books and bread

After the TV arrived, we loaded the Tonchabeast into her chariot and bussed down to Ebisu. Sold some books and picked up my copy of Japanamerica at Good Day Books, then walked down to Arietta for some quality healthy bread and walked home. We detoured through Hiroo and grabbed a baked sweet potato, then stopped by National Azabu for some much needed supplies (salsa, corn chips) before heading home to enjoy the new TV.

37" LCD


37" LCD
Originally uploaded by renfield.

akiba

Did the day in Akiba with Mr. Kobayashi and The Todd. Mission was to get a new television. Figured I'd go for a nice plasma, but given that 37" was more than enough, settled on a lovely Toshiba LCD that does 1080. We had all-you-can-eat shabu shabu upstairs and did some other wandering in the lovely weather.
The Todd headed home to play the GTA3 I gave him (it had an irrelevantly small crack on it so I couldn't sell the disc) and apparently ended up playing all night.
I headed back to Conan's house of video games to check out more Riot Act and other silliness before heading home for dinner.

midtown

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Today, along with everyone else in Tokyo on Golden Week holiday, we checked out Midtown.
Not being built by Mori, it was everything that Roppongi Hills isn't; the layout is simple, office buildings and residence surrounding a central multi-floor mall of shops and restaurants, with a nice park in the back. The courtyard, approaches, and halls are all wide and straight, and even as crowded as it was, getting around was quite simple. Obviously the architects did not intend to purposely confuse the wanderer, forcing them to navigate a labyrinth like Roppongi Hills.
We checked out sweet array of Nissan Skylines, from the first to the latest:
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wandered around the garden, and looked at the sweet "real furniture" at the expansive Muji. I am grooving on the shelving unit; it has living room potential...

Since it was too crowded to eat, we walked to (the totally dead and empty) Roppongi Hills and got some munchies, sitting in the shade by the pond, then walked home.
When we got home, we realized we left the digital camera in Midtown!
I took a taxi back to Midtown and asked at the information counter in the main building, right by where we were sitting. The woman I asked knew immediately what I was talking about as she was the one who received the camera when some good semaritan brought it in. Soon I had my camera back in had -- only in Japan can one leave a digital camera sitting outside on a bench and come back to pick it up 5 hours later!

@ midtown


@ midtown
Originally uploaded by renfield.

gyoza time

Yuika and Kento and their parents came by for some mad gyoza eating. As always, we made way too many and ate way too much. At some point, Kento decided to attack Tonchan, wrestling style, but her ninja skills were formidable and she beat him back. Yuika suffered some collateral damage via the occasional boot to the head, but in general they all got along.

As Yuika executes a leg hold, Kento begins his attack...
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...with a flying kick!
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Kento goes for the pin while she's down...
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...but Tonchan counters with a left...
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...and a one-two combo whilst kneeing Yuika who goes for the double-team!
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With Yuika KO'd, BattleTonchan finishes Kento with a left hook to the jaw!
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Ultimately, the fight is declared a draw, and all settle down for some milk and a nap.
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