Kyoto!

Home of Astro-Boy museum and a whole lotta temples and shrines, Kyoto is beautiful. The ardous 2-hour journey by train was made by myself, a couple of friends from work, their branch manager (a Japanese guy who appointed himself translator and tour guide for our expidition), and my roommate, Jerome, who was confused for an NBA star by a flock of Japanese middle schoolers. In order to escape from their deathlike clutches, he was forced to sign all of their purses.

The Japanese really love Jerome, because he's a really big Black guy. Usually, he gets a kick out of it, like at the temple in the picture. Regretfully, I cut off his head (not with my ninja sword, but with a camera) so you can't see how happy he is ruining Louis Vuitton purses. (I'm dead serious; they give their kids real Louis Vuitton purses.) Another fun time was when we went to an all you can drink night club in Namba (the party district of Osaka) and all of these Japanese guys started giving him drinks... In an all you can drink bar. The crazy part was, you needed to bring your glass back to get your next drink. These guys were giving him their drinking privlages!

But it's funny and sad at times, like on the way to Kyoto. He and I were just standing in a train station, waiting for our friends to show, when this little Japanese woman walks up to him and says "Basketball?" In her defense, he was wearing a NJ jersey and shorts, but then she started poking him, still saying "Basketball!"... Then she hugged him... And then, I swear to god, she groaped him. Straight for the pecs! We were dying at the time: this little Japanese girl feeling up six-foot-plus Jerome. After a few squeezes and a a couple of pats to show how impressed she was, she was off. She had seen and assaulted her first NBA star.