Ericka proved that even without Jeff she's still the Queen of Meat. BBQ dinner at her place with a bottle of wine for every attendant, way too many s'mores, and surprisingly good chicken. Though this doesn't mean Ericka can actually cook nearly as well as Jeff, it does prove she's not totally lost without him.
Her brother is also here, having just moved to Japan 2 days ago to begin an exciting career as an English teacher. In proper welcome-to-Japan fashion, "the boys" (Kevin, Stevie, etc.) took him out on his first night in Japan and proceeded to alcoholically pound the jet-lag out of him. Alas, big sister was smart enough to know that it wouldn't work and dragged him home in the not-so-wee hours. He was still looking a bit confused last night, but it could have been the company more than the jetlag. We tend to have that effect on people.
Hiroko should be coming home today after spending a couple of less-than-pleasant days back and the parentals'; beware the fried clams!

I like the frogs. They are plentiful during the rainy season. They don't make noise, they just come out of the bushes and flop around on the walkways running to and from my aparment. However they are also not so bright. I have come home many a night this week on my scooter, carefully weaving my way up the path at a slow crawl only to have a frog brazenly jump from the relative safety of the edge of the bushes to directly in front of my tire. I am yet to squish a frog, and I don't look forward to the inevitable day when it happens. They ain't small by any means, and scooter-flattened frog will not make or the walkway any better. Alas, yet another chapter in the battle of man vs. the elements.
In other news I've been cranking on the iaido report for Gosoke; checking all the web directories, search engines, and asking about on various bulletin boards for English information about Mugai-ryu. Most information seems to be from a certain Takada-sensei in Finland, and the pupils of the late Kuniba-sensei in the U.S. are also quite active, though it seems Kuniba-sensei created his own school based on Mugai-ryu...interesting how these things develop. We shall see how Gosoke feels about my report next week as I'll hand it over to Kanai-sensei on Monday.

Gosoke is the honorable reference to the head and/or leaders of Mugai-ryu. English equivalents like "16th Grand Master" just sound silly, so we'll stick with Gosoke.

I am definitely liking this tuesday iaido practice with the college students. Last night Kanai-sensei drilled us for over an hour in basics; repeating cuts back and forth across the floor. I think some of the guys get a little bored, but since I still don't have any idea of what I'm doing, I appreciate the attention to detail. Kanai-sensei doesn't miss anything and is always correcting my blade angle or wrist position. We then went into individual practice to get ready for the enbukai end of this month, and somehow Kanai-sensei manages to be watching me the one time (ok one out of ten times) I step on my own hakama when standing up or something. At least I'm getting the bows correctly (I think.)
After practice Shiokawa-san had about 8 calls on his cell from Gosokei (THE head of Mugai-ryu!), who told him to tell Kanai-sensei to call him with me around. I immediately assumed I'd done some horrible impropriety and would be banned from Mygai-ryu for life or something, so trembling with fear I told Kanai-sensei to call Gosokei and...her cellphone battery was dead. So we waited for Shiokawa-san to come down and give her the phone number and she used my phone to call him.
Turns out he's really interested in the English translations of the homepage I've been working on with Chihara-san, and wanted Kanai-sensei to ask me about search engines and such in English so that Mugai-ryu can get properly registered and understood around the world. So I'm going to do some research on top martial arts sites and search engines and report to Gosokei.

Too much food. Fear of World Cup hooliganism (and basic lethargy) prompted Hiroko and I to have a lovely meal at Lucky on Friday, and then last night Hiroko cooked up another monster-meal when Kevin, Z, Ericka, and Jeff came over. Jeff and Ericka just came back from doing time with the relatives, and they shared stories about his disfunctional family and near-death experience on the flight home. Plans for a Costco trip where put in motion, but since Jeff is off to Europe for a couple weeks it'll wait until he gets back.

Gray skies, howling wind, mad humidity, 10C temp changes day to day: typhoon season is upon us.

Didn't get in much practice yesterday, so today I went to the newly-formed University Student's practice. Naganuma-sensei was in a good mood and gave us a taste of what basic practice used to be like in his time: 2 solid hours of basic cuts, 5 sets of 10, in deep DEEP stances, full swings from back to front. I tell ya, kids these days; a couple of the students had to stop and rest, and all of them werepanting and dying after an hour. I felt vindicated as the old man in the room, and even Naganuma-sensei was giving everyone grief.
I will most likely not be able to raise my arms tomorrow.

Quite an exciting iaido practice. about 30 minutes in, a girl who had come to check out iaido was sitting quietly on the side, when all of a sudden she let out a little moan, her eyes rolled back, and she fell sideways out of her chair. Everyone ran over and she was shaking like she was having a seisure. I grabbed my towel and someone put it in her mouth and held her down so she wouldn't smack herself into the floor too badly. Kanae-sensei grabbed her cellphone and ran up to call an ambulance which arrived about 10 minutes later. By then the girl had stopped shaking and seemed to be sleeping, and when the paramedics came down she was awake and could stand up and walk out by herself. Not sure if it was a seisure or if she just passed out (freaked out by stress of sitting by 15 people swinging swords?) but anyway practice was strangely relaxed after that as everyone gave a big sigh of relief that she seemed ok. As for my towel, it was covered in blood (I think her mouth was bleeding a bit) and sacrificed to the greater good, so sensei said maybe I'd get a Suimokai towel in exchange for my quick action.

In true GIVE YOUR MEAT fashion, I stuffed meself silly at Roberto's BBQ. Seems not only did his lovely wife Debbie go on a mad Costco run, but via some inside connection they managed to purchase steaks on the US Army base. So the grill was choking with mega-pound, 2-inch thick steaks, we all ate like pigs, and washed it all down with brownies, toffee caramel bars, and icecream. It's good to be American sometimes.
Yesterday in the stunning 30C heat Kevin and I wandered Shimokitazawa for a couple hours checking out the freakshow. Finally made our way back to my place, where Hiroko's mom was waiting with Kevin and Zareen's summer yukata that grandma hand-stiched for them. Very cool. Don't think Kevin and Z will be around for the Azabu-jyuban Summer Festival this year, but maybe I'll rent out Lucky for a couple hours for my birthday, traditional wear if available.

I PASSED!
By some miracle, I passed the Japan Securities Dealers Association Financial Services Registered Representative Level 1 exam!
Now I can get back to the important things in life, like PlayStation2.

Aikido practice is getting hotter and sweatier as the temperature and humidity increase. A month from now it's gonna be a sweat farm.
Still haven't gotten results for the RR exam...hopefully this week.

No more studying! Spent all weekend in Starbucks, cramming arcane financial tax facts, blocking unsuspecting fellow 'buckers with my stealth cell-phone jammer, and shooting hazelnut lattes like a heroine addict with a fist full of syringes. Took the test in an Ocha-no-mizu test center yesterday. Finished in an hour and actually I think I might have passed. Get the results in a few days. Typical; computerized test but they probably print my answer sheet and fax it to the Japanese Securities Dealers Association for grading or something.
Iaido last night was all practice for the festival at the end of June. I am utterly hopeless; I can't even sit down and bow correctly let alone do the kata. At least if I can keep my eyes focused straight ahead all is not lost.
After practice I hooked up with the work team at Outback for Yu-Ching's good-bye: she's off to make her way at Amazon Japan. Good luck!

Studying at Starbucks every night this week after work, and I'm sure I'll be there all weekend, too. The same high school girl was sitting in front of me two days in a row. She was mildly amused when I showed up again tonight and said "tadaima (I'm home)", but her smile soon faded as she wondered why her cell phone wasn't getting any reception. Little did she know that the pencil case on the table between us housed not only a mechanical pencil and a green highlighter, but also a made-in-China, totally illegal cellphone blocker. 4 fresh triple A's and that thing kept the desk on the third floor of Starbucks undisturbed all night.
Stopped into Lucky's for a quick dinner of the usual: eggplant with miso and ricebowl curry with grilled garlic. Entertaining the wacky idea of renting out the whole place (well okay maybe just the back rooms) and having a big old birthday party this summer...but first things first; gotta get through this damn test on Monday, and then practice iaido like mad for the yearly enbukai end of June.

Scumbags in Japan What more can I say?

Whole lotta hype recently about Extreme Programming. Haven't tried it at work yet, but it seems to have potential...then again having some programming discipline in the first place helps, too.

It's official: nik & dave get married. Got the announcement yesterday so now we gotta figure out the logistics of getting out there and getting to/from Rhode Island. Remember I don't have a driver's license and haven't driven a car 5 times in the past 10 years. Think we'll be bummin' rides off of some of the other wedding guests or something...
I'm in serious study mode -- Japan Financial Registered Representative Level 1 exam is Monday -- spent a good 4 hours at the 'bucks last night cranking through corporate governance, bonds, and mutual funds.

Stevie put up some photos of the BigBeefyBirthday Party and the Pimps and Hos party afterwards.
Me, I went to iaido and we started practicing seriously for the yearly enbukai and competition June 30. I can barely lift my left arm.

Went to the monthly iai kenshukai (practice seminar) yesterday. It was in the gym of a school down the street from Akihabara Electric Town. People from all different Mugai-ryu schools came, and this seminar was specifically for beginners so it was really intense on the basics. Naganuma-sensei drilled us on the first 5 seated kata and 4 standing kata, and there were about 5 assistant instructors so we got lots of specific help and pointers.
After about 2 hours I and 3 others were called up while everyone else sat down in the back. We had to take off our swords, bow, put our swords on, do the first 5 seated kata, take off our swords, and do the final bows. I was tired and pretty nervous so I messed up the first sword bow, which Naganuma-sensei caught and smiled, asking "Blade out! You know that. You nervous?" which made me even more freaked so I did it again on the final bow and he said again "Blade OUT. Ren, you really are nervous aren't you?"
So anyway at the end of that he says "OK, these 4 have just been promoted to 3-kyu...even though ren can't bow to his sword correcly. Congratulations. Don't forget to pay the 7000 yen testing fee!" Huh? that was a promotion test? Uh, ok. So now I'm 3-kyu!
The whole seminar was 3.5 hours long and I really think I learned alot. I think I'm starting to get noto (sheathing the sword) and I almost remember all of the first 9 kata, but my arms and shoulders are killing me. And we've got regular Monday practice again tonight so I am hosed.

On Saturday we celebrated Jeff and Kevin's BigBeefyBirthday at Barbacoa. I think we put away several cows and a not few beverages. Beef sweats abounded and after dinner several folks went to Ed and Ted's annual Pimps and Hos party, but Hiroko was feeling a bit sick (sore throat) and I was beef-bloated so we just went home.

Last night finally watched Chocolat -- great movie!

Last night Hiroko and I took Masa to yakiniku and gave her a good feed. We were all meat-bloated and loving it. Nothing like excessive Korean BBQ to get the juices flowin'. Last I saw as I headed to bed was Masa slumped against the couch, controller in hand, deep into demon battles in Onimusha 2.

My man Steve Mollman just wrote an excellent article about mMode, wireless, and how cool tech is in Japan.

Just in case you really want to carry around me and momo, here's some wallpaper for your cell phone.