S'now Fun

Wassup! The weekend before last we went snowboarding at Happone up in Nagano, site of the 1998 Winter Olympic games. Nice trip and wonderful accomodations at the Rosenheim Lodge, but the conditions were pretty bad in that the snow was slushy the first day, then frozen the following morning. Most of the slopes are definitely intermediate to advanced, so being that I hadn't gone snowboarding in three years and that the conditions were pretty bad, I felt like a beginner! I even busted my ass hard on an icy path the second day. I thought I fractured my coccyx! I'm still sore. Not to mention, when you do "extreme" sports in Japan, whether it be surfing or snowboarding, everyone believes they are an expert, so the slopes (and beaches) are jampacked with aggressive "experts" all rushing to muscle their way through the crowds, trying to make the hundreds of thousands of yen they spent on tolls, lodging, and the season's most fashionable equipment and accessories all worth it. If you take up any of these activities, don't think that the typical polite Japanese demureness still applies. Prepare to do battle!

Anyway, enjoy our pics!



Shabu-shabu at Rosenheim

Traditional Japanese beer...uh, tea ceremony

The Good, The Bad, and The Supergroup

So there's this new group/album that recently came out called 'The Good, The Bad, and The Queen', comprised of Damon Albarn of Blur, Gorillaz, Clash bassist Paul Simonon, former Verve guitarist Simon Tong and Afrobeat pioneer and Africa 70 drummer Tony Allen. Yet another Albarn side-project, this one takes a different direction from the electronic-campy Gorillaz and goes the route of a more spacy, mellow-happy dancehall/reggae vibe. Though the lyrics center around current social issues in England, the sound is more of a trippy Radiohead-goes-to-Disneyland feel. I've been reading a lot of reviews which describe it as "boring", but I disagree. You have to give it a serious listen while just chilling out at home or while riding the train and you'll catch all of its little intricacies. Historically, I'm not a big reggae fan, but I think this album appeals to me because it's very "British", if that makes any sense. Definitely high on my current playlist. Go check it out mon!

Munchen

Hi folks. Watched that movie, "Munich", the other day. Steven Spielberg masterfully tells the story of the 11 Israeli athletes that were kidnapped and subsequently murdered by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Now I'm neither Israeli nor Palestinian, so the movie did not have an emotional impact on me so much as just feeling empathy for those athletes that were just there to compete and were dragged into a nightmare waged on behalf of diametrically oposed ideologies. The story covers a crack team of Israeli military specialists led by Eric Bana (from that stinker, "Incredible Hulk") that goes undercover in Europe to track down and assasinate each of the terrorists that were involved in the assault. The majority of the movie is a very interesting vengeance story, watching the group meticulously track down and kill several of the terrorists. Their assasinations are almost in humorous in how clumsily and fraught with error they are carried out, particularly all the of ones that involve explosives fabricated by the resident bomb "expert" played by Mathieu Kassovitz (who uncannily looks like a cross between Daniel Stern and Horshack from 'Welcome Back Kotter' - there's your dose of pop culture references for today). The story is a little sketchy in regards to the French informant 'Papa', who provides all of the whereabouts of their targets but also seems to set them up for failure. The ending is a little bizarre also, involving a juxtaposition of the main character having sex with his wife along with scenes of the murder of the Israeli athletes. I guess it's supposed to represent a duality-thing of the taking of life vs. the creation of life. Whatever, Spielberg. Anyway, it's worth a rent so go check it out superfriends.

A Day's Outing

Hello friends! Sorry it's been a couple weeks since my last entry. Not too much going on other than running errands and staying busy with work. I did complete editing my movie, "Travels Down South", on my computer and I hope to show it to you soon. I'm really happy with my first attempt at filmmaking/movie editing and can't wait to shoot additional footage. Who knows...maybe at some point I'll even write up a screenplay ("and send it to L.A., I'll get it done yesterday...aaagh shit" - ben folds five). Yesterday, Saturday, was just a really nice day out with Akemi and our pups. First, we took a short train ride down to Taura St. and walked up to plum tree park way up in the hills to see the new blossoms.







From there, we went up to Akemi's home town, Sugita, to visit a gallery where her dad is having a exhibit of his watercolors. This batch of work showcases her parents' trip to Germany last summer.





We finished the day with a stop at our favorite local pub, Cafe Bar Honey-Style, for beer and snacks. Thankfully, they didn't mind having pups there. In fact, the staff gave them new names - Stella is now "Simon" and Luna is now "Sammy" - don't ask me why. Needless to say, they were pretty exhausted by the end of the day.







That's it for now! More updates to come...