October 11-12th, 2004

Let:s start things off with a familiar face to the indies. Coca-cola!! Normally (looking at the shape) this would be called a "tall can," but tall cans are 500ml. This is a "skinny can", and only 300 milliliters, making it smaller than a "normal can" in volume, but taller than a normal, yet smaller overall compared to the tall cans. I bought this after a long day of tap water and maybe-stale bread. It:s 5:37pm here, and tonight I head for Akihabara!

So first hint as to what this thing is "Akihabara, aka Electric City". Second is that I really really needed this.

It:s a lid for my Gameboy Advance. I left the old one in the states on accident. I left a lot of things in the states on accident...

Here:s a shot of Tim and his swanky new loaner-phone. CHECK OUT HIS ARMS. Somehow I caught the mysterious "Voodoo Angle" professional photographers talk about but then say they don:t talk about when you ask them what they were just talking about. Liars, all of us. We:re hanging out at the Skylark Gusto we used to frequent more in the days of old.

Mysterious crime-fighting photographer extraordinaire Chuck Franklin showed up to talk about "the biz" and to discuss the night life of Tokyo. The city where he lives in... And the city he:d die for, probably.

ARRRRGH! It:s a pirate, it be!

Wearing non-perscription sunglasses at night at a resturaunt is cool and you should do it, too.

Night planned and we were off! Leaving The Skylark gusto, we traveled a bit North towards KARAOKE and the untold bounty she hides... Only snag is that at karaoke parlors, they usually jank up the prices of beer. Beer-consumption-i-zing not being something I advocate, but it certainly makes the night of humiliating singing more bearable for me somehow.

500 yen for a tiny thimble of beer that will show up 45 minutes after I order it, Mr. Karaoke? No, thank you! ...No, thank YOU, Mr. Convenience Store! Bless your wonderful selection and low-low prices. (Stay in school, kids! Yo, JOE!!)

We ate, we sang, we did our business. Fried onion rings and a half-loaf of bread loaded with syrup, syrup and more syrup fueled us well into the late hours.

I tired to get a good shot of the TV screen, kanji floating at the bottom and all, but due to the dark room, or maybe due to the TV I just couldn:t. Meh. This is good enough.

Okay, I covered beer, food, TV... What:s left?

Books. The songs and stuff are listed in one of several books. Much like a phone book, they are thick and filled with stuff you may never see or care to read. THICK. You got your American/Chinese/Korean/Foreign book, your Pop Japanese book, a Folk Japanese book, and your Anime book for the hopeless losers that we are. ...I mean, the hopeless losers they are.

Ending sometime around 25 to midnight, we went our separate ways and hurried in them to catch last trains. From Akihabara i jumped on the Keihin-tohoku line and went straight up to Akabane where I hoped to catch a North-bound Saikyo line (regular, not an express) for the last two stops to good old Ukima-funado, my home!

But it didn:t happen. I got as far as Akabane, but missed the last train by a good eight minutes. Live and learn, I guess. From here on, the indie goes on foot to get home!

Late-night walking is different from day-time walking. Less people and cars. You ignore stoplights. Less crime, too, for some reason. So walking through dead-quiet alleys past midnight is something I guess I like about Japan at night.

And now here:s a shot to end the indie on. A battery-dispensing vending machine! You don:t see too many of those around, nowadays. Like the bento-vending machine back in Okazaki or something. But enough of that shameless reminiscing! I got to get back to walking my way through life. More walking and more and more... Got a ways to go even though by train it:s two stations and 5 minutes.

Walk, walk, walk some more and we:re about 40 minutes from Akabane station and only 8 minutes away from home! Perhaps in my tired and barely-drunk mindset (contrary to the picture, I had more than one beer) I almost missed this Frogger here! At the last second I realized that the leaf right in front of me was not only way to thick and round to be a leaf, but it was a FROG. A big one, too. About the size of my fist. Chalk it up as one of the dangers of drunk-walking I guess. Stepping on frogs.

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There you go! KA-RA-O-KEee!

It:s been a while. It:ll be another while, I suppose.

PEACE!!