We're on Fuji TV (Day 2)

>> Monday, January 15, 2007

As soon as I realized, "Hey, I'm in Tokyo!", my eyes popped open. No alarms need for me this morning…boo! I tended to think I would be jetlag-resistant due to the copious amounts of night shifts I used to work…well, I was wrong and it sucks. I mean, it could be worse, since I really only woke up at 6 AM. And so I preceded to email people and just generally laze about.

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My hotel view upon waking…

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…and slowly brighter…

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…bang. Good Morning.

I was checking out the goods in my room, and came across a yukata which I proceeded to jump into, looking ro-ugh and red-eyed.

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Eventually after I pissed away several hours, it was time to head over to Hino to meet up with Jean! I think I was late even though I had 3 hours to get ready.

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This the view from my train station in Tachikawa.

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Ready for anything.

I met with Jean and we went to her school from some oishi cafeteria food of tonkatsu and salad. Lots of staring ensued, to which I stared back. So many pretty girls! This was after all, an all-women's university. We participated in a lunchtime English discussion with some kawaii Japanese girls and a very nice lady who brought us truffles she had made.

After lunch, we headed out for our daily excursion to Shinjuku. Oh Shinjuku!

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This is Studio Alta and is "the meeting spot" for lots of Japanese people. Often you can't even find the person you are meeting since everyone else there is doing the same thing.

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This place has got to be the craziest/busiest place I've ever been in my life. So many cool shops, places and people, I was going on overload.

So Jean and I were wandering innocently, gawking at shoes (which only come in S, M, L, and XL, by the way) and this guy came up to us asking if we spoke Japanese. We replied, of course, with "sukoshi" (sp?) which means a little. He then said he was a TV producer for a show called "Mezanyu" and wanted us to do a promo spot for it. We were confused as hell, so we naturally agreed. So the first take was us looking at each other confusedly, saying "…mezan..yu..?"  He suggested we do another take. Second shot was us, full-on glam, peace-sign exposing, chirping, "Mesanyu!!" Yeah, the guy said we broke his heart. No big deal. Look for us on Fuji TV.

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UPDATE: I've googled it, and Mezanyu is a news program on Fuji TV…I'm not sure how we fit into that scheme of things or why someone would watch Japanese news with two white girls promo-ing it, but who can say?

After wandering, shopping and me purchasing my first pair of Vivienne Westwood socks, we stumbled upon the newly-opened Krispy Kreme.

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Die-hards…righteous.

We basically just bummed until evening when we headed back to my 'hood of Tachikawa to see 'Nana 2'. We were almost late, but thanks to hustling up our five floors, we were just in time for the opening credits.

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Takumi!....Nobu!....*dies*

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Basic premise…new Ren (no longer played by my boyfriend, Mr. Ryuhei Matsuda), new Hachi, new Hachi gets knocked-up, bands playing shows ensue. Fun for the whole family. Worth 1,800 yen ($18)? Probably not, but there were quite a few good-looking dudes and everyone wore Vivienne Westwood. Two thumbs-up. Oh, and it was really cool that the climactic concert scene was filmed in Shinjuku Square (in front of the Studio Alta building) where we had been only hours earlier. I'm such a star.

The rest of the evening was pretty chill as I was still jetlaggy, so I headed back to my hotel, snapping a pic of the "from" shopping mall close to my place.

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Yes, that IS a giant shopping bag coming out of the mall, trying to escape. Turns out the mall was pretty crappy.

I had an uber-oishi dinner and called up my buddy Haruka to discuss plans for the next day.

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Japanese salsitas! Best of my life!

After calling Haruka (who was my first Japanese phone call and answered with "Moshi moshi!"), I hit the sack to dream about little Harajuku girls running through my head. That sounds creepy and it's actually entirely untrue. Day 2 was done and tomorrow is Harajuku, kabuki theatre and clothes that actually fit onto my body. Miracles happen everyday people!

Oyasuminasi.

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