Yakiniku Gone Wrong

Well, this retro Showa-themed yakiniku place (Japanese-style Korean barbecue) looked innocent enough. Little did I know that I’d be eating raw heart and liver within a few minutes upon entering. I can definitely live happily without eating most of the stuff again, but, hey, now and then I need to push my limits. Most of the meat/organs/guts we ate were cooked at the table, by the way, but the second photo, although blurry, is of the liver meant to be eaten raw (and done that way). P.S. I definitely realize the real appeal of this place is not in shocking/grossing out Americans… it’s all about the texture of the food (very important in Japan!).

conbini run, part 3

What did I say about the technology getting better?

New Discoveries

Went on a walk today with H around Shinjuku, and then kind of randomly decided to take a train to the east side of Tokyo, where we did some more walking and then ended up in Asakusa, where we had some pretty delicious tendon (that’s tempura and sauce on top of rice, not body tissue, although both are pretty easy to come by in Tokyo). The walk, especially around Asakusa, provided a goldmine of wacky camera phone pics, the winner of which is posted above. Maybe I’ll post some of the others later, but this one deserves its own little space for sure. I’ve never really hung around in Asakusa before, but I intend to make it my new summer hangout, as there are tons of homely little izakayas (Japanese pubs) with seating areas that spill out onto the street. Finally, a place in Tokyo to enjoy a beer outdoors!

Teaser

Hey everyone that bothers to check here for updates anymore. And sorry! It’s been quite an eventful last few months, and I haven’t felt like or had much time to blog. I’m back, though! I still have quite a lot of videos and photos and stuff to finish sorting through before I post them (soon, soon!), so for now, please accept this short teaser of a video and photo from Puroland. There are more to come!

Puroland

Uh oh, I think I may have just accidentally, half-jokingly, not-quite-seriously agreed to visit this theme park in a few weeks. I am a little embarrassed, a litte regretful, and a little ashamed, but I am also very strangely excited! And now to answer the question on everyone’s mind: Will it be “cute” or will it be terrifying? Watch this space…

conbini run, part 2

every month the technology gets better.

Just Another Day In Shinjuku

It was good weekend, but hardly productive. Friday, H and I met some friends near the gay bars and decided on a quick Indian curry dinner. Then we proceeded to this popular little bar (really more a street corner than an actual bar) where me met up with a friend we haven’t seen since last year (he had gone back home to London for a while). That was a drunken good time and I ended getting quite a bit of attention (well, for me, anyway), which is always nice. Saturday was worthless. Today, we walked to Shinjuku to run errands, basically, but H somehow talked me into seeing Dreamgirls (quite a gay weekend, eh?), which was OK, but really pretty boring, in my opinion. It just wasn’t for me. Oh, and it’s a musical. That American Idol girl is quite the singer, though.

Pizza Hut Japan Strikes Back

Every once in a while, H and I really like to trash up our bodies good with some Pizza Hut, and from the looks of their inventions, it seems like Pizza Hut Japan thinks heart disease is a some kind of joke. This is the new “cheesy roll” pizza, not to be confused with the “sausage crust” pizza H talked me into trying last year. Half of our “cheesy roll” was “gorgeous salmon”, and half was “gourmet”. I must say, the gourmet half was pretty darn tasty. For a closer look at the offerings of Pizza Hut Japan, look here.

Chinese Food

from my favorite chinese place.

Beer With a Free Prize

There are sometimes wonderful beer promotions here which I can’t imagine interesting any beer drinker but myself. I must have more in common with the average Japanese person than I think. Last night (during the conbini run) I spotted some free miniature toys attached to the top of cans of Sapporo Draft One (a pretty nasty, not quite real beer, though), so I quickly snatched up a couple. The photo is of the winner of the bunch — it’s the torii at Itsukushima Shrine near Hiroshima. This series of toys, by the way, is themed around Chugoku, the region where Hiroshima is located.