Well, its Thursday, midweek. Thought I'd make an update. I can now post pictures judiciously since I took the PAIN IN THE ASS extra step of shrinking and compressing each.
As usual I walk to school, greeted by my friend Chucky
And look! he has a new friend!
But as normal it was a week of interesting buildings, new:
and old:
and the odd Supervillan's car:
Tuesday we had some Korean BBQ
Wednesday, following our professor teaching us the entire world wide banking system the most epic, clear, and educational lectures of my entire life, we went for some even better Korean BBQ. I don't have pictures - but it was 15x more ridiculous then the last place. Have to say, I'm not a fan of the liver and the cow stomachs. The pork medallions and chicken hearts however....... This was in over Shinjuku through Tokyo's equivalent of Penn station.
One resturaunt had Whale!
Tempting - but by then already full. I think I would feel guilty when they served me the speech center of the brain anyway.
Other than that it was axe to the grindstone. No shortage of work to do. I assure you, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday were early nights. For a reference, I get out of class at 9:30pm, and the last train is at 12:15. Thus far always caught it on weekdays - go home, sleep, wake up - and do work till class starts at either 2 or 5. Particularly this week we had a big East/West negotiation assignment. Naturally, since this is my only pass/fail class, I neglected other work (which counts for a grade), got REALLY into it and totally over-prepared. So that took carried me with ease from midnight to 3:30am, no problem. Its easy to do when you actually enjoy it.
Tonight was actually one of the Temple student's birthdays, so a big group was going to go out. Well, naturally I was keen to join. But then I heard an interesting story. Aparently they unearthed a frozen baby mammoth. Thats right - you heard me. Naturally, for corporate one-upsmanship's sake this is in the lobby of the Marunouchi building. Frankly I'm imagining a huge block of ice with a fuzzy little elephant in it with a couple of oscilating fans keeping it cool. Now, I was also told this was THE last day - so I had to go check it out. So Tokyo station ho. This is CENTRAL Tokyo, which is highly commercial, and I've never been.
Naturally like every other damn station - it has an entire shopping mall attached, and as an easy rival for Shinjuku - its absolutely enormous. He is a picture of one hall - but this doesn't do it justice - its seriosuly like 2k by 2k and 3 floors deep serving about 5 metro lines, the ring line, countless commuter rails, and the Shinkansen.
Naturally, in this area - everything was expensive and equisite marble. Also the malls and the buildings above were shamlessly corporate. Everything was silver, glass and equisite marble. Every building, floor, ceiling, and wall surface had excess in mind when it was assembled. Remember Die Hard? Think Nakatomi Tower. Not to mention logos and statutes fit for Ayn Rand.
Station itself actually had a really nice classical look: (This isn't a good picture - but I can't be bothered to shrink compress and post a better one - just wikipedia it if you really care)
BUT - no dice. Exhibit closed at 8. But luckily it goes to Sunday. So likely its going to be an interesting weekend that will lead to an interesting post - and hopefully I can get some pictures. We left from there and met up with the party at a bar in Azabu-Juban. I feel like I fit in very well with the nerdy, the artistic, the older adults, and the foreign LLMs. But I'm really a square peg around the frat types. I don't drink much or club much, and I don't exude that buddy / dude male comradery thing. I used to, with the friends I grew up with, but with these guys - like the frat acquaintances in college, I don't know what to do with myself and its noticably awkward. After a drink they wanted to go to Roppongi (always with the Roppongi). I see multiple clubs with high covers, 9 dollar beer, a 15$ cab and a hangover in my future. By now I'm only loaded in the sense I still have my school books and laptop with me, and I have precious little time till the last train. So I had to let looks of dissaproval roll off my back, and bail out. So I wedged myself in a very packed Oedo line - and home I went.