MMSS 4 Eva - Japanese Edition

July 25th, 2008 - Tokyo, Japan

There are only two more posts to write about my trip, and both about Japan. Everything happened in such a whirlwind there that I have to catch up ASAP.
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It seems as though my month abroad was bookended by my Northwestern friends. I hung out with Snow and Tim a lot when I started in Thailand, and met up with Steve and Chris as it ended. So this post is dedicated to Chris and Steve, and the shenanigans that went on for those few days in Tokyo.

For anyone starting this blog at this post, welcome. You're coming in right at the end of the good bit, as we hurtle towards the less interesting bit of me and my life as a consultant in Chicago. I suggest you start from the beginning and read up on past events. If you do, I can also refer to them to make my points, like this: As you all know from reading my earlier blog entries, my initial response to Japan was overwhelmed shock.

If not for Chris and Steve, it would have been a disaster. I met up with them on the Friday I arrived, and had a much needed pint of beer ($9) and some relaxation. They also took me to get food and gave me a subway tutorial.

On the next Saturday morning, we all met up to go to Hakone, a day trip spot with great views of Mt. Fuji. It was a nice relaxed way for me to settle in Japan, as it necessitated 2 hour train rides on either end of the day to go to and from. Once we got there it was a fun day, seeing a wide variety of sites and traveling around an area diverse in its geography. We got some of the better views of the day from one of the canopy cars that takes you out over the river and the forests of Hakone.

Unfortunately the reputed view of Mt. Fuji is also from the cable cars, and it is not a good idea to go there when the weather is foggy. Supposedly the picture below points in Mt. Fuji's general direction, but you can't really know.

While we were all a bit dissapointed by this, it wasn't really the end of the world. We were still 3 young guys touring a part of the world we had never been and that spoke a language none of us knew. So we amused ourselves as best we could. Don't ask what hes saying, I'm not sure. Any Japanese person out there care to translate for us?

And most importantly, at the end of the day, we still made it all the way out to Hakone, a significant feat. We rode over beautiful landscapes, explored a new area, relaxed on train rides and generally gave each other a lot of crap. For a first day in Japan, I would say success.

I also realized that my camera has a function that allows you to take a black and white picture, but that colors only highly contrasting elements of the picture. This led to about 500 attempts to get a cool, artsy picture, but for the day in Hakone this is the best that I could come up with. See the way the yellow, blue, and green stand out? I was trying to take it with just the green showing up, but again, crappy photographer.


And, to really round it all off, A PIRATE SHIP! For some reason the designers of Hakone decided it would be best to set up the ferry portion of the tour on mocked up pirate ships with fake plastic pirates on them. I can't honestly say I have any idea what was going on, except that they also chose to fly the Japanese flag as a proud-looking standard on the ship's bow. Hmmm... While fun to ride, and a treat for my roomate Shyaam (who has aspirations at the buccaneer's life someday), I can't say it was more than a cheap novelty standing a bit back from it. Sad.


We came back from Hakone full of vim and vinegar, ready to tackle the world and all that lies within it. As a dedicated Sushi eater (again, read earlier blog posts), our first stop of the night was not a big challenge. But for my two friends, who either loathe or are actively allergic to sushi, it was quite the event. Below you'll find the 3 of us, giddy with the day's travels and for the sushi we were actually eating in Japan.


However, looking at the plate of fish below, the novelty wore off quite quickly everyone but me, and was replaced with a lot of pushing food about the plate, poking it, asking for ingredients and generally questioning its safety. I have to give my respect to Chris (the guy on the right in the green in the above picture) for eating most of his sushi despite a physical reaction that didn't look pleasent. He later confirmed he is partially allergic to shellfish. What a way to find out. And to Steve, thanks for suggesting McDonalds for desert. I don't know about your french fries, but my ice cream was tasty!

Unfortunately one other thing has to be mentioned here, and that is my singing ability. I suck at it, and I think it only gets worse when I get drunk. As one of the stops of our night, which included drinking tall beers from Family Mart in a park, we went to a karaoke bar. We ordered a couple pitchers of beer, chose the sappiest stuff we could find, and then drank some more. When I woke up next day, this video was somehow on my camera. Thanks Chris... Well, it would be a shame to not put it up here, right?

And to give you a flavor of the atmosphere of the weekend, I've included another video below. If you can't tell who gave the crap, and who enjoyed laughing at it, and who looked really serious, you haven't watched the video. It was great traveling with Chris and Steve and just a lot of fun and laughs.