Woke up around 9:30 today, and spent the morning and early afternoon working on Weekender stuff even though I didn't go into the office - I had to finish the article about Grace Kim for the sports pages (she's the one we interviewed about martial arts and 3 step defense on Tuesday), and then I also had to write the piece on Motomachi and a small profile of Tomei's to go with it... Since I wasn't exactly on task 100% and was on msn for most of the morning, it ended up being around three before I finished and got both pieces emailed in. I love how on the web based email we have for work, so we can log in from home its called 'squirrel mail, email for nuts' or something along those lines, clearly stating that you are a bit nuts for checking your email from home :p

I took Venus for a walk in the back streets of our neighbourhood after I finished - I listened to about half the metpod and we poked around some streets I've never been on before, we found a cute little shrine and some tiny back alleys, before winding our way past a school and out near the station... Dropped her off at home and then headed to the library to do my bi monthly book exchange, and then continued on to Roppongi to meet Peter and check out their new studio space. Jordon was there, so the three of us saw the space and chatted for about an hour - Peter told us about his tour of the about to open Ritz Carlton Mid Town project which sounds very nice. He got to see the hotel, and checked out the top suite which will go for a cool two million yen per night! ($20k) The Ritz is scheduled to open towards the end of March, but they're just putting the finishing touches on it right now, unfortunately, they don't need room testers, though we're all willing to take one for the team and try it out!

Jordon headed to the office around 6:30, and Peter and I went a couple of blocks down the road to Suji's (I seem to be determined to become a regular there!), where we had a great dinner. We split a side salad and garlic toast, which were both nice, and the I had 'Jason's burger' and Peter had a blackened Cajun whitefish which he really enjoyed. The burger was sooooo good! It was hand made -thick and juicy, with cheese and crispy bacon, and then fresh veggies, basically the perfect burger! It also came with some tasty thick cut steak fries; I was very happy with my choice! I was also glad to see that Suji's had some customers in there, I really hope they do well, with so much competition in terms of places to eat here (I read somewhere that there are around 80 000 restaurants in Tokyo), it can't be easy to open a new place. It should do well with the ex pat market though, as most of the staff are native English speakers, and being in Azabudai means its a good location for that crowd.

After dinner we met Hitomi at Nissin - she was shopping for an afternoon/evening get together she's hosting at Peter's house tomorrow, and then we headed home at around 10. I think we're about to watch some Ugly Betty and then I'm either going to sleep, or head over to Shimo Kitazawa to see the Molets play. I'm a little undecided since it's after last train, but it's within easy biking distance, so I guess we'll see how asleep I am after Ugly Betty and then make some kind of decision - I don't have to teach until one tomorrow, so staying up till 3 or whatever would be fine...

decisions, decisions!

D.

PS, I'm going to try and upload a couple of Chinatown pics, so check that out as well...