An international incident waiting to happen

In a charming change of pace, the final leg of my travel adventure will be far from alone, and the company far from unfamiliar. The cast of characters is as follows:

the gcb: Actor, traveller, lover, blogger, foot model, unparalleled party-organizer, stucco inventor, fashion icon, and hero to house-cats the world over.

Chris Murray: Another actor, and our guide- a veteran of Tokyo, he learned to speak Japanese when he was younger so that he could understand Japanese video games. No joke. Murray has no interest in seeing any historical or non-electronic cultural attractions, so he'll be our guide for video arcades, restaurants, and karaoke bars. Murray is an hilarious and entertaining fellow. Don't believe anything he says.

Hot-Toddy: Toddy, seen here high above Tokyo, is an actor and writer who can best be understood by reading his blog, linked all over this page. Toddy is also well over 6'. Everyone who meets Toddy loves him and nobody knows when he's being serious.

Joe Bolenbaugh: Joe looks like Superman, until be puts his glasses on and looks like Clark Kent. I caught him on infrared moving faster than a speeding bullet, above. We all thought Joe hated us until he decided to come on this trip, but it turns out he's got a mental disorder which makes him permanently sarcastic. He makes the most. Joe is also well over 6' tall and an actor.

Devin: Devin is the permanent audience for the four above. Devin finds everyone amusing, so he's an essential element for a crowd of attention-seekers. Nobody knows where the fuck he's gone. He was supposed to be in that photo but he just keeps disappearing.

Grizzo: You'll get to know Grizzo much better as he posts to this blog-- Grizzo helped me create it and has been the quality-control team ever since. Basically, anything funny you read on here was added by Grizzo after I wrote the boring stuff. Grizzo is joining the Japan party a little late, but staying here with me after the rest of the crew flies home. Grizzo has never left north America before, speaks a very small amount of Japanese, and has a special knack for turning everyday activities into unmitigated disasters which end up making for great stories.

As this entry is being written, 5 of us have been in Tokyo for 2 full days, and we are waiting in a coffee shop for Grizzo to appear and complete our group. Here's what we've achieved so far:

- We've walked around flabbergasted at all the blinky lights, unreadable signs, and readable but nonsensical English (a sports drink? a bar?).

- We tried to eat Japanese food, which went fine for everyone except me. All I could eat was rice and pickled vegetables.

- Toddy, Joe and I all ascended a 60-story building with an amazing view of the sprawling, smoggy, horizon-occupying Tokyo.

- We went shopping at lots of stores full of strange, semi-identifiable products, none of which Toddy was able to leave without being physically dragged.

- We visited a Sento, which is a traditional Japanese bath-house, where you shower by sitting in a little stool and dumping water from a bucket over your head, some of the bath-water has a modest electric-shock effect, and the locals didn't know what to do with us.

When went out on the town, accompanied by a Kiwi from our Ryokan (guest house) named Phillipa, we:

- Found Rock Bar Mother, a basement which barely sat all of us, played whatever music we wanted, and required a flashlight to read the menu.

- Karaoked in what amounted to a sauna. Murray and I stripped to our underwear and our server pretended not to notice.

- Phillipa almost lost Murray, and I had to use my long-cultivated Murray-radar to track him down

- Made it home before 1 am.