December 29th, 2003 (5:15am, Tokyo Standard Time)

I should make an amendment to my comment on the first class train: they did serve us some reasonable food that's in my opinion better than most airline stuff - though a small difference - so one more reason 1st class is good.

December 28th, 2003 (3:58am, Tokyo Standard Time)

December 27th, 2003 (3:42pm, Tokyo Standard Time)

December 26th, 2003 (4:19pm, Tokyo Standard Time)

The actual time is 8.19 in the morning. I am an hour from arriving at Paris Nord station, after having already rode this train (NachtZug) for nine hours.

December 25th, 2003 (1:58am, Tokyo Standard Time)

It's something like 6pm in Denmark, but it has gotten dark almost three hours earlier. That's the first thing i noticed about this place, that the days are awfully short. The plane touched down at 7:30 or so, being about half hour late or so, but even after about 8am the sky is still very much dark. The sun never showed its face even though after it has officially risen after 8:30 or so - heavy overcast and it was mostly drizzly.

December 24th, 2003 (5:06am, Tokyo Standard Time)

December 19th, 2003 (5:14pm)

Sunday I take a trip back to the US. It will last two weeks; hopefully with some kind of stopover in Europe - my first trip there.

Yesterday I went to the Kumagaya city hall to get my alien registration card, and made a stopover at H.I.S. to get a eurail pass - it is 47200 yen here; compared to USD of 414 currently, it's not terribly more expensive (about 15 dollars extra, methinks). However it takes like two days to actually get it.

December 17th, 2003 (5:56pm)

Holding the previously mentioned red carrot (which was becoming warm by my body heat) and the purple scallop, a few more places were visited - most of them probably would have kicked me out had they know what I had it my hands.

December 16th, 2003 (4:47pm)

Tsukiji is as I remembered it. Though, at 8am, it was a lot more crowded; people were squeezing past eachother, trying to navigate the already narrow streets that are further filled with merchandise on both sides. Workers, usually on these motorized fish truck things (that has a distinct cylindical engine / steering portion and driving past the crowd in speeds many times what I consider to be acceptable. Smell of the ocean is distinct.

Dec 15th, 2003 (5:15pm)

This weekend was interesting. I went to Tokyo for a very, very long time. The trip started at something like 5AM; and I got home at about midnight.

The main purpose of the trip was to attend International Exchange Club at night; something that is apparently often advertised on Metropolis' classified section. A guy named Yukio organizes it; but unfortunately I found out very little about him.

December 12th, 2003 (3:47pm)

A simple math question I've been dreaming up but always too lazy to solve: in simple numeric format, how many days out of the year would the date not be confusing, if one does not know if month or date is written first? For example 1/5 would be confusing while 28/2 would be ok. (For some reason it crossed my mind just when I started, so I figure the thought must really want to be shared or put into record or something)

December 11th, 2003 (5:18pm)

Two things worth noting:

1) experience related to tuesday

Tuesday is swimming day - I go to the pool and stay there for two hours. Let us not disclose the actual percentage of time that is spent swimming, because it is does no good for my self esteem.

December 10th, 2003 (5:41pm)

Monday we had a "body condition test" program. I think it's held once every two years, because I don't remember anything like that from last year. Technically, it is still going on (will go on for week or two, I think).

December 9th, 2003 (4:36pm)

This past sunday was the nation-wide japanese proficiency exam, which I did not participate.

December 8th, 2003 (7:06pm)

Now. Fugu was good.

Ok, maybe first of all: I am alive.

Anyway - Fugu was good but I don't think it was so good that it was worth dying for. That said though, it was in fact really really good. The sashimi was so so (it's probably to date the most chewy sashimi I have ever had), and the fried version was just alright, but the nabe (pot / wok?) was very delicious.

I didn't try the fugu-fin hot-sake; abstaining from alcohol and all.