GOL NIGHTS

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THE PLEA

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impenetrable

what aberrant behavior it would be for an inmate, behind prison walls, to spend his years building fences.

well well.....

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what can I say other than I feel like a total perve. feel like something has been taken away that should not have been. if photos are meant to induce a reaction then I guess this is a good one.

red leaves

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once again I traversed Higashi Ikebukuro's piss alley (..or one of). Sun was shining nicely so got this snap. We were off to some model rooms of a new building called Air Rise, also in Ikebukuro. Lovely Karin is taking serious steps toward the possible purchase of one of these apartments. I'll dig around and get some more info shortly. All very exciting and frightening at the same time.

stolen.....yeah!!

upload: manthatcooks.

All, here is some cool color from a Cool Cook. Today he is offering points on
bento best practises. All you Japanese readers take note!

autumn lunch

fly be free

the blog is taking it's own shape so don't be surprised if it turns out to be a photolog... no longer will people be subjected to the cringe of impotent, ill-conceived attempts at witty commentry...no more wine-drenched, half finished or broken sentences....no more forced, descriptive prose on banal subject matter....no more pretentious repetition of fullstops/periods in an effort to interject unnecssary indecision or hesitation....NO MORE!....well no more after today, I promise.

it does make a difference

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man, a good mouse matters. Do yourself a favour.

...a pattern emerging

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turns out the place I've passed for 6 years happens to serve up a high standard meal. Nice one. will be back but not on November 26th: belly dancing spectacle.

hard to resist

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Took this in Kyoto a week after getting the new camera. Not a great shot but hard to not take one like this when in the old capital. Of course didn't have the courage to take the shot from the front.

akihabara

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old dude hanging around Akihabara. taken many many moons ago. posted today as a test of the border code.

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jumping out of their skins

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it's that time of year again when Japan's marketteers take up the impossible challenge of creating something from nothing. So the tacky labels are once again slapped on bottles of the freshest of fresh. Images are added to the range of train carriage posters that jab you in the side of the head. This year sees Bic Camera, Yurakucho in on the act. Lots of hands reaching out but predictably few reaching into pockets..ahh...wallets. That was saved for later...

..what do I know

Sitting here, red wine in hand on a Wednesday night picking and scratching around the web, listening to Interpol's Turn on the Bright Lights. Really am enjoying it and I think that one of the reasons why is that it reminds me of Glide, especially some of the clean, choppy, chiming guitar bits that are held up by a wandering bass line that explode into soaring guitar riffs, a la track nine on Glide's Open Up and Croon. (catchy title eh). Even after the regrettable event in 1999 I still feel a sadness and disappointment at the thought of what could have been had William Arthur been able to find some kind sense of what lay before him by constructing a lingering chord as unique, beautiful and complex as he struck on his guitar that would resolve the everyday dissonance of his existence. Either that or in reality he was just a druggy fool. Only few will know, if any.
Translation (red wine dribble-> English)
Interpol reminds me of Glide
Glide was a good band.
The lead singer died of an overdose.
He was a good songwriter and played the guitar well.
He used alot of unique guitar chords.
I wish he could have learned to deal with his life and drug habit to the same extent that he learned to play the guitar.
Probably not many people will know what he was thinking around those times.
I feel sad and disappointed that Glide are not still playing.

winter is coming

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lunch team

homeward view2

homeward view

traveling tobase, isogu koto wa nai kedo

..and it works as well.

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close-up turned out pretty fackin good.
now I'm jealous...

and a close -up

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after this shot I cleaned the dust off the body. fear not.

kit

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even Sam is impressed with this set-up.

Lunch

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the weekend before pay day requires people to re-focus and to learn to apprecate simplicity. Now, in Japan, this is not only easy but can also be masked behind a pretense of exotic sophistcation. This is achieved because there are things like onigiri and and miso shiru (which I have never learnt to say correctly or with any confidence, often confusing it with "do the miso" or " white miso" or "do the water"). Anyways... lay these out on a nice nigiri rolling mat from the 100 yen shop along with 100 yen chopsticks and we have a dignified lunch. most expensive thing there are the hashi oki, which is a practical use of the world famous art form "Yosegi" . Well...world famous may be a stretch but I bet the Ginza Ladies know the magnitide of the word I drop here.

tent7

tent7
Originally uploaded by tokyogoat.

really was a fantastic day, when we awoke. That is mainly cause I had the chance to sleep off the hangover from the day before which I carried all the way up the hill with me.

tent5

tent5
Originally uploaded by tokyogoat.

going through the archives. doubt we could actually climb to that place anymore.

alright folks

I seem to have gotten the basic hang of things so will make a promise to you all to back off on the frantic photologging and aim for a bit more quality over quantity.
(watch the block dry up now...)

oishii manju

oishi munju
Originally uploaded by tokyogoat.

juice

juce
Originally uploaded by tokyogoat.

just posting this memory of Thailand to shift todays practising down the page a bit. Always thought this was quite a cheesy advertising shot.

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So this is the man that pays me month to month. "Why does he do this?" you could ask. "I know not why" I could answer.

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Akihabara

test
Originally uploaded by tokyogoat.

gadget lanes

carp

carp4
Originally uploaded by tokyogoat.

sorting through folders of old files... treasure chests full of gold. go over to flickr and have squizz...

romantic date

romantic date
Originally uploaded by tokyogoat.

make the most of what you've got son.

country love

country love
Originally uploaded by tokyogoat.

digging out the golden oldies

the-miserable-ducks

the-miserable-ducks
Originally uploaded by tokyogoat.

taken some time ago in Hakone after stepping of the world famous Japanese pirate ship.

take mild next time

indian
Originally uploaded by tokyogoat.

guessing that this was as genuine a curry as you'll get in Japan. Said with the authority of someone whose never been to India. also posted cause the pic turned out well. ijyou desu.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

gmail

happen to have 6, + or - a few, gmail invites for those who don't mind some random fools hurling ads at you. Gis a shout.

mutekiya

Time: 10:30 am
Date: Saturday 14th November, 2004
Place: Mutekiya Ramen Restaurant, Ikebukuro, Tokyo, Japan.
Weather: Getting cold outside. Overly hot inside.
Details: starving. ever so slight hangover. no line. camera in hand.

Click to enlarge.

Results: Tasted fantastic as per usual but have to admit that the best part was the way it looked.
Reasons: Too big. Soup too thick. Egg was smoked almost to the point of tasting fake.

Softbank / Cable and Wireless

not interesting for many but I'll stick it up anyways. Softbank has bought out the Japanese operation of Cable and Wireless. At this point it doesn't effect me in any great way. I wish poor fortune upon both, that is, until Softbank takes over PoweredCom to bring the players to NTT, KDDi, Softbank.

flickr

exceeded my upload limit on flickr. Means my photo files are too big cause really haven't been putting many pictures up there. Back to photobucket for the rest of the month. Might get some cheap hosting sometime soon.

nector of the ....homeless

anyways...just camera practise really. today's mission was to play with exposure compensation (natural tendency for dark) and white balance settings. The cloudy day setting brings on the yellows which can be too much but when shooting mossy stone stairs it looks great.

Some added spice is always nice

Pleased with the color of this one.

ika on flickr

actually just trying out flickr, an image managing service

Living in Japan

Forget the networking.
Forget the business card exchange
Forget the backslapping and arse licking.
Do what you do best and do what comes naturally when you are
Living in Japan

(photo may change)

convert

the iPod pur-chased for Karin has seen me become a true convert(er) to the modern ways of audio pleasure. These things can take awhile but they all come around in the end. Must resist the urges to inspect MAC machines in BIC Camera. Don't need it, don't want it....but oohh...synchronized Calenders between iPod and your machine...Imagine that...never double book your beer drinking time with another beer drinking appointment ever again. Strange when the venue for both appointments would most likely be right here in this chair, in this house, infront of this machine. There you have it folks. Mid-week Tokyo Comedy at it's best!!

Full round of applause

Congrats goes to the man of action. An inspiration to us all. A goal was set, the preparation was done and the plan was executed, brushing aside evil distracting temptations. He's almost given me hope that one day I too will get off this chair and accomplish great feats. Cheers and looking forward to the blogging of the next challenge in your sites (sights). Let it not end here.

watch where you step

not impressed at all by this blog template's color choice for links visited. But am impressed with the new resident: weatherpixie

suggestions

Karins birthday tomorrow. san-ju isai.(for those in the know). Any suggestions for gifts from anyone passing by would be appreciated.

morning has broken

2 days without the glare from bright goldern star of the north and the mind is as clear as the dawn of a Japanese autumn morn. ahhhh......yet another aspiring step forward albeit in the shadow of the inspiring man of action.

name that place

throwing down a challenge to "guess that place" from the pic.

first glimpses of discipline

up at 5:30. A few deep breathes and stretches on the balcony. Whats it for, you ask??..Not sure . Could be some preparation for the snow sports or could be following the inspiration of a man of action.

Lessons learnt on Respect for the Aged Day

1: simple garlic and pepper steak > fancy fandango red wine steak
2: beer > red wine for day-tme, national holiday drinking.

Respect for the Aged Day

Third monday of September: Respect for the Aged Day (keiro no hi):
Respect for the elderly and longevity is celebrated on this national holiday.
Happens to be today. I will celebrate in true style: clean my room, wash the clothes, go shopping, etc etc.

pressure

made a submission to be included on the Japanbloggers webring and now feel the pressure to post regularly. Was always one to need some external influence to actually do something. feel pretty good about it however.

shouyu cha-shu- onegaishimasu

one thing leads to another. The next minute you find yourself alone on a Friday night taking pictures of your dinner to satisfy the needs of a person living on the other side of the earth in the worlds most isolated city.

Firstly the venue

Secondly the main course

This wasn't nearly as large as it may appear, regrettably

Then the side dish

Another view of the side dish. The chunky wooden table adding to it all.

Today's order. Shouyu cha-shu-, with tamago as the topping.

keeping up with the Georgeffs

these were made some time ago during a work colleague bonding session. Spent most of my time taking the pics and not helping out but thats team work, 'aint it. No use having everyone doing the same job...

There were some appalling and/or laughable efforts at gyoza in there. As it turned out, after snacking away whilst preparing the 500+ gyoza there was little gusto to be seen. Let that be a lesson to you...

the original rock steady girl

unforturnately it is likely that only 2 people I know will get any real enjoyment from this post. I trust they will be well pleased.

self improvement

This month's self improvement books

Exel 2003 Bible
DNS and BIND
The 21 Irrefutable Laws fo Leadership

The given being that none of these are likely
to be read.

kampai