When ya'll get the chance, check out Tri's new Project Pink
----------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------
Woke up at: 07:00, 12:30, 15:00
Mood: Refreshed
Listening to: Flow (Remix) by Zion i feat. The Grouch and Goapele
Weather Report: Rain, rain and more rain
Japanese Food: suika = watermelon
Japanese Word/Phrase of the Day: kokoro = heart
Japan News: Naples, Italy: Makoto Onishi, a 28-year-old Japanese pizza chef named the best pizza maker at the annual Naples pizza festival earlier this week, on Friday showed off his pizza-making skills to a group of admirers in Naples, the home of Italian pizza. On Tuesday, Onishi became the first foreigner to win the best pizza-maker title at Naples's PizzaFest, where the best pizzas were often adjudged to be the work of local pizza-making masters.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fantasy Football Update (as of 09.20.03):
Record: 2-0
Week 1 matchup: Spam Jam (Tri)
Sakamoto Samurais: 62
Spam Jam: 37
Week 2 matchup: Macs Silver & Black (Jim)
Sakamoto Samurais: 62
Macs Silver & Black: 42
Week 3 matchup: Fleas & Ninjas (Paul)
Shouldn't be a problem, I'm only scared of Bulger & Faulk.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fantasy Baseball Update (as of 09.20.03):
Terrible day while the others had a better one. Less than 2 weeks left!
| Rank | Manager | Season | Last |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hanshin Tigers | 4684 | 9 |
| 2 | Border Jumpers | 4256 | 42 |
| 4 | Dodger Dogs | 3931 | 72 |
| 3 | Jookies | 4047 | -4 |
| 5 | Fleas & Ninjas | 3280 | 117 |
Kyoto, Sports Day, Kaoru's Birthday, Brunch w/Uncle David, Shibuya w/Yu, Shopping in Funabashi, Akihabara & dinner w/Masumi
After watching the Zion i DVD, I was finally inspired to get this long awaited update to you all. Enjoy!
Thursday, 0400:
KYOTO
Woke up @ the crack of dawn, then headed to Tokyo station to hop on the Shinkansen to Kyoto. Introduced Brandon to the katsu sando chicken katsu sandwich. The bullet train ride took about 2 1/2 hours and we arrived in Kyoto @ around 0945ish. We then hopped on a bus to the Golden Pavilion. The pavilion was bling bling no doubt! There were also many bowls with rocks shaped like buddhas around it. After leaving the Golden Pavilion (only took like 10 min to go through the whole thing) we were able to see the west Dai Mon Ji Yaki. We then headed to Mcdonald's for lunch. We all had sandwiches that were only native to Japan McDonalds. Tasted good but they were a little small. Hopped on another bus and headed to the Silver Pavilion. The pavilion wasn't as nice looking as the Golden one but it did have these fantastic looking sand sculpters. We then tried to go to Kiyomizudera but got on the wrong bus, so we decided to go through Kadawaramachi. Strolling the shopping district, we constantly had to keep an eye on Brandon cuz he would wonder off to who knows where. We decided to check into our Ryokan (Japanese traditional style hotel). Got to the Ryokan called Hissho Besso and was instantly in awe of the place. We then got to our room and I was like whoah! The main room was 15 tatami mats big! There was also a little chill room and the a normal bathroom. Our main host came in to give us tea and some Kyoto snacks. Brandon decided to get some water from the water thermos and poured it into the glass cup and cracked it! We told our hostess that we wanted dinner @ around 6ish. We had about 2 hours til dinner, so we decided to take a look at the Japanese garden and ofuro. While Thuy and Brandon took showers, I decided to make use of the ofuro. It wasn't bad, doesn't come close to an onsen though. Dinner arrived and we had shabu shabu, sashimi & fish. We thought this was all we got, but our hostess kept coming back with more food. The best thing that I had was some umeboshi somen which was pretty darn good. After dinner, 2 workers came and setup our futons. Thuy was in total awe we he saw them do this. I told them not to lay in them yet cuz they wouldn't get up. When they finished, we headed out to Kadawaramachi. We went bar hopping, starting off at this one isekaya. We then walked all around downtown, saw tons of people chillin' on the banks of the Kamo river. From there we took a different route, a side street that runs parallel with Kadawaramachi. It happened to be the red light district...boy we were shocked. Thuy and Brandon had a good time though by always replyin' to the "sales associates" in english which deterred most of them. We stopped off at this pub there, pretty swank place, pretty strong gin & tonic. We then continued down the street and not takin' more than 10 steps, I saw something that got my attention. It was a sake bar with about 40 bottles in the front window. I noticed one bottle that stood out from the rest. It's 3 kanji, first one I knew was Ku, third one was Ta, but I couldn't read the middle one. So I went inside and asked the host if that bottle of sake was Kubota. He said yes, so I told the boys we HAVE drink here. Thuy and Brandon both wondered why we have to stop here, I told them that they are gonna get a chance to drink my favorite sake, or in the words of my father, "The Good Shit". When we sat down, the waitress poured our drinks, but before we were going to start drinkin', Brandon says, "So...do we shoot this?" Luckily my father wasn't there...he would've slapped Brandon's head. Anyhow...I explained to them that you need to sip this, cuz this is the good stuff. When Brandon took a sip, he instantly coughed, tsk tsk tsk...when I look and Thuy, he really liked it. For all you out there, let me breakdown sake for you with this: take wine for example, the best wine is made from the best grapes, right? California has some of the best grapes in the world, therefore it has some of the best wine. Sake is the same but with rice. The best rice makes the best sake. Niigata produces the best rice in Japan, so therefore they will have the best sake. Kubota comes from Niigata. Since Brandon couldn't appreciate the good stuff, I finished his. We then headed back to the hotel. On the way back, Thuy kept on telling me he's ready to climb Mt. Futon. When we got back, we instantly crashed out.
Friday, 0730:
The next day, we got our wakeup call for breakfast @ around 0750. We then go down to breakfast room with a great view of the Japanese garden. Our breakfast was bomb. Nothing beats having miso soup in the morning! Afterwards, we got our backpacks and heading out to go shopping. We must of went to like 15 different shoe stores...most of the shoes that Brandon, they didn't have his size. For lunch, I introduced them to Matsuya, one of the many Japanese fast food restaurants. They were surprised to see that you buy a ticket from a machine to place your order. After walkin' around Kyoto, we chilled in a McDonalds to get out of the heat. Then headed to Kyoto station to catch our Shinkansen back to Tokyo. Finished The Unwanted on the ride back. Next up, Cryptonomicon.
Saturday, 0830:
SPORTS DAY:
We were running a little late and missed the opening ceremony. The first half of the day was your traditional events: 100m dash, 200m dash, 1000m, 1500m, etc... I ran the 200m with the 8th graders. Unfortunately, I can't remember the last time I ran a 200m. Let me just tell you, that quickness on the court is totally different than straight running. I got off to a good start, but quickly lost my lead. I figured that my heart and mind will get me through the race, unfortunately my body thought otherwise. I totally hit the wall...haven't done that my vball club days. Upon finishing, I couldn't stop my legs...so the only way for me to stop was to fall. So when I did, I ended up scraping my leg and arm and got dirt all over me. From that point, I officially finished my participation in the events. I was on team shiro (white). We were 4th place during the first half of the day. But the second half we picked it up and got to 2nd place. The second half of the day was for the unorthodox events such as the 3 & 5 legged relay race for the 7th grade girls, centipede race for the 7th grade boys. There was even an event for the parents. Our team won the centipede race (about 18 boys, who have their feet through loops in 2 long ropes), but they decided to redo it because there was some kind of discrepency with the judges. So on the redo, we ended up coming in 4th cuz our team ate it. For the 8th grade boys, their event was called How Many Jumps. Basically it's a super long jump rope and the goal is to see how many times you can go w/o messing up. Our team got 96! The next closest was only 45! We did have the biggest 8th grade boys twirling the rope. I forget what the 8th grade girls did. However the best events came from the 9th graders. The girls' event consisted of 7 3m bamboo poles which were in the middle with teams on either side. The objectice is to see how many poles you can bring back to your home base. It's basically a tug-of-war...the trick is to know when to give up and help out your other teammates. These girls really get into. Friendship means nothing during this event which was easily seen by the ruthlessness I witnessed. These girls were diving, pushing, tackling and even getting dragged on the dirt! After their event, many of the girls were crying or limping, holding their arms, etc. I never saw so many ppl @ the nurse's station! Many of them got jacked up! The best event was the 9th grade boys. It was called something, something horse. Each "horse" has 4 people acting as the legs while carrying their rider on their hands. Each rider has a bandana on but there is the captain who has this paper ball (the kind you blow up) which is attached on a helmet worn by the captain. The goal is to pop the paper ball on the opposing team's captain. The regular riders are "dead" if their bandana gets pulled off. I was surprised to see the smallest rider "kill" the biggest captain. Tsukasa (the biggest 9th grader) was being pestered by one rider while he was busy, the smallest rider came in and killed him. It was a sight to see. The day ended in the super relay. Coed, all grades. It was intense yo! We were in second and about to takeover first, when our baton pass was botched. We ended up takin' like 3rd place or something. It's cool how the have the anchors wear colored jerseys to distinguish them from the rest. Man, they're hella fast! I give them props for their speed on the track...but it's no contest when we get on the court. :) Closing ceremony gave out grade awards as well as the the final team awards. 3kumi, team yellow came in first; 4kumi, team white came in second and the rest I don't remember. Afterwards, I entrusted Thuy to go back to my apt while I stick around to help clean up. Got back to the apt and took a shower, then we headed to Ueno to meet up with girls for Kaoru's bday dinner.
KAORU'S BDAY:
Met up with Ikko, Aki and Kaoru. Then we met up with Tetsuo and headed to the restaurant. Ikko never ceases to amaze me on the restaurants she picks out. This one was in Ueno and called Arabian Rock. The theme was something out of Alladin. It was pretty crazy. I was like whoah when we were greeted by our hostesses. They were in the Princess Jasmin gear with tummys showin'! ;b Our room's ceiling was about 5 feet high, so we had to crouch to get to our seats. Let the girls order the food while we decided what to drink. Found out for only $13 you get free drinks! The food was pretty good, had a nice variety. Afterwards, headed to karaoke.
At this point, things get a little fuzzy, but I do remember: Kaoru singing her normal songs, Ikko singing my favorite song, Me and Ikko singing our duet and Brandon doing his new Japanese pose in pictures. After karaoke, caught one of the last trains home and had to take a cab home. Got home, crashed out.
Sunday, 0815:
BRUNCH WITH UNCLE DAVID AND AUNTY MITSY
Woke up and headed to Ogikubo to meet up with Uncle David and aunty Mitsy for brunch @ Hotel Sanno, a military run hotel. On the car ride there, Brandon was hella jockin' the GPS Navigation system. We got the hotel and it was kinda culture shock for me. Everyone spoke English. The most surprising thing for me was when someone almost bumped into me. Instead of hearing sumimasen, I heard excuse me. Have I been in Japan too long? The food was DA BOMB!!! I haven't had potatoes, bacon, sausage, prime rib, shrimp cocktail in such a long time! I probably ate at 2 pounds of prime rib.
CHILLIN' WITH YU
After brunch we met up with Yu who was with friends at this flea market. We got there right as it was ending and it started to rain. So we headed out and Yu and Setochi(sp?) took us to Shibuya. I knew Brandon was gonna love Shibuya. They took us to these record stores (Yu tells me that Shibuya has the largest selection of records in the world) and shoe stores for Brandon. What made the day fun was that setochi brought his dog. It's a rare dog that got so much attention. The ultimate girl magnet! I would say about 90% of all the girls in Shibuya commented by saying cho kawaii (very cute). We then at a snack at Freshness Burger. It's a good thing that we got a large burger cuz the small is hella small! It'll only take like 2 bites to finish. We then headed to this one all girls department store (I can't remember the name). Went to look for a toy for Setochi's dog. Setochi had to take off cuz he had a performance that night. So we all went to Starbucks to hang out for a bit then headed home. Walked around my neighborhood, checked out the 24 hour video/cd rental place. When we got back, somehow Brandon broke my MP3 player, only one side has output.
Monday, 1000:
Went to shopping in downtown Funabashi and of course the Daiso 100 yen shop. Then headed to Roppongi Hills and walked around downtown. Ate a snack @ TGI Fridays then headed home. A pretty chillin' day.
Tuesday, ????:
Went to Akihabara to meet up with Masumi. We all got some stuff and then we went to dinner in Kanda. Came home and Brandon was tired. Didn't want party on the last night. So Thuy and I decided to finish up the sho chu. Next thing I know it's morning. Supposedly was talkin' to Brandon about all kinds of weird shiet for about an hour and half. I don't remember talkin' to him. Let's just say, Thuy and I got Brandon, but Brandon got us back.
Wednesday, 0900:
Woke up, the boys packed up, Brandon got whooped in Street, but came back with his only victory of the whole trip. Brandon's record: 1-7. Hopped on the train to Narita, was a little late. But they got on ok. The beta test has been completed. Next time around, I should be gold master. So who's it gonna be? Don and Jookie are coming in March?
Kaz out...
This entry was posted by kaz, on
日曜日, 9月 21, 2003.
You can leave your response.
