waaaaaaaay too much butt?

Here's a little something I put together to honor the many different looks I've rocked here in Japan. *!warning!* may induce vomiting!

vol. 7!

A wicked special Christmas/Emperor's B-day episode! Featuring: new year's Japanese, possible workforce reinstatement? And 4 songs! 2 versions of "Kimigayo", the kick off of the *new* Wang Bangers? project "32 causes of...", and a butt? 2006 original "Merry fuckin' Christmas!"

a merry christmas to you!

So I guess today is Christmas, coulda fooled me. It's not done up as much as it is back home, and thank god for that! I'm not a big fan of the holiday, or the season so much, crowded stores, ridiculous advertising and people worked up into a frenzy over nothing. I could go off on a rant here, but I just don't want to... I don't like Christmas. But Here's a picture of La Cittidella (sp?) out in Kawasaki all done up for Christmas, enjoy!
Also, the problem with English in Japan is that there's no checking with native speakers, case in point: this is a test picture for some printers at Yodobashi Camera in Kawasaki. The kid's shirt says "wuschkdc? dyke drugs". Is that something you would let your children wear?

Hail to the chief!

Over the weekend (officially observed on Monday) we celebrated the birthday of the reigning emperor, Mr. Akihito! Yeah! He was born Dec. 23rd 1933 and was just a boy when his father, Hirohito, was in the chair for Japan's attempt at taking over the world, remember? Many people in the west don't realize that the Emperor's position is one of little to no power, and was also so during Hirohito's time. Akihito ascended to the throne in 1989 after his father's death creating the "Heisei" period. 2008 will mark "Heisei 20," the 20th year of the Heisei emperor, and if you live here, you'll need to remember that for official documents. He is the 125th* Emperor in Japanese history (according to tradition) and he's a little old man who is a noted ichthyological researcher (fish zooology). Here's to you Akihito! Banzai~! Banzai~! Banzai~!

epico dos, part 1! (32 causes of...)

I finally finished recording the opening part to the new project that dude? and I are working on. It's tentatively titled "epico dos" and it kicks off with a little diddy called "32 causes of..."
It took me a little longer than I thought to get this done because I went trough about 7 different ideas before settling on this one, I'll probably come back to some of those other ideas as the project progresses. Take a listen, hope you enjoy, should get dude?'s response by next monday (maybe tuesday).

To find out more info about the project please click on the link on the right side of this page for the "Home by 8 Drunk by 10" page.

good news, bad news, great news!

(i think this might be left over from some sign that was hung up here long ago, looks like a person no? Click it, you'll see!)

So to start I dusted off bikun to get him all ready for monday's epic ride to the mouth of the Tama river. He was in a sad state. I haven't ridden bikun in several months, and his tires were flat, his bell was still busted and the basket cover I put on to deter people from putting their garbage (namely empty coffee cans) in his basket was falling apart. I put on a new bell, a new basket cover and pumped up his tires and took him out for a spin. 30 mins turned into an hour, and an hour gave way to 2. It was a great ride! I got lost a couple of times and visited a number of neighborhoods, namely:

Denenchofu x2
Okusawa
Tamagawa
Chidori-cho x2
Kugahara x2
Ikegami
South & East Yukigaya
Ishikawadai

and a few others all leading me back to Yukigayaotsuka in the most round-about way possible. It was intense, according to some rough calculations I went for about 15-17 miles or so. Pretty good preperation for the 23.5 mile adventure on monday...
ah, the bad news, the bike ride on monday has been postponed! I'm pretty torn up about it, but wait, there's some great news! I got the papers that's I've been waiting for for basically 3 months as of today! Jubilation! Because of getting my papers I had to postpone the trip with melvis on monday so we can head down to Hello Work and begin to get our F'n money baby! You take the good, you take the bad... and there you have, the facts of life! SWEEEEEEET!!!! 3 months of waiting for this day. I'm sure there'll be much more about that next week, but back to today's ride...
While in Ikegami I stopped in at Mr. Donuts and had myself a cup of coffee and a "The Simpsons Donut" it was "mixed berry" flavor, and it wasn't all that good. They have 2 options, this or some banana one. I also observed this sweet sign, which makes me wonder, how often do police remove bikes that look like this?

an allegory...

It's the last day of high school...
You've met an amazing group of people that you will know for the rest of time, I mean, these bonds are made forever right? Sure, some people may be headed across the country to a better art school, or law school than is offered in your neck of the woods, but they'll be back for holidays, and you'll visit them for spring break... right? The bonds made here are lasting, they're un-breakable. The greatest moment of of your life will continue forever, and the people you know will never change. The common ground forced upon you will for sure keep you together for all eternity. Things change. People change. The 5 best friends I had in high school I talk to in only random myspace posts. My best friend now I barely knew in high school. My 3 best friends in college I rarely hear from now-a-days. The wonderful people I met while on my study abroad, I have no idea what happened to them and only randomly run into them hundreds of miles away in front of a Starbucks in Osaka... The greatest experiences of your life have yet to happen. It's hard to believe, but it's quite possibly true. We, and I myself most of all, wish to believe that time is a frozen moment, one which we can hold on to forever, one which no matter what shakes it will result in the same outcome, but it isn't. The end of an era has approached me. It is a sad day. When I arrived at a little school in Gotanda, Tokyo I was witness to an end of an era myself. I wasn't involved in it personally, so what did it matter? But I know that to the people there before me, it was over... just a few stragglers hanging on to what had been. The day I arrived change had begun. Old teachers were leaving, and new ones were on their way. I don't regret not having come earlier, I'm am only greatfull that I came when I did. First was me (excluding 3 of the best people that I've ever known that hung on for the next generation, A.O.S. Crow, and Naj) and then came Mr. Matt Damon look-a-like, and then Deuce, next was Doogle, and Melvis, eventually and (in-between) teachers came and went, transfered and quit, but a bond was formed between us. The same kind of bond you feel whenever common ground is thrust upon people who are willing to accept. The kind of bond that makes you promise to visit on holidays. The kind of bond that will never be broken... I love those guys. Love all of them, just hope things don't turn out like high school, hope that I mean it this time....

vol. 6!

Here comes vol. 6! Sound of the week answered, and a new sound of the week. Some news, a Wii games review, and a long ass electronical song to end the show, enjoy! (man I wish I could put up these episodes as I recorded them, but I have to compress them a ton to get them up on the internet, so they sound like shit!)

*new address*

For anyone who's got an answer for this week's "what's that sound?" or who is just planning to send a mail, I had to change it because for some reason my old account was de-activated :(

The new address is noairplaybutt@gmail.com
check it out!

vol 5!

*!WARNING!* this episode is terrible! terrible! The one silver lining is deuce's contribution to the show, an epic techno track! Rock!



this way to "Rio Glande"... you'd think that they would do some research for something that's going to be permanent...

vol 4!

Back with fury for vol 4! missed you all! I talked about the JLPT test, some restaurant vocab, and a song by Melvis!

pure frustration...

Man, it's been nearly 3 months since I've been paid and frustration has finally seized me. Today was the first time I've felt absolutely worthless since I stopped going to work nearly 2 months ago. At least until last weekend I had the JLPT test to study for. Since I've finished the test I've had nothing. The first two days went by, and I thought "hey, just take a little break." Well, I took a break and it was nice, watched some football, some TV, played some games and cruised the info-super-highway, but today it was more of the same. Fucking boring. I thought about recording an episode, but didn't (I'll do it tomorrow, promise). Did nothing. The worst part is that since I didn't teach so much over the past 2 weeks I really have no spending money at all, so even going out to grab my favorite sandwich or some canned coffee has been shelved. Just sitting in my room, waiting for something to fucking happen, and by "something" I mean of course for my previous employer to send me my fucking unemployment papers! God I'm getting frustrated. Good news is on the horizon as I have 3 classes over the next 3 days to get a little money in the pocket, and also I've got a Gotanda Christmas party (for some reason in Shibuya?) this weekend, so hopefully that'll take my mind of the despair for a bit. Also, according to law (not that VONA cares much about that), the aforementioned unemployment papers should be sent out within 10 days of the official bankruptcy which was on the 30th of November, meaning that I should receive them in the next 4-6 days. God I hope that I do... but that's not the end. At that point I can apply for my money... more waiting... FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!! The waiting is really getting to me man! Hopefully by putting this up it'll at least get it off my mind a bit so that I can go back to relishing the hours and hours of time I have to kill. Here's to that dream!

...the test...poetic waxing...wine...pictures to follow...

Well, it's over! Thanks, thanks. Lets see... there are 3 sections to the test, first is Vocab, 2nd is listening, and 3rd is reading/grammar. First section I'd say I rocked in around a 65% or so, it was alright, on the upper end I'd go as high as 70% I guess. Second section was always my strongest, on the low end I'd go 80% and on the high end 90%. Man, I've got a penchant for listening. I've always been pretty good at it, and wasn't worried about this section whatsoever. The last part was... well... lets say... god awful. Yeah, that's right, going in I needed (according to my rough calculations) about a 50% to pass, and I think I just completely blew the captain on that one. Wow. I really had no idea what the questions were, and what the answers might be. According to percentages, just guessing you'd think I would have got at least 25%, you know 1 in 4 chance right? Well, there's also a possibility that I got 0%, and that's the one I'm thinking that I was closer to. Wow.

After the test I came home, completely sunk, and went ahead with something that I'd been thinking about for awhile. No hints, just pictures to follow.

After that mornin and I headed out to deuce's place at his invite to partake in some good 'ol times. I'm actually really glad I went. I've been blowing off so many invites lately because of studying that I almost blew this one off too because I was so disappointed with my performance on the test, but I ponied up and headed out. 3 1/2 bottles of wine later I am drunk and home. I gotta say that of all the people I've met in Japan, deuce is by far my most favorite. Don't know what it is. I've got some theories though: could be because he's basically from the same area as me, could be because his girl rocks, could be because although he likes some puss ass bands he also likey the rock, could be because we both started at the greatest Eikaiwa in history at about the same time, could be because he's the only mofo I know that can rock New Balance shoes for futsol and still take a wicked break-away to the house, or could be because everytime I see see him he sports the same cap that makes me think "communist" or "emo" but not in a bad way. Don't know what it is, but sure am glad I met him. If you've ever read my blog you know that I love all the people I've worked with. I fiercely represent the places that I'm from. And I'm just greatful that I met the people I did, where I did, when I did. Thanks deuce! Thanks G-town crew!

T-minus 17 hours...

So, it is now 4:45pm on saturday, 17 hours until my test kicks off! I hate tests! I usually do pretty well and was fairly proud that during my entire college career I finished first (that's time, not score ;) on every test except for one! F'n psychology test back in my sophmore year. Anyway I'm pretty nervous. Honestly don't think I will do great, could be wrong, but doubt it. But one thing that I've decided already is that no matter how the results come back (should get them in Feb.) I'm going to take level 1 next december. I know it'll be tough, especially if I'm not up to the mustard on level 2 this year, but I don't care. That's the goal. So, 17 hours and 365 days (unless it's a leap year...) from now, I'll be opening my test book for the Nouryoku Shiken 1 kyu (JLPT level 1)! GANBARUZOU!!!

sorry folks...

So, no show this week but I promise 2 next week! I've been too busy studying for my test (it doesn't look very good either) to record a show this week. I'll be back in action after the test on Sunday. later

where's the beef?

The site I post my podcasts to again is having troubles (it's free, what do you expect) so the little players aren't showing up in the posts right now. I hope it's fixed soon, but you should still be able to find them in the iTunes store, just search for ' no airplay ' and it should be there.

vol. 3!

A special Thanksgiving episode of no airplay! Eat it!

Day 35: the aftermath...

So, it was over, Yukigayaotsukapolooza 2007 had been relinquished to history. I woke up sunday morning with the memories of another dream about work. This time I was working in a Sushi shop back home called "twister". Stupid name, yes! Anyway, at said sushi shop I only worked 2 hours a day, and only in the morning. I never did any work, and I never saw anyone else doing any work. One of my co-workers gave me a sneak peek at my performance review, and to my surprise the grades weren't so great... I scored a C, B-, C, and a D in 4 unknown categories, but the worst part was that it said I was "improving quickly"! What were my scores before?! In this shop there was also a magic door that would lead to the bedroom of whoever walked through it... weird. Lastly, the strangest part was that Doogle was also in the dream, he had a dream to go to Hollywood and join a boy-band, but reported to me sadly that he was giving up his dream. I felt very sorry for him. Doogle! Don't give up your dreams!

Having shockingly woken up at the ungodly hour of 8:30 I wasted a bit of time taking a series of stupid pictures, culminating in this:
Next, mornin and I played some ping-pong, and I rocked! I know how to work a paddle! Especially when a ball's involved...


Finally, enjoyed a night out of Yukigayaotsuka at Cli Cli in Nagahara, and had a wonderful hamburger! Here's kinda what the place looked like. The place is pretty new, and the staff doesn't really have the gig down pat. There were several mistakes made regarding orders for us, and people at the tables around us, but the food was pretty high quality, so all is forgiven, I'll be back!


So, that was the weekend, I enjoyed, hope you did too, and see you for Yukigayaotsukapolooza 2008 hopefully!

Day 34: Yukigayaotsukapolooza, day 2

Day 2 was uneventful for the most part until the late afternoon when Tora showed up. The morning was spent mostly recording some new music, and enjoying my typical lunch during my hiatus. Everyday, around 2 in the afternoon, I head over to the Ozeki supermarket and the bakery next door to it. At the bakery I pick up the sweetest little sandwich around, a 210 yen gem filled with Chicken, lettuce, tomato, cabbage and some tasty-ass sauce. Here she is, the bread of life!

After I pick up my sammich, I usually drop into Ozeki and pick me up a few cans-o-coffee and head back to the palace.
Boring as can be, but hey, that's my life for the past 30 some odd days.

As I said, Tora showed up in the late afternoon and we sparked up the Wii, and popped some tops as well. Later, Morning showed up and we all headed to the best Curry shop around, Soul Food. I suggest the "steak curry rice" if you stop in, 1200 yen, and worth every penny, or rather, yen.

Yukigayaotsuka should really pay me for all the free advertising that I give them, in fact, I really wish that they would pay me... Anyway, that was about it, headed back, stuffed, and played a few drinking games, some more Wii, and crashed. Thanks for coming Tora!

Also, earlier in the day, I ran out of tissues, see!

Day 33: Yukigayaotsukapolooza, day 1

Day 1 of Yukigayapolooza went alright. It wasn't the big shin-dig that I had envisioned, but you know what? That's just cool with me. I've always been kinda more the close friends kind of person. I don't really like meeting people. I don't really care for making friends. The whole deal reminded me of my old b-day parties, and it made me happy. When I was a kid, and mommy was organizing the ol' b-day madness, you know, down at BK, at a pizza parlor, or even at the house, there were always tons of kids. I was always good at making friends, comes with the territory. When you go to 6 elementary schools in 5 years, you get good at making new friends. Sad story, I know. When I got older and it was up to me to pick who I wanted to come, it usually came down to 3-4 people, including me. That's how I always liked it. I've made some really good friends here in Japan, and for the most part, they were all here. That's what made me happy. Thanks Doogle, Deuce, Melvis, Kangaroo Jimmy, and Morning for coming! I had fun, hope you enjoyed it too. Drinking and playing Wii, what more could one ask for? It was plenty for me, it was very "wabi-sabi"! Wabi-sabi is a great Japanese term, meaning something like "simple elegance" and it's in that simplicity that there is beauty. Thanks all.

vol. 2!

here's the special "yukigayaotsukapolooza cast"! enjoy!

Day 36: another episode?

A special Yukigayaotsukapolooza episode is in the can! Unfortunately, the site I usually upload my greatness to is going with some server maintenance (bastards!) currently. So, as soon as they are finished fuckin' around, vol. 2 of the no airplay experience will be up here for all to enjoy! You lucky people!

p.s. I'll put up some posts about the weekend later, all with tantalizing photographs! I put up one of my "6 months lost" posts, but since I actually wrote it back in May, it shows up as being posted back then, so if you are daring enough to read it, you'll find it in the "doomed to repeat it..." section.

p.p.s. to those I asked for music from, WHERE IS IT!?!?

that's it

Day 33-34: YUKIGAYAOTSUKAPOLOOZA 2007!

Today is gonna be the rock! Time to let your hair down, and rock the fuck out! yooooooooooow!

vol. 1!

Here is the first vol. in the greatness of me. WARNING! the bumper for the Japanese part of the show is VERY LOUD! Also, the sound quality isn't the greatest because I had to shrink it down to get it up on-line, next time I won't shrink it quite so much.

Day 32: off the deep end...

Last night was full of dreams, dreams about work. I was working, I was late for work, I was going to work, you get the idea. The weirdest dream of the night was by far the "meat document" dream. "Meat Document" was a term used to refer to a person in an German uber-porno in a conversation between a mother and child (I think it was the mom and son from heroes maybe) represented as Pizzas sitting in chairs at Taco Bell on a storyboard on somebody's blog... I was working in Taco Bell, but didn't work at Taco Bell. I think I was a detective and was following the trail through Taco Bell... It was weird, disturbed...

Day 31: Waxing poetic... I need a job...

So, I watched Family Guy today, and there was a scene where Jafar is getting his vision checked. I always got nervous during this test because I always thought that maybe 5 was better than 6, and 3 was better than 2 and now I'm gonna get crappy glasses! Ahhh! Anybody feel me? It's a lot of pressure to deal with... That's it, stupid musings. I need a job!

By the way, anybody know that this thing is called a "Geraet Beim Optiker"?

Day 30: the overhaul...

Well, today, again avoiding studying, I decided to overhaul No Airplay. So, here it is, in all it's new glory for all to enjoy! So... enjoy! I also worked on the "Home by 8 Drunk by 10" stuff, and hopefully (but probably not for the best) we'll see it up on iTunes soon. There's a link on here now.

Day 28: Welcome to my jungle!

In an effort to avoid studying Japanese the other day I put together some pan-o-ramtific pictures of my room that I'd like to share with you now.

I've spent a whole lot of time here lately... a lot of time...

Day 26: Another meeting in the womb...

So, on friday I again ventured down to the womb in Shinjuku to attend an "information" meeting. Again I returned home with little information. I know that it is best for me to wait out the storm and wait for my company to declare bankruptcy so that I can get my money. It is still undecided when this will happen... feels like I've said that before... should be next week... we'll see...

Day 22: the waiting game... again...

So, here's the news... wait. FUCK!!! Now the announcement has been delayed until the 8th. I'm pissed!

Day 22: D-day...

So, here it is. November 5th, 2007, the day that at the meeting was stated as being D-day. This is the day that we should all find out whether or not my company will be able to continue, or if it will declare bankruptcy. It's still only 2:00 am, so I don't expect any news for awhile yet, and really not at all, but we'll see. I'm a bit nervous.

Day 18: balls full throttle...

Well, the clock had ticked over to November now, and I've decided now is a good time to start studying for the JLPT. For those who don't know, the JLPT is the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, and it goes down December 2nd. The test is once a year, so this is the one shot. For the next month I'm dedicating myself to the passing of the test and thusly I've established some rules.

Rule 1:
Japanese only.

There ya go, that's the rule. Means, no English movies, TV shows and the like. There are some exceptions however...

Exception 1:
1 hour a day, and only 1 hour, may be used to speak English.

Exception 2:
One day a week I am allowed to speak my beloved English as much as I want, and to watch it as well.

Exception 3:
If engaged in the act of teaching (ha!) then "Rule 1" does not apply. This should be only 1-2 hours a week if at all anyway.

Exception 4:
Of course, if I'm hanging out with someone who doesn't want to join me in this endeavor, then "Rule 1" again doesn't apply.

Exception 5:
Anything dealing with football, and podcasts such as PTI, and Around The Horn are OK. Also, this blog.

That's pretty much it. We'll see how it goes. Wish me luck.


Here's a look at the books I'm gonna go through this month!

Day 12: the meeting...

Again my fellow instructors and I (along with the staff from our school, and hundreds of other instructors and staff from other schools) met up in Shinjuku at our company's head office, AKA "the womb" (for the Kanto region at least) for an informative meeting about the status of the company. The one thing they forgot was the "informative" part. After a stand-up routine performed by the interim-leader (which pissed off more than a few unpaid teachers), the show began. An hour later we knew 2 things: no money, and no decision for the next 10 days. Great. Oh, I guess we did find out one more thing, no one was going to be working over that time period either (way ahead of the game!). After the "speeches(?)" there was a Q&A session, which brings about a couple questions of my own. Does it count as a Q&A session when there are no As? Is that ironic? I do know one thing, it was BULLSHIT! Anyway, that'll be the last thing about this situation at least until I see some $$$s in my bank. Just don't really like talking about it very much, and if I ever read back through these posts in the future to remember this time of my life, I don't want to read about this.

After the "meeting" we all headed over to BK, yes, that BK: BURGER KING! It's back in Japan now after a 6-7 year absence. I remember 1 or 2 of them here the first time I came to Japan, don't remember if I ever went then, but it's been a solid 2 years or so since I've been and it was a nice stroll down memory lane. Bacon Cheese Whoppers rule!

Day 3: a protest in the park...

So, my vow to put up at least a weekly post has, well, been broken. Sorry. But I'm back! Starting on October 15th 2007, I have not gone to work because I haven't been paid. Anybody who'll read this, will already know that, and that's why I haven't really wanted to write about that, but I should post about something, so, I'll post about what's been going on during my hiatus.


Day 3: a protest in the park...
So on October 17th my fellow teachers and I all met up in Yoyogi Park to protest not being paid. It was nice, drank some beer, some god awful Tequila, played some hacky-sack, and best of all, we played FOOTBALL!! We didn't have an American Football, but one of the Aussies brought and Aussie Rules Football so we ran with it, and it wasn't too bad, a little bigger around than your average football, which made gripping it to throw down field a little more difficult, but not too bad. My team ran away with the game, final score was somewhere around 70-35. Awesome! After the protest in the park, we all headed over to A.O.S.'s house for some poker action and that cost me 1000 yen. Not a great showing, but not terrible either, oh well, it was a good day.

I totally Oeshikied myself

Wow, I know what your thinking, 2 posts in 1 day, yeah, I know. Anyway, what we have here is actual happenings, last night I went down to Ikegami, a station near my house, and the namesake of the train line I ride roughly twice a day for a Oeshiki. Oeshiki is a Buddhist memorial ceremony, and this one was remarkably like a festival, tons of people, fair foods, games, floats and the like. It was wicked times, Deuce, A.O.S. and his girlfriend and I all partook in the festivities that went through the town and into the famous Ikegami Honmonji temple. It was the 2nd time I've been there, but last time was during hanami season and the rain struck, so this was the first time that I've gotten to take much of a look around the temple, and it's cool, like almost all other temples you'll see here, but with more stones than most. Not really much to go on here, but it was fun, drinking, eating, and watching people twirl there stuff in the air, good times.

from the top to the bottom, and back to the rock!

Well, well, well... ellipses... man I bet you all missed that huh? Wait, no one reads this except Deuce, shout out! Anyway after a sweet little 6 month hiatus I'm back, and way wickeder than ever, as shown in these first couple sweet ass lines of prose, frame it! No excuses, but I have a lot of catching up to do, and I think that might have been the main reason I didn't get back on the horse as soon as I probably should have, but I've decided to just go forward from here, and if you're lucky I'll go back in time and post some stuff about the crazy 6 months lost, hey maybe that'll be the title of any future past posts from here on outro. God I missed my wit. Anyway, look forward to, at least, weekly posts from here until the end of the year, I'll start with at least one new one tonight about the most recent rad thing that I was witness to. Cheers all, here's to No Airplay!

6 months lost... post #1: "Play balls!"

Here's a post I wrote way back when (maybe may?) but never put up. I'm putting it up now because if I wait to put pictures with it, it might never show up. So, pictures will come later, enjoy!


Hey hey hey! So it's that time of year again, the smell of the grass, the crack of the bat, and the drinking of the beer. It's a great thing. Over here the baseball season starts slightly before the start of the season back home, and so this year I got out to my first game on April 1st. This season started in Yokohama, at Yokohama stadium with a game between the Yokohama Baystars, and the Yomiuri Giants. The day began with a trip to a penis festival in Kawasaki (that'll be saved for another post) and ended up with a blowout. The Giants put a beating on the Baystars 10-1, with Yokohama's 1 run coming late in the game, while several of our companions were on the way home with someone who had a bit too much to drink in the scorching hot sun. Seems that baseball + beer + heat seems to spell disaster fairly regularly.

Two days later I headed deeper into Tokyo to Jinju Stadium to root on my Hanshin Tigers against the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. It was a real exciting game with spats of rain, a grandslam by Kanemoto (on his B-day), Esteban Yan's Japanese debut, and a free hamburger (given to me by a fellow Tigers supporter) all rolled into a 4-3 Tiger's win. This sweet game was the home opener for the Swallows, however it was far from a sell-out and heavily populated by Tigers fans. Roughly 2/3rds of the crowd was Tigers fans. It was great.

April 7th came around and it was off to Urawa up in Saitama to take in my first J-league game. I must say I'm not the biggest soccer fan, however I have been to a World Cup match, for the experience mostly. I am a fan of the Urawa Red Diamonds (known more commonly as the Urawa Reds), mostly because my favorite Japanese player plays for them. The stadium, Saitama Stadium 2002, which is also the Japanese National Team's stadium of choice, is a bit far from me, but it was worth the trip. Reds fans are super! hunbun and I got there close to 2 hours before kickoff, and all of the seats in the super fans section were already taken, so we ended up sitting just to the left (our left) of them. I'd say that they were just about as exciting as the game itself which ended in a 2-1 comeback victory over Jubilo Iwate. Thrilling victory really.

To wrap up the month of April, Deuce and his lady and I headed back to Yokohama Stadium, this time for a game between the Baystars, and the Chunichi Dragons who were in 1st place at the time. The game was really good, the Baystars were able to come away with a 5-4 victory, the key was that the Dragons' big bopper, Tyrone Woods, struck out 4 times, most of them with men on base. Suck it Woods! The day ended with a trip to good ol' An An, scrumptious!

R.I.P. L.W.O.D. Feb 14th 2007 - Feb 18th 2007

As mentioned in the famed "Well..." post of January 27th 2007, my best bud dude? was coming out to Tokyo to visit me for a long weekend. Here is an account of those events, entitled "the Long Weekend of Debauchery 2007."
(by the way, yes, I looked up the spelling of debauchery)

Wed Feb 14th,
The day started out typical, work. After work I headed to Shinagawa station to meet dude? and begin the L.W.D. After returning home, we started drinking and played a few games on his Xbox 360. Boring I know, but it gets better...

Thur. Feb 15th,
After waking up, not easy, we had a little lunch and prepared for the the big first real day of the L.W.D. We hit the store to get some necessities, beer. At noon we hopped on the Ikegami line headed towards Gotanda station. The plan: 1 beer for every major station on the famed Yamanote line, plus one going in and one coming out.


YukigayaOotsuka -> Gotanda -> Shibuya -> Shinjuku -> Ikebukuro -> Ueno -> Tokyo -> Shinagawa -> Gotanda -> YukigayaOotsuka

(Stations in Italics are not on the Yamanote line, meaning, YukigayaOotsuka)

If you notice the "->" spots, those all represent 1 beer drank. The rules: open a beer when you get on the train, and it must be finished before getting on the next train. We were allowed to get off of the train, but generally couldn't leave the station, except for in Shinjuku where I needed to leave to pay my rent, and in Akihabara, where dude? wanted to look for a game, and I wanted to look for a Wii. But it's ok, because in Akihabara we each drank an extra beer! So the grand total was at least 10. After that, we were pretty spent and spent the rest of the day just playing some Xbox and Xbox 360 in preparation for saturday's big festivities.

Fri. Feb 16th,
Started out the morning scouring for the Wii we didn't find the day before. We looked all over, Ikegami, Kawasaki, Jiyugaoka and Ooimachi all to no avail. So sad :( We went on to finish the day with an all-you-can drink bonanza at a favorite spot in Shibuya called Amataro. dude? and I met up with a bunch of my co-workers until the last wisps of the day. It was a good day.

Sat. Feb 17th,
This is the day everything had been leading up to. The 3rd ever Tournament of Champions. The first ever involving 2 contestants. We went back around to most of the places we hit the day before, but this time looking for a new Xbox controller because one of the ones I had had been acting up. While looking everwhere, we found none, but we did come across the prized Wii we had been looking for. By complete chance I was looking at the box when an employee at a small game/video store walked up and flipped the sign to show that they had some in stock. Immediately I walked to the counter and picked one up, along with Wii sports, a fun title I must say. Although we were thrilled to have the Wii, it was a little late in the game to include it in our T.O.C. but after we got back to my place we ran it through a few rounds before kickoff. It was rad. Because of all the searching around and Wii trying, we pushed back the original start time of 5:00 to 7:00. Here's the results:

Game
Arena Football: 67 - 70
Fight Night Rd 2: 2 - 1
Top Spin: 6 - 0
MLB 2K5: 8 - 7
NFL 2K5: 31 - 3 *
NHL 2K6: 6 - 5
NCAA March Madness: 61 - 48
NCAA 07: 7 - 64
Tiger Woods 06: ?? - ??

My score is listed first, followed by dude?'s
The Tiger Woods score has apparently been lost to history, I need to find that somewhere, and for some reason there was and asterik next to the NFL 2K5 score, I think there was some kind of controller malfunction or something during that game, I'll have to ask dude? about why that's there... So, yeah, that was the end of that, just a freakin' drinkin' good time.

Sun. Feb. 18th,
The end, just hung out, and dude? left in the early evening headed back to Osaka on the shinkansen, it was a stooper of a weekend, good times man, good times.