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Originally uploaded by renfield.
Jen's in town for a few days, hanging with the ladies and taking care of bidness.
farewell chahan
Chahan ended his 6-month run in Tokyo and is back home to London after a brief stopover in South America for some much needed beach time.
We started the evening with proper pub munchies at Finn McCools, and then ended up walking over to Nishi Azabu for Kenbokeh because Video-D and the Knitter needed some right proper curry action.
Got home about 1ish; a smallish night out.
We started the evening with proper pub munchies at Finn McCools, and then ended up walking over to Nishi Azabu for Kenbokeh because Video-D and the Knitter needed some right proper curry action.
Got home about 1ish; a smallish night out.
punching = sore legs
Not sure if this means I'm doing it right or wrong, but after an hour of 3 minute rounds consisting entirely of punch and recover combos against a heavy bag and pads...my left thigh is really, really sore...?
sick P
There is some gnarly stomach norovirus going around that seems to be The Sickness this winter. I had it a month ago (lost 4 kilos and still keeping it off!), Tonchan had a bit of a tummy ache last week and now P got slammed. She stayed home from work so I took Tonchan to school in the morning and then after lunch picked her up and took her home, then came home from work as quickly as I could to take of Ton with P in bed sick.
When I dropped of Ton in the morning she cried when the teacher took her out of my arms...and when I picked her up to go home in the afternoon she cried when I took her out of the teacher's arms! Make up your mind, kid!
Tonchan @ school
(In case you're wondering Tonchan is the Asian-looking kid on the right, not the blonde dude with monkey.)
When I dropped of Ton in the morning she cried when the teacher took her out of my arms...and when I picked her up to go home in the afternoon she cried when I took her out of the teacher's arms! Make up your mind, kid!
Tonchan @ school
(In case you're wondering Tonchan is the Asian-looking kid on the right, not the blonde dude with monkey.)
iai weekend
Three day weekend (Coming of Age Day on Monday) so did bunches of iai.
On Sunday we had the official First Practice of the Year. Upwards of 200 members showed up and Gosoke had me run the advanced group. We cranked through a few kata in excruciating detail, comparing how certain bits and bobs are the same no matter what direction you move nor what kata you do.
After practice we trundled down the street in the freezing wind and took over the back half of a local izakaya for several hours. We commandeered a bunch of tables and ate and drank for a while, getting progressively more silly.
The next day started early; got to Honbu before 9am, grabbed my gear, and walked down the street to help load the van for the cutting session. We drove down the street to the gym and unloaded, got set up and started about 10am. Most folks cut okay (only doing half targets though) and I did a couple decent cuts on full targets. Still way rusty -- need to get training more!
In the afternoon we headed back to Honbu for Kagamibiraki; the opening of the mochi. Basically an excuse to eat lots of rice paste and other stuff, drink a bunch, and be generally silly again.
P and Tonchan came by and of course got all the attention, leaving P a chance to eat for a couple hours.
On Sunday we had the official First Practice of the Year. Upwards of 200 members showed up and Gosoke had me run the advanced group. We cranked through a few kata in excruciating detail, comparing how certain bits and bobs are the same no matter what direction you move nor what kata you do.
After practice we trundled down the street in the freezing wind and took over the back half of a local izakaya for several hours. We commandeered a bunch of tables and ate and drank for a while, getting progressively more silly.
The next day started early; got to Honbu before 9am, grabbed my gear, and walked down the street to help load the van for the cutting session. We drove down the street to the gym and unloaded, got set up and started about 10am. Most folks cut okay (only doing half targets though) and I did a couple decent cuts on full targets. Still way rusty -- need to get training more!
In the afternoon we headed back to Honbu for Kagamibiraki; the opening of the mochi. Basically an excuse to eat lots of rice paste and other stuff, drink a bunch, and be generally silly again.
P and Tonchan came by and of course got all the attention, leaving P a chance to eat for a couple hours.
fighting (un)fitness
Finally got my lazy butt to the dojo for the first time in forever. Taking advantage of the fact that I had some nasty stomach virus a couple weeks ago and lost a ton of weight (down to less than 73 kilos!) I figured it would be easier for my outta shape body.
Oh, the glorious pain. Inoue-sensei was glad to see me and worked me through several 3 minute rounds on the heavy bag, for a solid hour, with one 2 minute water break. Now, the day after, I can barely lift my arms, my ass is sore, I have a blister on the ball of my left foot, and I weighed exactly 72.0 kilos this morning.
So to celebrate I had a HUGE shabu shabu lunch, with a second helping of rice and extra pork to go with the double-plate of beef.
I think this is the new schedule: Tues and Thur skip outta work just after the lunch rush and hit the 1-2pm DAGEKI class. If I also manage to get to Honbu Dojo on Wed nights to teach sword, I might actually get into some reasonable shape by the end of the year.
Oh, the glorious pain. Inoue-sensei was glad to see me and worked me through several 3 minute rounds on the heavy bag, for a solid hour, with one 2 minute water break. Now, the day after, I can barely lift my arms, my ass is sore, I have a blister on the ball of my left foot, and I weighed exactly 72.0 kilos this morning.
So to celebrate I had a HUGE shabu shabu lunch, with a second helping of rice and extra pork to go with the double-plate of beef.
I think this is the new schedule: Tues and Thur skip outta work just after the lunch rush and hit the 1-2pm DAGEKI class. If I also manage to get to Honbu Dojo on Wed nights to teach sword, I might actually get into some reasonable shape by the end of the year.
fire alarm!
fire alarm!
Originally uploaded by renfield.
Came out of the bath, put on my PJs, and heard the most horrendous racket. The fire alarm was sounding! Got P and Tonchan to get dressed and get outside whilst I ran the stairs checking the floors for smoke. Didn't see anything but called the fire department just in case after I called the maintenance company.
Outside we met our new upstairs neighbors who just moved in, literally. This mini firetruck arrived and about 10 firemen checked the building, then the security company dude arrived and turned off the alarm. As suspected it was a false alarm, possibly caused by the new neighbors turning on the heater for the first time in a while, though that seems pretty suspect.
Anyway it's an old building and good to know the fire alarm works!
ebt gang
The Stedt in town with family and the Spike posse leaving for HK soon, so we rallied the old EBT team for pizza and parenting.
librarian to the stars
Most awesomest guy you'll ever mean, and a veritable cornucopia of knowledge. The man, the myth, the legend: David Smith.
these boots are made for walkin'
R1010135.JPG
Originally uploaded by renfield.
Did some shopping in Shibuya and had lunch at Seibu. Ton loves riding the escalator and attempting to walk the stairs.
Algorithm March - Sony robot
What to do with the coolest, most advanced small robot in the world: put it on a kid's show doing the Alogrithm March dance.
old and new friends
R1010123
Originally uploaded by renfield.
The Man from LA came for a visit; haven't seen him in forever! Got some burgers at Midtown and then goofed of with Tonchan.
resolutions
And now it's time for the traditional new year's resolutions. In no particular order, and with little hope of making it to March let alone all year:
- Clean up my god damn English. Use more creative turns-o'-phrase and exercise the thesaurus to reduce swearing.
Hedge: reduce swearing, in the finance industry? - <70 kilos. Eat right, eat less, exercise more. Walk 10,000 steps a day (walk home from work, take the stairs if it's less than 4 floors away), get my lazy butt back into the dojo 3 times a week.
Hedge: latest health check said my ideal weight is 65 k. Yeah, if I was some skinny little Japanese dude. Alternatively, I could cut off a leg. - Sit every day.
Hedge: Nishijima-roshi says to sit twice a day. Does sitting and watching TV count?
happy new year!
2007-nengajyo5
Originally uploaded by renfield.
Slept in like the lazy bum I am, ate the traditional left overs breakfast (spaghetti and brussels sprouts this year), and headed out to Hikawa Jinja for the traditional first-shrine-visit of the year.
Then wandered up to Roppongi Hills, lost a glove, went back and found it, checked out some mediocre taiko drumming, and came home to play with my newly arrived digital camera.
end-of-year house cleaning
I took all the stuff I don't need/use and sold it at Sofmap in Akiba. Wasn't too crowded but still it took a couple of hours so I did some wandering and hit the Tully's to do some reading and drink a soy cocoa. When all was said and done I got nearly 50,000 points, so I headed off to the main Sofmap to pick out a new digital camera.
Both Daboo and Royborg rave about the Ricoh GR 2, and it has the one dorky feature I want: manually adjustable f-stop so I can do cool depth-of-field photos.
Of course Sofmap was all sold out of the GR 2 so I'll have to order it online.
Oh yeah, now would be a good time to actually learn what the hell f-stop means...
Both Daboo and Royborg rave about the Ricoh GR 2, and it has the one dorky feature I want: manually adjustable f-stop so I can do cool depth-of-field photos.
Of course Sofmap was all sold out of the GR 2 so I'll have to order it online.
Oh yeah, now would be a good time to actually learn what the hell f-stop means...
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