tokyo game show

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. As you might have guessed, things are pretty crazy around here. Work has been nuts every day, I've been going out every night, and now I've got a ton of friends coming into town for the next week or so because of the annual Tokyo Game Show, which takes place this coming Friday to Sunday in Chiba. After that wraps up, I'll have another week of madness before I ship off to NY for a little while to detox and take a much-needed vacation. Needless to say, updates may be a bit more sporadic than usual these next few weeks.

Of course, I wouldn't feel right about updating without SOME kind of image, so I dug this one out of the archives:

Just a random shot of what it looks like to drive through a crowded street in the middle of a Shinjuku shopping district on a weekend afternoon. Taken in March 1999.

BTW, who among you are planning to go to TGS this year?

where two towers once stood

The view from my old hometown on the evening of September 11, 2003:

Taken from across the Hudson Bay. Thanks to Anthony for the pic.

red planet

Took this shot ten minutes ago from my veranda. A couple of weeks ago, Earth was closer to Mars than it's been in 60,000 years. This is probably the best (and maybe only) picture I'll ever get.

The camera just doesn't do it justice (obviously). It looks so amazing out there. If you're in Japan and reading this now, I highly recommend you go outside and see for yourself. Simply beautiful.

nothin doin'

I'm still here... just haven't had anything special to talk about lately. Guess it's been a boring week, eh? I did sneak out to the beach in Zushi Saturday night/Sunday morning, at least. Have a few pics to kill time while you wait for something interesting to show up here:

By the way, the Dreamcast turns four today in America. Such a shame it went to the grave so soon...

a tale of two red snappers

A hangover isn't the only reward you get for drinking a place out of its supply of beer, as some friends and I learned last night:

The owner of Masudaya, a soba shop in Kamata, was kind enough to present us with a rare two-fish Yebisu label as thanks for drinking him out of house and home and eating lots of his delicious soba. Apparently, these labels are very rare and each establishment only gets about 10 or so per season to hand out. The normal Yebisu labels have only one red snapper -- the one under the guy's arm. But the super l33t rare ones have two: one under his arm, and one behind his back.

The fish are a symbol of good luck, which is great, but unfortunately, they don't seem to have any power over getting rid of your headache the next day...