Bowling & Bug Bombs

Yesterday I finally met up with my friend Yuki (Ed's girlfriend) and we headed to Shimokitazawa. It was raining pretty heavily for the entire day but we still managed to have a lot of fun. We found a nice cafe to have lunch at and afterwards had some amazing ice cream for dessert. Seeking shelther from the rain, we headed to Suidobashi for some bowling at the Tokyo Dome. After Yuki bought a pair of socks we were all set to bowl!

Later on I met up with Kyle again and we checked out his new apartment for the first time. We even moved some of his stuff over from his slum into the new place. After staying there for the night we triggered a bug bomb this morning in order to fully extinguish any potential chance of insect life. It was pretty interesting trying to decipher the instructions since they were entirely in Japanese. Using deductive reasoning Kyle figured out how to activate it by the illustrations and we were set to go. I thought it would have been cooler to buy two or three of them to set off simultaneously, but Kyle insisted that one was enough. When we finally set it off we ran away like little school girls!!

When You Wish Upon a Star...

Tokyo Disneyland is only about 40 minutes away from me by train and I must say all your problems fade away when you enter the Magic Kingdom. In recent news, Kyle will be soon moving out of his ghetto slum so we decided to celebrate. "What better place to celebrate than Disney?", I suggested. After checking the weather forecast Kyle finished his grocery shopping and headed over to my place to spend the night since the resort is much closer to me than him.

The wonderful world of Disney greatly entertained us yesterday and I couldn't be happier after running wild through the theme park. We tore shit up and pretty much covered every ride and attraction we were interested in. There was no remorse or limits as Kyle even managed to flying elbow drop some kid as we were waiting in line for a ride. For me personally Disney will always hold an enigmatic link to my soul that I cannot explain; and yesterday was living proof that the magic still exists no matter where you are in the world!

There was a Disney lights parade at the end of the night which featured over one million lights and a handful of everyone's favourite characters fittingly accompanied by their matching soundtrack music. I crossed my fingers hoping that Beauty & the Beast would come out and my prayers were answered as they made their way down the parade runway. They also had one of the cooler looking floats with an extremely glamorous light design. Tale as old as time...

Also I finally found enough bandwidth to upload the dancing maid video from a few weeks ago. The quality is kinda poor but it`s still entertaining enough to check out.

Dodging a Knife

In recent news a 25 year old maniac went on a rampage in Akihabara on Sunday afternoon killing seven people and wounding another eleven. Apparently he purchased five military combat knives and rented a large truck before proceeding to run three people over. He then got out of the vehicle and started stabbing people outside. This all happened within a span of 5 minutes at about 12:30 pm. Akihabara is about 30 minutes from me by train and I feel really lucky because Kyle and me were at the exact same intersection two Sundays ago. If we decided to go this past Sunday instead we definitely would have witnessed some if not all of the chaos.

In brighter news, I finally found a bottle of osyter sauce and I can rest easy. Unfortunately that is completely trivial in comparison to the horrific event that took place on Sunday.

K**** Hayashi

This week at work has mostly been private and group seminars for students since some of the Japanese teachers are away for additional training in Tokyo. That means regular lessons are put on hold until next week and students are able to sign up for seminars or review lessons with their own choice of topics.

Today's lesson with K**** Hayashi was probably the most interseting lesson I've had so far. Last week his mother brought in a collection of books that she wanted me to read and go over with him. Among them were two Star Wars reference books (characters, weapons, vehicles, spacecrafts, etc.) and The Beatles' Yellow Submarine. Also in the bag was the soundtrack to Disney`s High School Musical 2. I`ll refer to this student as Hayashi to maintain disclosure in my blog.

I couldn't believe that a five year old kid was so interested in this stuff. Turns out he's seen the Star Wars movies several times and watches High School Musical on a regular basis as well. His mom wanted me to learn the songs (one in particular) since he sings various lyrics at home while watching the DVD. I still haven't figured out how or where the interest in The Yellow Submarine came from, but Hayashi can recite all the Beatles` names with ease (Paul, John, George, and Ringo).

When it was time for the actual seminar, he brought along some of his Star Wars action figures. He pulled out Darth Vader and took a deep breath: "Luke, I am your father...", followed by "NoOOOOooooooooo!"

Enough said. What an awesome kid.

Dancing Maids in Akihabara

Akiharbara is known as the "Electric Town" since there are many electronics stores on the main street and in the smaller back alleys. Going through here was fun but also bit of a nerd convention since there were a ton of middle aged men and women looking at video games and anime spots. There were a few second hand video game stores which I found amazing since they had a library of games all the way from the original NES to today's PS3 and X-box. In one of the memoribilia shops there was even Nintendo's Virtual Boy unit on display. Does anybody remember that thing? It was a weird pair of black and red goggles that you had to look into to play, and all the games were composed of red laser lights. I certainly did not remember that failed gaming system until seeing it again with my own eyes yesterday.

The other reason Akiharbara is well known is because it is also the location of several maid cafes. Kyle and I decided it was time to see what all the hype was about. At Maid Cafes the waitresses are completely dressed in maid outfits while serving your drinks and food. The initial one we decided on literally had 50 people waiting in line, so we shifted our attention to a smaller one.

Upon being showed to our table by one of the maids the lights started to dim and another maid passed us. Turns out we were given a table right in front of a mini stage equipped with a microphone and amp. Within a matter of seconds she started singing and dancing to a very fast paced Japanese pop song while the rest of the audience clapped along. Kyle and I had no idea what was going on and it was shocking to be so close to the action. We ordered drinks and tried to wrap our minds around the situation. A little more time passed and it was time for the next maid's song and dance routine. I was able to capture this on video and I'll attempt to upload it at a later time.

After giggling our way out of the Maid Cafe we headed to Yodobashi-- a huge retail electronics store that would put FutureShop/Best Buy to shame. This place has nine huge floors each dedicated to its own category: cell phones, laptops/computers, audio/mp3 players, cameras, appliances, tv/video, toys, video games, music/movies, and an entire floor of delicious looking restaurants. On the video game floor I decided to showcase my Guitar Hero skill which is mediocre at best (the game is still fairly new in Japan). However it seemed to have worked since the few people watching were amazed at me finishing songs at 96% on Hard. I walked away feeling on top of the world! Damn, how I miss Guitar Hero and Rock Band...

The Magical Mr. Dai

Sunday's trip was first to Kichijoji, located on the western side of Tokyo. Walking around Kichijoji was very nice as there was a park with plenty of people around since the weather was so nice. Kinda reminded me of a miniature version of Centre Island in Toronto without all the rides. There was however still entertainment as random bands gathered to collaborate in making some tunes.

The one and only Mr. Dai also performed, creating various objects out of balloons and putting on an array of magical tricks with his various props he had alongside with him. He somehow managed to pull out a real banana from a bundle of yellow balloon bananas he had created. Other than that it was nothing too spectacular, but it was nice to see him bring a smile to the kid's faces and even more interesting to try to understand his dialogue, as he was speaking entirely in Japanese.