More Random Japanese Stuff

So over the last few days we have continued our random exploration of the areas around our apartment in search places we may wish to frequent in the future and along this journey we have found a few hilarious little gems we wished to share with you.

First we discovered our local train station is famous for something we hadn't seen until yesterday. This odd little statue at the far end of the platform which PISSES into a small pond. Weird Right? and most of this is what our town is famous for, literally if you go on the town website that is the picture you will find.

Next we found perhaps one of the strangest parking garages you will ever come by. An entire garage dedicated to storing bikes for commuters, and this was no small place it took 1/2 a city block and was filled to capacity.

Finally we found that the park behind our apartment is home to a gang of wild cats which can be found at all hours laying about the walk ways and hunting the Sakada bugs. As you can imagine this has been the highlight of the last week for Lee.

RANDOM POST!!

Hello everyone! So I have been bad again about writing but I promise I've been taking lots of pics that I wanna share with you!!! Unfortunately right now I have to get our apartment all ready for the maids (I know..cleaning the apartment in preparation for getting it cleaned..weird!!!) but I wanted to sneak on and show you a couple pics!!! The pic to my right was taken last night...I absolutely love how the clouds roll in right before sunset and thus paints the sky a rich purple/red for a few minutes!!

I seriously think I am in love with the weather here. One second its sunny and the next there's huge thunderclouds rolling in.. 
(つ＾０＾）つ

Lastly, Trav and I got a kick outta this!!!

That's our rice container in case you were wondering...We noticed it had this little ventilated pocket on the top and thought to ourselves, "Oh this must be where a water absorbent bar goes so the rice doesn't absorb the humidity.." WRONG! After reading the label, it's actually an insect repellent bar made from cayenne pepper....Now this wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't lived in Japan previously and had been completely unaware that insects were even attracted to rice..I used to just leave mine sitting out..I wonder what kind of extra crunch I unwillingly invited into my rice!!! (≡ﾟДﾟ) I guess you learn something new everyday! Luckily I have yet to see any insects in our apartment but the day I do, little baby kitty is coming home with me!! That's the best insect repellent right there!!!  (=^_^=) にゃ〜

Birthday Celebration

The Last few days have been crazy and due to the fact that our internet has been down we have been unable to update our blog. So we made a slideshow of all the pictures we took over the last few days.

The first section is of Odaiba Island which is a man-made island covered in malls, amusement parks, and other various forms of entertainment, including muscle park ( A mock up of the Ninja Warrior obstacle course we see on tv in the states) Though we didn't get pictures of that due to the admission fee we got plenty of others as we spent the entire day exploring only one small side of the island.

The second Part of the show has our walk to Tokyo Tower, though the ride to the observatory was $10 a person so we remained on the ground around it

Enjoy

Goofing around

Today the weather finally broke a little and what has been an excruciatingly hot first week became a relatively cool 80 degree day. So being that we were able to walk to the end of the block without being soaked in sweat we decided to venture out to Shibuya, one of the biggest and most popular areas in Tokyo. Though after setting out we realized it was a Saturday, and as such ridiculously busy we still managed to do a fair amount of exploring. We found several of the largest malls EVER, numerous shops filled with random and often hilarious stuff and some of the highest prices we have encountered yet. Even the 300 yen shop was charging 315 yen per item, go figure. Its just that popular of an area they can charge what they like. However we found a cheap way to entertain ourselves when we stumbled upon a slew of amusement rides on top of one of the malls, and as you can see Leanna found here clear favorite, the Lapras ride. After a long day of exploring we returned home and Leanna cooked us one of the first full and completely filling meals we have had here, and i must say it was nothing less that just what we needed. 

Trash Day

おはよう！

So this is a small pamplet on how you throw stuff away here..You have to organize your trash mainly into 7 different sections!! I know..there's more organization to my trash than my apartment!! There's プラ(plastic), PET bottles (plastic bottles), カン（cans), 紙(paper）、アルミ(aluminum)、スチール(steel), 不燃物(incombustibles).

  ,who would have thought that I could be so organized!!  I think the reason for my compulsive trash organizing is because I know that many Japanese feel this is the # 1 外人（foreigner) mistake ....Many Japanese feel that Americans have absolutely no concept of recycling or of taking care of our environment...So it's my responsibility to diminish these beliefs and show them that we can devote large amounts of time to organizing trash too! To be completely honest though, it does feel nice to actually know that all this does get recycled..I feel that Americans tend to be very wasteful(we have the landfills to prove it) and despite living in such a densely populated area, Japan has very little waste...SO KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK JAPAN (^_^)

A night in Roppongi

So tonight we went to meet our friend Jack in Roppongi for some pizza and drinks. We started by getting a little lost trying to find the place but made it without to much delay. The place was amazing, we had to make reservations because it was both small and popular but the food was amazing. We ordered two crazy pizzas, a few side dishes and two rounds of beer for everyone. Then Jack took us to one of his favorite bars Legends where Leanna and i bought a round of beers for the group. Then Jack took us to a couple of his favorite bars. The first had a tarzan of the jungle theme and Jack pointed out that a friend of his held the coveted position of 1000 shots bought not once but several times on the commemorative plate. Next we went to A971 an upscale american bar where we ordered some drinks and more beers before calling it a night. Overall it was a really fun night and i hope to have many more like it.

Gotta love weird Japanese flavors!

morning everyone! Lee here...So one of my favorite things about Japan is their weird flavors...now these flavors aren't bad mind you, just ones that America hasn't caught onto yet of course..I have a few favorites that I get absolutely ecstatic about finding here (once again, like a kid on xmas)...My most favorite has to be melon flavor! It almost surpasses my love for kurogoma (black sesame flavor)...Every time we find melon flavored, well anything (soda, ice cream, candy, soft serve) I have to buy it! 

I think my impulse to buy such flavored products is due to the fact that Japan is VERY seasonal with its food...In about a month, it will be impossible to find anything melon flavored until next summer (breaks my heart)...

I also have a sick obsession with mochi, which is funny cause I couldn't stand the stuff when I first tried it living in Hawaii...It was during my first year in Japan that I really began to love the crazy putty like texture of mochi! And with flavors like chocolate cream, you can't go wrong!!

I am still on the look out for my favorite flavor of all time, black sesame seed mochi but so far no luck..I think it has to get into the winter season for me to find it....that or Ill just have to travel an hour to Higashikurume (my old stomping grounds) and visit that cute little mochi shop!!!

Thunderstorms!!!!

Hello everyone! This is the Mrs. Jenkins...aka Lee (つ^_^)つ Sorry I haven't been as good about writing as Trav has but hopefully that will all change! Tonight we finally got our first thunderstorm since our arrival and I gotta say, its about damn time! Tokyo's freak thunderstorms are the only good side of this wretched hot weather! So like a nerdy meteorologist, I managed to get a few cool pics during my hour long thunderstorm photoshoot on my balcony. These were my two best shots but the real exciting part of my sad addiction (seriously, I was like a kid on xmas) was the video I got!! Talk about good timing!!

じゃね！！

リーちゃん　（’’＾v＾’’）

RICE !!!

So yesterday Leanna and i made our way over to ooimachi, a town just 3 stops away that a store clerk had turned us onto. We were not disappointed. We found two of the biggest department stores we had ever seen, both with reasonable prices. After a great amount of shopping and price comparing we finally found the rice cooker we had been after since day one. Though prices have gone up on these we still found a really nice one for about $60 USD, down from $120. Seeing as they had models going all the way up and above $400 i say we got away cheap.

Ikebukuro

Today Leanna and I made our way out to Ikebukuro, Leanna's favorite city. First we went to Sunshine city are spent several hours wandering through the huge array of shops and restaurants trying to fight the urge to buy things. Finally we broke down and i bought a pair of shorts, something i never had use for in Los Osos, and then we bought two small dresser units to help organize our clothes. Still we made it out of there for only $26, a huge success for us two. Next we went to the local Seiyu store looking for some more house hold necessities, however this particular store was too small to carry most of what we needed. After that we went to Tokyu Hands  a virtual anything and everything store which has some of the funniest and most peculiar things you will ever see, with some high prices to match. Having already spent money in Sunshine City we decided to make our way home, but not before we went to our favorite arcade. This was the funnest part as my claw machine skills have not dulled and $5 later Leanna left with two giant kitten stuffed animals and a laugh about how shocked the arcade manager was to have to reset the machine back to back within 30 seconds. Overall today was a very fun day and with the added organization of our new dressers the apartment is looking great.

FIREWORKS

While sitting in our apartment relaxing for a little bit Leanna and I heard several huge explosions. We ran out to the balcony and were greeted by a HUGE Japanese firework festival (tokyo wan dai hanabi sai). The entire show lasted over 1 1/2 hours and was by far the largest and most intricate show i have ever seen. It doesn't even compare to the shows i have seen in the past. And it was right over the bay just 5 blocks from our apartment. I couldn't have asked for better. We spent the night sitting on the balcony with a fellow resident of the complex. Micheal from Munich Germany and his wife from here in Japan sipping Kirin beer and enjoying our first week here in Tokyo.

P.S. The final which lasted over 8 minutes set off EVERY SINGLE CAR ALARM in our the area, and i'm sure many others and sent every police car, ambulance, and fire engine into action.

Deluxe Apartment in the Sky

Well our long awaited year abroad in Tokyo has begun at last and it has definitely started out on the right foot. Our apartment which we were lucky enough to have a family friend help get us into is nothing short of amazing. 15th story, 300 Sq Ft., Completely Furnished, Amazing view, Close to the JR Train Line, and all for a price which is equally amazing. Leanna and i couldn't be happier.

Though the first few days of settling in have been admittedly exhausting and the 95 degree days coupled with the high humidity have taken a toll on my Los Osos accustomed body it has still been great. We spent the first few days exploring some of the adjecent areas to our hotel and finding the necessities such as food, shopping, and of course arcades.Today Leanna and I set out to Shinjuku in search of a a Seiyu store (Japanese Walmart basically) and though we didn't find one we still managed to explore almost all of the skyscrapers around the station, and that was a freaking ton. Tomorrow we plan to try to find the Seiyu store again, but this time with better directions.