It's my first time in Japan, unlike a lot of the other guys here. Heck, it's been around ten years since the last time I went out of the country. I just saw Meg Ryan on television selling Nescafe Excella, some kind of coffee brand. We're watching what appears to be the Japanese version of American Idol. A Japanese girl who looks just like Bjork is doing some song with a country theme. Yesterday I saw Tommy Lee Jones selling some kind of soda. The television here is unspeakably wonderful. Don't tell Tim Tracy, but the baseball here is apparently commercial-free.

　　Anyway, yes, much running around over the last couple of days, to Akibahara yesterday and...somewhere else today. I'm not so good with the place names around here. It's a good thing we have Takeshi around, along with Jeff, who knows where he's going, because one look at this train station map should tell you how over my head I am.

　　Now I'm watching a crazy game show that involves people falling into muddy water when they can't get over obstacles. I guess it's pitting mothers against their children.

　　Anyway, Akibahara. After you step off the train station, you pretty much step directly into a Geof Darrow comic book. Total sensory overload, for the most part. I can't think of an analogue in any American city I've visited, although that pretty much just consists of San Francisco and Washington, D.C., so that's not necessarily an impressive list. Lots of shops, ranging from DVD shops, the Sega Store, camera stuff, game shops, to the bizzarely obscure, such as the shop that sold nothing but cables for a variety of things.

　　Oh hell yes - just found the Arizona/Seattle NFL game on television. Stroke of luck! Tape-delayed, of course, but hey - it's football with Japanese announcing.

　　One of the things I had heard about Japan before I got here was the crazy penchent for soft drink variety, and indeed, everywhere you go there are vending machines that offer up 10-12 different kinds of drink per machine. So far, my favorite is Bubble Man II: Soda Planet, which is indeed bubblegum flavored. Not sure what it's a sequel to, but I imagine Bubble Man I was discontinued. Apparently most sodas here last for three to six months and then get shelved. I did find Coke Citrus, too. Imagine Coke in a lemon-lime flavor and you can imagine the pain I've endured.

　　Anyone who plays Final Fantasy and relies on GameFAQs for information will know the legendary Ultimania guides for those games, and I happened to stumble across one of them in one of the shops we visited. Words cannot describe how thick those things are; they're truly massive. I suppose I should've bought one just for a keepsake. I didn't actually buy any game-related items, though. On the other hand, I did find a great item in a dollar bin outside a DVD shop. Eat your heart out, Navarro.

　　On the way back to the hotel, I stumbled across a great advertisement for a bizarre DVD involving a monkey and a dog. Looks like they're pretty popular here, at least to the point where they get advertised. At any rate, adorable.

　　And then we slept for twelve hours. Phew, it's been exhausting so far. Today we went to another shopping district, where I bought a few great Engrish shirts. My favorite one has a slogan that reads "It is supposed to be able to meet a certainly important thing in something without anything. Therefore, let's believe it, and work with the future even if the present isn't happy."

　　Yeah, man. Yeah.