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Ah…well, it’s coming down to that time - I only have a few more weeks left here in Japan before I have to return to the USA and the tragic life of the law student. Specifically, the 3L law student, who has naught to face but bar exams and many years of work, which may or may not suck one’s soul out of one’s body. But I don’t know yet.

July has been rather chill. I’ve mainly been working, and it’s rained or been cloudy for nearly half the month, which is rather depressing. However, the sun did ALMOST come out today, which was almost pleasant. I’ve been spending much of my evenings, though, doing work (or buying games and playing them on my Nintendo DS Lite), applying for clerkships, teaching, and stuff.

It’s been fairly busy since the end of June with looking at things, though. I went over to the Indoor Part of the Edo-Tokyo Museum, which was very cool - the museum chronicles the history of Tokyo and has really neat things. Photos are here.

The next week (wow) and a little later, I went back to Harajuku (always a treat) and did some more shopping and saw cute dogs wearing sunglasses. I also ate taco pizza at Shakey’s (all-you-can-eat, just 990 yen!).

There’s also a trip out of Tokyo, about one hour, to see the Star Festival (Tanabata Matsuri); the Temple University Japan summer festival, and with my buddy SK, a pretty cool trip to the Outdoor part of the Edo-Tokyo Museum, which has amazing examples of architecture from around the Tokyo area.

And because I have a great love for things that light up, food, and festivals, here’s the Yasakuni Shrine Lantern Festival. There are at least 20,000 of these lit up all over the shrine.

Ever since watching TMNT, I’ve been fascinated by abandoned subways in various cities. I actually got hop in one in Boston once, but it was more of the cleaned out kind. I know there are a lot of abandoned stations in NYC and London, too.

This, however, is the first time I’ve heard of paths going through Philadelphia (although there had been rumours before…

Pretty cool self-taught manga-style artist - I like that he was going to be a diplomat before he decided to suddenly lock himself in a room for two years and learn how to draw.

Amazing.

Cherries!

Originally uploaded by patchmonkey.

The cherry fairy brought me fresh cherries at work today! And they came twice

I’ve been looking for ways to bring my normal internet experiences with me, and not have to carry around anything extra. Well, thanks to Web 2.0 applications, more and more keeps becoming available!

One of the latest ones I’ve been playing with is called YouOS (CNET Review). YouOS is an online platform with a window-based, graphical user interface. There are an RSS reader, an e-mail client, and a text editor, among many applications for it.

Zoho is a series of productivity applications, ranging from a word processor to spreadsheets to CRM management - I’m planning on playing around with this later, it seems like it could work very well!

Goowy is similar to YouOS, although it’s currently a bit more polished. Games, IM, file storage, RSS feeds and widgets, among other things, are available.

I’m honestly, though, really looking forward to a full Google Suite - one that integrates Calendar, gmail, and all the rest in a single package. I’d use that in a heartbeat!

I’m so happy! 7-11 has started another Snoopy related promotion, so I plan on getting some nice Snoopy dishes for my apartment.

Yes, you read that right. Snoopy dishes. See, here in Japan, everything is a promotional item. I have gotten skiing Hello Kitty from a cola bottle, a Paddington Bear cell phone charm, waving cats for good luck, World Cup poker chip keychains, and much much more. It’s actually nice - I don’t have to buy extra presents just in case - “Oh, of course I got you something, here…a stained-glass Goofy!”

I mentioned last week that I went to Nikko with Roommate Andy (file photo) and Liz. Nikko is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and my understanding of why is because it has really S H I N Y shrines and temples. And a bridge. And some mountains. And a lot of hot springs, which all come from the top of a mountain (and are very sulfur-y smelling).

Bonus Picture: We are some SEXY bitches.

Liz and Andy stayed for a week. I had to work some of the days, but I did get another trip to the Ramen Museum in and we went to various Tokyo places. Liz did a lot of shopping, which I hear is a popular activity in Tokyo, where there are only a billion stores.

I ended up purchasing a Nintendo DS after they left - Andy and I tried to find one, but apparently they’re squirreled away by rabid shoppers as soon as they’re available. I finally got one, in “ice white” or whatever color white is these days. I bought New Super Mario Brothers, Children of Mana (even though I won’t be able to read much of it), Super Mario Kart DS, and Mario v. Donkey Kong (for the GBA, but the DS plays both). I wanna try racing in Mario Kart DS online, so I just gotta figure out how it works.

In a couple of weeks I’m hitting the tracks to a weeklong trip out of Tokyo. I am hoping to get to Nagasaki, Hiroshima, Shikoku (to see my friend Nina), possibly stay at a temple at Mount Koya, and then…well, I’m not sure after that. Then a few days in Osaka and Kyoto with Mariko, and then back home to Philadelphia. So much to do, so little time!

PS: Bonus Quote: “In retrospect, the real victims of Fox News weren’t the liberals it attacked but the conservatives who believed it.”