Mexipan Food

Whenever I have a day that just flat out sucks, I look to find cuisine of Mexico. I have felt the stress pile on since I came here, so I found it to be necessary to seek Mexican food out here in Japan. In a sense...

¡Yo Quiero Tacos Por Favor!

I read about a mini chain of Japanese taquerias called ソル　アミゴ　(Sol Amigo) [Sun Friend]. I decided to check out the one in Shinjuku.

It isn't exactly easy finding a restaurant in Japan. There's buildings with businesses going on on each floor. After about 45 minutes of wandering around, I came across it.

Royal pain in the ass to find this place, but little did I know that it was worth it, especially with the food.

The waiting room was very cramped and narrow. But if you can't get used to the cramped and narrowness, Japan's not for you lol. When I waited, I noticed a lot of Mexican things with katakana and kanji. I saw barely any Español. I was greeted with "irashaimase!" and it threw my brain for a twist, because I wasn't greeted with "bienvenido". I think that was my first case of culture shock because I forgot a lot of the Japanese that I learned. Next I took a peek at the menu.

Video of menu - CLICK PLEASE

In case you missed it, there was some Engrish on the menu.

LOL

I wanted horchata, but they were scarce so I ordered a Corona because there's always time for cerveza (It's funny how Corona costs more than Sapporo at this place by the way). These guys already win, they put a lime in my Corona.

 

(I ate a few chips before I took this pic) The chips were a little stale, but they had excellent flavor... they were hardly even salty. The salsa wasn't that spicy, and was a bit like tomato soup. I didn't taste any jalapenos. BOO!

 

I ordered a Burrito:

Not what I expected, but it looked tasty.
Anticipating every single moment, I felt it necessary to record me tasting it, rather than just writing it down.

I say, "It's picadillo!", which is shredded beef

All in all, I enjoyed it! I recommend it, it was definitely worth the long search as well as the bill:

¡Gracias Gozaimasu!

PS Sorry I haven't been updating as much, I'm in 3 classes that require shiteloads of reading and writing. I'll do my best though!

Next Blog: Saitama & DREAM

Yen

$1 =  ¥ 81.4120 nowadays

When you spend a dollar (or at least when I do), I think about how far that dollar may go. When yen is to be spent, there a certain feeling of caring less about how far it can go. You're thirsty, you buy a drink. When you're hungry, you buy food. They say that when dollars have been staying in your pocket for so long, it "burns a hole in your pocket". With yen, it's practically incinerating, melting and completely destroying your pocket. Ever since I got here, I've been buying stuff to survive left and right. You can survive on at least ¥ 1000 a day.


The price ordeal is strange as well.
¥ 100 could get you a drink from a vending machine.
¥ 500 could satisfy your appetite
¥ 1000 could get you a phone card
¥ 2000 could get you a shirt
¥ 5000 could get you a ticket to DREAM or a backpack
¥ 10000 could get you a bicycle
¥ 500000 could get you a plane ticket or pay the rent
¥ 1000000 for tuition

I still gotta wonder, how much is minimum wage?

One of my dorm mates is drunk and keeping me up XD.


There'll be pics on the next blog I promise.

Japan so far

Yo peeps, this country is nutz! Ever since I landed here, I felt like I was lost all the damn time. I arrived a day early and I stayed at the hotel I was supposed to meet the representatives at. It was cool having my own hotel room, especially since it had two beds and there was only one of me. I unleashed some immaturity and built a fort hehe.

I still am having a hard time just adapting to the fact that I LIVE here. It's so weird knowing that I'm not leaving anytime soon. It's even more strange knowing that this isn't America, it's friggin' Japan.

On the first day, it's always hard to fall asleep. So I went walking around the area that the hotel is in. It's definitely different. I went to a 7-eleven and bought some pre-made food. They certainly put their blood and sweat into every bit of food they make, because it was delicious. I got spaghetti, gyoza, and canned coffee.... about 1000 yen right there. The problem with the 7-elevens here is there's no slurpee machines :'(.

I was awoke by an earthquake... don't worry, it wasn't a huge 9 pointer. It was an extremely light shake that lasted no more than a second. There will be a few more weeks of that happening. I decided to walk around the hotel and just chill. I encountered an elderly woman who told me "good morning" and I responded back with "ohaiyo gozaimasu", I guess they love it when a white boy speaks Japanese because she responded with a surprised "Ah!" with a smile on her face. That was cool! I walked around outside and a bus full of schoolboys waved at me... I could get used to this.

I have taken two years of Japanese in college, but I still have trouble understanding a lot of what's said. I think I'll take some more language classes while I'm here.

I plan on checking out TSD Kali next month, for now I'm just taking it easy because I pulled a hamstring lifting luggage.

On the 29th, I'm checking out a DREAM event, it's going to be dope! DREAM is Japan's most popular MMA circuit. It arose from the ashes of K-1's HEROES after PRIDE FC got canned by the UFC in America.

There's A LOT more on the way people, so stay tuned.

Catch ya on the flipside

Disclaimer

THIS BLOG IS INTENDED FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE INTEREST IN JAPAN, MARTIAL ARTS, AND FINE ARTS, THIS IS NOT A BLOG THAT WILL INCLUDE GLOATING AND ME SAYING I'M BETTER THAN YOU... NO.

I FIGURED I'D GET A BIGGER REACTION IF I DID THIS BLOG IN ALL CAPS. THANK YOU

Bruce Lee - My thoughts

Ever since I was 13, I had thought a lot about the teachings of Bruce Lee. I watched Enter The Dragon on a boring summer night, and was blown away by the way he did his martial arts. Before that time, I had primarily thought of martial arts as pretty much just chop socky-kung fu grip-hiyah stuff, not seeing the true passion behind martial arts. When it came time to graduate middle school, each student was required to give a presentation on a topic of their choosing. I remember hearing a lot of judgment on his death, especially since it's still a mystery especially after the release of that biopic that was about 30% correct. I'll probably rant a little on that topic too by the way.


When most people think Bruce Lee, they assume a kung-fu powerhouse movie and practically nothing else. Most people give him credit where it's totally not due. But I give him major props for him opening my eyes to the reality of life and having a go-for-it attitude. His philosophies were truly something else:

I don't think of him as a savior towards life. But a good majority of his teachings made me think better about my life, and have ultimately kept me on a steady path, even though it has been rocky. The point I'm trying to make is that I never thought I'd come as far as I have... Today I was certified in Lee Jun Fan (his real name)'s martial art of Jeet Kune Do. Like I was saying, I did a project on him in eighth grade, and had done two papers on him in high school. The last part of my exit project was to continue with the learning of the topic you chose, and ultimately I think I did some righteous justice by doing so. Originally, I thought JKD schools had been extinct, because after my project, I looked for a school in Bellingham and some in Seattle. Nothing came up.Fast forward a decade later, I had forgotten all about 8th grade, and lots of other things, and I needed a release so I decided to re-jump into the martial arts. When I signed up at where I do martial arts now, I was hoping to do some straight up MMA and Muay Thai; blood and fighting galore. I had no idea that JKD was taught there, and I am overall glad that I did sign up at where I am.

Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story was a good film, but overall hard to watch because most of it isn't true, and I think it gives off the wrong impression of him. The film is told from what I would guess is Linda Lee's memoirs of him, because the lot of the film was romance. I could go into a majority of detail what was wrong with it but, I'll save that for another time (probably). But I'm a tad disappointed that many key people weren't focused on, such as: Dan Inosanto, Judo Gene Lebell, Kareem-Abdul Jabaar, and Chuck Norris among others. A better and more accurate re-telling of his life might be a long story, but it would make for a good one. (RANT OVER)