no airplay

the new site no airplay, check it out.

gonna do it

i've decided to move the blog over to wordpress. it's time, I think
that many things have changed in my life since I started this back in
2006. hey, it happens. I think the blog is gonna take a bit of a
different direction, but just a bit.
I haven't posted anything on the new blog yet, probably get started
tomorrow, and I've decided not to import these posts over to the new
blog. I tried it, but it didn't seem right. think theses posts should
stay here. the new blog is gonna keep the same name and there will be a link on here once I get going over there. pretty easy to find it
though, if you've found this.
talk to you soon, more to come...

this is great if you've never seen it.

another baby!

seems like everyone is having babies these days, this time it's round-
face! his baby is a darling(apoc's is too)! congrats big-daddy!

moving?

I'm thinking of taking this show on the road. I've thought many times
about moving this blog to a different site (mostly wordpress) and in
fact I signed up for a domain at wordpress a long while back but just
never got around to doing it. think there was a slight fear of losing
readers but, hey, who am I kidding? no one reads this. also since I
pretty much stopped doing podcasts I don't really care about trying to
set up a new feed for iTunes. I'm also thinking about not even
carrying previous posts over to the new blog, just starting anew.
we'll see. I'm gonna look a little closer when I get home and decide
what i'm gonna do then. one of the main reasons I'm thinking about
leaving blogger is because the three other sites I had on here (and
dude?'s) are all pretty much dead, but mostly because of the iPhone
integration. I mostly just post from my phone nowadays and posting via e-mail makes it look all funky. also, the blogger app is stupid and I don't want to pay to get the full version. wish I would just pay for a square space account but I really can't justify it.

frontale...

2 games left in the season. today is huge. last week, frontale lost to
the lowly Trinita stoping them into second
place, 2 points behind kashima and just ahead of Gamba Osaka. today Gamba and Kashima play eachother and we are praying that Gamba wins.
but we really need Frontale to play well.
in a year where nearly every team I've ever rooted for has
disappointed me (the huskies still have a shot at redemption if they
beat WSU tomorrow and go CWU!) I need Frontale to win!!!

gamesradar

gamesradar.com is a stupid site. what kind of site would hit you up with an ad before you even hit their homepage? I understand trying to get ad revenue, but save it until I`ve found something on your site that I want to see. stupid. doubt I`ll be back there.

holland???

Who gave the Dutch courts the authority to rule on copyright cases on the internet? just curious...

thanksgiving!

yesterday was thanksgiving here in Japan. didn't know? it's by far my
favorite holiday, love it! unfortunately I couldn't spend it with my
family, (miss you guys!) but I did get to spend it with the wife : )
after a morning out in Hiroo shopping and walking we made it back
home, took a break and got to cooking around 7. I was only responsible for one dish, something I've never cooked or eaten, green bean casserole. normally, I guess, it is made with French fried onions (?)but I don't eat onions so I tried some daikon. it worked alright, ended up a little soggy (think they are supposed to be crisp) but well enough. mornin liked it very much, I thought it could have been better. mornin handled everything else; pumpkin pie, mac & cheese, mashed potatoes, biscuits, cranberry sauce and gravy.
it was awesome!
I ate a ton and gained 2 pounds... gotta work in that. I love thanksgiving! we also watched some Charlie Brown thanksgiving special.
man that animation is terrible!

happy birthday!

congrats to Apoc D on the birth of his baby daughter! and, お疲れ
さま to his wife K for 34 hours of labor!!!

too many games...

It's a hot time to pick up some sweet games. Recently I picked up Borderlands, Fifa 10, Forza 3 and Modern Warfare 2. All of them are highly recommended! Problem is that I don't have time to play all of them. Also I've gotten back into Fight Night Round 4. So much good stuff! Good thing though is that I think there's not really anything that I'm looking forward to between now and the end of the year. I should have over a month, and maybe a bunch of time during the New Year's break, to get my fill.

Chrome/Football

The clock's ticked over to Sunday for me, right around 2:15am now. And it's time for some football!! I've got "the game" (Ohio St. vs. Michigan) going in a Firefox window but I'm writing this in a Google Chrome window. I think I might be switching to Chrome. It's pretty good. I used it briefly after it first came out but kinda fell back into Firefox. But now? There are a couple of things that I still seem to need Firefox for, but we'll see how that all goes. Oops, Mich. just fumbled, TD Ohio St.
This is a rivalry weekend for many schools (biggest one though is next weekend, the Apple Cup!) but the game I'm most interested in is Central Washington University vs. Tarleton State. Now, I'm pretty good with geography but, I've no idea where Tarleton State is... let me look that up... oh, Texas. Well, anyway, it's a big game! It's the second round of the division II playoffs and my school CWU is playing at home and ranked #1 in the country baby!!! Stupid daylight savings has pushed all the games back an hour for me putting the early games' starting times at about 2am and the CWU game at 5am now... I'm not sure if I'll stay up for it, but I may, and the best part is that I can check out the game live through the Penn Atlantic website. I've never watched a game on it before but a couple weeks ago I listened to a CWU game on there. It's great because it's free, but the sound quality was a bit iffy on the radio broadcast, wonder how the video will be... Oh well, go Wildcats!

Man, it's been a long time to post something on here from my computer, it's a bit weird...
couldn't leave without a picture, just looked naked, here's something:

grad

here's a picture from mornin's graduation.
gorgeous!

work?

what's up with my schedule lately? I'm getting worked (pun)! recently
about 2 or 3 days a week (especially Friday) have taken a huge hit.
I'm getting crushed! the late starts are much better than the long
breaks (both today) but, you know what's better than both of those?
money.
my theory is that part of the reason for the current slow schedules is
that the 英会話 (English conversation) industry lags behind the
real economy because most students are locked into contracts often
around a year or so. we are right around a year after last year's
economic colapse now and I feel like I'm being hit now. luckily, I'm
still one of the more popular teachers and I'm still getting more
lessons than most of the other teachers I'm working with but it's
gonna be tough if this continues too much longer. hopefully people's
situations will get better soon and they'll be able to invest in
English again, and of course, I'll get paid! dolla dolla bills
y'all!!! and I won't be so bored...

today's tanakaya haul

the best iPhone app for studying/using Japanese

if you have an iPhone and you are at all interested in Japanese, buy
this app. it's simply called "Japanese." best features are its ease of
looking up Kanji and it can help you study for the JLPT. it's a little
expensive, 2300 yen, but well worth it. I used to use a different
dictionary but I will never again. Japanese has tons more words and
tons more functions an is tons easier to use, get it!

is pepsi out of their ever loving minds?!

yes. the latest in the pepsi flavor series, which has included; ice
cucumber, blue hawaiian, and shiso flavors, comes Azuki Pepsi. this is terrible. by far the worst tasting of the bunch. if you've never had
Azuki (or anko) just imagine dumping a bunch of sugar in a batch of
homemade refried beans, that'll give you an idea of the taste and
texture. it's bad.

So much stuff to catch up on...

that I think I'm gonna skip most of it for now. This is like my "6 months lost" phase. I'm not gonna promise to get to any of it for now, i might, but most likely I won't. Think I'll post some of the better pictures on my phone from so of the stuff I haven't posted about sometime. But I think if I wait to post about what I've missed, I'll never get around to writing anything and this page will be stuck in stasis for a long time. Think I'll just go from here.

I'm pissed that today I don't start work until 6pm. Finish at 9:20. Means that I'm gonna travel 2 hours round trip for about 3 hours of work. Stupid. One good thing i guess is that I have to head into Ikebukuro to pick up a present that I had made for mornin's b-day. Took 2 weeks! Ahhhhhhh!!! Her birthday was actually last Tuesday and I ended up giving her 8 consecutive days of presents. The sad thing is that the best present will only be finished today, nearly a week late, but it will be worth it!In other news, hooked up the old laptop to the TV and now I can watch streaming video stuff on the big screen and it is awesome! Lately I've been listening to more music that I had been. I'd gotten into a podcast only rut for awhile but music is great. I forgot how much good stuff I had. I've also gotten some pretty good new stuff recently. Picked up the new Pearl Jam and Weezer (haven't listened to that yet) and also got a special edition of Pablo Honey that has about 20 extra tracks. It's much like High School again.

I finished playing Uncharted 2 and I must say that that is a really really good game. It's everything that Assassin's Creed could have, and should have been. Highly recommended. I ordered 4 games on Play Asia that I'm waiting for because I was tired of going all the way to Akihabara and being disappointed. Also, the most reliable store for import games has closed. A sad day.
The four games I'm waiting for are:
FIFA 10
Forza 3
Modern Warefare 2
Borderlands

Now some of them aren't out, but I can wait. Don't think I need all of them now anyway, don't have that much free time. I think FIFA 10 should be here tomorrow. Also should be getting Windows 7, hopefully tomorrow and I'm pretty excited to never use Vista again! Don't care if Windows 7 isn't the greatest thing in the world, I just know that it can't be worse than Vista.

Yesterday my sister-in-law (SIL) and her husband (HIL) came over and mornin and I made fajitas for them. Good times! They liked the food a lot and we had some wine and beer (got some Red Hook for my b-day) and played a little Wii.

Kawasaki Frontale sit in first place by 1 point and we are coming down to the end of the season! Next weekend might be my last chance to see them play this year so I think we might be heading over to Todoroki to see them take on JEF united Chiba. SOBs.
Guess that's enough for this post.
later

catchin up!

so I know that there is a ton of catchin up I need to do, namely the
great Silver Week trip, and I'll get to it soon, don't you worry! just
haven't been in a sit down at the computer mode recently, pretty much
only been using it to get new TV episodes, movies, podcasts and to
watch sportscenter lately. probably find time this weekend, maybe not,
but for sue by Thursday next week. another thing on the list is
mornin's graduate school graduation! that was hot! stay tuned!

couple updates

USC won! wahoo!
also, the controversial "finish" to Frontale game was voted on by the
J-league and the game will be played from the point at which it was
stopped! that means with Kawasaki up 3-1! beauty!
last thing is that mornin and I are heading out to meet dude? and his
lady out in Osaka, kick around there for a couple days and thenall
head off to Hiroshima for a couple days. pray for good
weather!

9 hours!

man I'm stoked! 9 hours until the kickoff of the USC x Ohio State game. I hate Ohio St. I LOVE USC!
Many people know that I am from Washington, and I love my M's and my Hawks, my Dawgs, my Sonics and hey, even my Sounders. But the first team I liked in my life was the Trojans. As a kid, I moved around a lot. At the time I was coming into an age where I was starting to play and watch any sports, I lived in California. Actually, a few places in California. This is why I love me some USC, and some Dodgers. Of course a lot of my deeper connections with sports teams were formed later in life during the later 80s and 90s and the struggles of most of my local Seattle teams (except for the dominance of UW!). My first hat was a Dodgers cap. My first football had a SC logo on it. I'm stoked for this game! In the Horseshoe. True freshman at the helm. GO TROJANS!

OHHHHH MAN I'M PISSED!

I was just watching the Frontale game against #1 Kashima Antlers at Kashima's home stadium. Frontale was just over 2 games back in 2nd and they will still be that way tomorrow. Why? Well, let me tell you. With less than 20 mins left in the game, and Kawasaki up 3-1 the ref decided that the pitch conditions were not playable. True, the ball didn't move much across the ground when kicked, but... So they sit around for 30 mins, he comes out, checks the field a couple of times and declares a "no game." I had no idea that this was even possible. Unreal. Poof, 70+ minutes of the game never existed. Tese's 2 goals, gone. No, "let's pick up and play later," just done. Unreal. Are you serious? I'm pissed. What a joke! The season is winding down, we could have been 4 points out of first, instead, we're still 7 back and now we've got a three way tie for second. Man they better give us another chance to take out those posing suckers! I F'n hate Kashima, and this just makes me hate them even more. That's right, mother nature made me hate a soccer team more. Live with it.

please don't make me do it!

I swear to god that If another 'person' answers the question "what's new?" with "nothing" and then stops talking, i'm gonna scream and then rip their head off. and then eat it.

another one

go hawks!

iPhone app

an interesting little miniaturization effect done by an app I got for
the iPhone

my PC is F'd up!

so, yes, my PC is experiencing a bunch of problemos. so I stopped by Bic Camera today and picked up this beast!that's right, 1.5Tb of hard drive storage action! I work late tonight, should be home around 11 and I plan to get to work on backing up all the important stuff (pictures, music, and videos) and then do a clean re-install. why couldn't thus have happened in about 2 months when I could get my hands on the new Windows 7? F! god, I wonder how long it's gonna take...
in other news, when i arrived home last week, I found a couple rolls of plastic wrap in the mail box along with a letter letting us know that construction would be going on for a couple weeks in and around the building. it started today. the plastic wrap was a consolation for being disturbed. ha! like plastic wrap is gonna come close to making up for a 9am wake-up call that sounds like someone is actually drilling into my eye.

de-railed!

so, I went to sleep. Yeah, yeah, I know, that wasn't the plan. But starting at the beginning, I was all fired up to get the games on. I fired up Afrika... waaaay to slow. I was already very tired after having gotten up at 7am after about 4 hours of sleep and working all day. Afrika did me in. I did switch to Fight Night Round 4 after about an hour and a half, but the damage had been done. And then, College Football. Not the game, the sport, the real-deal, kickoff weekend! I got so distracted with all the different streams coming at me on Justin TV (and trying to fight through all the tech. issues). I ended up giving up and calling it a night. Went to be around 3 and just got up at about 10. Now I'm watching the VaTech and Bama game, pretty good, 17-16 at the half, but I'm excited (and nervous) about the LSU x UW game coming up in about 20 mins...
it's on!
I might get back to playing some games later...

10:40 kickoff!

so a few bends in the road and it's now 10:20 and I have yet to start out the night of gaming! oh well, soon.
stopped at the lame festival on the way home and snapped a couple of pics.what to start with...?
actually, I'm really sleepy, need a second wind... maybe beer is the answer?

epic gaming weekend alteration...

so my weekend gaming plan has been slightly altered. the main reason is because there is a festival going down in town tonight so I think i might spend a bit of time there before kicking off. that's it.

やる気がない！

after a few weeks of all or not schedules, i'm spent. it's really tough to have such up and down days, impossible to get into any sort of mental rhythm. especially when i see certain names on my day's docket... that's where 'やる気がない' comes in. it means something like 'no drive.' that's how i'm feeling today. just wanna go home.
tomorrow's a day off. gonna go to see a doctor about my eye and get a blood test probably. also might get a new phone. thinking hard about the iPhone. i'll let you know how it goes. for now, 5 or 6 lessons to go...

could it be?

Is it just me or is U2 somehow ripping off Coldplay (had to google that name)? Either way, they both suck.

that's right, i'm a nerd!

MY EYE!

my left eye is messed up! I'm worried...

here's a nice pic that melvis got at the envy show last night, good stuff!

another cellphone picture post...

that's right, a garbage can that says 'don't throw away garbage' on it. i pray the Japanese will never lose their sense of humor!

epic gaming weekend!

so mornin's gotta go out of town (think to Izu maybe) on a school/lab trip for a couple days (think the weekend of Sept. 5th), so i'm planning on tappin my eyes open, and ploppin down infront of the TV and trying to burn through some of the games i have yet to finish. i made a list awhile back, the games with the X have been finished. i don't think i'm gonna worry about the racing games, but here's the list:
�mirror's edge
dirt
�c.o.d. w.a.w.
�assasin's creed
skate 2
�c.o.d 4
dead space
forza 2
�fable 2
U.F.C
killzone 2
�ボクの夏休み 3
red faction
みんなのGOLF
Afrika
�call of Juarez
FNR4

so the plan is from the time i get home from work on Saturday, until mornin gets back home on Sunday, i'm going strait through the night and try and knock 3, 4, or 5 games off the list. think i'll start with Afrika, Dead Space, and Kill Zone 2. Grand Slam Tennis, UFC and Fight Night Round 4 will be the change of pace games. we'll see how far I can get!

envy show

while i will say that this was by far the weakest envy show i've been to, it wasn't bad. envy rocks! yesterday, the drummer had an accident and could only play one-handed for the most part, and most of the songs were on the quiet side, the skill remained. i met a couple of real cool swiss guys, and it made me realize the differance between German-swiss and Frence-swiss. Opeth rocks! i would never hope that someone judges envy soley on today's show, but it was good. i've seen them louder, more intamate, and longer. envy rocks! tonight wasn't their crowd. also, if a bartender offers you a 'dog's nose' don't accept, it's just bad news!

cell posting...

wanted to test out this posting direct from my phone thing, so here's a cell pic of Ikebukuro's world famous man-eating traffic cones:

Nippon ham getting swine flu?!

Yes, you may call it coincidence or a twist of fate, I call it REVENGE!
This is awesome!

the problem of me...

Googling your own name can bring about severe amounts of disappointment. Especially when it's my name... Here's a few characters who purport to be me...A sad sack of people if I do say so myself, not looking good...

ban it!

When a batter steps into the box, he should be allowed to adjust his batting gloves no more than 1 time per AB. ahhhhhh!!!

L.W.O.D. '09 vol.1 (July 28 - Aug. 2)

the 1st foray into the L.W.O.D. of this year was a success. dude? came into town in the afternoon on Tuesday and we hung around the house for a bit before heading into town to meet up with tigger, his wife and their friend G-cup. it was all their 1st time seeing a baseball game in Japan and G-cup and Mrs. tigger's 1st game ever! dude? and i showed them the ropes and eased them into the action by playing beer-an-inning. i was trashed after winning but unfortunately our Carp fell to the hated Swallows by some score (around 8-2?). wow, as i write this on the train, some crazy lady with a Mohawk, pink hair and tattoos (namally good) is doing some sort of splits thing on the floor of the train... will wonders never cease? after the game we came back to the butt? base in Kugahara and got some grub at a place called 大吉 (daikichi). it was pretty good, yakitori of all sorts and some other assorted sorts.after dinner, back to the butt? cave for some greatest game ever action! i smoked dude? pretty bad in 2 games which looked pretty ominous for the upcoming week, but when it mattered, we had 3 close games later.

day 2 kicked off the 1st day of the 3 day cricket-esque T.O.C. the 1st day featured 6 games, which will be recounted later, but i was the victor. in the evening we ate some tasty burritos and watched ナニこれ珍百景. it was good.

day 3, we started with a short bike ride for lunch then played 4 games for the T.O.C. and headed out to Jingu to meet mornin and take in our 2nd Carp x Swallows game of the week. neither dude? nor I could power up to do much drinking at the game this time, but the game was good except the annoying overzealous lady Carp fan to our left, the spooky puppet master to the right and the dude with the giant melon! in front of me. but the game itself was basically a reversal of the first game, not too much drama, but a solid win. on the way home, we stopped off in the old neighborhood for some Indian/Nepalese curry. it was a bit weird because when we walked up, it said it was open, but all the lights were off, crazy eco-Nepalese! but they turned on the lights for us and cooked up some good curry.

day 4, the 3rd and final day of the T.O.C.: cricket-esque version, was the big daddy. 10 games. day 1 was 6 because we got a late start, day 2 was shortened from 6 to 4 because of the baseball game, but day 3 was always 10. the most single day game total in T.O.C. history. remember people, each game, short or long is one 500ml can of beer. that's 5 liters of beer! (we actually drank 11x500ml+1 bottle of redhook ESB) it was a very hotly contested day with some very close and exciting matches, and all over fun. in the later half i started to really struggle after being so out of drinking practice since i got whooping cough, but eventually caught my 2nd win and finished strong and done! i woke up the next morning at about 7:30 because i had to work (originally dude? was going to leave on Friday, but his wife told him to stay away longer, but it was too late to take the day off) and i was dying! while i was at work, dude? took an adventure down to Odaiba to see the life-sized Gundam. still waiting on the picture. my train ride in was miserable and the 1st half of my day was just terrible, but eventually the sausage muffins kicked in and i got my groove back for the later half of the day. even though i wasn't able to take the day off, i could still close my schedule in the afternoon so i was off at 4 and made it home about 5 so dude? mornin and i could head over to Todoroki for a large, potentially huge throw down between our fighting Frontale and the f'n FC Tokyo. the Tamagawa Classico! it was dude?'s first J1 game, and oh what a game! the stakes were high, the drama was intense and the action was furious! there was also a HUGE dude sitting in front of dude?! coming into the game, Kawasaki was in 4th place with FC Tokyo in 5th and after a come from behind 2-1 win with our 2nd goal in the 90th (89th?!) min. and Niigata's tie and Urawa's loss (on Sunday), our Frotale took sole possession of 2nd place for the 1st time since the end of last season! we are 8 points (less than 3 games) back of Kashima, with 14 games left in the season, c'mon boys! we walked back from the stadium (took a cab there and our driver was totally inept!) and stopped off in Tamagawa for some Okonomiyaki before heading home.
day 5, dude? and i played another great game of プロ野球 (2-1 me!) then headed off to Kawasaki for some delicious California Pizza Kitchen and then off to Shinagawa and dude? was back to Osaka. the end.

T.O.C. cricket results:
dude?'s results butt?'s results
Day 1:
プロ野球: 0-1
Let's Tap: 7-9
Winning 11 2009: 0-4
UFC 2009: 3-2
NBA 2K7: 40-64
みんなのゴルフ 5: -8 -4

Day 2:
Dirt: 4:32:64 4:58:05
4:19:27 4:59:38
All Pro Football: 28-0
MLB the show: 8-9
Punch Out: 1-3
Wii Ski: X
プロ野球: X

Day 3:
NCAA 10: 15-17
SF4: 1-4
プロ野球: 1-2
Grand Slam Tennis#: 1-3
Wii Medley*: 3-1
MLB 2K9: 9-7
NHL 2K9: 1-2
Mario vs. Sonic: 1-1
Fight Night Round 4: 1-0
Tiger 10: -8 -4
(* Wii medley= 3 holes of frisbee golf, 1 game bowling, 3 point shooting, and 3 more frisbee golf holes)
(# during Grand Slam Tennis, 2.5 beers were consumed)

Day 1 game total: 2-4
Day 2 game total: 2-2
Day 3 game total: 4-5
grand game total: 8-11

Day 1 point total: 58-84

Day 2 point total: 43-12
Day 3 point total: 41-41
grand point total: 142-137

doin' work!

all the news that's fit to print so far...

As noted before, I've been pretty busy this month, moving and whatnot. But, what some may or may not know, is that another reason that I was busy was because I got married. Yup, how about that!? Things are good so far, actually not really any different as far as day to day operations from the past year or so. weirrrd. What's weirder is saying "my wife." I feel pretentious. I'm sure that will pass in time, but I think that the reason for it is that I've never been one much for fuss. The "congratulations" that accompany birthdays and the "condolances" that accompany deaths. That's been the one main reason I've held back on saying much about it, or hesitating, deciding what word to use when speaking of "my lady" to students. Anyway, it's all good. In fact it's pretty great so far! For the record, the deed was done on July 9th, easy for me to remember! Here's a picture we took after the visit to the ward office to ink the dealmore on this and everything else later, just wanted to get the 411 out there,

b

Hokkai-go! day 5/6

Here we go, about a month and a half after the fact... there will be some new stuff coming soon though, look out!

June 6th.
off to Takikawa! we had breakfast (まあまあ) at the station and the boarded the スーパーカムイ train to Takikawa (滝川). スーパーカムイ is a combination of English/Japanese/Ainu languages that means 'super god!' but is just your average express train. we arrived in Takikawa with little fanfare and fewer people! around the station were old boarded up and broken down buildings and empty streets... like a ghost town. eerie. we dropped our bags off at the hotel and walked a different way back to the station to try and find life or a convenience store but neither were found... i did find an ATM so could get some money but that was about it. i sent a mail to tigger and he headed over to pick us up around 3 and took us over to the cabin he had rented for the wedding party. again, i didn't feel so good, so little drinking for me but it was a nice get together and it was nice to meet tigger and his lady's parents. as for Takikawa...probably the last time for me, lovely scenery, but not much happening...
June 7th.
got up early for the last time and jumped back on the スーパーカムイ headed to Asahikawa (旭川). we had lunch at the station and then went off to the city museum (旭川市博物館) to learn a bit about the native Ainu (アイヌ) folk. pretty interesting, love the designs! and that was about it. we went out to the airport super early, bought some souvenirs and just wasted time until our flight. all-in-all Hokkaido was a good time. beautiful scenery, open spaces, clean air, clean water, lots of stuff to see and do. just sucked that i felt crappy most of the time, and the weather was pretty crappy most of the time. it was good though. i highly recommend Sapporo but i think we tapped it out so next time Hokkaido is gone to, I'm thinking somewhere else will be on the itinerary.

2 days and counting...

2 days until NCAA 10 comes out! Why not a look at one of my favorite plays from last year's edition?

EA Sports: NCAA Football 09 Video

My favorite video of all time?

I loooooooove this video, just watch it all the way through, no skipping!

ya-ha-!

so it's been a good, nearly 4 days since i moved and i haven't gotten to finishing the Hokkaido posts, sorry but i wrote them all at the same time, just gotta sort out the pictures. I've been busy. the new place is super awesome! i f'n love it! it's nice and cool, convenient, and surrounded by nature. there's tons of insects in my 'garden' and last night, i saw a HUGE toad in the front. other than moving, been working, getting stuff for the new place, playing fight night round 4 and call of juarez, celebrating the 4th of July and watching my Frontale come away with a disappointing tie last night...
the Hokkaido posts will be coming soon, but I'm still gonna be pretty busy for the next couple weeks (more on that later) and pretty much for the rest of the month. for now, adieu!

delays...

Sorry about not getting these posts up earlier, just been real busy lately. Work has been busy and home has been busy as mornin and I were looking for a new place and are now getting ready to move... also MJ's death took a toll on me... not sure if I'll be able to put up the last 2 days of the Hokkaido vacation before I move, but I might. If not, they'll be up sometime shortly after moving day, July 2nd! More info on the move after i finish the Hokkaido posts. later,
b

Hokkai-go! day 4

June 5th. the last day in Sapporo was jam packed with action. we (again) got up early and headed to Maruyama Zoo (円山動物園).






it was fairly fun, the walk from the station was nice, the zoo itself was fine, a little sad... a lot of solo animals and all the elephants had died. i did see my 1st タヌキ (raccoon dog) and some other stuff.bad combo...
after zooing out, we grabbed a cab (because it was raining) and went over to the white lover factory (白い恋人). Shiroi koibito is a very famous treat from Hokkaido and it's basically a little sandwich cookie with white (or milk) chocolate. pretty decent, but the factory is set up a bit like a little theme park,no rides, but a kind of animated display about the process of making chocolate and (for some reason) a toy museum with pictures of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa... after the little self guided tour of the factory we went over to the office to have our picture taken for our own box of white lovers (gotta be one of the all time top 10 worst pics of me) and while we waited the 40mins it takes to personalize the tin, we went across the street to a place called Owl's. (click the pic to see it better)Owl's is rad! i highly recommend it if you go to Sapporo. it's named so because the J league team that reps Sapporo (コンサドーレ札幌) has an owl on its team crest. the reason that's important is that the restaurant looks out over Consadole's practice field, kinda where you would expect a press box to be. it's really, really cool! although the team wasn't practicing that day, and the food was just a'ight (i had teriyaki tacos) the location is off the charts! I'd freakin love it if Frontale had something like that!
after lunch, we went back to the factory in an absolute downpour! got our tin of cookies and then bellied up to a cake buffet that mornin was all about! pretty good i must say
after we had our cake and ate it too, the weather had turned beautiful so we took a couple shots amongst the flowers:
we stopped off at the little clock tower (時計台) in town. fairly unimpressive, but historical i guess.
to round out Sapporo, for dinner, we dined at the Kirin beer garden near our hotel where i had crabs!
actually, just parts of one crab... also, feeling pretty bad, i could only muster up about 4 beers :(