October in Tokyo, and other life stuff

I hope everybody had a wonderful and safe Halloween! I enjoyed handing out candy during the Embassy housing compound's annual trick-or-treat time. I'm rather glad that it is limited to two hours, as it puts some boundaries around the hoards of rampaging princesses and super heroes, but it's also totally fun. I hand out a ton of candy every year. After the trick-or-treating, I went to a friend's party, and then later a bunch of us went up to Roppongi to see all the people dressed up in costumes. I've been wanting to see Roppongi at Halloween for the last several years, but it didn't work out for various reasons.  Since this is my last year in Japan, I was determined to see it this time! And it was as crazy as imagined. I only lasted an hour, and then it started getting really crowded, and I had already seen a lot, so I went home. (I know. I'll sign up for Hermits United later.) I saw a lot of great costumes! There were, of course, a plethora of sexy costumes (mostly worn by girls) - including a number of sexy SWAT team girls - and a TON of zombies. Everything was zombified. Even superheroes were zombies. There were also a lot of Star Wars costumes, which was fun to see.

A few weeks ago, one of my friends from Virginia came to visit me! We had a lot of fun. We went down to Kamakura and walked all over Tokyo. We also managed to go to a Series 1 game of the Climax Series (part of the Japan Baseball playoffs), where we saw the Yomiuri Giants beat their HUGE rivals, the Hanshin Tigers. It was a great game, with a lot of really enthusiastic fans. And then after the game, we went to the Robot Restaurant. The Robot Restaurant is in Shinjuku, and it's basically one of those things I've been wanting to see because of the "only in Japan" factor. It had just as much, if not more, over-the-top glitzy crazy nutsieness as I expected! It's pretty much indescribable. First, you go to a waiting room that is decorated like this:

And then you go to the show room, and they start with taiko drumming, with a twist.

Which is followed by this:

So, yeah. That happened, and it was pretty hilarious. And now I can check that off the Japan bucket list!

I don't think I've mentioned how huge gel nails are in Japan. Pretty much all of the women have them - not infrequently with jewels and other ornaments. I typically don't do manicures, since I don't enjoy them enough to justify spending all of the money on something that will inevitably start chipping in a day or two. But last spring I decided to give it a try. Gel is expensive, but it also LASTS.  As in, I don't have to get it removed for a month, and for that month, my nails look good and are pretty much indestructible - something that is particularly useful when you are traveling. So I did it, and now I'm totally addicted. My excuse for getting it done so much is that I leave Japan next summer, and I'm not likely to find such good gel nail people outside of Japan - people that I can take a picture to, and they're happy to do it, no matter how complicated. So this is how my nails have looked since then:

As you can tell, I've been having fun!

A few weeks ago, I had my first massage experience in Japan. A couple of us went out and just found a random place that looked good nearby. I think we found a Chinese massage place. I had a one hour body oil massage and a half hour foot (shiatsu) massage. The body massage was great. It was also the first time I've ever had somebody walk on me. I was very glad she knew what she was doing. The foot massage was good but hurt like heck. I could have said something, but I know the fact it hurt probably meant it was releasing toxins or whatever, and I figured I could tough it out. But wow. All the same, it was a lot of fun. I need to go try another place though, so I can see if there are differences.

Last but not least, earlier this week I learned that I will be moving to Santo Domingo next summer, where I will head our office responsible for the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica. I'm looking forward to that adventure. But it's a ways off yet, and I'm determined to enjoy Japan during this last year, as I know there will be a lot that I miss from here. Carpe diem!