Wednesday: I actually accomplished a few things at work today.

Which is far more than I expected.

And there's a super interesting episode of Nova on about metals.  I wish there was a channel that was just cool documentaries all day.  It would be good to have a calm quiet place to escape from bad news.

Three years ago I was in Tokyo.

• It's a thing you do.
• It's a thing you do.
• It's a thing you do.
• It's a thing you can do.
• There are no more Pokemon links, but this is a hamster in a Cubone costume.
• Here's a cool castle ruin in Japan.

Adventures in NFC.

My Clipper Card arrived this week, and after getting it out of the envelope today, I realized that it probably uses the same NFC tech that my phone has.  After checking this with a simple reader, I found an app designed to decode information from fare cards.

So, with card ids blacked out:

Yep.  I have to collect the money on one of their machines.  This makes sense that they don't mail active cards.

No, card, I haven't taken any trips.

Except, I have a Suica card from when I went to Tokyo too:

Although I should probably throw out the HK chapstick by now.

How much does that have on it?

About $2.  $1.81 with the yen's continuing slide against the dollar.

But this has a history.  I think it's limited by when I recharged it?

In any case, this covers Monday and Tuesday of that trip.

Cool.


Also, because I was curious, what has the yen done since then?

So I paid about $2.25 for the 220¥ that are now worth about $1.81.  Clearly, investing in Suica fare cards has been a poor investment strategy.

Thursday: Whoops.

It turns out that if I use my work mouse in a certain way, the left button does this.

• Pikachu.
• Vacation.
• So old people are going to get their student loans forgiven, aren't they, and then when people ask about the other 96% of people with student loans, the answer is going to be "nope," right?
• Machida Squirrel Park.
• It's basically just an hour train ride from Shinjuku.

Sunday:

I saw this video a few weeks ago:

The point of the video is they have an American go around and present his list of the top three Japanese chain restaurants.  His number one is Curryhouse Coco Ichiban.  Which is also a Playstation game.  And we have them in Hawaii.

I haven't had curry since this day, and I apparently didn't take any pictures of the curry place in Akhiabara I went to.  That one was a bit odd, as you don't order normally.  You buy a meal ticket from a vending machine, and then give the ticket to the waitress, who then passes it to the kitchen.  I really wish I'd taken a picture of that.

While checking to see if I had a picture I'd forgotten about, I discovered this one.  I like the tiny aviator  mascot.  "It's delicious water even if it is not cold."

So I figured it would be a good idea to check it out.  Except the first one I went to is closed on Sunday.  Oops.  But again, we do have them in Hawaii, so I just went to the next closest one.  It turns out that the McCully area has a pretty high density of curry houses.

I sat at the counter.  Deep fryer on left, katsu chopping station off camera to the left, curry bubbling on the stove on right.  Rice cookers very far off to the left.

The menu in Hawaii is slightly different than the Japanese one, but the setup is the same: you choose an amount of rice, a spiciness of the curry, your main topping, and an assortment of other toppings.  There are fewer options here than in the global menu book, but that's how it goes.

And spoons come in spoon condoms.  Because you eat curry with a spoon, and only a spoon, and Japan really likes wrapping things in wrappers.

 I attempted to reconstruct the American's favorite meal.  Scrambled egg isn't an option here, so I just did chicken katsu and cheese:

And it was weird.

It's not bad, it's just not...right.  The katsu is good, and even though I went with "spicy" this really wasn't.  I really like curry to have stuff in it, but I guess that isn't standard.  I think next time I try it, I'll skip the cheese and get something else extra.  Maybe beef chunks, so the curry has stuff in it.

There is one major issue that pushes this down on my list of places to go to: cash only.  Which, of course, I only noticed when I was paying and had $9 of the $9.63 I owed.  Fuck.  Luckily, they're cool with you running to the 7-11 next door to get cash, even if they give you dirty looks and sigh when you ask.  It's 2014.  Take credit cards.  It's far easier for everyone.

• I did not know that there's a version of the Archer pilot where Archer is replaced by a raptor.  An official version.  I may need to buy that dvd.
• And a maid.  Obviously.
• The original series.  
• The next generation.

Japan

They're setting the world record for the longest chain of Pocky/Pretz passes.

Sunday: Wait, when did I buy a black tshirt?

I forgot to do laundry last night, so I had to look through older shirts to find one to wear, and I found this one, but it's black, and I don't ever remember buying it.  Weird.

Then I didn't know what I wanted for dinner, blah blah blah, so I decided I wanted Mexican.

Rainbow again.

Same as always.

Unrelated screencap from a youtube video I watched last night.  "Tokyo Tower: Your City Landmarks Suck."

• Wait, so there's an Indian restaurant that actually has parking?  Very tempted to try this this week.
• More on the potential economic costs of the Crimea thing.
• This is a poorly designed theology.
• Chu!
• Chu means kiss.

Thursday: What the actual fuck?

This is absolute bullshit right here.

The left is the C debugger with an example of the problem I discovered today. The right is octave, which isn't absolute truth, but is what I usually use to check that I haven't had a stroke and forgotten math.  The fact that the debugger needs a very specific arrangement of values to not get -Inf is somewhat disturbing.

• Holy crap, I went right past this place when I was lost in Akihabara.
• 
• See?
• It was closed. :(
• I also forgot to go to the Pokemon center.
• Cute buns.
• So the benefit here is that we now get a somewhat functional portion of the government, which can then fill positions to help other portions of the government become functional as well.

Monday: Back to work

Sigh.

At least on the good side, I took "problem I didn't know about, but I guess I caused it, and sorry Maui," and fixed it, and discovered that "continuing stats bug" is basically caused by bad histogramming causing bullshit solutions.  I don't think that'll be super hard to fix, but it's still kind of annoying.

Then I came home, fell asleep on the couch, only to be woken up by a really annoying sound.

Turns out that it's the fire alarm for the building next door.

• I was going to post the picture, but then I discovered an actual news story about it, so here's that instead.
• Image 2.  That was basically all my pockets last week and the week before.
• I saw this, and then had to go hunt down a source myself, because fuck you tumblr.  Learn to put sources on your shit.  Also: squirrel.

I also discovered this image today.  "Huh, Tokyo," I said to myself before going to verify that it really was.  Kind of in the center, you can see a dark spot. That's where the Meiji shrine is.  The group of skyscrapers to the left is Shinjuku.  To the upper right is Chiyoda, where the other skyscrapers are.  You can barely see the Imperial Palace grounds there as well.  The stupid Skytree is there in the distance beyond Chiyoda, but you'll have to look at the full view.  Basically, everywhere I went in Japan is contained in the middle third or so of this image.

Wednesday: Technically, today is Wednesday number two

 I woke up, finished packing, got on a plane, flew back in time, went home, took a nap, woke up and it was still Wednesday.

Unfortunately, flying with a congested head is a terrible thing, and I've felt horrible all 43 hours that have been in this day.  Tomorrow I'm going to the doctor to see if there's anything to be done, and hopefully make me not feel quite so bad.

In any case, thousands of hours ago, I had breakfast.

Japanese style.

Ok, so salmon, rice, miso soup, various things on the top right, poached egg on the top left, tea on bottom right.  Then I got to the cup on the bottom left.  I thought it was some sort of cake thing.  There was even a packet of honey inside.  Then I opened it, and realized it was natto.  Oops. Ick.

This was on the sidewalk.  You can't smoke outside, but you can totally smoke in restaurants.  WTF, Japan?

Trip to the airport.

Highways in Tokyo kind of thread in between buildings as needed.  It's kind of a nice solution to eminent domain issues, but I'm sure people would complain about noise.

You're a jerk, Skytree.

I thought these buildings looked like the Android droid.

Not Toonami.  Tonami.  Totally different.

I don't know how zoning works in Japan.  Tokyo seems to have four stages on the way to Narita.  The big city, with all the buildings; industrial, where all the shipping and factories are; "trash", which is a bad name, but there was a clear band of recycling/recovery/dumps; actual farms, like this one.

 Narita terminal 1 south is kind of a food wasteland.

So I decided I wanted fries.

But what's this?

A croquette?

Seriously, who the fuck even knows.

I asked what this was, guessing from the picture that it was a crab croquette.  I was assured that it was not, with the phrases "white sauce" and "macaroni" thrown out.  I stepped back from the counter to reconsider, only to be challenged with "It's a great Japanese flavor!"  Fine, counter girl at Narita terminal 1 south McDonalds, I'll play your game.

First, "whate sauce" is not simply a bechemel.  It clearly has cheese in it, or some bizarre chemical thickener that mimics a cheese sauce.  There was also a garlic hint to it.  Embedded in the sauce were tiny shrimp.  So she was right that it's not crab.  There was a gob of mayo and cabbage on the bottom, but I scraped most of that off.  Finally, some odd katsu sauce on top.

This sandwich fundamentally defies classification and grading, so I will simply go with "this exists" and "I ate the whole thing."

Tuesday: Tokyo Day 4

I woke up today, and I'm definitely sick.  It's mostly a cold, but also partially kind of bronchitis.  Again.  Woo, lungs!  At least it's not super bad like it has been before, it's mostly just annoying.  I probably should have bought one of those mask things, but those always fog up my glasses.  I went with "maybe making people sick" above "stumbling blindly through Tokyo."  This is selfish, but I do not want to fall onto a subway track.  That's not fun.

Odd thing: Monday Night Football on the east coast is Tuesday Morning Football in Tokyo.

I cannot find Boss in Hawaii.  I have no idea why.  It is the superior chilled canned coffee, and is the proper start to any morning.  I'll really need to look again when I get back home.  Maybe Don Quijote has it.

I went with a different breakfast option today, partially because I got bored of the breakfast set at Cafe Baron, and partially because I slept in and missed it.  French toast.  A bit eggy, but it came with real syrup and a cup of very good coffee.  I don't know why, but Japan has had universally tasty coffee.  No burnt starbucks shit.

 Off to see the palace.

Wait...I have no memory of this place.

 Tokyo station, like many other train stations here, is huge.  Super giant huge.  Shinjuku is sufficiently large that I can get from my hotel to the train station completely underground in a variety of pseudo-malls.  The other side of this is that if you go out the wrong exit, you're completely lost.

I eventually found it.

And it's open today.

Ota-mon.

According to the signs, pretty much all the stone work has been redone in the past decade.  All the stones are from the same place, but the lighter ones are the new replacements.  They simply haven't had 500+ years of weathering to match the original ones.

Despite being in the middle of the city, you really can't hear any traffic or noise. 

The gardens are therefore quite peaceful.

Fishies!

I was aware of them, and left them alone.  I suspect they were sleeping since it was a bit chilly today.

If I understand correctly, this entire area was once covered in buildings and corridors and whatnot.

I now understand why the Castlevania games had crows as enemies.  These things are huge.  I'm talking something like 18" from beak to tail.  They also tend to congregate in vast murders that make you think they're just moments away from attacking.

You have to go up high to see most of the city.

On the way out.

Japanese ducks have different colored beaks.

 Back to the station, two stops later:

Akihabara!

My thought: "huh, don't we have Gyu-Kaku in Hawaii?  I suspect they're not above a maid cafe there, though."

More different Akihabara!

To be honest, I didn't do much in Akihabara.  I went into a number of shops, noticed that I could buy a tiny Pikachu for ¥300, a big fancy one for ¥1600, a tiny giant fighting robot for ¥2000, or tiny naked dolls for ¥2100-¥12000.  Yes, a hundred dollar, ~24" fully posable naked doll.  Bathing, or standing, or pretty much whatever pose you want for a hundred freaking dollars.

While walking back to the station, I noticed this giant crowd outside of the AKB48 themed cafe.  If you don't know who they are, let's just quote the first wikipedia paragraph: "As of November 2013, the group has 89 members. The girls range in age from early teens to mid-20s. Produced by Yasushi Akimoto, it is one of the highest-earning musical acts in the world, with 2012 record sales of over US$226 million in Japan."  Yep.

 So I went inside.  No, not there.  Next door, see it there?

Gundam Cafe.

 Clearly not as popular as it once was, it seemed to be filled with kids smoking and drinking after school.  And that lady in the corner who was totally sleeping.

Yes, it's a $7 cupcake, but to be fair, it wasn't very good either.  Still, I'm happy to support Gundam, and it reminds me that I should rewatch Gundam Wing.

Zoom!

 I didn't completely skip out of Akihabara.  Capsule toys are a big thing.  It's like gambling, where you win something useless everytime.  Since I didn't feel like trying to explain to customs why I have tiny naked ladies in plastic balls, I went with the "cute animal" one.

"Clearly Concerned Rabbit" isn't a bad option, but compared to "Giant Cheeks Squirrel" and "Fuck You, I'm Sleeping Squirrel," not the best in the set.

Sumo was on TV when I got back.

Red loses.

 For dinner, I went with the "holy fuck, my feet and legs hurt so far up my body that sneezing makes my back hurt" option of the hotel restaurant on the top floor.

Partially to satisfy the loss of the Skytree yesterday.

Terrine.  This would have paired wonderfully with an arugula salad instead of this mixed greens.  I picked out the few sprigs it contained, and that fatty terrine with the spicy greens?  Great combo.

Purple potato soup.  A bit monotone, and not just in color.  Maybe a bit of onion to make it like a vichyssoise?  It definitely could have used a bit more salt.

Chef's fish dish.  No clue as to the type.  She said it twice, and I couldn't bring myself to have her say it a third time.  Mild flavor, matched well by the beurre blanc and veggies.

Salad.  Fairly generic, but it did lead me to this thought: I think if you took an onion (like the red ones here), and grated it, you could use the juice and some vinegar (and a dash of oil) to make a very nice vinaigrette. 

Sirloin.  The pitcher contains soy sauce (? he said.  It wasn't very soy-y if it was) and the dot on the bottom right is some sort of spice paste.  I want to say it was a concentrated chimichurri, but I'm not totally sure.  

Hot tea.

Raspberry sorbet; coffee creme brule(?).  Pleasant finish.

Anyway, this has taken way longer than I thought, and I need to get up and go to the airport tomorrow.  I'm going with the lazy option and booked the bus back to leave the hotel at noon.  Two hours of travel on the bus, and I'm assuming at least an hour of check in and security leaves me with way more airport time than I need, but I'm too paranoid to go with the "leave luggage with the concierge, and then go do something real all day and hope I get back and to the airport in time."  I think leaving a few things undone provides good incentive to make sure to schedule a return trip.  I remembered today that red pandas are super cute, and Japan has some in the Ueno zoo.  Since I was in the Ueno station like three times this trip, I probably should have added that to the list.  Tokyo Tower never got done either, but their webpage noted that the upper observation deck was closed for elevator repairs anyway.  I now know of at least two art museums that would be nice to see next time, as well.