Tim’s Ramblings

Yup…today was the last day. Today, after I got home from work I got Sedona all ready and packed her up along with her tank and the worms and headed out to her new home.

This time it’s going to another coworker who lives downtown. He has a really nice place and she’ll be very happy in her new home I’m sure. He’s a new owner but I’m sure he’ll take good care of her. And this time I think Sedona will settle in a tad faster than Priss as she’s going to be in the same tank and surroundings as before. Just a different apartment. They can tell the difference though, especially with the lighting and such so she’ll still be a tad stressed but I think she’ll be ok.

Stil…it’s sad to see them go. For the very first time in almost 5 years, my dining room is now completely dark. No more red light…. It was sad when Fuzzy passed away almost 2 years ago…but at least I still had the girls and Peety at the time. Then Peety passed away…that was sad too. At least this time I know that they went to a better home.

Now, I have to clean up the dining room, get rid of, or at least pack away all of my reptile stuff and somehow do something with my gigantic 60 gallon tank that Fuzzy used to be in. It’s huge and heavy as hell….hmmmmmmmmm…..

Oh well…like I said in my other post, this is for the best for them though. I’ve missed them over the past year with all my traveling….I’ll miss them more now.

Maybe if I stop traveling as much (I don’t think it will ever stop completely as long as I stay with the company) I can get another pet….maybe.

*sniff*…bye Sedona. I’ll miss you…

Well…today was the day I had to let one of my babies go.

Little Priss went off to a new home tonight. A better home I hope. A home where she’ll get more attention and love than I could give for the past year.

Still kinda sad though. I’ve had her since she was 6 weeks old for the past 4.5 years. Went through a lot with her too. After all, I think she’s one of the smallest animals to ever get reconstructive surgery done at Lakewood Animal Hospital when she lost a good chunk of her skin off her belly and her tail. They actually sutured a metal mesh to hold her soft skin together and I had to nurse her back to health over 2 months.

For the past year, every time I went to Japan, my sister came over to take care of her. Got to the point where she pretty much ignored me even during feeding time but my sister used to tell me how she’ll come out from under her log when she heard her voice and would even lunge at her fingers during feeding. That’s when I started to realize that it was time to find her a new home… When a pet stops responding to the actual owner and starts to respond more to the pet sitter…yeah….it’s not good.

Put an ad in the company classified ads and for a long long time I got no hits at all. But then all of a sudden 2 people came up saying they would like to take care of them. They are both good people so I said yes.

Today’s went to a coworker’s 14 year old son. He used to have an iguana that passed away recently and he was very very excited about the pet. They had a nice enclosure setup already and I brought along her favorite log and her water dish and food dish so she can at least still smell some familar stuff. I’ve never seen kids so excited over a little lizard before. I think she’ll be happy there once she gets used to the new bigger diggs. Even her little daughter…can’t be more than 2 or 3…came up to pet her too. :)

As sad as it was to see her go, I think in the end it’s for the best.

Tomorrow I say good bye to Sedona. *sniff*

Bye Priss!!!

Can you believe the weather? Well…at least if you are near Cleveland, it’s gorgeous. 60′s for godsakes. I just drove home from work in a T-shirt! Can’t believe this is the end of November. What’s going on??

..yeah…I was at work. Had to get some stuff done. Programming even. The guys that usually do the coding that I used to do was on vacation last week sooooo I had to actually go into the code. Yup. They still let me touch the code. And no…I haven’t lost it yet. And no…I’m pretty sure I didn’t break anything…

But anyway, it was a nice long weekend. I needed it but it’s over way too fast. Need like another month of this I think.

Thanksgiving was quiet. I was invited over to many places. My sister’s BF’s family, coworker’s families. I’m quite grateful to everyone that sent me an invite. However, I declined and decided to stay home myself. Why? Well…to be honest, I’ve been a guest of one form or another for a while now. All the traveling and being away from home and everything. And I just couldn’t bring myself to be put into another “guest” situation again.

Sure, everyone that invited me are all nice people and I’m sure I would have had a good time. But unless it was just a group of friends that all knew eachother, you never fully relax you know? It’s just not the same. And I’ve been gone for so long, I just wanted to be in my apartment doing my own thing in my own place. No matter if the place looks like a hurricane tore through it (and it does….no one other than my sister is really allowed in here at the moment…even I’m kind of embarrased at the state of utter dissarray…)…it’s still my place.

So on Wednesday after work I stopped by a few grocery stores to buy some provisions and I also picked up a bunch of new games for the Nintendo DS and PS2 and I stayed in. Got my PS2 back from H (thanks!) and I spend most of the day watching all the shows that I DVRed while I was gone, and also played Guitar Hero 2 and other such stuff.

Guitar Hero 2 is alot of fun too though I think I hurt my wrist playing so much. 40 songs are available along with another 24 that you can unlock (those are the lesser known bands). I finished it on Medium and Hard. It took a while. Thus the painful wrists… The song selections are decent. Some standouts and some that makes me go “hm?”. Got everything from Shout at the Devil by Motley Crue, War Pigs by Black Sabbath, Hangar 18 by Megadeth (which ROCKS), and Sweet Child ‘O Mine by Guns ‘N Roses which is really fun to play. The voices are ok too (these are all covers) with the noted exception of Mother by Danzing. The guy does NOT sound like Glen Danzig. It’s bad enough that they picked this particular song but then again…I suppose this is the only song most people know by Danzig. So many other songs they could have picked though…Dirty Black Summer, Her Black Wings, Possession…the list goes on. Oh well….

Oh, and of course, the final final song is Free Bird. And man…I’ve forgotten how long that song is..and HARD. The first half is slow and easy but man…when it gets to the good old Lynrd Skynrd southern rock part in the second half, that is hard to play! And if you screw it up, it’s allllll the way back to the beginning to try it again. Yow. I was just barely able to finish it on the hard level.

Oh, and I also picked up Final Fantasy XII. It’s fun but a bit of a departure from the typical FF. I think either people are going to love it or hate it. I don’t know yet as I haven’t played much so far. But unlike back in the Final Fantasy VII days, I’m not totally obsessed yet…which doesn’t bode well. After all, after I’m done posting thing I might go back to Guitar Hero 2. Oh well. Oh, and I picked up Final Fantasy III for the Nintendo DS. They redid all the graphics and everything. Might set that aside for my trip to Japan in December though. I could have picked it up in Japan but I have to admit…for text heavy games like Final Fantasy…English is easier for me to play in…

Anyway, that’s that. I really haven’t done anything. I could have cleaned the apartment. Run more errands. Stuff like that but I was just happy to be home and do what I want and watch what I want. I still have tons of episodes of Buffy to get through along with a few other shows like House and CSI. Yahoo :) At least I got to go to the West Side Market on Saturday for the first time since mid September. It was nice. Got some good stuff. They all remembered me too…I was touched (^_^) Oh, and I went to H’s to give her daughter S a new game for the DS (Elite Beat Agents – a rhythm game that’s a localized version of the Japanese game Osu Tatakae Ouendan which is alot of fun and I gave to her about a year ago) and got to hold the new baby. She’s sooooooo cute. And she smiled for me too! She’s so used to other people….it’s like she didn’t care that it was me holding her. She was just as comfy being held by me. I love little babies…as long as I don’t have to change them and have them hurl on me….heh heh heh.

Oh, and I realized I still haven’t put up my pictures from the Miur Woods outside San Francisco from almost a month ago. I’ll do it soon. I promise :)

Hope you all had a nice holiday weekend!

…not that this fact should be at all surprising…

I stopped by H’s place to see her new baby for the first time in over a month since I’ve been away for so long. She’s gotten so BIG! So cute too.

I didn’t leave there ’till close to 8 so I stopped to grab dinner and got home around 8:45. And what am I watching as I unwind from another hectic day? How Its Made that I recorded from the Discovery Science Channel.

It’s basically a show that shows you how things are made (…thus the title….). Everything from batteries to shopping carts to ballet shoes and flutes. It has this cheeeeeeeeesy techno-y music in the background and this narrator that dryly tells you what the worker is doing and he always sounds rushed as he has to keep up with the pace on the screen. It’s 4 things per episode and each episode is 30 minutes. But they cover it all. From manufacturing the parts to assembly to the final product.

It’s basically like something you would be shown in shop class when you have a sub in HS. But for some reason I get a kick out of this…like a super dry documentary with a funky soundtrack that makes it all the more cheesy.

Ahh…Discovery Channel…what would the world be without you…

Don’t get me wrong…I enjoy watching the World Lumberjack Competition on ESPN-(insert number here). This show just makes me FEEL smart while the Lumberjack Competition makes me feel smarter…while slowing making me dumb by watching guys start up custom made chainsaws with huuuge exhausts coming out the back. Entertaining though. They day they actually come out with ESPN-8: The Ocho, I would soooooo watch it 24-7 :)

Right.

Anyway, back to the show. This time I get to find out just how cowboy boots are made! WOOO! Excitement!!!

So I got home safe and sound last night (Saturday) and I spent the rest of the night ordering pizza and watching some TV that I recorded on my DVR.

Went to bed at a decent time but I must have been totally beat…for obvious reasons…and I didn’t even open my eyes up again until a bit after 11am. My cel phone was next to my head so I must have got up, turned off the alarm, and for some reason unhooked it from the charger to take with me back into bed. Weird…. I don’t remember the alarm OR the stuff I did afterwards.

But the reason why I got up is because I realized my back was killing me. The same part of my back that decided to start hurting in Orlando that caused me to miss a whole day at Epcot. I don’t know what it is but once again, it was paaaaiiinful. Totally lost my apetite and it was all I could do to hobble to the couch. Thankfully my sister called around 2 to see if I was up and to see if she could come pick me up so I can pick up my other car from her place (I drove up there to leave my car there before I left for Japan).

I told her my situation and she was kind enough to stop by the CVS and pick up a bottle of Alleve, a heating pad for my back in case the Alleve didn’t work, and some diet coke (I was out…). She came over, I popped 2 Alleves and crawled into bed (this is now around 2:30pm) and zonked out again and didn’t get up until around 8pm. Craziness. It’s now a bit past 1:30am and I think I can sleep again. Work tomorrow..hopefully this will help with the jet lag. Though I doubt it….

Thankfully once again, the Alleve helped with the pain and by the time I got up, whatever was wrong with my back is back to normal and I have no pain at all. I think it’s the long period of sitting on a plane combined with sitting in an odd position on a plane (more on that later) and maybe sleeping in a bad position. Whatever it is it’s annoying to say the least….

Yes…speaking of weird positions…let me relay the latest and greatest horror story. Once again….no…I was not fortunate enough to sit next to a hot hot supermodel. Nope. Though I was not part of the Chinese Baby Adoption Tour flight either…thank god.

Instead, I had an old couple from Korea sit next to me. An old man quite possibly in his late 60′s and a woman who I swear was old enough to be his mother and might have been really who looked totally confused and bewildered at the whole “airplane” thing next to him. Now I didn’t mind at first. It was a full flight anyway so what could I do? At least I got an aisle seat.

The thing is….he smelled. I don’t know what the smell was but he smelled in a way that was nauseating to me. It was very strong and not the kind that you could get used to. I think it might have been something they use in their closet or something as I think it was coming from his clothing. Slightly organic. Slightly chemical. Sharp. …just….really bad. I’m sensitive to odor to begin with and this was NOT helping. And, let’s be honest…it’s a known fact that personal space is different from one culture to the next. He didn’t seem to mind pretty much leaning on me. If his legs touched mine, he didn’t care. I care…. Didn’t help either that “mom” decided to take off her shoes and socks and stretch her feet out onto the dude’s lap so now I have her bare feet next to my legs that’s currently being leaned on by his. Give me a break people…… So that’s where the odd position came from…After I realized that nudging him didn’t get the hint and the smell was literally making me sick and he would not stop leaning on some part of my body, I ended up in an odd position trying to get away from him….

Oh…and to top it off I did have one newly adopted Chinese baby on my flight and she was in the row directly behind me. Great.

Once I got to Minneapolis I thought the horror was over. Nope. I’m waiting for my luggage to come out of one of two belts and I get my big red luggage but I can’t find my garment bag. I look everywhere for 30 minutes. Nowhere to be found. Of course the Northwest people are far from helpful as the woman looked at me like I was irritating the hell out of her as she tells me that I have to go to my final destination before filing a report. Great. So, ticked off I decided to do one more sweep of the area since, I’ve seen luggage handlers see luggage fall off the belt and do nothing as it sits there in the corner (I love American customer service..I really do…).

That is when, out of puuuure luck, I happened to notice that a woman had my garment bag on top of her luggage and was rolling it away to customs. You gotta be kidding me. I run over and I catch her and I tap her on the shoulder. She looks at me like “what the hell?” and I tell her she has my garment bag. She has the nerve to say, “no…this is mine!”

Yeah…

I tell her it’s mine and did she check the name tag.

“Oh no…hold on…” *click* “oh my! It’s not mine! Are you Tim? Oh I’m sorry! I was wondering why all of a sudden I got myself a priority tag put on! I just thought I got lucky! Ahahahahahahahaha. I wonder where mine is? Hmm..I wonder if it’s that one on the belt?”

You jackass. You saw the priority handling tag and the name tag and you thought you just got lucky with the priority sticker and you never checked the name? You gotta be kidding me.

So after that I figured the worst was over. Nope. I find out I didn’t get a first class upgrade (eh…it happens…even with my status) and on top of it all, I had a mom and a small girl of maybe a year or a year and a half who loooooved to whine and cry next to me, a new born girl in front of me and the even younger brother of the girl next to me diagonally in front of me. Was it loud? You bed. Did they cry? Oooooh yeah.

It wasn’t the worst flight I’ve ever had…but it’s up there. Some day I’m goiing to go to Japan in a personal jet. Some day…..

Ugh…

Oh well….at least I’m home now. I have a month before I do this again… (>_<)

Yup. Once again here I am at the Narita Airport lounge. Mmmmm. Good cold beer from that automated pourer and pretzels. Yum. Might have to have another glass.

I feel ok. Stomach is still not at 100% but I made sure I didn’t eat anything….troublesome…so I think I should be ok.

Yesterday I made my way to my parents and there I just kinda took it easy. Mom was nice enough to do laundery for me so I won’t go home with a suitcase full of dirty clothes. Watched some TV, talked, and did basically nothing. Had udon noodles for dinner. It was nice.

Today, I got up at a decent time, said “bye” to dad as he went off to run errands and mom and I headed to the airport. It’s crowded today. More than usual. But had a nice lunch, did some shopping around and then said goodbye to her and here I am in the lounge. Got some american businessmen behind me that’s hogged all of the outlets so I don’t have much power left on this laptop..dammit. Oh well… Damn Americans I tell you…hogging the power. (^_^)

So far from what I heard from mom when she flew back from Cleveland, the movies are not anything to write home about either… I think one of them is The Lake House with Keanu Reeves. ….woo… Thank god for the PSP and Nintendo DS and a good book I tell you. I already know the seat next to me is taken too. Blah. Hope he’s not that stinky French Canadian guy I wrote about before…. And please…OH PLEASE…let this NOT be another Chinese Baby Adoption Tour flight. Please…..

Oh well. Will find out soon enough. It’ll be good to go home. This trip drained me. Last week feels like a month ago…. I’m glad next month I’m coming back here for an extended vacation and not work. It’ll be a nice change.

Next time I’ll be writing from back in the US :)

Ugh.

I think the worst of the cold is over. Last night was absolutely the worst. I couldn’t regulate my body temperature. I had a pounding headache. And on top of it all, my legs were cramping. Great….

Thankfully I had nothing planned for today so I called the front desk to tell them that I didn’t need room service and stayed in all day. I had a nasty stomach ache too (graphically speaking…anything I ate came out in less than 5 hours…I didn’t even think that was POSSIBLE…) so I didn’t eat anything all day either. Good thing the bathroom is literally 2 steps away from the desk and 4 steps away from the bed…..

Anyway, I’m still not 100%. But I do feel a bit better. I did eat something tonight. Some soup and a rice ball from the local 7-11. Something low key and plain. I immediately got a stomach ache…as expected…but still…had to eat something right? I still have some pretty nasty stomach aches now and again but I think that’s going away. A slight sore throat as well but I haven’t gotten a runny nose or a sinus problem and I’m hoping that stays away so I won’t want to kill myself on the flight home…

I’m still feeling sluggish and I think I might still have a slight temperature since I go from feeling cold to a tad warm to feeling cold again…. Yuck….

Tomorrow I have a 2 hour meeting at 10am so hopefully I’ll feel better by then.

*sigh*

Oh well…..

In a related news…some of you might know this but some of you probably don’t… See, here in Japan, we live in some tight spaces. Crowded trains, crowded sidewalks, crowded stores. You’re always in contact with other people. So, when you catch a cold, it is common courtesy for you to wear a face mask to protect others from your germs. Unlike the US where you drive everywhere, to get anyplace, you end up using public transportation and, especially during the cold/flu season, if these masks aren’t used, it’s only a matter of time before Tokyo comes crashing down in one gigantic flu pandemic…..

Most people in the US first got a glimpse of this “mask” when Michael Jackson wore it. But he wore it because he’s crazy…not because he was sick…well…at least sick in terms of health.

In the good old days they were cotton masks that were pretty thick and stuck to your face and it was hard to breathe in. These days though, you can get all different types including these super thin fiber types that is reported to stop 99% of all viruses going in and more importantly going out. Also, they’ve contoured it so it no longer touches your mouth and nose so it’s easier to breathe.

So….for all of your amusement…here is a shot of me wearing the mask before going out last night to get some water feeling like absolute crap. Needless to say, this is NOT the most flattering shot of me….especially since this is after I dragged my sorry ass out of bed after trying to sleep for about 3 hours.

Cute eh?

The old ones were literally just these thick squares. This is contoured to make me look like some power ranger or something…

I’m hoping by tomorrow I won’t have to wear this but if I have a nasty cough…well…mask it is…

*sigh*

(>_<)

Oooh…tsunami warnings for about 2/3 of Japan’s east coast. Wow. Looks like there was an earthquake off the coast of Hokkaido (the northernmost island) and they are looking at tsunamis of about 1 to 2 meters. Nothing that bad in the Tokyo area though. Half a meter at most. Still, they are telling everyone to stay away from the coast. Scary.

The one thing that I truly hoped would never happen during these business trips seems to have happened.

…I’m catching a cold.

Crap.

I was fine this morning and headed out to Shibuya to a partner’s office to take a look at some possible software integrations, had lunch with one of our partners, then headed back to the hotel around 2pm. I did some work for 3 or so hours and then I took a nap (the benefits of these trips…keep in mind, I’ve been up since 6am doing e-mail so the nap is justified).

When I got up at 6:15, I felt a bit sluggish…nothing special. But as I left for dinner I was feeling a bit chilly…but then again, it’s kinda chilly outside so nothing special there either. But by the time I reached my favorite ramen shop, I was tired and the tell tale sign (at least for me) of hightened sensitivity to touch alerted me that I was definitely catching a cold.

Crap.

This blows. I’m currently in the middle of an herbal dual attack to nip this in the bud…hopefully. I got western herbal/vitamin attack going with some Airborne and I just also hit the cold from the other front with a concentrated herbal cold remedy from Japan as well… And let me tell you…the Airborne tastes 10000 times better than the thick black herbal goop out of a teeny bottle. Ugh.

Hopefully this won’t bloom. I don’t have the runny nose or the sore throat yet…but I do have the joint pain, sluggishness, and as I’ve stated, that whole nasty feeling of cloth on skin…. It’s bad enough when you catch a cold in the US…especially for someone like me that lives alone. You find out how utterly helpless you are when you’re alone in your messy apartment going “unnnngggghhh….”. BUT, at least I’m in the US. At least I KNOW what cold medicine LOOKS like.

Here, I have no idea what cold medicines are even available or what will work for me. All the packaging looks different here even for ones that come from the west. And in the past, I’ve taken certain “non-drowsy” formulas in the US that knocked me out (Tylanol comes to mind). So the last thing I want is to take an unknown drug here that’s supposed to keep me alert and have me pass out at our partner’s office.

*sigh*

Well…time to crawl back into bed and hope I feel better in the morning. Otherwise, it’s off to the convenience store to pick up one of those masks and go off to work. Woo…..

Wow…this became a pretty pathetic post. Oh well. I’ll take the pity :)

Ahhh….nice relaxing Sunday. No thoughts about work (well…other than to try to figure out where the partner office is in Shibuya for tomorrow morning) and for all intents and purposes, no real shopping or errands to run too.

Nice.

I took a little trip to Akihabara….as usual…and picked up some games for me and watched in awe as people just stood there crowding the store staring at 3 giant big screen TV’s where kids where playing the new PS3. Yes….all 100,000 units were sold pretty much instantly on opening day yesterday morning. I saw the footage on the news yesterday and it was insane. Over 1000 people lined up in front of Yodobashi Camera in Akihabara, Ikebukuro, and Osaka while another 1000 lined up in front of the Bic Camera in Yuurakucho. It was a mob scene. Just insane… Compare this to the X-box 360 release where there were TONS of units just sitting there looking sad even a week after release. Yeah…. Sony, and especially the Playstation, still remains king here in Japan.

Anyway, I got everything I wanted to get and got back to the hotel a bit before 3. I played some of the games a bit and then decided to head out again. However, I still had some time before dinner and I really didn’t feel like dealing with the crowds shopping again so I headed down to the arcade that’s a few minutes walk from the station. This time, since I have my parent’s home address (which I still do not have memorized…too much kanji and random numbers…) I decided to check out the medal games section. Why did I need my parent’s address? Read on and I will tell you :)

(NOTE: a heartfelt thanks to the people who’s pics I’m using…)

Medal games are unbelievably popular here in Japan. You routinely see TONS of people in super noisy arcades just plunking down hundreds, if not thousands, of these worthless little coins.

Yup. They’re basically tokens but they are called medals here. You get about 70 for every 1000 yen (juuuust about $8.80 or so) and the more you spend the better the ratio gets. Just to start off, I tossed in 2000 yen for 160 coins (I think). And from there, I started to look around to see where I can lose my coins at. Most of the games are souped up version of those old midway games you used to see at the county fairs and occasionally see at Dave & Busters and even at casinos. The ones where you flip or roll your coin and it gets pushed by a moving arm and you try to knock more coins down that’s piled up in front of the arm. Of course, the lip curls up which makes it very difficult to push any coins down as they just pile up and pile up at the lip.

However, unlike the old fashioned ones, the ones in Japan are on steroids. Mini games, digital screens, sensors, lights, sound, the whole deal. Some seats 30 people at a time all competing for the big jack pot.

Also, you can find video poker machines, slot machines, even horse race machines where you bet on virtual horse races.

Of course, until 6pm, kids can play too so you see kids playing slots or black jack. Kinda funny…kinda scary.

The thing is…you don’t WIN anything. All you win are more coins..maybe… Or you lose them all. And say, you collect 10,000 coins. That’s it. You just collect them and then come back again and play again. No prize. No cash. Noooothing.

So why do people play this? I’m not sure. It’s certainly cheaper than going to play pachinko. But….I’m not sure.

However, I must admit…here I am telling you I played this too. And you know what? I was actually entertained. It’s something about the sound of the coins dropping into the hopper. It’s JUST like the casinos. You end up playing for the sound and the chance of winning…even if deep down inside you know you won’t win a damn thing except more worthless coins…

Putting that aside, I eventually found myself at a Monopoly themed medal game. Yes. Official Monopoly brand machine made for the Japanese market. It even has a web page! http://monopoly.sega.jp/index.html

I sat down at a seat where all but 4 hotels needed to be bought before a full monopoly. In this one, as you can see in the shot above, you roll the coins from the “gun” looking thing on the left and right of you and they eventually roll into one of about 8 slots. What you can’t see is the screen where it looks like a monopoly board and the trick is, you try to roll the coin into the slot as some dice icons pass over it. It will then roll the dice and you move your piece forward. Of course, the coin you rolled will fall through into the big pile underneath where it can push other coins out.

Every once in a while, depending on the event you trigger, the machine will dump anywhere from 5 to 60 extra coins into the machine so that it pushes more coins out into your tray.

Confusing? Trust me….the reality is, it’s ridiculously simple. After a while I got the timing down so I can hit the dice on almost every coin…and even though sometimes the dice does nothing, it increased my chances of getting some good events. My coin count went up and down but eventually I managed to get all of the hotels! Wooo!

That caused te big wheel in the center of the machine to start spinning and I eventually “won” a jackpot of over 500 coins. That just meant it dumped 500 coins into the playing field. Of course that pushes a buttload of coins out but it won’t push all 500 out.

So in the end, I increased my coin count from the initial 160 or so up to 260. Oooooooooooooh.

And this is where I needed my parent’s address. See…you can’t take the coins with you and you don’t want to as they are heavy and worthless. So what do you do? Easy. You sign up for a membership card and they will keep track of the medal count for you so the next time you come, you go up to the counter and, like a bank holding useless stuff, they will hand you your savings so you can try to increase it again…or lose it all. For some reason they needed an address so my parent’s came in handy.

It was….hypnotizing almost. I lost track of time as I tried to hit the dice and get more stuff to happen and hope I land on that one hotel I needed. There are other games where you will lose coins super fast (though you can win fast too). But this one, you lose coins one at a time so it takes some time. Now, all they needed was free drinks like at the casinos and you’d be all set. Oh well.

So now I have over 200 in the bank so to speak. Looks like I’ll be going back there to kill some more time. Ha.

Medal games….something that would never ever fly in the US is an institution here in Japan. What this means from a sociological standpoint? I don’t know. Though I’m sure some people can come up with an explanation that over generalizes the Japanese stereotype. Though….I suppose in this case, it won’t be totally wrong….

Next time I will try to get pictures though photographs are usually banned and the arcade tends to be dark. So…maybe not. We’ll se.

Now. Time for bed.

Look! An update!

It was a very long week in Japan. A very productive one but a long one none the less. Lots of moving around from one location to another and lots of meetings.

However, that is not the topic of this new post. This will focus on a dinner one of our partners took us to on Thursday night. It was at a restaurant named Oshima located in the Meridien Pacific Hotel in Shinagawa in Tokyo. A traditional Japanese restaurant, this particular one specializes in a type of dining experience called Kaiseki.

Kaiseki is a multi-course meal where each dish accentuates the last and is reflective of the season as the ingredients are all freshly acquired that day. Typically the menu will, due to this, change on a daily basis. You can read more about Kaiseki in Wikipedia…the collection of all human knowledge…(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiseki).

This particular dinner was 10 courses and, though I got teased (*ahem*) I got a pic of every dish so you can see it here :) Due to the size and such, I have it behind the cut. So click on the link below for the pictures! (Note: the pic above is not from my dinner but just a promotional shot)

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