Christmas

I am off to Borneo today. I hope you all have a great holiday experience!

Winklepickers

One big problem of living in a country with loads of little people (other than smashing my head on door frames) is finding clothes that fit properly. I buy XXL sizes but still the shirts only come down to my waste and the arms are an inch too short. I went to J Crew for some pants but they barely fit over my skinny legs.

Shoes are another problem. They all seem to stop at size 9US. I am a size 11, so this really sucks. The strange thing is 90% of the Japanese men I see have shoes almost twice as long as mine! The current style is "clown" but known as "winklepickers" in the UK, or so I am told. (A winkle is a small shell)

These are a size 9 (10.5 inches) but are 17 inches long!!

The most interesting thing is the way that their toe curls u after some extended wear. It reminds me of the Wicked Witch of the East just before she is sucked under the house.

Maid Cafe

I am on my knees

As my contract winds down I am trying to get in all of my Japanese experiences. I have purchased hentai manga (porno comic books that businessmen read on the trains), been to karaoke, visited a hostess bar, and now I can check off "Maid Cafe"!

I went with a Japanese girl who was also really curious about them. We headed down to Akihabara (Electric Town) which is the hotbed of maid cafe action. There were tons to choose from and many girls standing on the street corners dressed as very cold maids were handing out fliers. We chose one with cute enough girls but when we got to the building, there were actually three different ones to choose from. We went with a different one than we originally planned because they offered beer and for 500 yen you could play a Nintendo DS game with one of the maids.

We rode the elevator to the 5th floor and were shown a lackluster room. Nothing special in any way other than the waitresses dressing up and shouting "Welcome home Master" to us as we entered.

After ordering a beer we (my friend and I) pulled out our DS' (her's is pink!) and just decided to play against each other rather than pay one of the waitresses. I felt very Japanese. I was drinking at beer in a maid cafe and playing video games against a Japanese girl and I was beating her! Yata!!!!

Some guys playing PSP in KFC

Me and the maids (one photo costs 500 yen)

Fooling around on the internet this weekend I came across a way to do time lapse from my webcam. This was Monday afternoon outside my window.

Thank you weak Korean economy!

Thanks to the strong Yen and the weak Korean won I was able to pick up a new Canon G10 on the cheap side of "Yippie"!! I went around town taking some pictures and trying it out.

It was cold but this was all she was wearing

He was maybe a meter off the ground

building

Bridge...kind of looked like Busan

Building

Strange girl singing and playing with birdies

Fried curry

Ready for a fight

Ginza

Ginza girls

Pod apartment

US?

Ueno

Tokyo Metro poster

Ginza

Ginza

A Greaser's girl

Harajuku

Shibuya boys

Shinjuku

Shinjuku

Loser

I had a student ask me today if I wanted an American friend from Canada. She said that he lives nearby and I should give her(the student) my email.

I got home tonight to the following message:

Hello there...My wife is a friend of one of your students...I have heard that you are new here and you are feeling lonely...I don't usually talk to people I don't know, but my wife is twisting my arm...And since I don't know you, would you mind telling me about yourself?

Wow, is that how I look to my students? What did I say to give them the idea that I am a poor lonely man?

And what the hell is wrong with the guy writing an email like that? "I don't want to talk to you but my wife is making me...Let's be friends."

A day in my life.

backpacks

One thing you will see around Japan are lots of kids. They are everywhere. Even when you think they should be at school, they are running around in the school uniforms. They are wearing those things 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

One of the things I really like is the elementary kid backpack. It is required gear at many schools. It just has a classic look.


The other day I saw the price for the bag...$360!!!! What the hell? I guess it is to pay for great advertising.