Now that Thanksgiving is done (in this time zone at least…), the Christmas season has officially begun. To kick it off, here for your viewing pleasure is a Japanese “band” called U900 performing Sleigh Bells… like you’ve never heard before!
THANKSGIVING!
•November 26, 2009 • Leave a CommentHAPPY THANKSGIVING
(from the future!)
Today is Thrusday, November 25 here in Tokyo so
Thanksgiving begins 14 hours early!
Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving Day,
in whichever time zone they are celebrating!
Exploring Tokyo
•November 24, 2009 • Leave a CommentThis is a quick compilation of how I spent some of my time off in Tokyo last week…
Quick Catch-Up from Last Week!
•November 21, 2009 • Leave a CommentWe just had four days off after our last concert at The Tokyo International Forum, and before that… four more days off. That much spare time makes you lazy! But more blogs are on their way…
Here’s a quick view of last week though pictures…
Last week..
I visited Ueno Park…
While there, I visited 
the Zoo…
The next day, a big group of us visited the Tokyo-Edo Museum…
Then did some shopping at Asakusa…
…and the big event of last week was DisneySea!
Okay so the REAL big event last week was SELLING OUT The Tokyo International Forum. We had four shows over the weekend and sold out all four in a house that seats 5,000+. Congratulations team DOC!
Mt. Fuji
•November 12, 2009 • 1 CommentI took this picture on the train from Mie to Tokyo last week. I took it and then I zoomed way in. But it really does look like this. Picture perfect.
Japanisms
•November 12, 2009 • 1 CommentWe’ve been out exploring Tokyo this week so I’ll have some post coming soon. In the meantime…
I thought this subway message was pretty hilarious. First, can you imagine women in New York being told they are not allowed to apply make-up on the train? Secondly, look at that transformation! I’ll have what she’s wearing!
Katakana
•November 7, 2009 • Leave a CommentWe are back in Tokyo tonight and are here for two weeks straight. Aaaaah, it feels good to unpack for a while. We have one show tomorrow then four days off. And you know what that means: Tokyo Disney! 
Just a quick mention– A few of us are attempting to learn Katakana while we are here (Tony, who’s been here three years, is helping us!). It sounds a lot cooler than it is. Katakana is actually just the alphabet Japan has invented to phonetically spell out the western words they have integrated into their language– which there are a lot of! So, really we’re just learning to read English. But in Japanese. But because Japanese, like any other forgein language, makes different sounds than English katakana makes English sound “Japanized.”
Here’s a quick example:
ディズニー・オン・クラシック
This spells out “Disney on Classic.” But what it REALLY spells out is “Da-ee-zoo-nee ah-n Ko-ra-she-koo.” Its like that old Mad Gab game where you had to read a string of words aloud and try to figure out what the sentence was. Remember? Like “Asile Me Chew Have Way” becomes “I’ll meet you half way.” Remember this game?
What I’m trying to say here is that half of us sound like robots reading english. We stop in the 7/11 and all you here is a bunch of us with bags of chips in our hands going “Pooo- Taaa-EEE–Toe, Pooo-Taaa-EEE-Toe.. potato!!! Potato! Guys it says potato!!” We are all very excited at our new ability to read English. Even if it’s maybe driving everyone else a little mad
Imperial Palace Gardens
•November 2, 2009 • 1 CommentThis was a beautiful beautiful day. And the gardens were stunning. It made for a very serene walk with some very good company.
