A Virtual Jailbreak - Almost!

My thoughts of jailbreaking my kindle were almost moot in point tonight. Let me tell you why.

On the train home from Kobuchizawa tonight I ate my dinner and finished reading a free novel that I had downloaded to my kindle. When the train arrived at Shinjuku, I packed up, and left. I walked up the stairs, and over to my train line which is deep down under ground. The train was delayed as there had been some trouble further down the line in the opposite direction. I decided that I would pull out my kindle and read it on the way home as I had a 40 minute ride back.

But it wasn't in my bag!
I had left my black kindle on the black train seat!!!

I dashed all the way back to the other train platform  which is hard to do in Shinjuku station due to the sheer volume of people passing through (one million per day) as anyone who has ever been here will understand, went to the lost and found and found my kindle! The stationmasters were just entering it into the computer.

I filled out a form, kissed my kindle hello, and walked back to my station, relieved not to have lost my kindle. The funny thing is that I wasn't thinking terrible panicky thoughts; I was thinking, "what a great opportunity to buy a different device!" But I did worry about the possibility of people buying books as it is linked to my credit card. That thought did cross my mind briefly, but it wasn't a big worry. I also realized that I am not really "attached" to the thing as the potential loss didn't make me break out into a panic sweat at all, and I was quite lucid and calm in my mind as I dashed back.

I made it home on the extremely packed train, feeling sorry for all the shorter women who were getting their faces mashed into the backs, arms and chests of sweaty, stinky businessmen while I had the entire upper section of the compartment free for my own use. I held my kindle against the ceiling of the train and read it all the way home ("Einstein's Theory of Relativity" <-- which made me fall asleep on the other train while sitting down and reading).

I haven't been in a train that jam packed since our last major typhoon that shut down some connecting lines and filled up my line with commuters this past winter.

Kindle almost broke free!

Have a great weekend.

I love you!
Cam

Kasai Rinkai Koen, or Another Soaking Wet Fun Ride

I'm getting ready for riding in Fukui/Ishikawa next week. It is still the rainy season there and that means about five days a week it rains. It looks like it is going to rain all weekend, for that matter. So I will be "washing the grit and grime of humanity from me with Mother Nature's Soap". I'm looking forward to it.

Last Sunday I took Megumi for a ride on my bike. It was supposed to be an overcast day, with 0% chance of rain. That means, in Tokyo, it does. not. rain. But it poured on the way home.

Today was another 0% chance of rain. Well, that didn't hold out, either. So on the way home from Kasai Rinkai Park (see a little bit about the park by following that link) it poured. Luckily this time I was not riding on gravel, so rinsing my bike off was easy, drying it up nicely was a pleasure, and oiling everything was my dream come true.

It is the rainy season here in Japan, so the weather can change very quickly. And today it did. It was overcast during the day, but the humidity was low, the temperatures not hot, and rather pleasant.

When I arrived at the sea, the wind was frothing up waves, and the rain started to fall after about 15 minutes of sitting there, getting bit in strange places from an ant that got into my clothes.

I'm home now, and all squeaky clean and oiled up like my bike so I should be ready to go tomorrow to Kobuchizawa (rain all day there, too).

Ahh.... the rainy season. Everyone on Tokyo-side complains about the rain, but I love it. It keeps the dust down. And for a boy who comes from farm country, that's a big plus!

Have a great Sunday, a great week, and we will talk with you after Mother Nature has her way with me next week!

I love you!

Cam

CoffeeGasm Extraordinaire!

Yesterday Mia and I went all over the place. We took trains and did a huge amount of walking.

We had to change trains at my office station so I showed her where I work (closed, so couldn't go in, but secure so I wouldn't be able to take her in anyway). Then we went to Asakusa (google that) and walked through tons of shops where she bought a bunch of souvenirs (problem: her suitcase is full now and her clothes are all hanging, or in my drawer...). We saw one of the most famous temples in Japan, an old attached shrine, and more.

In one section of the area in which we visited, there is a 700m street section that is filled with about 1500 stores entirely devoted to everything household/kitchen/restaurant... it was amazing!

Then we went to a lunch in a traditional Japanese cafeteria-style place (about 4pm), and off to Kappabashi-doori which is what I will explain next. 

Unfortunately is was just around closing time for most of the shops so we couldn't enjoy much more than seeing some blow your mind knife stores filled with thousands of every knife imaginable, and other things.

We DID however find a coffee paraphernalia store that was open still...

And when I saw all of these mokka pots, I had a coffeegasm! WOW!

This photo contains the traditional Bialetti mokka pots for 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 15, 18 cups. It was amazing!

On top of that, I bought myself ANOTHER mokka pot (3cup). But this one has an electric base so that it does not need fire! I decided that enough was enough with drinking really shitty instant (or even drip) one-cup coffee at work so I bought it!

Now I am sure when I take my coffee breaks down on the 6th floor, people will come wandering in as the scent of real coffee essence wafts its way up and down the stairwell...

Japanese coworkers... eat your heart out, cuz this coffeegasm is mine!

After that we walked all the way back to the start, got on a boat and cruised down the Sumida River for 40 minutes, watching the night settle in and all the colours come to life. Seeing Tokyo from the rivers was fascinating... it was a totally different world.

We landed, and walked all the way back to Tokyo Tower in the beautiful night air. On the way we stopped and had a bottle of wine. Then we continued on, and took the elevator up to the 150m 360 degree observation deck. The night was perfectly clear for this so Mia (and I) got the perfect night view of The City. It blew me (and her) away. I took a lot of photos.

After that we walked back to another station, and came home. Then we had dinner around midnight, and headed to bed about 1am.

Off to do some grocery shopping. Mia is not used to eating "Camfast" as she usually only has bread and coffee, but she's loving having MEAT MEAT MEAT, vegetables, cheese, eggs, salads, soups, yogurts, toast, tea, coffee, water, for breakfast. It keeps us going until 4pm or so (and then I die, of course, as I did yesterday).

Have a great weekend.

I love you!

Cam

Go North Young Man

Good evening. How are you today? I hope you are having a wonderful morning. (how is that for touching all time zones?)

Tonight I taught my two hours of English to my co-workers. There were not too many people who came. After that another English-speaking coworker asked if I would like to visit the Chinese Restaurant next door and have some of the kara-age that I always talk about. And since she actually waited around for me, I said yes! We had a nice chat about stuff, and talked while eating for about an hour. Then I came home.

I am doing a little bit of packing tonight and then heading to bed early. Tomorrow is the last day of the week for me as I will be taking Friday off in exchange for the Saturday we all worked on 2/27. That will make it a four day weekend.

On Friday morning I will head off to Haneda Airport to catch a flight to Sapporo, up in Hokkaido. It's time to get away. I've been in the Megalopolis grind for nearly seven months now, and only got away once to visit Max in early November. It's time.

The last time I was up in Hokkaido I was hitchhiking around the island. I think I was still in my 20s... Late 20s or very early 30s. This time, I don't have any plans, but am going to head up there for two nights and three days. I want to enjoy the crisp, cool air. While it will be 20C here on the weekend, Sapporo is expecting 4C in the day and -4C at night so that will be nice and refreshing for me. There are no plans (the way I like to travel) as I plan to enjoy every NOW moment as it comes about.

Short and Sweet...

I love you!

Cam

P.S. Happy St. Patrick's Day.

Four for the Price of One!

I just got home. It's 4:20am.

Stuffing my face with sausages, eggs, sauteed vegetables and steamed other vegetables. I think I'll skip my triple espresso this morning, have a shower, shave, then hit the sack and get up again in... about an hour and a half?

The third best part of the entire adventure (eight hours on the train that normally takes two hours) was that they gave us ALL free cab rides to our homes. Can you imagine how much THAT must have cost? For me to go from Shinjuku to here by cab was $100!!!! Wow. But that's not the BEST part.

AND.... another fantastic thing (i.e. the second best part) was that I had a great long talk with the cab driver all the way home. We talked about buddhism, the Dalai Lama, China business, the food industry, Toyota, and so much more. He lived in China for five years and worked managing a food company over there that exports the foodproducts back to Japan. Very cool guy. We stopped at a Seven Eleven so I could get some food (the good food was all out thus I'm eating now) but I bought him (and myself) a can of hot coffee. We drove, talked and sipped coffee all the way back!

The best part was that I rode back with a woman heading in my direction and we chatted all the way back! Finally I said to her, "Well, out of this long ride, a really good thing is I got to meet a new person: you. My name's Cameron."

She introduced herself as Maya, and just as she was leaving gave me her business card as she got out and said good night.

So there you go! I only had to stay in the train for eight hours to meet someone new, have an amazing conversation with a former businessman cab driver, and get a free $100 cab ride all the way to my front door.

What an awesome deal!! You can't beat that!

Have a great day. Mine starts very soon... but first I must get these vegetable fibres out from between my teeth.

And maybe I WILL make that bedtime triple espresso to help me sleep.

Night!

Cam

P.S. I got to eat the first snow I saw this year as well. So I carried on an annual tradition. Four for the price of one.

A Colourful Way to Get Ootnaboot

This bike shop (chari blend actually) is across from my gym in Mizue, one station away from where I live. It's not really a "serious" bike shop for true bikers, but more of one of the kind of shops that decided to get in a plethora of colourful low end bikes for the commuters who now like to ride these things, rather than the typical "mama chari" that is so common..

I love to see the colourful bikes shining out the window at night as I head home...

I wanted to show these to Max but he has no internet, no keitai email (kmail), and no way to get it to him other than post it! (no thanks). Sorry Max. Maybe next time. But I love you!

Cam

12 Point Sunday

Today was another good day; I actually got a fair bit done. Here is what I did:

1) I had a good breakfast and read some more of my book while enjoying the best coffee in the Multiverse.

2) I cooked up most of my vegetables, and made a big salad. The lunches for the week will be much easier as long as I don't eat those vegetables for breakfast!

3)  I put my boxed bike on top of my other bike and walked it to my storage compartment (1km). Then I went to Seven Eleven and had some oden and fried chicken. I also bought a can of 7/11 shaving foam, and a can of hot (no sugar) coffee. They use another kind of sweetner but it isn't as sweet as regular canned coffee. Why don't they make coffee with milk and no sweetner? That's a mystery and something Kanna asked me at work the other day.

 

4) I came back and went for a ride (just a little one). While I was getting some fresh air I found a bulk food store (designed to serve companies like restaurants, etc.) and was shocked at the low prices! I bought several bags of frozen vegetables (much cheaper than fresh ones), really cheap steaks (1kg), other meat, and a bunch of nuts. This stuff was much cheaper than anything I could get in the supermarkets I usually shop at. I got some other stuff that is cheaper than at the supermarket as well and carried it all home on my bike.

5) On the way home I found a Workman store and went back to that. I wandered around to see if there was anything of interest and ended up getting a neck warmer that was only about 750 yen (about $6).

6) I paid a bill at the convenience store.

7) I printed out my accounting information and emailed a copy to my accountant in Fukui. I also put my accounting info that I need to send him in an envelope and will mail it off in a few days.

8) Then I enjoyed a big cup of hot, mulled wine on my balcony while watching the helicoptors over the night view of Chiba City (I think).

9) I got dinner all ready and now I just need to cook the steak.

10) I am going to iron my shirts tonight as well (the iron just "pinged" so I think it is ready), then fold the laundry that is all dry and ready to be put away.

10) I think I'll read more of my book and finish it off (#6 in the series of 14 from Darrell) while I am eating.

11) I'll pack up my stuff for my trip to Kobuchizawa tomorrow (it's nice not going to the office at all on Mondays!)

12) When all that is done I'll have a shower and head to bed about midnight.

Speaking of Darrell, he sent me two t-shirts for Christmas. One is for me, and the other for Mayu. He got them from an online t-shirt shop called Threadless (www.threadless.com). You should be able to tell which is for me, and which is for Mayu by the way they fit.

The first one you see above is called "Red". Can you tell why? The other one you see here to the left is entitled "No More Bento". I laughed when I saw the name of the shirt and the art on the shirt. Surely enough, someone won't be getting any more obentos anymore.

I hope you have a wonderful Sunday as well.

I love you!

Cam

A Nice Way To Work on Monday

Things change from yesterday regarding some of my work. (This didn't post from my keitai yesterday due to the Multiply Move so I am posting it now).

I still go to Kobuchizawa on the 1pm train from Shinjuku and get back to Shinjuku at about 915pm. That is fixed. I have about 1hr of overtime I can log on Mondays.

Wednesdays I have to teach two classes after 6pm so I won’t be clocking out until 9pm. That works out to an additional 3 hours of overtime I clock on Wednesdays.

The company prefers we take the time off the same month rather than paying out overtime if it is at all possible. And in a way that’s a good policy because no matter how much one may ned the etra cash eventually it weas a body down.

Also the chances of having the odd hour overtime here and there (or even half hour) are quite high as is so a bit of extra cash will come in that way.

As for the Wednesday Weekly 3hrs I have decided to take the time off on Monday mornings. Instead of getting into a suit, going to the office for three hours then rushing off to catch this train I’ll just catch an 11:52 or 11:56 from my station and go directly to Shinjuku. That will give me 15-30 minutes to get to the platform and catch this 1pm train.

It’s perfect because I can wear more casual clothes and dress for the biting chill in Kobuchizawa rather than sweat my way to work and be underdressed standing on the platform waiting to catch the 7:18pm train back. When I was there at the end of December my leather jacket was not enough… but too much for me commuting in Tokyo.

The end result is that I can stay up or out later on Sunday, and completely avoid rushing Monday morning. I get to sleep in to 7am withou any stress of not making my 8:20 train, can cook breakfast and pack a lunch, roam the net, do some year-end accounting, write a few emails re. IMS work or private, iron shirts that took the weekend to dry, clean up and basically take my time getting to the train where I actually get a seat all the way to Shinjuku!

And… in the months when people come to visit me I will just hunker down and work a full Monday (no bigdeal really as the day consists of about 5.5hrs on trains). That way I can build up the overtime and then take it off for my friends, thus increasing the tme I can spend with them even if I don’t have enough paid holidays to take off the entire time they are here.

So it works well for me and for others. Also if I want to extend a weekend longer to say visit Max in his part of the country to enjoy a riding weekend to recharge my batteries (he told me two nights ago they have about 2m or 7ft of snow already and our heavy snows don’t even begin until January! Lots this year and I gotta miss it…)

And that’s about the size of things today.

From the keitai…

I love you!

Seeking Mystery Hill on Stefnee's 38th Birthday!!!

A week or two ago I was on my balcony and happened to see that there was a "hill" off in the distance. I decided that I wanted to get there, but could not find it on my maps. I tried twice to ride through the city to the general direction but ended up on the wrong side of one of the rivers.

So, today I went in the opposite direction, crossed over the Edogawa, then rode back along the river, to Tokyo Bay. I stopped at the end of the road where there were a bunch of men fishing. We chatted, talked, and laughed, then I went home, freezing my digits. I made it home, but am not sure where some of my digits are. I'm typing with my nose right now...

I found the hill; it was a garbage dump. And it's a lot smaller and uglier when you are up next to it. I guess it just seemed so much larger than real life because my apartment is on the 11th floor and the other apartments in the distance must have been smaller. So... it seemed like a hill.

The entire trip to Tokyo Bay Fishing Homeless Guys Location was about15km. Then another 5km back to the Garbage Hill. Then 5km home. So... I took a 25km round trip to do 10km. Some might think I wasted a huge amount of time, but getting out for the couple of hours of ride, photographing, and chatting was definitely worth it today. And so was freezing my digits.

The majority of photos are on flickr, but if you would like to see them as a slideshow, then please click here. (No porn here, sorry).

Have a great Stefnee's Birthday!

I love you!

Cam

Red-Nosed Delight

It's 18:31. I am just locking my bike up. I decided to play with my bikenavi today and adventured out into the world. I rode an entire three stations away to sit at MisDo and have three cups of coffee while writing a blog on my keitai and then reading my newspaper. Wow! Three stations!!! I'm so adventuresome!!! *voice drips with self-deprecating sarcasm...

And now I'm home.

The problem with the navi is it keeps taking me to major highways and I want to ride on back roads to get to the same place! That is frustrating... and it wont listen to me! The voice is female...Hmmmm...

Wow... it's a beautiful night out tonight! Im not cold at all!

Ooh! The owner of the bike next to me just came back... she's hot! (in more ways than one)

Wait! Could it be??? Yes I think it is! I think I can see Rudolph 's nose blinking up there!!!

Perhaps Santa is on his way ... to the coffee shop? Surely it wouldn't be the pub... I'm sure the Intergalactic Cops are always keeping an eye on the curvature of his jet stream and pull him over at the slightest erratic movement...

OK... now it's cooling down out here.Or rather my body has cooled down and feels the near zero temps...

My laundry is still hanging outside! Gotta go!!!

"Miss Doh"! *insert simpsonean forehead-slap soundtrack*

I decided to get out today so I rode a whopping 6km/3.5mi to Funabori Stn. It goes .hinozaki --> Mizue --> Ichinoe --> Funabori ... --> ... Shinjuku. I decided to be advebturesome and mess with my bikenavi's mind by NOT taking the routes she recommended. I made her work for her juice. (I just hope she doesn't rebel and power down before I get home!)

So I just rode. Khakis, walking desert boots, regular sweater, army jacket, gloves and helmet. I just don't like cycling without a helmet... it feels like driving with no seatbelt and the doors open if you can imagine the insecurity...

And here I sit at the Mister Donut (Misdo in abbreviated Japanese) having a coffee. There is nothing here to do but that's OK because the DO was to get out and ride (no spandex nothing neon anything). Then I get to ride back in the dark with a teeny blinker front and back ... (refill)... and unable to see my bikenavi (lucky she has a sexy voice for guidance).

It is dark here before 17:00 in the winter and that means the temperature will drop quickly but I'm prepared because I brought some other warm stuff in my pack. I may LOOK like I have no inkling about cycling by the way I dress... but looks can be deceiving. Ever seen those extreme skiing videos? Some of those guys look like they were just pulled out of a McDonalds!

I guess I will read my newspaper and then head home. It was a brief adventure but nice to do... I just wish there were more wild boars and real trees around...

This is my first XMas entirely alone in 44 years... wow... I hope you have a much more exciting Christmas than I'm having!

Merry Christmas, eh!

I love you!
Cam