Saturday, June 7, 2008

The Day to End All Days
Never thought I'd be somebody to create a file with the name Satan.jpg, but yeah, that’s right, I made one. HAHA! It’s nothing bad, either. It just happened that way. Ya see, I’m making my activity book layout and I’m using images from the Manga Messiah book to make it more interesting and connect it with the manga. One of the images is an image of Satan and when I clipped it out of the manga, that’s what I called it. There really wasn’t much else to call it after all, he’s the only thing in the image. So yeah, I just thought that was funny and thought I’d share.

Wednesday, June 4th
A very boring day when it comes to things that are worthy of posting. I woke up at the usual time and went through the morning ritual and worked all day without anything terribly interesting happening. The only thing of any real noteworthiness was my trip to the supermarket. My food I bought on Saturday didn’t last nearly as long as I thought it would and Chieko-san knew that. She came and asked me near the end of the day if a shopping trip was in order. I said it was, so she took me. It went smoothly and efficiently. I indulged myself this time and got some ice cream—red bean flavored and good ol’ fashion chocolate brownie chunk. The chocolate didn’t survive to see Thursday, but the red bean still awaits its doom.

Thursday, June 5th
In complete and total contrast to Wednesday, today was almost indisputably the most interesting day of my entire stay here in Japan. Intrigued? HA! Good, cuz it’s going to take a while to tell the tale. ^_^

I was working like normal at about 10:00 when my nose caught the smell of odd things coming from the kitchen area. I inquired to Yoshi-san as to their origin and she informed me that at 4:00 today there was going to be something that they call a gyoza party. It was in celebration of the return of one of the men who works at New Life League. As it turns out, the man who spoke at church on Sunday and the man in whose honor I would be enjoying a dinner of gyoza and yakisoba are one and the same. I didn’t know Vidar worked at NLL when I met him on Sunday. Go figure. The smells enticed my senses all day and by the time 4:00 came around my stomach was more than ready to indulge in the happiness that is gyoza dumplings. It got its chance. I ate my full of both the gyoza and the yakisoba. They had mixed fruit and stew as well. If I had known about the stew earlier I probably wouldn’t have eaten as much yakisoba, but such is the way of things.

The gyoza wasn’t the only thing that the party included. As is apparently custom at parties like this, everyone is invited to do performances of any sort in honor of the guest. A few people got up and sang songs, my personal favorite was a song sung by four of the women. It was very nice. They tried to get me to sing something, but about the only thing I know that would have been appropriate to sing would be Amazing Grace. I decided against it. By the end of the party, one of the guys who plays the guitar got everybody singing along with him to a song which I can’t remember. It was really fun. NLL is a very international organization so we had people there from many different countries. This particular song has been translated into many different languages and so everybody got a chance to sing it in their own language. I heard it in Korean, Chinese, Japanese, German, Norwegian, and English. I had to leave before the Nigerian guy got up to sing, so I don’t know if he did any singing.

I had to leave early because I had a ticket for a live tonight. I was going to see three bands perform at a live house in Shibuya called the O-Nest. This would be the concert I informed you that I would be attending in the previous post. So, it’s been planned all week. It was going to be a close call trying to make it their on time, so I left as soon as possible. Nishizawa-san ferries a few of the employees to the train station in Takasaka every day at 5:30, so I hitched a ride. This is where the fun begins.

I didn’t have a ride back to NLL from Takasaka station. I was going to be returning too late to catch the last bus and Nishizawa-san has to be up early in the mornings so he would already be asleep by the time I got back as well. So, Chieko-san in her infinite kindness (I swear, she’s the nicest woman I’ve ever met, hands down.) told me to call her when I got back so she could give me a ride to NLL. I was more than grateful to accept her offer. About five minutes after I left NLL with Nishizawa-san, I realized that I had forgotten Chieko-san’s phone number back in my room (mistake #1). It was too late to turn around, so Nishizawa-san gave me the phone number for NLL and told me to call when I got to Ikebukuro and that Chieko-san could give me her phone number then. Sounded like a fine and easy plan, right? Wrong.

I’m a very absent-minded person so once I got to Ikebukuro station my mind wasn’t thinking about calling Chieko-san, it was about navigating the crowds and getting to the train as soon as possible so I could get to the live, which by this time I was pretty sure I was going to be late for. I completely forgot to call NLL (mistake #2). I didn’t realize my error until I had made it to the O-Nest. I couldn’t find any pay phones around there so I asked an English-speaking guy if he knew where one was. He said he didn’t know either, but that I could use his phone if it was going to be a short local call. I said it was and he was kind enough to allow me to borrow his phone. I called NLL but it was apparently too late to reach anybody because I got the answering machine (unfortunate incident #1). I thanked the man and decided to just forget the idea of calling Chieko-san and just pay for a taxi at Takasaka station. It would be expensive, but I figured that was the punishment I got for my mistake. The only issue with getting a cab was that I would have to withdraw some money first in order to do it (unfortunate incident #2).

As we’ve discovered earlier in the trip, finding a JP Bank ATM isn’t an easy task and the only one I knew of was at Ikebukuro station. So, after the concert (which I will talk about later) I got back on the train to Ikebukuro. When I exited the train platform I followed the signs to the Tobu Tojo line. I had remembered the ATM being near there. I saw the entrance to the Tobu Tojo platform and swiped my Pasmo card to get in (mistake #3). Soon after I did that I realized that Tobu Tojo didn’t have a section of the station like the JR line did, instead I was led right onto the platform. That was not where I wanted to be. There wasn’t an ATM on the platform. So, I tried to go back out to the main station area. It wouldn’t let me back through the gate. I was stuck on the platform with no way of getting any cash (unfortunate incident #3).

Now I was starting to panic. Everything was going wrong and I still had no way of getting back to NLL from Takasaka station. I had no choice but to get on the train and head back. When I got off the train at Takasaka station I had two options. I could get a taxi and hope that the ¥1097 in my pocket would be enough to get me back, or I could call NLL again and use that same money on a phone call that I wasn’t sure would be of any use anyway. I figured my best bet was to take the chance with the taxi, so I flagged one down and got in (mistake #4). The starting fare for the cab was ¥710. That left me with almost ¥400 of leeway, I realized that probably wasn’t going to be enough, but we were already on the way and I was obligated to pay the ¥710 even if I told him to let me out before we left the parking lot, so I was forced to pray and hope that the fare didn’t go up too quickly (unfortunate incident #4). We got about two miles or so with the counter staying at ¥710. My hopes were rising. There was a chance I was going to be able to pull this off. Not enough of a chance as it seems. Shortly after that two mile mark the fare started going up. And I’m not talking a small increase, either. It started going up at a rate of ¥90 about every ten seconds. Needless to say, it wasn’t even a full minute before the fare had exceeded the ¥1097 in my pocket (unfortunate incident #5). I told the cabbie as best I could that I didn’t have any more money to pay him with, so he pressed a magic switch next to his steering wheel that popped the passenger door open and he held out his hand for me to give him the money I had left. By the time he had understood what I was saying and come to a stop the fare had gone up again and thus I was about ¥70 short. He tried to get me to pay it, saying, “not enough, not enough,” but he could say anything he liked and it wouldn’t make a difference. I physically had no more money. I gave up on trying to communicate that to him and just got out and shut the door.

This is rock bottom. I have no more money, it’s raining, I don’t really know where I am, and I don’t speak Japanese. I had no idea what I was going to do, so I just started walking in the direction the cabbie had been driving. I figured I’d recognize some landmarks and be able to feel my way back to NLL. I’d traveled the route enough times I thought I could do it. After ten minutes or so I started seeing things that looked familiar, so I knew I was going to be able to make it back, It was just going to be a while. I’m sure that must have been sight to behold, though—a white guy walking down dark street in a Japanese suburb at midnight in the rain. It really must have been, because after another few minutes of walking, a van pulled up beside me. The window rolled down and the elderly man in the passenger seat asked me, in English, “what are you doing?” I explained my situation as best I could and they opened the door and told me to get in (fortunate incident #3). There were four people in the van. Apparently this was some sort of car pool for business people. Everybody was in suits and ties and had briefcases or satchels. All of them could speak english moderately well, and thus I immediately became the topic of all conversation. “Where are you going? Where are you from? What’s your name? How old are you? Why are you in Japan? How long are you going to be here?” I answered as best I could to all of those questions and I tried my best to explain where I was trying to go. But the driver apparently didn’t know the area very well and didn’t know what I was talking about. I was in a pickle because they weren’t going to let me out without getting me back, but I couldn’t tell them where to go, so I whipped out the NLL phone number and gave it to them. It was the last thing I could do. By the grace of almighty God, Iwaoka-san picked up! He had been working a VERY late night and for some reason answered the phone instead of letting it go to the machine. That was all God because if Iwaoka-san hadn’t been there then there was nothing I could do. He was able to explain to them how to get me back (fortunate incident #4) and so my night came to an end, almost. After the night I had just had, I was a bit frazzled and didn’t think to call Chieko-san to let her know that I had made it back. I was back in my room and thus had access to her phone number again. I should have called, but I didn’t (ultimate mistake #5). I found out later that she stayed up late waiting for my call and eventually just went to bed. I have not stopped apologizing to her since.

That was my night. And now for the details of the concert. ^_^ As I said, I had been running late. I got to the live house as quickly as I could, but I still arrived at Shibuya station ten minutes after the live was scheduled to have started. I found the live house very easily for the most part, but in my rush to get there I ended up turning one street too early. I knew how to get there, I had a map after all, but I turned too early anyway and found myself walking through a sex shop area. There weren’t any prostitutes or anything, it was just sex shops. Nevertheless, it was awkward. But, I knew where I was and only had to walk through that area for a minute or so. The live house was actually quite nice in contrast to the seedy nature of the shops one street over. It was on the 5th and 6th floors of a small building off a small side street. You had to take an elevator from the street in order to get up there. You entered on the 6th floor, presented your ticket, paid for your compulsory drink coupon, and went out some stairs at the back that led outside and down one floor to the performance area. The performance area was small. The total square footage couldn’t have been much larger than that of my one bedroom apartment back in Arkansas. There was a small bar at the back with a young girl tending it. There was standing room only with waist-high tables interspersed throughout so customers could put their drinks down. The stage was on the opposite end from the bar and took up about the same amount of space. It was elevated by about a foot or so. So, all in all the place was nice but quaint.

I ended up being a full 20 minutes late to the live and figured for sure I'd missed most of the first act. But by a stroke of good fortune they were running late too. I walked in about 30 seconds before the the whole thing kicked off (fortunate incident #1). The performers were beyond amazing (fortunate incident #2). Their recordings don’t do them justice. Totos was the first band to get up to perform. They’re a new group and have their first full-length CD debuting later this month. The recordings of theirs that I’ve heard aren’t that spectacular, but their live performance was awesome. I enjoyed every minute of it and it really got me in the mood for more music. The second band to perform was Afterpilot. They’re the band I was there to see, and they were worth all ¥3400. It could have been just them and I’d have been satisfied. I liked them so much that I felt compelled to buy their CD at the end of the show. They were very thankful. I think I might have been the only person to buy one of their CD’s that night. They spoke English so I talked with them for a bit and expressed my appreciation of their music. They seemed grateful for everything and shook my hand. I hope they do well with their music. The third band to perform was the headliner for the evening. Their name is Dreamboy and they’re a band from Sweden who are touring Japan right now. I couldn’t find any of their music to sample online, so I went into their portion of the concert completely blind. They opened my eyes. Truthfully, they stole the show. I was so amazingly impressed by their performance! They had the entire room jumping and clapping before the end of their third song. The audience enjoyed them so much that they weren’t satisfied with just one encore. In fact, after the song they had intended to end with, the band performed five more songs and could have kept going longer. If you can, I strongly suggest you try to find a song by Dreamboy. I am buying their CD when I get back to the states. I debated with whether to buy their CD or Afterpilot’s, but as you know already, I went with Afterpilot, though I enjoyed Dreamboy more. I figured I could probably find Dreamboy in the US, Afterpilot I had to buy here.

So, as you have read, Thursday, June 5th is a day I will never forget. It has been the most amazing and eventful day of my entire trip and I pray I don’t have another day this eventful while I’m here. I was so beat by the time I got back. I didn’t even sleep well that night, my body was racing but my mind was out of it completely. So yeah. I’d go on and tell the tales of Friday and Saturday right now, but this post has already been long enough, so I’ll post on those two days in my next post, whenever that will be.

Caesar1280's Anime Ticker

.hack//Legend of the Twilight, Air, Air: The Movie, Akira, The Animatrix, Appleseed, Aquatic Language, Ayakashi: Japanese Classic Horror, Beck, Black Lagoon, Blame!, Blood the Last Vampire, Bokurano, Burst Angel, Castle in the Sky, Cowboy Bebop, Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, Digimon Tamers: The Runaway Digimon Express, Egao, FLCL, Fullmetal Alchemist, Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shambala, Gankutsuou, Gatekeepers, Genshiken, Ghost in the Shell, Ghost in the Shell: Innocence, Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society, Gin-iro no Kami no Agito, Grave of the Fireflies, Grenadier, Haibane Renmei, Hellsing, Highlander: The Search for Vengeance, Hikaru no Go, Howl?s Moving Castle, Jin Roh: The Wolf Brigade, Jyu Oh Sei, Karas: The Prophecy, Last Exile, Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi, Midori?s Days, Milennium Actress, Mushi-shi, My Neighbor Totoro, Naruto, Naruto: The Movie, Nausicaa, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death And Rebirth, Ninja Scroll: The Movie, Other Worlds, Paprika, Perfect Blue, Pet Shop of Horrors, The Place Promised In Our Early Days, Prétear, Princess Mononoke, Read Or Die, Read Or Die: The TV, Samurai Champloo, Samurai Seven, Samurai X: Trust & Betrayal, She and Her Cat, Spirited Away, Steamboy, Tide-Line Blue, Tokyo Babylon, Tokyo Godfathers, Trigun, Voices of a Distant Star, Witch Hunter Robin, Wonderful Days, Wrath of the Ninja, X

Anime I've Seen - .hack//Legend of the Twilight - .hack//Sign - 5 Centimeters per Second - Air - Air: The Movie - Akira - The Animatrix - Appleseed - Aquatic Language - Ayakashi: Japanese Classic Horror - Baby Blue - Beck - Black Lagoon - Blame! - Blood the Last Vampire - Bokurano - Burst Angel - Castle in the Sky - Cowboy Bebop - Cowboy Bebop: The Movie - Digimon Tamers: The Runaway Digimon Express - Doorbell - Egao - FLCL - Fullmetal Alchemist - Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shambala - Gankutsuou - Gatekeepers - Genius Party - Genshiken - Genshiken OAV - Ghost in the Shell - Ghost in the Shell: Innocence - Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society - Gin-iro no Kami no Agito - The Gokusen - Grave of the Fireflies - Grenadier - Haibane Renmei - Happy Machine - Hellsing - Highlander: The Search for Vengeance - Hikaru no Go - Howl's Moving Castle - Innocent Venus - Jin Roh: The Wolf Brigade - Jyu Oh Sei - Karas: The Prophecy - Karas: The Revelation - Last Exile - Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi - Midori?s Days - Milennium Actress - Mushi-shi - My Neighbor Totoro - Naruto - Naruto: The Movie - Nausicaa - Neon Genesis Evangelion - Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death And Rebirth - Ninja Scroll: The Movie - Other Worlds - Ouran High School Host Club - Paprika - Perfect Blue - Pet Shop of Horrors - The Place Promised In Our Early Days - Prétear - Princess Mononoke - Read Or Die - Read Or Die: The TV - Samurai Champloo - Samurai Seven - Samurai X: Trust & Betrayal - Serial Experiments Lain - Shanghai Dragon - She and Her Cat - Spirited Away - Steamboy - Tekkonkinkreet - Tide-Line Blue - Tokyo Babylon - Tokyo Godfathers - Trigun - Trinity Blood - Vampire Hunter D - Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust - Voices of a Distant Star - Witch Hunter Robin - Wolf's Rain - Wonderful Days - Wrath of the Ninja - X Total: 93

Anime I Haven't Completed - .hack//Roots - Ah! My Goddess - Angelic Layer - Avenger - Baccano! - Bamboo Blade - Basilisk - Binchou-tan - Black Cat - Bleach - Blood+ - Boogiepop Phantom - Case Closed - Le Chevalier d'Eon - Chobits - Chrono Crusade - Code Geass - Coyote Ragtime Show - D.Gray-Man - D.N.Angel - DearS - Death Note - Dennou Coil - Desert Punk - Digimon - Dragon Ball Z - Ergo Proxy - Eureka Seven - Excel Saga - Fighting Beauty Wulong - Final Fantasy Unlimited - Flag - Freedom - Full Moon - Gantz - Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Gintama - Glass Fleet - Great Teacher Onizuka - Gundam Seed - Gundam Wing - Hayate the Combat Butler - Hellsing OVA - Higurashi no Naku Koro ni - Ikki Tousen - InuYasha - Jigoku Shojo - Kage Kara Mamoru - Karin - Kino's Journey - Love Hina - Loveless - Lovely Complex - Lucky Star - Makai Senki Disgaea - Marchen Awakens Romance - Meine Liebe - The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - Mononoke - Monster - Moon Phase - Mr Stain on Junk Alley - Naruto Shippuuden - Negima?! - Negima! - Neon Genesis Evangelion: End of Evangelion - Nerima Daikon Brothers - NHK ni Youkoso - Night Walker - Ninja Nonsense - Noir - Peacemaker Kurogane - Pokemon - Prince of Tennis - R.G. Veda - Ragnarok - Rec - Red Garden - Robotech - Romeo x Juliet - Rosen Maiden - Rurouni Kenshin - Saikano - Sailor Moon - Samurai Deeper Kyo - Sci-fi Harry - School Rumble - Scrapped Princess - Shin-chan - Shingu - Shion no Oh - Shuffle! - Shrine of the Morning Mist - So Long, Mr. Despair - Solty Rei - Sousei no Aquarion - Speed Grapher - Spice and Wolf - Super Milk Chan - Tales of Phantasia - Tenchi Muyo - Tenjhou Tenge - Texnolyze - The Third - Tsubasa Chronicles - Urusei Yatsura - Venus Versus Virus - Welcome to the N.H.K. - Winter Cicada - X-1999 - Xenosaga - XxxHolic - Yu Yu Hakushou - Yume Tsukai - Zero no Tsukaima - Zipang Total: 116

Manga I've Completed - Cowboy Bebop - FLCL - Manga Messiah - Manga Metamorphosis - Q*Ko-chan - Saiyuki - Shirahime-Syo Total: 7 Manga I Haven't Completed - .hack//Legend of the Twilight - Black Cat - Blame! - Chobits - D.Gray-man - Darkside Blues - Death Note - The Demon Ororon - Desert Coral - Disgaea - Eureka Seven: Gravity Boys and Lifting Girl - Fruits Basket - Getbackers - Hayate the Combat Butler - Kamunagara - Legal Drug - Love Hina - Loveless - Megatokyo - Naruto - Negima - Read Or Die - Rurouni Kenshin - Tactics - Trigun Maximum - XXXHolic Total: 26

Anime I'm Currently Watching
Samurai 7, InuYasha, Samurai Deeper Kyo,
Boogiepop Phantom, and Shrine of the Morning Mist

Manga I'm Currently Reading
Read Or Die, Hayate the Combat Butler, and Megatokyo.hack//Roots, .hack//Sign, 5 cm per Second, Ah! My Goddess, Angelic Layer, Avenger, Basilisk, Binchou-tan, Black Cat, Bleach, Blood+, Boogiepop Phantom, Case Closed, Le Chevalier d'Eon, Chobits, Chrono Crusade, Coyote Ragtime Show, D.Gray-Man, D.N.Angel, DearS, Death Note, Dennou Coil, Desert Punk, Digimon, Dragon Ball Z, Ergo Proxy, Eureka 7, Excel Saga, Fighting Beauty Wulong, Final Fantasy Unlimited, Flag, Full Moon, Gantz, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Gintama, Great Teacher Onizuka, Gundam Seed, Gundam Wing, Hayate the Combat Butler, Hellsing Ultimate, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, Innocent Venus, InuYasha, Jigoku Shojo, Kage Kara Mamoru, Karin, Kino?s Journey, Love Hina, Loveless, Lovely Complex, Lucky Star, Makai Senki Disgaea, Marchen Awakens Romance, Meine Liebe, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Mononoke, Monster, Naruto Shippuuden, Negima?!, Neon Genesis Evangelion: End of Evangelion, Nerima Daikon Brothers, NHK ni Youkoso, Night Walker, Ninja Nonsense, Noir, Ouran High School Host Club, Peacemaker Kurogane, Pokemon, Prince of Tennis, R.G. Veda, Ragnarok, Rec, Red Garden, Robotech, Romeo x Juliet, Rosen Maiden, Rurouni Kenshin, Saikano, Sailor Moon, Samurai Deeper Kyo, Sci-fi Harry, School Rumble, Scrapped Princess, Serial Experiments Lain, Shingu, Shuffle!, Shrine of the Morning Mist, So Long Mr. Despair, Solty Rei, Sousei no Aquarion, Speed Grapher, Super Milk Chan, Tales of Phantasia, Tenchi Muyo, Tenjhou Tenge, Texnolyze, The Third. Trinity Blood, Tsubasa Chronicles, Urusei Yatsura, Welcome to the N.H.K., Winter Cicada, X-1999, Xenosaga, XxxHolic, Yu Yu Hakushou, Yume Tsukai, Zero no Tsukaima, Zipang

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