pink cow

Kevin is going back to North Carolina next week, and Ollie and Chiori are going back to LA, too. So they had a good-bye thing at the Pink Cow, now moved to Aoyama, right in front of Aoyama Park Tower.
Much cooler location, with a full kitchen and a great cook. 2500 yen for all-you-can-eat buffett on the weekends, smoking in the bar only, and comfy couches makes it a winner. Saw everyone; Ted, Ed, Stephan, Tony, Nancy, Jeff S. and wife, B. Zoet...



ho ho ho jorge!

Doing some last minute shopping in Shibuya and Hiroko spotted Jorge Santa:


Also Hiroko now finally knows what Thing is:

sharp

Cutting practice at Akabane. Only 8 people cutting, so we all had lots of targets and took our time. It was pretty cold, so I had a hard time getting warmed up. Tried a few new cuts like tsubamegaeshi (will need BigTony to teach me that one) and ichijin. The former being a total failure (Akama-san almost got it a couple times though) and the latter being a minor failure.
After practice I went down to Machida to Hataya's sword shop. It's a tiny little place crammed with stuff, swords, and all his polishing equipment. I introduced myself as BigTony's friend and asked him how much it would be to sharpen up my cutter. Usually working polishes cost about 50,000 yen, but as I don't care what the polish looks like, I just need it to cut, he sharpened it up for me for 6000 yen. I'll have to tell Tanaka-sensei and bring all our other swords in to get straightened and polished.

piola

Haruka is off to graduate school in Hawaii, so to celebrate we had dinner at Piola in Shirogane. Rei-chan came, too, and Yukiyuki. Rei-chan is still doing nothing after quitting Linc 2 years ago, so we'll see if we can find her something interesting to do.
Food was great, but I was still suffering from the effects of Wednesday's drinking and went home early, skipping desert.

apple store in ginza

Apple has opened a slick store in ginza. On opening day there was a line to get in. A really, really, really long line.

good news!

Well, I guess that depends on your point of view. Nancy's digital camera was found (she did, in fact, leave it in the bathroom at Inishmore) and the pictures have been recovered.
Not pretty.

Not pretty at all.

house warming

Chez Guzofski is having a House Warming/Sinatra Day party...Hiroko and I will be a couple weeks late, but our hearts are with them!

gettin' chilly

Borrowed Yaesu practice last night from Miura-san. We had an instructor's meeting but I had to teach because we had a foreigner who doesn't speak Japanese come to check out class. I asked Kiyokawa-kun to take care of everyone else and I taught in English. Not practicing on my own sucks when it's cold. Not practicing sucks, too. The more I teach, the worse I get!

grammer check

I scored 10/10 on this grammer test, and I owe it all to me pappy.

ugly

The evening started well: toast for new officers in the board room, champagne and strawberries and champagne and small talk and champagne and strawberries and champagne...by the time I got downstairs I had five glasses of the magical bubbly and was quite enjoying the feeling. Ramesh (canrunamarathon) paid me the 11,000 yen I was owed and I immediately spent it on drinks for whoever happened to need some. More rounds were purchased, I nursed a beer and longed for the sweet taste of Lady Champagne, but was in no state to complain let alone attempt standing up.
Finally worked our way down the street to the Innish Moore where I inhaled a greasy plate of fish & chips and started in on a cider. Hammer was watching my back and replaced my cider with ice water, then Kevin and Nancy showed up and I spent the last of my money on more rounds for the troops as well as Nancy's champagne (with a glass for me!).
Most of the evening after that is rather fuzzy, but I do remember:
* A.J. making a grand entrance, someone's neck tie around his neck (not actually around his shirt collar), trading voluminous abusive words with Hammer in all good fun, and stumbling into the furniture often.
* Emiko 'The Angel' downing Wild Turkey straight on the rocks to the point that Ric and I had to carry her and throw her into a cab
* Nancy taking incriminating photos..and then being so drunk she lost her digital camera (hope she finds it!)
* Beck giving me some magical solution made of Irish Cream and something else; tasted like liquid caramel and made remaining vertical all the more complicated

For all the crap everyone gave me because I never drink and wouldn't make it through the nite, me and Kev and Ramesh and Gilohooligan were the last ones in the bar!



vice president

By some miracle and against all odds, I have been promoted to Vice President. Yes, you must now salute me.

2 on 1

Only Takahashi-san and Tanaka-chan showed up for practice, so we spent a good two hours working through the fundamentals and then the first five seated kata.
Tanaka-chan is a Shinsengumi fan, and wrote a letter to NHK that so impressed them they came to film her practicing iai last week in Ikebukuro. If only more 19 Japanese girls were as into traditional martial arts as she is.

meat eater

Ericka and Jeff took Lilly on a meat-eating tour of Europe. Bottle-feeding is for sissies.

feast

Beck and Jeremy and his woman came over for dinner after an afternoon of Akihabara shopping where Jeremy stocked up on USB toys: USB powered christmas tree, desk fan, massage ball. Hiroko made a feast of tonjiru and fried chicken things and spinach and my infamous apple pie with vanilla icecream for dessert. Then Kevin deployed his iPod and we listened to random 70s funk, Monty Python, and Devo's cover of NIN's Head Like a Hole.

cracked like a toothpick

Had the second tanjo seminar, and besides a couple of lumps on my arm this time was considerably less painful that last time. My tanjo, however, faired far worse. In demonstrating a block for a leg strike, Niina-gosoke and Kiyokawa-kun snapped my tanjo like a toothpick. And I had only used it twice. *sigh*