Golden Birthday

So I was recently told that this is my golden birthday, ya I dont know what makes it so special either. But here is how I spent the weekend.

Friday:

Some of the students wanted to go to the Tokyo Park Hyatt New York Bar. It is the bar that was made famous by the movie Lost in Translation. They have some great jazz starting after 8pm. So we sat talked, listened to jazz and had a few drinks and some fries. The fries mind you are fried in duck fat and served with a very good homemade ketchup.

Saturday:
I worked the morning. Then around 5pm I went with two of my friends to a a bar named Popeyes. They have 40 Japanese microbrews on tap and more in bottles. We did a sampler first, since my companions have really only drunken standard japanese beer, which is like coors or pbr. As for the full sized beers I had an espresso stout and a gravity fed cast ale, which was almost no bubbles but very good. After wards we went and had some ramen and one of my friends had to head out to meet someone else. I took my other friend to a local bar that I go to ever so often. It is owned by a japanese woman and her okinawan husband. My friend is okinawan and when I told her about it, she wanted to go and have a glass of okinawan sake, awamori. It was the bars 25th anniversary so everything was 25% off. I also recieved a free drink, a large brandy, on the house for my birthday and another free drink, a 2005 german red wine, from a customer who brought the bottle for a gift to the bar owners. I spent the night talking with a sushi chef and a sword polisher, which was very educational and looking through old photo albums from when they first opened the bar, the fashion and hair was very humorous.

Sunday:

I helped a student go return some very over priced pants and then met with a friend for coffee and a cheap dinner.

Monday (my actual birthday):

I woke up extra early and went to go meet my friend mike who was in town for the weekend from Tsu city. We had a breakfast buffet and caught up. Then around 11 I went to help my ikebana sensei with her boy scout group (they were cub scout age). They were having like a little fair/flea market. I ran a little pin ball kind of game that cost 1oyen per play and you were guaranteed a prize. The thing I forgot is that in Japan Boy Scouts are co-ed. I still find it interesting. I was done around 2:30 pm. The only other thing I did is that night I went to a local bar, had a Manhattan (which they know how i like it and make it perfect every time, 3 olives on the rocks) and edited essays.

Ahh Sunday

So today is sunday. So far it has been pretty productive. Granted this weekend I have spent too much money, today was great. I woke up and did laundry, ate some oatmeal, hung my laundry. Then around 11:15 head out for church. The church I have been attending is St.Anselms in Meguro, about 30min and 320yen away from the dorm. There is another Catholic Church closer with an English mass too, but I like the Meguro Church because it was built by the Monks of St.Johns and has teh same feel to it as the Abbey in Collegeville ( Oh how I miss thee). The one thing that doesnt have the feel of St.Johns is the speed at which they pray. I have never heard the Hail Mary prayed so fast. I think next week I will check out the closer Yotsuya Church to see if I can get the nice slow paced praying that I learned to love behind the pine curtain.

After mass I walked to a Ikebana (Japanese Flower arrangement) show close by that the leader of the trip had an extra ticket, so i got in free. Earlier in the week when I first found out about the show I mentioned it to my boss and she made a point to say that the guy who is doing it is a modern Ikebana artist and is gay. the whole gay thing to me was like ok whats the point. After the show I can say that I dont think I would ever have used glitter or bedazzeled a flower. I stood in line for about 30min waiting to get in. The facility where it was held is defiantly used mainly for weddings and big get togethers I believe as they had bridal salons and what not all over and a kimono rental shop in house. The area where the show was is like an old japanese temple/house/something. I think they brought in all of the walls and ceilings from an outside source as they looked very old. The ceilings and walls were covered with beautiful paintings, almost making it hard to pay attention to the flowers. The displays varied from very modern to more traditional including everything from Blue, Yellow, and Red painted 1x2's to more varieties of orchids then I have ever seen in my life.

I believe the major difference between western and japanese flower arrangements is not the simplicity that most people think, but the treatment of the whole plant as beautiful. In arrangments you will see everything from un-blossomed buds to dead flowers, pods and sticks. In the art they treat all parts of nature as it is beautiful and not just the flower. I mean to be honest some of the orchids are not really that pretty, some are kind of scary looking.

After the show I had a nice late lunch and then came home to put away my dried laundry and now I am about to start on some work.

I hope in the next week to have my website up. I have been paying more attention to my diet as of late as I am beginning to see the negative affect of having a 7-11 a block away.

Also in my next post I will show my adventures with Kit Kats.

Sorry

Sorry for no info for a while. I have been busy.

So with design festa I learned that I need to keep pieces around or below 20 dollars on hand for events like that.

I am currently working on my website and hope to launch it in the next week or so.

I have been debating on applying to grad school and am trying to narrow down the colleges.

Finally I had a pretty crappy day at work today. For some reason, i am pretty sure, my boss doesnt like me. She will wait till my co-worker bryan gets back to the office and asks him to edit and email for her. She has not asked me since the second week. When giving us and assignment she will talk directly to bryan and not me. Its annoying. To add to this I am pretty sure bryan dislikes me. i know he did two years ago when we studied here, but I figure it would change. When I walk in to our room he will leave and go to the lounge and visa versa at the dorm. I have no idea how this will work when we move in to a tiny dorm room together.

So having a crappy day I went out to dinner and I was not thinking and went to a sushi restaurant that one of the guys I know from a local bar owns, or so I thought he owned it. Turns out he has just been working there for 30 years (it has been open for 60) his boss owns it and got it from his mother. basically I spent more than I wanted, but it was about what I would spend on sushi in America. It was amazing sushi. The fish was much better than the kaiten (sushi go round 105yen) sushi. I also had the pleasure of trying real wasabi, not powder and all I can say is WOW. The color and look is like of finelly grated ginger. The taste is completely different from the powder. It starts out almost sweet for a second, then it feels like it is melting in your mouth or spreading, and then you get the heat, but it is not as strong or in your nose as powdered. I also had the pleasure of eating two different kinds of abalone, both very good. He even has his own sake for he restaurant (over 17 kinds made by him), I did not try this sadly.


Oh ya and this past monday I went to go meet with a store about selling my jewelry there. I now have 11 pieces at a store here in tokyo. Instead of charging rent for the space like many stores the owner just takes 35% of the sale, which is very reasonable, since most galleries in America take 50-60% of the sale. Hopefully this works out well for myself. I am also learning that the japanese like to hear a story behind something. I learned this with the jewelry and saw it again today at the sushi resturant.

Ok time for bed. Till later. bye