Forget 2010 Bonenkai season

Forget 2010. That's what they say in Japan. This time of year is filled with "Forgetting the Year" parties. they mean forget the bad stuff though. I had to go to 4 bonenkai parties this weekend.



year of the rabbit daruma at tokyu hands



Don Quixote is a big chain store in Japan. Its like if walmart and spencer's novelty store mated and had a baby. thats Don Quixote. so its filled with useful stuff and tons and tons of stupid crap too. but it's basically the cheapest place to buy anything from blankets to fake eyelashes. The shopping experience there is similar to taking drugs. every corner of the store is crammed from floor to ceiling with product of every color of the rainbow. Every audible space is filled with some kind of noise from displays crammed next to each other. Its sensory overload so you can only stay in Don Quixote for 20 minutes before you cross over to the other side. Its like the physical manifestation of Japanese TV in shopping experience form. here is a super skinny weird stairway aisle. the pic doesnt do it justice.



if you are ever super hungry and don't care about quality and only want to spend 700 yen then go to mcdonalds. but if you are super hungry and don't care about quality and only want to spend 700 yen and want to eat japanese food then go to this place at the bottom of the love hotel hill in shibuya. Their thing is they serve massive don buri bowls. here is the japanese fried chicken on rice bowl. look at the epic mt. fuji-esque shadow it is casting! it is seriously a lot of food. they have a beef bowl, a spicy korean beef bowl that is seriously spicy which is rare in japan, and a few other ones too. Sometimes youre just so hungry you want unlimited miso soup pumped from a machine, and a pile of fried chicken and white sauce.



trains are crazy here. here is the keio inokashira line that opens up on both sides at some stations so you can cut through tracks and not have to walk up and down stairs.



i've been here for a year and never have been affected by this woman's only car thing and that is probably because i rarely ride the train during rush hour thankfully. anyway during busy hrs there are special cars on some trains were only women can ride on them because there is such a huge groper problem here. awesome



Went to the Setagaya Boroichi which is a 400 year old flea market held in on 2 days in december and 2 days in january. it was mostly people selling their old stuff and food stalls. it was cool and would have been even cooler if it wasn't so cold that night.



this sweet slightly alchoholic unfiltered hot sake drink hit the spot



housewives were lined up to get their hands on these scouring pads for some reason. maybe you're the man if you have one of these sitting on your sink. or maybe they were just happy to finally find a scouring pad that surpasses the scrubbing power of the competitors pads while leaving your hands silky smooth and lemon fresh. Or maybe they are dumbasses. Or maybe i just don't get it.





candied apples



sometimes my roomate buys this "double soft" bread. I decided to try it and found out that it ain't no mother lovin' lie, it IS ridiculously thick and soft. eating 1 slice has gotta be like eating 3 slices of wonderbread, only they puff more air in these somehow so its like you're only eating half a slice of wonderbread. I'm still gonna go with my regular Japanese bread which is still crazier and bigger than american bread to fufill my recently acquired toast fetish.



The big forgetting the year party at my school. everyone is sitting on the floor like 3rd graders watching a play. which is basically what it was. Teachers dressed up in costumes, cross-dressed, lip syncing, arm wrestling, bingo, various performances, these are all words associated with this day. quasi-pizza, super sweet ketchup laced spaghetti, yakisoba, chips, dried squid, potato salad, popcorn, beer-like hoposhu, soda are also words associated with this day. No one got drunk i dont think. most people drank soda or juice anyway. and its japan so people wouldn't really get out of control at a function like this.



lets see here. a party platter. oooo lickty me fingers....smackity smack.....popcorn, chips, banana chips, sweet cracker like things, dried squid strips..... what? you don't like dried squid on your party platter? well welcome to asia buddy! oh but its pretty good actually.



this makes me want to puke. the other two guys are watever, they look like dudes who cross dressed. but hashimoto sensei looks like a tranny for real. hashimoto sensei has been on this blog many times but this is the worst. he wasn't laughing or anything which was gross too, it was like he was serious.



if that didnt make you want to puke check out this sweet knee detail shot.



cross dressing like this is something that teachers do every year for this party. i dont know why, i guess its a japanese thing.



afterward it was onto another forgetting the year party. these thai girls are from our school, the one on the right was in my old class.

So I am no longer a student. My 1 year of Japanese school is over. I don't think I ever want to be a full time student again because it was so hard to go to school everyday for 3.5 hrs and be a full time illustrator. I also don't want to learn anymore languages. I'm already sh!tty at 3 languages and don't want to be shatty at anymore. but if im to move to Europe i guess it will have to happen eventually.....and even sooner in Hong Kong, but most speak english there so hopefully i can get away with minimal cantonese.

So from here on out it will be all about NY for three weeks! see you on the other side of the world.