INTERNETT!!!!!

I got my internet set up in my apartment, so now my phone and internet should be working. I have some pics and a few stories to post in the next few days about the last 4 weeks!

Another Nomihodie

I was crazy busy on Saturday and ran all kinds of errands, even got my hair cut.. which was an experience. Kinda hard to tell them what I want, when I cant speak any Japanese. Also went to the furniture store again and got a coffee table and an entertainment center for my TV. My coworker Josh took me to the homestore where I got a bookshelf and a huge bag of rice as well.
Saturday night was sweet though, went to a nomihodie (3 hrs drink all you want for a set price) that Misato had orgainzed. I met some other foreigners who work at a winery to the south of here. They told me about a harvest festival in November that I will have to try. Sounds like you just go down and get drunk at the vineyard. The whole operation is run by people with special needs. Sunday Misato took me to this area called 100 caves at Nagaoka, which is really just 52 caves that are made from volcanic rock. They are each a tumuli and have a bodhisattva Kannon, which is a god of sorts for compassion. Then she made me okonomiyaki. It is a Japanese cross between pizza and a pancake and it has seafood and veggies in it. Pretty yummy. My Japanese is getting a little better, and the more I struggle through it the more fun it is. I have the two alphabets down pretty well Hiragana and Katakana, but Kanji is still really hard.

Nikko and Valentines Day

I bought bike for getting around town on saturday, its a POS, but I think it will work for commuting. Another Boeing coworker, Josh, showed up beginning of February so he rented a car and took his wife, Jessica, and I up to this famous shrine in a town called Nikko. The dragon man is an awesome artist. I will have to go back and get him to create one for me. He does the whole body of the dragon with only 1 brush and 1 continuous stroke. It was pretty amazing. I bought some nice sake that I will have to drink later. Valentines day was pretty awesome my friend Misato took me to the furniture store and I was able to get a couch and dining room table. I went out earlier in the day and bought us a strawberry tart thing for a treat later and bought Misato some flowers. Valentines is really supposed to be where women give men gifts and then there is a womens day in March, but I figured Im American so i can keep it my way. Misato and I went out to dinner then went back to my place for desert and she gave me some home made chocolates. They were delicious! Check out picasa for the pics of Nikko and the dragon man.

From Nikko 2/13/10

Tokyo

I had a crazy night in Tokyo Friday Feb 5th. I went down for a work meeting, and then after about 8 of us all went to dinner... There is this thing they do here called nomihodi, basically two hours at a set price and you drink as much as you can. Everyone of my coworkers headed back to Utsunomiya but I wanted to explore so I went and explored on my own. Needless to say I was already wasted but I got on the subway and went somewhere... not really sure where I ended up, but eventually I just asked some girls to help me and they took me down to the subway and pointed me in the right direction and got my fare all squared away for me, this was after an hour or so of being lost. I made it back to the main tokyo area and I missed the last train back to Utsunomiya so I decided I would just stay out all night until the first train in the morning, so I got into one cab and said take me to where all the fun is, where there are lots of people, and he didnt speak english so i got into another cab and the same thing happened, finally I got into a cab and he knew where to take me. I went to an area called ripongi where there were lots of bars and people hanging out and these hustler type guys took me into a strip club, which wasnt that great but I hung out for about an hour. Then i just walked across the street to go to a bar and asked some people if this was a good bar and told them my name in Japanese so they were very excited and grabbed me and we all went to another bar where we danced for a while, it was like we were all best friends. Only the men dance though, it was very grab ass like. I left that bar to go back to the train station and got lost again. Eventually I got back to the Tokyo station and bought a train ticket back to Utsunomiya. It was snowing at the subway station so I was freezing my ass off, but I got on the subway and found my way back to the train to Utsunomiya. I fell asleep on the train so I ended up way farther north of Utsunomiya and it was snowing like crazy so I got off and then walked around to the other side and got on a train going the other direction. Finally I made it back to Utsunomiya around noon, and then bumped into my building owners daughter, great first impression of me im sure. Japanese people are so friendly, and they love to drink.