Japan Pictures Day 3: Harjuku

Breakfast again. We switched Calpis flavors,
and it was chocolate pan today.

Day 3: Harajuku!

Friday the 27th of September. Kerri had found a list of a ton of things to look at in Harajuku, and we went through to decide what we really wanted to look for (no bars, etc.). We made a list with their addresses and took it with us.

We took the Yamanote JR line, which is just a loop around main Tokyo, with a train every 3 minutes. We purposely took our time getting out of the hotel, but we were still too early.

The Harajuku station. So cute!

A bunch of people already in line for a shop.

I thought these trees were interesting.
Very Japanese. XD

We found one store on our list pretty quickly, but it was still closed, and looked to be just expensive clothes, so we skipped it.

As we turned down the street to try and find our next location, we saw a cute crepe store. Still closed, but we hung out for a few minutes so we could get some deliciousness.

Cute Crepe store. You can see Kerri on the left behind
the sign.

  Next to the crepe store was a shop with two huge red Kanji outside, that people  (Japanese) kept getting pictures with, so we had to get some too! XD

Kerri and the Kanji

Me with Kanji

Funny store name.

We ended up not finding the store we were looking for, but ended up turning down a really popular street called Takeshita Street accidentally. There were a lot of shops, including multiple crepe stands, McDonalds, a 7-11, clothes stores, cafes, and more.


One of my favorite places was Daiso, a 4 or 5 story 100Y shop! It's the japanese equivalent of a Dollar Store. I had fun looking at all the stuff, and got quite a few things.

 

"Dog" was a Lady Gaga-esque store that
really was just as crazy as her.

Mimicking the mannequin outside "Dog".

Our matching hats.

 While I was puzzling over a map, Kerri went into a store called ACDC Rag. I joined her and we ended up getting matching hats. I also got a black bag with wings and Kerri got a Panda-sweater that she loved.

My winged bag! I love it!

Kerri's Panda sweater. With ears even!
And panda-mitten pockets!

One black wing.

With one black tail.

We also stopped at a store that was SO PINK! Described as "shockingly pink" it almost made my eyes bleed from all the pink and neon colors inside and on the clothes. We mostly went for the experience, but I did get some earrings there. There were 5 of them, two white wings, two black wings and a black tail.

We exited from the main entrance to the street.
The sign says "youkoso" or "welcome".

This map was unusual because it had little
stickers for actual stores on it.

 While in the street, we stopped at the 7-11 to see if someone could help us find some of the places we were looking for, because we couldn't find hardly any of them. Turns out we were in the wrong Chome (cho-may) for the places we kept looking for. No wonder! After leaving the street, we headed for the closest Koban, determined to get another map and not keep wandering around. They didn't have a map we could take, so we had to make due with the maps posted on the main streets (everywhere, mostly).

Eventually, I remembered what I had learned about Japanese addresses. They consist of 3 numbers, 6-4-12, for example, in a town or area. the first number is the Chome. The Chome go in some kind of spiral around the town area, with 1 being near the center, I think. The second number is the block number. In the map to the right, you can see those numbers. The blocks are also numbered in a spiral inside the Chome. Lastly is the final address, which goes around each block. I don't know if there is any reason to what direction, but by then we would just circle the whole block looking for what we wanted. Almost nowhere was an address actually posted, so you relied on maps to tell you where you were more than where you wanted to go, sometimes!

Trippy entrance! So cool!

 On our way to the Koban, we ran into this store, which was on our list for one of the places inside. The entrance was entirely these mirrors with the escalators that went up to the 2nd or 3rd floor right away.

Picture of a shoe ad that I thought was so funny
because it says "the boot that build America"

Real ramen! I got all the toppings!

We found another store on our list across the street from the Koban, where I got a lot of Studio Ghibli souvenirs. Then we looked for a gyoza place on our list, but we had to give up and stopped at a little ramen shop (where we shared some gyoza anyway).

Kerri's ramen, with the normal toppings.

For dessert, some almond pudding-stuff. Like what I have
made for my mom a couple times.

The Godiva building was painted to look
like chocolate bar!

 We went out of our way to go find some shops that Kerri really wanted to see, only to find they were gone, dangit! We did get to pet some cute dogs, though. Their owner was fun, and said that one of the dogs knew she was cute, and so begged for attention.

Takoyaki! Yum!

We headed back to the station, and got some takoyaki on the way. Takoyaki are little balls of batter around little pieces of tako, or octopus. It was really hot and we burned out mouths trying to eat them too soon (Kerri more than I). But finally we got back on the train and went back to our hotel to collapse.

An example of funny drinks in the vending machines!

 

Japan Pictures Day 2: Akihabara

 Day 2: Akihabara!

I am going to switch to Japan time when I talk about where went just because it is easier. We both woke up pretty early because 2 in the afternoon (Utah time) is just too late to be sleeping in, I guess. We stopped by a Conbini (Convenience Store. Too hard to say the whole word in Japanese, so it got shortened to Conbini from Conibiniensu) and got some breakfast.

Onigiri (rice balls), mostly liberated from the fancy
wrapping that keeps the seaweed
from touching the rice until being opened.

We shared some kind of "pan" that a sweet, jam-like filling. "Pan" is the Japanese word for bread, stolen directly from Portuguese and incorporated into their own language. We also each got a different kind of Calpis, a "soft drink" that isn't carbonated. In English, the company is called "Calpico" because "Calpis" sounds too much like "cow-piss".

Drinks, unopened Onigiri, and some
kind of "pan"

The manhole covers in Shinjuku
were very pretty. The colors are
which utilities it accesses?

Then we headed to Akihabara, the "Electric town" and the Male anime/manga fan's place-to-go. We got there so early that nothing was open yet! We also had issues finding the places on Kerri's list, so we ended up asking a Koban, cops in a little room (box?) that are all over the place, and they ended up giving us a map after we came back several more times to find the other places we didn't ask about the first time. XD

Eventually things opened and we started at Super Potato. It covered 3 or so floors of a thin building, and was all about Retro games, with toys from a few more modern games.

Steps on the way up to Super Potato

More steps, but with one full character.

Trying to read what is on each floor off a Mario sign.

On the stairs of the final floor. Can't read it, but obviously
it says "You can't go up here!" D:<

Stolen from Kerri.
From http://www.japan-hotels.ws/tokyo/akihabara/shopping.htm

After Super Potato, we went to the Gachapon store. A gachapon is one of those plastic balls you get from the vending machines in the grocery store that have little toys, or whatever, in them. In Japan, they contained figures, cell phone charms, and more. They cost anywhere from 100Y to 500Y, and are mildly addicting. The place we went to was called Kihabara Gachapon Kaiken, and contained 430 gachapon machines, supposedly. I spent... a lot of money there.

My Gachapon spoils

After that, whenever we saw a gachapon machine in front of a shop or wherever, we were all "Oh! What do they have?!" and would have to run over to find out. A good majority of my souvenirs were gachapons, though once out of their capsules, they don't take up a ton of space, usually.

And Me in the cutout.

Kerri in the Maid Cafe cutout
outside the gachapon store.

I should have bought this headband!

 Next we went to Don Quixote, a place with lots of random stuff, including housewares, bath towels, costumes, umbrellas and more! There were like 8 large floors full of stuff.

After some shopping, where I got a little fold-able umbrella because it was raining a little still, we went to find a restaurant that Kyle recommended to us, called Hamakatsu. It serves tonkastu, which is breaded pork(?) cutlets. At Hamakatsu, you get to crush your own sesame seeds to mix with sauce to get your own preferred flavor. It was DELICIOUS and fun, even though we were still working on understanding the etiquette of eating in Japan.

Tonkatsu at Hamakatsu on the 8th floor of some building.

We also went to a very large Manga store called Mandrake, but since we couldn't read anything, it wasn't very exciting. Oh, and also the Tokyo Anime Center which looked pretty empty, space-wise (lots of empty space) and had a little bit of expensive merchandise. It was starting to get late and kind of cold, so we headed back to the hotel in Shinjuku. When we got there, we stopped for Dinner at a place close to the hotel.

My gyudon (I think) which is a beef
bowl. Came with an egg and separator
so I could add my own yolk.

Kerri got Curry

Then it was into the hotel to organize our spoils and recover from a day on our feet.

The elevator was rather small. You can
see I am touching the back and holding
the door open at the same time, and I
have the Ross raptor-arms.

Japan Pictures Day 1: Traveling

Okay, I am not sure how to do this blog thing, so here goes nothing! Kerri started with the "why" so I guess I can start there, too.

So why Japan? The main reason is like Kerri's: Why not? Really, though, it probably goes back to the beginning of College. I wanted to take a bunch of different languages, including Italian, German, French and Japanese (I had taken some French in Middle and High School). When I started at the Y, I decided to start with Japanese because I had been watching some Anime (Japanese animated shows. Like cartoons, but more mature sometimes). Well, after 3 semesters of Japanese, I had to stop taking because it wasn't part of the CS major, and I managed to get hit by a car, making it hard to keep taking. Unexpected fallout was a settlement that gave me a bunch of cash, that I immediately portioned some out to go to Japan sometime. I had never traveled anywhere, so "free" money was a perfect chance!

Well, I didn't go during school, then graduated, had no one to go with, Kyle said I cold go with him and Sarah, and then they had a baby. But the money still sat there untouched. Well, I had mentioned this to Kerri, and she was all, "I'll go with you!" and I was all "Yeah, right" and she was "Really!" and got a job to save money and here we are!

Now for more pictures and less talking, hopefully.

Stolen from Kerri who stole it from her mom who took it.

First leg was to Denver in a cute little plane that had like 13 rows with two seats on each side of the aisle.

"Little" plane wing from my seat. I haven't flown in forever, so
my head was plastered to the widow almost the whole time

Kerri's teeth-bearing smiling face on our little plane

When we got to Denver, we found out our flight to Japan was delayed 2 and a half hours! Bah! So we ate some food (Chinese) and hung out at the gate.

Took a nap in the sun and had
these fun marks afterward

Bright-Sun-Selfie

Our plane finally arrived! It just kept
getting bigger and bigger as it came
towards us. It was huge!

The plane was nice, with personal entertainment centers in the back of each seat so you can watch whatever movie you want. Or listen to music, or play little games, or whatever. Which was good because I watched a whole episode of Phineas and Ferb as we had to wait after taxi-ing to the runway, then go ALL THE WAY BACK to the gate because there was some "Hazardous material" that had been loaded without the right paperwork. They took it off and we finally started the 12-hour flight to Japan.

I watched three movies (The Croods was pretty good actually; and Iron Man 1 and 2), napped an hour or three and tried reading a little.

On the NEX, Narita Express, to Tokyo. Humidity having fun
with my hair. It was like drinking the air!

We finally arrived in Japan, had to go through Immigration, which took FOREVER, and Customs, exchanged our dollars to Yen (almost 1 Yen = $0.01 more like $1 = 94 Yen, I think), rented cell phones to talk to each other, exchanged our JR Rail Exchange Passes for real train passes, and took the train to Tokyo.

We arrived in Tokyo and headed to Shinjuku (largest station in the world, Kerri says?) where our first hotel was. Because of the flight delay, it was pretty late by the time we arrived. Kerri looked up how to get to our hotel, thank goodness, and we only got a little lost when we turned down the wrong road.

Our hotel room, complete with Yukatas for
pajamas and hanging out in.

Interneting in my Yukata. I'm not addicted, I'm a CS major.
There is a difference... >.>

Great face, Kerri. XD

I have never felt so... not-short. :D

Our teeny bathroom, complete with Bidet toilet.
Made of plastic, except the sink. Even the floor.
It was raised about 6 inches off the ground.

Vending machines outside our hotel.

It was like 11pm by the time we got to bed, which was about 2pm Utah-time, so we had been up for almost 26 hours, or something (math is hard when you are tired, so I don't remember what we decided. 26 just sounds good to me).









I didn't take many pictures, especially at the beginning, so I will be stealing a lot from Kerri. You can tell which are hers from the Date Stamp on the pic. I am planning on keeping it to one post for each day in Japan, but some places have so few pictures it might have to get combined with another day. Maybe, we'll see.

If you have any advice on how to make the blog better or more interesting, let me know, as this is the first time I have attempted to do anything like this. <3 br="">

Shadow of Pain

For the last couple days, I have felt generally sick and nauseous. It's a regular, if annoying, thing for me. Today, as I was headed home from work, I got stopped at the longest light along my commute. As I was waiting for the eternity is seems to take for my turn to come around, I felt a strong pain just below my ribcage, kind of near the bottom of the sternum. It was very uncomfortable, but I wasn't worried, because this is also a common occurrence for me when I feel nauseous.

As I pondered the pain, I wondered how a person who didn't understand what the pain was would react.  It hurt quite a bit, and I can see a person being alarmed.  A child might even cry. If it got stronger, an adult might cry, too. As with most pain, I can see someone being willing to do anything to stop the pain, and how hypocritical it is of someone who has never felt that pain as strongly to withhold such relief.

For those who haven't guessed it yet, I am actually talking about hunger.  For me, when I reach a certain point of hunger, I generally feel a strong pain in my stomach. Not usually any noises or rumbling, just pain.  When I feel nauseous, however, my aversion to eating disconnects the association between that pain and a desire for food.  My hunger pains tend to get strong because I am not eating as much as I normally do, and it takes a while for me to notice that the pain isn't just part of my general feeling of illness and blah. Such as it was today.

I thought about my new nephew, and how upset he is when he's hungry.  He cries and screams. What if he cries not really because he is hungry, but because he is in pain? He doesn't really understand that food is what gets rid of that pain.  All he knows is it hurts! His mother understands, of course, and his instincts to suckle save him from the pain.  Eventually, he will understand the pain is hunger.  He will understand when he feels that pain he wants food. When he starts being able to communicate, he will have more of a say in his reaction to that pain. He will be able  to indicate he wants food before he reaches the point of crying.

Then I thought about what it might be like as a baby.  I don't remember anything from when I was a baby, like most people. But I think about what a child is capable of, and the time it takes them to learn things, and imagine what it would be like to suddenly have a body.  We started as intelligences in the Pre-Existence, pass through a veil and get a new body. You have to learn to control it.  You have to learn how to process and understand all the signals and information you are getting from your senses.  You have to learn what the body is telling you.  You feel pain, but you don't know what pain is.  It overwhelms your new senses, and unable to do anything or understand this new sensation, your body takes over and you cry.

Thinking about such things really helps me get a new perspective on my life, as an almost-25-year-old.  How dextrous I am. How integrated with my body my spirit is. How far I've come in mere development, physically and mentally.

And how long that stupid light is.

Fearful Shadow

I had a revelation a little while ago.

I'm Fight.

You know, as in "Fight or Flight."

This revelation has had mixed reactions from those I've told, on Facebook and in real life. Some curiosity, some levity, some feigned optimism. Some behave as though I am somehow better off than if I was Flight. That it is preferred to be Fight. Thinking back on how I made my discovery, I think I have to disagree.

I have known for a long time that I dislike sparring in Taekwondo. Our sparring isn't even that serious, typically. We wear padded gear just in case, but especially by the time you are a black belt, you should have enough control to barely touch your opponent, even in a regular match.

One evening, we were practicing Tournament sparring. Tournament sparring is different from Testing sparring in that you don't even really touch your opponent at all in Testing. You are just showing off your moves to the Judges. In Tournament, your goal is to get points by hitting allowed areas (chest above belt, kick to head, kick to chest or side). Three points and the match is over. But even then, all you have to do is make contact, typically with just enough sound that the officials can tell you got a hit.

The woman I was sparring with was NOT doing Tournament sparring. She is the same belt level as me, and about 6-8 inches shorter. When it came time for us to spar (we rotate around the whole group) she was going all out. Ignoring the illegal hits to my back, even her legal hits were VERY hard. I don't have the chest guard (it was a new addition to the style since I bought my gear), but I know that even if I did, they would have been hard hits. She also managed to keep punching the exact same spot on my chest. It hurt!

The only thing I could do was fight back. I tried to increase my hit strength. I had to. I had to hit harder. I did my best to fight back at the level she was attacking with, even though I am not as good as her (illegal hits notwithstanding).

When the stop was finally called on our match, and another two called forward, I went back to my spot and knelt down, shaking and holding the sore spot where she kept hitting me.

I was scared.
I was traumatized!

Class ended immediately afterward, I packed up my gear and went out to my car. Then I sat in the driver's seat and cried. I cried! It was so traumatic that without any thoughts in my head, I cried for a good five minutes.

The next class I went to was not going to include sparring. But when I arrived early, the class before ours was sparring. As I stretched and watched/not-watched them, my hand began to tremble. I was still so traumatized that even being in the same room as people sparring bothered me.

After that class, I explained to my teacher that I was going to be gone for a class (because of work) and mentioned how terrifying the experience was to me. He told me that many adults go too hard, but if both halves enjoy it, he won't stop them. To him, because I was hitting back as hard as her, it looked like I was enjoying the fight.

It was after I tried explaining the experience to another person that I realized what had happened. As with any other fights I have been in during my life (not very many, thankfully), including poking fights that get too serious, I felt like I had to hit back. That somehow, not hitting back, or running away were just not options. I had to win. Because losing was not an option, it was the same as death. Hence the Fight in "Fight or Flight."

Now, how is Fight better than Flight? Both courses of action are brought about by great fear. Fear for your life, your safety.

The only advantage I can think of is if you are attacked by a rapist. With Fight, you might be able to escape because rapists typically don't expect or want a fight, while they expect Flight and can typically overpower it. But even then, the trauma of attack is the same (ignoring the additional trauma if the attack succeeds).

As I think about it, most people don't know what they are. We are typically safe, living without the base, primal fear for our lives. It makes sense to me that an American culture would value Fight over Flight because of the "cowardice" of Flight.

But to me, they are one and the same. Fear.

Red Light

So I was almost hit by a car again just now.

I was on my way to campus, and I was on my bike. There is one light that you have to go through before you actually get on campus. I feel safer at crosswalks that are at lights (you know, pedestrian crossing even though it is also a car light) than at normal crosswalks, because there is a bigger penalty for drivers when they run them (a.k.a. they might hit another car, which could also hurt them).

So anyways, I'm at the light, waiting for it to turn green for me. I hadn't put my ipod in my ears yet, and I though I might have enough time to, but decided not to in the end. I saw the opposite direction's crosswalk light change to "don't walk" and got ready for my light to say "walk." I always make sure that I wait for that because Utah drivers (myself included) are more prone to take a yellow light. [side note: I always get terrified when other people start walking during the yellow light because of this]

The crosswalk light changed, and I started forward on my bike. There was a truck waiting for me to cross so it could turn left. I started pedaling (I don't worry about pedaling across a road crosswalk, where as I walk my bike if it is a normal crosswalk) and I could hear the oncoming cars headed for the red light. Then I noticed that one of the sounds wasn't slowing down like it should (you know, a car that is slowing down gives off a different sound of its wheels on the road than one that isn't). I grabbed my breaks as fast as I could, just in time to see a girl in a silver car run directly through the red light in the lane where I probably would have been half-in had I not breaked when I did.

She was absolutely oblivious. She didn't even look around. It looked like she could have been texting to me, but I can't say for sure.

I was shaken, and sat there for a second or two, wondering why my horn didn't go off (apparently I had reflexively grabbed my break in a motion similar enough to honking my horn in a car that I was confused for a second). Then I noticed the truck was still kindly waiting for me to finish crossing, and I biked across the street and on my way.

I am a horrible judge of time, distance and speed, but I am pretty sure that I came real close to getting hit, and maybe if I hadn't been there, the truck would have gotten hit because it wouldn't have been waiting for me.

I am still kinda shakey inside, and it is almost an hour later as I write this. I am surprised that I am this shaken, but also surprised that I am as fine as I am. It was scary, that is for sure, but it wasn't as traumatizing as I thought it would have been.

I am just glad that I decided not to put my ipod in, or I wouldn't have heard the car. I can't say if it was luck or if I was prompted not to, but either way, I am glad.