I got nothin'

Thailand

2007-01-30T03:25:00.000+09:00

Sorry I have been such a horrible blogger, once you see some of the pictures I think you will understand why. Anyway, right now I am in Thailand, Phuket to be more specific. I am extending my stay here a few days beacause this is where I spent most of my time today...

...on the beach. And yes... that sand is more white than casper himself.

See you soon.

Still no internet!

2007-01-08T23:49:00.000+09:00

I am alive still... moving from hotel to hotel to love hotel to hostel to hotel... but, it is hard to find anywhere here that actually has free internet. I have been many places these last few days. My parents finally showed up and we have been traveling around with them. I have recentely visted Hiroshima, Kyoto (twice in the last two weeks, in two completely separate trips), Himeji, Odawara and Hakone. If not for this rail pass I probably would have spent about $1500USD on train tickets alone.

Anyway, I only have internet for about 4 more minutes, then I get kicked out of this building (I am using the internet from the hotel I am paying for). I have taken about 3GBs of pictures since my brother has shown up so I will post a ridiculous amount of pictures soon... if I find internet again. Hope everyone is excited for school, I am very excited about not having to go back again. If I dont post anything before the 10th... with me luck on my trip in Hong Kong. I hope to be back up and running after I get settled there. Good luck!

Happy Christmas and Merry New Years...

2007-01-02T00:11:00.000+09:00

Or whatever you Americans say...

What did you do for New Years? This is where I was for most of New Years eve, the Meiji Jingu a Shinto Shrine in Harajuku, Tokyo. Tell me your NYs story!

Anyway, I havent really found a decent internet connection yet, but I HAVE found some friends... Jenni, Andy and his friends came to Japan a few days ago and so I have been showing them around the place. I have been super busy and have taken many photos but they probably will not be online for a while. Christmas and New Years were a weird... a little different... maybe good, maybe bad... but over all they were enjoyable, Ill tell you more about that later.

I am getting ready to go to Kyoto... and trying to find time to stay in a capsule hotel and love hotel here within the next few days... right now I don't have reservations for places to stay two nights this week... we will see what happens. After I go to Kyoto I have to come right back to Tokyo just to pick up my parents to take them back to Kyoto... thank the "G" man for this rail pass that I illegally aquired, otherwise I would be dropping about $1200-1400 dollars on train tickets alone over the next week. I also have to start planing my trip to Hong Kong, China, and Thai soon... since its starts on the 10th.

Thats all Ive got for now, I have to try and get into the Imperial Palace tomorrow to see the Emperor of Japan so I need to get some sleep. Huge update to come hopefully in the next week... I hope. Sorry for keeping you waiting, I know the suspense is killing you.

Where is Adam?

2006-12-23T15:07:00.000+09:00

Homeless and without internet. Stories will come when he finds a real internet connection... and a home.

loneliness...

2006-12-18T16:03:00.000+09:00

So it has been a busy weekend. This is the first minute I have had to sit down since thursday. Everyone in the BLC (business, language, culture) program, which was pretty much everyone, has gone home. Its weird being the only person native english speaker in a place... makes me realize I still really have to work on my Japanese... I still have a long way to go before I am fluent or even efficient at all with Japanese.

Anyway, so now I am in the process of packing and getting ready to ship some big boxes home. I get kicked out of the dorms tomorrow and will be staying in hostels for a few days... I am not 100% sure where I am going to stay other days... we will see. Tokyo is busy and expensive right now which is showing in my wallet... and my checking account, but I should be able to make it for the rest of my trip, I just have to work on budgeting myself and not buying those 3 samurai swords I wanted.

It does feel good to graduate, although I don't really feel like I have because I am no where close the UNL... infact, I am on the other side of the world. But, on the bright side of things, I do still feel like I am on my little permanent vacation that began in Sept. Time to pack. Ill keep you posted of where I am staying at.

Sorry, wrong picture.

2006-12-17T19:16:00.000+09:00

I posted the wrong picture of me graduating... here the one right after I got off the stage...

BIG NEWS!

2006-12-17T07:24:00.000+09:00

Its official, I graduated!

Holy People Batman...

2006-12-10T20:02:00.000+09:00

Here is the crazyness of Shibuya... this is the main crosswalk in Shibuya that 1500 people cross EVERY light change, its ridiculous.

GAME ON!

2006-12-06T15:21:00.000+09:00

My new watch!

Curtis, the watch below, just wasn't cutting it so I had to pull him from the game and sit him on the bench... the sexy watch above will soon be on its way to my house... in Omaha... then on its way to my wrist, in Japan (don't ask why its being shipped to NE first, its a long story).

If you can read Kanji, you know what is going on. If not, learn from the diagram below. Kanji are the characters used by Japan and China in their writing. If you want some lessons... I'll help you out... or at least teach you how to tell the time.

Tsukiji

2006-12-06T01:59:00.000+09:00

Last Saturday morning I went Tsukiji, the worlds largest fish market. The market opens at 5AM and is about 1.5 hours away from where I live. I really wanted to get there at 5AM because I have heard that is the best time to explore. The problem I ran into was that the trains do not start running until 5 or 5:30AM, so the earliest I could get there from the dorms was around 6:30 or 7. So a few of my friends and I came up with a solution, we decided to go to an Izakaya (Japanese Style Bar) in Ginza late Friday night and eat and drink until about 4:30AM. We would then walk to Tsukiji and get to see the market open.

To say the least, it was a long night... and a long following day, but was completely worth it. Not only did we get to see the hectic market, but we were able to eat the worlds BEST sushi. We went to a sushi resturant named Daiwa, which is known around the world for having the best sushi in Tsukiji. So i figure that if Tsukiji has the best sushi in Japan... and Japan has the best sushi in the world... I at the best sushi in the world. We did have to wait for 1.5 hours in line to get into this tiny place that only seats about 20 people. But it was completely worth it. I cannot even describe how perfect each slice or roll of sashimi (raw fish) was. I did't really get any pictures of the restaurant, but I did post a lot of pictures of the market in the gallery.

Also, here are a few pictures of the huge tuna that we saw at Tsukiji. The pictures start at an auction where the tuna or sold, then buyers taking their tuna to their stores to sell, cutting the tuna, and lastly the final product... slices of semi-fatty fresh tuna for sale.

Unbelievably, each whole tuna can sell for between $10,000-$20,000USD dollars each. I guess that is why a few fresh slices the size of your thumb sells for $5 dollars. Also, watching the auction for the tuna was crazy. It sounded like they were singing. There were also no visible bidding signs, it was hard to see who was biddign and who was not. Here is a shaky video of that:

When we were walking through the market, we found a box of crabs that were still alive, it seems cruel, but I guess that is how you guarantee freshness. Check it out:

Anyway. I have posted many pictures of Tsukiji, check them out. In other news, I have less than 10 days until I could possibly graduate, which is exciting, yet I have still not finished many of the things I need to do before then. We will see what happens. Anyway, time to start writing a 10 page paper that is due today. I will post more news soon.

I suck at blogging, being busy sucks too!

2006-11-28T04:45:00.000+09:00

I am sorry have been so bad at blogging lately. School is getting really hectic. So, since my last update, I have gone on an elementary school visit, gone to a beer brewery, taken a bus under the Tokyo Bay, done many nomihoudais, visited my host family and went to a club in shibuya. It has been fun, not too many pictures taken but quite the enjoyable time. Ill try and get some photos up soon.

These next few weeks are busy busy busy. Between now and Wed. I have 4 papers, a 10-15 minute presentation and two quizzes. Next week, I have all my final papers due, a huge 10 page paper... about god knows what and a few more presentations and quizes.

Also, I have many other things to take are of... my "lack" of facial hair needs to be trimmed. I need to buy gifts for people. I need to figure out where I am staying after Dec. 15th. I need to figure out where Jenni, Andy, Andy's friends and I are staying starting Dec. 28th. I need to figure out what we are going to do when my parents get here. I need to figure out where I am going to stay in Hong Kong, what I am going to do there, and how I am going to get a visa for China. Then I need to figure out what I am doing after my trip to Hong Kong/China and where I am going to stay (feel free to make suggestsions... somewhere close to HK, i.e. thailand). I need to gruaduate, or take care of my plans for gruaduation, which include writing a huge paper for that. I need to work on finding a job...meaning I also need to work on my resume. And lastly, I have to enjoy Japan while I am here. Sounds a little busy, huh? Who said living by the seat of their pants wasn't a good time?

In other news, my hair still has not been cut. I have been talking about getting it cut for the last four weeks but I am too scared to do it. I do not speak enough Japanese to communicate what I want done... but I might get desperate soon. But, on the bright side of things, Coke released Cherry coke in Japan last week (maybe 2 weeks ago), which is sweet. Its a taste of home... and the cans are very retro. They cans are a replica of the Cherry Coke cans released in the mid '80s. Check it out. I will get more updates and pictures soon.

The OLD one:

The NEW one:

2006-11-13T03:42:00.000+09:00

Here is a little update on how bad I need a freakin' haircut (and how bad my facial hair is looking). They are both so bad that I look kind of angry about it.... actually, I think I am more angry about the fact that I have to go get a hair cut this week... but I dont speak enough Japanese to convey what I want done to my hair... so its going to be a really really "fun" time! I'm very excited... don't I look excited?

It has finally happened...

2006-11-08T22:28:00.000+09:00

For the first time since I arrived in the country of rice... I am finally caught up on posting pictures. I just posted another 200 pictures of Kyoto, Osaka, Nikko and Enoshima Island... so have fun checking them out. Other than that, I really do not have that much news. I am going on a trip this weekend to Kamakura, Japan... it should be fun.

I did forgot to post a picture of "The MAX," the bullet train i took to Nikko... its a double decker. Its hard to see but theres a set of windows right above the platform, then there is a nother set really close to the top. I have no idea how many people fit in this thing, but each car has two floors.. it was pretty sweet.

If you want to just see some really interesting random photos keep scrolling down...

I am going to start out with the best one here... some of you might wet yourself because this is such a far concept from present day America... I present you... a very common sight in many Japanese cities...

This is a beer vending machine. Its cheap and convenient. Oh yeah... drinking age here is 20.

This is a picture of a sweet bike I found here... the interesting thing is it is amazingly small, yet it is fully suspended (shocks on the front wheel, back wheel and on the seat). To top that... it has a freakin' sweet banana seat...

Here is an interesting picture that relates the to toilets here. Japan is known for their ability to conserve things... natural reasources, electricity, etc. To help them do so, most toilets have this two kanji on the flushing handle. Whats amusing about this is the bottem janji stands for "chisai" which means small and the top kanji (with the arrow pointing up) stands for "dai" or "ookii" which means big. You can control the amount of water that goes down the toilet according to how big or small your ... well... you get the idea. Anyway, after writing that guess I don't find it as amusing as I did before... but I posting it regardless.

Here is a random picture I found of a guy cooking my favorite dish... Okonomiyaki.

I am going to leave you with a video of Kegon waterfall which is in Nikko, its not the best video... but you get the ideal. It was quite the sight.

Bullet Train!

2006-11-06T14:13:00.000+09:00

I have a lot of photos from this last week to go through and resize so while you wait I will give you a taste of the Shinkansen. If you want a brief history on shinkansens check it out on Wikipedia here. This is what it looks like when you are riding it... this is what 177MPH looks like...

Break no more.

2006-11-06T01:46:00.000+09:00

So its sunday, the last day of my break and it makes me sad. The last nine days have treated me well. I have gone to Kyoto, Osaka, Nikko, Shibuya, Harajuku, Shinjuku and Shimo Kitazawa. Kyoto and Nikko were gorgeous. I am still working on getting the Kyoto, Osaka and Nikko pictures, but I did post about 200 pictures of my homestay, a trip I took for my business class to an insurance company as well as my trip to Hakone. Those should be up by the end of the week... I hope.

To summarize what I haven't posted over the last three weeks:

Home-stay: It was awesome, a great experience. I wish it would have lasted longer. There are few photos posted from my experience. Here is a really really long video of Kyudo practive (Japanese Archery) in which a guy just straight up hits a bulls eye. As with most things in Japan, they are more concerned about the form than the actual target hitting so if you want to skip the whole preparation for shooting, skip to the last 15 seconds of it.

Hakone: It was a very entertaining trip but I did not get to see Mt. Fuji so I was not completely satisfied, but I will go back to see Mt. Fuji later. Check out the pictures in my gallery to see what the trip was like. I went to some very cool places.

Kyoto: Traditional Japan. I loved it. The town itself was a busy tourist spot, but the Temples and Shrines were breathtaking. They were like quite little sanctuaries in the middle of a big town... check out the background of the picture...

The trees were just beginning to change colors which made the scenery look so beautiful... here is a little taste of Kyoto colors.

Osaka: Did not get to see much of it, and accidently walked through the red light district. I do want to go back but I dont have the money to get back there. The Osaka train station has like 20 miles of tunnels under the city... this is a random place that I found while we were down there.

Nikko: Spent most of my time in Nikko on a bus driving up a mountain, but the colors of the leaves are changing right now (to reds, oranges and yellows) which made it quite the spectacular view. I only have one good photo of the leaves but this is what most things looked like...

The Hostels: They were pretty sweet. Our first one was the best (pictured below). The rooms were spacious enough, the beds were very comfy and the price was pretty cheap ($25-30 a night per person).

The rest of the Break: Spent sleeping, eating, drinking, and doing my favorite... absolutely nothing. Also, over the last nine days I have ridden a lot of bullet trains. They are pretty sweet, but they aren't that special. It's like riding a plane for the first time... after you've done it once it just gets old. But, they still look awesome. The picture on the top is of a newer shinkansen (bullet train), and the one on the bottem is a littel bit older (although I dont know how old it actually is). I think the newer one has top speed a little over 300MPH, but it probably only averaged 100-150MPH on my trip.... not that that is a bad thing.

Oh yeah... I am going to leave you with what I consider my best/favorite picture since I got here. I don't know why I like it so much, but I do. This is a picture of a "Romance Car," which is a limited rapid express train that runs from Shinjuku to Hakone... which is a great place to take your girlfriend... hint hint. Enjoy the picture, its 4:45AM and I still have to write a paper and get some sleep.

I'm Back!

2006-11-04T03:06:00.000+09:00

Sorry about the site being down... I needed to take care of some business regarding my server... so I think I should be okay now. I went to Kyoto and Osaka over this last weekend and it was awesome. I will post pictures soon... and of all the other stuff I said i would post pictures of. Get ready for hundreds of photos... hopefully by Monday. So there are a few kinks in the site that i have to fix. I hope to get those fixed soon. I am off on a one day expedition to Nikko tomorrow. I leave at 8AM and it is now 3AM... and I still have to shower and get some stuff ready so I post more maybe tomorrow night. Get ready for sweet pictures soon... here is a taste of what is to come...

2006-10-27T22:05:00.000+09:00

OK... Time for an update!

First, I finally got a cell phone... and it only took a month. The phone was free and its about $40 a month. The interesting thing though is the service plans. For the most part, you don't have to sign up for a huge contract, which is really nice, and if you are in a contract its only $30 to get out of the contract. (which is what I am doing). The other interesting thing about the service plans is that they are not anything like the U.S. ones. You don't "buy" 1000 minutes a month and unlimited texting... actually... you will not get anything close to that. Everyone here pretty much uses text messaging only (which is actually email here; i.e. mine is adamhart@ezweb.ne.jp). Talking on the phone is really expensive. The $40 I pay a month only give me 50 minutes a month but a ridiculous amount of text messaging (I think you are limited in your plan by how many "IP packets" you buy per month). Regardless... its crazy... and soo confusing. Also, the cell phone is AMAZING! I got a basic one and it is still 3 year ahead of phones in the US.

The cell phones right above my level have HD TV on them, and streaming audio and just a ridiculous amount of features. My phone's camera shoots pictures at a resolution up to 1280X960 (SXGA) which is crazy. In addition to that you can change the white balance, add affects like sepia, solarization, etc. It also records movies... I think at 320x240 but I will have to test that out to see.

I went to Hakone last weekend, which is close to Mt. Fuji. It was a good trip but I didn't really get a good shot of Mt. Fuji, it was pretty hazy on Sat. and extremely hazy on Sun. Also, I am not any closer on my mission of finding that golf course from Lost in Translation... my Japanese friends said its going to be like finding a needle in a haystack. Nonetheless, I had fun, it was gorgeous, and I almost ate... "almost"... ate an entire black egg, which gives you 7 years of good luck (stupid marketing ploy...). The eggs are black because they are boiled in sulfur heavy hot springs.

Lastly, it has been almost a month since I started, and my facial hair still sucks, but here is a picture of the (lack of) progress. Might make you laugh a little... I don't look very happy.

A bump in the road...

2006-10-23T04:08:00.001+09:00

So, today, I was getting ready for a huge update with lots of photos and stories... BUT... that is just not going to happen. I got the ridiculous amount of photos I took resized and divided up, but when I went to upload them, my server said I am out of space. So, until I get my server account at 1and1 updated.... no photos, movies or fun... which sucks. I apologize for that. I will have stories and photos up soon, I hope.

I am alive...

2006-10-20T02:35:00.000+09:00

For those of you still checking... I am still alive. I have been super busy since I got back... so I havent had time to update much. I had an awesome time at my homestay... more on that soon. Also, I have been to many great places this week. I will post pictures as soon as i get some free time. Tomorrow (fri.) I am going to Hokone for the weekend, it should prove to be a good time. It is close to Mt. Fuji and has hot springs... so I am excited to go. I will post a ridiculous amount of pictures soon... and post more about my homestay and my week.

Homestay...

2006-10-15T00:13:00.000+09:00

So, right now I am at the Torinoumi's house, my host parents. I just wanted to update you guys and tell you that it is going VERY well. In fact, I wish it was for more than three days. I have had a blast. Although my host parents do not speak much english, we have communicated very well over the last two days... a lot better than I thought I was going to be able to. I need some sleep... 8AM comes really quick, but I will post more stories and pictures later. Oh yeah... I have a funny story about earthquakes... but more on that later.

Awesomeness

2006-10-13T02:33:00.000+09:00

I went to the ocean today and it was sweet. Hiked around a island and went to a few temples too. My computer is about to die so I am not going to post any pictures today but soon I hope. Also, wish me luck with my non-enlish speaking host family that I am meeting tomorrow.

Rain, Harajuku, Shimo Kitazawa, Toilets, Jenni, Expensive Beer, Karaoke...

2006-10-10T21:48:00.000+09:00

It rained a lot last week. I'm pretty sure Japan was the one that coined the saying "when it rains, it pours," because it basically poured here for 3 days straight. In addition to rain, there was a ridiculous amount of wind. Wind strong enough to demolish a large amount of umbrellas. When walking down to the train station, I ran into many piles of broken umbrellas similar to this.

Also, I figured out the reason why my watch was only four dollars... its definitely not water resistant. For about three days this was the best I could see the time. Though, on a cooler note, it changed the color of the LED backlight from blue to green!

After all the rain though, I definitely have to say that my Keen hiking sandals and my Marmot waterproof jacket were definitely worth the money. For the most part, I spent the rest of my weekend in Harajuku and Shimo Kitazawa. There are a ton of new pictures posted so check them out if you have a chance. While walking around, I found something that I forgot to mention on the blog earlier, the toilets here. The toilets here are basically ceramic holes in the ground, many call them the "squater" because you literally have to straddle and squat to use it. Many places have "western" style toilets, but most places only have these....

BIG NEWS! Jenni finally drank a full beer on her own. Then when I thought it was a fluke, she sent me photos of her drinking another one. WTF mate? Way to go Jenni, you are one step closer to being AWESOME like me! Just kidding. Regardless, check out the photos...

While we are talking about beer... we went to a bar in Shimo Kitazawa because they said they had some dart boards. We went in to check them out and they sat us at a table. I wasn't the one talking the waitress because I dont speak Japanese well enough... but the jist that we got was that we each had to buy a drink if we wanted to stay and play darts. We didn't really want to all buy a beer, but we did want to play some darts, and the impression we got was that darts was free. We ordered the cheapest beer, which was six dollars, and this is what we got...

8 ounces of bitter, subpar beer. We were not happy at all. On top of all of that, when we went to go play some darts, we figured out that it was six dollars for a game of crickets. We took about 3 gulps of our beer, mind you... those were two dollar gulps, and left very unhappy.

Last note about this weekend, we did a karaoke/nomihodai (all you can drink karaoke) from 11PM to 5AM last friday night. It was crazy. A little too much... if you get my drift. I posted some photos of it, but if you want to experience the awesomeness of it check out these videos...

Thats all for now. School is very boring and I will update soon... although I think I have a few tests soon so we will see.... but I think I should go exploring instead of studying.

Progress...

2006-10-10T03:02:00.000+09:00

Blog to come soon... until then, enjoy the progress of my facial hair.

Homestay

2006-10-06T00:45:00.000+09:00

I don't have much to report tonight. The only thing that happened today was a ridiculous amount of rain, a karaoke/nomihodai reservation (Fri. 11PM-5AM) and our homestay assignments. The homestay takes place next Friday, THE 13th... maybe a bad sign? Its Friday afteroon to Sunday night. I am shacked up with another person which sould help with the awkwardness, and luckily he knows more Japanese than me. But I think it should be okay. The family lives about 30 minutes away by train. Two parents and two boys, one 13 one 16. Everyone in the house likes music and art so we should get along... as long as they speak a little English (I swear I am not an ignorant American). Anyway... if you want to see the crazyness of the homestay assignments, check out the assignement map...

P.S. There was also a debate about whether or not homestay was one word or two. Internet searches came up with with mixed results. I am going with one. Can anyone offer me any of their word-wizardry?

Harajuku

2006-10-05T02:58:00.000+09:00

Last night (Tues. night) I decided that I should quit wasting my time sitting around the dorm at night doing absolutely nothing. So, tonight, I made a quick trip to Harajuku. It was a very good time. If you like shopping... whether it be at Louis Vuitton or at the ridiculous amount of used American clothes stores.... this place is for you. Harajuku has EVERYTHING. I posted some pictures of my trip... check them out if you want a taste of Harajuku. I am going back this weekend for more.

Anyway, it's 3 AM and I need to do my homework. I will give you guys more details about Harajuku, 2nd hand stores, and vending machines later. Have a good night. asian OUT!