Its snowing!

Its snowing for the second time this season, at least that I am aware of and its freaking cold. Its so cold, that the windows at the office are fogged up like a heated school bus during the early winter mornings. The snow is not the powdery type but more like the nasty slushy ones. Oh well, its nice to see snow again as being from the D.C. area, I kind of missed it.

In other news, my childhood friend came back to Tokyo for business this week. I hung out with him and his co-workers from the U.S. last night. I was thinking of places to take them to eat earlier in the day time but as a total shocker they all had already decided and wanted to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe in Roppongi. This was the first time I've ever been to the HRC in Tokyo.. or Japan for that matter. It wasn't that bad, I mean yeah the food was way over priced, which didn't really matter as my friend's company (which coincidentally is my company's rival) picked up the tab but the quality was pretty good. It was exactly the fatty and large portioned size type of American food that I have so dearly missed. Also they ordered a few pitchers of beers which were gigantic. Me and one of my friend's coworkers managed to finish them off but it took some time and a few bathroom breaks to do it. I don't know if I would ever go back to the RHC on my own, but it was surprisingly a good time last night. We didn't do anything afterward, as this was a work night and everyone including me had to wake up early for work the next morning. There is a slight chance I will meet them up again either tonight or sometime this weekend, but it will depend on how our work schedules play out.

Good weekend

Shopping, tonkotsu ramen, bowling, kua' aina's avocado burger and beautiful views of Fuji-san... it was a good weekend.

News break

All I have seen/heard on the news recently were "Japan's economy steep decline", "Jobs being lost", "Japan's biggest recession since the oil crisis", "Even more jobs being lost" yaddi yadda... I am a news junkie and my daily routine involves me watching and reading the news of the world, but with all this negative news repeating every hour I have to admit that I am getting stressed out. I mean my job situation "seems" stable at the moment, but I still get second, third and fourth thoughts about any decision that involves money. It doesn't hurt to be careful, but I think I'm entering a state of paranoia wondering if I would regret the decision later especially if my financial status were to go south all of a sudden. Anyways, I've decided that I am going to avoid the news for a while because without the media reporting the same chaos over and over, life in the global recession really isn't that bad.

Weekend food

This weekend being Valentines day, a lot of my time was spent eating out. As mentioned on my previous post, one of those places was at a Mexican restaurant in Hiroo. This would be my first time to ever visit Hiroo, at least that I am aware of. Hiroo was a nice place but as I was pointed out, it was packed with foreigners. It was a different kind of foreigners too, not like the ones you find in Roppongi. The vibe reminded me of walking through North West Washington D.C which was nice. The Mexican restaurant which was a small establishment was packed with customers by the time I arrived there. Not surprisingly I saw more foreign customers than Japanese. The food was not bad, but some dishes I tried were a bit disappointing. My coworker who recommended the place was also a bit surprised on the drop of quality. The most interesting dish I tried was the chicken with chocolate sauce. The best thing I tried wasn't food but a drink. They served the best Mojito I have tried in Japan.

Among other restaurants I went to this weekend was a Tottori themed izakaya "かば". What is special about this place is it was the same restaurant chain that I went to during my welcome enkai when I was living in Tottori-ken. I didn't even know it was chain until a few days ago. I thought "かば" only existed in the small narrow roads of Asahi Machi in Yonago. Anyways, Tokyo's version was decent but not as good as the YOnago one. All the seafood came from Sakaiminato (Famous port in Tottori known for their seafood) and the decor of the izakaya was Tottori related but the charm and space that you can only get from an inaka (country) izakaya could not be replicated.







Eating there made me want to hop on the Shinkansen and visit Tottori again. I miss the open space, good food, awesome onsen, and slow lifestyle there. I am not sure when I'll go next time, but I'm aiming for sometime during Golden week.

In other news, I think I found a pool (Billiards as they call it here) buddy. I've been wanting to shoot pool for the longest time here, but the only bar activity that everyone I know likes to do is play darts. Anyways, I'm not sure when I will play my High School/University past time again, but I'm hoping it will be in the coming weeks.

February Update

Things here have been going well, nothing exciting but life hasn't been too boring. One thing that has kept me on my toes the past couple of weeks was working on my U.S. tax return. I've actually never done my taxes before. Every year, I always gave my accountant back home the appropriate documents and he would prepare everything in a nice envelope for me to send. Since I do not have that luxury here, I tried to do my taxes on my own. Not surprisingly, I had a ton of questions and I was doubting myself on the content I thought I knew. I soon found myself researching for some tax accountants specializing in US tax in Tokyo. I actually found a lot, but their fees were through the roof compared to what I was used to paying back in the states. Luckily, last week I found a coworker at the office who is a pro at US tax and he agreed to help me with my paperwork. The lifesaver helped me complete everything last weekend and all I have to do now is send the package to Uncle Sam.

Other than that nothing notable has been going on. I'm still doing well at the gym going a few times a week. I am still trying to figure out the best time of the day to go. I try to go when there is the least amount of people because my goal is to get my workout done as quickly as possible. However, I've been unfortunate and have always picked times to go during the "house wives" rush hour, where I'm surrounded by old women taking their sweet time in the limited amount of machines.

I'm still playing basketball but I haven't been back to the Shibuya Sports Center. I wanted to go the past couple of weeks, but I had work related events during basketball nights there. Tonight is basketball night, but actually I'm sore from yesterday where I played 2 on 2 full court basketball. I know.. 2 on 2 full court?? I don't know either, I mean back in the states, every time we had less than 4 on 4 we played half court games. All the games in Japan, they always want to play full court regardless of how many people playing. Oh well.. I can't complain because I don't have any basketball friends anyways so I got to take whatever I can get. This leads me to the college kids I thought I befriended a while ago at the local community center. At that time, we exchanged e-mails and even talked about going to an izakaya for some drinks. However, almost every week for the past few months we would play with each other and it seems we have fun, but when I try to talk to them about other things, they keep brushing me off. The e-mails have also stopped as they haven't responded to me anymore. One of the college guys seem to have emotional issues, where one week he seems happy and comfortable talking with me, the next he seems annoyed and has this fake attitude with me. Oh well, I don't really mind and have quit making any more efforts with them but I honestly was really looking forward to making some new friends. Recently, I actually got along better with the Junior and High school students who play there than the college guys. Its too bad I can't ask them "Hey wanna get a drink at the local bar sometime?" Maybe I an change it up to "Hey wanna get a juice box later?"

Playing sports and working out has allowed me to eat out more without feeling guilty. I've actually been eating out at least once or twice a week. My local area has lots of restaurants but unfortunately, the majority of them suck. One of my coworkers was surprised to hear that you can get bad food in Japan, which I was too because food in Japan in my opinion, is best in the world, but I think my part of Tokyo is an anomaly. So this weekend, my coworker who loves the Latin culture scheduled a night out at a good Mexican restaurant she recommends in Hiroo. I haven't eaten good Mexican food since I've been in Japan, so I'm definitely excited. The only thing I'm not looking forward is she wants to do Tequila shots and the last time I did Tequila shots I re-enacted the whole vomiting scene from "The Exorcist".

Too Cold!

Its getting too cold here. I usually wake up before my alarm clock but these days, its so cold that I don't even want to get out of bed. I have to admit though, it is not as cold as it was when I was living in the countryside of Japan. Back then, I could see my breath no matter where I was in my apartment. I don't see my breath now, but since I'm living in a concrete structure, there isn't much of a difference between the temperature outside and inside. Thankfully, it is February now so I estimate about a month left before Spring and its warmer temperatures to come back to life.