japan pics

after seeing death cab at the greek last friday i decided kunal was right. they're just not that great live. songs with gibbarb at piano were spot on but they consistently strayed to sped-up renditions with some instrumental lines completely taken out. boo to that. oh well - here are some japan pics:

on the plane from hong kong


business class is one thing but getting slippers takes it to a whole new level


first day in tokyo at akasaka temple


this was my first time at a japanese temple. grace showed me the ropes. step 1: fan incense smoke towards you


step 2: purification at the fountain by rinsing your hands


step 3: pay to get a fortune, shake box to get...


...a wooden stick


step 4: match number on stick with drawer to get your fortune (i'm looking pretty serious here. i think i was worried about my draw)


i got "the best fortune". who's gem has no flaw!


finally fold and tie your fortune


old kabuto theatre


sony showroom!


many floors of electronics bliss. grace was quite patient with me here


ebook in action (of course here we're defining "in action" as "cute-dog-using-paws to-hold-up-error-screen")


one big highlight of the trip was going to tsukji fish market. a significant portion of the world's fish is auctioned here and shipped worldwide. i think our guidebook said ~$30mm of fish sold daily. this is a small temple outside the market where fisherman pray before entering


inside the market. absolute total chaos


grace and i stumbled across a stand that apparently had an excellent catch of tuna. there was a line of buyers from fancy hotels and restaurants waiting for cuts from this fish



some more very expensive tuna


outside the market there are streets of stands selling everything from produce to sushi knives. this is also where you go to score the freshest sushi...


...our sushi breakfast


we somehow made friends with the japanese man sitting next to us despite the fact he spoke no english. during breakfast he kept on saying "chutoro" while proudly waving a piece of paper around. we finally figured out the paper was a receipt for a chutoro section he had gotten from an auction. he had the chef serve it up and he gave us 4 pieces! here's a pic of us celebrating after eating the tastiest toro i've ever had


meiji shrine. quite exciting for me since i really dig meiji architecture


japanese couple getting married at the shrine that day


prayer tablets


i kept on seeing funny dog outfits in tokyo. here are a few





threw away a good amout of yen trying to win one of these guys


nightime in shinjuku


btw - if you've read this far you probably already noticed i embedded a link blog on the left hand column. so if you *really* feel like wasting some time you can read some of the recent articles i've bookmarked.