The Return of 15 Things. (or, Hell-ish)

I'm heading off on the nightbus to Tokyo in a couple hours, but thought I would take some time to update before I dissapear for the better part of three days. The plan was to stay in Yokohama, the third largest city in Japan and about half an hour from Tokyo, but it turned out to be less economical and much more inefficient, so Graeme (also of UBC; he's on the right in the photo, just one above me) and I need to work out our exact itinerary on the bus tonight. We've gone ahead and booked the youth hostel in Tokyo, but we don't know exactly what we're going to want to see when we disembark at 7 am tomorrow morning.

There's a bunch of stuff on our list though. We want to see the commercial nightmare of modern Japanese urban life: Harajuku and Shinjuku are big items for fashion and people-watching, so is Roppongi; Akihabara is the major electronics district. Just south of there is the emperor's palace, to which only the gardens are open; just south of there is Yasukuni shrine, the most controversial war memorial in Asia. We also want to swing by Yokohama at some point: it's China town is famous, but it's also supposed to have a lovely little waterfront. And there's an aquarium that I want to check out too.

'Course, I have other stuff I need to do. I just found out today that my academic advisor for my independent study project (I'm doing Japanese gardens) wants to meet on Friday at 11 am, and he wants to see a one-page report on my progress (thusfar, nil). Conveniently, 11 am falls squarely between my bus's arrival in Osaka (7 am again) and my parents' arrival in Osaka (4:30 pm). Inconveniently, it's going to make Friday what I would call very busy, or if I'm feeling dramatic, hellish.

Just hell-ish, mind you. I'm not that dramatic.

15 More Odd Small Things

1. The hand gesture for a crab is two of our scissor gestures.
2. Armbands are still popular, but with school crests instead of swastikas.
3. CocaCola makes Royal Milk Tea.
4. The gangster rap on the radio is hard core and un-censored.
5. Mizo are uncovered rain gutters that run on the side of every street, and can be deep than I am tall.
6. You can get a plastic bag shaped to put your umbrella in.
7. There are ahstrays in some bathrooms.
8. The city smells different.
9. Restaurants display plastic replica of their dishes in the front windows.
10. Schoolboys wear short shorts, even in winter.
11. Dry ice machines.
12. Old ladies sometimes dye their hair purple, and only purple.
13. I have been asked if I have AIDS.
14. Dumptrucks are the size of minivans. Or smaller.
15. Women walk with their feet turned inward.