Adventures in Roppongi

The other day we ended up in Roppongi in the morning, which is quite possibly the best time to go to Roppongi.

The first thing we saw after stepping out of the Metro exit was a young professional, dressed in fine black clothes and jacket, passed out and lying face down on the pavement. He seemed to be breathing. No one seemed to mind him.

Half a block down, another guy was lying in a little roadside flowerbed, his feet propped up on the low railing surrounding the plot. A police officer was standing over him, and not doing much of anything.

After that, in a completely unrelated incident, we were passed by a line of maybe a dozen uniformed salesmen--they were jogging, and had their arms wrapped around large inflatable pill-shaped thingumies advertising credit cards.

Fascinating.

The whole point of the trip was to apply for our tourist visas at the Chinese consulate, and once we got there we noticed that we needed passport photos. Thus we embarked on a merry adventure around Roppongi, which included an investigation of a dilapidated apartment building which, despite the business signs out front, seemed to house no commercial establishments whatsoever (photographical or otherwise). We eventually found what we were looking for on the 6th floor of Roppongi Hills, and while our photos were being developed we took a break to drink some Seattle's Best Coffee and listen to crappy American pop music playing in the background. It felt just like back home.

After we got our photos, we trekked back the consulate, and upon reentering immediately noticed the passport photo booths prominently displayed on the first floor.

Let's hope things go better in China.

In other news, my sister just arrived in Japan today. I was working, but Kate (currently under the influence of some nasty allergies) met her at the airport. More on that later, maybe.

CBC Arts: Star Trek's Scotty dies

CBC Arts: Star Trek's Scotty dies

I never knew he was in the war; he had an interesting life. BBC puts him on the front page - CBC sticks him, a born Canadian, way down in the Arts section.

Upcoming Vacation

Where we'll be (if everything works out) in early September.

Pretty excited but still in the planning stages. Hoping to hit Beijing, Xian, Lhasa, and Shanghai, starting in the last week of August and finishing up in the first week of September.

It's Back!

Ron Moore's Deep Space Journey - New York Times

Saw the first episode of season 2 last night. We waited all day until midnight when it finally finished downloading.

For those of you who haven't been watching from the beginning - go out and rent the miniseries and season 1 from the video store (it's out this week); it's also available for download. The show is awesome - and season 2 carries on right where it left off. Can't wait til next week for the next episode!

Super Saturday

(Well, it was Wednesday, but that's our Saturday.) First we went to Shinjuku to check out Kinokuniya, the book megastore with the largest English selection in Tokyo. Picked up a travel guide for China and a few other things, then headed over to Roppongi for a viewing of Star Wars Episode III, which is MUCH better on the big screen than the small. For some reason all the corny bits don't seem so corny, or maybe the fight scenes distract you more from the corniness. After that we had a snack at Bagel & Bagel, and it was off the Takadanababa for a night of Magic. A little tiring, but lotsa fun. Today we're hoping to get over to the travel agency to organize our trip to China and Hiroshima. Can't wait for some vacation time.

The Heat Has Arrived...

It's 25 degrees, humidity 83%, and it's 10pm. Rain is not forcast for some time :(.

In other news, we bought a replacement for our old rice-cooker today.

A Blast from the Past

Today I walked into the Family Mart (convenience store) to buy an umbrella, and they were playing the music from CBC's news review show "As it Happens". It was surreal.

Fog of War

We watched The Fog of War, a documentary based upon a series of interviews with Robert McNamara. The man's not exactly my favourite guy in the world, but he does win back some respect in these interviews.

A number of bits of that movie are stuck in mind. For example, I wonder if he had anyone in mind when he said, "If we can't persuade nations with comparable values of the merits of our cause, we'd better reexamine our reasoning." And the entire segment on the Cuban Missile Crisis was utterly chilling--possibly the most compelling account of that series of event that I've ever heard or read. I thought it really put contemporary security concerns in perspective--the worst of worst case terrorist scenarios is a faint shadow of the apocalypse that nearly struck in 1962.

(I know I just wrote the word "terrorist", but I'm not going to say anything about London right now, even though I could've concocted a pretty snazzy title for this post by somehow combining "Fog of War" and some statement about London's climate.)