It's easier to buy a gun in Georgia than it is to buy a cell phone in Japan.

I'm not kidding.  I foolishly thought that a cell phone should be easy to obtain since 99.99% of Japanese people over the age of 2 own one.  Even more foolishly I thought that my universal unlocked cell phone would work in Japan since it works in every other country in the world.  No.  That all would be too simple.  First of all, there is no GSM network in Japan, so immediately my phone was out.  Fortunately, Japan offers pre-paid cell phones.  However, getting one is not as easy as picking one out at the store.  These cell phones are the most regulated products I have ever encountered.  They require an alien identification card to get one, but after an hour of negotiating, I was able to purchase one with a passport.  But that wasn't all.  It took another 2.5 hours of the sales person on the phone, fingerprinting, and signing my name in blood before he agreed to hand over a cell phone with 60 pre-paid minutes.  Go figure.

Some of you may have heard about the stabbings in Akihabara.  I don't really know any more information about it than what I read on cnn.com.  I guess crazy people aren't just in the US.

On a lighter note, I finally at my first piece of Japanese sushi!  Delicious!  We also were taken to a German Bier House tonight for dinner.  I never realized quite how similar schnitzel and katsu are!