Tim’s Ramblings

The Tokyo Marathon is tomorrow.

Great….

The ONE day that I was going to go out and do some shopping and such and I’m going to have to contend with some naaaasty crowds and overcrowded trains as major MAJOR sections of Tokyo will be cut off from traffic for 7 hours. Eeeeeeeeeeeeesh.

The marathon hits all the major parts of the city including Shinjuku, Ginza, Asakusa, and finishes at Odaiba where the Tokyo Big Sight is (where I was at for Comiket).

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2264.html

Hmmmmm….I’m going to have to think and plan out my excursion tomorrow…. I think Akihabara will be okay though. But with 30,000 expected participants in the race itself (insaaane!!!) we’ll see how crazy the city gets tomorrow. For all I know I won’t even know there’s anything going on. We’ll see I guess.

Today I went back to see the parents and my grandmother who turned 90. 90!!! But she’s doing well and was looking good. The unfortunate thing was that it started to rain. That and the long 2 hour trip back to the hotel.

I think I found my alcoholic drink of choice though. It’s a Japanese drink called Shochu. This is NOT sake. This is closer to the Japanese version of vodka though the alcohol percentage is around 20 to 25%. Various flavors are available and they are all different based on the starch used to make it. Of course you can read all about it in the repository of all human knowledge known as wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shouchu).

Anyway, the drink that I have fallen in love with is called Tantakatan and is a shochu flavored by an herb called shiso sometimes known as the beefsteak plant (once again, please see the almighty wiki – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perilla). Drunk on the rocks, it goes down smoooooth with a relatively strong but not overpowering herbal flavor. Of course, there’s one problem…it’s too easy to drink. Granted it’s only 40 proof, it’s so easy to drink that you don’t realize just how much you had…

I first had it just to see what it was like at a restaurant near my parent’s apartment back when I was home with my sister over the X-mas/New Year break. Since then I’ve been ordering it at restaurants if it’s available. Now…the only way I can bring any home is to put it in my checked luggage and hope it doesn’t break. I think I can risk it. Gonna go see if I can find it tomorrow. Mmmmmmmmm….. (^_^)

Anyway, I’m exhausted. It’s not even 11 yet but I think I’m going to watch some mindless TV (there’s a girl with a ridiculously squeaky voice and the other hostess is Hoshino Aki – a bikini model known for her…um…huuuuge assets…once again wiki to the rescue – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aki_Hoshino. She has not done any nudes but still…if you’re goign to do a google image search don’t be stupid and do it at work…) and go to bed :)

Hope you are all having a good weekend!