Well I have been in Tokyo for several days now and I am currently sitting in Ayuko's apartment whiling the time away while she works. The rather unfortunate thing about staying with her in her apartment is that since it is a company apartment for singles they are not allowed overnight visitors. However it is not really an issue as long as we come back to the apartment relatively late in order to avoid any random wanderings from her landlord who apparently lives close by. The real issue is that this means I can't leave the apartment unless I leave with Ayuko, so during the week when she is working I have the choice of staying in all day or leaving at 7AM and staying out until 8 or so when she comes home. However I don't really mind as it gives me plenty of time to relax, study Japanese, draw, workout, etc. Also it definitely allows me to save a massive amount of money as Tokyo seems to just suck the money out of you.

Speaking of money I have also decided to channel my funds towards updating my wardrobe or perhaps simply replacing the whole thing. I haven't really bought new clothes for several years and while I believed myself well dressed by American standards my outdated style simply pales in comparison to Japanese fashion. I went shopping with Ayuko the other weekend and picked up a few new outfits as well as some new sandals and when we were walking around Shibuya, the fashion capital of Tokyo, I didn't feel out of place as I usually do. In fact I felt that I was just as well dressed as everyone else and Ayko admitted that she much preferred seeing me in such fashion glory. Thus I am now dedicated to becoming one of the 'cool Japanese' I so often see.

This is partly in fact that I don't really spend a lot of money on material things, so I have decided to use my spending money exclusively on my wardrobe. Unfortunately as I am much larger, both in height and muscle mass, to the average Japanese man a great deal of their clothes don't fit me well. Never in my life have I ever felt I was some muscle bound beast, but I certainly do here. In America I often felt smaller than a good amount of men simply due to my lean build coupled with my height. However here I often feel like I could take on a group of four or five Japanese men and come out not only the victor, but ready for more. Gaijin ego out of control? Perhaps, but the men here are much smaller. However the younger generation I see in my junior high and local high school are more comparable to their American counterparts, even if still slightly small. To give you some idea of the difference my junior high had a assembly the other day and I was perhaps one of the five tallest people there out of close to a thousand people. I am only 6' tall.