oota

Blogging from my iPhone is convenient because I can insto-rant, which is quite gratifying.

Why does muni have the AC running on the trains now in November when they didn’t back during the summer and it was just as hot???
Muni sucks.

Seriously, why are people so stupid, bitter and bigoted? I thought California was better than that. Thanks a lot for nothing morm?ons.

ps I’m back. Maybe I’ll post more often now, it can hardly be less often.

Sometimes it’s good to get perspective on things. Like today, my Mom sent some photos of the yard.

Yes, I think I’m glad I’m in California right now.

Yes I have returned to SF and am suffering the effects of eastbound travel.  I am tired.

Pictures are up.  There are no labels or descriptions, they may not even be in the right order and there are duplicates.  I’m tired.  Be thankful they’re up.  I’ll tidy them up this week so keep coming back to check.

I’ll also have a run down of all the cool things we did on the trip.  It was a fun fun trip.

After the last post, like @ 3AM PDT, we had our hotel shake due to tectonic movement of the Earth’s surface.

After chilling for a while we met up with Stella, Rob and some of their friends, also vacationing here, outside our station for some ramen a few blocks away.  It was good and I think my fifth meal of the “day”.  Afterwards it was crash to sleep back at the hotel.

Today we “slept in” until 06:3o JST after waking up at 03:00 (thanks jetlag).  We were planning on going to the Tsukiji Fish Market, but in order to do that we have to leave our hotel at 05:00, which wasn’t happening.

Instead we wandered around Ebisu for a couple hours, eating breakfast purchased at a 7 Eleven and met up with Stella and Rob at noon in Shibuya.  At the Hachiko dog.  Like everyone else.  We had delicious CoCo’s curry for lunch and met up with the same group again.  After lunch, the girls went shopping while the lads hit up Tokyo Station and the Imperial palace.  The station is undergoing reconstruction/improvements so it was hidden behind constructions walls.  The Imperial palace is also hidden somewhere in the compound closed off from the public but the exterior bits looked nice with the off limit lawns, moats and ancient architecture.  We also toured a nearby shopping centre which featured a Banana Republic, just the store i needed to fly all the way to Japan for in order to purchase their marked up wares.

The day was finished with a trip to some alley based okonomiyaki restaurant hidden from view, a few minutes walk from Jiyugaoka station.  Once again, really good food.

I took some pictures but I’m too tired to upload them right now, so… tough.

I’m sitting in our tiny tiny hotel room after surviving the 10.5 hr flight and then navigating the train system to get to Ebisu.

More stuff later i guess.

We’re off to the airport now on our super adventure to Japan.  I’ll try and update the blog with what’s going on and maybe upload some photos as we go.  Great start so far, I cut myself shaving. :(

I haven’t written this on the blog yet, but we are going to Japan! In a week!!  Crazy last minute trip but it promises to be stressful and hectic and hopefully fun.  We leave the 3rd of April and get back the morning of the 14th, just in time for work.

I went to Japan Nite again this year with my co-worker Jeff. This time there were no specific bands that I knew or really wanted to see but I had been told Detroit 7 rocked so I gave ‘em a shot.

I really enjoyed the show again. They all had good crowd interactions and Petty Booka was too cute for words, their ukulele covers of country was just something you have to see.

The show opened with Scandal a quartet of “school girls” playing just regular rock, I had previewed some songs on their myspace page, (my second visit to myspace ever) and wasn’t really impressed, but live, they did an alright job.  I ended up getting a signed tshirt because initially Jeff was going to get one and a photo with the band, but they had sold out of large shirts so I “stepped up” and got the shirt/photo instead.

Next up were The Emeralds who rocked pretty good and managed to work in hocking their merch as part of the show. Fun guys.

Then the rocking began in earnest with Ketchup Mania. Loud and high energy, I liked them a lot.

Detroit 7 followed and raised the rock bar to 11.

Petty Booka I just can’t describe, just see this. It was big change of pace from the last act but everyone was totally into it.

The Beaches were up last and they brought the crazy. Hard to describe music meets onstage (and off) antics. At one point the singer got ono the shoulders of this big guy standing at the front of the stage and was carried around for a minute. He then proceeded further into the crowd who swarmed him as he kept singing.

A good show and definately worth the $13 I paid for it.