Monday, October 27, 2008

Passports Up

I'm still working on the details, but here are my tentative travel plans for November:

Leg 1: Nagoya to Seattle - Nov. 19
Leg 2: Seattle to Chicago - Nov. 24
Leg 3: Chicago to Detroit - Nov. 25
Leg 4: Detroit to Nagoya - Dec. 1

I thinking about going for pizza, 5700 block of North Broadway and some somehow finding my way over to Bagley and having a couple of taco's at Lupita's. But other then that... If your birthday happens to be on the 25th...

Kind of my 2008 US tour.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Live Concert - Revisited

So, this was bound to happen. The concert where I played the bass is now on you tube... forever, check it out:

This is not really is chronological order, but close enough.
Keep in mind, this is the third time I played the bass, about 5 hours in. I'm still learning how to play and dance.
For the song 'man who sold the world' I'm a little out of tune. This song is really difficult, so many notes. But I think I also wanted to hear bass better as I was playing this song too. I also keep facing away from everyone because I was trying to watch Noe on guitar, to get an idea of where I should be playing.

Above, this was towards the end of the night. 'Would' is a really fun song to play, although you can't really see, I was all over the place, dancing around and looking professional. Instrumental at the end, not bad.
Only in Nagoya!

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Drinking Ban on Public Transport

This is a response to a friend from Chicago's blog, Matt, early 2007 he moved to London. Back in May, London put an end to drinking on public transit, which lead to this post: Drinking Ban on Public Transport.

Even though the post and how the residents of London reacted was really funny, I still thought to myself, "man, that sucks." So, in response to Matt's blog, I just wanted to let everyone know, everything is okay in Japan. Laws here, still logical. Most train stations in Japan have little platform stores or something near by that makes it really easy to pick up a beer or sake for the trip home.Sometimes, a train beer, on Friday is really nice. Something you are not suppose to do on a train, epically the Shinkansen bullet train is talk on a cell phone. Not because it is illegal, just that it is seen as being really rude. On the Shinkansen, a voice comes over the PA and reminds to make sure your phone is set to manner mode. So, look at this guy:On the Shinkansen, not sitting in his chair, having a conversation on his phone while trying to hide it behind his hand. What a punk.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Moving to Nagoya... New Apartment

I have room for you to visit.

Of the 7 apartments I checked out, I have picked this one:It is located near the JR station Chikusa, which makes getting to work kind of easy. But it is also near three subway stations, a bunch of really cool neighborhoods, restaurants and bars.Above is the living room and kitchen.It is also on the seventh floor which is the penthouse. The balcony is huge, there are some hooks for hanging laundry and a garden for growing vegetables and herbs.Here is the best part, here is the first Tatami room.And here is the second Tatami room, so Japanese! A Tatami room is a traditional Japanese style room which are kind of multipurpose. You can sleep on futons, have tea or dinner, or simply entertain in here. I will have to figure this out later.Here is the bathroom. When the person showing me the property and I walked into here, she said "wow this place is huge, even you could fit in the tub."

Moving to Nagoya.. For Real

I'm moving to Nagoya and did my apartment search today. In total, I looked at at 7 places and narrowed my search down to two then one. Check these places out, here is the place I almost did not turn down.This place was cool, the first level was on the 7th floor and the second on the 8th. Nice modern layout, located on top of an Aston Martin dealership, near downtown and a train station, but I had to turn it down. Here is why:This is the view from the first floor balcony, that is a expressway right there and concrete everywhere else. This would normally be okay, but I kind of imagined the air around here to be like Georgetown in south Seattle, full of pollution and noise (albeit in this case, from cars).And here was my other issue. The shower and bath room has a window as a wall? This is on the second floor next to the bedroom and the toilet is first. Typically in Japan the toilet and shower is in two separate rooms, but not typically on different floors. Cool layout, but not quite right. This is still my plan B, just in case my first pick does not work out.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Sarapes

Look at this:This is in a basement resale shop in Tokyo called 'Chicago'. In the neighborhood of Harajuku. Not a big deal, but as I turned the corner of this 'L' shape store I noticed these sarapes hanging along the back wall, I was a little surprised. But then I looked closer and saw the this:That's right, that says Y10500, or just under USD$105. Within seconds, I realized I have more then a grad of blankets in my storage room back near Renton. In fact, the more colorful the blanket, the more it was worth in Tokyo. Soooooooo, I need a plan to visit Laredo and somehow need to figure out what the textile import laws here - are. People here must have no clue, if you can talk enough, this blanket only cost $6.