Asakusa

Asakusa
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

This is the actual temple. It is really big and very nice. The smoke near the bottom of the picture is where you put smoke on yourself, it is for good health, hmmmm smoke will make me healthy huh? For some reason that doesn't sound right. . .
Anyway, in the temple it self I tossed in my 10 yen and said a quick prayer for the family and all my friends.

Asakusa

Asakusa
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

After a couple of hours in Akihabara. We headed off to another gaijin hotspot called Asakusa. They had a very nice temple there that was FULL of gainjin. . .imagine that. It was actually are really nice temple and it was huge. There was a lot of people and a long row of shops before getting to the the temple. A lot of people.

Akihabara

Akihabara
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

The main street in Akihabara!

dennys

dennys
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

Yeah can I get the Grand Slam breakfast with hash browns? I did not go to eat there although, nachos sound good! Hmmmm. . .I wonder if they had nachos? Damn! I should have checked! See even if you don't like sushi there is always Dennys!

freaky

freaky
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

OK I was going to buy this but I wasn't sure if I was going to need an extra ticket for the Shinkansen back to Shizuoka. Oh, that and it cost $3500!?! I don't even know what the hell it is?
But it looked freaky and well how could I NOT take a picture of it. . . IT'S SOOOO. . . cute? BTW this was still in Akihabara.

Thin

Thin
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

More thin buildings! These were just so fun to look at! And as you can see a lot of people on the streets!

Smoke' em if ya go'em

Smoke' em if ya go'em
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

This place was F*CKING great! It was just 40 people inside smoking! The smoke was sooo thick I had a hard time breathing! Just people smoking and buying more cigarettes! But it was like you don't need anymore in here, just take a deep breath! And you will have your smoke fix for the day!

Big intersection Akihabara

Big intersection Akihabara
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

This was one of the large intersections in Akihabara. Sorry the picture is not all that great I was using my cell phone!

thin building Akihabara

thin building Akihabara
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

There were a BUNCH of these thin buildings in Akihabara. This building was like 9 feet wide and like 40 feet deep and 6 stories tall. They looked sooo weird.

Akihabara

Akihabara
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

The first place we went to in Tokyo was a city called Akihabara, also known as Electric city. If you like electronics, anime, manga, or porn this is the place for you! There were a lot of other gaijins here and they were are shopping for deals on por. . .I MEAN electronics!

Bullet trains

Bullet trains
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

Last Thursday my sister-in-law and myself took a day trip to Tokyo. We rode the Shinkansen (bullet train) to get there. It was about 1 hour and 30 min trip to get to there from Shizuoka. This is a picture from the Shinkansen tracks at Shizuoka station.

What's my name again?

I was going to post about me trip on Thursday to Tokyo but today at work was just too funny not to share. So Tokyo will have to wait until later. . .

I was trained to teach little kids about two weeks ago. And since then I have had 4 classes with kids. "My kids" are ages 4 to 6 years old and they are cute beyond words! So when I start class I the kids knock on the door before they come in. I say "Hi my name is Drew!" and then they say "Hi my name is so and so!" But they are so nervous everytime that they forget their names! So most of the time they just say my name instead of theirs! So it goes a little something like this:

ME: Hi! I'm Drew! Who are you?
KID: . . . Hi?
ME: What is your name? MY name is Drew!
KID: Hi. . . My . . name is. . . Blue? (Little Japanese kids CAN NOT pronounce Drew so it comes out Blue)
ME: No, no, MY name is DREW. WHAT IS YOUR NAME??
KID:. . . Blue?
ME: Ok. Close enough. Welcome to class.

So after class today my kids were in a really good mood and stopped me in the hallway.

KIDS: Sensei ("teacher" in Japanese) Blue! Sensei Blue!
ME: Huh? Me?
KIDS: Sensei Blue stop! (They had surrounded me at this point)
ME: What this it?
KIDS: Sensei Blue! Sensei Blue! (In unison and very loud!)
ME: No I have to go eat lunch! (In English)
KIDS: Nani? ("What" in Japanese)
KIDS MOM: He has to go eat lunch! (In Japanese)

So I get past the kids only to have them follow me out the door (with a lot of watching) for lunch with them yelling at the top of their lungs "BYE SENSEI BLUE BYE!!!!" over and over again.

So, it is official, I am now know as "Sensei Blue". shizzle

It's not the size of your antenna it's how you use it

Friday my only day off 049
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

There was just something phallic about this antenna. . . huh huh yeah he said big! Huh huh yeah! Thanks Bevis! sorry sometimes I revert back to a 12 year old with my humor!

Famicom aka nintendo!

Famicom aka nintendo!
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

Who didn't love Nintendo? In Japan it was called Famicom (short for Family computer)! In Japan it was a top loading console, unlike in the US.

a huge building next to the moat

a huge building next to the moat
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

Hmmmm this one should be self explanatory. Or is it? Can you REALLY see the hidden meaning in the picture? You can't can you? HA! I knew it, and you will never know BWAHAHAHAHA. . . no wait it's just a building, I was thinking of another picture

a moat

a moat
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

Yes this is a moat. This is the remains of a castle that used to be in the center of downtown. It is weird to say the least, you have the large modern city and a freakin' moat in the center of town! HA! I love it.

downtown Shizuoka

downtown Shizuoka
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

A large intersection about 3 blocks away from my work!

roadside shrine

roadside shrine
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

This is near the bullet train tracks. I drive by it everyday on my way to the train station. I thought it looked pretty cool.

Bullet train tracks 2

Bullet train tracks 2
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

More of the same. . .train tracks YEAH!

Bullet train tracks

Bullet train tracks
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

I'm goin' off the rails on the bullet train! Sing it Ozzy! Uh. . . yeah. Sorry its late. . . and, well, I'm not funny or creative when it gets late. Anyway, these are bullet train tracks.

Japaneses graffiti

Japaneses graffiti
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

This was in an underpass I was walking in. I have no idea what it says. . . just thought it looked cool. I wonder if I was set trippin' on some Japanese homeboys turf?

The expressway

The expressway 2
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

I can't call it a freeway because it isn't. Notice that there are NO ON RAMPS! There is only one way to get on it and you have to pay! BTW it's called the TOMEI expressway TO stands for Tokyo and the MEI stands for Nagoya. It runs to both major cities. And it is NOT CHEAP!

Rice ready for harvest

Rice ready for harvest
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

Just looking at this field makes me hungry. Many fields have already been harvested. This is one of the few that hasn't been. This one is very close to my house.

The fall rice harvest and Japanese "Fashion"

October is upon us and that means harvest time. The rice patties are full of rice that is ready to be harvested. The weather here has FINALLY gotten cooler and fall is in the air. It is also that time of year in Japan when fashion of Japanese women changes for the new season. "What does that mean?" you might ask. Well, I'm gonna tell you. . . it means, boots.
Cowboy boots, leather boots, knee high boots, black boots, red boots, WHITE (yes white)boots, MOON boots, boots with 4 inch heels, platform black leather knee high boots. Every kind of boot that you can think of I have seen in the last week or so. It's like its standard issue for all women in Japan ages 18 to 84 to get f*cking boots!
Now keep in mind I like MOST boots, (not all) they look very nice on women. But A LOT AND I MEAN A LOT of Japanese women did not get the "fashion memo" that it is a fashion fopa to wear boots with YOUR PANTS TUCKED INTO THE BOOTS!!!!!!!!!!!
The first time that I saw it I was like WTF?!?! Are you shitting me!?!?! I thought OK this woman just doesn't know about that "rule", right? WRONG. That same day I see like 50 other women with their FREAKING pants tucked into their boots! Now I not saying that I know everything about fashion, because I don't, BUT I DO KNOW YOU DON'T TUCK YOUR PANTS INTO YOUR BOOTS!!!!!!!

And yes I will be posting pictures of this shit ASAP!

My god. And one more thing. . . if you wear high heel boots or high heels in general here in Japan, learn how to walk in smaller heels before you move up to the 5inch stiletto spike heels. "But why?" Japanese women might ask. Well, because if you don't you end up looking about, as graceful as, a drunk hooker trying to walk in them. And I am sure that some people will say, "But it's hard walking in high heels!" Yeah, I'm sure that it is but, YOU DON'T HAVE TO WEAR THEM!!!!!! Or at least work your way up to, the 5inch stiletto platform heel, with some pumps or something.

God, I needed to get that out of my system. I have been holding back my urge to run up to all the women and try and pull their pants out of their boots for like the last week and a half. shizzle.

Top of the world, Ma!! Top of the world!

Friday my only day off 051
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

OK maybe not the "top" of the world but it was pretty high. I don't know how that "baka gaijin" (stupid foreigner) got into the picture but, he was wearing a pretty cool T-shirt so I told him that it was "cool" to kick it in the picture!

Cheer up Charlie. . .

Friday my only day off 021
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

Sorry, that was lame I know. But I had to take a picture of a "glass elevator" for all of us that saw the Willie Wonka movie(the old one with Gene Wilder)!
I mean how many glass elevators have YOU seen!?!
Ya know having a glass elevator in a country that HAS A LOT of earthquakes doesn't really seem like a good idea. . .D'OH!!!

Shimizu City

Friday my only day off 040
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

From the top. My brother-in-law and sister-in-law drove me to the top of this really high mountain. I was able to see Shimizu city and Shizuoka city. "Shimizu" means "clear water" and "Shizuoka" means "quiet hills" The large dark spot on the upper left hand side is not a cloud, it's Mount Fuji.

OK everyone can read this so I won't translate

Friday my only day off 014
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

Just kidding. All it says is that, this train is a local train (it stops at all cities), its final stop is in a city called Fuji. And no I am not that smart, it says it in English right after that on the sign. . . .

The train platform

Friday my only day off 011
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

OK, OK, this was my "attempt" at an "art" photo. This is where I wait for the train. It is still hard to beleive that ride a train to work everyday! And its been like 3 months already. . .

From Yaizu Station

Friday my only day off 010
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

Here is a better picture than the last. If you look close at the bottom of the picture you can see the power lines that run the trains. I think that most of the trains in Japan run on electricity. There are a few that still run on steam but not many.

At Yaizu Station

Friday my only day off 009
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

This was taken from the overpass of the station. The beach is near the little mountain in the distance. This is also the direction of Shizuoka the large city where I work. Follow these tracks for 15 min (going about 75 mph) and you are at Shizuoka JR train station.

Yaizu JR Station

Friday my only day off 003
Originally uploaded by Drew In Japan.

This is where I get the train from every day that I go to work. BTW it is NOT the big building. It is the smaller building in the right hand corner. It's nothing special but I thought that it was a pretty cool picture. The clouds looked really cool.

Big post coming with pictures

I have been pretty busy over the last couple of days. Thus I have not been thinking about what I want to post. But, I will be heading into Shizuoka today and I will take some pictures and post them along with some other rants!

Sorry about the delay! shizzle.

Happy Birthday!

I want to wish my sister Leslie a HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Sorry that I could not be there to say it in person. I love you lots and miss you lots! Andrew