September 27, 2003
Another day, another bowl of miso ramen. I went shopping downstairs again during my dinner break tonight(I worked a late shift). The market downstairs is loaded with discount foods and drinks. I buy the usual bunch of bananas, 2 liters of green tea, and a loaf of bread, with the occasional package of candy or mochi. I had a giant bowl of soup for dinner.

fig. 5: Mobile Crash Test Rollercoaster Thing

September 26, 2003
It's been raining for the past two days, but today cleared up a bit, so I decided to go for a long walk. I walked to Gotanda which is only about 10 minutes from my apartment, and then wandered around for a bit. I had lunch at a Mos Burger, and enjoyed a chicken and asparagus sandwiche with a tall glass of melon soda. I walked towards the station and noticed a large group of people and police officers gathering around a large truck. When I got to the other side, I was grabbed by a police officer and motioned into a line that led up to this giant truck thing. The truck was completely open on one side, and within was something that can only be described as a mobile crash test rollercoaster ride. Yes, people were being strapped into a giant car-thing, then propelled into a wall where, upon impact, airbags would inflate and everyone cheered. I was psyched to get on this thing! So, my turn finally came around, and they strapped me in. About a minute later, BAM! I was thrust into a wall and the airbags went off! Well, it wasn't quite as dramatic or realistic, but it was fun. The impact was more like an abrupt stop, and none of us felt the airbag, as it was small and only for show. That was pretty much my day. I met up with Makiko for dinner tonight. She treated me to Annie Miller's, this "American diner" restaurant that serves up a good pecan pie.

fig. 4: Maki-chan(a.k.a. Makiko) at Fudomae Station

September 24, 2003
I have internet access again, YahooBB came through and with Makiko's help, I was able to get it set up in no time. Today was sort of a vacation for me, I swapped a day with a coworker and wound up with an extended weekend this week. So I spent the day with Maki-chan in Meguro. We went to this great ramen shop for lunch that sold a particularly special type of miso ramen. I tried black goma(sesame) miso ramen, and Maki-chan tried white goma miso ramen. It was amazing. Simply amazing. I've never had soup like this before, it was a miso soup, coated in sesame seeds, and inside the soup were delicious ramen noodles and ground meat with vegetables. It was a bit spicy, but the flavor was unforgettable. After finishing lunch, we hit the local market to buy groceries for dinner. As a few of you may know, my specialty is coconut curry, so I decided to test it's power on Makiko. We bought Japanese sweet potatoes(they're purple!), a big carrot, and a package of shrimp(as I had the rest of the ingredients at home already). I got to try out my new rice cooker, and dinner turned out to be great. Makiko liked my curry and neither of us died of food poisoning. After dinner, we watched some TV, then I walked her back to the train station where we shared a can of cold jasmine tea from one of the vending machines. I wish every vending machine in America would offer cold green tea and jasmine tea. I've been eating so much more healthy food since I got here, I really feel great. Tomorrow, I'm planning to get some errands done and clean my apartment again. I may be able to cook tasty food, but I have yet to perfect a technique where the food stays in the pan and doesn't make it's way to the floor and the walls.

fig. 3: Jon's special, "Coconut Shrimp Curry," of unknown origin

September 22, 2003
This evening I hit a conveyer belt sushi restaurant in Machida with my friend Katrine. It was sooooooooo good!!!!! I love sushi! I had tuna, salmon, and all kinds of other wonderful raw ocean-dwelling creatures. I had a lot of fun, and made it back to Fudomae just in time for the last train.

fig. 2: Atop my microwave, a little plastic Japanese athlete

September 19, 2003
Last night I returned to the Seco Bar with Makiko. We had a drink and a small dinner. It was nice to get out and go for a walk. After dinner, Makiko and I looked for that new "Caramel Custard" ice-cream, and found it at another convenience store. It was really tasty, I wonder if you can get the same flavor back in the States. I really love where I live now, it's not too far to walk home from Shibuya. I will be buying a bike soon, but for now, I'm enjoying exploring the area. A few nights ago Makiko took me to a place called, "Book Off," where you can buy used books. They have isles and isles of manga for a 100Y each(that's something like $0.85 each, compared to the $6.00 I'd drop on the same thing in the States!). I can practice reading Japanese with these things, as most are written in hiragana and katakana.

Tonight I had a mixed dinner of strange things I picked up on my way home. I had a slice of pizza from a bakery, a little packet of chicken things from Lawsons Convenience Store, and a bowl of miso soup when I got home. I'm a little dissapointed because for the next few days, I have to wake up at 7:00AM to leave for work. At least until October when I can begin working at a school closer to my apartment, then my commute will only be about 30 minutes, as opposed to the hour and 10 minutes I'm pulling now to haul myself out to Tama Center. Right now, I'm sitting in my apartment being lazy. Maybe later I'll go out for a walk and get some fresh air. Work today really made me tired, so I'm not in the mood to move about much.

fig. 1: Frozen Fruit Cup 200Y, purchased at 11:00PM

September 18, 2003
The second day of my first full weekend in a while. I've been working overtime, trying to save for a vacation later this year. Last night my friend Katrine and some other coworkers came out to Shibuya to hit a dance club. Katrine and I wound up leaving the group to hit the Seco Bar, which is a really nice club under the train tracks near JR Station. There weren't too many people, I suppose since it was a Tuesday night it wasn't really a swinging spot. However, after the club, we stayed out all night and wandered the streets of Shibuya. It was really cool to see an empty Shibuya, it was so peaceful. It's also interesting to see all the strange people that come out at night, it's quite a show.

Yesterday, Wednesday, I met my friend Hodaka(Makiko's best friend), and went shopping in Shibuya for gifts for my sister and relatives. We enjoyed dinner at an Indian restaurant later in the evening, where Hodaka gave me a Japanese lesson. After dinner, my girlfriend, Makiko, called us and joined us at my apartment. We hung out for a few hours, then Hodaka went back to her home in Hashimoto. It was a fun evening, Makiko and I decided at 2:00AM to go out in search of Haagen Daz new icecream, "Caramel Custard," at the local 24 hour convenience stores. "Caramel Custard" flavor is being advertised on all the trains now, so of course it was our mission to try this exciting new flavor. Haagen Daz(along with other icecream brands) offers other interesting flavors such as "Rich Milk," "Royal Milk Tea," and the traditional, "Green Tea" flavor. Sadly, "Caramel Custard" was sold out, so we got these little cups of frozen fruit instead. Japan has these great deserts, which are cups of diced pineapple, pear, apple, and strawberry, frozen. Makiko got one of those cups, and I tried another one where the fruit was covered in frozen coconut milk, they were delicious! This morning I cooked breakfast for the two of us, I made a ham & onion omelette with avacado, and we had grapefruit juice with it. I made it the same way mum makes it back home, which was delicious to Makiko. My kitchen is great, it may be small, but it's not difficult to cook a nice meal.

September 15, 2003
The new apartment kicks ass. I now live in Fudomae, and my apartment is brand spankin' new. I just went shopping with Makiko the other night, and now I've got new teflon pans, a rice cooker($25!!! Beat that for a fancy rice cooker!!!), and a months supply of miso soup. The apartment came with a bed, computer table and chair, washing machine, pots, a few dishes and some silverware, a microwave, toaster, fridge, a TV, new floors and wallpaper, and a new bathroom. It's in the perfect location, I'm only 6 minutes away from the train station, and there are amazing restaurants EVERYWHERE. The restaurants are great, there's a lot of variety, like Chinese, Italian, American, and of course, Japanese. There's a big market near the train station that's open until 3:00AM, and an amazing bakery next to the station. In the morning I've been enjoying the bakery's rice cakes with sesame seed coating, they're delicious! By train, I'm about 7 minutes from Shibuya, 20 minutes from Akihabara, and only a few minutes from Meguro, which has a street laced with ramen shops.

The job's going well too, I'm enjoying my time here and it's not too stressful. I won't have the internet for a while though, probably by the last week of September if I'm lucky. So for now, I have to use internet cafes. Makiko's been working on my Japanese, now whenever we go out, we usually speak half in English and half in Japanese(I try to copy her to learn new words). I had a long day at work today, so I'm heading back to my apartment soon. I'm looking forward to my weekend so I can catch up on sleep.