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Deathwatch

December 30, 2002 07:18 PM

Today was supposed to be a vacation, but it doesn't seem like it yet. I woke up to find Guri all crusty and caked with her own vomit. she has been puking off and on for a while now, this time it looked worse because I put her on a nutritious paste diet. Normally she just spits out her half digested seeds, but still, still solids. I can always tell when she pukes because I either hear the seeds spraying all along the inside of the cage, or, when she is outside the cage, I feel the seeds spraying all over me, as well as hear them hitting the walls of the apartment.

Anyway, Guri looked worse today than ever, so I called Tomoe to come over and say her goodbyes, just in case, and then we called the vet to see if we could buy only the miracle medicine that always brings her back to life. The vet was hesitant, saying that she had to do a (5000yen) checkup first, but I have had her checked up so many times and each time it is the same problem... namely the eats her own sh... After some argument by Tomoe on the phone, and me in person at the vet's, she relented and gave us the medicine.

I feel a little bad, but it's pretty crazy taking her in for the expensive checkup every time when I am 99% sure of the cause. I have taken her in to the vet 3 or 4 times already... I can't even remember the last time I went to the doctor without the need for a signed health voucher or something for school or work. ( actually I think it was two years ago when I went to the eye doctor about a scratch on my eye.. it only cost 1000 yen for the checkup and medicine).

Now Guri is in her tiny little incubator cage with a hot bottle of water. We tried cleaning her out with a squirt of saline to her stomach as the vet did... actually that's another story.

Usually when I go the the vet, paying the 5000 yen covered 1) Looking at her crap under the microscope, 2) Sucking out any gas bubbles in her stomach, 4) Squirting saline into her to clean her out, and 4) a bottle of medicine. The last time I went, the doctor was different... the old man who actually owns the practice. (usually it is a nice young woman who seems to actually care about Guri). The old man didn't even touch Guri, just put the poop on the microscope, gave me medicine and charged me 5000 yen. I asked him to clean her out (which makes her feel goo immediately) and he said this time was different than last time, so she didn't need it. Today when I went there, the kind woman looked at Guri's medical records and told me that she had the same problem, and I received the same medicine every time I have ever come! Today when I was contemplating taking Guri in or not, I would have had no trouble making up my mind if it had been that jerk old man. Unfortunately the lady made me feel a little guilty.

Now Guri is resting.

* * *

I have listened to many more interesting Talk Of The Nation programs lately, but this is the one I was listening to today, so I will comment on it. It was about re-gifting. They spoke about how to do it, and the manners involved etc... The whole point was to make everyone feel OK about getting and giving crap that no one really wants. Why not just stop giving crap then? As we think about it on an individual basis, it seems harmless, but this Christmas at the hash, as is a hash ritual in Tokyo, the run stopped by the 100 yen shop and everyone was to buy a piece of crap, this crap would then be exchanged for some other crap later in the evening. Sure it is fun (once) and sure it is not so expensive, (although the 3000 yen total could have been put to better use) but what made me shudder was seeing 30 plastic pieces of crap, each in it's own plastic bag passed around. Half of it was "forgotten" at the restaurant, and the other half will be in the un-burnable garbage next week. (Luckily I happened to have some sketches I had previously made of some of the hash members in my sketch book, so I gave that)

Anyway, the point I would eloquently make if I had time, is that before giving a gift, people should probably think not about how funny it is, or how expensive it is, or maybe even how much people would enjoy it... how about thinking if it is needed and weighing that need against the cost.

That being said, I asked my mom to send me some shirts, cookies, and a great painting book, despite the fact that I don't really need them, and probably would not buy it myself (except the cookies). Of course she wraps each package in three pounds of non-burnable tape, and add up 10000 of these packages, and it causes Fed-ex to use enough fuel to send an extra plane to Japan... I would send it back, but it would double the evility... I guess I will just have to keep it and enjoy it.

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Christmas 2001 { Dec 2001 }

December 30, 2002 01:28 AM

I'm only a little behind with posting photos to the site. Here are some pictures of Christmas 2001. Tomoe was in school in England, and I was sitting around Tokyo doing nothing in particular for the holiday. We toyed with the idea of me going to Europe, but being the cheap bastishes that we are, we decided it would be much cheaper to go to the US, and mooch of my parents than to travel in Europe. It would also be much more enjoyable.

A little commentary on the photos...

Two days after we arrived, the 22nd I think, Tomoe and I took the camper up to the UP in search of snow for cross-country skiing. We ran into a bit in Grayling, and stopped for a few hours, then headed up to the Mackinaw where we were the only campers and there was no snow. The next day we headed up to Taqwanenananomoemnoe Falls where there was a little snow, but not enough to ski. We headed back to camp and tried to have a nice camp-fire dinner, but the wind off the lake was too strong and I didn't want to start a forest fire on Christmas-eve-eve, so had some pancakes.

Wouldn't you know it, the next morning, when we had to get home early for Christmas-eve festivities, I woke up to an eerie silence at around 5 am to find a couple inches of snow. Of course i was worried about the fact that I have totaled two cars in snow-related accidents, and we had a (normally) three-hour-drive back to Bay City ahead of us, but more worrisome was the fact that we had taken the heavy camper down a steep hill, with a sign saying "off-limits", and now that hill had slippery snow-drifts covering it. On the way up the car was making some strange noises, so the day before we had searched for a repair shop in the area, but they were all closed... every place with a tow-truck was closed. We were hauling a heavy trailer with a car making strange noises and had to climb a steep hill covered with snow, then drive through the snow all the way home in time for Christmas-eve services at 6:00.

Unfortunately, it was not as exciting as it could have been. We made it up the hill fine, and the snow cleared an hour after Mackinaw, so we made it home in plenty of time.

Other photos include cookie cutting, Tweety, mom's bird which is very nice considering he is the spawn of the devil.

Some posed pictures of Tomoe by the tree acting Christmasy, Aunt Uncle and cousins, Tim, Shannon, Kelly, mom and Dad, and a night on the town in Ann Arbor with friends since 1st, and 5th grade, Jason and Sarah.

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I Like Cherries!

December 29, 2002 08:38 PM

Some pictures of where I spent Christmas morning this year. Before a meeting at a client in Yokohama.

* * *

I think I have the day off tommorrow. Most Japanese companies do... All out clients do... And last week the president was talking about how to get everyone's pay-check to them, since payday is Tuesday. This would seem to indicate that he understood (as everyone else believed) that the New Year holiday this year started on Friday. In these regards, I am always clueless, and the last to know that there is a holiday. I Usually find out the day before. So when the president was talking to me Friday and said something to the effect of "I think we can all go home early Tuesday... maybe 2:00" I was only a little confused... so I guess we do have work Monday and Tuesday. But then why was he talking about how to get everyone their paycheck the day before?

I went out and asked the others when the holiday started and they all said Saturday. ??? I mentioned what the president had said, and since at least one of them had made plans for the entire week, she was alarmed and decided to confront him. He came in a while later visibly perturbed, asking who planned to come in Monday. Of course no one volunteers, and he became more visible perturbed. Apparently because we all failed to put in prior notice of our national-holiday-day-off. Anyway, I am still not sure if I am supposed to go in tomorrow, but my sister is coming to visit, so I'm going to err on the side of my own leisure.

* * *

Tomoe has some new art to hang on her fridge, as I spent the whole day trying to conquer a cherry-tree while she worked on her thesis. Take a look at the paintings below, but know that the battle is not over yet. There is also a picture of the humming-bird I painted the day I bought my snazzy new acrylic paints, and a festive Christmas themed painting from a while that was supposed to depict Mary and Joseph with the baby Jesus, but somehow it turned into a picture of a middle-eastern couple looking in horror at the grape-fruit the woman has just given birth too.

* * *

A while back, finding that I did not have enough time to practice as much of the drawing and sketching as I want to (I haven't been to nudie class in over a month) I decided to start sketching everyone on the train. Now, every time I can sit, and the train ride is more than three stops, I pull out my sketch book and make one more unsuspecting citizen famous.

I like to think that I am improving somehow, but looking at the drawings I can't really make that claim... yet.

They are all pretty much crap, except for the 5th (no. 28), the 11th (no. 35) 18, 19, 20th (no. 42, 43, 44), and the 21st (no. 45 - actually from a National Geographic, not the train).

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TLH3 Kichijyouji

December 25, 2002 08:30 PM

Walking back the station on my way home from work on Christmas day, I ran into a hasher. O crap! I was supposed to help the hare find a rester aunt for the On-on. Should I go, where I am sure to be chastised for not replying to his email, or sneak off home. Luckily, there was nothing to do at home.

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Happy Halloween

December 24, 2002 10:26 PM

I was riding my bike to the video store to return a movie and thinking to myself how truly horrible I am for not having sent anyone a Christmas card on time this year. Evil man! Evil man!

It dawned on me though, as I rode and thought about what time to set my alarm for so I don't miss an early morning meeting tomorrow, that there is absolutely no (good, logical) reason why I should have to send cards exactly now. Here I am doing what I do every other day and not feeling in the bit as though today is special, or that I am missing anything... So I decided that rather than celebrating Christmas on some date picked by someone for who-knows-why, that I would celebrate it when it is convenient for me. So don't be surprised if you get Christmas cards and presents in March.

Right now I have decided to celebrate Holloween.

Sometimes I hate that I am so dang logical.

* * *

Tomoe found out today that her first tour of duty at her new job will be six months in Osaka. It's not as far as London was (only 2 hours or so by shinkansen), but I doubt that I will see her any more than I did that time. For some people, it might work to justify a monthly $200+ train trip by saying "I will save that much by not going out with her here." Unfortunately we don't go out here either. Our most expensive date usually consists of a trip to the grocery store to buy some bread and cheese, or a can of Pringles. I only see her once a week or less as it is, so the $30/date savings just wont add up.

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Shannon & Tim's Wedding { 2002 September }

December 24, 2002 01:37 PM

The most recent of the photos in my archive that have never been posted. Here you can see the crazy weekend documented through my own digital camera with only a few hours worth of battery life, hence the small number of photos.

They range the pre-bachelor party day (the day after I arrived back home) to the bachelor party, to the wedding, the party van, which was a new discovery for me... seeing as this was realyl the first wedding I have ever been too that I was old enough to remember, I had no idea that (or the limo ride) was a part of the festivities), the reception, the after-reception, my folks kitchen, and even some other dorks.

I am going for quality and also putting up the huge version of each of these if available (all but the last 20 or so). If you want to see the big one, you can click on the list of links below. To make sure you downlwoad the one you want, just hold your mouse over the thumbnail, and the name of the photo will show up in about 3 or four seconds.

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Twenty-Something

December 23, 2002 09:33 PM

The cookies have already been shipped, and a package arrived this morning. They are already half gone, so I hope there are more on the way.

* * *

I noticed today that it is already December twenty-something. This means Christmas will soon be here and I haven't mailed any Christmas cards yet, or even written (= signed) most. It's really not my fault though. Christmas approaching in Japan is much different than it is in America. Even though there are a lot of annoying Christmas music playing, many with an annoying Japanese accent, and one rendition of Silent night that is simply "La la la la.... la la la la.... la la la.... la la la..." la'ed to the Silent Night melody.

As I was saying, despite the meaningless annoying Christmas music, I still don't feel any of the pressure of the upcoming Holiday season. For one thing, I will spend my Christmas day at work. Another reason, (an one I like very much) is that I feel no pressure to buy gifts for anyone. I think everyone is already tired of receiving a "care-package" of strange Japanese goodies like fish-egg spaghetti-sauce and packaged dog genitals. Anyway, it is one custom that I would not really miss if it disappeared altogether... until I have kids of course, as I will be anxious to fill their stockings with Spinach and Asparagus.

This year I didn't have to give anyone a list of what I wanted... It always seems strange since if it was something I can't get myself, I really don't want to ask anyone else to get it for me, and if I can get it myself and haven't (usually because I am too cheap) I have to wonder how much I really want it.

* * *

As always, by popular demand...

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Sumo, Akasaka, Mom & Dad { May 2001 }

December 23, 2002 12:41 PM

It amy be time to start working on those New Year's resolutions, but I will not be. I ave too many New Day resolutions that I have made over the course of the year, many of which remain to be fulfilled. When I think back to all the things I started and never finished... like getting all the photos I have just thrown in various places on my desktop in some kind of order and posted on the web. That's why tonight I took an extra 30 minutes to name and post some. Of course I will try to do this more, and post the photos I took before the bastish net existed, but don't expect anything.

* * *

These are photos from back in May of 2001 when my parents came to Tokyo to visit. It's always hard to find something that people can enjoy in short one -day trips, and especially hard since to me just walking through Kabuki-cho is enough to keep me occupied for several hours.

Luckily Tomoe came along this day and she suggested we visit the Tokyo Edo Museum I thought it was one of the greatest museums I have ever been to. Of course, for people who have not spent so many long hours in class hearing about the history that was on display here, and reading Japanese literature from the periods on display, the museum@seems to loose some of it's appeal. Luckily, as we got off the train we realized that the Sumo Stadium next door just happened to be in the middle of a tournament and I was treated to an extra few hours of not having to worry about finding something interesting.

(The same thing happened a year later when I took Jon and his friend to the museum... we found that a tournament was going on next door and it saved the day.)

After the Tournament, we headed to Akasaka only to find that, to dad's delight, it was closing down.

The next day mom and I woke up early (4:30) to catch the fish market at Tsukiji. I had been there before, but for some reason always wound up getting there too late. If you are even an hour later, you can miss much of the good stuff, such as seeing the auction in progress. Of course it has always been interesting even if I don't get there till 8 or so.

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Hakone With Tomoe { 2001 March 20 }

December 23, 2002 10:12 AM

Back when we used to be young and active (around March 20, 2001), Tomoe and I took a day hiking trip out to Hakone. The town on Hakone itself is a pretty crapped-up tourist trap, but if you stay away from the over priced baths, you can find some nice trails to hike on for a day. It must not be that bad though, as we have been back three(?) times since. Once while passing through on our way to Nagoya by bike. There are other pictures for that though.

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Niel and Yumiko

December 20, 2002 01:06 AM

I almost didn't get out of work tonight, as the server suddenly was invisible to half the web just one hour before I was supposed to leave to meet a friend who was in Tokyo for the holidays, and I had no contact number for (on me at the time). I still am not sure what the problem was, but it fixed itself... I mean I took control of the situation and did some quick thinking to reprogram a new routing protocol allowing the delinquent port to redirect all queries to a new service identifier process.

Anyway, I was only 10 minutes late to meet them. I wasn't sure if I would recognize him, since i don't even know how old I was the last time we met, the one thing I really remember is climbing a mountain with his family and mine in New Mexico and seeing tons of nudie people. Every where we went we saw nudie people, men women and families. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to see any of the ladies "zappers" which was my sister's word for... you know.

Anyway, I met up with Niel and Yumiko for dinner in Shinjuku, my favorite place to take people new to Tokyo. Not that there is really much outstandingly exciting, but if you look around, it is the most interesting place in Tokyo that I know of. Unfortunately it seemed to be a quiet Thursday night, with the usual crowd trying to get me into the strip club again.

Just before heading home we stumbled onto a nice little bar in Golden Gai with cheap (500 yen) frozen drinks. Unfortunately they were beers. It was still one of the nicer bars I have seen in Japan if you like a friendly fun atmosphere without the whole nampa scene.

Check out the photos.

* * *

I also have a few photos taken from the clients office Tuesday morning. Nothing special really, but for some reason I really love looking down on a big city, much more than living in it. On a related note, another apartment has opened up in Fujino, where I almost moved to before.

* * *

A few photos of Guri and Awii. I don't have good enough timing to catch Awii with her wings spread, as she usually hangs upside down spread full-eagle. She looks like some angelic statue on the side of an old building in New York, but in this picture she just looks drunk.

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Am I really that dorky?

December 19, 2002 12:44 AM

After not sleeping two nights ago, since I can never fall asleep until around 4 am anyway, and I had to be up at 6:30 for a conference call with some folks in St. Louis, I decided it was safest to just stay awake... no chance of oversleeping. Last night I was out at 8:30 and it felt great. I wish I could get that much sleep more often, but my list of things I want to get done never seems to shrink as it is.

* * *

One of those things I wanted to get done was some .... oh wait, I can't tell anyone yet... assuming I get it done it will spoil their Christmas, and if I don't get it done it will spoil it because they will be disappointed.

Anyway, I probably had lots of time to do it, until I ran into this site about color. I later discovered it was a site about water color, and the most informative site (counting books as sites too) I have ever seen. Needless to say, I didn't get anything else done.

* * *

I was supposed to go to a meeting of people who are geeks and write about their life on a web site like this, but the meeting was canceled because not enough people RSVPed. I can't help thinking that it was because people looked at my site and based on the picture on the left there, they all decided it was in their best interest to stay home.

* * *

It has come to my attention that some people think the cookie order form is a joke or something... I guess it's their own loss. For some of us the cookies are in the mail. Of course others, who ordered 45 dozen of this or that, will have to wait a little longer.

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Christmas Cheer

December 17, 2002 01:27 AM

Charlene, from Char's Adventures talks about her class Christmas pageant. It just happens to be the same day I am reading David Sedaris' book Holidays on Ice (just arrived from Amazon Saturday!!!). I like his view on school pagents...

Here again the first through third-grade actors graced the stage with an enthusiasm most children reserve for a smallpox vaccination. One could hardly blame them for their lack of vitality, as the stingy, uninspired script consists, not of springy dialogue, but rather of a deadening series of pronouncements.

Mary to Joseph: "I am tired."
Joseph to Mary: "We will rest here for the night."

There's no fire, no give and take, and the audience soon grows weary of this passionless relationship"

A strong proponent of trendy racially mixed casting, Michaels gives us a black Tiny Tim, leaving the audience to wonder, "What, is this kid supposed to be adopted?" It's a distracting move, wrongheaded and pointless.

There is also a lovely story of one of his childhood Christmas memories.

Were I to receive a riding vacuum cleaner or even a wizend proboscis monkey, it wouldn't please me half as much as knowing that we were the only family in the neighborhood with a prostitute in our kitchen.

Really great stuff. I was looking for some of these on-line, and couldn't find the text, but found a link that has lots of recordings of Sedaris reading some of his work.

* * *

I met a fun guy this weekend who is a designer of buttons (the type you see on a computer program). He also does other design and illustration. He was telling me about how when he worked for Sony, drawing Sesame Street characters on children's products. I always wondered how they got every single Big Bird to look the same as every other Big Bird. Now I know. Apparently, after he would draw a character, he had to send the drawing to New York, where someone would make corrections by drawing over it on a piece of tracing paper. They would make comments such as "Ernie's belly aint so big". What an exciting job they must have.

* * *

Our office was robbed last week. They didn't take much, only a lap-top, a brief-case, and a couple computer mice. Or so we thought!!!! Today, I realized that my expensive (2,300 yen) Sony headphones were gone!!! A year ago I spent three days deciding if I should buy them or not! Now I have to go through that again.

I found this out today, but it is not as bad as what my co-worker found out by a phone call from his wife as work ended. His house was broken into and robbed today while they were at work. So I want to hear all you people who have these dreams and fantasies of Japan as a safe place to take note.

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E-Commerce

December 14, 2002 07:22 PM

I'm now taking orders for FREE CHRISTMAS COOKIES from my mommy in America. Please fillin the form below to place your order.

* The cookies will be delivered by the end of next week, packed into a tiny box with some candy and deoderant.
* If your order is to big to fit in one box, but not big enough to fill a second box, they will be boken into crumbles to ad packed into one box.
* BFC = Booze Filled Cookies
* An order of one-dozen or more of the following cookies (Rum-balls, Creme de Menthe, Fudge) will be melted into one gigantic blob for ease of shipping.

Type	Description	Quantity (dozens)
Cut out sugar cookies
Shortbread	butter flavored - yellowish- squeeze out in long strip and cut into little flat bars with ridges on top.
Spritz	little almond flavored put through cookie press - pink and green
Tea Cakes	very little round balls - vanilla flavor with nuts - rolled in powdered sugar
Cathederal slices	colored marshmallows and chocolate cut in slices - little bit of coconut on outside
Creme de Menthe [BFC]
Bitter Sweets	Very little cookie with blob of cream cheese on top then chocolate on top
Peanut butter Nuggets	round white with peanut butter and chocolate mixture inside
Forgotten	pink and green meringue - light and crunchy made from egg whites.
Rum Balls [BFC]
Pizza	Rice Krispies/chocolate/marshmallows with few red and green cherries on top, drizzled with white chocolate - cut in squares - very sweet
Springela	white anise flavor cut in little blocks with raised people pictures on top.
Fudge
	Email Name

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