サラリーマンの生活

Ever have one of those times where someone says something or asks you a question and while you know all of the words in the sentence, you have no idea what they are saying? I remember once when my dad asked my girlfriend if there were sandwiches in Japan and she did not respond right away. It’s not that she did not understand English, it’s just such a weird thing to ask that she didn’t really understand what he was getting at (actually, none of us understood what he was getting at).

Anyway, there is a column in the Calendar section in the LA Times called “Bridge” where the author gives hints about playing the game of the same name. The column might as well be written in a foreign language. Here is an example from today’s LA times:

Today’s declarer refused the first trick, and West shifted to a diamond. South captured East’s king and cashed two trumps. When West threw a spade, South had a trump loser and had to worry about his fourth club.

I understand all of the words individually, but I have no idea what that means. It’s like asking if there are sandwiches in Japan.

Here’s an interesting site I came across today: YubNub: a (social) command line for the web. The site is command driven; you type in commands to make it do stuff. For example, entering gim porsche 911 will perform a Google Image Search for the term “porsche 911″. Pretty neat! There are probably thousands of commands (anyone can create their own) and I’ve created two: jeutf8p and ejp.

jeutf8p will search WWWJDIC, an online English<->Japanese dictionary, for a Japanese word and display only the “common words”. For example: "jeutf8p 東京" will take you to this page, showing results for the Japanese word toukyou (Tokyo).

ejp is basically the opposite of the above command. It will search the dictionary for an English word and return the “common words”. So, ejp tokyo will take you to this page.

I think I will have to play around with this site some more.

Last time I was in Japan I bought a ¥2000 (about $20) iTunes card to use with the Japanese iTunes store and I believe I only have a few hundred yen left. Not only do I really enjoy the music, I think the band names that the artists come up with are… quite unique. For example, my current favorite 2 bands are called BUMP OF CHICKEN and RADWIMPS.

What kind of music is it? I guess it would be rock, but you can see for yourself:

• RADWIMPS - オーダーメイド
• BUMP OF CHICKEN - 車輪の唄

Some other bands I’ve bought: GReeeeN, Ellegarden, and MONGOL800.

My best friend was down for the weekend and we went out last night to Fogo de Chãu, a Brazilian BBQ restaurant in Beverly Hills. It was incredible. We both felt that bacon-wrapped fillet mignon should be illegal, but we ate it anyway. Everything was delicious. If there is a Brazilian BBQ place near you, you should definitely check it out!

The only bad part was that now I no longer want to see or think about meat. This will probably only last for a few more hours, however.

Sorry for no updates at all. The last few weeks my family and I have been in the process of moving; a process that was completed on Saturday. We’re still unpacking so I’m sure this server will go down again for a bit, later on.

The house we moved to is an older town house, but it’s up in the hills so it’s pretty quiet. We’re renting the house for now and in the less-than-a-week that we’ve been here we have had to call an emergency plumber once, discovered that the 50’s era dryer does not work, the 70s era stove sparks a lot but does not light and until Tuesday, there was a problem with the phone line which meant no phone or internet. Also, I swear the second floor was designed with nightingale floors because no matter where you walk, or how deftly you try to avoid certain spots, the floors will always creak and groan. But, like I said, we’re only renting and it is up in the hills (we can see downtown LA from the balcony), and it’s not that much further to my work, so for right now I think it will be OK.

Lastly, in the grand tradition of Japan’s infatuation with food, I present the iPod Nano Kalbi! Yes, for only 6980円 (on sale from 8980円!), you too can get a case for your iPod Nano which will transform it into a delicious piece of meat! It even comes packaged in the standard meat pack!

Speaking of delicious, the font on the ad reminds me of a particular Japanese restaurant: 牛角. (Warning: vegetarians should not view that link). Doesn’t that movie just make your mouth water?

I got back to the US this morning. The flight was pretty bumpy, but otherwise no problems. Now I need to rest up and get ready for work tomorrow!

K and I got back from Hakone (箱根) on Monday. It was a lot of fun; we saw a lot of the famous places like the Hakone Open Air Museum (彫刻の森), and the Fujiya Hotel (富士屋ホテル). We also went to Yunessun (ユネッサン), which is a “hot springs spa resort and water park.” We went in all of the themed baths (towards the bottom) and for me, the coffee one was the best. It really smelled like coffee! Lastly, we went to Owakudani (大涌谷) which is basically the remains of an old volcano where they dip eggs into the boiling hot water and because of the chemicals in the water, the egg’s shell turns black. The eggs were good but the sulfer smell was pretty strong.

I spent the day Tuesday at K’s house relaxing and then packing up my stuff and moving to a hotel near her work. After K got off of work, we went to dinner at Rak Thai, a thai restaurant near here.

Oh, for my birthday, K got me a CD that I wanted (BUMP OF CHICKEN’s ユグドラシル), and we went shopping at Odaiba (お台場) where she bought me some clothes from Naminori Tatsujin (波乗達人).

Today, Wednesday, I spent the day by myself wandering around Tokyo. I went to the Imperial Palace (皇居), then walked from there to Iidabashi (飯田橋). From there, I got on a train and made my way to Osaki (大崎) and met K for lunch. After lunch, I went to Harajuku (原宿) and walked around Meiji Shrine (明治神宮) and Omotesan Street (表参道). From there, I took another train to Shinjuku (新宿) and went to Bic Camera (ビックカメラ) to look at the electronics. However, with the dollar being so bad, it’s probably not wise to buy anything. (Though I was looking at a new digital camera. My current one has been giving me problems).

I went to Takashimaya (高島屋) and bought some dessert and then got on the Yamanote Line (山手線) and came back to my hotel. Thankfully the dessert didn’t melt!

Tomorrow is a national holiday, so K and I will be together, but I’m not sure what we’re going to do yet.