More food - udon!

In keeping with my food theme this week, here is yet another entry on food and new restaurants. Tonight's culinary exploit was to the local udon restaurant. Udon is a kind of Japanese noodle. They are very fat and I don't normally like udon because it is like eating a bunch of white flour to me. Not so exciting.

Hiroshi took Erik and I to an udon chain restaurant tonight though and it was good! This was mainly because there was a topping bar and you could load up your udon with fish flakes (love them!), sesame seeds, grated ginger and pieces of tempura. Tempura is a frying technique in Japan and usually the little blobs of tempura batter that fall off during the frying process are saved to put on udon. Yumm!

Feeling greedy and glutinous, after udon we went back to the yakitori restaurant from last week for some beers and some chicken. The guys were still yelling out orders and having fun. All in all, I'm sure we were given a significant portion of our order free - we each had two beers and a bunch of chicken and all we ended up paying was around 3000 yen. Seeing as one beer is probably 5 or 600 yen, I know we didn't get charged for everything. Definitely have to patronize that place again. Gotta love free food!

Since we were absolutely stuffed, we walked along the river between Gotanda and Osaki stations towards Osaki to hit up the game center. I got to play the taiko drum game which I like. The game center has changed to a prepaid card system. The prepaid card is good for stores all around the Osaki area so that is cool. Now we can listen to the chirp of the card system every time we buy something. Ah technology.

Japanese pancakes

One of the great things about Erik being here is going out to new restaurants and having things I haven't had in ages. Tonight was okonomiyaki, which is Japanese pancake. It is savory rather than sweet - containing things like seafood and vegetables rather than sugar.

We met up tonight with John and Melissa, two other world travellers and readers of Erik's blog. Then we headed off for okonomiyaki in Ebisu. I had asked Hiroshi to find a good place for us - meaning one where you didn't have to sit on tatami mats. I hate eating on tatami because I can never get comfortable. After some jostling around of tables and a 20 minute wait, we finally got a table by the window. It was really nice! The restaurant, called Chibo, is on the 38th floor of Ebisu Garden Place, so the view is very nice.

The table at an okonomiyaki restaurant has a grill in the center of it. Sitting beside the window was also good because their was an air conditioner directly above us. Wonderful against the heat that the grill was producing. I elected to cook the pancakes myself since that is more fun. The last time I did this, it ended up being a huge falling-apart disaster. Luckily this time I created a pancake masterpiece. LOL It turned our pretty well. It was shaped nicely, didn't fall apart and was cooked all the way thru, so that's about all you can ask for.

The pancakes and beer were delicious... and cheap! Add in the great view and this is a nice place to go for a meal. Your clothes end up smelling all greasy by the end of the evening, but that's ok. Definitely somewhere I'll head back to again.

The shrimp that wouldn't die

Tonight we went to the kaiten sushi (rotator belt sushi place). HIroshi and I always used to go to one in Meguro across from the station (beside Wendy's) but the last few times, the fish has been a bit dry and I've been disappointed in the quality. So today we tried one in the Atre building (also in Meguro) that was recommended to me by some wacko guy chatting me up the last time I went to the old kaiten sushi in Meguro. Wow! It is awesome! It has lots of choices, including non-sushi items.

Erik was having a blast. There were lots of things he had never tried before, which was good because it sounds like sushi was a regular part of his New York diet. I was also happy because the fish was fresh and there were vegetables and stuff there to eat as well. Yummy.

Towards the end of our sushi extravaganza (we had to roll home) the sushi chef wiggled some large shrimp at me and asked if I wanted some. I figured what the heck, so he prepared them by chopping off the heads and peeling them, except for the tail. He fried up the heads and gave them to us in a bowl - I gave them to Hiroshi and Erik because I hate the heads. Shrimp brains are disgusting. Then the chef handed over the shrimp and touched the tail. Well you know your seafood is fresh when it still moves. The shrimp spasmed a bit when he touched the tail. So we set the thing on the table and waited.

Hiroshi finally decided to eat his one. As he put it in his mouth, the tail was moving!! Talk about giving someone the willies. I didn't want mine moving around, so I tried to cut off the tail part. I usually take it off before eating anyway, rather than pulling it out of my mouth. Well, as I grabbed it, it moved! So I decided to take my chopsticks and cut the darn thing off... only soon as I put pressure onto the shrimp flesh it started flipping and flopping around like a fish out of water. Of course I scream and jump back in my chair. This is not cool. So I get Hiroshi to take the tail off... only he ends up doing the same thing, jumping back when the thing moved. A few minutes later, I tentatively touched the flesh and it started flopping again, causing me to scream yet again. I'm sure the other customers thought I was nuts. Keep in mind that this shrimp has been alive without its head or its shell for like ten minutes!

Finally, we got the tail off, and the thing was still moving. I couldn't bring myself to put it in my mouth because I would have absolutely freaked if it had moved while inside it. I've never had to gear myself up so much to eating something! All in all it ended up being a really fun time and I must say it was the most amusing time I've ever had at a kaiten sushi!

Geek convention

Today Cal, Erik and I went to the Tokyo Game Show which is the largest game show of its kind. Talk about sensory overload. Loud announcements, flashing lights, scantily clad women (it looked like an audition for Show Girls in the bathroom), and a seething mass of geeks pushing and shoving their way thru the convention hall.

Despite my prediction that it would suck (based on a previous visit to the Tokyo Game and Toy show which is an entirely different event) it was pretty cool. I don't do well in crowds so I needed to take a time out at one point to calm down, but otherwise it was fun. Unfortunately we didn't get to play many games - it was like Disneyland and there were one hour line ups to play anything. So we just wandered around looking for free stuff, and Cal and Erik were ogling the women.

Actually there were a lot of people ogling the women - the fact that they had hardly any clothing on probably had something to do with that. The funniest thing though was the geek paparazzi. Whenever a new woman would come out, suddenly tons of guys with cameras would run over, and take a whole bunch of pictures. Being geeks, they all had nice, professional, top-end cameras. The woman would stand there and pose, making cute, clueless faces (which is what passes for sexy here), while the men snapped away. It was really funny.

There were tons of demos and videos and fun things at the show. I even applied for an official Star Wars credit card. I don't need another credit card, but how much fun is whipping Darth Vader out of my wallet going to be??!! Darth Vader was the best picture choice. Actually, the reason I applied was so we could get free things - I got a storm trooper magnet which I gave to Erik. Later on I played a train game (you drive a train around Tokyo) and won a rabbit magnet. We also ended up with free pens and DVD samples. All in all a pretty good haul. If we had waited an hour to play any of the other games, we would have gotten more free stuff though.

Afterward our feet gave out around 4, we headed over to Outback Steakhouse for some steak! Yum. Not to mention the potatoes I love so well. Then we waddled home with tired feet and full tummies.

A tourist in my own backyard

Tonight was the drinking and karaoke night experience for Erik. Originally a bunch of my co-workers were supposed to come out but they all dicked off, or were tired or sick, so that left Erik, Cal and I to drink together. This actually worked out marvelously because we ended up going to a yakitori (grilled chicken skewer) place that I have always wanted to go to, but never gotten around to. Basically the place is right near my station. Now I'm kicking myself for never having gone before.

The place is just fun! The staff are all yelling orders, joking with customers and really friendly. And, even better, it is cheap and tastes good! So this is definitely a place to go back to in the future. I'm really starting to see how much I've gotten away from seeing Tokyo with new eyes... I've kind of fallen into the same old same old routine of a resident. Of course, I am a resident, but I think I'm going to have to make a point of getting out and seeing more and trying new places.

After a delicious dinner we all headed out to karaoke - even Cal! Cal claims that he is a horrible singer, but he is just saying that because he was sining under his breath. (Cal - I'm going to drag you out to karaoke more often). Cal had to catch his train home, so Erik and I moved on to another karaoke place and sang a ton of 80s hits. Great fun! I haven't been to karaoke in a while, so it was nice to get out and sing!

I finally saw the waterfall

Erik and I got up early and caught the bus up to Chuzenji lake. The bus takes about an hour and goes up the i-ro-ha slope, which is a series of hairpin turns going up and down the mountain (one way traffic on each) for a total of 50 hairpin turns. The sounds i, ro and ha used to be the first three sounds in Japanese phonetic script before the order was changed to make it a bit more logical.

Lake Chuzeji was cold and we arrived fairly early in the morning. The only thing that was open was a noodle shop where we had soba (buckwheat noodles) for breakfast. They were actually really good. Then we went to see the waterfalls. I have been to see the waterfalls three times before, and each time was unable to see them because of fog. Well, finally I had a good view and they are quite pretty. Of course I'm spoiled because of Niagara Falls, but these were still quite nice. They are apparently one of the three top waterfalls in Japan.

Then we walked the kilometer or so by the lake shore to the temple. On the way we passed the Belgian, French and Italian embassy cottages - must be nice. Geesh. I seem to remember the temple having lots of cool things on display when I went before. It is supposed to have a lot of swords that are classified as cultural treasures. Unfortunately, none of these were on display. After doing the temple walk-through we headed back to the main area for coffee and then headed back to Nikko train station on the bus. The way down the iroha slope is much more exciting than going up, especially because we were sitting in the front seat. Sometimes it seems you are going to fall right off the edge of the mountain.

We arrived back in Nikko about twenty minutes before the train left, just enough time to buy souvenirs, go to the washroom and get a bento... or so I thought. I wasn't paying attention and as we were going thru the ticket gates I looked at the clock, panicked and looked at the train to see it pulling out of the station. This was a problem because that was the train I needed to take to get back to Tokyo in order to get to work on time! Luckily there is an express train that gets there a whole whopping 15 minutes earlier... but costs twice as much! So I forked over the cash to upgrade our tickets and we managed to get back to Tokyo on time.

I guess I truly am Japanese now - everyone manages to miss an important train like that at some point (or overshoot their bullet train stop) and has to outlay a fair bit of cash to get to where they are supposed to be going.

My ten millionth trip to Nikko

Today I took Erik up to Nikko, which is a UNESCO site about 125 km north of Tokyo. The Shogun's tomb is here, as is his grandson's. I've been to Nikko several times myself and have taken anyone who has ever visited me there. I don't mind too much because the place is stock full of minus ions or something [Side note: minus ions (pronounced minus eons in Japan) are the latest health craze here] and is a nice relaxing, green area.

We left at standard Nikko departure time - which is one hour later than planned. (I don't know why that always happens). When we got to Asakusa, which is where the train departs from, we wandered around Asakusa kannon and down the shopping street. It was a holiday today, so there were lots of people about. Finally we got on the train with our sushi bento (lunch boxes) and had a relaxing two hour trip up into "the natures" as the Japanese say.

The first order of business when we got to the station was to book a hotel. The woman at the help desk was very friendly. She gave me a brochure for a place that was more than we wanted to spend. I asked her for a cheaper place and she picked up the phone and dialed a pension - they said they would take us at our named price because I spoke Japanese. Whehoo! Perks! Sometimes they won't rent a room to you if you don't speak Japanese. Not to say there are no rooms available - you just have to pay for the more expensive ones unless you have some language skills. The help desk woman was nice. She kept going on and on about how Erik had a kind face and big eyes. This conversation went on for like five minutes, which I think embarrassed Erik.

Nikko was overcast and cool. It was nice! The leaves weren't out yet (as in hadn't changed colour) unfortunately. Despite being overcast, there were lots of people as always touring the shrine. Not as many as usual perhaps, but still enough to walk in front of any picture you tried to take. A couple from Mexico were on the bus with us up to the shrine area and didn't speak any Japanese so I asked them to join us... having been to Nikko so many times, I know at least a little about every building.

We saw all four major shrines / temples, plus the Japanese garden. Around 5 it started to rain. We waited with the Mexican couple under a building's eaves trying to stay dry. We didn't have any umbrellas, and they had forgotten theirs on the bus. Finally we made the mad dash to the bus and headed down to dinner. We just went to the family restaurant because they have drink bar... which means refillable coffee. Of course, the problem with Nikko, which I realized when I asked the staff about the bus schedule, is that everything closes early. So the last bus left five minutes after we arrived at the restaurant. So we ended up having to take a cab to our hotel.

The hotel was pretty basic. It was clean, but old. The big bonus though was it had bath facilities. I think it was just an ofuro (bath) rather than an onsen (bath that has water with high mineral content). They did have a rotemburo (outdoor bath) though, so I sent Erik into that one, and I went to the indoor one. Ahhhh, heaven! Having a hot bath in Japan is always wonderful. I never have one at home because I have a bathtub the size of a toybox. It is nice and deep but very short and narrow. So getting out of the thing is sometimes and adventure. Not to mention the fact that my building has essentially no hot water pressure, so it takes like 30 minutes to fill the tub halfway.

After we were all relaxed from our bath, we hung out and watched a show on big things. The biggest tuna, biggest insects, tallest person, fattest young people. They had a six year old and a four year old (weighing, I kid you not, over 70 kg each (155 lbs)) wrestle each other in the studio. I thought that was kind of sad. Poor things, but that is Japanese tv for you.

I Didn't Die!

So, today is the day that Erik (The Global Trip) arrived. At around 9 am this morning, my mom called and woke me up - I didn't even know who it was at first (sorry mom!) due to that groggy totally out of it thing. As we were chatting Erik called to say that he had a layover so wouldn't be getting in until 7 instead of 5. Whehoo! That meant I could sleep for another couple of hours. I ended up getting up around 11:30 and the cleaning bonanza began. I was a cleaning fiend. I was decisive and threw things away! I noticed many more things that I want to throw away too, but will do that another day when I have more time. I finished dragging down the the 6 garbage bags of stuff just before it was time to leave to go and meet Erik.

I arrived at the station just before 7:30, which was just after a train from the airport had arrived. I didn't see Erik though so I just sat down and did some work on my laptop. Just before the next train pulled in I noticed my phone was ringing... and it was Erik. He had left the platform and was standing outside a ticket gate unable to get back in. So we met up and finally - the poor guy had to wait around for 30 minutes. (Mom - Erik looks like a turtle with his backpack on ;) I'll get a picture when he leaves for you).

We hit the grocery store on the way home as well as the bank. Then we came home, dropped Erik's stuff off and went out for dinner to the fugu restaurant. Even though I have been in Japan for five and a half years, I have never had fugu (blowfish). I know, that's sad. So we went out to the fugu restaurant for dinner and had the fugu course menu. It was so good! And we didn't die! We had a fugu skin salad as an appetizer, then fugu sashimi (raw fish) which was really nice and deep fried fugu. Then we had nabe - hot pot. That was super cool! Basically there was a burner built into the table. The waitress came by, put a bamboo basket on top of the burner, a piece of waxed paper inside, a metal plate on the bottom and filled it with broth - and the thing didn't go up in flames! Then the waitress came back with a plate full of veggies and pieces of fugu. The fugu was so fresh that the chunks were pulsing still. I kid you not. It was super cool. The nabe was delicious and we were stuffed, but then there was the soup dish. Basically rice and egg poured into the remaining broth from the hot pot. So we ate that and then were given a scoop of ice cream for dessert and pretty much had to waddle home. I'm very glad that I finally went and ate it. The course was expensive (fugu in general is) but i was great.

And the best part of the day - I didn't die from eating fugu. Or from cleaning (I never clean). Amazing.

Crappy 30 to Awesome 80

I upgraded my Mac today. I only had 2GB left on my drive. Yes, I know, "only" is relative. Especially considering that was the entire drive in my old laptop. Two gigs however is only three movies. So I popped on up to Akihabara (the electronic district) in search of a new drive.

I went to several stores and for some reason they all told me that an 80GB hard drive was too big to fit in my laptop - which didn't make sense to me because I thought they were a standard size. Turns out they are a standard size, so I could get the 80GB drive, but no one would install it for me. Finally I found a very helpful store that directed my to a repair shop that would install it. So I bought the drive, bought a case to turn my old drive into a portable one and wandered over.
I asked the guy how much it would cost and he said 10,000 yen and my job basically dropped. How much??? (That's like 100 bucks US). At this point I don't really have a choice, so I forked over the dough, and spent the next 45 minutes watching the guy disassemble and reassemble my baby. And, know what? It was worth every penny of the fee. There is no way I could have done it myself. By the time he actually got to the hard drive, my Mac was in literally 20 different pieces. (Note to do-it-yourselfers: an ice cube tray is a convenient place to organize and hold screws when you are taking things apart). The case was also on really tight - he had a hard time getting it off... even with the right tools (which I don't have). So all in all, it was money well spent in my opinion.

So now I have a whopping 80GB drive - yippee! And another 30GB as a backup / portable drive. I'm in drive space heaven!

AR5 - Episode 11

Excellent episode! Go bowling moms - Linda was the only woman to climb up that ladder and walk under the bridge. I'd be freaking out! And, I can't believe Collin and Christie weren't eliminated. Damn non-elimination rounds! I now have some sympathy for Collin - Christie is pretty psycho too. Notice that she was the only person who stood by the sidelines and yelled at their partner. Umm... it was a detour not a roadblock. You can actually do the task with Collin, Christie.
The episode was full of suspense and the yield was awesome - glare Collin, glare. Heh. Can't wait for next week!

Ultimate wireless spot

For the Tokyo readers who have wireless - I found the perfect wireless connection today. Tully's near Shibuya New South exit. The connection speed is great, my connection icon is maxed out, there is an outlet you can plug into for electricity and you can drink coffee. Excellent.

We need more power!

I forget what movie that line is from. Today I got 'more power' for my Mac though with a RAM upgrade thanks to a colleague at work. Now I've got 512 MG. I'm not sure if there is any real difference except my movies seem to be starting more smoothly. Now I can run ten million applications at once though and not have to worry :)
My colleague also suggested upgrading the hard drive rather than getting an iPod. Well, he said upgrade and then get one of the iPod mini's. I like this advice because the iPod mini is just really cute. Apparently you can buy a case for your old Mac hard drive and a firewire cable and then use it as a removable drive. Now that is cool. It would be nice to carry some movies around on my hard drive rather than delete them as soon as I watch them. Hmmm... things to spend my pay check on.

Am I Being Irradiated?

Funny how there was a mushroom cloud spotted in North Korea on Thursday and it is just being reported today. Isn't this something everyone should be concerned about? Mainly because, well Japan is in fallout distance??!! The current word is they "don't think" it was nuclear. That's not exactly reassuring.

Sorting out my music

I spent the evening organizing my music on my computer. Macintosh's iTunes program nicely organizes everything by artist, album, genre, song title or user assigned song rating. Great except most of this data was missing. So I added it all in. Which was frustrating because some, err a lot, of these songs were downloaded of the net and didn't have the artist's names spelled correctly... or wrong! Umm.. if you are going to upload a song to the internet, how hard is it to look at the CD and verify who sang it? Geesh.

So now I'm grooving to my tunes. I always forget to turn it on when I'm on the computer. I should start listening to music more. And, I am hoping to transfer all my CD's on here. Guess that means I need an href="http://www.apple.com/ipod/" target="_blank">iPod. Hah! Oh, I'm turning into a techie geek. But, this way Hiroshi and I can take music with us. The iBook doesn't have such a big hard-drive and music is taking up a big chunk of it. So, I'm going to go into the transfer and archive thing. Transfer the CD onto my hard-drive (or future iPod) and then archive them on my removable drive just in case.

Of course Hiroshi will be right upset if I only get one iPod. We'll be fighting over it. Hmm. The mini-iPods are so cute but they are only 4GB of space. Not so much once you get a whole CD library in digital format. Decisions, decisions. Maybe the iPod will be Hiroshi's and my xmas present to each other.

Plastic umbrella collection

As I was walking out of the house today to go to work, I looked at the little fold-up umbrella and though, nah, it's sunny out so I don't need it. Ha! Shouldn't have believed the weather as it has been rather schizophrenic lately having multiple personalities, if you will, throughout the day. So, yes, I got caught in the rain. Luckily, the conference center that I was at sold plastic vinyl umbrellas. For 500 yen I was able to save myself from getting drenched, and add one more darn plastic vinyl umbrella to my 'collection'.

I have about 20 of these sitting in my umbrella holder at home. It's nuts. (Yes, that's 10,000 yen, or US100 bucks, worth of umbrellas) Whenever someone comes over and it starts raining, they always have a small umbrella with them, so I can't give these things away! Really, I should set up my own business in these things, first off because I have inventory (geesh) and secondly because you can make a killing on these. They are well under 100 yen worth of material. That markup is huge. I could just park myself out in front of stations and sell the things. Lots of people would buy them. I could get rich via my plastic umbrella collection!

Quiet before and after the storm

Yesterday, was the first day in absolute ages that I got to sleep before 2am. It was heavenly. I woke up this morning and actually felt like I had slept! I should be able to relax for the rest of the week... and then the fun and games will start all over again!
Oh, and for those of you who follow href="http://blogs.bootsnall.com/theglobaltrip/" target="_blank">Erik's blog, I got a call from Erik last night. He'll be arriving in Tokyo soon. Guess that means I'll be spending this weekend (where I don't have to work except for Saturday morning) cleaning the house!

AR5 - Episode 10

Hurray! The twits are gone. Finally. Chip and Kim - big mistake on the yield, but they twins were still way behind (note the difference in how dark it was when they finally arrived) and perhaps you will need to use it later. Moms made a decent showing - and hey, they didn't get messed up at the airport! Collin was actually humane in this episode. Did he really apologize or was I in a caffeine induced hallucination?

As for the tasks - New Zealand is now so on the list of places to go. Going down the rapids? Awesome. I'm there. Rolling down a hill in a giant hamster ball - wheee fun! Hopefully they'll show a bit more of New Zealand's nature. Apparently it is beautiful, so I wanna see great footage!

So here's the mental calculation part, which I totally can't do in my current sleep deprived fate. I assume there are 13 episodes in a season, which only leaves three episodes to go. One of those is non-elimination. One of those brings the total teams down to three. And the last one is the big finale. So... next week is non-elimination? Or the week after I guess. My bets are on it being next week (episode 11). If it isn't that means everyone knows the following week (episode 12) has to be a non-elim round, which isn't any fun. Or is it? Three teams racing to the end for the last two episodes?

Typhoon mania

This year there has been a ton of typhoons. Someone told me that it is the most typhoons ever this year - although I haven't been able to verify the veracity of that claim. It sure seems like it anyway. It seems like every other day a typhoon is heading our way. Luckily most of them just hit Okinawa (well, not so lucky if you actually live in Okinawa). Tokyo has only caught the outer radius of them so far, which means we just get a lot of rain. Fine with me. It means it isn't hot.
One just went through Japan's northern island (Hokkaido) though which is very rare. They usually veer off towards Taiwan and China. There were billboards ripped off tops of buildings, flooding and all kinds of damage. Seems like this is natural disaster week or something. Quakes, typhoons... what's next?

Shake, Rattle and Roll

So I'm sitting at work last night when all of a sudden things started swaying around in circles... it was a big
earthquake, and one of the not nice ones. The ones that move in multiple directions are supposedly bad and this one had about 5 different axes of movement. It as also long. The longest quake I've ever experienced. The first few seconds of a quake are always cool, 30 seconds starts to get scary, a full minute... well, I started to feel a bit nauseous.
Apparently there was another one that was even bigger a couple hours later but as I was on the train at the time, I didn't feel it. Tsunami's were forecast and people were evacuated. Luckily the tsunami were only small... which to me is just weird, because I envision tsunami as being towering 20 foot tall waves.
Anyway, all ok at this end. The big one hasn't hit Tokyo yet. Knock on wood.

AR5 - Episode 9

I can't believe the twits are still in it! Good episode - lots of, who will be eliminated suspense. Glad that Brandon and Nicole didn't get eliminated. Their constant 'God's will' comments are a bit irritating, but they were a good team this episode.

Moms had an awesome attitude in India - note that they were the only people who said something nice while everyone else was complaining. Except Chip and Kim - they're always happy to be somewhere. But, moms, you're starting to feel the strain. They are coming across as whiney and overly lucky - not playing so well so much as luck. So Chip and Kim have become my fav team.

Collin is still psycho. Not sure if I want him or the twins gone more. He (and Christy) play well though - they are often the first team to arrive.

Those water slides in Dubai - I'm there! Hiroshi is not. He's convinced it is death on a slide. He doesn't like roller coasters either - big party pooper. Roller coasters are awesome (and the ones at Disneyland don't count - they suck). Dubai looks cool though. Definitely want to go to that flower market in in India - wow! Too bad no one picked that option on the detour. There were so many flowers! I just want to go and make a giant bouquet. Fun!

Hiroshi wants me to shave my head. I'd do it. I've always wanted to shave my head. Of course, he wants me to do it now, but I don't think that will go over so well at work. I've been putting it up everyday because it is so hot here. Ugh. Fall, please come soon! So, maybe when I'm in India, I'll shave my head... and then wear a headscarf all the time so I don't burn my scalp off ;)

crazy busy

I'm swamped with work - I've been up to 2am most nights for the past 2 weeks and haven't had a day off in 3. So, I won't be able to keep up with the blog over the next week. Will be back with daily entries next week!

Typhoons

Another typhoon is hitting Japan, this one the worst so far this year. They are really early this year. Usually they don't come round until September. Fair amount of damage in southern Japan, but nothing here. It was just rainy all day. Which is perfectly fine by me because that means it is cool! Of course the low pressure makes me sleepy. I ended up having a nap when I came home from work today. I also slept in really late yesterday. This is all good because I needed to catch up on my sleep. Hopefully this is a permanent decrease in the temperature. 25C is just so much easier to deal with than 39C!

According to the typhoon tracking chart on the news, Tokyo should start to get typhoon rain from right about now. We're just on the outskirts of the typhoon radius (it is going up the west coast). Tomorrow of course is scheduled to be hot - post-typhoon the sky is always clear and sunny. There isn't a polluted haze blocking the sun a bit. Beautiful sky, but I'm not looking forward to the heat. Summer please be over soon!

No Canadian doping scandals!

Well another medalist was stripped of his medal at the Olympics. This Olympics it was Hungary however that was the culprit and not Canada as it has been for the last several Olympics. Hungary had three medals revoked. Wow.
Prior to the Olympics I was half-joking with people about which sport Canada would get DQ'd in for a drug violation. Nice to see we didn't have any this time round.

Fashion that drives me nuts

Tokyo has an eclectic mix of fashion, some of which is nice, but most of which are downright weird. Pink with red? Knee socks with short skirts? Platform heels? The photo-negative panda look? There are two however that just get me. I mean, how on earth can women think this is fashionable???

Culprit A- the mini-skirt. Mini-skirts are fine, but there is a point where they become unacceptable in length. Like the person that I saw the other day who was wearing a skin tight mini that, without a word of a lie, showed a good inch of her butt cheeks. Hello????!!! I don't even want to know what was showing from the front. This woman was getting all kinds of disgusted stares. I mean, how would you sit down in that thing?
What is even more worrisome is that young girls do this type of thing to their school uniforms. Wearing it just above the knee, or mid-thigh, is fashionable. But, here's a hint, if you have to hold the back of it against your ass as you walk up a flight of stairs - it is too short! I mean come on.

Culprit B- the porno lips. For some totally bizarre and unknown reason, lip gloss is in. I have nothing against gloss, but when it is slathered in such quantities against your lips that (sorry there is no way to put this delicately) it looks like someone has just come on your face, well that is gross. It gives me the shudders every time I see it. How can that look attractive? Most people that I know, refer to it like this - "Yeah, I hate that lip gloss thing. It looks like, uh, well, you know... (trailed off embarrassed silence)". So I'm not the only one who gets a certain explicit picture.

So those are my two pet peeves recently. Why do women feel that they have to walk around looking like prostitutes? That is not fashionable. I can understand sexy, even revealing, but come on ladies, lets learn the fine line of difference.

Anyway, I haven't seen the latest North American trends, but hear they have a prostitute look to them as well. Anyone want to vent about North American fashions that drive you nuts?

AR5 - Episode 8

So here's my contestant comments for this week...
Ok, Collin is so uncool. Can we all say abusive boyfriend and spouse? Christy! Get away! Wow.
Nicole, I think you're letting things get to you. It really isn't unreasonable for someone to refuse to take another country's money. I mean if you were a taxi driver and someone tried to pay you in Mexican pesos, would you accept it? And quit bitching about the 100 bucks. That's how much it costs. Deal.
Chip and Kim - love 'em. Hope they win.
Bowling moms - boy do they ever have bad luck with airports. Still like them, but they have moved to second fav team now.
Twins - non-elimination round? You've got to be kidding. They'd better be eliminated next week.

I so want to go to Dubai now. It was already on the potential list because it is a major hub in the area. We'll probably go thru it when we leave Maldives. Definitely want to stay in that hotel (Burj Al Arab). How can a hotel be 7 stars? I mean just how much better is it than a 5 star hotel? For 1200 bucks US a night for the cheapest room, it'd better be pretty darn awesome. I, of course, will be admiring from afar... unless some nice, friendly, rich oil man puts us up out of the goodness of his heart. Haha.

Next week looks like Collin will show even more of his winning personality. India - can't wait!

I won something!

So my cellular phone provider is always sending out surveys in English to me. Well, I suspect they send them to everybody. I always do them, because I like surveys, and they are online. The Vodaphone surveys are about the only online content in English that I can get with my phone (you can access the internet with you cell phone here in case you are wondering what I am talking about). Usually they give away prizes for filling out the survey - if you are a lucky winner.

Well, I was a lucky winner! I got a cell phone holder with fifty million straps and things so you can connect it to just about anything. It is brilliant red in colour, but the blue-red shade that I like so that's ok. And it is a limited edition holder not available in stores. Wow, lucky. LOL Ok, it's kitschy crap, but I'm just so excited that I actually won something.

Oodles of bad luck

Tonight Hiroshi was cleaning the bathroom floor, and when he moved the shelving unit, my mirror fell off the top and shattered. Somehow this is my fault ... I'm not sure how that works seeing as I was nowhere near the shelf at the time, and usually shelves don't go anywhere, so you shouldn't have to worry about the potential of a mirror falling off if they were moved. So he was all grumpy and irritable. I tried to help him clean it up but got told to go away. Maybe it was my comment "oh no! Now you'll have 7 years of bad luck!" that did it. Hmmm. Seeing as he broke my last mirror as well, he is now doomed to 14 years of bad luck - I assume the bad luck is cumulative rather than concurrent.

Interestingly I found ways to counteract the bad luck by googling. You let someone else clean it up (see above - I tried). Or you can wash the pieces in a south flowing river (would only work if I actually knew which way was south from here - does a ditch count?). Or you can smash it into a bazillion pieces being sure to not see your reflection in any of them (that would be fun for anger management). Or you can just bury them (if only we had a garden). So seeing as we did none of the above, and a black cat ran out in front of us the other day, I say we're doomed ;)

I love veggies

Summer is great because you get lots of fresh veggies. The latest creation is cut up veggies dipped in miso. Delicious! It is even better when Hiroshi does the cutting! ;) My recommendations are cucumber and daikon (Japanese radish). Red miso is better than white miso too because it is sweeter. It gives the veggies a nice healthy zip of flavour without using heavy dairy. Soy is good for you.

Should we wait another year?

Here's the big dilemma of the day. It doesn't look like we'll be able to meet our savings goal for our RTW by next October. So the question is, do we delay going, or shorten the trip? And what about staying one more year in order to save up a whole bunch more money so we can have a huge nest egg. Then we would be set. Money for retirement, a down payment on a house, and money for kids when they come so we wouldn't have to worry.

Of course this would delay our trip by a whole other year. That would suck having to wait longer. And my ovaries aren't getting any younger. Oh there just isn't enough time! If only we were in our 20s LOL. Then we wouldn't have this dilemma. I hate having to balance life priorities.

If we stayed here one more year to save money, it would mean we were more financially secure in the long run. It would also mean that I would be 35 and Hiroshi would be 40 by the time we finished travelling and got back to Canada. That seems so old. :/ The kids would still be at home when Hiroshi retired. And there is always the fear that in the quest for money we'll just put off travelling again and again and never go.

So should we be responsible or just live our dream and worry about the life plan later?

Catching up on the Olympics

I finally got to watch the opening ceremony for the Olympics. I know, I'm only a week late! Thanks to Cal who let me copy it. Overall, I really liked the opening ceremony. Ahhh, pageantry. Lots of costumes, good theme. I still haven't finished watching the whole thing - the parade of nations goes on forever. I think, well hope, I'm 3/4 of the way thru the parade. So far the African nations are fabulous. Their uniforms are just great. I liked Canada's uniform - very sporty and Canadian too. The US stole our Roots hats. Japan... well Japan was a fashion nightmare. For those of you who don't remember, they were dressed in white and the women had on this floral 'Laura Ashley meets patio chairs' pattern going on. It was just aweful. The designer should be sent back to design school.

I haven't watched much of the games themselves. Sometimes when I'm working at home I catch bits and pieces if Hiroshi's watching them. Not enough time to veg out in front of the TV - and as I said in a previous entry I don't really care all that much. I don't even know how many metals Canada or Japan has. *shrug* Oh well, at least I can say I watched (most of) the opening ceremonies now.

Everyone's taking happy pills

Everyone was absurdly friendly today. I mean, it was really weird. First off, some woman in my building started talking to me and we had a conversation in the lobby. This is just not normal, because usually the people in my building ignore each other, and well, just run away (ack! foreigner!) when they see me. And not only did she say hello, but there was a conversation! And it lasted several minutes.

Then as I walked to the station people not only smiled at me, but said good morning! This is a miracle. People in Tokyo look at the sidewalk. I thought there was a rule here along the lines of: whatever you do, don't make eye contact with people you don't know... and forget about smiling at them. So right about this time, I started checking myself - ok, fly is done up, nothing is smeared on my face, appear to be dressed normally. Ummmm what's going on?

Finally, as I was walking to my class in Shinjuku, some man came up and asked me the time - as a clear attempt to start a conversation with me (he didn't care what time it was). So we gabbed for about 10 minutes. I haven't had a stranger come up and talk to me in a long time. As long as I'm not in a hurry I don't mind - I enjoy talking to people and meeting Japanese... and I know it takes a huge amount of courage to come up and say hello to a foreigner. So that was cool because the guy was really friendly and nice.

So all of this friendliness has me a bit freaked out, but overall, it is really nice! That's one of the things that I miss about Canada - saying good morning to people. It really does make such a difference in your day.

AR5 - Episode 7

This was a good episode. Collin is becoming more and more of a psycho freak by the second. Yikes. Kinda scary. The moms moved up - hurray! But, Chip and Kim are really starting to appeal to me. In fact, I might change who I'm rooting for *gasp*. They just have such a great attitude. They are always awed by the places they go. I was impressed by the fact that they sat around talking to the people they delivered the chairs to (and ate watermelon). That was great. The moms are still cool, but I think I might have to change my fav team.

And Charla and Mirna are gone. I really do wish it had been the twins instead. Gosh they're stupid. Charla is just pretty darn amazing. Phil, what were you thinking when you said "You have a pretty amazing partner" ... referring to Mirna???!!! I do hope you were trying to be sarcastic. Mirna was a dead log. Charla did everything and basically kicked ass. She's awesome. Too bad she had such a twit for a partner.

So now that I've reviewed the contestants... man, oh man I want to be there! Lake Manyara? On the RTW list. I'm exceedingly jealous because I want to be there! The little scam going on over the 100 bucks for the bus is just funny. The guys were really aggressive about keeping them on the bus though - that was a bit scary. I don't know what Hiroshi and I'd do in that situation. The little villages - very cool. Oh, I want to be travelling now!

As usual, Hiroshi and I paused the episode at the road block and see who would do it. Both of us knew it involved eating something less than appetizing, so neither wanted to do it. The ostrich egg is the same as eating 2 dozen eggs. That is just nasty. I thought you could die of a cholesterol overdose if you ate a whole ostrich egg. Clearly that is urban myth, although I do hope Collin keels over. Is that wrong of me? The zip cord looked fun, but they already did a zip cord, so I'm kinda disappointed. Come on guys, pick new and exciting tasks within the same season.

Uh-oh it's magic

Do you remember that song? I can't even remember who sang it, let alone if that is the actual title or just the chorus. Ah, all those 80s song tidbits floating around my brain. Anyway, yesterday was Hiroshi's and my anniversary. We've been married for 3 years - which have flown by just like magic. We've been married three years??!! Wow, where did all the time go? It sure doesn't seem like that long.

For our anniversary, we went to the Shinagawa Prince Hotel to see "Las Vegas Magic" at Club Ex. The show by itself is rather expensive, but there is a good dinner and show deal that we got. Hiroshi loves magic so he was very happy about the show. I knew it was based on slight of hand and the like so wasn't as thrilled as I used to be as a kid. When the magician pulled a duck out of nowhere though, I was impressed. That was good. There were also jugglers who were quite good. They were fun and entertaining. The name "Las Vegas Magic" comes from the scantily clad dancing girls that accompanied the show - you know, so men could drool and women could seethe with jealousy. ;) The big surprise of the evening was that the magician was not only from Canada, but upon surfing the net for this link, I discovered he is also from my hometown. How weird is that!? And no, I don't think I know him. Of course it may turn out we went to the same high school or something weird.

After the show we went to dinner. There is a nice restaurant on the 37th floor that has incredible city views, candlelight and steak. We didn't go there. I stupidly thought the buffet restaurant on the first floor would be better because it had shabu-shabu, crab, Chinese food, and sushi. See, thinking with my stomach instead of my brain! As it turns out the shabu-shabu was lousy, the Chinese food not great, and we didn't even eat the sushi. The crab on the other hand was delicious and we ate a whole bunch of that. The other things on the menu were so so. Oh well, bad choice. There were also lots of kids running around (where are your parents?!) making a lot of noise that was amplified by the acoustics of the room - it had huge high ceilings and was kind of like a swimming pool in terms of sound bouncing around. So not that romantic. It was different from the usual restaurants we go to though, so that was nice.

So that was the big anniversary thing. I'd be interested in going again when the tango show comes back - and the next time we'll choose the romantic restaurant.

Oh, and happy 55th birthday yesterday to mom in Kitchener. And happy anniversary yesterday to cousins Kevin and Renate. See, August 17th is a great day - look at all the special events.

Where are you?

Hey, see that new link under the 'Reader Map' section of the sidebar? Click on 'Place your pin' and put yourself on it! Let me know where you are and make me feel popular. Don't forget to pick your icon.

Where's the wireless?

Today I rushed around trying to find a wireless node so I could check e-mail and send something off. No luck. Wireless connections that were there last week, are no longer there. Whaaaaat? And then I heard a rumour that the company that owns all the free hubs folded. What?! You mean I'm going to have to pay for my wireless internet access now? *scowl*

This does not bode well... because, well, I'm cheap. Once free it should always be free. I don't want to pay. Besides, all the plans where you pay are only at specific places (like MosBurger - where I just can't go because I'm addicted to their teriyaki chicken burger and that doesn't fit in with my diet plans). That would mean I'd be locked into going to a certain store, rather than deciding, hmmm, I feel like a latte at Starbucks or a coffee at Excelsior. So hopefully this rumour is just that - an evil rumour - and I'll be able to happily surf the net between classes. Guess I'll find out the next time I hit Starbucks in the Yaesu underground shopping mall at Tokyo station.

Ahhhh, relief!

Oh my gosh! Today is positively frigid in comparison to the past month and a half. It is only about 20C today! Sure it was gray and overcast today and a bit rainy this morning, but I'm LOVING this temperature. Ohhhh please please please stay cool and wonderful so I don't become drenched in my own sweat every time I set foot out of air conditioned wonderfulness. I so despise this summer and 20C for the rest of the year would be like winning the lottery. Of course 20C won't happen, but maybe I can hold out for 25?

Olympics are absent from my TV

I had wanted to watch the opening ceremony tonight, but it appears that there is no coverage on regular TV. That sucks. I'm too lazy to download it off the internet too so guess I'll miss it this year. It's funny because I used to get all hyped about the Olympics. Maybe because they were held in North American during my teens? Don't know. I wish I could the opening ceremony, but really, I'm not that bummed out about it. Some people have asked me what events I want to watch, and swimming and gymnastics come to mind, but again, don't care all that much if I miss them.
So, is this apathy about the Olympics time zone related, age related, or just because people in general aren't as hyped about the Olympics as they used to be?

Heatwave record

Today Tokyo set a record for the longest heatwave in it's history. I knew this summer was too hot. I love the quote about people wanting a taxi when they step out of a building - umm, actually, I want a portable air conditioner that wraps me in cool goodness even when I'm outside.

You may be saying, 30C is nothing... but really the temperature is hitting 37 or 38 every day, which is fine in dry heat. Add in 80 to 90% humidity, and I'm sure hell is cooler than it is here. To give those of you who live in dry heat a comparison, 37C (98F) at 80% humidity feels like 61C (143F). You don't want to know how hot it feels at 38 and 90% humidity. No wonder I feel like collapsing at the end of every day.

Anniversary present - what to get

Our 3 year anniversary is next week, so I'm trying to think what to get for Hiroshi. We had talked about going to a show - there's a lounge show in Shinagawa. Hiroshi wants to see the magic show, but I think it is tango right now instead. I wouldn't mind seeing the tango show. Then someone was telling me about a cat museum in Odaiba, where you get to play with cats! How great is that! The entrance fee is like US$12 a person, which seems expensive when we can pet the cats that hang out around our neighbourhood. Of course the ones at the cat museum probably don't have flleas and are a bit less mangy. Hiroshi would love that I'm sure. I'd have to listen to "I want a cat" for weeks though.... I want a cat too, but we'd have to keep the a/c on all day (way too expensive), not to mention we have to pay US$1200 more deposit on our apartment.
Also thinking about going out to dinner but not quite sure where. Would like french, but then you're looking at a couple hundred bucks for dinner. This is fine, but then you start to think about how much you can do on the RTW with 200 bucks and then it seems like you are over-splurging. So, if anyone has any great ideas, please let me know!

AR5 - episode 6

Yippee, someone put this week's episode on the net really quick! And... hurray, the moms are still in it! So the question of the week, of course, is - where have these people been all their lives? How can you not know what a scarab is. I mean, I learned that in grade school, but, haven't you seen The Mummy??
Comments on teams:
Charla and Mirna - I think I'm in shock. Mirna actually did a task! And she whined and complained about how hard it was and that she didn't think she could do it. Umm, Mirna, climbing 100 meters up a ladder with midget legs is hard. Picking up goats is not. Whiny twit.
Kami and Karli - wow, we're definitely missing brain cells. Please let them be eliminated next. I dislike Mirna, but I think Charla is spunky - and they make the episodes interesting, so the twins are the next ones I want to go.
Colin and Christy - Colin is starting to get psycho killer eyes a lot more. It's a bit frightening.
Marshall and Lance - glad to see them go. Too bad it was because of injury and not because someone whipped their ass. And what's up with Phil moaning about having to come out to a site in the race. Come on. Is it really that hard to leave the luxury hotel at the pit stop? Phil sounded rather pampered and spoilt with that comment. If I were Marshall and Lance I could see just giving up too. I mean, it is a waste of time. However, I do have much more respect for teams who stick it out. I mean look at Joyce - she ate 2 lbs of caviar even though they knew they were out.
Moms - glad they are still in, and they were great about getting money at the beginning of the race. But, after that point they didn't do anything for me this race. Since they don't seem to have much personality development, does that mean they are going to be eliminated soon, or is it just a trick by the producers to make you think that, when in reality, they are going to be in the last races?

A new grocery store

A new Pororoca store opened in Gotanda, pretty much exactly halfway between the station and our apartment. The exciting part? It's open 24 hours! Whehoo! Convenient shopping. Hiroshi and I went and picked up some things tonight. The prices are pretty good. I thought they might be a bit more expensive, but on average the prices are the same as the other shops around here. So this means I don't have to rush around to buy things before the stores close anymore. And - if I run out of toilet paper I don't have to make it to a store before 9pm because Pororoca carrries it. Very cool. Especially because toilet paper, shampoo and the like are normally carried only in pharmacies here and not in grocery stores. Ahhhh, one stop shopping :) Oh, and it is nice and bright with white lights rather than the depressing yellow / beige tinted ones that seem to be in every other store here.

Another nuclear accident

There was a nuclear accident just outside of Tokyo today. Luckily there was no radiation. The media is calling it the worst nuclear accident ever. This is because 4 people died and 7 are seriously injured. Now, the death toll is higher, but I still think the fiasco that happened a couple years ago still counts as the 'worst'. That would be where workers were mixing uranium in a bucket (I kid you not) instead of the special mixer for this purpose, and well, it exploded. Two people died, and more than 10,000 people had to be evacuated from their homes because of the radiation.

This does not bode well. Last year 17 reactors were shut down for not meeting safety standards. Very scary. When the bucket incident happened, I remember how aweful it was not knowing what was going on. There was no information.... well, there were lots of scary pictures on tv, but not information in English. People didn't want to go outside. No one knew how bad the situation was - and whether or not we were endangering our health by staying in Tokyo. This time at least I have internet access, so was able to find out what is going on. I guess the really scary thing is that I'm sure there are incidents all the time that don't result in injury/death, so they aren't reported. Don't worry about the big one (earthquake) - the chance of being vaporized seems to be a heck of a lot higher.

And they will host the next Olympics

Chinese fans booed Japan during the Japanese national anthem at the Asian Cup Final. Then riot police had to be called in, and Japanese fans were detained in the building for several hours for their safety. More details can be found here.

So considering this incredibly unsportsman-like conduct, how will Chinese fans behave during the Olympics? Booing during a national anthem is just plain disrespectful. In my opinion, having to call in riot police and detain fans does not bode well for future Olympic security.

China is complaining that the news is over-exaggerated... but since when do you need riot police to deal with a "handful of fans"? People are linking it to politics, but I think it is just rudeness. Germany and Israel have played matches, but I don't recall Israeli's booing Germany for things that happened in WW2.

So if China doesn't get a medal in a certain event, will they stone the other Olympic teams' buses?

I can download AR1!

Cal tells me that he is now addicted to Amazing Race. In fact, he let me know that most of season 1 is available for downloading. Whehoo! I have things to watch in between episodes of the current season. My question, of course, is - what happened to seasons 2, 3 and 4??? Someone get off their butt and put those up please!

Fun at the Sega game center

Tonight after work (I ran past Haagen Dazs ice cream with averted eyes) I went to the game center. I haven't been there in a while because I've been busy. When I went to withdrawal some of my tokens (I have a token balance from previous visits) my tokens were gone! I asked the attendant about this and he said they are only kept for 1 month, then they disappear. Oh no! Luckily, the attendant was super nice and he reinstated most of my tokens for me.
So I played the slot machines, bingo and mahjong for several hours... and lost LOL Hiroshi joined me later in the evening and contributed to the loss. I don't mind - I have tons of tokens still and it was a several hours of fun entertainment that didn't cost me anything. Perfect for relaxing after work!

Thank heavens for non-elimination rounds!

What a great AR5 episode! I was so sad when I thought the mom's were eliminated, then so happy when they were back in, and now so worried that they don't have any cash. Go moms go! Hopefully Marshall and Lance will be eliminated in the next round. Mirna and Charla were less irritating this episode. Does Mirna do anything except yell at Charla? All she ever does is drive and complain - Charla is doing all the hard tasks. As for the twins, they are starting to irritate me. Chip, what were you doing telling them where to get the next clue? Not only did it ensure they got 6th place, but you dropped a place in the rankings. Come on! Who cares about the twins.

Anyway, the pyramids looked awesome. Hiroshi was even impressed. Maybe he'll stop whining about the Egypt stop on our RTW. It all looks so amazing! I want to be there! Well, I want to be anywhere but in Tokyo working, but Egypt would make a good start!

I can't find episode 5!!

Ack!!! No one has uploaded the latest episode of AR5 (episode 5) to the net yet!! Come on, it has been 12 hours since it aired. What's going on! I want my AR fix! I can't even read Erik's blog for fear of spoilers in the comments.
I did find a program called Nip and Tuck which I think is the program that follows people going thru a cosmetic surgery makeover. Is this for real? I downloaded an episode to watch. Do they give you liposuction for free? Cuz I'll volunteer!

Yippee!! WeatherPixie is back

Ah, a bright moment in my day when I saw that my weatherpixie has returned. Once again, I can see if I need an umbrella without looking outside, and you can tell how disgustingly hot it is here in Tokyo :)

I didn't drop anything (aka a Japanese funeral)

Today was Hiroshi's dad's funeral. We started the day praying. As I had been through this before when Hiroshi's brother died, I knew what to say and the general procedure. My mother-in-law makes small stools that you can slip under you bum - perfect for relieving a bit of the pain from sitting seiza (on your knees with your feet under you bum). These are a godsend for me because I can't sit seiza for more than about 5 seconds. I still lost all circulation in my legs though.

In Japan, the deceased is not embalmed, but put into a plain unfinished wood casket and left in the house for visitation. The funeral home had packed dry ice in there, and the lid was put on top to keep things cool. At the head of the casket there was a small window that was covered with a piece of white silk. This could be removed and so you could see him. There was also a beautifully embroidered silk insulating cloth on top of the casket.

After we prayed, the funeral helper removed the lid and took out the dry ice. Then we placed twigs of a special tree inside (I don't know what it is, but it has fairly large, dark green, oval shaped leaves). Then the lid was replaced and he was taken to the hearse. Hiroshi rode in the hearse, followed by Keiko and I, and then my mother-in-law and two uncles (brothers of my father-in-law).

At the funeral home, Hiroshi laid incense on top of the casket, and then it was rolled into the crematorium. You actually stand in front of the hearth (I don't know what the proper name is for the burning room). This was really hard for Hiroshi and quite upsetting to me as well. It is the equivalent of the first handful of dirt thrown on the casket in a burial service. The doors closed and everyone prayed some more and then we went up to the waiting room.

In the waiting room we had some snacks and talked. One of my uncles-in-law is really talkative and full of life, while the other is quiet and introverted. Hiroshi's cousin (talkative uncle's son) had been in the Ohio working the last time we saw met Hiroshi's uncle, but apparently they had moved back home - into Hiroshi's uncle's house. We talked a bit about real estate and the cost of heating and gas, and then moved on to nuclear power - comparing North America and Japan. All of this of course was translated by Hiroshi (who did a super great job) because I had no idea what his uncle was saying. The quiet uncle didn't say too much except to make one joke. Actually, it was kind of amusing because his personality seems similar to Hiroshi's.

After an hour we went back to the crematorium area. Again, as I had been through this before, I was prepared. The first time I experienced a Japanese funeral I was a bit shocked. "Ashes" is a misnomer. I always thought when someone was cremated, that they turned into real ash - like you would find in a fire place. Boy was I wrong. In Japan, the body is burned at a temperature so that the bones are very brittle and crumble easily, but still remain intact. They are then placed on a large tray on a table in a special room.

The family then gathers around the table. In two's, you take very long chopsticks, pick up a bone together and transfer it to the urn. This requires not only skill at balancing a large bone (i.e. a femur) in extra long chopsticks, but doing so with another person. My greatest fear was that I would drop the bone, or worse, that my chopsticks would cross, thus flinging the bone in a twirling motion across the room. That would have been aweful. Luckily, everything went smoothly. (Note: this is why you do not pass food chopsticks to chopsticks in Japan). After each pair had put one bone in the urn, everyone just used their hands. As we placed the bones in the urn, a funeral attendant used a giant wooden pestle to crush them into small pieces. Finally, the skull bones were placed on top.

After that everyone goes to the sinks to wash their hands, the funeral organizer (that was Hiroshi) takes the urn (which is inside a silk box) and you go back home. Before entering the house, you rub salt in your hands and then pour water over them to cleanse yourself. Then you can go inside. The urn is placed on the family altar and everyone prays again. After that, a food offering is given (there are special small bowls for this purpose, and you also put pristine condition fruit on the alter). Food is offered daily, but I'm not sure for how long. I think it is for the full 49 days until the burial ceremony. The urn stays in the house for the 49 days, after which it is placed in the family plot.

So that is the Japanese funeral experience. Hiroshi had to say some things in super polite Japanese, so he had to memorize the sentences (polite Japanese is not spoken in every day language). I helped him with this in the morning... and actually remember part of it myself now.... despite not knowing what it actually means. He said the first half of the lines after we brought the urn home... but I didn't hear the second half, so maybe he got out of saying them since it was only immediate family present. That would have been lucky, because he had to write cheat notes on his finger in case he forgot what he was supposed to say. Ingenious idea - much less conspicuous than on your palm.

Shinkansen Adventures

I spent most of the day rushing to be creative - I am working on a development project at work and had to make 8 course outlines by Monday morning. I also needed to get down to Hamamastu as quickly as possible. I finally finished just after 4:00, so I threw clothes into my bag, grabbed a book to read, gathered the garbage to take out, and flew out the door. My mission was to make the Shinkansen (bullet train) that left at 5:14.

I arrived at Shinagawa station at 5:09 and ran to the vending machine. I hit all the buttons (in order) and then... nothing. I did it again... and the machine shut down!! So I called an attendant over and he directed me to the counter. Luckily there wasn't a line up, so I could walk right up. Time - 5:11. No problem, one minute to buy the ticket, one minute to run down to the platform and one minute to spare. Except the ticket man wouldn't sell me a ticket on that train! Arghhhh!!! So I asked for the fastest train and he gave me a ticket on the Kodama train - which stops at every Shinkansen station. (The Hikari only stops at the main stations and the Nozumi only stops like 4 times the whole length of Japan). So instead of it taking 75 minutes, it would now take 120 minutes. Well, ok.

This was all fine and dandy until five (yes five!) other Shinkansen passed my train! What???!!! Obviously the ticket man was being a dickhead. I did say fastest and not next, so that wasn't the problem. Despite leaving 30 minutes after my train, the next Hiraki train arrived at Hamamatsu station 15 minutes before my train did. I was quite peeved about the whole thing for a while... until I had a little self-talk about 15 minutes not making that much of a difference, so it didn't matter. Of course my irritation wasn't helped by the fact that there was a monster child... or maybe irresponsible grandparent... one row up on the opposite side of the train.

Everyone was quietly enjoying their ride until monster child and grandfather got on the train. Monster child was about 6. Grandpa bought him a toy shinkansen. Monster child then proceeds to shout the likes of: "The doors are closing!", "The doors on the right side of the train will open!", "No doors will open *loud snickering", "This train stops at Tokyo, Yokohama, ...". Now this would have been cute had he been speaking in normal tones. As it was, the people at both ends of the car (we were in the middle) were shooting dirty looks at the pair. Grandpa of course says nothing - just lets the kid continue. I was about five seconds away from leaping over the seats, grabbing the scarf of the woman on the seat next to me, and strangling that kid - or at least gagging him - when, finally!, they got off the train. Peace at last. What a nightmare. At least that snapped the biological clock back a few hours.

I arrived at Hamamatsu around 7:30 and my sister-in-law met me at the station. Every time I see Keiko, she has totally redone her hair and looks totally different, so I was a bit worried that I might not recognize her. I mean, I've only met her about 7 times... and she usually just says hi and runs up to do things in her room. So at 5 seconds a shot, I've been in her presence for less than a minute in all the time Hiroshi and I have been together. Not to worry though - I recognized her immediately, before she even saw me.

Keiko speaks zero English and I speak close to nil Japanese, so I figured the ride home would be an interesting one. It turned out well though. She spoke in simple Japanese and said things slowly so I was able to understand. Unlike my mother-in-law, she doesn't rapid fire ten totally different versions of the same sentence at you at once, so conversation was surprisingly easy. She wants to come and visit when Hiroshi and I move back to Canada. She's also going to come up to Tokyo in the fall and we're going to go to Disneyland together. So that's cool. Despite not having a common language, the communication is going ok and I look forward to being able to talk with her more... some day... when my Japanese improves!

So that was the shinkansen adventure. Maybe next time I'll fork over the extra money to go in the green car - first class essentially. I always thought it had something to do with the environment, or non-smoking, but it turns out the seats are just wider and more cushy, and you get a free drink. Still, it might be worth it if no monster children are in the same car.

Sad day today :(

Hiroshi's dad died this afternoon. He was 72. Hiroshi went home tonight and I'll go down tomorrow. The funeral will be on Monday.

Poor WeatherPixie

My poor WeatherPixie is offline! :( So I rearranged my sidebar until she comes back. Hopefully soon. I love my WeatherPixie. That's how I can tell just how much I'm going to suffer if I go outside. And she wears cute clothes! *sigh*

Just plain evil

A new store opened up in Ebisu station and, well it is just unfair! I have to pass by this store every Friday evening on the way home - you know, after a long work week when your defences are weak. The new store is a Haagen Dazs. This is so unfair for my diet!
I called up Hiroshi to distract me while I was walking by it - bad idea. "Oh! Yosuke is coming over tonight. Can you buy some?". So I picked up a pint of stunningly delicious vanilla caramel brownie and panna cota raspberry (half and half). This is really bad for my diet - this stuff is amazing! Even better than what you buy in the store. Slightly cheaper than what you buy in the store too if I recall (I haven't bought any in ages). My new mantra is going to have to be "look away, look away, look away - hey, look at those nice flowers over there!"

Things that go meeeee-meeeee-meeeee in the night

Well the cicadas are finally out. I actually love the sound they make. The Japanese 'sound' is meee-meee-meeee. I'd describe it as crickets singing. Very relaxing in my opinion. They can be surprisingly loud though. Despite their lovely sound, these are ugly, nasty, freak out bugs. Yuck. They're big too - around 8 to 10 cm for the ones I've seen.
When I first came to Japan and was working at a conversation school, one of my students thought a dead cicada in perfect condition would make a pleasant gift. She pulled it out of her pocket, slowly unwrapped it as it was bundled in tissue, and then thrust it in my face. I jumped about five feet in the air. 'That's ok thank-you... it is such a nice cicada, you should keep it. I couldn't possibly keep that for myself.' Yikes.

AR5 addiction

I came home around 1 this afternoon and rushed to my Mac to find the latest episode of AR5 (Amazing Race Season 5)... only to find it wasn't there yet! What?! So I wait patiently... only checking about every 5 minutes or so. No episode 4. I go back to work and come home - still no download available. It's after 9 pm - more than 12 hours after it was aired in North America. Come on! Grrr. Jump in the shower to get rid of today's sweat (it was another 35C day here I think), and come back and check, and hallelujah! Up for less than 10 minutes, I was there lining up for the download. And about 35 minutes from now I will be in AR5 bliss.

I'm too geeky

Ok, since I was unable to print last night, I had this perfectly great idea - put everything that I need to print on my memory stick and go to Kinko's to print it out. Genius... until I get to Kinko's and they have every kind of drive imaginable except a USB memory card slot. What???? I mean, they have floppies for crying out loud - laptops don't even come with floppy drives any more. What's up with that? So looks like I'm stuck with having to go into the office any time I want to print. I can't believe that Kinko's, which is usually pretty bang on for services, doesn't have USB slots on their computers. I mean, they have do-it-yourself digital photo print centers that accept every possible type of digital camera memory cards in them. Geesh.

On a related note - when did FedEx buy Kinko's? I'm really out of the loop - never even saw that one in the news.

My printer bites

Ok, I just happen to own the printer that doesn't support Macs. At all. On doing an internet search, the phrase "If you own a Mac, don't even bother" came up numerous times. Argh!!! How frustrating is that! So now I can't print. Since Hiroshi's computer doesn't have the printer set up either (not sure why) I can't print at all. This means I have to go into my office or into Kinko's and pay for printing. I'm not happy.
So to my certain friend who works at Canon, if you can kick the MultiPASS development team in the butt and get them to make a driver, Mac users everywhere would be eternally grateful.

iMovie fun

Today I played around with my Mac and made a movie! I now have a 1.5 minute movie on Japanese festivals. Very fun. I can see that I will have a lot of fun while travelling - imagine all the 1 minute mini-movies I can make! Does this mean I should bring my video camera with me as well? Hrm... I need to figure out if I can get a firewire for my camera though - right now it is only USB but there are a ton of other strange connections that could possibly be a firewire. I need the firewire to hook up a direct feed into the computer. Oh all the toys I can play with now!

So other than spending 2 hours making my movie, I didn't do very much. I didn't get up until 2. Then I went back to bed at 5. Woke up at 8 sweating to death and surfed for a bit. Now I'm tired again, so will probably shuffle off to bed again. Heh, guess that means I've been awake for a whopping 7 hours today. Hopefully the sleep will kick this sore throat in the butt. It's back to work tomorrow.

Yippee!! I'm WiFi'ing

So I finally got my wireless internet to work. There was a minor problem with my antenna not being plugged in all the way. So technically, all of the places where I searched for internet before that didn't work, might actually have wireless internet. The antenna is the key.
Now I just feel sorry for all the people on dial up. Man, this is slow compared to ADSL. To think I thought ADSL was slow at times. I think I'd kill myself if I had to use dial up.

I'm Sick :(

Last night my throat was a bit scratchy and when I woke up this morning I felt aweful. Luckily I only had one class today... and there was a clinic in the same building. I went to the doctor and got some good drugs.
I just finished watching Princess Mononoke (Japanese anime movie that was released in North America as well as far as I know). I had seen it before, but only in Japanese. I missed alot. Now the movie makes much more sense. Hopefully I'll be able to watch Spirited Away (another anime movie) tomorrow.

Switching ain't easy

I'm in the long process of transferring all my files from my PC to the new Mac. What a nightmare. Tonight I went to the bookstore to look at buying a OSX book (since my manual is in Japanese and there is no OSX manual that came with my iBook). I ended up finding another book that told me how to transfer my stuff using Netscape. Hallelujah! I got all my mailboxes and address transferred over with minimal fuss, thanks to my memory stick.

This morning I picked up a media card reader. We're kinda short on plugs - think that has anything to do with 2 PCs, a notebook and an iBook all being connected on the desk? Can you see the power surge at my address? The media card reader just connects via USB with no electricity needed so the camera dock can be moved and only plugged in when it needs recharging. I was extremely tempted to buy the USB fan - basically it is a fan that just plugs into your USB port (no power needed) - perfect for keeping cool. However, rationality prevailed. I don't really need a fan if I'm sitting in a/c, now, do I?

I carted the computer all over the place looking for WiFi spots. I finally found one near Tokyo station and was all excited until it said I needed a password to use it. Argh! Nothing in Osaki - which surprises me cuz there are several IT companies in the building. Maybe that's why there isn't any WiFi access LOL Oh, well, I'm thinking I might have to take a trip to Ebisu just to use my wireless internet!

Accessory mania

Today I went shopping for accessories. Fun fun fun. I love shopping. I ended up buying the wireless internet card. The only problem is, there is no wireless hub near my house, so I can't internet in bed *grumble* I need to find out where there is a WiFi place around here so I can geek one day. Maybe Starbucks in Osaki will have one.

I also got a keyboard cover cuz Hiroshi says I'm messy and I need one. It's a good idea - my old one keyboard is kinda scummy, so this will make for easier cleaning. And I got a mouse because the touchpad is irritating me. And blank CDs so I can burn things - right now I'm downloading Amazing Race episode 3 and Princess Mononoke (in English - it is only available here in Japanese). Finally with all my points* I got a memory stick. Hopefully that will make data transfer between my old PC and the new Mac much easier. It is a total pain to do it manually.

So now I'm all geeked out. I've got a lunch date with Cal on Saturday so he can tutor me in the finer points of Mac usage. It's intuitive but it isn't. And there are WiFi hubs near our office so I can surf at work. Not like there are computers there with internet access already, but it's the novelty you know.

*Electronic stores give you points here ranging from 5-18% of your purchase value, depending on what the purchase is. You can exchange these for goods at a 1 point to 1 yen ratio. It is essentially like getting 10% worth of free stuff. Unfortunately the Mac only qualified for 5% points. This was actually surprising because I had heard at one time that Mac had disallowed this because it was like discounting the product. Maybe it was urban legend.

I bought a new computer!!

Whehoo!! I bought a new computer today ;) Talk about shopping mania! I got sick and tired of my mouse conflicting all the time and going psycho and taking over my PC... and the fact that my PC is 6 years old - read: total crap. So after work tonight I went to the electronic store and did a little search thru the PCs which were super expensive. Then I wandered over to the Mac section... and not only were they reasonably priced, but OS X will boot in both Japanese AND English! This means that Hiroshi's and my problem of not being able to both use the same computer has been solved! And Hiroshi can pre-write Japanese text files to send e-mail to his sister when we are travelling on the road. Very good.

So I called up Hiroshi on the phone and asked if he happened to have his Bic Camera (the electronics store) point card on him. Usually he keeps these things at home in a pile on the desk so his wallet isn't bulging out all over the place. We hardly ever go to Bic Camera, so I figured he wouldn't have it - but he did. It was a sign! I was meant to buy the Mac. I told him to come quick and talk me out of it. LOL So he came and we talked it over and he convinced me I didn't need the top of the line one. Well, I still think I want a bigger screen, but that one weighed a full lb more, and I will have to cart this thing all over the planet. One lb, while small, will count. The one I got is also much more compact and easy to pack. So it won.

So I'm already frustrated to no end LOL While there is an English display, all of the manuals are in Japanese. I can't get any of my e-mail accounts to work and every three seconds the same window pops up asking me for my password. Grrr. I'm sure I'll get it all figured out tomorrow. Tonight I have to go to bed. Tomorrow I also get to go and buy accessories... like an iPod. Just kidding. I want to get a wireless internet card and a keyboard cover... and some CDs cuz I now have a CD burner.... and a DVD player! I can download AR5 episodes now. Life is good.

Oh, and I used debit card for the first time in Japan. I mean who wants to carry a huge bundle of cash to fork over for a new computer, and I'm sticking with not putting things on credit. So that money just zipped right out of our savings account. It was too easy in fact. I must hide that savings account ATM card.

So I converted. I'm a Mac user now. :)

Amazing Race

Ok, I have been wondering what all the fuss is about The Amazing Race. Well, I finally got to see an episode! Thanks to Cal who downloaded and burned both the first and second episodes onto CD for me (thanks Cal!).

I don't know if I'm a fan of reality tv - we don't get it here really. It seems rather silly at times. But AR is cool. Hiroshi and I watched the second episode on the edge of our seats. Hiroshi's like, why is everyone fighting so much? He now thinks we're going to get a divorce on our RTW because "I'm always bitchy". Hmph. We loved the "I'm smarter than you" and "It's your fault" quotes as people were arguing. This is great stuff.

Now the number one irritating couple: Myrna and Charla. Charla I like - she's got spunk. Myrna is whiney and condescending. Does anyone else thing she treats Charla like crap?

Ok, so I'm addicted. Unfortunately my PC is too ancient to play the CDs.. and Hiroshi won't download P2P software. So I might have to bug Cal for more episodes.

Spiderman spiderman...

Tonight we went out to dinner with Cal in Shinagawa. We wanted to go to the Oyster Bar in Shinagawa Atre, but there was a two hour wait to get a table! We'll have to go another time. We ended up at TGI Friday's instead. Mmm ice cream drinks ;)

After dinner we went to see Spiderman 2. What a great movie. It had a nice comic book feel but wasn't cheesey about it. Some good laughs, nice action and I liked the 'real person with real problems' aspect. Good stuff. I definitely agree with the critics - this is much better than the first one.

I hate it when my blog doesn't display properly

For some reason, my blog is not displaying properly and I can't figure out why. Grrrr... I have no idea why it does this sometimes. Hopefully it will sort itself out, but right now my weather girl has been pushed way down to the bottom of the page. Poor weather girl.

Fire in India

The fire in India is so sad. What heartbreaking news that 80 plus children aged 6 to 13 died in a fire at a school. How aweful. Hopefully it is not true that the teachers abandoned the students in the building rather than helping them out.

Pachinko!

I had an urge to go to pachinko today. I actually finished work mid-afternoon because my evening student cancelled. So I hit the packinko parlour on the way home... and I won a hundred bucks! Gotta love those gambling urges that I have.

Stupid Logic

I was in Nagoya the last two days for a seminar. We came back tonight on the shinkansen (bullet train) and I got to experience stupid logic. Saving 5 minutes is a big deal in Japan - this is why you see 'express' trains that only save 10 minutes on a two hour journey costing twice as much. Well, today the person who bought our tickets wanted to save some time.

We weren't actually in Nagoya - we were about 30 minutes by train towards Tokyo at a shinkansen stop. However, this was not an express stop, so we backtracked to Nagoya arriving 7 minutes before our express shinkansen left. This was so we could take the faster train. Let's add in a few more details. We're travelling at 5 o'clock so the local train is jammed. The a/c doesn't work. It is smelly. And it is late. So when we arrive in Nagoya, which is wall to wall people on the platform, we only have 3 minutes to get to the shinkansen - which is four platforms over, thru a ticket gate and up to another platform... rushing through thousands of people. We run - in 40 degree heat mind you - and luckily just make it. And, for the price of 30 minutes of discomfort and nearly having a heart attack, we saved a grand total of... are you ready?... 10 minutes.

Oh, and for those that are confused about 'express bullet trains' - some bullet trains only stop at like 4 stops the whole length of Japan. Others stop at 20. They are still much faster than the regular trains, but when the shinkansen only stops 4 times it hits maximum speed between stations.

Now wouldn't it have made much more sense to stay at the original station, find a restaurant and have a beer and some dinner, then leisurely walk to the platform and have a relaxing ride home??? But we arrived 10 minutes earlier than if we had done that. This is just silly to me. Even if we arrived 30 minutes after the express train, it would have been worth not having to run all over the place. All that running and stress is definitely not worth 10 minutes.

Big Flood in Japan

There is a huge flood in Niigata in Japan (opposite side of the main island from Tokyo).  The pictures coming from the scene are unbelievable.  Rescuers are going around in boats to take people stuck in their homes to safety.  There have also been helicopter rescues.  Pretty amazing.  They're expecting more rain in the next few days too.

Restaurant Review - Spyros

Tonight Hiroshi and I went to a greek restaurant in Harajuku for date night. Harajuku is a fasion district and has tons of young people wandering around. At first we took a wrong turn and ended up going in the complete opposite direction. Luckily the weather has cooled down though and it was a nice evening walk. Summer evening walks are great when the humidity is gone and the temperature has come down to 'warm'.

We eventually found where we were going after wandering through some back streets. I have actually never been off of the main streets in Harajuku and was surprised to see the number of funky galleries and fashion boutiques. Definitely a place to do further exploring in the future. Like in the fall when the weather is bearable :)

The restaurant is a bit hard to see as it is on the third floor ... as is the sign. (For those of you who want to know how to get there, go down Omotesando-dori on the left hand side and keep walking until you get to just before the koban (across from the toy store). Turn left on the little side street and walk down about 150 meters or so. The restaurant is on the left, on the third floor). The decor is pretty simple - white walls which make it nice and fresh. It actually fits well with the design of the whole area.

We ordered the set menu. I was in heaven! Real olives! Oh, olives, my loves, where have you been the past five years?? It was wonderful to have olives with actual taste again. The feta was also super delicious. The set menu was volumous - there was an olive and veggie plate with dip to start. Then the greek salad (to die for) followed by tomatoes stuffed with couscous. Then came the mousaka and a shrimp stir-fry like dish. At this point I was full; however, the lambchops were still to come! The lamb was fatty but really good. I wasn't too keen on the mousaka - something about the spicing, but Hiroshi liked it. The stuffed tomatos were good too, and I think I'm going to have to play with that to come up with my own recipe. The couscous was nice compared to rice, which can be quite bland and boring.

After all that fabulous food we had a small desert and coffee. While small it was just perfect - a bite of sweetness for a bursting stomach. I should also note that we had greek wine with our meal. At first it was very green tasting and sour; however, once the food arrived it accompanied the meal well.

All up, the set menu, two cofffees and two glasses of wine cost 10,000 yen (about US$100). A bit pricey, but very filling. And they have real olives! The service was a bit slow - we had to hunt them down to get water and had to ask for them to bring cream/milk for our coffee, but they timed the dishes well. Just as we finished one, they put another one on the table. So all in all, a nice restaurant. If you have a hankering for greek, check it out.

RTW - Countries Visited

This is a visual representation of the countries that we'll have visited on our RTW trip



create your own visited country map

Ugh - 35 degrees is just wrong

Today it hit 35 degrees in Tokyo. The weather just shouldn't do that! Yuck. Whatever happened to rainy season? I think it only lasted 3 days.

I had a good workout at the gym tonight. I haven't been on a Friday night in a long time and I was happy to see that I could take a class with my favourite aqua instructor. She is really good - mainly because she demonstrates the moves right in front of me... which is key when you don't understand the language so well and you aren't wearing your glasses! After the class I was talking to her for a bit and she is really nice. And I was so excited because we had a whole conversation in Japanese! It's nice when that happens - usually I get lost.

Cassini-Huygens - cool pics

Some of the pics of Saturn coming back are awesome. I love the designs of the rings.

Workout Triumph and a New Place to Shop

Today I totally did not want to go to the gym. I wanted to crawl back into bed. I'm sneezing like a madwoman and the constant change from icy-cool air conditioning to, well, hell outside is wreaking havoc on my head. I don't mind hot and humid - just as long as there is an ocean breeze teasing my cheeks and frozen drink gracing my hand. Instead I get a heavy backpack, dress pants and long sleeved shirt to treck around the city in. Yuck.
Anyway, I forced myself to go to the gym and I had an excellent workout. So good for me!

On a completely unrelated topic, Hiroshi pointed out a gear store (i.e. backpacks, camping stuff, mountain climbing gear etc) in Ebisu to me the other day. Today I had some time so I popped in, and oh my god! I'm in RTW trip gear heaven! There are so many cool things there! I mean, I could just put a string in a role of toilet paper (for use in squat toilets - you put it around your neck), but now I can be fasionable and by a funky toilet paper pouch which includes a neck strap. Ok, I know, the string by itself will work just fine and I don't need to look fashionable while I'm *in* the toilet.

They also have a ton of backpacks. I was looking at sizing. 70L packs just look huge - but of course not big enough for a year's worth of stuff. I'm thinking the 55 or 60L bags might be what I want. Will have to try them on and see. The prices at the store were amazingingly reasonable. I was totally surprised. All of the backpacks ran about US$200 which is comparable to what I've seen online. They also have a ton of clothing and stuff that is reasonably priced too. So now I have a new place to shop! Well, I am going to hold off until next year. But for now I can look thru their catalogue and dream of shopping!

I would have linked the store but they have a link policy (ie you need permission first). If you're interested, the store name is Montbell. Add in www and dot com and you're set.

Building Karma

I'd just like to say that today was bloody aweful. The humidity was horrid and everyone was grumpy and pushy and, well, summer is here. Ugh.

Tonight as I was coming home I saw three lost-looking young people in the station. I asked them where they were going and it turns out their hotel was on one of the private subway lines. So, I was a good samaritan and walked them to the station - only I went down the wrong stairwell. The stairwell I went down only connected to one subway line, not all of them. There is a big underground corridor system connecting all the subways - except at the entrance I went into. So the poor kids (they were like 20 I assume, which is really young to me now) had to lug their giant bags up the stairs, in the aforementioned disgusting heat and humidity.

When I first came to Japan, figuring out the trains was a nightmare. Japanese people are wonderful for helping foreigners who look lost, and there were numerous times when someone went out of their way to escort me somewhere, or take me to a platform, or even ride with me in the totally opposite direction that they were going. So I figured, it was my turn to give back, and I rode with the three travellers, who were from Switzerland, to their stop.

Actually, in a way it was lucky, because their hotel was in Shiba-koen, but Shiba-koen station was not the closest station to their hotel. So we had to backtrack one stop. I waved them out of the station and hopefully they got to their hotel ok. There was a sign at the ticket gates for their hotel, so I figure their were probably directions, or most likely a huge neon sign, somewhere.

So my good deed done I went home. I figure this was an especially kind deed because I am coming down with a cold and am all congested and can't breath. I had just wanted to go home to bed. As it was I got my workout running up and down station stairwells (Tokyo is about the least accessible friendly place on the planet - you know, pick your wheelchair or walker up and throw it down the stairs kind of place). I was glad to have helped people get around though.

I'm hoping that I'm building up karma for when we start travelling(I told Hiroshi he had to start helping lost foreigners too). I'm sure we'll be lost plenty of times! Of course, I might just be making up the karma deficit at the moment LOL

Perfect Diet Day!

Yay me! Today I had a perfect diet day - I did my workout, drank a ton of water and ate properly! It was so disgustingly humid today that I figure I sweated out as much water as I drank. Yuck. But I feel a lot better now that I'm rehydrated. It feels good to be drinking water again. So here's to another perfect day tomorrow!

Date night

Hiroshi wanted Thai food tonight (I know we just came back from Thailand, but we didn't get enough Thai food when we were there) and I wanted to try out a restaurant that I saw in Ebisu a couple months ago that served South East Asian food, so we went there. It was so-so. The food was only ok and way overpriced. They also messed up our order twice. It was still a nice night out together. Of course any Thai food outside of Thailand is unlikely to be as good.

On the way to the restaurant we hit the international food store. I got some Thai ingredients so I can make Thai food. Yum :) I might be able to make up some Tom Yam Koong (spicy shrimp soup) this week.

I went to the gym again today and did the "noodle dance" class. It's using the foam stick (called a noodle) in the swimming pool to do resistance training. While I was doing it I was really disappointed because it was so easy. I was bored actually. Well, about an hour after getting home everything suddenly started to seize up on me! Deceptive evil class! I had to conk out for a bit and take a nap before dinner I was so pooped from the work out. This is good of course.

Right now I'm in the process of cooking up some tandoori chicken breasts. Hiroshi's mad because I'm making the apartment smell. I told him tough. (He can't whine about my weight and then whine about my cooking when I try to eat healthily). I won't get a chance to make up my protein pancakes, but hopefully tomorrow night. If not, I will have some time on Wednesday. The chicken will hold me over in the meantime though and I've got a fridge full of veggies and other yummy stuff.

I love the gym!

I had a fantastic workout tonight at the gym. I did lots of laps in the pool. Last night when I came home, I fell asleep at 8 pm so totally missed going. Tonight I had a great workout though. Eating is kinda crappy, mainly because I haven't had a chance to cook yet. So I'll do that tomorrow. Time to get back on track with the diet!

Must be a convention

In the last two days I have seen at least 10 transvestites around Tokyo. Now this is just weird, because everyone is pretty strait and narrow in public here (well other than the goths in Harajuku). So why are there tons of transvestites wobbling (er walking) around Tokyo all of a sudden? I mean, come on guys, the bad fake hair, giant feet, and well the Adam's apple kinda give it away. I must say I do admire them for having the courage to go out and walk around though - because everyone stares at them, albeit furtively. Anyway, just a weird random observation on my part.

First Day Back

Ok, works sucks LOL Can I go back on vacation please? Today my class schedule wasn't too busy but it sure wasn't the beach. I spent some time at the office and everyone was envious and some of them want to the same place now. Me too! LOL
I did hit the gym tonight though. I had a nice swim. It's back on to the diet!