Friday Night Update

The week is done. It's been a long one. I got home about 10:30 tonight. What a long day... And it was hot today, too...

So it feels quite pleasant sitting outside on the balcony with the cool evening breeze caressing my naked body... enjoying a triple bedtime espresso preceded by a glass of wine (and shopping for three more half-sleeve dress shirts and a brown belt, then toothpaste and other stuff, then a 30 minute walk home after a bath in the onsen and grilled fish dinner, the week's laundry done, the grease cleaned out of the kitchen range fan (major job there...), everything unpacked, and all the damn trash that goes with men's dress shirts tossed out...) Have you ever noticed how much garbage it takes to package up men's dress shirts? Oh my God! The paper and cardboard and plastic and pins... it's unbelievable! And when you undo three of them in one shot... I got off at Mizue tonight to see if I could get any half sleeve work shirts that might fit. As the Japanese have gotten dramatically larger (fatter) over the past 20 years girth is not the problem. The biggest issue is length: sleeves (impossible) and body. I got slim fit large and it is just right in the body but I would have preferred longer. We will see if they stay in my lowrise dress pants. But they had a sale on the $50 items: if you buy any four it costs $100 so that's a 50% saving bringing each item down to a reasonable $25 instead of the $80 I have paid for all the great shirts (tall) my mom sent me over the past year and a bit. The only problem is now I an dressed just like all the other Japanese guys: boring! The colours and patterns are too basic so I don't really like the. But considering how fast my sweat turns stuff yellow I guess I can live with the boredom...

Ahhhh naked on the balcony....

I'm looking forward to figuring out how to sleep out here once it warms up some more. The only problem with that is that the sun comes up about 3:30am and I really don't want to be blinded and baked awake at that hour... especially since I can't seem to get to bed before midnight or 1am these days/months since moving to Tokyo. So much to do every single night and so few hours left to do it (compared to Fukui). Thank God I have my Y.E.S. Supplements PEOs (EFAs).

Well, time to brush the old teeth and head off to bed.

I love you!
Cam

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The Memory of Waking Up

A couple of months ago I realized that I can never have the memory of having fallen asleep. Why? Because I am asleep when the event has occurred. My brain is no longer in a condition to have waking memories. This is different from remembering your dreams (I think...)

However it is possible to have the memory of waking up. This would be the indication that we must have fallen asleep because you cannot wake up from sleep unless you have previously been in that stage. One is incapable of quitting smoking unless they have previously smoked. We may take this concep for granted and say, "Well duh! That's obvious." But is it really obvious? If it were that means everyone would have the memory of thinking about this at some time in the past. It is a very interesting thing when you think on it. We naturally say, "I fell asleep watching the movie." But why can we say that? Because we have the memory of waking up.

I have the memory of waking up on the exercize mats at the gym tonight after a really hard workout. I was counting to 10 with deep breathing for relaxation after my exercises and stretches were done. When the memory of waking up came to my mind, I noticed that the clock had continued forward by approximately 30 minutes in time.

I have the memory of waking up...

Have a good night.
I love you from my tonkatsu and kara-age dinner!

Cam

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Picture This

I love this combination of photo and comic. It shows so well how the old Japanese houses were built. One of the women in my class at Kobuchizawa lives in a house like this. Do you see the guest is entering and the floor is made of mud? That is actually INSIDE the home. Look how much higher up the rest of the house is from that "Do-ma" or earthen-room. Also you can see how everything was so open; there was no glass for the windows back in those days so they had wooden slats to block the elements. The inside doors were sliding and they had paper on them to let in some light and block some of the wind. But it must have been really cold in there in winter...

The imagery is stunning. I have seen examples of these kinds of homes with straw thatched roofs when I went to Shirakawa-go (remember, Stefnee?) Amazing. The train has arrived, so toodleoo!

I love you!
Cam

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A Nice Way To Travel

Since I don't seem to have much opportunity to get into the sun with my new lifestyle, I've decided to catch some rays wherever and however can. So today, instead of dressing in my work clothes and carrying my usual heavy black bag to the trains in Shinjuku I decided to go in shorts and a t-shirt. I would rather get all sweaty in my t-shirt and change at Kobuchizawa station than arrive all sweaty and have to work like that into the evening. I sweat enough at work as it is so not having a dripping wet shirt from carrying my pack will make a big difference.

Plus, as I rolled in this blog with the title on sunshine, it allows me to come here a little bit early, grab my lunch and sit in the sun for 30 minutes. I think next month we start with cool biz which means we don't have to wear neckties until October. I am looking forward to that for sure!
On the way out of the station and down the stairs I helped a really good looking Peruvian/Japanese guy who was cartoing tons of jewellery on a trolly to set up and sell. We exchanged small talk and went about our day. As I was typing this a young third year university fellow in a suit came up and started chatting me in English. He's out looking for work so that next year when he graduates he will have a chance. That's how they do it here... start interviewing a year ahead of time. We chatted a bit as I sipped my ice coffee and I wished him all the success in his drive to start the next phase of his life.

And now I guess it is time to head down into the depths of the earth to catch my train to work.

Have a great rest of youlr day!

I love you!!
Cam

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Universal Fatigue

Whew... tired.... It's been about three weeks since I've been to the gym. Mia was here for a wonderful two weeks and we walked like crazy for up to eight hours a day some days and usually five at least. But although that is great for overall ... whateverish, it doesn't prepare one for the fatigue that comes when one goes back and pushes again. That in no way means I'd rather go to to the gym than host a visitor! No way! The same thing would happen on business trips to Europe in the past as well. I have learned over the 11 years I have been going to the gym that a break longer than two weeks and my body drops tremendous strength and endurance! It is just one of those things I guess...

Wow... talk about tired tonight. That was a GOOD workout!

I love this feeling! And I love that I have the strength and energy to make it through the workout as well.

Tomorrow is another busy day at work so I must eat my tonkatsu teishoku with a side dish of kara-age and head home to bed!

Night Beautiful Universe.
I love You!

Cam

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Tea & Sake (no Sashimi)

This morning I woke up with my back frozen... it has been some time since I got my "sleeping on the floor" back. But moving around always loosens it up. We had breakfast, checked out, visited Higashi Honganji Temple (East Honganji) and walked to the metro. We went two stops, got off, found the place for the tea ceremony, then went for coffee.

The tea ceremony was great; the sensei explained it all in English for Mia (write tea ceremony on your list...). Then we went one street over and visited a sake/beer brewery where we learned of their 120year history and had a small tour ending in a tasting. *hic*

Now we are walking back to the station in glorious weather, will get our Shinkansen tickets and head back to Tokyo to meet our former optical clients for shabushabu dinner!

But first... Lunch!

I love you.
Cam

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Kyoto, Nara & Deer Sashimi (Raw Deer)

Apparently the god of the area here in Nara came down the mountain on a white deer so all of the wild deer here wander around freely, mooching food from the tourists.

Mia and I took the morning Kyoto Sightseeing Tour. It was pouring so we all got soaked. Nijo Castle (Tokugawa Shogun's Kyoto Residence), The Golden Pavillion (Kinkakuji), and the Emperor's Kyoto Palace. I think I've been to these five or six times now...

Now we are stopped at Nara Stn to drop off a seven member family from India. Thank God! They have been so damn noisy the entire time... talking on their multiple communication devices... wow. This morning there was a different Indian family and the parents let the daughter and young son run around playing, chasing, pushing in and out of the crowds... I was not particularly impressed with their parenting efforts.

We visited Nara in the afternoon and are heading back to Kyoto for the end of the tour. Then a tea ceremony tomorrow and home to Tokyo.

Todaiji in Nara houses the largest wooden structure in the world... The bronze Buddha inside is huge...

Todaiji burned several times in its 1250 years of history... and was rebuilt based on the fancy of the times so the structure changed. There was one gate that escaped the ravages of was and it is still standing as originally built 1250 years ago.

Big breath... wow... 1 2 5 0 years in the past and still in use...
All in all it was a great tour and I enjoyed being Mia's papppparrrrazzzzzi again.

I guess we won't be dining on raw deer tonight...

I love you!
Cam

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Horse Sashimi @ SHIBA

I'll keep this one short as the battery on my keitai is running low...

What? Cam... Short??? Impossible!!!

We walked to Nishi Honganji Temple, then another 30minutes to Sanjugendo Temple which houses 1001 buddha statues each representing 1000 arms... each arm representing 35 worlds... I wanted to bring Mia here as I have come many times with friends. It IS impressive.

Then we walked another hour to the Gion area looking for a bar... finally we found Shiba near the Kamogawara River. So now we are enjoying great conversation with the owner who was the 1971 Japan Grand Prix F3 Champion! Very cool... he has also been running this tiny candlelit restaurant for 40 years and has changed almost nothing in that time!

So we are having horse sashimi (raw horse), okonomiyake, lamb shabushabu and probably whale tongue! It is all delicious! Sea Shepherd eat your fucking hearts out!

Kampai!

I love you!
Cam

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Mia Munching Makunouchi Bento

We wanted Mia to experience the obento on the shinkansen...

So she is!

And you know what? I think she likes it...

Vegetables...
Rice...
Fish...
Seafood...

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Go West! Go Kyoto!

Hi there. Well we are taking a classic camcation... We decided to catch the Hikari Superexpress Shinkansen from Tokyo Stn @ 11:33. W got to Bakuro-cho and bought our tickets with 33 minutes to spare. Tokyo Stn was only a four minute ride on the Sobu Line so I figured we had plenty of time.... Little did I realize that the trains run infrequently at this time of the day!

We got to the platform thinking we would wait five minutes only to find out that the next train would not arrive until 11:18! Tokyo is a big station so upon our arrival we had to hoof it up about five log escalatored flights of stairs but we made it with three minutes to spare!

When we finally entered the train, Mia told me that Tokyo today at about 25C was like a very nice mid-summer day in Denmark and now she is thinking about wanting to go swimming!

We will arrive in Kyoto at 14:15. From there we will wend our way over to the Shimizu Ryokan where we will stay for two nights. Mia is excited as it will be the first time ever for her to sleep on the floor.

In the afternoon we will try to visit some places on our own and then get to the Gion District (famous for Geisha in the olden days) to walk around in the evening, have dinner and drink a bottle of wine.

Tomorrow is a morning bus tour of Kyoto and an afternoon visit to Nara, the ancient capital of Japan. I wonder if this year tours to Nara will be different? Apparently Nara is having a year long festival this year that they have only once every 1300 years... Since we are only there for an afternoon it might be difficult but we will see...

Mia is in a skirt, bare legs and a t-shirt but she keeps wiping her forehead and neck because the train seems unbearably hot... I am training myself to wear pants in the summer so I have my jeans on. And Im used to my crotch always being wet from sweating at the office so I dont mind so much. We just passed by a great view of Mt Fuji with lots of snow on top but as I was engrossed in thumbing this blog I did not take a photo.

Shikata ga nai!

Have a great Thursday.

I love you!
Cam

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