need sleep

Felt a bit hazy all day at work. Went to practice, trained for five minutes and Niina-gosoke took one look at me and said "You look terrible. Go home and sleep."
So I changed and came home. I think he gave me and Kiyokawa his cold!
Need to sleep and get rested; cutting practice tomorrow afternoon, plus off to the states in less than two weeks.

i'm sick (of kimmy)

This whole "working" thing is starting to catch up with me. Had kind of a sore throat all day and feeling like I'm about to catch a cold, so I came home 'early' (before 8) and crashed on the couch. Hiroko made dinner and then we watched another episode of 24 Season 2. Ah, Kimmy...your idiocy knows no bounds! Let's recap, shall we? In this season alone (never mind last season) you've been charged with murder and kidnapping, caused an accident with a police vehicle in which both your boyfriend and the cop were seriously injured, got caught in a cougar trap while being hunted by a cougar, got stuck in a bomb shelter with a recluse in the woods, fired a gun at a guy who stopped to pick you up when you were hitch-hiking, didn't fire your gun at the wacko who almost choked the liquor store owner to death, and are now held hostage in said liquor store, trying to stop the bleeding of the gunshot wound caused by the lunatic who took your gun because you didn't shoot him. And the cops are outside. Kimmy, my dear, will you PLEASE just hurry up and get shot? It's too painful to watch you cry/get kidnapped/held hostage again.

crowded

Had seven people show up for class tonight. That's far too many for such a small dojo, but I hate turning people away when they want to train. So everyone got a mirror and we took our time working on the fundamentals, sharing ideas, and trying things. Was a good practice, but just too crowded. Next time I'll have to crack down and stick to the six people max rule. Even with six it's pretty tight.

fried

Haven't actually used my brain this much in a while. Worked all day on an initial technology strategy business plan, and then went to practice at Honbu. Did some kenjutsu with Kiyokawa but just couldn't focus and was getting clobbered. Taught Sekido-san a bit, and then we rolled cutting targets for the cutting practice on Saturday.
This working all day, training at night thing is gonna fry me.

first day

My first day in the Deutsche Securities Limited, Tokyo Branch office.
Did some administrative stuff with HR, discovered a mild spelling mistake with my first name that prevented my email from working correctly, but other than that things went well.
I have a lovely office on the 20th floor, facing south-west. Beautiful view of Roppongi Hills, Mori Building, and several other nice high rises. I really do love the sprawling expanse of concrete and steel, especially when the hazy fingers of smog and humidity curl about the buildings like so many humid snakes.
My title (according to my business cards) is "Head of Video - Asia/Japan" for Equity Research. Basically I'm in charge of business strategy, planning, and implementation for video distribution and new technologies in Japan and Asia Pacific. That means using technology to push the business forward by lowering costs, increasing efficiency, and maybe even make some money.
Middle of earnings season so all the analysts are running about madly trying to get reports done this week. The research team here was nothing five years ago, and is now one of the top-ranked teams in the region. Lots of young bulls, several established #1's, and in a general a pretty cool attitude. Things are considerably more...chaotic, shall we say, than at Morgan Stanley. That can be bad, but can also be good, as my mandate is to shake things up.
After work I managed to get to Shibuya in time for practice and helped Kiyokawa teach, went home and had dinner with Hiroko, and watched another episode of 24 Season 2. So the nuclear bomb went off in the middle of the desert. As stupid as Kimmy is, George is (was) cool. Though I was really hoping he would put a bullet in Niina, right in front of Jack, just before dying. Sort of a last gift to Jack. But alas, he went out in a cool enough blaze of glory.

last honbu

My last full day of practice before heading back into the slog that is an office drone salaryman.
Got up early and started practice at 10am. Trained with the college students until about 1pm, then we got some Italian for lunch and in the afternoon did tanjo and kenjutsu before calling it a day at 4pm.
Hiroko whipped up a hearty meal of meat and rice, which we ate while watching DVD #7 of 24 Season 2. I simply will not bring up how stupid Kimmy is. What is confusing is, they have no found the nuclear bomb...and there's five DVDs left to go! That's 10 hours, so I guess they REALLY take their time defusing the bomb? Or wait lemme guess: Kimmy gets kidnapped? Like, three times?