Mini-Post 3

I found a long-lost gem on my phone. My international politics prof was discussing the USSR and communism and Marx and Lenin and whatever, and he thought it would be appropriate to sing the communist anthem. I think. It's only 15 seconds and you have to turn up your volume pretty loud, but it's something:

If it doesn't play... well I really have no idea how to fix that. You can see that one guy in the front going, "What the hell is going on?" Wait I take that back, he's Japanese so he's going, "Nande???"

McDonald's got rid of the Katsu Cheese Burger(!) and replaced it with the Mega Tamago (egg). It's like a Mega Mac, but the top beef patty has been magically turned into Egg McMuffin egg bit. Are Japanese consumers that bored that new items have to be introduced so often? I wish I could have taken an advertising course while here, but they're all taught in Japanese. Sad.

Disneyland in like 16 hours!!! Yay!!!

Let's play catch-up

This post shall hopefully make up for the dust gathering around this site -- it's been almost a week since I last wrote about my adventures!

So my dear friend Brian was in Tokyo last weekend. He and his buddies had already done all kinds of cultural nonsense, so we went clubbing one night and hit up an izakaya called The Lockup the next. It's a theme izakaya, made to look like a jail that Dr. Frankenstein would manage. About an hour after we sat down, they killed the lights, played "scary" music, and monsters came around banging our doors and making a fuss. I'll have to go again when Dan comes.

They make the wait staff wear jail uniforms. Cute.




The big beaker is Calpis soda, and the little tubes have orange juice, grapefruit juice,
melon liquor, and the last two I forget.






YAY PURIKURA!!!

I found Sprite Zero at the cafeteria combini last week! You can't see it, but under the "NEW!" banner in the top left corner it says, "Sexier than water." Yeah, okay. I just want to be refreshed and possibly entertained by some 90's rappers in a commercial.

Where are Redman and Method Man when you need them?

Look at what my phone can do! PICTURE FRAMES! So fun.

And finally, I succumbed to all the McDonald's advertisements on the train and had a Cheese Katsu Burger. The official Japanese website has the nice professional photos not taken by a keitai. Despite my initial hesitation of mixing katsu sauce and cheese, it was quite delicious. It would probably do well in Hawaii, since we like that kind of stuff. Next I'm gonna try the Shaka Shaka Chicken off the 100Yen menu.

Cheese in the middle!


"Saku saku" on the outside, blah blah blah I forget and I can't make it out from the picture.

Prof. Anno mentioned in politics today that the Japanese currently pay about 170yen for a liter of gas. Let's see if the journalism major can do some basic math:

1 US gallon = 3.8 liters
Current exchange rate is about $1 = 100yen

$1.70 x 3.8 = $6.46

Thus, the Japanese are paying almost $6.50 for a gallon of gas. Makes that $4 you're paying in America seem like a steal, doesn't it?

I'm in the middle of midterms and there's a typhoon going on outside, so there is nothing going on. This weekend, however, will be filled with debauchery and Mickey Mouse and gaijin-smashing because my dear friend John is in Japan. Hopefully Tokyo Disneyland will still be fun in spite of the crap weather we're having.

Things the Japanese Do that We Do in America

Sort of related to my last post...

Things the Japanese Do that We Do in America

1. Goof off on YouTube

I'm in a different computer lab today, as the one in the library was full. I suppose since this isn't the *library*, no one feels obligated to study or look busy. Right now I'm sitting next to two super-kakkoii Nihonjin boys enjoying human stupidity recorded and uploaded to the internet. My peripheral vision doesn't allow me to see exactly what they're viewing, but they were giggling about something funny. I heard, "I like this part, watch!" and a muted fit of laughter. "Suge!"

I wonder if they have Japanese text speak equivalent to American netspeak (LOL, ROFL, OMG, WTF, etc.)...

Things I Wish We'd Do in America

I have a mid-term tomorrow, so of *course* I'm not going to study. Okay, I will after I make the first two points I have in my head right now.

Things the Japanese Do that I Wish We Did in America

1. Discourage huge monstrosities of baby strollers

During my long winter break in Hawaii, I worked at a restaurant as a hostess. Every shift I'd have to seat a party that had a baby stroller, and they would OMG ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO KEEP THE STROLLER WITH THEM. They would always be the biggest, most irritating strollers -- the ones as big as grocery store carts that have the car seat built into them with the basket crap underneath to keep your shoplifted merchandise baby materials in. (Side rant: If you can afford that kind of stroller, you can afford a babysitter for a few hours.)

They come way worse than this. (Image found on Google)

In Japan, I have yet to see one of these things. Most of the time I see mom or dad carrying the baby strapped to their torso with a Baby Bjorn and carrying a baby bag that, while not small, certainly isn't the humongous duffel bag a football player would use to lug around their safety gear. If I see strollers, they're very small and basic. I assume parents prefer these things because most use the train system to get around. I feel bad wearing my backpack some days, so I can't imagine bringing some gargantuan American stroller on a train.

Also, I'm not sure what they do to their kids, but I am really not bothered by them here. In Hawaii I usually avoid babies/mothers/small children on TheBus, but kids here are very well-behaved. I can count the number of crying babies and toddler meltdowns I've heard on one hand.

2. Require proof of an available parking space to buy a car

Earlier this week, sensei told us that the government requires proof of available parking before you can buy a car. If you can't provide proof, the police will come knocking on your door and make sure you provide proof. There's only so much space in such a densely populated city like Tokyo, so parking has to be regulated.

Not my photo, but an example of a typical sight in my neighborhood. (Image found on Google)

I realize that many factors in the US don't allow for such a law (US public transportation is crap, what government agency would *actually* enforce parking laws to this extent, Americans are lazy, etc.), but it's nice to dream.

OKAY I'LL GO STUDY NOW.

So many snacks!

If there is one thing that I know I'll miss about Japan when I go back, it would be the awesomeness of Japanese junk food. Over the last two weeks or so, I've been trying all the different flavors of Pocky, Pretz, and Kit-Kat that I can find that do not look absolutely repulsive.

Green Tea Kit-Kat: I enjoyed it, despite the dipped-in-snot look. I didn't notice any big taste differences between any of the Kit-Kats, but I suppose this one is the least sweet. Japanese McDonald's Green Tea and Oreo McFlurry tastes more like green tea than this.

Azuki Bean Kit-Kat: Good, but tasted mostly like white chocolate. The outside has little bits of red bean sprinkled on top.

Banana Kit-Kat: These don't come in bars like the other two flavors I tried, but rather in little bite-size pieces. SUPER SWEET and kind of like a banana milkshake. I can only find them at the 7-11 at school so I think they're phasing them out.

Strawberry Pocky: This isn't the typical strawberry frosting pocky you'd find at Shirokiya -- according to the box, this Pocky has 28% kaniku (fruit flesh) in the frosting. It's about 150yen for a box that has four packages of five sticks. Sweet and a little tangy but I don't like paying that much for 20 pocky sticks.

Brazilian Pudding Pocky: I have no idea what "Brazilian Pudding" is really supposed to taste like, but it's okay. I thought it was like banana flavored frosting with stripes of chocolate frosting? I have no idea. Pretty packaging, though.

Spicy Chicken Beer Pretz and Endoumame Pretz: Awful. At first I kind of liked the Beer Pretz (it says "Spicy Chicken" in the little flame part), but after three sticks it started tasting like burnt popcorn. I have not had them with beer though, so maybe I will in the future. I didn't even have a full stick of the other flavor before I decided it was simply disgusting.

Galbo Mini: I was hungry before class and these strawberry frosting covered chocolate cookie things looked interesting. Really, they're just gross. The cookie was bitter and stuck to the roof of my mouth, and the strawberry frosting was too tart.

Midterms are fast approaching, and I have no idea what's going on in my political science class. I think it might have to do with the fact that a lot of my notes look like this:

Sorry if there are swear words or anything. Ashlie and I always sit at the back of the class, and those three guys I drew (very badly) are usually somewhere around us. There are five or six of them and they sleep, read books, or whisper in a polite Japanese manner as to not disturb anyone around them. Last class two of them were speaking Japanese, but somewhere in the Japanese I heard an exasperated swear word in English ("[Long string of Japanese]... F***!!!"). Bilingual fluency at its best.

I'll soon be at the half-way mark for my study abroad term. Two months left to master some Japanese!