we don’t backpack

to all you guys still back in 2007 - happy year of the rat from the future

we had an amazing, yet long and exhausting night with tiffani and lewis in tokyo. more details and pics later … now - bed time!

ryan and i FINALLY sat down and hashed out our rough travel plans. we cut out some countries to give us more time in other ones - and better “living conditions” while we’re there. that bums me out a little because i want to be able to say, “i went to XYZ countries,” but when it comes down to it, i’d rather actually enjoy where i am than try and run around seeing EVERYTHING. because realistically, you never can anyway!

check out my revised itinerary.

my old college roommate tiffani and her husband, matt, are visiting from korea (where they teach school) and we’re staying in tokyo for a few nights.  they got in yesterday (saturday) after taking an overnight bus from kyoto, and so we got a late start yesterday and didn’t try to squeeze too much in (shabuya, sapporo beer museum, and a huge ramen dinner).  we did, however, stay up till about 2 am in the hotel bar talking and hanging out. we’d talked about going to the fish market sometime during the next two days, but then we found out it would be closed from monday on, so today was our only chance.

they say the most interesting part is the fish auction which runs from about 5:30 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. so our goal was to get there in time for that. we slept for a few hours and actually woke up around 6, but decided to just go - since it would be the only opportunity for at least tiffani and matt.

i am not the most chipper person in the morning and the idea of rolling out of bed on four hours of sleep only to trudge around a stinky fish market did not sound like the greatest idea to me. (tiffani, however IS the most chipper person in the morning - and yet we made it to the market all in one piece, with me only threatening to push her off an overpass bridge once.)

so anyway, the fish market was definitely an experience i’m glad i had, though i can’t say it was the greatest thing EVER. it wasn’t as stinky as i’d imagined, but it was as gross as i’d anticipated. there were live fish flopping around, fish being cut up with a huge, electric saw, and fish i’d never seen. i’m not super into gross, especially at 7 a.m., on an empty stomach.

so speaking of empty stomach, the thing to do is to then eat fresh sushi from the surrounding shops. i love sushi but again, i have to go back to: 7 a.m., empty stomach. i was so not into the idea, but of course knew it was something you just have to do.  while we were waiting in line for a sushi shop me and tiffani ran down to a convenience store and grabbed a couple rolls so that helped me stomach the idea of fish so early in the morning.

i ordered one piece of unagi - my favorite - and i have to say, it was better than any sushi i’ve had. however, i took one bite just to say yes, i had sushi at the fish market at 8 in the morning - then let ryan eat the rest.

after that we trekked to a flea market in a shrine near harajuku, walked thru harajuku (my favorite!!), went to a little art gallery then came back and took a nap (while hard-core tiffani and matt kept touring).

i have to say, i’m getting the hang of the subway -  not that i’m a pro or anything, but i’m starting to not be as overwhelmed, and to pick up on some of the navigational techniques.

tomorrow’s new years, so we’ll be doing something crazy and exciting in the city. the thing i’m NOT excited about is the fact that we have to stay out all night and wait to catch the subway back to my parents (it doesn’t start running till 5 a.m.). we then have to navigate thru the subway for about an hour and a half after staying up all night. as most of you know i like my eight hours of sleep.

pictures coming soon

pictures speak much louder than words - especially when it comes to karaoke! so here you go. there’s still a video of me, mom and joce singing ABBA that i need to upload at some point, but it’s too long and needs to be edited. so in the mean time …

(i’ve also added pictures to past posts, so go back and check them out =).

we went to a temple in Akihabara today (tokyo’s electronic district) and it got me thinking. while obviously i don’t believe in the gods that they pray to or think that you have to pay your tithe and clap to get god’s attention, i really admire the ritual and dedication of eastern religion. granted, there are a lot of temples around tokyo so the average person could probably hit one up on their way home from work or something, but when was the last time you or i stopped in a church or temple as we walked around town?

i do appreciate what “western” religion has offered us - a mentality that we can have more of a “conversation” with god. that if someone or something pops into our head, we can pray right then and there - no clapping or tithing required. but i also like the ideas of prayer and communion with a higher power that the eastern religions - and many other religions around the world - espouse. the idea that you create a separate time and place - removed from the nuances of life - in which to offer up your prayers and concerns. the idea that this space is a sacred, calm, and consistent area of your life where you go to listen to god and have god listen to you.

i think western religion could learn something from this kind of reverence.

(to go off -topic a little, i’m tacking on some Akihabara pictures here. aside from having a shrine, what the district is really know for is its electronic district)

(you can tell where we are better in this one)

also, in one of the big electronics stores, i saw a huge ad featuring a girl who i think looks like i would if i were japanese. joce thinks i’m flattering myself.

Ryan and i went and talked to one of my parents’ neighbors who has spent a lot of time in SE Asia and so now we’re going to have to stay here, like, a year to see everything we want to! our itinerary originally was to spend about a month total touring the rest of asia, outside of japan. after talking to my parents’ neighbors about what’s in southeast asia alone, i don’t know how we’ll fit it all in!  i knew it was going to be tight, and we didn’t want to run the risk of rushing through everything, but now i don’t know if we’ll be able to get to all the places we’d like to see.

we really just need to sit down and plan everything out so we know in hard-and-fast terms what we’re dealing with. i guess the most likely thing is that we’ll extend our round trip ticked so we have longer to travel.

we’re going tomorrow to spend five days in tokyo - including new years’ eve!  my old roommate, tiffani, and her husband are meeting us in the city so i’m really looking forward to that!

Merry Christmas from tokyo - although it’s still christmas eve for most of you.

the japanese don’t celebrate christmas, so we might even get a little christmas day shopping in - how consumerist of me, i know - since the stores won’t be closed. it’s weird b/c all the stores here have christmas sales and christmas signs, the houses have lights on them and they have huge christmas celebrations, but they don’t actually celebrate the day usually! they still work and go to school. i guess it makes sense since they’re not a “christian” country, but it’s still kind of odd that they go to all the other trouble and yet don’t do much on the actual day.

unlike them, i enjoyed the MANY james family christmas traditions -from swedish meatballs to christmas caroling to rice pudding to the christmas eve candlelight service, to our lima bean baby jesus nativity set.

tomorrow we’ll be karaoke-ing with a bunch of people so i should have a lot to write about. i’m already looking forward to singing ABBA and Journey

in a gallery near the base

i <3 it, but ryan’s not completely sold … he doesn’t think it will appreciate enough since the artist is relatively unheard of, hasn’t had many shows and doesn’t have much of a following. bah humbug.

kanda’s gallery

last night, the whole fam went to my dad’s squadron’s christmas party. i’ve been to a few of these things in my years as an AF brat and every time i’m reminded of how ironic it is that these are some of the people leading the country. as i spend a lot of time talking about on my blog, it’s true that the AF is a family - and families should work hard and play harder as the saying goes. so it’s good to see the raucous fun that ensues at an AF holiday party.

for starters, there were (male) officers dressed up as santa and mrs. claus, there were elves, speeches, dancing, sing-a-longs, rousing renditions of the AF fight song, and scavenger hunts. i’m pretty sure it would be quite weird for a “civilian” who happened upon this type of party. and even though it’s somewhat frightening to me to see my parents cutting a rug (as it were), it’s good to know that there’s a sub-culture that - no matter where we go - i have an instant connection with. a sub-culture where you don’t have to explain who you are, or why you don’t have a hometown, or that you may not be able to see your family for months on end yet still rely on them for your support system.

i don’t really have any close, personal military brat friends, but when i sit at a table with five other brats i’ve never met, and come away feeling like i’ve known them my whole life, i’m thankful for my unique little sub culture.

on a side note - i won a free massage in the raffle! my favorite! there probably won’t be much japan-related news til after christmas as familial obligations (like christmas caroling - woo hoo) continue to increase :-D. we are going karaoke-ing with a bunch of people the day after christmas. now THAT should be interesting.

we got a chance to ride the crowded rush-hour subways again last night. no doubt they weren’t as crowded as they are in the morning, but you could easily stand up, not hold on, and be fine because of all the people completely pressed in around you. i’m used to rush hour public transportation from my days of taking the train to work, but then i only rode for a few stops before getting off. in this case, we were on it for about an hour.

when we realized we’d be heading back during rush hour, we tried to avoid it by killing some more time in tokyo. we were in ginza - the ritzy shopping area - and thanks to frommer’s and a japanese family who spoke perfect, accent-less english, we were able to find our way to bar lupin (no, not like the professor from harry potter =). it was down an alley, then down another alley (as all good bars are), then down a bunch of steep stairs. of course when we got inside EVERYONE blatantly just stared at us. they were probably thinking, “great. tourists found this bar. now we have to find a new one.” which is what i think when spots i like in my city get “infiltrated.”

anyway, we killed a bunch of time there - and ate some tasty pickled japanese cucumber - before heading back to the subway. and it was still rush hour. and i swear - pictures ARE coming!

Update: pictures are HERE!! woohoo!

(on a completely non-japanese-related side-note: my dog ate and ENTIRE LOAF of bread yesterday morning. she has been moping around for two days now, all fat and bloated, and not even eating her food, which is completely unheard of for her!)