Random pic of the day:
This has got to be the smallest can of corn in the world. But convenient; a coworker and I made beef donburi (we actually had to buy two of these). It was damn good, especially for meals I've cooked.

Sunday I went out to a beach in Kobe with Audrey, Karen, Ben, and a couple of Audrey's coworkers. It was a great day, though the beach was really crowded and not too sandy. There were no women over 30 and, as Ben took great pleasure in noting, only one wearing a one-piece swimsuit. The oldest woman I saw was running from the beach when we got there at noon, wielding an umbrella as if the sun would make her melt. Of course there were plenty of oddballs, like this guy in a wet suit who spent his time paddling around the swimmers like he was on patrol. Or this other guy, who waded in dragging his girlfriend (daughter?) but couldn't leave his cigarette behind on the shore. The girlfriend/daughter was grimacing like she was wading into raw sewage. Ah, Japan...

I managed to get a sunburn across a nice swath of my back, the spot I couldn't reach when the peer pressure mounted to go jump in the sea. I guess it slipped my mind... but it's been killing me all week.

We then headed back to Kobe, and chilled in Meriken Park (hint: read the name a few times and you'll figure out what country this is supposed to be), a nice oceanside, well, park. We met up with Carter in Nankin-machi, the fabled two blocks that make up what's supposedly the largest Chinatown in Japan, and had some pretty decent Chinese food. The restaurant owner was so excited to speak to us in English, and proudly thanked us in like 11 different languages.

The night, needless to say, ended with karaoke, before Ben and Karen had to go back to Okayama...

My much-promised 360-degree tour of my apartment is on hold for now until I can find either 47 MB of Web space or a way to make the file smaller. If you have some space you're not using (Stanfordites: like maybe some of your 100 MB Leland quota) and would be willing to host it for me for the summer, let me know; I'd much appreciate it...

I'd like to say you never see anything like this in Tokyo...


More Smith-sans

Revelation of the day: Eggs go well with rice. Throw an egg in while the pot's still hot enough and, zaa! instant fried rice.

Saturday I slept in, relatively speaking. But when I awoke the sun was so shining and I was so excited I...did laundry. Yes, sadly enough, the first thought that went through my mind was, "I can dry my clothes today!" Amazing what living on your own will do to you. The crappy Sterling Quad driers never looked so good.

With my underwear proudly hung outside to dry, I set off for the mountains of Kurama Valley, on the northern fringe of Kyoto. Naturally, the first mountain we saw had a cell phone tower right on the peak. Never have I goten such great cell phone reception as when I've been in Japan. Getting an American wireless will be such a let-down...

The mountain was breathtaking, while not that hard a climb. It had some nice views of the valley, and lots of shrines along the way. A nice way to spend a sunny afternoon.

The evening found us at a hamburger restaurant called Bikkuri Donkey. The name, literally, means Surprise Donkey so I was a little concerned about what kind of meat goes in those burgers. But it turned out to be a great meal: they serve you a slab of ground beef (no bun) with odd toppings like eggs (as seen on their huge menu). The furai poteto (fries) were also excellent. It was even more American wannabe than McDonald's--there was a whole lot of...crazy crap on the walls". What American burger restaurant would be complete without an Oregon license plate or a speed limit sign?

It's times like these that make us re-evaluate what's really important in college basketball. It's not whether our players are good students, or whether they're committing to stay at a school longer than a year, or even whether they have clean police records. We've lost sight of what's truly important: are we winning?

"But if every basketball player in America in college that had a gun gave up his eligibility, we'd have fewer players."
--Baylor men's basketball coach Dave Bliss, quoted in the Mercury News

Quite possibly the best Swedish film of the year. Or the decade. Easily the best Swedish movie I've ever seen...

Friday was a fun day. After only half a day of work, I Kintetsued it back to good old Kyoto for our SCTI reunion meeting. We shared horror stories about our internships--making me thankful my job was working out. But I can only listen to people whine about how antisocial and serious their workplaces are for so long; it seems a standard feature of the Japanese workplace: the very same people who'll go out drinking with you every week after work are dead silent and intensely focused on their jobs during the day. The interns near me and my gaijin boss are much more conversational, fortunately. After some awkward mingling with company higher-ups (though free food can break through any ice it seems), we ran off to Osaka.

Having seen big American shows like the ones in Detroit and New York in person, my first Japanese fireworks show left me mildly impressed.

We emerged from the subway station to the sound of explosions and the sight of bright lights in the sky. It looked like the city was being bombed at first, because we couldn't see the actual fireworks, only their reflections off the clouds. (Especially because hordes of people were already starting to leave.) But despite our running, the sound stopped before we could get a clear view of it. I thought we'd missed it.

Rather than blow up all their explosives in ten minutes like Americans tend to do, it turns out they'd been setting off little bursts every five minutes or so for the past hour. I kind of liked it being spread out--making it easier for people like us to arrive late. But it was also fairly uncoordinated--they felt the need to set off most all of them four or five at a time, so it was hard to really get into the groove of any individual explosion. Plus they were shooting them off from both sides of the park at the same time, giving us whiplash from looking back and forth so quickly. Ah well.

The ride back on the Loop Line was more packed than any train I'd been on since the Tokyo Loop Line. There's something comforting about not having any room to fall over-- each time the train jostles you your neighbor just shoves you back up. And yet there's also something to be said for, say, breathing, or being able to see the stop names out the window. Even Kintetsu was packed--a rarity since Nara's hardly a hot destination...