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It’s finally time for me to get around to documenting the past few weeks. A big highlight was the unusually high number of visitors. It seems like everyone and their mother decided to come visit right around the same time. Actually Blanchard’s mom did come to Japan, but they were in Kyoto. But at least the “everyone and their mother” line kind of works. But I digress. Luckily, I had a lot of free time to hang out with people, show them around, go to sightseeing-type places, and all that stuff. I got to play tour guide and went to more places in Tokyo than I think I have the rest of the year combined.

First group of visitors was Nick “NR7000” Roberts and his so-called Sidekick. They came up from Ono to Tokyo for a few days during the last week of March, and I met up with them on the 26th. We had planned on meeting up in Akihabara, after which I thought we’d be going around to other places in Tokyo. We ended up spending the entire day there though, which gave us an in-depth look into the strangest and creepiest part of Tokyo.

Most of the day involved us going around to arcades, shops, etc. There wasn’t really anything that I wanted to pick up, but Nick was able to do some shopping and also found those giant foam Hulk Hands that came out about 6 years ago. He was wearing those all around the karaoke booth at night. Sidekick was looking for a mousepad or a poster and some other stuff for some weird jerk-off anime that I don’t know about, and I don’t think he found it. Either way, one highlight (if you can call it that) of the day was the maid cafes, which Sidekick had never been to, and of which Nick and I had only been to once, last year during Golden Week. While in principal I am not interested in these places, in some small part it was interesting. However, we went to more than one maid cafe, which is more than you ever need to go.

The first one we went to was called a ツンデレカフェ (Tsundere Cafe), which is a kind of special maid cafe where the waitresses are supposed to act like your little sister but also be all pissy and mad at you and stuff. Due partially to the fact that we were foreigners and they probably didn’t want to confuse us, there was very little difference between this cafe and a regular cafe. There was one time when Nick tried to call the waitress over and it took a few tries (she was only 3 feet away). This could have been her being pissy, or maybe she was just a bad waitress. Or deaf. Also they spoke very casually, rather than the usual formal Japanese that all people in the service industry have to use for fear of being speared in the temple with a katana. Overall I was not impressed, and being there was just uncomfortable. The place of course had creepy dudes by themselves, and there were two guys who were hanging out eating a 4000 yen giant waffle sundae. Yeah. There was another maid cafe where Nick totally got into the weird maids (see right), mostly the super fat one (not pictured) who could kind of speak English. I don’t think I need to go to anymore maid cafes the rest of my life.

I put up some other pics from this day here, and there is also a quality YouTube video of Nick and his Sidekick doing some anime dance and being creepily synchronized for this being the “first time” they did said dance. I’m pretty sure they’ve done it before.

The following Sunday we had a Hanami Party at Chiba Castle, which was sweet before it started raining about 2 hours in. We ended up going to this American-style bar on the west side of Parco afterwards, which was pretty cool and is apparently open 24 hours. That night, Steve arrived in Japan and we went to Kim-chan for dinner before he headed to his hotel in Asakusa. The next day we met up in Tokyo with Macie, who was also visiting Japan. So yeah, the first stop with Steve and Macie was Akihabara, making it the second time for me to go to Geek Land in less than a week. That’s embarrassing. But with them, we did more arcades and hit up Super Potato, not doing much shopping. We didn’t really stay there that long. Macie was going to Kyoto that night, so after I took her to Tokyo to get on the Shinkansen, I met back up with Steve and we explored more of the city. We hit up Shimbashi, Ginza, etc on that side of town.

In Ginza we went to this amazing sushi place called 乾山 (Kenzan), which was the ritziest eating experience I’ve had in a while. From the moment we stepped into the door, we had a bunch of waitresses in kimono taking our coats, bags, etc as we got seated at the counter with our own personal sushi chef. Everything was absolutely fresh and made to order, including the anago, which was also grilled and cut to order. Of course great service and great food comes with a price. I didn’t know the damage until we actually asked for the final bill, which was scary since I noticed early on that there were no prices anywhere, and we were getting the otoshi and dessert without saying a word. Also they gave us a new shibori (wet towel) with almost every course. So yeah, the head waitress lady came over with the price written in pencil on a piece of paper and I almost gasped. It was indeed a pricey meal, but the best sushi I’ve ever had and a good experience. Can’t say Steve didn’t get a fancy Japanese meal that night!

The rest of the week was a balance between me going to job interviews, working, and meeting up with Steve in Tokyo. We went to the Ghibli Museum, Ueno Park for sakura, etc. Blanchard’s dad was also in town, so I went out with those guys one night. Seriously, everyone decided to come to Japan at once. There are some other pictures here. Part 2 of this big wrap up is coming soon, with the first Y’s of 2008, Penis Festival, and Namja Town.

Wow. You may remember me telling you about the ridiculous Mega sandwiches that McDonald’s Japan served up for a limited time. I also blogged about it, and still have regular hits from Google Image Search for that post. Anyway, apparently McDonald’s wasn’t satisfied with it’s last raid on Japanese hearts, and is now preparing another wave of attack. But they’re not just coming with their same old mega artery clogger strategies; they’ve got some new firepower this time around.

Behold, the next wave in McDonald’s Japan’s tactics to sink this island nation:

Yeah that’s right. 3 sandwiches all coming out for a limited time soon. The press release page is here all in Japanese. The official Mega Mac site is supposed to be updated tomorrow. Let me summarize the press release a bit for you. First, this purple text is a semi-translated version of the headlines at the top.

Mega Happiness (メガな幸せ)?! Are we joining a cult? This sounds horrifying. Yet somehow drawing. So basically they are offering different Mega sandwiches depending on the time of day, probably with the hope that someone will be so fat and retarded that they’ll eat Mega burgers for every meal of the day, which I believe is exactly what turned the Gremlins from furry baby monsters into the huge creepy monsters singing New York New York. And since these regular but sporadic Mega Mac assaults can only do so much, they’ve also decided to add the normal Mega Mac to the regular menu after this whole campaign is over. It will probably never go away.

The bad boy that started it all, the Mega Mac is like a double Big Mac, with 4 beef patties. The Mega Teriyaki, which came out in the 2nd wave of Mega in June 2007, is two pork patties covered in teriyaki sauce. The new weaponry this time around, the Mega Muffin, is the Egg McMuffin on crack. It’s two pork patties, an egg, and bacon on an English muffin. Sure it’s not as horrible as it could have been (more egg, hash browns, patties of butter, babies), but this has got to be almost comparable to that thing Burger King tried to pull off years ago, the Ultimate Omelette Sandwich or whatever.

I love the part in the press release where they go on about this stupid campaign: This time, we’re not only reviving the Mega Mac and Mega Teriyaki, but to answer the many requests to “be able to eat Mega anytime,” we are debuting the Mega Muffin in the breakfast hours. What people are requesting these beasts? Average retail price for the Mega Muffin is 290, Mega Mac is 380, and Mega Teriyaki is 360. That’s just the sandwich, not the set. The US dollar has dropped to about 1 to 100 yen, so the conversion’s pretty self-explanatory.

I guess these aren’t quite as deadly as the Mega Tamago I ate, but I’m pretty sure I won’t be eating any of these regardless.

Remember the slam dunk I scored on Costco getting the new iPod for –$50? Well, Costco got me back pretty good on Christmas. I kind of forgot until just a few days before about my birthday. I mentioned it, and my family, who apparently also forgot, figured we would get a birthday cake for the big family gathering/dinner. It would just be another dessert on top of the ridiculous pile of Christmas cookies and cakes we already had begun accumulating. We were going to get a Costco cake, so I told my parents to just get something funny, like a clown or Ninja Turtles cake or something.

So Christmas dinner comes and ends, and the cake comes out. I haven’t seen it yet, but I got a good surprise when this gets put in front of me:

So there you have it, my gayest birthday cake ever, and that includes the Sesame Street cake I had when I turned 4.

Apparently when I said “get something funny” they figured a rainbow would be good. I think my mom didn’t realize that a rainbow could have some other meaning. My dad was either being a jerk or didn’t realize it either. Well, it was funny, but in a different way. Haha. My cousins and everyone got a good laugh out of it. I kind of wish that they would have chosen the “umbrella” or “cross*” that were some of the other options on the order form.

Also, I don’t know if you can tell, but the part of the cake with the lettering was also drooping. So Costco must have been still bitter about giving me the new iPod, and retaliated by giving me a lopsided gay cake. I guess it tasted good though. So take that Costco!

*My brother said that if we had the cross cake, we could have drawn me hanging on the cross. Real P.C., hahaha.

Today was a fairly busy day. Hit up the Lumbini Indian buffet with Blanchard, then did more shopping for gifts to take home. I’ve spent more this week on other people than I would usually spend on myself in a whole week or two. Ran some more errands all afternoon, then headed to Makuhari. Saw Miyoko who’s working at some shop that sells funky Christmas hats and clothing for miniature dogs, then went to Hana no Mae with Andy. That kid is mad sweet. For real. It’s actually hard to explain, but the guy is just awesome.

Right now I’m supposed to be packing, but I’ve spent a long time tonight sitting around watching Iron Chef episodes. And speaking of Iron Chef, I randomly checked Iron Chef Sakai’s blog (he is a pretty hardcore blogger) and saw a picture of him at the gym. It’s pretty surprising. I guess you don’t think about an Iron Chef pumping iron.

I need to be at Narita around noon, so I’ll probably leave my place at 10 or 10:30. Not packed at all yet, but I’ve got piles of stuff on my floor waiting to be Tetris-ized into my suitcase. Will be in St. Louis for X-Mas and all that. If you’re around, hit me up.

Japanese food was for centuries renowned for its beautiful aesthetic values and sensitive emphasis on the four seasons. The heavy use of fresh fish, vegetables, and tofu made it a truly healthy cuisine. With the introduction of various Western fast foods, such as McDonald’s, over the past few decades, the diet and eating culture of the Japanese has changed dramatically. Last year, McDonald’s Japan introduced a sandwich called the Mega Mac, which had double the meat of the classic Big Mac. This sandwich was not sold throughout the US, but it because somewhat popular in Japan, perhaps due in part to the novelty of eating a “huge-ass sandwich.”

And my god, McDonald’s Japan is at it again.

This time, they didn’t bring back the Mega Mac, but its two cousins -the Mega Tamago (egg) and the Mega Tomato. While they have only three beef patties compared to the Mega Mac’s ridiculous 4, they are still massive sandwiches in their own right. The Tamago has a fried egg, like what they have on the Egg McMuffin. The Tomato has, obviously, a slice of tomato, which seems like a step down from another piece of meat, but who knows. And the Tomato costs more than the Tamago! And did I mention that both sandwiches also have two strips of bacon? I’m pretty sure that if you wanted to have a heart attack immediately, you could probably eat two Mega Tamago burgers and call it a day.

That’s from the official website. The sandwiches were just released today, and just like the Mega Mac, are a limited menu item. I was going to blog about these yesterday after seeing the huge posters, but it was pointed out to me by former blogger Nick Roberts that it wouldn’t be a real blog without first-hand experience. I’d never even tried the Mega Mac, but I had to try one of these new beasts. I took the challenge. Behold tonight’s dinner:

You can clearly see the beef, egg, cheese, and bacon all piled up in what is disguised as a sandwich but is really a big tower of grease. It doesn’t taste that bad, but the volume is killer. All I had eaten today was a stale blueberry bagel, then had this monstrosity for dinner. I ate it all, but couldn’t finish my drink. It was also pretty impossible to keep the entire thing together after two or three bites. They need like a skewer or something to keep it all stacked right. Now, I can eat a lot, but I think the density of this burger and the fact that I ate it in less than 10 minutes did me in. I felt like death walking out of McDonald’s. I may have defeated the Mega Tamago, but it definitely did it’s damage.

Oh yeah, instead of the thousand island dressing, they use spicy mayonnaise-kind of stuff like they used to use on the McChicken here. That part was good.

I’ve been back in Japan for about a week and a half; I guess I should give a quick summary of what else I did in the US to wrap that all up blog-wise. I also need to post pictures all over the place (here, Facebook, mixi, your mom’s house). I’ll probably do it tomorrow.

So I already wrote a bit when I was in St. Louis. In general, it was just a lot of hanging out with the family since Al came in for the weekend, and seeing friends. A great time. I thought for some reason that all kinds of things would be different when I went home, but it was quite the opposite. Actually, things had changed a lot less than I had imagined. It was almost as if I had never left. I got to watch a decent amount of American TV too. Most of it is terrible, yes, but it’s not as terrible as Japanese TV. I watched Heroes for the first time on actual broadcast, and my brother Joe got me hooked on The Office with Steve Carell. What a great show. Shopping was a good experience too, but just because I love walking around Target or Wal-Mart. Everything in one spot! Japanese stores don’t really have that down as well. Oh, and there was one other major thing that was enjoyable about going back to America…

Hell. Yes.

It’s not like food in Japan is bad, but there are just some things that seem to be impossible for chefs here to get right. Nothing beats real St. Louis style pizza, and certainly not any Japanese pizza. Let’s see, what else… Steak, Cecil Whitakers, Jack in the Box, Mexican food, IHOP, Denny’s, Penn Station, White Castle – all were eaten by me during my vacation. And of course home cooking. My Dad decided to make a full turkey dinner on the Saturday I was there, so missing Thanksgiving in America again won’t be such a big deal.

After spending just over a week at home, I went to LA for a few days to hang out with friends. It’s strange how the majority of my close friends from college now either live in California or Japan. I stayed at Joey and Kyle’s new place, which puts my apartment in Chiba to utter shame just because of how huge their place was. Went to a sweet comedy show, ate more good food, went to happy hour, saw friends, walked to a funky mall with random walkways going everywhere, and went to a cool Oktoberfest-type party at the Alpine Village. Oh yeah, and just for future reference, if you’ve only got 4 guys, reserving a table and getting an entire liter of alcohol that no one wants to drink isn’t such a great idea. *cough*PAT*cough* Haha.

Saturday morning, had breakfast at IHOP with Kyle and Ashley, then went to the airport. My flight was scheduled to leave at 2:30, so getting there at 12:15ish I figured I was golden. Wrong. There was a typhoon in Japan so the outgoing flights had been delayed. My flight on Singapore Air had to wait for the plane from Tokyo to arrive, so I ended up getting delayed like 3 or 4 hours. Really not that bad, but by the time I got to Narita and then back to my apartment it was around 11 or 12PM and I was beyond exhausted. But America was a great vacation, and hopefully I’ll go back again soon. Maybe Christmas.