Current location:	Ohio
Current music:	Some remix of Tank!!

To Quote That There Sam Fellow...
"Well, I'm back."

Indeed, the nine month odyssey has been over for almost a week now, depending on how you look at it. Whether or not you consider being on the plane the end or not changes the phrase ever so slightly. The trans-Pacific flight was fun, as I got to see Cloverfield four times in a row. For those of you unfamiliar with me and my irrational love of giant monsters, reptiles, and dinos, no, that wasn't sarcasm. So far my record for spotting the Tagruato satellite is 3/7.

Reverse culture shock? Yeah, a bit. Every drink I get here is so... huge. Enormous. A Japanese large can't even compare to a small drink here. I swear they got larger while I was gone. American food is really greasy too.

I've seen most A-Town people, save... three, and for the two of you being across the state, that's understandable.

The whole Wedgewood/Iron Man reunion bit ended in fail, but not epic fail, as Chuck and I still saw to it that it was done. To counteract I tried organizing a large group to see a midnight screening of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull which fared far better. In fact, out of everyone I contacted, only one didn't reply.

On both accounts, the movies were phenomenal and greatly enjoyed. If you haven't seen either, I do highly recommend.

Being an anime buff, I also made a point of seeing Speed Racer, which is much better than current public opinion seems to let on. Corny and cheesy as all Hell, but so was the show, and thus the film is authentic and hilarious. Chuck, Brandon, Crystal (or however that one is spelled), and I were enthralled and laughing nonstop. If you wrote the movie off as bad and not worth your time, you are missing out.

I also went karaokeing with Chuck and Andy at Quaker Steak on Friday where Chuck and I dueted Weird Al's "Dare to Be Stupid", which went over really well. I also tried to sing "Larger Than Life" with Andy, but my mic gave out shortly in. Sorry, no "It's my Life" this time, I usually have to wear out my voice before I feel I can pull that bit off. It was fun to karaoke again, but I really miss the Dash. It was also weird to see Andy do anything other than "Little China Girl".

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So Japan.

Seeing as the last night was for packing, I spent my second to the last night on my balcony for about an hour or so just staring off at the skyline. It's cliche' but I did meet so many new and unique people, Japanese, American, and other, some of whom I'll miss quite a bit, along with Japan in general.

One Nanzan student is actually coming to BG in August though, so that's kind of cool.

It's weird being back now, feeling almost as if none of that had happened. Home's pretty much the same way I left it. I wonder how different BG will be since most of my classmates will have graduated.

It's also dominated by nasty Coke products now.

Anyways, while I may be back, I haven't chronicled the last of mine adventures, which I left you as a cliffhanger two entries ago.


I believe this was the picture I left you with...

So, as my last major hurrah before the end of my stay, I returned to Tokyo for one last go.

So this time around I decided to forgo the night bus and take the Shinkansen for the fourth trip in me life. Cut the traveling time in half and then some, the bullet train is insanely convenient.


So I got into Tokyo Thursday evening and decided to head out to a little place out by the harbor known as Odaiba. Part of the fun of going there is that the only access method of convenience is the linimo line, an elevated skyline that goes through the city and across the rainbow bridge.


It's also known as the loop line as the tracks pull a large circle before crossing the bridge which gives a good view of the harbor, bridge, and Odaiba.

Now some of you (or all) are probably wondering "Why Odaiba?". The name certainly isn't that famous outside of Japan. It certainly doesn't have the recognition of districts like Roppongi, Shinjuku, or Akihabara. Well, like many places in Tokyo, Odaiba is a shopping district, one with two distinct features. One...


The Fuji TV building.


With it's unique design, the Fuji TV station is pretty hard to forget once seen. For me, I remember the station when Myotismon and his lackeys took over the place in his bid to rule the real world.

...

...yeah... it's from Digimon...

But Digimon rock and so I had to see where the original eight Digidestined once theoretically lived. And besides, there were lots of other things to check out there. Such as...


I thought it was an arcade. It wasn't, and there was some large admission line, so I ended up not checking this place out. But Sega dude, they still thrive despite their fall from the console market.


A decent into paradise...



Yes. There was much frolicking.


Also inside the Toys"R"Us there was this $40 puzzle. The image was too epic not to share. Being a Wood Ox, I guess I'm supposed to root for the tiger, but c'mon, that dragon is totally going to kick that cat's ass. And besides, it's a dragon.


And of course everyone is very familiar with Japan's most famous and absolutely Japanese landmark, the Statue of Liberty.




Absolutely Japanese!



While on the topic of not quite Japanese things in Japan...

And yes, it was delicious.


No matter what the product, Japanese commercialism must make anything and everything within their grasp cute and adorable. It takes a moment to comprehend what those are, and then you realize, apparently condoms are no exception. But to those of you well aware of the full Hello Kitty product line, this really shouldn't be surprising.

If you are not aware of the full Hello Kitty product line, you'll probably want to keep it that way.


So the Odaiba shopping mall has a real, official shrine on it's roof.

And the Japanese say they're not religious.



So anyways, that's Odaiba. It was tons of fun to see and shop there. And while I enjoyed my time there, I would be lying if I said a part of me wasn't hoping to hop off the train and see a few Digital Monsters running around.

But that's just silly. The rational part of the brain quickly kicks in and reminds the five year old portion that sentient animated computer beings can't possibly...



be...






I've got to cut back on the Pocky...

To Be Continued...

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The Things of Which Ed Ate

Not many of these left, are there?


This, is Japanese style barbecue. It is glorious, and it is delicious.


Meat in just about all forms come conveniently sliced in very small, thin slabs. When barbecuing, the grills are fired up and you take what you want an throw it across and reclaim it about two minutes later. It's alot of fun.


Also different, are the barbecue sauces used. When I was invited to a barbecue three years ago, I made the mistake of not remembering the awesome sauce used, and regretted the likelihood I would never see it again. Luckily, these guys had it too three years later, and I would not make the same mistake again.

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So how about my parents are celebrating their 25th in Hawaii for an entire week. Steph and I went shopping for survival at Super Wal-Mart, and left with about as much junk food as real food.

Not a good sign for this Fall.

Anyway, something I do quite often when I return home is make chocolate chip cookies. It's fun, easy, and delicious. Super Wal-Mart was out of normal 12oz. chocolate morsel bags. BUT, they did have triple sized 36oz bags.

No problem, as the solution is quite simple; just use triple the rest of the ingredients.

Steph came up with the crazy notion of just measuring out a third of the bag, but that's just silly. Why make so little when you could make so much. Clearly we have been given a sign from the divinities that an epic amount of cookie dough must be prepared.





We are going to have so much cookie dough in the very near future.



Later.