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I ended up getting around a lot more than I had expected while in the US, which partially explains why I didn’t waste as much time as I usually might writing blogs, etc. I’m back in Japan now, and have been for almost a week. It was definitely a great time back this time, and I’m looking forward to my next visit (probably in December). I know within the next few years I’ll be back living in the US and will hopefully get to visit Japan now and then.

I spent most of my time in St. Louis, which was a lot of fun. Played video games at home, saw extended family, met up with friends, and got to drive a lot. You don’t realize how much you miss driving until you don’t do it for several months at a time. And having a GPS navigation system is an awesome addition, especially since I’m terrible at navigating beyond my immediate neighborhood in St. Louis. I blame not living there much.

Drove out to Indiana one day to grab lunch with Frank. Instead of driving all the way to Indy we decided to meet somewhat halfway and chose Terre Haute. Now, if you know anything about the region you know that T.H. is a pretty bad town (no offense….well….), but it was pretty funny I guess. At least I got to hit up the Steak there. The Mexican restaurant we ate in smelled like a public bathroom though.

I also headed to Washington DC for two days for a business meeting, which went pretty well. Also got to see the Natural History Museum of the Smithsonian and rode the metro a lot. It was also on the metro that my dad and I saw this gross woman who was probably around 50 or 60 and had, I am not exaggerating at all, breasts on her stomach. It looked like she had two bowling balls strapped to her belt. It was horrible and hilarious at the same time.

At the end of my trip I stayed in LA for the weekend before heading back to Tokyo. It was great to see everyone in LA and hang out like old times. It also made me pretty jealous that everyone lives in apartments/houses that are several times (not exaggerating) bigger than my apartment here in Japan. That’s definitely one of the big things I’m looking forward to when I move back: having a big place with a nice TV and computer setup. Also having a place where more than one person can come visit at a time would be a major plus.

And I challenge anyone to find food like this in Japan:

…please?

It’s late at night on a Saturday and I’m watching MXC on Spike. Is it strange that being in the US after such a long time, I’m now wasting time watching an originally Japanese show on TV? Nah, the dub is awesome.

I do have a small gripe though, and that’s with a certain commercial that’s already come up twice in the past 15 minutes of me watching this show. It’s for a Trojan “Vibrating Touch” thing for ladies. I don’t think I need to explain any further, do I? So yeah, whatever, it’s that kind of product and it’s late at night, I can understand that. But do they have to include a super old woman giving a testimonial about how much she loves her little Touch thing? It’s absolutely disgusting and I’ve almost puked each time she shows up. What women are up at 3AM watching Spike anyway? This commercial seems very out of place.

Ugh.

I’m back in the US. It’s been pretty good so far: lots of great food, being able to go places without having to rely on trains, stuff costing closer to what it should, etc. I’m definitely leaning towards moving back here sometime in the next year or so, whether to St. Louis or somewhere else.

Oh yeah, so I complain a lot of times about how bad Japanese TV is, especially since 90% of programming in Japan consists of the same stable of untalented “talents” overreacting to food porn. But I was sitting here working on Monday afternoon with the TV left tuned to MTV and my god, I think the shows on there (of course they don’t play music videos) have gotten even worse than before, and even beyond bad Japanese shows. I watched about 10 minutes of this show called “Parental Control” and it was just so bad in so many ways I couldn’t turn it off. I’m hoping that none of you are familiar with this show so here’s what I can gather about it: it’s a dating/reality type show where a guy’s parents aren’t happy with their son’s girlfriend. Each of the parents set up the son on a blind date, and the parents and current girlfriend monitor the date from the living room with a TV monitor. At the end of the episode, the guy decides to stay with his girlfriend, or he can choose one of the other 2 girls.

First off this show had the same style, music, and feel that all MTV shows have had for the past 10-15 years. It was just sad how the shows on that station haven’t changed at all in so long, yet I’m sure they still have a steady audience of pre-teens who don’t know any better. Next, contestants on MTV shows are always the same type of people: obnoxious, stupid loud, rude, and suggestive. On this show the parents were also like this, which made it super creepy, especially when the dad brought his girl out for his son to date, and wouldn’t shut up about “how hot she is.” Where does a married guy in his late 40’s or so find a 20-something girl who wants to be on a TV dating show??

The answer, of course, is that he didn’t, and she was provided by MTV, but it was still super creepy.

And almost like clockwork, when things starting “heating up” during the date, the current girlfriend started getting all uppity and then was arguing with the parents, expletives flying and the censor beep being used just a little too much. The show was just obnoxious and repetitive, although I did laugh a few times. These times were when the son was on camera (a lot) since he was probably in his early 20’s, seemed to have an IQ equal to his age, and was going super bald but still insisted on spiking his hair up a lot. Har har.

Quote so bad I had to make a note of it #1: “Since we went rock climbing, I brought you some rock candy!”

Quote #2, by a girl who got rejected because she was mega butch: “You know what, I am manly, and if I ever see you on the street I’m going to kick your ass!”

Ugh. I hate you MTV.

Also I’m tired of seeing “professional” poker on ESPN. Mainly just the guys with sunglasses, because that’s obnoxious.

Seriously, I’m having a great time in the US, but a lot of TV here is just amusingly bad.