Monthly Archives: January 2008

Everything’s Breaking

WTF? Today I broke Mariko’s iPod while trying to replace the battery. Also, my Wii needs to be sent to Nintendo to be fixed. My dSLR is in the repair facility. And just now it seems that the power supply to my iBook is broken. WTF IS GOING ON!!!!!!!!! Oh, and some outlets in our house went offline.

Mr. Vampire (1985)

Mariko rented Mr. Vampire” the other day, and we watched it with the kids after dinner. This is a great Hong Kong martial arts movie, but really light-hearted with tons of slapstick and goofy situations. The fighting is great, oftentimes the characters make mistakes (like missing the bad guy with a kick, and hitting the good guy),and the kids really got into it. The version we got had dubbed and subbed options, and we had them both on, which was hilarious because the word rarely matched what the actors were saying. I mean, it was not even the same meaning most of the time! But that made the movie all the more fun. A good rent from Netflix!

There Will Be Blood

I saw “There Will Be Blood” on Friday with some friends, and it was pretty good. Not really my type of movie, but Daniel Day Lewis’ acting was amazing. He plays Daniel Plainview, oil man in California in the early 1900’s, who builds a successful oil business from scratch. Sometimes, he’s really likable, but other times he’s a real summabitch. Mostly, though, I was rooting for his success. He also had the best line at the end of the movie, “Bastard in a basket! Bastard in a basket!” If you don’t see this movie in the theaters, it’s definitely a good rent!

Endless Ocean Box Art

My copy of Endless Ocean is on its way from Amazon. But, I am searching for a nice scan of the Japanese or Euro version of the game, so I can replace the one on the American version. The Japanese and Euro versions have a really nice, subdued, classy font for the title, but the American version has a loud, in-your-face, “Sea World”-type font, and the silly tagline, “Dive. Discover. Dream.” Awful! If anyone can scan their Japanese of Euro cover art and send to me, I would be most appreciative!!!

Friday’s Feast

Appetizer

How many times per day do you usually laugh?

I chuckle many times a day, but laugh maybe only a couple times a day.

Soup

What do your sunglasses look like?

I don’t wear sunglasses. When I lived in Japan, I got used to not wearing sunglasses, since nobody wore them (except Yakuza and Gaijin). I felt strange wearing them over there, so I never did. I just kinda gave them up I guess.

Salad

You win a free trip to anywhere on your continent, but you have to travel by train. Where do you go?

All around, but especially Canada and Alaska.

Main Course

Name one thing you consider a great quality about living in your town/city.

Friendly People

Dessert

If the sky could be another color, what color do you think would look best?

A deep purple or blue/green would be cool.

Japan Dreaming

In ’95, after I visited Tokyo with my parents, I decided I wanted to live in Japan. So the next year, I moved there and started living my dream. I also met my dream girl there and we got married. However, her longtime dream was to live in the States, and a couple years later when the opportunity arose to move back, we decided to take it. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel any regret, however, meeting new friends and having two wonderful kids in Texas has been pretty damn awesome!

Our recent trip back to Japan reminded me of just how great it was when we lived there, and Mariko and I have talked about about moving back when the kids leave the nest. This got me really excited, and actually every time I think about moving back there (even if it will be 15 long years down the road) I get butterflies in my stomach.

It’s funny how my attitude has changed. It used to be that when I thought about Japan, I felt melancholy from the memories of the life we had there in the past. But now when I think about Japan, I am thinking about the life we will have there in the future. Lots of butterlies right now!