Ah, crap, I caught a cold or flu or something.

All week I've been dead tired and in a mental slump and couldn't figure out why until I realized I really hadn't been keeping up with my daily writing routine. I spend a good hour each day just mentally dumping onto digital paper or even real paper depending on my mood, but for about a week and a half I just stopped.

It's no wonder I have a cold today, I've been neglecting my mental life a bit too much.

It's great to be here, but the weirdness of stress at work is interfering with things. The company I work for is in a strange position financially, which is surprising considering it's size and all, and as a result everyone around me is stressed out, bitter, angry, confused ... Myself, I'm not any of those things, but I have a tendency to take on the emotional states of people around me. Empathy? Hardly ... In any case, it's quite literally made me ill. I got some kind of bug from someone at work and just need to rest, now, I guess.

I feel like I've been resting all week, but guilting myself over the lack of activity. Hey, it's not all peaches and pie on "vacation".

So, note to future self: don't quit your writing.

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Fitow

Already battered by one hurricane this month, I feel very sorry for that whole country. If you check your weather maps, you'll see she's up to get a one-two punch from 2 more hurricanes at the same time. Henriette on the west coast is poised to smack up Baja, and the already category 5 Felix is just about to run aground, alas, not on Mexican soil, but damn well close enough in Honduras. South America is pwned.

Global warming? Sorry, don't believe in that phrase anymore. Climate change? Yea, that's the ticket.

Not to say we're all escaping from this. A wee little category 1 typhoon, good ol' Fitow, is just spinning it's way towards Japan at the moment. Looks like we'll get a drencher come Thursday. I'll keep you all posted. Should be, uh, fun?

I'm still not sure how to properly pronounce the name, though. fee-tao? fitOH? I wonder where the name originated ...

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well, it seems I am not the only thing suffering from the heat; my macbook isn't taking too well either. so i'll be offline for a few days while it is being taken care of. email is good,as i can still use internet on my phone. toodles!

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Ok, so last night I decided to pick up a classic NES game to pass some time. The well-known, popular Dragon Warrior.

I just played for an hour to kill some time before work and, crappity crap, I managed to hit the "reset" button on the NES emulator I'm using on my MacBook and lost that hour of progress. Man, I'm pissed.

Oh-well.

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Well, I finally got my lazy ass down to aikido this morning. Early. Well, for me, early. 8.00am is early enough, and starting tomorrow, I'll be up earlier to get to the first class of the day at 7am. At least that's the plan. Not going to psych myself out since it's extremely exciting to be practising at the Honbu Dojo for Yoshinkan Aikido.

I even ran into one of my fellow Torontonians there! Same dojo back at gerrard and yonge, but we don't really remember each other. My lack of consistency with attending being quite likely the reason.

Anyway, I'm excited to be back at it and a bit tired and sore from the first day back. Today was, well, really not much more than remembering how to do the very, very, very basic stuff. Not even full "techniques", just remembering how to move feet and all that. I just wish the dojo was a wee bit closer, since it takes 30m each way ... ah-well ...

My days are quickly being filled with a lot of things to do. So, now not only am I taking Japanese language classes, but also aikido. And my day is also being filled with half-assed communication in japanglish with friends. half-japanese, half-english in some horrifying mash-up of nonsense. Must be quite strange to follow for bystanders.

So, now it's time to get to work and not fall asleep while teaching. Also, no pictures today to accompany the update. None to share, maybe next time!

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Last of the Storm

Ah, back at home once more from a long weekend trip to Okayama Prefecture, west of Kobe and Osaka.

I headed down by shinkansen for a 3ish hour ride to Okayama city where I was picked up by some friends that live in Osaka. Off we drove into the hills and ended up at a wonderful villa and ryokan with an onsen spa.

We were racing against time trying to beat the literal oncoming storm, as Japan was hit with the "biggest typhoon on record (since 1951 when they started)" starting with Okinawa on Friday afternoon. The worst of it seemed to pass us by, and the central part of the storm itself, judging from the satellite maps, just grazed the Pacific edge of the Nippon island chain. This, combined with the mountain shelter left us with a rather unimpressed view of the whole thing. It certainly rained heavily and for a long time, but the super strong winds seemed to miss us completely. And while the river the villa was close to certainly did swell, it didn't overflow and there was no flooding in our area at all.

Pagoda in the Fields

Sunday we trekked closer to Okayama city and rented some bikes and took a little bike tour through a set bike path weaving in between rice paddies and temples to reach a spectacular wooden pagoda overlooking the fields. In my incredible wisdom I failed to pack sunscreen or even sun glasses not expecting there to be perfectly blue skies following the typhoon's passing. So, I have a very nice red glow; sunburn on my arms and face. Thankfully not too painful, lets hope it stays that way.

I was going to take a whirl-wind tour of the garden and castle in Okayama city today before returning, but the beautiful weather from Sunday didn't last and it was alternating between pouring and spitting. So after taking the bumpy, 45 minute train from Takebe to the shinkansen station, I wandered around to see if I could find a coin locker that wasn't already full. Alas, to no avail. At that point I figured that with the sunburn being irritating, lugging around a suitcase and the rain, maybe I should just hop on the next shinkansen back to Tokyo. So I did.

After being back a couple of hours, just heading out to the store to grab something to have for breakfast tomorrow, I run into one of my flat-mates gathering everyone to head just up the street to the Yutenji temple and shrine as there's a festival going on today.

Flocks of young girls in kimono (for what reason, I don't know yet ... wikipedia or google might help me out here ...) giggling and carrying on, circulating through masses of other people enjoying lots of festival food like tako-yaki, okonomiyaki, yakitori, and wow, so much junk food and booze! It was quite a sight. in the centre of it all a stage with dancers and drumers with more dancers dancing in literal circles around it all. So  much excitement, running children high on candy floss and bonking each other with inflatable hammers. So many smiles, so much laughter and just joy at being alive and there at that moment.

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Not something I talk about, as the political overtones to climate change are not something I like to deal with when talking about it, but this guy in the video makes a really, really damn good point. One that I've thought, but had a hard time expressing ...

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Ok, so yesterday I jumped up and decided that I needed to finally get off my ass and explore Ikebukuro. As another (another!) shopping district in Tokyo, I wasn't expecting much more than Shibuya or Shinjuku. But, it's not the same. No. There's more pachinko parlours for one thing. There's also a lot more fun little back streets that I didn't get a chance to check out. Sunday shopping in Tokyo is quite an experience, too. 

On my way there, I decided, "hey, I need some t-shirts, I'll check out the Uniqlo here." Uniqlo being roughly the Japanese equivalent of The Gap. Inexpensive clothes that don't look bad. Well, at least that's what I was told. Since there are Gap locations all over the place, I'll let it be itself, and Uniqlo be something better. Because, well, it is. The clothes are nicer, for one thing. Cheaper, too. But the one in Ikebukuro was insanely busy, so I decided I'd wait on it and head to the one in closer-by Shibuya today, when fewer people would be shopping.

Seibu Rooftop

I figured I'd take a look at the Seibu department store, which I've concluded, is the biggest department store I've been in. 3 buildings, for one thing. one of them 12 stories, one of them 8 stories and the other 5. Mind you, that's divided amongst 4 different "brands" of Seibu store, including Seibu itself and a fancy urbaneer place called Loft (pronounced "lo-fu-to"). Here's the roof-top on 9th-floor.

I took a quick peak around Loft, thought about buying a new watch, and then scoffed when I saw the price of the ones I liked. Ya, no thanks. Not this time.

Fed up with crowds, I went home.

Today, back out to do the actual shopping. Shibuya is closer, more convenient for me, and, on a Monday, not too crowded. Uniqlo, once more, for some t-shirts. Without further ado ...

After my small splurge (I mean, the shirts were less than $15 each), I thought it'd be nice to wander around Shibuya some more, take in some more of the fashion. Also, I wanted to look at shoes.

Ticket Vendor

As I was dumping these pictures off my camera and phone, I realized I hadn't uploaded a bunch that had been sitting for several weeks, now. So, as a bonus, here's a glorious sample of Engrish.

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Well, it's been a long while since I've written anything in my vox box, but that's because not a lot has been happening lately. This week was supposed to be the beginning of the so-called "rainy season" here in Tokyo, but according to the meteorological office, it's delayed a week due to La Niña having some kind of influence. Instead we're having sun and breezy winds all afternoon for the past few days.

That said, I'm still not used to the humidity that Tokyo experiences, say, relative to Toronto. The weather here, now, is much like what I expect in late July or early August. It is warmer for sure, and the dampness in the air is certainly different. The past few days have seen 30º highs. I love the warmth, but it's, technically, not even summer yet. And, just like Toronto, August is considered the warmest of months here, too. Walking to the subway train in my suit and tie will be quite, shall we say, moist.

I also taught myself how to make miso soup from scratch, finally. Not that it is hard or anything, but I'd never really spent any time trying before now. I've always loved miso, so it's great to be able to just make some quickly for a nice accompaniment to almost any meal. Might not be so favourable during the long, hot summer afternoons coming ... I've never been one for timing, though. I guess I could learn to make iced soba next. That's a great way to cool off in the evenings.

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