CHINA you say??

What's good everybody? So things are changing- China here I come!! I have two hours left before I head out to the bus that is going to take me to the airport. Then I'm catching a 6:30 plane to Shanghai. How was YOUR day? Hahaha, I feel great, this month has been pretty spectacular. Even though Dan is going back to New York and I'm going to China the blog site will remain nateanddaninjapan.blogpost.com. Thank you everybody that has been following the blog and have been showing interest in my trip. It puts me in a great mood to know that you are excited for my travels.  I've heard some rumbling rumors about possible visits, some from family, some from friends and all I can say is COME. You will not be let down. I'll update the blog as soon as I can in Shanghai. I'll have to get some converters for the comp, but it should be updated within the upcoming week. 50 cent haircuts and 12 dollar tailored pants await me...peace 

Enjoy Kyoto

Soon

More pics coming soon, temples and mountains and beautiful bodies of water . .

Video of the bamboo forest.. Sorry for the audio, there were some people walking by having a lame conversation about something.

Here is a little of the scenery we got to witness as we rode the Shinkansen. I don't know if you can tell how fast we were moving, but we were covering lots of ground.

Some pics from the bamboo forest:

This was the

Shinkansen 

Kyoto

Kyoto was great. We were only there for a day and change but we made the most of it. The Shinkansen is like an airplane on the ground. That thing really moves fast. We covered a sick amount of ground in only a few hours. I have a ton of pics so I'm trying to get them up as fast as I can.  Here are a few from the bamboo forest. I really wanted to see this and I'm glad I got a chance.

Imperial Palace and Tokyo Tower

We went to the Imperial Palace yesterday and the Tokyo Tower. The Imperial looks pretty cool but you can't see too much of it. I tried to get the best shot I could to give you the best idea of what the place was like. The little bit that I could see was pretty magnificent.  After the palace we checked out the Tokyo Tower. We rode up to the observation deck and took some photos of the city. Pretty nice stuff

 

Overlooked

I was browsing through iphoto and saw some shots that I thought were really cool that hadn't made the blog on the first go around for some reason. Anyway check them out.

Street artist

Good eats

New York has trained me to stay away from the dark dirty back streets. Any time I see an alley I automatically turn away or head for the bright lights. You never know what is lurking next to the garbage in the dark in NYC. Tokyo is different. Each little alleyway should be checked out. Today I discovered a row of what looked to be really good eats. They were all jammed together in this little alleyway in a really crowed section of Shinjuku. Everyone was packed to the brim so I didn't get to eat in any of them but I know how to get back to where they are and before I go to China I'm going to make sure I get back and sample all the goodies..

Roppongi

Dan and I are living in a neighborhood called Roppongi. It's got a lot of foreigners. Way more than I had thought. That's not the part that bothers me (nor should it). We've gone out in Roppongi a few times now. It has a million clubs and bars to go to. Tokyo is crazy that way. In Roppongi there are masses of Nigerian men who stand on the corners and line almost every block you can see and are really aggressive in trying to get you to come into strip clubs. They are really annoying.  Not only that but there are Japanese women dressed in very casual clothes who come up to you and offer you "massagy" for 3000 yen. It was very surprising and it doesn't make you feel good. Dan and I have finally found a way to combat all this. Last night we put our drama training to the test and acted as missionaries as we walked up and down the street. You would be surprised how well that worked. With our hands clasped we praised GOD and shunned the devil away from us. It was hard to keep up our act the whole way, as the block we were walking was rather long, but we made it work. Success!  

You can browse this website for info about what I'll be doing in Shanghai. 

http://www.homeshanghai.net/about.html

So. It's officially been two weeks in Tokyo. I can't lie, it seems longer. It's been frustrating at times, but overall I get more comfortable each day I'm here. I'm starting to learn the city and understand the trains better. What I really need to focus on is learning more of the language. I need to do my research on the history of Japan also. I think those two things will help me a lot in feeling comfortable here. It will also help me meet people. I don't want to come of as ignorant or a fool, so I have to put some work in and really learn about Tokyo and Japan as a whole. I was really nervous about going to China for two months, but that decision is slowly settling in also. I'm feeling better about that. I left New York for an adventure, and unease and a little anxiety will come along with that. Once I realized that I felt better about things. I know the blog has slowed down a little bit, but Dan and I have also. We still hit the city on foot a lot, but we haven't done any major work in discovering new things. I'm going to get up early tomorrow and try to hit some spots I haven't been to yet.  As far as staying in shape, for those of you reading this already know I'm a semi fitness freak, my jump rope is doing just fine for me. I found a pull up bar right by the apartment and I also have my cable chord. All of these things mixed in a with a good run now and then keeps me feeling right.  I've also been walking through the city streets for a good four hours a day (minimum).  I'm sure all of you were wondering about my workout routine. ANYWAY, I'm taking things day by day and we'll see what happens. There is so much time ahead of me right now. 

You already know

This shirt has served me well over the years. More places and more locations for this shirts future. I can feel it.

Just put a face on a wall and I'll take a picture of it. I'm a sucker I can't help it!

Some photos

Here are some images that don't really fit a specific category..I still thought they were nice photos though. Worth a glance in my book.

On one of the newest subway lines in Tokyo, they have these guards that act as double doors to the train. If you can see where all the yellow boxes are on the floor, that is where the doors open, that then lead to the doors that open on the train. It's cool, but also scary. There are a lot of suicides on the train in Tokyo, and I guess this is a way to prevent them. One of my Japanese students in New York told me that there is a much higher suicide rate on Monday.  It only takes 10 minutes to clean up a suicide, and then the family of the person who killed themselves is billed for the services. Life's a bitch, even when you're dead.

I'm always on the lookout for sneakers. These are some killer air stabs that I saw an old guy wearing. He didn't know what jewels were on his feet.