Cuz you're hot and you're cold...

Air conditioner arrived today! Seems like new stuff is all I get around to blogging about these days. Must be the new year.

We requested sometime between 10 and 2 but they said it's impossible to tell exactly when so the guy will call in the morning and let us know when he can come by. He called at exactly 9:00 and said 9:30!! wow!! So i rushed into the shower then got dressed for the day while i heated up a pot of coffee and tried to bring myself to coherence before he arrived (no small feat on my day off). Ulala threw on a sweater and jeans. In retrospect her approach was far more efficient and pragmatic.

A huge guy arrived, checked the installation and gave us an estimate of the cost (we knew it was coming but it still felt like a rip off). We said OK and he got to work, laying out his little work rug and step ladder with bubble wrap on the feet to protect our floor. I love Japan. They try so hard not to be invasive in these things. Just under two hours later he cheerfully told us it was done, explained what he had done that may be different from the old one, asked if we had any questions, and left. He was actually very amicable.

Now we have a sparkling new super-efficient (and supposedly eco-friendly) Air Conditioner. Yay! It was an unexpected expense since the old one died rather suddenly and we have just recently invested in a new TV and computer within the last few months but i believe it is worth it.

It's a Mitsubishi. So many of our appliances are Hitachi (totally by accident - they just seem to make the best stuff in our price range) . But we got a good deal on this one and it has all the features we wanted, including a little sensor eye to detect where people are in the room and adjust the air flow in that direction (so cool!). "Just what do you think you're doing, Dave? You want it cooler, Dave? I don't think that's a very good idea, Dave..."


new air con (inside and outside) - no pic of the old one because i forgot and the guy dismantled it so quickly!



And this is the remote control: Good motivation for me to brush up on some Japanese vocabulary!





Symian is: blowing hot and cold.
Currently Reading: Wherever you go, there you are. (re-reading)
Currently Listening: terrible hiphop internet radio.
Kanji of the Day: 配　ハイ／くば・る

TV Day!

By the power vested in me by absolutely no one I hereby declare December 27th to be international TV day. Just after Christmas and just before New Years. What else are you going to do, really? Also we just got our new TV delivered today.
Yippee!

The guy came to set it up around 12:30, just after Ulala and i had finished the big pancake brunch i cooked up for us. First thing we did? We popped open a mini bottle of brut left over from our wedding and played New Super Mario Bros on the Wii (which i bought yesterday just for this fine occasion). Then, when we eventually got frustrated, we popped in the BladeRunner DVD that Ulala gave me for Christmas. Have you ever seen BladeRunner in HD on a brand new TV? Incredible! So crisp, so bright (even for such a dark movie), so ... real.

I didn't mind our old TV. Ulala tells me the old one was about 15 years old. I didn't care. When it worked, it worked fine. But suddenly everything is so much clearer! I'm very glad that i had no plans for the rest of the day...


Old TV


New TV



Symian is: seeing things a little more clearly now.
Currently Reading: The Pomodoro Technique Illustrated
Currently Listening: --
Kanji of the Day: 眩しい　／　まぶしい　／ bright

Back in your boxes

There is no "boxing day" here in Japan. I have a regular saturday at work - full 11 lessons. It was nice to call home last night and talk to Mom. The dinner i made was awesome and delicious. I made Thai shrimp spring rolls, red pepper smoked chicken with white rice and green salad. And opened a nice Spanish Cabernet-Tempranillo.

Tonight there are a plethora of parties going on in town but i think we will stay home and relax, watch a little of our old TV, which is currently black and white and displaying a shakey image thrown to the right. It is over twelve years old and probably giving us radiation poisoning. The new one gets delivered tomorrow!

Last night Ulala and i exchanged small token gifts. We had agreed on a low cost limit since the "real" gift to each other is splitting the cost of the new TV (which gets delivered tomorrow! yay!) I gave her a t-shirt from DesignByHumans and she gave me a DVD of BladeRunner (Awesome movie!). Now i Can watch in English but practice reading in Japanese with the subtitles. I'm looking forward to finding out how to say "android" is in Japanese.



And tomorrow Ulala and i get to take our brand new TV (Hitachi, very nice) out of it'S box. Have i mentioned the new TV gets delivered tomorrow?

Two things that need to go back in the brain-box:
Mushroom flavoured Pringles and Corona in a can (with attached packet of artificial lime juice). *shudder*




Symian is: doing nothing whatsoever with boxes today.
Currently Reading: The Pomodoro Technique Illustrated
Currently Listening: Japanesepod101.com podcast
Kanji of the Day: 箱　はこ　box

メリクリー！ (merry christmas!)

Sunrise on Christmas Day in Osaka

I have to say thank you to Berlitz. They have the wisdom and generosity to make Christmas a company holiday.

Now i am not even particularly big on Christmas. I am not a Christian nor is my wife, and the majority of my family isn't either. Culturally, however, it's kind of a big day (even, nay especially, here in Japan) and we are bombarded with Christmas "spirit" and those awful Christmas sings that ought to be illegal except for one week prior to the 25th. So it is nice to have a day to think about family, to be with those you love, and to possibly exchange small token gifts of gratitude for their love and friendship. There is no thanksgiving here in JApan but there is Christmas (a time for fried chicken and dates) and there is New Years (for big family meals and a few days off).

Ulala is at work today so i am at home doing laundry, relaxing, catching up on paperwork and blogging. Later on i will vacuum and start cleaning out the closets as part of the end-of-the-year 大掃除 (oh-soh-jee), which translates to "Big Clean." Kind of like spring cleaning except at the end of the year so you can start January 1st so fresh and so clean. Then i will prepare a meal for my lovely wife when she returns home from work. Last year i made Christmas pasta so this year i', thinking maybe ham.
I would make a good little house-husband, methinks.

I will leave you this fine Christmas Day with my own little Christmas tradition. Calvin and Hobbes!! When i think of Christmas Calvin and Hobbes always springs to mind. Seriously one of the best cartoon strips ever. Bill Waterson's perfect blend of insight and humour never fails.










These cartoons are reproduced here with absolutely no permission whatsoever. I dragged them of a fansite that was doing the same and if that's a problem, i apologize. For the record, i once owned almost the entire catalog of Bill Watterson's brilliant cartoon. Dear Mr. Watterson, I'll donate to charity to make up the difference.


Symian is: making merry but not for dinner.
Currently Reading: The Pomodoro Technique Illustrated
Currently Listening: "Christmas in Hollis" by Run-DMC / A Santa Cause: It's a Punk-Rock Christmas (VA)
Kanji of the Day: 大掃除 / おおそうじ　／　big clean

Christmas Eve

Sunrise this morning.

Up at 6 and off to work extra lessons while GaiDai is off on their winter break. Luckily i have tomorrow off and i am looking forward to some catch up time with blog and other at-home projects. Weird having yesterday off for the National holiday and tomorrow off for Christmas but today is nine lessons all before dinner time.

I got to be Santa at work today (for about 20 minutes). I think i still have synthetic beard hair up my nose. Sorry, ladies, no pictures. To see me with a bowl full of jelly you may just have to wait until i hit old age. ; )

At home, Ulala brought Yoko over to look at wedding pictures. Yoko is getting ,married in '10 and now starting to see the monster that is wedding planning loom before her. We are offering as much advice as we can. To be honest it's mostly a blur or price tags and bad nerves. Good thing we have those wedding albums.

And they brought cake. Christmas cake (sort of). They ate strawberry and i had chestnut. The cakes came in cute little Christmas cups. What on earth am i going to do with these cups until next year? Maybe i'll make Christmas espresso tomorrow.




Symian is: stuffing sweater to make the belly.
Currently Reading: The Pomodoro Technique Illustrated
Currently Listening: "Things are looking up" - Classified
Kanji of the Day: 湯　トウ／ゆ

Christmas Party

As is the tradition at our Berlitz school, we had ourselves a little shin-dig to celebrate the end of another year and the yuletide. Is that like high tide but with booze? We wen to an almost-swanky place in Esaka called Vin de Kitchen. All you can eat and drink for two hours is kind of like hiding a land mine on a soccer field and wondering who will explode, but fortunately the evening was lots of fun and there were no casualties (except my wallet). Thank you to Baba-san and all the staff for their energy and effort in making it a wonderful evening for all teachers and students alike. Thanks also to Jo, our head teacher for her extra effort in getting all the teachers, even the jaded non-participants, to attend. Good times were had by all.







Symian is: wondering where they got the idea or "Vin de Kitchen"
Currently Reading: Oishinbo
Currently Listening: too many Christmas songs.
Kanji of the Day: 福　フク