Charlie Brown Christmas

This is for Nakajima sensei.

Super Sento

Well a new Super Sento opened up this month not too far from me and just right around the corner from the new IKEA store in Yokohama. It's called Kohoku no Yu, and I thought since I had some free time tonight I should go check it out. There here 7 outdoor baths, the one that is pictured above was the wine bath today, I think that it gets changed on a regular basis to feature some special healing water or something like that.

It is a very nice complex, of course along with the bath there were 2 kinds of saunas, one a traditional one and the other one that you rub salt over your body and sit in stone chairs. It was a rather realxing evening. They have a nice restaurant on the premises and I got a light dinner of "Buta Kimchee Itame" Stir-fried pork and kimchee. It was very nice, and for being so new it wasn't very crowded, which was a little of a surprise.

Next store was a cheap grocery store where I saw bottles of Mt. Dew for ¥48 a bottle. Almost made we want one. They didn't have alot of stuff but what they had seemed to be pretty cheap. I think if I tell the Barton's that I got a ¥105 loaf of bread they just may be jealous.

Ginza

Here we are in the middle of Ginza having a Mary Tyler Moore moment. I'm sure that Alina has never seen the show but she joined in anyway. It is amazing that they close off the street to traffic on holidays, and oh so nice that they do. At least it gives you some place to walk. You can see all the people in the background, just think if they were all scrunched up on the sidewalks. I'm sure we were being stared at as Rach took our picture.

But speaking of causing stares, on our way to the museum that day an older man got on the train and sat on the other side of the train and lucikly for us a ways down. There weren't very many people on the train and all of the sudden the man opened his pants and started fixing his shirt, then he reached down his pant leg and I'm really not sure what he was doing, he seemed oblivious to the fact that there were other people on the train. The funny thing is that this kind of thing doesn't really surprise me anymore. You do see the funniest things some time. So in comparison our little twirling antics are nothing.

Turkey in Edo

Well for those of you who are just now celebrating Thanksgiving, let me give you a recap of my day. Well nothing was really planned and about 11:00am I set off to meet up with Rach and Alina. I had decided to go to the OEdo Museum to see a woodblock exhibit. It was really nice, but of course a lot of people. Afterwards we wanted a cup of coffee but couldn't find a place that wasn't over-run with people, so we set off to Ginza.

There we just had to stop at the Apple store. It is a really fun store with so much cool stuff. We won't talk about the 23 in cinema monitor that was on sale for so cheap, where is santa when you need him. The main street running through Ginza was closed off to traffic and all the Christmas lights were up. Here is the tree infront of Makimoto Pearl.

After boring Rach completely at the Appple Store, we headed off to Zest for our Mexican Thanksgiving dinner. Now Rach has the pictures from the Restaurant so it may be a day or two before I get them. I will put them up as soon as they come in. All in all a delightful day. Maybe not a traditional Thanksgiving but at least we could possible say an Edo style one.

I'm a Christ Follower (Mac vs. PC Parody) Part 01

Ran across this through The Wittenburg Door, and I thought it was pretty good.

Mike vs Makoto

Let me start off by saying I think I'm addicted to this sandwich. It is the Milano A Sandwich at Doutor. And I usually get a Classic Vanilla Latte to go with it.

Now let me continue by saying what is wrong with the staff at Doutor. I popped into the Hiyoshi store this evening to satisfy my craving and I ordered my usual combination. Ok it seems that at whatever store I go to they seem not to be able to understand that I want a Classic Vanilla Latte. I have even resorted to pointing at the picture so there are no mistakes. And it is not like the sound of these 3 words are so much different in Japanese or English, since it is transliterated. So tonight I ordered and I should have realized right away that a mistake was coming when the cashier hesitated just a moment then glanced back at the picture. Then as I saw him making the drink I thought, "Is he doing things backwards the milk that he is foaming looks like it already has coffee added?". And low and behold my suspicions were right he has made a Tiramisu Latte. I wanted to yell, "Are you hard of hearing! My pronunciation can't be that bad!", but I just took my sandwhich and sat down.

Now this brings me to the title of this blog, sometimes I think I'm turning Japanese and there is this little Japanese guy, Makoto, that pops his head up every now and then. This was a prime example, where is that American guy, you know Mike, who would say, "I asked for Classic Vanilla, not Tiramisu. Pleas say it with me, Classic Vanilla, Tiramisu.... Classic Vanilla, Tiramisu. Not even close! Get me the right drink." Well it is all about changing and adapting, learning that sometimes it is better to be Makoto than Mike, or at least pretending that it is ok.

What's in a name?

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 2,179 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Ran accross this and thought it was pretty interesting. I actually used to be friends with a guy that had the same name as I it was quite unusual, we actually shared the same middle inital. Wonder if I will run into any more of me.

Staff Retreat

Here we are in Kobuchsawa, we called this the album cover shot. Now all we need to do is make tha album.

I thought this one should be called Oh!

Alina always the ham!
I hope that nan was as good as it looks.

Teachers

Just thought that I should at least post something this morning. Here is a picture of the teachers from last week's J-Camp, well almost all of us. Amagi is the highest point in Izu or at least that's what I was told. It is a very nice area and not too far out of Tokyo. Even though the Hotel owned by the Japan Baptist Convntion is very nice, it is still a little behind the times. Or maybe I should say they haven't changed much over the years. I guess that is because they cater mostly to Christian groups. and the rates which are something like ¥7,000 are still a bargain in this area where hotels can easily set you back ¥20,000.