First sunburn of the year

chilled with an old friend yesterday. It was the last day of golden week, and everything was super packed, but we did some of the cool things. We went to Asakusa and saw some cool stuff, a lot of which is actually reproductions, as the stupid americans bombed the hell out of that area destroying a lot of historical temples and such in WW2. Then we went to Ueno park. that was a blast. has some greentea softserve, that stuff is rockin. saw this guy who I had just read about in a magazine. he is a musician, but he rides everywhere on his bike, and so he made these instruments that fold up and can be fitted easily to his bike. He also rides for the bike team in japan that I have thought about joining. Hidetoshi and I went to teh zoo, and it was super hella crowded. I saw a classmate from school, which I think is interesting, becasue I only know about 50 people in the country, and so the odds of seeing someone you know are going to be pretty small. the zoo was kinda funny. one time admission is 600 yen, which is about 5 bucks. an annual pass is 2400 yen, or 20 bucks. isnt one time admission to the oregon zoo like 20 bucks? i dont know, I hadnt been to a zoo in years, but the ueno zoo was really cool, and then we went home. and i got a sunburn. suck. just a little bit on teh arms, but it is still a pain. my arms are still sore from rock climbling like 4 days ago, and my whole body is sore becasue it is 9:30 and i havnt eaten anything yet. I really craze a western breakfast. I am thinking about heading over to the Dennys near the station, but cant really decide. dont know what I will do today, probably something japanese, and hope to get some time to study the old kanji. I have read some of the books that I brought along. I finished the T.R. Reid book called "Confucius lives Next Door". I really liked that, even if I see some big differences between his experiences and mine. I also finished the Peter Carey book "Wrong about Japan" I enjoyed this one much less, as it seemed to me that it was incredibly rushed, and they was this really big thing that I didnt like. He and his son say that they wont see any "real Japan", by which they mean they wont go to any temples or museums, but they stay in a ryokan, and manga, which is the subject of the book, and from reading the book it seems to me that they dont realize this, is a huge part of "real Japan". Well, I really should be analying the books for Halp instead, but the weather is too nice to waste the day with all my energy focused on that. I do like Kokoro though. If any of you get the chance to read it, I highly recommend it. It is by Natsume Soseki, and I actually picked up a copy of it in Japanese, but it is super difficult.

gonna go eat something.

PEter