Final Brief

Well this is the last entry and i did do a lot of things, but im kinda running out of time (gotta be at the airport in a few hours) so I`ll just list them. I went to Harajuku, brought a cheap ring and ordered two products in japanese, went to Shinjuku and brought a hat, trained to Nami`s work and borrowed her phone, talked to my family, went back to shinjuku, brought a drawing book and discovered a graffiti book section (they are heaps cheaper than in nz) and lastly i brought a scarf. I came home, packed a little, went to the trainstation and met Nami, ate Nakau, played games, nearly lost everything then hit the jackpot and got $30 worth of coins back (that Nami and Aki will use sometime), dyed my hair and yeah.. Now im here.. I still gotta put away a few things but i just wanted to conclude in a paragraph or so..

To those that have been stopping by every now and again and those who check nearly everyday, THanx!! I did get a little behind towards the last week as you can read up, i was pretty busy.. This blog was fun to write and a good way to keep a record of the things i did and the days in which i did them on.. I was suppose to treat it like a diary but due to the fact that i left out most emotions it evolved into more of an event calander...

Im off to thailand to see my boys for 10 days and to recieve some brotherly company as i get quite guttered when i leave. It`ll be fun but i wont be accessing the internet. So i here by close this blog on my tokyo experience. I will prehaps add a proper entry for this date at some later time so do check back.. Thanx a lot for reading...

FINAL... PEACE!!!

ps; btw No one entered the graffiti competition which was kinda sad, i was hoping i would spark some interaction but hey, it was fun trying it out.. Anyway the word said "Choke"... As for the meaning of 24?!..... 24 applies to the 24th letter of the alphebet. Now for those who dont know the importance of that letter... well thats another story.. until the next blog.. ... thats all folks!!

DTB fo LifE

We pretty much repeated the same morning routine as yesterday except instead of sending a parcel we did a bank transfer. (it was amazing we sent it at 10.30am and they receieved it by lunch). Oh and we had starbucks!.. I had to get AzUki one more time before i left, and the aircon in there was so strong, i was planning on sitting there for a while after Nami had gone to work but it was so cold i couldnt stand it..

I came home and sussed out yet another game plan. This time i went to Shinjuku to look for a cd requested by one of my boys.. I came out the south exit and rode the escolator 8 floors to get to tower records... Then i spent a further 30 mins trying to find the artist (it was a Japanese cd and their ordering system is heaps different). I finally found it, and they didnt have the one was after so i left.. I then went to Tokyu hands with the intention of buying some little toys for me and nami. But they were out of the ones for Nami and the ones i chose were the same as the ones i had (its kinda like a kinda suprise) So I decided to play some games and before i could finish it, it was time for me to meet Nami in Roppongi.. (seems to happen alot in japan). So i get there rite, and im waiting 20 mins ahead of time .. 10 mins after the meeting time i realise im in the wrong spot (we met in ther intersection and i was in the wrong corner).

So i rushed along and found her waiting with her workmate.. We said hello and then called the DTB crew and found out they werent too far away. SO we jumped on a couple of trains and ended up in Gaien-mae. Rio came down to meet us at 7/11 (as they had just finished watching the baseball and were based in a japanese pub). WE arrived, ate a little and drunk a little, discussing love stories, marriage etc.. They also situated me in the middle of the table, Nami couldnt be the one translating everything but it was nice of Rio to try and talk to me lots.. We concluded with me saying a little speech (amazingly they could understand it) and .... THey paid for me... ALL my drinks.. I felt speical. hehe..

We then set up the self timer and striked a baseball pose....

Then as a whole group wondered our way down to the train station where we parted ways.. Youske and Youhei came the same way as us so we rode together to Shinjuku.. Took some crazy photos and came home.. Its my last sleeping nite in Tokyo for a while so Im going to leave this here and lie in bed for a while.. Nitenite... Peacies

the last Youtube day

There is going to be another short entry. Havent really done much today, Nami had work so she got up before me and started getting ready then i woke up and we went to the station together to send a parcel. The line moved really quickly, i hope it reaches nz ok. After that we got some coffee and "melon" pan which is a kinda chestnut bread that i love (i think i`ve mentioned that already) but i have yet to take a photo of it.. After our food, Nami went to work and i looked around at teh cd shop for a little while and came home..

I did a quick budget and plan and wrote out yet another wish list. Then watched "how i met your mother" and before i knew it, it was time to meet Nami.. We went out for dinner and then hit the game centre where we got 100 coins free (about $10 worth coz we have been so loyal to them) and we played with that, we actually doubled the coins and put it back for next time..

Came home, its sooo hot and the air con wont go any colder so im going to have a cold shower.. thats all from me.. Peace

Rats in the Kitchen!

Man today started off so rocky!!... We had a stack load of things to do such as; sending a parcel, buying shoes, disman, headphones and getting cash out. On top of that we had an arranged meeting time of 3pm to see Saori (Nami`s friend she met in nz and the girl i hung out with most friday nites when Nami was at work).

We didnt realise the time and before we knew it we were still sitting at home and it was 20 to 3.. We rushed off flagged most of our plans got to the meeting place and recieved a text from Saori saying she would be 20 mins late. Which worked out fine, Nami and i grabbed some mcdonalds. THe layout was real cool, one big line that broke off into 5 or 6 counters.

After our food we met Saori, went to the movie place got our pre ordered tickets and went outside for a walk. It was sooo Hot, we decided to go grab some ice coffee.. On our way i found a shop that was selling pens.. Brought some more markers and we went to tullys.. There werent many seats and these nice young girls gave up their sofa chair for us. We drew pictures and talked then jetted to the movies.

This place was wicked, kinda like a super new zealand style movie place.. Usually in japan there are several little movie places (with like two screens etc) and you buy your tickets from the shopping centre then find out where the movie place is. So this was a nice change.

We got Pop corn, dougnuts and chips served on a tray which we were allowed to take into the movies.. We saw Remys delicious Restruant (english name: ratoull or something?!) It was real cool, as always with a disney/pixar movie the characters were cute, the story funny and always has a nice ending. (although when the movie ended we were forced to sit thru all the credits as they didnt turn on the lights and no one got out of their seats!!)

After that we went to Shinjuku trainstasion shopping centre and went to "ducky duck" and italian resturant. Then saori left us and Nami and i went around looking at shoes.. NOthing looked cool so we decided to get the discman.

We came home and i found out the instructions for the discman was all in japanese, we packaged the parcel only to find i had forgotten to put the hair dye in and.... thats all.. hehe.. so while today didnt go as smoothly as we wanted nor did we get to do all that we had planned it was none the less a fun day and was good to catch up with Saori.. cheers EPAEC

Planned Action

I talked to Sam for a little while before i set out on my plan. I couldnt sleep last nite, so i wrote down the places i wanted to go and the best possible order that i could do it in, to get the most out of my time..

My first step was to go to Harajuku.. When i got to our trainstation i realised there was a festival going on, so i jumped accross the road and went down the strip. There were heaps of little food stores, lanterns, music etc.. Food smelt great, everyone looked happy but i was so squashed after 15 mins of it, i decided to gap it.

When i got to Harajuku i pulled out my shopping list and went about collecting the items on the list. I brought two braclets (one for my friend), two earrings (skull and a loop one), hat (bennie like, but the materials breathable) and sun glasses (cheap black NWA kinda ones). I got lost on the way to one of the stores, but i manaaged to find my way back. The store i was after was actually alot closer than i thought it was. hehe

Then we went on to the second part of the plan which was to meet Nami at her work for dinner. I made it on time and found the right spot which was quite amazing as i havent gone there by myself before and it involves riding the subway.. =)

The main reason for coming to Nami`s work was because i loved their vietnamese spring rolls that they sell in Tokyo Mid town. So we got there, had a look around the mega shopping centre (pic left) took a stack of photos, (they had a celling with swirling water) and proceeded to the food court.

The vietnamese place said they didnt have any more soup to make noodles (which meant they were closed) i was a little guttered but it was alright, we then looked at the other food court (pic right) and picked out a few items.. I really wanted the spring rolls so i made Nami go back and ask if we could get the spring rolls to take away... Some of the chiefs remembered us and said they can make up some soup just for us.. It was nice of them, but we kindly declined.. i know what its like to be there with those last minute orders when you`re trying to clean up. But they were happy to make the spring rolls. THey said they dont usually make it for takeaways.. but from their way of packaging it, i think they`ve done it before...

We took the spring rolls back to the food court, picked a candle lit table, ordered garlilc prawns and a hamber steak, grabbed some water and quietly munched away at our food. I love the atmosphere of this place. Although most of the shops are like labelled shops therse plenty to see, just enjoy the architectural design of the joint. So guys, when your Misses wants to go shopping take her here and you dont have to look like you are just sitting around waiting for her, you can actually look and enjoy the peaceful water fountains and bamboo plants..

Anyway, before heading home we grabbed some green tea drinks from a speical green tea shop. We drunk it, talked and came home.. Peace.... ARGH its hot.... 32 degrees and climbing!!

3rd Year Pyro

Today was the main reason why I am in tokyo during AUgust.. Seeing as i missed Nami`s birthday and didnt make it in time for the cherry blossoms, i had to be here for the fireworks..

Anyway from the begining... We talked with Aki and ended up training trogether to Shinjuku where we departed ways.. I was on a hunt for headphones and a discman.. Nami had a card that had accumulated enough points to equal the value of 6000yen and she said i could use it. So after looking around i decided the best place was the one where i saw the discman yesterday. Unfortunatly when we arrived i had miss read the sign and it wasnt as cheap as i thought.

I decided to give it a miss and i couldnt make up my mind on the headphones so we`re just going to have to save that for another day.. Anyhoo, we grabbed some tullys coffee and some snacks to eat then made our way to the trainstation. On the way there, a huge crowd gathered around and a girl was singing in the middle. I thought she was good (although we only heard the last part of her last song) and i asked Nami to help me buy her cd. We did and she even signed it.. WHOO HOO too bad its only a single but hey, shes awesome enough to make it big..

Back to the fireworks stuff, Nami had a rough idea where it was held but wasnt sure, so we followed people who were wearing Yukkata (summer version of a kimino kinda) and jumped on the same train. We continued to watch them, until the train annoucer said the next two stops are going to be busy due to fireworks display.. Yay we made it..

So we decided to get off on the second stop thinking it was going to be less crowded but ended up transfering back to the first. It was pretty packed and it was nearly set off time. The train announcer kindly suggested that we buy our returning ticket now as on the way home everyone will be buying.. So we did..

It was only suppose to take 15 mins to get to the bank to watch the show,but due to the mass amount of people it took much longer. But it didnt seem long tho, there were heaps of little stores selling drinks etc. We decided to buy a couple of beers and some noodles..

The fireworks started going off as we were walking, but we could still see them. When we finally got to the spot, we made a nice little area on the bank side and watched the fireworks.. The camera so doesnt cature the beauty of their fireworks.. They were huge, colourful, loud and shapely.. They had star ones, bright flashes, etc.. We took heaps of videos so I`ll show you guys some time.. It was awesome, the weather was great!! We opened our beers cheered to our 3rd year aniversary and watched in amazement..

After the 1hr 20 min show we jumped back into the crowd and made our way home. Along the way, i forgot to get my ticket back after the machine, we jumped on the wrong train that lead us much further from our station and the trains were super busy. But hey, in the end we got to our station, got KFC, brought a few cds and enjoyed the great nite.. WICked stuff.. im outtie.. Pe BooM bOOm ace.

Hitting da Streetz

I woke up the same time as Nami and decided to go with her half way to her work. We were a little too late to get breakfast so we grabbed a quick coffee and jumped on the train. I got off in Shinjuku where i played Time crisis. I looked around at the prices of Discmans (Im not good with ipods, they dont more than 6 months even when i look after them heaps!) and then jumped onto another train to Harajuku. I got off at the wrong exit and ended up having to walk down a street packed with teenagers and "visual Kei" kids. Crazy.. But i love the crowdedness..

I then found a nice little seat (metal bar along the road) and sat there and drew for an hour or so. Which resulted in...

I havent been able to buy any drawing books since ive been here so i have just been going over the same cover of my rhyme book. I love the pens they have here. They are paint ones which go over anything and are so much cheaper than the ones in nz... No wonder their shoplifting is so lower here than nz.. note: the princess was drawn by Nami and the fruit by Saori and Nami.

This is the inside of my book. THeres also another princess by Saori.. Drawings awesome it works as a time line. Hey I discovered something about myself.. Due to my graffiti "street art" upbringing, I learnt to get the bulk of the task done fast, overall looking farly good but by no way perfect. This has then been applied to my way of doing things.. No wonder i never got a "A" at uni.. I`ve do things fast, last minute get good enough, but could never go over it with a fine tooth comb.. Hmm i wonder now that i realise this, i can prehaps change it.. of course i can... If i want too that is.. hehe

anyway back to my day.. I went and brought two shorts that i saw a few days back, they were about $10 each. Ones army like and the other dark green.. Both good enough for the price..

I then came home, tried on the shorts realised one was way too big and one was perfect.. We`ll see if that ratio changes once they`ve been washed..

I met Nami at the usual time and we had Nakau.. Played coin games. Broke even and came home again.. Now i gotta transfer some music.. P lower case e-a-c-e!

Go fiSh

This is going to be pretty short, not much really happened today. Nami left early and was set for a long day as she had to stock take, so i got all confortable at home watching the internet etc, then when i started doing the washing Nami walked in.. She had finished work early and had emailed me, but as i wasnt expecting to get a message till 10pm i didnt check. She was cool with it tho. So we walked back to the trainstation and got italian then went a played some games.

This is a screen shot of the fishing game. You put coins in the left and right side and it shoots out nets, the aim is to catch fish and along the way you get mini sub games which give you the chance to get more coins..

The game centres are just like casinos except you dont win any "money" back. You pay money and in return get coins i..e 1000yen into the machine 100 coins out.. When you`ve finished playing, you place the coins into a little weighing thing and it adds up how many coins you have and logs it into your account.. Another cool thing, is the account.. You type in your pin number then have to go through a finger print id!! cool huh!! coz you know.. you dont want people stealing your coins!!..

hehe but we had a pretty bad day, we used some coins we had left over, lost, got more coins to try and win it back, lost, got more coins and lost again.. Addictive just like gambling.. I wonder if i could start up a loan shark coin business.. hmmm...

well thats all from me,.. peace out yalliez

Cave Man

I havent cut my hair for 10 months (except for a little trim-ish on Chinese New year eve) so today was the day that I had been waiting for (Nami too, my hair got pretty messy). So we woke up pretty early considering it was her day off and trained to Ebitsu where we went to "Nicola`s" (naoyan`s work). I sat with Naoyan and flicked through a hair colour book and picked out a "red" colour (unfortunatly they didnt have the products to do Bright red and Nami didnt want me making it blonde). So i jumped in the chair and got my hair bleeched... THey had this cool heating thing that spins around above your head.. While we waited for the bleech to kick in, Naoyan worked on Nami`s hair. This process repeated several times. THen the red dye came in and naoyan tidied up my hair.. I didnt like the red at first, as it didnt come out how i expected and my haircut didnt change much. But it grew on me. Naoyan styled it in a way i could never repeat. hehe Nami looked cool, her hair style was cool and a nice natural brown colour..

After our haircut we walked to Daikanyama, we looked around at a few shops and Nami told me the toliet where she lost her ring and the shops she use to go to with her sister (when they use to share clothes). We found this cute little pathway leading up hill and tucked half way up was a little waffle house. We ducked in there and ordered.

Nami had ice cream, bananas and cream waffles and i had the grilled chicken panini. The atmosphere was cool (apart from the mozzies), we decided to sit outside (looked pretty crowded inside). THe sun slowly set and waether cooled down a little.

We then walked to SHibuya (along the train side) and then walked to harajuku. Its quite a walk, but there were heaps of things to see and so many poeple rushing around time went by real fast. We decided that we didnt need anything in Harajuku and decided to go back home and eat Nakau. I had the usual Katsucurry (I`ll take a photo one of these days).

Then we came home. Gotta do some photo transfering so i`ll leave it here. Peace yall..

RockiN JunK FooD

Arrived at Snoopy town (Harajuku, omatasanduru exit) on perfect time. Shuji was waiting for me, he mis timed his trip and ended up being there 30 mins early but he too,like me as long as we have music we could wait for hours for people (and have waited for hours for people!!!). Anyway as soon as we met, Shuji whipped out the magazine he had talked about earlier and it was the exact same one that i was browsing through in the book shop. It is packed with jewelry and shop addresses etc (i wanted to buy the mag, but thought it would only make me want things that i couldnt afford). But it just so happened that Shuji wanted to find the jewelry shop which i had already been too previously. We followed that map and i found it. HE found a wicked skull braclet that he likes (costs around $900-$1000), We took mental notes, then i showed him the rock shop i had been earlier..

He was amazed, it had everybody he knew, although nothing really caught his eye, given this was my second time in this shop, i had decided to buy the slash tee shirt. Its black with his face in white, a little expensive but looks awesome. Not sure if im still going to have it after thailand tho.. We`ll see...

Shuji then lead me into every single shop that i had browsed with nami in the exact same route, i was amazed. It happens alot with my crew, even tho we`re seperated by distance, the similarities never cease.

After our little shopping field trip we went in search of food. We had taken the wrong direction and both didnt know where we were, so we kept walking. We ended up at a burger resturant that i had gone with Nami back in 05 after we had our hair cuts.

The order system was crazy and Shuji and I both got extremely confused when we ordered. The lady kept asking us if we wanted a set and shuji said yeah if we can have the drink as a beer. Then she repeated (this went on for several minutes) .. Compelety lost Shuji just said yes, yes yes... We ended up with two sets each, as well as a super big bowl of fries... Why is is this guy always gets too much chips.. hehe

We were soo full afterwards (didnt help that we ordered 1/2lb meat patties). Stomaches hanging out, we slowly drifted towards Shibuya.

We did our usual singing at the usual place, we didnt see any famous stars and drunk fairly lightly. We joked about ordering more food and sung all sorts of songs (most were ones we only knew the chorus =P).
After two hours our thoats were starting to give up (i sung three days in a row). So we headed off....

We both werent quite ready to go home, i suggested fridays which shuji agreed. After a few mis guidements i finally lead us to the right place.. We thought it`d be funny to pack ourselves with more junk, So i ordered Loaded potato skins, Nachos and two friday ice creams. Not to mention a couple of beers.. The food was alright, but when they brought out the ice creams me and shuji felt ill... We finished it, sat and talked and laughed about how stupid we were... We then got pretty tired and decided to make it an early nite. So we headed to the trianstations and parted ways.. We`re not sure if we can meet again before i go, but it was nice, typical X styles... "never say goodbye"....

I ended up coming home well under time, so i headed home and waited for Nami to finish work. I met her at the trainstation around 10.30ish and we went to Mos burgers for din dins (i didnt eat tho, way too much chips in my system).. Then headed to the game centre where we played the fishing game. WE lost all of our saved coins and brought some new ones (just like the casino except you dont win any money back hehe). And won back our lost coins.. WE banked it and came home. Where Nami surfed the net, educating me on the different stars etc and we checked out the TOP 100 women and discussed our different tastes. Thats it yo, Peace..

notenotes

I have gotten a little behind on the entries recently now havent I?! Not too worry i have taken notes, i just gotta load up some photos etc. Been extremely busy with meeting Nami`s friends, shuji and hairdresser brother and I`ll fill you in on that later, i will be out again today, but on the 2nd i have the whole day to catch up with this stuff, so expect mass entries.. aiite holler at yall soon,. PEACE

free DRINKS

I spent the most part of the day indoors at home, grabbing the latest how i Met your mother (or prehaps i was behind on the season) and watched them.. At 6 i made my way to shujis work. I was running a little late but when i arrived, Shuji was still working (gotta love Japan`s working ethics). So i sat at the bar, I was taken by suprise when i arrived, as one of the waitresses called out to me by name. She speaks fluent english and Shuji informed her that i was coming. She will also be in Thailand in the same time that i will be. SO we`ll meet up if we can.. I thought i`d be showing her around but she`s lived in Thailand for 3 years..

Anyway back to the bar, I sat there, had a beer and drew on my arm till shuji finished. He joined me and handed me a plate of whale.. I wasnt exactly in the mood for Whale but thought I had to try everything once.. It was a real werid taste, fish like with a meat texture.. It was sashimi but luckily there was sauce to mask the taste. We then ordered a few more drinks and talked about music. When we left we didnt have to pay for anything.. Shuji said its his works style.. (here i was thinking i had it good with free food but free booze... DAMN!) hehe..

Since we saved on drinks, we decided to taxi to roppongi which was a lot cheaper than i expected. We got to our kareoke place and met a Famous japanese Idol.. WE acutally waited in the elevator so we could ride with her. Shuji asked if we could take a picture but she shyly declined (Stick up little toffy nose!!) hehe but it was fun..

Shuji ordered too many chips once again, but we had awesome calamari.. We rocked with all the usual rock songs and the odd rap ones. THen walked around in the pissing rain for a bit before coming home..

I was later than i expected, but i had already informed Nami was going to be late, so i met her at home. We talked a little then she went to sleep and im here.. Im going shopping with shuji tomorrow so i best be hitting the hay.. Peace outs!

If only Kaz was Here

Today was awesome. Nami and I woke up a little late, rushed to the trainstation and transfered twice to meet DTB at Saiyu buying supplies for the BBQ. The atmosphere was a little cold as most were tired but that wasnt going to last long. After we gathered our suppies we took a bus to our location, where we set up our rented tent and bbq.

The day was action packed, from cooking, to drinking and just playing around. I cant explain how good it was to see everyone out of their suits, I felt like i was back at school. Rather than explain everything that happened, i`ll just briefly comment on the photos that come up.. FIrstly on the left, was sessan and his skateboard doing ollies. Hes been playing for over 10 years. He rocks!!

This is Nori, he was our main chef, who had brought his own gloves, he also lead us in pitching the tent.. It was a lot of fun, considering i couldnt understand the instructions i think we did pretty well. It was cool, the boys pitched the tent and got the bbq going while the girls cut the veges, hehe us boys started drinking first. =P

This is the crew, from left Nori, Sessan, I-chan, Me and Yoohei.. THe bottom two are Takumi and youske... We all played Dodge ball with that yellow thing. It took about half the game for me to get the rules and when i finally did i got out.. I didnt contribute much to our team winning but due to the drinks my hands werent exactly connected to my eyes.. hehe.. THe other team "begged" for a rematch. Which we accepted but after a drinking break we forgot about it.

This is Sessan, Nami and Izumi.. Sessan took me to the harbourside (which involved jumping a fence). He explained a fish "BORRAHH" and that theme stayed with us the whole nite.. Nami is munching on some noodles that we cooked up as a grand fanale. Izumi is a lot of fun, full of energy.

This photo is of Nami and Ikumi (Youske`s girlfriend). I have met Ikumi two years ago. It was nice to see her face, i like talking to her, although i dont always understand her japanese she always tries to get what im saying and it ends up being quite a conversation. Its so cute watching her and Youske playing around together. Shes sweet.

<--- Izumi and Muscle man Youhei!.. hehe I have a stack of crazy photos of him making all sorts of funny poses. Him and Youske are the ones that always loook after me although i usually cant get their Slang..

This is I-chan eating four little fish in one mouthful. Inspired by the drunken proposition that Takumi put forward. Which I-chan achieved easily. THe other photos are harlirious!.

Rio on the left and marippe on the left. Rio was cool, a little typsy and was talking all these serious relationsihp stuff with me, it was nice. And Marippe was the one who organized this ROCKIN day. rock on HOmie!.

After serveral hours, and bottles after, we lugged our rubbish out and took down the tents, then we all stumbled on board the bus. THis is Takumi reprentin` with Izumi and Nami. The bus layout was pretty stink, single file and i was near the end so me and Takumi didnt get seats. It didnt really matter tho, we were just dancing around..

When we arrived back at the orginatl trainstation i got a huge suprise... BIG GORI was there!! Its been 2 years since i`ve seen him. He has moved out of tokyo to teach. He was the guy came with Nami to the airport to pick me up and drove me home when i first came to tokyo. Hes like my big brother here.. and hes MASSIVE..

We then headed on the train to a different area where we went to BIg echo and sung our hearts out. Their was a little confusion on the way, e.g i lost my train ticket, we misplaced a person (who we found later) etc.

But it was great, I sung delimma with Nami and the crew chose me a eminem song to sing.. I was a little guttered that i didnt get to hear takumi really sing (he was a lead singer in a band) but that just means we have to sing together again sometime. It was a lot of fun, we drunk more, and ate nibbles..

After singing we met outside in the rain and Gori annouced his big news.. He had been to his partners parents house and asked permission to marry their daughter, he got it and is planning on getting married sometime in the next couple of years..

Today was such a breath of fresh air, we all drunk at a reasonable rate, we were all relaxed and it was just a stack loads of fun. I havent had this kinda outdoor time in years.... It beats loud music at a club anyday. So to the DTB family, thank you for your company. You really are my TOkyo Whanau.. Peace!!..

ps: FYI you can click on the pics which will open the picture in a window, you can then right click the image and save it.. OR you can just get a better look at the photos... Sorry for those whos internet is a little slow, it musta taken you ages to load up.. Thanx.. Outies

foOd mmmm

Today i woke up feeling extremely hungry, so we went to eat italian at this 500 yen shop. The daycore was awesome but service and food was exactly 500yen style... If not worst.... The spagetti was hard and the water foul and it was quite a mission getting the waiters attention. Although the chief looked pretty cool, he was in a shirt and pants, felt like we were at his house and he was cooking in the kitchen. =P

After our brunch, i made Nami rush off to a drink machine to buy some tea. We then jumped on the train and went to Shinjuku. We hit a couple of floors in a shopping centre and got to re visit some of the shops i had been when i first came to Tokyo back in 2005. Nothing really caught our eye so we headed off to get some coffee.. Most places were packed so we settled for grabbing coffee to go and drinking it outside. We just chilled and observed our surroundings. There was this one guy who was trying to get people to go to his karaoke place. Nami told me his job was tough, as that place is known to be real crap and far away. The guy also wasnt very good at his job, he asked a couple of 70 year olds if they wanted to go. hehe

Then went into the medicine shop to look at the prices of hair dye, went to the east exit game centres and played a few ufo catchers (Nami won a little banana soft toy with a cute little black top hat). I decided i wasnt having a good hair day so we gave the sticker photos a miss..

Outside there was heaps of noise so we went to check it out and it was a live band rocking outside the trainstation. Although there werent many people there was ton of head bobbing movements.

Dinner time rolled up and we went deep into the train station in search of somewhere to eat. We got side tracked a little and ended up looking at fish but finally we made our way towards TOnkatsu Nami has been wanting it for sometime. It was awesome value, the set menu was only $12 approx.. The soup was great and just as we had finished i realised some kanji on the wall and asked Nami what it said. She said it read "free refills for rice, salad and soup". I was so full but i loved the miso soup so i made Nami order another bowl for me. =) I still wanted more but i wasnt sure if i should or not and the shop was closing.. I chose not to, we can always go back..

Feeling fully full we crammed onto the train and came home. When then got a call that Naoyan was coming over. SO we roughy cleared a few things and played games till he arrived. He was like Santa and had brought me a ton of gifts, two hats and a polo. Naoyan`s best friend has a clothing company and wanted to hook me up wiht some stuff.. They were sooo cool. We took photos to send to him and the pic on the right is Aki, Naoyan and me, all wearing his mates hats.. We then all hung out in our bedroom and played this game where you match up little fluffy balls to make them disapear. It was a lot of fun and highly addictive. Time rolled on and before we knew it, it was time for Naoyan to jet, so we said our goodbyes and thanx, and watched him ride off into the nite. PEACE

950yen

Well what can i say, today was much the same as yesterday except for our choice in dinner. I spent most of the day learning how to use some music programs that i have at home via youtube. There are some great posts on there and i felt like i spent a day with a professional teacher one on one. It felt so good to learn something new again and "study". It still gets me how when we are a student its like the last thing we want to be, but once we are out of that situation we realise how good we had it. Today i learnt that when you study something you are actually interested in, knowledge just seaps in.. =)

I made Nami go to mcdonalds today, i have been missing it for quite some while. Nami had some vouchers that we got in the mail and after a little disscusion and some calculations Nami came up with the perfect mix for less than $10.. I also got to try the MEGA MAC!!.. I didnt think i could eat it intially but it wasnt that big, the meat patties seemed thinner than usual. It was a usual big mac, with extra cheese and extra two meat patties.

Afterwards we decided to go do something fun as tmr was going to be Nami's day off. So we went down to race!.. I lost. AGIAN (i still havent beat her yet) i had the mitsubishi evo and she drove the supra.. I was pretty close this time tho, only 2 seconds behind her.. hehe

We came home, sent a few texts out to catch up with people and im back here.. Just going to go search for some music players on the net. Peace out yallizz

2nd life

I spent most of the day recovering from last nites episode and spent a bit of time budgeting the last remaining yen and semi planning little things to do in thailand. I also descovered the likes of Gwen Stefani, and TI..

I ate the only packet of noodles left, which were these ones that dont have soup. It was quite salty but satisfied the hunger none the less..

Nami finished work at her usual time of 10pm and we conversed about our families and revisited yesterdays events over spagetti. We got a lot of good talking and although we get to talk on the phone everyday nothing beats being able to talk face to face with someone you want to listen to..

Nami's getting ready for bed, it must have been a super long day for her, im going to have a shower and wash up too, peace yall..

Train RidaH

I woke up today with the determination to buy some of the things i have been thinking about. I came to the conclusion that when im with Nami i search for approval before i buy something. This time i just got, what i wanted..

I left the house around 4 and as i had a arranged meeting with Nami`s friend in UENO at 7.30 i planned my day. I started by tripping off to Nakano where i went straight to the underground shop to buy a one strap bag. I figured since i had finished school it was about time i stopped carrying a school bag. So i grabbed that, then my ipod shuffle clicked and stopped playing in the right ear (the headphones are fine) so i felt a little bummed.. But i didnt let that dishearten me, i then tranfered two trains to Harajuku.

I spent a good 30 mins looking at a business card and following the directions to this underground jewelry shop (pic above) to purchase a skull-ish ring. The guy speaks english and explained that he not only designed the jewelry but made it himself. Its a very common piece but this has a lot more style to it, thiner and more detail. I then looked at some street shops and got a couple of bracelets.

I then jumped back on the train and worked my way to Ueno.. ( i was lucky Nami had written the name in japanese). I timed it perfectly and arrived at 7.20... I was feeling nervous meeting Nami`s friend so i grabbed to mixers from the convient store, drunk them and waited. Bang on 7.30 Takumi (Nami`s friends boyfriend) came up behind me.. We talked and he took me to the park where we met SAIGO DON (Last samurai).

Givin the description was explained in Japanese, i got that he lived around the Meji period and was famous for his way of thinking rather than his fighting skills.

The park was huge, but not very well lit, there were a lot of city dwellers around so we decided to gap it and walk around the city.

Then Takumi`s girlfriend called and we met up with her, she gave me a cd that is limited to her work only and we talked and searched for a good place to eat. We tried three of the five floors and all were fully booked.

Nami called, and she met up with us and before i knew it the time alone with her friends had passed. We settle in a Japanese pub and ordered a stack load of food. We then changed tables (to the next floor). The waiters brought up all the food and alligned it the way we had it downstairs, good memory or what!!.

This is a sashimi dish, we also ate some grilled fish and deep fried chicken, along with cold noodles, veges and a stack load of Nama beers. Nami and her friend spent most of the time talking to eachother which was cool as me and Takumi could talk. Although hes 27 he thinks a lot like me, and we share similar interests (helps that Nami and her friend react the same to situations too) so he was cool to vent too....
But the main reason for todays meeting was for us all to meet Nami`s friend, Marippe`s boyfriend. They both had work and didnt arrive till after 10ish. We all thought he would bve shy but he was real open and fun. We all connected real well (such a relief, i had been a bit sceptical about meeting Nami`s friends, since the last time). So yeah, the photo on the left shows Koji (right) and Takumi left.

Then we have the girls, Marippe (left), Nami and Rio. The boys all wanted to go to kareoke, but as some had work and the time was coming to a closing we decided to make it next time.. Takumi and Rio gave me a good luck charm/toy for a going away present and birthday present. Its real cool, It`ll be on my stereo when i get home..

Well, time passed by real fast, before we knew it we were saying our good byes at the trainstation. Nami and i headed up to our train only to realise that we were 20 seconds late. Which meant we had missed our last transfer train.. So we were going to be stuck in Shinjuku. Taxi`s are mega expensive but we didnt really have a choice (unless we stayed in a net cafe). So we jumped on the next train and on the way there, Nami fell asleep. I woke her up to check if we had missed our stop and she said yes so we got off.. Then we both realised we hadnt but there were no more trains. So now we were really stuck.

Nami went to every police box to ask for directions (she even asked one police man how much a a taxi would be! hehe) and we were posed in the right direction when i realised a sign and thought we should enquire into the cost of a taxi from there. It was much cheaper than we expected ($30) for a 15-20 min ride. So i said lets take it and we came home. I felt like i was in thailand (coz we only travel via taxi`s there).

We made it to asagaya station tired and a little sore, we went to lawsons brought some junk food and put ourselves to bed. =) ......

P P PEACE YALLIZE

I love Korean (f00d)

Yo, today i spent the most part of the day chilling at home, dispite my intentions to go out and make up for yesterday, i didnt get a text from Nami till it was too late to go anywhere.. Ah well, tomorrow I`ll definately go out n rock tokyo OTL style. =)

I met Nami in Shinjuku, we looked at a few shops (wicked jewelry shop, but soo expensive) and ended up at the 7th floor of a shopping complex to grab dinner.. It was quite a cool floor, like a foodcourt, but instead of the little stores they were resturants. THey had cool lighing and those egg seats.

Nami picked out Korean.. and As you know me, i wasnt too wrapped by the idea but what the heck, we havent had korean food together in japan and i havent eaten korean food for over 2 years. So we walked in.. We were served by a Korean man, and when we asked what the cheese (korean un yongs words etc) was he replied "bread with lots of different cheeses.. Nami said it sounded boring but ordered it anyway. It was alrite, cheesy...and they gave us a side of chilli mixture to dip it in..

The next dish was Fried rice. It came in a hot plate, with different veges kinda liked the chinese "baked" rice. It was pretty crunchy and the veges were hard. Then ordered some fried chicken, it was coated in a chilli batter. I liked it, although you cant really go wrong with chicken now can you.. Lasty we tried ordering soup but the waiter said the price shown was only for one serving enough for one, so he advised we order two.. At $15 a serving we just thought we`d flag the soup.. WE were pretty full anyway..

So we came home, being getting ready for bed and Nami`s friend Rio just called and has planned my life for tomorrow (without confirming with me!!!!). So looks like im going to an unknown place via train alone, then meeting her friends without her... FUn fun...Peace....

I dont get Annoyed Easily....

I gotta learn to trust my feelings. YOu know those days when You just know things arent going to go your way.. Well today was one of them... I got the feeling when we were 2 hrs behind our designated leaving the house time and that set everything back..I had a list of things to buy in harajuku and a time schedule. Not to mention Nami had a letter to send and I had to transfter some money..Well....

We first went to MIZUHO bank to transfer some money into an account (Im trying to help one of my boys buy some car parts). Now in Tokyo you can do bank transfers via the ATM, unfortunatly this was unavaiable for the english section and Nami had to do it in Japanese (which annoyed her).. ANd the stupid car company gave us their bank details in english. e.g. BANK NAME: TAMA SHIN-KIN bank.. Now THere was no listing of this, only a TAMA SHIN blah blah KIN blah blah etc.. So we took a guess,... Then once we entered the account details it then showed a different company name from that in which the company gave me.. I was so annoyed i figured we'd just trust it... I'll check the details tmr and fingers crossed its alright..(This transfer took us over 30 mins to do)...

ok, then we went to our local cafe which is normally dead.. TOday was packed, the line was huge and we were squished for seats, on top of that they misheard my order and gave me the wrong one.. So feelin uneased and dishearted i comtemplated canning today and just heading back home. But Nami's days off are scarce so we went on a head..

WE finally make it to Harajuku (3hrs behind planned time) only to find that a) Everything i was looking for was too expensive, b)Nami wasnt in a shopping mood and c) the shops gave us wrong directions. SO after spending last nite complying a list of things to get, i got nothing.... The item that really got me was these sunglasses.. I spoted them two days ago and figured that i really liked them and today i was going to get it.. It just so happens that the only pair of sunglasses not on the stand today was the GREEN ONES!!..man...

We then got thai food, which wasnt as good as it usually is, but on the up side at least we got a seat, we've been turned away twice since i've been here.. We then came home, and forgot to send a letter which was important..

So empty handed, annoyed and fustrated i can only hope that tomorrow will be the coolest day ever aver being delt todays fustrations.. Peace

note: i wrote this in a babble, if it doesnt make sense dont worry about it.. NOthing really here but the Grrrrrr sensation.....

Expensive Taste

Today started off with a mad rush to the train station as Nami had booked us seats to her workmates play. It started at 2 and required 3 transfers. We didnt leave the house till 10 past 1. The lack of food lead to a lack of energy which resulted in missing the train by 30 seconds.. Luckliy for us another one came 2 minutes later. We made it into the threthe bang on 2pm and had asle seats (so we didnt disturb anyone.. even tho the play hadnt even started yet).. Pic to the left is the threthe..

The Show was much better than i had expected. (seeing as it was a play in japanese with no subtitles i had anticipated sitting there for 2 hrs clueless). However there was a 10 min intermission in which Nami filled me in and the story line wasnt very complicated.. IT was about a company blowing up, creating monsters and "the company" trying to cover it up. It was quite intense. Nami`s workmate was one of the monsters and had a lead singing role.. (it was kinda a musical too, with maids singing and dancing.).. hehe

We were starving after the play and as the plays location is famous for Sushi and Sashimi (because its near the port and has the biggest, seafood market where most tokyoians get their supplies from) we naturally went for Shuji.. Now i havent eaten Sushi properly since Ive been in japan (only had the rotating sushi once). So i didnt know what to expect..

We picked our place and were seated at the counter, where the chief smiled and talked cheerfully while we called out what we wanted. He was curious about me and asked many questions (also gave me a bloody plate to catch the food coz he thought i couldnt handle chopsticks well). The picture on the left shows some kinda japanese fish (which was extremely hard and rubber like) and the other samon.

THe next picture shows some lightly grilled tuna (right side) which tasted amazing.. And so it should have for 530 yen each ($6 NZD). The other was another kinda fish. WE ordered serveral other sushi`s and one soup, i stopped quite early as i didnt see how 350yen average per mouthful was worth it. But Nami contiued (apparently Forigners and Japanese think differently. FOr japanese Sushi is an expensive dish and this pricing is expected).

When we decided to leave, we were hit with a whopping 8000yen bill (thats like 90 bucks!!). Nami paid for it as she said shse was the one who chose the place and wanted sushi. I thought it was cool but felt a little bad for spending that much on sushi!!.. but to their credit it was nice sushi and the atmostphere was wicked..

(while trying to snap a photo of the sushi shop i caught two Japanese doing their bowing offs. hehe Sushi and Bowing SOOO TYPICAL). SO as you`ve probally figured i dont think I will be taking any of yous here well not until im making ma millions. =P

With seafood smelling breath, Nami suggested we hit Tullys for a bit of a wake up hit. SO yeah, i got a double shot of espresso and ice cream. HEAVEN!! They use to have a Espresso shake which i Drunk soildly when Nami worked for TUllys but they have since taken it off the menu...

We took a stack load of movies and photos as we had a whole room to ourselves. Prehaps you`ll see em pop up some where around the net..

I then decided that i would like to have a look at some shops and given our location we opted for Harajuku as it was close. When we got there we roamed the back streets and found heaps of cool stores that i had never seen before. I found heaps of stuff i wanted, but also those were things that were way beyond my kinda income.. hehe.. To those living or going to london, look for the jewelry shop "crazy pig" they have wicked designs.. This one shop that we found that suppied them said that they have to order it and it`ll take 8months to a year to get done.. (no idea how that works)..

Time whizzed by and before we knew it the doors were coming down and people were exiting.. So we too made our way to the trainstation.. This is where i brought a 190 yen ticket (when i fully knew it costs 160 to go home) and got jam packed in the train.. But all n all good ol tokyo fun..

We were still pretty full from the sushi (or prehaps we were full coz it costs so much). So we went for ice cream in our station. (thats twice today, turning into moony!). Nami had green tea, i had bananas, brownies, and box of choclate ice cream.. THen we grabbed a piece of chicken from lawsons and came home..

Nami has been busy writting a report. Which for once isnt due tomorrow. And Im about to sign off and do some drawing.. Aki is going to use the computer tomorrow so Im gonna have to figure something else to do to keep myself occupied.. aiity homies.. p to the e to the captial A little c e.