Sweet, more miles!

Sweet, Northwest gave me 2500 FF Miles for the delayed plane. PLUS the 2000 mile coupon thing I just sent in the other day.

Gonna be rolling in the miles!

I'll be up to 6500.

Already a week!

It's already been a week since I got back and it went extremely fast.
While I was in Japan, time just seemed to slow down. I'm not complaining or anything, though. I'm finally over my jet lag and over the mild cold I got from the plane.

I've been picking away at the videos I filmed while I was there, so I'll soon have a DVD made with all the pictures and videos if anyone wants one.

I was curious the other day and I checked plane ticket prices on NWA.com just to see what they were at. They were under $1000! And even the website that I bought the tickets originally from were still over $1000. It's crazy!

I have been reading through my Lonely Planet Japan book and finding things that I didn't get a chance to do while I was there. Next summer, I'm hoping to spend at least a month there. Perhaps the end of July to the end of August. We'll see how life is going at the time, but I definitely want to be in Hiroshima for the Lantern Floating Ceremony next year.


I start school on Monday. I've got the most exciting classes you could possibly imagine:
Intro to Psychology
Economics
Oral and Interpersonal Communication
Problem Solving and Team Building

AWESOME!


Next semester, if I can, I'm going to try and take Japanese at the other college here and still attend classes at my current school.
Hopefully. Because learning Japanese without a tutor/teacher kinda sucks.


I'll play it by ear.

I've noticed my sleep schedule has changed quite a bit. I used to get to bed around 3am or so and wake up around noon or after. Now I'm in bed around midnight and get about around 9. I like it. And all but one of my classes are before noon, so that should work out quite nicely.


For those of you who don't know: my neighbors suck at life. I'm living in a townhome/duplex sort of thing and these immature morons on the other side of the wall are so LOUD! They'll go out drinking every night, come home about 2-3am and start slamming things all over the place and stomping. They have two untrained dogs that they lock in the bathroom while they're gone. They've been living there for about 6 or 7 months or so and, as far as I know, they have not payed their trash bill once.

Well, I think they finally did pay it, or at least some of it, because right now at the end of their side of the driveway is their trash barrel and about 30 bags of trash surrounding it. (I say "some of it" about their trash bill because garbage day was last Wednesday and I think the garbage man only took what was in the barrel).
And, from what I understand, their garage is even worse. Ugh, I can't wait for them to move out. I can't believe I can't smell it from over here. Just ew!

And they have dog crap all over their yard...


I'm going to bed, my contacts are drying out.
Night.

I could've have broken my arm!

I just found a news article about the arm wrestling machines being recalled after three people broke their arm playing it.

AHahahaha. I played it!




Article

Wallpapers

Here are the wallpapers I promised everyone.
If you had one in mind that isn't here, let me know and I can get it for you.
Just let me know.
All the wallpapers are at 1280x1024. If you'd like a different resolution, just let me know, I will be happy to help.

Genbaku Dome


Genbaku Dome from across the river


Beppu, Japan


Cicada


Cicada Shell


Imperial Palace Gardens


Me at the Imperial Gardens


Mount Fuji-san


Graffiti in Hiroshima


Me at Heian Shrine in Kyoto


Heian Shrine


Hiroshima Castle Grounds Entrance


Stairs within the Hiroshima Castle Grounds


Hiroshima Castle


Enko-Gawa River in Hiroshima


Hydrangea


Motoyasu-Gawa River in Hiroshima


Jellyfish


Me in Kyoto


Lantern Floating Ceremony


Lillypads


Small waterfall


Osaka Sunset


Osaka Aquarium


School of Fish


Tokyo Painter


Hiroshima Peace Wall


Kyoto Pond


Stepping Stones


Stepping Stones Photoshopped


Bridge


Tokyo Tower


Cool House :P


Osaka Cityscape


Tracks


Pedestrian Tunnel


Tokyo Turtle: Jasper


Umeda OS Tower Day


Umeda OS Tower Night (My favorite)


Water Rocks


Water Rocks Photoshopped




Let me know what you think of all of them. And which ones you chose.

Ugh, I think I caught a cold or something on the plane ride. I'm all congested and blocked up. It pretty much SUCKS!
And I've still got jet lag. I keep waking up at like 0500 and can't get back to sleep. I'm always ready to pass out around 1800 while at work. Ugh.
But the good news is I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to Geico.

I weighed myself this morning when I woke up. I lost 10 pounds while I was in Japan. I am now down to about 150. Sweet. I feel so skinny.
I also picked out some of my favorite pictures, went to the little picture printing kiosk at Walmart and printed them out. 68 pictures for $20. On 4x6's. Wasn't too terrible.
I also bought Disturbia while I was there. Still an excellent movie.

It's currently 0615 and I'm pretty hungry. I could go upstairs and toast a bagel with some jelly, or I could have a bowl of cereal. Or both?
Yeah, both sounds good.

I have to work today, again. I hope I can stay awake for the whole 12 hours. :(
But at least they'll have free cookies today. I may have to stock up.
I also need to claim 2 on my taxes. I had put 0 when I changed them back from 9. Oops, too much taken out. Ouch. Hell, maybe I could claim 3.

I'm gonna go have breakfast and start my day right with two scoops of raisins.
Or toast.

I'm home now! Finally! I thought It'd never make it.
And yay, all my blog links are in English.
They were all in Japanese since it was Japanese internet. That was fun.

Wow, what an interesting trip, though.
I left my sweet hotel and started my half mile walk to the train station with all my bags in the sticky humidity. I had to wipe sweat from my face every 2 minutes. Bleagh.

Anywho, I got to the station, got my ticket to Narita Airport. 1000 yen. Ouch. Oh well.
While standing in the station, I found a trash that accepts pets...

I know I saw it move a bit...

Anyway, I got to the airport early. Probably at about noon. So I walked around, got some food. I had some delicious "Ethnic Chicken Rice"
Just chicken and rice with some peppers in it. Mmmm. I even ate it with waribashi. (Disposable chopsticks).

I finished eating and wandered around some more. Saw group of flight attendants, so I had to get their picture. :P


That was fun. And pretty random.

I got to my gate, gate 25, and sat around until it was time to board the plane at 3.
As I was trying to figure out where the end of the line was, I met a really really awesome girl, Yukiko. We stood in line and talked about everything. She goes to college in Iowa, and she's 22. She's been studying English almost all of her life; it was pretty good. And she's pretty cute. :P
We boarded the plane and went to our seats (Yukiko and I weren't sitting next to each other)
I ended up sitting next to these two Australian women who were going to be traveling around the US. They were pretty fun.
Well, finally, 3:55, our departure time, came and went. We sat on the plane for a good hour after the captain came on and said, "Ladies and gentleman, this is your captain speaking. Kohneecheewah..." (I laughed pretty hard at that and made fun of him the rest of the flight). "...we are currently experiencing some problems under the aircraft. There is a clamp that seems to be broken. We're currently in contact with Minneapolis trying to get it fixed, but if we can't get it fixed, we will need to switch planes. Sorry for any inconvenience."

Needless to say, we had to switch planes.
They gave us coupons for $10 for any vendor in the airport and 2000 bonus FF Miles.
Yukiko and I sat near our new boarding gate, gate 24, until we were able to board.
They just HAPPENED to have an extra plane of the exact same model just LYING around. Somethings fishy. They probably just moved the broken clamp plane to the new gate. Oh well.
We finally took off at about 6:15PM.

The inflight movies were pretty good. They played Disturbia with Shia Lebeouf (or however you spell it). I thought he did an excellent job. He's a pretty good actor. Maybe someday I'll be in a movie with him... and show him how it's done. :P

About 9 and half hours later we arrived at LAX where the people are just so gosh darn friendly. Yay.
Took about an hour to get off the plane, get luggage, get through customs, and get in line to get a new flight to MSP. Since I saw the one I was supposed to be on take off.
Yukiko and I stood in line, got new flights, went through baggage check, and parted ways. My flight was in about 10 minutes, while hers was a few hours later.
I wish I had gotten a picture of her to add to my collage of pictures of people I've met while in Japan.

I got home around 10:30pm, unpacked, and slept.
Gotta get used to the new timezone. Ugh.

Well, that's all I've got for today. Tonight when I get home, I'll work on those wallpaper pictures. I didn't get a chance to on the plane.

Sayoonara!

<3 Tony-san.

NOOO!!!!

I don't want to leave!

I love it here :(


*sigh* oh well, I'll come back next summer.

ShiBOOYAH

YOU will NOT believe what I FOUND in my LUGGAGE!!!


lol cat. Haha, no I'm kidding.

Anywho, I left Kyoto this morning at about 11:30 and started on my two hour train ride back to Tokyo. WEEEEEEE.

While on the train, I FINALLY saw Mount Fuji.
These were the best shots I was able to get. I did do a bit of Photoshop work to enhance the colors of them.
Hope you like em






Pretty neat. Next summer I'll climb the thing! Woo!

I'm back down to the Tokyo Metro. These subways are MUCH cheaper than the ones in Osaka and Kyoto. Don't know why.

Empty Station Kind of


While on the subway, all the doors were open.


And here's the shot of the train controls.


I checked into my room and so far, I think this is my favorite room. I wish I stayed here when I first got to Tokyo.
Here's a view from the hallway.


Gotta take off your shoes when you walk in.


The bathroom is right on the right.


And here is my living quarters. I like it. The bed is actually pretty comfy. And if I fall off, which I have been known to do (Especially on bunk beds), it isn't as far of a fall.


There's even a sweet closet with a fridge and trash underneath it


The windows slide open. There's glass behind them, don't worry.


I even get my own AC


I dropped off all my stuff and headed for Shibuya, a HUGE shopping district.
Watch this trailer of Lost in Translation. The part where the Dinosaur is walking across the giant screen is in Shibuya.

I highly recommend that movie. I'll probably see it differently the next time I watch it. "Hey, I was there!!!" or "I did that!"
Sweet.

Anyway, here are pictures of the Shibuya screen (from right to left)



I tried to get as high up as I could, this was the best that I could do. Not the greatest shots, but it shows ya what it's all about.

Here's a couple more shots of just the screen



They were playing this music video throughout some of the streets. Ugh, I strongly dislike this song. (Notice how I didn't use hate!)

If you haven't heard it, this guy took the beat of the "Stand By Me" song and put his own lame lyrics into it.

Here are some more shots around Shibuya.



People still wear face masks.





These Lawson stores are EVERYWHERE!
They are the second largest convenience store in all of Japan. (7-Eleven is number one)

What? Pachinko? NO WAY!!!

Throughout my travels, I've probably come across a good 50 different Pachinko parlors. Most of them are right across the street from each other. It's CRAZY.
And if you go inside, it's really loud. I played it once, couldn't figure it out, then left.


You're not going to believe the store that I found. Needless to say I bought them out of stock of everything.


Finally, before I left Shibuya, I got a few shots of the screen while it was a bit darker.

Everybody's waiting for the green man signaling go!




HE'S GREEN! Let the crowd surfing begin.
I can only wish.


Well, that's about it.
Tomorrow I'll probably be spending most of what's left in Japan in the airport.
Don't know how many pictures I'll be getting while I'm there. I might get one here or there in LAX. We'll see.
It's been the best two weeks of my life. I've had so much fun and I can't wait to go next summer to explore the northern half of Japan. And help out in Hiroshima on August 6 2008.
And, if/when I travel to other places, I'll definitely have a blog on it. Tony Rocks Russia, Tony Rocks Europe, or even Tony Rocks South America.

Thanks so much for everyones comments. And if you haven't commented, I appreciate you at least checking out my blog. Leave some comments, though. They make Tony happy. :)

Keep checking the blog, though. Tomorrow, while on the flight, I'll probably pick out my favorite pictures and make computer wallpapers for everyone. Hell, I'll probably print a few of em out and frame em.
If you have a favorite picture, let me know and I'll see what I can do about printing it out for you!
Or if you just want a higher resolution picture, let me know. I'm using my image hosting, Photobucket.com for free, so of course there are limits. When I upload pictures, they'll automatically get reduced in size.

And don't forget, I've got about 2 hours of video. Although I'll probably edit that down quite a bit. So an hour and a half or so. I'll be posting those on Youtube and embedding them in here. (Like the Lost in Translation videos).

Arigatoo Gozaimasu
Sayoonara