, most of the media folks in the western world see from Japan is from larger, metropolitan areas (Tokyo, Osaka).

Many people (even Bill Murray in Lost in Translation) suggest that the Japanese diet is very healthy, which is why there seems to be such an epidemic of slim people in this country. Those statements are true, to a degree. While the traditional Japanese diet is much less greasy-sugary than the average American diet, nobody is perfect. There are plenty of foods on the Japanese menu that are probably best consumed in moderation.

There’s ramen (real ramen, not the noodle packs you find at the dollar store), tempura (DEEP FRIED VEGETABLES), tonkatsu (breaded and fried pork cutlets), and donburi (essentially bowls of rice topped with piles of meat), to name a few (mostly taken from the lunch menu
of your average salaryman). Add to this list a crapload of rice. I say “crapload” specifically to reference its special constipating powers, the effects of which are sometimes discussed candidly in everyday conversation. You should SEE the lines in some women’s bathrooms. But this is not a post about fast food, diets, or poop (or lack thereof). This is about movement.

How much do you move every day? I don’t mean from your computer to your bathroom, or picking up the TV remote from the armrest of the sofa. Do you walk to a car to go places? Do you walk to a train or bus station? Do you bicycle to work or to school? What do you think all your movement each week adds up to? What distance do you travel? How many calories do you burn just getting from point A to point B?
I did a little experiment (and I suppose I’m still doing it) with the help of my smartphone and a pretty nifty little app called Map My Run. I started tracking data about my movement habits. Yes, that’s right! We’re getting scientific (NOT) here at Arisha In Tokyo.

I creepily stalked tracked myself on an average week around town. Using the app, I monitored my movements via GPS tracking on my iPhone for a regular week around Tokyo. I did not track short trips to the convenience store or going down the street to do my laundry. Rather, I tracked commutes to and from work, time taken to meet friends (in other areas of the city), and my regular exercise (3 times a week). I walked (or ran) at a regular pace, took my regular routes, and watched the data as it came in.

Admittedly, my reasons for starting this project weren’t solely in the pursuit of glorious science. Truthfully, after coming home from my family’s European vacation at the beginning of July, I came down with a pretty serious case of what we scientists refer to as “lazy bum syndrome.” My symptoms included late-night delivery burrito orders, ass-to-sofa fixation, and a general desire to keep my “vacation” going as long as humanly possible.

This behavior, while awesome and much-needed for a couple of days to get over jet leg, was making me feel awful. I wasn’t spending much time outside, I wasn’t feeding myself good food, and I was moving only a small amount each day. I was even starting to feel depressed and nervous about the prospect of finding a new job (SPOILER: I FOUND WORK). I decided that even if I wasn’t working for money again just yet, I could at least be working on myself. 2 weeks of pizza, burritos, and internet had laid the foundation for some extra squish in places I’d rather weren’t so squishy.

I started slowly by cooking for myself again. I’d forgotten how cheap it was to cook food at home! And WOW, I was making delicious stuff that was actually pretty healthy! One day, after about a week of chowing down relatively guilt-free on tasty home made goodies, I decided I had to put jogging back into my routine. I’d take to the outdoors! FOR SCIENCE! Sorta.

I looked at a map of my neighborhood. Trying to estimate my relative health and abilities, I plotted out a 1.8 mile loop in my neighborhood within the app (on my PC), keeping in mind that I hadn’t exercised in about 2 months. Once plotted, I took to the streets, armed with my iPhone and some tunes. The route I plotted is flattish; it has a few ups and downs, and one rather large uphill section about 1.3 miles in, after which there’s a straight stretch to the finish. It was a challenge the first night. I took a lot of walking breaks, though still tried to challenge myself. I was only a little sore the next day (an appropriate amount, I felt), so I went again that night. I pushed way too hard and had trouble rolling out of bed the next morning.

I decided I needed to have a method to my madness, otherwise I was going to hurt myself. That’s when I decided to just start tracking my regular movements, and see if I could find a way to best expand upon them. Upon leaving home for work or the station, I’d just activate the GPS tracking on my phone, go about my commute, and then turn off the tracker when I arrived at my destination. My data (route, time, average pace, average speed, and more) were automatically saved to my account. I can now refer back to data about previous routes, and can even “race” myself I want to at this point. It’s pretty neat. Once I got the hang of remembering to turn on and turn off the tracker (I forgot a lot at first), I tried to do it for a week straight. Here’s the data I collected:

I moved roughly 20 miles (32 km) in one week while going about my regular business. About 40 minutes of my day Monday-Friday is spent walking to and from work, and Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are my designated days to go for a run on my neighborhood loop (which gets easier every time I do it). I feel better than I did a month ago, and while I have lost a little bit of squish, I also now have a little more muscle. While yes, the data does say 19.77 miles, I chose to round it up to account for all those little trips I said I wouldn’t record on GPS. While I wasn’t tracking them, they’re still a part of my schedule.

I was surprised with my result. It motivated me to be taking better care of myself in general. I am a very, very firm believer in moderation, and don’t believe that depriving oneself of favorite foods or a fun event makes much sense. I try to consume consciously, and work within reasonable standards for myself. I think the phrase “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” is one of the most absurd things I’ve ever heard in my life. It was clearly written by a person who has not been exposed to delicious things. I submit that “reasonably sized portions of whatever you want to eat taste as good as reasonably sized feels”. Not as catchy, I know, but it’s a work in progress.

Tokyo is a city where walking is integrated into everyday life. While yes, we enjoy the conveniences of a truly excellent public transportation system, we still have to get ourselves to places where we can utilize it. I was pretty amazed to discover my regular lifestyle adds up to 20 miles a week. How far do you think you move in a day? A week? A month? Do you make a conscious effort to move and exercise? To think about the food you’re eating? Are there restrictions in your life that prevent you from doing the things you’d like to do? Do you have goals for yourself you’ve been thinking about working towards?

I’ve found that integrating exercise and good, homemade food has made me feel different, in a positive way. I am generally more upbeat, I have more energy, I enjoy things more, and I feel good about myself. While yes, I do still have my down days and get bummed out or emotional from time to time, it’s a world of difference from where I was a couple of months ago. I’d be interested in comparing my regular week with data from others around the globe. If you’re feeling ambitious, try it out and send me your results!

Oh, and if you ever visit Tokyo…be prepared to walk. A lot.

Okay, so I’m not really packing up as I write this – I’m sitting in the Portland airport waiting to catch my next flight.

I read the post I wrote when I was heading to Japan for the first time last summer. I was anxious, full of excitement, extremely apprehensive, and ultimately, absolutely terrified of what I was going to find and what was going to happen to me when I got off that plane on the other side of the Pacific Ocean.

This time around, things are different. It’s a little bizarre to think that I’m taking less things even though I’m coming for a much longer period of time.  I packed two giant suitcases on my first trip over; this trip I’ve brought just one giant suitcase and a smaller carry-on-ish sized one.  There was no frantic packing.  If anything, I procrastinated.  I sat around on my computer finding more exciting things to do than pack and attempted to will my things to get into my bags (it didn’t work very well, for the record).

I arrived in PDX this morning to find my flight to SFO had been canceled – canceled yesterday, in fact.  Why I wasn’t notified I have no idea, but I headed to the ticket counter and stood there half-asleep while four equally stumped women tried to re-book me.  I just let them deal with it, enjoyed my standing nap, and walked away re-booked, bags re-routed…so now I’m waiting.  And debating whether I want a nap or a coffee.

Riveting action here, folks!

With any luck, sometime in the next few hours my luggage and I will be on a plane to Narita.  Let’s keep our fingers crossed!

This blog post has been brought to you by boredom, sleep deprivation, and PDX Wi-Fi.  I’ll try to be more coherent in the future.

Since being back in the US, I find myself comparing many aspects of life here to life in Tokyo.  Transportation, people, food, shopping; there’s something to be said about the similarities and differences present even in the most mundane of everyday situations.  Yesterday I had the opportunity to compare the small-town bar experience to the big-city nightlife.  I think what I found is that it’s truly the people that make or break things.

The planets had aligned perfectly so that one of my closest childhood friends and I were in town at the same time.  We hadn’t seen each other for somewhere around 4-5 years, despite years of shenanigans as children.  He moved to New York when we graduated high school and attended the American Music and Dramatic Academy there.  Always a very talented person, my Mom has video of him singing Disney songs in talent shows as a little boy and making all the mothers cry.  He’s quite good.

Anyway, we got in touch, established we’d like to catch up, and quickly the question came up: “What do we do here?”  We were at a bit of a loss as to what to do for fun, as well as how to get safely to and from where we were going.  We finally decided to hit up the cheesiest possible place; the local Mexican restaurant.  Our mission was margaritas.  The shining moment of the entire expedition: “I want to drink, but I don’t want to drink and drive…so…Mom, will you drive me?”  And drive us my mother did.  She remarked: “Y’know, it’s just like when you guys were in school!” Yeah, except this time we’re going to a bar instead of a school function.

Times change, what can I say?

Our beacon of hope that was the Mexican restaurant closed at 9PM, so we headed to downtown Redmond in search of a place that would stay open a little later.  We found it – a local sportsbar.  When we walked in and sat at the edge of the bar, it was clear we were out of place – instantly we were giggling and cracking camo and workboot related jokes.

Soon it became apparent that this was a very karaoke-friendly kind of place, so we participated (despite my best efforts not to).  After all the country music the other patrons sang, our Ray Lamontagne and Fiona Apple seemed rather out of place, and people looked at us a little funny once we finished our songs.

We had a great couple hours catching up and comparing our experiences moving from the small town to the big city.  It was hilarious to hear similar anecdotes about returning to small town life; getting strange looks for the clothes we wear, re-learning to operate without public transportation, and trying to figure out what to say to people we used to know when we run into them.

First-world problems, I know.

We called it quits somewhere around midnight, where our next task was to find a way home.  The bartender called a cab for us, and told us it’d be a 20 to 25 minute wait.  We stepped out to the road in front of the bar where we stared at the empty street, both expressing the same sentiments regarding cab access in small towns.  I walked into the middle of the street (which, I should note, is like a highway downtown) and took a couple pictures of the downtowniest area of my city.

Our cab picked us up in the alley behind the bar (for some reason), we headed home to our families’ dwellings, and called it a night.  It was the first time I’ve done anything like this in literally months, and it felt so good to go out and enjoy myself again.  For all the crap I give my hometown for being so gosh-darn-hometowney, it’s experiences like this that point to what you can make out of a situation given the right people and a little bit of imagination.

I’m so glad we had the chance to catch up – this particular friend is one I’ve been close with since elementary school, and probably the only friend I still have from that time.  It amazes me to think of the people that come and go in our lives.  When I take inventory of the people that are active participants in my life and that have stuck with me through relationships and absences and everything in between, I feel so grateful!

Mostly grateful that they haven’t been totally put off by my incessant nerdy movie references and my penchant for burping the names of foreign politicians,  but, y’know.

I guess the point of all this is that the night served as an experience to remind me of how important good folk are.  People you love are hard to find, and I’m so happy to have the people I’ve found.

Continued from Part 1:

These posts are pretty image-heavy, so in the interests of saving your computer a little bit, please click the “Read More” link.

(Kyoto) Here we did mostly the same things I did with Gram back in the summer – we visited the Imperial Palace and the Golden Pavilion during one day, then checked out the famous Fushimi Inari shrine the next.

The old Imperial Palace grounds were specially open at the time of our visit, and tons of people were wandering.  There were vendors outside the palace, and as we cruised around, an old woman came up, grabbed my arm, and said “COME TRY THIS!”  She brought me to a booth where a woman gave me a couple of sample size treats made from rice flour.  She waited for me to try, and once she realized I liked what I was eating, she walked away, satisfied.  Well.  Okay then.  I love moments like those.

We got to Kinkakuji at the end of the day, so we just cruised around the temple pretty quickly.

You may have seen Fushimi Inari in the movies or in photos – it’s a short train ride out of Kyoto, and quite a hike to the top of the hill.  The day was pretty warm, and we flaked out before we made it all the way.

This was our last stop in Kyoto.  Our dinner that night was at a pasta place in Kyoto station.  We were “sentenced” to our meals before getting on the Shinkansen back to Tokyo.

We didn’t get back to my apartment until about midnight that night, so we slept in the next day and took things pretty easy before heading to Senso-ji for some sightseeing and shopping.

We did a little shopping in this area – Mom and Dad wanted to get some gifts for friends and family back home.  I took them next out to my favorite place – Odaiba.  We enjoyed the view and got dinner overlooking the bay.

Our last stop for the day was at a bar in Shibuya.  My parents saw this place on Anthony Bourdain, and when they found out Taro brought me here one night, they wanted me to bring them too.

They got a kick out of the teeny, steep stairs leading up to the second story.  I look like I’m 50 feet tall in this photo, which is very exciting for me.

The next day was our last full day in the city.  We moved out of my apartment and checked into a hotel in Shinjuku.

I had an interview that day, so I left my charges to explore Shinjuku while I was away.  They checked out the observation deck of the Metropolitan government building, and wandered around some gardens.  I was so glad to find that they were able to make it around on their own.

When I returned to the hotel a few hours later, we headed about a block away to visit a few izakayas high up in one of the skyscrapers in Shinjuku.  We enjoyed drinks and finger food while overlooking the city.

The next morning I headed back to my office to say goodbye to my coworkers and return a few things.  I got a bit teary-eyed when my boss walked me back to the station in the rain.  It was a rough day, to be sure.

The weirdest thing about my family being with me was having someone to talk to at virtually all times.  I was so accustomed to not speaking, or to just thinking out loud to myself (when at home), but having other people to verbally communicate with was very, very bizarre.

My parents really, really enjoyed their experience and I’m glad they got a taste of a wide variety of the things Japan has to offer.  It took them a very short amount of time to understand why I love it so much, and they both agreed that Tokyo was amazing.  They’ve had nothing but good things to say since their return, and I think they’d both like to come back someday.  I’m so glad they kept an open mind and were willing to try so many new things.  I know there are a ton of pictures here, but they took close to 700 over the course of a week and a half!  They loved their trip, and I’m glad I got to share life here with them.  I’m sure they’ll be very receptive to returning.  My younger brother is already making plans for the things he wants to do in the future.

I think Tokyo is spoiling me forever.  And so are the people in it.  I don’t know if I can accurately describe just how fantastic my weekend was. I went into it with virtually no plans, but it all worked out for the best. I’m a terrible person for not taking photos of my activities on Saturday – I was more focused on enjoying my evening than taking pictures.  But I do have pictures from Sunday. To recap:

Saturday I attended the Brazilian Festival with a friend. It was a giant awesome-smelling barbeque with live bands, gorgeous women in swimsuits, and tons of foreigners. I really could have followed the steady stream of foreign people to find my way to the event. The weather was great – it’s finally starting to cool down a bit, and these summery-autumn nights are wonderful. Billy Blanks of Tae-bo fame was at the event promoting some doughnut-y food. I don’t want to know how he made the decision to go from fitness guru to junk food enthusiast. I enjoyed meat on a stick, a couple of live bands, and fantastic company. We grabbed coffee-cardio-dinner-coffee-dessert+conversation and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I wish all my Saturday nights were as nice.  I haven’t felt that happy in a long time.

Sunday I lazed around for the better part of the morning. I took a few pictures of the new apartment for anyone who is interested. It’s certainly a change from Akihabara, but I love it here (aside from the occasional yowling catfight at 5:36AM).

I now have an actual kitchen area and a place to sit and eat! Oh, the luxury!

I’ve got a decent amount of storage in this pantry/refrigerator/shoe storing section of the kitchen.

The new kitchen! Now with counter space! And a feeble “spice rack”! The kitchen sink also doubles as my bathroom sink (it’s the only one in the apartment).

I still have a separated bath and toilet, thank god. No more super toilet…but it’s not like I really used all those features anyway.

This is the bedroom area. There’s sliding doors to separate it from the kitchen if necessary. The flooring in this room is tatami mat. I kind of like it, but I hear it can be difficult to take care of.

The bed-desk-tv setup. My tv only gets a handful of channels here, but I don’t watch much television, so it’s not really an issue. The bedroom has a large window and the door to the balcony, so there’s great light during the day. If I look out the window next to my bed, there’s a nice garden area:

I had a hard time sleeping my first night here just because it was so quiet, I think. I had become so accustomed to the noises of Akihabara. In a way I miss the “white noise” of the chuo line. It was more pleasant to hear that than the aforementioned cat battle.

Lastly, here’s my closet. There’s more space than I have stuff. Tons of storage here. I could probably hide several bodies if necessary.

This place is located between two stations on different lines, but it’s a bit of a hike to either one. The area is very residential. An older man out for a jog a few mornings ago actually smiled at me and said “Good morning!” (in Japanese). I felt so fuzzy.

I got out of the house in the afternoon and headed back to Odaiba (where I visited the Gundam). Today I took a different route – the Yurikamome line. It felt like a little amusement park ride. The trip takes you over Tokyo bay and winds through futuristic looking buildings on the way to your destination. I couldn’t believe how beautiful the weather was today! I really enjoyed this part of the trip. Here is a horrible, horrible picture of an otherwise glorious view.

I had originally planned to attend a shindig today at Odaiba, but somehow things didn’t pan out. I either forgot/misunderstood key information or got out to the island too late, but I won’t complain. I ended up with a fantastic afternoon in the sunshine. When I got off the train I just sat and stared out over the bay for probably a good half hour or so. I hadn’t been prepared for such an aesthetically pleasing experience and I was stunned. The view from where I was sitting was nothing short of amazing.

I feel like I want to bring everyone I know here and make them sit and appreciate it.  I actually had to force myself to get up and do something else because I would have been totally content to just drink in that view all afternoon.

Odaiba hosts a lot of quirky, interesting things (like the Gundam). The place where I was sitting was next to a smaller-scale replica of the statue of liberty. I don’t know why it’s here.

I walked down to the waterfront where people were fishing, walking, chatting; it was so charming. Charming isn’t usually a word I would use to describe Tokyo, but today I didn’t even feel like I was in the city – being on Odaiba was like being on another planet (with a bunch of Japanese people).

I didn’t actually have an agenda once I got there. I walked back to where the Gundam was (they’re beginning to take it down, although it’s still standing), filmed a little bit of video, and had a bite to eat.  I watched the footage later and it’s not really enough to make a video with.  Too bad.   The nearby “Aqua City” shopping area was fun to browse – there was a movie theater inside. I got a little too excited when I saw they had Taken (with Liam Neeson) playing in English, but there were only two showings today, and I had missed them both. Maybe another time. Liam Neeson is just so cool.

I thought the afternoon was nice, but when I walked out of the shopping area at night, I was amazed yet again.

Odaiba has quickly become one of my favorite places in this city. Tokyo is beautiful in ways that Oregon never will be. They’re on opposite ends of the nature/city spectrum. I never could have imagined that I would like this city as much as I do. Parts of last night’s conversation discussed changing attitudes toward the city over time. Who knows – maybe next month I’ll be bitter and jaded and hate this place. But for now, I just can’t get enough. Every time I leave my house I make myself take a risk in some small way. It’s really paying off. I worry that I’m being spoiled by being here and playing by my rules – going where I want, spending time with who I want; making my own decisions. The independence is glorious. People sometimes embark on a journey with the intent to “find themselves”. That wasn’t on my list of things to do when I left the states, but I think I’ve stumbled across myself here in Tokyo.

I read somewhere on the internet a phrase that really sums up what I feel right now: “If this is life, I’ll take a season pass.”

Today I actually moved! I said goodbye to Akihabara and hit the road for my new home. Today Tokyo experienced some typhoon action, and I decided there was no way I was going to drag my huge, heavy bags through it. I opted to have my bags picked up by a local shipping service, and they’ll bring them to my new place tomorrow. It was only 2700 yen (somewhere in the neighborhood of $27), and I thought that was a small price to pay for my sanity.

The guy arrived at my apartment to pick up my bags literally three minutes after I walked in the door. I needed time to throw some clothes in another bag and grab my toothbrush, soap, etc. I just grabbed stuff from a suitcase without really looking at what it was. I think I ended up with like 5 shirts and no pants. The slacks I had on were drenched by the time I got to my new place (an umbrella was virtually useless today) so I changed into the one other pair I had – yoga pants, thank god. I just wanted something dry. I promptly crashed.

I’ll head to the supermarket (YES) tomorrow to stock up my new kitchen so I don’t have to eat horrible convenience store pasta anymore. I’m probably waaaay too excited to live in close proximity to two supermarkets. But I really miss cooking. Now the question is what I want to make first! It’s unfortunate that ovens aren’t really a part of the apartment scene here. I would loooove to make some bread or parmesan chicken. I’m getting hungry just thinking about it.

I’ll put up some pictures of the new place soon. I’d like to take them during the day because this new place has big windows and the light is very nice. I’m crossing my fingers I won’t get caught in another monsoon tomorrow. I worked up a sweat carrying my laptop and two shopping bags stuffed with toiletries and a few other miscellaneous items. I was feeeeeeelin’ the burn but I just kept thinking about how good it felt to be in the rain again. I didn’t have an umbrella. It was just a drizzle by the time I arrived at my station and it was actually really pleasant and refreshing. Ahh.

Anyway: pictures of the new digs soon. I posted a new video up on YouTube to share a little bit about what I do for anyone who is interested. There’s an office video in the works too, but it’s slow going. I’ll be sure to make the next update soon!

I’ve started my internship here in Tokyo, and I’m having a great time. For those of you who don’t know, I am working with the Run for the Cure Foundation to help plan and execute some events to raise money and awareness for Breast Cancer research. My office is a very international group. I work in an office with two other people – both speak English and Japanese, and my boss also speaks Spanish. Upstairs (where I don’t go much) are people from France, Ireland, Italy, Taiwan…and everyone speaks English. But everyone is familiar with Japanese culture, and they’ve all been warm and welcoming. We celebrated my boss’s birthday on Friday night with snacks, cake, and beer.

Most people think of interns as the person in the company responsible for doing all the stupid stuff – getting people coffee, standing around making copies all day, etc. To some extent, I take care of general office duties here and there, but right away I was put in charge of a number of things related to the events we’re doing. The two events I’m helping with are the Run for the Cure/Walk for Life, and the PiNK ball (a big party/gala/fundraiser dinner). As of now, I’m in charge of:

• Keeping track of runners that register online for the run
• Keeping track of donations that come to the office
• Maintaining a list of volunteers for the run
• Updating the website as needed in English and in Japanese (my translations are checked by our wonderful office manager)
• Keeping tabs on the “group registration” forms for the run (companies will sometimes register as a group to run)
• Assisting with the planning of the ball
• Doing research as needed – this has been anything from event entertainment to finding information about breast self exams to what’s the fastest way to get to a meeting elsewhere in Tokyo.
• Attending sponsor meetings with my boss – I don’t do any talking at these meetings. They are sometimes conducted in English, sometimes Japanese. I listen and take notes, and if my boss thinks of anything while we’re out and about, I write it down to remind him later or I do research on that.
• I also have been reorganizing/maintaining the inventory in our office. I’ve been doing a lot of counting lately.

That about sums up the majority of my big responsibilities – little things come up from day to day. I’ve been really enjoying myself at work so far. Like I said, I work with some really great people that are all working together for a good cause. My day goes by very fast and I often have to be reminded that it’s time for lunch or time to head home. I’m having a great time so far and feel like I might actually have a chance to do something good for someone out there in the world, even if they don’t know it.

I have one more small recap post to make from my trip with Gram – it feels like it was ages ago now! I’ve been here three weeks but the time has just been flying by. This is a photo of the place we went to check out in Osaka. This is Osaka-jo (or, Osaka castle) and it was a few minute’s walk from our hotel. It was a very hot day when we went to check it out, so we enjoyed the park area surrounding the castle too.

We were disappointed to find that the castle had been turned into a museum on the inside. There were old sets of armor, intricate wall paintings depicting battles, and historical videos discussing the history of the place. Unfortunately, this was yet another destination where pictures were strictly forbidden. Oh well. We didn’t spend much time here because it was pretty crowded and not really what we were expecting.

After checking out of our hotel, we headed back to the station and hopped on the shinkansen back to Tokyo – it was about a three hour trip. We came back to my apartment, where I did some grocery shopping to stock up on a few things. We got Gram a hotel room and I sent her off in a taxi. Then I got an email a little while later telling me she had some of my things. My suitcase wasn’t quite big enough for all the stuff I wanted while we were traveling, so I had put my toiletries in her bag. I kind of needed them. So I hopped a couple of trains and was at her hotel within about 15 minutes. I was amazed at how easy it was! I looked up what station I needed to go to, and bam, I was there. Much cheaper than a taxi, too. Probably a lot faster.

I said my final goodbyes to her at the hotel and headed back home. The next day it was off to work! And that’s what I’ve been doing ever since (I get to venture out on the weekends, though). I work in Shibuya. Everyone tells me that there’s a very famous scene in the movie Lost in Translation that was filmed in Shibuya, but I can’t remember it. Anyway, I go to Shibuya station every single day (not a big fan of that station, to be honest) and have about a 15 minute walk to work. It’s not so bad.

At night when I head back to the station (often with my boss or coworkers) the streets are lit up with neon lights and people shopping and all kinds of weird/crazy/interesting stuff that you don’t really see during the day. I have started to put together a little bit of footage of what Tokyo is like at night, but I want to get several different areas in the video – Shibuya and Akihabara are easiest for me, since I live there. They’re also some of the more famous areas of Tokyo. Watch for that video soon!

In the last two weeks I’ve gone out here and there. You may have seen my video on YouTube where I visit the Don Quixote store in Akihabara. That was an adventure in itself, despite it only being a few minutes’ walk away. I’ve had my first (and second!) bowl of real ramen. And man, was it good. There’s a place just downstairs at my apartment and this weekend I chatted with the chef a bit. It was more him asking me questions than anything. His last one was to ask if I had a boyfriend in America. I said I did, and that I missed him very much. He replied with: “yeah, it must be lonely.” I agreed. He didn’t have much to say after that. Hehe. All else aside, he makes a mean bowl of ramen. I had half finished this one before I thought to take a photo. It doesn’t look so good here, but trust me, it’s awesome.

My first week at work brought some interesting things to do. We reserve the Imperial Palace grounds as our place to host the run each year, and you can only reserve it three months in advance. My first weekend, we had volunteers camping out at the imperial office for an imperial campout during the imperial rain. I took a shift with a Japanese volunteer on Sunday afternoon for three hours. She was very patient with my Japanese and very friendly. We chatted about American and Japanese schooling. I learned that I have a Japanese-English and English-Japanese dictionary on my cell phone, which was extremely helpful when I didn’t know the right words. If nothing else that day, it was a fairly nice park to look out over.

As I mentioned before, I have been doing inventory of all the stuff we have. I take everything out of a box, count it, write it down, put it all back in the box, and then stick a label on the side of the box listing everything inside and how much we have of it. I don’t mind doing this – it’s something to do. I like to stay busy. Here’s the contents of one box that I counted: tape.

I also ended up counting hundreds of these one day. There was a whole box full of balloons and I thought: eh, why not. I’ll count them if for no reason than I like to be precise. So count them I did. But I had to take a picture because these color balloons reminded me of liver. Plus, they smelled funny. And not the way that balloons in America smell funny.

More recently, though, I’ve been spending time updating stuff on the computer or going to meetings with my boss. On the weekends, however, I’m free to do as I want! My first weekend I didn’t do much – I had some work from home to finish up on and I took a day just to relax and sit around, which I think was much needed.

This weekend, however, was a very different story. I walked up the street to the duty free shop to get a backpack because I anticipate going on a lot of little day trips, and my purse and briefcase just weren’t going to cut it. I got this for about $11. I couldn’t believe how cheap it was.

On Saturday, I decided to go to the man made island of Odaiba to see the full scale Gundam exhibit. A Gundam is from a popular Japanese cartoon – it’s a giant robot that a person can get inside and they fight epic battles against each other. This Gundam moves around a little bit – its head moves and it lights up and it shoots stuff from out its back. Pretty nifty. It was huge.

Seeing it made me think: “Only in Japan.” It’s so intricate! Everything down to the feet is carefully constructed and they do a short show where it moves its head and all that. I totally missed it, though. This Gundam is part of a promotion for the 2016 Olympics. Tokyo is a candidate city for the games that year, and this is one of the ways in which the city is trying to rally some support. There’s even a little logo on the shoulder of this behemoth.

I took a picture with the Gundam in the background…it looks like it has set its laser eyes on this poor gaijin. I’d better watch out. It might know where I sleep.

You can go up and stand beneath the Gundam and touch its feet, but the line was super long and I wasn’t that motivated to check it out. I mean, it’s a giant semi-functioning robot. What more do you want? It’s cool from a distance, too.

It is my understanding that the Gundam is only going to be around for a limited time. Rumor has it that it will be dismantled at the beginning of September. Too bad. This is a super cool addition to Tokyo. But the Japanese sure don’t mess around with their “limited time only” stuff. When they say that, they mean it. Not like in the US, where something comes around each season. They have it once, and then it’s gone. Forever. Too bad!

As I mentioned, Odaiba is a man-made island in Tokyo bay. From here, you get an interesting view of mainland Tokyo. You can really see how smoggy it is here. The “sky” is perpetually gray. I actually remember looking out my window this morning and seeing bright blue off in the distance and feeling excited. I miss seeing the sky and the stars every day and night at home.

The buildings on Odaiba are also very cool. Many of them are very futuristic looking, some are just plain odd. I didn’t get to see them all because I wanted to get out early. There were a ton of people visiting that day to see the Gundam and I was burned out pretty fast. Here are a few neat looking buildings. There’s also a ferris wheel and an upside down pyramid on the island.

I’ve just finished putting up the video on YouTube about my trip to Odaiba, if you’re interested in seeing all this in motion.

Sunday (today, for me) was spent in Harajuku. I thought I’d take this picture and share it with everyone, though. I was making my breakfast and got a kick out of the bread I purchased. I spent about $1.35 on this loaf of six slices with no heels. It’s very thick and very white. I have yet to see any wheat bread here (except at Subway).

I had a bite to eat, then I went and got my Suica card, at last! Suica is a prepaid card that you use on the transportation systems here in Tokyo. It took me maybe 30 seconds to get it. I walked to a nearby station, went up to a machine that dispensed Suica cards, pushed the button saying “get a suica card”, put in 2000 yen (about $20), and voila, I had one. There’s a 500 yen deposit you have to pay (you have to be responsible with this thing – you’re only allowed one), and then 1500 yen was loaded onto the card. You use this card by passing it over the turnstile on your way in and out of the stations, and the required amount is automatically deducted from your card each time. The turnstile displays how much is left, so you know when to recharge it (at the machines, very easy). You can just leave your card in your wallet and touch it to the turnstile – it’s very fast, very easy, and much less hassle than figuring out how much to pay and trying to find the change in your wallet. I can’t believe I didn’t get it sooner!

About a half hour train ride on the Yamanote line (this is the train that makes a big loop around the center of Tokyo) and I arrived at Harajuku station. This place is known for trendy young people fashion and people in crazy costumes. These people, called cosplayers (short for costume play) hang out on a bridge near the station. Unfortunately, there were no cosplayers worth of picture today. There was an older balding guy wearing a tutu and he had a pink bow on his head, but that was just plain sad. I’ll have to go back another time to try and catch some neater costumes.

A couple blocks down the street is the entrance to Takeshita dori, the street where all the trendy clothing shops are located. I took this picture right at the entrance before taking a deep breath and diving into the bowels of trendy Tokyo.

I moved along at a slow walking pace just looking around at everything. It was hot and people were everywhere. There were quite a few tourists visiting too. I couldn’t imagine trying to keep a tour group together in this area, though. It was insane. Nobody pushed or shoved or anything – mostly people calmly made their way around, but there were just so many bodies and it was such a hot day that the need to just get out of the madness for a minute was pretty important. I wandered a little ways from the main street and found some silly stores:

It started to rain shortly after I arrived, which I was thankful for. I had my umbrella, but most people did not. They took shelter in the stores while I walked down the emptied streets and enjoyed some fresh air. There are some neat little boutiques all along this street and I visited several. The staff were accommodating to me, and everyone I encountered spoke the required English phrases: “Do you want to try it on?” “Did you like it?” “Thank you!” I could speak to them and understand them in Japanese just fine, but at least they were nice enough to try to speak to me in my own language. I made a couple purchases here for much cheaper than I expected. I got a long tunicy-capey shirt that is kind of in the Japanese fashion and some flats that almost look like ballet slippers for about $45 total. I expected this place to be a lot more pricey, but was pleasantly surprised.

I wandered around here for a while but when the rain let up the people came out. They gather in swarms at the stoplights waiting for the light to change to walk across.

I started to make my way out and checked out little stores here and there as I exited the area. I walked to the neighboring shopping district of Omotesando. There’s a GAP store here. I walked in just to see if it was any different than American GAP stores – it was. While the atmosphere was much the same and the clothing was similar, the staffing was different – they bowed and said “welcome!” when I walked in, but other than that, nothing. No “is there anything I can help you find?” “Can I get a dressing room started for you?” I think the deal here is that there’s just so many people that they can’t start a dressing room for you. Their dressing rooms are just full all the time, so you have to get everything you want, and then go and get your dressing room. On my way out, I swear I ran into the lead singer of My Chemical Romance. The band played at a huge summer festival in Tokyo yesterday, and as I was leaving this guy comes in who looks just like him wearing all kinds of black leathery clothing with tons of unnecessary zippers. He was definitely foreign and looked WAY too warm in all that clothing. I just happened to glance up and make eye contact and after a second I think my eyes got big when I realized who he might be because he looked away as he waved at the woman who said “welcome!” as he entered. I can’t be sure if it was him or not. It’s a mystery! Maybe he was coming in to get a change of wardrobe for the hot weather. Oh well, even if it wasn’t him, at least it was somewhat exciting to think I ran into a famous person.

I did some more shopping and left Omotesando with a new sundress and two new shirts for work in the hot weather. I am very happy to have a few additional things to wear because I’m finding that I need to wash things a lot more often since I get hot and sticky just about every day. So I’m trying to space out the things I wear so I don’t have to wash them each every week. I think these new things will help – thankfully everything was surprisingly affordable.

Tomorrow I head back to work! I don’t know if I’m supposed to talk about who we have meetings with…but I’m excited about tomorrow’s meeting: MTV! Wee! I’m sure it won’t be anything beyond meeting a businessman or businesswoman in an office, but the thought of going to a global entity like that is pretty neat.

I’ve got another video on the way from my trip to Harajuku, so keep your eyes peeled on YouTube for that! My screen name is arishaintokyo, so if you search for that, you’ll find me. Click on “ArishaInTokyo” in blue just under the video descriptions to get my channel page. That’s where all my videos are listed. You can make a YouTube account and subscribe to me, too, so you don’t miss any videos (if you find them particularly exciting).

I hope you enjoyed these pictures – I’ll write again soon!

I’ve been MIA for the last couple of days! Internet connection from our hotel/ryokan in Kyoto was poor, as expected. We spent one day in Osaka and most of that was spent either sleeping or sweating outside, so now I’m reporting in from my apartment in hotel where I am now flying solo. I’d like to get everyone caught up on all of our activities, but it’s late so I will recap one day from where I last left off.

Gram found out about a place in Nagoya called “Ran no Yakata” and mentioned that it was an orchid garden. We didn’t have anything else planned for the day, so we went to check it out. It was very, very beautiful and hard to believe it was right in the middle of the city! A large atrium and outdoor gardens housed hundreds (maybe thousands) of flowers with orchids as the focus.

Outside this entrance/atrium area were these large water boxes with water-happy plants living inside. Pretty neat!

There was a small photo opp carriage where we took a picture inside.

After our visit to the gardens (I have video of that I’ll put up later) we headed back to the station to catch the Shinkansen to Kyoto. Here’s what my Shinkansen ticket looks like.

The big bold characters at the top say Nagoya -> Kyoto. Under that is the date we left and the time, followed by the time when we arrived in Kyoto. The next line is the name of the train we took and the train’s number. Then the car and seat number. In this case, I was car number 11, row 2, seat D (and a no-smoking car). The next line shows how much this ticket cost (about $57). These tickets are checked when you get on the train. Riding the Shinkansen is very pleasant. It moves quickly and quietly, and there’s a TON of legroom. A woman pushes a cart with treats up and down the train as you travel and you can bring your own things on too. Today a businessman was in the seat next to me and he brought on a huge can of beer and some fruit. I think I might do that next time! It would make the trip even better.

Gram went to buy something refreshing and decided to try this:

I don’t know what a Pocari is or why one would want to drink its sweat, but if you ever get the chance, don’t. The have commercials that say it replenishes nutrients and refreshes you but it really does taste sweat-like. Or at least, that’s what I would imagine sweat would taste like if I ever drank it. And it’s weirdly salty. We got rid of it promptly after purchasing it.

Upon arriving in Kyoto, we took a taxi to our hotel/ryokan. Surprisingly, when we checked in we were told to leave our luggage at the front desk, remove our shoes and exchange them for sandals. Then we were lead into a back bar area where we were served a cool treat after coming in from such a hot day.

The front desk staff guy brought us a cold towel for each of us followed by a cup of green tea and the jello-like substance in the background. It was delicious. I asked him what it was, and he said it was made from “uzu”. I don’t know what the English word for it is. He described it as like an orange, except yellow. It was extremely good and even Gram tried it and liked it and ate the whole thing. We were then taken up to our traditional style room.

This is the living room area of our hotel room. The rooms are separated by sliding paper doors. I took a quick video of the hotel room before we left so you can all see the whole thing soon. This room doubled as our bedroom. While we went out for dinner, the hotel staff came in and put our futons down. The futons are kept in a closet in this room.

Honestly, I got the best two nights of sleep in Kyoto on these futons. I don’t know if it was the futons or what but I slept GREAT and wasn’t too hot or too cold or anything. The futon cover was very soft and comfortable.

This was our home base for two days for our adventures in Kyoto, which I will write about next time. It has become very late in Tokyo and tomorrow is my first day of work! I am very excited to begin and am looking forward to getting settled in to a new life here.

I will write again tomorrow after work!

Also, I posted my first YouTube video of our first day in Tokyo. This is the video footage from our trip to Meiji Jingu, The Imperial Gardens, and Senso-Ji Temple. I’ve never done video before and never edited video so I know it isn’t super awesome, but just doing that video helped me learn a lot so I look forward to improving the next videos I make while I am here. If you type “arishaintokyo” in the search box at YouTube, you will find any and all videos I have posted. I hope you enjoy!

Wow, okay, so the first day in Tokyo is winding down. What a day. I’ll recap what happened last night in the form of pictures for now – I took lots of video of the journey into the city as well as what we did today, but I need to condense it all into one movie.

Recapping from yesterday’s flights: The flights were great. I don’t think I could have asked for a more pleasant 10 hour flight. I watched two movies, played some video games, ate some food, did crosswords…and whoosh, the trip was over. They brought hot towels before every meal to clean our hands, and the staff was very, very gracious. There were special remote control/phones/video game controllers that worked with our TV screens. Gram was having trouble hearing the music she had chosen to hear and the staff were trying to help her – there were two or three of them gathered around her seat pushing buttons and trying to figure out why no sound was coming through her headphones. Finally one of them pulled on the cord and realized it wasn’t plugged in. I cracked up and so did they once they realized she wouldn’t be offended. It was a great experience. The food was good. 2 meals were served:

Last night:

We arrived in Tokyo on the “Airport Limousine”, which is really just another word for Shuttle Bus, despite the luxurious sounding name. It dropped us off right at the hotel, where we checked in and our bags were brought up to our room – free (no tipping here) – right away. After bringing our bags in, the staffer walked over to the window with a grin on his face, threw open the curtains and said “YOU CAN SEE TOKYO TOWER!” Yes, sir, we can. Very well, in fact.

I took that picture from within our hotel room. It’s amazing at night. Not quite as amazing in the day, but still pretty cool. It’s also an excellent point of reference in the event we get lost and need a taxi. Everyone knows where Tokyo tower is.

Looking off in the distance at the rest of the city at night is pretty neat too. There are tall buildings as far as the eye can see.

Today we took a Tokyo Morning Tour to Meiji Jingu (a Shinto Shrine), The Imperial East Gardens, Senso-ji temple (a Buddhist temple), and the Ginza shopping area. We quickly and successfully navigated vending machines and I got my first change. This quickly made me realize I would need a coin purse in the very near future. These are 100 and 10 yen pieces.

The heat here is crazy. Today was probably mid 80′s for most of the day, but the humidity is insane. We were sweating just walking around. I saw people dabbing themselves with handkerchiefs to stay cool and clean. I added that to my list of things to get.

Meiji Jingu is a very beautiful, quiet shrine right in the middle of Tokyo. Our tour guide was absolutely fantastic and had a ton of information to share with us about all of the places we visited today. People come to Meiji Jingu to wish/pray for things. Many come for love, prosperity, safe travels, etc. But she said the number one thing people come to wish for is to pass the entrance exams for college! People write their wish on a small wooden plaque and hang it in the shrine so their wish will come true.

On the path into the shrine there are a number of things to see. These are huge sake barrels (no sake inside).

Here I am looking very excited in front of them.

As you enter the shrine, you encounter three gates. They are there to ward off evil, and to purify those who enter. This is the second of the three gates – it acts as a gate “between worlds”. As you step through the gate, you step through this world and into the sacred world. Another gate is just in front of the shrine.

Just before entering Meiji Jingu, a purification rite is practiced. Visitors wash their hands and their mouth before entering the shrine. The reasoning behind this is to clean oneself of evil. We use our hands to do evil and our mouths to speak evil, so by rinsing these parts, we purify ourselves before entering the shrine. I have a short video a fellow Gaijin (foreigner) on the tour took of Gram and I participating in this ritual. If nothing else, it was refreshing to put some cool water on my hands!

Within the shrine is a large open area. This is the entrance to the heart of the shrine within the main courtyard.

We visited the main part of the shrine where pictures are not allowed because the site is sacred. It’s a large pebbly courtyard. Doors are on the opposite side of where visitors pray. Behind the doors is the spirit of Emperor Meiji. Supposedly there are two chairs behind the doors – one for the Emperor, and one for his wife. It was certainly interesting. Even the method of prayer was different. You toss some money (any amount) into a box in front of the shrine, clap your hands loudly together, make your wish, and bow. The hand clapping is to draw attention from God. Our tour guide, Mina, explained that for big ceremonies they use a very big drum (to focus God’s attention!) I didn’t make a wish, but enjoyed watching the other guests.

In the main courtyard of the shrine other areas are accessible, but we did not visit them. In this picture behind me is the gates you walk through to enter the shrine from the outside. The architecture was very beautiful.

Just before hopping back on the tour bus, I grabbed my first “Japanese” drink. I was looking for some water and saw this one said sparkling, with a refreshing taste. I expected Perrier. I guess this was the Japanese version. It was pretty tasty, but very soda-like. I was just grateful it wasn’t totally disgusting!

Next up: The East Imperial Gardens. We visited the grounds where the Emperor and Empress currently live, although their residence is very well hidden from the eye of the public. The outer gardens near their home, however, are open and very beautiful. We crossed a bridge to enter. These grounds used to be a kind of fort – a moat and wooden bridges helped to protect the area in the event of an attack. If armies tried to swarm the place, the bridges could be cut loose, hindering any attackers.

The next building we saw was this one. It served as a checkpoint for any visitors to the palace. If anyone wanted to get to the palace, they would have to pass through here and speak to some guards first.

We learned a little bit about the interesting walls present throughout the gardens. These walls are 400 years old and have survived earthquakes. Our tour guide explained that by leaving some space between each of the rocks in the wall, they had space to move during the earthquakes and that somehow makes them stable. Well, they must have done something right if it’s all still standing 400 years after it was put together. It’s very neat to look at, too.

We then entered the main part of the garden. It was very beautiful, and very different from the typical Western style garden. Mina explained that there were three elements that every proper Japanese garden has: a stone lantern/pot, a bridge, and a waterfall. Western gardens tend to emphasize color – this was the exact opposite. You kind of got the feeling that everything was very precise and in their place for a reason.

Here’s some proof we were there:

On the way out we took a quick picture in front of this statue. It has the body of a fish and the head of a tiger. I immediately dubbed it the tiger prawn and felt hungry.

Next up was Senso-ji temple. This is a Buddhist temple. Here’s the entrance gate from within. There were people everywhere. Today was a national holiday and it seemed people were out taking advantage of their long weekend.

Inside is this incense burner. The idea with this is to use the smoke to help you out in some way. For example, if you wave the smoke near your pockets, you will attract money. I don’t know what other parts are for, but these people were wafting it toward their faces.

In the main hall it was okay to take pictures. The story behind this temple is that two fishermen found a tiny statue in the river one day, and it was the Buddhist Goddess Kannon, the Goddess of Mercy. Hidden behind a curtain in the main shrine (supposedly) is the tiny statue. People do pretty much the same thing here as they do at Meiji – throw some money and make some wishes.

You can also get a fortune here. Toss 100 yen into the donation box (or don’t), and shake a big canister full of numbered sticks. Draw a stick out, check the number, and then draw a fortune from a box matching that number (100 boxes are available). I tossed in 100 yen, and the fortune I got was a good one. Very appropriate.

My tour guide got a pretty big kick out of that one. It was a good fortune overall – the rest of it mentioned ambition and getting known in other countries. Maybe there’s something to this whole fortune thing! This temple had some beautiful artwork on the ceiling. The story goes that a dragon appeared when the small statue was found, and angels presented themselves too. That’s what we see pictured here.

We then had some free time to go shopping at the nearby shopping arcade.

I purchased a much needed coin purse and handkerchief. The shop keeper wrapped it up carefully in paper. That part has irked me every time so far. I just want to toss it in my bag and don’t need the extra paper, but it’s just what they do. I bought something small at a a convenience store and it was placed in a paper bag…but then specially folded and taped shut. Come on. It just seems like a waste to me. I wonder if they’d think I was the devil if I told them I didn’t need all the extra bagging. Guess I’ll have to try it to see.

Our last stop was Ginza, the shopping district. We got our directions back to our hotel, and wandered around for a little while. Again, there were people everywhere. When we went into department stores (Macy’s esque) the workers at each department yelled “IRRASHAIMASE” (welcome) just to get us to come over and see perfumes or bags or something. I mean, come on. Is that really necessary? I’m already in the store. Maybe I’ll get there, maybe I won’t. We looked for some new sunglasses, but it seems like there is only one style in Tokyo, and it’s not really what I’m looking for. I could have just been in the wrong store.

After Ginza, we took our first trip on the subway. We purchased a ticket for the wrong line and got it fixed by the kind staff member at the gate. Howver, when we arrived at our stop we ran into a little trouble. You have to run your ticket through the turnstile both when you enter the train and when you exit it. The fixed ticket we got at the departure station was different and would not fit into anything we looked at so that we could adjust our fare and be on our way. The staff must have seen us looking confused because a nearby intercom turned on after a few minutes of us looking around. It was really hard to hear the guy but eventually he just came running out to help us and let us go through the turnstile without any kind of payment or fee adjustment or anything. I’m pretty sure we executed the Gaijin Smash today, even if totally on accident.

The Gaijin Smash is from gaijinsmash.com, and is used to describe a “move” that only foreigners can execute in Japan. Saving face in Japanese society and being polite is of high importance. In the interests of accommodating others, saving face, making the best out of the situation, etc…the Japanese may make exceptions for us “stupid” foreigners. I’m positive we should have paid an adjusted fare when we arrived at the station today, but the attendant smiled and told us it was fine despite me asking (in Japanese). He assured me it was fine and we could go. Well, fine. Gaijin Smash!

We came back to the hotel and packed up the stuff I would take back to the hotel. We took a taxi with my huge bags to the apartment building in Akihabara. There are 4 apartments on my floor. It’s pretty nice and the area is pretty exciting! I took a short video of the place on my regular digital camera. I have to upload it onto YouTube and it will take a little while. The internet at the hotel is not free, so I have to try to expedite the process as much as possible, so there may be a slight delay with video footage.

Looking over this makes me realize just how much we did today. It’s 10:34 PM here and I can barely keep my eyes open. I thought I was on Japan time, but I guess not. I’m off to bed for a full day tour tomorrow. I hope you enjoy all the pictures. I will post again soon!

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