Newspaper sales

So my doorbell rings, and a guy mumbles something incoherent over the intercom. Reluctantly i throw on some pants and see what he wants. A young guy greets me and bows profucely, newspaper salesman I realize. In the middle of our conversation he says, "You look like my brother."  I wanted to shout and is your brother a foreigner, instead I said, "Is that because he is bald?" Anyway it was a very interesting conversation, it seems he is new the city and he did have that "inaka" feel.  

Shortly after I left to go to my foot message appointment, and law and behold as I was walking to the station I passed him, I smiled and said, "Ganbatte!"

Video Steps

On my walking journey of Tokyo today I ran into these very unique steps.

Departures

So today I went to Asakusa to check out this Okinawa promotion fair. I didn't realize that it was in front of the TBS building, so I went in to see if there was anything interesting and they had this case of all the awards that "Departures" has won, except there was no Oscar, what's that all about?

Kodo Promotional Video

This is cool but the Longer version on the Kodo web site is even better.

'Twittering' at church

By DEBORAH FELDMAN / KING 5 News
SEATTLE - The Mars Hill Church in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood is not your grandma's church. On Sunday, the pastor's sermon was being broadcast on large video screens to accommodate his laryngitis and the congregants in church were broadcasting on their iPhones.

They weren’t talking, but “Twittering,” typing in brief thoughts or messages for their friends to read in real time.

"How does the service impact them, what does worship feel like to them and its a good way for them to kind of tell their friends what church is about without their friends even coming in the building,”

See the video here.

Things sure have changed. I guess it would be another good reason to get an iPhone!

The Past

I haven't had much to do at school so I have been scanning misc. pictures that have been buried in my closet. It has been actually pretty amusing to see how I have changed over the years and to remember some of the amusing adventures I have been on. They are all going up on my FB page, and if you're reading this you have probably already seen them.

This picture is of Takaragawa Onsen taken in 1987. I was really surprised how good the color has kept and the photo hasn't faded at all.

Yesterday

Yesterday was a weird but relaxing Sunday. First off I overslept, which is something that almost never happens. I woke up just at the time I should have been leaving the house for church. And since it is an hour and a half just to get there, there was no way that I was going to make it. So I ended up staying in all morning just relaxing reading and facebooking. I finally got around to getting out around 12:30 and headed to News Cafe in Jiyugaoka for lunch. It was there we talked about how America's don't know how to control their spending. And this morning I found the link to the video that I posted below.

Stopped to look at an apartment that was being advertised for sale at supposedly a great deal. Was highly disappointed knowing that the ceiling that through out the rest of the house was normal in the one bedroom and in a section of the hallway was probably about 5'5". And the new cabinets they had put it the hall way actually hung in the doorway. I have heard that it is a good time to buy an apartment, but there is no way that I could live in a situation like that.

After heading home I was tired, I have no idea why, and laid down for a nap and slept for 2 hours. Headed out to the bath and then it was about 9 before I got back and I hadn't had supper so I just opted for a piece of toast to hold me over till the morning. I guess it was the ice cream and chips that I ate in the afternoon that spoiled my appitite.

Don't Buy Stuff You Cannot Afford

After having a conversation about how some people just buy things that are way beyond their means I stumbled upon this, it is too funny.
http://danwho.net/mp/snl_dontbuystuff.wmv

Shige's Wedding

The happy couple.

Last night Shige finally tied the knot!  They had a small reception at a hotel in Nagatacho which was very nice and pretty informal.  It was really nice to see a lot of old friends and acquaintances.  Some of the people I had completely forgotten about.  When I walked into the hotel I was greeted almost immediately by a group of guys that were all involved in "Tomono Kai" in Yachiyo city.  The rest of the gang were all in a coffee shop having drinks waiting for the festivities to begin.  As we headed up to the banquet room we ran into Shige's parents.  His dad was so glad to see me and talked my ear off, saying how good a friend I had been to Shige and how I was really more like a brother.  It felt good.  

Things started off when Shige and Mizuho entered on the first floor and we were all standing above on the second floor. They walked around the foyer as we dropped flower petals on them. During the reception there were 4 speeches and I was the last one.  I don't know if that made me super special or something else.  We were all given name tags with our names of course and our relationship to the couple.  The funny thing was that all his friends from Yachiyo were from Tomono Kai and they all had "volunteer" on their name tags.  I think I was the only one of Shige's friends that had 親友, or best friend, on his name tag.  I did feel privileged.  The speech went well.  Any one interested in seeing pictures you can find them here.