what's changed?

upload: tokyogoat.

things that haven't changed:
- love of vests
- love of green
- love of rigid, uncomfortable poses
- cheesy grins

things that have changed
- that tree isn't there any more
- no more side-parts

Chinese Bento

In keeping with my foolish gaijin existence I often find myself flailing my arms in the air in an over exaggerated manner as I greet the natives of Japan. (This could be that because I remain so inept at the Japanese language I often choose to get my power back by acting in a clownish manner in public spaces making others feel just as uncomfortable as I usually do). Anyway, today at lunch time, as I walked up to an intersection near the office I spotted a member of the temp staff agency that helps in our office. I decided I would greet my co-worker, who is always quite friendly, with a bit of a wave. Standing on the corner I awkwardly executed a comedy, combo wave sequence starting from a regular army salute moving to a straight-elbow, full arm, arching, wave and finishing off with a limp Hitler salute, elbow half bent. Ah yes, a classic.

To my surprise, as this was happening, a car accident almost occurred at the green light of the intersection in front of me. A silver car that was behind another vehicle seemed to inexplicably speed right, around the outside, of the front car which at the same time verred left, coming to a halt before my eyes. "Fools!!" I thought. The driver of the car now parked there was leaning over in the front seat looking at me. Ha??. A taxi?? I don't need a friggin' taxi??

Who hailed a taxi?? Piss Off, Scabby!!

Continued on my way to collect my greasy Chinese bento.

Alleyways

Since joining flickr I have accepted numerous invitations to join various groups operating within flickr. I was overly open to accepting and had a long list of groups that I had never posted to or commented in. So last week I ploughed through, removing myself from many of them.

Along with that, I purged a few contacts. The main reason was either they weren't posting or alternatively were uploading bulk images at once, often very similar, and along with not being overly interesting were also domininating the flickr zeitgeist thingy I have over there. So "Be gone with them" No disrespect intended.

Today I took steps toward being an active member of a new group, Alleyways. Have to get myself out there in the Worlds Best City for Alleys and pump out the pics. Was also kindly given admin status from a trusting stranger.

Went on a self-propelled "recruiting drive" with the following sales pitch "can't really describe exactly what it is that is so appealing about alleyways but nonetheless they have a strong hold on my interest. Could be the simple fact that they provide for a way more intimate space than, say, a big open road. And often lead into people's private worlds...or it could be that I am speaking utter rubbish. Either way am always happy to see some alley shots." Anyone reading this blog has most likely already seen that before.

looks good eh

upload: tokyogoat.

wanted to blog this cause it really does look rather disgusting. yes we know it's something from the sea that lives in a shell, but your imagination could see it being pulled out of someone's ear after it was formed in their nose. no-one ate this. even the filthy natto eaters amongst us. thats saying something amongst the Japanese who seem to devour anything and everything.

10 million angry people

why??....you ask why??...cause we all got woken up at 4:45 this morning by an inconsiderate earthquake. selfish act. rattling and shaking for no reason. now i expect the day to be full of irritable interactions with edgy people.

niseko

so the plan is for karin and myself to get ourselves to niseko higashiyama new prince hotel for march 2, 3, 4 and 5. arrive at lunch time on the first day after having caught the second, not the first, flight of the day from haneda and then a 2.5 hour bus ride from chitose. on the first day we'll prolly go for an 8 hour ticket all mountain ticket and go straight over to hirafu. second day we may start at annupuri, cause we've never been there, and them once again over to hirafu. after that we'll see. could have the added bonus of a good work friend also being there so will have to arrange to meet with him and his partner even if only for a short time. on the last day the bus leaves at 1600. the main things we need to do are snowboard, onsen, sleep, snowboard, maybe a beer, onsen, sleep, snowboard, onsen, sleep, snowboard, leave. if we have time i may pop over to every crazy foreigners favourite cool kid semi-tralier turned bar: fatty's. might even get the t-shirt. slightly disappointed that we are going later in the year cause i really want to once again experience the renowned pow pow. sure it will be fine. now, is 158cm long enough for a fat bastard like myself?

giri choco

upload: tokyogoat.

was all but finished the most interesting blog entry I have ever made. Was to do with Japanese custom, office obligations...but alas I was blocked. yes thats right blocked. trying to do something productive and I was blocked. not by "the man" this time but an outage. a huge Internet outage across North America. Will be interested to hear was crazy high jinx has transpired on this day. Valentine's day, 2005. That's February 14th, 2005.I am scared to open that little blue box right there. Who know's what other surprises are installed. Could be anything.

more red

upload: tokyogoat.

liked this VW that was parked down the road. went out walking, spotted it, photographed it, laughed at the cat and thats about it folks.

email

had a sick day today. days like this I always wonder if I shoud check my work email from home. there were no big surprises today so didn't really matter. but the obvious point is that you don't get a chance to switch off at all. (not wanting to pretend that I am switched on at any particular time).

One episode that has to be looked at tomorrow is how, as a service provider, should we deal with customers that are outright abusive where no wrong-doing comes from our side. are service providers barrels boys 100% of the time? would the potential bad press be worth taking up the issue. my guess is that fools like this don't have any friends or backing anyways. should we simply continue to humbly accept his piss-ant coupl'a hundred yen a month. we'll see.

eomeote #3

upload: tokyogoat.

a late entry for the End of Month Egg On Toast Extravaganza. This times round there were a few new participants which is always a good thing. btw my entry was prepared for 2 people, in case you were wondering. #3 was hosted by the one and only Cook Sister

tokyo ferrari

upload: tokyogoat.

went shopping for a new mean street machine today and made a rash impulse buy. there are no regrets however. this tried and trusted high performance model handle corners with ease and grace. it powers along the straights with outstanding acceleration. the lines of this design are both classic and the way of the future. 2 added features are: a wider, more expansive carrying capacity and beefed up security. the paint work was chosen as a thief deterent.(the last 2 machine were stock standard silver and were both promptly removed from the eki pitstop...i suspect to assist the Johnny one cup fund.) Ready to be to dazzled?? For your viewing pleasure here's a wide-angle shot. Jealous??

ohiru

upload: tokyogoat.

I spend a fair bit of time hanging around foodblogs. It's not so much the case that I am overly interested in food, or it's preparation. I recall a time in my younger years when I was mildly repulsed by food and our (humans) reliance on it. I can see now that my distaste for food was just part of the process of trying to get my head around my own humanity (the process is not complete by any means). But anyways...
foodblogs...well it just turns out that some of my friends happen to have highly entertaining blogs and they happen to be about food. Where is this going you ask. Well my comment today is: Around my office there is f#$%$#k all to eat at lunch time. The picture shown is of a little hole in the wall bento shop. 500yen. "What a deal" you might say. However I am sure that the total cost of the contents of a lunch box served there is about 30yen, including the packaging.

There is a story of the worlds worst bento that was purchased from a local road side vendor. I held romantic thoughts of this little bento vendor serving the best lunchboxes in Tokyo. Each day they would pull-up with there bento cart packed up with the days offerings. 500yen!! "Also a bargain", you might say. I tried it one day and I was convinced they had just served my some cadaver meat procured from the local Universities. Not wanting to be one that makes a final judgement from one experience I stepped up to the mark the very next day, even if I was well suspicious and decidedly less personable. All was going well until I dragged out a 20 cm stranded of thick wavy grey hair that was providing inner reinforcement for the packed rice. Came quite close to vomitting at my office desk that day. I had all sorts of theories on how that vendor ran it's daily operation after that.

Anyway the choices around Kundanshita are few obliging me, us, to spend much more money than one should just to get something vaguely palatable. Today is the day before payday so I may be have to force down some cup noodles. Ahh the joys. Imagine if I was motivated enough to prepare my own lunch. Can you imagine that? Can you??

doing the 2 step

from spiceblog and on to john quiggin, we find a man ready to make a donation to the Australian Red Cross tsunami appeal of AU$1 for every comment posted on his site between given times (honoured up to 1000 comments). I say, "get in there" as well. As spiceblog points ou, it's the perfect chance to make a comment without necessarily having anything in particular to add. perfect for me.

attention turns to beer

upload: tokyogoat.

Outside, flood lights guided the adventurous down yet another run, with J-POP crackling through the loudspeakers. Inside, beer soothed the weiry and wounded, as a shuffle of iPods rattled out through headphones.

EoMEoTE

upload: tokyogoat.

My entry for the December and final of 2004 EoMEoTE. I am not proud in any way of this effort but to quote a man who was quoting a man "Done today is better than perfection tomorrow!"

and the new day brings...

upload: tokyogoat.

Was greeted on the first day of my new year break with the first falling of snow in Tokyo this season. This pleases me greatly as numerous snow boarding trips have been planned. The next concern to turn my attention to is that a majority of those trips are planned for Nigata which was subject to yet another earthquake only yesterday. As properly pointed out to me, also yesterday, the earthquakes are not all over Nigata and people should check where the effected areas are, then show support by visitng the unaffeted areas and put an end to their serious tourism slump. But alas we are simple folk...Following that I turn my thoughts to the condition of my snowboard, which I will report fairly shortly. Powders up!!

Christmas 2004

upload: tokyogoat.

Took a Cruise on Tokyo Bay on the evening of the 23rd as the main event for this Christmas. There are some other pics from this that I will touch-up and upload shortly. Have a good one and remember to call your Mum.

P505iS0007733461.jpg

P505iS0007667924.jpg

we have the world before us...

upload: tokyogoat.

Last night Lily promised the world to many . Seduction by bright lights and furor. Most were seen leaving broken-hearted, desperately rummaging in their pockets for 380 yen, just 380 yen. Yoshinoya will fill that emptiness.