So I have about 8 million pictures to post, and I need to get on that! But meanwhile, here’s what I’ve been up to:

• Saw kabuki twice and loved it. Unlike western theater, where you are supposed to suspend your disbelief and live in the world of the play for a couple of hours, kabuki acknowledges that this a fake world that’s been created, and it’s inhabited by actors. You’re meant to notice the actor and his performance, not the character he plays and what that character does. I liked it a lot.


• Went to Kamakura and saw three temples, including the one with the giant outdoor Buddha. You can go inside, so of course I did! We took the green car back to make sure we had comfy seating, that was quite fun.


• Went shopping in Ginza and Nihombashi, in all the fancy expensive stores. All I bought was a cute bottle of sake with fish and fireworks on it. I did see kimono for about $20,000 though!


• Went to Tokyo Rainbow Pride but did not stay long. Very small and very little information in English. I did get to visit the table for the Crystal Community JSL club though! Unfortunately they were out of shirts in my size.


• Bought a 2″ memory foam mattress topper. I had a cold for a few days and my bed was just SO uncomfortable. We have a 4″ topper at home, and I love it, so I thought I’d get one here too. I’m mostly over the cold and my normal bed feels okay now, but it’s still not comfortable. The topper came this morning and I’ve got it expanding on the floor, I think I’ll sleep better with it!


• Went to the giant yard sale at the American Embassy Residence Compound with co-workers and friends. I actually made out like a bandit, scoring five books for ¥400 (including two I had been planning to buy new, and two travel guides, something else I was going to buy new), a wifi router for ¥500, a Marie doll for ¥200, and a new American Embassy Tokyo shirt (from the souvenirs table) for ¥2000. The shirt was expensive, but I had wanted one, and it’s in my size and is a well-made Champion long-sleeve t-shirt so I think it was worth it.

I have also been dealing with homesickness. My wife left almost a week ago and I miss her very much. We decided that instead of emailing every day and video calling once a week, we would call every day. It’s been helping a lot the past few days, I feel much better, so I hope we keep it up the rest of my time here! She will come back and we’ll see Kyoto and Nara and other parts of the country, but that won’t be for a while, so I’m really happy to be talking on the phone with her. I do still miss her greatly though…I don’t think I can even put into words how much! I’m not leaving, I love it here, but I sure do miss her.

I am thinking of taking a little day trip tomorrow, maybe. Of course there’s so many places I haven’t seen yet right here in Tokyo, but I want to go somewhere else! Discovering new places is a good way to beat homesickness, too – I am so busy seeing new things that I forget to be homesick. (On Friday I used a break at work to go to Ochiai Station and walk from there to Takadanobaba, and today I went to Naka-Meguro for Mexican food but it was closed and I ended up eating at a vegan place instead.) I want to go see Bus the cat at Ashinomaki-Onsen station, but I can’t seem to make the trip last less than three hours each way or cost less than $50 each way. (Note that those are not the same thing…the $50 trip is almost six hours, and the three hour trip is $115!) So perhaps that is a weekend trip rather than a day trip. I have been eyeing Nikko (might need to be an overnight too), Japanican tours (too expensive), and now I am looking at Fuji-Q Highland. I don’t want to do nothing tomorrow!

Because my phone’s internet is ridiculously slow (because I was too cheap to pay for faster internet from B-Mobile), I have been trying to get wifi access for it.

I finally decided on Wi2 for access out and about, because they seem to have a pretty high number of hotspots for only ¥380 a month. For some reason I have been unable to use it yet, though…I have only tried at one place, but I was unable to actually make the connection. Maybe too many people were using it, I don’t know. At any rate, I will keep trying. Its speed is limited too, but my 3G service maxes out at 300kbps and Wi2 maxes out at 300Mbps, so…it was worth it to sign up! (If I can get it working, of course.)

For around the house – well, apartment – I was considering a wifi router. But I had already spent about ¥500 on a long ethernet cable for my laptop, and I didn’t want to have wasted that. (Derp, right? Whatever.) So while a wifi router could have serviced both my phone and my laptop, I decided to go with a different solution. Because my laptop’s wifi card is too dumb to act as an access point for Connectify, I needed a wifi dongle that could play the role of access point. I picked up the Planex GW-USnano2-G today at Yodobashi Camera for ¥980; there were a few other models for ¥1280 but I figured this would do. I got it home and got the drivers installed, then it installed the client manager. I thought about using that, but it seemed a bit clunky…probably just a result of poor translation, but I was scared off. It took a while to get the client manager to stop managing, but I finally got Connectify working and my phone connected to it!

So I’m now updating the apps on my phone for only the second time since I came to Japan; doing it over a 300kbps connection would have been ridiculous, so I just turned off automatic updates and waited until now. It’s merrily chugging away, and I’ve got it in airplane mode too so the battery doesn’t drain quite as fast – the radio bands used in Japan are available on my phone, but they seem to deplete the battery much faster than the bands used in the US.

I’m sure a wifi router would have been easier, but the end result is the same for only about ¥1500, and a router would probably have been ¥2500 or more, so…it is what it is!

I have been spending way too much time on Japan-Talk.com, I can just spend forever reading their articles! They list 101 100 things to do in Tokyo (they skipped #40) and I figure this is a good place to start with activities in this city! Completed items as of 27 April 2012: 43!

1. Shibuya Crossing – You can’t go to Shibuya without doing Shibuya Crossing, basically. I have done it several times just walking around. I don’t find it that intimidating and I have also watched it from the Starbucks.


2. Yoyogi park on a Sunday – We went for Tokyo Rainbow Pride but got lost first and ended up walking through the whole park. The Tokyo Rockabilly Club was doing their thing, and there were drummers, families, dogs, and all kinds of people having fun.


3. Odaiba – Went in 2010. I like this place, it’s all new and modern and there are weird buildings.


4. Shimbashi Nightlife


5. Shopping in Ginza – Bought a teddy bear at Hakuhinkan, a giant toy store.


6. Shopping in Omotesando – I bought socks at Omotesando Hills, I’m in the in crowd!


7. Go to a love hotel – Well, I sang karaoke in one in 2010, does that count?


8. Sensoji Temple – I live like a 5 minute walk from here. I chose my apartment partly based on its proximity to Senso-ji.


9. Inogashira Park


10. Electronics Shopping in Akihabara – Have purchased a netbook, power strip, cat5 cable, etc. here.


11. Shopping in Shimokitazawa


12. Kappabashi – I bought a gift for a friend here!


13. MOS Burger – It’s a burger. Can be messy.


14. Ueno Zoo


15. Tokyo Disney Land – I love Disneyland and also DisneySea! Have been to the latter twice and the former once.


16. Tokyo National Museum – I am not normally into museums but this was really cool.


17. Ghibli Museum


18. Mori Art Museum


19. Eat Sushi


20. Tokyo Sky Tree


21. Tokyo Summerland


22. Roppongi Clubbing – I spent five minutes in Propaganda on a Friday night once.


23. Sing Karaoke – It was only in a love hotel, but I have done it, and I’ll make it to one of the other places soon.


24. Purikura- I kinda love purikura, if I remember to look at the camera, and if I can figure out how to decorate it.


25. Shibuya Clubbing


26. Tokyo Tower


27. Tsukishima Monja


28. Hibiya Park


29. Freshness Burger – Have loved them since 2010, great fries and they have veggie burgers.


30. Sugamo


31. Harajuku Shopping – Well, I’ve gone window shopping on Takeshita Dori, at least. I can’t afford to buy anything, and if I could, it wouldn’t fit.


32. Ebisu


33. Yasukuni Shrine – Walked around here following a demonstration in their sumo arena.


34. Kasumigaseki


35. Komazawa Olympic Park


36. Imperial Palace – Have walked around part of the outside, and also part of the gardens.


37. Meiji Shrine


38. Daikanyama


39. Marunouchi


40. Kabukicho – I actually find it quite fun, even if I have found myself wandering its streets at 4am.


41. Sangenjaya


42. Futakotamagawa


43. Sumo – Saw a free demonstration at Yasukuni Shrine, and have been to the stadium in Ryogaku, though I can’t afford to see a match there.


44. Korakuen


45. Japanese baseball game – Oakland A’s beat the Yomiuri Giants in a pre-season game.


46. Ramen – Delicious food.


47. Toshimaen


48. Ikebukuro Sunshine 60 – I have been to Namjatown and walked around the mall a bit, I have been up to the observation floor but I didn’t want to pay the crazy fee to go look out its windows.


49. Shibuya 109 – Have been here twice. Never again.


50. Tokyu Hands – I shop here for crafty things I need, but they don’t always have them, or at least I don’t always find them.


51. Showa Kinen Koen


52. Aoyama Bochi


53. Shinjuku Gyoen Park – I swear there is a layer of padding between the fields and the actual ground. It was way too weird and springy and the grass didn’t feel right.


54. Internet Cafe – I have used them when lost, I have slept overnight in them (or tried, etc.


55. Kagurazaka – It’s near my work, fun little shopping area, even if it is a hill.


56. Naka Meguro


57. Capsule Hotel – Tried two different ones in 2010. Not much point now that I have a home!


58. Tokyo River Cruise


59. Hanegi Park


60. Tokyo Bay Fireworks


61. Sento


62. Musashi Koyama


63. Shinokubo


64. Yokohama – Wandered around Minato Mirai, went to the theme park, and to the Lalaport.


65. Hostess clubs – I can’t get into hostess clubs because I’m female, but I have been to a host club, so that counts. It’s super weird, man.


66. Japanese soccer


67. Maid Cafe – Honestly I love these, just for the quirkiness.


68. Uniqlo – I bought a shirt at one in 2010. I’d like to find out if I still fit anything at all there.


69. Edo Tokyo Museum


70. Cherry Blossom Viewing (hanami) – Done with friends, co-workers, students, while eating bento…


71. 100 Yen Shop – Always my first stop if I need something for the home. If they don’t have it, then I will venture elsewhere.


72. Kabuki – I have been lucky enough to see multiple kabuki plays, all at Shimbashi Enbujo Theater. I have seen 西郷と豚姫 (Saigo Takamori and the Pig Princess), 紅葉狩り (The Demoness at the Autumn Foliage Party), 女殺油地獄 (The Woman Killer and the Hell of Oil), and 椿説弓張月 (Chinsetsu Yumihari Zuki). The actors I saw in these plays included Nakamura Shichinosuke II, Kataoka Ainosuke VI, Nakamura Shidou II, and Nakamura Kanjaku V.


73. Muji


74. Yokohama Chinatown – Got dinner here with a bunch of students in 2010. Was vegetarian at the time, had a hard time getting food.


75. Summer BBQ


76. Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building


77. Family Restaurant – I love these. My favorite is Saizeriya but Coco’s and Gusto are good too. I need to try the others.


78. Shopping in Shinjuku – There is a Sanrio store there, duh!


79. Shiodome


80. Shiatsu


81. Product Showrooms


82. Ameyoko – I wandered around in a light rain but was honestly not that impressed.


83. Kiyosumi Teien


84. Kasai Rinkai Koen


85. Tokyo Motor Show


86. Mount Mitake


87. Tokyo Dome City – Went here before the baseball game, could not afford to do much.


88. Nishiazabu


89. Shinagawa Nightlife


90. Climb Takao Mountain


91. Sanrio Puroland – It’s really for kids, but the shop is totally awesome.


92. Shinagawa Aquarium


93. Koenji


94. Japanese Arcade – Wandered around these while horribly lonely, also played the taiko drum game with a friend’s kid, they’re a multipurpose thing.


95. The Museum of Criminology


96. Jiyugaoka


97. Pachinko


98. Zojoji Temple


99. Tokyo Matsuri – Sumida River Fireworks Festival in 2010 was fun, very crowded but all the girls were in their nice yukata.


100. Get out of Tokyo – Have been to Kyoto, Hiroshima, and Kamakura.

So I’m very overdue for an update! I haven’t posted in forever, even though I have done fun things like go to Kanamara Matsuri, go to DisneySea, and start work!

Kanamara Matsuri was the first Sunday in April. I happened to mention it to Sam and Lulu the night before, and they said “thank goodness you told us about it, we want to come too!” So the three of us took the train to Kawasaki the next day, and stepped off the train at Kawasaki-Daishi station and right into the middle of the festival! The parade was passing the station just as we got there, so we hurried over to see the three penises. I would say the crowd was at least 40% foreigners, which is an extremely high percentage of foreigners to see anywhere – I’m not sure it’s even that much at Tokyo’s hottest tourist sights, like Senso-ji Temple near where I live. Unfortunately, a lot of them were drinking and being boorish assholes, taunting the performing monkey, shouting obscenities…drinking is perfectly fine, but being a boorish asshole is not. I was kind of embarrassed, honestly – we decided I could be French for the day, rather than American. The festival was uncomfortably crowded, though, and I was unable to get any penis-shaped popsicles or anything like that – it was just too damn crowded. I did buy a couple of penis-shaped souvenirs, though, so I have something fun to remember the day by!

A couple of days after the Kanamara Matsuri, I started work. Since then I have been really busy! I did have time to go to DisneySea on Monday, though, again with Sam and Lulu. I had been before, but that was by myself, and honestly there’s no comparison – going alone is not only kind of pathetic, it’s not nearly as fun. You don’t scream on the rides, you don’t get to laugh with anyone…it’s much better with friends! We had a great time, and even though the weather was perfect, it wasn’t too crowded. We had good seats for Legend of Mythica and Fantasmic! (which isn’t quite the same as the California version), we went on fun rides, and we bought a few souvenirs. But the best part of the day was just enjoying the fun of a Disney park with really good friends. I am so lucky Sam and Lulu are right here in my building, they are truly one of the best things about Tokyo, and I will miss them greatly when they return to France!

I have decorated my “apartment” (room) a little more now – a poster from Etsy, some Sky Tree postcards, and cards from loved ones at home. It’s still small, but it looks better now. And I have seen them testing the Sky Tree lighting schemes from my window, so that’s totally awesome! I really like my apartment.

Hey everyone! Just wanted to let you know that I am indeed still alive and I’m having a great time in Tokyo! I am now in my second week of work, so I’m busy, and I haven’t been writing anything. I am working on a blog post about the Kanamara Matsuri, as promised, but it isn’t finished yet. Meanwhile you can go visit my Flickr to see what I’ve been taking pictures of here!

I am trying to stay current on news from back home, everything from a hit and run steps from my front door (the search helicopters kept my wife awake that night) to the presidential primary races (looks like Romney’s the frontrunner). I depend on The Daily Show for a lot of my basic news, but I also check in with Google News now and then.

I am still studying Japanese using Textfugu, and I am starting to recognize kanji here and there. Although most signs in train stations here are bilingual, the other day I found myself looking at a sign in Tokyo station that was only in Japanese. I was looking for the name of the station where I work, but I haven’t memorized those characters yet, so I was a bit lost! I quickly realized that 御茶ノ水 was Ochanomizu…because ノ is no and 水 is mizu – and I know where Ochanomizu station is! So even without knowing the first two, I was able to read that station name. It didn’t get me where I was going, but fortunately someone saw me staring in confusion at the sign, and helped me out. I am also learning some kun’yomi pronunciations by observing transit signs. Kun’yomi is the pronunciation used for a kanji character when it is used in combination with other characters, as opposed to by itself (the on’yomi reading). By noticing that 中野 (Nakano) shares characters with 中目黒 (Nakameguro) and 上野 (Ueno), I have figured out that one of the kun’yomi for 中 is naka and one of the kun’yomi for 野 is no. (Yes, that’s different from ノ up above…welcome to Japanese!) I also pick up other kanji here and there, and I’m trying to understand grammar too!

That’s all for now…I am getting sleepy! That’s what happens when you try to write after climbing into bed. Time to put the laptop down and say goodnight! I’ll write more soon!

I have not written about the baseball game like I meant to! I went to a baseball game at Tokyo Dome about a week and a half ago. I have only been to two other professional baseball games in my life – Orioles vs. A’s at Memorial Stadium when I was in elementary school, and the Red Sox vs. somebody at Fenway Park on my senior trip in high school. So going to Tokyo Dome was my third pro game ever, and my first at an indoor stadium. I think baseball is better outside during the day – it just feels more like the “American pastime” that way. Sun on your face, wind in your hair…is it just me?

The reason I went to see this game was because my friend Liane mentioned it to me a few days beforehand. She’s an A’s fan, being from Oakland, and she said that the A’s and the Seattle Mariners were in town to play their opening games for the 2012 MLB season. I looked around a little bit, and I thought I’d like to go – I had wanted to experience a Japanese baseball game sometime while I was here, so why not go ahead right away? I definitely wanted to see a Japanese team too, though, so I picked the Oakland Athletics vs. the Yomiuri Giants. I picked the Giants over the Tigers because I was reading Jake Adelstein’s book Tokyo Vice, and he worked for the Yomiuri newspaper, so I figured that was as good a reason as any to pick a team. Of course, the Tigers are the underdogs in their rivalry with the Giants, and one likes to root for the underdog, but I went with the Giants because the word Yomiuri was in my brain from the book anyway.

I originally tried to get tickets at JapanBallTickets.com, but the site was confusing and the service charge was three times the cost of the tickets, so I jettisoned that idea quickly. With Liane’s help I was able to track down how to buy tickets at 7-11, so I did exactly that! I ended up needing some help from the cashier to work the ticketing machine (which also does tickets for museums, concerts, etc), but it was nice to be able to pay cash and receive my tickets on the spot. My ticket was in the center outfield on the first base side, and cost about $25.

I went to Tokyo Dome a few hours before the game would start, so I could look around a bit. The complex includes Tokyo Dome City (amusement park and more) and LaQua (shopping and restaurants) in addition to the stadium itself, and I wanted to have time to check them out. The only ride I was interested in was Thunder Dolphin, but it hasn’t been run since 2011, so who knows if I’ll ever get to ride it. I was kind of interested in the hubless ferris wheel, but it was 800 yen, so I changed my mind! Riding a ferris wheel alone is kind of silly, especially one that isn’t much taller than the surrounding buildings, so I would rather go to the government building in Shinjuku that is much taller and has a free observation deck. (Sunshine 60 also has a good observation deck, but it’s not free!) So I just wandered around a bit, enjoyed a Studio Ghibli store but didn’t buy anything, got overrun by people leaving the Tigers-Mariners game, and had a nice lunch of soba and tempura. It was probably the fanciest lunch I have had so far, and it was very expensive for what it was…a few days later I had a similar meal for about half the cost! But that’s what happens when you eat at a tourist place.

So after wandering around and eating, I headed over to check out the gate where I would enter the stadium. It was about an hour before it was supposed to start, but people were already lining up – only a few for the gate that leads to the cheap seats, but rather a lot for the gate that leads to better seats! I decided to sit down on the ground in line and read, the weather was nice and I was done walking around anyway. I was surprised to see that people had left things to mark their position in line and then gone away for a long while – I don’t think that sort of place-saving would be tolerated in the US. But it was respected here, and when a guy behind me taped down a sign saying he was going to the bathroom, the next people to arrive read it and dutifully stood behind it. There was a group of five young boys in line in front of me with an adult chaperone – they appeared to be a Little League team and coach – and the boys seemed to delight in trying to annoy me without actually interacting with me. I sat on the ground, and there were ropes marking the path of the line; the boys would pull on the rope at their end so it would whack me repeatedly in the head at my end, and when I looked over they would turn away and giggle. It didn’t hurt, and it was slightly amusing, but it was more annoying. Ah well, boys!

When the gates opened and we went inside, I noticed a sign saying you can’t bring bottles, cans, or anything like that into the stadium. I had brought some cans of chūhai, but I didn’t know what to do with them, so I entered with them anyway and figured I would just have to leave them in my backpack. I spotted a souvenir stand and bought a keychain souvenir for Liane, looked at the snack bar’s all-Japanese offerings, and then found my seat. I still had about an hour before the game started, so I just looked around and took it all in, and while looking at the scoreboard, I saw a notice saying any cans or bottles had to be poured into paper cups at the entrance. I quickly realized that the “free water” stand I had seen at the entrance was actually a collection of stadium employees who will pour your drinks into cups for you, and I brought my cans back to be repackaged. I think this rule has to do with ecology – making sure that all the cans and bottles get recycled instead of being thrown out. I’m not sure though, but I made sure to follow the rules once I figured them out! After bringing my new cups back to my seat, I left them there to get some food. It’s perfectly safe to leave things at your seat at the Tokyo Dome…theft is a very minimal problem in Japan, so I just left my backpack and drinks and went back to the snack bar. I had wanted a hot dog, because of course you get a hot dog at the ballpark, right? But they didn’t seem to have them, so I ended up with a katsu sando (messy) and a melon soda (tasty) which cost 1000 yen! Ah well, ballpark food is even more expensive than the food around the ballpark. It certainly explained why people had brought food, though.

During batting practice, people gathered along the edge of the stands in the hopes of catching a ball. I went down there and watched too, intending to duck any balls that players tossed my way. I noticed that a couple of kids were yelling “ボールください” (ball please) over and over at the A’s players, so I said to them “アメリカ人です、ボールください <X crossed arms> ball please!” (They’re Americans, “ball please” [in Japanese] <doesn’t work> [say] “ball please” [in English].) They picked up on it right away and started yelling “ball please! ball please!” instead, and sure enough one of the A’s players tossed a ball right at them and they walked away quite proud of themselves.

As the game was getting ready to begin, I noticed that the 1st base side outfield was the “cheering section” for the Yomiuri Giants. I figured this out by spotting the giant flags being waved saying YOMIURI GIANTS CHEERING SECTION in English…I’m a quick study, huh? There was a band playing too, and people were getting really noisy, so I took off my hearing aids which made it much better. As the game began, it was still pandemonium every time the Giants did something good, and the chants of players’ names were still nonstop, but at least I could hear myself think! (My hearing aids don’t do well with cacophony, and I have great difficulty processing multiple sources of auditory input – can’t have any noise, radio, etc. if somebody is talking to me – so a noisy baseball stadium is not a good place to have a conversation with me!)

The game was fun at first, and I enjoyed pretending to pick on the umpire’s decisions or the pitcher’s throws or whatever, though of course I had no idea what was going on. I know what Balls, Strikes, Outs, and Walks are, but that is about the limit of my baseball knowledge. I would get all excited over a strong hit by an A’s player, only to realize it was a foul. Oh well, it was amusing! At least until about the 5th inning, and then I started getting bored. Even if I couldn’t understand anything people were chanting (due to both auditory issues and language barrier), there was still the constant drone of their cheers, and I was getting a little headache. So I walked out to the restroom and then took a little tour…where I came upon the hot dog stand! They were 500 yen, though, and I had already spent $12 on the sandwich and soda, so I wasn’t going to spend another $6 on a hot dog. They seemed to be standard ballpark hot dog fare, whatever that is…nothing particularly unusual or “Japanese-y” about them. I was disappointed that I didn’t get one, because I would rather have had a hot dog than the katsu sando, but I have to be frugal, so I didn’t get it. Ah well.

I returned to my seat and the game wrapped up with the A’s beating the Giants 5-1. Leaving was fairly organized, there was no pushing or anything like that, I just walked back to the train station and went home. I’m really glad I chose to see a Japanese team, because although the official cheering section was a bit crazy, I don’t think it would have been nearly as wild if it was two MLB teams playing. Then again, the Mariners have Ichiro, and according to the “MLB in Japan” blogs, the stadium exploded whenever he scratched his nose, so perhaps it would have been that crazy even for the A’s vs. the Mariners! But I can catch MLB games back in the US, so I’d rather have at least one Japanese (NPB) team.

I don’t think I will be seeing a baseball game again while I’m here, as I’m not really a big fan of baseball. But Japan has truly adopted America’s pastime and they love baseball here, so I am glad I got to see at least one game, and affordably, too! I did come to appreciate that you don’t need to speak the same language to play baseball – the rules are the same and everybody can have some fun competition.

After seeing the game, at the recommendation of a friend, I watched Mr. Baseball on Netflix. It features Tom Selleck as a Yankees player who gets “traded” to the Chunichi Dragons. Of course he is angry about leaving the US, hates everything Japanese, and refuses to follow the manager’s instructions. But in the end he falls in love with the manager’s daughter and everything turns out fine, he stays in Japan and they all live happily ever after. It was entirely predictable, but cute. I liked the actor (Ken Takakura) who played the manager – I will have to see if I can find some of his films subtitled in English.

So that’s my “Baseball in Japan” post. Stay tuned for a post soon (tomorrow morning) about the Kanamara Matsuri!

I have meant to make posts several times during the past 10 days, but I just kept doing other things instead! Here is one of the posts I’ve been meaning to write.

I went with Sam and Lulu to Ikebukuro last Tuesday, and we stopped in at Nekobukuro, a cat cafe on the top floor of Tokyu Hands. It was a holiday, Vernal Equinox Day (春分の日, しゅんぶんのひ), so Ikebukuro was quite crowded and the cat cafe was no different. This was troubling, though, because there were far too many people in there or the cats’ well-being. In fact, I noticed a number of things at Nekobukuro that differentiate it from every other cat cafe I’ve seen, usually in ways detrimental to the cats.

1. It has tile floor throughout, so visitors wear their street shoes; this would make it very painful if someone’s tail was stepped on. Every other cat cafe has had carpeting, and visitors wear soft slippers.


2. Although the cats have “off space” where they rest when they’re not working, they cannot go there by choice, it is blocked off and they must wait for a human to let them in – I assume they are usually made to finish their “shift” first. When they are in the “off space” they are still on display, as this space is basically just giant glass-enclosed cages. They are well-appointed with beds, food, water, and a litterbox, but they are still just cages and the cats can’t ever really hide. While I was there, I noticed people knocking on the glass to wake up cats who were sleeping. Every other cat cafe has genuine hiding spots for the cats, who are free to mix with visitors or hide in the back, as they choose. I have seen staff bring cats out from the back, but the cats usually seem perfectly happy to mingle after this, and they don’t run back to the back – I assume the staff are just trying to make sure they aren’t sleeping the day away out of reach.


3. The cats at Nekobukuro shrank from human contact, quite literally. Although every cat has times it doesn’t want to be petted, and will duck under your hand when you’re trying to pet it, this was the norm for the cats at Nekobukuro. Many of them preferred to stay well out of the reach of humans, and would pull back if someone tried to touch them when they wanted to be out of reach. This never happens at other cat cafes – sometimes they’re not in the mood for a pet, but they never seem afraid of humans.


4. Although Nekobukuro has rules about not picking up cats, they are not enforced. The paper in English you receive when entering clearly says not to pick up the cats, and when you walk in there’s rules in Japanese on the wall with drawings, one of which is clearly about not picking up the cats. And yet I saw a guy pursue and pick up a beautiful cat, Azuki, and hold her as she squirmed and cried to be put down. A staff member was actually looking on, and I was so stunned that even without speaking much Japanese I had to say something. I gestured at the still-struggling Azuki and said 大丈夫ですか, is this okay?! She said something in Japanese and then tried English, “some cats…okay, some cats…no.” I sputtered, 本当ですか, are you serious?! When she said yes, I left on the spot. I just couldn’t take it anymore, and Sam and Lulu were right behind me. Even if other cat cafes had a policy that cats could be picked up – which they never do, it is always very specifically prohibited – I am sure that if a cat were crying and squirming like Azuki was, they would rescue her and then throw the person right out!


5. There must have been 40 people in there, at certain times, while we were there. There were also children who couldn’t have been more than a couple of years old. Both of these are stressful to the cats, especially children who – through no fault of their own – don’t know how to pet them. Although given the behavior of some adults, these kids are never going to learn, either. I have been to other cat cafes where you have to wait for a slot, because they are full – they have a maximum capacity, and someone will leave soon, so you wait. They also don’t usually allow elementary age children or younger, even with adults; most require a parent to come with older children. Both of these policies make for a much more quiet, relaxed environment for the cats.


6. Although I have no firm evidence of this, I suspect that some of the cats at Nekobukuro were given tranquilizers that day. Because it was a holiday, the staff knew many people would be coming. Many of the cats who were asleep at places they could be easily touched did not move a single muscle when petted. I even saw young children petting cats rather forcefully, and the cats still did not move. What cats don’t wake with a start when being mauled by a five-year-old? Drugged cats. We petted a sleeping cat, the almost-one-year-old Mikan, and you would have sworn he was a statue if he weren’t warm and breathing. Later, while we were sitting and watching the goings-on, somebody picked him up and carried him around – of course he woke up for that. He didn’t like it though, and he jumped down. We remained seated, and he climbed on Lulu’s and my laps – which is how you’re supposed to “hold” a cat, at cat cafes. I didn’t even pet him while he was on my lap, I just let him stand there and look around, and sure enough he stayed. The five-year-old boy came along and wanted to mess with him, but I actually said だめ, don’t do it, and he stopped. Mikan stayed on me until somebody opened a can of cat food they had bought, and of course then all bets were off. But prior to becoming a bright cheerful kitten, he had been a statue. No other cat cafe has ever made me think the cats were doped up to deal with the people.


7. Nekobukuro is cheap, admission for adults is ¥600, while most places are about ¥1000 for the first hour. But Nekobukuro doesn’t have a time limit at all – pay once, stay all day if you like. Which is great for cat lovers like me, but not for ¥600…something about that just feels off to me, somehow. I mean, run your business however you like, yeah…but it does lead to the overcrowding and other issues I’ve noted above. I have seen multi-hour packages at other cat cafes, but they usually cost ¥2500 or more.

Pretty much the only nice thing I can say about Nekobukuro is that it has cool ramps and holes high in the walls for kitties to walk around on. It’s a lot like The Cats’ House, and indeed that is the nickname of Nekobukuro. But I will not be patronizing this place ever again. I had been there once before in 2010, and I do remember the cats were lethargic, but we didn’t stay long and we were practically the only ones there, so I didn’t really notice much else. After this visit, I’m not going back to Nekobukuro – I just can’t support that place when there are darling kitties at dozens of other cat cafes in Tokyo.

Wow! I can’t believe I haven’t posted in nine days. What have I been doing with all this time in the beautiful city of Tokyo? Last Monday, I went to the ward office to register as an alien resident. Anyone who has a visa other than the tourist visa is required to register within the first 90 days after they arrive. It’s better to get it done sooner, though! There is some processing time required, so I won’t pick up my alien registration card until the end of March.

On Wednesday, I went with my new friends Sam and Lulu to explore Shinjuku. One of the very first things I learned is that it’s very hard for me to lipread French. I depend on lipreading at all times to help me communicate, combining it with the sounds I can hear to understand what the person is saying. But in a noisy environment, lipreading is my primary method of understanding, and the sounds become almost useless because I can only hear a little bit here and there. When the three of us got on the subway, which is very noisy, I suddenly realized I could not understand Sam and Lulu at all! I realized that it’s because I don’t know how to lipread French. I can understand French very well if I can hear it and watch the person, but if I cannot hear anything at all, I cannot understand it at all! So during the subway rides they had to shout loudly in my ear for me to understand anything. I would say that our French communication was very good though. There were some misunderstandings, and I’m sure I made many mistakes, but I got through 12 hours with almost no English used! I was proud of myself.

So what did we do in Shinjuku? We got there around lunchtime, and our first stop was a restaurant called Keika that serves ramen; they have 11 branches nationwide. I accidentally ordered a large bowl because I misunderstood the ticket vending machine, it was very tasty but also very hard to finish! Next we headed over to the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, which is a very large and beautiful park in the middle of Shinjuku. It reminded me of New York’s Central Park, because it was in the middle of the city, but was even more beautiful and peaceful than most of Central Park. There were one or two sakura trees just beginning to bloom, and photographers were clustered all around them! One had a very unusual camera that required the old black sheet over the photographer, and printed out the photos immediately; the photographer gave one of the prints to Sam which was so sweet! Unfortunately, we had taken too long at lunch, and didn’t realize that the park was closing so soon after we got there. So we had to leave, wondering as we walked why it closed so early. It closes at 4:30 year round, and in the summer there are many hours of daylight after that! It’s too bad people cannot enjoy the park the whole day.

We came upon the Cat Magic cat cafe, and wanted to go there next. Unfortunately “barrier free” is still a developing concept in Japan, and many places are not yet accessible. Cat Magic is on the 10th floor, but the elevator itself was up a few very tall steps. Lulu and I tried to get Sam’s wheelchair up but we just couldn’t do it – we’ll go together to a more accessible cat cafe some other time. After that we spent at least a couple of hours wandering around Kabukicho as it got dark, daring each other to eat takoyaki and giggling as we each refused! (They have since reported on their Twitter that they have had it, I’m waiting to find out what they thought before I muster the courage to eat fried octopus myself.) We had dinner at one of the yakitori places in Omoide Yokocho, which has the rather unfortunate nickname of Piss Alley. I got chicken and green peppers which were delicious, and Sam mustered up the courage for a pork cartilage skewer while Lulu filmed her eating it. We all decided the pork heart, pork womb, and “stewed guts” were out of the question, though. While we ate, a noise started going off – I thought it was someone’s very annoying ringtone, but it turned out to be the Earthquake Early Warning alarm! I didn’t figure it out until the waiter moved to keep the liquor bottles from falling on our heads (more to save the liquor than our heads, I think), and then I noticed the ground was shaking. It didn’t seem particularly strong, but I found out later that it was longer and stronger than most. I still haven’t learned to judge earthquakes! After dinner we returned to our apartment building (after getting stuck on the wrong floor of a department store after the elevators were turned off for the night) after a very satisfying day.

Thursday and Friday I did very little. On Saturday I met up with my friend and one of her daughters in Kinshicho, where I was delighted to find the best 100-yen store I have seen yet. It was just amazing, all the different things they had for only $1.26! I picked up some things I needed, and a couple of things I didn’t really need, all for very cheap. We also had lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant, the pho was a little different from what I’m used to in the U.S. (tuned to Japanese tastes I’m sure) but it was still quite tasty.

Today I had what has to have been the most interesting experience I’ve ever had in Japan – so far. An acquaintance of mine works at a host club (I find that article to have a negative bias, but you’ll get the idea) and invited me to visit for a special event. It was…unique! My friend speaks both English and ASL, and so he was with me most of the time I was there; there was some rotation and the other hosts tried their best to communicate with me despite not knowing English. There was a lot of dancing and some singing and hollering and club lights flashing and…wow, it was quite the nightlife experience, in the middle of the day! It cost $24 for two hours, but that’s because it was my first time – if I were to go again, it would cost quite a bit more than that. The hosts don’t drink unless you let them, but you’re supposed to let them, so they end up a bit silly. My friend isn’t of drinking age so he can only have water unless a client buys him a drink! I felt bad for him so I got him a Coke. Of course the Coke cost $6, but that’s how it is at clubs, right? It was well worth what I paid to go, because it was a very surreal experience I could not have gotten anywhere else. I can certainly see how host clubs can be attractive, too – they make you feel special, they pay attention to you, and they make you laugh. I don’t have the money to do that kind of thing regularly – and I feel quite odd about the idea of buying friendship anyway. I want to be liked for me, not because I’m paying someone to do it. If that means I sit at home alone some nights, that’s okay.

And speaking of sitting at home alone, that’s what wraps up my weekend. I found a monitor for $30 on Craigslist, and I went down to Hiro-o to pick it up. I realized that I wanted to watch more movies than I have been, but I haven’t watched much because I was always in another window. Far better to have the movie playing on a separate monitor, so I can multitask as I’ve always done at home. (I use “home” a bit oddly now…my real home is still in Virginia with my wife, but I also talk about “going home” when I mean coming back to this apartment. Hooray for the vagueness of language?) After fumbling about a for a bit and suspecting a bad VGA port or cable, I finally realized it was a PEBKAC issue, jammed the cable into the monitor a little more, and promptly watched the latest Switched at Birth and several episodes of House. I love StrongVPN for letting me keep up with my American TV shows.

I am sitting in my apartment one full week after I first arrived in it. What a week it has been! Since the last post, I have gotten my apartment fully “kitted” as I think the Brits say. It has been rainy off and on all week, but there have been a couple of clear days. I have been to Akihabara a couple of times, Asakusa a couple of times, made my room a mess and cleaned it up again, learned how to operate my shower, e-mailed with the French girls on the third floor of my building (we’ll meet soon!), and learned how to ask for a new point card. Most store chains have point cards, loyalty cards that can earn you either cute merchandise from the store, or discounts on future purchases. I have also been to Okachimachi (to shop at Takeya) and learned how to walk from my apartment down to Ueno station, which saves me at least 50 cents on subway fare, depending on where I’m going.

On Wednesday I went to Shibuya. I felt pretty lonely here, because I was seeing new things and had nobody to see them with. Somebody online had suggested I visit Shibuya 109, so I did…wow. It’s a mall, but it is the loudest, most crowded, most expensive, most homogenous, strangest mall I have ever been in. I made myself walk through the whole thing, past stores called sneep dip, baby Shoop, and – my favorite – titty & co. which I think is another example of the Pocari Sweat phenomenon. I read somewhere that Japanese speakers do not necessarily translate English words into Japanese when they read them, they just accept them for what they are. It’s an interesting linguistic phenomenon if you’re an English speaker, because “sweat” and “titty” are funny words in English, but it seems that in Japanese they are simply accepted and not laughed at. The strangest thing to me about Shibuya 109, though, is that it is a center for gyaru fashion. Gyaru is a subculture in Japan, where young women wear specific makeup and hairstyles, and sometimes go to tanning salons. Indeed, I saw two young employees who were fully tanned and completely blonde! I found all of this extremely strange, but a friend of mine who has lived here over 20 years says she doesn’t find it strange at all anymore. I think for me, it is because I have a specific image of Japanese people – black hair and light skin – and to see a Japanese person with blonde hair and tan skin is very unusual! It was fascinating, but again…very unusual to me. I don’t think I will return to Shibuya 109, unless I go directly to the Hello Kitty store on the top floor! I did enjoy other parts of Shibuya though, I walked around Dogenzaka and I went to the Tokyu Hands store where I finally found some magnets for my refrigerator!

Yesterday I stayed home all day, because my calves really hurt after walking for three days. I didn’t go any further than the local Lawson convenience store, which is twice as far as the local 7-11. Then again, the 7-11 is less than 500 feet away, so the Lawson still isn’t that far!

Today, though, was the best day yet. It was raining all day, but it was still fun. The specific reason is that I met some people who I had encountered on reddit – a couple who is in Tokyo on holiday. We agreed to meet at Ueno station this morning. I was going to walk there, but the rain quickly changed my mind! My new friends are B. and S., who are both Filipino but they live in Malaysia. They had not eaten breakfast yet when they arrived, and I had only had a little bit, so we had breakfast first at a pastry shop inside Ueno station. I got a bacon and cheese pastry, and it was very good. I’m still learning to eat meat, but I am getting better about choosing what is tasty! Then we walked over to Ueno Park, which was beautiful despite all the rain! The cherry blossoms are not out yet, but I am eager to return to the park when they are blooming. We spotted a cat running across a path and into some bushes, and my new friends told me they had seen cats in another part of the park, too! We walked over there but of course there were no cats, because of the rain – they are smarter than that. The ducks in the lotus pond were quite happy though, and there were some other birds out and about, too. The three of us were horrified to see nature at work right on a path though…a carrion crow doing exactly what it sounds like a carrion crow would do. I mean, I realize pigeons are practically vermin, but…it was not a pretty sight. Anyway, we continued around the pond and moved toward the central shrine to Benzaiten, a goddess of fortune, who also has a shrine very close to my apartment.

We passed the Ueno Zoo and headed for the Tokyo National Museum. I am not usually a fan of generic museums, but this was simply breathtaking. I don’t know how well my pictures came out, but thanks to the magic of the internet I can share things with you that I didn’t even take pictures of, like this lacquerware writing box. Unfortunately the website doesn’t tell you what I found most interesting about that box: although it is from the Edo period, in the 17th century, the design actually harkens back to the Heian period, some 600+ years earlier. The text accompanying the box in the museum indicated that the Edo-era design showed a “longing” for the bygone Heian days. I can’t wait to take my wife to this museum, I know she will love it! I was especially interested in the current rotating exhibition, which depicted maps from the period when Japan opened to the rest of the world and learned about countries beyond itself. One map showed the Amazon cutting widely almost all the way across South America, and another showed Alaska’s panhandle extending all the way to Mexico! Later maps were considerably more accurate, of course. Another exhibit I enjoyed was the netsuke collection of Prince Takamado; although only a few items were displayed, I enjoy looking at netsuke and there were many cute ones. We also visited a free postcard-making exhibit where you could use stamps to design kimono or circle shaped postcards, and we finished our visit at the museum shop, where I bought a postcard of one of Kuniyoshi’s cat paintings, which I have now put on a wall in my apartment.

Next, the three of us went to lunch, although since it was about 3pm, I’m not sure it was lunch anymore! We were all quite hungry, so we went to the first place we saw – a hotel restaurant adjacent to the museum. It turned out to be rather overpriced, but we kept it to ¥2300 – I suddenly decided at the register to pay for all three of us, because I was so happy to be with friendly, happy people who spoke English! I was having such a wonderful time, and I wanted to thank them for letting me be part of their vacation, so I was happy to pay for lunch. We weren’t sure what to do after, though, and we headed back toward Ueno station. While crossing a bridge, B. – who is a cat lover like me – spotted a sign and said “is that a cat cafe?” It was! We hustled over there, and happily spent the next hour at Nekomaru Ueno. They have a kitten there who can’t be more than a few months old, and she was quite the rambunctious little terror! She loved any toy you showed her, and picked playful fights with anyone who would let her. They also have a Munchkin, who I rudely roused from a nap to demonstrate how they have short little legs. She ended up play-fighting with the kitten, which was even funnier, because the Munchkin (“Ichigo”) was about the same height as the kitten (“Ametoro” I think?) and they made great sparring partners. I bought a kitty phone strap from a gacha-gacha machine before we left, and to my delight I got the pink one.

So today was a wonderful day, and it has been a really good week! That’s about all I’ve been up to. If you’re familiar with the Sims, you know about their little “Social meter” – well, mine was almost red before today, but now it is full and happy with green. And I’m hoping to meet some more people this weekend, including a CODA who is fluent in ASL, so that should be great! I’m having a wonderful time here in Tokyo…now if only it would stop raining and warm up!