Summer in Japan

It sucks. it's hot, sticky, wet, and miserable. but all the agony makes us appreciate the small reprives from the heat as we step into (gulp!) work, a department store, or anywhere else that uses air conditioning. it is also the time for summer festivals as you can see here. this is a picture of me and my friends on sunday when we went to the Ueno Park Summer Festival after work. i was so impressed and proud that everyone wore their japanese garb (i personnally dressed all but one of the girls and the boys). and despite the heat and the confininf nature of the yukatas, we still had a great time. Ueno park has a beautiful lake which we walked around after consuming some terrible festival food from the concessions stand (sidebar: festival food is actually quite bad. it's grilled corn on a stick, octopus balls, giant wieners on sticks, yakisoba, etc which is food that is actually good when it doesn't come from a festival stand. but the awful nature of the festival food is part of what makes the festival, the festival. bad festival food reminds me of my dad for some reason. consequences of a warped mind.) the walk way was lined with antique dealers and other vendors which made the stroll around the park fun.

my friends and i always end up at some dodgy izakaya and i get plastered and it makes for an embarassing nite for me (albeit a funny one for them). so when i read about this festival, i thought it would be great to actually get a bunch of us together to do something together rather than just get drunk. my friends and i do things when we're one on one (see movies, make dinner, go shopping, bowling, etc.) but it's tough when we're in a group. so we decided that it would be good to try to hit a festival every week if we can (no sense in letting our yukatas go to waste) and certainly we can wear them in september when the obon festivals start! now that will be fun (and hopefully a bit cooler . . . .)

summer also means fireworks. last year i went to the very famous Sumida River fireworks display. it was hands down, the WORST fireworks show i'd ever been to. the sheer number of people, the way it took me 2 hours to get home, the way we all got separated from each other, the madness! AAAARRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!! so never again. i'd rather watch it on TV or go to a smaller show. that would be better. maybe we can go to the park and do our own fireworks this year. that would be fun too! picnic and fireworks!

hopefully, that wasn't too boring. i'm trying this thing where i'm attempting to be less negative (i just read on the internet that pessimists die a lot earlier than optimists. not that i want to live forever or even too long, especially at the rate i'm going now but it can't hurt to try new stuff from time to time). we'll see how long this lasts.

Friends Who Marry

damn it! people are getting married again. don't get me wrong, it's all happiness and flowers and romance and crap but geez! does everyone have to be getting hitched? ok, so that's an exaggeration. my dear friends Joel and Rika and getting married (thank god cuz i love them both and i love them together and when i first heard that they had news, i thought they were breaking up). well, they've already gotten married (on paper) but there will be a wedding in Guam come september and if yokes can swing the money and the time, she's going (and hopefully she will be invited as well).

Joel enlisted my help to find his bride a ring (he reckons that i wanted her to have one as much as she wanted one) but i haven't the first clue about rings. i've never been shopping for one and have never really considered what i would want (never been close enough to a situation where anyone wopuld propose). you may recall that i had this ring dilemma a while back when i surveyed a bunch of people about rings. is it really that important? joel and rika will be apart for a month or more for the first part of their marriage and the ring shows their commitment to each other so i suppose that's ok. i question though, is the ring idea ok now beacause the issue at hand is a wedding ring instead of an engagement one? i feel like yes, it is different. my question now is, why is an engagement ring more expensive and more of a serious undertaking than a wedding ring? should not the actual marriage be more important than the promise of marriage? afterall, promises are broken all the time. sometimes they're not broken intentionally but they just are. people can promise a lot but making a promise is different from delivering on it. being engaged is different from being married. BIG DIFFERENT. GIANOURMOUS DIFFERENT. i think being married means putting your partner first, even when you have kids. and that's why i think getting married is such a huge deal. as a single parent, i'd have no problem putting my kid first. but putting my husband first and knowing he'd have to do the same for me? that's huge. and i don't think i could marry someone that wasn't prepared to do the same for me.

At the same time, i wonder though, am i placing too much importance on an institution that most people regard as not that sacred anymore? am i not changing with the times? is my thinking too old fashioned? perhaps. marriage seems like sport these days. women seem to chase strong, rich, handsome men. men chase skinny, pretty things that will cook their meals, wash their clothes, raise their kids and clean their houses. and if you look at a person and think, "hmmm, i bet i could live very comfortably with this person for a good few years," what's wrong with that? am i looking for permanancy in a temporary world? isn't that illogical if not downright moronic?

but i think that's the part of myself that i can't part with. the stupid side of me that i don't want to compromise. we all cling to our dreams, our fantasies. and perhaps this one's mine. i want to get married. i want to have kids. i want the whole nine yards. and if it doesn't happen, it will be but one bead in a string of dissapointments that i am to experience during my time on this planet. but if it does happen, it will be on my terms; not on the terms dictated by a transient, faceless, and jaded society.

So with that, i toast to my dear friends who i have lost to marital abyss. Joel and Rika, may you love with all abandon.

Rainy Rainy Rainy Okinawa

Knowing that we would be headed out to okinawa, i started tracking the weather out there for at least a week before i went. the forecasts got worse and worse so i knew there would be rain while we were there. little did i know how much.

getting to the airport was no problem but once we were there, the flight was delayed for at least an hour. this gave us a slow start to the day. the flight took about 2 hours during which time the Brits (adam and clare) sitting behind me and julie kept complaining about how the crossword in the paper was catered to Americans while stealing our answers. we got revenge by taking bad photos of them while they slept.

finally got to okinawa and picked up our rental car. of course the car navigator is all in japanese (although we could change the "voice" so she "spoke" in english. weird) which despite adam's level two japanese and my years of not studying japanese, we found a bit difficult to use.

the hotel was nice but damp (this becomes a running theme throughout this trip), the four of us got our own little bed in each corner of the room, and we headed out to Kokusai Dori where there are lots of shops and restaurants.

we met up with julie's cousin who lives out there and we had some lunner (lunch/dinner)and did a bit of window shopping. this was pretty much all we had time for the first day as most of us were quite tired from the flight. we had a couple drinks up in the revolving restaurant/bar on the top of our hotel where julie and clare tried to figure out adam's riddles (being uninterested in activities that require me to flex my brain muscles after 3 pm, i contributed by sitting back and asking stupid questions).

the next day, it was raining (and i mean raining HARD. buckets and buckets of pelting rain) so we headed out to the top of the main island to get to the Ocean Park Expo that has the Churaumi aquarium which houses the largest single tank in the world. This was super cool. the aquarium is massive with tons of different exhibitions and cool fish and animals. we took tons of photos! the big ass tank had 3 whale sharks and manta rays and whole bunch of other stuff. the park also had a sea turtle house, a manatee house, and a dolphin studio. very cool. afterwards we drove by some old castle ruins but there wasn't much to see. the problem with all the damn rain is that it made it very difficult to do a lot of things. Okinawa is like Los Angeles in that way. when the weather is good, there is plenty to see and do. when it rains, it sucks.

later that night, we met up with john and david on what john calls "cocks eye" dori for dinner and drinks. then we went back to the hotel and passed out.

our last day. we checked out after breakfast and went down to the bottom of the island to Okinawa World which is supposed to show us all things okinawa. Again with the downpour so we didn't get to see much of the stalagtite/mite caves. we only got to go into 1/3 of it cuz the rest of it was flooded! saw the habu snakes and the snake show and the snake alcohol brewing factory complete with the vats of sake with the snakes inside. saw some pottery and glass blowing. interesting but somehow expected more. came back and did a bit more shopping and then just headed back to the airport early. i think we were all a bit tired. AN HOUR before we head back, the rain lets up!!!! can you believe it?! aaaarrrggggghhhhhhhh!!!!

the flight home was delayed as well for 2 hours which meant that when we got back to haneda, there were no more trains left for us to take to our various destinations. i complained like the mad woman i am and got us vouchers for taxis instead of having to fillout reimbursment forms for later which is a pain in the ass.

all in all, a fun but tiring and RAINY vacation. had a great time with my friends though, which reminds me why i love them so much. despite our snoring, sleeptalking disclaimers, we all seemed to sleep well and we had fun in our own way though we would've liked to have done more stuff outside like laying on the beach and seeing shuri castle and stuff. maybe next time!

Adios and Happy Birthday

Riyoko and Cory left Japan this past saturday, both of them hung over and sick. i hated sending them home in such a condition but they assured me that they had a good time so i considered it a successful trip. hopefully they did too. on their last night in Tokyo i gathered a bunch of friends together and we went out to an izakaya for some major oolong hi drinking and karaoke. Cory got to sing karaoke for the first time (or so he said) and Riyoko, who of course doesn't sing at all, got to down my favorite japanese beverage, the oolong hi. now i've never gotten hung over on that shit before but it seemed to do a number on the both of them. the train ride to the airport was a rough one for them. but the friends really liked them and they liked quite of few of them so i think it all turned out well. i can't imagine that they want to take another trip out to japan for at least a solid decade.

OK, on to future matters. yes i know it's technically too early to be getting excited about my birthday but i really am! i'm going to okinawa with Clare, Julie and Adam from the 15th to the 17th. a short trip but it should be heaps of fun anyways. beachh, boys, and of course . . . TACO BELL for the first time in 2 years (i failed to have any when i was home for the holidays because there was so much better mexican food in cali)! anyways, i am very excited and hope it's relaxing and fun. i plan to stay away from the bikini though, don't want the children to try shoving me back in the water screaming "free willy!" damn children.

3piece suits, cards, and not bitching about work . . .

Ok, ok, ok, ok. i know. it's pathetic. one update in two months is not actually keeping a blog. i realize this and know that i must be better about it but it's hard to get me motivated. i've caught a cold right now which is why i'm catching up one my emails and stuff. clearly my head is screwed on a bit lopsided these days. i'm working on it.

I've discovered my big guy turn on: the three piece suit. even guys who i normally wouldn't catagorize as being anywhere near hot can be positively boiling in a three piece suit. you know what it is? it's when the jacket is off and they're wearing the waistcoat and maybe their sleeves are rolled up and they look fucking fantastic. case in point? today i worked with a guy who i'd never give a second look or anything. very not my type. except he was dressed exactly the way i described and i thought he looked amazing. the fresh haircut helped too. yeowza!

ok, another rant regarding boys: The big H is always going on about putting your "cards on the table." is this really a good thing? i've found that putting the cards on the table just make me feel like ass cuz clearly there is never any reciprocation when only one person is putting their cards on the table. but if you wear your heart on your sleeve (as i do most of the time) does that require a cards on the table moment. clearly he would know how i feel. is verbalization necessary or it is just an added humiliation? but whenever such a situation arises, the Big H is screaming "cards on the table! cards on the table!" meaning that i need to stick it out there and hope it doesn't get cut off. oi vey! don't know if i should be doing this.

ok, enough about boys and no more about work. all i do lately is bitch about work and i'm worried about becoming "that guy." i don't wanna be "that guy." "That guy" is an asshole. but when so much stress is generated from one place, it's tough not to bitch about it. but you know, my personal life, my work life, my family life, my love life, my home life, and he rest of the facets of my life can go to shit if it's one at a time. unfortunately, right now they all seem to be headed towards the shitter and i think i'm having a tough time coping with that. i know, i know; must breathe . . .

i happy news, my sister and brother in law are in town for a couple of weeks. i love taking them around and showing them everything but it's exhausting. they are in kyoto for a few days (they'll be back on tuesday) so it's a good time to rest up. i'd feel terrible if i was less than 100% while they are in tokyo. good thing i'm hitting the meds pretty hard core. thank god for nyquil.