x-mas bbq

In the tradition of our ancestors, we had a Japanese/Jewish X-Mas BBQ. Conan and the Smallwoods came first, with Conan immediately commandeering The Comfy Chair, quietly transfixed by his new Etch-a-Sketch and the cold medicine keeping his sniffles under control.
Amy and the Rudicks then showed up, with Amy happy to bound around the loft. The BBQ was fired up and the traditional pork loins were set upon the grill whilst we warmed up with slices of fine domestic beef. Kairi and Ericka came soon after, giving Amy a playmate and completing a fine collection of children's toy cellphones.
Others gathered and the food piled up. We made an extra beef run, complete with Alaskan King Crab legs, revived the BBQ for its Second Coming, and put away even more food. Complete and utter gastric destruction; no one went home empty-handed and the fridge is still packed with left-overs.

emperor's birthday

Happy 72nd birthday to Emperor Heisei!
Took advantage of the day off to accomplish three things:

1. Went up to Saitama to practice at Shinbukan. More Kenjutsu. Everyone else was practicing iai and Kuroda-sensei asked me if I had my sword with me. I didn't bring it, assuming I wouldn't be doing iai for months. So all I had was my wooden sword. He figured good enough and started showing the first iai form. All the iai forms are from iaigoshi: fold your left leg under you, such that your left heel is in your butt, then put your right heel in front of your left knee, keeping your right knee off the ground. So yeah, you're sitting on your left foot. And yeah, it hurts. But wait, it gets better. From this position, rise up into a low stance, right foot forward, left knee off the ground. But don't stand up, you have to basically float up; ukimi. Literally "to float." Needless to say, the top of my left foot is nicely sore and swollen.
2. Came back from practice and put the Cuisinart to use: made about 3 kilograms of Mama's Famous Fake Chicken Liver Pate (carmelized onions, string beans, walnuts.) Cuisinart, as you know, is French for "Kitchen Power Tool" and it is the single greatest invention since the Intelligent Meat Fork.
3. At my request, Hiroko cooked her stunningly good fried chicken in sweet/sour marinade. Add in a spinach salad, miso soup, and fresh rice and we had us a meal.
   

go chimi!

Seems like it was just yesterday that I gave Yu-ching the really, really terrible nickname Chimichanga (now reduced to the much more tolerable Chimi-chan), but now she's been at Amazaon.co.jp for a while, and I'm at Deutsche, and she's run the Honolulu marathon for the 3rd time! Amazing. I can't even get up before 10am on a Sunday, and she flies to the other side of the world to run for hours on end.
Speaking of which, Ramesh now officially owes me money, as not only did he not run the marathon in under 5 hours, but he didn't even bother to go to Hawaii! Beers on him, but it's up to me to collect!

cousin dave

Finally uploaded all his photos from his Japan trip.

andy

This is Andy. Andy came to Japan 18 years ago with a UK new wave pop band. Now he goes to the Tsukiji fish market every morning, buys up all the leftover good stuff, and sells it at Shin-hinomoto, right under the train tracks at Yurakucho station.
He is tall of height, quick of wit, and a damn fine chap who sells the best and cheapest seafood in the dingiest salaryman hangout.

crab!

Serious crab closeup. Plenty of crabs guts (brains, eggs, etc.) to eat after we powered through all the legs and claws.

crab @ shin-hinomoto

Jeremy and the gang at Shin-hinomoto. Special of the day: whole crab!

jorge!

Jorge randomly appeared in Japan for a day, on his way back from a Samsung meeting in Korea. Hiroko and I took him to eat okonomiyaki and monjayaki across the street and then we goofed off as we generally do.

x-mas party

Research X-Mas party, so at the Tokyo American Club first we went bowling and my team came in 3rd! Woowoo!
Then we headed over to the banquet hall and had some food and bingo insanity.
After that we were singing karaoke up the street until I finally dragged myself home.
Check out the photos.

design shopping

Auntie Em points us to some cool designer shopping items from +d.

ako

Ako from the NY Japan desk is in town, so she and I and Scott went to Akihabara for uh, technology, um...research. Yeah, that's it.
We did the standard tour, checked out the cool TVs (Ako really needs to buy a new TV) and had a killer lunch at some hole-in-the-wall. The owner was showing off his festival photos and told us to come back in May.

shopping

Hiroko and I finally put on our motivational hats and went Holiday Season Shopping. Unlike yesterday, it was damn cold, so we were motivated to keep moving. Bussed to Shibuya and hit the Seibu Department Store and connected Loft to spend 4000 yen in gift certificates that Hiroko got from credit card points, then walked over to Harajuku up to Omotesando, and back down through Aoyama to Shibuya. It was surprisingly not too crowded, and once the drizzle sputtered out, it was pretty nice, though gray.
Saw a totally ridiculous protest march: a bunch of college students complaining about not having adequate health coverage and benefits as part-time workers. Um, maybe they're unclear on the concept: it's called 'part-time', as opposed to 'full-time', i.e. "I work for a living" versus "I leech off my parents and earn just enough spending money to keep me in Gucci and karaoke."
Sorry kids, no pity from me. Here's a novel idea: you are students, right? How about maybe studying something interesting and actually becoming a useful member of society?

cutting

Had the last cutting session of the year at Honbu. There was a big Mochi-tsuki festival down on the street below, so we all assumed that after we cut we'd got some eats, but alas it was all gone by the time we were done. Most folks cut ok, and I demo'd some basics, but I'm so out of practice, I really need to get back into cutting every week.

work x-mas party

Had our company party at the lovely Hotel New Otani up the street. Check out the photos. For some reason, Emiko managed to get into just about every photo. And she was quite drunk, as many folks were. The food, of course, was top notch. Hats off to the chefs of the hotel; the did a spanking good job on the vittles, from the sushi to the stir-fry, fresh curries, and fantastic fruit and dessert assortments.

patents and pop

Patents are, in general, patently silly. Here's a good idea to fix the system.
And while we're talking, why is it I get all the good toys in Japan?

bad apple (sauce)

Had my traditional breakfast this morning: some bread, some coffee. Also pulled a cup of apple sauce out of the fridge for some much needed fruit.
Went to work and spent the morning in the bathroom, doubled over in pain. Didn't eat much. Came home early, curled up fetal on the couch.
Haven't had white-hot-iron-poker-in-the-abdomen pain in months, and will be happy to never have it again. Must check expiration date on apple sauce...

eggs

Yes, but do you really really love eggs?

bid'ness illiteracy

My mom is religious in her pursuit of spelling and grammar errors on my blog (no I don't spell check it. What would mom do then?) But believe me, there is worse. The good news is email does not make you illiterate. The bad news is you can't hide your illiteracy anymore what with all the email you send.

big easy

Jeremy went to The South. He and Burt had a good time.
Southern women + food + beverage = New Orleans.
Burt + old southern women = smile.
Jeremy + 3 Pat O'Brien Hurricanes = old southern women start lookin' real good...

heater

Bought me one of them groovy oil heaters from Electrolux. Has two timers to set the desired temp at one-hour increments. Has casters. Is totally silent. Gets warm slowly, cools down slower still. Very toasty. Speaking of which, finally broke down and bought a toaster, too. Convinced myself for the longest time that I didn't need one. I was wrong.