yukata.

these are from the summer, but i just got these pictures yesterday.

i'm wearing a yukata, which is a kimono for the summer in japan. all summer long, the japanese wear yukatas for different events. mostly, to watch the fireworks. 

BEEF.

QUARTER POUNDER just opened some locations in tokyo this past week. one of them is a five minute walk from my school, so during a lunch break on thursday i volunteered to grab some BEEF for my coworkers. 

this place is confusing.

so, i'm almost positive that its owned by mcdonald's. it has the double arches, and all. when you go in this place, its so gothic. all the walls are black and it has super low lighting. also, all the furniture inside is black and leather. basically, its a goth mcdonald's.

you can only order a quarter pounder or a double quarter pounder. and you can only order "sets", which includes fries and a drink (only coca cola or coca cola zero). the quarter pounder set is 500 yen ($5ish) and the double quarter pounder set is 600 yen ($6ish). 

super cheap. super weird. 

the mcdonald's in tokyo don't serve quarter pounders, so i think these "quarter pounder" places are trying to test the japanese market? maybe.

when i was taking pictures of this place, so were like five other japanese people. with our phones. haha. i'm so japanese.

thoughts and things.

i just woke up from a nap and have returned from 7/11 with a donut, soy bean flavored chips, and a coca cola. i have some thoughts i'd like to document:

tokyo is the combination of las vegas and new york city, only totally asian. 

because:

everything is 24 hours (vegas)

its a gigantic city, different neighborhoods (ny)

everything is new (vegas)

everything is expensive (ny)

pachinko parlors abounds (vegas)

train system (ny)

super duper expensive/lavish night clubs (vegas)

fashion models, camera crews, photoshooting (ny)

a trillion lights everywhere (vegas)

really small apartments for high rent (ny)

this is all surface, of course. but it may be able to give you an idea of the atmosphere here. who knows, i may retract this later. 

on another note, today i ate mexican food for the first time in six months. um...as "mexican" as you can get in japan, that is. it was around $9 for a small chicken taco, chips, guacamole, and a pepsi. yea, i probably won't bother with doing that again. but it did satisfy my craving for some spice. 

also, i found this used clothing chain called "kinji" afterwards. its a lot like buffalo exchange, only way more clean (of course! i cannot stress the cleanliness of tokyo enough.) there are a lot of used clothing/vintage stores in tokyo. if you ever want to be uber rich, you should invest in some used clothing exchange here. because all these stores really have to import from america (its all american vintage, etc.)

as far as work is concerned, the other foreign teacher (wil) is leaving soon. i've known about this since i got here, so its not really new news to me. although, i am pretty happy to be getting to work with someone new. the new guy is the same age as me and he's from australia. this also means that my contract renewal is coming up...i'm pretty sure it will be this wednesday. i would extend my contract for three more months if they offered me a renewal, but the biggest factor in deterring that for me is the summer (no way in HELL am i working in a suit everyday in almost 100% humidity. i'm not quite sure how i did that over this last summer. i think i was in a complete haze from just moving to japan.) or else i would. 

in america are there soup or bbq chicken flavored chips? these are very popular in japan.

that is all. 

on another note, living in japan has made me really hygenic. 

the japanese LOVE obama!

(sorry for the complete lack of picture quality)

one of my students bought a "I HEART OBAMA" package of mochi (amazing sweet bean treat!) in her hometown for our school. 

...i'm not quite sure why it's the back of obama's head though?

i just gobbled it up, and it was delicious. 

dedicated to dearest diego.

dear diego,

remember when we went to waterfront and asked random people to take pictures of their dogs? ah, sweet memories...for the dog blog! well, i dedicate this post to you my friend. 

love always,

pamela

this is muffin. and every time i see muffin, i say "i want to eat your face, muffin!"

one of my students just adopted muffin. he even let my co-worker, wil, name him.

muffin is a boy, and came with accessories. he always wears two blue bows on his ears and a scarf around his little neck.

side note: the same student who adopted muffin also signed up for a self-study course from me (working one-on-one with the student, but they study at home and prepare the materials themselves). its a course called "news talk" where students choose english news articles and write a summary, discuss the article with me, etc. we have this board to document the students progress with the self-study courses (the schools do self-study twice a year), and we take a picture with them and they write a goal for themselves next to the picture. so, this student wanted to say "my goal is to improve my english, so i can talk to pamela more" haha...

filled with miso soup and cold medication.

after the park hyatt and some big spendin' on a fancy dinner, we met up with some of my friends in shibuya. i met hiro over the summer, actually just two weeks after moving to tokyo. it is hiro's goal in life to be friends with everyone. i love him. he took us to this place called legato on the 52nd floor of a building in shibuya. so fun! most clubs in tokyo (by the way, i still can't believe i actually go to clubs) are pretty awesome, just so crowded. but, legato was just right. 

also, maya and i met rodion the russian (one of the most amazing, craziest fools i have ever met) and he later took us to the most fascinating hole-in-the-wall bar in tokyo. the bar was covered with these vintage glass light fixtures, covered in dust. the owner of the bar was this crazy japanese dude who screamed at maya for taking a picture (i was later told off as well...but that's another story). 

last night was one of the most amazing nights i've had in tokyo. because i feel at home here, now. i hung out with a lot of my japanese friends, made new friends, felt so happy and in control. 

now, i have a cold. now, i am watching every episode of arrested development whilst pumping myself full of miso soup and cold tablets.

dear life,

you rule. i love you with every fiber of my being. thanks for making things so rad.

love,

pamela

lost in translation.

maya and i celebrated genna's birthday with her at the park hyatt's new york city grill. that place was fancy. "lost in translation" was filmed there. the view of tokyo at night was stunning (the pictures could not give it justice). 

ginza.

ginza in tokyo is the complete opposite of shibuya.

except, its still really crowded. i had to wait in a line to get into H&M (although, it was only like a 15 minute wait. when it first opened, the wait was more like 2 hours). 

i didn't take many pictures, but these images inspired me to whip out my phone camera. 

also, everything is starting to look like christmas around here. 

continued halloween theme events.

i started my saturday night after work by meeting up with my friend mika. we went to what seemed to be a UN meeting at this izakaya in shibuya, that my friend hiro invited me to. there were like over thirty people from all over the world: usa (i solely represented, thankyouverymuch), australia, japan, france, canada, italy, etc. on my end of the table people were speaking probably four or five different languages. it was pretty fun. maya met up as well, and then we headed to roppongi. maya's friend had invited her to this club there, and we got on the list. 

everytime i go to roppongi, its always an exhausting night. because 1. i know i'm going to be out until at least 5am (last train) and 2. i'm going to be super overwhelmed by the atmosphere (foreigners, craziness, *ropponginess). and i am always correct, saturday night was no exception. but it was fun!

i did some solo dance moves on the dance floor (note: the picture above), so that was pretty entertaining for everyone. some people laughed, one dude said "you are the most beautiful dancer i have ever seen." 

a bunch of people were in costumes, my favorite was the drag queen in a nazi uniform. 

*ropponginess: drunk foreigners on the street screaming, kabab stands, euro dudes in some skin tight shirts dancing to techno.