Today was quite the touristy day! We went to Ueno park and did a two hour walking tour led by a very sweet Japanese woman who is part of the Goodwill Guides organisation. She took us past several of the museums, into several temples/shrines, past the zoo, and all around the major points of interest of the park and immediately surrounding area. It was a great way for us to get an overview of the area, and we also got to do it almost privately-there was just one other Aussie guy on the tour with us-kind of surprising, as the park was COMPLETELY packed - Golden Week, plus free entrance into the zoo, and the tour was free... Anyway, it worked out well for us!

Shrine with the statues of 84,000 children (well their carvings, anyway)

(My favorite temple so far I think- very quiet and peaceful and somehow a little bit laid back feeling...)

After that we ate street food - Navina got yakisoba again, and I ate, well, I'm not entirely sure! It's like a pancake with cabbage and some other random bits and bobs on it, and then there's an egg cracked on it, and its kind of cooked on a griddle, and then cut in half, folded pancake-to-pancake, smothered in BBQ-type sauce, and served piping hot.
(Oishii!)
We finished our meals and then wandered up to the Science Museum in the park which was sooo busy! (We had about a 10 minute wait just to get in the building). It was pretty cool tho-the most stylish science museum I've ever been in!
(Navina being one with the woodland animals...and getting some odd looks from the kids also checking out the forest floor from the vantage of a gopher!)
They had some pretty graphic movies in the animal exhibits-we saw an antelope being born, another one dying (death by lion) and a third one drowning. All on a very big screen! The kids around us weren't phased though I was cringing for sure!

The most interesting part of the museum (well overall) was the IC card system, by which everyone gets a free IC card, and then as you walk around, you touch the card onto various computer readers (like the train), and information about the exhibits comes up in Japanese, Japanese for kids, Simplified Chinese, Korean, or English. There is writing (and in good English!), videos, photos, etc. When you ge home, you can enter in a username and password connected to your ic card, and access additional information on the exhibits viewed. It takes away from actually looking at the stuff if you're as easily distracted by the card reading machines as I am, but in a museum where you can't read the regular plaques its great, and it also invites more interaction between the viewer and the museum.

After that, we jumped on the train and headed two stops to Asakusa. We skipped the old town and Senso-ji (7 temples in one day was enough!) and jumped on a river boat to take a Sumida River Cruise. It was cool! We got to see lots of the buildings on Tokyo's waterfront -what a hodgepodge! We also went under several bridges, each one very different in terms of style and color. The tide was really high, so we weren't able to go on the roof deck (not so much bridge clearance I guess), which shorted the whole boat in terms of seats, so we ended up just standing by a window for the whole 40-minute cruise, but that's ok, it was still good fun!

Dragged ourselves home at about 6:30, watched the Office (Navina), and Ugly Betty (both of us), before I started working on an article for Weekender, and we settled in to watch some Sex and the City. I also continued a bit with class searching at SFU, trying to plan out how I want my schedule so that I can be vaguely organised about everything! It's weird - they haven't accepted me yet, but they've already automatically calculated some of my credit transfers from York...?

Photos from today to come...
xo
D

Today was quite the touristy day! We went to Ueno park and did a two hour walking tour lead by a very sweet Japanese woman who is part of the Goodwill Guides organisation. She took us past several of the museums, into several temples/shrines, past the zoo, and all around the major points of interest of the park and immediately surrounding area. It was a great way for us to get an overview of the area, and we also got to do it almost privately-there was just one other Aussie guy on the tour with us-kind of surprising, as the park was COMPLETELY packed - Golden Week, plus free entrance into the zoo, and the tour was free... Anyway, it worked out well for us!

After that we ate street food - Navina got yakisoba again, and I ate, well, I'm not entirely sure! It's like a pancake with cabbage and some other random bits and bobs on it, and then there's an egg cracked on it, and its kind of cooked on a griddle, and then cut in half, folded pancake-to-pancake, smothered in BBQ-type sauce, and served piping hot.

We finished our meals and then wandered up to the Science Museum in the park which was sooo busy! (We had about a 10 minute wait just to get in the building). It was pretty cool tho-the most stylish science museum I've ever been in!

They had some pretty graphic movies in the animal exhibits-we saw an antelope being born, another one dying (death by lion) and a third one drowning. All on a very big screen! The kids around us weren't phased though I was cringing for sure!

The most interesting part of the museum (well overall) was the IC card system, by which everyone gets a free IC card, and then as you walk around, you touch the card onto various computer readers (like the train), and information about the exhibits comes up in Japanese, Japanese for kids, Simplified Chinese, Korean, or English. There is writing (and in good English!), videos, photos, etc. When you ge home, you can enter in a username and password connected to your ic card, and access additional information on the exhibits viewed. It takes away from actually looking at the stuff if you're as easily distracted by the card reading machines as I am, but in a museum where you can't read the regular plaques its great, and it also invites more interaction between the viewer and the museum.

After that, we jumped on the train and headed two stops to Asakusa. We skipped the old town and Senso-ji (7 temples in one day was enough!) and jumped on a river boat to take a Sumida River Cruise. It was cool! We got to see lots of the buildings on Tokyo's waterfront -what a hodgepodge! We also went under several bridges, each one very different in terms of style and color. The tide was really high, so we weren't able to go on the roof deck (not so much bridge clearance I guess), which shorted the whole boat in terms of seats, so we ended up just standing by a window for the whole 40-minute cruise, but that's ok, it was still good fun!

Dragged ourselves home at about 6:30, watched the Office (Navina), and Ugly Betty (both of us), before I started working on an article for Weekender, and we settled in to watch some Sex and the City. I also continued a bit with class searching at SFU, trying to plan out how I want my schedule so that I can be vaguely organised about everything! It's weird - they haven't accepted me yet, but they've already automatically calculated some of my credit transfers from York...?

Photos from today to come...
xo
D

Again with the photos, as really, I'm too lazy to be writing these days! So. Today was:
Navina standing under the Torii at Meji Jingu Shrine in Yoyogi Koen (See Jan. 8 for more images, with loads of kimonos!)



(flower arrangements at meiji shrine - heard in passing: "So yea, when you get invited to do flower arranging at Westminster that's like the pinnacle of your flower arranging career. And my mom? She got invited" The conversation was made all the better by the accents of the two guys, who then went on to ponder if Westminster is "like that place where you can only get married if you're a knight or something?")
(Something official going on all the way inside the shrine, and accompanied by some BIG, earth-shaking taiko drumming)

(Navina hanging her prayer votive (I think) plaque)
(Wedding ceremony - one of two we saw parading through. A very nice bonus! Note the HOT fur lined kimono she is wearing- we figure this must be very unpleasant in the summer!)(wedding party with CUTE kids!)
Meiji Shrine/courtyard
near the entrance
pre-entry cleansing... left hand, right hand, mouth, handle


Stylin' Harajuku dog with quite the hair cut and dye job!A scary cat and foreigners dressed up very oddly during a photo shoot for something on Omotesando...both live......and at kiddy land..

Also ate yakisoba and meat on a stick from a cart near the gift shop at Meiji shrine, did some birthday shopping, watched some Sex and the City, made our schedule (pretty busy!) for the next 12 days, checked out the Ralph Lauren store, walked the backstreets of Harajuku a little bit, researched classes at SFU (me only obviously - they've FINALLY processed my HS transcript as of today, let's hope I get in!). The video below is of a random guy by where they do the cos-play by Meijijingumae eki, dancing to his random semi-stripper music, and generally getting his 'hipalicious' groove on. With his back resolutely turned towards the audience. I love how every time you leave the house, there are at least one, or ten, totally random things such as this!
xo
D

Happy Birthday Mom!

So the new Weekender is out today--May 4, Homes and Houses, which looks good! I like this issue, especially the fun cover, it's so cute!

A new issue means new distribution, so after an early morning run, I went in to do that and dragged Navina along to meet the whole crew. She helped with distribution in the morning, and then everyone headed down to Suji's for lunch. Hopefully it lived up to her expectations--seemingly the blog has built up quite a reputation to precede our meal! It was fun for everyone to be able to go down together and great to see Caroline, with fantastic pink hair!

After lunch we headed back up to the office for a little bit before skivving off to start the second half of Golden Week with a trip to Kichijoji. We went to Inokashira Koen and walked around there for a little while - it had turned into a perfect afternoon and was absolutely gorgeous! Then we headed back into Kichijoji and explored for a little bit - there were some very cute tiny alleys filled with adorable standing bars, and lots of other little tiny shops and stuff. It was great--such a cute area!

Then we headed home and chillaxed, with Navina continuing to work her way through DH, and me discovering some very interesting blogs written by teenagers living in Iraq. I love the BBC (did some link following). These stories are amazing, and generally very well written! Check out A Star from Mosul to get started - she has lots of interesting links on her blog, and she's crazy smart as well-she graduated from grade 6 (like our grade 12 I think) with a 97 or 98% average or something like that, and is now around the top of her class studying communications engineering at uni.

go forth and read
xo
D

A blog of mostly images (courtesy of Navina)

Today was:

Kind of grey and rainy!
TOEIC scripts and movie review writing
Yurikamome line with a great view of Tokyo and the Rainbow Bridge
Odaiba

Decks

Pallate Town
ZEST, again
Muscle Town
(and no, I can't figure out how to turn the movie around...anyone?)

The Statue of Liberty

Ginza and a quick wander there
Hibiya Park

Shimokitazawa wandering exploration

Navina's first (origin) Bento
Researching and writing a feature for Weekender
Desperate Housewives Season Two

xo
D

We were both up early this morning, around 8, after another early night last night, and after leisurely getting ready, headed back down to Shibuya. Navina finished exploring the area while I holed up with my laptop for a couple of hours in a coffee shop to work on various writing projects. Luckily, she came back 'an hour early', as somehow, she's been going around with her watch set an hour slow for the past 3 days! It's all good now though, which is handy!



After we met back up again, we went for ramen at the place Jordon and I went to after the Canadian Rock and Rule concert. I have no idea what's its called, just that it has 'oishii ramen' written on signs outside, I amazingly managed to find it again, and it is indeed very tasty! We both got the store's osusume bowl and were very happy with our choice! Of course, even after the museum experience of a couple of months ago, I have no idea what kind/region of noodles we were eating!



After that, we headed up to Yoyogi Koen for Cirque du Soliel (Dralion). It was fantastic! Sooo good! Of course, I really want to run away and join the circus, but vaulting again in the fall will have to do! There was a cool act where they bounced off a trampoline onto a wall, and then flipped back off the wall, and ended up doing back drops and then bouncing up, grabbing the wall like bugs, and starting all over again. It was breath-taking! I get freaked out enough doing a one and a quarter onto my back, I can't even imagine doing like a triple, off that height, onto a trampoline raised ten feet off the ground!

(Was looking for a picture of Dralion to blog, as we didn't take any, good rule-followers that we are, and came across a blog with a very good point -why didn't they perform with the big silver hoop? It came out onstage a couple of times, kind of got rolled around the stage, and then never actually got rolled around on. Weird ne?)

There were also the usual assortment of amazing hand balancers/contortionists/silks artists, and lucky kids who got to run away and join the circus--so cool! The girls beside and behind me thought so as well, they were hilarious gasping and ooing and ahhing with abandon.

We walked home after that and chilled for the evening - Navina watched more DH, while I worked on a couple of articles and read for a bit. I'm giving the pink books a break (2 in 24 hours is a lot!) and reading 'Travels with Charley: In Search of America' by John Steinbeck. So far, its great- I've actually giggled out loud a couple of times! Very good descriptions of traveling around in a camper van named after Don Quixote's horse (haven't read the book, but I watched the Wishbone!--and then joined the requisite facebook group), and his poodle, Charley, who seems to have all of the personality and standards any standard poodle should attempt to live up to!

Anyway, off to bed now-I think we're venturing out to Odaiba for the day tomorrow... Hopefully this amazingly nice weather we've had the last couple of days holds!



xo

D

So a busier day today, starting early as I taught at ten-it was in Shibuya, so Navina and I took the train down there, and then walked from the station through Shibuya up to the cafe where I teach, to give her a vague idea of the area, and then she went to check out the area for the hour or so while I was teaching.

Just after 11, when I finished, we headed through Yoyogi Koen, checked out the flea market and general assembly of odd characters always in the park on Sundays before heading to Harajuku. We checked out the cos play and Takeshita-dori, went into some of the shops selling the cosplay stuff (I should really sort myself out for Halloween before I go home!), and got her picture taken with some Harajuku Girls by the Meijijingumae eki. We walked back through the park, stopping to listen to some J-pop (the fairly full on set up for the band Lovee was a highlight!) before continuing on to ZEST for lunch. Its too bad they don't do lunch sets on the weekends, but still a good meal - I've never been to that ZEST, its definitely more themed than our normal lunch one we go to for work!

We wandered home after that and took the scenic route back, walking through some residential areas that I've never been in before, and then went to the grocery store for some salad stuff and hamburger buns. Trouble was, there were no hamburger buns to be found anywhere! We've looked in like three grocery stores now, and none of them have any-we ended up going with hot dog buns and cutting our hamburgers in half-lateral thinking and all that.

Just after we got back, Sarah came over, and took over our kitchen to make cookies which was great! Leslie and Ginger also came over and we had our BBQ - lighting the damn thing was quite the issue, but we finally got it going, and had slightly crispy chicken and tasty burgers. It was a fun evening, pretty casual and chillaxed, with just the girls.

Everyone headed home at about 7:30, and I convinced Navina to stay up into the double digits tonight, so we just chatted for awhile and now she's working on more Desperate Housewives.... I should be writing stuff, but I'm thinking that there is a pink book with my name on it!

Cirque du Soleil tomorrow!
D

Navina's first full day here was a fairly quiet one--jet lag being what it is and all of that. Looking back on it, we were very, very overly optimistic to be thinking we could go to Jordon's all-night gig/event tonight, as its still about an hour before things kick off and I'm having to convince Navina to stay up a bit later so she isn't awake at 4 am tomorrow! That's OK though - we have plenty of time to go out over the next couple of weeks!

Anyway, we both woke up fairly early (going to bed at 10:30 will do that to a person!) and after a relaxing start to the morning headed to Queen's Isetan in Sasazuka to pick up a few bits of groceries - milk and cookies and juice and a few random things like that. It was a nice walk with the venuppi puppy - there was great weather this morning, and so Navina got the brief tour of the neighbourhood.

We got back and chillaxed for a bit, watched Ugly Betty, and got Navina started on Season Two of Desperate Housewives. I've been reading and working on a couple of articles for work on and off. This afternoon, just as we were considering venturing down to Shibuya for a couple of hours, its started pouring, thundering, and lightening -really close to the house! One of the thunder claps was so violent it seemed like the house shook a little bit! Poor Venus was a little nervous and cuddled up with Navina - the two of them are very cute together already!

At 5ish, the storm had blown over, so we decided to go to Shimo Kitazawa, since it's so nice and close, so we walked down there, wandered around a little bit, and then got dinner at the blue and yellow version of yoshinoya. I can't remember the name of that particular brand, but it was a good introduction to vending machine based dining for Navina! We also found a huge, completely random shop selling everything from art and design books to blow-up dolls to cds and vinyl, to flip flops, Japanese books, model designer chairs, buttons, stuffed frogs, stuffed hamburgers, and just about everything else under the sun! Good stuff!

We wandered around the neighbourhood for awhile and then headed back home by 7:30-party animals r us! Hopefully a good night's sleep will have us both recharged and ready to take on Tokyo in a bigger way! I totally understand how she feels though - I think it took me about a week to stop nodding off at 9pm when I first got here-jet lag's a bitch!

Photos to come in the next few days - Navina's been taking lots, so I'll hopefully nick a few off her and post them soon.

xo
D

PS - This is THE funniest thing ever (link courtesy of Sarah) In part:

"Thousands of Japanese have been swindled in a scam in which they were sold Australian and British sheep and told they were poodles. Flocks of sheep were imported to Japan and then sold by a company called Poodles as Pets, marketed as fashionable accessories, available at $1,600 each... One couple said they became suspicious when they took their "dog" to have its claws trimmed and were told it had hooves."

It's from the Sydney Morning Herald, but it sounds like its from The Onion or something! Although, my eliblot does look like an overgrown lamb sometimes, so I guess there's some similarity between the two of them!

For a great image of a supposed sheep-dog, check out the Sun, which has cheekily copy-protected it and therefore prevented me from pulling it down on to my blog!

...well, its hardly surprising, but leave it to Snopes to ruin all the fun. Definitely entertaining though!

So had one of those mornings where you dream you are getting ready for work or school, but fail to actually be doing so, as you are, in fact, slumbering. Doh! Luckily, Venus woke me up by licking my face and standing on my head, so I managed to only be about fifteen minutes late, and stopped at Starbucks to suck up for it on my way ;).

We managed to get BAB almost all the way ready to go to the printers today which was great, especially since we don't send it until Tuesday, so we're if not ahead of, at least abreast of the game.

I left at three to go get Navina, and accidentally missed the first of three trains I had to take by literally a minute (I totally would have made it if it were on the Hibiya line - I was in the station, but the Oedo line is something like 17 storeys down, and it just took me that extra few minutes to descend into the depths...

Anyway, I managed to eventually get to Narita at 5:15, which since Navina's flight got here at 5, should have been OK. I was pretty surprised to get stopped at security between the station and the terminal. She asked for my passport, and I was like 'uh, just going to arrivals', and she was like 'id card'? So I'm like 'gaikokujin'? And in the end that (my gaijin card) was fine. Lucky! So I get into the terminal at like twenty past, thinking its all good, and then see on the board that her flight has been delayed for like two hours. So I was just randomly wandering around for awhile waiting, like probably half an hour, in and out of the arrivals area, and then went to this little internet booth, checked my mail for something to do, and idly surfed over to the NWA site, which was claiming her flight had landed twenty minutes early.

I was like OH NO! So I rushed back to arrivals, and on the big board, her flight was showing as delayed, still, but on the little board, as arrived, an hour ago. There were a few people straggling through the doors, and I was really hoping she'd be one of them and that it had taken ages for her to get her luggage or something, but no, she finally spotted me and walked over. Turns out she'd been waiting for me since just about exactly when I got to the airport! I think we were walking around the terminal not running into each other probably!

Luckily we found each other, and I hadn't gone to Starbucks to wait, which was my original plan, as that big board was still claiming a delay of nearly 2 hours! Weird!

Anyway, we made it home in one piece-two hours, three trains, a lost suica card, and a ticket-stealing machine later! I did offer the bus as an option, but I think, if I pick people up from the airport again, I'm going to basically insist on it! With the multiple train transfers and everything, its a pretty brutal trip! We randomly started chatting with a couple of Taiwanese girls on the train though - she'd majored in Japanese at UBC, and was just visiting for five days, but Navina's 'Victoria' label on her suitcase sparked off the requisite BC conversation...

We straggled home just around nine, to a very excited Venuppi Puppi, did the quick house tour, and then let Navina crash. Hopefully she won't be up too early with the jet-lag! It doesn't really matter, because if we go see Jordon's band tomorrow night, we're not going to be getting much sleep then either, so there's probably no real hope of a sleeping schedule until Sunday night/Monday...

I got a very exciting suitcase full of fun stuff from home, including art/design/golf magazine, PINK books!!!! (I was reading Steinbeck, but I think he's just been pre-empted!) and Stone Wheat Thins!!! It's like early Christmas!

So, I think I'll probably select the pinkest of the pink books, and curl up in bed--haven't really got much sleep this week and its going to be busy in the next few days/weeks!!

D

Navina is coming tomorrow, which is very exciting and should also feed the blog a bit! I've just made up her futon, (probably the only Japanese experience she's going to have here), put out the new BAB and Weekender on her pillow, with some guidebooks and tons of brochures, bought both of us SUICA cards (like passmo, except they're out of those cards at the moment so you have to get SUICA), and chucked the last few dishes in the dishwasher. I think we're basically good to go for her arrival tomorrow.

Which is handy, as I'm heading in to work for the morning--just until 3 or so, in order to get BAB off to the printers. A combination of me being slow (hopefully b/c its my first time doing it), and not having all the content has meant that we didn't get done today as we were (fairly optimistically as it turns out) hoping to.

I got up at six again this morning to go for a run-down to Harajuku, started to feel my shin from the concrete, so headed back on the train and then did a bunch of stretching once I got back. It was very weird to see Takashita Dori completely devoid of people, and with cars on it!!! At 7am this morning. After that, off to work, and kept going on BAB layout before a lovely lunch at Wolfgang Pucks with Helen...

I taught after work, and the kids were pretty cute - very much enjoyed the Narnia picture book I brought - the boy wants me to bring the novels in, so if I can find The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe at the library, I'll bring that for him, it will be challenging for him, but probably he can just make it through if he wants to.

The rest of my night, which was a lovely dinner that I don't really want to get into the reasons for it at all on here, but I do want to say that I work with/for some very lovely people and it was very appreciated!

Oh, and by the way, why on earth is the Olympic torch for the Beijing Olympics going via the top of Mount Everest? I mean, its kind of a cool idea, but there are just SO many potential issues!

That's about it I think-I'm going to work after all tomorrow, just until 3, at which point I need to get to the airport, but in any case, I need to get up early...
xox
D

Busy, busy, busy day today! Worked from 10-8:15 (we did take a lunch break at ZEST though - YUM!). BAB is going to print ASAP and since I won't be in the office on Friday so that I can get Navina from the airport (so exciting!!) we're trying to get everything in and proofed (and lined up and ragged!) tomorrow. Its really unfortunate that I have to go and teach, since I'm guessing I won't be ready to leave work at five! Ah well...

After work I went straight to Pecha Kucha night for Super Deluxe vol. 41 (no photos, sorry). It was GREAT! I was tempted to go straight home after work, but I'm glad I went! I thought the quality of presenters was higher than the one last month, and there were also fewer of them, so we got out of there at 11 (home around 11:40, POOR V!). Highlight presentations included a woman working for MIT in the states in the kinetic innovation lab or some such thing, who has created these blocks which can learn movement and then repeat the motion, so you can build an animal and teach it to walk or something like that.

The guy who designed the interactive lights that were part of the Omotesando Christmas display was there, talking about how you could interact through the net or with your keitai to somehow control the lights with your voice (?) --he was speaking in Japanese with English subtitles that were quite basic.

Mark from KDA did two presentations on a recent trip to pick out the house of the year in New Zealand - amazing houses and what an absolutely stunningly beautiful background provided by the country! All of the houses he showed were in really rural areas, but the views of the mountains and the water were amazing (and this from someone who generally couldn't care less about the view!)

It was crowded, as with the last time-standing/sitting on the floor room only, although I did manage to run into Ginger which was quite funny-I know I keep saying it, but in some ways, this town is SO small!

The event is in a ridiculous number of cities/countries now, with, for instance, the first one in Tel Aviv next month. I should start one in Vancouver! They showed a picture of one recently held in Melbourne, with 700 people inside, and 300+ watching outside on huge screens. The event went from 10-12am and then the party carried on till 3! Pretty amazing! Super-Deluxe is a fantastic space, but if they're not careful, they're going to outgrow their own venue with these events!

Alright, time for bed!
xo
D

*Today's blog is not strictly rated G*

There are just some events which, I can safely say, would leave me absolutely and utterly baffled if I ever happened upon them. Seemingly the Daily Mail in England is a great source for such events in their 'Wacky World' section of the website.

Like this one for instance...

"Surgeons battling to save a man's penis after he hacked it off in a restaurant have sewn it back on...stunned witnesses told how the man jumped up onto a table, dropped his trousers and cut his penis off in front of horrified diners in a packed pizza restaurant."

Gives a whole new meaning to whacking (off) your meat, doesn't it? My head=firmly in gutter, but geesh, the mental images! Egads!

And then since we're sort of on the subject, and its always entertaining to see just how litigational the US can get, here's a lovely tidbit from salon.com--"When a Florida phone-sex worker developed carpal tunnel syndrome in each of her busy hands, she took the case to court. Now she gets her satisfaction from workers' compensation checks." And uh no--the carpal tunnel didn't originate from fast-fingered dialing...more like 'double clicking her mouse' one too many times!

But seriously, someone actually represented her in this case against the worker's comp board! His last name was Slootsky too; isn't that just such a perfect sounding name for an ambulance chasing, opportunistic injury attorney?

Now that I've entertained and mildly shocked you sufficiently, you might not notice how comparatively boring me day was, right?

Weekender went to print this morning, but we were actually ready for that with plenty of time to spare, so on to new issues and articles! I finished the style article for BAB and then started doing research for the May 18 feature of Weekender. Karin, Kieron, and I headed down to Suji's for lunch and I had my first ever philly-cheese steak sandwich. It was very, very good!

I left kind of early (well relatively speaking), at about 4:30, as I was after a bit of a break before I went to teach, and also had to select and photocopy materials for them in case of a lack of homework (which, of course, there wasn't really tonight!)

Got home around 8:30 and made dinner of rice and meat and tomatoes and onions and garlic and lots of seasoning, all sauteed together and then wrapped up in tortillas, covered in salsa and a bit of cheese, and baked. It was sooo yummy! Filling too. As a make it up as you go meal, it went pretty well!

Since then spent about an hour passed out on the couch reading wacky news and my current book, by Jennifer Weiner--Goodnight Nobody. I think I'm going to give up on seeing Peter tonight, leave his diner out for him and go to bed -my alarm is set for a run tomorrow, and if I'm going to have half a hope of getting up, I really need to crash now!

D.

PS, on a more serious note, the Lucie Blackman case closed today, with her accused killer, a millionaire property developer, getting acquitted for her murder, but sentenced to life for another girl's murder. It's a pretty sick story (they found her body in a cave, with her head encased in concrete), and her father seems like a right ass, taking money from 'associates' of the accused (roughly 500 000GBP) in exchange for signing a piece of paper and giving it to the police saying that there were issues with the prosecutor's case. I guess here they do some kind of payment like that, where if you accept it, you are kind of forgiving,and if you pay it, you are admitting to having done something wrong and apologizing for it. I can see that for a fender bender, but for a brutal murder? I should note that her Dad (her parents have been divorced for a long time) was acting against the express wish of Jane, Lucie's mum.

How horrible for everyone.

Very bizarre morning today! The plan was to go for a run--away from home for a few stations, and then jump on a train to come home. It all started out OK - I ran through Shimo Kita and into Setagaya-ku, and then promptly got a little lost! I ended up finding my way out onto a big road that I recognised from biking to use the vaulting barrel. In the end, I managed to find a station, in the end just one from Shimo Kitazawa, at the far end of a big loop. However, taking the Odakyu Line into town, just a couple of stops away from the end of the line, at 7:45 am, is crap! The trains were soooooooo incredibly full! I tried a couple of times to get one, and both times, the people kind of squished back and then sprung forward, ejecting me back onto the platform. I'm sure being kind of yucky from my run and in bright blue spandies wasn't helping my cause much either!!

I finally gave up and rode away from the house a few stops and got on an in-bound train in Kyodo, where I managed to get on, and then over the next four stops, get completely squished into the far door, so that there was no way I was ever getting off at Higashi Kitazawa, and remained a prisoner of the train until Yoyogi Uehara. The whole mess took about 45 minutes to run, and an extra 45 minutes to travel two stops!

I found a bizarre story today, which is pretty ambitious and interesting, but also pretty nuts! It is, however, a good blog for you to read as well. Check out 1000 Days at Sea to read about one couple's journey around the world on their schooner - for 1000 Days straight. They set sail yesterday from NYC, and don't plan to touch land again in the next 3 years! If they manage it, they'll be breaking all sorts of isolation/length of travel time records. It's being likened to a mission to mars, as it takes around the same amount of time and isolation as a mission to mars is projected to take.

They've taken 200 pounds of Parmesan, pasta, dry goods, fish traps, a desalinator, a small library, solar powered satellite and GPS hookups, and each other. They've learned to set bones, other first aid, and plan to blog daily (I give them 3 months before they're dead bored of blogging about the same old ocean!)

Went to work today so that I can take Friday off to get Navina from the airport - we had a busy day getting Weekender to print, and I got to learn and write about purchasing holiday homes, among other tasks. I also worked on BAB for a bit - Women of the World, which is always interesting as it means getting to read lots of news stories, and the style section, which is cool as its about accessorizing your electronics. I think I posted about iattire.net a little while ago.

Left the office around 7:30 and headed home, getting back just before Peter. We watched the season finale of the Apprentice, and ate pies and fries while watching a particularly scandalous Desperate Housewives. I am now more than ready for bed, so will be heading that way immediately....

Night!
D

Very bizarre morning today! The plan was to go for a run--away from home for a few stations, and then jump on a train to come home. It all started out OK - I ran through Shimo Kita and into Setagaya-ku, and then promptly got a little lost! I ended up finding my way out onto a big road that I recognised from biking to use the vaulting barrel. In the end, I managed to find a station, in the end just one from Shimo Kitazawa, at the far end of a big loop. However, taking the Odakyu Line into town, just a couple of stops away from the end of the line, at 7:45 am, is crap! The trains were soooooooo incredibly fulll! I tried a couple of times to get one, and both times, the people kind of squished back and then sprung forward, ejecting me back onto the platform. I'm sure being kind of yucky from my run and in bright blue spandies wasn't helping my cause much either!!

I finally gave up and rode away from the house a few stops and got on an in-bound train in Kyodo, where I managed to get on, and then over the next four stops, get completely squished into the far door, so that there was no way I was ever getting off at Higashi Kitazawa, and remained a prisoner of the train until Yoyogi Uehara. The whole mess took about 45 minutes to run, and an extra 45 minutes to travel two stops!

I found a bizarre story today, which is pretty ambitious and interesting, but also pretty nuts! It is, however, a good blog for you to read as well. Check out 1000 Days at Sea to read about one couple's journey around the world on their schooner - for 1000 Days straight. They set sail yesterday from NYC, and don't plan to touch land again in the next 3 years! If they manage it, they'll be breaking all sorts of isolation/length of travel time records. It's being likened to a mission to mars, as it takes around the same amount of time and isolation as a mission to mars is projected to take.

They've taken 200 pounds of parmesan, pasta, dry goods, fish traps, a desalinator, a small library, solar powered satellite and GPS hookups, and each other. They've learned to set bones, other first aid, and plan to blog daily (I give them 3 months before they're dead bored of blogging about the same old ocean!)

Ugh, I keep forgetting about this here blog until I'm seconds from bed and not wanting anything to do with it! Yet I can't go to bed without something, A, because people complain too much (why?! Shouldn't you be glad for the stem of the drivel!) and B, because I've been doing this nightly for way more than 21 days, and therefore, it is now a deeply ingrained habit!

Anyway,

I taught this morning and then went through Yoyogi Koen on my way to the library - they were having a huge earth day fair there, very hemp and farmer's market ish. It looked like it was quite good fun though! I got a 'save the shimokita' button to lend my support for the movement against the overpass through nearby Shimokitazawa... I might not spend as much time there as one might expect, but it's way too fun and cute and cool to be paved over!
After I got home I chatted with Navina who is coming out here in five sleeps(!) and then Peter and I headed out to Costco for the afternoon which was fun as it always is! We hadn't been since January, so we had lots of food to buy - 2 carts worth! We didn't have to come home with the roof open, but it was close! There were an amazing number of people leaving the place with only one or two items though-we spent quite a bit of time in the hotdog and pizza-eating zone laughing at them as they went up the magnetic escalator to their cars with one tray of sushi or one bottle of febreeze. Honestly, what is the point? And speaking of those escalator things (you can take your carts up and down them, and they get anchored by magnets in the wheels), I can just see the headlines now - "Magnet fails and kills three as overloaded carts fly down angled ramp" They are fun though!
(Because apples shouldn't be allowed to intermingle apparently...hard plastic bubble packing for them)

The only bad part about the expedition was not getting to go to soccer, but I guess I got some exercise tramping around through the store, and having loads of food in the house makes it totally worth it!

We watched The Player, a Robert Altman movie tonight. I thought it was kind of weird, and while I wouldn't say I liked it, per se, I certainly didn't not enjoy it (for someone who hates double negatives, there were a lot in that sentence I think!) It was funny, because on the DNTO podcast today, about 'spamocrisy', they quoted the movie when they talk about test screenings, and then Peter picked it out, not knowing about that. Weird how you can go around having never heard of a person or thing, and then suddenly, they are everywhere.

I'm going to work tomorrow so that I can have the day off to get organised and get Navina on Friday, which means that I need to sleep now! (and get up in like six hours...yuck!)
night!
D

Sarah and I had a pretty chill morning involving pancakes, but both of us had to get going fairly early, so we left around noon, and she headed off to study and I headed off to teach twice and then continued on to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building in Shinjuku to pick up a ton of brochures and pamphlets and stuff for Navina's trip here on Friday!

Came home around five and hung out, Peter got home from Vegas/LA around 9, so that was nice to see him again and hear about his trip - Venus was very excited! We just got bentos for dinner and then watched Desperate Housewives - great as usual.

I've been surfing around trying to check out the various music festivals recently, and although Fuji Rock looks great (and includes Mika (my current fav. album!), the Shins, Feist, and loads of other acts I'd love to see, its really expensive, and three days, so I'm thinking its not going to happen, but...Summer Sonic looks great - its two days in Osaka and Tokyo (and the acts switch after day one), but they've done an admirable job of putting everyone I would be interested in seeing on one day, so I think I might try and go to this... Modest Mouse!!! Sweet!

Tired, and teaching at 10 tomorrow, so off to bed now I think!

D

Was up ridiculously early this morning - around six, to go for a run. I decided to run away from my house and take a train back, which worked except I ended up running off course a bit to go check out the Tokyo Riding Club which was very quiet (as might be expected!) There were a couple of people schooling - why are all the horses and riders here so ridiculously nice? But basically it was deserted, and all the gates were shut, so it was a bit pointless, but it was still good to finally check it out. By the time I ran back to a station, it turned out to be only one away from mine, but I still took it and saved myself a very hilly kilometre and a half, which by that point, I was NOT interested in tackling!

Work was good today - was mostly working on the BAB may layout, which is probably about half finished by now...I like this kind of designing because its mostly just being neat and organised and filling in blanks as opposed to actually designing anything. I think that's probably why school wasn't so great for me - I couldn't just do the kind of stuff I enjoy doing, which obscenely boringly, would be something like textbook design...Weird, I know!

Be that as it may, so far, touch wood, its going pretty well I think... There were more of us than usual for a Friday, and so the office was a bit more lively than is typical, I think. Helen and Emma and I actually took a proper lunch, and had a nice meal together at ZEST...

Left at about 6:45 and headed home, and then Venus and I walked back to the station to pick up Sarah who was here for a girlie night in...We (er, she) managed to order pizza (AND use a coupon!) which was pretty impressive, although we didn't quite manage to sort out the cinnamon sticks...Probably just as well as between us we had PLENTY of food! Yummy though!

We kind of watched a couple of movies - Crash and RENT, but ended up chatting through most of them, up till now, when we are both very ready for bed, so I'm going to crash! 6am-2am is a pretty long day!

D.

Wow there are some pretty lame commercials for the Canucks in the playoffs! Let's be honest-even the people in the community centre quilting the Canucks flags look vaguely embarrassed to be there!

In any case, go Canucks, but too bad about some of those commericials, don't you think?

Work was crazy today! I think we were all a bit stressed out, between distribution, computer issues, the new Weekender going to print earlier than normal because of Golden Week, Japanese speakers showing up when Helen was out of the office (how many gaijins does it take to screw in a Japanese light bulb? More than 4 apparently!), having to finish the tricky feature, and being generally a bit un-genki today, it was a little nuts!

Working on BAB layout tomorrow, hopefully it all goes together OK!

Taught after work, apparently there is a new addition to the family, a little girl! I didn't meet her, but heard her fussing a few times. The little girl I teach was so excited about her, it was very cute! She's been helping out apparently...

Got home around 8, made some dinner (leftover leftovers haha), and settled in with Venus for some crap tv - the hills (fantastic!!), and ANTM (also pretty great so far).

D

Took advantage of a break in the rain this morning to go for a quick run... it was really quick, but better than nothing, and better than anything-pain free! I have soccer 'penned' in this weekend, and I'm trying not to cripple myself on the way! My whole room smells like the menthol pain spray they have here though - very, very, very minty! Silly V decided to stick her nose in the spray while I was using it, and spent the next half hour scrubbing her nose on the carpet - it must have been really cold and tingly!!

Work today was mostly concentrated on the Homes feature, but 'Nine and I also went and interviewed a couple of kids with 'cool rooms'. They had a lovely place, and a great family! Their rooms were cool too - you'll have to check out the May 4 Weekender to see them. Great kids too-very smart, outgoing, and well traveled!

After work it was Girls Night Out in Paddy's, so a few of us headed down there, and about a dozen people came, including Sarah, so we spent time hanging out, and chatting with another lady we met there who sells chocolate for a living - nice!

Sloshed home for about 10, to a relieved Venus, I think the poor girl thought I'd left and forgot to work out rations for her, and now we're curled up on the couch watching Gilmore Girls (new, finally!), and thinking about early bed...(well, early-ish anyway!)

D

Blogger ate my post! At least I think it did - its usually so good at auto saving drafts that I'm a little confused by the total -white screen of death-i-ness' of the whole thing...hopeful for a recover, I'm not re blogging yet, but in case it doesn't come back before you Canadian readers wake up, the gist of it was - Music and Lyrics is a cute movie, with Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore you can hardly go wrong-the press screening today was entertaining, if not exactly Oscar-worthy.

I love chick flicks and chick lit, and the rom-com escapism was perfect for today! I was actually pretty impressed with Hugh Grant singing all of his songs on the soundtrack. Tone deaf though I may be, I thought he did a good job!

The other point to my last point was about my gravy, which was looking as though it might be a disaster but turned out well in the end. I was trying to make the kind of gravy that's involved with 'hambaaga steki' a very popular (and tasty!) dish over here, with the left over hamburgers, but we didn't have any gravy mix, so I just made it up as I went along...Water and bullion, reduced for a little while, and then followed with cream, reduced further, and then some flour, which I was a little bit worried about as I was too far along to make a proper roux, and at this point, it was looking pale and pasty, and so I added BBQ sauce in an gave it a stir and a prayer to the kitchen gods, and it actually turned out really, really well! I think its probably pretty similar to a Southern white gravy, but as I've not had much to do with Southern gravies, I really couldn't say for certain!

Finally, on a more serious note, how horrible was that shooting at Virginia Tech yesterday? The largest single act of gun violence in the US, 33 people dead last I read. It reminds me of the Montreal Massacre (although this guy was a little more indiscriminate, I think), but still, how horrible! For what its worth, my thoughts go to those involved...

D
(who apparently re-blogged) after all