Currently the weekend is one of the only times I really get to do anything cool. Here are some of the things I've done.
These are my friends Miki and Natsuko whom I both met in America. Miki lives in Kobe which is about 3.5 hours south on the Shinkansen (the bullet train) She was up for the weekend visiting all her friends she made in America that live in Tokyo.
We were in Ginza which is probably considered the best shopping area for high fashion.
After that I went to Shinjuku. This is another side of Shinjuku. This side of Shinjuku has lots of clubs and theaters and arcades and restaurants.
Of course I had to check out an arcade. This is one of the newer games. It features characters from the Sony Playstation game, Final Fantasy VII.
This game is from my department at Sega. It is currently on location tests meaning it is being tested at a few arcades to see if people like it.
That arcade was showing a video of a new not yet released game called Soul Caliber by Square Soft.
On another day I was to meet Miyuki. This was her last day before she went back to America. She recieved a 5 year visa.
On the way to Kawasaki there is a stop at a town called Shitte. I don't know why but I find this sign very interesting. Most stations have new backlit signs but this is a fairly small stop and it has this really old sign.
So Miyuki took me to Shibuya which is the young peoples hang out. It's kind of like the Promanade in Santa Monica. There are several large department stores as well as a 7 story Tower Records and another 7 story HMV records and several hundred restaurants, clubs and stores.
We ate at a small italian resturant.
Nearby is NHK tv station. I think they are cable only. They have a small tour. Here we are on the BIG screen.
One of the exhibits is where they show you how they do the news with a teleprompter. The kid was chosen out of the audience and he was amazing even if we was reading from the teleprompter he's a natural.
My video game friends will like this. It's 8 player bomberman on a wide screen TV.
Outside the station is very large park called Yoyogi park. The are lots of people playing music on one of the streets that goes throught the park. I guess they are hoping to get noticed. There was also a Big Band style band playing at a small stage. They were really good.
Next to Shibuya is Harajuku. If Shibuya is Santa Monica then Harajuku is Venice Beach. Lots of strange shops and strange people. This is the most beautiful train station I've seen. It looks almost like a ride at Disneyland.
On Sunday's this street is closed to traffic so people can walk around. It's very popular and get's really croweded
Here is one of the smaller streets. It's right across from the train station.
This is Pepsi Man. Pepsi is running a promotion here featuring Pepsi Man and what they call Space Tours 2000. The rumor is they are going to have a contest for a real ride into space. There is a company working on setting it up at $100,000 a seat.
We walked back to Shibuya and stopped at this building which I think looks really cool. It's 11 stories and I think each floor is a different restaurant. We went to a Japanese restaurant on the 8th floor.
This is potatoes and carrots surrounded by bacon in some kind of broth.
This is deep fried Tofu with spinach and mozzarella cheese in the middle.
Of course we've got sashimi.
I don't know when I'll get to see Miyuki again.
So on another weekend Natsuko wanted to try to set me up with on of her friends.
We started the day at a Japanese restaurant. I feel self−conscience about eating non−Japanese food because most Japanese seem to assume you don't like it.
After that we went to Namco's Namjatown which is an amuzement park though it is indoors so it doesn't have alot of rides. Since the trains stop around midnight we had to stay all night so we were out until around 6am when we all caught trains home.