This page is for completely random stuff too small have its own page.

I made two friends from Berlitz. Atsuko and Mika. Every Wednesday night after their Berlitz class we meet in Kawasaki and grab a bite to eat and practice English and Japanese. One of the places we've been to is an Izakaya at the Nikko Hotel. What made it exceptional was that everything was very good and the portions were HUGE! Much larger than most places. Bikkuri shita! (we were surprised) We ordered too much

This is a Love Hotel. There are many many of them all over Japan. This one is near the Kawasaki Berlitz office. Since many Japanese people live with their parents until they get married and also since even some married people have a mother or father living with them, people needed a place to be alone to have Sex. This is what a Love Hotel is for. I've not been to one (yet) but I've read you usually rent them starting at 2 hours, sometimes you pay through a slot so you don't have to be seen by the person you are paying if you are embarrassed. I've also read that if you take the room at around 10pm you can stay all night and it's pretty cheap.

There are all kind of Hotels too. Many with ornately themed rooms. There are expensive ones too like I saw one on a news program on TV that had a private swimming pool.

This is the center of Ginza which is the shopping district. Consider it the equivalent of Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. On Sunday's they close off the streets to traffic.

This is a building with a bunch of restaurants looking over the center of Ginza.

Here is one of my co-workers with a big model rifle.  Guns are illegal in Japan but the Japanese are fascinated by them so there is a huge hobby market for model guns.   The models are super detailed, very expensive, and are made of metal so they feel like a real gun.  I think many of the models are probably more expensive than the actual guns would be in the U.S.

This is Sleeping Beauty's Castle at Tokyo Disneyland being set on fire and then blown up.  Just kidding.  They have a show called something like Starlight Magic where they project images on the castle and then light lots of fireworks.  Of couple of the castle turrets also shoot large flames.  Pretty cool.

Most large game centers in Japan have a gambling area for the adults.  My understanding is you can't legally win any money so you only win credits for prizes.   Kind of like Skeetball in the states.  To cater to that market many of the arcade game companies make really elaborate gambling machines.  Here are a few.   The one above is a boat racing simulator.  You bet on the model boats and then they race around.  There is actaully water there and I assume the boats are control with magnets under the table.

Here is a horse racing simulator with model horses.

And another horse racing simulator.  You can see the finishline coming out from the center of the machine.

This is some random gambling machine.  I'm not sure how you win.

Here is Sega's horse racing simulator.  Not only does it have model horses and riders but it has a 3D simulation of the race on the monitors in the back that matches what's going on with the models.

This is a typical casual restaurant in Japan.  I point this out because from the outside you can't tell there is a restaurant there or if you can you can't tell that there would be anybody inside but as you can see it's actaully pretty busy.  When we got there it was full.  Of course I should have taken a picture of the outside.

A random picture from the line for the train at Tokyo Disneyland.  The train at Tokyo Disneyland only has one station (Anaheim has 4 stations).  The station is in Adventureland and the train only goes around the Rivers of America and it has the dinosaur scene but not the Grand Canyon scene.

Here is a picutre of the puppets in the Pan Galactic Pizza Place in Tomorrowland.

My friends Tom and Willis should appriciate this.  This is the Tower Records in Shibuya.  It's 7 stories of pure goodness