Today we went to Shinjuku and had Shabu Shabu and Sukiyaki. They are two different types of preparing food. It is similar to fondu, in that you are given food to dip into a hot liquid. You are given raw meats and uncooked vegetables, you are to take those and put them in the boiling liquid. For Shabu Shabu, you take the raw meat and quickly dip it in the boiling water, after 20 seconds or so, the meat becomes fully cooked, because it is sliced about as thin as paper. With sukiyaki, you take the meat and veggies and let them cook in a different liquid for a while then take out whatever you want, and place in a bowl with a raw egg, and then let it cool off a bit and eat. Very good, (oishi). It was relitevly inexpensive considering it was all you can eat, and the quality and freshness of the food was very good.
Later we went to Ginzu a high class shopping district of Tokyo, there were so many people around this area, shopping is a huge part of the Japanese lifestyle, everywhere I look I notice that most everyone is dressed in very up to date fashionable clothing. I am still impressed by the amuont of order and organization this country abides by. They have yellow strips along the streets whereby blind people can follow the grooves, when they come to a change in pavement, like a step or a street corner, the grooves change to alert them. I have yet to use a bathroom with paper towels, all bathrooms have air hand dryers, unlike the ones we are used to in the US, they are sanitized high speed air dryers, similar to the dyson airblade (if you do not know what this is, google it).
Also today we went to Karaoke. This is hugely popular in Tokyo, there are entire buildings it seems dedicated to karaoke. It is very different than US karaoke. You go into a room with 3 or 4 friends and you have a tv and a few microphones, and you use a hand held computer to choose the song based upon artist or song title, once selected you start sining in the room, watching the TV for the lyrics after an hour or so, you leave. It was really fun!
After singing we stopped by McDonnalds for a quick snack, I wanted to try it to see what kind of differences there are. They have a shrimp burger and a teryaki burger both of which are very good, however even though the food was better and of likely higher quality, it stil made me somewhat sick, just a small upset stomach, which is interesting that i drink the water and i eat the japanese food and i get an upset stomach from McDonnalds 
So far I like it here, there are lights everywhere!
(eating shabu shabu)
