Many photos are up: (linky)

Posted on June 28th, 2008 by Nathan
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I’m home. I estimate it took like 30 hours of travel to get home, including layovers. I’m very, very tired, and am going to pass out now. I’ll work on getting photos up this weekend. Captions may take longer. Fixing coding errors and typos caused by international keyboards in previous posts, possibly longer.

Posted on June 27th, 2008 by Nathan
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So the trip comes to a (lengthy, protracted) end tomorrow as I make my way back to Modesto. Tuesday I did go back to Shibuya briefly then back to Harajuku, where I spend too much money on this rad keychain / belt clip thing at a place called Modern Pirates. It was handmade, and I purchased it from the owner, who was a super-cool guy. It looks like his store is dedicated to his own brand, and I admire his dedication.

Yesterday we did a bunch of ancient-Japan stuff, including this hall with 1001 buddha statues. I can:t even explain what it was like. If an atheist can have a religious moment, that was it. Today we visited Osaka, but there was some group friction that kind of made the thing a letdown. People are tired, so that doesn:t help. However, because we’re all so tired, there’s almost no way this could have ended with excitement. But it was a fantastic trip, and I’m pleased to have been able to go.

It may take me a bit to get photos online, but I will post when they’re available.

Posted on June 26th, 2008 by Nathan
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Yesterday we went to the Thunder Gate. That was pretty neat. Later, we went to Harajuko. Harajuko is kind of subculture-central, and is the coolest place I’ve ever been. It is a crust of awesome, with a layer of flaky awesome, drizzled in awesomesauce. I felt cool just being there, as though by osmosis.

I bought a bitchin’ tie that I now have to buy an outfit to go around. It is not appropriate for my interview.

I went to a drag show last night. It was awesome, and I was also chosen for audience participation. Allegedly, a sword was pushed through my head, though I couldn’t see much from inside the box. So while I did have not yet been stabbed by a ninja on my trip, I have been stabbed by a tranny. So that’s cool.

I did mention that liquor was included in the ticket fee? No?

Today I went to the Ghibli Museum, which according to Misha made my eyes go all sparkly. Now I know how she felt at the Hello Kitty theme park: It was just magic. I bought my major souvenir of the trip here.

Akihibara later was kind of a bust. I expected to see all this cool stuff, and…. didn’t. Other people did, they just looked in different places. It happens, I guess. I did check out the Super Potato store, and decided against buying a Super Famicom. I also wandered into an RPG store, where I decided against buying a Japanese D&D Player’s Handbook. We had dinner at this Alice in Wonderland themed restaurant. The food was okay (teriyaki chicken w/ mayo pizza, shaped like a playing card), but divvying up a check among 20 people is a nightmare.

So that’s the last two days. Tomorrow is a free day, and I expect to either return to Harajuko and buy some new clothes (I know: Me?!?!), or to wander around Shinjuku, the place I’ve been staying that I haven’t really checked out that much. Wednesday, we take the train to Kyoto.

Posted on June 23rd, 2008 by Nathan
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