en-us http://www.keithwatanabe.net/index.php Keith Watanabe's Website http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2007/9/9/d55a9d0a1cf03736200c99be7bb4d071.html
I truly hate having to travel through Roppongi at night, especially Fridays and Saturdays after 9 pm. The place becomes an ocean of vomit and the streets are filled with idiots stumbling around trying to get to the next bar or cab. There are tons of hot women here, but I think only the sleaziest skanks attach themselves to this part of the town. These women try to appear high class with their little princess gowns, but in truth I think there's an inverse relationship between their appearance and their actual station in life. From about 8 pm on a given day, foreigners and half of the Japanese are legally allowed to become stupid. In particular, foreigners are encouraged to dismiss all notions of reason, sensibility, good taste,dignity and class when they enter these grounds. If you're a foreign retard, you'd be highly valued here because you would be the paragon of what this section of the city represents. Posters of your mangled face after a night of debauchery would adorn the street lamps to symbolize your value to this part of the city.

Doctors prize this part of the city because they can increase their funds for organ transplant surgery, most notably liver transplants and in advance stages, lungs. Vegas faces a rival for the name "Sin City"; heck, if I was the MGM Hotel management or Mr Wynn, I'd put some serious investments into Roppongi. You already have debauchery and prostitution; add legalized gambling and you'd kill Vegas in a day!

The best part is probably walking to the station the next day in the morning and stepping through the previous night's carnage. It literally becomes a vessel for the crows/ravens or whatever ugly oversized birds flock here with all the garbage litering the streets for the Stinky Trucks (i.e. garbage disposal) to pick up at the last possible second. I even was mistaken for crow's mate one day when I meekly and earnestly traveled to work and the damn thing tried using my head as a parking garage.

Then you have the two biggest pillars of tripe around the city: Roppongi Hills and the Midtown. At first, I was quite happy about the Midtown as I thought it would add a bit of class, compared to Roppongi Hills which was an architectural masturbatory mindfuck. And indeed the Midtown is architecturally more pleasant, allowing easier access and being very posh and swank. However, as with everything most of my initial impression was just an impression. The reality of the zone is that it's an overpriced haven for Paris Hilton wannabes (which says a horrible thing about society) in their desire to exude elegance. The park really is shitty during the summer with all the bugs and crap crawling around. The restaurants are beyond a normal pieces means of anything sensible in their pocket book, save the bottom floor places which are still outrageously priced and only cater to people wishing they could brag to their friends that they've "eaten at the Midtown." Come on. All the "real" restaurants are on the 2nd floor and higher and require a reservation. Only places that require a fist up your ass means that you've ever eaten at some place "real!" Probably the only thing I really like at Midtown is the 24 hour supermarket which has some international goods. But at the late hour, I can't even find English muffins, hot dogs, waffles, or corned beef hash, so I might as well wait for National Azabu to open in Hiroo which has most of what I want (minus the corned beef hash since Japan seems to no longer import that :( ).

That leads to Hills. I think Hill's restaurants are a little more affordable, but the access points are horrible. Trying to get through one point to another in Hills is just a nightmare. I think Mori wanted the place to resemble a Vegas hotel, but ended up getting an HR Giger painting instead. Forget ever going shopping in this place because nothing is affordable here (nor Midtown for that matter). I'm surprised shops manage to stay open. Maybe they're the type that just require one sale a month to operate. Either way, the place just sucks.

I think the only two positive aspects of living here are the proximity to the subway stations and some of the restaurants around me. I've got a Cold Stone Creamery near Hills which I can take advantage of almost anytime. Also, there's numerous decent restaurants that I can hit. Unfortunately, most of these places turn out to be bar food and I get sick of it easily.

The last positive is that Hard Rock is around my corner. Naturally, my affinity for heavy metal makes Hard Rock a great place for a person like me to go to, especially when I'm alone and hungry late at night. But I have to admit that the two cute waitresses there have kept me coming back, especially lately since I started conversing with one, discovering that she even lived for a short period in my hometown of Torrance!

But these few positives don't make a right in my book. I miss Kitasenju despite the fact that it's far out and overly crowded. But the affordability and fact that the area caters more towards families rather than being some skank town move its ranking far ahead of Roppongi for me in terms of places I prefer living in Tokyo.]]> Sun, 09 Sep 2007 01:19:44 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2007/9/9/d55a9d0a1cf03736200c99be7bb4d071.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2007/12/5/6cf03e00b667b241bb824f917200b224.html Wed, 05 Dec 2007 08:35:19 -0700 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2007/12/5/6cf03e00b667b241bb824f917200b224.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/5/2/8b8ef38de6cc3d1439b09c6413fdc62e.html
The funnier thing is that several people recently utilized that term to described me. Those EXACT words. Coincidental? Obviously not! But of course, the bigger question is why would people within a week's span use such terminology to depict someone like myself? I guess you could say that I've seen a lot of odd things in recent times, especially since switching jobs to Shibuya, although not all experiences are exclusive to Shibuya (but I do see an incredible amount of odd people). Here's some interesting examples:

• Last Saturday, I met up with my friend to hang out in Shinjuku. Walking back to the East side from Kabukicho (where we had dinner at a nice Indian spot closer towards the Okubo side), I spotted some odd looking person wearing a kilt. Probably was more of a skirt because this guy (yes, a dude) was dressed up in a cosplay sort of way. He must've spotted me because just before I had mentioned him to my friend. I managed to avert my eyes just in time as my friend started to exacerbate in mental anguish at a rather disturbing image that I happened to just avoid. I guess this freak had pulled out his thing and flashed my friend! My friend will probably suffer indefinite mental trauma as a result, but naturally I was the person to point this oddity out.
• Walking to work this evening, I saw this guy in Omotesando station just twitching as he walked towards the Ginza-sen/Hanzomon-sen Shibuya platform. Now, I know I tend to look odd at times while walking around Tokyo (mostly banging my head or lip syncing lyrics to some tunes on my iPod), but I often see people who look like they're about to collapse into an epileptic seizure. Fortunately, he went to the other half of the platform that I WASN'T on.
• My friend Dan and I were over at Cold Stone Cremery in Shibuya Mark City. While waiting in line, this odd kid just saunters over towards this area, points to the ceiling and shouts something that most of us attempted to ignore. After grabbing our ice cream, the guy did it again, this time in front of the workers who were doing their little gay onara song. Well, shows those workers not to do a gay onara song around there!
• Sometime during the winter as I was walking from work on the bridge that goes above Roppongi Dori, this odd guy passes me up and starts shouting, "Headphones! Headphones!" I gave him a queer look and quickly moved on. Although I was wearing headphones (I normally do while walking around Tokyo), why would he just pick on me compared to other people wearing headphones and call me out?
• A few weeks ago, I was going to work at Nogizaka station and heard this odd moaning sound coming from the opposite side of the station. As the trains came along, the moan subsequently increased in volume. I kept thinking to myself, "Please don't come near me." But apparently this odd guy (who I barely could see) was sauntering towards my direction. It was as if this guy was attempting to mimic the volume and noise of the echoes from the trains. Of course, as I get on my train, he gets aboard too, not in my car fortunately. But I realized he was aboard that particular train because once I exited at Omotesando, I heard this nutcase again.
• One of the joint companies who works with my current company is quite large and thus by law forced to employee a certain number of disabled people. You'll see some deaf, or wheelchair bound people frequently in the building. Now, the weird thing that got me was seeing this guy by the elevator playing with his hands. He had this non-sentient facial expression. I was like, "Dear God, please don't make him stand near me." Naturally, the freaking elevator (which is perpetually overcrowded) gets bundled with this people and this guy stands near me of all people!!!! Why me?????? At that point, I knew someone, somewhere is fucking with my life.
• Back around Christmas, as I was walking home from the Akasaka Mitsuke station, I was traveling up this particular road and saw this guy crouched over what looked to be his buddy toppled over from debauchery. Concerned, I walked somewhat closely towards the scene in an attempt to sneak peak if the guy on the floor was okay. Well, turns out that the guy on the floor wasn't just a single person, but two people. An older gentlemen was bundled VERY tightly with a coworker (presumably considering it was nomikai season). The guy above him was shaking the guy, as if saying, "Hey, get up! Get up!" But the particular thing was that the older gentlemen clutching the person beneath him had his lips FIRMLY planted on the other guy's forehead. I think the guy underneath him was trying to detach himself rather futilely. Yeah, that one creeped me out too.
  
• Sometime in the winter, while walking home from the Roppongi station, near the corner where I walk downhill towards my home in Akasaka, I saw this older gentleman (not the same guy as above) on his knees just fall face first flat on the ground. I mean, no hands to brace him or anything. What was worse was that this guy had these glasses on and you could hear a loud *SMACK!* when this guy hit. I guess that smack was enough to bring him to his senses as he stood up removed his glasses and revealed a nice red, trickling stain just above his nose where the frame was left indented at the bridge area. Too much alcohol kills.

I could go on. I mean, the amount of weirdness I see in a given week is overwhelming. On a typical week, I might see between 3-4 incidents, quite often in Shibuya, sometimes in Roppongi (naturally, those incidents grow in Roppongi on Fridays and Saturdays, which is why I attempt to stay in my nest before the vampires and werewolves emerge from 9 pm onwards). Quite often, these incidents involve a large degree of alcohol, which is forgivable so long as I retain a harmless, yet amusing firelight story (as in the cases above). Unfortunately, a lot of those weirdness incidents tend to be someone puking on the street (underage drinking, etc.).

However, the more disturbing incidences occur in spots like Akihabara, Shinjuku or just being on the train. I swear to God that the train system in Japan is a blessing and a curse because you tend to see a lot of nutcases that seem to roam freely (and most probably somehow and quite possibly by accident get set loose from the countryside). Akihabara's weirdness stems from just all the expressionful cosplayers. The girls I don't mind so much and think they're cute. Now, it's when the guys start wearing Sailor Moon uniforms when I need to expediently retreat to a toilet to disperse with such horrendous images.

At times, I kept comparing my situation to what it must be like living in UC Berkeley for a good several years. I heard similar stories crop up. You hardly see these kinds of things at more conservative zones like UC Irvine or my little hometown in LA. But Tokyo, my god. This place is just nuts. And it seems like those nuts tend to congregate around me!]]> Fri, 02 May 2008 13:23:09 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/5/2/8b8ef38de6cc3d1439b09c6413fdc62e.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/9/22/c5af05f16114684452416a597cc00078.html completely clear skies. Needless to say, I was a bit miffed and decided to take off since tomorrow is a country-wide holiday.

My friend was in Aoyama-Itchome, quite close to my home. So I went to have dinner with him. We walked over to Roppongi from his spot and at first tried to hit a Gyu-Kaku Yakiniku restaurant. By the time we arrived, the place had a waiting time of over 40 minutes. I was like, "No way am I going to wait that long!" So we skipped on that and instead turned towards Outback Steakhouse.

As we were being seated, I saw a HUGE black dude with a guy I recognized from the Roppongi Tipness gym. At first, I didn't know who this guy was, thinking it was just another foreigner. Later, the guy got really loud and I tried to discern what he was saying. My friend said, "That's Bob Sapp."

I was like, "What?!?!?!"

Later, after he finished eating, he went and shook everyone's hands in the place and took pictures with the girls. He even came up to our seats and greeted us very politely. I was quite impressed both with his size and his friendly demeanor. Even if he was loud, he was obviously having fun and enjoying himself. Really nice person just randomly meeting people at the restaurant.

That's quite an unexpected night. Well, I'm glad Gyu-Kaku was full because we never would've met up with Bob Sapp. Definitely a turn of events for the day!]]> Mon, 22 Sep 2008 11:11:46 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/9/22/c5af05f16114684452416a597cc00078.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/10/20/4ee37cf9b4ccd0bb11af6cd42806602d.html
I really shouldn't have grabbed a spot in Roppongi of all places. The place is a filthy mess and my only rationale for choosing it was the proximity to my old office (as well as TBS). However, my place has brought me a lot of grief, namely that it's far too small, noisy and just nasty. Tonight another friggin' HUGE cockroach ran across the wall. So nasty! I have no idea where these goddamn things come from. Down the street is a Chinese restaurant and my Japanese friends and coworkers often say that's one main source of the problem.

Another issue is living on the second floor. It's just too close to the ground, allowing these buggers to easily climb up and enter. Even outside during the summer, you can spot these suckers scurrying around the walk ways. Then this morning I found a friggin' sleeping on my balcony of all places! I have no idea how the son of a bitch got there. There's this stupid overgrown tree that looks barely strong enough to hold the fat orange bastard, but I guess the thing managed to sneak aboard that way. No wonder I've been itching lately and finding all these tick bites on my body.

This place is supposedly a designer mansion, with the center section cut out. However, I think the person who designed this should be sent back to kindergarten because it's a shoddy design with no practicality.

Some people might feel that the closeness to all these major subways is a huge convenience. Sure, but I have to walk quite far or uphill to reach most of the subways. And all the dog owners around here....it's so disgusting with all the poop lying around. I really want to grab the owners faces and shove it into the poop.

I can't wait to get out of this hell hole. I really wish I had been smarter and took a pre-furnished place in Ginza instead. Moving out would've been far easier. I should've learned from my first time here. Goddamn it!]]> Mon, 20 Oct 2008 06:33:31 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/10/20/4ee37cf9b4ccd0bb11af6cd42806602d.html