Well, it was our golf tournament today at Windsor Park in Ibaraki. We had quite the adventure getting there (things started looking down when we were sooo far off track that we were no longer on the map!) but we got there eventually and had a nice lunch before heading off for a casual 9 before coming back in for the prize-giving ceremony (winner of the event received a weekend test drive in a jag, but everyone got a prize...there were some pretty cool ones including 3days accomodation in saipan, some nice dinners out, champers, etc.). Headed home after that, and got in around 10--its about an hour by 'Fresh Hitatchi' (baby shinkansen) and then a 20 (or hour and 20 minute, depending on directions or lack there of ;) ) ride from the eki to the course...In tokyo, the fresh hitachi also goes only to ueno, which is about a 35 minute subway from our house. So its a bit of a trek all in all, but lovely to go out into all the greenery (though the 'wow! there's trees!' thing wasn't as exciting this year as last where it had been like 8 months, not 8 days since being in Canada).

Anyway, here are some photos from the day and surrounding countryside:
Finishing hole, taken from the clubhouse facing out
lovely location!!
clubhouse in the background...


Finishing up the 18th before heading into the clubhouse
rice!!
countryside-japan is veeery different to tokyo!
that's a bad day...it's never good when your truck ends up t over a in a rice paddy!
the jag and range rover that you could win a weekend ride in.
above: our golf cart in action (if by action I mean a still shot), below: our golf cart in action (if by action I mean video)




(wow, very cool, if it works you can now upload videos directly onto blogger, very nice!!) Assuming it does show up, these are the cool golf carts--you get a remote control, and press the button to start and stop, and the carts follow predetermined (magnetic, i imagine) paths around the course, stopping automatically at tee boxes and greens and things in the event you forget to press stop.

xo
D

Some people *cough* Alia Sabur *cough* are just WAY too smart.
Click here to read about the youngest prof in the world--in 300 years--she's not even 19!

Well I guess it's a good thing that I never made promises to blog every day this trip like I did last time, as I'm already not doing too well! The combination of work and jet lag has made this first week-or-just-about go fairly quickly, but has also meant that I come home at 8:30 or so, take Venus for a walk or run, eat something, try and stay awake at least until ten and then sleep, not well, until anywhere between 5 and 8. Last night, I came home at 8:30 and went straight to bed, jetlag be dammed...Well it didn't work out so well as I only slept from 9-2am and then was up until 5 when I slept again till 10...(day off work) It's only 8:20 and I'm already dragging again. So yea...I dunno, but not so good.

Hopefully taking today mostly off (I only worked for a couple of hours from a Seattle's Best, which I discovered had free wifi) will help. I also hung out in Shinjuku Hands (seemingly Tokyu Hands has been rebranded for each location) and in Franc Franc, where I concocted a plan for making purses out of pillow cases (stay tuned lol).

Went to the gym with Peter today (I know!, hey?) and so that was good. He goes 2x a week and I'll try and take one of those days off work each day to go with him... I get in free with him as his 'minder' (HA!) and it's a pretty sweet facility. I think my fave part was either the locker keys which are like big, flat, round magnets you wear on a bracelet type thing--touch it to the door and it automatically opens, or the strange and hilarious horse-type fitness machines they have... I'm totally going to try one next time--I couldn't figure out what all the buttons meant this time and no one scurried over to help. Granted, I could have scurried to ask, but....

After that I went up to his office quickly and then went to do the Shinjuku stuff, and then back home. It's strange as I feel very much at loose ends right now. Maybe because I was very rarely alone the last few months before I left, and spent so much time just chilling at A's, it seems weird to be alone, I miss the chillage, everyone else at home, and...I dunno...I can't quite put my finger on it, but I'm sure (and hoping!) it's just first week readjustment/jetlag exhaustion/whatever...

in any case, this is getting whingy and boring, never a good combi..so, i love you and i miss you or i'm happy to be seeing you again, depending on who you are!
oxox
d

Wow, cool (literally)--Tokyo has a year-round Absolut Ice Bar. It's not cheap (35$ gets you a cape, gloves, one drink, and 45-minutes), but it would be amazing in the height of summer, and make quite the blog entry! Check back, as I may well go. Check out another site here.

Went to Shimokitazawa for an early morning walk yesterday (well, 8:30-10ish or something) and, especially when I first got down there, there was pretty much nothing open. However, the closed stores were still pretty cool as many of them had painted metal shutters in front of them. Here is just one block's worth.








After my shimokita adventure I came home for a bit and then ended up going into the office for awhile. That actually probably felt the most normal of everything so far, not sure why. I tried to reload my pasmo card at the eki though and accidentally bought a Y800 ticket instead, oops! so i managed to get it refunded at the gate, before remembering you don't really do returns in Japan. I didn't want to keep the ticket though, as the eq. to $8.00 gets you a looong way here! Like Odawara or something...it's only Y160 or Y190 depending what station I go to when I'm going to work...

Went to the office at about 2 and got home about 9, with jet lag in full force. But I managed to force myself to run with Venus (the lazy puppy!!) which was good but soooo humid and sticky already, July is going to be unpleasant! They were filming something in a park nearby that we ran past which was cool...


Here are a few random keitai pics from the day:
These are like kitkat balls, coated with mango flavoring. Pretty good actually. Did I mention I love combenis? Did I mention I can't eat this crap all day every day? Lol
This little old lady was driving her scooter and then saw someone she knew at a shop on the corner behind her to the left, so she just abandoned her scooter and tottered over to chat...quite funny.

K, off to get ready for work now...miss you!
ox
d

Well, I'm here!!

The trip over was good--Mayland and Alex were kind enough (and heading over to Vancouver anyway-enough) to take me to the airport so we took the ferry over and then they dropped me at the airport.

I checked in via the new-that-day computer terminal which was pretty cool and managed to score myself an aisle seat with the 2 seats beside it empty, in the hopes that they would stay empty, which, indeed, they did--as I was waiting to board (taking advantage of the free wifi at YVR) I heard the little pre-flight flight attendant pow wow and they were saying we were quite empty going over...so it went aisle, me, seat, seat, ri-man, aisle, which was pretty good-I took full sprawling advantage of having two seats, though he never went over the barrier of his 'paid-for' seat...strange.

Got to Narita and from the time we got to the gate to when I had my bus ticket it took about 22 minutes, pretty great--my bags were nearly first off, the immigrations took about 12 seconds ("What are you doing here?" "Visiting my uncle that lives here." "OK" stamp) and the finger printing and photo-taking was quick (and inkless) as well. The worst part was trying to find a pay phone to let Peter know what bus I was on.

The next day I was pretty jet-lagged so woke up at 5. I (mostly) unpacked and then talked to A for awhile, and basically chilled before Peter and I went out in the afternoon. We went to visit Mibu and met her new dog, a French bulldog named Marley who is soooo cute!! He's nearly 3 months old, and quite the character! After that, Peter was after burgers, so Mibu suggested a cute place off Cat Street where we went called something like 'Great Burger' it was very funky, had good (great, even) burgers, and two mascot French bulldogs that were much more 'bulldog' than Marley is so far.

Then we wandered around Cat Street to Omotesando Dori, checked out the new Chanel store (very cool digital signage) and the MoMA store (soooo cool!!) in the samw building. They also have a cool keitai program within the building where you touch your keitai (if it has FeLiCa) onto a sensor and for every Y you spend, you get a point, and then 2x a year, they add up all the points and somehow convert it into a donation to Doctors Without Borders.

Then a pretty chill night at home and I fell asleep at like 9..ooops! Was up at 6 today, but I'll blog that later--off to work now
xoxo
D

So, as you can imagine, I'm sure, there is a lot of stuff I may want to share personally with close friends and family, but not the entire world. Unfortunately, blogger doesn't allow you to password protect certain posts, but, I've found a hack to do so. So, here goes with a test of the encryption services.

Here's a test: (encryption code for this one is: test)

Show encrypted text

maybe, lol

I seem to have just been sucked into the 'citizen news machine' that is Now Public.com. Anyone heard of them? I hadn't, but they look pretty cool. And they're based in Vancouver. And someone found a pic of my kabuki kabbing that I had up on flickr and asked me to submit it. So i did. You can see it as part of an article about bike to work week here. (well unless it's replaced by the next newest photo...I don't really know how this thing works.)

I have to look into this more closely in future; clearly.
D

So, BAB scoop (for me) of the day.
A chance to try hoopdancing.
Which is, from what I can gather, hula hooping kicked up a serious notch (or 12). Taught by Deanne of TokyoMade (basically the coolest idea ever, in and of itself), I'm planning to check out a class this month and then write about it for BAB. Ballin!

Besides the fact it just looks like tons of fun, Deanne says that "Hooplovers Hoop Dance classes are a creative collage of fitness, self-expression, laughter and dance." Sign me up.

Blatantly stolen from her website is this sweet pic of the Hooper herself hooping it up at a club in Tokyo.
sugoi desu ne?! I think so!
oxo
D

Found thanks to Mibu's f-book profile, and filled squarely under the 'things I hope to god NEVER happen to me'

(From Yahoo news)
"One of the travelers who arrived at Tokyo's Narita airport over the weekend may have picked up an unusual souvenir from customs -- a package of cannabis.

A customs official hid the package in a suitcase belonging to a passenger arriving from Hong Kong..."

Find out why by reading the rest of the article here.
Keeping in mind that Japan in not exactly Vancouver (ie a pound of pot could get you into some serious trouble....) this is hilarious!

Read a memoir yesterday (ha, I read too fast, but it really was only a day and a half or so) about a woman who blogged her life as an ex-pat in Paris. Who had a partner (Mr. Frog) and a child (tadpole), who was sick of her life. Who fell in love with a regular reader. Who changed her life for him. Who got fired from her job because she blogged. Whose new relationship fell apart. Who gets 100,000 hits a month (what, do I not have enough boy drama on here?)

It was interesting and painful and a good reminder and brought back memories of how this blog started to take over my life last year..."Oh crap, it's 5 pm, I haven't left the house, what am I going to blog?!" or 'hmmm, I wonder if I can blog this work story', or, while walking, a mental composition of posts to come.

In any case, an interesting story, worth a read (its out in Canada June 17, I had an ARC, but you can check it out here):

On Amazon
On Facebook
The Actual Blog (Petite Anglaise)

back to BAB.
xoxo
D

Well well well...

It's been months since blogging...but since I'm heading back to Tokyo in two weeks, it seemed like a good idea. I'm not sure about the daily blog thing, but we'll see--I've only just stopped thinking in 'blog-speak' so now starting again....

Well, we'll see!

Of course, I'm feeling exactly like I did before I left last time--sad to be leaving but excited to be going. Not sure what to expect, but sure it will be great once I get there.

Briefly. Some things that have changed (good, bad, and bizarre):

1. Helen has left Japan to head back to the UK. I'm thrilled for her to be there and so happy, but selfishly sad for me that she won't be there. Thinking about the sheer number of hours we spent together, its very hard for me to imagine her not there...who's going to make me a cuppa when I'm having a deadline panic or carry me up Mt. Fuji? *must remember, it is a fool who doesn't climb fuji-san once and a bigger fool who climbs it twice*

2. Karin, Kieron, Andrea, and Jen have also left CPI. I've missed a few people too, who came and went for various reasons between August and now. As a result, I'm totally old and totally new.

3. I'm editing BAB now, a few notches up from the intern/designer gig I had last time I blogged. Similar work but more responsibility and more fun too, as I get to commission a lot which I love! Still designing as well. I'm like a proud mummy flashing copies around to anyone I can corral long enough. If you're a foreign woman in Japan with a story to tell, get in touch!

4. Back in Canada, there is the whole Aaron thing, which is great...but best enjoyed when both parties in the relationship share a continent? I'm steadfastly refusing to think about leaving him even though time is a galloping forth. I want to have my cake and eat it too, selfish as that is. Time will tell.

I think I did this last time, but things I'm looking forward to/want to do:

1. Summer Sonic 08. Because the lineup freaking rocks!! The Verve, Coldplay (COLDPLAY!!!), Death Cab, Panic at the Disco, The Fratellis, Band of Horses, Bedouin Soundclash, Sex Pistols, Justice, Tokyo Police Club Alicia Keys, etc, etc, etc. I've seen Coldplay, Bedouin, and the frontman from the Verve (at Coldplay, incidentally) live before but none of the others so it would be a pretty fantastic and frenetic two days in Chiba.

2. Hong Kong!!! Woot, I'm soooo excited!!! I have 4 days/3 nights in early September. Unfortunately its *right* inbetween the Olympics and the paras so I miss both (equestrian events are in HK) but maybe Karen will be there already, stars aligned, and we can meet up or something....in any case, HK!!! (anyone want to come?)

3. A PIA wrap at Suji's...Oh yes.

4. Being back in the office...seeing everyone, being able to meet up with people, not being a day behind, and editing a magazine in the same country/timezone/culture as the one I live in. Handy, that.

5. Maybe playing soccer (with the 'onnabelievables')

6. Maybe doing gymnastics at Meiji Gakuin

7. Kichijoji and Shimokitazawa ('nuff said)

8. the Pink Cow w/ Karin

9. What the Dickens to see Kieron/Cashell

10. A million zillion people at Shibuya crossing. Virgin Megastore, Shinjuku Eki at rush hour (mmm wait, maybe not), j-pop sundays at yoyogi koen, cosplay in Harajuku, ramen, etc.

Of course, top of the list is really seeing everyone again, Peter, Hitomi, V-chan, the Orbitune crew, everyone @ work, some of my students, old friends, and the people i'm hoping to meet.

That's a good list. The list of people here is good too, but I'll stay in touch. This blog is a start.

xoxoxo
D

Hiya!

I'm still alive, despite mid-nearly end (thank god) of term trying to kill me...Have started vaulting over here which absolutely fantastic! I'm already learning a lot and I can't wait for it each week! This is my new club--Sky Vaulters... I'm starting to do bits and pieces in vault and its sooo fun!!! I'll also be starting gymnastics at Omega soon, (home gym of Gail Mackie for those 2 or 3 people who actually follow Canadian gymnastics!) so I'm excited about that as well--I was meant to go tomorrow, but Sasch and I decided today to take Toby to the Whitecaps vs. Galaxy Game tomorrow night, where David Beckham is playing. It's at BC place which should be fun--50, 000 people or so!

I also, after reading on astrologyzone.com this morning that it was 'make a friend/join a club month' for me, improbably found the Japan club at SFU and made two sort of friends in the process! I was on the bus and couldn't help but overhear a very lively discussion between a a couple of girls (I think the whole bus was listening!) I heard them say "...at the Japan...at SFU..." but couldn't hear what they were saying... We got to the skytrain station, and on the platform, I went up to them (pretty uncharacteristic for me!) and was like "Umm I heard you guys talking about something about Japan at SFU...is it a club?" They looked pretty shocked, but happy when they heard I wanted to join, and were very interested to hear about my trip over there...

It was only as I was walking home from the station that I remembered I was meant to join a club this month...

Slightly weird I say....slightly weird!
ox
D

So it's all been a bit 'more of the same' around here, with tons of work and school...We have a BAB going to print in about 2 weeks, but luckily already have quite a bit of stuff in and to me, so we should be fine for it, fingers crossed! I also have a recorded assignment, essay, observational assignment, and midterm next week, plus a tutorial presentation the week following. Therefore, today is supposedly a big work day! However, I didn't get started till noon and now I'm blogging, but it WILL pick up, really!

Of note was October 15 a couple of days ago--one year exactly since I got on a plane to Japan; wow! I remember that pretty clearly, but going back through my blog, its interesting what I've already re ordered a little bit about that year... The trip is also very much split in my mind in January,which makes sense since we left Japan for a couple of weeks in late December, but also, moreso, because of starting at CPI January 10. So it's basically pre and post starting at CPI I guess...

Speaking of which, I should get back to BAB and also to school stuff :s... I'm ready for semester to be done! 6-weeks to go, alas...

oxo
D

Went out to vaulting BCs yesterday in chilliwack and got to see cyd there competing with her team, which was great--she is getting so grown up and she did really well! Everyone came and so we all got to see her which was cool :) Vaulting was great too--I didn't get to compete, but i did get up on a barrel and mess around a bit in jeans, including a couple of back tuck dismounts (can't wait to be adding the 1/2 twist to that!) and talked to susan about starting to vault with sky soon :)

Spent this morning playing with Toby's new bday present I proxied from Peter...so fun! It's a big 8x10 foot foam floor thingy with a hockey rink painted on it, and then a set of blowup boards and nets so you can have a great game of miniature indoor floor hockey going! Other than that, not too much--just staying here and trying to work.. I feel like I procrastinated all weekend, but I guess I did get a fair amount done:

street snaps layout, last 40 pages of crash changes inputted and ready for potential submission, japanese lesson, assignment, recording and quiz, reading of 2 articles for cmns 110, a chapter for anthro, the rough draft of an essay for humanities, reading an article for cmns 130, and half of the subsequent analysis... about to round that out with some reading of wuthering heights which should set me up nicely for bed :)

hope everyone is well!
xo
d

Well, amazingly, I've been back for a month. Actually, I'm not sure why that's amazing, but I haven't been blogging much at all since I got back, so maybe the fact that I'm blogging at all is what's amazing (or, more likely, you're all going, "No...not again")

Regardless, I got home a month and a day ago and in a lot of ways, it feels as though it was
a year ago. I was thinking about it yesterday and its really no wonder I feel a bit disjointed these days and no idea for which city I should be homesick--this newest place marks four cities in two countries and on two continents in which I have lived in the last 2 years... For someone who doesn't like change, the relative chaos is fairly impressive! (For those keeping track: Toronto (September 05-April 06), Victoria (April 06-October 06), Tokyo (October 06-August 07), Vancouver (September 07-present). That's kind of cool actually!

Its too bad transfer credits are such a bitch to do properly, or I could knock London and San Francisco off my list on my way back to Tokyo...hmmm (no, no, I can hear you all groaning from all corners, but I need to stay on track here!!)

School is going fine, and once again, I'm lucky to be in such a great situation living wise--It's fun having my 'own' place, more than ever before actually, and of course having family upstairs cuts down on the lonely!

I'm taking 5 courses, Japanese by correspondence (its a bit weird, cause I've done the first half of the course, quite literally (I was using this textbook in Japan!), but I don't know enough to go into 110, so I'm spending time procrastinating on a Japanese kanji website until my class catches up, which will be in just a couple of weeks now (how sad is that!) The kanji, incedentally, equally infuriates (so let me get this straight, I need to learn two readings, several meanings, a bunch of strokes, and who knows what else for each of them?!) and thrills ('big' 大+ 'learning'学=university大学? how cool is that!!) me.

Other classes include Communications 110, Communications 130 (so far, nearly one and the same despite both professing to be vastly different!), Humanities 101 (HARD readings, but really interesting, cool prof), and Anthropology, which is very interesting as well... So that's all good, it would be a bit of a big(er) mess if I hated my classes!

Anyway, I'm off to bed, but there's a very short round up of what I'm up too... I really need to start exploring more soon! I haven't been ANYWHERE yet, which is ridiculous! But one step at a time, I suppose... off to UBC tommorow for coffee with a friend and a long work day, I have so much I want to get done! (Because, as my CMNS 130 prof so astutely put is, "days are for getting stuff done") Good to know!

mata ne!
xo
d

PS - if I didn't post them already, some photos of SFU/my apartment

A mixi message; in three parts:

1. What I wrote:
こんばんわ！げんきです？はい、わたっはのほんごはべんきょします、でも、むすかしいでしょ！あなたのしゅうまつたのしですか？またね！

2. What I think it *might* vaguely mean:

Good evening! Are you well? Yes, I'm studying Japanese, but it's hard, yes? Was your weekend fun? Talk to you later!

3. What Altavista's Babelfish thinks I said:

It is dense, it is, it is the わ! The げ it is going back and forth? It is, the わ it is the ほ it is the べ it is the sewer does the っ, with, the む it does tilting, it does, the ょ! Your palpus well it is it is the present? In addition don't you think?!

Oh dear God!
d

Pecha Kucha Night, which you should all be familiar from due to several blogs of fun nights at Super Deluxe, turned up at the top of my gmail news stream today-sugoi!

From Wired News.

(in part):
Let us now bullet-point our praise for Mark Dytham and Astrid Klein, two Tokyo-based architects who have turned PowerPoint, that fixture of cubicle life, into both art form and competitive sport. Their innovation, dubbed pecha-kucha (Japanese for "chatter"), applies a simple set of rules to presentations: exactly 20 slides displayed for 20 seconds each. That's it. Say what you need to say in six minutes and 40 seconds of exquisitely matched words and images and then sit the hell down. The result, in the hands of masters of the form, combines business meeting and poetry slam to transform corporate clich into surprisingly compelling beat-the-clock performance art.

Moving towards my last couple of nights in Victoria, which is a bit weird, except that I'm coming home on Thursday anyway, so I'm not too concerned about it-I started looking for where my classes and everything are, of course, Tuesday had to be the only day when I have an 8:30 class, and I only have a vague idea of where I'm going, but that's ok! It will be an adventure!

Just discovered its almost a 3 hour trip from SFU to the ferries though, that's a bit crap!

Spent the day working on mom's website while she worked on Crash for me, and then we went down to the barn and she got on Ringo a couple of times while I pretty continuously fed him bits of carrots. He was more interested in where his next carrot chunk was coming from than anything, which was good!

Came back up to the house and had a quick chat with Helen before heading downtown to meet Mayu for dinner. we both agreed that it was very weird to see each other here in Victoria and that it felt like we were in tokyo rather than here. It's quite funny as she can't understand why I'm so desperate to go back to Japan, and I can't understand why she makes yearly pilgrimages to Vancouver and really misses it there ;) We had a good time though--went to Earl's and sat at the bar, where I had to cough up 2 pieces of photo id in order to get a diet coke! Random!

Anyway, back home now, around 11pm, and waiting to get some final work to do on BAB before sending it over for the final time... Mom and grampa have gone to a movie I think, so it's all very quiet around here...

Anyway, mata ne!
xo
d

As I'm sure most of you have figured out--I'm back in BC!

I wasn't blogging because I knew it would be super grumpy, and I didn't want that, so, suffice it to say that I'm homesick, if that's what you call it after livisiting...'second'homesick? maybe? Anyway, I am SO happy I'm still working on BAB since that kind of keeps me connected to Tokyo, and of course with skype, facebook, msn, email, etc. they really can't escape me!

It was great to see everyone when I came home, of course, and I've actually done fairly well in terms of catching up with people...two weeks was a nice amount of time to be home, and then I'll be back for weekends anyway, so that's nice!

Things that were weird when I came home:

Tipping (was *this* close to not tipping but luckily the TIP: thing was on the receipt so I remembered...I probably wouldn't have had I paid cash...
Tax-which should be built in! (I got SO confused the first day at Starbucks because the tax wasn't built in, and I had the change all counted out, but then of course the price changed, and I was all flustered and had yen and CDN mixed together and it took me forever to pay--I think she thought I was hungover or something)
The number of questions I get asked when, for instance, ordering fast food. It begs the question: "Are things just simpler in Japan, or do they simply not bother to try it on with me?"
How freaking empty it is!!!!!!!!!
How early everything closes!!!!!!
Sketchy dudes in dumpsters, violent news, being worried about me and my schtuff (sux!)

Highlights of the trip back:

seeing mom and grampa, hanging out with navina and planning with joey ;)
vaulting!!!!! (they got a great new horse called Kit--I'm a big fan! She's a registered canadian warmblood--a TB/Holsteiner X or something like that...very cool, I like her a lot!)
gymnastics!!!!! (I started working on an arabian, which is a back tuck with a half twist), and also got my back tucks off beam back
hanging out at bolens--I can read all the books!
seeing David and Sue up here; finally!
working for BAB

I still miss Tokyo A LOT though! best trip/experience ever!
xo
d

Aoyama/Gaienmae fireworks from Thursday--12,000 booms!

Some randoms from the last few days....Unfortunately none of this series turned out, but it would have been great! from l-r: dave, andrea, kong, jordon, mike, jen, helen...on our way out after the party
chocolate cake with peanut butter in the middle....soooo oishii!
a frozen lamb carcass, with trotters, from Nissin
super cool eye-testing glasses from Zoff

Whew, busy last few days, as one might imagine! I had my goodbye (for now!) lunch at work on Thursday, since there aren't so many people in the office on Friday, so we all went down to Suji's, of course, and it was really nice! I got the sweetest card from everyone and they also bought me a really really cute Anna Sui wallet, which I love! (And I'll be thinking about you guys everyday when I use it!)

That night, Helen I went, MELTINGLY, to the Aoyama/Gaienmae fireworks which were the last ones of the season and also one of the bigger ones of the season with around 12, 000 'booms' as they call it. Beautiful! They went on for about an hour and were very cool--so many different types of fireworks! We went with the Tokyo Gaijins, so saw some people that we'd climed Fuji with, and met a Japanese woman who is just coming out of a divorce and seems to be completely making the most of her 'second life'. She was in yukata, and SO cute! She must have been absolutely dying in it, given that it WAS Tokyo's hottest day ever... (keep in mind when reading that those would be air temps, not 'feels like' temps, which go up a LOT in the 70-80% humidity that we also had... It was basically disgusting!

Anywaaaaay, after we sweated through the massive crowds at fireworks (it was great fun, actually) we took a bus up to Roppongi Hills (I, btw, had SOO much crap, including a bag that was disintegrating because of the sweat/humidity (yea, gross, but true!) and I dumped my stuff in a huge locker at roppongi eki (the last one!) That was an adventure, because it was a pasmo locker, so you don't get a key-you just put your crap in a locker and push the button, and then the machine knows which is yours, and codes it shut, plus takes your money, all of your pasmo. (IC/train card). IC cards are great! Now about 30 pounds and three bags later, we headed with most of the other gaijins back to the HUB and spent a few hours laughing and drinking there...We rand into one someone Helen knows through work (sort of) and he was absolutely hilarious--had both of us in bits for the last hour or so before we dragged ourselves home. great!

All too soon, Friday rolled around and I headed in for my last day of work-Kieron and I were in the office in the morning because Helen was at home greeting Caroline!!!!! Now back after five weeks, which is great :)

I went out for a nice and long (oops!) lunch with Anthony at Va Tout, and then when I got back, Helen was in the office. Later in the afternoon, Kieron had to go pick up his (lucky!) sister who was coming in from Narita that day--here to work at one of the international schools for the next couple of years. So Helen and I closed out my last day at work for the next 8 months, which somehow seems a little bit fitting. I cleaned out my drawers, turned in my key, and we headed down to Suji's for a couple. Just spent a quiet night at home--we both decided we were too knackered to go out 3 nights running...

Saturday, we went to Zoff so I could sort my glasses situation, which I did in a big way! I had a really entertaining vision test where I had to say if the horseshoe was up/down/diagonal/etc. Pretty funny! There was a kana test, which would be the same as our eye charts, but since I could so easily confuse ro and ru or wa and ne etc anyway, we decided against that one!

I've decided Zoff is just like IKEA - you go in, pick your frames (all are one of three prices including lenses), and in 45 minutes, they're ready-in that time, they give you a 50% off drink coupon, and you can go get that at the cafe in the shop while they grind down your lenses. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to do that as we had some food shopping to do at Nissin in the meantime, so we headed back there (oh yea, peter drove for the first time yesterday!) to shop while they made my glasses.

By the time we got home and I showered, Hitomi and I only had 1.5 hours to get all the food prepared before people were supposed to start showing up. Luckily, just about everyone was late! It was not a huge group of people, but it was a great group, very fun! We had the 'lets give Dani her first drink' experience, where Jordon and Helen decided to give me chu hi as as beginners drink and Jordon gave it to me in a martini glass, which was so sweet-the two of them were so funny making sure I was ok and monitoring every sip I took. Helen was very careful to make sure I didn't bolt anything, not that I would have anyway, and there was a 1 small martini glass of chu hi to 2 bottles of water ratio. Everyone was gathered in the room watching this with interest, and laughing at how slowly I was drinking-Mike was like "I've never seen such moderated drinking-Jen could be drinking like you!" and Jen's like "Yea, me and the baby, we'll take you on!" It was "Helen's proven program of drinking for beginners and babies" Anyway, very entertaining!

We all left around 11:30, abandoning poor Peter and Hitomi with all the mess (sorry!) and while everyone else headed home, Helen and Jordon and I headed to Shimo Kitazawa to a really cute bar she knew about.... We just stayed for a couple of drinks (or well maybe a 1/3 of a weak rum and coke and water for me) and then Jordon headed off and the two of us headed to La Fabrique in Shibuya to meet up with that girl we'd met at fireworks, but after a short time, we headed off to another club she knew about in Aoyama.

We chilled out there for the rest of the evening, chatting and people watching, and running into some friends she knew from a few years ago... After a quick dance and an improvised song played for me by a saxaphonist who told me I was very kawaii and that he was 'playing my feelings' we headed out for some coffee and food and at about 6:30, said our goodbyes at Shibuya eki.

I came home for a couple of hours of sleep, and got up at about 11:30--called a couple of people at home, packed a bit, chilled out, etc... Can't believe I leave tomorrow. It's been such an amazing 10 months, and I hope that everyone knows how much I appreciate everything you've all done for me! I will miss you all soooo much!!
xoxoox
D

Back at work the last two days which has been lovely--mostly working on moving stuff over to my laptop so that I can get organised for working from home, which is nice, because I think knowing I'll still be involved (BAB layout, women of the world, inevitably some writing) is really nice!

The goodbyes, have, of course, started with a vengeance--on Tuesday, I went up to Peter's office after work, and said goodbye to the guys that happened to be up there, and then yesterday I had dinner with the girl that I went wakeboarding with and her friend which was really nice. We went to Suji's and had a long dinner there. I may actually see her in Victoria in a couple of weeks as she will be there the same time as me. She's taking a whale-watching boat from Vic-Van (Prince of Whales) the same day that I need to for school, so I'm kind of considering doing that with them, depending on Saanich Fair and everything.

They were very sweet, and since I got there a couple of minutes after she did, she had a chance to pre-arrange a cheesecake with sparkler delivery to the table whereupon 'Thank you Danielle-san" was sung to the tune of Happy Birthday. It was super cute!

Just eating breakfast now (thursday) and then heading into work... Today we're doing my goodbye lunch at work and then Helen and I are hitting up some summer fireworks in Jingumae (the fireworks are a big deal around here all summer!) so it seems like a good, Japanese/summer thing to do.

And yes, there was an earthquake last night, and no, I didn't feel it. Which surprises me a bit, actually, since it was close and shallow and 5.3. I guess I was tired as I slept straight through it!

d

So kind of a long and not-so-fun day today, but it picked up later thanks to good friends and also Peter and Hitomi getting home from Hawaii which is always nice :)

I took the day off work today to start packing, and am finding that I have too much crap and not enough space--no surprise there! I have packed one bag that will be my 'don't open this till you get to Vancouver' bag, and then have a pile of stuff for the next week here and two weeks in Vancouver... I'm a little worried about it all fitting into my big backpack, but whatcha going to do? I can hope! Or maybe pay excess baggage and take a third bag home, thus not stranding my other big suitcase here, which would be nice!

Its weird having to pack 'winter' clothing for at home, but with the entire weekend being '30C/feels like 40C' or even hotter, (40C=104F!!) and I swear hotter in the sun, whereas Victoria is '18C/feels like 18C' I'm sure I'll be grabbing a hoodie the first few days that I'm back! Actually, it will be lovely, esp. for vaulting and riding and stuff... Peter and Hitomi even said they noticed a difference when they came back from Hawaii, not exactly a traditionally cold place!

So anyway, a basically boring day of getting organized to go, which of course, is not high of my list of fun things to do! The rest of the week is shaping up with fun events though, and as I don't leave until nearly 9pm next Monday, if not all of the packing gets finished this week, then I can always shove things in then...I think, however, that I'm going to end up with three bags to check, which, along with my rolling carry-on, is going to be a bit of a nightmare to handle on my own in the Vancouver airport since no one is coming to pick me up! That's what luggage carts are for, I guess!


Just chilling out for a bit now, and then heading to bed--back to work tomorrow :)

xo
D

Went omiyagae shopping in Yanesen today (walked from Sendagi to Nezu to Nippori) and then ended up getting stuff at Oriental Bazaar in Omotesando! Doh! Saw the very lovely Nezu shrine though, and had a great experience in a 7 and i holdings--was asking for directions to a store, and i had the address and phone number but didn't know where it was, so I asked the guy, who clearly had no idea where it was, but he ran into the back and I think, called them, then five minutes later, came back out with a lovely map. It was hilarious, helpful, and just so not likely to happen in a 7/11 at home!

Came home, meltingly, around 5, and was working on another project for the evening, before heading to Orijin for a tonkatsu bento (so good! going to miss them!)...Have been working and watching Friends all evening, along with doing laundry in preparation for packing tomorrow (ACK!) I'm going to sleep now in order to procrastinate that whole packing process, but in the meantime...photos!






(The above are all from the NACT in Roppongi--from yesterday--followed by Midtown and then today's trip to the Nezu Shrine)








Ugh, sorry about the sideways photos...not really sure what happened!

So my last weekend here without set events and I have no real plans--a bit of a bummer, but not a total disaster by any stretch... This morning, I headed to shimo kitazawa and got a couple of pairs of jeans to take home with me from UNIQLO--you just can't beat two pairs of nice jeans for about 65$ CDN (and hemmed in half an hour as well!) I grabbed a quick lunch while I was waiting for them to be hemmed and then also wandered around Shimo in some backstreets I'd never seen before--I saw some cute cafes and shops and stuff, but was reluctant to spend too much time there as it is SO freaking hot these days! Today was 'feels like 42C' and I was melting! I feel like I can't even function without a drink in my hand these days--thank goodness for AC!

I came home in the early afternoon, dumped my clothes and laptop (working lunch, SO loving the mac!) and then went back out again, this time to the National Art Center Tokyo near Nogizaka which is a VERY VERY cool building (all curvy glass and the such) to see the Skin and Bones: Parallel Practices in Fashion and Architecture exhibition they're having through Monday. It was pretty interesting and very cool to see all of the actual couture clothing they had there-some of it was really sculptural, which, I suppose, was sort of what they were trying to get at through the exhibition. There were lots of different designers represented, and it was cool to see the different items, as well as movies and sketches.

The mueum itself is a really nice space as well (HUGE!) and is intersting because it doesn't actually have a permanent colelction, just a few big temporary exhibition spaces. I took lots of pictures, especially of the cool raised restaurants and exterior glass wavy-ness, which I'll post ASAP... They also have a very nice art-bok library, which anyone can use, for free. It also includes lots of art magazines, so I had a great time reading id, which I haven't seen since I got out here.

Headed back home after deciding it was way too hot to go see the fireworks or Bon-Odori with zilions of other people, and basically just chilled since--I've been doing tons of laundry in preparation for starting to pack soon (YIKES!), made burritos for dinner, worked on mom's website (again/how annoying!) for a bit, and watched some Summer Sonic program on TV which was a bit odd as it was billingual, so about half was interesting, and half went straight over my head...looks like a GREAT show tho!! I'll definitely be trying to get tickets next year I think--if the lineup is half as good as this year (Modest Mouse (!!!!!), Gwen Stefani, Black Eyed Peas, Avril Lavigne, etc) it would be totally worth it. Unfortunatly, they were sold out by the time I decided that for this year... Ah well, shogunai!

Just waiting for my computer to die now (cycling the battery) and then going to take Venus out for a quick walk in the not-quite so-blazing heat before getting an early night's sleep--tomorrow is futsal (well a big maybe to that, its so hot these days!), and a trip to yanesen for some omiyagae shopping...
ox
d

We have a long break for Weekender because of Obon and a long break for BAB because August is a five week month, so this week has been a big deep breath and catch up week following our crazy last couple of weeks, which has been good cause I've had the chance to have dinner with a couple of people and start slowly tying up loose ends...

Karin headed off to Vietnam yesterday, so we had dinner at the pink cow on tuesday, which seems like a fitting place for the two of us to eat. It was great--I really love that space and am glad I discovered it,(er, well, finally went) even if it was 7months into my trip! We chatted about writing and stuff, and I had my computer and subsequently got totally hooked on AvanteGarde and Media Bistro--great writing resources and fun articles...
I also ended up at the pinkcow with sarah yesterday, whom I haven't seen for ages, but we had a nice catchup and chat...

Other than that, haven't been doing too many exciting things--Venus and I are along in BMT this week as Peter and Hitomi have headed off to Hawaii, and are back after the weekene, which should include both some packing, and hopefully, some FUN! I refuse to do nothing on my second-to-last weekend here
speaking of which, we're about to head down to suji's for a friday evening drink...
xo
d

So, Mt. Fuji.

We all met up at Shinjuku at about 10:30 and boarded a big bus, all 45 or so of us, ready to head up to the mountain, a few hours away. We stopped part way up at a big rest stop and got ramen, which we ate outside while we met two of our fellow climbers--an English teacher living in Saitama-ken, and her boyfriend visiting from San Francisco.

We continued up to the mountain while Helen had a pre-hike nap, and we got increasingly apprehensive as the oxygen and headlamps were handed out and we got a glimpse of Mt. Fuji, with the summit somewhat obscured by clouds. Hoping desperately for good weather, we we praying to the sun to come out so we had a hope of a sunrise.

At 3ish, we got to the 2500m bus stop, and and hung out there for 20 minutes before driving the next few minutes up to the 5th station. It's one of three or so places where you can start hiking up the mountain. We got water and checked out the shops, buying our official walking sticks, and acclimatizing to the altitude a little bit in this very mountain-lodge like area...

At 5, we all grouped up for a briefing, stretch, and group photo before heading up the mountain at 5:30. Helen and I were 'buddies' and headed up together, with our front-of-the-group leader, Anton. The beginning of the hike was as you might expect--hardpacked path and gravel and all uphill... A little while into it, we befriended two guys--one who work at the Serbian Embassy and another who was his friend visiting from Belgrade. They were so sweet--buying us kit kats, helping me with my bag, hiking with us, etc.

About an hour in, we reached the 6th station, and kept hiking from there. It was actually much more rock-scrambly than either of us had imagined, and was quite fun, but definitely a challenge, especially when it got dark! I was kind of worried about getting pulled backwards off the path (maybe I packed too much!) so I went for the hands and knees thing as we both scampered up the mountain...

Luckily, we took regular breaks, and it was great to have a guide to tell us when to stop and when to start. We stayed right up at the front, which maximised our breaks and kept us heading up at a pretty swift break. It was very cool at the 7th station (well one of them, there are actually a bunch of each station!) when they started setting off summer fireworks in the valley by the five lakes and we were above them, which was pretty great to see, as were the stars--STARS! I haven't seen stars for like 8 months!

We got our sticks branded, had an onigiri at one of the last 7th stations (remember that point!)
and headed on. By the 8th station, I started feeling kind of nauseous, but brushed it off as exertion, or my something diabetes-number related, or a touch of altitude sickness... Unfortunately, the feeling didn't wear off, and I started feeling REALLY ropey! The oxygen wasn't helping, and we started having to stop more and more as I struggled up. Helen was doing an amazing job getting up the mountain, and was VERY helpful in getting me up it too!

We summitted, in one of the first pairs in our group, at about 1:30--a fairly fast ascent at 6 hours, and then tried to get some sleep in a sheltered area. We were really lucky there was no wind, and were basically not freezing, although it was cold. I still wasn't feeling very good, but I figured that some sleep would help things, so we curled up and tried to sleep. Unfortunately, at about 3, I started shivering uncontrollably, and feeling REALLY REALLY crappy! My shivering woke Helen up from out of any sleep she might have been getting, and eventually, we got Anton, the group guide, and told him. I actually though that I was dehydrated, b/c the only time I'd felt like this before, that's what it was, be everyone also thought maybe I was cold, so I bundled into Anton's spare jacket and Helen tried to keep me warm, calm, and un-shivering.

At 4, still working on the assumption of being dehydrated, we went into the absolutely NUTS ramen shop, where you have to fight for a spot sitting on a group bench, and then put your hand out when they call out what you want, and then basically fight for it, b/c they have no idea who ordered what and people are so hungry and cold and tired they'll just grab it. I finally got my ramen, and the smell of it made my stomach turn to the point of being sure I was going to throw up...Helen convinced me to try it and every sip made me gag, but since I thought that liquid and salt was going to help, I made it through most of the bowl of ramen, during which point the sun started to rise, so Helen went out to take photos, and I was struggling through my bowl while trying to protect hers beside me. One of the hut guys came up to me and barked something at me and pointed at the ramen, and I was like 'my friend' and pointed outside. He was like blah blah blah TABEMASU!! (eat) and I was like 'hai hai hai!'

Just a moment later, it all went terribly wrong and I sprinted out of the ramen hut to puke infront of literally thousands of people watching the sunrise. Go me. Embarrased, crying, and feeling utterly crap, and people just pointed and laughed. It was pretty brutal! I did feel instantly better though, which led me to believe it was not diabetes, not altitude sickness, not dehydration, not hypothermia, and not exhaustion, but that stupid tuna onigiri from 5 hours before. THIS is exactly why I didn't eat fish for eight years! I hadn't felt that sick for a couple of years at least, and owe A LOT to Helen for taking such good care of me and making me feel a little bit less like death!

After sunrise, around 5am, I was feeling much better, if not exactly genki, so I staggered over to find Helen and watched the sunrise, which was lovely, and then we fought through the Yamanote-train like (and aggressive!) crowds that had gathered at the top to go get organised to leave. Unfortunatly, we didn't make it to get our sticks stamped, to mail postcards, and in my case, to see the crater. Thus, Fuji 08 is a distinct possibility!

Unfortunately, the way down was much harder than the way up--scrambling down in deep, loose volcanic gravel which was very slippery and hard going, especially in the hot sun and huge crowds. It seemed like the switchbacks kept going and going, and it took us probably 4 hours to get down, stopping for fairly frequent but short breaks, as we just wanted to get off that mountain by that point!

At the 6th station safety centre, we saw the horses you can ride back to 5th station (about a 45 minute walk) and I almost rode one back, except it was Y10,000 (about 100$)! Yikes! Thusly, the four of us slogged down under our own steam, staggering into base camp around 8am. Helen and the guys headed out for breakfast, and I got water before heading back to the concrete area where we were meeting, and passing out on my backpack for two hours. I was feeling pretty rough as I was on a mission to go get everything from the locker, which was literally 30 meters from where I got water, and I didn't have enough energy to do that--I had to go back to rest up, but that proved to be an hour long pass out til Helen got back from breakfast.

We had to wait for people to come back from the trip down (first up, first down for us), and while we were waiting in the bus, found out that four people didn't summit, and that one person was actually lost on the mountain. (After making contact with her, we actually ended up leaving her as we needed to get going back to Tokyo, a rather long proposition!)

One rest stop and some interupted bus sleep later, we pulled into Shinjuku just somewhat worse for wear! I got home around 4:30, just in time to send peter and hitomi off to the airport for their Hawaii Vacay followed by a crashing on the couch and approximately half an OC before falling fast asleep. I woke up at about 1, just in time to feed Venus and grab a half a bowl of cereal before going back to sleep around 2.

This morning, I got up at 6 and went to work for 8 to help get Weekender to print. Karin and I had lunch--I just had chicken soup and rice as I was still feeling not so great, and then I headed out of work early, around 4, and have basically been chilling since.

Overall, Mt. Fuji was much more doable than either of us had anticipated, and we would both do it again. You definitely need headlamps, walking sticks, chocolate, and a basic level of energy, but it's totally doable, especially the getting up the mountain part--coming down was a bit of a nightmare!

Very cool to do though!
ox
D

Fuji pics; part two (these are all courtesy of Helen)...

So I'm back from Mt. Fuji!! Helen and I both successfully summited--she basically trotted up that mountain, and the two of us made it up in the first 6 or 8 in our group, at 1:30 am (a 6 hour ascent). Anyway, I've just woken up from a 7-hour nap, and I basically want to get straight back to bed, so photos part 1 tonight, and tomorrow, a proper blog...

Wow what a crazy couple of days! Yesterday (Friday), we sent BAB to print, after an insanely long day at work the night before, and then spent the afternoon getting weekender together, as that goes on Monday... Between Thursday and Friday, Helen and I were in the office something like 26 out of a possible 34 hours...We both crawled out of there at around 7 or just after last night I think and then I headed up to Orbitune to meet Peter and cross a 'to do' item off my list--visiting Royal Host, or roy-ho, one of the big fami-resu's here. It was tasty, and had a few great only-in-japan surprises, like this splatter guard for protecting yourself as you pour gravy on the hot stone plate thing, and this cell phone charger, where you can pop your phone in a locker and charge it for 20 minutes as you eat...
After dinner, we headed back to Orbitune, where I finally managed to reconcile the 3 different chunks of the office and their relative locations in my head--when I go, I always just go into the kitchen, or Peter's office, or to the part upstairs where the dart board is that they used to have when I was 9... The new bits of the office that they've gained since, I'd only seen once or twice since I've been here, and once was my first day, so it was all VERY fuzzy! Peter gave me the grand tour and I think that now, two weeks to go before I leave, I finally know where stuff sort of is!

(wire trough behind the servers...yikes!)

Anyway, its now Saturday AM and I should get going, as Helen and I are meeting in an hour and a half in order to go climb Mt. Fuji! Expect lots of pictures and a very very very tired Dani tomorrow night!
ox
D

Wow, August already, how did that happen? Its been a pretty busy week at work this week because we have a BAB going to print on Friday, and a Weekender going next Monday, with a jaunt up a mountain in the meantime...Yikes!

Helen and I had a fantastic lunch today at a new little cafe called 'Eat More Greens' which is an additive, coloring, meat, egg, and fish free restaurant for lunch today--we were reviewing it for Weekender, and we both loved it! We sat outside, but the patio is down a little side street kind of, so you are off the main road, and in the shade, and it was very pleasant--just what we needed! We both had lunch sets--mine was cold corn chowder, salad w/ avocado, and tomato and tofu dressing, and bagel, and then after, we had organic coffees and a small dessert--very yummy and surprisingly filling!

After work today, Karin, Marie (+2) and I headed up to the Goethe Institut near the Canadian Embassy to see Michael Martin speak. He did an amazing slide presentation including 1,400 pictures, 50 music tracks, and him speaking, in very good English, about his crazy trip across the deserts of the earth. He traveled with his partner Elke for 900+ days, and many many thousands of km, on one BMW bike, with no support team. It was crazy! The photos they took were absolutely gorgeous, and so different despite all being deserts-you could certainly see how they were all different.

We saw everything from a sheik's 150,000 falcon (he also has a treasury including concept cars and an originally Louis XIV coach. I was dissapointed to not see any horses though--I'm sure he must have had some amazing arabians and thoroughbreds!) to the kids in nepal who were trekking across freezing passes with younger siblings on their backs and barely any clothing.

Pretty fascinating! Learn more by clicking on the book cover below...ok, off to bed now--lots to do tomorrow!
xo
D

So I know that I keep forgetting to blog, but at least here are some photos from this very busy weekend! First from Saturday's wakeboarding (dirty, disgusting, scary water, sore arms, slightly sunburnt, a bit frustrated at my inability to stand up, but with the potential to be a lot of fun and I want to try it again in Hawaii where the water isn't scary and the instructor speaks English) and Sunday's trip to Kamakurayama for roast beef with okada-san and his wife, a visit to (and into) a very large buddah, and an absolutely gorgeous shrine themed around hydrangeas.

busy busy week ahead...only three left...a little bit stunned at that actually.
xo
D

Sooooo cool!!! For a week, IKEA visitors were able to stay in IKEA like a hostel, (in Norway) and eat meatballs for dinner, and stay on the beds... Sugoi desho! I really really want to do it!!!!!

So one glass of wine lands Paris in jail, but until this week you could be pissed and still fly a....shuttle? Um Houston? I think we have a problem! In part:

"Alcohol is freely used in crew quarters," the report said. "Two specific instances were described where astronauts had been so intoxicated prior to flight that flight surgeons and/or fellow astronauts raised concerns to local on-scene leadership regarding flight safety. However, the individuals were still permitted to fly."

Great.

After work today, Helen, Marie and I headed down to Suji's for a quick drink which was good fun--we haven't done that for awhile (Friday after-work drinks) before we all move on to our other friday night engagements.

I headed down to Shibuya and had a quick look through the incredibly busy and chaotic 109 building (loads of little boutiques in an 8-floor shopping complex) before heading to the crocodile in Shibuya (a live house/event space) to meet up with Kong, Jordon, Suzi, Hiromy Nina, and a couple of others to watch the Tokyo Comedy Store.

It was really funny! The second half improv was my favorite part--they were really good! Improv is SO hard to think that fast, but these guys did a really good job and were really funny as well! Stand up comedian 'Cloudy Bong Water' was also good--he sang a re created version of the Canadian national anthem with the new title and theme of "Oh Cannabis" pretty funny!

After that, there was a vaudeville/cabaret type singer who was also pretty entertaining! I've ne
ver seen anything quite like this before--she was telling some pretty cheeky stories with her musical numbers :)

We left around 11:30 and took roughly last trains home where I heard about Peter's exciting night climbing through Venus' dog door after having forgotten his keys in the office. Oops!

Fun night & good start to the weekend :)
xox
D

So another very long day today! I got up at six and headed to the gym at about 6:45 and worked out till 8. I tackled the stair master for the first time in honor of Mt. Fuji in 8 days, but I think it may well be a serious case of too little too late at this point! Ah well, I've heard of lots of people not training and making it up to the top.
After that, I headed to work, via Starbucks for breakfast (nothing like neutralising any benefits of the gym within an hour of leaving the place!) and got into the office around 9 or just after maybe, followed shortly by Karin and Helen--we sent a Weekender to print today; slightly stressfully, but in the end I think everything is OK! We'll see next week! Spent the rest of the day working on BAB, mostly, bit didn't feel like it was a particularly efficient day, which sucks! Hopefully tomorrow will be a bit better!
We got to see Anna at lunch today which was really nice--her little Jack is getting so big! (she went on maternity leave just as I joined CPI).
I had to leave the CPI office at five today to head over to work at the pink cow from 6-11.
I was kind of whining about it, at least to myself (and maybe karin, sorry!) today, because I kind of wanted to sleep or do something as opposed to work, but in the end it definitely turned out to be a fun night--it was steadily busy which was nice, not too stressful, but I didn't feel as if I were standing around doing absolutely nothing all night either.
I ran into a guy from futsal, and both of us were like 'do I know you?' and then figured it out at basically the same time. Clearly I need to go back if we're all forgetting each other!
I also had a really random experience when I gave a girl her food she was like "I think I know you", but I wasn't really sure where we ever might have met, and to be honest, she didn't look familiar. But she kept thinking and then she was like "Hey, I think you know one of my friends. Do you know Jordon?" I was like "yea!" turns out we were briefly introduced to each other way back in October that first night when I went to see the Molets play and dragged Peter along because I was convinced I was going to be carded and tossed out (ha!) Her memory is crazy good to be able to recognize me from that and in this totally different context and put it all together!
Its always good food, but I also had some very interesting and tasty food tonight cooked by Goldie, the sous chef--she's from somewhere in South East Asia (Myanmar?) and cooked some of her traditional food for us; a chicken and rice noodle dish over rice (kind of spicy) and then a delicious soup with chunks of onion, meat, and seaweed in a seriously oishii broth.
Despite having drinks spilled on me and dying in the heat and coming home smelling like a bar, it was a good night! I got home a few minutes before Venus, rinsed off the heat and alcohol from myself, and then took V. for a walk, with both the two of us plus Peter and Hitomi all geting home around 12:30... Just doing this now, and then heading to bed--have to be up in 5 hours, which I think you'll agree, is just not enough hours for a decent beauty rest at all!

xo
D

Today was a fun day--morning was fairly average--proofing (Weekender goes to print tomorrow) and laying out BAB... Lunch at ZEST again today--the beef jambalaya is endlessly tasty, and then this afternoon went to see Ocean's 13 for the magazine. It was really full! I ended up on an office chair perched on a stair in the aisle! Nuts! It was great--two hours of slick, shiny, hollywood/vegas escapism very much in the vein of the firs two. Being a supreme wimp, I love how its just a totally fun crime caper without a hint of scariness. Besides that, it doesn't really need a story--watching the cast is good enough to fully entertain the female portion of the audience! :)

After the movie, I headed back to the office, and--nothing like a deadline--wrote the first two hundred words in the three stops between the theater and the office! I scribbled a few more thoughts walking back, and then abandoned that idea after nearly being taken out several times, so just finished it off back at my desk.

Helen dropped it in while I had a quick look over the magazine, and did a little bit more work on BAB...We left the office at around 8:30 I think, and I headed up to super deluxe for Pecha Kucha night, which was absolutely packed!!!!! I stayed for about two hours and saw some pretty interesting stuff, including the current world bmx champion jumping over Mark from KDA with his bike, as well as some other guy's head as he sat on the floor; a 17-yr-old swedish guy who is interning at KDA an wanted the job so much that even after they said 'hell no' to his request for the position (he applied from sweden) he got his mom to call on his behalf. Basically, KDA hadn't taken him because they were like 'what if he dies or something?' and his mom, an architect, was like 'if he dies, i won't blame you, now give him the job'. So he's been with them for a few weeks, and is heading back soon, but it sounds like a good holiday experience for him!

I don't think this was the best Pecha Kucha night I've been to, but it was definitely entertaining--I really think they need to come to Vancouver! Its in about 100 cities at this point, including Lagos, so I think Vancouver could certainly fit right in!

Anyway, off to bed now--have to be up in less than six hours *yawn!* (isn't school going to be so relaxing?) ahhh I love it though!
ox
D

So I'm now blogging on hour 35 without sleep (and certainly lagging a bit!) but I'm not actually quite as dead as I might have imagined! I think an early night will sort me out and be ready for the week ahead (we hope!)

After a very quiet day yesterday, just after 7pm I cooked a stirfry for Peter and myself and then went to meet Helen at Ebisu eki just after 8, and then we carried on to Dubliners in Shinagawa where we went to see the end of the European music festival that Kieron organised. We got there in time to watch him (Cashell) playing, and that was great--its the second time I've seen him play, and its really fun to see him and support him, and he's great too, which always makes us more up for going out to see him ;).

Anyway, around 9ish, one of Helen's former roomies from London plus her boyfriend--the two of them are busy travelling around the world and are in Japan for the next couple of weeks. We watched the rest of the set, and then watched Japan beat Australia in PKs in the quarters or semis of the Asian Cup. At that point, Clare and Aaron needed some sustenance, and we tried to get something in Shinagawa, but there wasn't anything open and appealing in the station, and none of us knew the area, so we ended up heading to Roppongi and TGIFridays. Given that we got there at 11, I think we basically knew we weren't getting our last train :)

We ended up eating and chatting and leaving around oneish and heading to Propoganda for a drink, and then Castillo for a drink and a lot of teasing about me never having heard lots of the 80's songs, and never having put an LP on, and not having a clue about games you had to load up for three hours before you could play (?) etc. It was pretty entertaining. Helen and I are used to this "Please tell me you've heard of this ____" and then me being like "sorry...no..." but it was funny because in the eighties bar, I'd barely heard any of the songs, except maybe in commercials (I think that statement was viewed as fairly shocking as well!)

Castillo was really entertaining because of this sign:
Almost tempting to test the point!

After that, close to threeish I think, we headed to the New Lex--Edo, and saw Bill before heading inside to be among the pretty pretty people in the newly redesigned Lex. It was good fun; and this time I knew about 95% of the songs... We were hanging out and chatting and dancing a little bit when this guy who said he ran a clothing label and his side kick, who in various turns was a proffesional golfer, soccer player, and skateboarder, invited us into the VIP area and bought drinks and bottles of Moet. (They were entertaining a few tables, and the bottles were just flowing between everyone). When it came out that I don't drink the guy who was claiming to do all the sports looks at me and goes "You don't drink at all? You are like a princess. But that's OK. I'll be your prince." and then proceeded to get me a coke. It was pretty sweet. Actually, the two of them both seemed pretty nice and made sure we were taken care of.

We left at about 5:30, and were NOT happy to find that it was totally light out and raining...The whole coming home in the light thing is a bit traumatic! Fun night, though!!!

I got home around 6:30, but realised that I had to leave at 9 to teach, and that I would be a total mess if I slept for an hour, so I called Navina instead, read for a bit, and jumped in the shower before staggering back down to Shibuya to teach. Both of us were pretty tired (no surprises there, from either side!), and then I came home around 11:30, and wasn't actually feeling too tired, so I basically hung around here before heading out to Kichijoji for 3:30 to meet a girl that I teach and 4 of her friends. They'd planned a cafe day for us to go to a cute little cafe and get cake sets and tea... Then we wandering around a couple of the fun local shops a little bit before I headed back home...

Actually, what as really funny was that I was wandering around killing time before I went to meet them, and I came across a big kimono shop with a few photos outside, and then I went up to look at them, and was like "hey, it's coming of age day" "...hey it's me!"
It's very random as I didn't get my kimono from that shop, and I actually rented it from Shimo Kitazawa, not Kichijoji. Strange.

Anyway, headed home and got back here around 7:30, and tried, basically in vain, to write something for Weekender. Actually, what happened was that I passed out for half an hour, and Peter took photos of me fast asleep with my fingers still on the home row on this here mac.

At just after 8, Mibu came over, and we've been hanging out, burning fries and crab cakes, eating edamame, and watching crap TV--the singing bee and Letterman...

Probably will be heading to bed soon--its just after 11, and I got up at noon yesterday, which is many hours without being in a bed! Worth it though.

xo
D