speaking of north korea

some pretty nice pictures here.

one part of the axis

everyday for three months, i rode my bicycle past a school that was close to my place of work. along the wall next to the school, they had these strange murals. i never thought too much of them. however, i always found it strange that there was a flag of north korea painted on the wall.

then on wednesday night, my personal stylist, james, was driving me around, as he does from time to time. i told him about this school as he drove past it. then, he informed me that it was a school for north korean students. apparently, these are north koreans that have escaped to japan via numerous paths.

the students, i saw going to this school, appeared to be slightly different. i just could never put my finger on it. it's not everyday, you get to see people who belong or once belonged to the axis of evil.

get yourself a job

get yourself a job part 2

something strange

i really am not a big fan of samba at all. i actually find it rather annoying. however, i found something pretty strange in this video. let me know if you see it. or maybe you dont think it is strange at all.

by the way, i actually saw some of this festival by accident. there were plenty of older males with long range zooms on their cameras. i am assuming that was for close ups of the sweet hats these "ladies" were wearing. actually some of the "ladies", up close, did not really look like ladies. i actually heard some guy say, "why is there a samba festival in shizuoka? there aren't any brazillians here. why can't they have this in hamamatsu?"

some bears

5 more from tokyo

after shaving in the dark...

i came out to the local j-league soccer staduim at nihondaira to give a special message for the shimizu s-pulse players and their great fans all over japan.

s-pulse at nihondaira

it's all about heroes

a while back i had to check up on some students who were doing work experiences around town. i went to a zoo, a choucream shop, library, fire department, and a hospital. i learned quite a bit from this experience. i found out that my office looks like pretty much every other office setup that i have seen here in japan.

and a couple other things, you have to pay to watch tv in the hospital i visited, and many others, from what i have heard. what's worse is that you dont get the same channels you would had you bought the 1000 yen pay tv card in a business hotel. you get regular brodcast tv. and the nurses don't wear the pink dresses with the cute hats that they do in the movies and on tv. these nurses wear the same lame scrubs like back in the states.

it's all about heroes...animals

it's all about heroes...choumen

it's all about heroes...librarians

it's all about heroes...nurses

it's all about heroes...firefighters

doryoku

something that is more awesome than a train, is a pregnant woman. man, i love feeling a baby kick. anyway, this is akiko and she is due in august. recently she told me she is terrified of childbirth. epidurals are not widely used in japan. so most ladies give birth the natural way. people here really love doryoku (making an effort).

700

but...out of all the trains i have ridden, the shinkansen nozomi 700 is my favorite. just look at her.

romancecar!

i have never ridden on a odakyu romancecar. but man, i really want to.

yokohama

yokohama-sakuragicho

stigmata

every time i have a bike accident, i end up with these wounds.

tokyo-shinjuku

tokyo-shimokitazawa

tokyo-kichioji

tokyo-nippori

tokyo-shibuya

mlb clubhouse in shibuya

this place is nice, finally, a place where you can purchase every mlb team's official merch in japan. i spent too much time and money here.

between shibuya and omotesando

these sausages were insane. if you see this guy, go get one.