Gaseous Organization - Week 17 (September 2 - September 8)

Gaseous Organization

Week 17

Welcome back to yet one more iteration of this online journal. I remember thinking a few months ago about how long it would take to get out of the single digit numbers. Guess time's moving faster than I thought, because here I am pushing my way up towards the 20 post mark.

Not bad.

Well, what can I say, I'm excited for Thailand. Things are falling into place...

Wait, I'm messing this post up here, talking about generalities rather than working in a focused chronological ordering of events.

Eh.

Whatever.

Yeah, Thailand's coming along. I was disappointed Tuesday to read a post on my Facebook by Stephanie M that linked to a CNN story on the political riots that are occurring in Thailand right now.

Awesome. Great timing.

Much of this week saw me a bit stressed as the whole Thailand party waffled between sticking with our original plan or modifying it and changing destinations. Hong Kong, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Phillipines were all suggested. We even voted on it. If I remember correctly, my vote was "Damn the torpedoes! Thailand or bust!" As it turns out, Thailand won through despite political turmoil. Besides, the two weeks between now and our departure should allow some time for the country to regulate.

Now all I have to worry about is Typhoid and Malaria.

The plan for the trip will likely run something like this:

Fly to Bangkok on the 21st
Muck about in the city for at least a day (22nd)
Check out the area around Bangkok (possibly 2 days)
Fly to Phuket or somewhere else on the Andaman coast
Check out the beaches, resorts and islands (3 or 4 days)
Head on home.

I'm really excited for this trip, so much more than I was a few weeks. I don't really know when it occurred, but my attitude switched at some point from mild interest to white knuckle anticipation. Makes me feel like I did right before I left for Japan.

The week itself was pretty good, with the exception of some troubling news on Friday and a number of nights where I slept quite poorly. I can't talk about the former for now, but sometime in the next few weeks I probably can. (edit: THIS IS NOTHING TO BE CONCERNED ABOUT. It just has to do with my job, nothing personal. I'm not in trouble or anything. Thanks to the people who expressed concern.)

Wednesday saw me taking a rather extended lunch break to travel down to Kichijoji and patronize what is (according to Sean) the largest Yodobashi Camera in Japan. I think he's probably right. This place made the one in Akihabara look...averaged size. I won't say small because that's a ridiculous statement to make.

Oh that reminds me. One of the things that kind of surprises me about places like Yodobashi camera is what I would vaguely describe as "shotgun inventory". Yodobashi Camera is, undoubtedly, an electronics store. And yet, the 2nd floor of the Kichijoji outlet has a full fledged cosmetics department.

Think about this for a second.

Imagine you walk into Futureshop. You're walking through the home theater section and then, all of a sudden, there's a place to stop and get a manicure.

This style of store is outside the western experience and seems to be echoed a number of the stores around Tokyo. Inventory seems to always be decided on an "appeal to everyone" kind of basis. There's few major stores I'd describe as truly specialty.

Back on track.

Umm, so I went to Yodobashi and picked up some extra stuff for the camera. Went on back to school and finished up the day and the rest of the week. Nothing particularly remarkable occurred. I started up running again, although took it pretty easy. My leg seems to be better now, but I'm still avoiding the stair running section of my jog.

Sunday, unfortunately, marked the ending of Zoey's tenure here in Japan. That meant that Saturday was PARTY TIME! It had been a couple of weeks since I'd been out in Shibuya, so I was really looking forward to this. I met Kevin in Shinjuku at 10pm. He had brought some stuff back from Fujiyoshida for me, including my Converse All-Stars, which were absolutely key for my enjoyment of the night. We also met Winny there a few minutes later. It was a bit rainy, but other than that, fine. I was quite exhausted though, and hungry, same condition as the Fujiyoshida delegation. This synergestic alignment of gastro-intestinal void was in our mutual interest to alleviate, so we went straight to Shibuya and the Elephant Cafe, which we'd tried to go to a fortnight ago and failed. This time though, everything went fine (meaning I hit the right button on the elevator) we got a table for 8, which turned out to be folly, but at the time seemed like plenty.

People started arriving at 11:30 and before long we had a huge crew. The guest of honor arrived at 12:30 and that brought our party size up to 12! The elephant room is a really great place, but it's just a little bit expensive considering the portion size.

We left at about 1:00. We spent a few minutes trying to figure out where to go. Ultimately the destination was decided to be the old standby, one more round for old time's sake...

Gas Panic

And this turned out to be an EXCELLENT idea

With a large enough group of people, Gas Panic is a ton of fun. It gives you the ability to build a space for yourselves on the dance floor. We had some great interactions with the usual rogue's gallery that calls Gas Panic home. The usual lecherous Gaijin were making their rounds, much to our group's amusement. We had a number of great episodes with a diminutive japanese woman who would link random people's hands together while dancing. A few japanese fellows were kind enough to hop into our circle and bust a few moves. The whole night was a ton of fun.

After Gas Panic, we took a short walk down the street to that other most quintessential of Japanese entertainment venues, Karaoke!

Lots of memorable duets were in the offing. I think the most memorable song was maybe Paint it Black, but that's always a hit. Hmmm...let me think. What was really good? Shin sang some Fallout Boy with Kev, that was pretty awesome. I sang 1979 again with Ryan. The capstone was definitely everyone belting out Anyway You Want It to finish the night. Fantastic!

The group headed home after the karaoke broke up. I said goodbye to Zoey on the train at Yoyogi station. I'm gonna miss her, she's a great friend and it'll be a shame to have one less cohort in Tokyo. We made it home a little after 7:30 AM. Kev had to take off at around 12 to meet a friend downtown. I stayed home and basically spent Sunday recovering, really nothing amazing.

Monday I was up pretty early, 6:00am. I met Sean at 8:50 in Tachikawa so he could help me out with my re-entry visa. No hitches there, nor with heading to Leopalace to get my internet renewed again. I stopped by Kichijoji again afterwards and picked up the camera bag pictured above. I'm pretty much all set for Thailand now, at least photography wise.

After that I met Melissa in Yokohama to do some more planning for the trip. We went to TGI Friday's for happy hour and that's pretty much it, a rather unremarkable weekend with the exception of Saturday night.

As you might have noticed from the shots above, I'm getting the hang of my camera still. The photo taken in Yokohama with the sun coming through the clouds is an example of what happens when you have the wrong White Balance set on your camera. I was taking pictures with it set to Fluorescent. This explains the pronounced blue tinge of the photo. Digital SLRs have a learning curve to my chagrin.

Well, that's all for this week. Next weekend should be interesting, as the fall weather is rolling in. I'll be sure to do more photography next week than I did this week.

'til next time.

Ian "Mello Yello" Cantello