October 29, 2003
As you can see from the photo on the right, Halloween is coming and I'm fully prepared. I am Super Wrestler Salary Man, I wear a suit and tie, and a powerful wrestling mask that will strike fear into villains and lazy students! I'm not sure what my plans are, but as far as I know, drinkin' and partying will be happening this Friday night! ;)

fig. 4: Seth, his two friends, and I, meeting up in Shimo-Kitazawa

October 27, 2003
I woke up at 1:00PM today, and thought to myself, "I'm becoming a giant, lazy ass." Realizing that I was slowly becoming a lazy bum in the morning, I mustered every ounce of power left in my body to summon my super abilities. In a flash of light and power, I jumped out of bed, and with explosive energy, I flew into the shower, rinsed thoroughly, and used my newly found superhuman abilities to maximize my tooth brushing technique. Once my cleansing mission was complete, I threw open the door, jumped into my super shoes with their magic, hobo-style breathing holes in the sides, and raced to the train station.... well, actually, it wasn't that exciting, but I did go to the train station and I swear, I brushed my teeth this morning, contrary to what others might tell you.

Today was adventure day, target, Ueno. Ueno is 30 minutes away from my apartment, and is the home of the Tokyo National Museum, the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, the National Museum of Science, and the National Museum of Western Art. I must admit though, I was not in the mood to peruse any fine art today, no, I was out for danger and excitment. My journey took me to the Ame-ya Yoko-cho Market (a.k.a. Ameyoko), which in English, means "Confectioners' Alley," as translated by my Fodor's Japan guidebook. This was a long street, teaming with life and saturated with little shops, fruit and fish stands, and various other sights and smells. The first thing that caught me was the sweet smell of durian, my favorite tropical fruit. There were several people selling pieces of durian, pineapple, and melon on a stick as a quick snack. There were also people selling giant bags of dried octopus, squid, and just about anything else which might exist under the sea. A lesson I learned from visiting China was that everything tastes good when you fry it. Well, the Japanese are quickly teaching me that everything tastes good when you dry it. I doubt my stomach will ever show interest in a bag of whole, flattened, dried squid, but those things do look pretty interesting when you take the water out of 'em. I decided to hold back for now, I really wanted the bag of dried, large, red tentaces, but instead, I got a bag of dried strawberries to share with my coworkers tomorrow. Ameyoko reminds me, in so many ways, of a tamer version of Temple Street in Hong Kong. The smells and the atmosphere brought back so many good memories. The side streets and alleyways full of little shops and food stands to discover, and the smells and lights were a sensory overload. This is what I love about traveling, these experiences really last, and recalling a good experience is a wonderful feeling. I loved visiting Hong Kong during my university days, those memories are always there. Ueno was so much fun, it brought back so many memories of Hong Kong, and left me with new memories to think about in the future. So, today finished with dinner in Shimo-Kitazawa, with my friend Seth and two of his friends. We had a nice dinner, a few drinks, and went home.

So here I am now, 1:45AM and typing while the words are still fresh in my mind. I even decided to use a larger photo for this entry, as their faces were getting cut off in the smaller size. I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying something, or at least planning to enjoy something. I'll keep you posted when the new galleries are ready, I have an enormous Fudomae gallery and an Ueno gallery in the works. Maybe I'll find some free time this week to get them together. Also, Liz and Meredith, your birthdays are coming up and you should know that your gifts came from the streets of Ameyoko, Ueno. There were lots of interesting shops selling things from all over Asia, I'll try to mail them out this week. Cheers!

P.S. if I start typing nonsense or philosophical mush, then just ignore it, it's me typing when I should be sleeping.

October 25, 2003
I was born on this day in 1979. I'm now 24 years old, nearly a quarter of a century old, and my hair's already falling out. Most of my students insist I'm 30, though some of them are a little more reasonable and guess that I'm 27. Of course, revealing my true age usually shocks them. This is not a good sign.

October 20, 2003
As a few of you may know, my computer has been down for several days now. An update sent by Apple Computer caused my system to fail and my mail application to cease functioning. I will remain out of contact with all of you until I recieve system software which my parents and friends are mailing me. A lot of things have been happening in these past few days, some of them good, some of them really bad. I suppose my personal life has been a bit on the rocks lately because I've been so busy with work and getting my act together. I'm also thinking about vacation, soon, but my school is making it difficult for me to make any plans. At the end of December, there will be a 9 day vacation, however, we are not told when those 9 days will be. So if I want to buy tickets now, the days may change and I may have to work on those days. It's really stupid, not to mention that I'm too tired half the time to start making any real plans due to this wierd schedule of mine. I should have both Saturday and Sunday off, a normal weekend, but I don't, and that makes things difficult sometimes to plan. I suppose I shouldn't complain, I'm making money and have a nice apartment and live in a good place. I'm just tired and it's 1:30AM and I made a stupid mistake today of calling my girlfriend and wishing her happy birthday a day too early. I think every computer in this world is out to get me, because my cell-phone was telling me that it was the day of her birthday, when really it's tomorrow. So now it's my computer and my cell-phone that want to destroy me, I'm waiting for my Gameboy to come after me and start making me lose games and turn me into a crappy Tetris addict. Now I feel like an idiot more than ever. I wish I lived in some small village with no computers and no mean technology, and long distance communication consisted of a two cans with a string attached. Kathy, my good friend in the Philippines, I hope you're reading this, technology can be mean!

October 12, 2003
Above is a mini-gallery of Yoga, the area where my school is located. It's MUCH nicer than Tama-Center, and the options for lunch are also more interesting. Nothing much is new here though. I'm short on money this month so I'm not going anywhere for a little while. I had to pay off the last of my moving costs, and birthdays are coming up for my sister and best friends, so I need to conserve. As some of you may know, I have been planning a vacation to America sometime in late December or January. Well, I may not be able to come until Febuary or March, as the airfare cost has skyrocketed with the holiday season coming up. Not to mention that my school is being a pain in the ass about holiday requests, and any time off must be requested a minimum of two months ahead of time if I want to take time off around Christmas. If things change, I will update everyone. Regardless of where I am though, everyone will be getting cool gifts from Asia this year, so send me requests if you have something special you're interested in. Chris Schultz, if you're still reading this, there's a big store in Akihabara that's dedicated entirely to robot toys. :)

fig. 3: A REAL Kaiju, ready for battel

October 8, 2003
I have nearly 200 new photographs, and almost not time to upload them, so please be patient as I paste these new galleries together at 1:00AM every night. Energy drinks like Pocari Sweat and Dakara have been fueling this process for the past week. I updated the train map with kanji names and slightly more accurate placement. Please e-mail me right away if you have any difficulty viewing any of the contents. Nothing much new here, just working and saving money for a vacation. I hope everyone is doing well and I hope Georg is surviving Sweden. For my sister, Liz, keep working hard in school and you'll get something cool for your birthday this November.

fig. 2: Tama Center train station, maybe around 9:00AM

October 2, 2003
I finally transferred schools, and now work in a place called Yoga. It's really, really fancy, though the teachers room is smaller than my bathroom. The classrooms are really large and comfortable, and the students seem nice. I miss my Tama Center students though, they were starting to feel like family. I also miss the Chitoseya market downstairs, they always had a good deal on pineapple juice and candy. However, I'm very happy with my new situation, even my schedule is cool. I get Sundays off, which means I can document Japanese festivals which usually occur only on the weekend.

Yoga is a decent place, but the location of my school is really the coolest spot. If I walk out of the school and turn right, there's a giant waterfall and a big noodle restaurant. In front of my school, there's a First Kitchen burger joint, and a video rental store around the corner. It's going to be fun working here, I hope.

fig. 1: Happy rubber horse things in Shimo Kitazawa, 8:30PM

September 29, 2003
Had a great time in Shimo Kitazawa with Makiko, Katrine, and my new friend Geri. Geri and I walked around early in the evening shopping. We met up with Makiko and Katrine around 9:00PM and ate dinner at this wild Asian restaurant that Makiko knew of where everything was 380Y. It was a lot of fun, we drank a lot and enjoyed good cheap food. I got a shot glass at one of the shops with the Atari logo on it for 100Y. I definately want to go back soon, Shimo Kitazawa was really nice, I'll post photos soon.