May 10th

Today I woke up several times and didn't have my cellphone with me so I didn't know what time it was so after a bit I freaked out and ran downstairs (clothed :P) and only found out it was 5am. After sleeping 3 more hours (I went straight to bed after Disneyland) I woke up, ate cereal, and walked a mile to the train station. From there, I realized that if you are claustrophobic, don't go to Japan because I bumpin' butts with some lady while having my face pressed against a window riding a train with 400 (just a guess) other people.

After being thankful I'm only scared of wide open areas and tunnel collapses, I walked around Shibuya for 20 minutes looking for "People waiting around a dog statue." Well there were a lot of people waiting and I found the dog wall but not the statue until a little while later. There I met Aki and her friend Kurumi. First thing we did was walk to the arcade (Japanese call it Game Center) and I was all like "Okay, I can play some Street Fighter IV" but took a sudden turn and I found myself surrounded by pink photobooths. Which if you look at the previous post you'll find links to the pics we took. After some confusing posing they jumping into a side booth where they could edit the pictures. All I did was spell my name in Katakana and English, the girls took over from there. They then got the images sent to their phone (and then sent to Corey's) and we stared at my awkward smile and I noticed all the pictures had at least one hand in my pocket.

We walked around a bit speaking in fragmented english/japanese before stumbling into a fair. I bought a postcard for Mark (Casey's dad) and then realized I have never seen so many gaijin (Japanese for foreiners, mostly applies to white people) in one place. So I've decided to label them all stereotypically!

Army/Navy - They might have wanted to be here or were just shipped off here but these are guys who work for the USA in Japan.

Guys lookin' to score - I guess I fall under this category. I see a lot of whities with Japanese GFs...but no white girls with Japanese boyfriends. Which is weird because Japanese guys have the coolest hair and styles. I was like "How do I stand a chance will all these Final Fantasy characters leaping around?" Some dude had an awesome hat and belt pants and all I could think about is how I'm parading around in a faux hawk and a sky blue shirt with cookies and milk on it.

French people - Yeah...I've seen a ratio of ~60% American, 35% French, and 5% other (including British). We all had a talk about mistaken nationalities and Yukiko doesn't care if people think she's Philipine but hates it when people think she's Chinese or Korean. I don't care what people think I am as long as they don't think I'm French. I don't know why. Maybe the school system raised me to think the French suck because of their smelly cheese and habit of retreating.

Ummm...tourists? - People who are already married and in Tokyo because they want to see the Tokyo Tower lit like a Christmas tree.

Anyways we walked into the most crowded alleyway imaginable (like the only way it could get more crowded is if people walked on each other) took a side staircase upwards and found a nice pasta resturant. I could read the menues but still didn't know what I was ordering. We all ate and had a fun time.

Afterwards they jumped into a whole bunch of clothes shops that only had girls in them (not even boyfriends) and I entered the twilight zone. It started out with us seeing a cute top and stepping into the store. Inside the entire place was coated with astroturf and fake vines with nature sounds playing. Walking up stairs we encounted 5 foot girls dressed like dolls who rung up the stuff and finally we escaped.

This is where my Japanese broke down and with it, my English. Aki was trying to explain how Kurumi had to go meet her boyfriend at a train station and something something. After a bit of confusion we left the topic and went on to "Are you on summer vacation?". To which I tried to explain I got ahead in school and summer vacation doesn't start until mid May. Well that failed horribly and I ended up confusing everyone (including myself) and then we returned to the topic of the train station. After 20 minutes of carefully picked words and the dictionary (which saved my ass plenty of times) they were asking if I wanted to go to Tokyo station to see Kurumi off with her boyfriend. I kindly said no (I don't know where Tokyo station is or how much it'll cost to get there, Kurumi said she lived waaaaaaay up in Akita so for all I knew, I might have been going there.) I thanked them for the wonderful time, got Aki's email address, and said our goodbyes.

Kurumi may be taken but Aki isn't :P

And don't get mad at me for not going, not only is this the first "I set up this date" date, but it was two girls who speak a different language.

So after saying goodbye and thank you, I walked around Shibuya lookin' for a freakin' game store to buy a PSP. After 30 minutes of me circling a huge block, I found an electronic store with games on the top floor. I walked up 6 flights of stairs (take that fat gamers) only to find their PSPs cost 1000 yen more than that other place where my VISA doesn't work. On the flip side (people still say that?), I bought a cool little Monster Hunter cat figurine (gotta have my Monser Hunter stuff. God knows its not in America D:).

Did I mention today was friggin' hot? I mean very very hot! So hot that I realized that fasion takes precedence before comfort. That guy with the hat and belted pants? Well he also had on two shirts. And Kurumi and Aki were both wearing jackets. I was all like "Shorts and flip-flops for the win".

Phew so I asked a guard which platform went to where ever I was going (thanks to Corey and Yukiko for smashing my safety blockade) I jumped at the nearest open seat (I've been standing/walking for over 5 hours) and sort of slept. The train intercom is very quiet. So everytim the train stopped, I would jump up and look out the windows to see if this is my stop or not. After battling the urge to sleep, I finally got off and walked the mile home. Flopped down on the couch, yelled "Atsui!!!" (Japanese for hot) to Ku (the dog) and layed there watching some Japanese guy on TV carve wood into a seashell box (he did a great job, screw all of you who think its okay to break things).

Used the super toilet; almost napped; Corey+Yukiko+Marc+Marika came home; bit of watching some show on the Illuminarty secret society hellbent on ruling the world; went to eat at a resturant where they bring you raw meat and you cook it; thought we were going to Yamata ...something (some electronic store. I can recall the name every now and then) but went home; sat on couch watched 300 (in English) and now here I am.

Gotta call my mom + the bank (online account is locked) tomorrow...oh shi- tomorrow won't work, its Sunday in America.