jiji horsey

jiji horsey
Originally uploaded by renfield

papa bumped his head on the bus

papa bumped his head on the bus
Originally uploaded by renfield

Luckily an orange bandaid saved him from hemorrhaging to death.

hiroshima

R1011058
Originally uploaded by renfield

Did two nights at Sekitei in Hiroshima.
Flew down, took the bus to the station, train to Oonoura, and then the ryokan van. As expected, most excellent room. First floor had two rooms off of each side of the entrance, plus a little lounge and access to the main garden. Upstairs was another room with a big wooden bathtub in the middle. Totally. Awesome.
They also have a new private bath; a two story affair with a big bath in the middle of the downstairs and a shower in the ceiling, and then a lounge upstairs with a small bath on the balcony. This one is all modern and clean design, different from the one we used last time which was all old school and homey.
Perfect weather for two days too so we wandered around Miyajima in a sunny but breezy way.
Tonchan was a trooper; only broke two glasses and hated the band-aid on her hand more than the minor cut. She also inhaled momiji-manju (red bean paste sweets) and was generally eating the whole time. She ran around during the day so much she slept soundly all night the whole time.

taco rice @ eat more greens

taco rice @ eat more greens
Originally uploaded by renfield

Met Chiepon for lunch -- Happy Birthday! -- at Eat More Greens. We walked up to Roppongi Hills and played at Børnelund, then walked up to Midtown and got some bevvies. Took a taxi to National Azabu and stocked up on groceries (mostly animal crackers and apple juice) before heading home and ordering pizza. Tomorrow: Hiroshima!

jiji and baba

jiji and baba
Originally uploaded by renfield

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.

drunk

So methinks my daughter has a drinking problem. She got into the habit several months ago of drinking mouthwash. I don't mean playing with, or spilling, or sipping, I am talking great big gulps by the mouthful. She is particularly fond of Listerine Fresh Mint, and though she is incapable of removing the childproof cap herself, like the Quality Parents that we are, P and I often give her a capful or two whilst she's watching mommy get ready in the morning.
So yesterday P sends me one of The Best Emails A Parent Can Ever Get:

From: hiroko.kuroda
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.

And that's pretty much all you need to know about the Kuroda Family.

shibuya

After post-work bevvies at which we mainly told increasingly ludicrous stories about obnoxious industry veterans, I headed to Shibuya to do a right and proper bitch session with jorge. Of course we feasted on proper ramen whilst doing so.
I have now gone to Suzuran so many times in the past two weeks, all the guys working there know me and greet me as a regular. Perhaps it's time to eat less ramen...
After stuffing ourselves silly jorge needed his caffeine fix so we walked over to the 'bucks at the crossing and planted ourselves at the window seats second floor to people watch the amusing festivities of hachiko and whine about the corporate inane.

our dangerous stistical ignorance

The single most pernicious threat to liberty today is humanity's natural
tendency to misunderstand the statistics of rare events...[more]

jorge

jorge
Originally uploaded by renfield

Uncle Jorge is in town this week for supersecret work things. Last night we had yakiniku dinner at Sankoen, and today we spent the day walking around Harajuku. We had gyoza lunch and sushi dinner and did a whole lotta walking in between.

clam chowder

clam chowder
Originally uploaded by renfield

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.

yak in japan

Some things in Japan fail to surprise me. The gross inability of the National Police Agency to deal with the organized crime is one of them. This article by probably the only foreigner to know about such things is illuminating but sadly not surprising.

mogambos

mogambos
Originally uploaded by renfield

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.

matsuri

matsuri
Originally uploaded by renfield

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.

moustache

moustache
Originally uploaded by renfield

monkey eats banana

monkey eats banana
Originally uploaded by renfield

suzuran ramen

suzuran ramen
Originally uploaded by renfield

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.

rambo

rambo
Originally uploaded by renfield

(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!

graham @ peninsula

graham @ peninsula
Originally uploaded by renfield

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!

bread with mama and baba

bread with mama and baba
Originally uploaded by renfield

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.

ice chai latte

ice chai latte
Originally uploaded by renfield