Whisky!

So here in the Land of The Rising Sun, or 日本 if you will (and I will), Whisky is the drink of choice... When one goes into a bar (especially a fancier one) you are definitely going to see a wide selection of Whiskies, and a pitiful selection of every other kind of alcohol... It's a special occasion if they have more than one kind of vodka...

So recently I decided that I should give the old Whisky a try (although if you are a real devotee of all things Willard, you will recall a few pictures dedicated to Jameson Irish Whisky on St. Patrick's Day last year) while out at a fancy bar in Osaka.

Being the ultra-nerdy Rush fan that I am, I am well aware that Neil Peart's drink of choice is a 12 year old Scotch known as The Macallan. And, like any Rush fanboy, I blindly believe whatever Neil tells me to believe, so I gave The Macallan a try...

S'Pretty good... I bought a bottle at Costco (which, yes, they have in Japan) for only 3000 yen ($28 or so) and have been enjoying a glass after work every night this week... It's definitely something you have only one glass of in a sitting... I usually don a smoking jacket and sit in a large leather chair whilst imbibing said spirits, Beethoven's 9th playing lightly in the background... I peruse some gilded volumes of Shakespeare while slowly sipping...

Alright, in actuality I drink it while sitting on a mattress that's laid on the floor of our living room while watching CSI: Las Vegas and reading RSS feeds of online comics on Google Reader... But the attitude is there...

I'm getting to enjoy it... Of all the Whiskies I've had, The Macallan is definitely the smoothest and tastiest... (Is it uncouth to use the word "tastiest" when speaking about Scotch? Perhaps "yummiest" would be better...? "Yummy-nummy-in-my-tummy"....? We'll see...) But I'd like to give some others a try...

Any other Scotch or Whisky drinkers out there with a recommendation?

Osaka!

Recently, Emma and I went to Osaka to meet up with Joe and Tiff and head on over to the Chinese Consulate to apply for visas to visit China. We're planning on going to Beijing on Feb. 17th so we needed to get a move on!

And of course, no trip to Osaka would be complete without a stop at the Shinsaibashi Apple Store (which may be the retail store I've visited the most while I've been in Japan... With the exception of Uni-Qlo) and Amerikamura (which is always good for people watching...).

We checked the new MacBook Air and snapped this picture on one of the 24" iMacs (which I desperately, desperately WANT). Then we had a delicious pizzeria lunch and lots more shopping! All in all a good time!

Vote in the Polls!

If you haven't noticed, on the right side of the screen... Just to the right of this writing, there is a poll... These polls are for fun and can be enjoyable! There's been a pretty poor turn out in the past couple polls, so let's get goin' on the voting!

Make sure you vote! And encourage your friends to vote... If you vote, you can click here, print out the picture, add some clear cellophane tape to the back, and wear it around all day! You have that right.... But only if you vote in my polls!

Google Reader!

It's been awhile since I've blog about something I like rather than something I've done... So without further ado...

Google Reader!

Taking a tip from a technological genius (The incomparable Tom Schutta) I recently checked out Google reader... I mean, I already used Gmail (which everyone should... You do use Gmail, right...? Right? What's that? You use Hotmail? Oh yeah... I remember Hotmail... I also remember wearing flannel shirts and being full of teenage angst...) and Picasa (which everyone should... You do use Picasa, right? What's that? You use Shutterfly? Excuse me... *throws up in the back of his throat, then painfully swallows it back down again*) so why not see what Google has to offer in the RSS feed organizing department...

Being a person that reads several varying blogs and online comics, it was becoming a pain to check them everyday to see if there was a new entry... WELL NO MORE! Now I got all the blogs and comics I read entered in Google Reader... It lets me know when a new entry is written, and it does so just like my Gmail inbox... Bang! I can read the entry within that window, or click it into it's own tab... (You do know about tabbed browsing right...? PleasefortheloveofGodsayyes...) It's awesome and a great timesaver! It also makes sure I don't miss any updates! Which is sweet!

So do yourself a favor and check it out! If you already have Gmail (which you should, haven't we been over this?) it's under the "More" tab at the top of the screen!

New Coat!

Emma is not the only fashionista in the family... I also procured a new outer clothing garment suited for frigid temperatures.... Check it out!

I guess I figured since I haven't bought a new winter coat since 1997 (That is not an exaggeration used for humorous effect (It was my senior year of high school (I remember distinctly because my mom and I shopped for it for a long time trying to get the perfect coat (Which, in my mind, was a "heavy" (As in weight ) coat like my friend Jeff's (Who was 7'19" so any coat of his would be heavy as it contained 46% more material than a normal coat) which I tried on one time as a joke) and finally bought 2 coats we put together to form a whole winter coat) which was in 1997) it truly has been 11 years) that I should pick up a new one, especially when I'm in Japan, which is known for it's winter coats...

So check out my warm (some might even say... hot?) new coat!

Party!

On Saturday night we decided to host a party for all of our NOVA teacher and staff friends... It was an anniversary party of sorts, but more-so an excuse to drink a lot! Good times...

Check out the pics here!

Anniversary In Osaka!

Emma and I took a small mini-vacation to Osaka to Celebrate our 1 year wedding anniversary...

We found an ad for the Hyatt Regency which offered the "Touch Plan", which gave us one night in the hotel, dinner, a cocktail, and breakfast in the morning for 33,000 yen ($308)... Which was a really good deal considering the quality of the hotel and the food!

We went to Osaka in the late morning and went shopping in Shinsaibashi (with the obligatory stop at the Apple Store), had a crazy good lunch deal at a pizzeria, then checked into the hotel at 5 or so... We relaxed in our room for a bit (they had The Discovery Channel there, so we had to take advantage of it) then went to the Suntory museum IMAX theater and watched a 3-D movie about the ocean.... It was pretty sweet! Lots of cool sea creatures I had never seen before!

Then we came back for a drink, and then dinner! The pictures will describe dinner better than me talking about it.... It was good! Real good!!

The next day we had a wonderful breakfast and then took in the Osaka Aquarium... Such a huge aquarium!

Osaka was a great way to celebrate our anniversary... I'm thinking we might need to Touch Plan it up again....

Check out the pictures here!

Happy New Year!

Yeah, to you!

Emma and I had a pretty fun New Year's Eve... It started with spending the day with Joe and Tiff and Tiff's Family in Sannomiya and Kobe... We walked around both areas, shopped, went to a sake brewery ("No tours today..." "Boo!"), ate at The Old Spaghetti Factory (Yes they have those in Japan...), and generally looked at various objects in front and to the sides of us...

The Ecksellbergners took off right around dinner time to go back to Omihachiman, so Emma and I were left with about 6 or 7 hours to kill before midnight... What to do, what to do...

We were really tired, so we decided that a good pick me up would be a few beers at The New Munchen Club (where one is able to do some munchin' if one desires)... We were both ridiculously tired... The first hour or so of our time at The New Munchen went like this:

*Yawwwwwnnnn*

*Stretttttttccccchhhhhhhhh*

But after 3 or 4 beers, we felt invigorated, so we decided to try and make it to midnight...

After New Munchen a while, we headed to The Hub, which is an English-y typey pub pretty close to the shrine (which was the ultimate goal of the night)... We had a couple pints, talked to a bat-shit crazy guy (I quote, "The IRS is illegal you know... Look it up on YouTube..."), and met up with our friend Akiko...

We then went outside to countdown the time until midnight... The shrine in Sannomiya (and, I can only therefore assume, everywhere else in Japan) opened at midnight, and people came from all over to wait to get in and pray for good luck in the coming year... And to eat Gyros...

We waited patiently for the shrine to open whilst being surrounded by thousands of people waiting patiently for the shrine to open....

Once the shrine opened, and we made it to the front of the mass to be let in, we said a prayer, gave some yen, grabbed a beer, and, I think, most importantly, ate a Gyro...

Good times! Check out the pics of the night here!