http://wave.google.com/

This video is 80 minutes long, but you simply HAVE to watch it!

As I've mentioned a couple of times, my wallet was in a shambles and I needed a new one. I bought the old one when I was here in Tokyo last September. As you can see, it was a slim two-sided number with only a few card pockets and a space for a few bills folded in four.

 

The old wallet worked fine until I moved to Tokyo and stopped driving. I had kept a number of things inside my car, but not having a car here means that I now have to carry those things with me. And it started to break my first week here, until it reached its current state, hanging together by a few threads and bulging from having too many things stuffed into it. Here's the inventory of what I had in there:

- Japan ID card.
- American Express card, Bank of America debit card, Red Hat corporate travel card, UFJ bank card (my bank here in Tokyo: Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ).
- Suica (Tokyo metro and train card).
- Red Hat badge
- Cigna International insurance card.
- Geo Amusement Developer Hyper Media Shop card (my local video rental shop).
- Temple recommend (church-related).

Today I decided to go find a new wallet. I went to Shibuya and walked around for a while, looking in dozens of shops. I went to Loft and looked at their wide selection of wallets, but they were all too more money than I wanted to spend, and made of really nice leather. I wanted a cloth wallet, though, and one that had enough space for me to put all these things in there without having to double up any of the slots. So I kept on looking.

I needed to get home early enough tonight to finish working on the talk I'm giving at church tomorrow, plus I needed to do some grocery shopping, so I was heading back to Shibuya Station when I saw an Adidas store. I'm trying to find all of the shoe stores in the area that sell shoes in my size (and there aren't many), so I figured I'd duck in and look at their selection. No luck on the shoes, but they did have a whole floor dedicated to the Adidas Originals brand, which is more of a lifestyle family of clothing and bags than an athletic one. I really like Adidas Originals, and they had a great hat that I couldn't help but want. On the way out, I thought to ask if they maybe had any wallets, and to my surprise, they did!

 

I'm living the dream! I own the greatest wallet in the history of the world! Sturdy fabric, double-fold, eight pockets, clear section for my ID card, and a small area for coins. That last part is especially critical here in Japan, where the smallest bill is the equivalent of a US $10 bill. Three cheers for Adidas!

It's been raining for two days. Somehow, though, it doesn't flood. The city handles the rain well. I was bummed that it was wet this morning because I had planned to walk to work. I was at dinner at the Porters' last week and they told me about a new way to walk from my apartment to the Ebisu Garden Place in 20-25 minutes (up Meguro-dori, just past the Shirokanedai stop, through the hospital shortcut, across the street, down the hill, up the walkway to the right, across the plaza), and I walked it on Monday morning and really enjoyed it. My plan to walk it again this morning was foiled by Mother Nature. So rude.

This week I moved from the 5th floor to the 8th floor at work. I love the view from the 8th floor. It's obviously not as great as the view from my hotel room on the 30-somethingth floor of the Cerulean Tower last September, nor from the observation deck at the top of the Metropolitan Government building, but it's a great office view. I can see north through the city, with the Maronouchi and Ginza skyline (old downtown Tokyo) right through the windows. It's beautiful. When it rains the view takes on so much more depth, too -- the different buildings between Ebisu and Maronouchi take on different transparency levels. It's a beautiful sight that you just have to see for yourself.

When I had lunch with the missionaries on Monday (We went to Osho for gyoza -- five people, 78 gyoza), I asked them if they could teach some basic church words at our Japanese class last night. The whole thing was going really well and I was learning dozens of words and phrases, including the four basic steps to praying Mormon-style, when this dialog came up:

Me: What's the word for prophet?
Elder Chase: Yogensha.
Me: What's the word for missionary work?
Elder Chase: Dendo.
Me: What's the word for temple?
Elder Chase: Shinden.
Me: What's the word for family?
Elder Chase: Kazoku.
Me: What's the word for scriptures?
Elder Chase: Seiten.
Me: Satan?
Elder Chase: Seiten.
Me: Satan??
Elder Chase: Seiten. Sei-ten. Say-ten.
Me: Satan.
Elder Chase: Yes.
Me: The Japanese word for scriptures sounds exactly like the English name of Satan?
Elder Chase: Yes.
Me: ............
Elder Chase: Yeah.
Me: ......................
Elder Chase: Haha, yeah.
Me: Does your mission president know about this, Elder?
Elder Chase: What?
Me: Nothing.
Elder Chase: ..........................
Me: Satan.
Elder Chase: ..........................
Me: Unbelievable.

It's like a countdown, but it counts up instead. It's the number of days, hours, and minutes I've spent living in Tokyo without seeing Mt. Fuji. As of right now, that's 34+ days of haze, rain, fog, etc. We've had plenty of blue sky days, but even on those days it hasn't been visible. I WANT TO SEE IT! I DEMAND TO SEE IT!

Great isle of Honshu, dear Kanto region, as a legal resident of this nation, I hereby COMMAND you to give up your hazy skies, clear up your view, and give me what is rightfully mine: one glimpse. One view. One look is all I ask for. I don't want to have to take a train to Osaka just to see Mt. Fuji. I will go to Osaka, true, and to Kyoto, and perhaps even down to Fukuoka at some point. But I don't want my first time seeing the mountain to be on a train. I want to see it from my office building.

Perhaps the air will see the riDICulous number over on the right and will be overcome with guilt. Maybe then it'll do what it needs to do.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4202443

I'm one of those people who believes that completion of a prison term is akin to paying back one's "debt" to society, cliche as it sounds. Albeit with a few exceptions (like, for example, sexual misconduct), I find it unfair to require or request that a person continue to be judged by the public after their sentence has been completed.

Jeffrey Lawrence Galland, the former engineering director of JCI, a Las Vegas-based company, pleaded guilty to using a firearm during a violent crime, and conspiracy to distribute cocaine and marijuana, according to court records, the newspaper reported.

Records detailed Galland, 42, as a part of a group that smuggled drugs from Washington state to Montana, the newspaper report said. Galland and an accomplice once used a shotgun and semiautomatic rifle in an attempt at collecting a drug debt, according to the paper.

He was sentenced to 4½ years in prison and four years of probation. He was released from federal prison in 2000.

The article goes on to say that the man was working without an engineering license and had partially falsified his educational background:

Galland acknowledged... his lack of an engineering license.

Galland also falsified educational credentials he provided The Morning News, the paper said. Galland showed a résumé that said he received a bachelor's degree in physics from Eastern Washington University. The school, however, told the newspaper he completed coursework toward that degree but never graduated.

The résumé also says he has taken classes for a master's degree in structural engineering at UNLV, the report said. Records show he never attended the school, UNLV officials told the newspaper.

So what's the story here? The real story is that a man falsified his educational credentials, and that may have contributed to an accident. That's a legitimate story! That's front page material, and rightly so! But to detail this man's previous incarceration is unfair. To make it seem like drug trafficking 15 years ago had some effect on the ability for the building he engineered to stay upright is unfair.

The article should have been about how this man falsified his educational background. It could have even mentioned (briefly in passing) that the man had a prior conviction and was therefore ineligible to be licensed. But to list out all the man's crimes and convictions is a clear attempt to do nothing more than add gravitas to the situation as a means of gathering sympathy from the reader. And even worse, the article leads with that unrelated information, as if it's the cause of the building falling down.

While I believe this man needs to be punished for working without a license, this type of treatment, this article, is a step too far.

I just got done reading The Night In Question on Joel's recommendation. I love the art of the short story because it allows the author to paint simple vignettes of a wide variety of experiences, setting up a view into their moral perspective in a natural way, rather than through a more deliberate and contrived longer effort. Of course I love the novel as well, but there's just something about short stories that hooked me years ago and has kept me coming back for more.

Some of the pieces in this collection were absolutely fantastic. I echo Joel's categorization of the stories, and add that I thought that The Chain was also excellent. I also strongly appreciated the description in Two Boys and a Girl of Gilbert's actions the first day he had Rafe's Buick. I felt like it was captured my own mind as an adolescent. The Life of the Body was the heart of the collection.

I've read four books since I got here: Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's and Music for Chameleons (both short story collections), Hemingway's The Garden of Eden, and now this. I've had so much more time to read since I came to Japan -- I love it! This week I'll finish a book that I start in March, Benjamin Parzybok's Couch, and then I'll start on Isabel Allende's The House of the Spirits.

I feel like Patrick Bateman in American Psycho. The book, not the movie. I mean, the movie was good, but nowhere near as disturbing as the book. I was appalled by the book when I read it a few years ago, but it was so well written that I couldn't put it down. Excellent writing about a terrible topic. Anyhow, I feel like Patrick Bateman. It's not that I'm going around slitting the eyeballs of homeless dogs, nor analyzing the music of Phil Collins or Whitney Houston. It's not that I sit around with my colleagues and compare the ink and paper quality of our business cards. It's that I seem to stop by the ATM almost every time I pass one.



Remember how he would always stop by an ATM even if he didn't need cash, just so he could have more of it? Every time he'd pass one he'd pull out a few hundred more. I don't REALLY get a couple hund-o "just to have more," but it feels like I'm at the ATM every couple of days pulling out money. Everything is so cash-based here. There are amazing technologies here that substitute for cash, but most people still just pay for everything with paper. Restaurants, convenience stores (much more relevant here than in the U.S.), train/subway passes, etc.

I still get paid into my American bank account, so there are only two options for me to withdraw cash: Citibank and Japan Post. Citibank is the only bank that handles international ATM withdrawals. There's a branch in Shibuya and one near the LDS Temple in Hiroo. Usually, though, I go to the Japan Post office in the building next to my office. The post offices here have ATMs with international withdrawal capability. It's really convenient.

And I'm actually spending less than I figured I would, but it's still a strange transition to a mostly-card-based habit to one of using cash for everything. That reminds me: my wallet is still broken. I need to get a new one.

I love rolling around on the subway here in Tokyo, but I've decided to get something for the smaller journeys that take a bit too long to walk. Just like when I want to dink around town, that kind of thing. So I'm going to either get a 50cc scooter (it's all I can drive legally without having to take the Japanese driver's license test) or a bicycle. Japanese bikes are awesome. They look like old-timey bikes from the 50s.

What do you think?

Right now I'm eating an onigiri, which is a rice ball with filling on the inside. I'm not sure what this filling is. It might be some kind of salty fish egg. It's not mentaiko, which I love. It must be some other fish egg. It's really good, but I don't know what it is. It's the one with the blue wrapper. The ones with red and white wrappers are also good.

http://www.northtemple.com/2009/05/18/innovative-internet-advertising

I enjoy North Temple, the blog of the design department at the LDS Church. Consider this my "props" for that site. Check it out regularly if you're into design.

This particular post linked to an awesome Nike commercial:



Also make sure to check out the NY Times today to see the cool Apple advertising idea.

I'm going camping today after work. My ward (Tokyo 4th Ward) is having the annual "Aaronic Priesthood Commemoration" campout, which, in my youth, was still known as "Fathers and Sons." I imagine they probably changed the name because of people like me, people in the church who are men without children or sons.

The event is being held at a U.S. Air Force-owned recreation area in Tama Hills, which is roughly 30 km west of here, but still in the middle of the "city."



Should be fun!

I love sushi. I've said for years now that my favorite food was sushi. Before I came to Japan for the first time in December 2007, American sushi was all I'd ever had. I love American sushi. I also love Japanese sushi. I don't claim to be an expert or anything more than an intermediate sushi lover, but I wanted to post about it in hopes that any of my readers who don't know much about sushi will be willing to give it a try.

First of all: Sushi tastes great. Whether it has raw or cooked ingredients, it tastes great. Not in an "I love to eat exotic non-American foods" way, either. It tastes good to an American palette. Most people I've met who've claimed to hate sushi have never actually tried it. If you are one of those people, you need to try it. You need to take my recommendation, and that of everyone else that loves it, and give it a try. It's lean, it's healthy, and the flavors are subtle and smooth and exciting. Just give it a try.

If you don't know much about sushi, start with wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sushi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sashimi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sushi_and_sashimi_ingredients

American sushi is generally much more complex than its Japanese counterpart (isn't that about right, too? That seems to follow the pattern...). Whereas in Japan most sushi places largely focus on nigiri (cooked or raw fish/meat/eggs/vegetables on top of a rice ball) and sashimi (uncooked fish/meat on its own), in America you'll find that most sushi places serve nigiri and sashimi, but focus more on maki (cooked or raw fish/meat rolled inside or outside of rice and sometimes seaweed). American sushi is definitely more of the maki variety. Some places get real fancy and experimental, using sauces and funky ways of preparing the rolls. If you're in Raleigh, for example, I'd recommend you go to Sono downtown and try the Crunchy Diablo, Screaming "O", and the Lava. They're all three really great versions of American-style maki.

If you already like maki, though, and you want to take the next step toward a more authentic Japanese style, you need to start eating more sashimi. Sashimi is basically just select cuts of (usually) fish served raw, complemented with soy sauce and wasabi (note: I'm not a huge wasabi fan, but I like it in small quantities). This list from wikipedia lists some of the more common varieties:

* 鮭 Sake: Salmon
* いか Ika: Squid
* えび Ebi: Cooked Shrimp
* まぐろ Maguro: Tuna
* さば Saba: Mackerel
* あじ Aji: Horse Mackerel
* たこ Tako: Octopus
* とろ Toro: Fatty Tuna
* はまち Hamachi: Yellowtail
* ふぐ Fugu: Puffer Fish Takifugu
* ほたて貝 Hotate-gai:　Scallop

I tend to prefer Maguro, Toro, and Hamachi. Those three are my favorites.

So there you have it: sushi and sashimi. If you don't love it, you probably haven't tried it. If you have tried it and didn't like it, consider revisiting the idea. And please, all of you, lovers or haters of sushi, please comment on your feelings about sushi and sashimi.

Bad enough that I showed up late. I had to leave before they even cut the cake.

OK, readers. In a slight break from posts about Japan, tell me what you're listening to at this very moment. You may be listening to music, or the sound of the TV, or silence, or an annoying roommate, screaming child, lovely spouse, whatever. No fronting, no faking, just reply via comment and tell me what you're listening to right this moment.

I'm listening to Kanye West while I work. I'm actually bobbing my head and rocking out at my desk. The song on at this very moment is "Welcome to Heartbreak."

I got the apartment! I had been told that I would hear back on Thursday. Friday rolled around and I still hadn't heard anything, so I had Miyake-san the receptionist in the Red Hat office, call my apartment broker and talk to him. He said that I had been approved by the third-party guarantor (the group that provides insurance in case I skip town), but that the owner had been out of town through Thursday, and he was supposed to call the broker by Friday at 3 PM. Of course that fell through and I went the whole weekend wondering if I would get the place. Once I got approved by the guarantor, there was little doubt I would get the place, but it was just a matter of closing the deal.

Yesterday I had Mori-san help me construct an email to my broker, and I finally got word back that I had gotten the apartment. Today the contract is being faxed to my broker, who will fax it to Miyake-san, who will bring it up for me to sign. And then I'll be official!

Also, I bought a fridge from some people moving out of the 2nd ward. That'll save me several hundred dollars.

She rode past me on her bicycle as I walked up Meguro Street toward the subway. It was a typical Japanese bike, the kind they all ride, with a long, swooping frame, wide handlebars, and big tires. Hers had a baby seat attached to the back, and in it rode her sleeping daughter. The woman wore a light cotton top and a loose, flowing white skirt that went just past her knees. And she smiled as she went by me, weaving her way through foot traffic on the sidewalk, slaloming back and forth around the barriers that protect the sidewalk from drivers.

As she passed me she looked ahead and smiled and waved. I looked and saw a man coming our way, smiling and waving back to her. When they were close to each other she slowed to a stop, careful to not wake the sleeping toddler. She planted her feet on the ground and held the bike up with her legs, talking to him energetically, neither of them breaking their smiles. I imagine they had known each other for years, perhaps, or they were neighbors, or friends of friends. He may have been a co-worker in the past, or maybe even her lover now. After a moment, she pressed her foot to the pedal and began to move forward again. They waved goodbye and he walked in my direction. She turned left and approached the crosswalk, pedaling smoothly and confidently. As I reached the man he stopped to turn back and look at her again, smiling tenderly, then turned and continued on his path.

I looked at her as she crossed the street. She turned back to look at him once more, but he had gone on his way. Her cheeks softened as she watched him, then her smile grew big again, bigger than before, and she rode across Meguro Street and out of my view.

Today after an amazing stake conference and a fine nap, I took the Yamanote line up to Harajuku and Yoyogi Park. I'd been there in September when I went to the Meiji Shrine, but I wanted to take my time and relax today. I'm reading Hemingway's The Garden of Eden and had a goal to read 50 more pages this afternoon. I charged up the batteries in my SLR and video cameras, loaded them up in the backpack, and headed out.

Before you go further, you should take a brief moment to read the wikipedia entry on Harajuku. That will give you a bit of context. As I walked out of Harajuku Station and headed across the bridge, there wasn't that much craziness. A few people dressed up here and there, but nothing like what I'm told it can be like on some Sundays. I kept going and went into Yoyogi Park and spent about 15 minutes filming and watching the Rockabilly dancers near the entrance, then finally made my way down the main drag of the park, then off to the side on a deck hanging over a pond. I read for an hour and enjoyed the pages.

There were thousands of people in the park today, though. Dancers, guitarists, people playing frisbee, people doing aerobics, jumping rope, jogging, riding bikes, people playing with dogs, pushing strollers, sitting and smoking, drinking a beer, relaxing, sleeping, and generally enjoying the *beautiful* weather. It had rained quite a bit over the past week, so it was nice to get out and sit under a blue sky. I'm sure everyone else felt the same way.

On the way back out, the bridge to Harajuku had a few musicians playing by then. One guy had a microphone duct-taped to his guitar, and he was playing a nice-sounding tune.



Here's a clip from my cell phone:



Then this lady plopped down in the middle of the bridge and started doing some wicked-awesome dancing. It went on for several minutes, and I shot a bunch of it with my video camera. I also got this with my cell phone camera:



Overall, it was a great day. It seems like all I have here are great days anymore. I really am so happy to be here. I feel so privileged and blessed to have this opportunity.

[Side note: I can't do anything with the pics from my DSLR or my video camera until my iMac gets here later this month. But there is tons of footage to show you now. Just be patient. :) ]

I still haven't seen Mt. Fuji. Every time I'm near a window on the 8th floor at work I look west and try to see it. It's always hazy or raining, though, so I've never seen it.



As you can see, Fuji is about 60 miles west-southwest of Tokyo, but due to the weather since I've been here, I've never once seen it. When I was here in September and I went to the observation deck at the metropolitan government building in Shinjuku, I couldn't see it then, either. I want to see it!!!

Also note how expansive Tokyo is. I'm continually surprised at how big this city and its surroundings are. Like L.A., but with multi-story buildings everywhere instead of just single-floor houses. Seriously, go to this Google Maps link and tinker around the city a bit. You'll see how crazy-big this place is.

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=35.586968,139.476929&spn=0.783995,1.996765&t=k&z=10

Morning meetings. Late-night meetings. Ninety minutes spent getting my bank account set up. Studying. Writing important documents. Standing in the rain. Walking in the rain. Forgetting my umbrella at work and RUNNING in the rain. Ham that tasted like a hot dog. Ordering lunch in Japanese ("Ooki gyudon... to... sarada"). Extra onions on that lunch. Saying no to Coke Zero for a couple of days. More meetings. Late meetings. Early meetings. Sleep.

I had dinner last night in a Peruvian restaurant. This city is so cosmopolitan that I can eat a different cuisine every night, and since I love other foods of the world as much as I love Japanese, that's what I'm doing! So last night I went onto bento.com and found a Peruvian restaurant not far from here, and since it was raining I took a cab there.

I walked in and the only other customers there were an Aussie and an American sitting at a table in the corner yapping it up about who knows what, a few empties spread across the table. I chose a seat roughly on the other side of the restaurant from them, got settled in, and opened my book.

I've been doing this alot lately, reading while eating. Isn't that some sort of social sin, to sit at a table and read a book over a meal? Surely I'm offending someone somewhere, but I just don't care! It's really been the only way for me to deal with eating so many meals on my own. I do lunch with the fellows at work, but after work I've had nothing else to do, really, except eat a meal by myself. I've been to the temple twice, and I'm going to start helping the Elders teach their English lessons one night a week, but dinners will probably continue to be alone time for a while. I don't mind it, necessarily -- it's just the way it is. I'm here, I have no family, and very few friends, so I eat alone. And while I eat, I read.

Right now I'm trying to finish Capote's Music For Chameleons, which has captured me hook, line, and sinker. I should be able to wrap it up this morning.

So there I was, settled into the table, book open and reading, when the waitress came over. She appeared Japanese, as did the older gentleman doing the cooking, but when she brought me the menu I notice that there was no Japanese inside of it, only Spanish. Which, of course, is fine with me. So I ordered the Papas a la Huancaina to start, and she went over to the kitchen and barked out a bunch of orders..... in SPANISH! This Japanese woman spoke pure Spanish, no accent. She was obviously Peruvian, but of Japanese descent. Same for her man (well, I assume it was her man. They were both older, the only ones there, and fluent in Spanish. I will assume they're a couple).

Now, didn't Peru used to have a Japanese-Peruvian (is that how you say it? Like a Japanese-American or an African-Canadian...) as President? I think they did. If I remember correctly, when I was on my mission, the President of Peru was of Japanese descent. And if I continue to remember correctly, I believe his administration ended in shame, or maybe it was a coup. I think it was in shame. I'd look it up on Wikipedia but I'll leave that to the curious among you.

And don't forget that the U.S. is *not* the country in the world with the most Japanese people outside of Japan. That honor belongs to Brazil. Even with all of the Hawaiians and Californians of Japanese descent, the U.S. is still the number TWO country in the world for population of people of Japanese descent outside of Japan. Go look it up and see for yourself. :) South America definitely has a history with Japan. That should surprise some of my American readers, like it surprised me when I read that fact about Brazil last year, and like it surprised me tonight when I was at the restaurant, but I suppose it makes sense.

I ate my Papas a la Huancaina, followed it up with Lomo Saltado, and drowned both down with a tall, cool Inka Cola. A delicious dinner complimented by the stunning words of Truman Capote. It was altogether a great evening, and it illustrated how cosmopolitan this city is: An American who speaks no Japanese, but fluent Castillian Spanish, goes to a Peruvian restaurant in Tokyo where the proprietors are Peruvians of Japanese descent, and orders a meal in a foreign language that both understand.

Check out this pic of me at five years old that my dad posted on his blog:

Tonight I planned to go to Jingu Stadium for a Swallows baseball game, but the rain started up and the game got canceled. Blah. I guess I'll go tomorrow instead!

I need a bigger umbrella, as the one I have is too small.

I'm surprised at how much quiet I find in this city. It's like all you have to do is get street away from a main road and it's quiet. My new apartment, for example, is really close to Shibuya Station, like two or three small blocks away, and it's really quiet. My current apartment is on a busy road, but it still strikes me as a quiet place. Very cool. It's left me contrasting Tokyo with a place like New York City, where you can be on the 30th floor of a building and still hear street noise at 2 in the morning with the windows closed.

Yesterday evening, after church in the morning and an afternoon nap, I took the Mita Line over to the Imperial Palace area, then walked around there for a while, and finally ended up sitting on a park bench off to the side and relaxing for a couple of hours. I'm reading Capote's Music For Chameleons and enjoying it.

The area around the palace is beautiful. You can't tell from this view, since it uses such a wide angle lens, but it really is pretty.


View Larger Map

High stone walls with a moat around it. Beautiful gates, trees everywhere. Great view of the downtown Tokyo area. It's a nice, peaceful area. Walkers, joggers, and casual bikers following a path around the moat. It made me want to buy an old-timey Asian bike and ride down there some time.

To top off the good time I had relaxing around the palace, I came home and made what was hands down the best BLT I've ever had in my life. The tomatoes were juicy, the bacon was lean but tasty, and the bread was great. An amazing BLT!

Today (Monday) is a holiday, as are tomorrow and the next day. I relaxed, watched some movies on cable, read a bit, and went shopping at Tokyu Hands. Tomorrow I'm sleeping in and going to a baseball game in the early evening. Should be fun!

I submitted it to Engrish.com. Let's see if they respond.

I had to go back near the office last night on my way back from the temple, and I stopped by a Spanish tapas place in the area for a bite to eat. They gave me an English menu and I found this little gem in the "coca" section (a coca is like a mini Spanish pizza, but different). LOLOLOLOLOL! I had to snap a photo with my mobile for you all to enjoy.



Should I submit it to Engrish.com?

*NOTE: I tried to post this earlier this evening but had some technical difficulties. My apologies.*

I just got back from my apartment broker's office, and while I was there we submitted my offer on the apartment I mentioned yesterday. Since Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are national holidays ("Golden Week"), I will know if they have accepted my offer on Thursday or Friday. Since it's apparently a renter's market, I decided to low-ball the already-discounted price on the place. Why not, right? What's the worst they'll do, say no? If they do that, I'll just pay the already-discounted price that they're advertising. Either way, I'm excited to have found this place. Kudos to my apartment broker (Fujita-san is his name, in case you care).

With the holidays next week, I'll have plenty of time during the day to do stuff while still working with the Raleigh office in the evenings. Some things I have on tap are a furniture-shopping trip to IKEA, a visit to the area around the Imperial Palace, a Swallows game, and another trip to Yodobashi, this time in Shinjuku. I also need to go to Tokyu Hands while I'm in that area so I can get a new cheap wallet. It should be a nice holiday.

I got an email from my moving company indicating that my stuff is on a train heading for Los Angeles, where it will be loaded onto a boat and transported across the Pacific. Thank heavens my stuff is traveling through pirate-free waters!!!

The Tokyo Temple has English sessions on Friday nights, so I'm going tonight. I went last Saturday and had to wear a headset... that's fine, I guess, but I prefer English sessions.

Check out this cd from Andrew Dost, formerly of Anathallo and now of Fun. I love the concept, and some of the tracks are cool. Like Anathallo-meets-Broadway.