shopping
Originally uploaded by renfield.
carnage
First of all, it's just too goddamn hot. 'Nuf said.
Went to check out a couple more international pre-schools for the Tonchalizer. Big schools, small schools, English schools, Japanese schools...lotsa options. Guess the most important things are:
* does the schedule work for us?
* do they have room for her?
* are the teachers cute and from New Zealand?
My daughter's education is massively important, obviously. The carnage I can imagine her doing with a box of pencils and a bottle of glue...she's got my genes, so I'm sure she'll be one of those unique kids who requires lots of "quite alone time" in the corner with the restraining belt.
Speaking of carnage, who pulled the bottom out from under the markets? Man I haven't seen it this ugly since the post Y2K internet bubble popped and I was sitting on some really expensive Cisco and Yahoo. Nikkei dropped like 2.4% today, which isn't too bad because it was never really up all that much. But yikes the rest of the world is feeling it.
This isn't any subprime fallout, this is your basic, run-of-the-mill over-reaction stupidity. All the talking heads on CNN and BloombergTV tell everyone the subprime shakeout is squeezing the big lenders and for some reason all the couch-traders and soho day traders think it's somehow relevant, and start selling out of everything, chasing the bottom.
Ah, but we can't blame retail, because the "professionals" have been caught with many a pant leg around the ankle, eh. The intelligence of crowds, they say?
At least I bought some reasonably cheap dollars...could have done better but I don't exactly sit around all day watching the FX tickers and punting currencies. I sit around all day reading Japanese securities law and punting term sheets and product descriptions and making little charts with arrows.
It's actually kind of fun, the whole "product structuring" thing; if only I actually knew what I was doing. I think my main job is to keep all the interested parties in the room from killing each other, find the one thing we can agree on, and drill on that until we have a workable product that
a) makes money for us and the client, and
b) keeps everyone out of jail.
Of course a is easy if you ignore b, but all that money isn't going to buy you much more than smokes and tv privileges in prison.
I honestly believe that the law is meant to be followed. Just sometimes the rules are hard; incomplete, a bit vague, kinda out-dated. All the more reason to scrub it down, figure it out, do the right thing, and come out shiny. Clients love it, regulators love it, and I can proudly tell my mom I am not perpetuating vast evils and carnage.
At least not at work.
Went to check out a couple more international pre-schools for the Tonchalizer. Big schools, small schools, English schools, Japanese schools...lotsa options. Guess the most important things are:
* does the schedule work for us?
* do they have room for her?
* are the teachers cute and from New Zealand?
My daughter's education is massively important, obviously. The carnage I can imagine her doing with a box of pencils and a bottle of glue...she's got my genes, so I'm sure she'll be one of those unique kids who requires lots of "quite alone time" in the corner with the restraining belt.
Speaking of carnage, who pulled the bottom out from under the markets? Man I haven't seen it this ugly since the post Y2K internet bubble popped and I was sitting on some really expensive Cisco and Yahoo. Nikkei dropped like 2.4% today, which isn't too bad because it was never really up all that much. But yikes the rest of the world is feeling it.
This isn't any subprime fallout, this is your basic, run-of-the-mill over-reaction stupidity. All the talking heads on CNN and BloombergTV tell everyone the subprime shakeout is squeezing the big lenders and for some reason all the couch-traders and soho day traders think it's somehow relevant, and start selling out of everything, chasing the bottom.
Ah, but we can't blame retail, because the "professionals" have been caught with many a pant leg around the ankle, eh. The intelligence of crowds, they say?
At least I bought some reasonably cheap dollars...could have done better but I don't exactly sit around all day watching the FX tickers and punting currencies. I sit around all day reading Japanese securities law and punting term sheets and product descriptions and making little charts with arrows.
It's actually kind of fun, the whole "product structuring" thing; if only I actually knew what I was doing. I think my main job is to keep all the interested parties in the room from killing each other, find the one thing we can agree on, and drill on that until we have a workable product that
a) makes money for us and the client, and
b) keeps everyone out of jail.
Of course a is easy if you ignore b, but all that money isn't going to buy you much more than smokes and tv privileges in prison.
I honestly believe that the law is meant to be followed. Just sometimes the rules are hard; incomplete, a bit vague, kinda out-dated. All the more reason to scrub it down, figure it out, do the right thing, and come out shiny. Clients love it, regulators love it, and I can proudly tell my mom I am not perpetuating vast evils and carnage.
At least not at work.
crab, king of the ocean
Ah, the joy that is traditional gift-giving in Japan!
Every summer we send various people who have done us right a traditional summer gift, usually some tasty katsuo. In return, Momo's mom and P's childhood friend sent us a huge case of frozen, boiled king crab legs.
Oh, the mighty feast that ensued. Masa came over to help eat, and I diligently separated flesh from shell, resulting in a huge pile of crabby goodness.
After stuffing ourselves, we still had a massive pile of crabmeat leftover, so I made up a huge pan of crab fried rice for later.
Post-dinner I was feeling the food coma and dozed off on the couch for a bit. Crab power!
Every summer we send various people who have done us right a traditional summer gift, usually some tasty katsuo. In return, Momo's mom and P's childhood friend sent us a huge case of frozen, boiled king crab legs.
Oh, the mighty feast that ensued. Masa came over to help eat, and I diligently separated flesh from shell, resulting in a huge pile of crabby goodness.
After stuffing ourselves, we still had a massive pile of crabmeat leftover, so I made up a huge pan of crab fried rice for later.
Post-dinner I was feeling the food coma and dozed off on the couch for a bit. Crab power!
akiba
At Roland's behest, I spent the day in Akihabara with Madeleine Brand (and her posse) host of NPR's Day to Day.
They were working on a story about Japanese manga and anime's portrayal of environmental issues, and I took them around the hood to see all the standard stuff. Akiba was in full Sunday swing, with cosplay kids, street singers, cafe maids, custom doll shops and awesome action figures, robots and PC parts, comics and eclectic electronics.
With a mic in my face and the odd probing question, I waxed non-eloquently about a variety of anime and manga topics, so on some show in the future, I may very well make my radio debut!
They were working on a story about Japanese manga and anime's portrayal of environmental issues, and I took them around the hood to see all the standard stuff. Akiba was in full Sunday swing, with cosplay kids, street singers, cafe maids, custom doll shops and awesome action figures, robots and PC parts, comics and eclectic electronics.
With a mic in my face and the odd probing question, I waxed non-eloquently about a variety of anime and manga topics, so on some show in the future, I may very well make my radio debut!
soba
Before we headed off to Ginza, we stopped by Sarashina Horii for some soba. I went for the futouchi (fat, boonies style) which was seriously al dente and damn fine.
Checked out the antique faire at Matsuya, but besides the crazy old lady who sold me a nice kimono last time, and the crazy old lady and her husband who sold us the hand-made geta last time, wasn't much impressive stuff.
Checked out the antique faire at Matsuya, but besides the crazy old lady who sold me a nice kimono last time, and the crazy old lady and her husband who sold us the hand-made geta last time, wasn't much impressive stuff.
slob
slob
Originally uploaded by renfield.
Parenting is War. One of the many battles I lose: feeding. The Tonchabeast will not be sated. The Tonchasaurus will not be pacified. The Tonchalizer will not be satisfied.
I am entirely unclear as to how she managed to get food onto her eyebrows. Nevertheless, she ate everything (excluding the bits spread all over her face, arms, clothes, table, high chair, and floor.)
shinhinanomoto
shinhinanomachi
Originally uploaded by renfield.
Many nefarious dealings with The Shady in town, so after multiple debauchery nights, we required some quality seafood and fried chicken. A final bowl of salty sea slug finished off the evening meal before several bottles of champagne down the road.
A good time was had by all.
debauchery
Big Boss in town and the typhoon clearing out, so the whole team headed out to dinner. I came late because I had to teach at Honbu.
We took over the back room of 57 before heading up to Orange at Midtown. Vertical appetizers were a bit silly but the french fries with truffles was quality.
Sent the foreigners into the depths of sketchiness in Roppongi whilst the Japanese crowd went for late-night ramen and I dragged myself home at 2:30.
We took over the back room of 57 before heading up to Orange at Midtown. Vertical appetizers were a bit silly but the french fries with truffles was quality.
Sent the foreigners into the depths of sketchiness in Roppongi whilst the Japanese crowd went for late-night ramen and I dragged myself home at 2:30.
italiano iai
taikai done!
done!
Originally uploaded by renfield.
The taikai was a raging success. 250 competitors and the foreigners put in a strong showing. There was a big Italian/Belgian showing this year, and the son of the sensei in Rome won the 2dan division, Brian took the 3dan division, and Elvis took it home for 4dan. Considering I seriously have not trained for a year, I did okay. Won my first two rounds, then lost to Tominaga, whom I beat last year for the championship. But he ended up losing to Hoshina who took the top spot. That makes two for her, one for me, and two for him. So I better get back into shape for next year!
After the taikai we devolved into the standard debauchery.
palace hotel
Had a big work thing at the Palace Hotel. Net net, it went well, and the food at the end reception was of course awesome.
I dig the Palace Hotel. It is located, as you can imagine, across the street from the Emporer's Palace. It has the chill '50's stylish thing going on, but does smell like the fifties like the Okura does. That place just reeks of old politicians and gangsters and hair grease. The Palace is all class.
After the hotel thang I was supposed to go teach, but the building that Honbu is in had a blackout and so training was canceled. Random,but the building is older that several emporers so not surprising.
I dig the Palace Hotel. It is located, as you can imagine, across the street from the Emporer's Palace. It has the chill '50's stylish thing going on, but does smell like the fifties like the Okura does. That place just reeks of old politicians and gangsters and hair grease. The Palace is all class.
After the hotel thang I was supposed to go teach, but the building that Honbu is in had a blackout and so training was canceled. Random,but the building is older that several emporers so not surprising.
tanabata summer festival
summer festival
Originally uploaded by renfield.
P was at her junior high school reunion in Ginza, so the Tonchabeast and I took the bus back to Azabujyuban, had some chili at Cravings, and then walked home. As we passed Zenpukuji, there were little kids everywhere dressed for the summer. Must have been some elementary school kids' Tanabata special or something, because all the local teachers were dressed up in yukata as well and the kids were writing their wishes on colored paper and tying them to the tree set up just for that purpose.
budo is...technology?
The Viriginia crew has come to town for next week's taikai, so we all went out to dinner with Gosoke and the rest of them. The Big S was in fine form and after several grapefruit sours he stood up and declared, in his best English:
"You know Asakusa? I am shitamachi boy, I am slum boy."
I explained that shitamachi in English is more colloquially "the hood", so he explained "I am Asakusa is my hood."
He then proceeded to explain that even with a broken toe he can persevere:
"I am konjo, you know?"
Acutally no, no one knows that konjo means "to overcome hardship." But you are now known as Konjo-san. I then explained that he broke his toe by goofing off and playing karate fighter with another of our 59-going-on-12-years-old members. Good to be young at heart, even if old of toe.
Finally, when he saw an awesome display of the brute power of our American brethren (that grapefruit half never knew what hit it) he announced:
"Budo is...technology, not power."
Uh, "technique", big guy. Technique, not technology.
However it was too late; a new t-shirt idea was born.
"You know Asakusa? I am shitamachi boy, I am slum boy."
I explained that shitamachi in English is more colloquially "the hood", so he explained "I am Asakusa is my hood."
He then proceeded to explain that even with a broken toe he can persevere:
"I am konjo, you know?"
Acutally no, no one knows that konjo means "to overcome hardship." But you are now known as Konjo-san. I then explained that he broke his toe by goofing off and playing karate fighter with another of our 59-going-on-12-years-old members. Good to be young at heart, even if old of toe.
Finally, when he saw an awesome display of the brute power of our American brethren (that grapefruit half never knew what hit it) he announced:
"Budo is...technology, not power."
Uh, "technique", big guy. Technique, not technology.
However it was too late; a new t-shirt idea was born.
BUDO IS TECHNOLOGY, not power.
- by Mr. Konjo-san
- by Mr. Konjo-san
only for parents
Testing my new cell phone's video capability, I present: Tonchan, sitting on the bed. And, not doing much:
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