Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Awesome...
I've been given the afternoon off by the boss. He's given me two escorts and we're off to see some sights. Not sure what, and their english is pretty broken. But, adventure ho!
Dreams
Lots of really strange dreams last night. It was like the sleep I get while camping or in a fever. I was up about every 30m, and then up an hour before I needed to be. Couldn't get back to sleep. So, posting and catching up on email and such.
TV here is not as good as last time. I only have about 6 stations, and it seems like all are news shows, or these weird panel shows where there at least 4 people standing up talking about something. The funniest thing I've seen so far was a segment in on of those shows where they had an American guy trying to say Japanese words, and they had to guess what he was saying. Like he'd say "NUN-CHUCK", and they'd have to figure out that he was saying "nun chucku". They didn't know what he was saying about half the time. I'm used to dealing with people with bad English, so it funny to see the roles reversed.
Today's challenge will be staying awake during long meeting in a warm room, when all the conversation is in Japanese.
I think we might go to the Ueno market.
TV here is not as good as last time. I only have about 6 stations, and it seems like all are news shows, or these weird panel shows where there at least 4 people standing up talking about something. The funniest thing I've seen so far was a segment in on of those shows where they had an American guy trying to say Japanese words, and they had to guess what he was saying. Like he'd say "NUN-CHUCK", and they'd have to figure out that he was saying "nun chucku". They didn't know what he was saying about half the time. I'm used to dealing with people with bad English, so it funny to see the roles reversed.
Today's challenge will be staying awake during long meeting in a warm room, when all the conversation is in Japanese.
I think we might go to the Ueno market.
Of Japan and Little Sleep...
It's about 10:30pm local time. About 6:30 PST, and I still haven't slept. So if this doesn't make a lot of sense, please forgive me.
I've switched here to blogger, instead of Twitter, since I can't update Twitter from here in Tokyo. It might be useful some other time, but for now, full blog posts are the way to go I think.
We left from LAX about 30m late, due to congestion on the Tokyo area, but landed a little ahead of schedule. The flight was long and full of aches. I watched The Golden Compass, which was pretty good, but had a poor ending. Also watched some of Jumper (good concept, poor direction) and some of that recent Tom Hanks movie with him as a politician battling to fund the Afgans against the communists. The latter seemed pretty good, but I missed the beginning and we landed before it ended. Hopefully I'll catch it on the way back.
I also read some of my H.P. Lovecraft book. It's brilliant. The tone and setting, and some of the verbiage are a bit archaic, but the stories are absolutely modern.
I also slept a little bit.
The guy next to me spent half the flight working on the Sudoku puzzle in the airline's magazine. I don't think he ever finished.
We arrived a little early, bought "green car" train tickets from the Tokyo Airport to the Shinagawa station, which is right near our hotel. We killed about 30m waiting for the train to arrive and get set up. We checked out a little 7-11 type shop, I think it was called Kiosk, and bought a beer and some snacks, though I wasn't really hungry. As we were waiting, the train pulled up, and we watched as all the seats inside rotated around to face the opposite direction. It was like some kind of bizarre mechanical dance going on inside this lit fishbowl of a train car. So, when a train arrives, instead of it having to loop around to face the returning direction, just the chairs rotate. Pretty neat idea.
The train ride was beautiful. The sun was setting and about half of the hour long train ride was through bamboo and deciduous forest, interspersed with picturesque rice paddies. It could not have been more beautiful. Eventually, the forest of green gave way to a forest of houses and buildings and industry, and we arrived at the station.
We found our way out of the station, and after a little exploring, found our hotel and checked in without issue. We showered and changed and went and grabbed some dinner at a local italian restaurant. Food was good, but later gave me some "tummy issues".
My traveling companion, Melody, was tired and went to bed. But I'm not about to lose a single minute while I'm here. She had already said that she wasn't interesting in visiting Akihabara (Electric Town), so I headed down to the subway station myself. After a bit of wandering I found a map on the wall and bought my ticket for 160 yen. After some more wandering, and a review of the map, I found the right train, going the right direction and embarked. 18 minutes later I was there.
I wandered up and down the brightly lit street and explored several different arcades, comic and video game shops. Each one was at least 5 stories tall, with each floor specializing in some specific aspect. 1st floor was typically a series of large claw style games where you could play to win a stuffed animal or some other prize. As the floors got higher, there seemed to be less and less people. I bought a couple of souvenirs for other people and, since it was getting late, I headed back.
Subway trip back to the Hotel was quick and without adventure. I think I'm getting the hang of this.
Called Jenn and caught her on the way out the door. Told her I was alive and well, and wished her a good day. Now, finally, I need to sleep.
Will update when I can.
I've switched here to blogger, instead of Twitter, since I can't update Twitter from here in Tokyo. It might be useful some other time, but for now, full blog posts are the way to go I think.
We left from LAX about 30m late, due to congestion on the Tokyo area, but landed a little ahead of schedule. The flight was long and full of aches. I watched The Golden Compass, which was pretty good, but had a poor ending. Also watched some of Jumper (good concept, poor direction) and some of that recent Tom Hanks movie with him as a politician battling to fund the Afgans against the communists. The latter seemed pretty good, but I missed the beginning and we landed before it ended. Hopefully I'll catch it on the way back.
I also read some of my H.P. Lovecraft book. It's brilliant. The tone and setting, and some of the verbiage are a bit archaic, but the stories are absolutely modern.
I also slept a little bit.
The guy next to me spent half the flight working on the Sudoku puzzle in the airline's magazine. I don't think he ever finished.
We arrived a little early, bought "green car" train tickets from the Tokyo Airport to the Shinagawa station, which is right near our hotel. We killed about 30m waiting for the train to arrive and get set up. We checked out a little 7-11 type shop, I think it was called Kiosk, and bought a beer and some snacks, though I wasn't really hungry. As we were waiting, the train pulled up, and we watched as all the seats inside rotated around to face the opposite direction. It was like some kind of bizarre mechanical dance going on inside this lit fishbowl of a train car. So, when a train arrives, instead of it having to loop around to face the returning direction, just the chairs rotate. Pretty neat idea.
The train ride was beautiful. The sun was setting and about half of the hour long train ride was through bamboo and deciduous forest, interspersed with picturesque rice paddies. It could not have been more beautiful. Eventually, the forest of green gave way to a forest of houses and buildings and industry, and we arrived at the station.
We found our way out of the station, and after a little exploring, found our hotel and checked in without issue. We showered and changed and went and grabbed some dinner at a local italian restaurant. Food was good, but later gave me some "tummy issues".
My traveling companion, Melody, was tired and went to bed. But I'm not about to lose a single minute while I'm here. She had already said that she wasn't interesting in visiting Akihabara (Electric Town), so I headed down to the subway station myself. After a bit of wandering I found a map on the wall and bought my ticket for 160 yen. After some more wandering, and a review of the map, I found the right train, going the right direction and embarked. 18 minutes later I was there.
I wandered up and down the brightly lit street and explored several different arcades, comic and video game shops. Each one was at least 5 stories tall, with each floor specializing in some specific aspect. 1st floor was typically a series of large claw style games where you could play to win a stuffed animal or some other prize. As the floors got higher, there seemed to be less and less people. I bought a couple of souvenirs for other people and, since it was getting late, I headed back.
Subway trip back to the Hotel was quick and without adventure. I think I'm getting the hang of this.
Called Jenn and caught her on the way out the door. Told her I was alive and well, and wished her a good day. Now, finally, I need to sleep.
Will update when I can.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
My Son, the Dog
After an early start this morning to take Joey to an Eagle Scout project, and a lovely visit to Nana's house (I met Chuck, the Butcher finally), I came home with Jack. Since it's such a lovely day after yesterday's downpour, I wanted to take the dogs for a walk.
So, I got out the leashes, and got the dogs ready. Jackson liked that idea, so he insisted that I put his little puppy backpack on him, since it has a kiddy leash. I should have realized what I was in for...
We walked outside, and started around the block. After about 5 minutes, he didn't want to hold my hand anymore, but wanted me to hold onto his leash. I looked around to make sure no one was watching and did as he had asked. After another 1o minutes of this (he had stopped talking words at this point, just nodding yes and no), he decided thousand of years of bipedalism was grossly overrated, got on all fours and started crawling, just like the doggies. So, now I'm walking down the street lead by three dogs, one of which is my 3 year old son. By now I had gotten back onto Fitzgerald Road and street traffic had increased. He was alternating between crawling and running onto the neighbors' lawns, following the dogs' lead. It was quite embarrassing.
Finally we got home. I unleashed the dogs, and gave them fresh water in their bowls. I unleashed jack, and he wanted a drink of water in his spiderman cup, wait, no, he wanted a bowl of water to drink. So, I gave him a plastic bowl and showed him he could drink out of it like a cup. He tried that, but it just didn't have the right feel. So, he asked for a refill, and put it on the kitchen floor. He spent the next 10 minutes sticking his tongue into the bowl, that shared with the cat.
Gone was the talkative three year old. I now has a barking, scratching, bowl drinking dog.
So, I got out the leashes, and got the dogs ready. Jackson liked that idea, so he insisted that I put his little puppy backpack on him, since it has a kiddy leash. I should have realized what I was in for...
We walked outside, and started around the block. After about 5 minutes, he didn't want to hold my hand anymore, but wanted me to hold onto his leash. I looked around to make sure no one was watching and did as he had asked. After another 1o minutes of this (he had stopped talking words at this point, just nodding yes and no), he decided thousand of years of bipedalism was grossly overrated, got on all fours and started crawling, just like the doggies. So, now I'm walking down the street lead by three dogs, one of which is my 3 year old son. By now I had gotten back onto Fitzgerald Road and street traffic had increased. He was alternating between crawling and running onto the neighbors' lawns, following the dogs' lead. It was quite embarrassing.
Finally we got home. I unleashed the dogs, and gave them fresh water in their bowls. I unleashed jack, and he wanted a drink of water in his spiderman cup, wait, no, he wanted a bowl of water to drink. So, I gave him a plastic bowl and showed him he could drink out of it like a cup. He tried that, but it just didn't have the right feel. So, he asked for a refill, and put it on the kitchen floor. He spent the next 10 minutes sticking his tongue into the bowl, that shared with the cat.
Gone was the talkative three year old. I now has a barking, scratching, bowl drinking dog.
Friday, March 9, 2007
Sequoia Crest
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| From Boy Scouts - ... |
Dana lead the scouts on their annual winter camp to Sequoia Crest this year. We had 19 boys and 6 adults go up to the snow for sledding and snow camping. The warming hunt was as welcoming as ever, and the boys had a fantastic time.
About an hour after we finished setting up camp, one of the boys broke his wrist on a sled run in the dark. It wasn't a very serious break, so we bandaged it up, and waiting until morning to take him to his parents.
You can reach the pictures of the event by clicking the picture above.
Jackson's day care person for the last 1.5 years (Ms. D.D.) is in the process of adopting a newborn baby that's due any day now, so she decided to close down. So, Jack started a new day day care this week (Ms. Jenni). It's a more structured school like environment with two care providers and a classroom like setup. There are 9-10 kids in total, but it's still in a residential setting. He seems to be doing just fine there.
We have a bad cold going through the household. Jennifer has been sick for about a week and a half, and Joey is just starting to come down with a bad cough. Jack got the cold and then an ear infection on top of it. Dana's been lucky so far, and has avoided it all.
Last weekend was the Boy Scouts 43rd annual Spaghetti Dinner. Dana was the main chef of the whole affair. Cooking began at 8am with chopping vegetables and getting the sauce going from scratch. We served somewhere in the order of 300 people (though it could have been more!). Everything went smoothly, and the food was very well recieved by scouters and guests alike. It was a great success, and will gross somewhere near $3000 for the troop and the boys.
Jennifer started up her latest college semester, and is taking a child development class.
We're finally making concrete plans to get the kitchen redone. We're buying cabinets from Ikea, and getting the floor tiled. Maybe even some new appliances, budget permitting.
We're also getting ready to welcome a new member of the family. An as yet unnamed Bernese Mountain Dog puppy. We expect to be able to bring her home in about 7 weeks, when she's 2 months old and about 20 pounds.
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| From Bernise |
That just about sums it up!
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific
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| From Long Beach Aq... |
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| From Long Beach Aq... |
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| From Long Beach Aq... |
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| From Long Beach Aq... |
Sunday Joey spent working on his Chinese Invention: Gunpowder report and Jenn went wedding dress shopping with Michelle.
This weekend I'm leading a scout trip up to Sequioa Crest. It should be cold, and there isn't very much snow. I just hope it's not a trip filled with nothing but freezing mud. =/ We have all of our winter gear ready, and I'm (pretty) sure the trip will go smoothly.
Monday, February 5, 2007
Busy Weekend
Another full weekend!
On Saturday morning I cooked the World Famous Cordes Family German Potato Salad for Greg and Michele's engagement party. The party was great with many of their friends and family in attendance. Joey was a sport, and Jack held up well.
The party was at Greg's parents house, and in the back yard they have a small pond surrounded by small rocks. Jack LOVES throwing the rocks into the pond and knows he isn't supposed to. So, as an alternative I got him throwing ice from the tubs of drinks in. He would run over to the tub, grab one or two pieces of ice, then run over to the pond on throw them in. He did this for probably two hours straight. Helena started doing the same thing, except she would throw in the ice, and pick up a rock and toss it in as well. I guess the ice wasn't enough for her.
After that party, we went over to Nana's house for Casey's 21st birthday party. We didn't stay too long as we were all dead tired, and wanted to get Jack home and to bed. Happy birthday Case!
Sunday morning we went back to Nana's for a nice breakfast. It was Scout Sunday so Jenn and Joey went to the service at our local Methodist church. Jack and I hung out with Auntie Megan, Cubby, Nana and Casey. Jackson largely amused himself (and the rest of us) and we played a bit on the Nintendo. Nana, Casey and I played bowling a bit, and nana beat us handily. I've been playing video games for more than 20 years, and somehow she's beating us consistently. It's just not fair. =p
We spent a lazy afternoon at home with naps and some laundry. Joey and I watch most of "The Game" and then Jessica came over to watch Jackson while we went out to dinner at Famous Dave's. It was delicious.
We had originally intended to go bowling afterwards, but opted for Wii bowling instead. The four of us played a few rounds. Jenn won the first round, and I won the rest. So, I felt redeemed.
On Saturday morning I cooked the World Famous Cordes Family German Potato Salad for Greg and Michele's engagement party. The party was great with many of their friends and family in attendance. Joey was a sport, and Jack held up well.
The party was at Greg's parents house, and in the back yard they have a small pond surrounded by small rocks. Jack LOVES throwing the rocks into the pond and knows he isn't supposed to. So, as an alternative I got him throwing ice from the tubs of drinks in. He would run over to the tub, grab one or two pieces of ice, then run over to the pond on throw them in. He did this for probably two hours straight. Helena started doing the same thing, except she would throw in the ice, and pick up a rock and toss it in as well. I guess the ice wasn't enough for her.
After that party, we went over to Nana's house for Casey's 21st birthday party. We didn't stay too long as we were all dead tired, and wanted to get Jack home and to bed. Happy birthday Case!
Sunday morning we went back to Nana's for a nice breakfast. It was Scout Sunday so Jenn and Joey went to the service at our local Methodist church. Jack and I hung out with Auntie Megan, Cubby, Nana and Casey. Jackson largely amused himself (and the rest of us) and we played a bit on the Nintendo. Nana, Casey and I played bowling a bit, and nana beat us handily. I've been playing video games for more than 20 years, and somehow she's beating us consistently. It's just not fair. =p
We spent a lazy afternoon at home with naps and some laundry. Joey and I watch most of "The Game" and then Jessica came over to watch Jackson while we went out to dinner at Famous Dave's. It was delicious.
We had originally intended to go bowling afterwards, but opted for Wii bowling instead. The four of us played a few rounds. Jenn won the first round, and I won the rest. So, I felt redeemed.
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