Will and I wanted to do something very touristy outside of Tokyo, so we went to see the Kamakura Daibutsu (鎌倉大仏) aka The Great Buddha of Kamakura at the Kōtoku-in (高徳院) Temple. As you can see, it is a very popular tourist destination even for Japanese people. 

If you are willing to wait a long line, you could actually go into the Great Buddha!

Enoshima, Although it was early May, some people were surfing.

I was more excited about riding the Enoden, which connects Kamakura with Enoshima and Fujisawa, than seeing the Great Buddha! I suppose I'm a tetsudō otaku? Will had to listen to me whining about not getting onto the Enoden train early enough. 

It was quite surreal to see the rail tracks are built right next to the houses.

Tsukiji Fish Market was another place in Tokyo that I had never been to previous to this recent trip.  Too bad that we were too full to try the fresh and cheaper sushi out at the market. We should not have eaten so much at the izakaya. However if we had not stayed up at the izakaya, we probably would not have been able to go early in the morning in the first place.  It felt a bit surreal to be there after staying up all night drinking, then you get to see the people who probably get up at the latest at 3 in the morning to start day at the busiest market in the world.

This is a typical view of the market. It is quite similar looking to the Noryangjin Fish Market in Seoul. But they seem to have mostly men working there in Tokyo unlike the one in Seoul.

It's all about the TUNAS there.  I guess they do not allow outsiders during the auctions.

I might buy a box of sea urchins next time I go there and make a fancy Unidon!

Will saying hello to the ladies at the fish market.

 Busy morning at the Tsukiji Market, video taken by Will

 I had heard of Golden Gai in Shinjuku and always wanted to go there. This time, with the help of Will, I managed to find the area and get wasted there! 

There are similar-looking areas in Seoul, too. One area in Jongno sadly was demolished by city planners in Seoul, though. I like those little backstreets of the cities. I've encountered interesting people in the backstreets.

 Will and Kizoo, it was me and Will's second visit to the Golden Gai bar, forgot the name of the place. I heard that Kizoo's been going back to the area since his first time being there with us. I envy him. He can go anytime, as he lives in Tokyo. Will can probably find the place again if we go back. I will probably go back there again. Nice drinks and the ICE!

Will's first time playing Shamisen. The bartender was learning how to play the instrument.(What was her name, Will?) She played the Shamisen and sang a song for us. It was a unique experience. 

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The bartender's name was Yuki! 25/07/10

Washington D.C. was like a mix of Savannah, GA + Detroit in a much bigger scale. And I quite liked it. Bunch of hipsters, yuppies and the rest, just like Detroit, especially like heavily gentrified Wayne State University area, as Alex mentioned. I had a beer beer called Brooklyn Lager with an old friend of mine at a bar/ coffee shop/ bookshop place in the area called Dupont Circle.

Out of all the attractions, I just wanted to see how big the Pentagon was. And it was grand, indeed. 

And the White House.

And the Scientology Church!

Paik Nam Jun must have had taken tons of acid!

 It has been a month since I came back from Japan now.  I regret a bit that I did not plan thoroughly to see more, but I will go back there again. No worries. Ochanomizu - I thought it got its name from the colour of the river since it means 'the water of tea,' but it happened to be named that its water was used to prepare for king's tea. Bunkyo area's not a popular tourist destination but Will and I liked that area quite a bit. I also happened to find out that all the musical instruments stores are there. Another reason to go back.

 Will at the Ochanomizu Station

I like this picture quite a bit.  I don't care if you make fun of me for being an Otaku.

 Here's the photo of me in front of Nagisa Kaworu of Evangelion in Akihabara. I've always liked this character and of course he happens to be "gay."

Some areas I often skip whenever I go to Tokyo, but I never skip Shibuya. This was the first and only place when I went to Tokyo for a day for the first time in 1997. Shibuya is probably my favourite area in Tokyo. I don't care that it's a very youthful area, I just like the atmosphere there. You feel like you're nobody in a big city like Tokyo, you feel the emptiness more there and I don't mind it, actually I quite fancy the area for the reason. It's too bad that the HMV store in the picture will close down in August. I guess I will never shop at that HMV again.

 

And the 50K List goes on.

Simon Gallup of the Cure. He ages very gracefully. I've liked him since 1994. He's my bass here, too.

Jason Pierce of Spiritualized. I would totally shoot up with him, but I heard he got cleaned. 

Mike Edwards of Jesus Jones. This man is just perfect-looking. 

Ed Macfarlane of Friendly Fires, I just want to grab his arse so badly.

Graham Coxon, I think he's my ultimate favourite. Just gotta love his personality and guitar skills, too. 

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I had an orientation at U-M today, I did something very Chief Clumsy Beary thing there. On my way to Modern Language Building, I fell off the stairs in front of many other students. I skipped a stair and all I can remember was that things turned completely dark. I fell on my knees. I think I also twisted my back bone and neck, too. It hurts when I sneeze. (Oh yeah, bloody allergy is killing me, too.) And my left wrist is sprained again, I don't think it's fully healed from the last incident which took a place in Toyonaka, Japan. I've got a headache. I hope this is not that serious. Now I can see bruises on my knees. 85-mile drive was not that bad, though. 

I'm going to see Ezra Furman now at the Crofoot in Pontiac. No other friends are either available or wanting to see the show. I think the last time I went to see the show by myself was at the Crofoot, too, for about 2 years ago. Then I will go to the Berkley Front to meet up with people I know. To use a word "know" in the sentence may sound cold. But that's how I feel for now. Am I bitter? Not really.

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Got Ezra Furman & The Harpoons' shirt. I am really glad I went. It was really nice to be at a show. (27.06.2010)

I have this list called 50K List, I got this idea from Vincent Gallo's website. Vincent Gallo offers a night with him for $50,000.

 

The idea of 50K list started from whom I would pay $50,000 to sleep with, not necessarily I would pay 50K to Vincent Gallo, though. I have quite a list, but the three of them here for now. Since it's the World Cup season, I got the sporty men.

Fernando Torres; I like the way he looks that he does not look very Southern European, although he is Spanish. He looks like he could be Prince Harry's cousin. 

 

Need I even write his name down here? Ah..Valtteri Filppula! I can't wait for the Hockey season to start.

Here's another Finn, Ville Kantee. Am I a Scandophile?

I will be leaving this lovely city of Seoul in 3 days. It's been 5 years since I left Korea, and I have been back to Korea 3 times. And I never missed America all that much when I was visiting Korea, but this time I do quite a bit. The mayor of Seoul tried so hard to make the city look neater and more Western. However the former lawyer is so phony and I hate the party he belongs to so much. I wish the party he belongs were lost this grand election which happens in about 2 weeks. 

I guess I've become quite westernised, I got quite sick of other people minding my business so much. It's not that there are not people minding your business at all in the States, but people do it so blatantly here. I was so sick of explaining why I lost so much weight a million times, and sick of answering people that I simply do not want children of my own. 

I went to see 'HaHaHa' with my sister today. I just love this director's films so much. And my sister was quite bored and she just walked out of the cinema as the end credits were rolling up. I had to follow my sister, and felt sorry for the woman who came to see the film by herself and she seemed to be enjoying even the end credits and my sister and I interrupted her a bit, I suppose. She could have been me. I surely would have gone to see the film by myself and would have stayed till the very end of the end credits. The film was filmed in Tongyeong, the city I've always wanted to visit, and it made me want to go there even more. I might have gone to the city if I saw the film earlier. 

 

Will and I stayed at this ryokan called Homeikan near Ochanomizu station. I picked the ryokan because it was close to the Ochanomizu station. When I was in Tokyo 2 years ago, I had to transfer at the Ochanomizu station and I liked the scenery quite a bit. I got to walk around the area quite a bit this time. Tokyo is too big to see everything in a week. But we got to see a lot of places. I don't even remember how many times I've been to the city now. It was 1997 when I went there for the first time. 

I've always wanted to take Shinkansen train, but I never really had a chance to do so. This time I managed to get on the Nozomi Shinkansen train, it was very pleasant and fast. But we did not get to see Mt. Fuji from the train. 

 

Hot and chilly, moody Seoul weather gave me a horrible cold after being in Tokyo and Osaka. Strangely it did not rain the whole time I was in Tokyo at all, which never happened before. Will even brought 2 umbrellas for some reason.

 

Hopefully I will get better to see more in Seoul soon. The city is changing all the time. I did not recognise bunch of things at the stations, the areas I went to. And Osaka will be interesting, too, since I went there for about 10 years ago.  

In a week, I will be leaving for Korea and Japan.

I have been so yearning to go back. 

I know that I am going to have a wonderful time there. 

Last time when I went to Tokyo, I was by myself. I just wanted to go there after the funeral. Walked around the city for 12 hours aimlessly each day. No strong desire to see anything special. Just whatever showed up, I was glad to see. The familiar images of the places gave me a certain comfort. I am not a carefully-planning-the-trip-type of person.

I only remembered the billboards on the streets. And Japanese men dressing up so monotonously. 

At the Shinagawa Station, where there are Sony, Canon, Mitsubishi offices, 18 out of 20 men were wearing black suits. Looked very unified, but scarily boring and pitiful. 

Sadly this Icelandic volcanic eruption affecting the air traffic in Europe hindered some leaders of the world to attend the funeral of Kaczynski in Krakow, Poland. Luckily my luggage which I ordered from Mandarina Duck, Italy had left Europe before the volcano erupted. My mum won't yell at me for not bringing it to Korea.

I was reading about University of Michigan and Michigan State University on Korean Wikipedia website. There is a longer entry for Michigan State University in Korean, I could only assume that there are more Korean students at the Michigan State University. I got a letter from University of Michigan last week. A good one. Let's see how I'd manage to commute to Ann Arbor.

The news of Polish president Lech Kaczynski's plane crash in Russia was quite mind-boggling after waking up from the wild-night of partying on a lazy Saturday morning. For some reason, I imagined the moment of plane crashing onto the ground.

This Korean cartoon called With the Gods deals with some traditional Korean views on death and afterlife. Today's episode was about a dead soldier, whom wants to avenge his superior who murdered him in the army, explaining how he was killed. When he was shot by his fellow by an accident, his superior decided to cover up the accident while believing he was already dead. When the unconscious soldier was awoken up, his superior simply buried him alive. Sadly, this kind of accidents are likely to happen in the Korean army. And of course I could not help imagining the fictional character's dying moment. People think about deaths all the time, innit?

Valtteri Filppula got a penalty today at the end of the game. I am sure he was not happy to be in the penalty box, but all I could think of was me being a penalty box. 

 

I practised how to say "Minä rakastan sinua" the other day. Rolling 'r' sound in Finnish seems easier than pronouncing German 'r' sound. 

 

I've been lacking a great deal of sleep since this 2010 Winter semester has started according to my Twitter enties. I only slept for 5 hours past 2 days. And I've been on the bloody internet when I could have gone to bed already. So I can't blame it on anybody or anything, but myself.

The Hesse post below made me think that my English has become Germanised or somewhat like Swedish. I quite fancied the fact that you could change the words-order depending on which fact you want to emphasise in Swedish when I started learning the language about 11 or 12 years ago. That really does not work in the Korean language well. 

Well, time for bed now. 

Enjoy the Spring, and don't kill yourselves. According to Emile Durkheim in his book Suicide, "suicide reaches its maximum during the fine season, when nature is most smiling and the temperature mildest."  

Finally I have a role model now, Hermann Hesse that is. Not that I want to write some of the greatest novels ever (which would be quite nice, actually, but I am a horrible storyteller as you can see here), they're the facts that he tried to commit suicide and ended up not dying. And went on with his brilliant life. Maybe one day, I would write a novel called A Journey to the West, rather Scandinavia.

I had a great time at the Joe Louis arena today. 3 pints of beer contributed a bit, I suppose.

I wish I were a penalty box when Filppula gets a penalty, so he could be inside of me.

 

I am actually smiling here, which I rarely do when photographed. I guess Mr. Fulppula makes me smile all the time. :)