patchmonkey.net

A HUGE UPDATEem>

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Me & Starbucks
Staaba (short for “sutaabakutsu”) is what the people in Tokyo call Starbucks. They no longer have the Marshmallow Mocha I fell in love with - it’s gone, to that “seasonal Tokyo drink special” place in the sky.

It has, however, been replaced by one of two drinks - the “matcha latte”, which is amazingly excellent, and the “cinnamon streusel latte,” which is not quite as good. Oh well. I still like to study there - just like in the USA. And yes, Chrissey, you can get a huge Americano with lots of espresso.

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The Supreme Court of Japan (2/1/2006)
The Supreme Court of Japan is very very large. There’s no other way around that. The building is huge, and they wouldn’t let us take pictures of the outside - but taking pictures inside was fine. No, I don’t understand either.

There are fifteen justices, each of whom can serve until they are, I believe, 65. I may be wrong, but suffice it to say that they are age limited. The whole court very rarely hears a case - most of my pictures are of the “Grand Bench Room,” which is where all fifteen would hear a case - but most often they are heard by the “Petit Bench,” which is made up of five justices.

Inside the court is also a library, but because Japan is technically a civil law country, the library for US & UK materials is much bigger than the Japanese law library there. “Technically a civil law country,” you may ask? Yes - they are a “mixed” civil common system, which makes it incredibly difficult to deal with at times.

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Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building & Mori City View (2/2/2006; 2/4/2006)

Both of these provide views of the city from high above. That’s pretty much it at the Metro Government building, but Mori Tower (home of Mori City View) also has a museum, which had an exhibit on Japanese/German artistic relations and the impact of each country on the other’s art.

I went to one for a daytime look and the other for the nighttime look. Very beautiful and pretty amazing either way!

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Sake Tasting (2/3/2006

This is pretty much what it sounds like - I went and was able to try various flavors and kinds of sake. Some were much better than others. Here’s a picture!

There was also a girl playing shamisen, a traditional Japanese musical instrument, while two guys beatboxed. I have video, but it’s not yet on the net.

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Zojoji Temple (2/3/2006)

Zojoji Temple was built in the year 1393, and was moved to its present location in 1598. It is the main temple of the Buddhist Jodo sect in the Kanto area. Tokyo Tower now stands just next to the temple. There’s a tree planted by President Grant that survived the air raids of WWII (which destroyed much of the rest of the temple) and another one planted by the first President Bush. In the gardens surrounding the temple are statues of jizobosatusu, a “deity” for the souls of stillborn children, often dressed in red smocks and bonnets.

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Harajuku Again (2/5/2006)

Went out to Harajuku again, only wearing my Harry Potter scarf. Japanese girls apparently enjoy walking by and going “Haarii Paataa!”

I also made a little boy wearing Gryffindor clothes very happy - he thought it was really cool that I was also a Gryffindor.

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Yokohama (2/11/2006)

Accompanied by Heidi and Gail, I went to Yokohama to visit the Ramen Museum and Chinatown (especially for the Chinese New Year). Yes, there really is a Ramen Museum.
They invited ramen chefs from all over Japan to open restaurants inside this “museum” and you can go around trying different regional specialties. Pretty amazing!

After that, we headed to Chinatown where we saw a small bit of Chinese Dragon dancing and then had dinner. Pretty tiring, and I passed out on the train home.

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Asakusa (2) and Ueno (2/12/2006)

With Joe Effu! I went to Asakusa again, which was not as crowded as last time, and then headed over to Ueno park, which was quiet and large.

Then we went into Ameyoko Market. Busy and bustling, it’s a place to get anything and everything - fish, fake Burberry scarves, clothing, shoes, electronics - and it’s all within a square block with 500 stores in it.

Just what the doctor ordered…

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Coming soon: Kamakura and Skiing!

Yum!

Originally uploaded by patchmonkey.

Tokyo is such a great city to walk around and eat things!

(^_^)v

Part I: An Example of Things I Don’t Understand From Class
“The Ninth Circuit seems to say: send the parties to arbitration if their dispute is ‘arguably susceptible of an interpretation that the parties agreed to arbitrate.”

Do you agree? Despite the fact that we haven’t talked about French law for 100 pages, what would the result be under French law? How about on the moon? Is there any difference if the contract was written in Antarctica?

Part II: Asakusa (January 29th, 2006)
Asakusa is a pretty old and quaint section of Tokyo (but it used to be the pleasure centre of Tokyo - this was where the bars and prostitutes were, it was called “Yoshiwara”).

I went here with Insuk, and we learned that Sunday is not the day to go there. Sunday is not the day to go nearly any temple or shrine in the entire country, really - but especially not here. The place was packed with people, but we managed to make it around and look at things anyway. The big attraction here is Sensoji Shrine and the Five-Story Pagoda, but there is also the open air market there and the “giant golden poo” (I am not making this up).

The big gate entrance has the God of Wind on the left and the God of Thunder on the right to protect the shrine. Through the gate is the Nakamise Shopping Arcade, in which every single person in Tokyo decided to be that day.

Other than that, there really isn’t much to do there. It’s mainly souvenir shopping, although there are some good deals to find and touristy things. But it is a pretty impressive shrine. And there are http://www.flickr.com/photos/patchmonkey/94743212/in/set-1799377/ in the ponds.

Part III: The Secret To Being Left Alone In Roppongi
Roppongi, for those of you who don’t know, is the “ex-pat” area of Tokyo. It’s not really - a lot of Minato-ku has non-Japanese in it, and Roppongi is just the main “drinking/carousing” area. It’s got a fairly bad reputation for a part of Tokyo - but it’s still safer there in the middle of the night than it is anywhere in the USA.

But one of the main “street” occupations in Roppongi is recruiting foreigners to the following: bars, clubs, “massajii,” strip clubs, etc. The best way to avoid this is to start becoming friends with the “recruiters.” Once you get that down, it’s pretty easy to get in anywhere and then get cheaper drinks as well. And they’ll tell you better (and more fun) places to hang out.

What else is in Roppongi? It’s mainly for drinking and carousing with Japanese and more foreigners than usual. There’s Roppongi Hills, an upscale business/living/shopping centre that’s pretty cool, and has an excellent viewing area and museum at the top. I recommend checking it out.

That’s all for now. I’ll post about the Supreme Court of Japan, Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, MoriCityView, and some more soon!

Indo-European Languages

Let me tell you about this site. I found a link here from JapanesePod101, and this site is amazing.

The author currently has tutorials for fourteen languages, as well as Linguistics, English grammar, and the History of English. There’s also advice on learning languages and message boards.

Check it out! I promise, I’ll be writing a new post soon!

From the Tokyo Metropolitan Building

Originally uploaded by patchmonkey.

There is a crazy nice (and free) observatory up here…great views of the city!