The past couple of days were busy with Mr. Pachinko in Tokyo for the weekend. On Friday we went to check out m-flo at Club Ageha, which boasts to be one of the biggest clubs in Tokyo. I was not a big fan of m-flo, but in lieu of this event, I "obtained" their latest album and was listening to it non-stop prior to the event so I would be somewhat familiar to what they were going to play. Since m-flo is a big act in Japan, they had advanced tickets for sale with a 500 yen discount compared to the door price, but unfortunately for us, I was too late to buy them. No matter, my perception, and I'm sure the rest of the world's view of advance tickets for a club was that it is just a marketing ploy to guarantee attendance by giving a discount price only. Well, I was wrong. Anyways, knowing that we did not have advance tickets, we went a half hour before the doors opened. This initially seemed to prove to be a good idea, because we were near front of the "non ticket holders" line. Well, we remained in the same position, by the time the doors opened, an hour after the doors opened, and eventually 3 hours after the doors opened. There must have been over 300 freezing and full price willing people waiting in this line, and yet it felt like we were all ignored as none of us without a ticket manged to get inside. This continued to occur even when the "advance ticket" line was completely empty. My body was frozen and my mind was shocked over the logistics of this club. Once 12am hit, Jody and I had to make a decision. The club was in an inconvenient part of Tokyo and we had to decide whether or not to continue to wait in line and risk not going in and then spend a fortune on a taxi ride home or leave immediately and be able to make the last train. We chose the latter after finding out that one of the security staff could not guarantee that any of us will be able to go inside the club. After our frustrations from what happened, we decided to call it a night and save our energy for the next night.
I'm happy to say that the next night was not a disappointment. We went to Mado-lounge at Roppongi Hills. This club was on the 52nd floor with a beautiful night view of Tokyo and Tokyo Tower. As an added bonus, two of the biggest hip-hop DJ's in Japan, DJ HaseB and DJ Kaori were scheduled to play that night. Having been burned the night before, we were a bit overly cautious and made sure to get in the club early. We got in with no problem and had a blast. The music was great and crowd, though a bit suspect in the beginning, was crazy especially when Kaori appeared. The only negative part of the night was going home in what felt like freezing rain. Regardless, the night was definitely worth it and I was very happy that everyone had a great time.
Later this week I'll be heading back to Yonago in Tottori-ken for the remainder of the holidays. I'll be meeting Jim, Akiko, and Jody again in our old hang out places. I'm definitely looking forward to it. I'll post the pictures of our time including some from Mado-lounge once I get them from Jody and his new camera.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Losing Expression
Nothing Japan related - The Orlando Magic finally won a game against the Houston Rockets last night, but more importantly it produced a funny picture:
The expression on his face is just too priceless LOL
The expression on his face is just too priceless LOL
Monday, December 17, 2007
End of the year party
The company's end of the year party was held last week. It was held at a nice lounge type place in Shinjuku.
As you can see the place had a great view and the food was top notch. However, this smart and very professional atmosphere quickly made a U-Turn when I got there. It became CRAZY. It got so crazy that yours truly was dressed up in a cheap full body reindeer suit, singing "Last Christmas" in a baritone voice while break dancing. Fortunately, my humiliated actions were not wasted as I won a small prize. Winning a company branded pencil never felt so satisfying, just kidding. It was actually something a bit more attractive, but not so much that a normal, sane person would have done to receive it. The best comment of the night came from the chief's wife as she was trying to compliment my disastrous performance. She said, "You were a great chipmunk." Of course, I just nodded my head and smile. The night ended with.... as you guessed, a crazy couple of hours of karaoke. I was so trashed at that point that I didn't know what I sung, didn't really know who was there, and not sure how my stomach got bruised. I haven't been to the office since that party, and I pray to god that people forgot about the crazy gaijin's actions during that night.
In other news, my sport teams are in a funk now after a ferocious start. For basketball, the Orlando Magic have been losing games and don't seem to play like the #1 team in the East anymore. I really hope they don't settle for mediocrity like they have been doing for the past several years. Turnovers and free throws are a huge problem for them. As for football, the Dallas Cowboys have been struggling. Sure they only lost their second game this late in the season, but still the way the played, they do not look like they will make it far in the playoffs. It was the first game this season that I fast forwarded more than 1/3 of the plays. Their playing was just unbearable to watch. I hope they pick it up next Saturday against Carolina.
As you can see the place had a great view and the food was top notch. However, this smart and very professional atmosphere quickly made a U-Turn when I got there. It became CRAZY. It got so crazy that yours truly was dressed up in a cheap full body reindeer suit, singing "Last Christmas" in a baritone voice while break dancing. Fortunately, my humiliated actions were not wasted as I won a small prize. Winning a company branded pencil never felt so satisfying, just kidding. It was actually something a bit more attractive, but not so much that a normal, sane person would have done to receive it. The best comment of the night came from the chief's wife as she was trying to compliment my disastrous performance. She said, "You were a great chipmunk." Of course, I just nodded my head and smile. The night ended with.... as you guessed, a crazy couple of hours of karaoke. I was so trashed at that point that I didn't know what I sung, didn't really know who was there, and not sure how my stomach got bruised. I haven't been to the office since that party, and I pray to god that people forgot about the crazy gaijin's actions during that night.
In other news, my sport teams are in a funk now after a ferocious start. For basketball, the Orlando Magic have been losing games and don't seem to play like the #1 team in the East anymore. I really hope they don't settle for mediocrity like they have been doing for the past several years. Turnovers and free throws are a huge problem for them. As for football, the Dallas Cowboys have been struggling. Sure they only lost their second game this late in the season, but still the way the played, they do not look like they will make it far in the playoffs. It was the first game this season that I fast forwarded more than 1/3 of the plays. Their playing was just unbearable to watch. I hope they pick it up next Saturday against Carolina.
Monday, December 10, 2007
The 13 year old kid
Who ever said that once a person starts running, it only gets easier is a liar. I've been jogging/running for the past month or so, every few times a week and it has only gotten harder for me. Today, I found myself trying to convince my body not to start walking in the middle of my running course. I ended up not walking, but it was a sheer test of will power that I almost lost and often face when I go running.
In other athletic news, I almost got beat in basketball by a 13 year old, ichi nen-sei high school kid at the local community center. We initially played best of 3 games, up to 10 points all 1 points, which included shots taken from the 3 point line. I saw the kid warm up and I knew he had skills, but I didn't think he would be that fast (or me that slow). On the first game, I started my defense guarding him up close, but he easily took me to the hoop and scored. I noticed that he shot right handed, so I took away his right side. He surprised me and drove with his left hand and scored with a left handed layup. I then started to ease my pressure and gave him more room, so I would be a step ahead of him when he drove in, and he countered by making his jumpers, some even beyond 3 point range. I was totally demoralized at that point. I started using my trash talking technique even knowing that he could not understand my English. I'm sure he thought I was a mental hospital escapee or something. I even did the whole signing the ball after he scored a basket to try to jinx him and told him that he would not score again, but I guess he didn't understand that since he shrugged off my comedic effort. I initially tried to trash talk him in Japanese, but he ended up getting confused for something else I said and as a end result, confused myself. He ended up beating me bad, and come to think of it, I don't think I scored more than 3 points.
The second game, I adjusted my game and convinced myself that he had killed my family, like the one of many plots in a Jean Claude Van Damme movie. I decided to use my slight height advantage, (he was only an inch or so shorter than me, these Japanese kids are growing.. I don't know what kind of milk they are drinking nowadays) and post him up. Fortunately, for me he was a sucker for my pump fakes and I scored a bulk of my baskets that way. On defense, I got used to how he drove to the basket. His major flaw was that more than half of his lay-ups consisted of scoop shots, which were easier to block. I ended up blocking a couple of his shots, and was thankful he didn't adjust in time for me to win the second game.
The third game, he was dead tired as was I, but I still had my deranged Van Damme mentality on me. He was missing his jumpers that he previously made with ease, and when he drove in, his layups actually did not go in. I was shocked at first and quickly thanked god for the blessing. My game on the other hand was on point. I was hitting most of my shots, but struggled trying to drive successfully against the kid. I'm embarrassed to say that the kid actually blocked a couple of my shots also, but nonetheless I ended up beating him pretty good.
As I was about to faint and hit the floor, the kid pleas for one more game. At that time, the gym was spinning and I was light headed, but I saw the kid's fire in his eyes, and his hatred of me for beating him. I agreed to his last challenge, but made the game go up to 7 points instead, since my knees were shaking from exhaustion. Unfortunately for the kid, it was more of the same. His shots look really tired and I was hitting mines for an easy victory. I asked him why he was so good, and he told me that he playing on his high school basketball team. I got the big "Ahh.. naruhoudo" (in English - "Ahhh... so that's why") expression on my face and shook his hand and thanked him for a great work out. He was very frustrated because we both knew that he was the better player in terms of skills, (he had a smooth jumper, he could drive either left or right, and he hustled like a mad man), but I got the last laugh at the end. I had a huge smile on my face while biking all the way home.... for beating a 13 year old kid... hmm.. that just doesn't sound right, does it?
In other athletic news, I almost got beat in basketball by a 13 year old, ichi nen-sei high school kid at the local community center. We initially played best of 3 games, up to 10 points all 1 points, which included shots taken from the 3 point line. I saw the kid warm up and I knew he had skills, but I didn't think he would be that fast (or me that slow). On the first game, I started my defense guarding him up close, but he easily took me to the hoop and scored. I noticed that he shot right handed, so I took away his right side. He surprised me and drove with his left hand and scored with a left handed layup. I then started to ease my pressure and gave him more room, so I would be a step ahead of him when he drove in, and he countered by making his jumpers, some even beyond 3 point range. I was totally demoralized at that point. I started using my trash talking technique even knowing that he could not understand my English. I'm sure he thought I was a mental hospital escapee or something. I even did the whole signing the ball after he scored a basket to try to jinx him and told him that he would not score again, but I guess he didn't understand that since he shrugged off my comedic effort. I initially tried to trash talk him in Japanese, but he ended up getting confused for something else I said and as a end result, confused myself. He ended up beating me bad, and come to think of it, I don't think I scored more than 3 points.
The second game, I adjusted my game and convinced myself that he had killed my family, like the one of many plots in a Jean Claude Van Damme movie. I decided to use my slight height advantage, (he was only an inch or so shorter than me, these Japanese kids are growing.. I don't know what kind of milk they are drinking nowadays) and post him up. Fortunately, for me he was a sucker for my pump fakes and I scored a bulk of my baskets that way. On defense, I got used to how he drove to the basket. His major flaw was that more than half of his lay-ups consisted of scoop shots, which were easier to block. I ended up blocking a couple of his shots, and was thankful he didn't adjust in time for me to win the second game.
The third game, he was dead tired as was I, but I still had my deranged Van Damme mentality on me. He was missing his jumpers that he previously made with ease, and when he drove in, his layups actually did not go in. I was shocked at first and quickly thanked god for the blessing. My game on the other hand was on point. I was hitting most of my shots, but struggled trying to drive successfully against the kid. I'm embarrassed to say that the kid actually blocked a couple of my shots also, but nonetheless I ended up beating him pretty good.
As I was about to faint and hit the floor, the kid pleas for one more game. At that time, the gym was spinning and I was light headed, but I saw the kid's fire in his eyes, and his hatred of me for beating him. I agreed to his last challenge, but made the game go up to 7 points instead, since my knees were shaking from exhaustion. Unfortunately for the kid, it was more of the same. His shots look really tired and I was hitting mines for an easy victory. I asked him why he was so good, and he told me that he playing on his high school basketball team. I got the big "Ahh.. naruhoudo" (in English - "Ahhh... so that's why") expression on my face and shook his hand and thanked him for a great work out. He was very frustrated because we both knew that he was the better player in terms of skills, (he had a smooth jumper, he could drive either left or right, and he hustled like a mad man), but I got the last laugh at the end. I had a huge smile on my face while biking all the way home.... for beating a 13 year old kid... hmm.. that just doesn't sound right, does it?
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
My rush hour
My rush hour in Northern VA/Washington D.C. - a simple 30 minute drive to the office can turn into 2 - 3 hours
My rush hour now consistently takes the same time everyday but...
Which would you have to choose?
My rush hour now consistently takes the same time everyday but...
Which would you have to choose?
Sunday, December 2, 2007
"Team game... do you know team game?!?"
I went to Saitama this past Saturday evening to play basketball with my co-worker's team. To my pleasure, they didn't mess around in the traditional 1 hour team synchronized warm ups consisting of a variety of stretches and lay up drills. A quick shoot around only lasted about 10 minutes then they quickly picked teams and started the full court game.
Their playing style was the same as last time, all run and gun and not much defense. Since this was my second stint playing with these people, I wanted to make more of an impact and play aggressively, like I usually do in the States. As I was the visitor, I did lots of passing even though I was open during my first several possessions. However, most of the passes went in vain as the recipient would pass to another teammate who was double teamed or they ended up throwing it away out of bounds. I didn't mind too much, and continued playing hard especially on defense. I stole the ball a couple of times and started the fast break and noticed that the leader of the team kept shouting to me to pass the ball up court, which I did but did not need vocal instructions to do it. The late 30 year old leader who still dresses like a member of Johnny's Entertainment with a Yankee (Japanese wanna-be gangster) attitude, was on my case the whole night. The guy had an arrogance about him that I could not stand. He on Japanese standards, was a ball hog. He would shoot the ball when he was double teamed and would take ill advised three point shots. He even tried to make passes a bit more fancy which caused him to completely miss the open player. During the second half, our team was losing, and I decided to kick it up a notch. I was going to start taking over the offense. I took the ball up court and tried to set up some sort of plays. However, no one on my team was cutting to the basket and they were all just watching me play. I decided that I would start shooting more if I was open, but at the same time, I made a conscious effort not to shoot more times than the leader. Well, I did that and what comes as a result of that? The leader, comes up to me with a pissed off face and a voice that just sparks an altercation and barks "Team game... do you know team game?!?" This was the first time he ever spoke to me in an English sentence. I was quickly enraged with fire. There were about 6 players on both sides of the court who had a shoot first mentality on the court, and he was the biggest one, yet he calls ME out on it. However, I knew I was in HIS territory playing with HIS team. So I swallowed my animosity towards him and answered back "Yeah, I know team game". That shattered my motivation to play any longer as I found myself passing the ball just to anybody as long as the ball was not in my hands where I would receive more criticism.
I quickly took myself out of the game in disgust to what just happened and observed the rest of the night on the sideline. While watching the last hour, I became more frustrated seeing the leader shoot with no hesitation, and him laughing and comforting other team members that shot the ball recklessly even though they had a few open players. I found myself for the first time questioning whether my deep frustration and newly found hatred for the guy was caused because I was a foreigner and not part of the original team. Maybe I was actually being a selfish player, or the guy was just a prick.
Later that night, I was told that a possible reason might be because that the players just wanted to have fun and that they played just to exercise. I could understand that, but my understanding of "Sport" is not only to play and have fun, which I find is the most important, but the best thing about sport is the competitiveness aspect to allow a player to dig deep inside oneself to win. I saw that attribute on a number of players that night, which set the tone on how I played. After all that I finally came to the conclusion that I was never going to play there again.
Their playing style was the same as last time, all run and gun and not much defense. Since this was my second stint playing with these people, I wanted to make more of an impact and play aggressively, like I usually do in the States. As I was the visitor, I did lots of passing even though I was open during my first several possessions. However, most of the passes went in vain as the recipient would pass to another teammate who was double teamed or they ended up throwing it away out of bounds. I didn't mind too much, and continued playing hard especially on defense. I stole the ball a couple of times and started the fast break and noticed that the leader of the team kept shouting to me to pass the ball up court, which I did but did not need vocal instructions to do it. The late 30 year old leader who still dresses like a member of Johnny's Entertainment with a Yankee (Japanese wanna-be gangster) attitude, was on my case the whole night. The guy had an arrogance about him that I could not stand. He on Japanese standards, was a ball hog. He would shoot the ball when he was double teamed and would take ill advised three point shots. He even tried to make passes a bit more fancy which caused him to completely miss the open player. During the second half, our team was losing, and I decided to kick it up a notch. I was going to start taking over the offense. I took the ball up court and tried to set up some sort of plays. However, no one on my team was cutting to the basket and they were all just watching me play. I decided that I would start shooting more if I was open, but at the same time, I made a conscious effort not to shoot more times than the leader. Well, I did that and what comes as a result of that? The leader, comes up to me with a pissed off face and a voice that just sparks an altercation and barks "Team game... do you know team game?!?" This was the first time he ever spoke to me in an English sentence. I was quickly enraged with fire. There were about 6 players on both sides of the court who had a shoot first mentality on the court, and he was the biggest one, yet he calls ME out on it. However, I knew I was in HIS territory playing with HIS team. So I swallowed my animosity towards him and answered back "Yeah, I know team game". That shattered my motivation to play any longer as I found myself passing the ball just to anybody as long as the ball was not in my hands where I would receive more criticism.
I quickly took myself out of the game in disgust to what just happened and observed the rest of the night on the sideline. While watching the last hour, I became more frustrated seeing the leader shoot with no hesitation, and him laughing and comforting other team members that shot the ball recklessly even though they had a few open players. I found myself for the first time questioning whether my deep frustration and newly found hatred for the guy was caused because I was a foreigner and not part of the original team. Maybe I was actually being a selfish player, or the guy was just a prick.
Later that night, I was told that a possible reason might be because that the players just wanted to have fun and that they played just to exercise. I could understand that, but my understanding of "Sport" is not only to play and have fun, which I find is the most important, but the best thing about sport is the competitiveness aspect to allow a player to dig deep inside oneself to win. I saw that attribute on a number of players that night, which set the tone on how I played. After all that I finally came to the conclusion that I was never going to play there again.
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