The four hour internet extravaganza!

Hello everyone! Its once again been awhile BUT I am still here. My roommate Ben will get internet access on sunday so MAYBE i can give him some money and use his comp to blog a lot more, we'll see. Either way, my choice internet cafe now has a FOUR hour mid week special for only 680 yen, and while thats a good deal, i dont always have four hours to spare.

I hope that all enjoy the photos from HK. And as a double bonus i hope you 'enjoy' the photos from Dan and Tom's visit. In a word: Exhausting. If they dont say the same thing, they are liars. There are so many stories and photos, that i could sit here all day writing, but I'll boil it all down for you. Sunday march 6th. Tom gets here, he's jetlagged but i drag him to an izakaya where a four fingered man is yelling many many obscenities at the frightened staff. they basically say whatever he wants to here but he continues to yell. scary. and tom now realizes that he likes gyoza. Monday: I work. tom goes to kamakura. at night we go to an izakaya where nothing is in english. good times. we actually got somegood food by some unknown means. Tuesday: i work again. tom tours tokyo and meets dan. i meet up with them later and head straight to the bar (nomi hodai) ha ha ha. dan was so intoxicated and tired at the end he rolled on the floor of my apartment. wait... that might have been me (Hey, I was excited that someone finally came over okay?!).

Wednesday: Asakusa, Ueno park, akihabara and THE LOCKUP!!!!! Im going to let most pics do the talking, but we toured Sensoji temple, the oldest in japan. Then went to Ueno park where we saw a 97 YEAR OLD WOMAN!!!! SELLING CRACK!!!! heh. I wish i could tell this story for everyone at home to get the most out of it, but lets just say this: Tom, Dan and I met a (drunk? schitzo? lonely?) japanese man who asked us if we knew of jay leno and if he could tell us this hilarous joke: 'So there is this 97 year old woman selling crack... Where are the parents!'..... Um.... Wha.... Yeah.... Huh? we stand there in silence for about 10 seconds "Yes sir, do you know where the pond is?" 'Yes, the pond is that way, with many lillies, and a 97 year old woman selling crack'. "OK thank you sir".

Fast forward 25 minutes, somehow the man spots us from across the road, and yells "Did you see a 97 year old woman down there?!" I dont get it at all. we actually saw the man AGAIN later at the train station who told us anothwer joke that redeemed him. but o that first one.
Dinner was at the LOCKUP, a theme izakaya where at part of the meal, people dressed in costumes run in and try to scare to. i think they hit tom with a hammer. scary.

Thursday and Friday: We took the shinkansen to Kyoto for two full days of temples, geisha, and rain. again, the photos will say it all here. we had a great time, and for dinner thurs we ate a a traditional teppanyaki restaurant in the heart of the geisha district. Friday we traveled hpome and ate at the all you can eat Yakiniku and nomihodai place. too much food and beer.

Saturday we traveled to hakone. again, beautiful. but this time, windy and very cold. we went to the open air museum, the volcano, got some good photos of fuji. so we ended the day with a traditional onsen bath. (by the way, Tom and Dan, The traditional way to do on onsen is completely naked in front of dozens of nude japanese men) HA!!! credit is given to those two. they tried all the things i asked them to, even the nude bathing with old men. but hey... when in rome...

Sunday, Tom left. Sniff. Thanks tom for coming out!　It was great seeing you!
Dan and I went to the oriental bazaar to watch dan go shopping crazy. wow that guy can shop.

monday, early, we went to tsukiji. stinky fish everywhere, then dan left. sniff sniff.
It was a great trip guys. come back anytime. for everyone else. YOU ARE STILL INVITED!

I will post some photos now, but for those of you that want to see alot more, see dans site: www.danielalansmith.com I dont know if he has posted them yet, but he will soon.

thats it for today. this next month is the month of the decision, so give me slack on my posts. I need to decide on staying another year (the latest i will be back permanently is next April, hands down) or going home. It is up in the air right now. But this blog and this entire journey has been based on the theory of no regrets. If I go back now, will I regret it, much like I did returning from New York? I dont want to make that same mistake, and i dont want to look back in twenty years, or two for that matter, and feel bad that i didnt stay longer, because once im back, its for good. Give me a month.

Take care folks, and enjoy the photos.

Scotto

Ps. aTm lost to St. Joes in the NIT quarter finals. good work this year guys.