June 29, 2003 (late night)
I didn't even realize it until it was too late. If you look to the left of the, "Ice Milk Cocoa" photo which I just added to the Tama food section, you'll see a can of, "American Coffee." Wow, I didn't even notice the label. If you can read it from the photo, it says, "There's a gallon of deliciousness in every drop. Reach for the taste of good taste, reach for DyDo." Far out. I thought it was American coffee flavor, whatever THAT tastes like, instead I guess it tastes like DyDo. Your guess is as good as mine, I haven't tried it yet. I'm nervous about the concept of receiving a full gallon of deliciousness in a drop of this stuff. That must be like getting hit by a train, a lot of power, in every drop!

June 29, 2003
Where the heck can I begin? I'm not sure what to say this time either, a lot has happened. I'm sure some of you noticed, my website was hacked, I was informed this morning. John told me that it was Georg who got it back up and running, so a massive thank you goes out to him. I don't know what they posted on my site while it was being hacked, but I'm sorry if it was offensive. I've met a lot of interesting people, and finally a crowd of artists. I'm very happy. The weather here is the worst right now, it's very hot and very humid. My apartment is very hot, so I'm using the AC a lot. YahooBB says July 2nd is the activation date for DSL, but people are telling me it may be a longer wait. I hope not, I'm really tired of using internet cafes, trying to make my 400Yen coffee last two hours is difficult. The other day, I went to Nakano with my friend Seth. That place has a mall that is filled with Mandarake, that anime/manga shop. Four floors of comic books, robots, and toys. It was amazing, and of course I forgot my camera. I've been buying Osamu Tezuka manga, it's really well illustrated. I can't read Japanese yet, but I can get a general idea of what's going on in the story from the illustrations.

June 25, 2003 (evening)
The weather cleared up and the day turned out to be beautiful. I went to Hamamatsucho to take photographs of the local temple and Tokyo Tower. It was a beautiful place with a small garden nearby to walk through. The inside of the temple was very impressive, but difficult to photograph. Digital cameras are not great for indoor use, I wish my Nikon was with me. I accomplished a lot today, but I will save it for another journal entry.

June 25, 2003 (morning)
It is the rainy season, and it sounds like a waterfall outside my window. I don't think I'll be going anywhere today, I wish DSL didn't take so long to hook up, I have to wait until July 2nd before the service begins. Today's going to be a boring one.

June 24, 2003
Dan and I rented a kung fu movie, and while he drank beer, I experienced a gin & tonic in a can. Please do not try gin & tonic in a can, it does not taste good. I learned my lesson. That wasn't the only new thing I tried. To compliment my canned gin & tonic, a microwave burrito was acquired. Sadly, it was filled with little hotdogs and marinara sauce. I think the only nice thing I had for dinner was a sushi roll filled with eel which I ate on my way back from work.

June 23, 2003
I taught some interesting lessons today, made a few people smile, and got soaking wet in the rain playing soccer after work in my dress shirt, tie, and black pants. One of my co-workers was leaving to return to Australia, so we had a going away party that involved a park, a soccer ball, and a lot of beer. We played soccer as it rained off and on, it was a great time. There's a giant park at the top of Tama Center, which is where we decided to meet for this event. The park was very impressive, with a lot of trees and a big pond, very nice. It's been an interesting week.

June 17, 2003 (evening)
Mr. Donut stays open until midnight, so here I am typing another journal entry with an expensive cup of coffee. Honestly, this is the first real cup of coffee I've had since I got here. Affordable coffee comes in a can, a little cup of fresh coffee costs about $2.00USD. Mom, dad, those big things of Dunkin' Donut's coffee you buy every other night would cost a small fortune here. I decided to make this place my new evening spot, there are students here studying and an old man is sleeping behind me. Maybe he lives under the table. So, I spent the evening in Shinjuku, uploading the new site. Tomorrow I'm going to the post office first thing in the morning to mail some letters out to you. The weather isn't really improving much, it's very humid here. The donuts here are tiny compared to the monsters you get at home. I finished my honey glazed in no time. They have sesame filled donuts and orange filled donuts. Tasty for only a minute, then gone into the depths of my belly.

June 17, 2003
I'm sitting in the teachers lounge at my school, waiting for other teachers to arrive. Everyone's late this morning because of a traffic accident on the train line. I took another train line to get here, so I arrived early. It's raining heavily today, but that won't keep me from going to Shinjuku after work to upload new content to the site. I'm looking forward to getting DSL, the trip to Shinjuku is costly and time consuming. I had a milk coffee in a can for breakfast this morning, those things have a ton of sugar in them! I'll have a caffeine high from that for about an hour, then I'll need another.

June 16, 2003
I have a handful of new friends now, which is really cool. I went to my friend Dawn's birthday party last night in Shibuya, and met all sorts of interesting people. Dawn is my Scottish friend from work, she's really nice. I like the people I work with, they're all really fun and very friendly. A few nights ago I went to this giant discount store with my roomate and his girlfriend. There I bought my new computer table and a week supply of ramen. They have this isle of discount ramen bowls, which are normally quite pricey, but here they were reasonable. My new favorite is the instant miso ramen bowl. It's my hero when I have an empty stomach. This stuff takes five minutes to make, and has all kinds of dried tasty things inside. I can't even begin to describe how nice it smells, and how good it tastes for an instant meal. Like I always say, if it tastes good, it must be good for you.

This coming weekend, if the weather permits, will be a Ginza weekend. I'm going to hit the streets with my video camera and get some decent footage of the place. It's the rainy season though, so I'm not getting my hopes up. I think it's supposed to rain for little over a month before we start seeing sunny days again. It's kinda cool actually, I like the rain, the sound of rain puts me to sleep, which makes my evenings a little more peaceful. I was at the market today buying tea and bread. The market in the Seiyu is really nice, it's never too crowded, and the selection is really nice. I bought another sesame pudding there, along with the usual necessities. Sesame pudding is so darn tasty, when I first showed my roomate, he thought it looked like something you would use to clean a car engine. Sure it's grey and black colored slime, but boy it's sweet and nice!

So, I'm sure some of you have been recieving my e-mails about Kichijoji. That place is my new favorite hang out spot. I spent my last weekend there, and enjoyed every minute. There are a lot of students there, and lots of good energy. I spent some time at this relaxing little Chinese Tea House, and had a large glass of their "magic" tea. It was excellent, and as I was about to finish, the shop owner brought me a sample of another of their teas, I think it was a barley tea. It was great! The people there are very nice. I walked around for a few hours outside, then went back to the indoor shopping area to check out the clothing stores and import food shops. There are a few art galleries there that are really beautiful. I bought my mother a little illustration book in one of the galleries. Aside from all the major stores inside the indoor shopping area, there are also little alleyways, and those have become my favorite areas to wander around. Down these little alleys are food stalls that only seat about a handful of people. They serve all kinds of home cooked meals like ramen soups, curry dishes, and tempura. There are also little shops selling imports from Indonesia, India, Thailand, and just about every other Asian country. It's a lot of fun walking through these alleys, but please understand, these aren't exactly the best places to whip out a camera and shift to tourist mode. I think it makes some people nervous when someone is shooting photos of them, so out of respect I haven't taken any pictures. I have, however, taken many pictures of Kichijoji's outdoors and temple, so please visit the "Place" galleries and check them out. After I finish in Ginza, I'll upload a few edited clips of my video experience.

June 7, 2003
For the past three nights, I have done nothing. I come home from work, around 6:00PM, fire up the tea kettle, and make myself a bowl of ramen. After a fine dinner, I find myself with nothing to do. My first instinct is to leave the apartment and be outside. The weather here has been warm to hot, and consistently humid. The evenings are beautiful, cool and relaxing with a nice breeze. So I go for walks. In Nagayama, at night, you have the option to play pachinko, play video games at the arcade, or hang out in front of 7/11 and Family Mart. So, unless I'm hungry for a late night snack from the convenience store, there's nothing for me to do here at night. I love Nagayama though, it's quiet and peaceful, the market is very nice, everything is convenient. There's just no night life. I am planning to move into the city later this year, just not right away. It's difficult to make plans in the city as well, depending on where you live. The trains stop at midnight, just like Boston. So if you're having a drink with a lady in Shibuya, you'll have to cut your conversation short around 11:00PM to catch that last train filled with intoxicated business men and sleeping office workers. Which, I must add, is always entertaining. Last trip from Shinjuku, I sat next to this couple who were glued to eachother the entire ride. At least, until the girl started laughing at the top of her lungs. Startled, I leaned over to see what she was looking at. There, lying in the corner of the subway was a business man curled up in the corner, sleeping with his jacket slung over his shoulders, like a sleeping baby with it's blanket. Some of the people here are nuts.

June 5th, 2003
I am an idiot. I didn't spell check my past journal entries and my roomate caught obvious mistakes like, "quite," instead of "quiet." I need to pay more attention to these things. Again, if you notice errors, please let me know. I had an excellent time in Shinjuku today. I got a laptop bag, a new umbrella, and I finally had sushi! I went to a conveyer belt sushi restaurant and enjoyed salmon, tuna, and eel! On my way back to the station, I was invited by some street performers to join their band for a few minutes, and I accepted. I played the bucket strings for two songs with a group of Japanese musicians, each playing his or her own crazy instrument, including a banjo, harmonica, and tamborines to name a few. It was great, and I wasn't even drunk!

June 4th, 2003
I'm starting to see a routine in my daily life. Wake up, dress up, eat, work, eat, sleep. How is that different from my American lifestyle? Replace the muffin and egg for breakfast with a rice cake and a bowl of miso soup. Replace the dinner of instant macaroni and cheese with fried octopus balls and giant sushi triangles. Oh ya, and in America, I was a lazy bum about shaving. My Japanese employer insists on a clean shave every day(No more attack of sandpaper face!). It's my weekend, finally, Wednesday and Thursday. So tomorrow I want to spend little to no money, and still accomplish a lot in the day. My budget is still holding up, but I must admit to a few bad mistakes. I still have yet to learn what is reasonable and what is not for certain products. I am taking full advantage of the 100Yen store near my apartment though. There are stores all over Japan that are identical to our $1 Dollar stores in the States.

Anyway, I'll be heading to Shinjuku after a brief stop in Tama Center to change more travelers checks to yen. I was introduced to a wireless network in Shinjuku which my laptop can connect to for free. So if you're reading this, you can say to yourself, "Jon probably spent all day uploading these little pictures to that big humming box in Chicago, while drinking some wierd green liquid with whipped cream on top. It's about frickin' time he put something new up!" Thanks for your patience, internet is just not as easy to access here as it is back home. I have no idea why, considering I live in a place with a small city dedicated to selling digital cameras and video games.

Many thanks go out to those of you who sent me goodies in the mail. I located the coolest toy store on the planet and ravaged it for cool gifts to send you all. Georg, you kick ass, that book was excellent. I'm not entirely sure who sent me the monkey t-shirt, but it's really cool, I'll be wearing it to Ebisu on my Thursday outting. Ryan & Ryan, I got your package, that was very sweet of you. John, I have been using the incense every other day, it's a nice smell. Of course, Elaine, I wear the ties every day to work, they look very nice. Please, if anyone wants anything, please let me know. I am mailing a box of gifts out as soon as I can get to a post office. I wish I could send you all food, I can't even begin to tell you how badly I want to mail these green tea cakes to you. I guess you'll just have to visit me to find out how good the food is.