And the swimming

Ahh the dreaded synchronized swimming…. I should have known… so I thought the latest craze in your like was horseback riding… when did swimming enter the picture? I hope its not conflicting with skiing… lets keep our priorities straight…

And em

Hey em.

 

How did you "pop" your shoulder? Did you completely dislocate it or did it just "pop"? that's pretty brutal if it come out completely. Did somebody pull it for you? What were you doing? Hopefully something worthy of dislocating your shoulder rather then fooling around. Not that I have anything to say, the two times ive broken bones have not been the most worthy of occasions.

And bed!

Hi everyone,

 

Im lazing in bed so I thought I might as well write a quick blog post. Its Wednesday today and that mean 2 more days of school. Unfortunately that also means 3 tests and a paper… not to much fun. Today im going over to my friend Melissa's house. Her host mother is making chyahan which im very excited about. Its kinda like fried rice but more meat and egg and the taste is a bit stronger. Its one of my favorite foods here in Japan… even though it technically comes from china… oh well. We have a place in ikebukuro that has really cheap gioza and chyahan that we have become regulars at. They lady there is really cool. She always speaks to us englsh so to the other day I told her that her English was really good, much better than my Japanese. To which she replied, "much better than mine too." Evidently she is originally from the Philippines… woops.

Anyways I need to finnish up this paper. I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the Christmas season.

And sleepness

So tired… must fight it… need to finish reservations…. Stayed up until 4 last night…. Trashy fantasy novels….they torture me soo…. And that mouse I saw at lunch today up in the lights… he tortured me a bit too… if I should have told the manager that his shop is infested with vermin… uggg…must… stay … awake… I got xmas presents for everyone today… will send to Kirkland… tomorrow… are sarah and gram coming home for xmass… don't know…

And mario…

Hi everyone,

I had a pretty interesting cross cultural experience a few days ago. My little host brother, rei, got the new Mario game for the DS a little while ago and we have been playing it together when Yu says it's ok. I still have a lot of trouble understanding rai. A lot of my Japanese it pretty formal while his is the typical, 6 year old stream of consciousness. So a lot of the time the most I can do it ask him simple questions which can be really frustrating. I want to say, "jump up on the block to the right and while running, jump over that pit. Careful for the jumping fish." But ya…. I don't think so. So ultimately we just pass the DS back and forth and he jumps around on the bed when I beat a level. It actually really reminds me of when Sarah Bickal was my babysitter and we would sit around the TV and play Mario on our old NES. I remember thinking she was a god at Mario and now the situation has kinda reversed. Very weird.

Anyways the point of this is that with all the trouble I have with communicating with rei and everyone else in general, I has a really cool experience while walking from rai's grandparents to our house to play Mario. I started singing the Mario theme song and he piped up right along with me. "du du du dudud udu dududu duduududu." it was really… refreshing I guess; to not have that language barrier there for once when communicating with someone. Even if the only communication was singing the theme song to a game.

And the twin deficits

This is for you mom -

The fiscal and capital deficit were first called the "twin deficits" because from 1980 to 86 they increased by the same amount and they are derived from the same economic fundamentals. Why are they dangerous though? First, the capital deficit means more money was being sent away rather than reinvested in the national economy. seccond, an increasing fiscal deficit ment that the goverment was become more and more reliant on outside funding. This increasing foreign indebtedness could eventually lead to concerns about the strength of the American dollar and precipitate a sudden exchange rate "readjustment". Let's take a closer look at this relationship shall we?

Twin Deficit Hypothesis is embodied in the National Income and product accounts frame work or NIPA for short. Basically the equations for the capital account and budget deficit are derived from the national income (or gross domestic product, GDP) equations. First to define the variables,

Y = GDP or national income

The total market value of all final goods and services produced within a country.

C= consumer or consumption spending

This is regular consumer spending on hard and soft goods. Hard goods are defined as goods that last more than one year so they could include washing machines or cars for example. Soft goods, goods that last less than one year, could be daily necessities like food or school supplies.

I = Capital investments

This is business investment expenditures or capital (in the economic sense, goods as a factor of production to produce other goods) acquirement expenditures. These good could be warehouses, machines, or similar things.

G = government spending

Government spending is exactly what it sounds like

X = exports of goods and services

Spending by foreigners on domestically produced goods. Essentially the foreign capital coming in from abroad to purchase domestically produced goods and services

M = imports of goods and services

The opposite from X, the domestic spending on foreign produced goods.

Therefore ultimately,

GDP = C + I + G + (X –M)

This is fairly simple except for the (X-M)

(X-M) = the balance on the current account and it actually includes several other items. However these are small and really just complicate things so for our purposes we will ignore them.

(for those who care X-M includes )

1. Net exports on goods and services.

2. Net imports on goods and services

3. Net income (confusing)

4. Current transfers, settlements associated with the change in ownership of real resources or financial items)

Items 3 and 4 make up a very small part of the current account so you can pretty much not worry about them. After all, what is the US's non reciprocal aid to Rwanda compared to our trade imbalance with china… nothing.

Anyways, you are still probably wondering why we include (X-M) into the GDP equation at all.

X is included because foreigner's purchasing of domestically made products is not included anywhere else in the equation, foreigners aren't C, domestic consumers, G, the government, or I, investments. Therefore the GDP would be undervalued if we did not include their purchases. M, purchases of imported goods or services, on the other hand IS included in C + I + G. these would be the foreign made items consumers purchase from Wal-mart. Remember GDP is the DOMESTIC product, only things produced inside the US therefore we need to strip out any expenditures on foreign products from our GDP equation.

So now we have two equations

GDP = C + I + G + (X-M)

Capital account = (X-M)

This is where things get very cool, watch this now.

In any economy, I (investments) = S (total savings)

When a business wants to make an investment they have to RAISE CAPITAL (in the accounting sense, debt or equity). This capital has three sources,

Savings from the private sector

The consumer's disposable income less tax and consumption spending

Sp = Y – T – C

Y = disposable income

T = tax

C = consumption spending

Savings from the public sector (government)

The difference between tax revenues and government spending. It is important to remember that this is NEGITIVE in the US. The government Spends (G) MORE then it collects (T). (this is the fiscal deficit)

Sg = T – G

T = Tax (review)

G = Government spending (review)

Savings from forgers and invested into the national economy (the US)

Careful now, the amount of extra imports the national economy can buy (M) above the value of exports (X)

Sf = M -X

Ok math time. Let's recombine everything using the Savings- Investment equilibrium and sources of savings

I=S

I=Sp + Sg +Sf

(it's interesting to note that if we can get back to our original GDP equation from here.)

I=( Y – T – C) + (T – G) + (M –X)

OK now recombine

I=Y-C-G+M-X

Y= C+I+G+(X-M) TADAAA our equation for GDP!

But continuing on,

I=Sp +Sg + Sf

I – Sp = Sg +Sf

I – (personal savings) = (fiscal deficit) – (capital deficit)

From here, things get murky, but there seems to be a general trend between the movement of I –Sp and the twin deficits. The movement of one seems to mimic the other. In my next post, I'll take about some of the rational for this movement. However at this point it's important to recognize the connection between personal savings, the fiscal, deficit, and the capital deficit and that historically they have moved together.

and the bed

hi everyone,

so Emily cant read this post..... sooooo shu Emily shuu.. your mom will get mad at me... and thats the last thing that i want.... unable to come back to the states for fear of Leslie

ok shes gone?

anyways i was in bio class today and i learned the most incredible thing! banoboes, they are are relatives of chimps, perform sexual acts in lieu of physical violence. if the alpha male is upset, other males lower on the social ladder will come over and have mock sex with him. how crazy is that! as my teacher said in class today, "its a true John Lennon society." make love not war man. this is in contrast to chimp societies where the alpha male basically runs a muck if he gets pissed offed, breaking trees and running around screaming.
and possibly the best part, i saved it for last, is that if the whole pack of banoboes get all excited and agitated, two females will actually start miming sex with each other to calm the crew down.... ya i know... i know... (insert inappropriate comment here)

anyways, i have to write a paper on biology, evolutionary factors, and such. i know i have a few biologists reading this blog (AJ, Sarah, Riley, Becky and kim (kinda), Dave (you kinda count but i dont know about the reading) do you guys have any good ideas? anything that you have studied that might make for an interesting paper?

and the huffington post

hey everyone.

this is a post i wanted to put up as a reply to somebody on huffington post but my account isnt activated yet. sooo im putting it here.

Atticus
I think you make a good point about the NPV of the principle of the bonds the US is taking out to fund its ongoing operations, but I think it is very dangerous to dismiss the cost of debt outright. While the final repayment of the principle of long term bonds may be significantly reduced in comparison to present value in real terms, we are also paying interest on those bonds at all times. Without these interest payments, bonds would have a negative net present value and there would be no reason for people to invest in them. It is those interest payment that are taking out so much of our governments resources, about $406 billion in 2006 compared to NASA’s measly budget of $15 billion.
Additionally, I’m not sure this article gets to the root of the problem with the American economy. The number one thing Americans should be concerned about is the sinking value of the dollar. Currently china owns about 1.4 trillion in US reserves followed by Japan at ~ .9 trillion. Due to our twin deficits, we have begun to see the value of the dollar drop to rate never seen in our lifetimes, unless you were alive during the civil war, the last time the dollar was worth less than the Canadian dollar. What happens when our creditor nations get tired with seeing their investments in dollars shrinking in real terms? Sure the t-bills are perfectly secure because we can always print more money, but they won’t be able to buy anything at the current rate of deprecation. So china decides to reduce their holdings in US dollars, followed by Japan who wants to sell off theirs before the sudden influx further weakens the exchange rate. This could ultimately cause a sort of mass selloff that, as you said, tips over the golden apple cart.
So how do we avert this problem?... back to the fundamentals.
The twin deficits refer to the current account and fiscal deficit.
Current account = BOT + unilateral transfers + DOI
-not much can be done unless you court trade sanctions or artificially intervening in the market. Not that that isn’t what china is doing by pegging the Yuan but still… if we don’t get our Wal-Mart goods there then we will get them from Malaysia or the Philippines.
Fiscal deficit = net savings + trade deficit – investment.
-save more, spend less. I guess it’s that simple. The problem is that the fed usually encourages this type of behavior by increasing interest rates. Less capital liquidity -> less capital expenditure. However, this could also cause increased capital flight and future exchange rate misery because of reduced marginal interest rates between America and other possible places of investment. It could also cause the economy to grind to a further halt… more halted then it currently is….

Does Friday night

So about the time I receive a text message from Mellissa asking "where are you" I realize it is pretty much hopeless. I take stock of my situation; I've got closed up shop fronts on both side of me, a dark street I believe running parallel to the kehin-tohoku between asagaya and ikebuku ro, rain, lots of rain. That's coming down at a pretty good rate at this point which leads to my soaking wet cotton zit up. Not the smartest piece of Tokyo expedition gear. Then again, when I left okikubo this morning I didn't exactly think I would be wondering the streets of Tokyo after the trains had closed. What else… oh ya I have my phone, of course, how else would I get the steady pieces of advices from Melissa such as "I think theses capsule hotels in ikebukuro" and "I think the trains are closed" … I had figured that one out on my own.

How had it taken an hour and a half to get to nishikawaguchi from Waseda? Granted its three different trains, my navigator is black out drunk, its the middle of the night, and pitch black out but still…. Really it must have been those stop offs in kuuko and kawaguchi. Wandering the streets according to my vague directions while my navigator mumbles Shumimasen! at passing drunken salary men. Oh yes and there was the fiasco with the keys... That was an awkward exchange. Um sumimasen watashino tomodachiwa kagiwo waserata. "um ya.. your friend threw his keys onto my neighbor's balcony…" "You're kidding me" "no" "…huh"

So now its 1:30… phone has duel uses. Text messaging and clock. And last my wallet with my last bit of hope, visa. I wonder into a 711, withdraw some money, and hail a taxi.

And back…

Hi yall

Sorry for my noticeably long absence. Life is settling down into a routine and I haven't really figured out where regular blogging sessions fit into it as of yet. Tokyo is good … good times… a lot of Japanese … but that shouldn't surprise anyone …. I think… sooo I guess new stuff… I went to a different onsen is odaiba last weekend which was a completely different experience. Basically it was an hot spring amusement park. I don't really want to explain everything but you could literally live in this place and I think some people do for limited amounts of time…

This weekend was good too. I was to a video arcade with my friend josh on Sunday and unfortunately got sucked into one of the token-slot feed-coins tip into bucket-someone gets a Ferrari games…. Best use of 1000 yen ever…..not…. woops.

Yes…. Mmmm Japanese is going …. Slowly. I think before I left I had convinced myself that the learning process was going to be less painful because I would be "immersed" in the language. Well… ill tell you, bringing a dinner party to a complete standstill because you can't "pass the yakitori" is pretty bad… and I'm only slightly kidding… 焼き鳥おねがいします。でもときどき毎日一日中日本語を勉強する時つかれている。

Anyways good times. Ill yall later.

Oh and Bryan.

I hope everything is going well with you. It was nice to get that message from you. Unfortunately I won't be home for a long time but I hear the rest of my family is going to Hawaii for thanksgiving. Give my dad a call and see if you can snag a ride. Once you are in Hawaii you will be ½ way here…

And nakano

 

Hi everyone,

So I went out to nakano this weekend. It was just fabulous. Its incredibly how the scenery here almost looks like those sparse Japanese scenery paintings. The leaves have begun to change here and with the chill in the air this weekend I could definitely feel the oncoming winter. But the reason I was out looking at the scenery Is because I went to an onsen (hot spring) with a few other kids while we were on the trip. Supposedly its some famous hot spring but I didn't really get filled in on all of the history while I was there… what I did get was my first authentic bath house experience. So get ready… so we go there and at first everyone is a little upset. The taxi ride was 8 bucks per person which is a little much. Everyone pays and the boys and girls split up and head into their separate bath houses. Sucks that I don't get to go do some nude bathing which a bunch of chicks I know, but im sure it saved me from some embarrassing moments. Anyways we entered the bath house and take off our shoes at the little step. After we have placed them in a little locker we head into the changing room which is already filled with a bunch of nude Japanese guys. So to set the scene. It's a tall while kid with a weeks worth of stuble (me), two African American guys, and a little Japanese kid walking into a traditional onsen bathhouse locker room. We got some looks. We do the whole undressing thing and with some covert looks around to try and figure out when exactly we remove the last article of clothing remove the boxers and step out into the bathing area. Now not only are there one white kid, two African American kids, and one small Japanese kids, but one white kid, two African American kids, and one small Japanese kid standing around completely naked trying to figure out the next step in the process. We look around and figure out that its time to get clean before we jump into the steaming hot tubs infront of us. We sit down on little wooden stools and fill wooden bowls with hot water while soaking ourselves with normal removable shower heads. We wash and scrub and then pour the big wooden tub over our heads and backs to wash off all the bubbles. It was pretty cool. Post bathing we all walk into the indoor tub and relax down into the stone ledge. The water is natural spring water so little pieces of dirt and stuff are visible floating around in the huge tub. I get the feeling im not allowed to go swimming…. After relaxing for a while to head into the outside pool then into the ridiculously hot sana. After that I decided it would be a good idea to get into the cold pool. Really there should have been some kind of warning because I almost gave myself a heart attack. It was not a cold pool per say but a freezing cold death trap probably used to snare unsuspecting foreigners like myself. Post the near death experience we got back in the outdoor pool.

So good times. It was a great experience.

To the SMITHS!!

Japan is exclent. Its cooled down a bunch which is really nice. Im warm blooded and I don't need any extra help from the sun …. However I did go to my host families second house and go body surfing out in the sun last weekend which was a ton of fun. You guys would have laughed hard. A bunch of completely normal Japanese people and me. I don't think it will snow here in Tokyo; my host mother tells me that it usually does not. But up in hokaido I think it snowed for the first time this season last week. However I will probably see a lot of snow this season. It looks like I will be spending my spring cultural practicum at a Japanese ski resort. Supposedly it's a really hard core work from 5:30 am – 12 then ski from 2-6 then more work schedule but I think it sounds great. I need to figure out a way to get my gear over here though. I don't think im going to try and get boots or skis but I definitely want my cloths.

That's great you are looking at a new pair of skis m. I have a brand new pair of skis at home that ive skied all of once…. Im such a spoiled little boy…. If you think you can handle them you can give them a try this winter. I hope you guys are doing well. Marty – drink a martini for me this season.

 

Bye everyone.

the computer lab at school

hi everyone,

so sitting at a computer in the comp lab in building 22... looking at what i think is a 14 inch screen... huh...

waseda is one big contradiction. supposedly it is the second or third most difficult school to get into in japan; the three in the running are waseda, tokyo university, and keio. (or maybe not, im sure someone could take offense to this gross simplification). but anyways its one of the best schools in japan with a rich tradition of research, education and active development to new fields and studies.

then why am i looking at a 14 inch monitor? on the surface waseda is this incredibly beautiful place with several sprawling campuses inside the yamanote line. on the inside, however, this are a little different. the walls of the beautiful stone buildings need a new set of paint and the desks probably need to be replaced. the are many computers on campus but the have little tiny 14 inch monitors. im not complaining about the quality of the facilities so much as commenting on an aspect of japanese culture ive not experienced before. i think im general, in japan, there is a pervasive culture of maintaining what one already has. for example, in the supermarkets you can buy plastic bags of whatever special soap or laundry detergent or hand soap right next to the real bottles of the product. the whole idea is that once you have finished the bottle, you dont just throw it out, you go to the store and buy the refill and pour it in. its very very different.

i guess what im trying to say is that a lot of things here are worn, the desks in the class rooms, the soccer fields, the train stations, but its not because of a lack of care (believe me, you regularly see shop cleaners scrubbing the sidewalk in front of their building or workers in the train station diving little mopping cars... there is a lot of upkeep going on).

what i think it is, and i could be wrong, is just a product of the intense use everything receives. millions and millions of people use the subway stations everyday, 40 k students attend waseda, there are 40 tenis circles at waseda alone trying to use the same courts.

so good times. im going to log off now and go study for a bit. later

Tozai line…

Hey everyone

Atm I am on the tozai seseki (train line) headed to nakano. Unfortunately, nakano is not where I want to go. At this time of the night I have to take the tozai or chuo line out to nakano then transfer onto another tozai line that goes out towards mitaka… to describe the scene a bit, there is a Japanese guy to my left that is wearing blue jeans with those gray merroll shoes (im trying to read how to spell merroll off of his shoe but its not working… well…) above the waist he has a white criss-cross shirt on with a camera and laptop bag on his lap. He is reading one random Japanese book with an old Japanese lady on it…. Ahh we just arrived at nakano… I have to get off here…

 

Anyways good times. I bought a bottle of sake in akihabara. It was a glass bottle with a removable aluminum lid. It was interesting.

bed again...

so im sitting, or rather laying in bed again.. as par for the course on this blog thing...

ive been working on kanji this evening trying to jam as much as i can into my head before my test tomorrow.... good times.

one of the thing i noticed this afternoon/evening how quite and almost lonley it is when im locked up in my room studying. for my host family it must not only be they have some strange strange white kid holled up in their upstairs bedroom, i think they must be use to that, but a strange white kid who is grumpy and purposefully secluding himself.... hmm interesting. without informal communication, the type that takes place inside a few words muttered after dinner about a how much homework i have, thigs become much more significant. if i manage to get out that i have a bunch of homework and i need to study all night it means exactly that... hmm i dont know..

I think im just use to laying around the common room back at case with esther and aj and dave. back there i would be lucky to get in 45 minutes of sold reading before something really requiring my attention comes up aka dave beating ninja gaden again, aj commenting on the futility of life/being emo, or esther rationalizing that she doesn't need to go to chapter tonight because she saw some sisters in class that day... here though, when i shut my door the only distractions are the ones i make (a la checking steep and cheep twice a minute)...

the bed

hi yall

im sitting in bed at. its 7:50 ... i dont have school today which is pretty cool... ive never had a day off completely... good times

so i kinda want to relate my ride to school because it just seems other worldly to me. when i imagined coming to japan i knew what the train systems and crowds looked like but i never pictured myself in them.

so in the morning is get up at about 7:30. sometimes my host mother, yuu, is already working on breakfast other not. depending on the progress on the breakfast from i sit down in the bean bag chair in the kitchen/living room area and watch japanese television. i have no idea whats going on with these shows but i do know that rei-chans show is on at 7:30 and my host moms soap is on at 8:15.

when breakfast is ready i jump up to the table and dig in with a fork and knife. yuu-san noticed early on that i have difficultly navigating breakfast with hashi so now i get utensils. breakfast is usually fairly simple. toast, an omelet and some cucumber slices or a egg sunny side up on a piece of ham with some yogurt. after breakfast i clear the plates for myself and yuu-san. rai-chan is usually a bit or two into his toast at this point.

and break! time for my breakfast ... i will continue later...

Check out the pics again

Hi everyone,

Please check out my pictures again. Ive updated them with some captions. Make sure to look at the posts not on the main page too

and the coffie shop at my school

hi everyone,

currently im sitting at the coffie shop at my school bumbing free wireless off of them. is niceeee

um i had jpaanese class today. it was alright, im going to try and switch into a more difficult class.... fun times. its kinda crazy here on campus. i walked out of second peroid and there was just a mass of kids walking every which direction. it definitly a change going from a student pop of 4000 to 40000..... but good times

after this i have a international finance and econonomics class... should be good times. and really quickly, what the heck is up with all the smokeing here? kids are lighting up like its going out of style and it already is! at case you get bad looks if you are the child outside of nord smoking a cigerett.. actully i dont even think its allowed any more..... hm hm good times...

And shinagawa station

Hi everyone,

you may or may not believe it but im actually sitting in the shinagawa train station with my laptop on my lap at this very moment. Well kinda at this moment. By the time I actually go home and post this … post I will definitely not be in the shinagawa train station….

 

Anyways, the point is that I in writing a blog post in a crowed Tokyo train station waiting for some people do show up so we can all go to odaiba. This morning I went to ranporri with my friend josh and ogled at the new super upscale mall, Tokyo Midtown. It was scary nice. I don't think there was anything there under several hundred dollars. Some of the jewelry stores literally had attendants waiting to open the door for you. There was also a really cool fountain which had strings hanging from the ceiling three stories up with water droplets running down into a pool below. It was very cool. John and I had pho on the food level for a disturbing 9 dollars a bowl…. Not ok. But that's just kinda how they roll here in Tokyo. I went out to some bars last night and it seems like the going price for a pint was about 9 dollars…

Hmmm everything is going pretty well over here…. I start class on Monday which is exciting… im actually looking forward to my classes. Im taking a civil life and law class which is an introduction to law; some international economics and finance class and human biology if you can believe it. Good times…. Ill let you all know in the coming week how they are.

Note to mom and dad

And to mom and dad… if a package shows up form steep and cheep that looks like a new red arcterix soft shell…. Um ya… I couldn't help my self…. It's a coming home present from my past me to my future me…

And the suia card, nat health care, and gigein registration

So today was pretty busy. This morning I went and did some errands with my host mom yuu. First we went to the train station and bough a transit passes for me from ogikubo to waseda station on the tozai line. It went pretty quick. I mostly smiled and gave them my credit card when the asked for it. Interestingly enough Japan study actually reimbursed me today so atm im talking around with over 20000 yen in my wallet. After that we went to the city ward office and applied for my gijein registration. I don't know why I need this but I know I do. Ater that we went up stairs and I applied for nationalized health care. Can you imagine it? A first world country that provides 70% health benefits to all of its citizens AND FORIGNERS LIVING THERE FOR OVER 6 MONTHS!! Amazing! How their government has yet to collapse is a mystery.

 

After that I went into waseda and applied for my cell phone. I won't post it here in case there are any phone number bots sniffing my blog but ill send it out to you guys that need it…..

 

After the phone stuff I had a quick Japanese language class followed by a trip to the bar for happy hour. THEN I came back to school and sat though 6 10 minute presenatations which were more like 20 minutes each so we didn't get to mine tonight… to bad.

 

Any ways I hope everything is going well in all your worlds.

 

Have fun

 

Aaron

pictures....

 

here is a shark... pretty cool shark.... there were two or there of them in this tiny littl tank... they were probably just bideing their time... anyways this is from my trip to the shinigawa aquarium...


 

ah ha! i new the star fish were up to somthing... this one attacked me out of the blue. jumped clear from the touch tanks to my face. it was a similar set up to the touch tanks in the seattle aquariums but no one over seeing it...

 

this is me through the glass tubes of the sea lion tank. one of them was sleeping on the bottom is a crazy dead-sea-lion position and i thought we were going to see a retrevial operation... he woke up though...

more pictures

this is the subway map of shinagawa station.... ya its pretty crazy. the yamanote (the circular loop that connects most of the major cities), shincansen (bullet train) and a few other lines all run through this station. and this is only one of the many major train hubs in tokyo alone.



this picture above is of some fish tail statues... they are confusing but i think they have something to do with shinagawa's location adjacent to the bay and the fishing activities associated with said convenient location...

this is kind of like a man hole cover but it actually hides a fire hydrant.


dolphins statues! they were at the entrance to the shinagawa aquarium

and more!

the above shrine is located at a temple near my host families house in ogikubo. i found a week or so ago after checking out the climbing gym. it think the little box next to it is for donations but i wasnt sure... and didnt have any money...

this is the actual building... pretty cool huh? its werid because all around this crazy old shrine is the typical neon ally way with arcades and game stores and pachinko shops

this is the game store right next to the shrine. i saw this kid play the drum game in here. its was unlike anything ive ever seen. ive a video of it somwhere...

few more

so this is the sidewalk outside of the shrine. notice the narrow street with the brick street and .... ya its a street. its right next to my train station.... if i wanted to just throw away all my hard earned money i would come here every night and play pachinko



this is the pathway into the shrine ive referred to...notice the houses right off to the right. they are right there! its very interesting....



BOOSH! CAT!!! ya but you cant really it but the cats tail is about half as long as it should be... i dont know whats up with these japanese cats.... must be something in the water....

ah ha heres a picture of another little shrine.. its interesting that i has stainless steel rails... i think it might be that this is a newer instillation as opposed to a retrofitted you know... handicapped accessable shrine....

and guess what.. more pictures

heres a picture from the middle of the cross walk across the main drag in my town. notice that nothing makes sense.


heres the bouldering gym! its crazy; its a 5 minute walk away from my house. cool times. it dont quite understand the protocol quite yet about when i take my shoes off and when the slippers go on then off and the the rock shoes on... it a crazy clash of cultures

heres a picture of the logo

and a stair way...

4 more

this is my room! its pretty cool i think. its way bigger then my recent rooms at case. my host family has been really great letting me steal one of the few rooms in their house.


so my house is through the gate to the right of the covered bike. my host grandparents are to the left next to the box crates. every day i just bop out of the house and walk down the street bellow

and walk on to the train station about 5 minutes away. notice how narrow and sharp this conner. ive seen full sized vans maket his turn with about 4 inches of clearance on the side

another street!