Yesterday I ventured out to Ueno (only a few minutes from my hotel, the location for this post) to see the Ameyoko market and get some of the good cheap food I was told about there. I went into a conveyor-belt sushi restaurant close by and waited for a while to be seated, but the sushi was delicious and cheap (photo below).

From there I walked through the market and then into the park area where several museums are located. I spent a few hours walking through some very good exhibits of Egyptian, Chinese and Japanese art in the Tokyo National Museum.

I finally met up with Kiyomi last night. She brought her friend Megumi along and we all went to Ginza to join another friend Kazu. Last night near the Tokyo station there was a huge festival going on (Illumination festival?) which involved a series of huge gates made of lights set up all the way down a main street. We all went to see it and took some photos, then walked to a restaurant.

I wish I could remember the name (Wataki? Watami?) - as Kiyomi promised, it was nothing like I’ve experienced at home. The food was excellent and we all had plenty of sake and biru. Tonight I have plans to meet up with Mayu’s friend Shige and Kazu in Shibuya for drinking and karaoke.

I just arrived at the olympic youth memorial center (?) in yoyogi (shinjuku area) to try and book a room at the youth hostel here, but they are closed until 5pm so I have some time to kill… So far, it looks like Hotel Hikari is going to end up having been much nicer, so I will likely only stay the night here. It is very close to some recommended spots in Shinjuku and Shibuya, though, so that is good. As soon as I arrived at the center, two young japanese girls asked if I would do an interview with them for a school project about high school in the US, so I answered some questions. They told me that this is a popular spot for backpackers visiting Tokyo even though it is rather deserted today. Maybe when the hostel opens up I’ll run into some others.

A few hours later… The Yoyogi hostel wouldn’t take me as they were all booked, so they sent me to Tokyo International (the other major hostel in Tokyo, right near central tokyo and the tokyo dome). I finally found it with the help of some friendly japanese folks, but they too turned me down. They suggested the Sakura Hotel which is only two subway stops away. I got to the station closest to it (Jimbocho) but was having a hell of a time finding it, so I stopped to ask the staff at an empty restaurant. They didn’t know where it was, but went so far out of their way to help I was blown away: one guy ran down the street and photocopied a detailed map of the area and drew a line for me indicating exactly how to get there. I thanked him profusely and went on my way, but my legendary sense of direction failed me and I was once again lost. I stopped again, this time at a copy shop. The two guys there busted out the giant blueprint style city map and made two massive photocopies of it and gave me practically footstep-by-footstep directions. I can’t believe how incredibly nice and helpful every single person has been so far. I finally found the Hotel and booked one night in a shared room, which ended up being cold and noisy. I am now back in the Hikari Hotel for 4 nights which is far cheaper (3300Y/night for a single room), cleaner, quieter, has free wifi, and I think in a nicer location. They even gave me the exact same room I was in the other night.

Yesterday I visited Akihabara to see the giant electronics store there. It is supposedly the largest in Tokyo, and it certainly is huge. The place is 8 storeys tall and occupies an entire city block. They have entire floors dedicated to cell phones, computers, video games, TVs and all sorts of home appliances. I found a cheapo headset to use with Skype for about $6US, but almost everything there is either the same price or more than it is at home. On the streets around there I saw some good deals on cameras and computers, though. While I was walking around there I found a similarly huge music equipment store and spent a couple hours playing every instrument I could get my hands on. The highlight of my day was rocking out on the drums for a while (the place wasn’t crowded at all! I got to play for about 40 minutes).

Hello everyone! I have only a few minutes to write a quick note, but I wanted to let you all know that I have landed safely in Narita and am about to get on a train to Tokyo. I almost lost my camera but it survived so photos will come shortly…

Update!

I’m now sitting in my room at Hotel Hikari after roaming around lost for a while, which was way more fun than it sounds. I booked two nights here and am glad I did because it seems like a very good location from which to explore for a bit. Tomorrow: electric razor shopping and a visit with Kiyomi!

Most of you know that for the past couple years I’ve given up using my “real signature” on credit card receipts. Depending on my mood at the moment, I might create a lovely landscape of barking kittens and turtle doves, or a rockin’ pickle party right there on the dotted line. The other day as I doodled a shoe sailing along an ocean of squiggly lines instead of my name, I wondered what happens to these after I hand them back to the cashier. Obviously nothing is in place to check their validity after the cashier asks to make sure that a floating boot is indeed my real signature. Very rarely am I asked for a photo ID, or even to show the back of my card – and even in those cases no one has denied me the pleasure of covering my receipt in peanut-shaped airplanes. What is the purpose of collecting a signature at all anymore if it doesn’t seem to mean anything?

I asked the internet. As I suspected, I’m not the only one wondering about this. First, some background facts:

The signature, required only for “card-present” sales, of course, is one of several fraud-prevention features built into the process of making a credit card purchase. The idea is that the clerk compares your signature (from your card or photo ID) to the one you just made on the receipt, but thats just never happened for me. This signing of credit card receipts seems even more strange when paying by credit card at a restaurant.

According to Visa, the signature on the back of your card is not solely to give the cashier a signature to check against the receipt, but to bind you to the terms of your contract with the credit company / bank. Also, the popular “trick” of writing SEE ID in the signature box apparently doesn’t fly. You’re still supposed to sign the card.

Fine, I’ll sign the card.

This guy also wrote up a nice article complete with photos of his “signatures” he used to test the value of a proper credit card receipt signature. After this I’m beginning to wonder if all my purchases in the past few years are technically invalid… Are they?

I had a great time last night, and nearly all the things I had up for grabs were claimed! All in all, a success. I’ve posted some photos on flickr. I’m now in love with Flickr, by the way.

(these two photos by yutai)

I have a list of items that have been claimed but were not taken by the end of the night:

• Alvaro - Guitar
• Joe - Delta 44, ‘Sarita’ painting
• Yutai - Drum machines, mixer, microphone, gold frame
• Fong! - Rug, shelf unit thing, Tron slipmats
• Ryan - Pink trashcan, belt sander, skateboard
• Tony - Stereo receiver, croquet set, shoes
• Cyrelle - Robots, Lamp, Shelf unit
• David - Snowboard, boots, MIDI controller
• Hernan - Longboard
• Rue - Bench thing, Sarah painting
• Audrey - Jeremy Fish print
• Mayu - Computer desk

Hopefully you all can pick up the stuff next weekend and maybe give me a hand moving the remaining stuff into storage ;)

… and it looks like this is going to work! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! This is a test post - I grabbed my lat/lon while out running errands and entered it for the location.

chris jordan ’s photographs are quite amazing. I would love to see them in person. Really makes you think.

Now that streetwars is over for me and Team Scissor Attack, the FFFlag flies once again. I’ll share with you the story of Alan’s demise (and therefore mine) from the StreetWars website (it was later decided that the kill was legit):

Dear Supremeness, At approximately 12:30 on 11/23/05 Agent IK aka Mr. Green and myself (The Chief) saw Agent AS (target # wywsgxeenskc) leaving work. As he got to the other side of the street the pursuit began….as we got within range of said target I yelled out “hey Alan” he turned with and the shoot out ensued. All three were fired on and hit. Our target claims that he some how hit both of us prior to getting hit and would not give up his card. This seems highly doubtful as Mr. Green is certain he hit the hoodie that Agent AS was wearing while he was turning around and my reflexes are cat like. Of course this comes down to his word over ours. All I can say is, there is precedence that a tie goes to……..Team America (Fuck Yeah!)……..the killers! But of course you are the Supreme Commander…… The Chief Team America (Fuck Yeah!)

It took two teams (one of twelve members) almost two weeks to take us down. Not so bad.

Back to life as it was, I guess!

I just bought the domain last night cause i thought it was funny. What should I put on it?

I have finished the bulk of the work in creating the journal set-up I will use to post entries while traveling. I am very proud of it.

It goes like this: I’m out somewhere with my notebook and small GPS unit and decide to write an entry. I write down the latitude and longitude along with my precious thoughts and email the whole thing to the mothership when I get access to the internet later on. The script that I wrote / cobbled together uses Wordpress and the Google Maps API to put a pushpin on the map at the exact location and link it to the post page. Then, the script cycles through the points in chronological order and connects them with a red line, showing my path as I travel. Each post page also gets its own tiny inset map. Fuck I’m such a nerd.