Back to it.
I have to wake up in 8 hours.
I start work again in just over 10.

It's not that I fear going back to work per se. More like it's going to take a bit of getting used to again after being on holiday for the past 3 weeks. The other 3 don't count as I was still going to uni then.

The lessons I have planned are suitable easy and lightweight to allow me, and most probably my students, to ease back into the flow of things. So I shall mock them as per usual and throw some sort of game at them. Brilliant!

I'm also going camping again this weekend. Will be leaving on Friday evening after work and meeting Jin and Tomoko in Numata which is quite a ways away. It'll take me the better part of 3 hours to get there but it'll be worth it. It's another music festival thing which promises to be THE party of the year. I hear some of our other friends are going so will hopefully see them there too.

I have also stumbled across a rather nerdy Trading Card Maker courtesy of the boys over at Flickr. So pop on over, make a card or five and show us what you got.

Whee! I gots my internet again.
Been without it for the past three weeks and I've had to go get my fix at the local internet cafe every three or four days.
Ahh ... can't beat having your own net connection though. It was like missing an arm.

In other news, work starts up again on Thursday. Will be my seeing my students again after a long Summer holiday ^_^

The first module of uni starts on the 5th and the second module starts on the 13th so I'll be pretty busy again. Ugh ... and I was enjoying my holiday too (ToT;)

Fibre

I moved into a new apartment last week. It's still in the Greater Tokyo area but I'm not 20 minutes from everything anymore. I'm also not within cycling distance to uni.

Poo!

But I am living by myself now. Full-blown bachelor pad complete with rotating bed, disco ball and the complete discography of Barry White. Okay, so those are complete lies. But I still have a spare room for any visitors that might stay over.

Still no internet though and I'm now in an internet cafe for my fix. Blasted keyboard has a sticky space bar and if I have to type my entire post like this, murder will be done! Still, despite this small if annoying drawback, the internet cafes of today are something to behold entirely. Each puter is in a cubicle (some for two people) complete with a desk lamp, hi-fi headphones, and possibly the comfiest reclining leather chair in existence. A well-stocked library of manga, free drinks, and a surprising level of privacy come as standard. Some places even offer free onigiri or other snacks for your enhanced internet cafe experience. They even have all-night specials. Something like a discounted rate for 5 hours from midnight or one or some other odd hour. Cheaper than staying in a hotel for sure.

Anyway, I am this close to taking a sledge hammer to this confounded keyboard. And my time is almost up ... internet-wise.

Oop ... hold up ...mail from Jin ... erm ... party ... in Chiba ... last one of the Summer ... gotcha!
Looks like it's game on tonight!

And before I forget to blog about this later, went with Jin and his brother to Balearic last week. Jin was nursing his water, and I was chatting to the two girls at the bar and being Dan's wingman. Very amusing stuff. Even got the lad two kisses from them despite them having boyfriends (who were not there).

Next morning, Jin, Tomoko and I go for ramen whilst Dan lay in bed wondering why his head felt so big. After ordering our lunch, the old lady at the ramen shop told Tomoko that I don't speak like a Japanese person. My pronunciation is pretty near native but the way I project my voice is a giveaway. She said my voice is 'すてき' ^_^

Anyway, must be off! A party awaits and I must gear myself up for the ladies!

To battle!

Mmm ... it's been quite awhile since I last got 99% on a test. Any test.
Alas, it is a somewhat bittersweet feeling as I made a careless mistake which cost me that 1%.
One missed word in the transcription and I handed in a less-than-perfect paper.

Bugger!

Of course, the greatest irony is that I handed in the paper with half an hour to spare.

However, it is rather nice that the semester is finally over. I've completed two of the compulsory modules and have signed up for another two next semester. Due to time constraints, some of my classmates will only be taking one. Nevertheless, if all goes well, I should finish all the modules by the end of 2006 and will only have the comprehensive exam left to do before I get that magic piece of paper.

In other news, Jin's brother flew over from Canada (or was it Korea?) on Wednesday night. Note, Jin is 33 and his brother is 18. Which leaves me right smack dab in the middle of that age range. Anyhoo, with nothing planned, Jin and Daniel came over to my place on Thursday afternoon to chill out, listen to some music, go for some pizza at the local cafe, and then head on over to Asakusa and Ueno.

Ah ... Asakusa. The quintessential tourist tourist trap. Fair enough, the temple is a rather splendid sight and even the locals flock there to make offerings, pray, and get their fortunes told. As with most other things Japanese, Asakusa is best visited during the balmy days of Summer. Yukata-wearing girls are everywhere shuffling along in an almost haphazard manner yet retaining a certain degree of understated elegance. Mmm ... lovely! So lovely, in fact, that I stopped two of them so that Daniel could take a picture with them. A nice memento to take back with him. Foolish boy didn't think to get their numbers though ^^;
We were also accosted by a random Japanese woman who's actually an English teacher at one of the large language schools in Nippon. She persuaded Dan to get his fortune told. There's this big metal cylinder with a tiny hole at one end. You shake it until a long, thin stick-like thing pops out bearing a number. You take this number and look for a matching number on a set of tiny drawers and pull out a piece of paper with your fortune on it.

Daniel got the worst fortune one can get.
Everything was not looking good. Money, love, travel ... it would seem that the poor boy was doomed to perish before his holiday had even begun. But there is a way to ward off such bad luck. Tie the offending fortune around a rack conveniently located nearby (see my Yukata girls picture below).

Anyway, this woman, when Dan took his fortune, started translating for us which we initially thought was rather nice and quite helpful since our collective kanji-reading skills were not good enough to read fortunes. However, halfway through, we looked at the paper and noticed that the paper also had an English translation directly below the Japanese one. But the woman kept going! And going. She wouldn't stop! Even after translating, we were held captive until Jin said 'Well, it was nice meeting you but we have to rush off.'. We barely made it five steps before she called out to us to ask yet another question. The woman was insatiable! Even when the three of us finished looking at souvenirs, we spotted her accosting more foreign people! I suspect she loiters around Asakusa looking for gaijin fresh off the plane to drown in a veritable deluge of verbal diarrhoea. We all guessed that that was the bad fortune.

Okay ... so Asakusa was done and it was about 6 in the evening. We couldn't take the ferry to Odaiba cos the next boat was 45 minutes away and it'd be a waste of time to wait. So we walked to Ueno. Took us about 20 minutes and we saw a few quaint little buildings and one virtually deserted street. All the shops were closed and there was hardly a car in sight. Bearing in mind that this is Tokyo, nay, DEEP central Tokyo, such places are few and far between.

In Ueno, the first stop was a toy store. Yup. A toy store. 7 floors of kiddy entertainment merchandising with a surprising amount of adults inside. Right. Toy store took the best part of two hours of our time and we then headed to a cafe for some refreshment.

Next stop was Roppongi. At night. Roppongi during the day is actually quite a decent place and Roppongi Hills is a very upmarket shopping complex catering to the wealthy and the wannabe wealthies. Once the sun sets, however, all manner of weirdos crawl out of the woodwork and try to seduce the unsuspecting foreigner into lairs of depravity. Large, black dudes trawl the streets saying things like 'Free entry!' and 'Where are you going tonight, sir?' Other, slightly more aesthetically-pleasing variations include the women of, ah, negotiable-affection wearing evening gowns. An odd choice of attire given the sweltering heat and humidity.

We even came across a woman wearing a cheerleader's outfit and, get this, a horse's head! It was completely out of left field. I think she was promoting rice crackers or something. Bizarre.

After we had our fill of weirdness for one evening, we went to the nearest watering hole to get watered. Very briefly though. It was quite dire. A complete sausage fest. The bartender overheard me making that comment and he added 'Where are the girls?!' ^^;

So after a quick pint, we went in search of another bar hoping to see more women there. Went to Paddy Foley's, a popular Irish pub. Popular, it would appear, with only the men! WTF?! Where are all the women?!
Didn't even stay for a pint that time. Went to The Hub next and actually settled down there since it was a little late and we were kinda tired and thirsty. And they had darts. Jin and I spotted a rather interesting item on their menu. The Litre Tower Beer! We decided that we had to get it for Daniel. It looks like one of those old science experiment tube things which held a litre of beer! Truly a thing to behold in all its resplendent glory! A two foot tower of beer.

Here's a pic of the legend. Sorry it's so small but it's the best pic I could find on the net.

I could be referring to the fireworks.

But I'm not!

The weekend went by like something really fast. So fast, in fact, that it would appear my ability to metaphorize it has somewhat failed.

It all began innocently enough with a call from Jin on Friday morning.
After disrupting my slumber, he asked if I had plans. Well, aside from the panic-stricken study group I was summoned to, which I should add that I was completely prepared for, that was it. I'm getting the hang of 'doing homework first' thing down. ph34r! Prepped all 42 essay topics for Monday's test and I was rewarded by being able to enjoy my weekend without that dark, pre-exam-what-am-I-going-to-do-pant-filling sensation hovering over my shoulder.
But I digress.
Met up with Yukiko (the married one, remember?) who was actually experiencing the aforementioned sensation and called on my genius to help her out. So, had lunch, and an iced cafe mocha, and got to it. Blitzed through the questions, wowed her with the quantity and quality of my ... ahem ... essay notes.

After that though, I met up with Jin in Kinshicho at 5ish to wait for Tomoko to finish work so we could go for dinner. So we waited in a cafe, had a couple, then Tomoko came round and after all that, we went to a completely different area for dinner. Mexican in Motoyawata.

Tomoko, after being inspired by my tales of warbling from last week, decided that what we all needed at that point was a solid bout of karaoke. Tally ho! To the karaoke box!

*Fast forward to an hour and a half later*

Tomoko, being further inspired, said 'Let's go to a party!'

Jin and I, having our arms twisted thus, said 'ok'.

Ok ... Saturday morning, we get up, and we make our way to Chiba to get ready for the fireworks festival. Tomoko helps me tie the obi on my yukata cos I'm just useless at it. Had quite the shock when I unravelled the belt. It must be about 12 feet long!

Anyway, long story short, we get dressed, we meet Gustav and the other Tomoko at the train station and walk, around with another 70,000 people to the port. Yeah. Not a good idea to be blowing stuff up around a residential area.

We set down in a little grassy area which was yet to be occupied and Jin opened the cooler. Good man! Nothing like sitting in a field with thousands of strangers, kicking back with some good friends, having a cold one and eating large quantities of festival food. Mmm ...

Have some pics.

Pre-firework Crowd

Gustav, Jin and Me

Tomoko & Tomoko

I ventured out into the wilderness that is Shinjuku in search of a yukata. Not just ANY yukata, mind you. No, this is a rare breed of yukata that actually fits my 6'2" frame. In all my time in Japan, all the yukata I've come across came down to just below my knees. Grr ... where was I to find a yukata that was long enough??

So ... Shinjuku. The heaving throngs of people, even on a work day, was enough to make me want to go home, turn on the air-conditioning and listen to the occassional clink of the ice in my glass of water.

But I powered on through towards Takashimaya Times Square which housed at least one larger-than-was-strictly-necessary department store.
[Side note: ever notice how your average department store is laid out as such:
1st Floor - Cosmetics & Perfume
2nd Floor - Ladies Fashion
3rd Floor - Ladies Fashion
4th Floor - Mens Fashion ... AND ... Ladies Fashion
5th Floor - Children's Fashion, Sports, Stationery, and Toys]

Managed to locate a kimono and yukata corner there and started browsing even though I wasn't really hoping for much. Truth be told, I was there to look at the girls wearing yukata as well as shopping for myself.

A nice old lady helped me choose a very nice dark brown yukata and also helped me pick out a suitably matching beige obi (belt) and a pair of geta. All in preparation for this Saturday's fireworks festival in Chiba. Yup! I'm going to be stylin' for sure ^_^
And the girls will be out in their lovely yukata too!

In fact, this reminds me of a particular picture I took two years ago, almost to the day, of some girls in Asakusa wearing yukata. One of my favourite desktop backgrounds.
Enjoy!

... apart from the girls.
On the Yamanote Line, above the doors next to the train information screen, is a television-like display showing various ads and informative slides such as the weather forecast.
A new feature in conjunction with the weather forecast is a beer index telling you how good beer will taste at a particular time depending on temperature, humidity and other variables.

Tomorrow in Tokyo during the day, beer will taste "ma-ma-" (so-so) but in the evening, it will be "umai" (delicious)!