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Photos: Global Lives Project - Kazakhstan

Marco Luethy — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:27:19 -0700

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Zhanna Dosmailova, the subject of the 24-hour documentary in Vannovka, Kazakhstan.

At the end of October I went to Kazakhstan for 8 days as main-photographer for a 24-hour long documentary shoot as part of the Global Lives Project. I plan on posting a bunch more about the trip soon, but for now here are a few links to some of the photographs:

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Raw Footage: Stream in Kosuge-mura, Yamanashi, Japan

Marco Luethy — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:23:33 -0700

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Clip of flowing water in Kosuge-mura, Yamanashi, Japan. The stream ends up in Lake Oku-tama, ultimately attributing to the Tamagawa.

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Raw Footage: Tokyo from Shirokanedai in Minato-ku, Tokyo

Marco Luethy — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:19:14 -0700

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Unedited raw footage of a part of Tokyo taken from the edge of Shirokanedai in Minato-ku and Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo. This was taken from my balcony in mid-May.

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Raw Footage: Sumo Championship, Ryogoku, Tokyo

Marco Luethy — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:17:25 -0700

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Some unedited footage from the Sumo Championship in Ryogoku, Tokyo in late March 2009.

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Raw Footage: Skiing in Hakuba, Nagano Prefecture, Japan

Marco Luethy — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:15:41 -0700

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Unedited raw footage from Hakuba where the 1998 winter olympics were held, located in Nagano Prefecture. This was on the last day of the season and conditions were not so good and no interesting runs were open..

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Raw Footage: From a chair lift in Hakuba, Nagano Prefecture, Japan

Marco Luethy — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:14:05 -0700

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Unedited raw footage from a chair lift in Hakuba where the 1998 winter Olympics were held, located in Nagano Prefecture. This was on the last day of the season and conditions were not so good.

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Raw Footage: From a Shinkansen arriving in Nagano

Marco Luethy — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:12:28 -0700

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Unedited raw footage taken from a Shinkansen arriving in Nagano.

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Raw Footage: From a Shinkansen somewhere in Nagano Prefecture

Marco Luethy — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:10:59 -0700

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Unedited raw footage taken from a Shinkansen somewhere in Nagano Prefecture headed to Nagano.

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Raw Footage: Going fast on a Shinkansen somewhere near the border of Nagano Prefecture

Marco Luethy — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:09:34 -0700

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Unedited raw footage taken from a Shinkansen somewhere near the border of Nagano Prefecture headed to Nagano.

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Raw Footage: Going fast on a Shinkansen somewhere in Saitama

Marco Luethy — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:07:44 -0700

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Unedited raw footage taken from a Shinkansen somewhere in Saitama Prefecture headed to Nagano.

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Raw Footage: From a Shinkansen between Ueno, Tokyo and Omiya, Saitama

Marco Luethy — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:06:05 -0700

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Unedited raw footage taken from a Shinkansen between Ueno, Tokyo and Omiya in Saitama Prefecture headed to Nagano.

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Raw Footage: From a Shinkansen between Tokyo and Ueno

Marco Luethy — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:04:33 -0700

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Unedited raw footage taken from a Shinkansen between Tokyo and Ueno station headed to Nagano.

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Whistle

Marco Luethy — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 08:41:37 -0700

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Tokyo and Mt. Fuji on a late May evening.

When I was younger, I used to whistle a lot--a whole lot--while listening to music; visitors thought I was a cheerful bird. It was always elating, satisfying, and made me feel really good. It served as an outlet, a way to vent life's frustrations, anxious energies, and dissatisfaction.

Somewhere, at some time, the whistling began to cease. It ceased a little, a little more, more, until it stopped. Why did I allow the cessation of such a medicinal habit?

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My produce in action: How to Create an Online Course Catalog

Marco Luethy — Fri, 22 May 2009 09:21:38 -0700

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"Stony Brook University's Web Content Manager, Michael Gasparino, and Web Coordinator, Lynn Zawie, join Lance Merker, President and CEO of OmniUpdate, to discuss how and why the university created an online undergraduate course catalog."
View the webcast recording here (Unfortunately they've utilized Webex to do the webcast..)

I created that thing (the architecture and code--everything except the actual data--for the online course catalog) from scratch. Boo-ya. It was actually quite an interesting (at least more interesting than one might suspect) undertaking. There's some intense XSL action holding that thing together! The XSL-FO used to generate the PDFs made my head spin when I wrote it. It's pretty neat! I also now know more about the inner workings of a course catalog than I probably ever wanted to. Haha!

In other news: I fail as a blogger, lately. Also, hello OSS/ACC/TUJ staff; I see you've been keeping tabs. I'm tempted to write something scandalous--Do you mind? ;-)

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Photo Entry: Early Spring in Tokyo

Marco Luethy — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 21:33:22 -0700

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I've been a bit silent again here. D'oh! Tokyo has been keeping me busy, but treating me well overall. Here are a collection of photos from some recent trips.

Sunday afternoon in Ueno park.

Ueno, and Ueno park are just a few stations north of Tokyo station on the JR Yamanote Line. Here are a few photos I took on a Sunday afternoon as I walked around, had few beers, and just enjoyed being outside in some good weather.

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A view down one of the main streets in Ueno and a subway entrance/exit. Down the road about 15 minutes walk is Akihabara and eventually downtown Tokyo.

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Blooming flowers on some trees in Ueno park. I can't wait until the Sakura trees here bloom!

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View down one of the paths within Ueno park. The previous photo was taken by one of those blooming trees on the right.

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The JR Kehin-Tohoku line

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View of Ueno from above the Ueno JR station. The above photo was taken from the same spot, pointed more down.

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One of the lakes in Ueno park. I wouldn't want to swim in it.

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View down the platform in Tamachi station. Tamachi is my destination station on my way to school from Ontakesan Dorm. N700 series Shinkansen passing by in the distance.

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A JR Kehin-Tohoku line train in Tamachi station, my ride Kamata, my transfer station on my way to TUJs Ontakesan Dorm.

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View down the Tokyu-Ikegami and Tamagawa line tracks from the end station in Kamata. I take the Ikegami lines from here down the right to TUJs Ontakesan Dorm in Ontakesan.

Day trip to Mt. Takao

A week ago we had an undergraduate holiday on a Thursday. The weather was good, so my friend Sacha and I decided to go on a hike. We left at around 09:00 and spent around 90 minutes getting to Takaosan-guchi station at the base of Mt. Takao. Although Mt. Takao is technically still within the Tokyo area, it felt good being out all day, outside of the concrete jungle that is central Tokyo!

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In Takaosan-guchi. Am I in Switzerland.. or Tokyo..?

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The view from somewhere on Mt. Takao of the greater Tokyo metropolitan area. Downtown Tokyo is on the right of the photo.

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The view from the top of Mt. Takao. If it were clearer, Mt. Fuji would be smack dab in the middle.

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Some temple on Mt. Takao.

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Some mountain god.

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Where the monks live...?

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The rope around the tree keeps the daemons tied up and contained inside the tree, or so I'm told.

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One the way back towards Takaosan-guchi.

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One the way back towards Takaosan-guchi.

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One the way back towards Takaosan-guchi.

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Down the platform at Takaosan-guchi station, an end station on the Keio Takao line.

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View of Takao from the Keio Takao line heading back towards central Tokyo.

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Funding Approved! - CARAS Project: Virtual Platform for Experimentation with New Avenues of Electronic Music Distribution

Marco Luethy — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 07:12:30 -0700

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A little while ago I mentioned that I had submitted a CARAS grant proposal titled, "Virtual Platform for Experimentation with New Avenues of Electronic Music Distribution" with the help of Dr. Jean-Julien Aucouturier, the instructor for my Intro to Cybermedia course at TUJ. Today I was notified that my submission had been approved for funding! The proposal, a collaboration between Dr. Aucouturier and myself, is reproduced below.

Project Proposal

The wide-spread use of computer networks and mp3 compression jeopardizes the century-long standards of the music industry - in ways that are still poorly understood. Academic research so far has failed to establish a clear link between Napster-like music file-sharing and the decreasing album sales reported by the industry [1]. Conversely, the much-vaunted new business models of Internet distribution struggle to deliver their promises [2]. These are the times that try men's souls - as well as their projections of what will be the future of music in the next 10 years. Especially difficult is the extraordinary cost to experiment with new ways to distribute music. Typical album launch budgets are in the millions of dollars; advertisement channels are increasingly consolidated and hard to access; wide-spread Internet exposure requires the industrial horse-power of Apple and Facebook, or the mass appeal of Radiohead.

Introduced in 2003, the virtual world of Second-Life (managed by the Linden Labs company) is a computer-based recreation of the real-world, entirely built by its users - now a thriving community of over 1,400,000 active people of all ages and cultures. Besides entertainment, Second-Life (hereafter SL) is increasingly used for academic research, education, corporate training and collaboration. Companies do business in SL, some of them only in SL. As in every human society, music plays an important role in SL: users are routinely found dancing in virtual clubs, attending virtual concerts streamed live from the real-world by real musicians, playing virtual instruments they cannot play in the real-world, buying1 virtual albums and donning virtual tee-shirts of bands that only exist in virtual reality.

Due its technological nature, the virtual world of SL provides opportunities unheard of in the real-world. In one hour's work, one can create objects or buildings for free (nearly), program them to have any wished behavior and let other users - real people - use, share or trade them. Scientists and economists alike increasingly recognize the potential of this formidable playground in which to experiment and conduct academic research [3].

The present CARAS project proposes to use the virtual world of Second-Life to experiment with new ways to promote and distribute music. Specifically, we propose to create a virtual music label, complete with recording artists, broadcasting technology and means to promote and trade. While such a task would be daunting in the real-world, our analysis shows that this is a realistic endeavor even in the limited scope of a summer CARAS project.

Naturally, this project does come with a few limitations and facilitating factors:

First, the label's artists will be amateur college musicians of the local musical scene found on the TU Japan campus.
Second, the label will base its operation on land currently behind purchased in SL for academic use by the School of Communication and Theater, TU Japan campus.
Third, because of its academic grounding, the label will be relaxed from the constraint of being financially viable. While one goal of the label is to investigate new business models, the label will operate as a virtual equivalent of a non-for-profit organization.
Finally, while the cost in time and money to establish such a music label is surprisingly low, its operation and development will be as engaging as any real-world business activity. This clearly extends beyond the scope of the CARAS scholarship project. For this reason, we envision the project, if granted, as a foundation act, on which further activity will build up.

The grant will enable us to create a physical presence for the music label in SL, to recruit artists, to integrate broadcasting technology (i.e. how to play sound in SL ) and to support a proof-of-concept of its operation (e.g. a concert). While this will be an achievement in itself, very relevantly contributing to my curriculum as a Communications Major, our goal is for the label to live on to become an academic tool. During my enrollment in the Intro to Cybermedia course at TU Japan Campus, I was tasked with finding out what role music plays in Second Life, and, as findings were discussed in class, it became apparent that there was merit in experimenting with new models of music distribution. What is lacking as of today is a platform on which to do such experimentations, while being able to attract meaningful audiences and conclude on economical repercussions. How many schools in the world today can boast to have their own private music label - with real artists and real audiences - available as a tool to try out ideas? With the support of the CARAS scholarship, our claim is that we can build such a tool, making it usable for future Intro to Cybermedia, or similar courses in Temple University (not restricted to its Japan campus).

I come to this project well-prepared thanks both to my academic curriculum and my professional activities. Being a Communications Major at Temple's Japan Campus, I have been trained to reason and experiment with the production of new media and the creation of new services and applications that can be effectively disseminated to audiences. As part of the Introduction to Cybermedia course (taught by Dr. Aucouturier, my faculty mentor for this project), I have gained a deeper understanding of the challenges facing the music industry since the introduction of internet, as well as hands-on experience dealing with digital music technology.

Besides my coursework at TU Japan, and like most from my generation, I have a strong grasp on the rapidly evolving technologies which surround us. From content creation like video production and blogging, to programming web-based applications utilizing SaaS (Software as a Service) business models, I have been involved with Web technologies both privately and professionally for copious, diverse years. In the recent past, while working as a Web Applications Developer for OmniUpdate, Inc., I have collaborated with several Higher Education institutions to help them effectively manage their web content and strategy, often fixing or retooling broken websites. During my three and a half years with the company, I developed a number of pioneering web applications, such as a video transcoding system, which were incorporated in OmniUpdate's flagship CMS (Content Management System) product. Additionally, I developed ways for college admissions staff to integrate their recruiting strategies with social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter.

In my free time, one may often find me doing something relating to music. If I'm not DJing for some friends, producing music in Reason or Pro Tools (both audio tracking and sequencing software), or sitting on a piano bench practicing, I'm probably just streaming music from an Internet radio station, enjoying music on my local hard disk, or listening to my iPod while getting from point A to B. Music and media in general have held a profound grasp in my life. I was considering majoring in Music and have taken a number of music Theory courses at the college level before deciding to transfer to Temple in pursuit of a bachelors in Communications.

Doing research into new ways to effectively distribute (match, market, recommend to an audience) music, especially music with a niche audience, not only has the possibility of furthering the evolution of the existing music industry for the better, but will also be a great contribution to my education on my way towards a bachelors in Communication. This CARAS project will provide me with unique practical insights into the music industry, and beyond music, will teach me how to effectively communicate products or ideas to the masses. With its original scope and "high-tech" appeal, the project may grant some public visibility to my portfolio; it will also find an ideal academic publication venue in such international symposiums as the Music Information Retrieval conference series (hosted in Japan this year [4]). Finally, I feel proud and excited at the idea of contributing to the establishment of a platform tool for further teaching and research at Temple University - adding a new dimension to my integration as a member of the Temple's academic community.

References:

F. Oberholzer and K. Strumpf, The Effect of File Sharing on Record Sales: An Empirical Analysis. Journal of Political Economy. 2007. 115(1):1-42
Elberse, Anita. "Should You Invest in the Long Tail?" HBS Centennial Issue. Harvard Business Review 86, nos. 7/8 (July - August 2008): 88-96.
Boellstorff, Tom (2008) Coming of Age in Second Life, New Jersey: Princeton University Press
10th International Conference on Music Information Retrieval, http://ismir2009.ismir.net/

Footnotes:

Quite literally so, using the virtual currency of L$ (Linden dollars) with the Feb. 2009 exchange rate of 260L$ = 1 US$

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A From-The-Train Observation

Marco Luethy — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 02:18:02 -0800

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I woke up today and as I do every morning, peeked through my blinds to see what the weather was like. This morning, I saw dew; my window was covered in it and I could not see out. A bit more effort revealed that it was snowing outside, the temperature around 2-3 degrees Celsius. While the snow flakes were rather large, they appeared to be quite watery and definitely did not stick once on the ground. It was pretty, nonetheless!

Earlier, on my way to school, I saw out through the train window workers working on or around the many rail road tracks that exist in Tokyo. Most noticeably, or what really brought attention towards them was how they stood as my and other trains passed by. Just to the side of the tracks, they stood completely motionless, with their left arms raised at, and in acknowledgment of the conductor in the oncoming train. I suppose that being a train conductor in Tokyo, Japan, one would be most appreciative knowing that the people on or around the train tracks were not planning on committing suicide.

In popular belief, it is not uncommon to think of Japan when the topic is suicide. Indeed, about 90 Japanese commit suicide per day (about 1 every 15 minutes) in Japan; about 24 per 100,000, or around 30,000 per year [1][2][3]. However, contrary to popular belief, Japan does not have the highest suicide rate of any wealthy country [4]. In fact, countries like Austria, Finland, Switzerland, France, New Zealand, Germany, and Denmark each have, on average, higher suicide rates than Japan [3].

What may amplify the rate and propagate popular belief, besides the usual sensationalism brought by the media and the Japanese history with seppuku or kamikaze pilots, is the population density where many of the suicides occur and how they occur in Japan (i.e. jumping in front of a train.) By human nature, if one is not either directly or indirectly affected by something, it is much less likely to be concerned with that something. If one commits suicide in their home, no one but family, friends, and the police know about it, thus no one else is exposed to it. When a Japanese salary-man jumps in front of a rush-hour commuter train in Tokyo, it can easily disrupt the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.

So far, in two months time, I've experienced suicide-related train disruption once, indirectly. I found myself on the platform waiting for my rush-hour train, but it didn't come. More and more and more and more.. and more commuters made their way onto the platform—so many that you really have no room to move. Imagine a large concert (e.g. a Justin Timberlake concert) just ended and everyone is standing on the same platform waiting to get on the same train. The overhead screens flashed a red message consisting mostly of Kanji I cannot yet read. The Kanji, I'm sure, is inherently much more descriptive than the English translation of "accident" that is provided by the screens. After a long time, the train finally comes.. but then you have to get on the train with more people than actually fit.

Ah, what a macabre blog entry. Hopefully, in the months and years to come, I won't be writing about a suicide-related train disruption I experienced directly. Imagining a rush-hour train jam-packed full of people coming to a screeching halt does not sounds like a good time. If you're interested, the referenced articles 1,2, and 4 make for some interesting reading on the subject of suicide in Japan. Reference 3 provides interesting statistics on suicide in the global context. The NationMaster site also has all sorts of other interesting statistics.

References:

"Suicide in Japan" by mauler
"90 suicides a day spur Japan into action" by Leo Lewis
"Suicide rates in ages 15-24 (most recent) by country" by NationMaster
"TPR Spotlight #1: Suicide in Japan by the Numbers" by Garrett DeOrio

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Left or Right

Marco Luethy — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 01:41:18 -0800

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As I write this, I find myself in one of the computer labs here at TUJ, musing to myself at how forgetful people are. I look around the room and see eight forgotten and abandoned umbrellas (it's been raining a lot lately) laying on the floor next to various seats. If I used and needed an umbrella, this would be a perfect place to get a good price..

When I first found myself here in Japan about two months ago, I had a difficult time getting used to the Japanese driving on the left side of the road (like in England.) It was much the same as how I felt when I visited London in summer of 2007; When crossing streets, looking in the wrong direction, feeling a bit frazzled because of it, the direction one wants to go on a subway or train line being on the Left, and never being quite 100% sure where to check for oncoming vehicles.

Today I noticed that I've successfully switched to the local orientation. In fact, I'm finding it difficult to imagine what it was like when things were on the Right as opposed to the Left. It's a rather bizarre feeling. As I make my way from the train station to school or the Ontakesan Dorm, I see cars driving on the Left and think, "What was it like when cars where on the Right?" I have a hard time remembering, or spatially recreating the experience mentally. Since one generally also walks on the Left, and habitually walks on the side-walk in the direction traffic nearest to the curb is traveling, remembering what it was like on the Right side is easily forgotten—as if it were a different world or dimension! Now I see life from the Left and not the Right! Bizarre. I wonder, before cars existed, which side of the path did wagons and carts travel?

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I Fail at Blogging, Lately

Marco Luethy — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 06:58:09 -0800

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Mt. Fuji through the clearing in the concrete jungle. In Ontakesan, Ota-ku.

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Hachikō Crossing, Shibuya

The title is true! I've posted one entry in the almost two months since I've moved to Tokyo! Gahh, miserable failure! I really need to get back into the blogging groove.. I'll use the rambling approach to blogging. It goes something like this:

Things have been busy lately. Ehh—They've been busy the whole time I've been here! Hah. Last week I submitted a CARAS project proposal titled, "Virtual Platform for Experimentation with New Avenues of Electronic Music Distribution" with the help of Dr. Jean-Julien Aucouturier, the instructor for my Intro to Cybermedia course at TUJ. The proposal, a collaboration between Dr. Aucouturier and myself, will be reproduced here once it's been accepted or rejected.

This week at TUJ I've got midterms and other tests as well as a bunch of homework due. Super exciting. Schools been occupying most of my time in the past two or so weeks. I've also been working with OmniUpdate, Inc. on a course catalog bulletin web/print-reproduction project for SUNY Stonybrook. Luckily today is an undergraduate holiday, giving me some time to catch up.

I haven't been out much, which has somewhat decreased my motivation. Once midterms are over, there will have to be a night where I don't catch last train and instead stay out clubbing or partying all night–Dancers High.. kind of like Runners High.. Maybe drunken bowling on the 10th floor of some building..

I've been grappling with what to do in the coming break between Spring and Summer semesters. Do I fly to California to visit family for part of it, or do I stay in and around Tokyo? While still undecided, I'm increasingly leaning towards staying in Tokyo. There's so much of this megalopolis that I have yet to explore. Not having to worry about school and homework would give me much more free time to go exploring!

Apparently "arubaito", is the Japanese word for part-time job/work. I'm still unsure how the Japanese got part-time job out of the German word Arbeit which only really means work.

The dollar compared to the Yen has been doing better lately. Presently, it's 96.38 Yen to the dollar. Back in January when I came here, it was around ¥87-ish. Some of the JAs (long-term students) on this side of the dorm's 1st-floor hall and myself play a little game where we joyously announce the conversion rates when they're in our favor, on a frequent basis.

Well then.. That's enough unstructured rambling. It's time for bed, anyway. I've got a Japanese oral-midterm to be awake for tomorrow! Mhrr..

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The Tokyo Chapter Begins

Marco Luethy — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 07:13:44 -0800

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From the first weekend: In Shibuya

Ok; I'm getting back into blogging. No, really! I am. At least I'll try. The past half year things have been pretty sparse around here but at the same time the past half year I've been working a lot. (That's a good excuse, right?) I'd like to do more with this blog than just what it's been over the past 8 years; I'll likely move this blog under the Adieu-Adieu name and make that my online persona. Hopefully some vlogging will follow under the same moniker. I might also pursue internationalgaijin.com specifically for Japan related topics. I'm not sure.

Anyway, enough of that rambling. I'm in Tokyo! I got here Monday two weeks ago (Jan 5th.) Since then, things have been moving at an incredibly rapid pace--and I'm loving it! I live in Tokyo! No longer do I reside in boring, sleepy, nothing-to-do Camarillo! There are quite literally millions of people around me! It's so incredibly awesome. I sometimes catch myself standing somewhere with a giant grin on my face.

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From the first weekend: In Akihabara

Les Stroud said at the end of his last Survivorman episode,

"In the adventure known as life, there are those who live it vicariously and enjoy the ride from the safety of an armchair, and that's good. There are those who have a few chances to realize incredible and life changing experiences and though they don't repeat them, they carry with them a growth in personal philosophy for the rest of their lives. And there those for whom a taste is never enough, for whom the lust for adventure is nearly insatiable, and, if you add to that the overwhelming desire to create and to share, then you get where I reside; for the end of one adventure only signifies the beginning of another."

I feel I can relate well to what Les says here, especially the last bit. I share his "overwhelming desire to create and share." It's also rather relevant, specifically to this here first blog post from Tokyo, Japan.

Now that two weeks have passed since my arrival in Tokyo, the fog of confusion, the haze of mystery surrounding my new environment is starting to clear as I settle in further. I do regret not initially blogging right off the bat about my very first, initial experiences, but at the time things were just happening so quickly with so little breathing room in between, it just wasn't going to and didn't happen. Specifically the first week here is now but mostly a blur in my mind. A combination of jet lag, school orientation, getting accustomed to soooo many people around me, etc, etc, made the first week pass faster than my memory could record it.

Last week was my first week here in Tokyo with classes at Temple University, Japan Campus (TUJ location on Google Maps). So far, so good. My schedule looks like this:

Monday, Wednesday, Friday
- 10:00 - 11:20 - Intro to Film and Video Analysis
- 15:20 - 16:40 - Japanese Elements I
- 16:50 - 17:50 - Intro to Cybermedia (The instructor calls it Cybermusic)
Tuesday, Thursday
- 15:50 - 17:20 - College Algebra

I think I like Intro to Cybermedia the best so far. The instructor is this In-His-Thirties, French audio engineer guy and the class is about the evolution of the recording industry and present day utilization and understanding of music. Going onto Second Life to do research is apart of the course. Haha!

Last Friday night the student government organization at TUJ organized a semesters start party at Club Muse in Roppongi, so myself and a few people including Radley and Gregorio headed there and partied for a few hours. 23:30 rolled around which was about the time we needed to leave to make it to the last train back to the dorm in Ontakesan. Most of our group left and headed home, but Greg and myself joined some other people to continue the night, subsequently missing the last train. We headed to Gaspanic, another bar/club place, but it was sort of dead so we didn't stay all too long. Once we left, we went to some ramen place and enjoyed ramen and the atmosphere for a few hours. Eventually the group dwindled down to just Greg and myself as we made our way back to the dorm taking the first train. On the way back we ran into some other people from the dorm who had been out all night.

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From the first weekend: In Akihabara

The first train subway experience was rather entertaining: The gates to the entrance of the Hibya subway line opened at around 04:50. We were some of the first people down there waiting for the first train to stop at Roppongi station at 05:15. As we waited, more and more people started to trickle and then pour in. Initially, the station was nearly silent, but as 05:15 approached, the chatter on the platform increased and increased to a lour roar; this is completely in contrast with the train stations during the day when most people are quiet or nearly silent. There were two categories of people on that first subway train that morning: Those who had stayed out all night, who were nearly falling asleep, eyes red from fatigue, some still fighting to hold their liquor, the others old people who just woke up. It was a fantastic mix, and an end to an entertaining night.

Shopping for food here has been fun (so far.) Here in Ontakesan (Dorm on Google Maps), most of the stores are all on one little street, the same street on which the train station is located. There's a supermarket called Jusco which is similar to a supermarket in California, albeit a bit smaller and with different stuff. Jusco has all sorts of sea food, and most of it cheaper than the beef, chicken, or pork also sold there. Each time I go and shop at Jusco I find something new that looks interesting. Yesterday (Sunday), I found chocolate pudding which tastes like a delicious pudding I've had in Switzerland!

When not shopping at Jusco, I visit the fruit market. Yesterday I found 7 large kiwis for ¥198 (~$2.19) while browsing there!!! Oh, also.. The apples here.. are GIANT. Depending on what kind of apple you get, they can be larger than both of my fists put together. When not visiting these two locales, I'll also stop in at a bakery called PanDoll, or a take-out sushi place with rather tasty Salmon sashimi! I usually visit all of these stores at 19h because everything goes on sale then. Usually 20-30% off, then increasing the later it gets if the store still has something they want to get rid of. There's also a ¥100 store nearby which sells all sorts of miscellaneous things that are surprisingly high quality for the price.

With that little random bit of shopping trivia, I'll call this entry done. It's getting a bit lengthy anyway. More entries soon, though!

Send me your address if you'd like a post card. Greetings from Tokyo! Sayoonara.

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