hey all,
As I posted last time, I've got my new visa. As of this afternoon, I've had my foreigner registration card updated as well, which means that I don't have to carry around my passport to prove that I'm not here illegally anymore.
The weather was downright atrocious this weekend. It rained all through Saturday, Sunday, and into Monday morning. I almost did the exact same thing as the weekend before last, and left 2L of chili and 1L of rice cooling next to my refrigerator. I was on my way out the door when I realized what I'd forgotten. It was also a little dramatic, because Michi and I got into a couple arguments. Thankfully, we patched them up pretty quickly. We had originally planned to go climbing at a gym, but we decided to see a movie instead. Unfortunately, almost everyone else had the same idea, and the movie we wanted to see (Gaku , a mountain rescue movie based on a manga, and also the name we picked out for any potential male offspring...) was sold out except for a really late show. Instead, we rented the Green Zone. Pretty good, but I have to agree with "Movie" Bob's assessment: it minimalizes the role of the Iraqis in their own story. Besides all that, for my sake we probably should have picked a movie that wasn't such a downer given the weather that day and the arguments we'd had.
Food-wise, we ate at a mediocre ramen shop near her place (my tsukemen noodles were fine, but the soup lacked flavor and didn't have enough vegetables and meat, and the dish Michi ordered didn't have any warning about how spicy it was on it and was too spicy to actually eat), and also at a Osaka-style okonomiyaki restaurant near the movie theater. The okonomiyaki place was actually quite good.
On the upside, we finally booked the hotel we'll be staying at when we visit Matsumoto, and settled on a place to do some hiking and some sights to see besides the castle.
When I came back on Sunday evening, I noticed a post on our house whiteboard that 2 more people have moved in. I need to get out of here. Two people on one side of my room, two on the other, one directly across, two more on that side, then 4 living in a dorm-style room, and 2 more people on the first floor. All sharing a kitchen so small that only one person can cook at a time. Michi and I also agreed to go apartment hunting again next weekend...
Three more episodes of Game of Thrones' first season left. The book ends on such a cliff hanger for so many plot points that waiting for another year for season two to come out will be tough. Sounds silly, considering that I've already read the first book 3 or more times, once in Japanese, but the TV series is that good. At least a new book in the series is coming out in a few months. I'd preorder it but I think I'll be living in a different place by the time it arrives.
Cheers,
Monday, May 30, 2011
Friday, May 27, 2011
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
New Bike
hey all,
So my bike chain has been increasingly crappy lately. This culminated last night, when I had to stop 6 times to put the chain back on the sprockets. When I got home, I took a good look at the whole thing, and realized that opposite sides of two different links had broken, allowing the chain to slide off in two different directions, and making it just a matter of time before the thing broke in two completely.
I even tried, as any red blooded American would do, to repair it with duct tape, but alas, this did not work.
So today I bought a new bike. It doesn't have crap on my bike in the US, but then it was an expensive bike to begin with, probably $450 dollars or so back around 1995-6 (I don't know how my mom afforded it after the divorce), and I put another $200 plus into new gears/chain, and other assorted goodies around 2006. Still, compared to the uncomfortable seat, the grinding and wheezing, the broken bike bell, unreliable brakes, etc of my now decommissioned bike, the new one whispers along smoothly, brakes easily, and is pretty nice for what I paid. For all the bad I say about the previous one, I did get it for free...
Lately, I've been having oatmeal and protein powder for breakfast and that has sadly cut peanut butter from my diet, but I think I'm still going to make some peanut butter this Saturday. And do laundry, and of course, play video games. I think I might do chili for next week's lunches. Last week was sweet and sour chicken (which was actually fine and hadn't spoiled at all even though I left it out for 12 hours). This week was tofu and egg curry. My other teachers and the students seem to have a hard time believing that I eat the same thing for lunch day after day. But my morning students leave at 1:30, and I'm almost always the last one at the school. So they can basically go sit on a tack.
Michi and I haven't talked much lately, but hopefully we'll get to see each other this weekend. I'd really like to iron out some of the details of our upcoming trips, and maybe put on a little pressure to find a place together sooner. This place is too crowded; much, much too crowded.
Cheers,
So my bike chain has been increasingly crappy lately. This culminated last night, when I had to stop 6 times to put the chain back on the sprockets. When I got home, I took a good look at the whole thing, and realized that opposite sides of two different links had broken, allowing the chain to slide off in two different directions, and making it just a matter of time before the thing broke in two completely.
I even tried, as any red blooded American would do, to repair it with duct tape, but alas, this did not work.
So today I bought a new bike. It doesn't have crap on my bike in the US, but then it was an expensive bike to begin with, probably $450 dollars or so back around 1995-6 (I don't know how my mom afforded it after the divorce), and I put another $200 plus into new gears/chain, and other assorted goodies around 2006. Still, compared to the uncomfortable seat, the grinding and wheezing, the broken bike bell, unreliable brakes, etc of my now decommissioned bike, the new one whispers along smoothly, brakes easily, and is pretty nice for what I paid. For all the bad I say about the previous one, I did get it for free...
Lately, I've been having oatmeal and protein powder for breakfast and that has sadly cut peanut butter from my diet, but I think I'm still going to make some peanut butter this Saturday. And do laundry, and of course, play video games. I think I might do chili for next week's lunches. Last week was sweet and sour chicken (which was actually fine and hadn't spoiled at all even though I left it out for 12 hours). This week was tofu and egg curry. My other teachers and the students seem to have a hard time believing that I eat the same thing for lunch day after day. But my morning students leave at 1:30, and I'm almost always the last one at the school. So they can basically go sit on a tack.
Michi and I haven't talked much lately, but hopefully we'll get to see each other this weekend. I'd really like to iron out some of the details of our upcoming trips, and maybe put on a little pressure to find a place together sooner. This place is too crowded; much, much too crowded.
Cheers,
Monday, May 23, 2011
RPG
hey all,
This weekend went pretty well, but was even more uneventful than I thought. I picked up a copy of Dragon Age 2 for the PS3, and also re-installed The Witcher on my laptop. Dragon Age 2 is pretty fun so far, as most of the changes seem to be for the better. I find it a little more difficult to get involved in the story compared to the previous game for some reason. And The Witcher is just The Witcher. I've been trying to register it, but it seems like the Polish company that made it's servers are down, so I can't even install any updates or patches for the thing.
Aside from that, you get some really crazy choices: like, who should you side with, the persecuted witch who takes care of small children but who also uses a voodoo doll to torment villagers she doesn't like and gives poison to some people instead of medicine, OR the small-minded religion-crazy villagers who are greedy, and sometimes murderers themselves, but most of the time just trying to get by with their lot in life? That's just the first few hours of 40 to 60, by the by.
The Witcher 2 just came out, and if I thought my system would run it, I'd buy it for the PC, but supposedly it is coming out for XBox360 and PS3 eventually, so I'll wait. There are a ton of RPGs coming out this year, from Elder Scrolls 5, Dark Souls, to Kingdoms of Amalur: The Reckoning. Not sure if I'll be able to play all of these, but I'd like to try.
Today and tomorrow are pretty light, schedule-wise at work, so I'm going to try to plan out the curriculum as far as I can, and also to see if I can develop one of the systems I've been working on. I really need to get it to the point of minimizing the amount of record keeping and paperwork that I personally or the other teachers will need to do, because there are days when even just filling out the time sheet seems like the straw that broke the camel's back.
I've still been watching Game of Thrones (yes, not quite legally) online. Episode 6 of 10 was just released. They are cutting so much out, but I still really like the show. I can't wait to see how people react to some of the events in season 1. If they keep going for a third, fourth, etc (remember, they've already decided to produce a second season), I wonder what people will think of the crazy stuff that happens in the books those seasons will be based on. One of the main character's pets is killed just a couple episodes into season 1, and GRRM was saying that some people were shocked about that. I wonder what they'll think when the main characters themselves start dropping like flies...
Anyway, I didn't end up visiting with any friends, because they were either out of touch or sick, and I basically spent Saturday and Sunday playing games. I didn't go to Kofu like I'd panned, because in looking up what else I'd like to see there, I couldn't find anything else besides the "castle," and it would cost me either $80 roundtrip for 2 hours, or $40 roundtrip for 6 hours, and the pictures I'd found of the castle just weren't that intriguing. I did research some extra things to do in Matsumoto when we go to see the castle there, and found some pretty interesting ones, but we're still trying to find a mountain that we can hike for the second day.
Lastly, a British guy just moved into my guesthouse and it seems like he's into rock climbing, too. We might end up going rock climbing indoors somewhere, but that's if I can spare the time.
Cheers,
This weekend went pretty well, but was even more uneventful than I thought. I picked up a copy of Dragon Age 2 for the PS3, and also re-installed The Witcher on my laptop. Dragon Age 2 is pretty fun so far, as most of the changes seem to be for the better. I find it a little more difficult to get involved in the story compared to the previous game for some reason. And The Witcher is just The Witcher. I've been trying to register it, but it seems like the Polish company that made it's servers are down, so I can't even install any updates or patches for the thing.
Aside from that, you get some really crazy choices: like, who should you side with, the persecuted witch who takes care of small children but who also uses a voodoo doll to torment villagers she doesn't like and gives poison to some people instead of medicine, OR the small-minded religion-crazy villagers who are greedy, and sometimes murderers themselves, but most of the time just trying to get by with their lot in life? That's just the first few hours of 40 to 60, by the by.
The Witcher 2 just came out, and if I thought my system would run it, I'd buy it for the PC, but supposedly it is coming out for XBox360 and PS3 eventually, so I'll wait. There are a ton of RPGs coming out this year, from Elder Scrolls 5, Dark Souls, to Kingdoms of Amalur: The Reckoning. Not sure if I'll be able to play all of these, but I'd like to try.
Today and tomorrow are pretty light, schedule-wise at work, so I'm going to try to plan out the curriculum as far as I can, and also to see if I can develop one of the systems I've been working on. I really need to get it to the point of minimizing the amount of record keeping and paperwork that I personally or the other teachers will need to do, because there are days when even just filling out the time sheet seems like the straw that broke the camel's back.
I've still been watching Game of Thrones (yes, not quite legally) online. Episode 6 of 10 was just released. They are cutting so much out, but I still really like the show. I can't wait to see how people react to some of the events in season 1. If they keep going for a third, fourth, etc (remember, they've already decided to produce a second season), I wonder what people will think of the crazy stuff that happens in the books those seasons will be based on. One of the main character's pets is killed just a couple episodes into season 1, and GRRM was saying that some people were shocked about that. I wonder what they'll think when the main characters themselves start dropping like flies...
Anyway, I didn't end up visiting with any friends, because they were either out of touch or sick, and I basically spent Saturday and Sunday playing games. I didn't go to Kofu like I'd panned, because in looking up what else I'd like to see there, I couldn't find anything else besides the "castle," and it would cost me either $80 roundtrip for 2 hours, or $40 roundtrip for 6 hours, and the pictures I'd found of the castle just weren't that intriguing. I did research some extra things to do in Matsumoto when we go to see the castle there, and found some pretty interesting ones, but we're still trying to find a mountain that we can hike for the second day.
Lastly, a British guy just moved into my guesthouse and it seems like he's into rock climbing, too. We might end up going rock climbing indoors somewhere, but that's if I can spare the time.
Cheers,
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Energy
hey all,
Been running out of energy after work lately. The schedule is still quite full, and there seems to be increasing amounts of preparation to do. Classes are usually going quite well, but when you combine the workload with my vacation/trip itinerary, and add to that looking for a new place to live, dealing with the more crowded living situation here (which means that showering and cooking need to be coordinated, e.g.), and add in the stress of the visa situation (I just mailed in the newest and hopefully LAST bit of paperwork yesterday), and I think it is understandable why I feel drained.
The rising temperatures and humidity haven't been helping much.
It looks like I'm just going to relax this weekend. Michi and I have been going on trip after trip non-stop pretty much since a month ago. So this weekend I might visit with some friends, and/or head to Kofu on a solo trip to see Shingen Takeda's "castle."
Cheers,
Been running out of energy after work lately. The schedule is still quite full, and there seems to be increasing amounts of preparation to do. Classes are usually going quite well, but when you combine the workload with my vacation/trip itinerary, and add to that looking for a new place to live, dealing with the more crowded living situation here (which means that showering and cooking need to be coordinated, e.g.), and add in the stress of the visa situation (I just mailed in the newest and hopefully LAST bit of paperwork yesterday), and I think it is understandable why I feel drained.
The rising temperatures and humidity haven't been helping much.
It looks like I'm just going to relax this weekend. Michi and I have been going on trip after trip non-stop pretty much since a month ago. So this weekend I might visit with some friends, and/or head to Kofu on a solo trip to see Shingen Takeda's "castle."
Cheers,
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Enoshima, or In Praise of Spontaneity
hey all,
The original plan for today was to go rock climbing either at a gym in Tokyo or head over to Yugawara for the millionth time, but...Well, life happens. We woke up a little late, but yesterday I had realized on my to Tokyo that I had left the 2.8L of sweet and sour chicken I'd made sitting on the floor cooling next to my refrigerator. Two red peppers, 1 carrot, 1Kg of chicken thigh meat, 1 can of pineapple, ketchup, vinegar, and a whole lot of arrowroot starch...No way was I going to let that sit out for 36 hours and probably spoil in the meantime. 12 hours, yes. But 36?
So instead, I left before Michi and went back to my apartment and put the food in the fridge. We met back at Yokohama station and headed to Enoshima, which you can read about here or here.
If you go there, you will see lots of dragons everywhere, because of a legend that after an especially powerful earthquake, a 5-headed dragon popped out of the island (which itself had suddenly appeared) and started to lay waste to the surrounding villages and villagers. One day, the dragon encountered a beautiful goddess, and fell in love with her. The goddess, however, refused give her love to the dragon unless he changed his ways. From then on, he became a helpful dragon and stopped terrorizing and devouring the villagers.
In other news, I'm still in the process of renewing my visa. I sent them the papers they asked for, and they responded by saying that the type of visa I have is not the correct kind for the kind of workplace I'm currently at, so I need to change it. And, hooray, in order to change it there is even more paperwork that both my company and I need to gather, fill out, and mail in. I sometimes wonder if it might not be better for all involved if the Japanese just went back to beheading foreigners who crossed into Japanese territory.
Cheers,
The original plan for today was to go rock climbing either at a gym in Tokyo or head over to Yugawara for the millionth time, but...Well, life happens. We woke up a little late, but yesterday I had realized on my to Tokyo that I had left the 2.8L of sweet and sour chicken I'd made sitting on the floor cooling next to my refrigerator. Two red peppers, 1 carrot, 1Kg of chicken thigh meat, 1 can of pineapple, ketchup, vinegar, and a whole lot of arrowroot starch...No way was I going to let that sit out for 36 hours and probably spoil in the meantime. 12 hours, yes. But 36?
 |
| Yes, 2.8 liters of homemade sweet and sour chicken. When you get home at 7PM and arrive at work at 8:30AM, you tend to cook lots at once, and feast throughout the week |
If you go there, you will see lots of dragons everywhere, because of a legend that after an especially powerful earthquake, a 5-headed dragon popped out of the island (which itself had suddenly appeared) and started to lay waste to the surrounding villages and villagers. One day, the dragon encountered a beautiful goddess, and fell in love with her. The goddess, however, refused give her love to the dragon unless he changed his ways. From then on, he became a helpful dragon and stopped terrorizing and devouring the villagers.
 |
| One of the pillars on the bridge leading to Enoshima. |
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| Mt. Fuji just barely visible in the distance. |
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| One of the caves and the candle/torch the give you to light your way. |
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| Turtle Rock |
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| One of the cooler dragon shrines on the island. |
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| There are tons of these eagles? around. They look like Golden eagles, but I'm not sure. |
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| Two pieces of fried whale meat, which I bought at a street vender and yes, I ate. Pretty good, but not sure if it justifies killing them. |
In other news, I'm still in the process of renewing my visa. I sent them the papers they asked for, and they responded by saying that the type of visa I have is not the correct kind for the kind of workplace I'm currently at, so I need to change it. And, hooray, in order to change it there is even more paperwork that both my company and I need to gather, fill out, and mail in. I sometimes wonder if it might not be better for all involved if the Japanese just went back to beheading foreigners who crossed into Japanese territory.
Cheers,
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
That Weather Thing
hey all,
Japan is doing that "Why don't go you all go live somewhere else?" joke with its weather. It has been raining for over 24 hours straight here in Yokohama, and the next few days are supposed to continue like this.
I would like to go over to the local Niku no Hanamasa (a restaurant supply store) to buy some peanuts, etc, and to stop by a Muji to buy some short sleeved dress shirts, but in this weather I am passing on both these errands.
Things are going well at work. Still pretty busy, and I'm still doing an extra 15 minutes for my last class, but most of my classes are going well.
Last weekend, Michi and I ate like Dothrakis. If you don't know what that means, then you haven't read G.R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series yet, or you haven't seen the new HBO TV series based on the books. There is a website that has set about to reproduce most of the recipes from the books. I picked one from it, goat with sweetgrass, firepods, and honey, and we set about adapting it to the Japanese grocery store. Instead of goat, we used lamb, instead of tart cherry juice we used pomegranate juice, but those were the only changes. Although really tasty, I think we failed. The pepper pods we used were very spicy (I which can testify to, having bitten into one), but all that heat stayed locked inside the pod. When I make it again, I will slice the pods open when boiling them in the juice.
I've about shopped myself out on climbing gear. I don't think I'll be buying any more unless something breaks or becomes dangerous to continue using.
I have a couple projects for work, and many many trips in the planning, so I'll be sure to keep myself busy.
Cheers,
Japan is doing that "Why don't go you all go live somewhere else?" joke with its weather. It has been raining for over 24 hours straight here in Yokohama, and the next few days are supposed to continue like this.
I would like to go over to the local Niku no Hanamasa (a restaurant supply store) to buy some peanuts, etc, and to stop by a Muji to buy some short sleeved dress shirts, but in this weather I am passing on both these errands.
Things are going well at work. Still pretty busy, and I'm still doing an extra 15 minutes for my last class, but most of my classes are going well.
Last weekend, Michi and I ate like Dothrakis. If you don't know what that means, then you haven't read G.R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series yet, or you haven't seen the new HBO TV series based on the books. There is a website that has set about to reproduce most of the recipes from the books. I picked one from it, goat with sweetgrass, firepods, and honey, and we set about adapting it to the Japanese grocery store. Instead of goat, we used lamb, instead of tart cherry juice we used pomegranate juice, but those were the only changes. Although really tasty, I think we failed. The pepper pods we used were very spicy (I which can testify to, having bitten into one), but all that heat stayed locked inside the pod. When I make it again, I will slice the pods open when boiling them in the juice.
I've about shopped myself out on climbing gear. I don't think I'll be buying any more unless something breaks or becomes dangerous to continue using.
I have a couple projects for work, and many many trips in the planning, so I'll be sure to keep myself busy.
Cheers,
Saturday, May 07, 2011
Trips
hey all,
So things are busy. I guess one of the nice things, about myself at least, is that when I'm busy I generally keep my room clean, organize my time a bit better, and don't waste it on stupid things. The downside is that I'm busy, so I don't have relaxation time or even enough time to fit in errands sometimes.
Take today for example. My one errand that I wanted to get done was to do a wire transfer to the US. But we had a 3 day holiday, so when I tried in the morning before class, I couldn't get through because I bet lots of people were trying to get their own bank errands done before the weekend. And between 1:30 and 6:45, I had 30 minutes of free time, split up into ten minutes, ten minutes, ten minutes, which is not enough time to prepare for the next class and make a phone call.
In any case, Ogawayama was...dramatic, to say the least. On the first day, Michi and I went to a rock in the Family Rocks area, called Mara Iwa (Mara Rock, or something like Penis Rock in old Japanese). This is a rather tall pillar of rock which features a lot of slab climbing: smooth, almost flat and featureless rock walls. We climbed a few routes there but most of them were out of our league.
The next day we had a climbing lesson, but...that's where the drama comes in. For now, I'll just say that we finished the lesson early, and went hiking around the Rooftop Rocks area.
The last day was lots of fun. We went over to Mother Rock, again in the Family Rocks area. Most of the routes on Mother Rock are 5.8, 5.9, and a few 5.10's and above. We climbed almost everything that we could, something like 8 or 9 routes in 6 hours. With a really satisfying day of climbing in the bag, after two days of frustration and disappointment, we went back to Tokyo.
And back to work. Monday was a normal day at work, more or less. But Monday night, we left for our second trip, to Michi's second house near Mt. Asama. We got to check out a field strewn with volcanic rock, a shrine where Masayuki Sanada is buried, Ueda Castle (where the Sanada clan ruled), and also a waterfall. Of course, there was also the usual gardening and yard work as well, but for the most part, fun stuff prevailed.
And then today, Friday, was of course another normal work day, but it felt like Monday. I kept on commenting on it during the day, but none of the kids got the joke. The parents did, though.
Cheers,
So things are busy. I guess one of the nice things, about myself at least, is that when I'm busy I generally keep my room clean, organize my time a bit better, and don't waste it on stupid things. The downside is that I'm busy, so I don't have relaxation time or even enough time to fit in errands sometimes.
Take today for example. My one errand that I wanted to get done was to do a wire transfer to the US. But we had a 3 day holiday, so when I tried in the morning before class, I couldn't get through because I bet lots of people were trying to get their own bank errands done before the weekend. And between 1:30 and 6:45, I had 30 minutes of free time, split up into ten minutes, ten minutes, ten minutes, which is not enough time to prepare for the next class and make a phone call.
In any case, Ogawayama was...dramatic, to say the least. On the first day, Michi and I went to a rock in the Family Rocks area, called Mara Iwa (Mara Rock, or something like Penis Rock in old Japanese). This is a rather tall pillar of rock which features a lot of slab climbing: smooth, almost flat and featureless rock walls. We climbed a few routes there but most of them were out of our league.
The next day we had a climbing lesson, but...that's where the drama comes in. For now, I'll just say that we finished the lesson early, and went hiking around the Rooftop Rocks area.
The last day was lots of fun. We went over to Mother Rock, again in the Family Rocks area. Most of the routes on Mother Rock are 5.8, 5.9, and a few 5.10's and above. We climbed almost everything that we could, something like 8 or 9 routes in 6 hours. With a really satisfying day of climbing in the bag, after two days of frustration and disappointment, we went back to Tokyo.
And back to work. Monday was a normal day at work, more or less. But Monday night, we left for our second trip, to Michi's second house near Mt. Asama. We got to check out a field strewn with volcanic rock, a shrine where Masayuki Sanada is buried, Ueda Castle (where the Sanada clan ruled), and also a waterfall. Of course, there was also the usual gardening and yard work as well, but for the most part, fun stuff prevailed.
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| Mara Rock on the right, and Older Sister Rock on the left. |
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| A strange indentation in one of the rocks in Rooftop. |
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| Our lodge seen from the top of one of the routes at Mother Rock. |
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| Mt. Asama |
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| Entrance gate to the volcanic rock field. |
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| Me doing the demon rock thing. |
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| Cookies made to look like volcanic rock, supposedly with some of the rock ground up inside them. |
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| A cherry blossom tree near the Hasedera in Ueda where Masayuki Sanada is buried. |
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| One of the remained turrets of Ueda Castle. |
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| A waterfall we stopped by on the way back to Tokyo. |
Cheers,
Sunday, May 01, 2011
Trippy
hey all,
I had a three day trip to Ogawayama this weekend, and Monday night I've got another three day trip coming.
I've still got to unpack from the first trip, pack for the second, and then go to bed as I've got work tomorrow. I'll post more when I'm not running around like crazy.
Cheers,
I had a three day trip to Ogawayama this weekend, and Monday night I've got another three day trip coming.
I've still got to unpack from the first trip, pack for the second, and then go to bed as I've got work tomorrow. I'll post more when I'm not running around like crazy.
Cheers,
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