tokyo national museum


tokyo national museum, originally uploaded by renfield.

Well crank an egg on my head and call me a frying pan it is HOT today! But never mind the heat, we had some culture to be gettin'! P and I cruised up to Ueno, got lunch at Hard Rock, and checked out the Meiji Era art from the Joe Price collection at the Tokyo National Art Museum.
Extremely cool. We wandered the rest of the museum and saw the permanent collection as well -- lots of great swords, pottery and other artifacts of Japan-ness.

After the museum we took a wee break at 'bucks, then headed back to Shiroganetakanawa station, did some shopping for dinner, and wandered back home through the Shinohashi local shopping street summer festival.

museum in ueno


museum in ueno, originally uploaded by renfield.

pikachu


pikachu, originally uploaded by renfield.

More birthday silliness. Went up to Kanda to enjoy some fried meat and beverages with the mostly-British gang from work, and pikachu announced my birthday as the ladies surprised me with another birthday cake. Then we wandered Kanda a bit and ended up in a salaryman standard standing bar for some late-night bits and bobs.
A good time was once again had by all and a fine way to become 34 (if a day late, but who's counting?)

happy bday to me!


happy bday to me!, originally uploaded by renfield.

I thought I had escaped the birthday gremlins, but they caught up with me at work!

dragon fruit juice


dragon fruit juice, originally uploaded by renfield.

Okinawa Festival at Isetan in Shinkuju again, so P took me to get some quality noodles and then we grabbed a couple of bento and other goodies for dinner.
And of course P got her traditional dragon fruit juice ("pulpy!") and I got an acelora juice ("tart!")
Then we walked over to Bic Camera and got my birthday present: my very own bloodpressure monitor! It's a little jobby that goes on the wrist and measures blood pressure and pulse. I will collate data from daily morning and evening readings and see what's what. So far so good -- I think my bp's better when I test it at home. Then again I can make my bp go down 30 points just by zoning out and relaxing for 30 seconds, so I'm less interested in the exact number and more concerned about keeping it stable or even dropping, not rising.
Cause I'm an Old Man now, eh.

2006 taikai photo


IMGP1295, originally uploaded by renfield.

Some photos from the 2006 Taikai in Tokyo.