What are the chances ..

that I would run into one of my old students from Tottori ken in Tokyo. Well it happened yesterday when I had a get together with a few of my friends in Gotanda. We went to a typical izakaya (Japanese pub) and when the waitress came out, I couldn't help but noticed that I have seen her before. I then realized she could be one of my old Minatoyama Junior high school students that I taught in Yonago-shi 7 years ago. After a while, our table spoke to her and atlas she confirmed that she was one of my students and also recognized me immediately. She was pretty busy so I couldn't talk to her more, but I thought it was pretty crazy to meet a student in this type of situation. I have been back to Yonago a handful times in the past few years and have never ran into my old students, so to meet at one of thousands of izakayas in Tokyo is pretty amazing.

Sydney Pics

It took a while but after literally a month after being in Sydney, here are some pics!




Night picture of Darling Harbour. This is where I spent all of my nights eating out with my coworkers. Food was good, but expensive. It reminded me of my days hanging out in Georgetown back home.




Australia is really scenic. When I first arrived in Sydney, only thing I couldn't get over was how blue the waters were.



View from one of the ferries I took.



The famous Sydney bridge. I never went on it, and I think this was the closest I got to it.




The even more famous Sydney Opera house.




One of the views from the office.



At Manly Beach.


Well that is all the pics for now on Sydney. I didn't really get a chance to go sightseeing as I spent most of my time inside the office and in my hotel room working some more. Hopefully in my next business trip, I'll be able to take some time off to explore and enjoy a new city/country properly.

Sydney

I just came back from a very sudden business trip to Sydney. I made all my arrangements literally a few days before my departure date. it was quite hectic but at the end it worked out, as with all things in life.

The flight to Sydney was long, and both my flights to and from had plenty of turbulence. I hate turbulence and was unable to sleep comfortably at all. When I arrived o Sydney, I was excited that I would be entering their summer season. I packed all my summer clothes and the heat I experienced when I entered outside of Sydney International Airport excited me especially since it was really cold back in Tokyo.

I arrived in Sydney on Sunday afternoon, so I was able to look around for a bit before I actually had to start working on Monday. I hit up Manly beach and walked around downtown Sydney. It was a lively afternoon and I got instantly tanned from the strong Australian Sun. Little did I know that this was the last time I would really be able to enjoy the summer-like feeling as the rest of the week would be rainy and cold.

Working and living in Sydney for that week was fun. The office environment was enjoyable. Everyone took frequent coffee breaks (the coffee was great in Sydney) and hearing people speak consistently with Australian accents were cool. Actually it took me a few days to fully understand people and likewise with them understanding my "American" English. By the end of the week some of the Australian lingo and accents had stuck with me. Some of the "big wigs" of the company came to the Sydney office while I was there and we all went out a couple of times for drinks and luxurious dinners. I ate mightily well that week that I could feel my stomach getting more and more pregnant. It was worth it though.

Well, I need to get back to work. I took pictures during this business trip, so I will try to post some of those pictures here when I get a chance. During the trip, my manager informed me that my workload will increase. So my personal time will get even smaller. Well.. back to sweeping chimneys!

Winter Hooters

Geez.. it got really cold. Yesterday felt like it was like mid December. What happened to Autumn?? I have yet to bring out my winter clothes. I was hoping I could procrastinate for at least another week, but it looks like I will need to do my transition this weekend.

On other news, I was able to check out the new Hooters in Akasaka this past Wednesday. This is the first Hooters in Japan and this was its opening week. The line to get in was pretty ridiculous. Fortunate for us, we got in rather quickly and only waited 30 minutes!!! The atmosphere and decor was nice bringing U.S. Hooters with a touch of Neo-Japan. The food though was a bit disappointing.. actually very disappointing. The price for 20 piece wings was around 25 US dollars if not more. The wings were pretty cold and the world famous sauce was watered down. 3 mile island sauce had as much heat as a thousand island dressing. My friends and I also ordered other items like curly fries and chicken quesadillas. At best they tasted as good as their frozen counterparts you can get at the supermarket. The service was OK. We only got served the wrong orders twice and it took a handful of attempts to get our waitress' attention. Final verdict, not sure if I would go back to be honest. Oh well it was a nice experience and if I ever have the craving for over-priced American food again, I have another choice to add to my list!

Still busy ...

Man.. this month has been crazy. The new project has been kicking my butt and my personal time has been reduced dramatically. The project is still in the beginning phase and will only get busier as the other phases get approved by the higher ups. I really need to take a small vacation as the weekend is too short for me to recover. What I really want to do is take a road trip back to Karuizawa or another resort city like Hakone. I am thinking that taking like a Friday off should be sufficient enough for me to accomplish this. In non-related news, I have been able to keep up somewhat with my American sports. NBA will start next week which I am excited about. I am hoping Orlando will keep their focus all season long and keep Miami in check. On the football front, the Cowboys have been struggling. Thank god I am not working with a bunch of Redskins fans. I know if I was back in the U.S., I would not be able to hear the end of it from all my friends and co-workers. Well I got to head back to work... it going to be another long week....

Busy busy busy

For the past couple of weeks, I have been bombarded at work. I got assigned an additional project that has a ridiculously tight deadline. The project is supposed to be up and running in a couple of weeks but to be honest, I'm not sure if the team will make it. All I can do is my best, but I am really curious on how everything will turn out. Other than work, nothing much else has been going on. The weather is getting cooler, but this past weekend, it was a bit warm and felt August-like. I can't wait until the temperature stays consistently cool so I stop arriving at the office drenched in my own sweat. :)

Football is BACK!!

I can't believe that the NFL season is back. Man.. its amazing how time flies. Seriously, days literally end in a blink and weeks zoom by like they were days. I honestly feel like something I did 2 weeks ago was like yesterday. It really is sad to know that time accelerating like a Bugatti Veyron. It was never like this for me a few years ago. Maybe this is what happens when one reaches their 30's? Not a good feeling. Anyways, I was so disappointed that my beloved Dallas Cowboys couldn't pull off the comeback to defeat the dreaded Redskins. They played horrible all game long really. The penalties, silly play before half time, and questionable play calling really hurt the Cowboys' chances of winning the game. I really hope the team can fix their mistakes and give a good showing against the Bears next week.

Man.. talking about football really makes me want to play. I still have yet to find a Flag/touch football team or casual people who play around my area. Most of the teams I found online are hardcore and are in a league. I have no problem being in a competitive team, but if I can't make a practice or two, I don't want to get crucified or alienated indirectly like I've experienced before. It does make me miss back home where I can call a friend out of the blue and ask to throw around the football or get a gang to play a couple of games. I'm not totally sports deprived though. Basketball is going well. I've been playing every week and in two weeks I'll be playing with a new team down at Waseda University. I'll still be with my original team, which on a different topic will hold our first BBQ together this coming weekend. The team I'll be meeting up at Waseda belongs to one of my old coworkers that invited me to check out their team. Hopefully that will turn out well, because I'm always open for new competition and more excuses to play basketball. I'll probably probe to see if they know anyone who plays flag/touch football casually. If you notice, I didn't say tackle as I have already come into the realization I am an old fart and will probably break some of my bones if I play tackle football again.

Nice start to September

It was a good weekend. As mentioned in the previous entry, I met up with my childhood friend on Friday. It was good to see him again. We hung out at Shinjuku and Roppongi for dinner and some drinks. At the beginning of the night we were thinking of making it an all nighter and catch the first train home, however as the night rolled along, our age caught up to us and we left right before the last train. On Saturday, I enjoyed a nice BBQ with friends. We were originally going to do the BBQ by Tama river but due to the crazy hot temperature especially for September, we ended up doing the BBQ on my friend's deck. It was a good time. On Sunday, I satisfied my month long dim sum craving in Tachikawa's "Chinatown". I ended up over-indulging myself and paid the price later. I probably won't eat dim sum again for a very long time. Finally, on a completely different subject, I wasn't planning to do Fantasy Football this season, however yesterday I got an e-mail from one of my old leagues of my auto draft results. As expected with auto drafting, I got a really bad team. I ultimately decided I would stick with it and see how well I do. I can only pray that my starting QB.. actually my only QB on my team, Jay Cutler will have a Drew Brees-like season... Good thing there is no money involved with this league.

Endless heat

The heat is still strong in Tokyo and from weather forecasts, it appears that it won't let up any time soon. The electric bill last month was double the normal amount. The AC units in my place are literally on all the time. I wonder when Fall will finally come in and relieve these hazy, hot and humid days.

In other news, I am looking forward to meeting my old friend since junior high this Friday. He will be in the Tokyo area for business. I haven't seen this guy in years so I can't wait to catch up. There is also a planned picnic on Tama river this Saturday with friends so my weekend will be action packed.

Road trip to Tottori

Just came back from an exhausting road trip to and from Tottori. During the Obon holiday period, traffic was no joke and there were traffic jams all over the place. I enjoyed my trip back to the Yonago area. Like before, things have changed but for the most part, the city I once lived in still remains the same. Here are the pics!




This is a view of one of the many parking / service areas that I stopped at during the trip. The best thing about taking road trips is stopping at these points to get refreshed, eat some of their specialty foods and in this case, take in the nice view.




Finally in Yonago with my old friend Mount Daisen in the background.






Oh yes, Sushi! Fresh AND cheap sushi. One of the main reasons that motivate myself to go back to Yonago!




Besides Sushi, I love eating tako yaki at Tako hachi. I was relieved to see that this place did not follow the typical restaurant trend in Yonago and was still up and running. I was also glad to see the same worker there I have been accustomed to seeing since I lived there over 7 years ago!




During Obon, many people go back to their hometowns to visit family members who have passed away. Though a bit somber, there are also many traditional activities that take place. For instance, a teenage sumo tourney!! I was surprised to see that the skinny guys did very well.




Also was able to attend a Matsuri. I love Matsuri!!!




Day time street view.




Best part of Matsuri is the food. I pigged out like crazy. Especially the friend chicken. Loved how this stand managed to make a famous fried chicken icon their own.




The name of the matsuri was burned on the hillside. Pretty amazing sight which unfortunately, this picture could not capture.




I was also able to get out of Tottori and went to check out the German theme park in Okayama-ken. I was expecting a lot more when I first heard that this place existed. Unfortunately, the only thing German I found though was the beer and sausages.

Crazy heat

Man, its been crazy hot here. The AC at my home has been blasting nonstop for the past few weeks. A guy who I play basketball with said he just bought an AC unit and got it installed yesterday. YESTERDAY??? I thought that was insane that he survived this long without AC, especially at night.

Since the start of the heat wave, I basically stopped playing basketball outside. This past weekend though a couple of people convinced me to give it a shot. Man.. I sort of regret I did that now. My game wasn't bad but I only managed to play a few games before I felt myself suffering from heat exhaustion. It was cloudy earlier when I originally agreed, however once we arrived to the court, the bright sun made its debut and burned everything in its way, including my now damaged dark skin.

Not being able to play basketball every week and some convincing by a couple people brought me back to my old basketball team. I played my first game in over half a year with them recently. It was actually pretty good. The system changed a bit and there were not as many people as before. We were running more games than just doing drills which is the way I like it. I am happy so far and I think I will continue to join the practices from now on.

Finally, obon is coming up in almost 2 weeks and I'll be taking some time off and heading west to Tottori. I haven't been there in about a year and am looking forward to it. I would say I can't wait to eat super fresh sushi at reasonable prices, but I had a sushi explosion yesterday at a local kaiten sushi. The only thing I am not looking forward to is the super long drive in potentially bad holiday traffic there...

Summer fireworks and festivals

The best part of the summer for me is when the rainy season is over and the summer festivals begin. Unfortunately this period is usually the hottest time of the year and mix in some high humidity and you get a yucky combination. This summer has been especially bad with day time highs averaging 37 degrees Celsius. I honestly cannot keep the AC off. Anyways, this past weekend I went to check out the festival and fireworks in Chofu. The fireworks were awesome but the food that I got from the different stalls were not so impressive. I plan to visit a couple more festivals and see more fireworks in the coming weeks. I am definitely enjoying this time of year. To end off this post, here are a couple of pictures and a video via my iPhone for your enjoyment!













If it is cut off, you can check it out on my youtube page by clicking on Chofu Fireworks 20100724

Tohoku Trip

It was really nice to take an extended vacation. Unfortunately it is a national holiday in Japan now, however I am back at work. Anyways, my vacation involved taking a road trip to the Tohoku region where I went as far north as Iwate-ken. Other than that I took it easy in Tokyo and just enjoyed not looking at my work laptop though I must admit that I did take peaks on my BlackBerry from time to time. Sometimes, I wish my work never gave me that phone.






Matsushima bay is considered one of the most scenic places in Japan.






Did a brief stop in Fukushima.




In Sendai.... cow tongue never tasted so good!!!!




Checked out the Pacific coast line from Miyagi-ken. Too bad the weather wasn't perfect.




Appi in Iwate-ken. Great time there!




Funky trees.




Nice park in Iwate which sort of reminded me of Inokashira Park in my area.

Vacation and Apps

Man.. I'm finally going to take a vacation longer than a few days starting this Friday. Its been actually about a year since I've taken an extended vacation. Pretty crazy actually. I will be heading to northern Japan. I've always traveled East to West in Japan so I'm looking forward to seeing what the Touhoku region is all about.

I will also be making sure to take lots of pictures with my new phone. Speaking of that, I have been "app store crazy" buying all different kinds of apps including this one photo app. It was much cooler than the default photo application on the phone, but a bit slower. Unfortunately, I found a bug where when taking photos using the flash the entire application would freeze and you would have to exit and re-launch the app to continue to take pictures. I e-mailed the developers and surprisingly they e-mailed me back promptly. It was nice to see this kind of response especially for a 1 dollar app. I actually became one of their beta testers. I was helping them test out their new fixes throughout the weekend, however their latest fix seem to have solved the flash problem but it was buggy everywhere else. I pointed this out to them but they haven't responded since. I hope they do soon because I would love to take some photos using their app during my upcoming trip but at this point its almost unusable due to the bugs. I will probably contact them if I don't hear back in the next 24 hours asking if they completed their fixes into their final release. Hopefully all will be good and I'll be able to post some nice pictures when I get back.

Soooo close!!!

Watching the world cup games late at night during the work week was awesome, at least that is how I felt before struggling to wake up for work a few hours later. The tournament is far from over, but my world cup dreams were shattered when Japan barely lost to Paraguay last night. The feeling was worse than when the US team lost to Ghana in overtime. The Japanese had it in their grasp and it all came down to penalty shots. I knew from the way both teams were playing that as long as the Japanese players didn't go fancy with their penalty shots they had a very good chance to make all of them. However, Komano totally choked and decided to take that extra risk to shoot the ball so it would go right under the crossbar, instead it hit the cross bar and the goalie didn't have to do anything to get the miss. From that point, everyone knew it was over for Japan. I feel bad for the guy, but really, I felt worst for the other players like Tulio who gave their heart and soul to try to advance to the elite 8. Its a good thing Japan has banned guns in the country, because I'm pretty sure even though Japanese people won't outright admit it, they must be fuming pissed at Komano. I know I was. Oh well, this emotional roller coaster is what the World Cup is all about. It was really fun while it lasted and I will definitely miss going "Blue Samurai" crazy in Tokyo.

Thoughts on the new toy

So I have had a couple of days to play around with my new iPhone and as Hyun suggested, here are my initial thoughts.

What I liked:

- The phone itself is definitely solid and has a nice finish.
- GPS is awesome. Much better functionality than my Blackberry Bold.
- OS is fast and smooth. I was seriously debating getting the Xperia X10 back in April, but when I was testing it at the Docomo store, the UI was slow and lagged.
- Like my iPod touch, downloading and installing apps are fast and easy.

What I didn't like:

- Taking photos need to have a steady hand. If I don't take my time an really focus, the images are blurry. I wish they had an anti shake mechanism of some kind to neutralize blurry pictures like most Japanese phones here have.
- Can't organize pictures on the iPhone, at least from what I have experienced. I need to get the pictures from the "camera roll" and import them into iPhoto, then create albums and from there, sync it back with the iPhone to have the albums show up.
- Again, with the photos, I noticed when viewing photos with the iPhone, if I rotate the phone, the pictures do not rotate to landscape or portrait view. The functionality works in everything else, i.e. calculator, safari, etc. I wonder why it doesn't work with my photos. I'm debating if I should visit an Apple shop to find out if it is supposed to be like this or do I have a defect on my phone. Unfortunately, I don't pass an Apple store during my daily commute.
- Got a 1,500 yen iTunes gift card but because my account is "U.S. based" I am unable to use it.
- Most likely due to my slow minded ways and not the iPhone's fault but I had a hard time distinguishing which softbank address did what. From what I can tell, @softbank.ne.jp is the equivalent of a mobile to mobile address and @i.softbank.ne.jp is like a PC mail address. I'm still trying to figure out how to send C-mail (AU's short message) type of messages.


Things I need to get used to:

- I really need to get used to the touch screen keyboard. Typing on my Blackberry has been a pleasure, but I seem to make a lot of mistakes on the iPhone. Typing in Japanese though looks to have potential in being more efficient than regular phones. The intuitiveness of predicting what you will type in Japanese is much better on the regular phones than on the iPhone though.


As you can see I did not mention about videos or music because I didn't upload anything to my iPhone yet. Still busy studying for my exam tomorrow. I can't wait until that is done. Overall, I am satisfied with the iPhone. I am not completely head over heels for it because of the perceived shortcomings I listed, but I've been on the market for a new phone for about a year now and this has been the best choice out there for me thus far.

In other news, the nation is counting down to Tuesday night's world cup game with Japan against Paraguay. So far in the round of 16, the obvious teams won, so I hope this game will be the first real upset and Japan celebrates once more on Wednesday morning.

Chou Atsuiiiiiiiii!!

Man, Its been really hot in Tokyo the past few days. Like last year, I was trying to hold out in using the AC for as long as I could, but this past weekend, I finally gave in and can expect my electric bill to sky rocket from leaving my multiple AC units on all day/night.

In other news, this past weekend was good. I was able to hang out with an old friend for the last time before he made his way back to BP country. I have also been studying a lot for my upcoming exam next week. I totally cannot wait until its over. Other than that, the only potential highlight for this week may be me finally getting the iPhone. I successfully pre-ordered the iPhone 4 last week before Softbank stopped taking orders. I just hope I am lucky enough to get it on the 24th instead of sometime in July like the website is saying.

Last thought. I can't believe Portugal creamed North Korea 7 - 0. I watched the game last night and after 4 - 0 near the end of the second half, I thought the massacre was over and switched channels. Looking at the news this morning, I was in shock that they managed to score 3 more times.. man I wished I stuck around to see the whole game. I can't imagine what the North Koreans are thinking after a demoralizing defeat like that.

Finally took the plunge and ...

decided to leave my current carrier AU for the more erratic Softbank so I can use the new iPhone 4. I reserved it yesterday and will likely receive the phone on launch date, the 24th. So after 3 years, I will finally be able to say that I am part elite in-crowd that owns a version of the iPhone. Umm.... yeah.... anyways, I will miss using my Toshiba phone, for sentimental reasons as I used it to take almost all the pictures I posted here in this blog. I can't wait to share higher quality pictures and maybe even some videos once I get hold of my new toy!

World Cup

Wow.. can you imagine, the first time I ever went to Japan was during the 2002 World cup. I can still remember when Japan defeated Russia and how crazy the streets were in Shibuya. I also remember singing the Cup of Life countless times in Karaoke. Fast forward 8 years to present day, I am back in Japan during another World Cup. This time though I must admit that Japanese soccer fans seem to be pessimistic on their team and the hype isn't as great as it should be, at least from what I've been seeing in the media and my friends. Anyways, I guess we will see what will happen, you'll never know if the Japanese national team is able to pull off some upsets and advance in their group. Like what American Football says "This is why they play the game". For this tournament I'll be pulling for the same 3 teams. My two home teams, USA and France and of course the Japanese Blue Samurais. Go USA! Les Bleus!! Ganbare Nippon!

Back to inaka

During my few days off, I went to check out Karuizawa in Nagano. Getting there wasn't too bad as it only took about 2.5 hours by car. It was great to get out of the big city for a bit and not worry about work. Unfortunately, I was battling a stomach virus during the whole trip and was on medication so I couldn't take advantage of eating all the local dishes I wanted to, but I did manage to sample a few tasty dishes. Also the weather was very cooperative, so I was able to take my time in enjoying the outdoors and breathe the crisp fresh air. The worst thing about taking days off from work is realizing on the final day of my vacation that I have to go back to work. I'm hoping that I'll be able to take some more days off later this summer.

First half of May snapshots

I have been pretty busy recently. Below are some random snap shots of what I experienced the past couple of weeks.





Who ever said Tokyo doesn't have any green, did not know what they were talking about. Here was our spot near Tama River before we set up for a crazy BBQ.




May is one of the best months, weather wise in Japan. Lots of clear skies which also provides some nice sunsets.




Friend from back home in the states was in town and which meant an all nighter in the city.




As summer kicks in (What happened to spring??) so do the summer festivals. I love getting food from the street vendors and enjoying fireworks. One big thing about the summer that I absolutely cannot stand is the crazy humidity and the high electric bills I receive from abusing my air conditioners.

I didn't have golden week off from work, but I'll be taking a few days this coming week to make up for it. No concrete plans, but hopefully I'll be able to do something fun and relaxing.

Mother's day...

Wow.. its been been 5 years to this day since I last saw my mom alive. With Mother's day approaching this Sunday, I want to thank my mom for everything. Time... life goes by way to fast.

Sayonara winter?

This past week the weather has been horrible. The start of the week, temperatures were almost summer like. At the time, I was really debating whether or not I should gather up all my winter clothes to put in storage and bring out my spring/summer attire. Fortunately, the idea never materialized and by the middle of the week, it was raining nonstop and temperatures fell back to winter levels. One of those days it evened snowed! The crapiness of the weather has even affected this drama filming at my apartment complex where they had to fake a sunny day outside.



I was told that weather forecasters are predicting that May should be mostly sunny. I really hope they are correct because June is the start of the "rainy" season and pretty much it rained 80% of the time during the month of April. I really hope that spring decides to show up for the long term soon!

Monster ball in Yokohama

Monster ball as seen from my obsolete camera phone.




Monsters come in all shapes and sizes.




One of the crazier fans of the night.




My seat was pretty close up to the main stage. Pretty good view.



Show is about to start.




Gaga went all out for this concert.



First time in Yokohama Arena, it was packed.



Fans showing other fans how to do the claw thingie.

From check up to root canal.

I finally played some basketball this weekend. The court was in a park filled with lovely Cherry blossom trees so I managed to "experience" the sakura feeling a bit while balling.



I actually played with a couple of people from my former basketball team. It was good to see them and fun. Playing pick up basketball to me was much more fun than the last few practices I participated late last year. I am definitely back in the ballin' mood and I think I will try to ball more often.

In other news, my routine check up late last week took an unexpected turn and I ended up getting a root canal instead. My weekend plans was also affected from my root canal as the dentist put me on antibiotics. Lucky for me, I have another follow up appointment tomorrow. I absolutely can't wait...

Tasting Europe

I just completed a gastronomic tour of Europe. As mentioned, Saturday was the Belgium Beer pub, and last night some co-workers and I went to a British pub near the office. I'm all beer'd out to be honest. Unfortunately, as with the Belgium place, the food was not as "authentic" as the menu made it out to be. But I guess after a few pints, it doesn't matter anyway. I totally struggled today during my 6:00am status call. Now I have to keep my teeth nice and clean so I won't scare the dentist too much during my check up scheduled later today.

Quiet yozokura - night hanami

Sakura-less Weekend

The first official weekend of hanami season, and I was not able to indulge myself in Japanese drinks under a cherry tree. I did however consume a lot of Belgium beers at a Belgium style pub with a friend in Kawasaki. The selection was quite impressive, and I was able to taste a wide variety of beers. The food, also Belgium themed was quite disappointing however, as it was more Japanese influenced and very similar to what you get at a typical family restaurant. We spent almost 6 hours at the place, which was the most time I ever spent at one pub. You can imagine how many bottles were consumed at the end of the night.

I am hoping that my hanami will start this week. It is pretty crappy weather today, but the rest of the week should be decent. I am also trying to play some basketball this coming weekend. If it goes down, this will be my first "ballin'" session this year for me. I am kind of afraid to see how much my skills degraded from last year. Hopefully I won't meet some motivated high school student who completely demoralizes me on the court which will force me to take another long hiatus from the game.

Sakura season coming to a tree near you

Its almost time for hanami as the cherry blossoms are starting to bloom. Unfortunately, its cold and wet outside. The other day, if you didn't look at the calendar, you would think it was January. I don't know what my hanami plans will be, but I hope I will have an opportunity to enjoy some of the cherry blossom trees during peak time at least once. Until then, I will spend my time staring at gray skies while under a warm blanket. Where 's a snuggy when you need one....

Barium sulfate ... mmm mmmm good.

I completed my annual check up yesterday. Since reaching the magical age of 30, my "course menu" of tests increased which included a nice drink of Barium for my stomach x-ray tests. I've never had such a test before and many coworkers often complained to me on how horrible it was and the feeling of them wanting to vomit after drinking it. So I was a bit nervous on the whole ordeal. The clinic saved the stomach x-ray check for last. The queue was long, so I spent a good amount of time waiting and watching each person's facial expression when they got out of the x-ray room. The majority had an expression like they were just physically violated and even a couple had tears. This did not calm my nerves and when the lady called my name, I was preparing myself for the worst. They gave me a generous serving of the white stuff and it actually didn't taste so bad. It honestly didn't taste much worse then the frothy protein shakes I usually take. I was so relieved and thought I was done with the hard hard part, until the doctors told me to get on to the machine, which was used to twist me all around like a rag doll for almost 10 minutes to get the right picture.

I am so glad my annual check up is finished. I'll find out the results in a couple of weeks in addition to finally knowing what blood type I have, which is pretty major in Japan. Now the only thing I have to knock out is a date with the dentist, which should be in a couple of weeks.

St Patrick's day

I actually went out on St. Patrick's day last night. I think the last time I ever went to a bar and drank on St Patty's day was when I was in university. I am actually not a fan of getting wasted for the sake of a commercial holiday, but a coworker invited me to go out with him and his friends and I was interested to see how St. Patty's day played out in Japan. So yesterday, I headed over to Nihonbashi after work. We went to this small Irish pub. When I say small.. I mean the place only had indoor space for like 10 - 15 people. However when I got there, I saw over 30 people jammed packed inside and the majority of them were non-Japanese in suits. Most of them were from Merrill Lynch which was across the street from the pub. It was a decent night, people were goofy, food was pretty bad, but no one cared as most were already drunk off of Guinness. I actually didn't drink a lot and left prematurely because I didn't want to ride on the dreaded last train and I got a headache from people singing to Bon Jovi's many songs. At the end, I didn't see any difference of how people viewed the "holiday" here than in the states. I guess finding reasons to drink is the same all over the world.

Shake, Shake

Just had an earthquake and the apartment shook harder than it ever did , yet my adrenaline did not spike and my mind frame was business as usual. This I believe is one of the key indicators that I have lived in Japan too long.

In other news, I need to find a place to get my U.S. passport pictures taken. I've checked out a handful of photo booths and none of them have a white background and do not offer the 2 inch X 2 inch dimensions I need. I checked online and there is this one place in Tamachi that specializes in foreign passport pictures, however Tamachi is really out of the way for me. I will be on the lookout for more photo booths/mom and pop picture places while going to the office today. I never would have thought in putting this much effort for passport photos.

Beautiful weekend

The weather was great this weekend. The majority of the time was sunny and temps, especially on Saturday was near spring like. As I've been in study mode, I took advantage of the weather by studying in cafe's. On Saturday, I went back to the Shimokita Segafredo and got myself a nice outdoor seat. The studying experience was further enhanced with a nice espresso and cold Italian beer. Alcohol and being outdoors in a corwded area doesn't sound like ideal studying conditions, but surprisingly, I got a lot of cramming in that day.

The following day I took my studying to Tama-center. It was a lot more crowded than I anticipated and I ended up not studying as much as I wanted to. It was all good though, as I enjoyed the nice weather outside. All in all, a good weekend. It flew by way too fast. Worst thing is that my workday is going to start an hour earlier thanks to US daylight savings time. Booo!

Missing Borders/Barnes and Noble

One of my objectives for my current performance evaluation is to get certified in IT strategy. I have the material, but back in the U.S. when I was cramming for certs, Barnes and Noble and Borders were always my retreat to get smart while drinking some coffee and have a selection of magazines to look at during my many breaks. There are books stores here, obviously but none of them that I've been to anyways had a cafe / sit down area where people just chilled and read books. I could go to the library, but the one closest to my place has a lot of these old people hanging out there all the time and it always smells like a doctor's office. Hopefully I'll stumble to a perfect place (ドマドマ) soon.

Mini road trip

Took a small road trip this weekend. It was refreshing to get out of the Tokyo area. As usual, the highlight for me was the food.



Nice park with a man made lake near Suzuka F-1 Racing track.




It was raining for most of the weekend in the Tokyo area, however further west, the temperatures were in the high teens (Celsius) and sunny.







Went to this incredible yaki-niku restaurant, where they served awesome marbled beef from matoba cows, that dare I say, surpassed the taste of Kobe beef.




It was a good and active weekend. I still would love a vacation where I can take more than 2 days to unwind myself and not think about work. I hope that time will come soon.