Tokyo: Specializing in Chilled and Frozen Transportation

Here’s some pictures of Tokyo taken during my summer vacation in August. Most of the pictures were taken in Akihabara, Shinjuku, Ginza and Harajuku. I particularly like the one of the truck driver napping on the sidewalk. The We did a lot more in Tokyo, but I must have forgotten my camera. The rooftop pictures are from the top of the Tokyo Metropolitan Buildings in Shinjuku. You could actually see Mt. Fuji, but the atmosphere was a little hazy and I couldn’t get a good shot. On Sunday we went to Yoyogi Park in Harajuku to check out the Cosplay-zoku, but I was unimpressed. But I really like Harajuku and bought a nice used yukata for a good price.

RAW HORSE MEAT…ICE CREAM???

Yes, ladies and gents…not only have I posted to this blog more than once this week, I’ve posted something about raw horse meat twice! Why? Well, I’m not exactly sure, but I think it has something to do with reassuring myself that there’s something a little off about this place, but anywho, straight from the whacky whorld of MSN Mainichi Daily News:

The Wackier Word of Japanese Ice Cream

“Raw Horseflesh Ice Cream (Basashi Aisu):We’re not horsing around with this one. There mere thought of putting raw horseflesh into ice cream may be enough to produce plenty of neigh … er, naysayers. And, rightfully so. You can get it straight from the horse’s mouth, this would have to vie for the vilest ice cream ever created. The chunks of meat inside it offer ample proof of why horseflesh is usually used in dog food. Not wanting to be a nag, this flavor needs a definite gee-up. The only saving grace is perhaps that tonight’s dessert could well have been last week’s odds-on favorite. “ [ Copyright 2005-2006 THE MAINICHI NEWSPAPERS…oops]

Other wonderful flavors include: Chicken Ice Cream, Shark Fin and Noodle Ice Cream, WHALE FLESH Ice Cream, Goat Ice Cream (made from goat’s milk with hearty chunks of meat…not Kosher), Oyster Ice Cream, Abalone Ice Cream, Spinach Ice Cream, and my personal favorite, Lettuce and Potato Ice Cream. Original Article + Pictures HERE

Accidental Poetry

Things found in the classroom. First, an unintentional bit of free verse from a shopping list of sentences authored by an adult student:

I pull up trush [sic]
Sun raise
I received his present
Do you remember me?
Will be back soon
My daughter returned soon
I rode a house ten years ago
I save my money
I share
Shut the door
I smelled old memories

And now a nonsensical haiku forged by the removal of context. I discovered these lines written on the whiteboard in my own hand from the day before:

(internal) organs
far-infrared rays
first anniversary

Keitai Montage

I finally figured out how to move the pictures from my cell phone camera to my computer without sending each as an individual email. So, I’m copping my friend Nick (Man Made Lake)’s stylie and putting them all into one big jpeg. It turns out it’s kind of like a retrospective of say, the past six or eight months. So those of you who I’ve been keeping in touch with might have a clue as to what they all are, but if you’re not one of these folks then I hope you at least enjoy the images.

Ground Zero to 12395ft

And for those of you who don’t dig feet, that’s 3776 meters…

We meant to get some sleep on the train from Hiroshima to Mt. Fuji, but that didn’t happen. Too excited I guess. After a full day of trains, buses, and waiting at stations we started our climb to the top around 11pm. Even from the fifth station, the last point accessible by car, the temperature was already low enough to make you shiver if you stood around too long. I was amazed at the number of people there, especially foreigners! We seemed to have arrived at the same time as a group of loud American sorority types and their flamboyant metrosexual? hangers-on decked out in never used top’o’the line gear and glow stick necklaces. Luckily, they decided to try the sprinting method to summit the peak, so we didn’t have to hear their bubbly prattle for too long. We quickly got completely exhausted with the altitude and lack of sleep, and by 2am or so we were complete sludge creeping upwards one slow step after another. We finally found a nice soft rock and unrolled the sleeping bag for a short and icy nap. I think we slept a little too long, because we weren’t quite to the top by dawn, but I was really happy seeing it from where we were. There were literally thousands of people on the mountain and our vantage point was a little lonelier than at the top. The sleep deprivation really amplified the breathtaking beauty at dawn. We’d climbed the whole way at night (me with near dead batteries in my light) so we really couldn’t see anything other than the trail in front of us and the diminishing lights of a nearby town.