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Blogs from Roppongi, Tokyo, Japan, Asia
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January 23rd 2012
Christmas is Japan is very different than Christmas in America. I failed to realize this until Christmas day. I always thought of Christmas being the biggest holiday of the year, but in Japan New Years is. ( I will post about New Years later.) In Japan, Christmas is mainly a couple’s day. Unlike America, where everything is pretty much closed on Christmas, most, if not all, the stores are open in Japan. My friends and I decided to go to Roppongi to see the illumination there. The lights there were amazing and they had a lot of Christmas decorations that reminded me of home. I only walked around a small part of Roppongi, but I was still impressed. I was able to see the Tokyo Tower lit up. It was interesting to see tour groups being ... read more
May 30th 2010
Konnichiha mis amigos! So another year has passed since my wanderings in Indonesia and Thailand and the unquenchable travel bug has struck again. I have returned to Asia but this time aimed my travelquest in a northernly direction for the quirky and well-polished Japan. But Brad (of the Jungle), you might ask, are there really enough sharks, cliffs, rapids, caves and Jungles for you to keep your jungle-name? Maybe. Won't people be wearing 3-piece suits instead of hand-made local clothes? Yeah, kinda...but I am hoping the incomprehensible language, vastly different cultural traditions and puny amount of tourism will be an assault of my assumptions about humanity. A Jungle of the Mind, if you will. And besides, it is only a matter of time before I stumble upon some ancient buddha cave or zen-blessed river to fulfill ... read more
October 17th 2009
spent most the day asleep, still catching up from jet lag! had some food and a shower then started drinking, amaretto and coke - mmmm!! we then started our mission for a night out in roppongi, which is apparently the best nightlife in tokyo, and gotta say.. it didn:t let me down! went with the 2 irish girls and toko, already pissed most the journey. we started with kareoke and i have to say it was one of the funniest moments of my life, it was beyond hilarious. we had our own boothe and sang all the classics from spice girls to abba for an hour, whilst drinking mango/grape sake. after that we went to an awesome bar/club called gaspanic. its amazing how much we get started at for being different, gotta say i love standing ... read more
September 25th 2009
So today we went to Roppongi. Very nice place and very interesting, we went to some TV Station, Ahiba i think. But anyways outside was a massive pikachu in which i think they were promoting the new pokemon game coming out. We did some walking and passed a russian embassy and then heading all the way back. I uploaded a bunch of photos to show you guys. Still haven't put any captions for them but yea. Anyways, tomorrow is the big game show and gotta be up bright and early for that. One last note, at T.G.I. Fridays, Tim tried to tip the waitress and I was about 90 percent sure tipping was insulting, but Tim tried. We walked away and guess what? I got stopped by the waitresses and she handed back the change. So ... read more
September 7th 2009
One Year! It went so much quicker than we could possibly have imagined. We are so excited (and have been for a month) to return home to our friends, family, dog, house, football, and everything else that we love about Georgia. At the same time, we're getting nastalgic already about things we will miss most about Tokyo. Japan is, if nothing else, completely different than any other country we have been or will ever go. If there is a bizarro United States, it is Japan. The people here are thin, unassuming, peaceful, ritualistic, spiritual, friendly, intelligent, and so much more. The country epitomizes Asia. Its lovely terrain has it all, from mountains to ocean, from city to country, and everything in between. It is steeped in a rich history that is savored and reveered, and directs ... read more
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July 31st 2009
I was standing in Yokohama Station, waiting. Waiting, holding my breath. She looked at me, not understanding. Her mind finally caught up with ears and her eyes flew wide open. She had not been expecting it. She leaned forward. She opened her mouth to respond… It was August 7, 2009. I had roughly a week and a half left in Japan. It was a Friday. I smiled uneasily as I left work, my oblivious co-workers expecting another MVP performance during the weekend. I had told them about my 3 day weekend in unadulterated bro-terms (“I got shitfaced and fingerbanged a bitch on Friday, I got shitfaced and doubled in a hotel room on Saturday with a smoking Korean, then blacked out on Sunday and found myself with a ridiculously hot girl in a bathroom!” “High five, ... read more
July 24th 2009
As you can tell from my last entry, work sucks. But it makes partying that much better. Because it puts you in perpetual “fuck it” mode on weekends. Fuck It Mode is a state of completely not caring how hard you party. Usually, it happens when something extreme happens: the love of your life just married someone else, go to the bar, go into “Fuck It Mode” and then try to drink until the skank at the end of the bar looks like Heidi fucking Klum so you can take her home and cry mid-coitus. Fast forward five years and now you’re fucking getting married and it’s your bachelor party: got to Vegas, drink your face off, hire some strippers and enjoy celebratory “Fuck It Mode”. Now you have a nice little family with a wife ... read more
July 16th 2009
I have a real job now. Not having a job has many downsides (all rooted in money) but there are some perks. You actually wake up at a decent time. You exercise. You eat. You get sun. You meet people. You talk to people. You have time to pursue hobbies. You go to sleep at your convenience. You basically have a life. What I have now is a job. A job in a bank. A job in an international bank. A job in a huge-ass motherfucking international bank. A job in a huge ass motherfucking international bank in Tokyo. This means I wake up at 7am, hastily cram food in the ten minutes I allot for breakfast, shave for 5 minutes, fix my bed hair into something presentable in 5 minutes, throw on a long sleeved ... read more
May 3rd 2009
Well I guess it's time to fire up blog stories again so here goes...I arrived in Tokyo Friday afternoon at 3:30 on a flight from Vancouver. After the 10.5 hour flight I was eager to get off to get some real air and move around. Unfortunately, I was going to have to wait. With the current Swine Flu issue being a huge topic, Japanese officals were taking every measure to ensure that their country would not contract the disease. Since our flight originated in Canada, which has confirmed cases of Swine Flu, we had to wait on the plane for nearly 3 more hours until quarantine official dressed in Hazmat suits checked us all out. We had to fill out a questionnaire detailing where we've been recently and if we were feeling sick. Everyone was then ... read more
December 23rd 2008
There are a ton of sites to visit in Japan that capture the holiday spirit. While they don't technically celebrate the Lord's Birthday (most Japanese are Shinto), they hang lights, shop, and play Christmas music (especially Wham's "Last Christmas" and it really gets stuck in your head). They actually have some of the coolest lights I've even seen, and they all flock to see them. Instead of Christmas or holiday parties they have Bonekai's which translates to "forget the year" party which we found very fitting for this year. Today we went to a Christmas concert in the park. If you ever wondered what 30 Japanese girls dressed up similar to nuns sound like singing The Beatles, we can tell you. We still aren't sure why during the Holy Night Concert they busted out with Hard ... read more
