#it was set to be past 200 orders even with the caps. overwhelming on a fully staffed day impossible with that disaster yesterday

[wizardnuke]

boss lady just texted and asked if I could please come in for a few hours we r slammed. girl it is not my fault u are slammed rn it is if anyone's. your fault. for not prepping for this yesterday bc we all knew this was gonna happen

[evilelitest2]

Sanders does have an immediate plan of issuing executive orders around immigration, marijuana, and more upon assuming office. It would immediately be different than the Obama administration because he is the only candidate who acknowledges we need to do everything we can to halt deportations. His tax proposals are also extremely detailed, and Warren explicitly said she wouldn't even try to actually implement M4A until her third term. I just think there's some key nuance missing there

Ok lets go through their plans 

1) Sanders has plans for executive orders certainly but that isn’t actually what I was talking about.  Sanders doesn’t have a plan (or hasn’t told us) for remaking the Executive Branch, how to fix the staffing issues, reorganize the state department, and obtain the adminstrative system he will need to rule.  I’m kinda worried Sanders will spend the first six months of his presidency trying to fix Trumps mistakes before he can even do anything 

There is also no mention on his website on dealing with Trumps corruption, while Warren intends to prosecute the lot of them 

2) Warrens plan involves M4A not starting until the third year of her term.  So its basically M4A but takes longer to get there. I prefer this, because the healthcare market is super fragile and one wrong move could cause the entire market to crash which would delegitimize M4A for a generation.   But the debate doesn’t matter, neither candidate is going to get past setting up the fundementals in their first term anyways as AOC acknowledged 

3) 

Ok lets compare Sanders and Warrens on....reducing corporate money influencing politics.   

Sanders Plan is here https://berniesanders.com/issues/money-out-of-politics/ 

Warrens plan is here https://elizabethwarren.com/plans#end-washington-corruption-and-fix-our-democracy

Like right away you see the advantage to warren right?  her plan is actually 13 inter connected plans which all help contribute to the problem, while Sanders plan is a single plan.  Ok but lets check out that plan 

in the short term he basically wants to cap individual donations to $500 and ban all corporate contributions to the Democratic Party Convention (no mention of the Republicans)

Update the Federal Election Campaign Act to have National party Conventions be funded with public funding

Constitutional Amendment to make it clear that money is not speech and corporations are not people (but he doesn’t want to get ride of the filibuster) 

Enact mandatory public financing laws for all federal elections 

Abolish the FEC and replace it with the “Federal Election Administration” which is a plan the Senate has been wanting to do for decades, which would have strict term limits and no lobbying

Ban Advertising during the Primary Debates 

Ban a lifetime lobbying ban for former members of Congress and their staffers 

OK those are all good changes and I think they are necessary for the country, though he is a bit vague on HOW he will enact them.  but ok, lets look at Warren

So Warren has 13 interconnected plans each one of which is a lot larger than Sanders, but lets just limit ourselves to “Getting Big Money Out of Politics” 

https://elizabethwarren.com/plans/campaign-finance-reform

So one thing Warren points out in her plan is that in addition to being correct, the need to collect money means that elected officials spend Hours per day on the phone with donors rather than learning about policy.  Its terrible and its a major reason why our elected officials are so fucking out of it 

You can see here 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xrt5xE0rBbs  

So in the plan she says basically all the same things as Sanders does (though she wants to limit the individual donations to $200) 

In addition she also wants to 

Close the Loophole in Citizens United 

Ban donations from Political Action Committed 

Outlaw Foreign Money from coming into elections

Effectively outlaw Dark Money 

Make it illegal for campaign contributions to play a role in the Selection of Ambassadors 

Make the inaugural committees transparent 

Wiat there is a section called “Ban Lobbyists from Donating Bundling and Fundraising for cannidates.”  Ok what does she mean by that....oh shit son look its a different plan https://elizabethwarren.com/plans/end-washington-corruption  She has an anti corruption Plan hidden within her anti corruption plan.  Wait ok there are 14 plans, not 13...wait I can’t actually sum up oen plan because its inconnected to the other plans. 

Literally there is so much detail that it is kinda overwhelming

What is really useful about Warrens plan though is that she can do most of it even if she doesn’t win the Senate and if she has a hostile Supreme Court.  

Ok lets pick another issue, the Electoral College.  Both of them siad its undemocratic and they will abolish it.  One of the issues I care the most about. 

Sanders....doesn’t have a section on it.  His Website makes no mention of the EC.  I tried googling it but all I get are statements by Sanders here he says he wants to ban it which...that is good Sanders is correct but no actual plan

Warrens plan listed here 

https://elizabethwarren.com/plans/electoral-college

Its....also actually pretty vague, she basically just explains in detail why the EC is bad and rebuts a bunch of Republican Arguments but no word on how she plans to actually do it.  So both of them are vague, but at least Warren made it clear its a prority.

Ok lets choose a different issue.  Puerto Rico 

Look at these two policies 

https://elizabethwarren.com/respect-for-puerto-rico/?ftag=MSF0951a18 

https://berniesanders.com/issues/empower-puerto-rico/ 

Just the sheer amount of detail 

Now there are some issues where Sanders is 100% better than Warren.  I like that sanders wants to give prisoners the right to vote, and think his policy towards turning post offices in to banks is great. But Warrens focus on the specifics makes me a lot more confident things can be passed rather than just talked about.  

Now Sanders is my second choice, but I feel like the first six months of his administration are going to be absolute hell for him as he has to rebuild the Executive Branch, which will limit his ability to get things done.

[central-city-meta-pocalypse]

Rough Around the Edges - (Harry Wells x reader)

A/N: Inspired by a conversation the infamous ‘Wells Trash Trio’ had that I couldn’t help but write! What a good way to see in the new year and my 200 follower mark! :P I do hope you enjoy :D

Summary: Harry neglects to shave for a little while which leaves him with some scruff. He realises that you love it which leads to some action in the workshop... (NSFW)

Warning: Smut (Honestly can’t quite believe I wrote this... it is the dirtiest thing I’ve ever written!) 

*Picture not mine, credit to the owner*

The scruff had never been intentional. You were almost sure of that.

Your boyfriend, Harry, had been working on one particular problem for several days and in that time had barely had a break to sleep, let alone taken the time to shave which had left him looking a little more rugged than usual.

But then after Cisco had told him it looked pretty good (whether sarcastically or not, you didn’t know either), he had decided to keep it.

But the one thing you were absolutely sure of is that you loved it.

He’d always been gorgeous to you, it was one of the many things you love about him. But there was something about the stubble that stepped his attractiveness up a notch…

And the thoughts you were having about him right now… they had you blushing at your desk every time you even looked at him.

Yet you couldn’t escape because he was always around you, working with you or just wanting to spend time with you when the others weren’t around. And then in bed when he’d snuggle up behind you and nuzzle his whiskery face into your neck.

It was driving you insane.

But with everything going on, there was never a moment when both you and Harry were free for you to relieve some of your… frustration.

So here you were, sat at the desk in the workshop, reordering various medical supplies that Caitlin had brought in that morning while Harry was stood at the board, working through yet another massively complicated equation.

You studied him as he worked, the way he stroked his fingers over his stubbly chin while he was thinking before scribbling something else down.

Your mind wandered to slightly more suggestive scenarios as you watched him, imagining his hard and desperate kisses, the feel of his stubble on your bare skin as he made his way down your body towards your-

“(Y/N), honey, are you okay?”

You shook your head to clear away your dirty thoughts as the heat rose in your cheeks when you saw Harry studying you with a concerned look on his face.

“Mmm, yeah, I’m fine,” you said, quickly ducking your head and going back to your task as you hoped that you weren’t blushing too hard.

However, you heard Harry put the cap back on his pen and pad over to you, leaning up against the desk next to you before running his hand softly through your hair.

“Are you sure about that?” he asked gently, tucking the strands behind your ear and brushing his fingers against the back of your neck. “You’ve been doing that a lot lately – staring at me and then disappearing into your own head… what’s on your mind?”

You turned your head to look up at him. He looked so concerned that you had to stop yourself from laughing out loud. He thought there was genuinely something wrong, and you felt a little bad that you were just going to have to admit to him that your only problem was that you were turned on by his facial hair.

“You honestly don’t have to worry,” you started, feeling yourself go red again, “I’m just err… it’s your… um…”

You gestured to his jaw and dipped your head again as you waited for him to catch on.

“Oh…” he started after a couple of seconds, looking down at you with a growing smirk as he worked out why you were blushing so profusely. “You like it?”

“Maybe a little?” you said, biting your lip as you grinned sheepishly up at him.

The look in his eye changed. He looked incredibly happy with that answer.

He pushed himself off the side of the desk, coming to stand behind you and running his hands over your shoulders and down your arms. You felt the warmth of his breath on your neck as he leaned closer to you, ghosting his lips over your skin.

“So you like it when I do this?” he asked, voice now low and seductive, as he pressed his lips firmly against your neck, his stubble scratching against you in just the right way.

He started sucking, clearly intent on leaving a mark, as you sighed and leaned your head to the right a little more to give him better access. He finished off by biting down on your skin, earning a little gasp from you.

“Mmm… so delicious.” He gently kissed the now bright red mark, “and all mine…”

“I’m all yours, Harry, always yours.”

You sighed again, turning your head and pressing your lips against his in a searing kiss, pouring all of your pent up feelings into it. He kissed you back hungrily before pulling away and holding your gaze.

He spun your chair around and picked you up before quickly setting you down you the edge of the desk behind you. You momentarily wondered if it was wise to do this here when any of the others could walk in on you, but it was a short-lived thought as you became too desperate to care.

You bit your lip as you watched Harry kneel before you as he hooked his fingers under the waistband of your pants, shimming them down your legs with a little assistance from yourself.

His cool hands ran up your already heated thighs leaving a trail of goosebumps in his wake and making you squirm slightly in anticipation.

“A little eager, aren’t you?” he said huskily with a smirk playing on his lips as he pressed a kiss to your inner thigh. You would never tire of seeing how his prickly demeanour could change so dramatically when it was just you and him. And when he really wanted you.

“Harry…” you whined as he teased you, the desperation to feel him on you becoming overwhelming. You knew you were probably embarrassingly wet by now and every one of his little touches only added to your arousal.

He reached up again, slowly sliding your panties down and condemning them to the floor with your bottoms, giving him unimpeded access to your centre.

“Now tell me, what is it that you want, baby girl…?” he purred. He loved teasing you to the point of begging and you couldn’t say that you didn’t enjoy it too, despite the increased frustration.

“You, Harry, please, please,” you moaned, knowing that was the only way he’d oblige.

His lips turned up in a satisfied grin as he lowered his face towards you, looking up at you with darkened eyes. His tongue darted out to wet his lips before he closed the distance and he finally went down on you.

You closed your eyes at the feel of him. His tongue licked at your wetness, brushing against your most sensitive nerves and making you shudder as he pleasured you. You let out a low sigh, bucking your hips slightly when his tongue flicked against you in just the right spot.

You were soon panting heavily, letting out small mews and whimpers to voice your appreciation of his skilled actions.

The feel of his stubble between your legs only heightened the experience, the roughness creating a glorious increase in friction which had you moaning loudly as your hand tangled in his dark locks to pull him closer to you.

His hands went to your hips to hold you still while he worked his special kind of magic between your thighs. Your free hand gripped the edge of the desk to hold yourself up, else you were sure you’d have slid onto the floor by now.

“F-fuck, Harrison, s-so close,” you moaned, the familiar feeling coiling inside of you as you arched your back in an attempt to feel even more of him against you and get the last bit of friction you so desperately needed.

Harry could read your body like a book by now and knew exactly what you needed and was more than happy to oblige, beginning to hum gently against you and causing vibrations to flow through you as his tongue worked harder, increasing the pressure before he sent you crashing over the edge.

You cried out as you came, head thrown back and eyes closed, riding out the wave of pleasure as you felt Harry eagerly lap up your release, providing enough stimulation to see you through your orgasm.

You were still panting as you came down from your high and you felt Harry pull away from you as you released your tight hold on his hair. He was still holding on to your hips firmly like he knew you needed him to stay upright in any way.

He rose from his knees, standing in front of you again as you stared up at him, still a little dazed.

“I absolutely forbid you to shave ever again,” you said between breaths, running your hands over his forearms and then holding onto him in order to steady yourself.

“Yes, ma’am.”

He chuckled, helping you down from your perch and assisting you when you wobbled slightly on your feet. “I take it that’s what you’ve been thinking this past week? All the little glances and such?”

“And then some…” you replied with a grin, leaning up and kissing his rough cheek before bending down to grab your clothes from where he’d discarded them on the floor and pulling them back on.

“Naughty girl…” he said with a ‘tut’, but his smirk told you that he loved it, “thinking about me all that time when you had work to do…”

“What can I say, you do things to me… especially at the moment…” you said silkily, running your hands over his toned chest. Now that you’d had a taste, you were very much eager for more. “But I can show you just how naughty I can be… If you wanted…”

You barely had to wait a second before he was sweeping you off your feet and into his strong arms as he carried you out of the workshop and in the direction of his room. It only took a couple of minutes for him to walk through the door and for you to quickly lock it.

“You shouldn’t have bothered putting these back on,” he growled, as he laid you down on the bed and stripped you of your pants again, before starting to unbutton your shirt as well.

You grinned at him, pulling him down by the shirt to kiss him hard, caressing his stubbly cheek with your palm.

“If I’d have known not shaving would have this effect on you, I’d have considered it long before now,” he said against your lips as he practically tore the shirt from your body. You smirked at him as he went to start on another hickey, on your chest this time.

“I told you - just never shave again.”

[shortstories4theendoftheworld]

“EMERGENCY ALERT: DO NOT LOOK AT THE SKY. DO NOT LOOK AT THE MOON. DISREGARD ALL MESSAGES THAT MAY PROMPT YOU TO DO SO. DISREGARD ANY SUGGESTION TO DO SO. DO NOT LOOK AT THE SKY.”

This is what the screen of my phone currently read, as it continued to sound the alarm I had woken to. I could have sworn I had set my phone to silent before going to bed.... but I supposed government issued Emergency Alerts were a special case, even if they showed up at 3:16am. As I quickly dismissed the awful sound, I resisted the urge to look out the window next to my bed, or the one on the wall in front of me that overlooked the garage. Strange how that works; I’m sure that were I left to my own devices, the thought to look out my window at 3:16am wouldn’t even have occurred to me, nor the thought to be awake at this time for that matter, but now that it had been brought to my attention and expressly forbidden... I found the draw of the gentle red light from outside and my own curiosity almost unbearable. I found it even more so when I realized that moonlight is not typically that color.

   In order to distract myself from the window to my right, I continued to look at my phone. Once the emergency alert was dealt with, notifications told me I had missed several Facebook messages, texts, and phone calls while asleep— more than several, actually; over 30 of each. This was impressive especially in the case of missed calls, as the only people I regularly talk to over the phone were my immediate family. Not wanting to fumble through voicemails just after waking up, and finding 99+ messenger notifications a little overwhelming, I elected to open my texts first.

From: Big Sis

“Hey brat. Idk if you’re awake or not by now, guess I just was thinking about you on my way home from work. The sky over the city is amazing tonight... can you see this from home?”

From: Jake (you know, from community theater)

“Yo i saw one of the guys in our play on tv today :0 it was super weird. Also you’re into moon shit right? What the fuck is up with the sky right now??”

From: bro

(The first message from my brother is just a shitty meme made out of a painting of George Washington, edited with text to make it look like he’s complaining about Martha letting the ghost children in the mansion again. He knows I find classical art memes hilarious, and the two of us trade them regularly.)

“Dude look at the sky rn”

  The messages continued on in similar fashion from various contacts, each a little less casual and a little more persistent than the last. In conjunction with the emergency alert that woke me, these texts began to make my hair stand on end. For the sake of my chronic anxiety, I tried to convince myself that maybe, I wasn’t awake after all, and this was all some bizarre dream fragment. I opened my messenger app next. What I found there were conversations from nearly all of my 200-something friends, each immediately reading the same things: “look at the sky” or “you have to look at the sky rn”. I opened a few and scrolled, finding hours worth of constant messages from my closest friends, all devolving from casual mentions of pretty skies and amazing sights to simple, single phrased demands in the same way as my family’s texts. Even as I skimmed, a few more messages popped up from people whose faces I barely even remembered. After double-pressing home and swiping up to cancel out of the messenger app completely, I checked my calls.

Mom

Mom

Mom

Mom

Dad

Mom

Mom

Mom

Dad

Mom

Mom

Mom

Mom

Mom

Dad

Mom

Dad

Mom

Mom

. . .

   All of them were marked ‘Missed’, and all but the last 10 or so marked ‘Voicemail’. The fact that I currently lived in my parents’ house struck me violently as soon as I saw the list. I sat still, held my breath, and listened. My parents’ bedroom shared my left wall. If I concentrated, I should have been able to hear....

A muffled thump. An indistinct, disembodied noise from somewhere down the hall. I could not hear my mother rambling in her sleep, or my father’s usual snoring. After a long moment frozen to my bed, I pushed off my blanket and stood.

   Taking extreme care to move quietly, I reached for my over-the-shoulder bag and checked its contents. Wallet, house key, notebook, passport, old protein bar, earbuds, solar powered emergency flashlight/USB-battery pack.... everything was where I left it. I hastily shoved in a charging chord, a half-full water bottle, a pair of scissors, and the last remnants of a roll of duct tape. Once my bag was packed, I turned to the laundry basket and dressed, still in nothing but the reddish light of my windows. Last, I grabbed my favorite ball cap and a pair of sunglasses, and opened the window leading out to the garage roof.

   Pulling the bill of the hat down over my forehead and directing my face to the shingles just below me, I crawled out the window with my bag. I had pulled this daring escape several times in the past, often needing a quick escape from my mother’s awful moods starting in my high school days. It was a fairly easy climb over the slant to the back of the house, onto the shed, and then a drop of a mere two feet to the ground. Once both bag and socked feet hit the grass, I gently eased open the door to the garage and then the mud room door, knowing my father kept them unlocked in case of emergency. Not daring to advance further into the house, I slipped on my worn out boots, grabbed a lighter pair of lace-ups and scurried back out the way I came. Finally, I reached into the shed and lifted an old, dented aluminum bat from the junk pile we tried to pass as garden equipment, and went on my way.

Part 2: The Suburb coming soon

Support SS4EW at https://www.patreon.com/ShortStories4theEndoftheWorld

[vsplusonline]

U.S. deaths top 1,000 as $2.2 trillion in virus aid approved

New Post has been published on https://apzweb.com/u-s-deaths-top-1000-as-2-2-trillion-in-virus-aid-approved/

U.S. deaths top 1,000 as $2.2 trillion in virus aid approved

NEW YORK — U.S. deaths from the coronavirus pandemic topped 1,000 in another grim milestone for a global outbreak that is taking lives and wreaking havoc on economies and the established routines of ordinary life.

In a recognition of the scale of the threat, the U.S. Senate late Wednesday passed an unparalleled $2.2 trillion economic rescue package steering aid to businesses, workers and health care systems.

The unanimous vote came despite misgivings on both sides about whether it goes too far or not far enough and capped days of difficult negotiations as Washington confronted a national challenge unlike it has ever faced. The 880-page measure is the largest economic relief bill in U.S. history.

Worldwide, the death toll climbed past 21,000, according to a running count kept by Johns Hopkins University, and the U.S. had 1,050 deaths and nearly 70,000 infections.

Spain’s death toll has risen past 3,400, eclipsing that of China, where the virus was first detected in December, and is now second only to that of Italy, which has 7,500. Lidia Perera, a nurse at Madrid’s 1,000-bed Hospital de la Paz, said more workers were desperately needed. “We are collapsing,” Perera said.

The Spanish parliament voted to allow the government to extend strict stay-at-home rules and business closings until April 11.

Such measures are becoming increasingly common in the U.S., where New York is the epicenter of the domestic outbreak, accounting for more than 30,000 cases and close to 300 deaths, most of them in New York City.

Public health officials in the city hunted down beds and medical equipment and called for more doctors and nurses for fear the number of sick patients will overwhelm hospitals as has happened in Italy and Spain.

A makeshift morgue was set up outside Bellevue Hospital, and the city’s police, their ranks dwindling as more fall ill, were told to patrol nearly empty streets to enforce social distancing.

In Washington, President Donald Trump has called for Americans to dedicate themselves to social distancing for 15 days, including staying home from work and closing bars and restaurants to help try to stall the spread of the disease.

Yet, he has also grumbled that “our country wasn’t built to be shut down” and vowed not to allow “the cure be worse than the problem” — apparently concerned that the outbreak’s devastating effects on financial markets and employment will harm his chances for reelection later this year.

“The LameStream Media is the dominant force in trying to get me to keep our Country closed as long as possible in the hope that it will be detrimental to my election success,” Trump tweeted Wednesday.

Democrats say that Trump was prioritizing the economy over the health and safety of Americans.

“I’d like to say, let’s get back to work next Friday,” said Joe Biden, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination. “That’d be wonderful. But it can’t be arbitrary.”

Biden said the congressional aid package addressing the outbreak “goes a long way,” but that “meticulous oversight” is required.

“We’re going to need to make sure the money gets out quickly into peoples’ pockets and to keep a close watch on how corporations are using the taxpayers funds that they receive, to make sure it goes to help workers, not rich CEOs or shareholders,” the former vice-president said.

Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro has also called to reopen schools and businesses, contending a clampdown ordered by many governors will deeply wound the economy and spark social unrest. He called for only high-risk people to quarantine and for governors to lift their stricter measures.

The country’s governors resisted, saying his instructions run counter to health experts’ recommendations and endanger Latin America’s largest population. The rebellion even included traditional allies of Brazil’s far-right president.

Meanwhile, the governor of a state in central Mexico said the poor are “immune” to the coronavirus, even as the federal government suspended all non-essential government activities.

Puebla Gov. Miguel Barbosa’s comment was apparently partly a response to statistics showing that the wealthy, who travel much more, have made up a significant percentage of Mexicans infected to date, including some prominent businessmen. The country has seen six deaths so far.

“The majority are wealthy people. If you are rich, you are at risk. If you are poor, no,” Barbosa said. “We poor people, we are immune.”

Barbosa also appeared to be playing on an old stereotype held by some Mexicans that poor sanitation standards may have strengthened their immune systems by exposing them to bacteria or other bugs.

In other developments:

— Thailand’s capital, Bangkok, saw a drastic reduction in crowds and traffic on the first day of a national state of emergency declared to cope with the virus. The elevated Skytrain mass transit system was largely empty during the normal rush hour and a main bus station was quiet after the departure over the past week of many workers whose homes are in rural provinces.

Outside the usually throbbing city, checkpoints were set up to find travellers with symptoms of the disease. The state of emergency allows the government to implement curfews, censor the media, disperse gatherings and deploy the military for enforcement.

— Leaders of four Japaneses prefectures whose residents commute to work and school in Tokyo asked people to avoid non-essential visits to the capital. The calls come a day after Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike asked city residents to work from home if possible and avoid going out on the weekend. She said Tokyo is on the verge of a possible explosive increase in infections.

— Pakistani officials said a representative of an Islamic organization spread coronavirus on the outskirts of capital by visiting mosques and going house to house with other clerics. Several clerics and residents are among the 25 people who tested positive in Islamabad. Pakistan’s total of nearly 1,100 cases prompted efforts to persuade the country’s more than 200 million people to stay home.

— Pakistan’s giant neighbour, India, began enforcing the world’s largest coronavirus lockdown, a gargantuan task of trying to keep 1.3 billion people indoors. Official assurances that essentials wouldn’t run out clashed with people’s fears that the disease toll could soon worsen, gutting food and other critical supplies.

— Beginning Friday, South Korea will enforce 14-day quarantines on its nationals and foreigners with long-term stay visas arriving from the United States. It already applies to arrivals from Europe. South Koreans can be sued and foreigners expelled for failing to heed the order.

— China’s National Health Commission says its 67 new COVID-19 cases were all in recent arrivals from abroad. Once again, there were no new cases reported in Wuhan, the original epicenter of the illness and which remains under some restrictions until April 8. The government is trying to restart the world’s second-largest economy as its cases subside. Of the more than 81,000 people infected, more than 74,000 have been released from treatment, while just under 4,000 remain in care.

— British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said more than 400,000 people responded within a day to the government’s call for volunteers to help the country’s most vulnerable people.

— The Pentagon halted for 60 days the movement of U.S. troops and Defence Department civilians overseas, a measure expected to affect about 90,000 troops scheduled to deploy or return from abroad.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.

——

Long reported from Washington. Associated Press journalists around the world contributed to this report.

Source link

[recoveringlosersteve-blog]

Selling popcorn

A distinctive aspect of my adult life has been a difficulty or inability to do simple jobs.  Jobs I’ve had like scooping ice cream at restaurants or selling paint at stores have usually ended in failure and confusion. The amount of energy and stress necessary to do very basic tasks overwhelmed me.  It’s difficult to describe what an extreme source of frustration this has been.  When I’ve had to scrape or had problems, the ability to succeed or establish a minimal level of competency at lower end jobs has been all the more difficult and usually resulted in a complete collapse.

A few months ago, I responded to a help wanted add on Craigslist and the experience allowed me to reflect on past difficulties as I’ve begun reestablishing myself after decades of humiliating failure.  The experience allowed me to contrast my past sense of things to my current state of mind, which is certainly not fully recovered but capable in ways that it didn’t used to be.  In this post, I’ll describe the events leading up to that day and during my several hours selling popcorn, cotton candy and flavored ice during a stadium event. As unspectacular as it may sound, it provided a remarkable opportunity to self-reflect.  

(More preamble as I tend to do….if the reader will excuse me.  This is a blog about me and the intricacies of my mind):

I’ve always had a suspicion that mentally I’m wired fairly well, save for something or some things relatively minor that have compounded problems for me and led to disaster; like a car with a clogged fuel feed or train with one or two cars set on the tracks slightly wrong.   I’ve discovered the “root” of my problems recently and I was entirely right.  

Basic everyday life duties have an EXTREME emotional charge attached to them that is mostly negative. This began in my childhood, where small events like forgetting things or cleaning my room were responded to by my mother with a vitriolic rage that is difficult to communicate in words.  Bared teeth, hysterics, threats, telling me my siblings wouldn’t be able to eat because I’d lost a winter cap at school and other acts of emotional terrorism.  

Simple acts like cleaning my room or organizing and paying bills throughout my life have been so stressful that I’ve been usually unable to approach them.  Dealing with these small tasks required a gargantuan level of hyping myself up to accomplish them and push through an extreme sense of hopelessness and shame.  Basic organization was impossible for me.  Ordinary activities took massive amounts of will and energy to complete.  I’ve begun learning how to “lower the emotional charge.” I’ve learned to see these activities as no big deal; both the need to accomplish them and actually accomplishing them.  No big deal. They are small things.  

One area of my life where I’ve achieved a good amount of discipline is physical health.  I’ve spoken to and assisted a few people who’ve tried getting in better shape and was always bothered by the extreme excitement I’d hear about when 5 or 6 pounds was shed.  There was something wrong there, even if I couldn’t put my finger on it. Summoning the will to eat better and exercise for a week or so is an EXTREME thing for some and the excitement of accomplishment seemed like part of a cycle.  Rolling this problem around in my head for several years helped me identify this issue in myself.  For many, gorging on food is a very emotional thing, as is *not* gorging on food.  Both have very, very high levels of emotional energy attached to them.  The goal I realized, is somehow getting to a place where food and exercise occupy less thought, both in the positive and negative.  This was the sticking point of my personal problems in life.  

Anyway, enough preamble.

 A few months ago, I once again found myself in a place where I needed money just to make it through the next week.  I’d been in this place more times than I could try counting.  Prior, I would invariably fall into a pit of shame and guilt that would overwhelmed me and is hard to describe.  I live with a crippling sense of guilt and shame still and always have. I’d be unable to act.  I’d just wait for the worst scenario to play itself out and retreat into whatever minor pleasures I could find in the meantime. Doing anything but mentally escaping required more energy than I could muster.  I’d think of how shameful getting into the situation was in the first place. Then I’d think of the shameful things I might end up doing like going to a food pantry or asking favors or sleeping in my vehicle.  The shame would collapse me and part of me sought the small degree of comfort that’s always available when the bottom is hit and you know you can’t go any lower. Basic activity to salvage myself would become impossible.  

I’ve begun thinking in terms of how high degrees of shame and guilt aren’t useful.  They not only cause me problems but cause problems for those around me and so I wasn’t going to indulge in those feelings.  I’ll tell myself I’m just super amazing or whatever else is necessary just to lower the crippling guilt and shame to the point where I can act

Scanning craigslist gigs isn’t a difficult task and I told myself this over and over.  The shame of having to do it was irrelevant.  This has all been made easier by a very real hope I’ve had recently at getting my life back on track and accomplishing things I never would have thought possible until recently, save for wild fantasies and plans I used to make.  I used to plan and even boast of the success I was sure to have in some endeavor because I was able to realistically imagine the mechanics of accomplishing something great, but wasn’t able to factor for the failure I’d experience in the small things. I took a certain degree of comfort in these fantasies and would tell others about them.  They seemed doable……..if I could only muster this impossible energy……….”This time I will” I’d tell myself, without understanding the basics of the problems I was having.  

Scanning craigslist and responding to adds was easy but still mildly overwhelming.  Understanding *why* I thought this overwhelming made it doable.  There were scam artists looking to just collect personal info on me and jobs that were themselves scams.  I received a few replies and one seemed kinda promising but only kinda.  It was gig as a vendor for a day at a local stadium. The specifics of the job were given. The pay was speculated as $150-$200 which sounded great but a little too good to be true.  The required black pants and black boots.  There were a few back and fourths and the person on the other end finally told me to show up at 11:45 that Saturday.

 The old me never would have gotten this far.  The aforementioned grief and shame would have prevented this job search in the first place and all of the fake or scammy jobs would have exhausted me.  I would have been unable to sort through them until I found something plausible.  As it so happened, there was a mild amount of hustle to this job.  $150-$200 was a very estimate but I was able to figure that half that would be fine. Making it there prior to 11:45 and wearing the agreed upon black pants and boots was an accomplishment when compared to my past endeavors.  It was easy.   In the past, the stress of something going wrong would have overwhelmed me.   Throughout my life I’ve been chronically late because as the time I’m supposed to leave approaches, I become stressed.  Even the thought of leaving early and getting there early was such an extreme emotional thing.  This time, I got there 10 minutes early and the big “breakthrough” was how no big of a deal this was.  I wasn’t hyper excited or felt some great sense of accomplishment……..other than recognizing how *not* registering this simple task as a great accomplishment was a giant leap for me.  Relative to my past self, very little emotional energy had been spent in order to get to this point. The horror and shame of finding this job, the chaotic thoughts and insanity involved and everything else would have brought me to a state of near panic if I had managed to move through the previous steps and made my way there.

 But there I was, at the stadium and cool as a cucumber.  I entered through the docks and this was also no big deal.  There were people running around everywhere and no sign of the vendor. This registered to me as “no big deal” and this state of mind allowed me to think clearly and make rational decisions in a way I wasn’t able to do previously.  NO.  BIG. DEAL.  It was a day gig that would have been nice to have, even if I’d only make half what was advertised but not the end of the world.  NO.  BIG. DEAL.

 I looked for the vendor and sent him another email via the craigslist relay.  No response.  The me of yesteryear would lost his mind at this points.  At an emotional level, I’d be sure he hated me or found something out about me and wanted nothing to do with me or saw me and decided I wouldn’t work. I’d feel hostility, shame and anxiety in a way that would have made me just leave.  I felt a tinge of these things still but was able to consider them for what they were and move forward.   I asked a few people if they knew of the vendor and the second person I asked was the vendor.  Easy peesy. He was relaxed and so was I.  We walked to a corner and waited there for the others to show up.

In my past, if I had made it to this point I’d have been hyper.  This sense of intense but desperate relief and anxiety would have now enveloped me.  I’d be partly stressed that I couldn’t just give up and remove myself from this completely chaotic situation (chaotic to me) and also hyper anxious that something else would go wrong.  

Another specific emotional impulse dawned on me that allowed me to consider my past self better:  My view of authority.  This has always been a problem.  For the most part, I saw everyone, particularly in a situation like this as in total and threatening authority over me or I over them. Emotionally, this was my reaction to these situations.  I’d have to engage in massive amounts of frontal lobe reasoning in order to calm down my sense of these authority figures doing something terrible to me.  In this instance, I was calmly (mostly) able to understand the hierarchy that existed and how not threatening or conflict oriented it all was……on an emotional level.  There were the people who worked for the stadium itself.  They were “in charge.”  Those were the people I had to listen to if they told me not to do something or go somewhere.  Then, there were the other vendors and the people performing.  On the authority chain, they were essentially in the same place I was. They were all their doing their thing as I was doing mine.  

Next up, was my dealings with the main vendor.   I was going to sell popcorn, cotton candy or flavored ice (at ridiculous prices)   He was going to take my wallet and cell phone as collateral.  I’d return with the money and keep one dollar for every item sold.   This would have caused my past self extreme stress.  His wanting collateral would have immediately caused me to imagine that a hostile relationship existed between us.  I would have felt anguish, shame and hostility. I would have thought that he didn’t trust me and was right not to trust me.  I might have made some bizarre comment about how he shouldn’t worry and what a reliable guy I was.  This time, I was able to frame this interaction appropriately and with very little stress.  

He didn’t know me and I didn’t know him.  He deals with hundreds of people doing this every year and had set up a system that prevented people from taking their first 10 popcorns and just leaving with $100 in their pocket.  It made perfect sense.  There was no animosity involved.  It was just a system.

The past me would have collapsed at several different points before arriving at this juncture with the vendor.

Next up was prioritizing. This is another area where the simple has crushed me over and over again in life.  I was able to figure out two things.  Firstly, none of this was life or death.  On an emotional level, that’s exactly how I would have felt in the past and that sense would have led to total mental chaos.  Nothing here was life or death.  Secondly, I was able to figure out that the two biggest potential problems I might run into were losing money (I was exchanging and pocketing lots) or losing an item.  Developing a simple plan to prevent this was easy.  I’d pocket the bills given to me in my left pocket and keep $5 and $10 bills (what I’d normally need for change) in my right.  I’d also pause after every few sales to arrange them.  Easy.  The past me would have been overwhelmed at chaos and just hoped for the best, very possibly (likely) losing a $10 bill or worse and ending up having to find money from elsewhere to get my phone and wallet back.  Everything else in this process was less critical than arranging my money easily and without a sense of impending doom, it was very easy.  

The intense sense of “You are forgetful Steve and you forget and lose things all the time” would have crept into my thoughts and required huge emotional energy to overcome, just to be able to do a simple job.

 I’ll pause at this point and go over what had taken place so far, and ponder how this relates to past problems in my life.  Extreme…………..EXTREME amounts of negative emotional energy were attached to basic everyday life functions and interactions I’d have with people and took EXTREME amounts of psyching myself up to overcome.  The results were chaos and total exhaustion.  I’d be unable to think clearly and do basic calculations about what was going on around me or what I needed to pay attention to because the majority of my emotional energy was consumed by fear of impending doom, shame, anger and hopelessness. This made life impossible for me.  

 Next up was selling. This was very illustrative on many different levels.

I’ve always been far better than average at abstract calculations, particularly those involving people.  I’ve also been able to size people up fairly well and converse with them better than most, but was rarely able to leverage that in any meaningful way because all of the little things prevented me from getting to a point where I could put that to much use.

With such a reduced stress level and so much energy available to commit to other things, I was able to go to work effectively.  After walking around a bit, a vendor at a stand tried telling me I couldn’t go through his area.  I ignored him because I understood what he was doing.  He was trying to fake me out.  I could walk anywhere I wanted to unless the staff of the stadium told me I couldn’t.  Even there I was able maneuver.  Big curtains blocked off the halfway points at each end of the stadium and they were guarded by stadium staff.  I figured correctly that the other vendors would avoid the other side of the stadium and I’d be able to sell more there, so I politely asked the guard in front of the curtain if I could quickly walk through to avoid having to go all the way downstairs and then up several flights of escalators to get to the other side. He waved me through.  For a solid hour, I was the only vendor selling anything on the other side of the stadium.  This required more footwork but I sold out my items in half the time as everyone else. When I returned after the third time, the guy running this operation asked what I was doing.

 Now………..the old me would have told him exactly.  “I’m going to the other side where nobody else is!  Haha.  I asked the security guard to let me walk through the curtain area and he said it was ok” I would have felt the need to boast. The old me would have been emotionally blown to bits at this point and felt the need to advertise a little success. This also would have been a way for me to feel “good.”  It was in these strange confessional ways that I could feel “honest” or upfront, even if much else I was doing was deceptive.  I was previously like a Dostoyevsky character who needed to confess something. Feeling like I could boast and be generous simultaneously would have caused me to tell him everything I was doing and why I was selling so fast.  Not this time.   Not his business.  I figured out how to work this to my advantage and so yay me.  I wasn’t doing anything dishonest by shrugging my shoulders and telling him that I must be extra charming or something.

I also figured out that movement = money.  The frozen ice trays were heavy.  They took more strength and endurance to haul around and so every time I returned, I asked for the popcorn or cotton candy.  I could move and move quickly.

 I also figured that the people in the upper level weren’t seeing many vendors BUT, they were less likely to buy on a per-person basis because those were the cheap seats.  I noticed that the other vendors hardly went up all the escalators to get there.  I developed a plan of walking up and down the stairs at the main level.  Proximity = sales.  Most of the people I sold to I walked right past.  Few people signaled they wanted to buy when I just waited at the bottom, so it was up and down every stair on the main level……..but then………….I decided that for one out of every three trips, I’d journey to the upper level and walk briskly along the base walkway, figuring the people who did want popcorn or whatever I was selling would signal to me because there were few other vendors who went up there.  I was right.  I sold out quickly there also and the extra effort paid off.

 And there’s something else……….the man running the vending operation told me to wave and point, particularly at kids who seemed excited so they’d guilt their parents into shelling out the ridiculous amounts I was selling popcorn for.

 That seemed shameful to me. That isn’t something I could have done in the past.  This is one of those ways I could justify being a “good person” by adhering to strange standards of politeness and boundaries.  I would have been overwhelmed with guilt at the thought of doing this.  In fact, walking into the stands would have been absolutely overwhelming by itself and was still difficult for me this time.  I still felt that tinge of guilt and shame at “bothering” people.  I would have been unable to see myself in the position I was in; as a guy doing something that the crowd was expecting beforehand.  I would have felt every eye on me and their rejection.  I would have taken some sense of moral satisfaction in not walking up and down the stairs and “bothering” them.  I would have felt they literally hated me and would have had to pause or sit down or find some way to hide.  I still felt little bits of this but was able to put it off to the side, particularly after the selling happened.  I was able to envision how being happy and smiling at the crowd made me less bothersome than looking sour and ashamed.  They were enjoying the show they had paid for, and I was enjoying the job I was doing, and understood they expected someone to be doing what I was doing, even if they didn’t plan to buy anything.   This allowed me SO MUCH more energy to accomplish this basic job and just think clearly.  

“No Big Deal no matter what happens, unless I lose money”

“Nobody hates me and nobody loves me.  I don’t need to make a big impression on anyone.  Nobody cares and they’re not paying much attention to me anyway.  That’s good”

“Just be friendly with the people I do interact with.  They’re the only ones that matter.  Nobody else counts”  

“After this is done, it’ll be like it never happened to everyone else.  It’ll be like I was never there.  I’ll just walk out with some much needed cash”

“Just relax and pay attention to where the other vendors are and aren’t and what’s selling”

 I was able to keep moving and be friendly and short with everyone that day.  It was a remarkable experience because it was so easy.  I came back with a much, much, needed $140, representing 11 stacks of popcorn, 2 cotton candies and 1 frozen ice tray.   Before leaving the main operator told me I’d sold 6 more than the next highest seller.  More importantly than anything, it was “no big deal” and having a sense of the no big deal made it possible.  So many things that used to crush me I can now envision as “no big deal” both in the threat of what they represent and the ability to overcome them and accomplish something.

 It’s amazing how much energy I used to waste and chaos I created over the simplest things.  

[touristguidebuzz]

10 Things No One Tells You About… Tokyo

Social media, anonymous postings and “insider” guides all claim to tell foreign guests about Tokyo, but the real skinny is famously hard to find. But if you ask a local what will make you feel at home in this massive and overwhelming city, they’ll tell you what I’m about to tell you now, 10 tips that’ll take you a little closer to the beating heart of Japan’s vibrant capital.

1. It Looks Like a Taxi, It Moves Like a Taxi, But It’s Not Quite a Taxi

Getting a taxi in Tokyo starts out the same way as in any US city — at the train station or airport, you line up, wait your turn and step in; on streets, you put out your hand and wave a cab down. Once you’re in the taxi, though, it’s completely different. Don’t touch the door while you’re getting in or out: It closes automatically and the driver, usually wearing immaculate white gloves and a cap, won’t like it all if you touch his car.

You can expect the driver to speak little or no English, so if you’re going to a restaurant or some other location, have your hotel concierge print out the name and a map to give to the driver — even Edokko (native Tokyoites from established local families) have a hard time finding many addresses here. As you’re giving the driver your destination, you might try to add “onegaishimasu” (meaning, very roughly, “please, and thank you for this favor you’re doing me”) for good measure. But once you’re inside, don’t talk to the driver and don’t expect the driver to talk to you. And no tipping: The driver is providing expert service and a tip is considered to be insulting.

Hailing a cab is the easy part. It’s what happens once you’re inside that can get tricky. Image courtesy of elkor via Getty Images.

2. Get Booked at Maruzen

Established in 1869, Maruzen is a stunning and famous bookstore in the heart of Nihonbashi, a district of Tokyo renowned for its many artisanal shops — the shop is so well-regarded it even makes cameo appearances in several Japanese novels. On an upper floor, long aisles are packed English-language books written by sometimes hard-to-find Japanese authors, and you can also find great books in English on Japanese society and history. Coming here is a cultural must, as you soak up the reverential atmosphere created by Japanese customers.

Some books at Maruzen are from not-so-hard-to-find authors, like J. K. Rowling. Image courtesy of Junko Kimura via Getty Images.

3. Think Paper, Notebooks and Business Cards

No country prizes paper more than Japan, and although it is a world leader in electronics, the country continues to hold true to its traditions. Itoya, located just off the main drag in Ginza, is the best stationery store not just in Tokyo, but on the planet. Two stores with multiple floors offer exquisite notebooks, sketchpads, pens, pencils and appointment books, among other things.

And since no encounter in Japan is complete without exchanging meishi (business cards), you can have yours made here in both English and Japanese — just be sure to ask your hotel to write out the Japanese you want written, and give yourself a couple of weeks for the order to be completed. With literally hundreds of typefaces and kinds of paper to choose from, you can truly make these cards your own.

Always use both hands when exchanging business cards in Japan. Image courtesy of Johnny Greig via Getty Images.

4. Learn About the Fabric of a Nation

Japan used to be a top silk producer, and while synthetics are more emblematic of its industries these days, the country still has amazing silks to choose from. Add cotton, and you’ll find that these two natural fibers are the perfect remedy to all that’s artificial in the world.

Nuno, which means “fabric” in Japanese, is a beautiful shop located inside the Axis Building in Roppongi; there’s also a small satellite shop on the seventh floor of the posh Matsuya department store in Ginza. Established by Reiko Sudo, Nuno offers stunning clothing that seems to be part of nature itself. Sudo-san’s work is displayed in museums globally — she also has bolts of fabric at the main shop, and you can purchase everything from curtains and coverlets to wall hangings.

Fabric is an art form in Japan, as is evidenced by the attention paid to making and buying tenugui, an all-purpose printed towel or cloth square. Image courtesy of Helovi via Getty Images.

5. Venture Beyond Ramen and Sushi to Unagi

Ramen is kid stuff in Japan, and attracts cult-like followers in their teens and twenties. The very best sushi restaurants will set you back $1,000 for a couple; that is, if the chef lets you in.

You should add to these culinary experiences by enjoying unagi, or freshwater eel. Grilled over charcoal (known as bincho), unagi, served on perfectly cooked, small kernels of rice and washed down with barley tea (mugi chai) or a draft beer, is one of the most pleasurable eating experiences you can have in Tokyo. Depending on the size of what you order, it’ll set you back about $30 per person but can cost much less at inferior establishments — the cheaper unagi often comes from China, though, so it’s really your call.

One of the best unagi restaurants in Tokyo is Bincho, located on the 12th floor of the Marronnier Gate shopping center near Ginza Station. Here, the eel is finished with Nagoya-style tamari-based sauce. Another terrific place is Miyagawa Honten, which has a branch on the eighth floor of the Matsuya department store in Ginza. Be prepared to wait as long as 45 minutes before eating: The eel are slaughtered and grilled to order.

Unaju is unagi on rice served in a lacquered box. Image courtesy of Kosei Saito via Getty Images.

6. If Eel Isn’t Your Thing, Tokyo Does Great Grilled Chicken

Back in the day, yakitori used to be served in smoky hole-in-the-wall joints and served with draft beer, cheap sake or high-alcohol shochu, a Japanese drink usually made from barley, sugarcane or sweet potatoes. Over the past decade or so, yakitori has become first-rate, and from famous places like Bird Land, a one-star Michelin restaurant located right next to Jiro, the famous sushi chef, to impossible-to-get-into Souten, yakitori is one of the most fun, delicious and reasonably priced ways to spend an evening in Tokyo with friends.

Four wonderful places to try it are Fuku, Toriko, Seo and Hachibei. Each one is intimate and sophisticated, with a range of chicken parts to choose from. You can stay Western by ordering wings, breasts or thighs, or opt for more traditionally Japanese options like chochin (fetal eggs still attached to uterus and Fallopian tubes). Either way, these places have wonderful wine lists as well as top-tier sake. Needless to say, reservations are necessary.

You can’t go wrong with the chicken at a place called Bird Land. Image courtesy of City Foodsters via Flickr.

7. After Dinner, Calm Your Stomach With Tea…

The tea ceremony is central to many aspects of Japanese culture. Inspired and shaped by the rigidity and repetition of Zen Buddhism, this ritual gives you a glimpse of the pleasure and pain of conformity.

One of the best places in Tokyo to enjoy this is at Toko-An, three ceremonial chambers inside the Imperial Hotel. This hotel, originally designed by Frank Lloyd Wright — although little of his architectural masterpiece remains after a 1968 renovation — was Japan’s first upscale Western-style hotel. For about $20 per person, anyone, not just hotel guests, can travel back in time through the tea ceremony. If you’d rather stay in this century, Aqua Lounge, on the 17th floor, has an afternoon tea as well. Here, you will observe the fanciest ladies of Tokyo, as well as majestic views of the city.

The Japanese tea ceremony is reverent, meticulous and totally worth the experience. Image courtesy of Brian Kennedy via Getty Images.

8. Or Drink Away Your Woes With Great Japanese Whisky

Japanese whisky is a victim of its own success. After winning numerous international competitions in the aged single-malt category, the country’s top producers ran out of all the whisky at that level — maybe there will be more from other vintages in time for the 2020 Olympics. Until then, you simply cannot buy a bottle of the good stuff.

But don’t despair. It’s still possible to get one-ounce pours in Tokyo, if you know where to go and are willing to spend $18 to $200 a glass. Zoetrope is a tiny bar in Nishi-Shinjuku where the cinephile owner (whose English is limited) has more than 300 bottles on display of rare-to-very-rare whiskies. A trip to New York Bar, high above the city inside the Park Hyatt Tokyo gives you two experiences for the price of one: stunning views of the city from the 52nd floor as well as a chance to be on what was basically the set of the film, Lost in Translation. And speaking of classics, you ought to go to Old Imperial Bar, which is dark and atmospheric, and feels like you’re in a film noir where bartenders serve the country’s best whiskies in silence.

Whisky has become serious business in Japan. Image courtesy of DAJ via Getty Images.

9. All That Jazz

For a country that values ritual, rules and classical music, it’s surprising to discover that the Japanese also love the spontaneity, depth of rhythm, improvisation and sheer vibe of jazz. At performances, audiences often sit in silent awe, taking it all in, absorbing the music until a tune ends and they applaud and cheer wildly. Blue Note Tokyo and Cotton Club have top international acts (for top dollar), New York Bar has “unplugged” sessions on Sunday nights featuring undiscovered performers, and Black Sun, Kenny’s Bar and the Pit Inn are beloved old-time favorites. You’ll find both Japanese and Western musicians transporting audiences in each of these venues.

When in doubt, head to the nearest jazz club. Image courtesy of Kent Wang via Flickr.

10. Tokyo Is a Hip-Hop City

Tokyo is at the forefront of music, modernity and being ultra-cool, and while previous generations have their sentiments about the culture of the past, the youth of this city have embraced the future. Hip-hop culture, style, mentality and music are now deeply rooted in Tokyo, neither as homage nor imitation but as homegrown responses to the challenge of living in 2017. Four of the best clubs in town to enjoy hip-hop and meet Tokyoites who share that passion are Harlem, Circus Tokyo, Vision, Club Asia and The Room.

One thing the people of Tokyo and the US have in, er, Common? A love of hip-hop. Image courtesy of Jun Sato/WireImage via Getty Images.

What are some of your favorite things to do in Tokyo? Tell us about them, below.

Featured image courtesy of kitchakron via Getty Images.