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!

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.