Movie Madness!

We kicked off a week of movies last Wednesday when we went to see Kill Bill Vol. 2. Bonus: we got in on Ladies Day (totally by accident, we had no idea) so I got in way cheaper than Toby. ha ha. :)

Since then we've seen Big Fish (very sad), Hero (kewl fight scenes), and last night we saw Donnie Darko (a.k.a. the wierdest movie ever! but I like it a lot). Of course we downloaded those ones.

In non-movie news but still along the entertainment angle, last night we saw the last episode of 24. Action packed, some gross parts, but for some reason I felt it a bit lacking. Perhaps because all of the loose ends on the political side of things were tied up a bit too quickly for me. It's all very convenient because a lot of people are just killed so the problem is solved. Apart from that though, very exciting episode. Looking forward to the next Enterprise.

Party!

Yesterday we went out with all the people from Toby's old branch. They had met their sales targets for the last fiscal year and so got a free work party. It was excellent - in my opinion mainly because it was at an Italian restaurant and the focus was more on food than drinking. Usually when people have parties like this, they go to Nomihoda, which is all you can drink with some snack-like stuff on the side. It's really expensive and the food is crappy. Anyways this was really nice - there were ten kinds of pasta, one of the best of which was pasta in squid-ink sauce. Sounds great (and it did taste delicious) but probably was not the best thing to serve at a party, as evidenced by Toby himself:



That's nothing - you can't even see his tongue in that picture ;).

Canuckistanis: Your #1 Source For Romanized Chinese Bibles

Not only have we been checking our referrals (how people are getting to the blog), we've been saving the interesting finds.

Following is a list of searches that have led some people to this page. Some of them are a bit old, and not all of them still show the blog as a search result. Some of them are very, very strange.

harajuku elvises
" You have no idea how insufferable your"
"Shinjuku photos" night
+"giant buddha statue" +orlando
"eggplant hotpot"
guardian review of schopenhauer's telescope by gerard donovan
kaiten sushi Calgary
"number of greek ships" troy
ward office noborito
mousaka
translation of japanese dialogue "kill bill" -lost
gion shirakawa
nhi jma nova
Sanneizaka
photo apis
Kitanomaru Park picture
romanized cantonese bible
"Graham Swift" "Rorty"
"japanese girls" + vancouver + robson
noise japan nagareyama
"Zatoichi" homepage
arranged marriages england extract of novel
scarlett johannson
nigirizushi yen

And, of course:

canuckistanis.blogspot.com

Hmm.

For a while now I've been noticing people finding our page from search engines. (Our counter has a tracker that tracks the previous page people were at before coming here.)

Anyways, I've been noticing several people have typed "canuckistanis.blogspot.com" into google, yahoo, or whatever. What's up with that?! Does it not work if you type it into your browser window? Just curious.

Me Too, Me Too!

Hey all, today has been an eventful week. Apart from watching Terminator, Big Fish, the latest 24 and Enterprise episodes, having my 6-month observation lesson last Friday, and seeing Kill Bill Volume 2 on Wednesday, today was my follow-up hour and I'm going to be promoted to Assistant Trainer like Toby. :D :D :D

The only downside is I may have to transfer out of my branch, and it may be difficult to keep my current schedule (but I hope not). Still, it should be a kewl experience!

I have displayed adaptability...

...and finished Cryptonomicon. As with all Neil Stephenson books, the ending was a bit disappointing. Even though it took forever, it held my attention throughout and was marvelously detailed, which is something I really enjoyed. Anyways, it's a good read, if you haven't read it yet. I think I like it the best out of all the books of his I've read.

Gum Syrup

Today we headed over to Mizonokuchi to get a bite to eat. We went for some Indian food, which was fantastic :D. When we were waiting for our food, the chef/head dude at the restaurant came over to our table (I thought he was going to tell me not to talk so loud, cuz that's what I was doing...hee hee ;)). But he actually produced one of the little 'gum syrup' packages that they have for coffee and tea, and said "We've been having a problem with the name - what is the correct way to call this?". I figured 'liquid sugar' would be fine, and off he went. We didn't even get a free drink out of it! Sheesh.

Hypothetical Conversation

A: Hey, how's it going?
B: Not so good, actually.
A: Oh, really? Why not?
B: Well, I kinda broke up with my girlfriend.
A: Oh no! When?
B: A few weeks ago.
A: Oh, that's too bad.
B: Yeah. Well, actually, we didn't really break up.
A: Oh...?
B: She kinda... well, died.
A: Oh... God, what happened?
B: I dunno. But she went to Thailand, and was found hanged in her hotel room.
A: Oh my God... that's terrible.
B: Yeah. It kinda messed me up. But, hey, could I ask you something?
A: Sure, of course, anything.
B: Would you like to go out sometime?

(Not based on a true story, at all.)

(Tokyo is one crazy place.)

City of God

It's been a long, long time since I saw a movie as good as City of God. Great storytelling, catchy cinematography, gritty as gritty gets--we were rammed through tales of tragedy, poverty, and lost innocence at breakneck speed--and, to top it all off, there's the message at the end declaring "based on a true story". Having missed whatever publicity this movie might have received, I'd had no idea. My jaw dropped wide open.

It's a foregone conclusion that I'll be watching this again--heck, I might even pay to watch it this time.

all work and no play makes jack a dull boy

Today I worked at a brand new branch, one that opened just last month.

I was the only teacher working there today. It was pretty empty. As in: although I did about 50 minutes worth of work introducing new students, I spent no time actually teaching. This might have something to do with the fact that, of all the student files I could find, the highest was labelled "5". (In case you're wondering, they start at "1".) And even then, I think someone might be padding the numbers, because I found no evidence of a file for student #3.

This isn't to say that it was the best of all possible days. I noticed that new English conversation schools have a characteristic smell, much like the smell of new cars, which I hate. Also, a very good way to develop a healthy appreciation for the services of radios, CD players, and the like, is to spend 6+ hours doing mostly mindless busy work without any musical accompaniment. (The background tunes at reception included a muzak version of Bohemian Rhapsody, which made me very happy, but it was sadly inaudible from the teacher's room.)

And it was lonely, so very lonely.

Of course, I get to repeat this every Saturday. I wonder if the receptionist (who is named Mika) would notice if I replaced myself with a blow-up doll (not particularly difficult to acquire in Tokyo)?