Two years in the land of the Rising Sun

Two years have passed.
Wake me up when September Ends.

Monkey Island

(As stolen from the website)

Lets go to monkey island.

It will make you very happy.

There are no monkey on the island.

However there is plenty of happiness.

http://www.sarusima.com/

http://www.sarusima.com/company/english.html



Cannot wait for my trip to monkey island tomorrow to find happiness.

Joe's Apartment.

Anyone remember Joe's Apartment? Not the bad movie, the short on MTV. I am strangely being reminded of that.
If this continues, other existential questions ( such as "Who am I?" "Why am I here?" ) will take more of my waking time.
You have to give up. You have to give up.

Weekend Getaways

Off for the weekend to Oiso in Kanagawa prefecture.
http://www.princehotels.co.jp/oiso-e/
High time.

Earlier breaks
Kobuchizawa, Risonare - March 2008
http://www.risonare.com/

Odawara, Hilton - November 2007
http://www1.hilton.com/en_US/hi/hotel/TYOODHI-Hilton-Odawara-Resort-Spa/index.do

Here we go again

Moving next month to JP from Bear.

Moving next week from tokyo to chiba.

Barbeque at Hakone

Golden week is a bit odd this year. No straight holidays, so no long vacations. Went out to Hakone with a few friends for a barbeque. Nice food, good onsen, great ramen at shinagawa to end the day.
A cycling to trip planned around odaiba cancelled due to bad weather. Need a big vacation soon.

30 Plus

Yes. I am 30 . and i have absolutely no hang ups about it. The twenties are over. And I have a feeling the thirties are gonna be much better. I hope they are. Kicked it off with a big birthday weekend , a big dinner at fujimamas, lots of beer and Karaoke.

Bye bye 20's , you will be missed, but not too much I hope !!!!

85 years and a weekend

It's bust. Bear Stearns has folded up. 85 years on wall street. One weekend of absolute mayhem. 170 $ per share last year. 2$ per share this week. It does not get any worse. You can read about it all on the net. For years to come , I guess.

So where does this put me? let's see. Romantic life in the dumps. Professional life in the dumps. Japanese life in the dumps. I don't know where it goes from here. Life has been strange. Just when you think you've seen it all, it has a way of tying your balls up and hanging you upside down to ask " Well, what do you think?"

Wait and Watch. More to follow.

Happy Chinese New Year

That's what it comes down to. A year late on the new year wishes. This blog is inspired by watching The Departed again on cable and four shots of Jack daniels and the new dell laptop. The love for movies is universal. Lot's of events. No time for updates. The lamest excuse ever. No time.
Dance Dance has been appreciated across continents. Love to know Mithun da rocks. New Years in India was great. Tokyo still rocks. Lots of decisions to be made. Never easy.
Moved from shimbashi to higashi ginza. Nice neighbourhood, lots of shops for strictly window shopping.
travel tip - goa sucks on new years. Never again. But, never say never.
Mumbai is great. Nothing's changed. Dunno if that's good or bad. The traffic sucks, the bars close early and no more drunk driving. The last one's definitely great. Friends still rock, they are the best on the planet.
Gotta go now, time for some pink floyd on saturday night.

Back to pavilion

Back to Tokyo. Back to work. Shimbashi-kamiyacho-shimabshi.
Same old, same old. Will try to scribble something on the India trip soon.

Home Coming

Going to India this month. Almost 4 weeks. Lots of work to be done, tickets confirm, buy gifts etc. That does not leave enough time to reflect on the past year, which is good i say. A new years trip to goa is being planned, lets see how it goes.
Thankfully, i can keep my stuff back here, planning to travel pretty light. Should be pretty exciting.

Bye bye work !!!! (For 4 weeks )

Happy Diwali

Happy Diwali and Happy New Year !!!!
Still in Japan, more than a year now. Much time has passed. Summer happened some time back. Autumn is here and it's getting colder. Blogging is far and distant these days. Just like everything else. Starts with a fire, ends in smoke. Should try not to sound depressing in the festive season. Should try not to sound depressing ever. Will save the depressing stuff for later.
Tokyo is beautiful in autumn and winter. Rather Tokyo has seasons called autumn and winter.
Will go to India (home???) in December for christmas. Should be a fun time. Trying not to expect too much. A year is a long time. Changes happen. But all in, should be fun. Mumbai always is. Even in the most of bizarre of ways.
Another New year round the corner, may it be a rocking new year for all !!!!

Sneakers

Been hooked to them for a long time. I remember the first pair being a blue and white North Star from Bata, when I was about 17. I moved to pune shortly and the North Star had died somewhere it between as Bata seemed to have taken it off the shelf. Got another pair of blue and white sneakers which were bad clones of north star and much cheaper for 200 bucks. Cant seem to remember the name now. Wore them to death, so much so , that my then girlfriend bought a pair of blue and white adidas gazelle. Those lasted real long, much longer than the girlfriend, much longer than any other sneakers I can remember. I still did not have the heart to throw them away after more than 5 years, but all good things come to an end. I had started working by now, and sneakers had been moved from being the default footwear to weekends only. Picked up a pair of military green basketball converse which felt pretty good. Guess I was growing out of the whole blue and white . These followed me all the way to Tokyo, where I was able to put holes in the soles by some extensive walking all over the city on the weekends.
And now the time has come to bid them goodbye. Picked Up a pair of black Vans, seem to be pretty popular in Tokyo. Lets see where these take me !!!!

Okinawa

Okinawa
shimbashi-hamamatsucho.
hamamatsucho- haneda airport - monorail
TYPHOON 11
- Flight cancelled
haneda - hamamatsucho - monorail
hamamatsucho - tokyo - JR Yamanote
Tokyo - Fukuoaka - Hakata station(kyushu) - shinkansen.
Hotel - hakata green
Yatai - nakasu -Ramen - Sugoi !!!!

Day 2
Viking lunch - bookin tickets
Big Buddha - under and out.
metro - fukuoka airport - naha - ANA
Yatta !!!
taxi to city court hotel.
check in - move out.
Okinawa burger.
Night at kokusai dori
Jazz and awamori - Hoteru california
Okinanwa izakaya -okinawa dance
Okinawa - goya - dame dame !
yopparai on orion - saved from karaoke.
tip - please dont buy pink lighters when drunk.

Day 3
city court hotel - big breakfast - all you can eat and more
ferry station - right behind the hotel.
ferry to zamami jima - typhoon 12 coming - warnings ignored
Check in at ryokan - Off to the beach
Swimming in the sea - its fun in typhoon 12 !!!
Back to the hotel - big japanese dinner
Beach Bar - Highly recommended
Izakaya on the way back - ALL bars on the island must be visited.

Day 4
Big breakfast at hotel - too bad I still cant eat all that sushi !!!
Back to the beach - Sunny day indeed.
Taco Rice and Cold beer- well now thats a vacation.
Top it it off with a BIG ice cream slush.
Nothing to do on this island - well that was the plan
Too windy on the bridge - Keep to the right .
Nothing on the other side - atleast right off the bridge.
Long way back, pick up some shells on the way.
Off to the super market - 25 meter square only
Aka Jima deer - rare sighting - couldnt see much in the dark anyways.
To the last izakaya on the island - all 3 now visited.
Typhoon 13 unleashed - boy, this is a big one.

Day 5
Early morning - rain now stopped.
Stranded on zamami jima - What to do today???
Big trek to the top of the mountain - great view
One more lunch on the beach shack - everything on the menu now tried
Need to check out today - Typhoon 13 doesnt think so
Alas : - All Boats out of the island cancelled!!!!!
Hitch a ride to Aka Jima - Scary guy that one
Well nothing to do here as well - the room has no doors !!!!!
Walk up the hill to the last island - looking for a plane out.
Pilot does not fly in this weather - stranded again.
Tv dinner with nice oji-san and oba-san - fried chicken and salad good.


Day 6
Breakfast with the couple - pretty decent stuff.
Get a lift back to Zamami - Need to take the boat from here.
Finally off the island - The kids do some nice backflips to say bye- bye
Take a break on another island :- Nice tonkatsu for lunch
A quiet walk up the hill, around the port - and back in time for the boat.
Choppy ride to naha - rush to the airport.
No flights till the next day - And sea sickness strikes.
Check in to a hotel on Kokusai dori for the night
Last dinner in okinawa - and it had to be mcdonalds.

Day 7
Big breakfast time - i love these hotel breakfasts.
Taxi to the airport - flight on time
Same faces all around - all struck by typhoons.
To haneda in a couple of hours - starbucks, I did not miss you
Haneda to shimbashi - back on the monorail
Back to work with bento in hand - Welcome to Tokyo

Shraavan in Japan

Ten days into shraavan, and it's getting crazy in here. Where is the "shraavan special"? Where is Indi rock ? Too many questions as usual. But time goes on.

Dating

Its tough, always is.
Its fun, always is.

Prison Break

A lot of time has passed since the last post. I do not know why I don't blog anymore. A lot's been happenning, but don't feel like writing it down. Maybe everything's become too much of a routine. Maybe it's too much work. Maybe I cannot take this place. Maybe it's my life I can't taste. Maybe I cannot feel my face.(o.k , the last three lines are from "Freak on a leash" by korn. Got carried away a bit.)
Been to a lot of places, the last three months, but never felt like writing. And what is compelling me to write is a TV series. Prison Break. Do not remember the last time I was hooked to a TV series. Or maybe I like the idea of a Prison Break. No, I am not going to get philosophical, I hate that crap.
But it's an interesting TV series. All the characters are interesting, which is rare. It always makes for great drama, if the main lead in a story is not the only protagonist. My favourite is T-Bag, that is one sick bastard.
More later, need to finish season 1 for now. Hope this post gets me back on track for more.

Golden week

Japan has this tradition of golden week, which is like four random holidays in a week which combined with the weekend can be made into a pretty big vacation. I suck big time , so i was stuck at work covering for other people on vacation . Thankfully my japanese friend was here, so there were was some relief in the misery. The trip around hibiya park in the beer haze was the highlight.
Bumped into a friend from college at the smoking room. Bizzare coincidence, but all for the good I say, hopefully more party times ahead.

Happy Birthday Robert

Its here again . The 17th of april. I am 29. The last year of my twenties.
I had to wait till 9 p.m to get a drink. The Boss chooses to do the semi annual performance review today. Kinda ironic , I think, being reviewed on your birthday. Went for a quite couple of beers with my japanese best friend at Brussels at kamiyacho and then for a couple more at the standing bar at the the railway station. Back to work today.

Well,Happy birthday to me !!!!

The Show Must Go On Part - II

Well, well, well. It's been a year already.
I post this as a sequel to my post last year after the academy awards. In true filmi fashion. Compared to last year, I have been away from television and movies much longer this year. Guess that just happens to all of us as time passes by. But I have tried to watch atleast the big ones. If a lot of people like it, there should be something worth watching, shouldn't there?
I am too fussy about my movies. But come to think of it, I am too fussy about everything. More so when I am paying. It seemed o.k in college when I was blowing my dad's money to watch crappy movies for almost 5 days a week (The subhash ghai ham scene special "Taal" was watched first day, first show.Bought tickets in black !!!!). But I am working hard for my money now. I really do 60 hours a week for every penny. Although i don't actually sweat in the air conditioned offices, I think I deserve every single spare minute on my weekends. These days of absolute vanity are priceless, much more valuable than money. So when I spend 2 hours(sometimes 3, 3.5) on a day off to watch a 40 year old guy play a college dropout,dancing and singing wierd or a guy stopping bullets with sandboards, I feel like I have betrayed myself. I feel I have let down all the hard work put in the past week, wasted time and money and 3 hours of free time of my life which I can never reclaim. It's an irreversible crime in my books. My friends often ask me to take it light, it's just a movie. Yeah, maybe but give me back my 3 hours and erase memories of the fat parsi guy doing ninja-karate with another 40 year old. And that is supposed to be cool. But once in a while there is a good flick, which leaves you feeling entertained and coming back for more. How many bad flicks you bear for the one good movie is astounding. Sometimes i feel i just go to the movies to crib about them later, but once in a while a film comes along which makes it all worth it.
The Departed was one of them for me. I did not have the chance to watch much of the movies that were in contention for the academy awards this year. Babel,apocalypto,pan's labyrinth, dreamgirls, children of men,the last king of scotland, flags of our fathers,letters of Iowa Jima still remain to be seen( the last two only cos those are clint eastwood movies).They even had an Indian film,, water nominated for best foriegn film, which i did see and the less said about it is better. I could somehow grab a dvd of The departed and it was paisa vasool. The film won both best film and director and matin scorcese must have gone home a happy man.
Now, I have this funny thing about Martin scorcese's films. I fall asleep while watching them. Every single one of them. I know he's supposed to be one of the great filmmakers of our times, but then maybe I do not understand cinema. I really don't need to understand cinema, for the simple reason that I am not in the movie business. Does anyone know how a roller coaster works? You just get on it, take a ride, and get off. It's the same with movies for me. I simply need to be entertained. period. And i prefer movies to roller coasters. I went to see aviator with one of my friends, and she freaked out when she found me snoring in the cinema hall !!! I could not help it, I just dozed off. I watched taxi driver on cable. I fell off to sleep after half an hour. i woke up in some time, the movie was still on and I dozed off in another 10 minutes and woke up at about the end of the movie.
No hard feelings for martin scorcese. As i said earlier, maybe I do not understand films. So here I am sitting in my apartment on a week night with nothing to do. I cannot sleep and I have The Departed to watch in my comp. I take the odds and put it on trusting martin scorcese to put me to sleep again. Two hours later I am wide awake and I know martin scorcese has won the oscar(partly because they have been waiting to give him one for a long time). I am not going to write a film review, there are other people paid to do that. I feel I have watched the one good movie I get to watch in a year. That's all there is to it. paisa vasool !!!!

p.s :- I now know that if jack nicholson were to even fart on screen, I would stand up and applaud saying that was the best onscreen fart I have ever seen and nobody can do it like he does.