Just for you Cameron

In short, I've been really busy since my move and it's really put a cramp in my ability to take pictures. Or at least pictures of somewhat not quite boring things. So you might have to put up with the mundane for a little while.

Going Down

This was taken at the south end of Ikebukuro station near where I work.

Pretty Clouds

That is all.

Shinjuku at Night

You might recognize this as the new background pictures on the blog. Like the original one and the sunset one, these were taken from the building that I work in in Ikebukuro. It's a pretty good pictures for a point and shoot camera.

Today is 1/1/11!!!!!!!!11111

Happy New Year!

We finished at the izakaya around 3AM when they gave us the boot. Of course, the trains don't run at 3AM so we had to do something. One of the typical options for people who miss the last train is karaoke, and so it was. I think this picture captures the action the best. And what is he singing with such great gusto? Why Under the Sea from The Little Mermaid of course!

忘年会

In Japan at the end of the year pretty much everyone has a 忘年会 (bounenkai), which is an end of the year party. I met one fellow who had 9 of them this year. Gaba was no exception so after work at 11:30 off we went. And here are my intrepid leaders Kunito and Kevin along with Emi, one of the Japanese staff. This capped off four very full days of work. I got home at 5:50 the next day and am glad that I'm off till the 4th.

Shinjuku at Sunset

Before, I posted a picture of the skyline of Shinjuku during a clear day. Today I present to you Sinjuku at Sunset taken from the 10th floor of the Metropolitan Building in Ikebukuro.

Mmmmm Temmy's

Direct from Egypt! Found in the import grocery store.

PDA

Japan is not a country that partakes in PDA, at least not very often. To be honest, it's not exactly common in America, but it's even less so here. For the most part, things are restricted to the occasional hand holding and on rare occasion affectionate cuddling, but never a full on kiss. And that's just what myself and some others came across when exiting an Izakya the other evening. To us, it was just an uncommon, but not altogether strange sight. We merely commented that was something we hadn't seen before here in Japan. The Japanese couple passing by, however, burst out laughing, amused by the displayed. They also approved of my taking of this photo. Pity I wasn't closer though.

So Festive

Suhshine street on Saturday December 4th.

$7.50 for a Movie Ticket Doesn't Seem So Bad Anymore

On Saturday I finally got to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. This was my first movie experience in Japan. I wanted to see Inception but I never got around to it over the summer. One thing that has been keeping me away from the theaters has been the cost. A general admission ticket costs 1800 yen. At today's exchange rate, that means my ticket for Harry Potter 7 cost me $22.50, a far cry from the $7.50 I would pay with my student ID in Charlotte. Above you can see what 7.50 got me. No Stadium seating and an old school seat that didn't come up to my head and had less than comfortable padding. A lot of things in Japan related to entertainment media is expensive actually. DVDs cost around 40 dollars new, as opposed to 17 in the states, CDs cost more, and video games are at least 20 dollars more expensive. Muse's latest CD is 1200 yen in the iTunes store ($14.50). So was seeing the movie worth 1800 yen? Yes, because I've seen all but the first two in theater and I wasn't about to miss this one. No matter what the cost, not matter the quality of the theater, movies are still magic, especially Harry Potter. Although, this is only one theater and I have heard that there are better ones out there. My time in Columbia SC taught me there are plenty of bad theaters out there in the US. Sadly, movies are more of a luxury here in Japan than they are in the United States because of the costs, but you can expect me to be back next summer for Part 2.

My Workspace

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.

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

City KittyTrio

Gotta keep those energy levels up

One thing you notice quickly about Tokyo is the lack of trash cans. Trash cans are incredibly hard to find, so most people just carry their trash with them till they find one. Apparently these folks were less than willing to do that.

Maid spotting!

About the best shot I could get. They're not big fans of having their pictures taken, so I had to grab the shot as surreptitiously as possible.

Izakaya

This is Andrew and Soyhan. Andrew is from Australia and Soyhan is from Turkey. They are co-workers. After work tonight we went to a nearby Izakaya. An Izakaya is a Japanese drinking establishment that is sort of a cross between a bar and a tapas restaurant. Also, you generally have to take your shoes off when you enter and eating without shoes is a wonderful wonderful thing.

The group closest to the food table...

Really busy 24 hours here, actually a busy 36, so this is late. This is the amazing group F, my group at my job's Halloween party. We came in second place, a solid all around showing in the games. The first place team had three native English speakers though, cheaters. And yes, I do need a haircut.