Shinjuku!

So, I headed out to Shinjuku today in search of about 5 things that I need to make my stay in Japan a little more comfortable.

A rough list:
1)Train Commuter Pass
2)Cell Phone
3)Watch
4)Wireless Keyboard and Mouse

These were listed in order of importance… somewhat.

Though number 4 isn’t very necessary, I’m using it to type right now, so it was a great buy… I’m not really a fan of laptop track pads and keyboards, so it’s a win for me.

First, I got my commuter pass, which is a monthly pass that basically makes it free for me to go to and from school for around a month. Though it’s convenient, it was expensive, and I found that out when I forked over the $70 it took to purchase. Not a fun purchase, but necessary to save money down the line. A plus of getting the commuter pass is that it gives me free access to the stops that I travel through on my way to school, which includes Shinjuku. So, for a month, I have free access to Shinjuku by train. That’s a pretty big deal.

As for the cell phone, I wasn’t quite as successful. Turns out there as been a large influx of exchange students, and the phones were replenished today (prepaid phones), and they’d already been all scooped up by the time my group got there. Though one person did get a phone, I learned of a cheaper phone that I could buy, and I’m just going to wait for that to come out. Since I have free access to Shinjuku now, I can check anytime.

I got a fancy new watch (well, not very fancy, I essentially went for the cheapest watch I could find), so that worked out well, and I finally know what time it is, constantly. Which is good, and bad. Good, because now I can coordinate meeting up with people. Bad, because now I am constantly aware of how much time I waste.

As far as the keyboard and mouse, I essentially got it for any coding/gaming I do while I’m here (oh, another tidbit about me, my major is computer science and I love technology, and making helpful programs, so I do it in my spare time), because of afore-mentioned dislikes.

All in all, a pretty productive day, compared to yesterday when it did nothing but rained, and I got a whole lot of nothing done (a whole, whole lot — though I did hang out and meet some other exchange students).

Picture time! (And look forward to a JStuff feature with all the cool stuff I’ve run/bought so far… they’re kind of piling up, but I’ll post a bunch at the same time).

This shot is of a building that I saw on the way... I've always thought it was pretty interesting, and this time I had a camera on me, so I took some shots (this was the best one). I don't know if I'm qualified to make comments on the Japanese as a whole yet, but it sure seems like they like to decorate things.

A simple shot of the hustle and bustle of the local train station.

All this machine does, 24/7 is advertize the new Pokemon game that's coming out. I feel like theres a small town somewhere with no power, and this machine is the reason.

A small shop, on the way to the train station

For some reason, there was some sort of food/item display in the middle of a station I was transferring at. I couldn't tell if it was a stand, or a store that was near it decided to extend itself into the public domain.

After arriving at Shinjuku, this is one of the first shots I took. A little under-impressive, but definitely interesting, as a shot of the city.

Another shot of Shinjuku I took after walking for a bit.

The Shinjuku Lion.... The first beer hall I've ever seen.

A store that a friend of mine wanted to go into to get some clothing items, this shop was an ultra chic shinjuku-like shop.... Pretty much as expected.

Another store for women in Shinjuku. There seemed to be a lot of them.

I guess this picture encapsulates how Japanese pop-culture portrays foreigners. Definitely not accurate, in my case.

Definietly not your mother's Jelly Beans. I want to know who in the world thought of this, and just how many hard substances they were abusing. And believe it or not, that box should contain a cell phone.

Note- Softbank is a phone carrier in Japan, one of the Big 3 (Softbank, Docomo, AU).

I don't know if I have already become used to seeing weird things in Japan, but this picture didn't warrant a JWeird feature, because I knew what it was. Though who, when, where, and why are still possibly unanswerable.

And of course, let us not forget about the Gundam in Odaiba (I still think it’s only a matter of time until the Japanese government decides to let the world know that it does indeed move and fire ballistic missiles).

Gundam feature on dannychoo.com

I’m not affiliated with dannychoo in any way and I don’t even surf his blog. Google is what lead me to the beautiful picture you see there… Maybe I’ll have one of my own one day.