I wonder if I'll be able to send my Christmas letter on time. If not, well, at least I'll be following the established family tradition of sending Christmas letters in April... of the next year. =)

I thought buying 75 envelopes at the Japanese Paper Place warehouse sale would've lasted at least until the end of the year. But I apparently have 115 people's postal addresses in my database, and I know I'm missing a few people in this list.

Hmm. I need to go back to Carlton and buy a few more penguin notepads, then. I have only 100 sheets, and Clair's bound to like them too. =) (Oooh! Marcelle, you're _so_ right about the Happy Feet trailer. Hot penguin lurv!)

We went to Subic last weekend. It was tons of fun. =) I'm really glad I had an opportunity to spend more time with Diane, and I'm also really glad I got to know Jac more. Dominique was absolutely wonderful (and well-behaved). Ranulf and Marcelle were cool, too. <grin>

Yay yay yay yay!

私は、例えば、猫や犬のような動物が好きです。 I like animals, for example, a cat or a dog.

Watched one act of a kabuki play at http://www.kabuki-za.co.jp/ . It was _beautiful_. Props to dagbrown for that excellent idea. Also, had very unhealthy but fun food--deep-fried buffet.

Did most of my packing today. The big suitcase is jammed with souvenirs and the little suitcase will contain electronics. I'm shipping my clothes home by sea mail, as there is simply no way I can get them to fit into my original luggage.

Had fun doing karaoke with Dave and Tony. Must must must practice more. Eyes on Me is high, so I need to turn down the volume if I'm to hear my voice...

Hour passed by so quickly! Mrph.

Looking forward to doing karaoke with my friends once I get back to the Philippines.

Chatted with Tony on the train ride back. He told me a little bit about engineering in UP. We swapped notes on Japan. I gave him Super Lemon and he totally freaked. <laugh> Looks like an interesting guy, although not as geeky as my other friends. Should look into introducing him to the rest next time he goes to the Philippines.

Bandai Museumhttp://www.bandai-museum.jp/english/miru/g_museum/g_museum.html . Matsudo station on the Joban line. I can do this in the morning or early afternoon.

TomokoI want to drop off a pack of mangoes and a set of notebooks. She sometimes works during weekends. However, Kobayashi-san wants to meet on Sunday. The best time to meet Tomoko is probably Saturday evening. After Bandai museum, I can leave for Odakyu Tama Center. It takes about an hour and a half between that station and Kita Senju.

Ah. Hmm. So. Saturday. Wake up early and coordinate with Tomoko about meeting her. If she has work on Saturday, I can meet her at Shinjuku in the afternoon and go back in the evening. If not, I'll visit her for lunch on Sunday.

At any rate, I should visit Bandai Museum on Saturday. It's closer to Kita Senju than it is to Ueno, though, so I'll meet Dave there.

Saturday:

- Wake up early and coordinate with Tomoko. - Go to Bandai Museum. - Visit Tomoko for dinner.

OR

- Wake up early and coordinate with Tomoko. - Go to Bandai Museum. - Go to Ueno. - Pass by wasuremono place just in case the hat's there. - Watch street performances.

Sunday:

- Visit Tomoko for lunch. - Meet Kobayashi-san, Elaine and Len-len at Lumine at 5:00.

OR

- Go to Ueno. - Pass by wasuremono place just in case the hat's there. - Watch street performances. - Meet Kobayashi-san, Elaine and Len-len at Lumine at 5:00.

dds and his friend Ben came up to Tokyo last weekend, and I had tons of fun hanging out with them. We met at the Edo-Tokyo Museum in Ryogaku at 10:00 last Saturday morning. There was a bit of a mixup; I thought I was supposed to meet Sebastian Duval then as well, but it turned out that was supposed to be Sunday. Whoops.

The Edo-Tokyo Museum was a fascinating glimpse of Tokyo before it was Tokyo. I particularly liked the intricately carved minatures showing the architecture of Japanese houses. The splendid portable shrines were also remarkable, as was the elaborate kabuki display. Pity I'd forgotten my camera then! I hope Ben will post pictures soon.

After the museum, we headed over to Akihabara, a must-see spot for all electronics geeks. We had lunch at a little noodle shop near the station. It took me a while to slurp down my hot tanuki udon ( dds teased me about having a cat's tongue), so Ben went off to browse through the bewildering array of electronic devices. Splitting up is normally a Very Bad Idea because Akihabara's just so big, but dds reassured him that we'd be able to find him.

Yeah, right.

Hours later and still no sight of Ben. I started panicking. Poor guy didn't know Japanese. He knew Ben's cellphone number, but I wasn't sure if he knew how to use the phones. We waited by the noodle shop just in case he decided to retrace his steps; no Ben. We made a number of circuits of Akihabara; no Ben. We finally found him near a telephone booth on the far side of a wide street, looking very lost and rather tired.

He didn't get much sleep on the night train, and he really needed to take a nap. We took the train to Shinjuku and started looking for the capsule hotel dds found on the Net. We trudged through a red light / love hotel district, which was a rather strange experience. (Fortunately, it was still early afternoon.) Not a capsule hotel in sight. Eventually we gave up and decided to look for an Internet cafe or a karaoke box we could leave Ben in; those places have relatively cheap hourly rates and a karaoke box is soundproof as well. After a lot of backtracking, we found a reasonable karaoke place that had a promo until 7:00. We left Ben there and started looking for that capsule hotel.

dds was well-prepared. He had a GPS phone with a map that tracked his current position _and_ a watch with a built-in compass, so we confidently set off to find the capsule hotel that was top on his list. We crossed to the other side of Shinjuku station... wandered through a winding alley of little restaurants... wandered around some more... and realized we were well and truly lost, although we knew exactly where we were.

So I popped into a store and asked for directions. (It's fun being a girl.)

... and asked another store for directions...

... and then looked at a map near an underground walkway--they always have maps of the vicinity, which are very handy...

... and then found the capsule hotel...

... right beside the karaoke place.

At least we didn't have to walk very far to get back.

Ben was still sleeping, so dds and I chatted in the cafe first. Had my first hot chocolate of the weekend.

After that, we picked up Ben, showed him the capsule hotel next door, and had a good laugh about the exercise. Heh.

I wasn't quite sure what to do in Tokyo at night--I'm not a nightlife person, you know--but I took them to Harajuku anyway to show them some costume shops and other weird things. That was okay, although not particularly impressive.

After that, we had a somewhat unsatisfying dinner at a small Japanese restaurant. There's a first time for everything, I guess, so that was more of a learning experience than dinner. Not that I was hungry afterwards, but anyway... =)

We walked around a little bit, then they decided to turn in; they were tired from the trip and they wanted to get a good start tomorrow. So I went back to the dorm, looked up nice places to go on the Net, and e-mailed dds an itinerary that included some of the architectural stuff he wanted to see.

After a good night's sleep, I met them at the corner in front of their capsule hotel. We ate breakfast at Matsuya, a 24h store that offers (among other things) a natto combo set. 'Natto' is a dish of fermented soybeans, which most people find a little odd. dds is addicted to the thing. I was thinking of trying it out again, but between my ham and egg meal and the salad Ben passed to me, I got quite full.

We went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office after breakfast. The building complex is majestic and the view from the twin observatories is not only spectacular but also free, so it's a must-stop for Tokyo visitors. Mt. Fuji rose above the mass of buildings glinting in the clear, sunny day; great view.

We picked up a few pamphlets from the tourist information office on the first floor. I needed a map of Odaiba, the artificial island we were going to visit next. Thus prepared, we took the train to Shinbashi and transferred to the monorail, squeezing into the front of the car so that we could see the view.

The Fuji TV building was first on our list, as it boasted a spherical observatory. It would've been cooler if the observatory was mostly glass, but the view was still good. A few old machines were being exhibited--a telegraph machine, some elaborate mechanical dolls--and I was completely fascinated by them. I love looking at minature automata. I am intrigued by the gears and other mechanisms that combine in strange ways to make the models move...

After the observatory, we headed for lunch in Little Hongkong. A delicious ramen meal later, we went to the science museum. That was so, so, so cool. There was an Asimo demonstration, a hands-on model of the Internet using marble drops, lots of information on various technologies, and a really cool spherical display several meters in diameter. The display showed the Earth. It had several modes: satellite images, temperature, prediction, time-lapse... You could also get it to display other bodies in the solar system. What fun! That was really, really cool. Check out the Miraikan (National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation) if you ever find yourself in Odaiba.

We also went to Venus Fort, a shopping mall whose interiors resemble a grand 18th century Italian city. A painted sky with changing lights made us feel like we were outside. Columns and drapes stretched from floor to ceiling. An elaborate fountain with marble nymphs and gold decor completed the look. Beautiful place.

We capped our trip by speculating about the techniques used in the color-changing Ferris wheel in Odaiba (must be some kind of LED thing). It was hypnotic. =) After that, we took the boat back to Tokyo.

We had curry at a nearby 24-hour shop and then went to an Internet cafe to relax. Ben needed to transfer photos off his camera and dds needed to do some online banking. After they were done, we walked around. dds remembered a beautiful temple near the Daimon station and he showed me the neat little rows of Jizo statues. (I have a soft spot for Jizo statues; they're so cute...) We also walked through a graveyard and a park before heading in the direction of the next train station, frequently stopping at cafes for a quick coffee / hot chocolate fix.

We still had time to spare when we reached the next train station, so we signed up for 30 minutes of karaoke. That was fun. It was Ben's first time, and he did quite well--particularly when, ummm, he did "Barbie Girl" in this deep voice. I have video. MWAHAHAHA! We did two songs each, then headed to Tokyo station. I kept them company until the train was about to leave. <grin>

I had tons of fun this weekend, and definitely look forward to meeting other geeks. =)

Had a fantastic weekend geeking out. Saturday's TLUG technical presentation introduced me to the joys of Squeak, and I stayed as late as I could for the karaoke and stuff. Sunday was cold, dreary, and rainy. This turned out to be a very good thing, although it was gloomy in the beginning. Rain makes street performers scarce, so I decided to skip Yoyogi. Thought about going to the Edo-Tokyo Museum, but couldn't get in touch with Sebastien (a museum buff who mentioned wanting to go to the falconry exhibition). Decided to put that off instead. Got in touch with Dave Brown who invited me up to Saitama for DDR. Aaron Chmielowiec is a wizard at that thing. Asked him about Dance Maniax. Apparently, there are no more Dance Maniax machines in normal arcades. Waaah.

Had tons of fun practicing some songs with the two, as they're both better than I am. Browsed through Bic Camera afterwards. Lots of amusing commentary. Had dinner at an izakaya. Learned so many things about the Japan IT industry from the conversation. <laugh> Their college stories were also hilarious. They had such characters in their university! We talked about many other things, but I'm too sleepy to record them.

Wonderful weekend. =D