Kameraoke IV

29.Nov.09 (日)



Woke up around 10:30. No alarm. Just sunshine.
Last night, Ulala and i stayed up playing Mario Kart on the Wii until about 1:30. Good times.
Then This morning i woke up and went to the store and got all the fixings for the above pictured french toast break-feast.
It was delicious and awesome. Orange juice should always be drunk from from wine glasses.

Then in the evening we headed over to Zerro for Kameraoke IV. The idea behind Kameraoke is a photo scavenger hunt. This is the fourth installment. Thus, they had four themes based on the four elements. Contestants are given the themes and have two weeks to take all the pictures and submit them. Then Danyk and Ed print, label and hang them for the final event (tonight). People come, look, vote on their favorite from each category. Photos are admired, prizes are given, drinks are drunk, fun is had.
Overall, this year was a big success. The photos were stunning. Thank you to Danyk and Ed for putting so much time and effort into organizing it. Well done! And also to Emi for sitting at the door for four hours taking cover and handing out ballots.








Symian is: looking at all the pretty pictures.
Currently Reading: The Strangest Secret - Earl Nightingale
Currently Listening: Matt Anaka - The Mean Streets of Watsonia
Kanji of the Day: 鉄　テツ

Momiji, Mino, Monkeys

22.Nov.09 (日)

Woke up to bright sunshine and a persistent alarm clock, and feeling MUCH better. Not 100%, but much much better. Amazing what a full day of sleep, soup, and tea will do.

We decided not to cancel our walk in Mino (North of Osaka) with Peter and Yuki (and others). SO, off to Mino to see the leaves and maybe some monkeys. This was probably our last and only chance this year to see the leaves so i was pretty disappointed yesterday when i thought we might have to cancel. My throat was fine but as the day wore on and we enjoyed the leaves and lots of people (and only one brief monkey sighting on a rooftop), my nose started to clog up and get sniffly. Ah well.

Mino was great and we enjoyed the fresh air and easy walk to and from the famous waterfall. I have no idea why this waterfall is so famous and popular. It is lovely, but every year thousands of people come to see it in the autumn and take pictures. I dunno. Like i said, it IS lovely. AND, if you really want to, you can buy "Deep-Fried Maple Leaves" (Momiji no Tempura) at one of about a hundred little stalls and shops along the walk to the falls.







And on the walk back we stopped at a tea house and had matcha and yuzu (japanese citrus fruit) sweets. Perfect for a cool autumn afternoon.




In the evening we had pizza and wine and relaxed at Peter and Yuki's new house in Ishibashi. They just finished having it built. It is absolutely beautiful!! I don't have any pictures of the house itself, but you'll have to take my word for it - stunning. Big ceilings, open spaces, good light and flow from room to room. And they have a wine rack and an espresso machine! Ulala and i are now thinking of buying an espresso machine. Thank you to Peter and Yuki.



Symian is: dreaming of "Nespresso" and dark chocolate, happy he has one more day to recover from this blasted cold.
Currently Reading: いっきゅうさんの話
Currently Listening:　Luther Vandross
Kanji of the Day: 定　テイ／さだ

Sick Sat Sucks.

21.Nov.09 (土）

I'm sick!! What started out as a worrisome scratch in the back of my throat with the cooling of Autumn has progressed into a full blown, throat-on-fire, can't-eat-can't-sleep pain in my, well, throat. I tried to deny it, i tried to use positive language. Instead of saying " i feel sick" i would say "i'm keeping healthy." I was taking my vitamins and drinking my echinacea tea. But alas, to no avail. There's goes my healthy streak. Oh well.

So i am taking the day off work today. My job involves a LOT of talking all day and i barely have a voice now (9 a.m.). It also involves a lot of sitting in small rooms teaching one-on-one with Japanese people, who tend to be germophobic (and who can blame them these days?). So i will keep it to myself if i can, and i will use today to rest and try to sleep, drink lots more tea and, through the cough syrup fog, try to catch up on some much behind blogging.

This is actually the first post of my renewed blogging effort, and i will publish retroactively back as far as the beginning of June `09. Filling in holes of time and space with half-memories and random otherness. Just for my own amusement, i will do so in no particular order. I wonder if Blogger will put them up in order of when i first drafted them or when i am now publishing them. We shall see...

By the way, my thumb is fine. Just a little sore, but once again mobile. No video games for a few days, though, i think.

Symian : thinks the Universe may be laughing at him.
Currently Reading: Because Strangling Isn't an Option... (re-reading)
Currently Listening: Green Day live in Tokyo.
Kanji of the Day: 喉／のど - throat as in 『 喉がめっちゃ痛いよ！！』

Thumbs down.

20.Nov.09 (金)



Last night was cold enough for me to wear my sweater to bed. Which is not helping the scratching in my throat that has been nagging at me, trying to get attention for the last two or three days. I have been healthy for a long time and i plan to stay that way - or at least live under the illusion of healthー until i find out the systemic problem that will no doubt destroy me from the inside...

On top of that, my thumb hurts so much. I have no idea what i did to it but maybe my knuckle-cracking is finally catching up to me. So no gym today despite having a window of time and not having gone yesterday. yuck. =( Is it irony that it was most likely at the gym where i injured my thumb? I wrapped a bandage around it, which was next to useless, so i gave up midday.

Funny moment of the day: I gave the thumbs up to a student and yelped in pain. The look on the student's face was priceless, then we both burst out laughing.


Symian is: falling apart at the thumbs.
Currently Reading: Because Strangling Isn't an Option
Currently Listening: Fake Blood
Kanji of the Day: 柱　ちゅう／はしら

the big sleep

19.Nov.09 (木)

No GaiDai today so i slept in . Didn't mean to sleep quite so late - 10:15, but i guess i needed it. Yesterday i felt i might have a chill and i sneezed a few times, but today i feel good. A bit groggy and my throat is still scratchy but i'm thinking that's just the kind of autumn it is. It took me two cups of coffee and some Colbert Report just to get going.

So, I had a slow morning of work at home and then off to Senri Chuo in the afternoon. A mere two lessons, two office periods and one placement (when we check a new or potential student's level of proficiency in English). So all-in-all a chill yet productive day.

One of the things i'm working on (among the dozens of projects) is re-assessing and updating our Kids Placement system. This involves learning how the old procedure was put together, evaluating its efficiency and then just starting from scratch and re-writing the bloody thing. Wish me luck.

Kids. As Seinfeld so wisely pointed out: "They are here to replace us." I'm just trying to ensure that they can do it in English. I'm like Sesame Street. Which, by the way, is just now celebrating its 40th Anniversary. This blog has been brought to you by the letters "I" and "O" as in "I'm so old!" Argh!! (But i still love Cookie Monster!)

Check out the Sesame Street Homepage





Symian is: groggy after an eleven hour hibernation.
Currently Reading: iPhone: The Missing Manual
Currently Listening: Jay-Z- The Blueprint 3
Kanji of the Day: 調　チョウ／しら／ととの

Extreme snacking!!

5.Nov.09 (木)

As i ate my breakfast:



Bright red sky this morning. I had a good sleep and i didn't toss the blankets like i usually do. Snacking before bed might be the cause of the blanket tossing? Hhmm...

Recently my wife, knowing full well my curiosity towards bizarre snack foods and new flavours, brought home two tins of Extreme Pringles. They were...extreme. The balsamic ones tasted only vaguely of balsamic vinegar, though they were slightly sour as you might expect from vinegar chips. If you read Japanese, this shouldn't be surprising since (as you can see in the closeup picture) it clearly says "contains no balsamico." Intriguing.

Less intriguing were the pepper ones, unless you like inducing coughing fits.





Symian is: urging Pringles to not give up. The perfect flavour of stackable chips is out there, somewhere.
Currently Reading: ?
Currently Listening: ?
Kanji of the Day: 味　あじ　ー　flavour/taste