Oh, hello, remember me?

I've been RUBBISH about updating my beloved blog. I did start an entry last weekend but didn't finish it. I'll put some of it up here. What's been going on...well, last weekend I had my first official Tokyo night were I didn't get home until 7:00am on Saturday morning. I know. I'm too old for that kind of nonsense but when there's karaoke involved, I lose all sense of reason. Oh, and there was a chotto (my Japanese lessons at work..."little") beer. Chotto, I swear. ;-)

So, last weekend, we had this guy in town from London. We have "visitors" all the time out here. It's kind of cool because it always means lunches and dinners and karaoke and nights on the town often on Uncle Morgan. We went for Korean barbecue for dinner. It ends up being 8 of us and in the usual classification method of an ex-pat group; 3 Brits, a South African, a Japanese girl who went to university in LA and uses the phrases "dude" and "yo" for more often than I do, an Italian (I think), a Cuban, and an American. That would be me.

One of the Brits was our visitor who, frankly, I was glad to see on his way on Saturday. He was obnoxious and obnoxious in that we are the mother country and you really belong to us way. It's really the equivalent of the person who thinks America is the ruler of the Universe, boo-ya. Simon McGodsavetheQueen must of thrown in several America bashing comments the night before and had a grand old time with the Cuban on Friday night. Yes, I was getting defensive. Trust me, I've had my share of things to say about my homeland, it's attitudes, it's people especially when abroad, and of course, it's leader but it really bugged me. It's kind of like the old schoolyard notion that I can bitch about my mom (dad/brother/whomever) but you most certainly cannot so don't even think about it. I can. You can't. Enough with the America bashing already. Aren't you over the whole mother England crap? And honestly, Bush may be a moron but at least he's not a oppressive dictator, for Christ's sake. The fact that Mr. Stogie has fly through about 10 different countries to get home gives me a childish amount of glee. I'm also quite interested in my fierce reaction to the whole situation. Was I just crabby that night? Or does it mean I'm coming around to the idea of moving back to the States when the time comes? Who knows and I guess that's for me to figure out. I mean, I have just got here and am still loving it. It did bum me about a bit..wondering if we will ever all get along or if bird flu is going to kill us all off first.

On a lighter note (sorry, don't know where that all came from!), I was supposed to go hiking tomorrow but the trip has gotten canceled and I'm very much looking forward to chilling at home. I've been going non-stop this week. Work is alot of work but it's going really well and I think I like it. I guess we'll see how long that lasts. :) And I had a manicure last night and I spend sufficient time every hour swooning over my nails. Manicures in Japan often include little rhinestones and other sparkly accoutrements. This is the place there women take EXTREME care in their appearance. I now get up an half hour earlier so that I can apply makeup and try to look presentable. This is serious business. :) [I did just take a picture of my gorgeous hands but the fricking blogger site won't upload it...so next time!]

And we have a connection...

Oh, dear Lord...how did we ever survive pre-Internet? I'm convinced the world didn't really exist then. It was just some figment of our imaginations, a universe we created to get through until the age of blogs and online newspapers. I did, however, very much enjoy the free copy of The Daily Yomiuri that arrived in my mailbox every morning for the past month (free gift from the moving company) even if it did consider "world news" excerpts from the Washington Post. That said, I'm very glad to be back in the digital world where I can surf for my news of choice as well as celebrity gossip (www.pinkisthenewblog.com - check it out) and LPGA updates.

I shall not bombard you all with copious stories of my life in Nihon at the moment. There's really not much to tell. I volunteered at a beach clean-up in Kamakura on Saturday which was my first venture out of Tokyo. Not that Kamakura is much out of Tokyo. Well, it is but given that Tokyo is such a sprawling mass of concrete, you have to get pretty far away to feel like you are out of the city. An hour south only really makes for a change of scenery. Not that it wasn't lovely. It was. Went to my first Shinto Shrine and a Buddist Temple and had black sesame ice cream. What more could you ask for from a little sojourn out of town?

I'm now off to read my gmail and Yahoo mail which I haven't done in quite some time. Please forgive me if I have failed to reply to mails. I'm back in high-speed action again. :)

If you write it, they will comment

I check my blog for entertaining comments on a daily basis only to be disappointed but with good reason, I guess. I need to get my fingers in gear. Right, really quick...

1. my boss has relocated to Hong Kong this past weekend so I am going it alone. Sure, I have other team members but everyone works on different stuff so we're not really a team. Luckily, I have counterparts in London and New York.

2. To that end, her leaving do was this past Friday night. Karoke, of course BUT not just any karoke. Costume karaoke. Full on...on the stage, they dress you up, it was an experience. Very fun though. And the evening ended in Roppongi as all "good" gaijin nights do. The smart three of us bailed at 3:00 and hit the ramen shop on the way home. The rest...welll...oh, and I almost forgot to mention, I accidentely (can't be bothered with spelling tonight) deleted most of the photos of the night. Some people were happy with me, some were not. :)

3. I'm working on a phone line and Internet which will probably be my project for the next two weeks. I really need to get on the ball though.

4. I joined an International Adventure Club which isn't as lame as it sounds. It's really just a way to meet people who like to hike and bike and dive and stuff. There are 300 members so someone's always doing something. Hopefully, it will get me out of Tokyo...

5. I definitely need to get out of town. I had a few moments of meow-meow last week brought on my a hand-written letter from my be-och in LA. I had one moment of "what am I doing here?" as I was sitting on my couch in my apartment with crap all over eating cereal that I had brought half-way around the world for occasions just like this one. It did pass though as almost all of those moments. There are lots of people around and tons of "friends" but I think it's going to take time to make real friends. But I knew that, I guess.

6. What else...I can't really think of anything. It's cooling off and all the autumn foods are popping up everywhere. The Japanese are very season orientated. It's nice. Oh, now I remember....I went for shabu-shabu the other night. Cooking meat in boiling broth. Here are some photos. I'm getting too lazy to post them. I haven't told Yoshie-san that I have given out the link to all the hundreds of people who read my blog (ha, ha) so please don't accidentently delete anything...ah-um.

http://www.pbase.com/yolsee98/ifoasg__sayonara_tour_part1&page=all
Password: shabuzen