Monday, July 25, 2011

Nadeshiko Fever Continues...

This morning I woke up to continuing news of Nadeshiko Japan, and the World Cup aftermath. It seems they're exhausting every story related to the team, all the way down to the hair bands, nail art and earrings they're wearing...


nail art 投稿者 peakfloods

If my memory serves me right, I think they even mentioned you could purchase the earrings Kawasumi Nahomi wears, and apparently still is, cause I just saw her on SMAP x SMAP with them on. One is a globe and the other is a plane, supposedly to represent international something or other.


Also, here's a little bit of random. I stop by Kana's neighborhood in Hirama this weekend, and there's a summer festival going on. Cool, what timing!




The butter/soy sauce corn and sausages were delicious.



So we're walking though the neighborhood, seeing what food and such they're selling, when we start to hear drums off in the distance. We keep going, and the drums get louder. There must be some performance of some sort going on. Seems to be a parade of some sort. As it gets closer, we start to make out exactly what it is...

SAMBA!!!!



I like the old man with the cell phone came following the parade taking pictures. Come on dude, haha.

So random! What is a samba doing in Hirama?!?

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Nadeshiko Japan

As I'm sure everyone knows already, they did it! The Japan Women's soccer team - Nadeshiko Japan - took the women's world cup!!

I had heard they were doing pretty good in the tourney, and was bummed I missed some of their matches, especially the huge upset with Germany. So I was pretty psyched when I found out I could catch it late Sunday (Monday morning 3 am really). I was pretty exhausted, but stuck it out, and stayed up till 3 am to catch the game... then I fell asleep.

Doh.

I woke up a couple times during the match, and remember it being 1-1 at one point, but... that's about it. Then I woke up in the morning, turned on the news and saw they won. Hooray!


Sure wish I could have celebrated a bit more in the moment, but oh well. As expected, that's been THE news topic all week, and will probably continue to be like that for some time. How can you blame them though? It's a pretty amazing feat, and an awesome underdog story especially considering the state of the country after the earthquake and such.

And sure enough, Nadeshiko Japan's return home was a total circus. All the news stations were standing by, ready to go live to the airport for the arrival. They even mentioned the crowd was supposedly as large or larger than when Lady Gaga came not too long ago.



Actually from this video it almost seems like the news announcers are going more crazy than the fans who came to the airport, hah.


Man, that's a lot of luggage.

Oh and right, they played the US, so this kinda brought up an interesting conflict of interest for my allegiances. Although with the US vs Japan, that's pretty much a win-win, right? Cause one team I like will win... although the other will lose, so I guess it's more of a win-lose... almost like a competition of some sort... Anyways, as much as I'm all for GO USA! I think I would have rooted for Japan. Its a cool story, especially with the underdog aspect, but also there's the whole thing where, if they lose everyone around me is sad, but if they win, I get to participate in the celebration (if I stayed awake for it). So...

Nippon! Nippon! Nippon! :D

If only Samurai Blue (Men's Soccer) could stop choking when it counts. What are they, from Minnesota? >.>

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Still Aftershocking

Just had an M7 quake off the coast of NE Japan, which shook alot of the NE area at around intensity 4. They also issued a tsunami warning of 50 cm for the coastline of 3 prefectures up there. Didn't shake very much over here though, only around intensity 2, but it did shake for a good minute. Started with a little vertical shaking, then with some horizontal swaying. I thought I had been seeing a few more quakes in popping up in the area lately...

Tuesday, July 05, 2011

Visitors!

It's been a busy couple of weeks. I've had visitors! Finally I get to show people around and use the knowledge and other goings on of Tokyo and Japan I've been learning for the past several years, two of which spent living here.

Well two weeks ago I had some friends visiting Tokyo, the last leg of their tour of SE Asia before returning to Minnesota. I took them out for Okonomiyaki in Shibuya, showing them the busiest pedestrian intersection in the world and other craziness that is Shibuya after work on a Wednesday. Then I took them out to Yakiniku near Shinjuku on Friday before they flew back on Sunday. I finally fulfilled my dream of me (pasty white) showing around some (non-Japanese Asian) friends in Japan. For some reason all the waiters and cashiers tried talking to the wrong person...


Then last week my cousin (Brian) and uncle (Bruce) visited! Hooray for more faces I've known for more than a year! My uncle was here on business related items, but my cousin decided to tag along. They also decided to bring an extra suitcase for souvenirs, which means... free suitcase full of American goodies!!


3 boxes of cereal
4 bottles of barbeque sauce
1 bottle of ranch dressing
1 giant Twins blanket
1 U of M mug
2 pairs of sunglasses
1 trumpet mouthpiece
1 bag of Twix

...and TEN POUNDS OF CHEESE


Oh, glorious cheese. That's even better than the 6 lbs of cheese I got last time this happened when I studied abroad. I love cheese. So major Kudos to you guys for lugging that beast over here. It was all worth it for my brick of bacon cheese. :D

Anyways, the first day they spent touring a high school (jealous!) where they'll be having some sort of student exchange relation with. Then Brian came out this way on Tuesday, and I showed him around Enoshima island, one of my favorite spots in Japan. There's just so much to do in this place. Not only do you have the cultural standard temples and shrines, but the geography of this island is gorgeous, with a long narrow bridge jutting out from the coast leading up to the island itself. Then its up up up hundreds of steps to get to the top of the island, where sits a large lighthouse, complete with indoor/outdoor observation deck. And if that isn't enough, find your way down to the other side of the island and you can explore the rocky shore and caves. What a cool place.






After Enoshima we ran over to see Daibutsu (Big Buddha) and then Kamakura, where there are supposedly 250 temples (and one 72 year old taxi driver dude - you rock). Then we hopped on a train into Tokyo for some classic Karaoke. I emailed my friend about Karaoke the night before, and he manged to get together a dozen or so people. Sufficed to say, much fun was had at the Karaoke booth.



Brian then toured Tokyo on Wednesday, and he and his dad found their way back to my place where they stayed for the remainder of the trip. On Thursday they toured Hakone, and Friday I took them around Tokyo, on a rather busy schedule. We started out at the Tsukiji fish market in the morning, but unfortunately missed most of the hustle and bustle. There were still some shops open though, so it was worth it. After that we headed to Ginza, cause you gotta see Ginza, and were introduced to this really cool and very traditional Japanese restaurant - Ganko.


After Ginza we hopped over to the Imperial Palace, but the gardens were closed on Fridays. Since they came all that way though, I wanted to at least show them the park on the north side of the imperial palace. Unfortunately it was quite the long hike from the south portion (sorry guys!). After that we headed into Asakusa for some more sightseeing, and also stopped by a rice cracker store I frequent, before chowing on Okonomiyaki, which that area is famous for.



Finally we ended the day with Akihabara and the giant Yodobashi Camera (like Best Buy) there. I also bought some cool plastic Gundam models (theres another post coming), which I've been thoroughly enjoying.

Anyways, it was a lot of fun finally having visitors! Who's coming next?


Also Brian, when are you coming back!!? :D