Today is just an ordinary day for both of us, taking a walk on a sunny sunday afternoon, having fun at the arcade..
Since yesterday I have been so envious of my officemate's collection that I wondered if maybe I should start one on my own. I do have a collection of books but those are for my own "library". Not exactly a collection so I decided to start a Naruto figure collection (well, not yet anyway, since I haven't bought anything yet) So I decided to have more of my プリクラ (read pu-ri-ku-ra: short for print club in japanese pronunciation; a picture printed from a japanese photo booth) as a collection. I had 1 of 2 of those pictures up until now but it never really occured to me as a collection.
So now I start one. Something nice to look back to when I grow old and wrinkly and wasted, together with my collection of pictures and books.
Summer outing marks summer activities like swimming and stuff like that. Unfortunately for people working in Japan, the Philippine summer outing is done at the same timing whereas the weather is still spring in the land of the rising sun.. so I'll rephrase our summer outing to spring food trip instead.
We started with a hearty and heavy lunch at Tony Roma's, went shopping at Makuhari outlet shops, saw the premiere of The Da Vinci Code at Toho Cinemas and finally ending the day with a dinner at gyukaku.
And of course, a group - 1 (the person taking the picture) picture in front of the famous Chiba baseball. Chiba is quite proud because Chiba Lotte Marines baseball team won the japan championship last year. (hence the baseball plants).
hooked on a feeling.... again! damn it, it just keeps playing in my head...
Well speaking of, I saw a video of David Hasselhoff's version of this song. Take some time to watch it then tell me why I'm having a hard time taking him seriously..
the conclusion of the golden week vacation is the most difficult of all: I ruined my body clock. I slept at 2am everyday this week, my mind is still soooo, sooo able to do normal thinking but my body is not taking orders from my neurons.
Here's what's keeping me up this week (and tonight): 1. Naruto episode this week sucked. Just when I thought the filler episodes finally ended, it looks like there's still more to come. 2. Super collapse: I can't get past my 1.5M score. :( 3. Veronica Mars: I still can't make myself watch the season ender although I've already read about all the revelations. 4. on AI: yay! to Elliot! Next to go is Katharine, I hope. She sucked big time this week. 5. hypnetoromachia poliphili. I still can't pronounce this correctly withoug reading it. It's complicated, so just google the term to find out what it is. 6. SUE: A few more trips to the bathroom to finish book 12. (This book is on my bathroom for reading when doing potty duties). 7. CSI season 6. Can't wait to catch up on previous season episodes. 8. Java and spec changes: these words speak for themselves. 9. DOTA! 10. um.. my head stopped working.
The song from Ally McBeal, performed by Vonda Sheppard... last song syndrome.. it's been playing in my head for hours already.
I'm currently hooked on that very old online yahoo game Super Collapse and while it caused my 2am sleep for the past 4 days, I don't know why I keep on playing it, although it's sooo meaningless just to play and play.. and today, while i'm senselessly clicking the bricks away, hooked on a feeling... i'm tired of believing.. that you're in love with me... I don't even know if the song playing on my head have the correct lyrics..
If there's one wonderful thing we did during this golden week vacation, that's indulging ourselves with food, food and more food! I learned how to cook this new dish from Yanashima-sensei (who lost the original recipe so we ended up experimenting instead) and I also learned how to make a clam chowder thru canned goods recipe hihihihi! Yesterday's main dish was inspired by the sea.. thus the seafood. And for years now, I have been wondering what those yellow and red large peppers (which was actually called paprika.. I've always wondered what on earth those were and on what purpose were those abnormally large and colored peppers were being used for) tasted like, and I found out that it doesn't really taste anything, it does smell good though.
Well anyway, today for brunch (we woke up at 1pm hahaha!), we had yesterday's leftover plus the newly-stewed clam chowder. It sounds so sosyal but it's really, really easy to make. I'm thinking of making those when I get home for my family to taste.. hihihihi!
We went to see this underwater museum in Katsuura City today, a city 2 hrs away from our place. We left at 1030am and arrived at 1245pm in Ubara station, a station so remote that they can't accept suica cards and we had to pay the remaining fare in cash (it kind of reminds me of hirooka in nagano during our aots days) and the trains bound for chiba are 1 hour apart. So well, anyway, we (just me and bert.. we didn't want to drag anybody on a 4 hr train ride over some place we haven't seen before) set off on foot in search for the "famous" underwater park. We followed the signs and walked for 15 minutes until we found the place and then we set off onto the viewing tower to see what the park was all about.
I was a little excited because we went on to explore an entirely new place that we've never seen before and I got to navigate. We didn't get lost but the place wasn't much. It was ok but not enough to justify our 4 hour train ride and not to mention the train fare. We still had time to pass by Mobara but I couldn't remember what we were supposed to see there so we went home instead.
To justify our disappointment on our trip, we took a lot of pictures of the place, pictures to denote the remoteness of the place and how we enjoyed the trip anyway. As soon as we arrived home, we decided to stuff ourselves with seafood, a craving we suddenly had once we had a whiff of the salty air by the sea. I cooked something like a paella, stuffed with crab, shrimp, clams, squid and a lot more. It's a great way to end a funny, rather than exciting day.
Sunday night overnight bus to Osaka for Universal Studios Japan, 1 whole day around the theme park on Monday and then back to Chiba on Monday night thru an overnight bus again is definitely exhausting. I was so tired by the end of the day that my heels hurt sooo much that I could not bear to stand on my own two feet. My body was not very tired but it was my feet that hurt like hell.
Well, hell or not, we still enjoyed the day. We early birds arrived at USJ around 7am and we had the time of our life shooting pictures around the park while there were not much of a crowd yet.
We used the time to grovel around the park sites and take loads of pictures while waiting for the others to come.
As soon as the rest of the guys arrived, we hopped and zoomed towards the entrance of the park... right after we had a hearty breakfast at the nearby McDo.
We started with the major attractions with not much of an excitement because E.T. was too hyped up, Backdraft was amazing but sucked because there were no seats (I like to see those technology up to the screen only. It's very scary to see an actual fire right up to your nose). Spiderman was THE best, Jurassic Park was a wet and scary and an exciting ride (funny pictures with all just a few of us screaming our hearts out hahahaha!),
Waterworld was amazing and funny and wet too, if you get to seat on the blue seats. Shrek was great but could've been much, much better if it was in English (I pity Tinker Bell who got swatted flat to her face on screen).
It was a fun experience and it was great to spend the day with friends who are also enjoying themselves.
The place was amazing but the atmosphere is not as exciting and fun as it is in Tokyo Disneyland/Disneysea but it's still worth the trip. I'm not too crazy with rides but I was not scared at the Jurassic Park ride. The boat was actually falling vertically and the boat *not* touching the rails anymore. I think I wasn't that scared because I did not feel that free-fall feeling (you know, that feeling when your stomach goes up to your throat) or just maybe, because I was sooo surprised to see the bottom while we were falling that I forgot to be scared.
