Tuneage!

If you look over on the right hand side of the page, you will see a new addition to my blog, which is a mini-player from my Reverbnation account that allows you to listen to some of my songs... The songs are all performed by me or by me and some of my friends or family... Check it out!

We Interrupt This Program...

Let me interrupt the Beijing story for a second...

On Wednesday we had a "Sayonara/Goodbye to NOVA/G.Comm" party for Kristos and Faraz... They both are staying in Akashi, but got new jobs... We went bowling and then out for karaoke...

The night would best be summed up in photos... Here they are... Enjoy!

Beijing - Part 1!

Alrighty! Emma and I have returned from our trip to Beijing (Or Peking... Or Peiching... Or Zhongdu... Or Peiping... Or a hundred other names depending on who was in power, or who was conquering, or who was recording the name) on Thursday. We had a great time, and definately saw a ton of stuff there!

In order to fully explain everything, and in order to not go crazy trying to write everything down in one entry, I'm gonna split up my writing about Beijing...

So we left Osaka at about 10:25 am on Sunday... That meant that we had be at the airport at 8:25 (2 hrs. early for an international flight) which meant we had to be in Sannomiya for the Airport Limousine (which is, in actuality, a very crowded bus) at 7:05, which means we had to leave the Akashi train station at 6:30, which means we had to leave our house at 6 or so, which means we had to wake up at 5:30...

In other words, we had to get up early... And we were tired...

At the airport we exchanged our Yen for RMB (Or Chinese Yen... Or Yuan... Or Gen... Or a hundred other names depending on who you talk to...) and headed to the plane...

We flew on JAL (Japan Air Lines) and it was a really nice flight... Only about 3 hours... We got the usual snack and drink plus a full meal! That was pretty cool... Also cool was the video monitors that were embedded in every seat... They had on-demand movies, video, games, and audio for free! It definitely made the flight go by faster... And more comfortable... One million times better than the usual NWA flight in The States...

We arrived in Beijing and met our tour guide, ShuTran (Or Shoe Tran... Or ShooTran... Or Sc hyoo Tran... Or TsuTuran... Not sure...) who tried very hard throughout the tour to talk to us in English, but most of the time just asked us, "Do you have to use Toilet?"...

We made our way to the hotel and checked-in, then walked to Wangfujing, which had less to do with wangs than expected, and more to do with name brand shopping... We went to the food court at the mall and sampled a lot of different Chinese entrees... I had some chopped chicken pita-esque sandwiches and some spicy sweet and sour peanut chicken.... Emma had won-ton ramen and some gyozas... But mostly we had some beers, which were super cheap and delicious! Tsingtao is the beer of choice in China, a Chinese equivalent to Budwesier.

After our dinner, we wandered around some more, went to the Night Market (of food) and then headed back to the hotel for some much needed rest...

Day Two will include The Forbidden City and The Great Wall... But that will have to wait as I am sick of typing!

Check out the pictures here... But DON'T look ahead... I'm watching you!

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!