..:: kaz's blog ::..: 1月 2006

月曜日, 1月 30, 2006 by kaz

a birthday party weekend (i kno, i kno, sure it's been like 2.5 weeks)

fri, january bday party:

met up wit: b, rick, sean, eug, junj & jt in 'buya and headed over to tucano's, churrascaria brasileira (brazilian bbq). the food was awesome. i would have to say a tad bit better than barbacoa. thx guys for the great time.

sat:

recovery day...

sun, dec/jan bday party, house warming party:

met up wit: hide, kaoru, sachi and headed over to saitama to ikko's place. we all went shoppin' for nabe and walked to her and tsutomu's apt. man, that must've been at least a 15min walk (and i thought that i lived far from the station). it was great to finally see 愛理 for the first time. she's so cute!

i haven't seen my asakusa friends in such a long time...probably since september, so it was good to catch up with everybody.

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金曜日, 1月 27, 2006 by kaz

some pics from my bday party w/my 幕張 family.

pics from my trip to 熱川

ikko's 新年会

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木曜日, 1月 26, 2006 by kaz

i'm happy to be typin' this post on my pb. after bein' w/o it for almost a week and havin' to resort back to usin' a pc for my everyday stuff made me realize how much i like osx and how much i love my pb keyboard. probably the best keyboard to type on whether it be desktop or laptop. plus, havin' a brand new, fresh hd, it's always fun to recalibrate all your settings, etc. was able to restore my music thanks to senuti, still need to find a way to get my photos back onto my pb.

the snow is still out there, even though it's been about 5 days now. at least the ice on my steps have finally melted away. goin' up and down that after a few drinks at nite, takes a lot of concentration...

tomorrow is the big january bday bash for eug & me. we're not goin' to our usual joint cuz we had a bad experience there last time. we goin' to this churrasco (brazilian bbq) place instead.

in da news

- ddr (dance dance revolution) fitness program in west virginia!?!

- no more booth babes @ E3!?!

- bball: artest for peja. hmmm....sac is gettin' more and more ghetto... hopefully this will get them out of da gutter before artest goes thru one of his mood swings again...

- netflix to support both blu-ray & hd dvd

- an interstin' link sent to me from spamajama

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月曜日, 1月 23, 2006 by kaz

what have i been up to.....that is the question, huh?

well...the past 10 days or so have been pretty chill with a little hiccups here and there.

a new housin' complex near my house has repaved the road i take everyday to/from school which makes climbin' the hill a whole lot easier.

last last weekend, went to makuhari to practice with ami's team. haven't played vball in such a long time, maybe 3 months (teachers' rec doesn't count). after playin' for 4 hrs, took a nap and then headed over to her mom's house for my bday kimchee nabe dinner. met their new exchange student, 19 yr. old cat from texas. was koo to be able to talk computers, games, etc... jeanette also came thru (tho rather late) as well as hide. fast forward >> 6 hrs.: i wake up, on the floor with 2 other ppl in the livin' room. realized that fell asleep (ok, ok, ok...passed out). woke up and had some breakfast that mama made and ami came by later and dropped me off at the station.

lately my powerbook has been laggin' for some reason and on monday, jan.16th, my pb would not start up. so after my meetin' on wed, headin' to the ginza apple store. the genius bar girl tried all kinds of things but to no avail. so i decided to go ahead and get it serviced. had to sign this sheet authorizin' them to erase everything if they can't recover anything. it's gonna cost a lot of money which means i probably can't go snowboardin' this season. so i'm typin' this on my retired dell inspiron 4000 (p3 700MHz).

as far as work is concerned, i was in an 8th grade class and noticed this kid with some crazy lookin' hair. turns out that he tried to buzz his hair with scissors!?!?!
when i saw the homeroom teacher tryin' to clean it up, i volunteered my services. i've cut a student's hair at every one of my schools now. i've noticed some of the 8th grade classes have...can i actually say it...been improvin'.

was able to start season 6 of my madden franchise. t.moore is still my h.c., holmgren still my o.c., fired belicheck and hired j.fox (my old h.c.) as my d.c.. don't remember who my special teams coordinator is. didn't change my offense except for my guards. I didn't resign my vet rg and traded away my lg. both were pro bowlers however gettin' up there in age. so my 2 young guards have now been promoted to block for s.renick(hb) and protect p.manning. on def, made some changes to my fs, rolb & re. traded away the aging m.rucker(re), w.witherspoon(rolb) and i.bashir(fs) for younger/more upside players. i also implemented a cover 2 defense (previously just a 4-3) which allows me to run 3-4 as well as some crazy nickel/dime packages.

last friday, headed out to atagawa in shizuoka prefecture with some teachers from my last school. one of them has a vacation place out there. took about 4.5 hours to get there by car (which is about the same distance from sac <-> slandro.) ate & drank a lot and chilled in the outdoor onsen. next day, it started to rain a bit and after a while it turned into snow. we went to this one restaurant on the water that one of the teachers remember goin' to about 20 yrs. ago!?! it was still there and i had some grubbin' lobster miso soup, aji sashimi, grilled aji, fried aji bone. once we left, it started to snow again and then it started to really come down. when we got back to funabashi, there was hella snow everywhere. like inches!!! it continued to snow throughout the nite. when i got back to my place, the snow on the steps reached all the way to my calf!

yesterday was ikko's shinenkai. it was a pretty small party with just the regular regulars. oh...btw, i want to congratulate nakamura sensei and chie with their new baby girl, yukako (born on jan. 8th) mama and yasuko made tons and tons of grubbin' food. i ate waaaayyyy too much. a great time indeed...

well, gonna try to go home early today to avoid the black ice that'll probably still be there...

-kaz out...

an interestin' article about japan's declinin' birth rate

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金曜日, 1月 13, 2006 by kaz

a misc update

it's friday the 13th...

had a bday dinner the other nite for ginpei and me. can't believe he's already 1 yrs. old now. has some grubbin' sushi from the local sushi joint and of course some: karaage and gobo kinpira. was koo to play around with shinba and even watch him play this naruto fightin'/puzzle game.

jodie foster is in japan now, promoting her new movie...flight something...flightplan...??? anyhow, they had this big 'ol event @ roppongi hills and even had a 20 ft., 10 ton replica of a plane. they also had all the security guards dressed as pilots...weird.

got this from a friend, an interestin' site bout the rise and fall of dave chapelle.

also, i would like to introduce the madden chronicles

in closin', a brand spankin' new, beautiful & powerful laptop, the new apple 15" intel dualcore macbook pro:

courtesy of apple.com

if only i had an extra 3k, this baby would be mine!! can't believe a friend of mine already ordered one! that bastard!!!

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金曜日, 1月 06, 2006 by kaz

merry xmas and a happy new year

i'm back in freezin' cold japan after a nice warm vacation in singapore and malaysia. this trip was something new for me and i really learned a lot.

don't feel like recappin' the whole trip (i'll try do that with pics) but here's a short summary:

the trip got off to a bad start when this guy sittin' next to us on the flight over to singapore decided to drink like a madman and then vomit all over the place. after 2-3 times, we finally moved to business class (with like 10 min left)

got into singapore and stayed at the conrad (dope hotel). next day, went to chinatown and tried to find a way to get to langkawi. was really tough to find something all the way to langkawi so we took a bus in the evenin' to KL (kuala lumpur). got there @ midnite and took a cab to our hotel. walked around kl, went shoppin' @ the petronas towers. still couldn't find a way to langkawi, so we ended up bookin' a flight to penang and try to take a ferry to langkawi. got to penang but just missed the first ferry. decided to take taxi to kuala kedah (1.5 hrs = $15). from kuala kedah, we took a 1 hr ferry to langkawi.

langkawi was my favorite place of the trip. supposedly it was high season, but when we got to the beach, there was barely any ppl there. it was so peaceful. our first hotel was right on the beach. we had tons of great food (thai, malay, indian, fusion, etc), most of which we ate on the beach.

went island hoppin' one day and got to: visit remote islands, feed eagles and check out a lake within this one island.

another day we rented a car and cruised around the whole island. not only was it cheap to rent a car (24 hrs = $13), u don't need a license!?! it was also kinda strange to drive on the right side as well as drive stick at that. lark and i kept on reachin' for the stick but we were actually reachin' for the driver side door! we went to this one beach that was literally our own private beach. there was no one around. we then headed to this waterfall which was so beautiful.

on the mornin' of da 31st, we left langkawi and worked our way back to penang (ferry to kuala kedah -> taxi to penang) and flew straight to singapore. got into singapore and it was rainin' a little bit. this time we stayed @ the hilton and we really put our concierge to work. we asked bout parties, they recommended some, then we decided, they sent someone to pick up our tickets, we got movie times, directions to restaurants, band-aids, etc... walkin' around singapore on new year's eve was crazy. mad number of peeps. we ate at a vegetarian chinese place and then headed out to the nye party. we ended up goin' to the zouk(a popular club)'s nye party which wasn't at their club but at the expo center. felt kinda weird to be in this convention hall, but it was aite. smuggled in a flask of bushmills and we were good. the crowd was about 95% natives which was nice cuz we didn't want to be around a lot of tourists. another great thing was the music. they totally brought it back with tons of 80's and 90's. drinks there were a little bit of a pain but i could see why they did it the way they did. you have to buy drink coupons ($5) first, then give that to the bartender for a drink. let's just say, tons and tons of hennessy was consumed. lark even got a free drink from a local kat. not sure how we got back to our hotel, but i kinda remember grubbin' on room service before passin' out...

next mornin'.....i mean afternoon, headed out for some dim sum. took a taxi and at the gate of this hotel, there was a security check and they looked inside the trunk. felt kinda weird, guess ya'll would have to be there. the place was pretty good. got to use my cantonese for food for the first time in a long time since there's mostly mandarin speakin' ppl in japan. ate tons and tons of food.

checked out and tried to watch a movie since it was pourin' rain but the movies were all booked. so we just decided to chill at this outdoor cafe. had dinner at this food court and then got our stuff and headed to the airport. bought lots of お土産.

my impressions of singapore:

- great food
- lots of japanese stores
- like tokyo
- way too many chinese ppl
- tons of shoppin' malls
- american music is played everywhere
- prices are about the same as da US
- pretty good dim sum

my impressions of malaysia:

- great food
- nice ppl
- interestin' to see such a mix of diversity all livin' together
- dopest beaches
- cheap

comin' back to japan, it was freezin' cold. goin' from 85F to 42F was pretty drastic. chilled most of the time in japan. went to the place that has this grubbin' veggie tenpura and did some karaoke; met up with b & kyoko in shimo-kitazawa for coffee and dinner; had dinner at my mama's place.

here are da pics:

.: SINGAPORE PT.1:.

the conrad centennial

the bathroom @ da conrad

xmas illumination outside the conrad pt.1

xmas illumination outside the conrad pt.2

the view from our room

at some hindu temple

chinatown

more chinatown

even more chinatown

the travel agency complex

.: KUALA LUMPUR (KL) :.

a rest stop somewhere in between singapore and kl

chicken rice, southeast asia's staple

room service in kl

at a train station

awas = caution. saw this word EVERYWHERE in malaysia

the chewin' gum and track intrusion are funny

patronas towers

one of the biggest malls that i've ever been to

huge xmas tree inside the patronas tower mall

tryin' to position myself to take a pic of...

this

.: PENANG :.

the docks

.: PULAU LANGKAWI (LANGKAWI ISLAND):.

the kuah harbor

pantai chenang (chenang beach)

doesn't get better than this...

this is how close we were to the beach

the lunchtime view of the beach from tomato

salad & garlic toast

margherita pizza

larky lark

yours truly

just chillin'...

the sunset from our hotel

grilled barracuda, satay, potato salad, veggies and rice dinner on da beach all for 25 ringgit (=$6.60)

brunch @ tomato

yummy avocado

tomato's special omelette

hash browns with garlic butter

the server brought out the food plate with the other food, but since we were goin' to wait til after to eat it, she came by and put it on ice and took out the bananas (lark doesn't like bananas)

me & lark

island hopping tour

posin' on da dock

lark's turn

first stop, pulau beras basan

monkeys started to appear out of nowhere. these german guys we were with had all the stuff in their backpacks emptied out by them...

next stop, eagle feeding

it started to rain hard on the way there so it gave the area a mysterious, lotr kinda look...

on our way to the 3rd island

aren't these guys cute?

could you imagine any of these guys attackin' anybody when they're just chillin'? but for some reason, they decided to attack lark

and then these guys who were comin' back to the docks yelled to her to hide the plastic bag she was carryin'. didn't know why...

until we saw this sign

on our way to the lake

an interestin' sign we saw before the lake

me and lark

do i look photoshopped in?

for some reason we stopped in the middle of all the islands. couldn't figure out why until our guide said (really, really broken english) that this formation looks like a woman layin' down on her back. what do ya think???