As I explained before, we left concluded our 3 months in Saigon with $5,364. Now, we just had to get to Tokyo…here, our paths were to diverge: Rob would fly back to the U.S. for 3 weeks for important personal matters and join Brian and I in Tokyo in January. We knew we’d desperately need our cash from Vietnam to survive for awhile in Tokyo, so we decided that Rob would fund his flight ($1,400) and the money he spent while home ($500) on a credit card, to be paid off with future earnings. So Brian and I had to spend as little as possible relocating to and getting set up in Tokyo. Flights from Saigon to Tokyo were discouragingly expensive, but luckily we found a $510 round-trip flight from Bangkok to Tokyo, so our journey to Japan would take us through Thailand.

Originally, we were going to stay for a solid week in Bangkok to rest, relax, and ready ourselves for another 3-month sprint. However, this plan was quickly thwarted when protests shut down the Bangkok airport and our airline suddenly became unresponsive to our inquiries. For about a week, we thought we’d lose everything we’d spent, make our way to the coast, and start building a raft – effectively postponing Tokyo for Season 3 and making Season 2 the “Rafting the Pacific Ocean to Tokyo.” Luckily, all’s well that ends well: the airport opened up, flights were resumed, and we were able to enjoy just a couple days in Bangkok.

Here are our major expenses:

	2 Flights to Bangkok: $350 Budget airlines have incredible prices; they also have incredible weight restrictions for checked baggage. So we ended up bringing around 35lbs of carry-on luggage each. >
2 Flights to Tokyo: $1020 We had to haul all our luggage through security *again* but luckily most it went into the belly of the plane…
	Taxis: $35 Taxis in Thailand are slightly more expensive than in Vietnam. Also, farting was prohibited…
Housing: $35 4 people, 2 “double” beds, one cramped smelly room – ah, the money-saving hostel experience…
	Food and Drink: $60 The street food was delicious: Pad Thai, mango and sticky rice, chicken skewers, and grasshopper and cockroach. It’s pretty easy to eat well cheaply.
Cafes: $15 We still had to do some work, so we enjoyed some iced coffee, fruit shakes, and cheerfully fast internet.

All in all, getting from Saigon to Tokyo cost us $1,550, leaving us with $3,844 when we landed in Tokyo – not even $4,000 to survive the holiday season, secure jobs, and set up some kind of lifestyle in the second-most-expensive city in the world…

We’re in an interesting position here in Tokyo.  We’re filming a show in one of the most modern, bustling, and fascinating cities to ever exist.  At the same time we’re broke.  Not head out early for the lunch special and matinee broke, but everyone shares a bulk  bag of rice three meals a day for 2 weeks broke.  This brings us to where we are now.  Part of our job is to film interesting things in the city, so we try and make it to whatever events we can find.  And at these we often meet people who are interested in our story, what we do, and then want to show us something else amazing.  So we get invited to more events.  As we see more and more of these experiences we eventually get to place where we’re receiving invites to some pretty outrageous events but barley able to afford the train fare out there.

The perfect example of this was our past week. We struggled through trying to find ways to afford rice and make it palatable, but then as the weekend neared we got to head out to events like the opening of a flagship Bisazza store.  A brand of luxury mosaic titles (not kidding, such things are real).  As well as some private galley openings.

So that’s were we are now.  We’re at events with all you can drink top shelf champagne more often then we are sitting down to a meal that involves healthy quantities of meat.  It certainly is an interesting life.

Rob experiences the bitter delight of America for the first time in almost 4 months.  Meanwhile, it’s Christmas eve in Tokyo…

At long last, the episode in question.  Sorry about the delay on this one!  With any luck we’ll have some quicker releases for the next two episodes.

Season 2 kicks off with a bang, and from what’s happened so far in Tokyo I can imagine the story getting pretty interesting over the next few months.  Personally I’m dreading Episode 2 of this season.  I’m in it!  Time to get real comfortable with watching and listening to myself.

Special thanks again to Space Captain for the use of their song “But darling…” in this episode.  Go buy a CD!

Well, one of the dominant themes of our time in Tokyo is how to live very very cheaply in Tokyo.  We’re living as lightly as we can, trying to cushion the blow of Tokyo against our wallets.  One of our goals is to eat at home for less than 100Y/meal…it’s actually quite sad how far 100Y won’t go.  Even a convenience store corndog is 105Y =(  So managing entire meals on 100Y lets us save for more exciting forays into Tokyo.

The first step in enjoying these delectable meals is shop at Don Quijote, the bizarre “buy-everything-for-cheap” discount store.  You can buy bright underwear, pastries, barbells, shampoo, santa hats, cell phones, and dog food, to name a few – it’s like a Wal-mart, but with too many colors and Hello Kitty-ish music.  Wandering through a Don Quijote is an experience in and of itself…and while you do it, buy basic groceries!  99Y for a loaf of thick white bread.  150Y for 10 eggs.  Sometimes, 10Y for a processed and packaged donut…

The first cheap recipe we made was French Toast Bites – admittedly not Japanese, but nonetheless cheap, delicious, and easy.

For one person:

• 2 eggs: 32 Yen
• 2 slices of thick bread: 30 Yen
• 2 tsp oil (well, a splash really – I don’t measure): ~5 Yen
• 2 splashes milk: ~10 Y
• Many splashes of syrup: ~10 Y

Total: 87Y/person for breakfast.

Cut the bread slices into small squares.  Beat the 2 eggs, adding in the 2 splashes of milk.  Heat a skillet on medium heat with a splash of oil, until the oil runs easily around when you tilt the pan.  Soak the bread in the beaten eggs, then plop onto the pan.  They won’t need long to cook on the first side, so after about 60 seconds, flip them and turn the heat a little lower.  They should be golden brown, like good roasted marshmellows…mmm marshmellows…anyway, let them cook for awhile on lower heat – ah hell, everyone knows how to make french toast.

I’m having continued problems uploading large videos, so (as you can see) still no season 2.  In the meantime, the North East is getting hammered by snow and pretty much everything is canceled, so I’m going to use this day to get some other cool things done.

The following are a few of the sketches I did while I was in Tokyo with the cast/crew over January.  My background is in animation, so I do tend to carry a little sketchbook wherever I go and once in a while I actually remember to use it.  Click on the images to enlarge.

Mr. Brian Lio and a denizen of the Denentoshi line.

From the early morning at Tsukiji

I draw *exclusively* people in trains and bars.

Oh Matt, get some sleep.

Back in Brooklyn.

From the Edo falconry park.

Laters, Tokyo.

Hello audience; as you may have noticed, there is no Season 2: Episode 1 on the site today, as there is supposed to be.  We are experiencing some brief technical problems exacerbated by jet lag, so it’ll be a little late.  Early forecasting indicates a Monday night/Tuesday morning release.  Thanks for hanging in!

I promise it’ll be worth the wait.

The signs in Tokyo continue to amuse me.  Some have hilarious illustrations.  Some have adorable (but weird) creatures advertising products or giving helpful advice.  Some just have mistranslated English.  And some are just downright baffling.  Here’s another round of strange signs in Tokyo. 

Drunken Englishmen on the train

I’m not sure what this sign means, but it’s definitely eye-catching.  My suspicion is that it’s a warning against drunken revelry on the train, but why are all the carousers from an English medieval court?  Those drunken English…

Thank you Mr. Raccoon...I think

Aw, helpful raccoon warning me not to get my hand smashed in the subway doors…and they’re smiling so merrily to emphasize the message – wait, they’re not pointing at the message, they’re smiling and pointing at the hand being crushed!  Also, I like that there is a number to call in the case that your hand does get smashed in the subway doors…

Who would you club?

Someone should have told this Shibuya establishment that “club” is also a verb…I can imagine it could be quite a popular place – “Pop Paris Hilton: 1,000Y” or “Slap Shia LeBeouf: 1,500Y.”

No...taking seats...from fishermen...you lazy seals...

This is my personal favorite, by far.  One can quickly deduce that it has something to do with not stealing the “priority seating,” reserved for people like the gentleman with the cast.  What that has to do with seals holding fish, sitting on ice, watched over by a man with a pail and big scrub brush – I have absolutely no clue.  Please leave a comment with your own hypothesis (or end my ignorance and explain conclusively). 

The rest can be found on flickr here.

Thanks for watching us in Season 1: Saigon! Season 2 is on its way with new episodes starting next week.  With me moving back to America on Thursday we didn’t want to rush production, so you’ll have to hold out for a week to see our new adventures in Tokyo. In the meantime, enjoy these fun facts about season 1:

Number of tapes recorded: 94, or about 97 hours of footage (not all tapes in photo).

Number of all-nighters spent editing: 8 or 9.  I kind of forget. 

Number of new chemical addictions: 2 (coffee and whiskey)

Number of cans of Pabst consumed (while editing): 462, or about 15.5 cases

Number of miles traveled by the crew: 11,243 (that is a lot)

Number of gigabytes filled by Jet Set Zero: 730, across 4 drives

Number of ties purchased from the Salvation Army: 5

Number of bars I (should) have been ejected from: All of them.

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So that’s it.  Stay tuned for Season 2; with any luck we’ll have an even more ridiculous set of statistics for you.