Merry X-Mas, Happy Holidays, etc.
I’m getting old.
X
December 25, 2007 at 9:30 AM
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Hobo King?
December 24, 2007 at 2:51 PM
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I forgot to post this before, but it’s from my visit to LA in October. I was driving around with Joey and Kyle, maybe near Beverly Hills, and we saw this dude walking on the sidewalk. Judging by his gear, he may very well be the King of All Hobos. But he’s dressed like a normal guy. It’s this contradiction that makes it all the more ridiculous.
Click on the image below to see the full picture.
I’ll bet you weren’t expecting that. I know I wasn’t.
Packing again
December 21, 2007 at 3:08 AM
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Today was a fairly busy day. Hit up the Lumbini Indian buffet with Blanchard, then did more shopping for gifts to take home. I’ve spent more this week on other people than I would usually spend on myself in a whole week or two. Ran some more errands all afternoon, then headed to Makuhari. Saw Miyoko who’s working at some shop that sells funky Christmas hats and clothing for miniature dogs, then went to Hana no Mae with Andy. That kid is mad sweet. For real. It’s actually hard to explain, but the guy is just awesome.
Right now I’m supposed to be packing, but I’ve spent a long time tonight sitting around watching Iron Chef episodes. And speaking of Iron Chef, I randomly checked Iron Chef Sakai’s blog (he is a pretty hardcore blogger) and saw a picture of him at the gym. It’s pretty surprising. I guess you don’t think about an Iron Chef pumping iron.
I need to be at Narita around noon, so I’ll probably leave my place at 10 or 10:30. Not packed at all yet, but I’ve got piles of stuff on my floor waiting to be Tetris-ized into my suitcase. Will be in St. Louis for X-Mas and all that. If you’re around, hit me up.
Mega Artery Clogger
December 12, 2007 at 11:33 PM
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Japanese food was for centuries renowned for its beautiful aesthetic values and sensitive emphasis on the four seasons. The heavy use of fresh fish, vegetables, and tofu made it a truly healthy cuisine. With the introduction of various Western fast foods, such as McDonald’s, over the past few decades, the diet and eating culture of the Japanese has changed dramatically. Last year, McDonald’s Japan introduced a sandwich called the Mega Mac, which had double the meat of the classic Big Mac. This sandwich was not sold throughout the US, but it because somewhat popular in Japan, perhaps due in part to the novelty of eating a “huge-ass sandwich.”
And my god, McDonald’s Japan is at it again.
This time, they didn’t bring back the Mega Mac, but its two cousins -the Mega Tamago (egg) and the Mega Tomato. While they have only three beef patties compared to the Mega Mac’s ridiculous 4, they are still massive sandwiches in their own right. The Tamago has a fried egg, like what they have on the Egg McMuffin. The Tomato has, obviously, a slice of tomato, which seems like a step down from another piece of meat, but who knows. And the Tomato costs more than the Tamago! And did I mention that both sandwiches also have two strips of bacon? I’m pretty sure that if you wanted to have a heart attack immediately, you could probably eat two Mega Tamago burgers and call it a day.
That’s from the official website. The sandwiches were just released today, and just like the Mega Mac, are a limited menu item. I was going to blog about these yesterday after seeing the huge posters, but it was pointed out to me by former blogger Nick Roberts that it wouldn’t be a real blog without first-hand experience. I’d never even tried the Mega Mac, but I had to try one of these new beasts. I took the challenge. Behold tonight’s dinner:
You can clearly see the beef, egg, cheese, and bacon all piled up in what is disguised as a sandwich but is really a big tower of grease. It doesn’t taste that bad, but the volume is killer. All I had eaten today was a stale blueberry bagel, then had this monstrosity for dinner. I ate it all, but couldn’t finish my drink. It was also pretty impossible to keep the entire thing together after two or three bites. They need like a skewer or something to keep it all stacked right. Now, I can eat a lot, but I think the density of this burger and the fact that I ate it in less than 10 minutes did me in. I felt like death walking out of McDonald’s. I may have defeated the Mega Tamago, but it definitely did it’s damage.
Oh yeah, instead of the thousand island dressing, they use spicy mayonnaise-kind of stuff like they used to use on the McChicken here. That part was good.
Kamen Rider Kiba
December 10, 2007 at 3:19 PM
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So the Rider show for 2008 has been announced. 仮面ライダーキバ。Kiba, as in “fang.” It’s a vampire guy. I guess they’re keeping up the multiple forms stuff, since this guy’s going to have Werewolf and Frankenstein forms later.
Nippongo Testo, 後編
December 7, 2007 at 2:40 AM
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The morning of the test, I had to head out and be on a train by 8AM. I got to Nishi-Funabashi to transfer to the Toyo-Kosoku line. As soon as I walked down the stairs to the platform, it was one of the weirdest sights I’ve ever seen. It’s hard to explain, but even though almost everyone was Asian, you could tell immediately that it wasn’t a usual crowd of Japanese people. Almost every single person waiting on that train platform was a foreigner, and everyone was going to the same place as me to take the JLPT. Tons of people were holding up JLPT preparation books in various languages, checking notes and talking to their friends about the test. It was unreasonably loud with chatter too. It was so strange. The best way I can describe it is like the Harry Potter movies. You know, when they go to the train station and you see all these magic people, wizards, etc running around with shopping carts? Only instead of magical school kids and giants, it was nerdy looking white guys and Korean girls in emo glasses and trucker hats.
And that brings me to my next point. While you’d expect “group of foreigners in Japan” to mean a bunch of predominantly white people, you’d be pretty wrong. Actual Asians make up the biggest percentage of foreigners here. And that never applied more heavily than to the people taking the JLPT. Of course I only experienced one test site at Funabashi, but I’m willing to bet everyone else had similar experiences.
Does this match everyone else’s examinee groups fairly well?
In an attempt to make my page more intelligent-looking, I have constructed a pie chart showing the groups of people who were taking the JLPT this year. This has been scientifically validated and checked a few times by my imagination.
Let us examine each of these groups individually.
- Asian chicks – as I said, most of the foreigners taking the test seemed to be Asian, but then it also seemed that most of them were female. However, I had to add an extra subgroup (see next) to help classify further. This is the “without glasses” group.
- Asian chicks with emo glasses – It’s almost ridiculous how many of these girls were wearing emo glasses. It’s even more common now than the stupid trucker hats and furry collared-coats. But there are some girls who rock all 3, and I’m pretty sure they’re always the Korean ones. By the way, if you do a Google Image Search for “emo glasses,” most of the pictures that show up are of Asian chicks.
- Other Asians – guys, really really ugly females, and TheLeong.
- Middle Eastern guys – Although I don’t tend to see a lot of Middle Eastern-looking guys around Chiba or even when I go to Tokyo, there seemed to be quite a few taking the JLPT. And they also always seemed to be in groups, even more than the other groups present. Seriously, I never saw a lone Middle Eastern guy at the test. I didn’t seem to see any Middle Eastern girls though.
- Other – Mainly this is white people. Also the one black guy I saw. There are of course many sub-classifications for the white people I saw at the test, such as “confused looking old guy” and “huge nerd wearing way too much winter gear.”
Well that’s enough statistics and data for one night.
