A musing from 2008 into 2009

私は木陰の中に住む。そこの生活はゆっくり流れて、好きです。

Watakushi ha kokage no naka ni sumu.
Soko no seikatsu ha yukkuri nagarete, suki desu.

I live in the shade of the tree.
There, life passes slowly, and I like it.

-Jimmy Bones 2008

Severe Autumn Weather

Extreme Weather Alert: Meteorologists Predict Intensely Brisk Autumn

Crear Green

Japanese People are nuts

James Bond in Florida

Who knew Ian Fleming ever heard of Ocala and Silver Springs. These bits come from Live and Let Die.

The Passing of Paul Newman

Paul Newman, one of Hollywood's best actors & most generous philanthropists, died last week. I always liked Mr. Newman's work, especially The Sting, with Robert Redford, but he always meant a lot more than that to me. He dedicated his life to being cool, but more importantly, to helping others, especially children. Spaghetti sauce was also a forte of his. The world will miss you Mr. Paul Newman. You will be welcomed where you are going now.

Fall is coming....

Frat Party

The General hosted his annual frat party at the Tama River this part weekend. We got drunk by the river and it felt like being in college all over again.

Kickboxers

Karl Malone on Louisiana

Karl Malone on Aliens

Karl Malone?

This is a video I came across on Youtube when I was looking for a Karl Malone clip. I guess it is some British family's home video set a the Gorillaz song. It is kind of lame, but I also thought it was pretty cool. I am not really sure why.

Crazy storm over the Tama River

Some amazing views from my apartment

26 years old

First off I have to say that I never thought I would live this long, but...... I did. Jiro and I had our birthday parties together again this year, but we did something different because hip-hop parties at IBEX are getting old. So, we started the party at a nice little bar called Ale House 82 then moved to Sam & Dave's for the remainder of the evening.

Power Nap for a Power Ranger

Karma

Sometimes doing nice things actually does pay off. I wrote in here that I had found a wallet containing roughly $600 a few weeks ago. Well, I got a letter today from the owner and he sent me 10% of what was in the wallet. I have to split that with English Paul, but it is still free money.

Cam's Birthday Party/Rebel Yell

Cam's birthday party in Akasaka

Rebel Yell in Akasaka

MOV: Tamagawa Hanabi 多摩川花-火

Saturday was the big Tamagawa Fireworks Festival, but for the third straight year there was a rain scare. As it turns out for the third straight year the weather miraculously cleared up and it went off without a hitch. We messed around by the river for a while, then chilled in front of Talkies until the fireworks started.

We got invited by one of Miho's friends to go to a party on somebody's roof in Futakotamagawa. It was cool, but I was pretty drunk by then so I don't remember much.

The after party was at an izakaya in Futakotamagawa and then Miho & I headed back to chill with the crew at Talkies before we headed home. We decided to go for a walk later on that night and I fell out of a broken chair.

MOV: Miho's Obon Visit; Pt. 1

Miho came up to Tokyo for the Obon season last week. She came up for 4 days and the first and last days we didn't do much, but the second and third we went all out.

Friday morning we woke up and went to Shibuya for lunch then to Kudanshita for this year's Yasukuni Shrine event. Yasukuni is an extremely touchy subject in East Asia and, as such, there were hordes of ultra-nationalists, liberals, and, to hold the line between them, riot police. I had always heard amazing stories of insanity happening there and we saw a little (e.g. old dudes dressed in historical military garb, ultra-nationalist militants, etc....) but didn't get much in the way of physical confrontations.

After Yasukuni, we headed to Nishi Shinjuku, a.ka. The Skyscraper District, for the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Headquarters, or Tochō, to see some good panoramas of the Tokyo Metro Area during good weather.

Next, we head back towards "central" Central Tokyo for Sakura Damon to have a look a look at the National Diet (Assembly) Building.

From the Diet we walked to the Imperial Palace, Kōkyo, Gardens and through to Tokyo Station to catch the Chūō Line back to Shinjuku.

We had earlier decided to come back to the Tochō after dark to get a better view of Tokyo at with a nearly full moon. It was spectacular and to top it off there was a massive thunderstorm brewing in the distance somewhere north of Mount Fuji.

After all the events of the day we were pretty tired, but no ready to give up, so we headed back to Futako Shinchi and met up with English Paul for some drinking and karaoke in Mizunokuchi.