Archive for November, 2007

Small Update

Thursday, November 29th, 2007

Hi everyone. Things have been going well here in Tokyo, I’ve been having a lot of fun. Unfortunately all the pictures I’ve taken are on my cell phone and I haven’t managed to get the data off of it yet but I will get that done this weekend and post some more specifics with pictures.

In general, I’ve been going out a lot. Like… nearly every day. There is just so much to do in this city it is hard not to. I went to the restaurant in Nishi-Azabu where the big fight scene in Kill Bill 1 was filmed, I went to a tiny videogame themed bar (primarily 8 and 16 bit stuff) that sits maybe 8 people, and I’ve been to karaoke multiple times. Not to mention all the delicious food.

It’s getting cold here. It will definitely eventually get a lot colder than California, like around February when it is typically around 0C in Tokyo, but even now it seems damn cold. It’s probable that this feeling is compounded by the fact that I have to walk everywhere I go. Man… not having a car is great in some ways and awful in others. I honestly haven’t really wished for a car except on two occasions: once when it was raining really hard and the other time when I had to carry groceries home for a 25 minute-ish train ride + walk.

Well, gonna go study some Japanese. My language skills are getting a little bit better but I need to study a lot more to really accelerate my ability. I’ll get some more posts up here when I get my pictures loaded on to my computer.

Hope all is well back in the States for all my friends and family.

Posted in japan | No Comments »

"Don Quijote" (ドンキ) and Food

Monday, November 12th, 2007

OK… imagine the scene, I just got back home and experienced this. It’s Monday night. 10:45 PM or so, just finished eating dinner with a friend. We’re in East Shinjuku. I’m in a kind of upscale 100 yen place called “Don Quijote” or as it is typically called ドンキ (donki). Think of it like a dollar shop and you’ll get the idea. And it is absolutely SLAMMING. Tons of people in there, many that look like the young socialite type. This simply just does not exist in all of my experience in the United States.

You can see their insane website here: http://www.donki.com/index.php

On the ground floor there are plush stuffed female breasts (clearly the first thing I noticed), maid outfits, entirely head covering penguin hats, underwear, soap, etc. There is death metal blasting out of speakers all over the place, quite loudly. This place is like 5 or 6 stories. It also carries plenty of normal household goods – I was there to buy hangars, which were located in the basement.

The place is like a hellish haunted house – each aisle is just barely wider than the width of my shoulders and there is absolutely no obvious segregation of items. Even the aisles themselves are not evenly separated like in a super market or something in the US… it’s a complete maze.

Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures but I thought some of you might find it interesting.

The place I went to dinner tonight was something I had never had before. Unfortunately again I suck and forgot the name but basically it’s a restaurant where you pay about 3,000 yen for 1.5 or 2 hours of all you can eat. The food is all kinds of different skewered foodstuffs, kind of like a shishkabob, but only one item per stick. There were things like: salmon, sausage, broccoli, cheese, octopus wrapped around cheese, octopus balls (takoyaki, no not those kind of balls), raddish, onion, chicken, beef, etc. You pick up as many as you want then bring them back to the table.

They are all uncooked so what are you gonna do about it? Oh yeah, that’s right, we gonna deep fry those MFers. First you dip them in the “glue” mojo and then roll them around in Japanese style bread crumbs. There is a vat of oil in the middle of the table – drop them in, wait a bit, then enjoy with a variety of sauces. It isn’t fine dining but it is certainly tasty.

I know a couple of you guys out there who would want to eat them straight out of business (*cough* Eddy, Dan W.). Even better, for another 2,000 yen or so you can add all you can drink beer. Good times.

Posted in food, japan | 6 Comments »

Shibuya Gaijin Game Developer Meet-up

Saturday, November 10th, 2007

My first work week has come to a close and I’ve been absorbing as much as I can about both work and life culture and expectations. I’d say I was fairly well informed actually about a lot of things due to useful resources I’d read on the Internet (primarily by Phillip’s nemesis) before coming but of course there are still plenty of surprises. And reading something and experiencing it for yourself are also two quite different things.

One of the other foreign workers at my office organized a large gaijin game developer meet up on Friday night so I thought it would be a great opportunity to meet some other developers who had gone through a similar process as I am currently experiencing. There was just over 20 of us who attended, coming from a wide variety of companies and countries. I believe there were people from Greece, Australia, England, France, Germany, Russia, and of course America. I think I’m missing a country or two as well. Quite a good representation of Europeans!

Good times.

We went to a restaurant in Shibuya where you can pre-pay for all-you-can-drink beer. I’m not sure really what kind of food they were serving, it was a hodge podge of many cultures as far as I could tell, but there was plenty of beer. It was cheap too! Only 3000 yen per person… maybe like $26. Of course, no surprise, the beer left a lot to be desired flavor wise (it had quantity covered nicely). It was a bottle I haven’t seen before, namely:

“Malt’s Beer, All Malt Beer”

Well, while Uncle Malt didn’t treat me too badly I’d have to give it a 2/10. It’s flavorless beer reminiscent of Natural Ice or whatever piss beer your local universities fraternities served during freshman rush parties.

With good people and entertaining conversation though I was able to turn my focus away from the brew. It was a good time. Thanks go to the organizer and all the people I met, I’m sure we’ll see each other again.

Posted in game development, japan | 3 Comments »

Beer Battle! … and I’m drunk (ビールバトル！　。。。　オレは酔った〜）

Sunday, November 4th, 2007

Welcome fellow beer fans! In the the north corner, wearing the gold trunks, we have Suntory The Preimium Malts! And in the south corner, wearing the green trunks, we have Yebisu The Hop! It’s a classic battle of Malts vs. Hops! Who will win? Who will take the crown?


Ok. If you have read the last few entries you’d know that I have a certain love for The Malts. I made the mistake of drinking The Malts first. I already know that I like it. I guess I overestimated my tolerance because I was pretty buzzed by the time I finished it. Hehe. These 500 ml cans of beer are about 17 oz in American terms. 17 oz of beer and already buzzed… I suck.

Side note! In Japanese you pronounce “drunk” and “good” the same way, as far as I can tell. How awesome is that? 酔い (drunk) and 良い (good) … both are read as “yoi”. Awesome! Of course being drunk is good. Edit: after the booze wore off I remembered “good” is read as “ii” in the present tense, so they’re not quite the same. In other tenses it might be the same though.

So, The Malts. In marketing speak I would describe it as: smooth, extremely flavorful for a lager, slightly bitter aftertaste that tingles the taste buds (instead of assaulting them). A quality beer if you like a strong taste. 8/10

On to The Hop. Hrm… how to describe it… Honestly, I’m surprised. A lot of Japanese lager sucks big time (hello Kirin!) but this tastes pretty good. There is no aftertaste what so ever. It’s initial flavor comes on strong but then quickly dissipates. Not bad! I’d drink it again. 7/10

I’ll have to give The Hop another try from a completely sober state to review it properly.

Time to go get some food. At this point… probably some junk food near by. Peace!

P.S. – The subtitle on The Hop is awesome. “The exquisitely refined aroma of this beer is from select fine aroma hops AND aroma hops…” Double aroma hops. What more could a man want.

Posted in food, japan | 3 Comments »

What Time Is It? （何時ですか？）

Friday, November 2nd, 2007

It’s Prime Time beyotch!

Original all malt beer. For the best moments in life, let yourself go. Premium.
I give Prime Time a beer rating of about 6/10. It’s a fairly standard Japanese style lager, made by Asahi, but is supposed to be of higher quality. I can taste a slight difference from normal Asahi super dry but not enough to make the extra cost worth it. Suntory The Premium Malts is still tops for Japanese style lager in my book.

I think I’ll have to start a beer rating guide here… gives me a good excuse to keep buying more and trying them at least!

Posted in food, japan | No Comments »

My Shinjuku Mansion （私の新宿マンション）

Friday, November 2nd, 2007

As I’ve mentioned previously, I’m living in Shinjuku on the west side of the city. Remember, Tokyo is more like a state… there are many cities (and wards, like counties) inside of it. When people not familiar with the area traditionally think of Tokyo – myself included until I visited here a few times – they think of one huge city with the name “Tokyo”. The cities actually included in what people think of as Tokyo are something like: Aoyama, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Roppongi, Harajuku, etc.

The part of Shinjuku my mansion is in is primarily composed of businesses. It’s literally right next to the Park Hyatt hotel. That’s the hotel in the movie Lost In Translation with the fancy bar with a great view. The area has pluses and minuses at least from my experience so far in the past few days.

Good:

  • Close to Shinjuku station (about 8 minute walk).
  • Easy and fairly close to work (walk to Shinjuku station + 10 minute train ride).
  • Easy to get to a lot of other cities from Shinjuku station.
  • Fairly quiet at night time, no crazies outside.
  • Plenty of food options and a cubic assload of convenience stores.（コンビニ）

Bad:

  • No night life in this area (it dies at night time since it’s all businesses), specifically west Shinjuku. East has more things going on.
  • Expensive due to location.
  • Barely any grocery stores. For the people that do live here, I’ve been told that the majority are living here are high rollers with their companies paying for their rent entirely. Apparently those types of people don’t care about groceries and just go to nice restaurants all the time. The closest grocery store is about 20-25 minutes away walking.

Now, for a picture of the inside:


This is the main and pretty much only room. This mansion is a “1K” which in Japan apartment measurement terms means 1 room plus a kitchen. It’s about 210 sq. ft. So yeah, it’s small. Relative to the picture above, there is a small separate kitchen in the upper right corner (2 burners, medium sized fridge, microwave) and to the right of where the picture was taken is the bathroom. An example of a much bigger apartment would be a 2LDK – 2 rooms plus living, dining, and kitchen rooms.

The apartment building itself is 15 stories and is fairly nice (and thus expensive, doh!). My apartment is on the 3rd floor. It would have been nicer to be higher up since I don’t have a view and people across the way can see in through my window. Oh well, no worries.

I’m sure I’ll discover more good and bad things about this area in the future. For now, I’m happy.

Posted in japan | 5 Comments »