Posts from — September 2008

Well, we’re proud to say that we’re now Three-for-three for having sushi while being here for a full day. I don’t know if it’s actually customary for Japanese people but we’re assuming that it is.

Anyway, onto our day(s)… I use the (s) in this case because Lindsay actually had to pay for this trip by doing “work” while I got to head off exploring…. So I headed to the Tsukuba Expo and Planetarium. Funny story and things you should think of ahead of time…

The planetarium is basically a large dome (apparently. it’s the worlds largest hemisphere 25m in radius, or something like that). You sit inside and they show you a gigantic movie about stars, the earths creation and our exploration into space…. or at least that’s what I think they teach you. I bought a ticket and then realized that it’s probably all in Japanese… doh! So I grab my handy-dandy translator book… Go up and politely ask if they have an english audio. Nope Japanese only (fair enough, it’s not like we’d have a Japanese audio). I didn’t think i could translate that I didn’t want to pay for the ticket so instead I sat and looked at the pretty stars (and Kanji scripts) for the next hour or so.

The other funny story is that I was wandering around the Space Exploration exhibit enjoying myself as I was the only one in the whole Expo, or so it seemed. Until I started hearing a ton of screaming and yelling kids and they all just rushed the exhibit. Normally I’d just think this was a normal as they kids were around 6-7 years old… But it was actually the outfits that had me in stitches. EVERY SINGLE kid had GREEN Track suits on. Seriously, green track suits. I didn’t think anyone would believe me if I told them so I tried to snap a picture without looking like the total “white stalker man taking pictures of 6-7 year old Japanese kids” guy.

On a side note: The Japanese are brilliant! Most of you know that I love chips. mmmm. Chips. And most of you know I REALLY love chips and salsa. Well, how about we combine the two and sell it in one package? Those Japanese are brilliant! Now if only I could figure out how to tell them that they’re brilliant.

Tonight we headed to Lindsay’s banquet thing. They served some tasty food and sushi (actually Sashimi and it was delicious), here’s a pic of the spread after everyone had already finished. The banquet was more of a reception then a banquet which was a bit odd. Everyone just stood around eating and talking, but it was a nice evening nonetheless. In fact, we’ve met a really nice and funny guy from Korea who is a pleasure to talk to.

Anyway, tomorrow Lindsay had more work stuff to do (impromtu meetings?!?) and I’m off to Akihabara in Tokyo… Should be exciting!

Japan is treating us well, considering we don’t know the language at all and are probably pissing off people on a daily basis with our lack of cultural know-how.
Jeff loves how any sense of politeness goes out the window. “No thank you” quickly turns to “No” and any form of greeting turns into a bow, which is easier than formulating a sentence.
We really thought that by arriving in Tsukuba and attending this conference would ease us into the Japanese culture. We were really wrong on that one. We’ve had to just dive right in. Very few people in this city of 200,000 speak English. We’re fine if we can point to pictures on a menu. However, yesterday we went to an Italian restaurant and the waitress did not speak English and the entire menu was in Japanese characters. We were screwed! We pulled out our little dictionary and learned the phrase “What do you recommend?” She pointed to something on the menu, we nodded our heads and waited in anticipation for what was going to arrive. Out comes noodles with pesto and prawns. Phewf! It was delicious. One of the best meals Jeff and I have ever had! That worked out!
The rest of the meals have not been such a success, but we are surviving, Jeff better than me since I’m a bit more picky….For example, I’m not such a fan of hot and cold served together or having my food touch. These two concepts go out the window here. In fact, they’ll just pile hot and cold things on top of each other.
Another things we’ve noticed here is how small the portions are…then we realized that they are an ideal size and don’t promote over-eating like in Canada or the States. We leave every meal satisfied, but not full. Probably good for us and that’s probably why every person here looks fantastic and fit. Obesity is not an issue at all. We’ve only seen one larger person in the whole time that we’ve been here.
Went to the welcome reception for the conference last night. Had some beer and met a few really nice people. The conference doesn’t have much going on today and it’s raining out so we’re just doing some work in our hotel room (I’m doing Cybera stuff and Jeff’s working on his company) and then we’re heading off to the Expo and Planetarium this afternoon.
It gets dark here really early, at around 6pm every night. Had I know that, I would have stayed in the hotel closer to the conference centre. Instead, it’s a 10 minute walk and Jeff has been escorting me there so I don’t walk by myself in the dark. I wouldn’t mind though since this town is extremely safe. It feels way safer than Calgary!
Back to work and then time to explore Tsukuba a little more!

We’re in Japan!

So we’re in Tsukuba, Japan where the conference that Lindsay is attending is located. It’s kinda funny because we both kinda thought we’d be able to ‘ease’ into this whole Japanese speaking thing…. Not exactly sure why we thought that but we did. Anyway, there has been no ‘easing’ but we’re doing alright. In fact, Lindsay was able to get an Iron to Iron her clothes! Nice huh! Now she’s trying to figure out how to use it (ie: trying to decipher the Kanji on the iron)

Anyway, the trip over was alright. Although, Lindsay has had a headache for the past 2 days. Oh and the fact that our in flight entertainment for my seat was broken. We did get a voucher for something from Air Canada so who knows maybe they’re turning things around.

Here are some pictures of us on our way over… The last picture is of me in my Kimono (?) that was provided in the room. I thought it was pretty sweet!

Very exciting week coming up. Four days till we leave for Japan. The time should fly by as I’ll be super busy planning my company’s annual conference and Jeff’s trying to meet grant deadlines and write papers.

Good thing we haven’t left packing and planning this trip to the last minute…or have we?

Another super fun weekend, leaving no time to get organized. Hung out with our buddy Dylan since we was in town for work. Saturday we went disc golfing at Forest Lawn since it was a gorgeous day. Saturday evening we spent at a quick stop by Tim and Kir’s going away party as they are sadly moving to Whitehorse. We will miss them tons but they should be back often and now we have an excuse to travel up North!

After the party we went to a concert and saw Less than Jake and Reel Big Fish. You might be thinking “who?”…that was a popular reaction from everyone at the party who has never heard of either band.

They are both Ska bands, a mix between punk and big band and you can listen to them on YouTube: [youtube I0e6LUTjzX0]

[youtube PwAC9vWHUvM]

We were so pumped to to see LTJ, as we had never seen them before and we love them. What a disappointment!!!! They were terrible. At first we thought it was just the acoustics in Mac Hall, but we had seen concerts there before that sounded fine. At one point a song was just about over and I realized it was a song I knew. They were entertaining, although nasty at times, and definitely not appropriate for an all ages show. To be fair, it was the lead singer’s 32nd birthday so he was indulging a little… I think I’ll stick to listening to their CD’s from now on.

As for RBF, they did not disappoint. We have seen Reel Big Fish 3 times before (once with Goldfinger, once with Suburban Legends, once on their own) and this was definitely their best show. The determined for us that is was not the concert hall that sound bad, it was infact LTJ that sucked. They were so high energy and upbeat. Great show! I highly recommending seeing them if you are even remotely into ska of if you just have an appreciation for live music.

At least the crowd was entertaining during LTJ. One chick spent the entire evening taking bad photos. She never even tried changing her camera settings or taking the flash off. Bad photo after bad photo. She had Jeff and I laughing pretty hard most of the show. She must have taken 100 terrible photos. It was the best when the lead singer would come to the edge of the stage and she’d click the button just in time for him to turn his back and walk away. Timing wasn’t her strong suit.

As people got tossed from the mosh pit from crowd surfing, the bouncers would grab them. The first offense resulted in a marking on your arm, and the second time you were tossed from the concert. These bouncers didn’t mess around. Permanent marker, thick tip, 4 times up and down your arm. Saw a few dudes trying to wipe it off and head back to the pit. Yeah, good luck with that.

Had Mary Anne and Robert over for dinner. Was a fun evening (Jeff made fajitas) but now it’s time to hit the hay! Four more sleeps

No dead Bernie on our weekend, but it was a ton of fun. Terri, Jeff, Heather and I went to Fernie, thanks to Terri and the Toppers. Terri had won a free weekend at the Topp’s condo when we did the Heroes for Hospice scavenger hunt a while back.

I haven’t spent much time in Fernie at all (driven through it a ton) and it is fantastic! I forsee myself spending a bunch more time there, especially now that I discovered they have a disc golf course there. Jeff and I tried to play a course there years ago and then found out it was no longer open to the public. This weekend we were biking by some folks carrying discs and we asked them where the course is. Turns out it’s a full 18 holes with baskets! Unfortunately we didn’t have discs so we didn’t play but next time for sure. Instead we just lurked around the course, jealously heckling those that had discs and hacked and threw a frisbee around.

We got out biking twice. The bike trails are freaking fantastic in Fernie. I find the trails in Calgary only mediocre and it seems to go anywhere good you have to drive for an hour. In Fernie we left the car at the condo and could bike to the trailhead. We biked around by the aquatic centre on Sidewinder (exactly as it sounds…lots of fun switchbacks) and Broken Derailer. That wasn’t enough for Heather and Jeff so they headed up for another go. I was out of water and Terri had hiked 30km the day before, so we headed back and that’s when we discovered the disc golf course.

On the second day we started from Mount Fernie Park and headed towards a lodge. The trail had a ton of roots on it and was soooo much fun. I think I may have liked it more than Jeff as my full suspension was awesome!!!

It was such a fun weekend that I thought it was a long weekend. Lots of good eats (chips…yum!), good biking and good friends. You can read Heather’s take on the weekend too!

Here are some pics of the good times:

Getting ready

Terri braving the boardwalk

Jeff on the boardwalk

Driving down the highway with our reattached bike rack

Heather and biking funsies

….but only sort of. Big week for our kitty. She turns half tomorrow (growing up so fast), she’s going in for surgery to get fixed (kind of a shame since she has great genes and would make super cute kitties), and she learned how to climb the fence in the backyard.

The answer is 714 or 59.5 dozen eggs (or namatamago, as they say in Japanese since Japanese words will probably be all over this blog for the next month and you can learn along with us)!!!

Thanks to everyone who guessed. There was something wrong with the blog and a couple of people had to submit their guesses verbally.

Jeff was the closest at 62 dozen, but he had the advantage of seeing the stacks of cartons. Heather was a close second at 74 dozen. My dad guessed 1836 eggs, but he’s seen how much Jeff and I eat and I can understand fully how he came up with this number!

How did this all come about? Well, we have been saving all of our recyclable plastics since we moved in October 17, 2005. This includes anything from shampoo bottles and yogurt containers to plastic egg cartons. It is because you are unable to recycle plastics in Calgary, so we are saving them for the day that we can (I feel way too bad throwing them in the garbage). Curbside recycling has been in the works for years, but now they are saying 2009 or 2010. I won’t go on a rant here since I’m pretty sure I’ve ranted about it in an earlier blog.

We had once given a bunch of recycling to a friend whose apartment complex pays extra to ship their plastics up to Edmonton to be recycled and we also gave a bunch to Larry and Brenda to take to BC as our garage was getting pretty full. I apologize to those who made educated guesses since Jeff pointed out that we recycled a few egg containers at the apartment so the number is not completely accurate.

Powell came over last weekend before heading to Golden and said “wow, you guys really like eggs”…which is what inspired this random factoid. It’s true, we really do like eggs, especially poached. 3 on 2 is the best! 3 poached eggs on 2 pieces of toast. Brilliant!

In other news, we’re off to Fernie this weekend and pretty pumped for a bit of biking and a lot of relaxing.

Jeff went golfing tonight and shot 94 at Shaganappi, which is pretty decent since (unlike his retired dad), it was Jeff’s first time out this season. Just in the knick of time as golf season is dwindling down. I have been too busy at work lately to get out golfing, but I plan to go at least once before it snows.

Jeff and I have been trying to learn Japanese before heading to Japan. It is a very challenging language but I feel like we are getting a small grasp on it and can have mini-conversations, like this:

J: Sumimasen (excuse me)

L: hii (yes)

J:Konichiwa (hello)

L: Konichiwa (hello)

J: Ego ga hanasemas ka? (do you speak english?)

L: i-eh, watashi wa nihon ga hanasema. (no, I speak Japanese)

J: Wakarimas ka? Kohi o kudasai? (do you understand me, can I have a coffee?)

L: hii, Chotte Matte (yes, Easy tiger)

J: Arrigato, soyonara (thanks, bye)

L: Do ishitemashte, soyonara (you’re welcome, bye)

We learned most of that from this youtube video:
[youtube YnLRNW5VOLg]

In other news, I have an interesting factoid about Jeff and I for you to guess.

The question is: How many eggs have Lindsay and Jeff consumed since moving into their house in October 2005?

(Keep in mind, this does not include eggs consumed at restaurants, other people’s houses, the ones currently in the fridge or the odd time that we have purchased non-free range eggs).

You can guess by leaving a comment in number form or dozen.

Does anyone hear it?

That’s the question that I’ve been pondering since yesterday. I think Yes. Of course, I could just ask my neighbour’s.

My Neighbours you say?

Yes. My Neighbour’s!

You see, yesterday, we came home and found that the tree in our backyard had, how do you say, separated? Rumour has it that the branches at the front weren’t getting along with the branches at the back. The back branches are big bullies so they just pushed the other branches down. (Rumour has it)

Anyway, we now think it’s just a matter of time till the other branch goes down. Which means two things.

• We will have no ‘real’ tree for privacy in our backyard… in the new suburbs makes privacy go from about 5% to 0%.
• We get to buy a new tree next summer!

Here are some pics of the branches

Oh and the NFL is back which means we’re back in the White Football pool. Last year Lindsay was able to come (15th) and I was (7th). Let’s see who wins this year. Any bets?

Willow’s latest trend is to bring dragonflies into the house. She plays with them until they die, and then eats them. Not so nice, but that’s nature! Hopefully the trend does not continue for snakes, birds or mice…

Spent the long weekend in Golden. Stayed at Brad’s hostel (Kicking Horse Hostel). Saturday we headed up to Infinity’s sport ranch and finally met Mr. Solstice Bright Wizard of Destiny. He is busy renovating is house, but was able to fit in a few holes golfing with us. Got a chance to play the new holes, including a basket as well as the Packer’s Ace. No aces out of the 38 holes, which is suprising eventhough we all finished very low.

Disc golf was slightly delayed due to major incompitence. Two “idiot girls” staying at the hostel decided to take Tim and Kir’s dogs downtown golden (across the highway) for a walk. Then they decided to have breakfast and leave the dogs on their own in town. Maggie was able to make it back across the highway unharmed, thankfully, but Kody decided to stay downtown a little longer. After an hour of searching (2 cars, 1 bike and 2 people walking around town), he had turned himself in and we found him on the courthouse steps. He had a huge gouge on his leg and had been bleeding. Since there are no vets working on the long weekend, Infinity fixed Kody up until he could go see a vet back in Calgary.

Sunday also saw a few loopholes before heading out for a bike ride. First hurdle: 4 degrees. Brrrr. Didn’t plan for that. Second hurdle, busted valve while pumping up tires. Then, 1km into the ride, another flat!!! Decided to cut the ride short as the world didn’t want us biking. Played around on an ATV track which was fun.

All in all a fun weekend with friends.

Thanks to Conrad and Sara for checking on Willow while we were gone!

Happy Labour day everyone.