Happy days

Now here are some anecdotes from the past few days. I hope it will be a thrill ride for the ages. But I expect it will be more like a slight bump in the road while traveling at five miles per hour.

Please to be enjoying my story(s)!

I've spent the majority of my freetime lazing about my apartment. Just kidding, I was being productive! Here's my proof: all the graphics I made for a game! It is called Ijaspy, which stands for It's Just a Simple Platformer, Yo. Because I am creative.

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On Tuesday evening, though, I went up to Kameido to join Robert and Matt at the Kameido Tenjin Taisai. (Annual Summer Festival of Kameido.) There were supposed to be 1,100 lit lanterns. I did not count them. But it was pretty cool! A very small and quiet "festival". At least on that night. The lanterns, though, were one of the things I wanted to see before I came to Japan. They're in like everything Japanese that I've ever seen in some fashion. And I finally saw it! Lanterns, lining the river! Well, okay, a pond. Shut up.

It was every bit as awesome as I expected. And by that I mean it was a feast for the eyes, but not much else. A night well spent.

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And last night, I went to Odaiba! While waiting for Matt a Crow sat beside me. I've been trying to get a decent shot of these things since I arrived. I AM SUCCESS.

Matt showed me around the place a bit, and I went and saw the big ol' Gundam, which comes down August 31. It was crowded! At 7pm, the show began. The Gundam turned its head back and forth and steam erupted from mysterious origins!

The Gundam was built for a Green initiative. Environment stuff. In an effort to prove this that didn't involve a giant plastic Gundam model, there was a tent full of trees and beetles. I didn't go in, because it cost 300 yen, but I was able to stand around the back and look inside. The children! They were vicious! One boy picked up a beetle by the head and squeezed the pincers together to pick up another beetle. Jesus! So cruel! There was a pile of beetles where two or three kids kept trying to get the beetles to... I don't know... fight? I guess? Man.

They were big beetles, too. Not like the kind you get back home. If your home is my home.

And then we went to the mall to get something to eat and what did I find but a Jump Shop. Jump is one of the big manga magazines. Home to my personal current favorite: One Piece.

I bou' a li'l su'm su'm. Well, I bought the Laputa robot statue which is in the box and basically impossible to see in Kamakura pre-Kyoto. The Ponyo pins below it came free with the statue. It's a music box! And off to the side is a Chopperman capsule toy I failed to capture in the shot.

And furthermore!

Odaiba has some of the best night shots I've seen since coming to Japan. Man wow.

On the way back from Odaiba, some chick fell asleep on me. Because she was cute and not a big fat smelly mouth breather like the last person who decided I was a pillow on the train, I suffered it. Ohoho. Also she was considerably smaller and at least made an effort to sit up every once in a while, unlike the aforementioned big fat smelly mouth breather who decided I wasn't worth the trouble of being considerate, even when I nearly elbowed him in the side of the head.

When I got off the train I'm not sure how but I sent her cell phone flying. I quickly grabbed it and handed it to her, but she was still half-asleep and would have dropped it if I hadn't given her time to get a good grip. I am so nice! Our gazes locked and nothing else mattered in the world. Then I got off the train.