Out with the hotel and into the Mansion (aka Apartment)

It has been about three weeks since I arrived in Japan and I am pretty use to the life style now. The only thing that I have been waiting on is getting into my new mansion (aka for apartment in Japan). So after 3 weeks of being in two different hotels, I finally received my key at 4pm on 7/28/07.....don't ask me why I wrote down the time and date, but I guess it is a great day in my life here. Luckily the hotel I was staying was a 3 min walk to my mansion, so I moved all my suitcases and stuff within a few trips.

In this week since my last blog, I have done a few things. Of course moving into my mansion, going out on the town and attending matsuri's (Japanese festivals). See below some of the pictures of my week. Also, like usually, more pictures are posted at http://picasaweb.google.com/yamamotohenry.

Here is the picture of my apartment from about a block away, close to the hotel I was staying at. Right now they are doing open house and about 1/3 of the building is taken. I wonder who is going to live on the 17th and 18th floor. Those rooms go for about ￥900,000 ~ 1,000,000.....><.....equivalent to about $7,500 ~ 8,333. Dang that is super expensive, but those rooms are really pimp. Oh well, maybe someday =P.

A picture of the dinning and living room, before having anything in it.

Getting all my stuff from the US, IKEA and Don Quijote (a Japanese department store that sells everything....I mean everything).

This is where it all happens, lol. Well I guess this where I sleep only, because after fitting my twin bed in here, I barely have any room in here. Maybe only space for a few side tables and a small cabinet. I tell you Japanese apartments are small and where I live is considered big in Japanese standards for the area.

Need I say more!!! Time to have fun....

The TV that Wii will be played on. 37" HDMI digital TV for about $800. Not bad, huh.

After getting all the furniture together. See that sofa coach on the right, that is where you can crash anytime you come over. It is super comfortable and when folded down is about a twin size.

View of Roppongi Hills from my balcony.

Roppongi Hills during the day time.

View of Tokyo tower at night from the left side of my balcony and from the room. A million dollar view I must say.

Tokyo Tower during the day time.

Our KPMG AZSA matsuri festival dancers. If you don't know what a matsuri is, here is a explantion. Sorry for all the underlined words, but I couldn't format thenm for some reason.

Matsuri (祭, Matsuri?) is the Japanese word for a festival or holiday. In Japan, festivals are usually sponsored by a local shrine or temple, though they can be secular or Christian.There are not specific matsuri days for all of Japan; dates vary from area to area, and even within a specific area, but festival days do tend to cluster around traditional holidays such as Setsubun or Obon. Almost every locale has at least one matsuri in late summer/early autumn, usually related to the rice harvest.Notable matsuri often feature processions which may include elaborate floats. Preparation for these processions is usually organized at the level of neighborhoods, or machi. Prior to these, the local kami may be ritually installed in mikoshi and paraded through the streets.One can always find in the vicinity of a matsuri booths selling souvenirs and food such as takoyaki, and games, such as snatching goldfish. Karaoke contests, sumo matches, and other forms of entertainment are often organized in conjunction with matsuri.

Favorite elements of the most popular matsuri, such as the Nada Kenka Matsuri of Himeji or the Neputa Matsuri of Hirosaki, are often broadcast on television for the entire nation to enjoy.Some examples of famous matsuri are the Jidai, Aoi and Gion Matsuri held in Kyoto; Tenjin Matsuri in Osaka; and the Kanda, Sanno and Sanja Matsuri of Tokyo. Especially, Gion Matsuri, Tenjin Matsuri, and Kanda Matsuri are three most famous Matsuri in Japan.

Our KPMG AZSA dancing up and down the streets of for three hours near our office. You all did a great job eventhough it was very hot and humid.

A picture with some of the people I work with during a break. I plan next year to join you all in the dance.

Dang, look at these slippers that some of the lady dancers had to wear. Wow, I am amazed that they could dance and walk in those for hours. Many props to you ladies.

The ladies wearing the shoes above.

Me and Matthias having a bite to eat before going out.

Here is most of the people that we went out with during the night. Four of them are the interns who will finish soon with KPMG AZSA. You guys did a great job...hopefully see you all in the future with KPMG.

After a few drinks it was time to dance. Do I see John Travolta, haha.

After a long night, it was time to call it a night at Flower's one year anniversery party. What a fun night it was.

Until the next post, take care all!!!!

Adapting to Japan and its' lifestyle

Well it has been two weeks being in Japan and boy has it felt like I have been here for months now. I am getting use to the weather (hot, humid, rainy ><) and all the people around. I kind of like having all the people around the place all the time, kind of makes things lively. The food restaurants are great too, because they are open all the time and convenient stores are open 24hrs too, so you can get food and drinks all the time. If you don't know already, the convenient stores in Japan are 10x better than the US because of the food they have, not hot dogs and junk food, but actual good food =).

Now that I have started work, I have not really done too much in the first weeks except doing PC training and meeting people and going out. Of course no drinking involved =P. I have also been looking for housing and found a great place to live in Roppongi in a brand new mansion (aka apartment). Here is the link to the apartment that I will be living in: http://www.apartments.jp/roppongi/index.html. It is in Japanese, but there is English translations on some of the pages. I was debating on living on either the 15th floor or the 9 floor, but the view on the 15th floor was in a bad direction compared with the 9 floor. The view from the 9th floor is beautiful and encompasses Tokyo Tower and Roppongi Hills (priceless). All of you coming to visit will be glad you stayed at my place. Finally, I found out that I will be working on Nikko/Citi joint venture on the investment banking side. It sounds as though I will be working quite a bit, but oh well at least I get paid for overtime here.

See some more pictures other than the ones below at http://picasaweb.google.com/yamamotohenry.

This is our office sign in front of the building.

Our building from the bottom looking up. We are in this whole building and our FSG floor is on the 12th.

Oh, I forgot to mention that since I have been here I have experienced two big natural occurrences in mother nature. One is this typhoon (named typhoon 4) that riped through the south/west of Japan and dumped lots of rain here in Tokyo. I went out the other day and my shoes got all wet all the way to my socks.....that was a bad feeling.

Also, here is the other natural occurrence....a ~6.0 earthquake that hit north of Tokyo. Even in Tokyo I felt the earthquake in my hotel room for a good 2mins. Dang it was pretty freaky feeling the whole hotel sway around, especially being on the 15th floor, which makes the feeling even worse. But overall, I can say that I survived the typhoon and earthquake =).

I meet up with my former senior at KPMG, Tomoko Ogue. We went together to IKEA to look for some furniture for my apartment. IKEA here in Japan is the exactly the same as it is in the US and maybe even bigger. Same layout of a maze and down at the bottom getting a cart and looking for all the furniture that you picked upstairs and wrote on your card. Prices are reasonable, but not super cheap and shipping is about $100 for up to 30 items any size...not a bad deal.

I meet up with Miharu and her friends for dinner. We had some really yummy Yakitori and a few drinks.

Meeting up with Yuko and her friend for some shopping and eating. Of course I had to try out the Kaiten Sushi.

Pictures of the Kaiten Sushi from the inside. Looks good, huh. Hurry up and come and visit and I will take you to one.

Dang, do you see how much Yuko friend ate.....about double what I did. He must of been hungry. Even though he ate that much, his bill was about $24 US dollars. Not bad at all.

So I hear that some weird people hang out in Harujiku, so I had to check it out. Yeah, there are some weird people there. Check out the people below and how they dress.

I guess this is where they buy their clothes from.

This is all the people I am talking about in Japan. Just take a look at this street in Harujiku, Takeshita street. Wow...what do you think, a bit crowded?

I also visited one of the new places in Japan in a effort to revamp Roppongi. In my last post you might of seen some pictures of Roppongi Hills, this is Roppongi Tokyo Mid-town. It is very upscale and beautiful.

Picture of the building that Mid-town is in.

Of course there is a Starbucks here, like every corner in Japan. I guess some things are the same as the US.

7-08-07 - 7-09-07 Arrival in Japan and site seeing.

Well here I am in Tokyo, Japan ><. Hard to believe that after three weeks after finding out my start date, that I am here now. Japan is a place that is lively and full of a lot of people. Things are very condensed and very crowded. Even though the city is like this, people are very polite and service is number one over here. I never felt like anyone at any of the shops were rude or not willing to help me. After my arrival, I meet with some of the co-workers here in Japan who I would be working with. Adnan, Ken, Matthias and Yuka meet me on Friday (7-07-07) only 2 hours after I arrived. We had a few drinks and I got some dinner and crashed. The next two days were meeting with friends and site seeing. Let me tell you...over two days I probably walked at least 15 miles. My feet hurt =(. It was well worth the exercise though and the pictures. See all the pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/yamamotohenry.

Me at Akihabara, the place that is famous for all of the electrical goods. I know you are jealous Dominic, hehe. I could of spent a week here and not seen all of the electrical goods. You are in for a treat when you all visit.

Picture of the high school baseball tournament in Yokohama. Dang, there were thousands of high school students and families here. Oh, by the way high school baseball is more popular than the major league.

A picture of the hat in Roppongi Hills. Roppongi Hills is beautiful, and I got to watch Die Hard....not a bad action movie at all.

Me and Yuka in China Town in Yokohama. The China Town here is the largest in all of Japan. Boy was the food good here.

A picture of Ameyoku, a place where they sell fish, fruits and food for very cheap. I was hit up 5 or 6 times to buy some Toro fish for about 1,000 yen for a huge slab. It was tempting, but I was not going back to the hotel for at least 5 hrs, so I passed......Dang I am hungry now.

Need some drugs? This is a typical drug store wall. Told you that everything is really compact. Space is of the essence in Japan.

Taking a picture with a cafe girl in front of the station. This is one of the things that you will see a lot of in Japan. Girls dressed up and handing out flyer's for you to come to a cafe where all the girls are dressed this way and serve you coffee or tea =P.

Another picture of a girl that works at those cafes, I think, hehe.

Having some drinks after a long day of site seeing. Starting with Ken Hiraga (left), Adnan Raza (Center), and one of the interns out here in Japan, Saori.

Me and some other co-workers Yuka (intern) and Tajima-san (Taj). A few drinks and then it was off to bed.

6-30-07 Move to Japan and Vacation Stop in Hawaii

With my last night in San Diego fun, it was time to move to Japan. But not without having a stop in Hawaii to visit a co-worker who lives in Hawaii. The move was stressful, as I did not have too much time to prepare for the move and get everything into storage, etc. Overall, it turned out good with help of friends. The vacation in Hawaii definitely helped. Enjoy the pictures. See more pictures posted at http://picasaweb.google.com/yamamotohenry.

Here are all six boxes I moved to Japan. Most of the stuff is clothing crap.

Josh's Uncles place that we stayed at. Let me tell you this place was pimping!!! Thanks Josh for getting your Uncle to lend us his place.

The view from Josh's uncles place. Not shabby, huh.

Site seeing. The beaches in Hawaii are so nice.

Stopping for a bite of the famous garlic shrimp. Let me tell you that these shrimp are the best I have ever had. Super yummy.

The shrimp......need I say more.

Dinner with Josh's family and friends. See you all in Japan when you come visit =).