Japan Revisited

There has been an upsurge of Japan-related events in my life right now. Recently I started working at a Japanese restaurant in the Tribeca (TRiangle BElow CAnal street) area of Manhattan. To say that communicating with the waiters in Japanese, and having to wear a portable intercom system with random Japanese commands and orders shouted over the airwaves is but a small distraction would be an understatement.

In other Japan-related news, my friend Sachi who got me a sweet part-time job at a beach bar in Hagi just sent me photos of the time we went surfing near the coast in Abu-chou. It was also a time for her to showcase her new dog, Bunta, to her friends. Sachi has a blog, whose main purpose is to show the world thousands upon thousands of photos of her dog, which could not possibly be any more adorable, yet I sometimes wonder just what is so damn special about the connection Japanese people have with all the cute things in this world.

Anyway, to the pics!


When they told us we were going surfing here, the first thing I noticed was the incredible lack of danger of the 2-foot waves that came crashing--or should I say came massaging the continental shelf, and kissed the shore ever so gently after the swells broke.


This is me and Bunta. I decided it wasn't worth it for me to get cold and wet on an especially chilly day in order to ride a 2-foot wave for a couple of seconds and have people cheering me on like I had been Kelly Slater.


Instead I spent the afternoon watching dolphins play, hoping that one of them would get close enough to my friend Kawashima and scare the shit out of him. Since he's Japanese, he would probably have tried to eat it.


This is my friend Sachi who lives in Hiroshima now. And for some strange reason all the people in the pictures on her blog have their faces blurred out. Only mine, and her dog Bunta's aren't afforded the same treatment. I've presaged that there is going to be a new horror movie with pictures of people with blurred out faces that die all of a sudden, and then come back to life as zombies to terrorize the still living.


Here are some more friends from Hagi trying to skateboard in the parking lot... Which adds a new element to my movie idea, because I'm pretty sure it would be the first time anyone used the theme, ZOMBIES ON SKATEBOARDS!!

More Awkward Running

After my class in Mathematics for Economists, I found myself straying to a nearby friend's house, Leo, to eat some carne con platanos and to watch Raphael Nadal lose to some Chilean dude in the U.S. Open.

This is my friend Leo who lives a few blocks from my school. In this photo we were enjoying some beers and looking at women at a bar called the Half Pint in the LWS on the corner of West 3rd and Thompson Street.



Unfortunately, ominous-looking clouds during the second set tiebreak gave way to a rain delay, and after a few minutes of flipping back and forth between the Steelers game I gave my friend Leo some departing words and was on my way home. Since I inevitably have to pass through Harlem to wait for a bus, I thought it best to not let it get too dark. I'm all about bravery and all that nonsense, but there are still certain parts of NYC that make me feel just about as tough as Red before he gets knocked the fu** out by DEBO.



Anyway once on the bus we shot across the RFK bridge, and I got off at Astoria Boulevard and walked home. It started to drizzle a bit, and that's when I decided to run the rest of the way home, while still wearing my bookbag.

That's when I discovered it. No matter how hard you try, its impossible to not look gay while running with a backpack. Accelerating your walking stride into a lively jog causes the contents of your bookbag to shift awkwardly from side to side, whilst you, in your pathetic attempts to counter the shifting weight, swing your arms wider hoping desperately for a more even and controlled rhythm. Despite your commendable struggle, all that gets accomplished is that you successfully look like a jackass.

The only good thing about running with a backpack on is that at least your name isn't Tyler and you're running with your backpack on, like the kid on the left in this picture probably is.

Wedding in LA

My sister got married a few weeks ago, and I'm totally jacking some of the photos from the website of the company that was hired to photograph the event. Most companies usually have some sort of code embedded into the HTML that prevents you from right-clicking, but obviously this was not the case. Even when they do prevent you from right-clicking you can always just hit the 'prntcscrn' button, open the image in Microsoft Paint, crop it, and save it as a *.jpg file.

Here is a picture of the temple where they tied the knot. While we were driving, we came around a bend on the highway and nestled in the gently sloping foothills of Southern California we see this crystal-white grandiose temple that looked like something from Willow. I swore I heard harps and angels playing God's sweet overture as cherubs circled my head when we pulled near.



The area for the reception was quite nice. Behind those palm trees in the background was a lovely vista of the Pacific Ocean. I got a yearning to go down to the shore and stare out at the horizon because people feel reflective when looking at pretty things, and I am no exception. Once that activity had lost its ability to make me reflect, I'd had enough of staring at the ocean and went back to join the crew.



Here is a picture of my 1-year-old niece Maya, who knows how to do nothing but look ridiculously cute all the damn time.



Here are some more ridiculously cute children from the groom's side of the family. My first impression struck me a little nervous because for some reason they reminded me of CHILDREN OF THE CORN!!


They say that its difficult to look at something that's too beautiful. I agree with that, but it also doesn't help if you have immaculately blond hair and wear all white when the sun is beaming down on us with a cloudless sky overhead.

Because this is my blog it goes unsaid that I can post a picture of myself whenever I see fit.

Notice how everyone is looking at me and laughing. I can't quite remember, but I like to think that I just said something clever or witty, which is why I'm the one with look of incredulity that says, "My God, how did I get so damn funny??...."

Random Funny

My friend Catherine Montemayor came to visit me one time last year while I was living in Chinatown.


This is a picture of my friend doing her impression of a creepy ghost.

I lived in a small apartment on the 6th floor next to a laundromat on Madison Street, and all of the neighboring tenants were of Asian decent, or were white people who appeared to be squinting all the time.

Anyway while I would be at work I would give her the keys, and she would venture out on her own and go exploring around downtown.

We got to talking about the other tenants, and I told her that up to that point in time, I hadn't met anyone else in my building, especially any young-looking people.

Then she said, "Well, actually I was leaving your apartment and I saw Sum Yung Gai."

And I was like, "Who the fuck is Sum Yung Gai and how do you know him???"

Then she thought about it for a second, and replied, "Noooooooooooo, I meant some young guy!!"

Then I started laughing and had to explain to her why that was funny. She started laughing too, and then we went out and got drunk at a bar in the lower east side.