With Randy gone on a business trip and me being left all by my lonesome, I recently decided to check out Tokyo’s Omotesando district. I remember years ago that Tokyo was home to a pretty unusual Prada store, many stories tall with glass bubble windows. It opened years ago and I always thought it would […]
On Saturday we decided to go off on our first road trip, not including our prior “suburban” (by Tokyo standards) trips to Costco and IKEA. Actually, it wasn’t supposed to be a road trip so much as a rail trip because our original plan was to go to Yokohama for the day by train. We […]
Not having access to television has been both good and bad for me. It’s been good that I’ve been spending far less time sitting mindlessly in front of the screen watching re-runs of Will and Grace. On the downside, it’s not helping me feel more connected with localized current events. For example, and I do believe […]
Tokyo is big. In fact, I believe it’s currently the world’s largest metropolitan area with over 30,000,000 people. With that many people, there must be tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of restaurants. One night during our apartment hunting trip back in May we stumbled upon this tasty little restaurant in a neighborhood […]
Of course, it’s about as American as a meal can be. But this hole-in-the-wall burger joint around the corner and down the street from our apartment has some amazing burgers. I got the bacon, egg, and cheese burger and nearly had an orgasm. It came with a very Japanese sized portions of fries (which were […]
Yet at the same time, a lot has not happened to me personally. In fact, since Sunday night I’ve left the apartment exactly once. It’s now Thursday night and and I still haven’t even stepped off the 27th floor yet today. It’s interesting, being in the apartment, despite overlooking The Tokyo skyline, makes me feel […]
Yesterday before he abandoned me for his business trip to Yonezawa, Randy talked me into trying out our building’s gym. Considering there are only 21 apartments in our building, it’s not that bad of a facility. It’s located on the 29th floor and has north-facing views of the city, it’s got a bathroom (with Toto […]
I think when most people think of visiting (or living in) Asia, they think that the culture shock will be about the food, the language barrier, or various customs (bowing, chopsticks). Oddly enough, those don’t seem to be problematic for us. Common courtesy goes a long way in making those issues non-issues. But trying to […]
Picture it: Tokyo, 2012. Dazed with a combination of jetlag, culture shock, and nearly eight hours of shopping, Randy and I were finally on the subway back to the apartment with our brand spanking new (and mighty stylish) granny grocery cart when the inevitable happens. We arrive at Tokyo Station to transfer from the Keiyo line […]
What better way to feel like home in a foreign country than to go to Subway for lunch? They’ve got different flavors than they do in the US (and they only come in one size..a size smaller than our six-inch) but they’ve have the honey oat bread. And this great basil mayonnaise. I could get […]