You know I had to do it...Karaoke!

Dinner w/ Miho and the Gang

Here it seems like the bars are replaced with tapas/small plate resturants. Drink and eat. Drink and eat. Splitting the check evenly also seems to be the norm.

This is where I met a bunch of Miho's friends. They were hilarious!

Merican Karuizawa Whisky

Miho and i were chatting and I mentioned I was looking for some good Japanese whisky to take back home. Soon after I said that we happen to drive past a whisky brewery! say word.

They had a nice selection that started with 1992 on down to 1976. It took me a while to decide that two bottles of the 1989 would be better than one bottle of 1979 which was just about 150 bucks. whoa. Maybe if i was a connoisseur of the stuff it would be worth it.

Blazey know's he has one with his name on it but i'm not sure who gets the other. Maybe we can celebrate the new year and each drink one? Marcia is a whisky girl so maybe her? I thought about you Ebony but I wasn't sure. Plus i haven't seen you comment in a while and i'm kinda salty - I thought you were my number one fan!? I'm pretty sure Jillian, my fantastic neighbor, will get the wine (cause i know she will share it with me).

Kate's place

Add this to the list of places where I slept in Japan:

They have to separate everything before it goes to the curb

Wall paper in the bathroom. The shower and toilet are in two separate rooms.

Thanks Kate! I had a great time.

Last night

quickly because i'm think i'm late for my check out (it was about 5 am when i arrived at my hotel last night) karaoke with my people here in Miyota is one thousand times more fun than i've had in NYC. This truly their thing. I can't wait to tell you all about the day here in Miyota. OH, I thought i was going to Nagano City but I'm just in the State of Nagano (Nagano Prefecture)

After dinner: (from l-r, Miho, Baba, Ben, Yuki, Reiko, Daisuke, the three girls on the right just showed up at the end, and Yoske in the front.)

Ouxu, are you happy now? Japanese folks. :)

Raw Fatty Horse Meat

Okay, I did this stricly because of catching backlash for eating so much Starbucks and the few double cheese burgers i had at McDonalds. We went to a tapas like place and got a varitiety of foods. after were were just about finnished Mish saw that there was a dish called raw fatty horse meat. I thought, now this would be something interesting to eat. So we decided to order another beer and a freshly killed Mr. Ed.

How did it taste? Well, kinda like nothing. If it weren't for the ginger and wasabe it would just be a chewy, really chewy piece of rubber i guess.

Shoren-In light up in Kyoto

Mish navigated us away from an extremely crowded temple to one slightly less crowded a few blocks away called Shoren-In

Hip Hop Hipster stores in Kanazawa

I had a little mission to hit up as many of the SB Dunk/Crooks and Castle/any other streetwear stores with exclusive accounts that i could find. I like to look at theses clothes but i'm not feeling most of them for myself. I think it is kinda ridiculouse for some of these lines to charge so much for a t-shirt or an early 90's inspired hoodie (think fresh prince). I've yet to figure out why or how these streetwear brands that popped up in the past 3 years can be so premium. Okay, even though i just said that, when i hit up the billionaire boys club, bathing ape, and the original fake shop in Tokyo I may be forced to cop an overpriced hat for blazey, loren and i.

Every now-and-then I take a photo and I'm impressed. It doesn't happen often but man when does i get hella excited. The photo above is one of those images.

The store above is called Casper owned and operated by homie in the fresh NaS hoodie. People call him 'Mister' It is more of a skater shop with a bunch of SB Dunks. The other kid is headed to NYC in the fall and we exchanged info so i could show him around.

Double Burger - It was cool. The interior was pretty nice. I almost bought some socks but held off for some reason.

Grow Around. They had some Crooks & Castle New Era hats and some other random things like a $150 sweatshirt with a screen print of the punch out headshot of Mike Tyson and a bunch of brooklyn hats.

This was a real strange interaction. I was walking down the street and I spotted this guy from the corner of my eye. I walk torwards him and there is this odd stand off like, whoa, i'm looking at another black person. Ha. it was funny. Come to find out he is Nigerian and owns a little shop. What does he sell? Bootlegged clothes of course. Seriously, just a bunch of bootlegged gear, fake chains and do-rags. go figure.

Kanazawa Municipal Technical High School

Shiriko (the nickname for her school) A bunch of photos from the morning.

Some people I met in Kyoto

The girls on the far left and right are from Germany. The one on the far right is at a internship in Tokyo. I can't remember their names. We met them at a bar called Bar Billy. The DJ was spinning hip hop and R&B all the while continuing to look over at me. Was he looking for approval? haha. I can't wait to go out in Tokyo!

Also from germany

This is Esti. She is getting her masters in Japanese (i think) at a school in Kyoto. She and the the others below are from Israel. She secretly really wants to be a photographer. I gave her my camera and she couldn't stop. It's too bad she couldn't quite get photo of me jumping over and over while waiting for the bus. "1, 2, 3.... jump! ahh, again!"

Mish speaks very good Japanese and i believe is in a PhD program in Kanazawa. She acted as my art director for some photos you'll see later.

I see monkeys!

Kathrine, Kate's friend from the JET program, really wanted to see the supposed monkey mountain – where if you stare at them in the eye you may rouse them into wanting to fight you. We decided to visit it along with this small bamboo forrest in a section of town called Arashiyama. Enjoy!

DON'T LOOK, DON'T LOOK!

The retail experience

I just want to quickly say thank you to the brand managers at Starbucks and McDonalds. You are awesome. How you can make each and everyone of your billion Starbucks look, feel, smell and taste the exact same is nothing short of amazing and I love you for it. Yeah, i could go to the "Best Coffee Hut" next door or Cafe Coffee down the street here in Japan but why when i can get a delicious mocha latte or even a special holiday crème brûlée latte. I don't think i've ever had starbucks as much as i have in the past few days. The same goes for you Mr. McDonalds Brand Person.

one of the starbucks in kanazawa

Where I sleep pt. 2

This was my hostel in Kyoto named Cheapest Inn Kyoto. It wasn't too bad. Warm, comfortable and quiet. Our dorm was on the third floor and the shower on the first.

I was on the bottom bunk and was fortunate that the ethernet cord reached to my bed. No, the japanese don't have wireless all over the place, surprisingly enough.

The sink was on top of the toilet.

Kate in her bed.

i'm craving fried tofu

Fushimi Inari Shrine

New Koyo Hostel

New Koyo Hostel – It wasn't too bad overall. This was my first time staying at a backpacker. My thoughts when I was sitting in my tiny room was that i'm getting too used to staying in nice hotels. Other than my personal issues with not having my own bathroom or shower it, was ok.

I ended up sleeping in jeans, sweatpants, a hoodie and a hat. I woke up around 3 am and kept waking up every half hour till 6am.

This was for the Japanese bath

First Day Notes on Japan

This is Tokyo:

• The chick on the airplane was far from friendly

• Tokyo airport was clean and quite easy to get out of

• I was a only a little unsure of where I was going

• The hostel, K's House Tokyo, was farily easy to get to

• Thank you to the old lady who noticed i was turned around. sorry we couldn't communicate what-so-ever

• Remember to never try to book a popular hostel less than 24 hours in advance – they will be full

• I ended up getting back on the train and to my original hostel.

• Now i'm tired of carying these bags. why couldn't i just have a little backpack?

• Thank you to the old man who ran the convenience store for noticing i was lost (he come out side and waved his hand for me to come to him)

• Thank you for the dry cleaner who helped me out after i got lost a second time

• Thank you hotel koyo for only being 25 bucks.

Looking out towards Russia

Next post: Why I don't want to stay at a hostel ever again…

I changed my mind

I'm sitting at JFK with about 45 minutes till my flight leaves and i'm playing around on the 'net. I decide to look up more about the hostel i booked and come to find out it is pretty janky! well for 25 bucks what did i expect? Anyhow, I found another place called K's House Tokyo which apparently was awarded the best hostel award. I just emailed them to reserve a place ( i can't call because it is about 12am there). I'm going to press my luck and just head there when I get to tokyo. Why am I staying at a hostel and not somewhere fresh? It's mainly because i don't want to spend an extra $100 just for a short night – I am leaving out really early the next morning. I want to stay at a place called Granbell Hotel in Shibuya.

Okay, time to shut down this computer, go grab yet another magazine and maybe a drink per blazey's recomendation on the best way to fall asleep for a long time (that also includes 4 tylenol PMs).

granbellhotel.jp

Whew...

My only stress factor has just been taken care of. I didn't know where I was going to stay tomorrow (thursday) night when I arrived in Tokyo. Not that i didnt' have a clue, i just haven't sat down and tried. So i'm staying at a place called Hotel New Koyo. It is a little backpacker inn somewhere near the center of Tokyo. It is mad cheap, about 2,500 yen ( 25 bucks ) and the website gave pretty good directions. I'm going to stay at a little nicer place when I come come back around to Tokyo next week.

desktop tokyo

iphone has no love for japan

I figure now is the time for me to really start preparing for my trip Yes, you all know i'm pretty good at doing things at the last possible moment. I probably wont pull out my luggage till Wednesday morning, a few hours before my flight. Well, the first thing on my list was to check and see if my phone would work. Sadly, no, the amazingly great better than average iphone will not work. I wasn't so much worried about calling but i did want to use it to mobile photoblog to my tumblr page. AT&T told me I could try cellhire.com

What I learned: It will cost me $125 per week for a blackberry $25 delivery cost $1.99 per minute if any of you call me $3.69 per minute if i call any of you $2.59 per minute if i call anyone in japan Data is included

Okay, so it looks like i won't be ordering a phone.

I'm gonna go holler at Nigo

My one goal of the year was to have the chance to visit Tokyo. I was dreading crossing the New Year without having been. Thankfully everything worked out and less than a month ago I purchased tickets for a two week visit over thanksgiving. Here are some details.

I'm flying out of JFK on a direct 14 hour flight to Tokyo on the 21st. Not business class but I do have a window seat. Thank god i'm not stuck in the middle row that seats like 38 people across.

I arrive in Tokyo the next day at 3:45pm

I'm not sure where i'm staying once i get there. I have a friend but i don't plan on seing them till later in the trip. This is my chance, as blazey said, to have my "Lost In Translation" moment. Maybe i can stay in those infamous coffin like drawers (remember, half of the trip is for me to show everyone who hasn't been as much as possible)

The next morning i head down to Kyoto via bullet train where i'll meet up with my friend Kate and some of her folks. I think we are staying there for a few days.

- After Kyoto I travel with Kate to where she is teaching for a year – kanazawa. I'm going to present to her class Tuesday morning. she says they will be really excited to see a guy from the big city of New York since it is a pretty small town and quite a bit aways from tokyo.

- Nagano is my next stop. I met a girl from there back in march when she was on vacation here in brooklyn. I think i'll stay there a day or two.

- the bulk of my time (the last week) I want to spend in Tokyo. There are so many things to see and do. Please Please PLEASE give me any suggestions or things you want to see. I'll go do them or see them and do my best to document everything.

And then it is all over December 5th. okay, now I want any and all comments, suggestions, ideas, warnings etc