No Pictures

I have avoided updating my blog because well I haven't had any pictures to put on it lately. It's not because nothing interesting has happened in the last couple of weeks. Oh it has! But I'm part of the MTV generation, the 30 second info age where pictures do the talking and words communicate innovative font design as gift wrap for photographs.

So here is the low tech skinny minus the Vogue-like layout of what life has been like lately.

1. I went to Tokyo's Earth Day festival. It was the first Earth Day on any continent EVER where there was not even the faintest waft of any illegal substance of ANY KIND. I was not impressed and therefore took no pictures.
Nothing says "love the world" like a vegan "special" brownie on Earth Day so imagine my disappointment when we found NONE.
But I was accompanied by Sushizume who absorbed the true meaning of Earth Day much better than me. Check out her blog to to feel the residual Earth Day hug.

2. I went to immigration earlier in the week to get my visa sorted out. The highlight was arriving on a motorcycle while the other foreigners took the bus. It totally felt like that moment in high school where all the uncool kids come off the bus but the rich popular jock rolls up in a BMW drop top.
Yeah, that was me.

3. I performed improv at the Pink Cow with "Improv a Go-go" and we totally rocked the house. Just honing my comedic chops before I kill 'em Stateside.

4. It's now Golden Week which is a Japanese Week of holidays which means no school for 3 out of 5 work days. For my part I'm heading to Shizuoka with my dear friend Tomomi. It's green tea country for all you non-natives and we're going on a tour where we get to dress up like traditional tea leaf pickers and pick our own tea straight from the plant by hand, for hours and hours.
Let the jealousy begin...NOW

There's more but hey, you've probably stopped reading. I certainly would have.
Photos are on the way.

K-k-k-kansai!

Life is a series of challenges that we pass or conquer or glean some important life lessons or self-discoveries from. Some we look forward to like teenagers waiting for their driver's licenses and some we trip over like speed bumps in shopping centers ominously disguised as saftey precautions for which you were given no prior warning. The latter best describes my trip to the Kansai region. Mislead by the glorious weather in Tokyo on the day prior to my grand adventure I underpacked my borrowed backpack, proud that I was able to deftly defy all stereotypes about women and overpacking. In my thin green sweater and black bubble vest I ventured forth toward Osaka happy for the glorious return of Spring and giddy with excitement to finally do some traveling within Japan.

Then...
... it snowed.

Franctically, I searched my meticulously underpacked backpack, at the Kyoto bus depot, for some semblance of warmth. A hat, a scarf, a long sleeve tee perhaps???
I found Snoopy ankle socks and a tank top with turquoise sequence that I intended to wear on a night out on the town.
But my Grandmother always said "that when life serves you lemons...you go shopping."
(or something like that)
So I did what anyone would do when you find yourself in the middle of the most culturally historic and aesthetically rich most breathtaking city in all of Japan.

I went to the GAP.

As luck would have it. I did find a sweater but warm jackets were still elusive.
No matter though. I would be sightseeing and exploring the back allies of Gion, the breathtaking traditional Japanese Gardens of Ginkaku-ji and discovering the lively bustling streets of Kiyomizu-dera. I would be an urban trekker and my self-produced kinetic energy would be my warm blanket. I would be walking!

And walking...
And walking some more.
Where's that damned youth hostel!!!!

In Osaka I stayed with a dear friend Diane and had a blast rediscovering the everyday life of modern Japan. In Tokyo I'm so busy being a part of it that the observational aspect of being abroad has gotten lost. The lines of US vs THEM is so blurred in Tokyo whereas being in Osaka allowed me to revisit my amature urban anthropological self. Oh and the aquarium was cool too.

Here Comes the Sun

Peace out winter.

It is glorious spring in Tokyo and the city is filled with flowering trees and inebriated salary men playing drinking games in exchange for their dignity and clothes under the fluffy popcorn sakura in a time honored tradition called hanami (picnic under the cherry blossoms). This year I plan to crash many a hanami picnic on a solo adventure to Osaka, Kyoto, Nara and Kobe. My four day expedition into the Kansai region of Japan begins tomorrow. I've got a sleeping bag, a dream and absolutely no hotel reservations to speak of. Not for lack of trying, everything is booked and what's an adventure without a little risk...
Should be back with a full report by the end of the week.

Wish me luck friends.