3 ideas/dead internet.

For some reason, my internet has been completely dead for the last 3 days. I sent my company an email, but there hasn't been a response yet. I can leech from a local unsecured wireless, but the connection is quite unreliable and incredibly slow. Uploading pictures for my 3 day assignment is not possible and taking the video I shot and putting it online is unthinkable.

I have three ideas for my final project. First, and most likely the one I'm going to work on, is mainly about independent bands in Tokyo, and specifically about a band that I have become friends with. I know a lot about shows and bands in America, but in Japan and especially Tokyo, it seems to be a whole different story. I would like to follow the members of a band around and find out how and where they practice, record, set up shows, etc. I spoke with the members of this band on Tuesday and the drummer/singer and guitar player were very happy with the idea, but the bass player was skeptical. She finally agreed, but didn't seen excited. Of the three, she is the one who speaks English the best, as the other two really don't speak any English at all. Communicating with them is always a fun challenge for me, but for this project, I might need some outside help.

The second idea for a project is based on an English cafe I started working at. It's a conversational cafe where people come in and pay to hang out and speak in English. Apparently some people have been going there for over twenty years. The owner/manager seems friendly enough, but I'm just curious on the cafe's history and outlook for the future.

My third idea is the yakitori stand across the street from me. My neighborhood is for the most part, quite modern. There are very few old buildings and one of them contains an aging yakitori stand. From what I have seen, they get enough foot traffic to keep them in business but I'm not sure for how long. With a supermarket selling yakitori next door and a convenience store down the street that also sells yakitori 24 hours a day along with a really nice place inside my train station that opened at the beginning of the year, the dedicated yakitori stand seems very dated. Also, the building itself is quite run down and I just wonder how they can survive in today's world.

Of the three, I'm pretty sure I'm doing #1, but I am interested in the other two.

Hopefully if I'm lucky, I'll be able to post this. When my internet comes back to life, or Tuesday at the latest, I'll post my 3 day project.

First post.

Welcome.  This is the site where I will be posting for my Tokyo Stories class.  I also have a personal blog, which can be viewed by looking at my profile.

Our first assignment is to spend an hour or so at a location for 3 days.  I'm planning on going to Inokashira park, as it's close to my house and a nice place.  I'm quite familiar with the park near the station area with the lake, but I would like to go to the area of the park with the running track as I've only been there a few times and never spent more than a couple minutes at this location.

It will be interesting to see what happens.