Sunday

Day 3.

I had designated Sunday as my 'catch-up' day as I still had much work from the week that I hadn't finished (Panama stuff mainly).

Well, that didn't really get done either.

I slept in for a while and finally got a haircut. I walked in and asked for a haircut. She kept asking me things saying "shampuu" and motioning, but I just said I wanted only a cut. I motioned that when my hair was short that I spike up my hair, but she took that to mean I spike all of my hair. All in all, the haircut itself wasn't one of the best, but I hadn't expected it to be since I just wanted to see how she would cut it w/o my input (I wanted a Japanese style haircut). Watching her cut it, however, was very cool. These stylists definitely knew how to handle Asian hair well.

The rest of the day was spent doing laundry, reading, running, logistical things for when I go home, and making a healthy dinner. (Grilled chicken salad) Around 8, a bunch of people from the building were going to go and set off fireworks in Yoyogi Park. At the time I wasn't really up for it but I didn't want to be antisocial either so we head out.


We came across this sign that seemingly means "don't try and run into the train really fast" and played off the fact that he looks like he swimming. So they wrote "do it at the beach." Unfortunately for these unwary translators, the entire group took it with a slightly different connotation. Ahh, to be in a foreign land.

So we got there and fireworks started going ablaze. Apparently Yoyogi Park is a popular place to set off fireworks because we definitely were not the only ones. The pictures below are all with slow shutter speed; unfortunately with all the light pollution, it made the night look like daytime once the shutter speed was jacked up.

Chris, also known has "Hand of fire" Boy.


In between fireworks we also did some light writing. This ones particularly cool b/c Jose stayed in the spot just long enough to have an image of his silhouette in the picture. (He was trying to write Jose... and failed)


Viki did a much better job, though she didn't get to finish the second half of her heart after the second "i".


Ericka did well too, 'cept that she started writing an "a" before she realized there was a "k" in her name (hence the odd looking 'k')


There were some people not from the building there, too. But I think they were all at least from GABA (English teaching school)

We'd forgotten if we had super powers. Here's Chris testing his out.


Our Super Saiyan powers. Yep, still good.

Our onlookers were amazed. *cough*


This shot is particularly awesome. It caught a couple fireworks going up at the same time.


And.. this one is particularly hilarious. You can see the firework's path as it left his hand and went straight for the group in front of him. Sorry guys.

And even better, see that big light? There's a person in that. The firework didn't shoot off so it just kinda stayed in his hand until he ran away...

By the way I keep referring to 'he' but they're all Chris, which doesn't say much because the two Chris's were the only fireworks launchers. (For the most part).

This is where it gets even more ridiculous. Chris and Chris each took a roman candle looking thing with about 20-30 shots of fireworks in them and were fighting each other. (i.e. paintball on drugs). Made for a cool picture though.

This totally could be a real life Anime battle.

I had work today, so I needed to be going. I waited a bit for everyone else and we headed back. As we walked, there was a guy who knew Spanish and as I was speaking to him, I said "Hai, hai" instead of "si, si." My Spanish and Japanese are starting to merge. Look out Panama.

We managed to catch the first train... but once we got to Shibuya our train home had already left. Twas 12:30 and we had no way home. Now, it wasn't really that far away, about a 3 mile walk. The others (Monday being the start of their weekend) took missing the train as a sign and wanted to go out for drinks. So we compromised.

We split a taxi where Sandro, the guy who knows German, English, French, and Italian completely fluently, revealed that he was also fairly competent in Japanese. I barely had time to comprehend what the driver was saying when Sandro was already conversing. Dang.

Anyways the compromise was we'd split a taxi to the halfway mark (to Sangenjaya) and those who wanted to go could walk and those who wanted to drink could go to the bar there. For some reason I felt like running so I ran the last mile + change home... :)

Until next time,

Tim Soo