The city has been working on a bike lane for a very long time. It seems like at least 2 years. I can’t be sure. I do have some historical records I think on various blog posts. Here’s a post from January, and here’s one from October … of 2009.

Yesterday, they finally opened up the approximately 800 meter bike lane. It removed a lane on a very busy street.

The first day the sidewalk was armed with heavily clothed workers on a lower ‘90s kind of day (34 degC) with quite a bit of humidity directing traffic to the new bike lane.

Lots of signage and rules associated with this bike lane and parking areas.

People seemed to be using it pretty happily, well most people. It’s funny to me, because I only see these bike lanes on streets with really wide sidewalks anyway!

On March 19, I had a plan to have a たこ焼きパーティー (takoyaki party) with the Fuji Rock crowd, and Tomo was going to come as well and a good time was to be had! That was the plan.

After the earthquake and the issues at Fukushima, I wasn’t sure if it was appropriate or not to have the party. I was writing an email to one of the main protagonists and was typing, “Well, unless something bad happens I plan to go ahead …” and then an M6.4 earthquake hit Yamanashi and Shizuoka and I felt it in Nagoya. I got quite the adrenaline rush and I think my body tremors actually caused more motion in the building than the initial quake.

Things settled down, and nobody cancelled or suggested that I do cancel, so the show went on. And what a show it was. It was quite fun. Takoyaki is basically breaded bits of octopus cooked into a little ball. Sounds great, huh? It’s actually really good, and you can put other foods in there too. And we did.

For this house party, I decided I wasn’t going to supply everything and let things evolve like a more traditional houseparty – in other words people pitch in for the materials that were purchased for the party. I still spent a gob of money on the beer, but other folks brought the takoyaki ingredients.

What was hard for me was to completely turn over my kitchen (and subsequently dining room) to others as they prepared the food. All I could do was step out of the way, find the occasional tool they needed, and take pictures.

Tomo’s mom made beautiful chirashi sushi.

I was surprised at how takoyaki was made. I always thought the perfectly round balls of mouthing burning goodness came out of a mold. I was wrong. You fill a half mold with ingredients, and the pan is sized such that there is additional batter around the half molds. Then, at the precise time, you somehow use a little stick to gather up the overflow batter and form the other half of the ball and rotate the whole thing in the mold and let it continue to bake. I have NO idea how to make it. As I said, I just gave up my kitchen to the experts. There were three takoyaki “machines” though, so an extension cord was stretched to the dining room table, allow more people to demonstrate their proficiency.

Not only was it a takoyaki party, but three people’s birthdays were within one week of the party, so we had a birthday cake and celebrated.

Of course, the party went so late that most people missed the last train and found various ways and places to sleep. Although I had several futons pulled out for people to use and still had the couch, not everyone could get a comfortable resting place. That didn’t bother some people.

At around 7 or 8 am, I shooed most people out of the house. As the host, I felt like I couldn’t sleep (although I did somewhat). One friend who drove stayed a little bit longer to make sure the alcohol wore off before driving home (athough he said he was good to drive and I know he wasn’t). He crashed in the guest room, which is like a cave, and instead of waking up at 9ish, he rolled out of the guest room around 12:45 pm. We wrapped things up by road-tripping to really good ramen in the countryside. A fun time again. Although Tomo suggests I start the next house party at Noon!

The New Year’s Eve party has come and gone and it seems to have been a success. I never really set a time for it to begin, so at the beginning of the evening Tomo and I were all dressed up with no place to go!

Note I tried a little experiment with these pictures – perhaps a failed experiment. I changed the mode to a program mode because I didn’t want the camera to compensate for a lack of light and over-expose. So, although the party was appropriate mood-lit for a party, every picture is now really dark. Oh well, lesson learned.

Anyway, Tomo had time to watch a little TV before the guests started to arrive. Some were late because they were busy cleaning their room, another was late because their 1.5 hour nap turned into 3 hours, and some were just late. But almost everyone made it.

The plan was to eat, watch a comedy special, and maybe consume a little alcohol. Between the 10 of us, 14 beers, 4 bottles of champagne, 2 bottles of white, and 1 bottle of red were consumed. I think I had at least half a bottle of champagne just myself. Or more. Nobody got sloppy drunk, so the party was able to sustain for a bit.

Everyone seemed to be enjoying the food. I heated up about 4 liters of chili (yes, really, 4 liters) wondering if anyone would like it. As it turns out, people did. Some were surprised that it wasn’t a little spicier, so I broke out the cayenne especially for them. I should have gotten Tabasco as well.

As the night progressed, people got more and more interested in the comedy television special.

We had a countdown and popped some “crackers.” When I was running errands, Tomo told me to get some crackers. I told him I didn’t think we needed to add anymore food. I thought he meant crackers, you know, like crackers. But turns out クラッカー. or crackers, are like firecrackers. He described them as pulling the string and then they pop. Oh, right. Then I added that I didn’t want the streamers flying out and making a mess. After all, I had just spent three days cleaning. He told me I could find some that didn’t have any streamers. I sort of forgot about them and had no idea where to buy them anyway. But then I went to a 100 yen shop and thought, well, maybe they have “crackers” and maybe I’ll buy some. I never go to 100 yen shops, I absolutely HATE 100 yen shops, but I wanted a small plate for a candle and I wanted to spend no more than 100 yen. So there I was, and I found the mother load of crackers. And, if you can believe it, I even found “No Dirty Cracker.” I think that meant that the streamers streamed but were then captured. I snooped around a little more and then determined that was probably the case. Those crackers were definitely worth it. The text reads, “散らからないクラッカー”, (chirakaranai kurakka-), which roughly translates to “non-scattering cracker.”

I just noticed the warning label on the back. Make sure you play with the adult and do not put it in the pocket.

After the New Year, the TV special ended, so Tomo broke out his collection of Studio Ghibli movies and folks watched, “紅の豚” (Porco Rosso). Why Tomo brought that collection from Tokyo baffles me, but it was a success. People started wearing out by then.

We watched the Shiina Ringo Expo 2008 live concert DVD that Tomo and I went to. That was a pretty incredible concert. By then I think I had a lot to drink because I don’t remember tons of that time. Odd. Maybe I was talking to others at the time.

After that DVD finished, Tomo suggested we rented “The Hangover” with Japanese subtitles. Hmmm, so that meant I needed someone with an Apple Store account in Japan to rent it. With so many music fans, that took about three seconds. By this time everyone was getting pretty tired. As I thought, the party turned in to a big slumber party, but the expectation of where and how people would sleep was far less than I thought it would be.

I think the heated floors kept everyone pretty cozy, although the wood isn’t particularly soft.

The sun came up, the trains started run, and slowly people started to wake up. Slowly.

By 8:30 am or so, everyone had left and I had the chance to go to sleep. As the host I didn’t really feel like I could go to sleep. So I kept myself going. I woke up at 10:00 am or so, feeling really, really, really bad and tasting nothing but champagne. I’ve never been so drunk that I’ve gotten sick. Really. But on 1/1/11 I was soooo close. But all I could think of is that if I puked I’d never want my chili again. So somehow I successfully held back, fell back asleep, and was able wake up around noon and start cleaning. I didn’t feel very good most the day, but was better in the evening and full speed today.

Thanks to my Japanese friends who broke from their usual traditions to enjoy a house party at my place. This is most likely my last New Year’s in Nagoya, so it was really nice to be able to share it with Japanese.

I realized this is actually the first true New Year’s Eve I’ve spent in Nagoya. Two years ago I went to a friend’s house in Tokyo and did mostly nothing while they celebrated New Year’s with their family. I came home on a late train on January 2nd only to learn that I had left my key in Tokyo. Oops. Last year I was arriving back in Japan on New Year’s Ever and had a bit of a transportation mess up and “had” to take the train from Tokyo to Nagoya and got home at 11:59 pm to discover snow.

This year, I woke up to snow again, although it did not stick like last year. Also Tomo suggested that I have a New Year’s Eve party, so that is what I’m doing. Another house party. I’ve stocked up on food and alcohol so all I am waiting for are the people (and a little prep work remaining). I have no idea what this party will bring. I think there will be a lot of TV watching as there are three big shows in Japan on New Year’s Eve, a music festival, a comedy contest, and K-1 (mixed martial arts) fights. I am relinquishing control of my TV. I don’t care what we watch, I won’t understand any of it anyway.

How or when the party will end I have no idea. I can imagine it will go until the first train in the morning or will end pretty much right after midnight as people scramble to catch the last train to their homes. I usually easily make room for 3 people to crash here, 4 people if two don’t mind getting cozy, but my guest room is occupied by a surprise visitor. We’ll see what happens.

Shopping today was a battle. Of course, most the shops are closed on New Year’s Day, so the supermarkets were filled with people. Going to battle with middle-aged women who have no issues bowling you over. But I’ve said that before.

I’ve recalled my younger days living in a colder climate by using the outside as my refrigerator. Yup. Very white trash or redneck. Take your pick. My fridge though is filled with sushi and sashimi, still some beers, and homemade chili. Yum.

I’m not a big cook in the US or in Japan, but with three days of cooking chili and doing dishes, I’ve learned that my countertop is really, really, really low and cooking and cleaning leads to a backache. It’s perfect height for the aforementioned middle aged women and I’m sure they would call me out as “weak” for my complaint.

Time to do the final preparation for the party. It should be fun!

In my shower room, and sounding a bit like Morrissey, there is a fan that never turns off. I guess it is some Japanese thing. Maybe I’ve complained about it before. Since the fan goes all the time, I have vents in my shower door where wind whistles in. The air has to circulate from somewhere, so Japanese construction companies are kind enough to put holes through exterior walls to make sure you don’t get a vacuum due to the fan that never turns off.

From the inside of the house, the vents look like this.

Basically, this vent is “deployed,” or open to the outside. There is a opening on the outside of the house, and a little filter / insulation in the hole. The vent is pushed in to seal the air from entering. Except when you push in the vent, the air changes from quiet and low flow rate around the edges to whistling and faster flow rate. The valves of the vent are useless. In my living room there are actually three vents.

The outside of the vent is nothing special, it’s only a slight grate over the hole.

The biggest problem is a have of set of the vents right by my bed, and nothing to keep the air from rushing over my head. I wake up in the winter time consistently with a stuffy ear because of the draft. I’ve tried many different tricks over the past few winters. Primarily I’ve tried to make a vapor barrier inside the hole. It never worked well though and although the volume was reduced there was still a lot of cold air blowing through.

This time I took an even more aggressive approach. It was time to kill the cold air at the source. It isn’t pretty but who else will be on my balcony? Just me. The grate is now blocked.

I’m sure I’ll need a tape change and even a change in material, but it seems to be somewhat more effective. Of course, that means that more air is rushing through the living room vents. But at least it won’t pull right over my head while I am sleeping anymore.

I had a house party this weekend, or as we would simply describe it in the States, “A party at my house.” A house party is actually pretty rare in Japan amongst Japanese. Space is a premium and living spaces are often small. When I first lived in Japan in 2004 for a few months, I had a much more representative “mansion” – about 12 tatami in size, or about 216 sq ft. That was fine for a few months, and I felt very Japanese. I’ve posted some old pictures below to get the idea.

You can imagine though, if you were really living is a place this size, it would quickly become cramped. I had a very limited number of personal items so it wasn’t so crowded.

When I came here in 2008, my apartment allowance was very generous. I knew I wanted a guest room and a home office space, so I started looking at 3 bedrooms. I was lucky to find my place which is on the smaller three bedroom range, but fine for one person. As a matter of fact, I’m a little bit embarrassed that to my Japanese colleagues it is decadent at about 750 sq ft.

However, the space allows me to have a few people over for a party, and that’s what I did this weekend. The idea was to have the Fuji Rock crew come over, but in the end only about half of the Fuji Rockers made it over. However, friends and friends of friends came by and I had about 12 people including me. That was perfectly sized for my place.

Here’s the picture before everyone knew the picture was coming.

And of course, what is a picture in Japan without a peace sign?

I did the usual thing, bought too much food and alcohol but nobody left hungry or sober so I did my job well. I was actually the only non-Japanese at the party as well and I find that pretty cool. Somehow I guess I was able to communicate mostly in Japanese and some occasional English words thrown in. After two beers my Japanese really improves (or so I think), and having the party is a great way to practice. Maybe I was actually too busy being the host to communicate very frequently. I was afraid I would end up feeling left out of my own party with people bringing friends who spoke only Japanese but I didn’t. Nothing worse than being lonely at your own party!

Returning to the usual lack of house parties – as I’ve said before restaurants serve the purpose of a social meeting place. Many restaurants have large rooms for groups of people to get together for a night of eating and drinking. Houses are just too crowded to host people and they are very private spaces for family only.

I had big help preparing for the party with Kanamori-san taking me to the grocery store in his car and helping me transport things much easier.

Thanks to all for the help and a good time.

Once again, I will have a 7/11 on my street. Not just on my street, but only two buildings down from mine.

I lamented the loss of a relatively close 7/11 and then rejoiced when I found one a little closer. Well, how can I be happier unless the Lawson in my building was converted to a 7/11?

I’m not sure if the area needs another 7/11 or convenience store, but I guess someone did. Now I have an ATM just down the street. And two Lawson, and a Circle K.  7/11 is really the only place I can get money other than the post office, so it is nice to have one nearby.

Must come down. That’s right. I used to have a 20 story building across the street from me. This is what the view looked like when I moved in. I had a big white building obscuring the sun from my apartment. You can get a peek-a-boo view below. I mean, why take a picture of the building across the street?

A while ago I got a notice that they would be doing work next door. Apparently it is asbestos abatement (lovely). I figured they would just renovate and open the building up again. Scaffolding went up around the entire building. 20+ floors of scaffolding. It went up amazingly quickly as well.

Over time I noticed a larger scoop / backhoe (I have no idea what it is – it looks like the modern machines in “Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel”) pulverizing stuff on the site. Hmmm. The scaffolding also looked like it was getting shorter and shorter. Which made me wonder, “Are they tearing this building down?” Certainly my bike was covered in enough dust to know that something was happening across the street.

The picture below should answer the question. Indeed, they are tearing the building down.

This happens quite regularly in Japan. To the point where sometimes you are walking along a street and notice an empty lot. Wait, what was there before? Since I’ve lived here, three or four new 15 – 20 story buildings have been built in my neighborhood and at least two have been torn down.

And now, more scaffolding is going up just down the street. What is next for this building? Is it on the demolition list as well? I don’t know, but there are still people working inside.

Nagoya Basho

In other news, the Nagoya Basho has started. This is the annual sumo tournament in Nagoya that I went to last year and the year before. I do not have plans to go this year, although I have some opportunities for tickets and might end up going anyway. There is a big controversy this year linking sumo wrestlers to gambling and organized crime. Oops. NHK, the national network, has threatened not to televise the tournament. I didn’t look at TV today so I don’t know if they are getting true to their threats.
 

The Sound of Summer

I still have not heard my first cicada. Last year and the year before I heard them the same weekend as the sumo tournament. My colleague has stated that he’s heard one already, but I haven’t so I won’t claim it. I know it is summer when they cicadas start buzzing in my ears. That, and when it is horribly humid and hot. It is humid and hot now, just not horribly hot. I was in Tokyo all weekend, so maybe that’s why I missed the buzz.
 

Apple Update

I went to get an iPhone4 this weekend. Or, more appropriately, look at one. I found out that since Tomo and I are on the same plan, we can only order one at a time. So we ordered one for him and the wait is 2 MONTHS!?! Say what? I guess we should have signed up earlier. Maybe I’ll get one, maybe I won’t. I guess it depends on how much longer I am in Japan. I should be able to get by with a 3GS.

I finally bought an ironing board and iron. Before you say, “What?!? Have you been that wrinkled the whole time you’ve been in Japan” let me point out that almost all my shirts I wear to work are Brooks Brothers Non-Iron shirts. That’s not a plug, that’s not a brag, that’s just a fact. As you may have discovered in previous posts I am very brand loyal. That’s why I still use Tide in Japan. Back to my shirts … yes, I finally bought an iron. My ridiculously bad dryer has a tendency to wrinkle almost everything by tying them in knots. I’ve gotten some of the most amazing coupling of clothing out the dryer. My online review of the National NH-D502 – It sucks! I knew that before yet I bought it. My dryer definitely wrinkles things. I noticed my available wearable shirts started reducing over time, and I was tired of wearing the same shirts, so I admitted that it was time to buy an iron and ironing board. I really don’t like ironing, but it is one of the things you have to do on occasion.

Buying an ironing board presents a series of problems in a major metropolitan area when you don’t have a car. First of all, an ironing board is big. In Japan of course they have miniaturized versions of iron boards. However, I am an American, so I need a BIG and TALL ironing board. After consultation with Tomo, I decided to try Bic Camera because they have everything, Tokyu Hands, and maybe Muji (my favorite brand as you know).

When I went to Bic Camera, I was shocked to see the only ironing board available, a typical American style ironing board, was over $100. I know the yen is really strong now, but even if it was weak it would be one heck of an expensive ironing board. Yikes! I had to ask if they had others. They did, as a matter of fact. One was shaped like a torso, and one was kind of a strangely shaped collapsible board American style. The other American style board was only, ONLY, 5400 yen, or about $55. I said I would think about it. Actually, I said something that I thought was equivalent to, “Let me think about it.” Who knows if the translation was literal.

I went to Tokyu Hands and was confronted by the same torso boards and the exact model I saw at Bic Camera for about $10 more. Since Bic Camera has a big selection of irons too, it seemed clear that I had to head back to Bic Camera. Once back at Bic Camera, I requested the board that I had seen before. That is, I tried to request the board. How do you describe an ironing board that isn’t on display to the salesperson in Japanese? The first round I got a lot of Japanese style tabletop iron boards. I had to get creative in my Japanese … but finally he brought out what I wanted.

Bic Camera offered about 30 different irons. More choice, ranging from $9 to over $130. Clearly the $9 iron was out as was the $130 iron. I prefer cordless irons, I guess because I am left-handed and there always seems to be a complication for lefties with irons although right now I can’t figure out the complication because it seems you could arrange you, the board, and the iron to account for being left-handed. Maybe I’m just such an unskilled iron-er that I can’t deal with the cord (after all, I’ve admitted to hating to iron). How did I make my choice? I chose the best seller! Hey, if everybody likes it, it should be good. I got a Panasonic NI0CL406-H. I guess I know what I will be doing tomorrow.

Also, when I was at Bic Camera originally scouting the irons, I recalled that I wanted new cables for my DVD to AV set / television set. My current connection is strange – I got some strange interference in the video when I hooked up the video to the TV and the sound to the AV set? Huh? Checking out the original cables they looked poorly insulated so I thought better cables would help. More money. I bumped into colleagues while I was struggling over just what cable to buy. Luckily my DVD player is carried by Bic so I could check it out. It probably took me 45 minutes to choose the cables. Don’t worry, no pictures here. I hope they work.

Back to the ironing board … an ironing board is not something you can just stick in a bag. I was really kind of embarrassed how ugly the board was and thought, “What the heck, I’ll take a taxi home.” It is a little cold out, and the train station is really busy, and I thought it would be better if I just grabbed a taxi. However, the thought that I could spend $2 on the subway of $10 on a taxi made me say, “Screw it, I am PROUD of my ironing board. I have nothing to be ashamed of. I am a strong, confident male with a rather silly looking ironing board.” I made it home incident free. The entire shopping trip was over two hours.

Later in the evening I went out to get a new stocking cap because I don’t like my current cap. After shopping, my current cap seems a lot nicer. I went to Banana Republic and their knit caps were something like $50 to $100. I kid you not. Wow. I bought a coat at BR (30 years everyone!) in the US and it is about $120 more expensive in Japan. Approximately 40% more.

I think when I get lonely or depressed I make myself go out and shop as something to get me out. I need to make sure that I don’t become a spending prairie fire while I am over here. The past month with my trip to the States, the purchase of a new computer, and the vacation at Hoshinoya, I’m feeling a little out of control. Can I single-handedly take two countries out of recession? I don’t know but I sure am trying.

Who knew that buying an iron would result in over 1000 words.

No, not in that way. I finally have more lights for the pad. I bought another Muji aluminum ring light for the guest bedroom. It is bright! (I think my upstairs neighbors must be playing Wii Fit or Tai-bo. I didn’t think anyone else lived here but I guess I’m wrong. A lot of thumping.). Most lights now are fluorescent lights – I’m trying really hard to get warm lights. Still, the warm lights are a little too bright and a little too cool. I mention “color temperature” to colleagues and they look at me as if I’m speaking Japanese.

Today was more of the same. But a good more of the same. The weather was amazing. Is this really rainy season? Relatively low humidity, nice temperatures, and good day for walking. And walking I did. I feel like the walking lady in my hometown, except I’m not eating ketchup out of a McDonald’s ketchup packet. The Lafayette folks will get my reference – all others just trust me. The morning took me to Tokyu Hands, Muji, and Franc Franc. Conveniently located in one building about 10 minutes from my house. Cool.

Tokyu Hands resulted in a new pot (smallest version – cause I’m cooking so much (NOT!)) and two notebooks for work because we’re too cheap over here to get real supplies. At Franc Franc I got some silk flowers and a vase. No real flowers for me at this point, but I needed something to dress up the place. Muji was supposed to result in the fourth placemat that was missing from the other store. But, darn it all, it was missing at this Muji. So I bought a light. I came home and installed the lamp and ate lunch.

I’ve learned not to put off purchases because styles change quickly here and things become unavailable. As a result, the afternoon was planned so that I could go to the third Muji in two days. I timed it poorly from a train point of view, so I decided to walk to Nagoya Station. About a 20 – 30 minute walk. I’m glad I did because I discovered a funky store my colleague told me about. If I ever need to host a party, I know where to get my supplies! I also stopped at an electronics store … I want to hook up my TV and Airport Express to some speakers. I’m having a hard time finding reasonably priced systems that I would consider using. Sigh.

At Muji 3 for the weekend I found one (and one only) of the placemats I wanted. Phew. To celebrate I bought some throw pillows, coffee / tea mugs, and some nice chopsticks. SOMEONE STOP ME!!!!!

From a consumption point of view, I’m still looking at bicycles (around $200), speakers for the living room, and some dining room light. Will I be done then?

The good news is that I played professional photographer tonight and took some photos of my apartment. I used the highest tech equipment and software I have to photograph my apartment. Aperture and Photoshop help color correct, and the original images are high resolution RAW images. But in the end, it is low res web stuff, so why bother?

I’m pretty excited about how the pictures turned out. I think you get a good idea of the space. Remember that this is with a wide angle lens (28 mm on a 35 mm format camera) so it looks like I have more space than I do.

Here’s looking out of my bedroom towards the living room / dining room with the kitchen in the back. I can literally move walls which I did to get this picture.

Here’s from the hallway looking at the dining room towards the living room. Fancy, huh? Actually pretty cold but I like it!

And here’s my office / sauna. I think I need another computer or two. Not enough power getting consumed.

And finally my bedroom. Check out the space between my bed and the wall. See why I didn’t bother with a dresser? If you have any questions, let me know.

Last Monday night I had a bit of an Ugly American episode. It turns out that I paid 18880 yen (about $180) for a monthly train pass to the wrong final destination. I thought it was right, but we take this little spur train that we never pay for and so I thought that the main train station was adequate for my pass. Turns out it isn’t. So I had to turn in my old pass and they deducted a TON from it, and then they reissued at full price (and a few more days) plus extra for the spur train distance. Say what? I just wanted to pay the difference for the new station but it doesn’t work that way. I told them I thought they had poor customer service. I should have kept my mouth shut but I was frustrated. I went on a long walk after.

Monday I get my alien registration card and try to open a bank account. Wish me luck!