For our orientation upon arrival to Japan, we stayed at the Wakamatsu Honten, a ryokan (Japanese-style inn) in Narita City.

Temple right across the street. I don't remember the actual name though. It was HUGE. The whole area was made up of several buildings and courtyards.

It's Ichikawa-san! Right off the airplane, this guy was nuts. He's on speed or something (actually, ice cream). He's no longer with IES, but I'm sure he'll be seeing (stalking) us sometime again.

At the time, I thought this was a really good picture. Traditional building being repaired with modern construction?

Me in front of a shrine or temple place. How touristy can you get?

Here is Akihabara JR Station. Basically all train stations look the same, and are packed with people. On this day, I was going to "Electric Town" where you can get a bunch of electronics, anime, and porn. That's about all they sell there.

"Are you dandy?" No, but I can sure pretend to be.

A bunch of IES and Kanda students in Ikebukuro. All you can eat yakiniku (Korean BBQ) for about 3000 yen. It was pretty good; ate a lot of different stuff.

If you are drunk and pass out in the street, I will attack you. Bryan knows this now.

Asakusa Kaminari-mon. Why all the ruckus? Apparently one of the Japanese Olympic medal winners was there that morning, thus the crowds and TV cameras.

Rickshaw driver. His butt must have been itchy. Or sore.

"Hey we have this amazing temple. Let's turn it into a tourist trap so foreigners can walk through it, buy trinkets, and discard any kind of religious or spiritual purpose this place once had!"

Me and Seth in front of the temple. If you're cool, you can act like you're getting high. Later you realize that you just inhaled all kinds of weird incense, probably equal to huffing white out.

Ari claims to be Ichiban. Or maybe he just IS.....?

Shin-san, IES staff member. He's wearing an Orange County Choppers hat. You don't want to meet this guy in a dark alley. Take that anyway you like.

This is the water taxi that we took in order to get to Ryogoku, where we watched sumo wrestling.

Random IES and Kanda kids on top of a boat.

Once again, I am a moron.

Watching sumo from the nosebleed seats. The stadium is just like any regular sporting arena (ie, IU Assembly Hall), but has a bunch of traditional Japanese decor on the walls. Also fat guys in thongs.

Me, Mayo, Ari, and Sayoko (Super Sayokon) at an okonomiyaki restaurant after sumo. You cook a cabbage pancake-type thing on your table. Really good.