ErikSchneider

So I went to the Fuji Rock Festival. 'Twas wicked. I saw a bunch of bands play... Danced with a load of random Japanese people, basically didn't sleep the whole time... Man, I didn't know there were so many Japanese hippies. And these guys party pretty damn hard. The bands I saw were (In no particular order whatsoever): Kings of Leon Muse The Cure Lily Allen Jarvis Cocker Kemuri The Beastie Boys Iggy & The Stooges Kaiser Chiefs Omar Rodriguez Lopez Group ...And some random Japanese bands whose names I cannot type. ...And that's not to mention the all-night DJs. I met the guys who were working on bringing "Afro Punk" to Japan--It's a documentary about black punk-rockers. They were pretty cool... One of them did an interview on MTV while we were there. We hung ... read more

Dun dun dunnnn.... I'm so hardcore. I was out until 5am the night before last, then came back to the hostel for about 15 minutes, then went out to climb Mount Fuji with a few guys from the hostel. I slept for about an hour on the bus, then was good to go. It was kind of intimidating when I showed up there. People were decked out in leg wraps, massive backpacks, wooden sticks and ski poles, special jackets, oxygen tanks and the like. I had my shorts, my short-sleeved jacked-shit thing that I bought here, a smelly T-shirt from dancing all night at a club, my green Adidas retro safety shoes--and a slight hangover. So there we go, up the mountain. Me, a French dude, an English dude, an American, all looking very much unprepared. ... read more

So the reason you haven't heard from me in a bit is largely due to underestimated travel times. You see, originally me and this guy I met at the hostel who I've become friends with were going to go to see this world famous art gallery and some shrines and stuff on Naoshima island, near Shikoku... But when the train ride ended up taking most of the day and we couldn't get a ferry to Naoshima and we were stranded in Takamatsu. We found a cheap hotel and wandered around the city a bit. The next day we ended up getting to see it but then, on our way back, it was too late again--though we did get a bit of the way back to Tokyo--the train shut down, leaving us stranded around Shin-Osaka station. So, ... read more

So I couldn't manage to find a Lotteria, but I did find a McDonald's which I'd read on a poster outside of one that they also sell Terriyaki Burgers. Unfortunately, they don't sell them until past ten-thirty. I had a sausage muffin combo instead. It was good, but the cheese was extremely processed. I'm not complaining. The whole breakfast was ~$3 CAD. But, I do love a tasty burger. Some interesting things I noticed: -Well this isn't so much something I noticed as something I did... I was out of change and small bills, so I cracked a 10,000 Yen note. Can you imagine the shit you'd get if you went up to a McDonald's back home and bought a $3.70 meal with a hundred-dollar bill? They'd call the fucking cops. -You may have noticed earlier ... read more

Soo I'm getting a bit of a late start today (It's almost 1pm as I write this). But I think it's well-justified. Last night was a gong show. I went down to "Roppongi", which is where I think most of the foreigners hang out in this city, because there were tons of them. Where to begin... Ah, yes. Food. Finding a place to eat in this city is extremely difficult. And it has absolutely nothing to do with a shortage of restaurants. You see, nearly everywhere that is a restaurant will have the name of the place written in English, a description of the restaurant in English, and then I'll go inside and the entire menu will be in Japanese, and nobody inside speaks a single word of English. Not complaining about the fact that they ... read more