Today was rather lazy. I passed out early yesterday so I woke up early today. Just kinda chilled out for a while. I wanted to take things a bit easier today, rather than walk 2 hours in some random direction. Decided to check out Maruetsu and stocked up on a bunch of food. Some stuff I recognized, others are a mystery. Figured I'll save a lot more money this way rather than going to 7-11 every day.

Also checked out some job listings on Craigslist and Gaijinpot. I pulled up about 30, and now I gotta apply to them ugh so tired.

Main event for today was dinner with my Uncle's friend Sam. Only family contact that lives in Japan. I met him at Shinjuku station and we went to Go Go Curry together, His English is very good, but its thick with accent. I'm used to it though. We chatted a lot about our histories, about my mom and uncle, about our distrust for China, global energy needs, usual dinner conversation stuff. He let me know that he'd be there for me if I needed help. I appreciate that a lot. He also helped me get this Pasmo card, something that wasn't around back when I studied abroad here. I guess its just your usual train pass, except it excludes tax. Its not a big price reduction (my 130 yen ticket dropped down to 124 yen, wowzers) but I suppose it adds up to an eventual free ride. Its like getting your 10th ice cream cone for free!

And that reminds me, Japan is weird with ice cream. They have dairy - they do have the room for that up in Hokkaido, but they don't seem to have tubs of ice cream at all. They gotta have that individually wrapped stuff asdfasdf. I MUST KEEP LOOKING. I'll check Hanamasa next time I need to do groceries, which won't be for a while. I hope.

Breakfast: Tempura food bowl. It was to fill the void left over from skipping yesterday's dinner
Lunch: Tuna Onigiri
Dinner: Chicken Curry

Final blog post before I'm all caught up. I needed to go to Seiyu today, which was in some other direction. The walk was nice, lots of greenery. I even went through this tiny park. There must have been some contest with kids, because there were all these scarecrows setup. There were virtually no foreigners anywhere near the place too. Managed to get a pillow, towel and hairbrush. Sakurahouse gave me one tiny pillow to sleep with and a giant quilt. The day tired me out so much I pretty much passed out when I got home. I didn't even eat dinner!

Breakfast/lunch: that corn milk dog thing and salmon onigiri. It just tastes like a good combo, and it comes to 250 yen exactly.

Today I walked to Shibuya station and got side tracked so many times. It was raining on and off as well. I followed the main street mostly but still checked out the side streets. Shibuya station is pretty amazing. Lots of noise, lights and colors. I checked out three big stores, Don Quixote, Cerulean Tokyu and Shibuya Labi. I was trying to find bedding stuff and electronics, and only Labi seemed to have those. Managed to get an ethernet cable and with the help of another foreigner, got my adapter for my laptop. I noticed a lot more foreigners in Shibuya than in Shinjuku. I guess its more of a shopping area. On the way back I saw the NHK building, and its huge. They're like the BBC or CNN of Japan. Also took a stop by the shrine again, since its on the way.

Once I got back I tried to play a game of HotS with my friend in America. Didn't work out so well, but at least I wasn't throwing my laptop out the window. The lag is bad, but the internet is good. Had dinner at the house with most of the housemates around. We chatted for a while and we went out to show another guy where Maruetsu was.

Breakfast/Lunch was a Tuna roll with a Salmon roe onigiri.
Dinner was some curry rice dish

Mission for today: Find a grocery store. Time I got settled in and found the nearest shops. There's a place nearby called Yoyogi Ginza, which is just a clumped street with lots of little stores around. Nothing huge, but I did find four food stores. Hanamasa is the furthest away but not by much. Also seems to be the largest. Odakyu Ox is in the train station in Yoyogi Ginza, but housemates say its the most expensive - probably due to its convenience. Marusho is the smallest but has some imports - like this jam my parents love. I ended up getting some snacks, food and CC Lemon there. Final place is Maruetsu, and I'll probably be going there most frequently. It has three floors to it too.

Lots of other neat places there as well, with most being cafes, salons and pharmacies. Few botanist too, maybe I should get a plant. There's plenty of light in my room, with there being a sky light in all.

the station even has a McDonalds and Subway. There's a GEO as well, but now's not the time for games. Or movies. (Or hentai). I couldn't find a single electronics shop though, so that'll have to wait another day. I need an adapter and ethernet cable. Its amazing, this place gets insane internet speeds and they throw it away by using wifi routers from the 90s and granite walls. There's even an outlet in my room. Just give me one and I'll handle the rest!

Breakfast/Lunch: Corn milk dog thing with Salmon Wasabi Onirigi
Dinner was some noodle thing I got at Marusho. It wasn't very good

Slept like a log. My prioritiy for today was to find the nearest convenience stores (konbini) like 7-11 and Lawson. No, 7-11s here do not serve slurpees. First thing I did was call home. 8:00 am is 7:00 pm my time, which is around when my Mom and Dad are sitting down to eat. I'll make this a morning routine for myself. Food at these places are actually very good and affordable, and range anywhere from 1-6 US dollars. For breakfast I had this tempura noodle soup bowl. Totally not a breakfast food, but I needed that energy. The place I'm living in is neatly positioned between Shinjuku and Shibuya, but not near a lot of big places. I ended up walking a lot. After that, I needed to get a new sim card for my phone. Before I left, I investigated this "Japan travel sim card" thing. Its 2 gigs of data for 3 months and only costs $35. Hey, why not. It'll give me what I need to survive. Closest place that afford it was Shinjuku station, which is about a 45 minute walk, or much shorter with buses and trains. I figured I'd make the walk.

I made a mistake. My days of walking Luna did not prepare me, plus it was stupid of me to wear anything other than walking shoes. Of course, all I have are walking sandals. When I did get there, it was what I imagined it to be. Weird little bazaar alleyway type shops all in close proximity to each other. Found this place called "economobile" which only sold pre-owned phones and said sim card. The clerk even set it all up for me. My friends had to get new phones to get their sim cards, but Verizon surprisingly has their phones unlocked.

As I made my way back, I found this place called Yoyogi-Hachiman shrine. Its just a tiny wooded area in the middle of the city. Really peaceful. I'll probably return there a lot.

Had some yakisoba for dinner. Wasn't too fond of it for some reason. Also met some of the people in this dorm, and they're all really nice and keep to themselves.

Finally arrived in Japan after an unbearable airplane ride. Everything went fine, but it just takes forever. Had to get ready at 3:30 am EST and got in at around 6 pm Japan time on the following day. I somehow knew what to do and where to go, but it didn't hurt that my friends were waiting at Shinjuku station. Everything had to happen fast. If I didn't make the first train available I would have gotten in after the Sakura House closed. It all worked out in the end.

After continuously signing my name to the point where it became a series of swirls, we got on the train to my apartment. Its cute and small, as I expected. Threw everything down and went to this place called Firestarter. I had this "guapo" thing. Tasted a bit like tex-mex. I'll post more stuff each day, but now I'm gonna rest. Feeling really down.