3 posts tagged “vacation”

Finale

Dec 10, 2008
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The last week and a half since Thanksgiving has not been pleasant to say the least. I worked a lot ( I want to say 60 - 80 hours over 7 days ) on some silly project for Comp. Neuro. that didn't work out at all and this afternoon I need to give a presentation on it. It's only 10 minutes, and compared to my last presentation ( to a Rear Admiral of the Navy ) it should be low stress.

Tonight I have my Linear Systems final which in the grand scheme of things shouldn't be hard, but in the past week I've forgotten everything I knew about linear algebra. Whoops! Fortunately, the prof. is wikked nice and he's already told us he'll bust our balls on the final but we'll all pass.

This leaves the Molecular Bio take-home final (lol am i rite) that I have completed to the best of my ability, and the written segment to my Comp Neuro class. These should get completed by Friday and then it's back to The State of Massachusetts ( TM ) for a long vacation comprised mostly of sleep. I should pass everything, but it's certainly not going to be the highlight of my academic career.

Next term I'll only be taking one or one and half classes, in addition to co-TAing a class on Dynamic Systems, and working in a lab. If I don't start music again I'll go crazy.

Travel Log: Day 3

Jul 9, 2007
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Helped Dan clean his place up and got a late start in the morning. We went straight to the Nerd stalls in Akihabara. That place is truly amazing, and it makes me so sad that there nothing like there me. Its a rats nest of tiny alleyways lined with people selling analog components and assorted gadgetry. It wasn't very crowded due to it being a monday morning I suppose which is fortunate considering that there was barely enough room to move as it was. There may not even be that sort of thing any place in the US because people just buy all the parts wholesale. Sux. We made a stop at Yodabashi(?) which is an enormous BestBuy++ store selling anything that runs on electricity, office supplies etc. Imagine all the Electronics & Office superstores in the US voltron-ing into one store. They had some of those crazy Nippo watches that I linked a while back, but they were more expensive that I thought so I didn't get one...yet. Also: $100+ ties.

We met up with Dan's friend Mark someplace south of the city starting with "moto" and ending in "machi". I believe its the first place that foreigners were allowed to settle and it had a completely different feel from Tokyo. A lot of boutique shops, a lot of residential areas. The houses in the area were a lot more asthetically pleasing with an overal mediterranean feel. There were a lot of cats here. And nasty cucumber flavored sprite. For lunch we went to some random joint in Chinooknook Town. It was allright. On Monday a lot of the none chain stores close, perhaps for some historically significant reason. The area is laced with all-girl schools. We passed by a tennis court overflowing with schoolgirls and instructors shouting "NICE SHOTO DESU" over and over and over again at like every volley. That made me crack up.

Dan and Mark told me a lot of stories about how fucking awesome their year at Showa was and how it will never happen again. I'm jealous : <.

We met Moeggi Dusty, another one of Dan's friends, and headed over to Yokohama(?) We were going to have a drink on the top floor of the the tallest building in Toyko(?) but the cover was Y2,000 a person and the drinks were similarly priced so we decided to keeps it gutta instead. We went to the Sakura-cho(?) area and got food at some random place. My camera battery died here :[ The joint was cramped as hell and the owner was an old lady with purple hair. Moeggi had to order for us, and the owner kept scolding her because we kept DOING IT THE WRONG WAY. The food was good, except this nacho pizza thing that was covered in mayonnaise. Thats how they do here. After eating we stumbled about and got some Kirin green (shitty not-beer) from a vending machine. Moeggi had to leave and the guys showed me how it was totally cool if I just peed in public. We wanted to go bar hopping by the country is dead on Monday so it kinda fizzled out at some expensive place where I successfully requested water in Japanese, well almost.

My knee feels fine but is slightly discolored and I get the feeling it I'm going to have a few new bitching scars that I lie to people about. See these? Its from stage sliding during my career as front man for an arena rock band.

Travel Log: Day 1 and 2

Jul 8, 2007
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Pictures to be added later. I realize this is old hat to almost everyone but I need to write this down to remember it all.

Friday, July 6th - Saturday, July 7th:

Slept all of maybe 1 1/2 hours before getting on the plane. Survived that ride with some dramamine and "300". There's some shitamachi festival going on this weekend so Dan Moegi and I went to get some food. On the way I tripped on some cleverly hidden sheet metal and put a hole in my knee. The pressure in my veins must have been somewhat higher than the outside air due to the flight because I started bleeding really really badly given the hole. At first we just put a bandaid on it and walked around for a bit but blood starting pouring down my leg and into my sock so we had to stop at a store and get some gauze and medical tape to wrap it. A lot of people pointed and stared at my leg in the store, and given the amount of blood I really can't blame them. A random nipponese woman and her grandapa saw us patching my leg and went to the store to get more stuff. It's since healed up, but Dan got a nice picture of my leg covered in gore. It wasn't really a good night for walking around after that.

Sunday July 8th

Dan and Moegi took me on a tour of harakuku, Shibuya and Shinjuku. We were hunting for Lions (ko-gals), but didn't find many. There are a lot of Gothic Lolitas and other counter culture fashion faggots. Maybe its not counter culture in Japan. There were a few people giving out free hugs so I had my may with one. It reminds me of an anime con. (TEARDROP SHIMASU).

After Harajuku we visited the shrine of Emperor Meiji which occupies several acres inside of Harajuku making it worth billions of dollars in potential real estate. Its so large and untouched it was possible to forget I was in Tokyo.

In Shibuya we wondered around looking for more lions and shops. The dinosaur building from Lost In Translation is above a massive intersection where hundreds of people cross at every red light. We stopped at HMV and I got a chance to listen to some "Indie" and "punk" Nip bands. There was a lot of good stuff there; I want to go back with a pen and paper and get some of the names and buy some. In sShibuya everyone dresses very fashionable ( in my opinion anyway ), I'm jealous. On the way out Dan was interviewed by some TV people asking about American urban legends so he talked about the Red Sox Curse. He can describe it better than me because it was all done in Japanese. I can't understand wtf anyone is saying, going on my own is going to be a little scary.

People here are also a lot taller than I expected, given the stereotype that asian people are LOL TINY. I don't feel anymore taller than the average person here than in the States. The majority of people in my age group are also very thin/ in shape which, given the amount of vending machines, I find to be amazing. There are a lot of vending machines here by the way so I'm never at a loss for Green Tea. Haven't found Meron soda, but I did get some tasty Apple Soda.

In Shinjuku Dan and I played Beatmania Gold and Street Fighter. I also gave Guilty Gear Accent Core a try, but I'm awful with the arcade stick so I had trouble even working with the old patterns. I dedicate those matches to Sean Sherman. Dan pointed out to me that nearly all of the Pachinko parlors have Neon Genesis Evangelion themed machines advertisements covering their entranceway. We saw a man in a suit playing a sniper game, Dan got pictures because I feel a little self-conscious about taking pictures of everyone.

As the sun set Dan and I ventured into Kabuki-cho which is supposively one of the more dangerous districts. There are alleyways maybe 3 feet wide lined with compact restaurants trying to rip you off. We were stopped by an old man who spoke english fairly well("I'm not one of those people who say 'Yankee go home' ") and eventually invited us in for a biru. We backed out knowing where that would end up.

After dodging pimps and yakuza we headed back to Ueno and this time managed to get delicious carnival food without losing a pint of blood.

Finale

Travel Log: Day 3

Travel Log: Day 1 and 2

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3 posts tagged “vacation”

Finale

Travel Log: Day 3

Travel Log: Day 1 and 2

About Me

Neighborhood

Tags

Archives

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