Lost America

Finally, an update!

Ryan — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:24:43 +0000

What a summer! I climbed Mt. Fuji, visited the Lost in Translation bar, watched a Japanese baseball game, lost my passport, played endless amount of Nintendo DS, and learned hundreds of new kanji. Whew, I can’t believe it over!

Not to mention labor day, September, October, Halloween, and half of November. Whoops… guess I got a little too carried away with video games and sushi.

Anyway, lately I’ve been engulfed in the writing firestorm that is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short. If you’ve never heard of it, you should definitely check out the website. It’s an event where participants race to write 50,000 words in thirty days and try to complete one of their life’s goals: to write a novel. So far, I’m up to about 27,000 words, but I’ve still got a long way to go.

Unfortunately, there aren’t many fellow writers in Japan, but the list seems to be growing every year. I met a few of them in Osaka a couple weeks ago and we had a nice time at a cake shop in Umeda, but the forums for Japan are basically as quiet as a graveyard. Guess I’ll be going it alone again, just like during the UMBC days. Wish me luck!

On the move

Ryan — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 01:12:40 +0000

After the minor disaster formerly known as ‘my plan to come home this summer’ imploded on itself, I had alot of free time on my hands: three weeks on unpaid leave, to be precise. It would have been easy to go back to work and ask for a few extra teaching days to help keep my budget going, but brilliantly I opted to stay in my apartment and play video games instead. Predictably, this got old after about a week and ow – at last – I’m prepared for Summer Travel Plans 2.0.

The crux of the plan is a convenient thing (plot device?) called the seishun-ju-hachi-kippu, or seishunjuhachikippu for short. :P In English, it’s known as the Young Weekender’s Ticket. For the low, low price of $125, this magical piece of paper lets you travel anywhere in Japan, provided you do it by local train. It can be used five times, with each use lasting a single day, so as long as your trip can be acomplished in under 18 hours and would normally cost over $25, or about 2000 yen, you’re getting your moneys worth.

My plan is to go to Tokyo (actually, I’m already there) and visit some atractions I missed on my previous visits. These include the Square Enix “Character Goods Shop Show Case”, some scenes from the filming of ”Lost In Translation,” and what is hopefully a delicious sushi restaurant in the Yodobashi Akiba building. Mmmm. Should be good times!

My second stop should be Sendai, a city known or its pleasant climate and Green atmosphere located in the Northern Japanese region of Tohoku. I’ve always wanted to go to Tohoku and never had the time, so now’s my chance! There’s no reasonable explanation for why I want to go there, but my personal theory is that its because the Northeastern parts of Japan were traditionally where the monsters lived. It was also where the quasi-caucasion Japanese natives lived before being conquered, ages ago. If my time working at eikaiwa has taught me anything, this is no coicidence.

Anyway, here I am, sitting at an internet cafe feeling drowsy becuase of the horrid sleeper-train I rode last night and wasting my time. I should be roaming the streets of Akihabara and exploring seedy electronics deelers with large-eyed maid girls pinned to the windows! Then again, an internet cafe feels oddly in harmony with the surrounding neighborhoods. If only they had those virtual headsets from Neuromancer and Snowcrash so that I could explore the neighborhood without leaving the comfort of my temporary abode. Maybe someday, but for now, I’d better get off my butt.

More Deliciousness

Ryan — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 11:39:18 +0000

Mmm, I love this stuff!

Shiso Pepsi is amazingly delicious. It has a sort of spicy kick to it, like Dr. Pepper, but with the herby taste of the shiso leaf. In case you don’t know what shiso is, it’s a type of plant used in Japanese cooking, including some sushi recipes. Anybody want some?

It’s definitely much better than some of the other unique-to-Japan Pepsi products. Yogurt Pepsi and Green Tea Pepsi never had the same appeal.

Candy Continued

Ryan — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 15:04:37 +0000

After writing the post about Japanese candy, I felt a little guilty. Searching the multitude of 7-11′s, Lawson’s, Family Marts, and Circle Ks around my apartment, I had hardly found more than a handful of examples of Kit Kat and Crunky bars to take photos of. I had, it seemed, slightly exaggerated the dominance of the aforementioned brands.

The shelves inside the convenience store were adorned with flavors of Meiji chocolate, Pocky, Pretz, and something called ‘Look.’ Humbled, I snapped a photo of the colorful display:

Later that week, however, I wandered into a Maruzen supermarket close to one of my schools and found the situation quite different. Kit Kat was all over the place. Vindicated, I documented the craziness and threw in some photos of new Crunky varieties as well. ^_^

I ended up having the Sports Drink Kit Kat, which tasted like white chocolate with a twist. Otherwise, I haven’t tried the other flavors; it doesn’t help that they come in big bags, either. I’m not trying to put on any extra weight before coming home.