Too hectic

Things have been too hectic here. Work has been kicking my butt and caused me to suffer greatly this past week. On Thursday, I was stuck on a 9 hour conference call and could barely do anything else like eat a decent meal before heading out to one of my coworker's birthday dinner later that evening. The place was at a wine bar and had a buffet style dinner menu. The dinner started out with drinks and when the food came out, I was a bit surprise on the portion size, as it was way too small for the 20 + people that was in attendance. It seemed everyone also didn't have a decent lunch so there was a mad rush to get the food. Unfortunately for me, I was too slow to pick up a decent amount of food. The stress that I have endured the past few days caused me to drink glasses of wine like water and before I knew it, I was drunk. I'm not quite sure if I was in the state where I started seeing doubles of everyone but I would say I was pretty close to that. Even though I was barely conscious, I was alert enough to try to make it home before the last train and luckily for me, one of my coworkers who lives just a stop away from me also decided to come home at the same time. I followed him and he made sure I got off at my stop. After that, I really had no clue how I went home. I remember getting off the train, but the next thing I knew I was vomiting in my apartment. No idea what happened in between. Anyways, I suffered quite a bit the next day. I had another conference call with my client in the morning, but I convinced him to delay it a few hours while I try to sober up. It was pretty bad. The finance and HR guy want to go to a beer garden (not really sure what it is as I've never been to one before, but I'm assuming its a happy hour like event with discounts on beer) on Monday night with me so I have to make sure I eat a decent size lunch and be very careful not to over drink like I usually do.

On a lighter subject, I went to my first Costco in Japan this past weekend. It was almost exactly like the one back home. The prices were a tad more expensive than the states, but they still had huge slices of pizza for less then 3 bucks and 2 dollar hot dog/drink combos. It was a good time.

Finally, Japan is considered a safe place to live especially having previously lived in the Washington D.C. area where there is a new story of someone getting shot or robbed almost everyday on the news. However, I feel disturbed on the number of stabbing/cutting stories I have been hearing on the local news recently. The latest being where a man went to invade his neighbors apartment and killed her. The sickest part of the story is that he cut up her body into tiny pieces and flushed them down the toilet. The parts where it wasn't flushable, he mixed it in with his burnable trash. The news crew interviewed the guy because he lived just two doors down from the "missing woman" before he became a suspect. He acted totally normal and had a smile like nothing happened. Stuff like this is just too sick for me to comprehend.

New times with an old friend

This past week, I met my friend who I have known since middle school (junior high school) who came to Japan on business for a week. Since we were both busy, we managed to hang out a couple times during his stay. He actually finished his work in half a week and spent the other half exploring Tokyo with his coworker. I was surprised on what they accomplished in Tokyo, being that it was their first time here and all they used was wikitravel. They actually experienced things here that I have never done. For the times we did meet, we got to chill in Shinjuku and Roppongi. It was really weird meeting him in a place that wasn't Northern VA or CA. We ended up enjoying great food, good discussions, even got to meet new people and enjoyed a unique event watching my coworker's wife's Japanese Belly Dance crew perform. It was a pity that we could not hang out longer but it was good to get some new experiences with my old friend. Pictures will be posted soon when I get them.

Orlando magic gone...

Well, I finished watching the last game of the Magic's season. They were beat in 5 games to again.. the Detroit Pistons. What a demoralizing loss. I feel the same way I did when Dallas choked their season away to the now Superbowl Champion Giants. The Magic had countless times to win the game (and other games in this series) but they literally gave the ball away to the Pistons. The Magic played so sloppy, even after some of their players guaranteed a win days before. It was a disappointing end to a very good season. I'm not sure who to pull for anymore in the playoffs and actually not so excited about basketball anymore. Oh well, this will get my attention focused more on what is important than watching basketball games.

Golden weekend

Every year Japan has Golden week which is a series of national holidays that fall consecutively in the beginning of May. This year, 2 of those holidays fell under Saturday and Sunday, and the other days, I had to work. Yeah, so basically, it was just another weekend, except there were less people in Tokyo than usual.



Saturday was spent just walking around my area. I've recently have gotten off my diet and been eating fast food again. While walking to MOS burger, I saw the new Nissan GTR. Man it looked so nice. This was the first time I saw the car in public. I must say that it looked a lot sweeter in person.



I spent my Sunday at Chiba visiting my friend's family's house. Their vacation house is located in the countryside of Chiba. It was nice and very chill. I like relaxing weekends like this, but at the same time I'm starting to crave a wild weekend where I can just let loose and be crazy. Basically, reliving my university days.

On a last note: We've been having lots of earthquakes in Tokyo. There was somewhat of a big one yesterday and a couple of tremors today. I wonder if the "big" one is going to hit soon.

3 years gone too fast

Its been exactly 3 years since I last saw my mom. Its crazy how 1 month quickly turns into 1 year and 1 year turns into 3. Life goes by too fast...

Alone at Tully's

It has been a while since I had the opportunity to go to a cafe by myself and escape my worries. There is a Tully's coffee cafe at the bottom of my office, which I hardly go to because I'm not much of a coffee drinker to begin with but yesterday, I decided to finish up work a bit earlier than usual to go to the cafe and collect my thoughts. It felt damn good to just sit alone, read a magazine, while sipping an espresso and listening to the jazz playing in the background.

In other news, I have been getting really interested in an expensive hobby. This is not good especially since my financial situation will be a bit rocky in the coming months.