Holiday lights

This is the season where night is sometimes brighter than the day time. I love it.

Rest between turmoil

It has been horrible at work, probably one of the worst times since I have been with the company. Luckily, I requested some time off prior to the troubled period and was able to recover a bit. I have been reluctantly checking my work emails via my blackberry throughout my time off and issues have yet to be stabilized. At this point I am not sure what the outcome will be but what I do know is that I have to move forward, whether it be with my current employer or not. Most likely the latter. I anticipate a rough few months ahead and really need to prepare myself to be put in a better situation.

Anyways, here are some random pictures from my recent time off.

Rainy days in Sydney

As expected with my "rain man" reputation, it rained about 75% of the time and was unusually cold. Luckily, I saw more of Sydney than my previous trip, but I couldn't do what I wanted which was chilling at a beach wearing nothing but my beach trunks and sipping on an ice cold cocktail. Oh well, I may still have a chance to fulfill that dream as I may be asked to go back there in the near future.

Now here are some random pics of the trip:

Going back down under

I have a business trip coming up in the next couple of days that will send me back to Sydney, Australia. Unlike my last trip to Sydney where I was there for about a week, I am scheduled to be there for almost three weeks. Hopefully, I will get to check out more of Sydney than just Darling Harbour. I will definitely take pictures while I am there. In the mean time, here is a pic that I took 2 days ago while I was attending a BBQ next to Tamagawa river in Setagaya.

Natural disasters

Natural disasters, like earthquakes have always been a way of life in Japan. Every time one occurs, I just say to myself, "Oh .. its an earthquake" and just brush it off. I almost never stop what I am doing. Ever since the 3/11 disaster however, I notice myself with a bit more anxiety during a tremor. I don't go into panic mode at all, but I do find myself briefly interrupting on what I was doing and question myself if this could be another "big" one. This past week, there were 2 big jolts that could be felt in the Tokyo area. Scientists still say that the Tokyo area is not out of the woods yet in experiencing a big earthquake, so there is still fear that we may experience a another super earthquake in the near future. Besides earthquakes, a strong typhoon just ravaged Japan this past weekend. Luckily, the Tokyo area was spared but parts of western Japan wasn't as fortunate. I hope natural disasters won't continue to escalate. However, I am not so sure especially with Virginia just recently experiencing a magnitude 5 earthquake! The world is a scary place.. and that is not even factoring the man made chaos like crumbling economies, wars, etc.

Summer time view

Summer came and went in a flash. My little bro from the U.S. came to visit for his summer vacation. It was great. Here is a brief view of that vacation -


Enoshima shrine. Really awesome and first time I visited there.




Went to visit Disney Sea again. We stayed there for 12 hours. Pretty crazy but fun!



Blueberry picking. A great summer time activity.



Chinatown in Yokohama. Ate too much Chinese food that day. I haven't eaten any Chinese food since!




Fireworks at a festival in Yamanashi.




Tama-center festival.



Shonan beach in Kanagawa.



Roppongi Hills as seen from under the spider.




Small beach in Odaiba.




Lake view at Yamanashi.

In the SLR game

Well, I finally gave in and bought an SLR camera this week. I've always been about convenience, hence all my pictures were taken from my camera phone. After a while though, the pictures and memories that got captured from those pictures all started to look the same. No depth. Just bland pictures that gave me the same mindless reaction "Oh yeah I remember that. Heh...". I was always impressed with the pictures that people took with their SLR cameras but I was never motivated to get one because of the cost, it was inconvenient, compared to my camera phone and the fact that some lenses cost more than the camera itself. I tried one at a local electronic store last week and was amazed that even I could take a picture of a simple object with little to no effort and it would look stunning. So now, I hope to take better pictures and possibly turn it into a hobby... hopefully not an expensive one...

Hot nights

Summer is officially here and I am feeling the heat. There are supposed to be many power outages during the summer due to the projected increase power consumption and the shut downs of various nuclear power plants. I am getting worried on how I will be able to survive this summer if the AC is not on consistently. The average high now is around 26, which is not that bad at all but the humidity levels are through the roof. During the day time I actually don't suffer that much, but at night, it is unbearable and I am unable to sleep. It doesn't help either that my apartment is situated where the wind hardly goes through. I bought one of those "space age" cool mats a couple of years ago where it was made with special material to cool down the body when it touches it. It works pretty well for the first few minutes, but when the body heat goes back up and the cool cells don't have time to get cold again, the mat actually works as an insulator with my body heat and makes me even hotter. I am using a fan now, but it doesn't really work so well in combating the high levels of humidity. I need to find a way to cool down soon.

Exhausted.

House hunting is really exhausting. The sales guys that I've interacted are really convincing and every meeting I had with them felt like another brain washing session. I am still unsure on exactly what I will do. Even though I have only looked at houses so far, buying a "manshon" or Japanese equivalent of a condo is still very much in the picture. I just haven't formally made an appointment with a real estate company that deals with condos yet as the house appointments take up the whole weekend. So my progress so far still appears to be the same as when I first embarked in the long and tiring adventure a month ago. So tired...

I did it!!

Today I received my driver's license. It was a great feeling but I was and am still very exhausted. I ended up taking the driver's test just once. I honestly didn't expect to pass it, but I reserved some lessons with some of the driving instructors at the center this past weekend and really took detailed notes. It was pretty expensive, but compared to going to a driving school, it was very cheap. One of the instructors told me that the average number of times that someone passes the test is about 4 and she continued saying that she saw on person take it 10 times. 10 freaking times.. can you imagine?!?! She insisted that I shouldn't expect to pass it on the first try. Anyways, I'm glad I proved her wrong and beat the test. I am sooo relieved I do not have to go back to that place again.. at least for a very long time!

Its time to be legal..

I've been living in Japan for a few years now and I am finally going to try and get my driver's license here. It sucks that I have to virtually go through the same steps I did when I was in high school many years ago. The driving test center is in a remote part of Kanagawa-ken and I have to get there extra early tomorrow as space is limited for test takers, 13 toe be exact. This is only for the written test as well. For the actual driving test, I would have to schedule another appointment at the center on a workday should I pass the written exam. Its pretty busy at work and we are undermanned so me taking off of work for the written test and a future driving test is pretty depressing. A fellow foreign co-worker of mines got his license a while ago but he had a license in Australia. Because Australia is part of the exempt list, all he really had to do was convert it to Japanese without any hassle. It also only took him a couple of hours to do everything so he didn't have to use a vacation day. I was really envious of that guy.. still am after reading all that I "may" have to go through in getting my license. Anyways, I have been lucky thus far driving almost all of Honshu, cop and accident free with a only valid license from a different country. I absolutely understand the world wide rule that luck must come to an end sometime and do not want it to happen to me while I'm behind the wheel without a real Japanese license. Its time to become legal!

Happy mother's day...

6 years to this day since the time I last spoke to my mom. Man.. time goes by really fast....

Sports Depression

I forgot to mention that I am completely depressed on how my sports teams did this year. On two completely unrelated sports, American Football and Basketball and in very different parts of the country, the teams that I support performed EXACTLY the same. Both were considered elite teams before the season started and were favorites to win the championship. At the end, both teams crumbled and finished with complete disappointment, not even close to making it to the same point as they did the previous year. I was completely disinterested when the NFL playoffs began and now, I do not care at all about the NBA playoffs as my team was knocked out of the first round. Oh well, now I can focus all of my attention into deciding whether or not I should buy a home...

To buy or not to buy

I have rented since I've been in Japan. I do plan to be here for the foreseeable future so I am debating if I should buy my own place. The biggest reason is I don't want to see my money that I use for rent go into oblivion. Owning a home is a bit scary though, especially in a foreign country. The flexibility of not being tied down to one place for a prolonged period of time goes away. Also there is more added pressure of making sure I do all I can to not lose my job. Another aspect that I have to think about is the financial side of owning a home in Japan. Like back home in the states, I am not guaranteed the value of my property will go up as time goes by. Actually, real estate in Japan is more like buying a new car. Chances are that your asset will depreciate as soon as you move in. There have been many exceptions to that rule and location has been the biggest factor. Unfortunately, it is crazy expensive to get a place in an ideal or "hot" location in Tokyo. I am also debating whether to buy a house or condo. If I buy the former, the location will not be in an attractive area but I would own land rather than a piece of the sky. Is it worth it at the end? Hmm... *brain is churning*

All is fine in Japan

Man its been a long time for me updating my blog. I did return from my business trip in Malaysia no problem. Unfortunately while I was there, the whole earthquake thing happened. I got back at the end of March and had to make a detour to western Japan for a while before going back home to Tokyo. As my luck would have it, I got sick on the shinkansen ride back to Tokyo and I have been sick ever since. I just stopped taking my plethora of medication this week. It really feels great to be back to normal. Since February I have either been under the weather or out of the country! Crazy.

Anyways, as for the state in Japan, yeah its pretty bad but it depends on how you look at it. If you don't look at the news at all and just go on with your daily life, it is really normal as can be minus the supermarket and convenience stores don't have everything you could want as usual, but they do still carry a lot of things. Conversely, the news, especially the international news is pretty scary and I don't blame anyone who doesn't want to go outside anymore and hoard water and non-perishable foods. The nuclear situation is serious and I believe yesterday they raised the situation from a 5 to a 7 in their "seriousness" meter but the most thing I am concerned about is still the earthquakes. Everyday so far there have been earthquakes. Granted it has not been that bad, like the biggest one was a 4 in my local area. At the office, the scariest part is the announcement before the earthquake. With very strong earthquakes, Japan has the technology to warn its people minutes before the earthquake arrives. So there was a pretty big earthquake yesterday around 2pm. The public announcer came on and warned everyone to prepare themselves for a very strong earthquake. Man.. I was scared but at the end it was only like a magnitude 3 in Shinjuku which isn't that bad at all, relative speaking that is.

Anyways, that is my quick update. Now here are some pics from Malaysia -

Getting ready for another ...

business trip down south. I found out about this trip just 4 days ago and am expected to leave in a couple of days. I won't be going as far south as Australia again, but I will be close. My company is sending me to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for a few weeks. I have never been to South East Asia before outside of Hong Kong so it will be interesting. I hear the food is great there but am worried that my stomach is not prepared with dealing with new types of bacteria. I am hoping that my experiencing living in NYC many years back and living off the food from Chinatown will reassure my stomach that it can survive through anything! I am also debating whether or not to go to Vietnam for the weekend. I have had many friends and family go there and they all loved it. Hopefully I will not be crazy busy and will be able to take a weekend trip. Expect the next post to be filled with pictures of my trip!

Thirty something..

When I was in elementary school I remember the TV show "Thirty Something" being really popular. I actually did watch a couple of episodes and the only impression I got was that these people were old. I kept telling myself back then that I could not imagine myself being that old. Now that I have reached that thirty something bracket, I do feel old. My body is breaking down a lot faster than it did even just 2 years ago when I was still in my twenties. Its been a hard adjustment not expecting your body to bounce back like rubber. Its taking a toll on me even on tasks like working, I used to be the marathon man and completed tasks like they were nothing without taking any breaks. Recently, my body has been breaking down and I find that I have to take more breaks just to make it through the day. I don't know but at this rate, I should not be surprised if I find myself using a walker when I hit my forties...

Its been a while..

Its been a while since I've updated the blog. January has been so busy for me. I don't think I had a time during the whole month where I could just stop and relax. Its still pretty hectic now so here are brief updates on what has been going on so far...

- Catch me if you can
There hasn't been any precipitation in Tokyo for the past month and a half. This plus the fact that it is Flu season and Tokyo is one of the most populated cities in the world equals to bacteria heaven. I have tried to take the proper precautions every time I venture to the office in Shinjuku but I couldn't escape the germs and actually got sick two different times since the beginning of January.

- Ballin'
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to play basketball since late December. This always happens to me where I start playing basketball consistently for a certain amount of time and then I take this long hiatus. As a result, my skills degrade and I never get passed the "I'm a little better than suck" level.


-Other sports.. the watching kind
I'm really happy that Japan did well in the recent Asian Cup, however my US sports team did or are not doing well. The Dallas Cowboys were non-existent this whole season. I watched the Super bowl, but like last year, could care less on who won. The Orlando Magic now are declining from the elite teams of the NBA. This hurts, especially since football season was forgettable. I really hope the Magic will turn things around and be able to contend for a championship this season!


- As a slave
Work has been killing me. One of my projects is launching this month and it has always been chaotic since 2011 arrived. I can't wait till its over, or it at least calms down however there is talk that I may need to do some additional duties which will require me in having the POD (pager of death) for more than one groups.. If or when that happens, life will really end for me.

- Gluttony
Since my birthday passed a few weeks ago, I have been wining and dining well. I managed to satisfy the following cravings :

Buffalo wings
Prime rib
Fish on a stick
French cuisine
Peking Duck
Alcohol including great wine and Belgium Beer
Anything cover in Belgium chocolate


- What next?
I am definitely going to try to play more basketball in the coming weeks. I need to get more active, especially since the frequency of me going to the gym has gone down and eating high calorie foods have gone up. I'm also thinking about my future and whether or not I should buy a place in Tokyo. Its all in the "thinking" phase now, but I am noticing that I am losing a lot of money to rent right now which I will never get back. The big aspect of course is my exit strategy. If for some reason I have to leave Japan and I own property here, how easy would it be for me to sell it and would it be possible for me to gain from that transaction. In Japan the law of real estate is different from the U.S., or at least from what I knew of the real estate market in the U.S. before the housing bubble. When you buy a place here, it is like buying a new car, the value decreases as soon as you move in because there are so many new condos popping up here and people generally like to live in new places only. The big question though is if I were to sell and take a loss, would that loss be more significant than if I just had rented a place the whole time. These are the questions I have debated in my head for the longest time and my research so far has not convinced me either way. If anyone out there has better insight, I'm all ears.. or in this case.. all eyes.


Well work beckons me once again... until next time.

End of the year parties and New years Shopping

I ended the last week of 2010 with a couple of bon enkais and a friend's birthday dinner. They were all fun. I enjoyed great drinks, hung out with friends, ate good food and of course... did karaoke. The only thing bad about these parties was that they were all on work nights. Everyone except me were on holidays so I couldn't go all out and had to make sure I was somewhat functional so I could work the next day. I took it easy for New Years Eve and just stayed home and watched the plethora of countdown programs on TV.

I didn't make it to a shrine during the new years weekend but did venture out to the department stores to take advantage of the new years sales. I ended up not buying anything for me but it was because I couldn't get to all the sale items even though I was just steps away. The crowds and the chaos was just unbearable. Like I said the same time last year, I do not want to experience this kind craziness again, but clearly my talk is cheap and I'll see how it goes next year hehe.

Well, as with the end of the year parties, there are also parties to welcome in the new year or shin enkai. I'll have those to look forward to and my birthday coming up next week.. yay!