Time to buy some dollars!

I can't believe I missed the opportunity to buy dollars when it was at 90 yen to 1 dollar. That is the lowest I have ever seen the dollar vs. Japanese yen. Today is not as a good, 94 yen for a dollar but I think I'll go ahead and jump the foreign exchange currency collecting band wagon before its too late. I have seen some reports that some locations are sold out of the dollar, so my contingency plan is the Euro. It is currently selling at around 119 yen. I don't plan to travel anytime soon to either Europe or U.S. but if the yen stays strong as it is doing, I may have to change some of my plans in the coming months.

School'd!

Just got back from basketball... and man.. I got school'd by a couple of high school kids. Recently, with my working out regiment and me balling consistently once a week, I've been able to regain some of my basketball skills (which ain't much to begin with) and have been controlling the game flow when I play with these kids. However, today.. this one kid who I was assigned to guard had it in for me. He tried to do them "And-1" moves on me. At first he was dribbling for like 20 seconds and not moving at all... I got out of my guard stance and just stood there looking bored. Most of the time his fancy dribbling didn't work on me, but this one time, he straight up crossed me out, went to his right, I quickly recovered and tried to block his lane to the basket, and when I went up for the block he adjusted his shot and made me look like a fool when the ball went in the net. After he made it, I saw a grin on his face and he said something to me which I didn't understand. On the playgrounds where I come from, you don't let anyone do that to you. So I told him, I'll remember that move and he will never do that again on me in Japanese. I then let my competitive nature take over me and started talking smack to the kid. When the kid had the ball I made sure he wasn't going to make another lay up on me. He was dribbling in circles and even faked the ball to me a couple of times, I smiled and when he drove in, I blocked his shot (even though he got passed me) and let out a loud roar. Everybody looked at me like "What is this foreigner doing?" because here.. everyone plays hard but most of the time no emotions are shown. I felt kind of bad, because usually back in the U.S. emotions are really high when I'm playing sports with others but at the end of the game, everyone (except for a select few who have real anger management issues) leaves their feelings on the court/field. I highly doubt that the kids I played with understand that so I came up after the game and thanked them for whooping my ass, yeah.. my team ended up losing anyways hehe. On a positive note though, I appeared to have made two new friends, they are college students who were on my team during this session. I asked if they wanted to hang out sometime or better yet play ball on a non-Saturday because I'm really craving to ball more than once a week. Actually.. I'm really wanting to play some flag football but I know that will be harder for me to do in Japan. Anyways, I'm really happy that my body is starting to get in shape and I can be active again. I really can't wait until next Saturday where I can re-match those kids again....yeah.. I'm that pathetic hehe

1st game that ...

I'll miss the Dallas Cowboys play this season. They are playing the lowly Rams so that game doesn't seem to be bigger than the 49er/Giants game that is going on at the same time slot. Oh well... 6 weeks straight of watching the Cowboys somewhat live in Japan is a pretty good streak. I hope the Boys pull together and get their season back on track!

Train delays...

I had a nice Saturday planned out which involved going to different parts of Tokyo. Everything at work was clear and the day was sunny. Unfortunately, an "accident" occurred on my train line, actually my station in particular and now there are massive delays. By accident, I mean it most likely is a suicide of someone jumping at an on coming train. Delays like this are not new to me as it happened to me a few times already since I've lived in Tokyo. I don't understand it to be honest. If a person hates their life so much and wants to end it, why do it jumping at an oncoming train? The consequences affect thousands of innocent people and actually the immediate family of the deceased will be held responsible for the cost of the "clean up" effort. Ending one's life selfishly is a lose-lose situation for everyone. Anyways, I'm going to try to make the best of today by bicycle.

Got a new toy

and finally got the 2nd generation iPod Touch. I'm very impressed with it especially when comparing to my old school iPod that I bought 5 years ago. So far the only negative aspect I have found is that my fingers are easily smudging the screen so I think I will need to shell out extra money to buy a new case. I was planning to spend a lot more money on other "toys" but ironically after getting this iPod, I've been on iTunes a lot more and tuning in to various audio podcasts, particularly about finance. I realized that spending more money on more high price items would be financially irresponsible, especially in this economy. Anyways... time to research on what good Blu-ray movies are out there to buy so I can view them on my new HDD Blu-ray recorder.... I mean... nevermind just kidding... well... not really..

Only in Japan

Picture of the day in Japan.

The policeman's facial expression holding the shield is classic. He looks like the Japanese Braveheart.

It was all over the news last night. Its too funny! Though it may be a bit disturbing and a blow to the average foreigner image, its better to see this as top news as opposed to murders and gun violence (which I saw on the local Washington D.C. news today via slingbox).

For more information click for the Homer Simpson-esque story.

Doggy TV

My dog managed to get a gig on a Japanese Drama that is currently airing on TV Tokyo. I've actually never heard of it until he got the gig but it is based on a popular Japanese Manga. He just came back from shooting and seemed like he did a good job. Now I have to see if this justifies me buying an HDD Blu-Ray recorder...

Radiohead in Saitama Super Arena

I've never been to a concert quite like Radiohead before. They played for over 2.5 hours, came out for double encore, and barely even wasted time talking to the audience. This was a huge difference from the mini concert I saw from J-Pop group Perfume during Summer Sonic music festival. *Flashback to Summer Sonic* We waited for an hour before showtime in a small indoor auditorium that was way overcrowded with drunks, otaku's and innocent girls that did not know the fury of hell they would soon experience. Anyways, when Perfume came out, the crowd went crazy. When I say crazy.. it was like the entire floor became a huge mosh pit. Its fine if everyone was expecting to see Iron Maiden or something and there was an implied discretion that the pit of hell was going to start, but this was Perfume, the 3 girl techno-jpopish group that does a cute introduction of their members that resembles something that Morning Musume would do. Anyways, everyone was pushing, girls were crying, people were falling and calling for Staff assistance. Since my little brother was there, I had to protect him from being trampled in addition to protecting myself. Perfume only ended up "singing" 3 songs and talked the rest of the time before saying good bye. What a huge rip off that was. *Fast forward to the present* My friend managed to get standing tickets closest to the stage. Besides my lower back hurting from the 4 + hours of standing, the concert was worth it. Here are some visuals from the concert (again sorry for the low quality as they were all taken from my mobile phone:








I messed up when I took this video clip, but the LCD screens are supposed to go horizontally not vertically. Oh well, everything looks blurry anyways LOL.



Funny clip of a Japanese chorus group singing Neyo's "Because of you" right outside the arena:

I've heard about it...

but I've never seen it in real life before. Nothing is more refreshing than having a drink from a 90 dollar bottle of Okinawa's finest alcohol....... filled with a dead snake...



*Shivers*