Two weeks ago I went with some friends to Yokohama (横浜), which is the second largest city in Japan and a satellite of Tokyo. It's basically the Jersey City of Tokyo, if you know what I mean. Yokohama has grown into a sort of suburban city for the chumps who cannot afford to live in Tokyo (or are too smart to pay the usurious prices, I'm not sure). The premise of the trip was to: 1)go to the largest Chinatown in Japan, 2)go to some famous shopping mall, 3)go to the An Pan Man museum, 4)say we have been to Yokohama. I was accompanied primarily by Taiwanese women, so the first two are obvious. #3 is significant for anyone who grew up in either Japan or Taiwan as a kid, as An Pan Man was like what Thundercats was to me.
An Pan Man, as his name implies in Japanese, is a bean jam-filled bread (a popular, mediocre-tasting dessert over here) who fights with his arch-nemesis, Baikinman, or "Germ Man," who logically has a weakness to soap (so where is Soap Man?) See, in a country where there is a negligible amount of crime, this is what people worry about: germs. And believe me, the Japanese worry about it.
Here is An Pan Man:
Not much to report really: the girls were excited; I was curious but moderately bored and knee-deep in Japanese kids. Glad I got to see Yokohama though.
Otherwise, I have been spending time with Yoko. We went to the Ginza (銀座, "silver seat") neighborhood once, which is sort of like 5th Avenue in Tokyo and the home of the most expensive real estate in Japan. Sure, I had so much business being there. I did buy a pair of nice boots there for about $75, though. Ginza, by the way, as the name implies, was the original location of Tokyo and Japan's banking district. Yoko took the pics of the area, so she has to send them to me so that I can post them in the link to the right.
What else? I have been thinking alot about stuff. Important stuff. I will add my ruminations in the coming days. Also looking for work, both short-term and long-term. My English and Portuguese resumes are finally up to par, so now I am taking a crack at a Japanese resume (歴史 or レジメ, pronounced "rekishi" or "rejimay"). I am shuffling through the University of Chicago alumni database for Tokyo contacts to cultivate before I leave. The weather is funky: it was 70ish and sunny yesterday, 30ish and raining today. Oh, here is Yoko, since everyone was wondering:
Just kidding. Look in the Yokohama folder to the right, lazy bones.
