Across the street was noticed that there was this thing going on with a bunch of people dressed up. We asked the hotel lobby person what it was, and he said it was a party for people turning 20 yrs old. So we went to check it out. It reminded me of prom. Everybody was standing around in their fancy cloths taking pictures. While we were standing there, a girl came up to me and asked if they could take a picture with me….just me…I was standing there with like 5 other people. I said sure, and 4 came over to take their picture with me. About 30 people saw me standing with them and all of them came to take a picture… They then walked away and I went back to get teased by everybody. About 5 minutes later, the girl came over again and asked if she could take another picture with me, and I said yes again, she then dragged me over to a group of like 15 of them, 20 ft away. The about 4 professional photographers, along with all kinds of other people had to take a bazillion pictures, along with the TV crew that was there. Oh well, it comes with the territory when you’re a rock star like me when I walked back to the group that time, some guy came out of the building and yelled something and everybody went inside so we decided to go back to the hotel.
After that, a few of us took off to Nagoya to hunt down an American sports bar, and do some other looking around. We found “Shooters” with relative ease. It was a good place to eat and they had a pool table and had a football game on that a couple of the guys wanted to watch. After that one of the newer guys came with us, he was looking for a Japanese instrument that one of his kids wanted him to bring back. So we went to a Yamaha store to look. After looking around we decided to ask one of the workers there if they sold them. They did not. He did hand draw us a map of a where he thought they might. So we left that place and started down the street via his map. While walking we saw this giant globe thing and decided to detour and go check it out. It turned out to be the Museum of Science, Nagoya. Then there was a pretty cool park with some good art work around it. It reminded me of Millennium Park in Chicago. We then walked down a pretty cool looking street that had lots of decorations all the way down it. Stumbled on a neat looking temple…and the building that was on the map. The guy at the Yamaha Store said it was on the 5th floor so we went to the 5th floor and it was a men’s clothing store. Looked around and some ridiculously expensive men’s watches, rings, necklaces etc. We asked the guy there (because we were obviously in the wrong spot) where this music store that we had directions for was at. He didn’t know, but he did tell us of another music store just down the street from where we were. So we left, and started for our new destination. We were about to cross the street when we saw a guitar on a side of building and went to check that out. On our way up to the 10th floor, we found a couple of arcades, clothing stores, and a darts store. The darts store was huge, and was completely dedicated to darts…crazy. We looked around there for a bit, and then continued
upward. When we got to the 10th floor, it was a guitar store….and they didn’t have the instrument either. So we asked one of the workers there if he knew where to find one, he then brought up Google maps on his computer and printed us out a map of where a music store was that did sell them. So we followed is directions to the store. Found the instrument which turned out not to be an instrument at all but just something that places a random tune that it generates or something….not what we all thought it was…. After we found the store we determined that this store was the one we were probably given directions to in the first place, we just went into the wrong building. There were 3 buildings all with the same right next to each other… Oh well, mission accomplished.
While we were at Shooters we found a magazine that had all the restaurants and clubs, with addresses and maps of where they are, in Nagoya. We found a couple that we thought might be good for supper. And decided to go one that was in the area we were in while we were there. But before we did since we had somebody new with us we decided to go show him some of the big underground shopping centers. While under there we saw the new prototypes for Nissan’s zero emission line of cars. We then popped up and there was a band set up on one of the street corners so we sat and listened to them for a bit. They were pretty good, they played bluesish rock. We then headed for supper. We followed the maps that we had, and wandered for about 45 minutes around the same 4 blocks, and never found the place. We even asked people and they kept telling us where it should be, and we never found it. We ended up eating at the train station, and found a restraint that we have eaten at before in another town. We all liked their food before, so we figured it was a safe bet. When we got the menu it was completely different than the one we were at before, but it was still good.
After eating we were on our way out, decided to hit the restroom before catching the next train. On the search for the bathroom, we turned a corner and stumbled on a sword shop. I was super excited because I searched the entire time before and never found one. I purchased my sword after having my first entirely Japanese conversation since I’ve been here, I impressed the guys, sort of, because I’m not that good at speaking Japanese. Then we continued on our quest for the toilet and saw a crepe shop. Found the restroom and doubled back to the crepe shop…I have a new found love for crepes. We got lucky and caught an express train back to Toyokawa, and ended my evening with a chat with Mandy…about my sword.
Monday some of the newer coworkers asked us to show them around, we took them to the shopping center which we discovered there is a bowling alley, and pool tables, and a movie theater there. While eating lunch in the food court…..we saw they opened a CREPE STORE. So of course we all got one. We then went off down the river to see what was around it. Popped up on a street that looked interesting. Saw an Anime shop that was closed today, kicking myself that I didn’t know where I was to find it later. As we kept walking we ran into an intersection that we have been too many a time, across the street was somebody from our team. Funny note about that, one of the guys asked if we ever see many other Americans here, and I said not really, then 2 seconds later we ran into Eric. Then I quickly added to my previous comment, but we run into our own people all the time (that was the third time on our little outing we ran into somebody else from our team.) We walked to some stores that we have seen but never went into. After that the new members were all tired from “all the walking” so we headed back to the hotel. For super a big group of us went to big boys for supper. Pretty much just chilled the rest of the evening. Once again it was a good weekend, tired me out and I slept great.
I think that the jet lag this time hasn’t been as bad. I bought a pillow here, since the one in the hotel is terrible, and since I did that I’ve been sleeping wonderfully. I also contribute the less jet lag to the fact that I’ve been keeping busy. The first time I came we just sat around at work the first few days, this time we had one day of work before a weekend and a holiday, so we could keep busier.
I also didn’t mind the plane ride as much this time. I was able to sleep a few hours on the plane which made the time go by a lot better. However, despite that it still was a long flight; they were having electrical problems with the lights, so the lights just kept turning off and on throughout the flight. Also the movies kept turning off for no reason, so for like 3 hrs of the flight we didn’t have a movie. I didn’t really watch the movies but they were something to watch every so often to give me something else to do. There was a guy that was sleeping and had a nightmare and freaked out and started beating on the guy in front of him…that was funny. I was sleeping, with my headphones on and he was about 5 rows behind me and he yelled so loud it woke me up…along with everybody else in our part of the plane. Also some of the other guys up in a different part of the plane said that there was water leaking in on them, I don’t know what that was about, but I think if they stop the leak that might fix their electrical problems.
While we were at Shooters we found a magazine that had all the restaurants and clubs, with addresses and maps of where they are, in Nagoya. We found a couple that we thought might be good for supper. And decided to go one that was in the area we were in while we were there. But before we did since we had somebody new with us we decided to go show him some of the big underground shopping centers. While under there we saw the new prototypes for Nissan’s zero emission line of cars. We then popped up and there was a band set up on one of the street corners so we sat and listened to them for a bit. They were pretty good, they played bluesish rock. We then headed for supper. We followed the maps that we had, and wandered for about 45 minutes around the same 4 blocks, and never found the place. We even asked people and they kept telling us where it should be, and we never found it. We ended up eating at the train station, and found a restraint that we have eaten at before in another town. We all liked their food before, so we figured it was a safe bet. When we got the menu it was completely different than the one we were at before, but it was still good.
After eating we were on our way out, decided to hit the restroom before catching the next train. On the search for the bathroom, we turned a corner and stumbled on a sword shop. I was super excited because I searched the entire time before and never found one. I purchased my sword after having my first entirely Japanese conversation since I’ve been here, I impressed the guys, sort of, because I’m not that good at speaking Japanese. Then we continued on our quest for the toilet and saw a crepe shop. Found the restroom and doubled back to the crepe shop…I have a new found love for crepes. We got lucky and caught an express train back to Toyokawa, and ended my evening with a chat with Mandy…about my sword.
Monday some of the newer coworkers asked us to show them around, we took them to the shopping center which we discovered there is a bowling alley, and pool tables, and a movie theater there. While eating lunch in the food court…..we saw they opened a CREPE STORE. So of course we all got one. We then went off down the river to see what was around it. Popped up on a street that looked interesting. Saw an Anime shop that was closed today, kicking myself that I didn’t know where I was to find it later. As we kept walking we ran into an intersection that we have been too many a time, across the street was somebody from our team. Funny note about that, one of the guys asked if we ever see many other Americans here, and I said not really, then 2 seconds later we ran into Eric. Then I quickly added to my previous comment, but we run into our own people all the time (that was the third time on our little outing we ran into somebody else from our team.) We walked to some stores that we have seen but never went into. After that the new members were all tired from “all the walking” so we headed back to the hotel. For super a big group of us went to big boys for supper. Pretty much just chilled the rest of the evening. Once again it was a good weekend, tired me out and I slept great.
I think that the jet lag this time hasn’t been as bad. I bought a pillow here, since the one in the hotel is terrible, and since I did that I’ve been sleeping wonderfully. I also contribute the less jet lag to the fact that I’ve been keeping busy. The first time I came we just sat around at work the first few days, this time we had one day of work before a weekend and a holiday, so we could keep busier.
I also didn’t mind the plane ride as much this time. I was able to sleep a few hours on the plane which made the time go by a lot better. However, despite that it still was a long flight; they were having electrical problems with the lights, so the lights just kept turning off and on throughout the flight. Also the movies kept turning off for no reason, so for like 3 hrs of the flight we didn’t have a movie. I didn’t really watch the movies but they were something to watch every so often to give me something else to do. There was a guy that was sleeping and had a nightmare and freaked out and started beating on the guy in front of him…that was funny. I was sleeping, with my headphones on and he was about 5 rows behind me and he yelled so loud it woke me up…along with everybody else in our part of the plane. Also some of the other guys up in a different part of the plane said that there was water leaking in on them, I don’t know what that was about, but I think if they stop the leak that might fix their electrical problems.
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