Had lunch at Toyoda with the assorted grandparentals. P's parents were surprised as they weren't expecting the USA contingent. Masa had a wee too much drink and took a nice nap.
Afterwards we checked out the Mitsui Museum and had a 'bucks break before heading home and catching the start of the rain.
From: hiroko.kurodaAnd that's pretty much all you need to know about the Kuroda Family.
Sent: 05/22/2008 08:54 AM ZE9
To: Renfield Kuroda
Subject: mouth wash
She drunk it some this morning, and her face became red. I guess ethanol in it worked, so she’s pretty drunk. We have to hide it or stop using it, otherwise she’ll be alcoholic.
Took the day off to hang out in Arisugawa Park with Ton and her school mates for Sports Day. Tonchan was feeling particularly shy so didn't do much until we had lunch and she ran around a bit. P went to work for the afternoon so I took the Tonchalizer to check out the sword display at the Okura Museum and then we went into my office for a bit before meeting P for dinner. Burgers and clam chowder at Homework's in Hiroo.
A fine evening of basic late-night foolishness. Here The Vid enjoys a fat Cuban stogie, ignorning the rain. We carried on until the wee hours. I left early and still didn't get to bed until 4am. Word is the true believers greeted the sunrise with a final toast. Strong. Sleepy.
This year the Kanda Matsuri was ura, aka small and low-key. Still, it's pretty sweet. They pass right in front of Honbu Dojo and go up Chuo Dori to Kanda Station, then actually enter the inner Emporer's Palace; one of the only festivals that is allowed to do so.
P finally took me to the most excellent Suzuran Ramen in Shibuya. Oh. My. OHMY. I have a new favourite noodleage! They have four kinds of noodle, one of which is great big ribbony style. All the ramen comes separate from the soup so that you can dip as you like, which is great because I'm a noodle kinda guy not a soup man. And topped with the tenderest stewed pork kakuni that absolutely melts in your mouth...so very, very good.
(That's Graham, Sly, and Julie Benz)
Managed to get out of work early enough to catch the premiere of Rambo. Wow. That is one violent movie. I mean, body parts and guts and exploding heads violent. Must have been SO much fun to make.
After the flick we had the killer meat and veggies fest at Oak Door. Ahh, sausages!
Met Graham at the loverly Peninsula and we grabbed some typical lunch -- tuna sashimi bowl -- in the basement of the office building across the way, then checked out cool digital cameras at Bic Camera. Rambo premiere opens tomorrow and he gave me a couple tix (thanks!) -- hope I can get out of work in time to check it out; should be a hoot!
Baba spent the night so the next day, after going to the slide park and taking a quick nap at Starbucks,we all got some healthy lunch at Eat Your Greens and then hit the bread store.
I've walked about 25 kilometers in the past 4 days, keeping Tonchalizer occupied as she is weened from The Breast Milk. She's actually doing well and, not surprisingly, eating alot more too. She wakes up a couple times during the night, but it's easy enough to get her back to sleep soon. I have even put her to bed a couple times. She screams her head off for 15 minutes, then puts her head on my shoulder and is snoring in five minutes. Keeping her running around all day and giving her real food to eat seems to work.
Soon she will graduate from puppy-like small monkey to actual little human. Though if the beastlies at the playground are any indication, I'd prefer her to stay a small monkey. She can barely talk but at least says please and thank you. Some of the kids in the park are little tyrants. Then again half of them are there with their nannies, and half the parents who do even bother to show up spend most of the time reading, chatting with each other, or on the cell. I was one of the only people over the age of 8 actually climbing around on the slide. Which is most excellent, thank you very much.
Took another big walkabout with Tonchan today. In the morning we ended up by Warou Flats, the cool old apartment building from the 1930s. Ton was asleep and I had my camera so I took some random shots in color and back and white. Totally gray, cloudy, shadowless day so the black and whites are kinda flat, but it's still a cool wooden building.
7.8 kilometers. That's how much I walked about with the Tonchabeastly today. Started in the morning going up to the robot slide park, then she took a nap in the stroller for a while and we had lunch at Miri's. After that joined P and hit Roppongi Hills before heading home.
Spent the day goofing off with Tonchan in the park and taking photos. Tried some black and white with the trusty GRII. I think this one came out quite nice; good contrast, nice shadows, decent balance.
To be honest I can never remember what all the ISO, f/stop, shutterspeed, etc. settings do. Luckily I have set each one to be adjusted by a different knob on the camera, and I twiddle them all until the little indicator is right in the middle of the line that tells me it's ok to to hit the shutter button.
Dare I ask what the professional photographers in my family think?
