Roppongi

Chris's boss and co-worker are out here from the states for a couple weeks. We just happened to run into them Friday night at a local shopping center right as we all were looking for someplace to eat. We all ate dinner, played some arcade games and watched the movie 'The Dark Knight.'

Sunday afternoon

Sunday night the four of us got together and went to Roppongi to eat at an Indian restaurant. Good food, but we were very stuffed and sleepy afterward. We were going to stick around the area, but it was raining pretty hard and there was only one umbrella between the four of us. We headed back and called it a night since we were all so tired.

rainy work-out

Chris and I worked out this morning at the gym in our building. We both haven't been working out much at all, but decided to get a routine going so we can work out together.

Chris learning kanji on his IPOD while working out

Earthquake

Wow is it humid outside! You're outside only for a short time and you get all sweaty. Chris comes home soaked sometimes.

While I was at work today there was a small earthquake...a nice little wake-up in the middle of the day actually. It's way too hot in the office so it's really easy to get sleepy...and just eating a big lunch will do it too. I had Turkish food today! My first time, and it was good.

The earthquake shook the building for close to 10 seconds. You can see the little red circle (representing the earthquake) on Japan in the image below.

www.iris.washington.edu/seismon

Togei

Just came back from pottery class...below are some pieces for sale that I liked. I was tempted to buy the first one below, but decided to wait and see what the person who made these cups would be making next.

Familiar Faces

There is very old man who lives in our building who always wears a collared white dress shirt and nice pants...he walks with his back bent forward. We usually see him walking around outside the stores below our building, in the conbini reading (aka convenient store), or in our building elevator. Once we saw him getting a neck massage from one of the department store bellboys who helped him carry his groceries :)
There are two blind men that go to work together on the train I usually take in the morning. When they get off the train, one always puts his hand on the other one's shoulder and they walk together. I can always depend on them being on the same train, in the same train car.

I look forward to familiar people and familiar things so much more now because there has been so much that has been so unfamiliar here. I miss the familiarity, so any I can get is a bonus. Being someplace completely new is exciting, but I need the familiar around me too. I don't think I would really like non-stop traveling. I used to think it would be amazing to travel all around the world--6 months, a year, or some amount of time, but I think I would want to stay in the same place for awhile in order to gain "familiarity" with what (and who) is around me. Somehow I think the familiar keeps us grounded--it keeps us in reality. The people and the things we surround ourselves with everyday can do a lot to help us feel at home and that we belong right where we are.

Day at the Waterpark

Chris and I went to a water park today in Oiso, Japan (40 minute train ride from our place). It's been about 10 years since either of us had been to a water park so we thought it would be fun to go. It was a lot of fun, and not nearly as crowded as these places are notorious for being. You can see how crowded a Tokyo water park wave pool was in someones video below... :)


The water park we went to was spread out over a large area, attached to a resort/hotel right next to the ocean.

Chris on the hydro slide (I think that's what it's called?)

wave pool

ocean view

Below pic is of the high dive platforms - Chris went off the one to the left, but I didn't have the camera at the time. He is a really good diver (thanks to diving lessons when he was younger) so it is fun to watch him but nerve-racking at the same time :)

very long lazy river

Gap Song Found (!)

This has got to be a strange week....or significant in some way?

I woke up early this morning and got into itunes--clicking on songs to see if any were worth buying. I clicked on a song and sure enough--there was the annoying tune I heard in Gap (in my dream)! It came back to me really quickly because this one part of the song is just so annoying and very unique from anything I had heard before. The song? American Boy by Estelle. The part I remember very distinctly?

lyrics:
Take me on a trip, I’d like to go some day
Take me to New York, I’d love to see LA.
I really want to come kick it with you.
You’ll be my American Boy, American Boy.

Strangely these are the only two songs (with the O.A.R. song that I recently ran into) I really remember having in dreams that I have never heard before. This is a first for me!

Now the actual dream... Chris and I were both at Gap. Chris was with me but was somewhere else in Gap at the time. I had just come from looking at something and walked to the left around a taller (about 4') glass display table. There were jeans on top and there was a couple walking around the other side (white guy thinning light brown hair and girl medium brown hair, late 20s) having a conversation about something which I remembered after the dream, but I can't recall anymore. I walked over to some tall display shelves (looking towards the direction of the back of the store) and noticed some new Gap products I have never seen before--the products seemed out of place at the time in the dream because I had never seen Gap carry these products, but they would be some type of body product (lotion, perfume, makeup etc) that had different colors to choose from all displayed on one of the shelves with the other body related products.

After maybe 30 seconds of looking at these products and then picking one up, I felt sudden burst of warm wind, a sharp warmth on my back, I blacked out and woke up from the dream. After waking up I thought to myself that it had to be some type of bomb, but I didn't actual see it or anything suspicious... It felt very real though.

I very likely wrote this dream down (as I do usually write these things down) but I'll have to do some searching for it in past journals. The dream was at least a year ago--I know that much. But I will have to look back to see if there are details I have forgotten since.

If you are in Gap and you hear the 'American Boy' song my advice is to get out as soon as possible. ;)

Karaoke

Our Thursday night of karaoke =)

Déjà vu

Most people have some form of déjà vu at some point in their life...for some it's rare and for others it can be very often. Sometimes I will have a month with multiple déjà vu's or I can go a span of a few months without a déjà vu. If you are unsure of what déjà vu is you can read a short description about it on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9j%C3%A0_vu

I had a song déjà vu yesterday. Maybe not quite a déjà vu, but a bit stranger... I had a dream at least a year ago that played a song in the background of the dream. The song was playing in my dream right before I woke up--I even tried to sing/hum it to Chris because I liked it so much. I remembered the tune and remembered the line "turn the car around," and I said to him, "I can't wait till it comes out for real" (because I had never heard the song before). Sure enough, I found the song a couple days ago--first heard it online (listening to the radio online) and then I downloaded it from itunes...And it hit me--that was the song! I recognized it from the tune and from it's "turn the car around" line. The song is called "Shattered" by O.A.R.. ...interesting that I had a pre-cog dream about it before the song ever came out. Chris even vaguely remembers me singing the "turn the car around" line to him after I woke up from my dream. What is also interesting is that I couldn't have heard this song before because the cd with the song just came out for the first time within the last month--maybe out and about in the last two months at most.

I have another song I'm waiting on to come out too, it was a dream where I was shopping at Gap and the song was playing in the background. A really annoying song though, so I can't remember too much about it other than being annoyed by it.

Cake and Laptop Disassembly

Strawberry Cake on Friday night =)

Chris examining the the insides of our laptop Saturday morning

Amazing Hanabi

This was by far the best fireworks show either Chris or I have ever seen! No exaggeration! Over an hours worth of fireworks. I tried taking some pictures, but very hard to get pictures that aren't blurry.

Togei to Hanabi (pottery and fireworks)

It has been a really great day today.

I had my Japanese class this morning and then pottery this afternoon. In pottery I am now being taught how to use the electric wheel! :) I had been making pottery by hand up till now, but now I get to actually feel the slimy clay spinning between my hands! And it is wonderful! I really loved it. I had a hard time preparing the clay for the wheel (process of kneading that it must go through), but actually working with it on the wheel felt pretty natural and so therapeutic--very meditative and relaxing.

Tonight there are fireworks, and this time even closer to our place. We should have a great view tonight--they did a short test run of the fireworks last night. You can see people getting ready to watch them in the picture below.