Shinjuku Mitsui Building Walkabout After Hours

I usually meet up with the boys in some capacity on Sunday evenings, and this one was no exception.  After a meal at the local fave Indian place, The Can, Scott and I went on a semi-reluctant rainy walkabout of the Shinjuku skyscraper district, in particular the Shinjuku Mitsui Building.

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TRUE BLOOD episode #04 “Escape from Dragon House”

HBO hour-long dramas ruled the 00s with The Wire, The Sopranos, Deadwood, Rome and Six Feet Under.  However, all those shows are long gone and HBO hadn’t gotten me back to anything they’ve come up with since, except for the brilliant, but short Generation Kill.  So now I’m almost fully on-board with their latest hour-long drama, TRUE BLOOD, from the creator of Six Feet Under.

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Barack Obama replies to me in Twitter!!

I had been following Barack Obama in Twitter for some time.  One day I noticed he changed his avatar to an angry looking photo.  I thought it didn’t look good at all.  I was quite put off by it actually.  So I @ replied to the Twitter saying I think he should change his avatar photo.  

To my great surprise a few days later I see that my advice was heeded!  And that I was not the only person who didn’t like the avatar change.  

Of course I doubt Barack himself was following and replying to me, but nevertheless, it’s nice to be heard by at least his staff.

RELATED POST:  Barack Obama wants to change–Tokyo curry prices!

Krispy Kreme comes to Tokyo!!

About two weeks ago I noticed that a cafe on Shinjuku Southern Terrace had closed up and in the window I saw a sign: KRISPY CREME COMING IN “11 DAYS” I was pretty surprised by this, and kind of stoked. I never lived in an area that had a Krispy Kreme before, only visited, but I had tasted them and had heard people’s almost reverence for them. So Saturday I strode by their local on their grand opening day, and as I should have expected, the line was a extremely long and intimidating. … I thought to myself, “only Japanese would line up like that for donuts!” However, I would come to learn that to be a hasty judgment.

So when the opportunity arose this afternoon to give it another shot I thought surely that at 4pm on a Monday afternoon the line could not be nearly as long as in the evening of opening day. I was totally wrong, it was even longer due to the place being featured on various TV shows. In all I waited in line about 32 minutes and actually saved myself another 15 minutes of waiting by choosing to only get the “assorted dozen” pack. I went upstairs expecting all seats to be taken, but the place was fairly empty. … I noticed there were many AC outlets along the countertop inviting one to bring their laptop or other electronic gadget for a nice long stay. The interior was very cozy indeed and a hanging LCD TV showed various Krispy Kreme openings around the U.S…. I soon realized Japanese weren’t the only ones lining up for their Krispy Kremes.

…I ate the chocolate covered one with rainbow sprinkles first, and with the very first taste I realized that there were not just ordinary donuts. I could understand while people otherwise deprived of such donuts would find themselves willing to wait in borderline-ludicrous lines. … Compared to the largest donut chain in Tokyo, Mister Donut, there is just no comparison. I always knew Mister Donut was putting out a substandard product, and upon once again consuming a real donut, well, I don’t think I will ever slum it and be eating a donut away from my own hometown Krispy Kreme. Upon leaving with my leftover donuts in the huge logo emblazoned box, I offered to sell it to two young j-girls for go-ju-man ($5,000).