April (a.k.a yon-gatsu) is beautiful in Japan!

Hello my loyal followers, how are you all! I hope this post finds everyone doing well as April draws to a close.

I have had many adventures in the past few week, so here's a rundown:

- 1st Karaoke experience in Japan
- Attended a "Nomitai" (Japanese match-making/drinking party)
- Have found a sweet apartment, signing the paper-work Monday
- Traveled to Daiba for a business conference & networking event
- Am making steady progress with speaking Japanese!
- And have eaten some... questionable foods... (also plenty of fruits Mom!)

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, so I'll save my fingers some typing and share some shots from around the city with you now.

An umbrella stand with free locks for peace of mind at the conference I went to for work all day on Friday (inside a hotel in Daiba, near the Tokyo bay)

If you look closely you'll see a sphereical shaped building -- this it the Fugi Television station! (not a great picture, but from the front it looks really spacey/futuristic)

A colorful Ferris wheel in Daiba park at dusk (maybe one day I'll take a picture from the top!)

On another day, I took a walk around Kudanshita and found this excellent juxtaposition of city and nature.

A big gate in front of (what I think is) a shrine. I'm not sure, all of a sudden drums started beating and these giant doors to this area were being closed, so I made a quick exit.

This is an "Izakaya," basically a place where salary men gather for cheap food and drink (the beer was only 50 yen a piece, or about 60 cents per!) Came here with some people in my company from "Corporate Planning" (sounds pretty ominous, so I figure it's best to make friends with them =p)

An awesome shot of the sky and... starbucks... (but mostly the sky!)

My office at Square Enix is right next to the Bunka Women's Fashion University. Here are some examples of their latest dresses (click to enlarge -- people honestly wear stuff like this in Tokyo!)

These friendly folks were on the main street off of my apartment block, not sure what they wanted but there was a crowd and everyone was having fun watching. Note the Saxamaphone! Another classic illustration of ancient Japanese tradition.

(For Mom) Yes, I'm eating plenty of fruit every day, and there are strawberries in the fridge, promise! (this is an Apple core, apologies for the poor lighting)

At a "Nomitai" on Friday night, the red sushi is... wait for it... Horse! Yes, raw horse. I was forced to try it...

...and here is a frame-by-frame analysis of me eating said meat.

Chives & Eggs from my Japanese cookbook which I cooked the next day (*much* better)






That's all for this week people! Would love to hear your comments, and suggestions for stuff you'd like to see me do (or eat....)

Gomenasai!

"Gomenasai" means "sorry" in Japanese, as in, "sorry for this long overdue post!" But I'll make up for it with a super-extra-special post today!

Well it's been two (ok, three) weeks since my last post, and many things have happened:
-It is Sakura season (cherry blossom trees are in full bloom)
-I have a bank card now
-I got my first paycheck
-I bought an iPhone (0_0!)
-I joined a Go club (the Japanese/Chinese board game) & won my first match!
-And I've looked at several (10+) possible apartments to move into!

And that's not including all the cool stuff happening at work! Anyways, let's get started with some pictures of the Sakura trees, but first you should read a brief history of this event (from the wikipedia article on 'Hanami'). If you are too lazy to read this, just skip past the italics and go on:

Hanami (literally "flower viewing") is the Japanese traditional custom of enjoying the beauty of flowers, "flower" in this case almost always meaning cherry blossoms. From mid January to early May, sakura bloom all over Japan. The blossom forecast is announced each year by the weather bureau, and is watched carefully by those planning hanami as the blossoms only last a week or two. In modern-day Japan, hanami mostly consists of having an outdoor party beneath the sakura during daytime or at night.

The practice of hanami is many centuries old. The custom is said to have started during the Nara Period (710–794) when it was ume blossoms that people admired in the beginning. But by the Heian Period (794–1185), sakura came to attract more attention and hanami was synonymous with sakura. From then on, in tanka and haiku, "flowers" meant "sakura." Emperor Saga of the Heian Period adopted this practice, and held flower-viewing parties with sake and feasts underneath the blossoming boughs of sakura trees in the Imperial Court in Kyoto. Poems would be written praising the delicate flowers, which were seen as a metaphor for life itself, luminous and beautiful yet fleeting and ephemeral. This was said to be the origin of hanami in Japan.

The custom was originally limited to the elite of the Imperial Court, but soon spread to samurai society and, by the Edo period, to the common people as well. Tokugawa Yoshimune planted areas of cherry blossom trees to encourage this. Under the sakura trees, people had lunch and drank sake in cheerful feasts.

Okay! Here are some more pictures!


Office party on the weekend in Yoyogi Koen (Koen = park").







These guys were also in the park having a great time!







..as were these guys, all dressed and having fun (it's called 'cosplay' for 'costume play' I believe)






The cherry blossoms right outside my office.







Night view from my office.








These bike messengers can't wait for the lights to change!







In-case you forgot what I look like (I took this shot inside an apartment I was viewing)









Pretty view from the same apartment (it's too far from work, but I was tempted to take it!) -- This area is called 'Ebisu.'






A 'larger-than-life' advertisement outside of Shinjuku station for 'Fire' drink (whatever that is..)








And, in the same vein, an Ichiro look-alike posing for the crowd (man I miss the anticipation of the next baseball season in American, luckily they really like it here in Japan too!)

That's all for today, folks! I promise to be more attentive to blogging from now one, so keep tuning in! Sayonara...