Sleeping Beauty

While the majority of the people on the Tokyo metro system stare deeply into their cell phones, myself included, there's also a group that try to get a few extra minutes of sleep. This gentleman was definitely out of it. The other remarkable thing you'll read about is how, despite sleeping, they manage to wake up for their stop. I know from speaking to a few people though, that sometimes they do miss their stop and wake up at the end of the line.

Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiights

Blast From the Past Sunday: The J-207 Trifecta Is Completed

First there was Sandy. Then there was Wendell. Now there's Mr. Ruggles.

Karaoke

No explanation needed. Okay, a little. On the left is Enrique and on the right Satomi. I met them both last night.

You Shall Bring Us a Second Shrubbery...

Here you can see the buildings in Otemachi rising above the Imperial Palace Grounds, a respite from the busy city beyond.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving USA. As you can see in this picture, Japan is also gearing up for Christmas. No doubt the experience here will be very different from the one in America. But hey, at least I don't have to put up with Jared's commercials.

Thanks for the Nightmares Dole

This does not make me want to buy a banana.

Mt. Fuji and Clouds

Yep, another Mt. Fuji picture. This time with the clouds in the picture and the sun reflecting off them. BTW, I've got a lot of these pictures.

The Sun! Opportunity!

Very few of the Japanese use dryers so on nice sunny days you can see lots of clothes/comforters/futons out to dry.

Blast from the Past Sunday: Wendell Kimbrough, Laruen Moon

This was taken Sophomore year at the FUSAB Spring Carnival on E-Field. No one, NO ONE, is cooler than Wendell Kimbrough.

Chuo Line Incoming

I took this picture Wednesday evening. It was, without a doubt, the worst weather so far this Fall.

This is Important for Unclear Reasons

The Lady in Pink

I saw this interesting young lady by Hachiko outside Shibuya Station. I apologize for my hand being in the pictures, stealth photos are a bit tricky. There's a few interesting characters around Tokyo. One of these days I'll get pictures from Harajuku and Akihabara.

天気

It's been a while since I've talked about kanji compounds but today I came across a sweet one.

天気

This reads "tenki" and it means weather. I've known the word for weather for a long time, and I've known the first kanji, 天, for heaven or sky for a while too. What is new for me is 気, which I have just learned in the past couple of days. This kanji means spirit or temperament. Thus the compounds for weather is literally, "The spirit of the sky." HA! Genius!

Old Building

This is a picture of an old armory on the Imperial Palace Grounds.

Epic Bowling

Went bowling the other day, I made a video. Soyhan's got style.

Mt. Fuji at Sunset

Blast from the Past Sunday

New feature here in Barrett blog land. "Blast from the Past Sunday" is when I dig into my photo archives and post one of the many pictures that have been sitting on my hard drive unloved for years. I decided to start with this one, which is the picture I used in my silly photoshop job below. As for the poster. When the year began Sandy's room was a stark white, so I took it upon myself to make him some decorations. He didn't appreciate it, and they soon ended up out in the hall. Sandy did eventually add a demotivational poster and a plant.

Drill Baby Drill

That's the biggest drill I've ever seen.

新幹線

This is a picture of the Shinkansen, the bullet train arriving home at Tokyo station. 新幹線 literally means "new trunk line". It travels at speeds up to 186 MPH in service, but has been clocked at over 300 MPH in test runs. It makes the trip to Osaka in a little over three hours. We so need these things in the US.

富士山

The weather has been spectacular here recently. So spectacular that you could see Mt. Fuji from my apartment. Typically the sky is not clear enough to see Mt. Fuji but this past week has been the longest stretch of great weather since I've arrived. I managed to get some great pictures. Here's one at dusk with the twilight behind Mt. Fuji. Unfortunately it is not quite as impressive in a picture, but it really is cool to watch Mt. Fuji rise up behind the cityscape towering over everything around it. Mt. Fuji is about 3700 meters tall (12,000 feet), and is approximately 60 miles west of Central Tokyo.

Bridges Two Days in a Row!

Here is a bridge leading up to the Imperial Palace grounds. The grounds are rather large and divided into a public and non-public half. Obviously, I saw the public half.

橋

Here's a picture of the Rainbow Bridge taken from a boat in Tokyo Bay.

So This Happened

I suppose it was only a matter of time before this blog became a platform for my sillier antics. You'll also noticed that I've redesigned things a bit. You can now use the sidebar to browse through older posts. There are a few posts that are unlabeled because I have to confirm where I took them. I've labeled the photos based on where they were taken.

City Kitty: Glowing Eyes Edition

Yeah, I'm running a little short on pictures, I'll work on that.

New zero calorie refreshment with a plentiful of vitamin c.

Care Bear Sighting!

I saw this fun fellow outside Kanda Sation last night.

窓を開けれました

So at the end of the hall outside of where I work there are some windows, they have a nice view. And there's a little red button on the windowsill. Typically this button is covered by a plastic plate but the one here had falling out. I accidentally pressed the button while fidgeting and lo and behold, the window open. It was unfortunate that the one person fluent in Japanese ABANDONED me after it opened. He just grabbed his banana and split (oh yes, I said it). One angry Lumine (they own the building) woman and a good humored security guard later, the window was closed. It was nice of them to put an open button on there but no close button...

A Minor Offense

Doumo Arigatou Mr. Sign-o

The construction outside my apartment got even more interesting.

City KittyTrio