Finally a spring-like weekend and

Finally a spring-like weekend and I took advantage of the warm weather for an onsen (hot-spring) trip to Hakone, a mountain full of onsen resorts that’s about two hours by train from Tokyo. I went with six other friends and we were lucky to get a room considering we reserved just the day before.  (It was a bit tight  after the futons were laid out but no one was complaining.) The ryoukan (hotel) has three different onsen baths (with an outdoor one on the roof); the ryoukan baths were all very nice but a “tad” small for seven people so after dinner we went and rented another onsen all to ourselves, just a 5-minute walk from our ryoukan. Other than the scathing hot water (46C!) - which one of us didn’t get used to - it was pure joy and very relaxing. 

During the trip I couldn’t stop thinking about my auntie Rita, who is battling with cancer thousands of miles away as we speak. We wish her well.

Web radio’s last stand.

Web radio’s last stand. Recently I am listening more to music online (i.e. internet radio). Surely my CDs - played through my $1000 sound system - sound much better than net radio on my notebook speakers, but I get to discover so much more new and exciting stuff just by listening to radio online. And not having to put up with commericials is a plus, too.  And now the RIAA wants to kill all that, in addition to limiting the ways we can listen to online music? To quote Dan Gillmor, “Bleak Future looms if you don’t take a stand.”

Freezing hanami

I had a freezing hanami (i.e. sakura-viewing) at Shinjuku Gyoen on Sunday.  The weather wasn’t cooperating but at least we didn’t get rained on.

Sunday’s hanami marked the fourth time we sat under the same sakura tree; that’s right, four years in a row. But I was sad to find out that our beloved tree got some of its branches clipped sometime after last year’s hanami. The tree used to be much denser with sakura flowers extending from the lower branches that had been chopped away mercilessly. (Ouch, it hurts me so.) Before, no one could see from outside the tree who was sitting under it and I liked it that way.

In any case I played my part of the happy bartender: many people who came got drunk because of my caipirinha.  Fortunately my friend Edson was on scene to cure the drunkards by concocting Brazilian mate tea called chimarro with a funky device.

What’s wrong with the Oscars?

What’s wrong with the Oscars?.  [Salon.com]  The show is just a pointless popularity contest where the “best-anything” awards are voted by a confined bunch of people whose tastes are probably never the same as yours. Best-by-voting is way overrated; it’s the best-for-you that counts.

The sudden rain this afternoon

The sudden rain this afternoon may have ruined the chances for a hanami at Shinjuku Gyoentomorrow. Let’s hope the sun comes out tomorrow morning and dries the Gyoen grass. I am looking forward to my caipirinha encore: if you come, I’ll serve. Ah, that reminds me, better go buy some lemons now. (Can’t do it with lime, too expensive in Japan.)

Match Making, Group style

Just got back from a “gokon”, which is the Japanese word for a pre-arranged party between a group of men and women held at a izakaya (Japanese bar-restaurant.) The goal of the gokon for the participants is to get to know prospects for marriage. However, it was not applied to me for I was the middleman who arranged the party.
The gokon I arranged was between three high-achieving Japanese men (two armed with US MBAs) and three Japanese OL (office ladies) of a reputable foreign company.  Most of them are in their 30s. I tried to keep a low profile and observed how everyone mingled with each other. They ended up talking about topics ranging from their favorite Japanese entertainers (a usual topic) to their favorite movies.
In the end I got the feeling that the gokon had ended on a good note, though I wasn’t sure (as usual) whether there would be new couples as a result. The guys did hand out their name cards to the girls in the end so I won’t be surprised if after a few months I actually find out that someone from the gokon are going out with each other. 

Added script to #dayTemplate to

Added script to #dayTemplate to fix the system date; it should look ok now.

Radio screws up the time

Hmm… Radio Userland gets the date from my Japanese OS but it’s all mumble jumble here - how do I change it back to an ascii format?

Installed Radio Userland

Installed Radio Userland.  Will try it out for 30 days to see if it makes my life easier.