andy

This is Andy. Andy came to Japan 18 years ago with a UK new wave pop band. Now he goes to the Tsukiji fish market every morning, buys up all the leftover good stuff, and sells it at Shin-hinomoto, right under the train tracks at Yurakucho station.
He is tall of height, quick of wit, and a damn fine chap who sells the best and cheapest seafood in the dingiest salaryman hangout.

crab!

Serious crab closeup. Plenty of crabs guts (brains, eggs, etc.) to eat after we powered through all the legs and claws.

crab @ shin-hinomoto

Jeremy and the gang at Shin-hinomoto. Special of the day: whole crab!

jorge!

Jorge randomly appeared in Japan for a day, on his way back from a Samsung meeting in Korea. Hiroko and I took him to eat okonomiyaki and monjayaki across the street and then we goofed off as we generally do.

x-mas party

Research X-Mas party, so at the Tokyo American Club first we went bowling and my team came in 3rd! Woowoo!
Then we headed over to the banquet hall and had some food and bingo insanity.
After that we were singing karaoke up the street until I finally dragged myself home.
Check out the photos.

design shopping

Auntie Em points us to some cool designer shopping items from +d.

ako

Ako from the NY Japan desk is in town, so she and I and Scott went to Akihabara for uh, technology, um...research. Yeah, that's it.
We did the standard tour, checked out the cool TVs (Ako really needs to buy a new TV) and had a killer lunch at some hole-in-the-wall. The owner was showing off his festival photos and told us to come back in May.

shopping

Hiroko and I finally put on our motivational hats and went Holiday Season Shopping. Unlike yesterday, it was damn cold, so we were motivated to keep moving. Bussed to Shibuya and hit the Seibu Department Store and connected Loft to spend 4000 yen in gift certificates that Hiroko got from credit card points, then walked over to Harajuku up to Omotesando, and back down through Aoyama to Shibuya. It was surprisingly not too crowded, and once the drizzle sputtered out, it was pretty nice, though gray.
Saw a totally ridiculous protest march: a bunch of college students complaining about not having adequate health coverage and benefits as part-time workers. Um, maybe they're unclear on the concept: it's called 'part-time', as opposed to 'full-time', i.e. "I work for a living" versus "I leech off my parents and earn just enough spending money to keep me in Gucci and karaoke."
Sorry kids, no pity from me. Here's a novel idea: you are students, right? How about maybe studying something interesting and actually becoming a useful member of society?