Phone spam

What is up with all the new form of phone spam. Before it used to be a human calling you with a script to read. For the past couple of weeks I've been getting new type of phone spam where it is a recording saying if you accept their message to press "1" or if you don't want to get called back press "2" or "9". Of course, they don't tell you which option is which until the end of the message. One time I pressed the key to remove me off of their list, but it didn't work. Getting called at 2am my time to hear about how I can refinance a home mortgage that I don't have or a receive a free home security system from Home Depot is about the most frustrating thing. Actually I take that back, the most frustrating thing was when I kept receiving phone calls in the middle of the night from India asking for "Manoj". I told the guy he had the wrong number the first couple of times and there was no one by that name here. A week later he calls again and before he could say anything I interrupt saying "You called before and I said you had the wrong number". He insists he never called and then I said "You wanted to speak to Manoj right?" and he said "Yes" and I told him if he could update his records to stop calling me and he hung up. He ended up calling one last time a couple of weeks ago and we went through the same exchange. Luckily, I think the message has finally gotten to his thick skull as I haven't heard from him since.

Busy busy busy

The past week has been one of the most hectic weeks in my life. Thankfully things are finally starting to settle down, at least for a couple of days and then I'll have to go back to hustle mode later this week for a project launch.

Out of all this recent craziness, one thing I'm looking forward to is my visit to Tottori during the second half of Golden Week. I'm only going to be there for a few days because I can't take too much time from work, but I'm definitely looking forward to some Sushi Benkei, seeing the remodeled Jusco, and enjoying a nice bath at Rapis Spa onsen. I'll be taking the Shinkansen on the way there, but I'll be going back to Tokyo by car. I've never done that before, but I hear its about a 10 hour drive. That is going to be interesting. The last time I went from Tottori to Tokyo on the road was with the overnight Camel bus back in the winter of 2004. That was a nightmare for me. I got stuck sitting next to the heater, which was running too hot the whole trip. It was like being in a mobile sauna. The worst part I remember though was an old man near me had major gas problems and he had no remorse in letting them rip. The olfactory nightmare paired with hellish heat was the last straw that broke the Camel's back (pun intended) for me. I've been a faithful Bullet train customer ever since. Lets see how going by car and doing some *cough* illegal driving *cough* will turn out.

So much for beautful weather...

I seem to have spoken to soon about the weather being nice. The past couple of days, the temperatures have dropped and its been raining on and off. This sucks more for me because I put away all my winter/fall clothes this past weekend and found myself shivering last night. I think I might have even caught a cold. I better drown myself with Vitamin Guard water.

On a totally random note, I've seen a lot of new commercials recently and most of them I have no idea what they are trying to sell. For example:



Is this a commercial for a new single? new clothes? bon jovi hair styles? Nope.. its a product commercial for killing cockroaches.

Beautiful weather

The weather has been almost perfect the past week. Daytime temperatures have been very warm and nighttime crisp and cool. I have about a month to enjoy this type of weather until the rainy season "storms" in and brings a nasty hot, hazy and humid combo that will last until mid August. I've never been able to adjust naturally to the humidity both here and back home. The air conditioners in my place always run on full blast during the summer. So anyways, back to the great weather talk. Recently my job has been kicking my butt. I've been playing the role of a hermit crab just sitting countless hours in front of my work laptop. Luckily, a miracle happened and work was quiet this weekend. In addition to watching both "Red Cliff" movies which was kind of disappointing, I managed to get out, chill and savor this great weather!

Being a tourist

Its been a while since I did any touristy things in Tokyo. This week my friend's brother and his wife are visiting Tokyo for the first time. Last night I had the opportunity to share with them my take on Shinjuku and even tried something with them for the first time, pachinko. I've actually never played pachinko since I've been in Japan. I've always wanted to try, just to say I've done it, but the abundance of second hand smoke and obnoxiously loud noises always deterred me away. Luckily my friend's brother also wanted to see what pachinko was all about and I finally saw myself stepping in the world of competitive pachinko'ing. The basic goal is to get small metallic balls into a small hole while trying to match various characters on the screen or something along those lines. If successful, you get more balls that you can either extend your play or turn it in for a "prize" which usually equates to cash. While walking through the parlor, I saw some people with buckets filled with these balls. That was pretty crazy. I only spent about 10 dollars worth at the pachinko parlor which lasted for approximately 3 minutes of play. It was an interesting experience but I'm pretty sure I won't be going to another pachiniko place anytime soon.

Anyways, here are some pics random pics of the night -

Sakura

Hanami season is in full effect. This year, Komazawa koen.