Don't Blame the Weatherman

Just in case there was any doubt that it's cold in Yokohama at the moment, here's the street outside our place at 6:30 tonight.



Brrr.

The Unusual Suspects

Had a very nice little outing last weekend at Naoko's new place. It's on the 30 something floor of a new building, has a wonderful night view from the balcony, and has a heated floor. I'm super duper jealous.

These were the ones in attendance.


Picture A


Picture B

There are 142 differences between these 2 pictures.
Can you spot them all?

And then take the quiz:
1. In which picture is the real Sumie, and in which the clone?
2. What is Hana-chan looking at?
3. In which picture does Mari look more like she's posing for a resume foto?
4. In Picture B, what is tickling Ted's fancy?
5. How does Miyaken transform into Kou?
6. In which picture does Jun-chan look more coquettish?
7. In which picture is my double chin more visible?
8. Where did Nao-chan go?

Tomorrow, I Kong.

Happy 1st Birthday Winston's World

One year young today.

And already coughing up blood.

And speaking of blood, check out the trailer for BloodRayne.

Hilariously bad. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad looking movie.

Skiing the Next

Well Mari & I are alive and well after our bouts with the bug. Thirty-six hours after the on-set and we seemed about right with the world. Sure did kick the shit out of one though. On the bright side, after being completely purged of my entire insides, and being only able to eat 3 pieces of apple and a few spoonfuls of mashed rice, I had the flattest stomach I’ve had in years! That lasted right up until I started eating again, and I feel sure that last nite’s pizza will go a long way to correcting any weight that may have been lost.

Having also lost a good chunk of our holiday to the sickness we were determined to carry through with our plan to go skiing again. I’d hoped to post more about our Hokkaido skiing (hence the Day One tag) but well… you know. I had to work yesterday, so our last day off was the third. We got up fairly early for us and drove 2 hours from Shuzenji to a ski field in the shadow of Mt. Fuji. What an awesome sight. This was the place that Mari would often go skiing way back when. Sorry, but I forgot to take the camera, so no postcard picture is available.

I immediately knew how spoiled we’d been at Hokkaido. The lines were long and the prices were high for everything. With an average wait of 12 minutes for the lift it was weird to look at the clock and think that in an hour we’d be able to ski only 3 times. In Hokkaido we could hope for 10 times in an hour! But nevertheless it was a great day.

The slope was better for my level, but had a nasty icy patch that caused me to revert to snowplowing. But otherwise I spent my time trying to keep my legs next to one another with more or less success. We’re talking about our next trip now.

Unhappy New Year

I hope you've all had a good time getting to this point. I know I did.

So the New Year was mildly eventful for myself. On the evening of the 30th I started to feel not right in the stomach. Over the next two hours my stomach swelled up like a ballon until about midnight when I began to fountain at both ends. And that pretty much continued all night. It was the weirdest feeling. To be completely vacant and yet still being asked to give more. Yuch.

So the last day of the year was spent recuperating in bed, until late last nite when I was able to eat a small bowl of mushed rice. About the same time Mari said that she didn't feel so good, and within half an hour the process began anew with another victim. For the last two years we've seen the New Year in by visitng a shrine to listen to the bells ringing. Last nite we just lay in bed wishing they'd be quiet.

Anyway enough about our amusing illnesses. Happy New Year to you all.