Connor's Last Post

Sup errybody,

As the title says, this is gonna be the last one I write. Once again, I'm totally winging this, so don't judge my crappy writing. Well, one hell of an adventure. During the last ~10 days, we have
-Gotten lost for three hours, then ended up at a random restaurant and had the best dinner of the trip
-Burned multiple holes in our wallets in Akihabara
-Ate boatloads of food
-Helped out a homeless dude
-Adventured through the hellhole of Tokyo nightlife that is Roppongi, and (more tamely) explored Shibuya
-Befriended people from around the world
-Rocked out to karaoke
-Abandoned Adarsha on a train going the wrong direction
-Incinerated a cockroach, may he not rest in peace
-Had my umbrella stolen when it was pouring rain by this Japanese chick when I was trying to be a gentleman (bitch)
-Found out about Adarsha's borderline fetish for Godzilla

And a lot of other stupid shit that I won't list here for multiple reasons. Today, on our big last day, we were pretty lazy. It was kind of depressing knowing that our trip was finally over. We went shopping one last time to pick up crap for our families (and Adarsha's sisters, if you're reading this, he spent a good two hours finding stuff for you, so give your brother some credit) and finally treated ourselves to a highly classy dinner of sushi. It seemed fitting. We've said our goodbyes and packed our bags, and we'll be leaving in the morning.

This little vacation was in some ways exactly what I expected it to be, and completely different than what I expected in other ways. First off, I knew it'd be fun as hell, (which it certainly was) but I didn't figure I'd learn anything important from it really. A few things aren't the kinda crap I can write about here, so I'll stick to one major thing I can. And that's the relationships we made here. All my life I've been awful at making friends and it's normally taken me at least two years to make any noteworthy relationships. I figured it'd always be that way. Turns out I was wrong. I met some incredible people on this trip, two of whom I only spent time with for around four days. When I first met them I figured it would ultimately extend to some average small-talk at the hostel at best. I didn't think I'd actually make any real friends. Which I did. It turns out that quality certainly trumps quality in terms of bonding with people in some cases. I'm still convinced that it's only in very few cases, but who knows. I'm only nineteen. I certainly hope this isn't the last I'll see or hear of these people. Oh, and I also learned how to say vagina in Japanese. So there's that too.

Well, see ya next time Japan. I need to go home and see The Dark Knight Rises 'cause that movie looks fucking awesome.

Connor here, figured I'd do one more post before my giant tear-inducing long post tomorrow night.


The majority of our adventures have (mostly) been transcribed here, so I'll go with what hasn't been mentioned/random crap. I'm winging this mostly. During our shopping, I learned something new about our bro Adarsha: he fucking loves Godzilla. He spent roughly an hour and a half in one Godzilla figurine store figuring out which one he should go with. (My vote was for this awesome RC Car-like one that you could control, but that was rejected) One way or another, we've all been burning our wallets like we burned that cockroach in the holy fire of aerosol and lighter flame. The food here is as awesome as I remember growing up on it, and even the McDonald's here is healthier than the American counterpart. And finally, at long last, I managed to find a souvenir for a certain girl who is horribly hard to shop for. You know who you are. *cough*Grace*cough* 


One truly awesome thing happened tonight. I had a full conversation in (almost) entirely Japanese. Turns out I'm actually way better than I thought I was. Actually after all the Japanese I've used on this trip my confidence has spiked a bit, and my ability to become fluent, which seemed borderline impossible at first, feels much more real, and the idea of moving here after I graduate also doesn't feel ridiculous anymore.


End of rant. I'll be making one last actually non-shit one tomorrow night. It'll be all emotional and shit, so prep your handkerchiefs.

lessskoooo is heree! Hihi. Anyways we have been chilling, waking up at around 1:30 most days and getting ooshii melon bread and rice ballz for "breakfast" while the other two sleep for a bit longer. I would like to be working out more but whatever I'll get back in shape when back. Soooo today we went back to nakano to get some figures and stuffz. I got a new pair of earbuds cause mine always die in like a month... I'm hoping Japanese technology is better than American but we shall see. I kinda need some time alone for after 10 days being with other people is taxing to my quiet brain. Hah half joke there.... Anyways we went back to the same food place we went to before for dinner. Got a tasty pork bowl. The days are going by rather quick but that is probably also due to my nature of living only in the moment. We lost Adarsha on a train on the way back because he was being a good citizen and picking up a bottle of polkari sweat that Connor left on the seat then he got locked in by the doors. We met up with him after a bit of waiting back at the hostel. No harm done but it was rather funny to watch him get stuck in the train looking at us while going the wrong direction on the wrong train. I have met many good friends late at night by going up to the kitchen area and laughing with the many drunk people up there trying to talk in Japanese and cook. Well Lesko is going to sign off here to get more rice ballz with Connor before heading off to bed. Another thing is that there needs to be a 100 yen store or equivalent back in America cause man the food is cheap but delicious.
I'll see you back home mates!

EDIT: Connor here. Lesko spelled my name ConnEr originally. Edited and fixed. We've known each other 8 years. DAMMIT LESKO.

I retract my earlier statement. Adarsha was right.

YO YO YO ERRYBODY

YOU ALREADY KNOW WHO THIS IS DON'T YOU

ACTUALLY IF YOU DON'T KNOW ME YOU DON'T KNOW WHO THIS IS

....

DAMMIT INTRODUCTION FAILURE

Anyways, this is ADARSHA SHIVAKUMAR reporting for blog duty

Okay yea I was supposed to write a big blog post 3 days ago, but seriously, our Japan trip has been so full of RANDOM ENCOUNTERS/ADVENTURES and staying up way past our planned sleep times, that I've been unable to really write anything conclusive-even this is going to be a relatively brief post, a summary/preview of sorts that will hopefully tease/tantalize you all enough to read the ginormous one that will come by the end of our trip.

In the 5 days we've REALLY been in Japan, here are some of the many things we've done.

-Karaoke'd until 5AM
-Karaoke'd 2 days later while our throats were still rawer than raw anything until 4AM (our reservation only lasted until 2AM, incidentally)
-Befriended a Belgian girl and our Australian roommate, leading to many derpy adventures
-Walked miles and miles on the streets of Tokyo blasting the Godzilla theme as loud as we could
-Stroll through the streets of Shibuya with The White Ninja, an awesome French black man, singing, semi-dancing (because let's be honest, none of us were doing anything that could be called dancing with a straight face), and getting random people on the street to join in with us
-Eaten so many M&Ms that we should have dropped dead (OKAY THIS WAS JUST ME)
-Accidentally walked into the 18 and over magazine section in several stores (THE LINE, BOTH LITERALLY AND METAPHORICALLY, IS REALLY HARD TO SEE)
-Found a cockroach in our toiletries, hosed it with air freshner, drowned it in orange juice, and then lit it on fire
-Found really-niche-fan toys and thus, the GREATEST STORE IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE (NO I AM NOT BIASED)
-Bought so much stuff that we need a bunch of giant duffel bags to carry it all (we're STILL going to need to pull off some minor miracles here)
-Discovered numerous awesome ramen/soba (if you don't know the latter, use google-fu) places...most of which we have been unable to relocate
-Helped out a random homeless Japanese man with some food
-Watched our Australian roommate miss his flight to Thailand (we're talking a "12:20AM? Not PM? SHIIIIIIIT" moment [yep, that was the time too])


AND FINALLY (SO FAR, SO NOT REALLY FINALLY, BUT WORK WITH ME HERE OKAY)
-I just saw a bag of M&Ms out of the corner of my eye, and I went to eat its contents BUT WHEN I PULLED IT OUT IT WAS ALL EMPTY I AM HEARTBROKEN


The next time I post, I'll be going into way more depth, talking about our adventures with MORE CAPS (YES I KNOW YOU'RE CRINGING RIGHT NOW READERS BUT STAY WITH ME) and MORE AWESOME.

And most importantly of all!

PICTURES

AND LOTS OF THEM

So get pumped.

~Adarsha "CAPSLOCK" Shivakumar

Late Update

Ctownz here, sorry for the delay in posts. Luckily we've been pretty busy.

The last few days have been pretty nice. Our roommate, this Australian guy named James, is a pretty cool guy, and we've met some awesome other people at the hostel who we've gone out with the last few nights. Namely this Belgian girl named Angaelle, or however the hell you spell it, and Louie, who we dubbed "The White Ninja." Darsh should be posting later, so I'll entrust him with that detail. It'll most likely be in caps-lock. We've been stocking up on carbs from a solid diet of practically pure noodles, but at least all noodles in Asakusa are friggin' delicious. Not many exciting events during the day, just been shopping, etc. However, the nights have been... Interesting.

Lots of wandering through Shibuya. Also, completely accidentally ended up in Roppongi one night when we thought we were in Shinjuku. Long story short, Nigerian bar owners are not to be trusted. Shibuya, on the other hand, was much more fun. (Roppongi was too I suppose, just not in the standard definition of fun) We went there last night with aforementioned White Ninja.

Our night in Shibuya started with what could only be described as a song and dance number. The four of us strutting down the street, swag flying everywhere, while snapping in rhythm. A few others joined after thirty seconds or so. If there were any Japanese people who didn't already think Americans were stupid/crazy I'm sure we fixed that for them. The night ended with us wandering around in pouring rain trying to find this place that we became more and more convinced didn't exist. It was like Arthur and his cronies searching for the Holy Grail. Kind of. Though in our defense we did find it at the very end, even though it turns out we passed right in front of it three times. The place really needs a fucking sign or something.


And some misadventures happened in the middle, but what happens in Shibuya stays in Shibuya. T'was fun though, and I'll leave it at that. 


P.S. Adarsha should be posting some pictures from the last few days later tonight.

Hey all, like, 4 of you who are reading this. Connor here, Adarsha's section is up next. Forced our way through jetlag this morning and woke up at 11AM. So far? Friggin' great trip. We spent most of the day in Akihabara, which is pretty much a nerd's wet dream. We all spent probably a hundred bucks today on souvenirs. Worth every penny.We really just stumbled around, no real destination. And we found some great ramen and other shops. Oh, and a building that has a giant golden piece of shit at the top of it. Our new lord and savior. Or at least it looks like a giant turd. We're about to see the night light life, so I'm done for now. Lesko is up next.

turns out its lesko's turn. Life is good, food is good, and damn, Japan is good. I want to live here later on in life. My debit card kinda was stupid but its sorted out. Got some major cash and my bank account is hurting but I really don't care. Its what mah job is for. Anyways im out to go get some tasty soba noodles so peace.