never wear white after labor day

no pictures tonight, sorry, but i just got a new camera and i havent gotten around to using it yet.

today was labor day in japan. to me, all that meant was no classes, since i didnt find out it was labor day until a few hours ago. i thought it was funny symbols on the calendar day.

nothing much happened. nao was still sick so i didnt get to do things to her today, which sucked. sanjiv woke up sick and stayed in bed all day, which sucked. dave never came home last night, so he was MIA all day, which sucked. elijah hung out with noriko all day, which sucked (although he did offer to attempt a gorilla gauntlet (elijah desperately wants to try this, zach.)) Andy woke up early and left, so my only hope was to meet up with him.

I left for shinjuku, the main hub of my tokyo life, about 2 oclock. I didnt realize until I was on the train I was wearing a black hoodie and black dickies, making me look like a dick. Oh well, its labor day!

In shinjuku I looked at gadgets all afternoon. There are tons of cool stores that sell cameras and phones and all sorts of things. The way these stores are set up is bazaar style, with dozens of replica fake phones littered on stands right next to, or sometimes on, the streets. Imagine those hollow fakes we have in the states only so good you mistake them for the real ones, and in every possible color combination for every kind of electronics ever. Its fun to just walk around and play with the hundreds of cell phones set up everywhere, and its not hard to waste an afternoon doing this.

Since it was labor day the streets were shut down for street performers. The usual crap we have in the states, but one event in particular is worth recounting.

Right outside the shinjuku eki (train station), hundreds and hundreds of people were crammed around a van with tinted windows. Intrigued I tried to figure out what they were looking at, but couldnt. It was at this point I realized no one else could, either. Yes, thats right, hundreds of people were staring in to a van that no one could see inside, just to see what everyone else was looking at. This behaviour lasted for all the 2 hours I walked around by myself, since I would walk by the station often and see people pushing each other out of the way for a better look at the 'mystery van.'

I met up with Andy at 7 and he helped me pick out a new camera. I got a Casio Exilim and it is the fucking best camera I've ever had. Well I guess that last part is obvious, why would I buy a camera that was worse than my old one?

Andy and I ate in kabuki-cho, the red light district. We found a really awesome restaraunt which served traditional food dirt cheaply. The tables are set up about a foot above the ground, but underneath them is a pit to put your feet. The result is that you are sitting on ground, with the perspective of such, but you dont have to cramp your legs underneath you, which is nice. We got a little locker for our shoes, and were given slippers to wear. I dont know how I am going to go back to having to wear shoes in restaraunts in the states.

Like I said, pretty uneventful day. After this we rode the train home and I played with my new camera. Its pretty awesome.
.karl.arthur