A visual goodbye to Japan
Friday, December 18th, 2009
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Final Thoughts: Tokyo
Friday, December 18th, 2009 
By The Numbers
• Pounds lost/gained: Mel -5, Brendan +5
• Trains taken: 40+
• Number of times Brendan had to eat a second of third mean because Mel didn’t like what she’d ordered: almost every meal
• Number of Japanese words Mel picked up: 1 (nomihodai “all you can drink”; oishii “delicious”—used sparingly; atsukan “hot sake”
• Number of times Brendan annoyed Mel with his in-depth knowledge of Japan: shockingly, zero
• Number of times Mel wanted to go home: 4
• Number of times she decided it wasn’t so bad after all: 5
• Number of anxiety hours prior to every meal: 2
• Number of people crossing the street in Shibuya at each light: 5-10,000
• Budget for one week: probably the same thing we’ll spend in 5 weeks in Indonesia
Moments We’d Rather Forget
• Mel’s tummy problems. I have to be the first person in Japan’s 10,000 year history to have stomach problems from the food
• All random menu items previously blogged about
Highlights
• Shabu-shabu, teppanyaki
• Meeting Brendan’s Tokyo friends (special shout out to Patrick)
• Surviving the insanity and randomness
Lessons Learned
• In Tokyo, everything you assume is wrong. Vegetable sandwiches will have ham, most “Western” food bears only a passing resemblance to the food we know, walk on the left, don’t ever touch a door to open it…
• Never ask why. There is no answer. Don’t ask why there is no answer.
…I know you want to ask…
The Randomness Continues
Thursday, December 17th, 2009
There’s so much to see in Tokyo that in seven days you can’t even scratch the surface, let alone accurately blog about it. Our approach to Tokyo has been very anti-Brel: long days of walking and exploring while trying to ... [Continue reading this entry]
“Shut your shabu-shabu hole” and other things overhead on a night of nomi hodai
Sunday, December 13th, 2009
As most of you know, Brendan lived and worked in Japan for nearly 4 years. Some of his fellow teachers have since made this their permanent ... [Continue reading this entry] More Random Tokyo Experiences
Sunday, December 13th, 2009
Tokyo is so overwhelming, that I'm having a hard time organizing my thoughts for the blog. And I've had to start carrying a notebook so that I don't forget any of it.
[Continue reading this entry]
[Continue reading this entry] Folks, I couldn’t make this up if I tried…
Friday, December 11th, 2009
As seen on last night's dinner menu:
- Fried Spam cutlet (Spam has a cutlet?)
- Fried edible frog (as opposed to the poisonous dart frog?)
- Cheese stuffed bamboo shaped fish deep fried with seaweed and covered in Korean roe sauce
- Pig tongue and water spinach ... [Continue reading this entry]
Random Tokyo Observations
Friday, December 11th, 2009
I guess people really can get used to anything. I'm pleased to report that my anxiety in Tokyo is quickly being replaced by awe and fascination, to the point where I kind of regret that last blog post. Today, the ... [Continue reading this entry]
The ‘MAS’ – a New Ranking Scale
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
As we wake up on Day 2, it's become painfully obvious that we need a new ranking scale for Tokyo - the Mel Anxiety Scale (MAS). Based on a scale of 1 to 100, where 50 is "Get me Atavan ... [Continue reading this entry]
Tokyo: a New Random Factor Scale Required
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
For those of you who followed our blog last year, you might remember the RF scale - a scale of 1 to 10 that helped us rank the randomness of our adventures. In just a few hours off the plane, ... [Continue reading this entry]
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