GONG XI FA CAI

Mun's birthday Nabe
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Happy Chinese New Year to everyone!

I just had a busy weekend and I'm pretty tired right now. So I thought I'd try to get some info up as soon as possible before forgetting it all. This weekend is the FIRST weekend I haven't been snowboarding since Christmas. I was so exhausted after the trip to Niseko that I decided to let my body recover instead of throwing it down the slopes a few more times. That means this is the first weekend I've had available to do anything other than wash my clothes in time for work and sleep.

So what did I do? Well, work has been a bit of a pain the last two weeks so I was in till 10.30 on Friday. I was so tired I just went home and slept off my stress. Saturday was reserved for shopping with Yuka. I was helping someone by a laptop, and considering getting an XBox 360 now that PGR3 is available. After about four hours in Yodobashi Camera in Akihabara (this has to be the biggest electronics store I've been in - they have EVERYTHING the aspiring geek could possibly want) we narrowed the laptop choices down to three, balked on the queue in the games section, ate salmon pizza and managed to buy a golf bag (?!?) So, mission failed on the first half of the trip.

The second half of the trip was to visit Jimbocho to find thermal gear for the next snowboarding trip (which is 10 days from now). This was kind of embarrassing. My shopping partner had no issues - being japanese she found stuff that fits straight away. I on the other hand discovered that there were no clothing items in Jimbocho that would fit me. My only hope is to go to an international outdoor wear store like Mont-Bell. I also kinda stretched the thermal gear I tried on so I don't think the shop owners want me to return... I did spot some very nice snowboards though. I'm very tempted to get the new Vapour all-round board from Burton. My current board is meant for powder which means its not great on the piste. Hmm...

That reminds me, I've been thinking about the following shopping list

1. XBox 360 (If only for Project Gotham 3)
   
2. New Snowboard + Boots + Bindings. I'd like to get Flow Bindings, but my current bindings are only a year old so its hard to justify.
   
3. A canon kiss 350D Digital SLR. This is purely technolust. I want a Digital SLR to take round Japan on photography trips - but I don't really _need_ one. Sigh..

Decisions, decisions...

Finally - Sunday saw Chinese New Year, and a surprise birthday party for Miranda (Mun). Its not her birthday yet and the surprise was ruined by last minute scrambling to trick her into coming late. I don't think it will be possible to trick Mun that way. For example, the party was to be at 7:30 but she tried to get there at 5. Steph did her best to save the day but since Mun was calling the office - which is where Steph claimed to be - she started to grow suspicious. So when the door finally opened all we could hear was Mun shouting "I knew it! I knew it!". Still, the party was fun and Eric cooked up some great Nabe.

I got home at about 11. Just in time to hang up my washing, go to bed and set my alarm for 5.15 (ugh).

SPIFF OUT

View from the top (Ezo-fuji)

View from the top (Ezo-fuji)
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Greetings fellow earthlings

Last weekend I visited the famed Niseko ski and snowboarding resort and boarded till my legs wouldn't work anymore. The downside of this was that I crashed into a tree. Lucky I have a helmet eh?

The trip was arranged by Amy and we were accompanied by Yoko, Mun, Colin and Michael. Thanks guys for a great weekend!

You can view the complete photo set at the by looking at my Niseko Photo Set.

Enjoy

(ps, I may post some other choice snaps from the other participants if they are OK)

Kotatsu!

Kotatsu!
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

This is some of the furniture I bought myself last week. The thing in the middle (a kotatsu), and the book shelves.

A kotatsu is a little table with a heater underneath it. You sit under the blanket and the heater keeps you all warm. You can cook Nabe or Shabu Shabu on top... Mmm, nice. And of course, you can play footsie with your opposite number. This one sits four so there could be plenty of footsy going on.

Christmas, New Year, Boarding Boarding Boarding (Oh, and my birthday)

First off, thanks to Nev, Sam, Steve, Michelle, Craig, Niall, Stelly, Jim, Sian, Purves, Alan, Vicki and Dan for my food parcel/birthday gift. Last Friday a hyuge box landed on my desk (I'd asked to get it redelivered to the office) which contained the following:

• A Calendar with pictures of Scotland to make me feel homesick
  
• A box of highland fudge to make me feel sick after eating it all in one day
  
• Three bottles of awesome beer I drank on Sunday
  
• A box of shortbread that I managed to make last the weekend
  
• A tin of Haggis I'm saving for a week on Wednesday (Burns night! Wahey!)
  
• And SIX CANS OF IRN BRU BABY YES OH YES OH YES...
  

I've managed to string out the Bru so far. I have two cans left which I'm saving to push on unsuspecting locals. I don't think the Japanese pallette can handle the sugar overload that one sip of the Amber Nectar will provide.

Also - Thanks to Dave, Akane, Yuka, Miranda, Yong, Amy and Pollen for the Surprise party they threw for me at Dave's place. Well - it wasn't much of a surprise (I already knew we were at least having a Nabe party) and Amy gave the game away by shouting "Surprise" every few minutes. Saying that - when a round of "Happy Birthday" started and the cake came out I didn't know what to say (as usual).

What else has been happening? I have to reach back to the dimmest recesses of memory to recall what I was doing four weeks ago... Christmas! Thats right - I went on a Snowboarding trip over the Christmas weekend with some of my work colleagues. Antony organised a great trip to Hakuba in Nagano (where the Winter Olympics were held so many years ago) and we stayed in a cottage for three days near the slopes. The trip was so good in fact, that I've been boarding EVERY weekend since then. You see, in Japan, snow sports (like everything else) are incredibly convenient. For example, on Hogmanay, a group of ten of us got on a Shinkansen (bullet train) at 6:20 am to Joetsu-Kokusai. We were on the slopes by 9 am. We boarded till we could board no more at around 4:30 pm, then went to the Onsen (I've already mentioned how awesome Onsen is), then got the Shinkansen back to Tokyo for about 8:30 pm, had dinner and got back to my apartment for 11:30! I was so exhausted I slept till about 11 am the next day.

The only bad thing about sleeping over New Year was that I missed some of the culture. I'd been planning to go out to take late night photos of all the people visiting Temples over New Year. For the Japanese New Year is very important, but it is important as a spiritual day rather than a day of partying sans Ecosse. I hear that Meiji Jingu temple is packed all night and day with people making prayers, buying fortunes and doing other New Year-ish things. I managed to get to the Temple at Tokyo Tower at about 4 pm on the 1st and things were winding down. Still - that atmosphere was quite spiritual. I saw photos from Meiji Jingu in which the police have to wear riot gear to protect them from the offerings that the crowds throw into the temple. Since most offerings are handfuls of coins I'm not surprised.

So the week of my birthday came round and I went to buy some furniture. I bought a kotatsu (very japanese), some shelves and new curtains for the living room. I also bought a rug and a light for my bedroom. The apartment feels much more homely now they've arrived (as of Monday the 16th) and I look forward to having a Shabu-Shabu party with my kotatsu. I'll need to buy a Shabu-Shabu+Nabe kit though. Oh, and I still need to buy some floor seats... All in good time.

What did I do that weekend? Oh yeah, I went boarding on Kagura-san. And last weekend? Back to Kagura-san it was so good. I love Japan...

ps, this weekend I'm flying to Hokkaido with five friends. I'll let you guess what for. Four days in Hokkaido. Awesome.

pps, Happy Birthday HN-san

Asse Nuggets

Asse
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

I went to see King Kong last night... very good. However, on the way home I stopped into the Convenience store near to the office where I saw the product mentioned on the right.

"asse: Strawberry and Mocha Flavour"

Do you think Chris Rock would switch from Surf? Maybe...

Nouvo Spugna

Nouvo Spugna
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

I love shopping in Japan...

On that day...

I thought I'd post a selection of stories from the 4th of January from the BBC site. Most interesting is probably the story on Donald Campbell - who died attempting to break the water speed record.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy Birthday to Me!
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Thanks to Yuka, Miranda, Akane, Amy, Pollen, Dave and Yong!