Siblings!

Alex was in Tokyo for a few days for top secret government business. Just kidding. I'm not actually sure what he was here for, but a conference of some sort. He was staying at the Yokota Airbase which is about an hour and a half from Tokyo but he came and met me for dinner anyways. We met up at Harajuku station, and walked around a bit. We happened upon a Shakey's which is something that my dad has always talked about.  So of course we had to go! It's an American style pizza place, it's kind of a like a CiCi's Pizza. It was a buffet style, you get a plate and can go up as much as you want. I tried the corn pizza, the cheddar pizza, and had a bite of Chicken teriyaki pizza but turns out I'm not a huge fan of seaweed on my pizza. (So far I've been good about trying things once, I'm not a picky eater but.. some things just aren't my cup of tea -  hmm for example, squid guts..) They also had pasta and salad and curry rice. Just a typical American style pizza joint.

After we finished dinner, we hopped on the train to my neck of the woods so I could show Alex my dorm, and the area I live in. He was very impressed, since the area I live in is a nicer area. Think of it as the Buckhead of Tokyo (Buckhead's a nicer part of Atlanta, maybe similar to Beacon Hill in Boston.. I'm trying to accommodate all my readers!)  I introduced him to some of my international friends and some of the Japanese buddies that were hanging around. Alex is probably the most fluent in Japanese in our family (I'm catching up though!), but he is also the most American looking. The Japanese buddies introduced themselves in broken English at first and I swear their jaws hit the floor when Alex spoke back in perfect Japanese. They were so impressed it was pretty amusing. It was nice that Alex was able to see my dorm and the place I'll be living for the rest of the year. It's funny that Alex is the family member I see the absolute least of most of the time, but he's the first family member to visit me in Japan! The rest of you need to step it up..