I'm going to freak out if I don't find a stable internet connection soon. This shit is ridiculous. I dragged this stupid laptop 5000 miles...I'd like to be able to use it, for the love of god.

Awright, so, last night Doug and I met up with Doug's friend, Steve. Friday nights in Tokyo are, as you would expect, totally insane. The train stations are jammed and the public squares around them are equally busy. We met Steve in Shibuya again, which is an up-scale neighborhood with a lot of young, fashionable people, and then proceeded to have dinner at a Korean grill. It was delicious. I had my first cow tongue...tastes like beef. Shocking. The fun part of the Korean grilling experience is that you actually grill your own food. They bring you a crucible with a super hot fire inside, and you go ahead and grill your meats and veggies. If you know me, you know that I do love the grilling, and I have to say that I'm a fan of Korean food. Look for yakiniku if you come to Japan.

After dinner, we wound our way through the back alleys of Shibuya, perused some of its seedier shops, and then headed for a standing bar that is popular with gaijin (foreigners) and natives alike. We stayed for an hour or so and had a few beers before departing back to the station and heading south to another district whose name I currently cannot remember. Once there, we saw a band fronted by a chunky, vaguely Elvis-like Japanese guy sing rock and roll covers. The band was good, but the beers were 9 fucking dollars each. Out. Rageous. On the other hand, it was nice to have a few Bass Ales, a good British beer that my departed friend Scottie used to adore, and Steve and Doug did a lot of the buying. In fact, Doug and Steve did all of the buying, so that was cool.

It's good to be making new friends here...seems like I have a knack for it, which is constantly surprising to my socially awkward inner 14-year-old. On that note, I collected no fewer than 3 new contacts yesterday alone, and 2 of them are potential job contacts...that's without even trying, so I'm feeling pretty good about the job thing at the moment. Doug seems to think that it should be not only easy, but that I should be selective and make sure that I find a job with the biggest bang for the buck...that's starting to look like good advice.

So, anyway. My first full day in Tokyo was officially a blast and I have a big pile of pictures. Hell yeah.

http://www.facebook.com/photos.php?id=1302096253#/album.php?aid=7705&id=1302096253