When ya'll get the chance, check out the new Project Pink
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Days til Brandon & Thuy are in Japan: 14
Days til Don & Jookie are in Japan:
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Woke up at: 08:30
Mood: Exhausted
Listening to: It's The... by Crown City Rockers (formerly known as Mission)
Weather Report: Pretty frickin' humid
Japanese Food: Okonomiyaki = Japanese style pancake filled with meat, fish an/or vegatables
Japanese Word/Phrase of the Day: Chou = Very... ex. Chou Uzai = very annoying
Japan News: A Japanese team won the Little League World Series for the third time in five years, with Yuutaro Tanaka striking out 14 and Hokuto Nakahara hitting a grand slam in a 10-1 win Sunday night over Boynton Beach, Florida. Tokyo's players raced into center field after the game, bowing to the bust of stadium namesake Howard J Lamade, a tradition that began with Tokyo Kitasuna in 2001.
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Fantasy Baseball Update (as of 08.24.03):
Had a descent day today, 61 pts. Fortunately the Dodger Dogs had -7 pts. Now I'm only 56 pts. down!!
| Rank | Manager | Season | Last |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dodger Dogs | 2657 | -7 |
| 2 | Hanshin Tigers | 2601 | 61 |
| 3 | Jookies | 2272 | 57 |
| 4 | Border Jumpers | 2097 | -23 |
| 5 | Fleas & Ninjas | 1857 | 68 |
A Long Week
I'm back...kinda sorta. Tri went back last night after a grueling 6 day tour of Kanto, Japan. We did as many things that I've done in 4 months; in 6 days!!!
08.22.03
Had a bet with Tri that I wouldn't be able to wake up without an alarm before 9am. Whoever lost would have to finish the last shot of Jinro. I won, Tri took the shot. Left for headed out to Shibuya. Got to show Tri one of the crazy crosswalks there. We played some tandem Virtua Cop 3 @ a Sega arcade. Then found a pub named Dubliners and had Guiness and some fish & chips. Then went to Meiji Shrine which isn't all that. Afterwards walked down Takeshita Street (the Japan Telegraph), unfortunately we didn't get to see too many girls dressed all crazy. Went to an Adidas store and a Sony store which actually was a girl's accessory store. Met up with Aki @ Roppongi station. Walked to Roppongi Hills and had a heartland beer while admiring the view of Tokyo Tower. Tried to explain to Aki the concept of "chillin'" Really difficult...solution will addressed later.
After seeing most of Roppongi Hills, we headed to Asabu Matsuri which was only a 10 min. walk away. Called up Yu cuz he told me he was gonna be there. This matsuri was huge. Felt like a sardine. Met up with Yu and he took us to meet his friends. I told him to explain to Aki how we knew each other and also the concept of "chillin'". It was weird to see Yu speak in Japanese then seamlessly switch to English and vice versa. Finally got to meet his friend that wants to drink with me. Had no idea it was his old crew's manager who was also a girl!
We then headed to Ginza to go to this restaurant called Funeral. On the way to the subway, Aki breaks the strap on her shoes that she has only worn twice! Though we were supposed to go to Alcatraz, I was a little weary on what to expect of this place. As we got into the elevator, we noticed an ad with cartoon pictures of coffins and stuff. Still had no idea what to expect.
As the doors of the elevator opened, we were welcomed by 2 pictures that you see when you got to a memorial service. Then a girl greeted us and started speaking hella fast! She then gave Aki a white "death" robe and hat and led us through this coffin that was the front door. We then came into this small, dark room with 2 coffins. Another girl came in with a flashlight shining up onto her face. She then asked Aki to choose if she wanted to go to Heaven or Hell. Aki picked up heaven of course. After some chanting and praying, we were finally led into the restaurant. Another girl came and greeted us and we had to do some incense and ring a bell.
Finally...after all that, we were seated. Then another girl came up and gave us our towels to wash our hands. Then she brought out this wooden head and starting hitting it with a mallet and start chanting. At this point, Aki, Tri and I are speechless. Another interesting thing was the way to get the attention of the waitors/waitresses. At most restaurants, there's a little button that you can ring. Here, we had to use the little buddhist bell. We also had to say a special phrase to go the bathroom. Unfortunately none of us went. I wondered what happens....
Aki then went outside to meet Kaoru. So it was just Tri and I when another girl came up and started asking us survey questions. All we wanted was to order a pitcher of beer, but she's all hardcore about finding out: 1. Where did you hear about this place? 2. Where did you come from before coming here? When Kaoru shows up, she tries her limited English on Tri. Shortly thereafter, she orders our feast. She gets a little restless because they take forever in bringing her drink. Finally we were able to toast and start our food. Kaoru ordered this Maguro Natto dish. I haven't had natto in a long time and couldn't stand the smell...but I did end up eating it and liking it too. Now I'm a true Japanese. We ordered a Russian Roulette which consisted of 3 coroquettes and 3 shu mai. 2 out of 6 are filled with wasabi. We each pick one and eat...we all survived. So we paper, rock & scissor to see who gets the last two. It was Aki and Tri. They survived too. Hmmm.....was this some sort of joke? Kaoru doesn't hesitate to let them know that it was a dud. We got served another one and they made it clear that 2 WILL BE HOT. When we all chose our new ones, it was 3,2,1, Go! I survived and quickly surveyed the scene. By the look of Aki and Kaoru's faces, they survived too. Then I gazed over at Tri and BAM!!!. Tri's eyes were watering and he almost lost it. Tri loves wasabi, but I think this one was packed with the most wasabi he's ever had in one bite. Since there was another "bullet" left, Kaoru cut open the remaining to see how much they put. The last "bullet" had hella, I mean HELLA! wasabi. Even Tony couldn't handle that much wasabi. Ikko the joined us as we ordered dessert. We ordered Japanese cotton candy that I didn't even get a chance to eat because Ikko, who loves sweets, quickly swooped it up and started to eat it like it was all hers. Tri and I were...like...Uh...ok. Our attitudes quickly changed when Ikko got her dessert served to her. This guy brought this sweet dessert in 2 separate cups. He then brought out this object out of this box. I couldn't tell what it was at first, but by her reaction, I quickly realized it was a vibrator!!! If some of you can't picture this...check out my pic site in a day or so, they should be up by then. We finally headed out and walked Kaoru and Ikko to the subway. Introduced Tri to the Yamanote-sen @ 12am. So crowded, didn't need to hang on to keep your balance. Finally got to JR Tsudanuma by way of Akihabara. Caught a taxi and had to head back cuz Tri dropped the picture from the restaurant. We finally got home and called it a night.
08.23.03
Kamakura
After a long night, we had to get up and leave the house by 08:30 to meet up with Ikko @ Tokyo station. Caught the express from JR Tsudanuma and arrived exactly at 12:00. Met Ikko up and we hopped on the train to Kita Kamakura. Today's agenda: go to 3 temples and see the Daibutsu (Big Buddha). The weather that day was pretty warm and humid. Made all the walking seem like forever. We were able to see 2 of the 3 temples because one of them were closed for remodeling. After the first temple, we decided to grab lunch. We stopped off at this restaurant called Kaneko (my mother's maiden name) and had some Hiyashi Ramen. It wasn't bad, but does not come close to Kaoru's Hiyashi Chuuka. After awhile these templese are start lookin' the same. We then walked to Kamakura station to catch the train to see the Daibutsu. On the way, we walked down this market street which had tons of stuff. Tri and I got a bottle of Kamakura beer. Though it was only established 5 years ago, it was pretty good. Tri noticed a store named "Kathy" so Ikko posed as we took some shots. If ya'll don't remember, Kathy is her American name she came up with. We finally got to the Daibutsu...not as a big as I thought it was gonna be. Should be named the Chuubutsu. I was inspired to take some pictures with my Buddhapparel shirt. We then headed to the beach. A little dirty, kinda smelly, so we just turned back to catch the train back to Shinjuku. Met up with Kaoru and Aki. They came back from Kaoru's friend's live performance in Tokyo and had some gifts for me and Tri. They wrote, more like try to write, Tri's name in katakana. They got us both ceramic beer glasses. Mine said that I shouldn't drink too much with this (since it's nice) in Japanese. We then headed out to this Hawaiian themed restaurant. Hula girls and everything. Nice waitresses too. Anyhow...as always, Kaoru orders the food and we eat. For some reason, we didn't really get enough food even though Tri and I shared a sandwich right before. After I came back from the bathroom, I see that Tri and Ikko are dancing with the wahinis. But before I could get my camera, the song ended. Gonna have to get the pic from Ikko's camera. The girls ordered a round of souvenir cup drinks. Kaoru got a Topless Tiki, Aki got a coconut but Ikko got an ashtray for some reason. Guess you really couldn't bring home a pineapple. After takin' a pic with the alligator/croc we headed out to find a place to go karaoke. Decided on this one where you pay a flat rate with unlimited drinks. As usual, Kaoru sang her usual, Aki sang more than normal and Ikko sang my favorite Nakayama Miho song. Tri and I sang Under the Bridge and for some reason, Eye of the Tiger. Ikko and I did our Sweet Pain duet and I sang my Beloved song. After many gin & tonics, we somehow got to the trainstation. At first, we thought we were gonna miss the last train back home. Kaoru's father volunteered to drive us home from Tokyo which was way too much trouble. Luckily we found out that there was 2 more trains we could catch. It was all a daze as we finally reached JR Tsudanuma. Caught a cab and before I could get situated at home, Tri was out like a light.
08.24.03
Last Day
After waking up, Tri felt a little sick, sorta similar to how he felt after the first night. We then headed to eat some ramen and ran into Ikko no Mama. She invited us over to her house for sushi, but we kinda we're on a schedule, so unfortunately I had to turn down the offer. :( Since the ramen place didn't open til 11:30, we headed tothe grocery store to get some Japanese snacks for Tri to take back. Then we went back to the ramen place and Tri started to wig out a bit. Maybe it's the food there? I felt fine, ...oh well. We then headed out to the airport, caught the express to Narita from Keisei Tsudanuma. There was this cute little baby that kept on looking at us and smiling and laughing all the time. We finally got to the airport, went up like 6 floors to the check in desk. we walked around for something to eat and ended up at one of the many Japanese restaurants in the airport. I introduced Tri to maguro yamakake and cream anmitsu. We chilled there, had some beers and chit chatted til it was time for him to board. When we found out it was gonna be delayed another 15 min., we went to the bookstore and I picked up a Newsweek and XXL which cost me damn near $20!!! Saw Tri off and then headed back home. Mostly slept on the way home and then stopped off at to get some groceries @ Matsu Kiyo. Came home and then headed to Ikko for a snack and drink. Got to meet one of Nakamura sensei's "girlfriends". Found out she went to part of Junior high and high school in California! She also won the english speech contest when she was a 7th grader! She's a piano teacher now with over 100 students. I might start takin' up piano again.
Came home and quickly crashed out cuz I have speech practice tomorrow morning.
08.25.03
2 Week Vacation Has Come To An End
Woke up today @ around 08:30 and cleaned up a little bit and headed to school around 09:30. Saw Takeuchi sensei and Takahashi sensei in the teacher's room. Sawada was there too. We started the speech practice and it was the first time Takeuchi showed up! Unfortunately Sawada hasn't fully memorized all of the story which she was supposed to do. Anyhow..Takeuchi totally grilled her and had all these comments...uh...where were you before? Wait til there's only 2 more days til the contest...oh well. After the practice we headed to the gym to have a quick practice with Mikamiyama. Upon coming up to the gym, I noticed that there was another school there practicing with them. I even saw Sasaki sensei in bball shoes and sweating. Takahashi asked him why, and he said that because I wasn't there, he had to play! Hehehee...anyhow...we got Emi to come outside and practice with the team captains, asst. coach and Sasaki sensei. Takahashi played Ayumi's part. Everyone was shocked to hear how well Emi's english is. Sasaki sensei then told us to do it one more time, but this time, on the stage in front of everybody. So I somehow was volunteered to be Ayumi. Thought I would forget what the dialog was...but hey, I did write it! During the telephone part, Sasaki sensei provided the sound effects. Afterwards, Emi was mobbed by everybody, giving her props for being so good. Sasaki sensei says in Japanese that my English is very good. He's a pretty funny guy. I have more respect for him, never thought he had a soft side to him, but after today, I see him in a different light. Afterwards, Takahashi and I went out to eat some Yaki Niku and then he took me to the Maruzen bookstore in Tsudanuma. Saw some mags and books I wanted but when I looked at the prices, I was koo. Didn't need them that much...probably have ya'll get for me and either ship it or sent it with peeps who are visiting. Tri brought 4 books for me to read: Catfish and Mandala by Andrew X. Pham, The Unwanted by Kien Nguyen, Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card and Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, which should keep me busy for the next couple months. Cryptonomicon will be interesting, it being 1000 pages and all. Well...I'm gonna wrap this all up now...sorry for laggin' in my updates. I'll be back on my normal schedule now, that is for the next 2 weeks before Brandon and Thuy come. Aite...I've said enough...if ya'll got this far, pat yourself on the back.
Kaz out...
This entry was posted by kaz, on
月曜日, 8月 25, 2003.
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