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August 06, 2005
A big Saturday
This should be an exciting day! Usually, my Saturdays are very low key with variations on 1) going to the grocery store; 2) sitting on the couch; 3) reading and; 4)trying to motivate myself to leave the apartment. The latter, especially, is difficult when it is 30+ degrees and humid (mushi atsui man).
But today, I have already been out (grocery store) and will be going out again soon. Because today is Hayama Day. This is one of the major "must-do" things I had hoped to do this summer, so I am really excited. We will spend the afternoon down there and stay for the sunset. Anytime on the beach is good for me - it should also be much more comfortable than central Tokyo. (Are you reading this Glenn?)
After that, we will head back to Tokyo and find a place to watch the rugby (SA v NZ). That is less exciting for me, but it is good training for the start of the football-watching season next week. I say "watching" because today is already the first day for the lower leagues, but it is probably too much to hope for to have it on TV here.
As you may remember, Yeovil kicks off its League One season at Oldham today. The match starts at 11pm here...by the time I hit the sack tonight, the results should be in.
I made sure to have a relatively quiet night last night and was half successful. I ran into Tomoko as I was leaving the office and we decided to have a drink. I almost convinced her we should catch the cricket at Paddy Foley's, but it was extremely crowded with foreign men...for some reason, she did not like that. Instead, we went to Heartland in Roppongi Hills. We ran into Howie there (how convenient is it to have one of the most crowded bars in Roppongi in the basement of the building you work in?) and Leigh joined us soon after.
This was also the first time in my five years here that I ran into someone who went to the same graduate school that I did (Monterey Institute of International Studies). There are only 600 (700 now apparently) students at any one time, so the chances should be low. One of Howie's colleagues, Michael, went there from '97-'99...I graduated in '95, so we did not attend at the same time. Still, it is very surprising!
Eventually, everyone drifted away...Leigh and I grabbed a late dinner at Ten. I will have to write more about that place at some point. The food is much better than you would expect. It is also the best place to go in Tokyo for a Lemon Sour and, therefore, a necessary stop during the Tokyo summer. I was back home by 1230am. I thought I would give everyone a break and leave my camera in the bag. There will be plenty of pictures here tomorrow anyway.