Karaoke, Tokyo, and a camera

The night before I left for Tokyo I had an 8-hour karaoke session with some Japanese friends and exchange student friends (although I was the only exchange student who stayed all 8 hours). Amazingly, my host brother said I was the first exchange student to go to karaoke for that long; 8 hours is long even for a Japanese person. We (the current exchange students) are also the first ones to have gone to karaoke on our own. I'm telling you, it's seriously addicting! Although I'm told that you haven't really experienced karaoke if you haven't added alchohol to the mix.

Tokyo was a blast. First thing out of the 2 and a half hour bullet train ride (from Kyoto, find out how far that is and you will then realize the sheer speed of these things) I was off the Akihabara, the electronics capital of the world. I was in the market for a new digital camera as well and I happened upon one that I had seen on the net earlier. It was the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T7. 5.1 megapixels, huge LCD screen, incredibly fast and easy to use, and one of the thinnest cameras in it's class. I got it in black too (which is limited to Japan and Hong Kong) so it looks super slick. It's been taking great pictures and I'm really happy with the purchase.

After I bought the camera I was off to Ghibli Museum, where they had real pictures drawn by Miyazaki Hayao and some really cool exhibitions. No pictures were allowed, obviously.

We then went to the 53rd floor of a building to have yaki-niku (literally, fried meat) for dinner, where not only was the food amazing (you cook the meat on a small grill in front of you and dip it in various sauces), but the view was spectacular as well; I was able to get a great view of Tokyo.

Next day I went to Roppongi Hills and had my picture taken with Honda's Asimo robot on the 52nd floor with Tokyo as the background. It was very spectacular. The contemporary art museum in there wasn't too bad either.

Next we went to Ginza to go to the Sony building which was a huge display of their technology. It was pretty damn cool. But possibly even cooler was where we went next: the Apple Store. I don't know why I wanted to go there so badly, but it was worth it to see the amazing architecture and design of the place. Again, no pictures allowed.

I had really good sushi for dinner that night too.

The next day (today) I took the bullet train back home and we all went out for revolving sushi, which was lots of fun.

Now it's back to school tomorrow, so I better get some sleep.

Ja ne.