And one for da ladies...

Here she is

This is Lydia Rose, my niece. It's the first foto of her, as far as I know. The most useful body parts seem to be present. Until she cracks under pressure and starts spilling the beans, that's about all I can tell about her for now.

And for a bit of blog cross-pollynation.

And now for your visual pleasure

Pictures have arrived! These are from the recent weekend in Chiba I mentioned in my last post.


Umihotaru

This is Umihotaru. Between Yokohama and the Chiba peninsula there is a big bay. Underneath this bay there is a tunnel of about 10kms. Umihotaru is a manmade island at the end of the tunnel, but in the bay. It is quite big, having a car park and shopping. I guess it is over 100m long, and at least six stories tall. This shot looks toward the Chiba direction. This freeway continues to Chiba for another 4kms over the water.


Da Big Guy 1

This was where we went on the Saturday. Nokogiriyama has, as you can see from the pictures a couple of big Buddha, and some very nice scenery. It was a very good but strenuous day walking around the hills to see the sights. We took the cable car to the top, and then walked most of the way to the bottom, then back up to the top to the cable car. This wasn’t because we’re masochists, but just because there’s no “most direct” way to see everything without backtracking.


A most tranquil little dude

I think there are more than 1000 of these little guys dotted around the hills here.


Pretty


Da Big Guy 2


Venus & Penis

This is from a small shrine that is near the cable car terminus.
Yes, that is Venus.
Yes, that is a giant penis.
Don’t ask me, I just work here.


Beach Babe


I hope my legs don't break...

The second day we drove around the coast of the Chiba peninsula. This is a famous statue, Tsuki no Sabaku, at one of the beaches. It was inspired by a song of the same name, about a prince and princess crossing the desert on camels. There’s a nearby museum devoted to the artist. We went into there too, but there wasn’t so much inside. Cool architecture for the building, though.

Winona Ryder sues me for impersonation
In the washout with my recent kleptomania, I returned to the shop to buy some daily essentials. At the checkout the girl packed my things into a plastic bag for me, then took the basket away.

Maybe this was just because there were only 3 items.
Or maybe this was because she was worried about the safety of the stores basket.
Who can tell?
Certainly at the trial I’m going to plead temporary insanity.

My Points in Dot Life

• Yesterday we caught up with friends Taku & Junko. I'd last seen Taku at their wedding in March last year, but Junko I’d caught up with at my recent birthday party. We had about 7 hours of drinking and merriment. Great stuff.

• I stole a shopping basket. Recently I seem unable to walk and chew gum at the same time. I more often than not forget to drop off the garbage in the morning when walking to work. Thus I get half way to the station and wonder why I'm holding a plastic bag of rubbish. On Friday I forgot to drop off the shopping basket after I'd finished shopping. I was surprised to get home and find that I was still holding the basket. After an hour I snuck it back to the store on the way to the gym. I haven't been back into the shop yet, because of the embarrassment.
  

• Play some Chisel ya wankers! Last Wednesday we saw Norah Jones and the Handsome Band at the Budokan. Norah was cute beyond all cuteness, and sang a nice selection of songs from her two CDs plus some C&W, Tom Waites, and The Band. The Budokan's seating is perpendicular and vertigo inducing. Norah suggested we all stand for one number, but the fear for my life kept me seated.

• It's a hat. It's a brooch. It's a pteradactyl. Last weekend I bought a V603T. My old phone of four years was dropped and about 1/3 of the screen became black. It's self-repair facility was turned off, so I had no choice but to put it out to pasture. Yes, my new phone has a TV. The screen has incredible resolution for the size. This allows me to see, with crystal clear clarity, the shitty snowy picture because of bad reception everywhere. In the TV commercial for phones with TVs, groups of young people stand around staring in simple amazement at their friend's new purchase. I'm sure they must be standing atop Tokyo Tower having their sperm and eggs irradiated to get such great pictures. The radio works about as well. The Japanese / English dictionaries are useful. It may work as a phone, but no one ever calls me, so I'll never know. I think, like my old phone, it will end up being my transportable email connection to the world. How do you spell gimmick?
  

• Two weekends ago we hired a car and drove to Chiba. We stayed overnight with a great hotel with meals package that was cheap beyond belief. On the Saturday we saw a big stone Buddha, and did much walking up and down hills. After dinner we sang some karaoke and played pool. I hope to go there again. On the Sunday we drove around the peninsula. I have many pictures. Come and visit if you want to see them.

• Saw a great TV special - Jackie Chan and the members of Japanese boy band Tokio versus 100 people in a game of bedlam on the streets of Tokyo. Jackie and the others had to wear receivers, and when one of the 100 hunters got near them, the receivers started beeping. Jackie's team had to get to 5 cans that were in 5 separate areas. It was pretty neat. Funniest moment was when Jackie was trapped in a park by a bunch of kids on the hunter team, and tried to escape across the lake on a paddle swan. Surrounded and unable to get away he paddled furiously around the lake, teasing the kids who couldn't quite catch him. The kids faces looked so happy when he eventually gave up to them.
  

• You're only paranoid if it's not true. I think the only video I’ve seen is JFK. JFK dies in the end (Bwa Ha ha ha. No spoiler warning. You trusting fools). They killed him. Who are they? Well, Mr. Stone has a theory.

• Working for the man. In between all of this I’ve been doing 10 ~ 11 hour days at the new contract. Fortunately I have nights free and I like the work, so that is all good.

You have 20 seconds to comply

Check out these 2 movies of Nerf ED 209.
My Xmas list begins now.

Human Population = Human Population + 1 (give or take a few)

My brother and his wife had their first baby yesterday.
Her name is Lydia Rose Small, and apparently she is.
Congratulations to them both.

Apparently Work Loometh
Apparently I am expected to make an appearance on Monday at work. Apparently I am also expected to go there for at least another year. Apparently I'll have return to "Plan B" for my retirement - buying lottery tickets.

Can anyone tell me the date?

Due to a bank error in my favour I am still on holiday. I have now been on holiday so long I no longer remember the date. I have the feeling I presently exist sometime in early April. The blooming cherry blossoms also suggest that it's about that time. It's so very relaxing to not know the date.

I remember the day because I have to look for the next power yoga class on the gym's schedule.

The Return of the Princess of Pain
The bright side to this extended holiday is that I've been able to go to power yoga almost daily.
The dark side to this though is that from the start of April (another reason I have a general idea of when I am) someone thought it would be a great idea to lengthen the class from 45 minutes to 1 hour. To initiate me into this new format I had the battle hobbit from my first class. For some reason our paths haven't crossed since then. A bloody good thing too for her desire to dispense pain hasn't lessened. If this had been my first class, I would never have continued power yoga. It was every bit as difficult as the first class I had with her - with a bonus 15 minutes. Classes with the other instructors are going ok. But anything that requires standing on one leg is still right out.

Holy heat wave, Batman
Today the mercury went all the way to 24 with the sun out and shining. I think that's 6 degrees more than yesterday. Really felt like it was spring.

Friends
Last Saturday was supposed to be a cherry blossom viewing party where I would catch up to a few friends that I haven't seen since the Christmas party. But due to cancellations and a no show at that time by the cherry blossoms it ended up being four others and myself at a Chinese restaurant in Naka Meguro. It was especially good to see Ted and Sumie as I hadn't seen them since Ted's surprise party three months ago. I ended up hanging around and harassing them for most of the day. After lunch, and a walk around to look at the flowerless trees, we went to Shibuya so that Ted could see if the stock at the bike section of Tokyu Hands had changed since he was last there. Sumie's now too big to move nimbly, thus they were unable to ditch me by escaping into the crowds and crowds of people in Shibuya. The three of us went to dinner at a nice little cafe / restaurant back in Naka Meguro.

The Movie Maven
I know I promised spoiler-free reviews, but I want to address a specific point in the Star Wars: Episode III trailer. If you don't want to know anything about the trailer, then scroll past it to the Open Range review, wherein I'll remain spoiler-free.




Star Wars: Episode III Trailer
While I was watching this trailer I was, for a little over a minute, 10 years old again. Wow, it is so shiny! Wow, there are going to be big space battles! Wow, there's going to be the climactic lightsaber battle between Anakin and Obi-Wan! All is forgiven George. You are the "Father of our Dreams."

And then Obi-Wan bleats out, "But you were the chosen one!" in a really whiney voice that was so reminiscent of Luke's, "I care" I was immediately wrenched back to reality with alarm bells ringing. Wait, that's right. The last two films in this series were also helmed and penned by George, and they were, to be kind, simply awful. If that line weren’t in the preview, I would have flown at light speed to the cinema expecting the Citizen Kane of space opera. But now I'm once again sensing a disturbance in the Force.





Open Range
I'm a sucker for a good western, with The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly and Unforgiven two of my mostest favouritest films. While Open Range isn't quite in the same league, it is a very good watch. It's not so much a western as a character study of the two lead leads, which are excellently downplayed by Kevin Costner and Robert Duvall. It has an unbroken easygoing pace that until the violent conclusion never even reaches a trot. This is fitting with the plains lifestyle and age of the two men, who basically ruminate on life, love, and loss in their simple and clear fashion for most of the film's running time. What makes it a western is they do this sometimes on horseback, sometimes in the saloon, and eventually while gunning down the worthless varmints who had it coming. I found it a sad, passionate, beautiful, violent yet very funny tale. But I'd certainly understand it if you don't.

For those who enjoy a mature and well-crafted western.