Thursday, September 30, 2004
Blue Jumpsuits? Sign me the hell up!
Lunch today was great, I went out with a few people from work and a good feed. Nothing beats it. I am becoming somewhat of a conoisseur of the local restaurant scene as a result of my steadfast refusal to eat at the company cafeteria. I would rather chug a bucketful of lark's vomit than subject myself to the twisted interpretation our cafeteria workers have of 'food'.
My elitist epicurism aside, getting to Wabisabi for lunch involved a short walk outside. It is not often I will say this, but the weather in Tokyo today is utterly sublime. The sweltering heat of Summer has worn off, the frequent Autumn rains had departed and the icy grip of Winter had not yet taken hold. It was warm, and fine, with the occasional cloud and a pleasant breeze. Meanwhile, I am locked in an airconditioned office, looking wistfully out the windows at this glorious day. I don't mind rainy days, or cold days, or really hot days at work. But days like this, I just can't bear to be inside.
Days like today should be spent on balconies, listening to the radio and throwing back alcoholic beverages while watching the world pass by. The fact that I am putting up a second post today should indicate just how busy I am at work, and how neccessary my presence is in the office today.
It is days like today, I look over at the demolition teams bringing down the buildings across the road, in their white hard-hats and blue jumpsuits, toiling away. Normally, I would think something like "That job would suck. Imagine having to work other there in this heat/cold/rain."
Today? I would like nothing more than a blue jumpsuit, a sledgehammer and a dose of autumn sunshine.
My elitist epicurism aside, getting to Wabisabi for lunch involved a short walk outside. It is not often I will say this, but the weather in Tokyo today is utterly sublime. The sweltering heat of Summer has worn off, the frequent Autumn rains had departed and the icy grip of Winter had not yet taken hold. It was warm, and fine, with the occasional cloud and a pleasant breeze. Meanwhile, I am locked in an airconditioned office, looking wistfully out the windows at this glorious day. I don't mind rainy days, or cold days, or really hot days at work. But days like this, I just can't bear to be inside.
Days like today should be spent on balconies, listening to the radio and throwing back alcoholic beverages while watching the world pass by. The fact that I am putting up a second post today should indicate just how busy I am at work, and how neccessary my presence is in the office today.
It is days like today, I look over at the demolition teams bringing down the buildings across the road, in their white hard-hats and blue jumpsuits, toiling away. Normally, I would think something like "That job would suck. Imagine having to work other there in this heat/cold/rain."
Today? I would like nothing more than a blue jumpsuit, a sledgehammer and a dose of autumn sunshine.
Malaise
Yup. That just about sums it up. After an exceptionally busy day yesterday, dealing with Mr. O, the Nifsan business in Australia and trying to get acquainted with the details of our new UK opeation I barely had time for lunch, let along time to spend typing here. Contrastingly, just over one hour into my work day today, malaise and a general air of 'I can't be fucked' has descended and all I want to do is book one of the meeting rooms with the soft leather chairs and go for a nap. It's not that I am exceptionally tired, just that I can't be bothered to do much else. I can see myself spending pretty much the next 7 or so hours finding ways to kill time.
As it turns out, the lastest and greatest plan for the new UK factory is being presented to the Board as I type, so hopefully sometime this week, I will be let in on the results of said meeting and have a slightly better idea of what is going on. We have a new boss being transferred to our departement on Monday, who I have learned will be playing a fairly large role in this UK business, and I am expected to work with him. I only hope he is slightly more competent than the average memeber of management around here, otherwise it looks like this new project will be a 9-way clusterfuck from here to Herefordshire. Not that the complete and utter failure of this project would surprise me. In fact, I would probably be smugly satisfied if it did. I have after all been doomsaying it from the start. Of course, the fact that my name will probably be attached to it in some way, shape or form would significantly reduce my satisfaction.
The again, I am probably just bitter because they have sidelined my pet project in the Czech Republic in favour of a second UK factory. Ho-hum.
Outside of work, life has been decidedly uneventful. I visited my usual yakitori restaurant on Monday night and guzzled down some Nihon-shu (sake). I normally opt for beer, but I think I could develop a taste for it. Smoky bar-dwelling aside, the only other thing that has really been capturing my attention of late is a particularly delectable book.
Iron Sunrise, by Charles Stross, while almost Peter Jackson-esque in appearance is undoubtedly one of the best works of modern sci-fi I have read in a while (granted, I haven't been reading huge amounts of fiction of late) but it is superbly written, and offers a slightly different twist on the future of human society when compared to most sci-fi writers. With the exception of Peter F. Hamilton's superlative Night's Dawn Triology, I have found modern writers in this genre to be very similar, and uniformly drab. Iron Sunrise on the other hand is engrossing enough that I have nearly missed my train station once or twice.
With Burt Rutan and SpaceShipOne likely to scoop the Ansari X-prize this Monday, and Sir Richard Branson's recent acquisition of their techonology to create the Virgin Galactic fleet of commercial air/spacecraft, the future is looking closer than we often think.
As it turns out, the lastest and greatest plan for the new UK factory is being presented to the Board as I type, so hopefully sometime this week, I will be let in on the results of said meeting and have a slightly better idea of what is going on. We have a new boss being transferred to our departement on Monday, who I have learned will be playing a fairly large role in this UK business, and I am expected to work with him. I only hope he is slightly more competent than the average memeber of management around here, otherwise it looks like this new project will be a 9-way clusterfuck from here to Herefordshire. Not that the complete and utter failure of this project would surprise me. In fact, I would probably be smugly satisfied if it did. I have after all been doomsaying it from the start. Of course, the fact that my name will probably be attached to it in some way, shape or form would significantly reduce my satisfaction.
The again, I am probably just bitter because they have sidelined my pet project in the Czech Republic in favour of a second UK factory. Ho-hum.
Outside of work, life has been decidedly uneventful. I visited my usual yakitori restaurant on Monday night and guzzled down some Nihon-shu (sake). I normally opt for beer, but I think I could develop a taste for it. Smoky bar-dwelling aside, the only other thing that has really been capturing my attention of late is a particularly delectable book.
Iron Sunrise, by Charles Stross, while almost Peter Jackson-esque in appearance is undoubtedly one of the best works of modern sci-fi I have read in a while (granted, I haven't been reading huge amounts of fiction of late) but it is superbly written, and offers a slightly different twist on the future of human society when compared to most sci-fi writers. With the exception of Peter F. Hamilton's superlative Night's Dawn Triology, I have found modern writers in this genre to be very similar, and uniformly drab. Iron Sunrise on the other hand is engrossing enough that I have nearly missed my train station once or twice.
With Burt Rutan and SpaceShipOne likely to scoop the Ansari X-prize this Monday, and Sir Richard Branson's recent acquisition of their techonology to create the Virgin Galactic fleet of commercial air/spacecraft, the future is looking closer than we often think.
Tuesday, September 28, 2004
Tea and Crumpets?
Well, it is semi-official:
My name has been handed down from the powers that be on the 10th floor and placed on the list of people officially involved in setting up our 2nd factory in the UK. What does it all mean?
I'll get back to you on that one.
Chances are it will involve a 1-2 week jaunt to somewhere near Birmingham to check out factory sites, meet the locals working on the project and (probably) sample the local ales. All in all, it probably won't be too bad - aside from the jetlag and long, economy class flights.
The real test will come a little later when I could well wind up in the team sent over there for the six-month duration of the 'setting up' period. While a change would be welcome, six months, probably including a fair whack of English winter, living out of my suitcase could get a bit trying. It could also completely destroy my plans of coming back to Australia to belatedly celebrate my 21st in late April/early May. Which would, needless to say, piss me right the hell off.
We shall see how that goes.
To make matters worse, the Birmingham Beer Festival was 2 weeks ago, so I have already missed it. Bugger.
My name has been handed down from the powers that be on the 10th floor and placed on the list of people officially involved in setting up our 2nd factory in the UK. What does it all mean?
I'll get back to you on that one.
Chances are it will involve a 1-2 week jaunt to somewhere near Birmingham to check out factory sites, meet the locals working on the project and (probably) sample the local ales. All in all, it probably won't be too bad - aside from the jetlag and long, economy class flights.
The real test will come a little later when I could well wind up in the team sent over there for the six-month duration of the 'setting up' period. While a change would be welcome, six months, probably including a fair whack of English winter, living out of my suitcase could get a bit trying. It could also completely destroy my plans of coming back to Australia to belatedly celebrate my 21st in late April/early May. Which would, needless to say, piss me right the hell off.
We shall see how that goes.
To make matters worse, the Birmingham Beer Festival was 2 weeks ago, so I have already missed it. Bugger.
Monday, September 27, 2004
A 1-Day Weekend
OK - here comes a rapid recap of the last few days - I don't have the energy to write anything too in-depth at the moment...
Thursday Night:
After meeting Kat, Dawn and Danielle (who had spent the afternoon shopping in Ueno) at the station near work, we follwed standard Bond Uni tradition (as alumni, we feel it is neccessary to uphld university values wherever possible) and we went drinking again. At an izakaya in Kawasaki this time.
This one was made more challenging by the fact that the menu was totally Japanese, and I became translator for the night. I guess it worked well enough, we ate well if nothing else. The minor issues of the staff laughing at us, and Dawn and Dan getting blatantly busted trying to swipe chopsticks from nearby tables just made the night more interesting.
After a brief wander, and a short pit-stop at Mr. Donut (mmmmm... donuts) we squeezed in about 90 minutes of (particularly vociferous and energetic) karaoke before heading home.
Friday:
Very little happened today. I went to work, came home and we had some really good noodles for dinner. (There is a great little noodle place right next to my station) and I gorged myself.
Saturday:
My company likes to boast that it's employees work a certain number of days each year, so to combat problems like public holidays, occasionally we are called in to work on Saturdays. Needless to say, this is a stupid policy, and I hope that the people who devised it die from haemorrhoid infections. So, I bit the bullet and served my 8 hours at work for the day.
A few happenenings... uh... happened.. at work today - I will expand on those a bit later (as in, some other time). Long story short - I may or may not end up spending six months helping to set up a new factory somewhere in the Birmingham area of the UK in the near to mid future. We shall see.
Dinner however, was great. We went to one of my local izakaya, sat down and started ordering - as they 2 guys next to us debated (in Japanese) where we were from. By the time the food arrived, they had started talking to us. Turns out they were brothers and lived in the area, so we stayed and chatted with them for a while, partly because they were good company, partly becuase they were buying us drinks. Eventually we headed home, and they paid for our meal. There might be no such thing a free lunch, but free dinners are certainly attainable.
Sunday:
Inevitably Sunday rolled around - not just any Sunday, but Kat's last day in Japan for a while. For the most part, it was fairly uneventful. I burned a few DVDs and CDs and we ate a hearty lunch of assorted Japansese junk food and Strawberry Fanta (which tastes EXACTLY like Strawberry Chupa-Chups).
In the evening, we headed into Yokohama station and said our goodbyes as Kat took the bus to Narita airport. I have just recieved an email informing me that she made it home, so I am guessing the final leg of her trip went off without a hitch.
And so, after my one day of weekend, here I am, back at work for another week. I just learned that our company has decided on a factory site in the UK, and it is quite possible I will end up going over there for a week or two at some stage in the next month or so. Fun times.
Apologies for this rather uninteresting post, I shall attempt something a bit more readable next time round.
Thursday Night:
After meeting Kat, Dawn and Danielle (who had spent the afternoon shopping in Ueno) at the station near work, we follwed standard Bond Uni tradition (as alumni, we feel it is neccessary to uphld university values wherever possible) and we went drinking again. At an izakaya in Kawasaki this time.
This one was made more challenging by the fact that the menu was totally Japanese, and I became translator for the night. I guess it worked well enough, we ate well if nothing else. The minor issues of the staff laughing at us, and Dawn and Dan getting blatantly busted trying to swipe chopsticks from nearby tables just made the night more interesting.
After a brief wander, and a short pit-stop at Mr. Donut (mmmmm... donuts) we squeezed in about 90 minutes of (particularly vociferous and energetic) karaoke before heading home.
Friday:
Very little happened today. I went to work, came home and we had some really good noodles for dinner. (There is a great little noodle place right next to my station) and I gorged myself.
Saturday:
My company likes to boast that it's employees work a certain number of days each year, so to combat problems like public holidays, occasionally we are called in to work on Saturdays. Needless to say, this is a stupid policy, and I hope that the people who devised it die from haemorrhoid infections. So, I bit the bullet and served my 8 hours at work for the day.
A few happenenings... uh... happened.. at work today - I will expand on those a bit later (as in, some other time). Long story short - I may or may not end up spending six months helping to set up a new factory somewhere in the Birmingham area of the UK in the near to mid future. We shall see.
Dinner however, was great. We went to one of my local izakaya, sat down and started ordering - as they 2 guys next to us debated (in Japanese) where we were from. By the time the food arrived, they had started talking to us. Turns out they were brothers and lived in the area, so we stayed and chatted with them for a while, partly because they were good company, partly becuase they were buying us drinks. Eventually we headed home, and they paid for our meal. There might be no such thing a free lunch, but free dinners are certainly attainable.
Sunday:
Inevitably Sunday rolled around - not just any Sunday, but Kat's last day in Japan for a while. For the most part, it was fairly uneventful. I burned a few DVDs and CDs and we ate a hearty lunch of assorted Japansese junk food and Strawberry Fanta (which tastes EXACTLY like Strawberry Chupa-Chups).
In the evening, we headed into Yokohama station and said our goodbyes as Kat took the bus to Narita airport. I have just recieved an email informing me that she made it home, so I am guessing the final leg of her trip went off without a hitch.
And so, after my one day of weekend, here I am, back at work for another week. I just learned that our company has decided on a factory site in the UK, and it is quite possible I will end up going over there for a week or two at some stage in the next month or so. Fun times.
Apologies for this rather uninteresting post, I shall attempt something a bit more readable next time round.
Thursday, September 23, 2004
Immigration Policy
Immigration always appears to be a bit of a political hot potato, especially back home in Australia where we are concerned about all those pesky foreigners coming in, taking our jobs, abusing our welfare system and the like.
I have long been an advocate of the simple, yet effective "No visa? Climb into this large catapult" approach myself. Or the slightly more controversial "Put the immigrants in a giant hamster wheel to generate electricity. Once they have run a pre-determined distance, give them a visa" approach.
The Japanese, unsurpringly do neither of these things, yet Japan remains a very mono-cultural society. How do they do this? Very simple: Beaurocracy. By tying the entire system up with oodles of red tape, only the most tenacious, well-connected and generally skilled/valuable people will make it through. Let me tell you a story:
Once there was a guy working in Japan. Let's call him Nils. After waiting for weeks for the correct forms to come through and his company to fill them out, Nils set off for the local immigration office. Upon arriving at the crowded office, he collected and completed the neccessary paperwork and took a number. The queue was exceptionally long, so during his wait, he had one of the nice ladies at the Information Desk look over all his paperwork to ensure it was in order. The nice lady looked at it and said:
"You live in Yokohama?"
"That's right" he replied.
"I'm sorry, but there are different forms for people living in Yokohama and those living in Tokyo."
"Are you serious?"
"I am afraid you will have to go to the Yokohama office instead. Sorry."
The guys in the HR Department at work who sent Nils to the Tokyo Immigration Office were most apologetic. They of course, could do nothing about the fact that Nils had wasted an afternoon doing pointless shit.
As he needed his visa extended, he took the next available afternoon off and went to the Yokohama Immigration Office (maybe one hour away from the Tokyo Office). He filled out the forms all over again - noting the very few and very minor differences from the Tokyo forms - waiting an hour or so and filed the papers. He will get to return in 2-3 weeks to finish the process.
Some of you might think that it is totally stupid, pointless and illogical to have a system running like this. I certainly do. It does however make it much harder for people to obtain visas and stay in the country, which, I guess is what they are trying to do here.
In totally unrelated happenings, I went out for dinner and a few drinks with Danielle, Dawn and Kat last night, after they spent the afternoon watching chubby men in g-strings pummel eachother. They assured me it was entertaining, as we noisily invaded an izakaya in Tamachi and proceeded to stuff ourselves with food and drink. Unfortunately, despite the invitiation to go into Shibuya and make it a big night, I wussed out so that I could get some sleep and feel relatively alive at work today.
Of course, by being at work today I am once again going against the grain of Japanese society. Why? It is Autumn Equinox Day - a national holiday. Unless of course, your company has some kind of indescribable, deap-seated loathing for holidays and forces you to come to work. It is nice, in the sense that the trip to work was not crowded and I could stretch my legs out a little on the train. However, when you consider that a majority of the Japanese workforce slept in, and is probably having a nice, relaxing day today the joy of an uncrowded train station is really a meagre comfort.
Bastards.
I have long been an advocate of the simple, yet effective "No visa? Climb into this large catapult" approach myself. Or the slightly more controversial "Put the immigrants in a giant hamster wheel to generate electricity. Once they have run a pre-determined distance, give them a visa" approach.
The Japanese, unsurpringly do neither of these things, yet Japan remains a very mono-cultural society. How do they do this? Very simple: Beaurocracy. By tying the entire system up with oodles of red tape, only the most tenacious, well-connected and generally skilled/valuable people will make it through. Let me tell you a story:
Once there was a guy working in Japan. Let's call him Nils. After waiting for weeks for the correct forms to come through and his company to fill them out, Nils set off for the local immigration office. Upon arriving at the crowded office, he collected and completed the neccessary paperwork and took a number. The queue was exceptionally long, so during his wait, he had one of the nice ladies at the Information Desk look over all his paperwork to ensure it was in order. The nice lady looked at it and said:
"You live in Yokohama?"
"That's right" he replied.
"I'm sorry, but there are different forms for people living in Yokohama and those living in Tokyo."
"Are you serious?"
"I am afraid you will have to go to the Yokohama office instead. Sorry."
The guys in the HR Department at work who sent Nils to the Tokyo Immigration Office were most apologetic. They of course, could do nothing about the fact that Nils had wasted an afternoon doing pointless shit.
As he needed his visa extended, he took the next available afternoon off and went to the Yokohama Immigration Office (maybe one hour away from the Tokyo Office). He filled out the forms all over again - noting the very few and very minor differences from the Tokyo forms - waiting an hour or so and filed the papers. He will get to return in 2-3 weeks to finish the process.
Some of you might think that it is totally stupid, pointless and illogical to have a system running like this. I certainly do. It does however make it much harder for people to obtain visas and stay in the country, which, I guess is what they are trying to do here.
In totally unrelated happenings, I went out for dinner and a few drinks with Danielle, Dawn and Kat last night, after they spent the afternoon watching chubby men in g-strings pummel eachother. They assured me it was entertaining, as we noisily invaded an izakaya in Tamachi and proceeded to stuff ourselves with food and drink. Unfortunately, despite the invitiation to go into Shibuya and make it a big night, I wussed out so that I could get some sleep and feel relatively alive at work today.
Of course, by being at work today I am once again going against the grain of Japanese society. Why? It is Autumn Equinox Day - a national holiday. Unless of course, your company has some kind of indescribable, deap-seated loathing for holidays and forces you to come to work. It is nice, in the sense that the trip to work was not crowded and I could stretch my legs out a little on the train. However, when you consider that a majority of the Japanese workforce slept in, and is probably having a nice, relaxing day today the joy of an uncrowded train station is really a meagre comfort.
Bastards.
Wednesday, September 22, 2004
Thanks Disney! Now I'm a Sociopath!
I will address the title of this post in due time.
It's been a few days since I have added anything here, due to the fact that I don't like spending non-work time updating my blog. I figure if I am going to spend my time writing stuff like this I should be paid for it. The fact that Monday was a public holiday, and I took yesterday afternoon off really cut down on my blog-writing time.
Anyway, a brief update on my life:
Friday night Kat and I went back to Shibuya and hit up Sonoma and the Ruby Room. I have only eaten at Sonoma once, and it is one of the best places to get some tasty western-style in Tokyo. The fact that it has a small club/live music house upstairs just adds to the appeal. Unfortunately, the Ruby Room was dead until after 10 when the DJ fired up and we needed to catch a train home that evening. I really need somewhere to crash in central Tokyo....
Sunday we rose early (well, earlier than most people do/should wake up on Sundays) and made the trip to the Magical Kingdom of Tokyo Disneyland. I am not sure excatly what is magical about it, or even who the monarch is supposed to be - he was presumably the one who had decided to deck the entire park out in Halloween decorations (Less than six weeks to go!!).
I went to Tokyo Disneyland the first time I came to Japan, back in 1995 and enjoyed it thoroughly. I was of course, 11 and much more easily amused and less irritable. That probably explains why this time around I was ready to get a little bit Uma Thurman in the 'House of Blue Leaves' scene in Kill Bill by the end of the day. Suffice to say, if I had a large bladed weapon at my disposal, we wouldn't have spent much of the day waiting in lines. It is almost as if standing in line is the Japanese national sport and Disneyland is the ultimate training ground. The ticket purchasing, fast-pass and food and beverage situations need a bit of an overhaul in my opinion.
The fact that it was crowded, and Japanese people lack the ability to walk at a reasonable speed only added to my growing bloodlust. Twisted thoughts would fill my head every time I watched a 747 fly over on it's was out of nearby Narita International Airport. Twisted thoughts involving explosions, plane crashes and people on fire running around comically. I am convinced they only cancelled the evening's fireworks to frustrate me even more. There was no inclement weather, I could see stars for crying out loud! The people at Tokyo Disnyeland are just bastards.
One point of interest was the rampant consumerism going on there. By walking out of there at the end of the day without a large bag of merchandise or some kind of ridiculous headwear, we were clearly major non-conformists.
I will probably write something about the rest of this week's happenings in a day or two. I have some pressing work to pretend to be doing.
It's been a few days since I have added anything here, due to the fact that I don't like spending non-work time updating my blog. I figure if I am going to spend my time writing stuff like this I should be paid for it. The fact that Monday was a public holiday, and I took yesterday afternoon off really cut down on my blog-writing time.
Anyway, a brief update on my life:
Friday night Kat and I went back to Shibuya and hit up Sonoma and the Ruby Room. I have only eaten at Sonoma once, and it is one of the best places to get some tasty western-style in Tokyo. The fact that it has a small club/live music house upstairs just adds to the appeal. Unfortunately, the Ruby Room was dead until after 10 when the DJ fired up and we needed to catch a train home that evening. I really need somewhere to crash in central Tokyo....
Sunday we rose early (well, earlier than most people do/should wake up on Sundays) and made the trip to the Magical Kingdom of Tokyo Disneyland. I am not sure excatly what is magical about it, or even who the monarch is supposed to be - he was presumably the one who had decided to deck the entire park out in Halloween decorations (Less than six weeks to go!!).
I went to Tokyo Disneyland the first time I came to Japan, back in 1995 and enjoyed it thoroughly. I was of course, 11 and much more easily amused and less irritable. That probably explains why this time around I was ready to get a little bit Uma Thurman in the 'House of Blue Leaves' scene in Kill Bill by the end of the day. Suffice to say, if I had a large bladed weapon at my disposal, we wouldn't have spent much of the day waiting in lines. It is almost as if standing in line is the Japanese national sport and Disneyland is the ultimate training ground. The ticket purchasing, fast-pass and food and beverage situations need a bit of an overhaul in my opinion.
The fact that it was crowded, and Japanese people lack the ability to walk at a reasonable speed only added to my growing bloodlust. Twisted thoughts would fill my head every time I watched a 747 fly over on it's was out of nearby Narita International Airport. Twisted thoughts involving explosions, plane crashes and people on fire running around comically. I am convinced they only cancelled the evening's fireworks to frustrate me even more. There was no inclement weather, I could see stars for crying out loud! The people at Tokyo Disnyeland are just bastards.
One point of interest was the rampant consumerism going on there. By walking out of there at the end of the day without a large bag of merchandise or some kind of ridiculous headwear, we were clearly major non-conformists.
I will probably write something about the rest of this week's happenings in a day or two. I have some pressing work to pretend to be doing.
Thursday, September 16, 2004
I was poked by a monster and denied pie
With the unpleasantness of the uneccessarily long and boring few days of my company's Global Management Conference behind me, I met Kat in Shibya for dinner.
Not just any dinner mind you, dinner at The Lockup. I have extolled the virtues of this eatery many times before. The food is acceptable, the drinks can come in a variety of receptacles, beakers and test tubes included, you often find yourself eating your meal inside a barred cell, and once in a while the resident monsters conduct a jailbreak - only to be vanquished by Japanese girls in skimpy 'police' uniforms. I wish I could find some better pictures of the place on the net, but I am unable to. Next time I am there I will have to remember to take some. Suffice to say it's a great place.
Usually.
Kat and I had a pretty good meal and were waiting on our final order - dessert. Apple pie with vanilla ice cream to be precise. After waiting for a while, plaintively repeating the word "Pie", the lights went out, the alarm came off and an overdramatised Japanese voiceover informed us that the monsters had escaped. For the diner, this generally means that a bunch of the staff have donned halloween costumes and are roaming the twisting corridors of the restaurant making noise and scaring people. Ordinarily I would put scaring in inverted commas, however some of the Japanese girls really lose their shit when this happens. (Which is needless to say hilarious.)
So there we were, pie-less, monsters running around causing all kinds of pandemonium. Then one of them stops by our table, makes some kind of arm-waving gesture and a throaty guttural noise and was about to continue on his merry, monstery way, when he stopped, a glint in his eye. Quick as a flash he reached over, pinched the side of my ribs and ran off. Fortunately, a few moments later a girl in a small police uniform put a cap in his ass.
Actually, that wasn't so bad. The worst part was when we had to wait for ages AFTER the monsters had been defeated to get our pie.
Mmmmmm. Pie.
Not just any dinner mind you, dinner at The Lockup. I have extolled the virtues of this eatery many times before. The food is acceptable, the drinks can come in a variety of receptacles, beakers and test tubes included, you often find yourself eating your meal inside a barred cell, and once in a while the resident monsters conduct a jailbreak - only to be vanquished by Japanese girls in skimpy 'police' uniforms. I wish I could find some better pictures of the place on the net, but I am unable to. Next time I am there I will have to remember to take some. Suffice to say it's a great place.
Usually.
Kat and I had a pretty good meal and were waiting on our final order - dessert. Apple pie with vanilla ice cream to be precise. After waiting for a while, plaintively repeating the word "Pie", the lights went out, the alarm came off and an overdramatised Japanese voiceover informed us that the monsters had escaped. For the diner, this generally means that a bunch of the staff have donned halloween costumes and are roaming the twisting corridors of the restaurant making noise and scaring people. Ordinarily I would put scaring in inverted commas, however some of the Japanese girls really lose their shit when this happens. (Which is needless to say hilarious.)
So there we were, pie-less, monsters running around causing all kinds of pandemonium. Then one of them stops by our table, makes some kind of arm-waving gesture and a throaty guttural noise and was about to continue on his merry, monstery way, when he stopped, a glint in his eye. Quick as a flash he reached over, pinched the side of my ribs and ran off. Fortunately, a few moments later a girl in a small police uniform put a cap in his ass.
Actually, that wasn't so bad. The worst part was when we had to wait for ages AFTER the monsters had been defeated to get our pie.
Mmmmmm. Pie.
Tuesday, September 14, 2004
Another Weekend of Food and Drink
Everything I do lately seems to relate in some way or another too meeting my seemingly constant needs for sustenance. Last weekend was no exception.
Friday Night: I had seen a Hawaiian-style restaurant advertised, and a few weeks ago walked passed it outside of business hours. Intruiged, with Kat in tow I took a closer look. Then we went inside. Then we ate and drank our fill of Hawaiian goodness.
Cocktails with half a tropical garden sticking out the top: Check
Waitresses in Hawaiian-print dresses: Check
All kinds of funky things stuck on the walls: Check
Tasty food: Check
All in all, it was a pretty cool place. The servings were large and tasty and the music didn't get too irritating as I suspected it would. If you are ever in Kannai and want some Hawaiian vittles, I recommend you pay a visit to Sun Aloha.
Of course, one cannot complete a Friday night with mere Hawaiian cuisine alone! At least not with a Jazz bar about a block away. So off we toddled to this little bar which was about 50% jazz bar/50% record collection. I am talking wall to wall vinyl - and not the flooring. The fact that it was run by a guy who can be (and was) described as "a Japanese Harvey Keitel" was a mere bonus.
I was surprised to learn that the clientele was mostly middle-aged women, but at the same time the drinks menu was comprised of whiskeys, bourbons and imported beer. Not being a huge fan of bourbon, I worked my way through a few of the local, and overseas brews. The only disappointment being the inclusion of Fosters. Australian for beer, my arse. Of course, there were many beers I was unable to sample, so I believe a return trip is in order....
Saturday (after a late start) we went into Sakuragicho, and wandered down to the waterfront park. The gaggle of skaties that are normally larking about on boards and bikes had gathered for some kind of skatie pow-wow, so we wandered on to the Cosmos Clock Ferris Wheel - once the tallest in the world, it is still an impressive structure at 100 metres in diameter, and it takes about 15 minutes to go all the way around. Which, incidentally is probably a little under half the time we stood in line for the damn thing. Although, with a planned trip to Disneyland in the near future, training for the 'endurance standing in a line' event is probably a good thing to have.
Once again, it was ultimately food and drink that had brought us to the area - with the Yokohama Hard Rock Cafe only a short walk from the ferris wheel. This of course means more cocktails, potato skins and a fatty-boom-batty bacon-cheeseburger. Awwww yeah. The addition of other patrons, including the unambigously gay white male couple sitting nearby - not to mention the badly-dancing staff made it an entertaining and satisfying night. The drinks really helped.
Sunday, surprisingly did not revolve around food and drink. Instead, we went into Harajuku to visit the Meiji Jingu Shrine, to honour the Japanese war dead who kept Kat's grandfather in a POW camp and then stood around for a few minutes looking at all the quirkily dressed kids who hang near the shrine entrance. We then wandered around the funky/retro/kooky clothes shopping district before walking into Shibuya.
Shibuya contained two places of interest on Sunday, the first being the aptly named Tower Records (all 7 stories of it). I managed to walk out with only 2 purchases - which was a particularly strong display of restraint on my part.
Our other port of call was one of the numerous, and growing Hub franchises nearby. With 75 minutes of happy hour remaining, we timed our arrival quite well (naturally, it would have been better if we had arrived with all 120 minutes of the somewhat deceptively named happy hour at our disposal, but you can't win them all). An hour it may not have been, but with half-price cocktails and mixed drinks, it was happy. Of course, with my pending return to work the next day and a dramatic rise in drink prices following the end of happy hour, we high-tailed it outta there and made our way back home.
I am quite inclined to bitch about work again at this point, but this post is pretty huge in itself, I will save that discussion for another time.
Friday Night: I had seen a Hawaiian-style restaurant advertised, and a few weeks ago walked passed it outside of business hours. Intruiged, with Kat in tow I took a closer look. Then we went inside. Then we ate and drank our fill of Hawaiian goodness.
Cocktails with half a tropical garden sticking out the top: Check
Waitresses in Hawaiian-print dresses: Check
All kinds of funky things stuck on the walls: Check
Tasty food: Check
All in all, it was a pretty cool place. The servings were large and tasty and the music didn't get too irritating as I suspected it would. If you are ever in Kannai and want some Hawaiian vittles, I recommend you pay a visit to Sun Aloha.
Of course, one cannot complete a Friday night with mere Hawaiian cuisine alone! At least not with a Jazz bar about a block away. So off we toddled to this little bar which was about 50% jazz bar/50% record collection. I am talking wall to wall vinyl - and not the flooring. The fact that it was run by a guy who can be (and was) described as "a Japanese Harvey Keitel" was a mere bonus.
I was surprised to learn that the clientele was mostly middle-aged women, but at the same time the drinks menu was comprised of whiskeys, bourbons and imported beer. Not being a huge fan of bourbon, I worked my way through a few of the local, and overseas brews. The only disappointment being the inclusion of Fosters. Australian for beer, my arse. Of course, there were many beers I was unable to sample, so I believe a return trip is in order....
Saturday (after a late start) we went into Sakuragicho, and wandered down to the waterfront park. The gaggle of skaties that are normally larking about on boards and bikes had gathered for some kind of skatie pow-wow, so we wandered on to the Cosmos Clock Ferris Wheel - once the tallest in the world, it is still an impressive structure at 100 metres in diameter, and it takes about 15 minutes to go all the way around. Which, incidentally is probably a little under half the time we stood in line for the damn thing. Although, with a planned trip to Disneyland in the near future, training for the 'endurance standing in a line' event is probably a good thing to have.
Once again, it was ultimately food and drink that had brought us to the area - with the Yokohama Hard Rock Cafe only a short walk from the ferris wheel. This of course means more cocktails, potato skins and a fatty-boom-batty bacon-cheeseburger. Awwww yeah. The addition of other patrons, including the unambigously gay white male couple sitting nearby - not to mention the badly-dancing staff made it an entertaining and satisfying night. The drinks really helped.
Sunday, surprisingly did not revolve around food and drink. Instead, we went into Harajuku to visit the Meiji Jingu Shrine, to honour the Japanese war dead who kept Kat's grandfather in a POW camp and then stood around for a few minutes looking at all the quirkily dressed kids who hang near the shrine entrance. We then wandered around the funky/retro/kooky clothes shopping district before walking into Shibuya.
Shibuya contained two places of interest on Sunday, the first being the aptly named Tower Records (all 7 stories of it). I managed to walk out with only 2 purchases - which was a particularly strong display of restraint on my part.
Our other port of call was one of the numerous, and growing Hub franchises nearby. With 75 minutes of happy hour remaining, we timed our arrival quite well (naturally, it would have been better if we had arrived with all 120 minutes of the somewhat deceptively named happy hour at our disposal, but you can't win them all). An hour it may not have been, but with half-price cocktails and mixed drinks, it was happy. Of course, with my pending return to work the next day and a dramatic rise in drink prices following the end of happy hour, we high-tailed it outta there and made our way back home.
I am quite inclined to bitch about work again at this point, but this post is pretty huge in itself, I will save that discussion for another time.
Thursday, September 09, 2004
Free food, free drink and the Premier of Queensland
I never really realised how much I missed pavlova until last night when I ate some. That is good stuff. So was the free roast Australian beef and free triple-distilled Smirnoff Vodka. It almost made listening to the Honourable Peter Beattie, Premier of Queenlsand, Minister for Trade waffle on about QLD-Japan relations, give some serious plugs to a few select investors and generally give me a reason to throw back the screwdrivers.
It was some kind of annual do that the QLD Government trade arm throws on to encourage further investment in 'The Sunshine State'. Mr. O gets invites to tons of these things, and figured that as he was out of the country, and I was a Queenlander, I might like to go in his stead. To me this translated at "free food and drink" and I was sold.
I was even lucky enough to meet the premier and shake his hand. He is a lot shorter and more rotund than I had previously though. Like a cross between Mr. Plod of Noddy fame and a Babushka Doll - only with a little more hair.
Without the speeches, it would have been a fantastic night.
It was some kind of annual do that the QLD Government trade arm throws on to encourage further investment in 'The Sunshine State'. Mr. O gets invites to tons of these things, and figured that as he was out of the country, and I was a Queenlander, I might like to go in his stead. To me this translated at "free food and drink" and I was sold.
I was even lucky enough to meet the premier and shake his hand. He is a lot shorter and more rotund than I had previously though. Like a cross between Mr. Plod of Noddy fame and a Babushka Doll - only with a little more hair.
Without the speeches, it would have been a fantastic night.
Monday, September 06, 2004
Bird-themed Weekend
Friday night dinner with Anne and Belinda was a pleasant affair. It was good to catch up with Anne, even if it did remind me that she has made the (rather intelligent) decision to leave Nifco - and seems happy working at the Thai embassy. Of course, if I was being given 10 day business trips to Thailand, complete with hotel accomodation, I would be pretty contented too.
Toriyoshi Dining was a nice venue for catching up, and the food was decidedly good. However, I must admit that I still favour the smoky, beer-house style bird-on-a-stick to the more refined yakitori we enjoyed Friday.
Of course, no night in Shibuya is complete without a bit of karaoke, so we sang badly to a very eclectic mix of songs (Nirvana, Mr. Big and Snow all made appearances) for an hour or so before playing the 'catch the train home' game. In true, irritating fashion Kat and I made it back to Yokohama just in time to miss our subway train. After some coarse language on my part, we made it home.
With miserable-ass weather forecast for the entire weekend, we were unable to engage in many of the activities we would like to while Kat is still in the country, so after sleeping late we went in Yokohama, Kat bought a few souvenirs and things like that and we ate some ice cream. One thing you appreciate over here is good ice cream, because it is few and far between. Japan is a land of soft serve, and while soft serve ice cream isn't inherently bad, in the ice cream heirarchy, it languishes somewhere at the bottom. Haagen-Dasz is where it's at.
Perhaps the most notable item bought in Yokohama was my ticket back to Australia for the end of the year. It is now official: I shall be back in the country from the 28th of December until the 10th of January (mostly in SE QLD, but I will make it up to FNQ for a few days). Mark it in your calendars dear friends!
Anyway, to continue the bird-theme, (not intentionally mind you) Kat and I headed out to Free Birds, a hawaiian-mexican influenced bar/restaurant about 15 minutes walk from my place. The walk is generally a pleasant one, but can be ruined by several things. Perhaps the most relevant one being torrential fucking rain the kind of which I have never seen in this country. It was not a mere shower, the heavens did open up, and it did PISS DOWN. We did have umbrellas, however we both were pretty much saturated from the knees down by the time we made it to Free Birds. (On a side note, there were no birds there, let alone free ones. False advertising suit is in the pipeline).
The food was an acceptable attempt at almost-mexican, the coronas were cold and the tequila was... well.. like tequila. We made a note to return, preferably when the weather is slightly better.
Sunday was another day of miserable weather, which pretty much labelled it as a 'stay in bed, eat junk food and watch DVDs' kind of day. We did venture outside, but only to visit the video store and procure alcohol and food. On an irritating note, my local video store does not have copies of Battle Royale 1 or The Ring 1 (the original Japanese version - not the Hollywood remake) on DVD. (Why carry both sequels on DVD but not the originals?! WHY!?) Damn me and my lack of VCR. I will head into the Tsutaya DVD/CD rental megastore near work sometime this week.
And now, here I am, stuck at my desk for another week. Well, it is 10 minutes until lunch time, there may even be an afternoon edition, depending upon how bored I get.
Toriyoshi Dining was a nice venue for catching up, and the food was decidedly good. However, I must admit that I still favour the smoky, beer-house style bird-on-a-stick to the more refined yakitori we enjoyed Friday.
Of course, no night in Shibuya is complete without a bit of karaoke, so we sang badly to a very eclectic mix of songs (Nirvana, Mr. Big and Snow all made appearances) for an hour or so before playing the 'catch the train home' game. In true, irritating fashion Kat and I made it back to Yokohama just in time to miss our subway train. After some coarse language on my part, we made it home.
With miserable-ass weather forecast for the entire weekend, we were unable to engage in many of the activities we would like to while Kat is still in the country, so after sleeping late we went in Yokohama, Kat bought a few souvenirs and things like that and we ate some ice cream. One thing you appreciate over here is good ice cream, because it is few and far between. Japan is a land of soft serve, and while soft serve ice cream isn't inherently bad, in the ice cream heirarchy, it languishes somewhere at the bottom. Haagen-Dasz is where it's at.
Perhaps the most notable item bought in Yokohama was my ticket back to Australia for the end of the year. It is now official: I shall be back in the country from the 28th of December until the 10th of January (mostly in SE QLD, but I will make it up to FNQ for a few days). Mark it in your calendars dear friends!
Anyway, to continue the bird-theme, (not intentionally mind you) Kat and I headed out to Free Birds, a hawaiian-mexican influenced bar/restaurant about 15 minutes walk from my place. The walk is generally a pleasant one, but can be ruined by several things. Perhaps the most relevant one being torrential fucking rain the kind of which I have never seen in this country. It was not a mere shower, the heavens did open up, and it did PISS DOWN. We did have umbrellas, however we both were pretty much saturated from the knees down by the time we made it to Free Birds. (On a side note, there were no birds there, let alone free ones. False advertising suit is in the pipeline).
The food was an acceptable attempt at almost-mexican, the coronas were cold and the tequila was... well.. like tequila. We made a note to return, preferably when the weather is slightly better.
Sunday was another day of miserable weather, which pretty much labelled it as a 'stay in bed, eat junk food and watch DVDs' kind of day. We did venture outside, but only to visit the video store and procure alcohol and food. On an irritating note, my local video store does not have copies of Battle Royale 1 or The Ring 1 (the original Japanese version - not the Hollywood remake) on DVD. (Why carry both sequels on DVD but not the originals?! WHY!?) Damn me and my lack of VCR. I will head into the Tsutaya DVD/CD rental megastore near work sometime this week.
And now, here I am, stuck at my desk for another week. Well, it is 10 minutes until lunch time, there may even be an afternoon edition, depending upon how bored I get.
Friday, September 03, 2004
Friday, and high class bird
Mere words cannot express my love for Friday. The knowledge that tomorrow and the day after it I will be able to sleep in. Brilliantly justifying plans to go out and get sloshed. If only we could drink at work, I would already be well on my way there.
Tonight should be an interesting one, it is my friend Anne's birthday and we are going out for dinner in Shibuya. To a yakitori place, an upscale yakitori place. Yakitori is essentially grilled bird on a skewer, but the places that serve it serve numerous other skewered things and even some small dishes that are skewer free. There is a great little yakitori restaurant near my station. It is not upscale. You could probably even refer to it as 'a dive'. There is seating for about a dozen and it is dirt cheap, but the food is great and the people there make it an enjoyable place to be.
For me the idea of upscale yakitori is somewhat of an oxymoron. It is perhaps due to my many experiences of getting drunk in seedy little yakitori bars all over Japan, but I am looking forward to tonight's culinary experience. Albeit with a little trepidation.
A full report will follow.... when I get around to it.
Tonight should be an interesting one, it is my friend Anne's birthday and we are going out for dinner in Shibuya. To a yakitori place, an upscale yakitori place. Yakitori is essentially grilled bird on a skewer, but the places that serve it serve numerous other skewered things and even some small dishes that are skewer free. There is a great little yakitori restaurant near my station. It is not upscale. You could probably even refer to it as 'a dive'. There is seating for about a dozen and it is dirt cheap, but the food is great and the people there make it an enjoyable place to be.
For me the idea of upscale yakitori is somewhat of an oxymoron. It is perhaps due to my many experiences of getting drunk in seedy little yakitori bars all over Japan, but I am looking forward to tonight's culinary experience. Albeit with a little trepidation.
A full report will follow.... when I get around to it.
Wednesday, September 01, 2004
I could do this job from home
You know those days at work where you are really busy, but at the same time you are getting into your work and enjoying the challenges it presents?
Me neither. I have been told they exist. Then again, at various times of my life I have been told Santa Claus, God and cute girls from Nagoya exist too, but I have never encountered them either.
With the top-ranking two of "the Three Wise Men" (as I have affectionately dubbed my bosses) absent, I don't even have an incentive to appear busy. Instead I have been tinkering with the HTLM here (with mixed success), reading the newspaper and surfing the internet to pass time. Just another regular day at the office.
The only noteworthy happening today has been my invitation to a reception for The (supposedly) Honourable Peter Beattie, which is being held by Queensland Government Trade and Investment Office. Originally the invite was to the Chairman (Mr. O), but he is overseas and suggested that I attend in his stead. Why not? I don't mind sitting through Premier Beattie droning on about trade with Japan, provided there is free food and drink at the end of it.
On a related topic, Kat and I went to the franchise Izakaya down the road last night for dinner. The food and drink itself was in no way remarkable (sure, it was tasty - but not remarkably so) but one thing that was noted (by Kat, not myself) was the amount of interest the Japanese show in (white) foreigners. They compliment your language skills, ask where you are from, if you are working over here - the whole shebang. I haven't done much interernational travel outside of Japan in the last decade or so, but Kat (who has done significantly more) was surprised by the whole thing. I thought it was pretty standard operating procedure myself.
Vincent Vega, it seems, was correct. "It's the little differences".
Me neither. I have been told they exist. Then again, at various times of my life I have been told Santa Claus, God and cute girls from Nagoya exist too, but I have never encountered them either.
With the top-ranking two of "the Three Wise Men" (as I have affectionately dubbed my bosses) absent, I don't even have an incentive to appear busy. Instead I have been tinkering with the HTLM here (with mixed success), reading the newspaper and surfing the internet to pass time. Just another regular day at the office.
The only noteworthy happening today has been my invitation to a reception for The (supposedly) Honourable Peter Beattie, which is being held by Queensland Government Trade and Investment Office. Originally the invite was to the Chairman (Mr. O), but he is overseas and suggested that I attend in his stead. Why not? I don't mind sitting through Premier Beattie droning on about trade with Japan, provided there is free food and drink at the end of it.
On a related topic, Kat and I went to the franchise Izakaya down the road last night for dinner. The food and drink itself was in no way remarkable (sure, it was tasty - but not remarkably so) but one thing that was noted (by Kat, not myself) was the amount of interest the Japanese show in (white) foreigners. They compliment your language skills, ask where you are from, if you are working over here - the whole shebang. I haven't done much interernational travel outside of Japan in the last decade or so, but Kat (who has done significantly more) was surprised by the whole thing. I thought it was pretty standard operating procedure myself.
Vincent Vega, it seems, was correct. "It's the little differences".
