Ruminations & Observations

Ok, this new month is off to a flying start for blogging.
One day and one post.
I wonder how many months of my blogging career I've thought that?

This week is Golden Week in Japan. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are public hoilidays, but many people take off the Monday and Tuesday as well and so have 9 days straight. Not me though. The education of young minds can't rest for those 2 days, so I've got to be at work. However nothing can dim the joy of the 5-day holiday that's just around the corner. And there aren't even classes tomorrow, so I can hardly complain.

In preparation for the 5 days I went to Akihabara on Friday to purchase the game From Russia with Love for the PSP. I'd intended to play for 5 straight days at 10+ hours per day, but apparently I'm being restricted to 1 hour a day by a person (or persons) who shall remain nameless. Still, should be fun being Bond even for only 1 hour.

Speaking of Bond, I've done a short FF on You Only Live Twice. Like the previous one on GoldenEye, it's pretty much for the fans of the series, but neh, FF needs all the promotion it can get.

Saturday was spent Konging. And yes, that is a word. It's a verb that means to act like King Kong. I'd finished the game a while back, but am now replying it to get a sufficiently high score to open up the secret level where (I've heard) you can save Kong from his demise atop the Empire State Building. Hold on little buddy, I'm about 4/5ths of the way there.

But now it's getting tough to scratch up the remaining points. You get the most points as Jack by defeating the monsters with primitave weapons rather than firearms. Unfortunately some dinos laugh at how the foolish human has brought a spear to what is obviously a shotgun fight. And you get the most points as Kong by finishing the fight with the fewest moves in the fastest time. Again unfortuately I can win the fights now, but find it difficult to do so expediently.

Sunday I went to a really tasty gourmet burger joint. Recently I removed an article from a gaijin magazine about the best burger eateries in Tokyo. I've resolved to try them all over the next few months. I hope they maintain the standard of yesterday's fare.

And I found a hardcover version of V for Vendetta, so I can reread that over GW. I've now got 3 books backed up for the 5 days, which at my slow reading pace I know will actually last me for 5 weeks.

And on Sunday in Shibuya I confirmed an observation of mine. I am in fact, at 74kg and 180cm, the undisputed smallest male gaijin in Tokyo (and not in name only). Of course there's the Canadians Allan and Pixie, but Allan has Japanese parents, and Pixie's parentage harkens from the Court of Fairie. It's quite weird to walk around and notice that every other male gaijin stands taller and obviously lifts far too many weights for his own good. Why does Japan attract so many big guys? Or is that I am just small? Maybe I'm shrinking? Certainly when I went back to Australia last year I was surprised at how much bigger the male population seemed. More analysis is required, although without a grant probably not forthcoming.