My Valentine

Japan, too, celebrates Valentine's Day on February 14th - but here the tradition is for women to give chocolate to men; she then gets to receive chocolate on White Day (March 14th). This is widely accepted as being the creation of candy makers, but is rather a fun tradition just the same.

Tonight, I gave Brian a little box of Godiva chocolates and a bottle of wine. Naturally, I got to eat some of the chocolate, and the wine we'll share another evening!

In the picture, you can see that Brian has one leg up on the coffee table - this leg will be the subject of a later blog to be posted by Brian Himself!

ふごうかくーFailed!

The results of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test are in - and I'm out! I didn't pass the level 2 exam that I took in December, which is about what I expected.

How does this help me, you ask? Well, now I know where I rank and the areas I have to work on. Basically, my listening is pretty good (a pass, even), but my reading and grammar barely even ranked. I'm even a bit too embarassed to tell you my exact score - but I'm back to studying and think I'll have a chance when I sit the test again in December!

I So Get This...

(from Dilbert, Feb. 2nd, 2006).

I AM a Randian!

TGIF:-)

Pics from Gotemba

Well, I'm back. A few days working out of town was good; my evenings were quiet, solitary - and that was good. I think everyone needs some time to simply be. And I have to say, I rather liked the strange looks I got eating dinner alone at a nice Italian restaurant :-)

Anyway - I finally had some time to download and upload some photos from last weekend, so here are just two of the photos taken by Brian and by me last Sunday.

We stopped at a heretofore unknown park in Gotemba - probably better visited in spring, as its main attraction was supposed to be birds! But we got to do a little winter cave-exploring. Here is Brian's photo, taken with a Lumix DMC-FZ10:




Though the natural wildlife had likely flown south for the winter, the park did have one lonely caged bird. Taken with a Nikon D50:

Worst Driving

After a pretty low-key weekend that included some mountain driving and picture taking (pics coming soon!), I drove back to Shimada city on Monday morning. While driving along the Tomei expressway, I had the misfortune of once again seeing some examples of supremely bad driving - trucks tailgaiting each other to a dangerous degree; sports cars weaving in and out of the lanes, desperate to get to where they were going; a guy somehow managing to smoke AND talk on his cell phone and a woman putting on her lipstick - all while speeding along at 120 km/h.

Setsubun

Yesterday, February 3rd, was setsubun.

Setsubun is not a national holiday, but it is a "festival" day that marks a seasonal transition - namely, the coming of spring; and spring can bring with it many demons! And so on setsubun, people (especially kids - it's become more of a kid festival nowadays), throw beans around their house while shouting "Oni wa soto, Fuku wa uchi" (Demons out! Good luck in!). After throwing the beans (which chase out the evil spirits) you are supposed to pick up and eat the number of beans that reflects your age.

We didn't throw beans or try to chase out the demons - but we still hope that this year will bring good luck and happiness.


But...um...maybe we should have thrown the beans - just in case:-)

Another Earthquake...

According the news, there was a 5.1 magnitude earthquake below Chiba (near Tokyo) last night. There were no injuries or damage, but local trains out of Yokohama and Tokyo stopped for a while. I didn't feel the quake and was completely unaffected - we live pretty far from Tokyo, and I'm even futher away than usual, on business here in Shimada.

However, I do hate to be reminded that "Japan sits atop four tectonic plates and is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries"; You'd think the newspapers would get tired of mentioning that bit!

I Need a Life...

I went to the dentist on Saturday, just for a routine cleaning - it was nice catching up with Nishijima Tomokazu, my excellent dentist, too.

I was also pleased to have had time to drop off a load of our cleaning at a new-found dry cleaner in our neighborhood- they even gave me a member's card and a 30% off coupon for my already-passed birthday! Forgotten is my woe of last week when I found out that our former dry cleaner was going out of business.

While being out in the car anyway, I drove to the Gotemba Supremium Outlets Mall for some shoe and window shopping. I got some shoes - but the windows weren't so hot:-)

On the way home, I also got my car washed. Naturally, the weather forecast is calling for rain tomorrow.

And finally - yesterday was quintuple points day at my local supermarket; if you have a point card, you get a certain amount of "points" for every yen you spend. The points are actually yen that you can spend later. On triple-point day, you get three times the points as usual; quintuple-point day speaks for itself!

And the fact that this weekend felt like one of the best ever, and the fact that I KNEW it was quintuple point day, suggests to me that I

need

a

life!

First 5K - Atami Beachline!

I love riding. I have been riding seriously for years - as a roadie in Montreal, and a mountain biker here in Japan.

But since July of last year, having been inspired by Bernicky and Alyssa, I've been dedicating some time to running. I discovered, to my surprise, that a morning run is actually very nice, and I have also discovered that running downhill in winter is a hell of a lot warmer than riding downhill in winter, and since flats are not an option where I live (first I go straight up, then I fly straight down), running is a warmer way to keep in shape throughout the chilly months.

This year, I decided that, like other runners, I wanted to test my endurance and meet other people out for a good time. To that end, I have enrolled for my first race - only a short, flat 5 K (kilometers) along the Pacific coast in Atami. I've got plenty of time to train for the March 12 race, which should be a good race for beginners; and if all goes well, I may continue to join races and go longer distances or more challenging terrain.

Here is the flyer:

And the Answer is...

Riding without a helmet!!

Brian was possibly one of the many helmetless riders to be ticketed that New Year's Day in what, I am guessing, was a holiday safety check (I escaped that hefty $6 fine, as I stayed in our bungalow, lost in a fevered delirium).


Here in Japan, neither of us would even think about getting on our mountain bikes without a helmet, and nor will we ride with un-helmeted friends. And so, the irony is not lost on us that we did not put helmets on our dense skulls the whole time we were motorbiking up to a 125km/h around Koh Chang.