Today's Applause du Jour....

... goes to long-time favourite Max Barry (author of the brilliant Jennifer Government).

In talking about voting, he manages to come up with a gem of a quote

People who try to guess what other people want end up settling on the
dullest, most conservative, and uninspiring choice available, even if none of
them personally prefer it.*

Well done, Maxy!

Dark and dirty game arcade

Lastnight, out of a mixture of curiosity, tiredness and self-suggestibility (I'd mentioned the place to Dave in connection with old video games during the day), I investigated the local game arcade, close to the place I got my first barber cut in Matchington.

It wasn't as shiny as Round One, where I'd been with the Scots on Friday night (albeit pished), and there were huge fans set up at the end of some of the aisles to try and bring down the huge temperature created by all these screens and hidden computers.

I was delighted to see that there really were some old games there (Street Fighter 2 Hyper edition was one of them, and that's got to be at least a decade old, along with some version of Darius), in amongst a bunch of strategy games, a few gambling machines, and a few normal style arcade games.

Strange what catches your attention, though.... most of the machines were at seat level. Helped by the fact that they had seats for the entranced customers. And over at the far end of one of the far aisles was something I'd never seen away from the beach or a club: a shirtless Japanese guy! He was about my age, slim and mildly tanned, wearing suit trousers and shoes, one shin perched on the other thigh, dragging on a fag like it was keeping him alive, with a fag packet and a half-drunk plastic beaker on the console of the machine, completely into the game. I did a double-take because you never see people undressed here, even in the summer (it's considered rough).

I wandered round a bit more, considered playing Darius, then just got out; it was noisy, and warm, and I was tired from the gym and not much sleep the previous night, and just wanted to rest.


Sometimes it's rewarding to follow your instincts, though. I like that side of Japanese life because of what it's in contrast to: it's a little bit seedy and it's always nice to know that there's colour in life...

It's so humid here,

20080718 2104

... it looks foggy!

Can't do much tonight anyway, cos I'm fecked after this week, emotionally and physically.

But have to be strong, eh?

Work tmrw, and on the holiday Monday, too. Very much inclined to go to TGIs for a beer tonight. Just don't want to be the centre of attention. At ALL

House is a kip, but I can tidy it tmrw night or Sunday morning while I'm waiting for the Toot parcel to arrive!

Wish the Scottish Couple was available for a light drink in the NM bar tonight. Mr C is out on enforced drinking with the new work crowd.

Must be edging towards 30 C tonight...

I misr Mr C a lot, but I think I'm over-sensitive to his absence at the moment cos I'm suddenly single.

He had months of me being around only part of the time when I dated Jun. And towards the end with Jun, he told me he realised he was lonely :o(

I told him how I really felt shortly after that point. Then left for England.

I guess in the 7 weeks between that and me splitting with Jun, he lived up to his bhallenge and tried to be better.

Without me. And knowing him, he probably decided that if I was doing a dangerous thing having fallen in love, he would try to not make gt any more dangerous by getting closer.

Dunno.

All just speculation, eh? But noone to speculate with, so it's just me on my own at 9pm. Arriving home.

Evening... from the office

Well, here I am, and of my own choice.

Mr C is out drinking tonight, but sent an interesting message about being touched up on the oul' 電車 this morning on only his second day. He liked it though, deviant...

Anyway, I'm choosing the low-guilt opportunity to shirk the gym because I want to get some online information finally put up before the big leview next week (I think).

I won't lie and say I'm happy these days. Everything is in a state of flux. Absolutely everything. And it would maybe lift my mood if I could get out onto my balcony to chill a little these days, but it's closed off.

I don't want to go out and get smashed to have some craic because a) I did that on Thursday and Friday and so that's been done, and b) after some of the photos on Sunday, I want to get into shape seriously.

Also, I'm sunburnt, so I don't want to anything that puts pressure on legs, back or shoulders ;oD

Anyway, I knew things would change when Casper moved office. The trick is to enjoy it and get into it!

So, to break the mood, here I am with red t-shirt AND red face ;oD

This weekend, I have been mostly...

...at the beach! Hurrah!

Or travelling to'n'from them :o)

Brilliant adventure today to a far-off beach in Chiba. Mr C knew about it, but 1st time for both eejits.

Got to this place about 1030 after leaving Matchington 4 full hours earlier.

But it was worth it.

After yesterday's late, somewhat cloud-covered arrival @ Enoshima, we had a really nice wander around the island, after leaving the two Scots supping beer on the beach.

Mr C and I had taken a wander down the beach away from the stalls and music. From there, we heard what sounded like festival drums, so that was intrigue enough. So we made our way across the bridge to the island, got ice cream (purple sweet potato, and pineapple) and wended Mur way up through the shops, eschewing the damed escalator to take the steps further up the hill to a 7 gods shrine. Whichever one has to do with money and good fortune, judgi
ng from the rituals.

But today was something else ＾▽＾

Started doing THIS now... (°_°)

Me Hear, Me Like

Won't be large posts, just stuff I hear on radio /ON LINE / wherever... that I like. Video posts an added bonus via YeTube.

One week and one good weekend on..

... and the mood is substantially improved.

Hats off to Casper for most of that.

Friday night, did onsen (not my idea), which had both the normal hot baths, and a merciful cool bath to help combat the summer night heat.

Saturday brought an unusual series of events:

1. went to gym, not having slept enough and therefore was unusually weak (also, not going for 10 days before that probably didn't help ;oD )
2. Casper got word that his lords & lez's beer-garden event (which I was going to avoid) was going to be an afternoon thing and thought about backing out
3. he then asked if I wanted to join in
4. I thought carefully – lack of genkiness (a word?) was making me think I'd be shite company in a mostly Japanese-speaking environment
5. came around to the idea when it looked like we'd just pop in for a little while and then go shopping (original afternoon plan)
6. on agreeing, it transpired that the beer garden was up a mountain. Resistance quickly subsided.
   
7. we went for it, stopping off to get some cold noodles (in my case) and rice bowl (his) and then took the funicularse up the mountain.
8. met Kazu (Casper's mate) and his crowd
9. no lez's turned up :o(
10. we went in anyway and got drunk for 2 hours and the craic was very good
11. I actually saw someone throw away alcohol and didn't mind: it was 飲み放題 (all you can dhrink) after all!!
12. came back and sobered up with some shopping in the summer sales
13. went to bed and slept the heaviest in weeks

So, that was nice. And helped to destress me a lot.

Sunday was more sedate. Got up earlyish, went over to Mr Casper's flat and ordered a Toot summer grab-bag and investigated holidays. Looks promising at this stage, even for OBon season (!)

Then, lunchtime-ish, headed over to gym for a few hours. Then to Sagami-Ono to try and get some fancy suit stuff. In the end, we just had tonkatsu, cos the dept store prices at Isetan (even on sale) were sort of pre-sale everywhere else! :oD

Anyway, then headed back to Machida and to Mina - P.S.FA and Orihica weren't great, but Aoki had several purchase-worthy ties and a nice shirt or two. Quite good fun helping someone else shop for that kind of stuff if you know what they want :o)

Ended the day with an obligatory Doutor cafe visit, and a nice relaxed chat. Good end to a good weekend, and good riddance to a bad week!

that's all for now -- have to give my latptop to Dave so he can finish his talk for Thursday!