Lost? Just ask a stranger. Of course, it helps if you speak ten words or so of Japanese, but if you don't, you should try anyway! It's amazing just how far people will go out of their way to help you if you're lost. Even if you're touristy-looking. For example, while in Tokyo, we wanted to head out in Shinjuku.



Unfortunately, it was our first time there, and we had next to no clue how to arrive at our destination. As such, we stood on the side of the sidewalk, and started to guess how much the people walking by knew about the area. We decided to stop two girls, one of them was in a school uniform. We thought, if she's in a school uniform, she must go to school around there and know the area. However, we had guessed incorrectly. The girls told us politely that they had no idea where we should go. We stood there a bit longer, and stopped a young guy walking by. We told him what we were looking for and he started to point in a direction.

Rather than let that be that, he took us to the nearest city map (usually they are pretty easily found around subway and train stations). Then, he plotted our route for us. But his courtesy didn't stop there. He said he would walk us at least part way there, since it wasn't out of his direction. He was totally being just nice at that point, because it was in fact the opposite way he had been walking. After about 8 to 12 minutes of walking, we made it there. He didn't just walk us part of the way. He walked us ALL the way there. We thanked him over and over and invited him to come sit and have a drink with us (we were on vacation after all). But he declined and left. Wow, how helpful was he??? And, by the way, the man in the photo is the one who helped. I can imagine someone from home spending a long 5 minutes explaining how to get somewhere, but I can't imagine someone from home actually walking there. I was impressed.

There have been other instances of people helping both of us find what we needed. But this case definitely stands out the most. Subarashi!

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On Saturday, there was a Cosplay parade. What's Cosplay you ask? Costume + play. So, adults dress up as characters from anime, TV, and movies. Think, Halloween - only, it doesn't matter what time of year it is. :) Also, not everyone thinks this is a cool activity, but for those who do - the parade is a time to strut their stuff.



So, who did we find at the Cosplay Parade? We didn't dress up ourselves, but we took a prime spot on the parade route to catch a few pics and check out the costumes.
The guy on the right is Auron from Final Fantasy. I'm not sure who the girl on the left is. It was extremely humid, so I can't even image how gross they must have felt after the parade was over. I was in a cotton shirt, myself, and let's just say I was "glistening". Believe it or not, this was just the beginning of many festivities surrounding Cosplay over the weekend. That night, there were fireworks. Also, the next day (Sunday) there was another event in Oasis 21 (see Spotlight Sakae) where Cosplayers gave performances and competed for best costume. I think that the team from Brazil won best costume. We didn't attend the Oasis 21 event, but if you're interested, you can find video from it online at the Cosplay 2008 website. In the meantime, maybe you should get crackin' on what you'll wear for Halloween this year! ;)

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As some may already know, the two of us plus a visiting friend went to Tokyo about two weeks ago. The trip was amazing all around. One of the sights we took in was the Tsukiji Fish Market. This is a world famous market, fully functional, totally hazardous, and fast paced. In fact, this locale even made the list of the top 1000 places you must see before you die in a book that our friend had read.



This wasn't any walk in the park. You can't just saunter up at 10am, Starbucks in hand. Oh no. We woke up at 5:20am. That's AM if you weren't reading closely. ;) This is after we had spent the previous night out at dinner and karaoke with friends. I pretended that I was a morning person back when I played volleyball and we had 7am workouts. I pretended again when I worked for a coffee shop in college and woke up at 4:45am. However, I was purely pretending. 5:20am is not a happy time for me. Nevertheless, persuaded by our friend's fervor (she is a morning person), off we went. We took a taxi and got dropped off at the outside market that lines the bay (Not to be confused with the inside market. The inside one is the actual Tsukiji market). After pretty much discounting everything they had for sale, we headed in to the market. It was pandemonium if you ask me. I have absolutely no idea how people aren't seriously injured on a daily basis. Men were quite literally racing around on motorized buggies of sorts.

My description isn't doing it justice. I guess that's why it's on that list of places you should see for yourself. The market was enormous. There was an open area where the auction for that day's tuna took place (see the first photo), but beyond that there were rows and rows and long rows of booths for fish and seafood. Many merchants were in the process of killing their "wares." I'll spare you the photos, though. Many had tanks of live fish. And others sold other types of dried food and things I didn't recognize. It was a lot to take in. I think the most surprising this for me was the shear speed with which everything was taking place. More than once, I had to get myself out of the way of a man on buggy-thing, a man with a wheelbarrow, or a man with crates.

Once we had gotten enough to fill our sightseeing duties, we left and browsed the outdoor market once again. We headed back to the hotel and hung out until a couple hours later when we could once again pursue our tourist agenda. The next place we headed was Akihabara (or Akiba for y'all "in the know"). But that's another post. :)

Note: The second picture was taken by yours truly, but the first was taken by our friend. And used with permission as long as we give her credit. (Thanks, L.T.!)

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Unfortunately, the above picture was taken on a rather grey day. But otherwise, I thought this spot was very cool. I had never been to this particular river (yes, it runs through the city in which I live... but still, hadn't ever seen it).



This is Fushimi. It's an extrememly busy area, but from what I can gather, it's mostly busy because it's between Ekimae and Sakae (see Spotlight Sakae and Spotlight Ekimae). It's literally the subway stop between those two places on the central subway line. Yet, it has plenty to offer. For example, when Christopher and I arrived in Japan, our hotel was located in this area. And our first dinner out for "yaki tori" (see Meat on a Stick) was also in Fushimi. Not only that, but I come to this area (on the eastern side, away from the river which is on the western side) at least once a month to pay rent at our agent's office. OK, so that's not really a draw... ;) Also, if I were interested in joining a gym, all my co-workers say the sports center here is the way to go.

For entertainment, this place has the usual assortment of restaurants, bars, karaoke places, and shops. If you like Hard Rock Café, Nagoya's branch is here. All in all, I think this is a pretty accessible, fun place to look around.

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I've never considered myself to be a fashionista. In fact, I really like jeans and t-shirts or sweats. So, I've had to adjust to wearing corporate-appropriate clothes everyday to work and fun outfits out. In Japan, fashion is definitely an institution. People are far more casual in the US.



Moreover, Nagoya is known for its fashion. You may have heard of Harajuku in Tokyo. That's the stylish part of Tokyo where the young adults (and adults) dress up in Victorian style garb, or costumes, or any other range of things. Nagoya, on the other hand, is a little less costume-y (although you can still see that kind of thing around). Below is a picture that Leah took of two girls walking down the street in Nagoya. The way they dress is not the norm (you can see everyone else around them in jeans, shirts, etc); however, they are certainly not weird for dressing this way.
On the other hand, this style is contrasted by women who regularly wear kimonos. I'm not entirely sure why they wear kimonos regularly, but here are some of the reasons that I've been able to find out: for a formal event such as an anniversary party, for a wedding, for a religious event, for a performance, or as formal wear (or business wear in some cases). There are plenty of kimono shops around. Kimonos can run the range from reasonable to ridiculously expensive. Christopher or I could buy one for ourselves for about 150 to 200 dollars. But wealthy families could pay up to 5 to 10 thousand dollars for a new wedding kimono. Many times, the kimonos are handed down through the women in the family.

Overall, I would say that the Japanese business people are traditional and not really outstanding. I was at a meeting where all the men were wearing either black or blue suits and white or light-colored dress shirts. But, they still have more style than me. I'm working on it! :)

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It's the simple things in life that make it worth living right? Right. The following little treasures were amassed for your reading/viewing pleasure. Sometimes the English is funny, sometimes overly serious, sometimes incomprehensible. Enjoy. :)



I love kindly feeling.

Yummy... fresh brain...
Not sure what to think, but I do love dogs!

At the Karaoke bar:
Or else!

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We were out on a day trip to the mall with a friend when he asked, "So, you guys want to come to the Dragons game with some of us?" Uhm, yeah! So we threw in our money for two tickets with the gang and head out on a Sunday afternoon to see the Dragons at their home, the Nagoya Dome.



Before getting in, we stopped by the mall (literally next door) for a little pre-game lunch and beverages. I had ramen. I missed the hotdogs and peanuts a bit, but I suppose we can't have everything. Then we met up with everyone and walked the 50 yards from the mall to the entrance. We filed in as security checked in our bags and punched our tickets.

We walked up to the appropriate section. A ways up but between home and first, so not a bad view. After having one of the Japanese members of our group ask a nice couple if we couple swap seats with them so everyone could be together, we settled in for the game. Below is a look at the dome.I have to say, it was a pretty uneventful first half or so of the game. No one from our team was really scoring or even making bases. The crowd, though, kept up the energy with small plastic bats of sorts. They would use two of the bats together as noise makers and clap and chant in unison. There were the usual beer, coke, and food vendors there. But, if I remember correctly, they didn't holler as they walked up and down the aisles. Then, after the 7th inning break - which, by the way, wasn't the 7th inning stretch that I was hoping for - the game got much more exciting. It was like the team was just waiting until then to really play. As you can see, the Dragons hit 5 runs in during the 7th, and another run in the bottom of the 9th to finish the game. All in all, it was a lot of fun and the company was good, so I'd definitely go again. And, since it's in a dome, I don't risk the usual sunburn I get from going to the ballgame!

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Almost one month ago, we had a long weekend. It was Japanese Golden Week. This means that practically the whole nation has a four day weekend. Many spend it traveling around Japan or short trips elsewhere. We decided to hop over to Inuyama. Inuyama is home to the oldest original wooden castle still in existance in Japan.



It took us a relatively short ride (40 minutes) on a local train to get to this city. The weather was great, so we were certainly lucky there. We got off the train and asked a local (well, she looked like a local to us) to point us in the direction of the castle. It's fortunate we asked, because right out of the gate, I think we would have gone the wrong direction. But anyway, we walked the 12 minutes or so over to the location of the castle. 500 yen got us tickets to the castle, a small but nice museum, and another small but nice Kabuki theater museum across the street.

The castle itself sits at the top of a rather large hill, and the stone path / stairs leading up to it are less than smooth. Before you can go inside, you have to take off your shoes and carry them around with you in a plastic grocery sack. Sacks provided. I have a theory that the city workers ask tourists to do this for 2 reasons. 1 - It's important to show respect for the construction that still stands, and 2 - To bet on how many tourists will fall down the polished and extremely steep wooden staircase inside. It was more like climbing a ladder with two-way traffic. At the uppermost staircase, people could not even go up and down at the same time. This led to a traffic jam or two.

The view from the top of the castle was really great. The top floor had a viewing platform around the outside of the building. While this area didn't scream safety, we still felt comfortable. I can't say so for the couple who were in front of us though. They were scooting around the outside of the building, backs to the wall.

After checking out the view, we headed over to the two small museums. Spending 5 minutes in each was totally enough time to get the scoop. I mean, the museums were super small. Really really small. In one were cool parade floats that are all lit up, and of course, wooden as well. Once checking out these, we decided to head back home. We'll have to go back to Inuyama again sometime. I hear that there is a nice Monkey Park to see. I'm assuming there are a lot of monkeys, but I'll withhold judgment for now.

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