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Daily excerpt from The Paranoid's Pocket Guide:
One in 6,500 Americans will be injured by a toilet seat during their lifetime. Most will be men.
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Woke up at: 0630
Mood: A little tired
Listening to: 93 'Til Infinity by Souls of Mischief
Weather Report: Beautiful
Japanese Word/Phrase of the Day: anzu = apricot
Japan News: Denver signs Japan's Tabuse
Japanese guard Yuta Tabuse signed with the Denver Nuggets on Friday.
Tabuse, from Yokohama, played for Division II BYU-Hawaii from 2000-2002 before joining the Toyota Alvark of the Japan Basketball League. An NBA Japan spokesperson said Tabuse would be the first Japanese player in an NBA training camp.
The 5-foot-9 Tabuse also played in six games in the Rocky Mountain Revue for the Dallas Mavericks last summer, averaging 4.5 points, 1.7 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 13 minutes.
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Credit card companies Nippon Shinpan Co and Visa International said Monday they will begin joint experiments in October to let NTT DoCoMo Inc's "i-mode" Internet-accessible cell phones work like credit cards to make payments.
The experiment will involve some 1,000 retailers that accept the two companies' credit cards and about 10,000 card holders and will be carried out in big shopping centers in seven cities ��Tokyo, Yokohama, Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe, Okayama and Fukuoka.
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Fantasy Football Update (as of 09.30.03):
Record: 2-2
Ouch...didn't do too well this week.
Week 4 matchup:
Sakamoto Samurais : 52
Feo Football (Marc) : 74
Next week: japanimal (Kotaro)
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Fantasy Baseball Update (as of 09.30.03):
It's the end of the season. Thanks for playin': Jookie, Jookie's pops, Jed and Paul. Next year, we'll play a full season, aite? Here's the final standings
| Rank | Manager | Season | Last |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hanshin Tigers | 5559 | 16 |
| 2 | Border Jumpers | 4842 | 220 |
| 3 | Jookies | 4821 | 173 |
| 4 | Dodger Dogs | 4168 | -64 |
| 5 | Fleas & Ninjas | 3732 | 68 |
Airplane Ticket, Ikko, Cleanin', Makuhari, BBALL, New Place
09.27.03
Happy 26th Birthday Koji!
Went to Yurakucho and got my ticket back home. The dates are: 11.20-11.29
Ate lunch @ Quiznos...not even close to back home. :( My toothache didn't help the situation either.
Headed to Futawa Kominkan to meet up with Morimasa-san. The first thing that I noticed when I walked into the meeting room was that were some younger girls there. My past speeches have always been with an older audience. After chatting with the group and waiting for others to arrive, I started my speech. What was funny, I didn't really prepare. Since it's been awhile since my last speech, I forgot to update some of my speech that reflected my time in Japan and the places I've been to. Oh wellz...the audience didn't think anything of it. The Q & A time afterwards was quite interesting. I sometimes forget that Japan was the enemy during WWII (which I talk about in my speech). They really don't have any concept of what living as a Japanese American is like. As always, there was some questions that had nothing to do with my speech, one being from an old man who asked me if I believed the mind/body/spirit are separate things. The question really didn't make sense. The other off-topic question was actually kinda koo. It was a girl around my age telling me about this sushi place near my train station that she wants to take me to. As with all my speeches, I received a nice remuneration. This was the largest out of all my speeches, 9000 yen ($75)! Most of the club went to coffee afterwards which they treated for me. I love giving these speeches! Anyhow...got to talk to the members some more and found out that one of the members lives in the same neighborhood as me. Think of it as living on Hollyhock, but on opposite sides. We're supposed to go drinkin' sometime. :)
After my speech decided to just go chill @ Ikko. Kuro-chan, Hashimoto-san, Shacho and the Fujiwaras were there. Mama's friend caught a phatty catfish which she had chillin' in a bucket outside. She then sliced it up and fried it! Choooo Umai Yo! Fujiwara-san got a call and found out it was her daughter. Her daughter is interested in learning english so she invited her to come to Ikko to talk to me. She arrived w/her daughter who 6th grader. I was surprised of both her and her daughter's english. Since a few oolong his were consumed...I tended to speak more Japanese than English. Kuro-chan kept tryin' to explain to me that I should speak English. During this time, Shacho is totally aware of the reason why Fujiwara-san's daughter came her. He thought they were tyrin' to hook me up with her! Shacho cracks me up. During my conversation...Mama surprises me her specialty dish, natto tempura! Ever since I began to like natto, I've always heard from my Ikko family about Mama's famous natto tempura. Man...all I can say is WHOAH! It was BOMB!!! It was gettin' close to closing time so I was goin' to walk Shacho home, but he first had to relieve himself outside. He then beckoned to me to walk with him back towards Yakuendai station. He wanted to go sing karaoke. So I went with him and we ended up at the same place Hashimoto-san took to me to a couple weeks ago. Master-san remembered me as well as mama. Got to catch up with them while shacho kept ordering drinks. Then, out of the blue, Shacho decides to leave, but tells me to stay, drink and have a good time, the bill will be put on his tab. I was like, ummm...ok. Then master-san left with his friend to get some food. So mama and I just sang some karaoke and talked. Around 0200, decided to call it a night.
09.28.03
Woke up, decided to clean up my apartment. The plan today was to kick it in Makuhari w/Ami & Sho. But Sho left a little to go surfing, so Ami told me to come around 1700ish. Which was fine, since I had tons of cleaning to do. Haven't done a full cleaning since Brandon & Thuy left. Found out that both my bathroom lights went out, so I headed to Jason (like Target) to pick up some bulbs. Got home and realized that I left my wallet there, so I jammed back and asked one of the workers if they found a wallet and thank god they did! Phew!!! Since Ami & Sho went on vacation to Australia and Mama & Papa went to SF, Vegas, & the Grand Canyon. Ami & Sho got me a shirt from the Gold Coast and Mama got me some candy from Vegas. During this time, Papa was fiddling with his new watch. Found out that he bought a his and hers set of Hermes watches! Bling Bling Yo!!! For dinner, Mama got some maguro from the world famous Tsukiji Central Wholesale Market in Tokyo. For those of you who don't know about it, here's a some facts: Tsukiji market handles the largest volume of marine products among Tokyo wholesale markets. Of 719,745 tons of marine products traded in Tokyo wholesale markets in fiscal 2002, 637,499 tons, or 88.6 percent, were handled at Tsukiji, meaning 2,344 tons of marine products are sold every day. After dinner, there was this really interesting tv drama on. It was about a family in Okinawa and the trials and tribulations they went through during WWII. I'm always fascinated by seeing the Japan's perspective of The War.
09.29.03
School. Pretty much the same 'ol same 'ol. Today was probably the worst my toothache was. I have my appointment scheduled for tomorrow, but couldn't hold out. So I went during lunch time, after about an hour worth of work, the pain was gone, but the novacaine lasted for 2 more hours! It was interesting tryin' to eat lunch, I told Takahashi sensei to make sure that I'm not dribblin' any of my soup or milk. For the 5th period, we had an assembly with a old lady who lost her eyesight from an accident 13 years ago. I wish I could've understood more of her speech. Afterwards, played bball for 3 hours. Kinda aggravated my hamstring, but I iced it afterwards. Headed to Matsu Kiyo for some groceries then to Ikko. Kicked it with Hashimoto-san and Nakamura-sensei. Mama again, surprised me tonite with Natto Chao Han (fried rice)! Man, that was hella good!!! Hashimoto-san is sometimes hard to understand because he's from Osaka. Osaka-ben sometimes...well most of the time, seems like a whole a different language. We talked about what Osaka is famous for, ie. Takoyaki and Okonomiyaki. After leaving Ikko, Hashimoto-san told me to follow him and explained that now, it's my turn to have some relax time. I didn't know what to make of it. We ended up walking towards Yakuendai eki and went to this Okonomiyaki/Monjayaki place. The first thing I noticed was that this restaurant's mama was young! Second thing I noticed, one of the other workers wasn't Japanese! After sitting down at the bar, Hashimoto-san introduced me and I found out that mama speaks really, really good english! She lived in Alabama for a year, and studied fashion design in Italy for 3 years! Her friend, Georgia, from Cyprus (not SoCal, but Greece), they went to school in Italy together. It was nice to speak English to people again. What added to the night was that they had Kubota!!! Need I say more?!? Afterwards, Hashimoto-san told me to order the next drink, so I had mama make us a Kamikaze...I must say, I was quite impressed...pretty darn good. Last drink was Kahlua and milk! Man...it was nice to have those, it's been way too long! Gonna have to come back for some okonomiyaki and monjayaki. I never realized there are so many koo spots around my house!
09.30.03
School. Today was a little windy, but the bluest of blues skies. It was a beautiful day! Had the 9th grade elective English class. Made them play the fruit/vegetable memory game. There's about 18 students and we almost made it around twice! I think that they really enjoyed it! Went back to the dentist for the next stage. Got to meet the new dental assistant. :) Not sure what my dentist did, but he tells me that when I come in on Friday, it'll be the last stage and I won't feel anymore pain. Hip Hip Hooray!!! Afterwards, headed to Life for some sashimi and chicken. Now, at home, doin' laundry and this blog. Gonna go eat my sashimi & chicken.
Kaz out...
This entry was posted by kaz, on
火曜日, 9月 30, 2003.
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