Sometimes you feel like a nut...

Well, good evening all! I just want to start off with: If you have ever met me, you will know one of two things about me (maybe both) First is that I hate to meet new people. I've been moved around alot in my life, and I've become very good at making new firends, but I f'n hate it! The other thing is that no matter how much I've had to drink, I do not act like I'm drunk. This has come in handy at certain times, especially passing sobriety tests issued by officers of the law, but really, I just don't seem drunk. Ask anyone who has know me for any deal of time, I could have drank 20 beers and they would have never guessed that I was drunk. The only real tell-tale sign is that when I'm drunk I tend to speak more Japanese, and that's about it. Well, tonight, I got drunk! I went out after work with all intention to return home after a couple of beers or so, but got hooked into the situation and ended up having.... oh, I guess 15 or so... who really knows? It was fun, I enjoy seeing my colleagues having a good time :) They had a good time, and I had a good time too. We went to the 200 yen bar in Shibuya and had a hell of a night. I'm not much for crowds, so, it wasn't my deal, but I had a good time myself. Funny people, I work with! Anyway, after making it back to my station (on the most crowded train I've EVER encountered) I called up hunbun, and we talked about some things, some good, some bad, but just talking... the most important thing is my days off. I recieved a fax today saying that I had the option of choosing Sat. Tues. off and holding out for a Friday, or taking Sun. Mon. off straight away. I'm leaning towards sat. tue. because the possiblilites are pretty good (considereing hunbun has sat/sun off) but of course, that's a crap shoot.... Sun/Mon is good, but as far as meeting up with hunbun, it really doesn't help too much... I don't know what to do.... ahhhhh!!!!!! Anyway, I feel like a nut, I know I went into Lawson and spoke perfect japanese to the clerk, but I still feel like I'm a stooooopid foreign idiot sometimes, what can I do? I'm never going to be mistaken for a Japanese person, no matter how drunk I am :)

I'm a ramblin' man...

So, I've been here in J-pan for alost 7 months now and I feel like it's been pretty... fruitless for the most part. I've had some good times, work's good, life's good, but it's just so... so... normal. One reason is that I haven't been studying enough. The main reason/excuse I have is that it's very difficult to find any motivation to study when I come home after teaching English all day. I did however get a chance to actually speak alot of Japanese the other night when I met up with fu-chan and her husband, but besides that I rarely get to use anything besides "fukuro ha ii desu" (I don't need a bag) and "tamanegi nuki de" (no onions). It's a bit dissapointing, I mean my japanese has held up pretty good, but really I haven't put in much study in the past 4 years or so, just been stagnant... I gotta do something about that...

The other thing that is kinda depressing me is that I haven't been out of this city much, not enough. I've been out to Osaka once, and I've been down to Kamakura. I've also been up to Saitama, and over to Kanagawa, but it's not enough. Even travelling around Tokyo has been kept to a minimal. I've been to the baseball stadiums in the city, and I've been to some new places, but seems to be few and far between. Inspired by my venture to Ueno on tuesday I'm planning on possibly visiting a couple of other museums next week if I have time, and money. I've got the money, just trying to save for the trip up to Nagano (more on that in a min.) Anyway, I'm planing possibly to head out to Chiba and take in some Ando Hiroshige prints. I've never been out to Chiba (except the airport) and I've never seen Hiroshige's prints before, and I'm a big fan, so I really would like to get out there. There is also a show in Akasaka Mitsuke featuring a French artist who kinda took inspiration from another famous Ukiyo-e (Japanese woodblock print) artist named Hokusai. Hokusai did a series of prints called "37 views of Mt. Fuji," and this French artist, named Henri Riviere, did a series called "37 views of the Eifel Tower." Seems like it could be interesting, I'll report on them if I get out to see them. So the next trip is happening the weekend before my b-day when hunbun and I head up to Matsumoto to visit fu-chan and her husband. It should be good times, drink some Tequilla and get out of the city! The last trip, currently under consideration, is a trip to beijing. "Beijing?" you ask. Yes indeed. August 2007! Dude? and I are thinking about heading out there to take in a game. "What kind of game?" you ask. Well, good question! A football game! The Seahawks are slated to play the Patriots in Beijing in August 2007. First game ever in China, and it would be a great experience I'm thinking. Could be an event! And for sure a trip out of this city! I'll keep you updated.

Tha King

I told some students awhile back about a picture that I had made when I was in college. I made it probably 7 years ago or so for an art history class I was taking at B.C.C., and worked it into 2 final class projects. It worked out pretty good, and I'm pretty proud of it, only took an afternoon :) Anyway, shout out to No-rico, hope you like it!

Typhoon, or not typhoon...

Well, it's been awhile since I've posted anything, mostly because I'm lazy, but also because I've been busy. Got some good stuff to talk about, namely saturday, monday and tuesday. First I wanted to say that again my weekend was washed out. Last week it rained a bit while I was at the Baystars game, but it wasn't to bad at all, but this week, my-o-my, it was a raging storm for the most part. Yesterday it rained almost all day, and today it was just dumping all morning. It's been mostly clear this afternoon, but when I woke up this morning there was some crazy lightning and thunder, I don't think I've ever heard thunder that loud before. Anyway on to some better things than the weather...

Saturday: Saturday was the 6th installment of the "Harajuku Cocktail Experience." It was probably the best one I've been to thusfar. I've been to about 3 of Master Slayer's parties, and this one was raging! Really good times, everyone had a really good time it seemed, that is until the fuzz showed up... They came by around 12:30 or so, and just told everyone to move it inside, and quiet down. It was really different than the cops back home, they were actually pretty cool. Anyway, thanks master slayer, it was a rad time! See you Oct. 21st for vol. 7!

Monday: On monday I worked until 5:40 and then went home, changed, and headed out to Shibuya to meet some friends. I never go down to Shibuya cuz it's full of young and crazy people. Anyway, I met up with and old friend, Fu-chan, and her husband, Yu-chan. Fu-chan is hunbun's best friend, they go way back, and are from the same town up in Nagano. Hunbun and I are going to visit them up in Matsumoto in about 2 weeks, and I'm very excited, but they were in town to visit Disneyland and so we had the chance to go out to dinner, hunbun showed up late because she had to do some more overtime :( So, we went to T.G.I. Fridays in shibuya and had a good time, it had been about 4 years since I had seen Fu-chan, and the first time I had ever met her husband, it was really cool. Fu-chan is like a sister too me, and so all night we just talked about old times and stuff, it was really cool, and her husband was really cool too. Yu-chan's sister also joined us and she, in fact, works for the same company as me but at a different branch. She was pretty cool too, and all together it was a pretty cool night, thanks guys, see you in 2 weeks!


Tuesday: Tuesday was of course a fairly miserable day weather-wise, but I took a train ride up to Ueno, and visited the "Ueno no mori museum." They were having a special "centennial retrospective" for Salvador Dali. It was for the 100th anniversary of Dali's birth (which was actually 1904 so... a couple years late?). Anyway, it was pretty cool, I saw many of his famous works and it was really cool to see them in person since I am a big Dali fan, interesting to see the actual size of the pieces themselves. Some of them were much smaller than I had imagined. They, unfortunately, didn't have on hand my favorite painting of his, "The Temptation of St. Anthony," so that was a bit dissapointing, but I got to see some of his sketches, and that was really neat, much cooler than seeing the paintings that I've seen a hundred times in books, actually seeing his hand drawn sketches was really cool!

So, that's my week(end) in a nutshell, if anything else happens between now and later, I'll let you know, peace out homie!

Baystars Bazooooooooka!

Happy day! How is everyone? Great! Tuesday I went to another Baystars game. That's the team that represents Yokohama. It was the first team that I liked when I came to Japan, because I was staying in Yokohama at that time. It was great, the first time I've seen them win. They are pretty much the worst team in the Central League. I would say the worst team, but there are the Rakuten Eagles over in the Pacific League, and they are just terrible. Yokohama Baystars do pretty much scrape the bottom of the league.

But, anyway, it was really cool, I went with deuce, who is a big baystars fan, and we had a great time. Baystars went up 7-0 and ended up holding on for an 8-5 victory. At the same time dude? was at the Tigers game, watching the Tigers beat the Swallows to put them within 5 games of the league leading Chunichi Dragons, who the Baystars beat. Anyway, with probably about 10 games left in the season it's gonna take a miracle to get the Tigers into 1st, but I'm still holding out hope... In the Pacific league there's also about 10 games left in the season. The difference is that in the Pa League there are playoffs. So, now, the top three teams are jockeying for position. The top three teams are: Fukuoka Softbank Hawks, Seibu Lions, and Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters. I'm pulling for the Lions of course, and it's important for them to finish in first because the other two teams would have to play eachother for the right to play the lions.

Anyway, after the game we went back to deuce's homeground of Tsunashima. We went drinking at Shirokiya, and then afterwards we let off some bottle rockets on a bridge near the Tama River. It was good times.

In other news, I busted out my long sleeve shirts! It's cooled down considerably over the past couple of weeks, and I'm just about ready to give up my cool biz short sleeve shirts and go back to my regular long sleeve dress shirts for work, it's pretty exciting. I spent awhile ironing them out, and I might bust one of them out for work tomorrow if it's cool enough.

Old people rule!

Well, what's happening? Oh, not much, you? Not alot. But guess what? Monday was a holiday, it was old people's day! Yeah! Well, I guess nicely translated it's "respect for the elderly day." But that's boring, and I like "old people" better, so happy old people's day everyone! Anyway, it's just another in the long line of holidays over here that really mean that everyone gets the day off of work except me... sad... Oh well, it wasn't too busy at work, and monday's my friday, so, whoha! or something. Well, really the big news was that Yoshinoya was serving Gyudon for one day only! Yeah! About 100,000 bowls for the whole country, and I got one of them. I also got a "tenugui," which is a kind of thin washcloth, as a gift, for being one of the first 10,000 people! Yahoo!

It was actually not such a big deal at my neighborhood Yoshinoya, I came at like 11:30 (they started serving gyudon at 11:00) and I waited in a line for maybe 10 mins at the most, and then sat down and ate my (american beef) bowl. The line for take out seemed to be much longer, and I'm not sure why, but I think I heard that it was about an hour wait at the time I went, but, all together it took me about 20 mins to wait, eat, and get out. At Yurakucho (also Tokyo) apprently there were some crazier lines and such, as one university student lined up at 11:00pm on Sunday to be the first one in Japan to eat a bowl. The dude waited 12 hours for meat, rice, and onions... crazy fool! Anyway, Yoshinoya's Gyudon has kinda a cult following over here. Overall it wasn't too bad, the gyudon itself was a bit lacking on the taste side compared to what I remember, but I guess it's to be expected when they have to make so much at the same time, it doesn't get to simmer long enough or something, but it was a nice treat, I haven't had real, yoshinoya gyudon in about 4 years or so. Good times!
Tonight I'm heading out to Yokohama stadium to watch a game with Deuce, I'll put up some pics later.

Herro Kitty!

So, as requested by grandpa, here is a picture of the famed Hello Kitty bike that haunts my existance. Enjoy!

margaritaville!

Payday baby! Friday was payday, so a bunch of us teachers went out to Ebisu and visited a place called "Zest." It was pretty cool, and I had totally forgot about it as I had actually been there about 6 years ago. It's kind of a tex-mex restaurant and I ended up getting some make your own tacos deal, and it was good, but a bit spendy for the amount, but the highlight of the evening was the pitchers of margaritas that were plentiful! There were 3 types to choose from: Strawberry, Mango, and Lime. We got a couple of the mango, none of the lime, and tons of the strawberry. Wow, it was a heck of a night, lots and lots of margaritas! They were good, and they were pretty strong. Well, after mountains and mountains of margaritas,
we headed off to Harajuku, where the art of seduction lives. Rock n' Roll! We walked from Ebisu to Harajuku and it took roughly an hour... possibly more... I don't really remember. It was a kinda crazy walk, lots of good conversations all around. About 8 of us in all made the trek. Anyway, after arriving we drank some more, and had some more great conversations, but ended up going to sleep around 5:30 maybe, and had to work the next morning at 10. Of course working at 10 means getting there around 9:30-:45 and we ended up getting up around 8:30 or so. Anyway,it was a rough day... wowza!

On the aisle

So, here it is, my weekend again, and wow, it's raining again! Wahoo! I'm thinking that's about 6 weeks in a row where it has rained on one, or both of my days off. CRAP! Well, I decided to make the most of it and catch up on some movies that I haven't been able to check out before, and watch some classics as well. I thought that I would run down the list, and go through and review them also. So, to start with, I injured my leg playing futsol sunday night, so I didn't go play on monday night, but I had done a shift swap, so I ended up getting off at 2 in the afternoon. It's now about 8pm on thursday, I gotta go back to work tomorrow, but it's been almost like a 3 day weekend. Anyway, I had alot of time to watch movies...
So, the list goes: 40 year old virgin, Talledega Nights, Anchor Man, Over the Hedge, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Office Space, Ace Ventura Pet Detective, Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift, and X-men Last Stand.

40 Year Old Virgin: **
So, this movie was alright, it was kind of like a dumbed down version of Office Space. It had some really good lines in it, but all-in-all, it was less than great. The acting wasn't too bad, but the plot was just eh... it could have deffinately been better.

Talledega Nights: *1/2
This movie was, well... a way to kill an hour and a half. It, like the 40 year old virgin had some decent lines in it, but they were pretty rare, and the plot of the movie was pretty poor. I would have to say that Will's performance in it was probably the best I've ever seen him, but the movie was pretty corny.

Anchor Man: **
I watched this one and wasn't really dissapointed. It was pretty much what I expected. Never really had a desire to see it before, but I was bored. Again, a way to kill some time. It had a few good moments (my fav was Jack Black booting the dog off of the bridge) and there were a few good lines in this one again. The reason it got a bit better rating than Talledega Nights was really the plot. Will's acting was OK, but the story was decent, until really the last 30 mins of the movie or so, it got stoopid.

Over the Hedge: *
Wow, I've never heard the term "kill you," or a variation of it, so many times in a kids movie before. It was really quite disturbing... The animation in this movie was really good, some excellent work really, but the plot, the over use of star power for the voice talents, and the script were just dumb. That's all.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: ***
Well, I'd heard alot of good things about this movie, but I was worried it would be a bit too artsy for my taste, but I always was interested in it because of Jim. It ended up being pretty good. It had alot of cool direction in it, alot of interesting camera effects as they told the story. The story was pretty good, somewhat predictable, but well written, well acted, and really put together well. There were a few parts that were lacking, mostly the people in his bedroom while Jim's getting his memory erased.

Office Space: ****
Some people might question how I could give this movie 4****'s but I love it!!! I've seen it many times, and I still love it! It reminds me alot of being in college. It has a great story, great acting, great lines like "no talent ass clown" etc. It's just a really good movie, if you haven't seen it, you must.

Ace Ventura Pet Detective: ****
Now this movie, if you don't know why it's a 4 star movie, watch it, just watch it. It's f'n brilliant. The story is corny, but any movie about a pet detective has to be. But really, it's all about Jim Carey's acting. This was his breakout, his first gig after In Living Color (which if you haven't seen that, please, please watch it!) and it was really cool. It's just hilarious all around.

Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift: 1/2
Wow! someone dropped a bomb on this one, what a stinker!!! whoa! Not that it had alot to live up to with the other two previous installments, but good lord! I gave this one a half star simply because of one shot of shibuya where I said, "hey it's shibuya!" Other than that, this movie sucked, big time.

X-men Last Stand: **1/2
Don't know really what to say here, it was pretty exicing, good for a #3 in the series, but nothing spectacular. I would like to argue the casting of Frasier as Beast though. Not that I'm all geeky about X-men or anything, but, c'mon, I thought the Beast was like a big dude right? I know he's all smart and stuff, but Frasier is a wimp! Still the movie was entertaining, a bit over the top, and to my surprise (since it's called "last stand") sets itself up for another one...

hello kitty strikes again!

well, well, well... I took a quick ride to 99 shop (kyu kyu shop) to pick up some juice. I've been drinkin vodka and juice this evening, and I ran out of juice, and I rode down to the 99 shop to pick up some more. I rode like the wind! It took maybe 5 mins there and back, and when I got back, guess what!?! the hello kitty bike was in my spot! damn! it's amazing, it's like the hello kitty bike has it in for me! ahhhhhh! as I said before, I wanna burn it!!!

ball games, beef bowls, and pulled groins....

Whassappining y'all! (shout out to e-diddy!) It's been awhile, how ya doing? I gotta tell everyone that the new Audioslave album is worth checking out, if you like rage against the machine, you'll here guitar work that sounds just like the old stuff, and if you liked the later soundgarden (which I really didn't, but I like the audioslave version) you'll enjoy it also, just been listening to it today, and I never really talk about music much on here. Anyway, I thought I'd start off with, what else, a baseball game!!!
It was decided that there would be a venture to the Tokyo Dome this time, and many of you (like "many" people read this!) may know, I'm not much for domes, but it really wasn't my choice. I went with a couple of co-workers, GD and Deuce (New Balance), previously referred to by different names in a blog some time back, but from now on referred to as GD and deuce. We went to the Giants x Swallows game, and it was ok.... i guess... I mean, I had fun, but the game and the stadium is pretty much shite. Swallows lost, which means the G&%#ts won. It was a close game, but the Swallows couldn't do anything on offense and dropped the game 2-1. Dissapointing as GD and his friends were all Swallows fans, and I, myself, am an anti-giants fan.
There were some highlights to the evening, one of which was this scene, and the fact that visiting the Tokyo Dome was kind of a homecoming for me in a couple of ways: the first game I ever saw in Japan was a game in the Tokyo Dome (and in fact it was a game between the Giants and Swallows then too) about 6 years ago, on my first trip to Japan. I ended up sitting fairly close to where hunbun and I sat o' those many years ago, and the Tokyo Dome is also one stop away from where I used to attend college. I didn't stop by my old school, mostly because I was in no shape to do so, and it was late, but I did happen to go by the station (completely on accident, I took the train the wrong way....). Anyway, the highlight of the evening (for everyone) was an encounter after the game at Korakuen station (the subway station in front of the Tokyo Dome) between us and a fellow foreinger. Now I am ashamed to admit that I think he was american, but this guy was a piece of work. We were having a good time reveling in our loss, singing songs and such, and all the giants fans around us were enjoying our spectical, but this american dude decided to make it his personal mission to ruin our time. He got in my face, and GD's face, and was talking about "beef." I think his exact words were: "you want beef?" "something, something something," of course we didn't really, but there was also 6 of us, and only him and his gay lover (there's nothing wrong with that), so he really should have just kept quiet, but he was just trying to be a big man to impress his "partner." Anyway, nothing happend really, we just laughed at him a whole bunch, but the real moral lesson is that the only person who ever talked about "beef," and was cool, was Biggie Smalls, a.k.a. Notorious B.I.G. (R.I.P), so people, don't do it, just don't do it!
But, speaking of beef, I have wondeful news!
Beef bowls are back! Yoshinoya, Japan's premiere Gyudon (beef bowl) establishment, is going to have a one day beef bowl extraveganza! So, in japan, for about 3-4 years, there has been a ban on american beef. This was in reaction to the discovery of mad cow desease found in U.S. beef. Yoshinoya claimed that their recipe was only good with american beed, and thusly has not produced their famed beef bowls since the ban (aside from one day when they unleashed their remaining stockpile on the Japanese public causing a frenzy) selling only a weaker version, the "buta-don," or pork bowl. Well, they are back at it. About a month and a half ago, the ban was finnally lifted, and now it's cool to buy beef from america again! So, I'm not sure why they are only doing it for one day, but maybe it's just the beginning....

So, the last thing is my pulled groin... well, it's not really a pulled groin, but I thought I might get another couple of listeners using it in the title. I hurt myself playing futsol last night. It's roughly an upper-inner thigh pull, and it's painful. Unfortunately I couldn't join in on tonights game :( Anyway, that's about it for now, peace out y'all!

Rants

I thought I'd fire up another post while I was at it. I just had a few things that didn't really go with other posts that I felt like talking about. The first is the Hello Kitty bike. This bike is the bane of my existance. It has some stupid hello kitty stuff on the handlebars, and a hello kitty pad on the rear fender of the bike. It's not like this is a kid's bike, it's a full fledged adult size bike. And this person always ends up blocking me, or getting in the way so I can't park my bike under the covered area. It's ridiculous. It wouldn't be so bad if it was just another bike, but it's a hello kitty bike, and I want to set it on fire! Aside from the hello kitty bike, I must say that most bike riders in this city are terrible. They are dangerous, and they do not pay attention what so ever. Along with the crazy bike riders I must deal with on my way to the station and other places, there is something that is especially troublesome that I must deal with on the way to the station. It's the blind corners. On my way to the station everyday, I come accross roughly 10 blind corners. In some places there are mirrors set up to see around the corners to see the incoming traffic, but that is of course, car traffic. Doesn't usually show the opposite way, where bikes could be coming from. It's dangerous, and it doesn't help that, over the past month or so, they ripped up the street about half way to the station to fix some pipes, so, now it's a pretty rough ride:( Anyway, on to some good things. In 2 days, the first games of the NFL season will begin, and all will be good in this cosmic vastness. This weekend, I'll be doing a special "voice" session trying to explain the rules, history, and current state of the game we, in america, call football. It should be fun, I'm hoping that some people will become interested in it enough to maybe watch a game on cable or something, but I figure that's kinda hoping for alot, so I really just want them to enjoy it, and maybe learn something about my favorite game. Saturday evening, hunbun is going to stay over and I'm real excited. Usually I end up staying at her place, and it's cool, cuz her place is real nice, and mine's a dump. Anyway, on sunday this week, she doesn't have yoga class, so she's gonna stay here, and like I eluded to in the last post, I kinda have a surprise for her. It's gonna be nice, and I'm really looking forward to having her stay with me for the night.

O-hisashiburi!

Well, it's been about a week since I've put up a post, and for all of the people who have been waiting for this, here ya go. (shout out to Jesus, cuz I think he's the only one who ever reads this anyway)
The first thing I wanted to talk about is the TV show Lost. So, I've been watching this over the past 2 days, and let me tell you, I've watched almost the entire 1st season in 2 days. It's pretty cool. I like the set-up, they tell the stories of all of the survirors of a plane crash at different times in a real interesting way. The one thing that I can't get over is (and if you want to see this show, don't read the next line) the polar bears. If you don't know what I'm talking about, watch the show. It's pretty cool, and the best character is Hurley, he's funny, and he adds a needed dimension to the show. I never was interested in the show back home, couldn't care less, but being here, and needing something to watch, I took a gamble on it, and it paid off, it's good stuff.
Aki Aji! means fall flavor, and it's exactly that. Every year here, they put out seasonal beers, fall, winter, spring and summer. Seems that all of the major beer makers do this, and it's cool I guess, it makes it interesting at least. But the one that Kirin has come out with is really good. I like it a bunch. Dude? does too, but Hunbun thinks it's a bit dark. Oh well, I like it and over the past couple weeks I've bought roughly a ton of it. So much, in fact, the Lawson down the street from me is currently sold out of it. oops, my bad people.

Last week, on wednesday, I went to a place called "Ringer Hut." I thought it might be some kind of rip off of Pizza Hut or something, but it was far from it. The board on the outside claims that it is "Nagasaki Chanpon." I was a little skeptical at first because the only pictured food was some fried rice. It looked good, but I just couldn't tell what else they were going to have available, but people kept on rolling in and so I took a shot. It was real good, this is what I got:

It was chanpon, and gyoza, all for less than 700 yen. The chanpon was packed full of goodness; carrots, squid, shrimp, cabbage, soy beans, corn, kim chee, and pork. And best of all it came with 4 gyoza which were really good.

Anyway, that's it, that's all I've got for now, there's a couple things I'll go into this weekend, but I can't just yet as it's a surprise, and there's a possibility that hunbun could actually read this :)