Thursday, October 30, 2008

ROCKTOBER!

Did you know that October is the best month in the world? It is!
1st, it's the month in which my birthday falls! Happy b-day me! And there are several other people I know who share the same birth month, for example: mornin, Mrs. dude?, my mom, my g-pa, and John Lennon.
There are also a bunch of activities that go down around here during the month. I know I need to do some other posts that chronologically went down before, but I wanted to capture these moments before we've passed Halloween.
Most of the best stuff went down at the beginning of the month, namely the week surrounding my b-day.
Oktoberfest!If you don't know what it is, I'm not gonna explain it all, just click this! The best one to see here in Japan is in Yokohama(横浜). More specifically Sakuragicho's(桜木町) famous red brick warehouse(赤レンガ倉庫) down near Chinatown(中華街). This year's event was held from the 3rd-13th, and it pretty much goes off around the same time every year. I recommend it very much! It's a great chance to taste some real beer. I made my way around to several of the booths as always. I ended up downing about 5 liters of delicious German beer ranging from hefeweizens to stouts.They were all pretty tasty! Check out some picture from the festivities:
Where was I? I don’t know, so I’m gonna wing it. Well, after my b-day and getting my sweet new lenses in my glasses (thanks mornin!), I headed over to Chiba and Makuhari Messe for the 2008 Tokyo Game Show for my first time. I must say… it was less than exciting. I guess it’s because it’s Japan and Japan is an RPG crazy nation and I am not an RPG crazy kinda guy, but it just wasn’t so interesting for me. Here’s a shot of the inside:
There were a few cool looking games on display, but really I’m into sports games, namely football, and football is a next to non-existant sport in this country. There were, of course, a ton of people in cos-play but for the most part I didn’t recognize most of them. I did see Chun-Lee and Ken from Street Fighter,











but the best was when I was heading out I ran into a couple of guys dressed up, one was Indiana Jones, and the other was the hero from God of War (probably the best PSP game ever made), Kratos. Peep it here:
After I made my way home, mornin and I rode our bikes over to Ikegami for the Oeshiki of the year! An Oeshiki (お会式) is a Buddhist memorial service, famously for Nichiren (日蓮)(don’t feel bad if you didn’t know, most Japanese people don’t know). There is a really big one at the Ikegami Hon-monji (池上本門寺)temple in Ikegami and this was the 2nd year in a row that I’ve been. Last year I went with AOS, Mrs. AOS, and deuce and it was a great time. This year after walking around with mornin for awhile, we were joined by melting faces. There were soooooo many people. Oodles and oodles of peoples! The place was stooped crowded, but I stocked up with beer and was good to go, and got really drunk by the way. There celebration is to remember the founder of Nichiren Buddhism, Nichiren who used to roam my area, in fact Senzokuike (洗足池) is named after him having washed his feet there supposedly. Many followers of the Nichiren sect, from all around Japan, congregate at Ikegami hon-monji to remember the man. They play music and parade through the streets pushing carts that have 5-storied pagodas on them called a "mando" and twirling these stick like things with streamers hanging off of them called a "matoi". It’s quite a spectacle. It’s also a lot of fun! After taking in some of the excitement of the parade, we made our way to the back of the temple in an effort to pay our respects, however a jerk guard said that we couldn’t get in that way anymore because it was too crowded. After arguing with the jerk for some time I said F it and made a double move past another guard looking the other way and with melting faces and mornin in-tow we wound our way to the front of the temple, waited in line with about 20-30,000 people and then proceeded to the main temple where we were able to pray and hear the beating of the big drum along with the preist reciting sutras. It’s all a big hub-bub that is spread out over 3 days, culminating on the of 13th of October, the day that Nichiren died. It’s an experience that shouldn’t be missed, especially if you live here in Tokyo. It was a good 727th Oeshiki! Here's to Nichiren!

I’m hoping that next year dude? will make some travel plans to come over near the beginning of October so that we can at least take in Oktoberfest and the Oeshiki, and maybe hit up the Tokyo Game show too. It’d probably be a lot more fun with some more people along for the ride.

eye poppin' discovery!

this morning I headed out of my building, off to work as usual (when I say 'morning' I mean 'noon', but i digress.). I noticed a little green piece of paper affixed to my bike handle, so I tore it off and ducked back inside to toss it in the garbage. I know, thrilling! right? well, when i stepped back outside i noticed another bright green object on the bike next to mine, a freakin praying mantis! How rad is that?! This was the first time i've laid my eyes on one that wasn't in a glass fish tank or on TV, and it was really cool. We sized eachother up a bit while I dug my camera out of my bag to get a few pics. After I took a couple shots I figured I should be off and get out of everyone's way on the sidewalk, so I turned and started walking away and the mantis took a few swings at me! Lucky for me, i was out of reach.
That thing was rad, and on my way to work I whipped out my e-mobile phone and read all about the freaky little creatures. I found out that they mate in the fall (who does that anymore?) so maybe he/she/it was looking to get down with the paper, not sure... they were pretty similar in color. I did learn a new word though: 'diurnal'. Any guesses? Sorry, you're wrong. ha, ha, ha! dumbass! It's the opposite of nocturnal. why i didn't know that, I don't know, but there you are. how 'bout that?

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

movin on...

I have news! I know, I know, I've got a ton of posts sitting on the board that I need to get to, and I will. Probably. But this couldn't wait! I'm moving! yes, yes, you know I love Yukigaya, and good news, I'm not leaving! I'm actually not even leaving the building. I'm just moving 2 doors down to a bigger room. It's got about twice the living space for only 10,000円 more a month. An exceptional value I must say. It'll be wonderful to not have to sleep next to the window. So the deal is that I'm getting the key this saturday after work then moving in over the weekend and next week. I've still got the old place until the 10th of next month (the day before i head home) so I have plenty of time to move all my crap, and clean up the current place, we'll see if I can get my deposit back. Fingers crossed!

Monday, October 20, 2008

Boom De Ya Da!

If you haven't seen this commercial, you should. It just makes me happy! The best part is at :53 when a special guest appearance from one of the biggest players on the planet makes an appearance. Pure comedy bronze!
I also like the appearances of Mr. Bear Grylls (Man vs. Wild) and the guy from 'Dirty Jobs'. Both shows you should check out. I must note that there are a couple of scenes that are different from the Japanese version, namely the Buddhist monks, and the building blowing up are different. Enjoy!