A Short Visit to Akihabara

Note: I had originally posted this elsewhere but I suspect that site deletes blog posts after they're a year old.  Thus I've reposted it here...

I usually don't go to Akihabara when I'm in Tokyo.  Shinjuku, Shibuya, Odaiba, a whole pile of other places...and wherever I end up drinking with friends take precedence over Akihabara.  I think the last time I was there was back in 2005.

For starters...one doesn't go to Akihabara for food.  I paid ¥800 for a less than happy meal of katsu-curry.  The curry was basically reheated stuff scooped out of what looked to be 5kg plastic bags.  The rice was passable but the tonkatsu was pretty thin by my standards.  For the same price I got a much more interesting meal (duck on rice with salad, soup, and mango juice) in Ikebukuro at a Thai restaurant named Pirabukao which is housed in a hut.

The other thing is that I kind of took the long way around to getting there.  I took a JR train from Shin Nihonbashi station to Tokyo station and then the Yamanote line to Akihabara.  I could've walked to Tokyo station.

As for Akihabara itself...it's there.  Big deal, eh?  I cruised through a number of stores just to see if anything caught my eye.  I really had only two things on my mind: one, visit the two Volks shops, and two, find a drugstore.  Yes, finding a drugstore in Akiba can be a bit of challenge.  The Volks hobby shop was what it was but their doll showroom was a touch more interesting than their showroom in Sendai.

Given that I had no real plan of attack, I managed to get myself comfortably disorientated but not lost.  I passed through the areas with plenty of little electronics shops, the obligatory pachinko and slot shops; the maid cafes, the Gundam Cafe which is next to the AKB48 Cafe, and the big name chain stores.

My haul...hardly anything.  Figures...zero.  Goods...three folders.  Memories...well, at least I now know which part of Akihabara is a bit of a menagerie.  It's the block where one will find the hedgehog, cat, and owl cafes!  (^o^)

Fun in auction land

A short while ago I mentioned my initial reactions to the online auction site I've been spending a fair bit of time on.  Recently I came across this gem:

Yes, you're looking at a blurry picutre of a clothing item.  If I recall correctly, the auction title was 服 (fuku), "clothing" in English.  Yes, the auction's starting bid amount was ¥99,999,999.  I'm not quite sure what the purpose of this auction was.  Perhaps the seller was trying to see if they could break the site.  Or perhaps they were waiting to see if the apparent lack of common sense would earn them a sharp reprimand from the powers that be.  Either that or it was some weird money laundering scheme....

This year can't end soon enough...

I was planning to wake up on Tuesday and phone home to wish my mother a happy birthday.  Around midnight I was alerted to an e-mail.  I checked it and read it to find out that a relative had passed away earlier in the day.  Aye...I most definitely won't be sending out "nengajo" (New Year's greeting cards) this year....

Nonetheless, I did make the phone call...after sussing out that I hadn't really reactivated my Skype credit when I had called a North American toll-free number back in September!  😆 

Oh...so where did November go?

It seems to have gone past rather quickly.   I intended to put up a post per month but it appears that November got away before I could peg anything on it....

Anyways, here I am at the start of December.  In a short while we'll be heading into the year-end party season, followed by New Years, and then the New Years party season.  Oh yeah, there's a friend's birthday in there somewhere too.

Last weekend was proceeded by a holiday on Thursday.  So I booked Friday and Saturday off and headed down to Tokyo.  The original goal was to take in a concert on Thursday night and then hook up with friends.  Things changed when I was asked if I'd like to attend a concert on Friday night.  So I ended up spending a bit more than I had expected to.  I'll go into details in a later post...if I get around to writing one up.

Upon my return home on Sunday evening, I dropped my stuff off at home,  took a nap, and then went out for dinner.  The next night I headed down to the local AEON Cinema to take in a movie.  The movie in question being "Chef".  It's a few years old and it was being screened as part of the company's "Past Works" program.

When I arrived at the ticket counter of the theatre I was greeted by a radically different sight.  The ticket counter is no more.  It has been replaced by several machines.  So the movie going experience in Japan is finally catching up to that in North America.  Or perhaps I should rephrase that as "the movie going experience in rural Japan".  I found it a touch ironic that the machine required a bit of coaxing to make it through a ticket purchase process.  It probably took as long as it took when one was dealing with a person.

Anyways, the movie was a good one.  I enjoyed the music and the story.  I didn't spend a lot of time worrying about trying to remember who the actors were.  Which is a bit of a contrast to one of the movies whose trailer was screened, the latest version of "Murder on the Orient Express"..... 

A Short Post

I was awoken this morning about 2 am by my iPhone going off with a klaxon sound.  Another J-Alert message.  As I turned to check my phone I groggily thought to myself, "What have the North Koreans done this time?".  As it turned out, the alert was a mudslide warning.  Our region was experiencing heavy rains thanks to Typhoon No. 21 which was skirting the eastern coast of Honshu in the vicinity of Fukushima and southern Miyagi prefectures.  These heavy rains had in turned increased the odds of mudslides taking place in the mountainous areas on the outskirts of town.

I checked the news at lunchtime and read an article about yesterday's general election.  Prime Minister Abe's side had won a "super majority" of two thirds of the seats in the lower house of Japan's Diet.  Ah...landslide...mudslide...interesting coincidence....

One more thing....Happy Halloween.  A bit early but heck, Halloween decorations have been up in stores since mid-September over here.  The stickers featured in the photo below are imports from Canada, courtesy of my mother and sister. (^_^)

Psst! Wanna buy some rice paddy fish?

Last month I unfortunately (from the perspective of my attempt to cut back spending) registered an account on the Yahoo! Japan auction website.  After a month I've built up the will power not to hit the button on everything that tickles my fancy.  I've resorted to using the button instead.  After all, I just want to see what prices people are willing to pay for some of the stuff that gets flogged on the site.

One auction I didn't bid on was one for a pair of fish.  Live fish.  Specifically, rice paddy fish, which are known as "medaka".  Okay.  That took me a few seconds to get over my initial disbelief.  I checked the description of the "product" and it stated that the fish were six months-old.  I see.  So someone really was selling live fish on an auction site.

A bit more checking revealed that there is a fair amount of interest in breeding these fish.  The goal is to breed more colourful varieties.  Some breeds are in the "glowfish" branch of fish keeping.  Myself, I haven't kept fish in a home aquarium since my early university days.  So the idea of "glowfish" was a bit too newfangled for me to wrap my mind around.  I don't believe the fish actually glow in dark.  Instead, they're one of several bright neon-like colours which do not occur naturally on fish.  As a fish, it may be okay to bright coloured if you're swimming around a coral reef but probably not very advantageous in a rice paddy.

-*-

...Yes.  For ¥2000, plus delivery charges, you too could take a chance on getting a pair of live fish delivered to your home.  I don't think you'd get any compensation if one or both were to die in transit.

Makes Me Feel Old....

I took my car in for its biannual car inspection.  It's a government requirement and most people view it as a means to try and get older cars off the road (the inspection costs increase as ones car ages).  Anyways, I opted to get a courtesy car this time and has handed the keys to a Daihatsu Move Canbus...well, actually I was handed the remote key that unlocks the door.  There's no physical metal key attached to the unit.

When the fellow from the dealership walked me through how to start up the car and use the remote control I felt a bit out of place.  The car's engine is started with the press of a button: put pressure on the brake pedal and push the "Start" button (gosh...writing that makes this sound like a review of the latest version of Microsoft Windows).  I commented to the fellow "Sorry if I sound like some old man trying to get my head around the car...".

I sussed out on the weekend when I got a ride up to Yamagata why I've recently heard so many car engines being started up when the light goes green at intersections.  Most new cars have an auto-idling feature.  Once the on-board computer senses the car is stopped and the brakes are engaged, it shuts the engine off.  The courtesy car I got has the same feature.  I've noticed it's quite sensitive.  The computer won't shut the engine off until one has come to a complete stop and stepped on the brake pedal firmly.  Interesting....

Postscript:  A photo of the above mentioned Daihatsu Move Canbus.

Son of the "Carpet Monster"....

The "carpet monster" is a term which pops up every now and then in online forums frequented by model kit makers, especially those who make things in small scales.  It is a reference to that floor covering which consumes and refuses to regurgitate small pieces of model kits which drop, fly off, or disappear through some combination of physics, poor motor control of ones digits, and shear dumb luck.

In my case I no longer have a carpet to deal with.  I deal with a linoleum floor covering.  One would think that the odds of recovering small model kit pieces are considerably higher when dealing with such a flooring.  Alas, such is not the case.  After recently losing two small, but critical, pieces to the model ship pictured above, I broke down and decided to order a replacement sprue of parts.

When I was living in Canada I never got to take advantage of the damaged/missing parts service offered by Japanese model companies.  Their instruction sheets make it clear that it's not available to overseas customers with a "Japan only" warning on the parts order from.  Less generous than the English companies.  I once had a problem when I was around 10 years of age with a model of a Fairy Swordfish torpedo bomber kit whereupon the wing struts had broken off of their sprues and I couldn't tell which part was which.  I filled out the form listing the considerable number of mixed up parts and sent it to the manufacturer in England (I suspect it was the Matchbox Company but it could've been Airfix).  They sent me a whole new model kit as a source of replacement parts at no charge.  Solved the problem quite effectively.

This time around I wasn't so lucky.  I filled out on an online parts order request and got a reply outlining the costs of it to me.  The parts sprue itself is ¥700.  They added in a ¥300 handling fee.  Then they tacked on a ¥500 shipping fee.  The grand total of ¥1,500 is 8% less than what I paid for the whole kit...that 8% being the rate of Japan's "consumption tax" - a sales tax.  I suppose I ought to stick to losing parts from more expensive kits....

Not Again....

My iPhone went off with a klaxon sound this morning.  I snapped awake and glanced at the screen.  It was an alert informing everyone that North Korea had launched a missile.  "Go indoors or underground" was the instruction given in the message.  If only there was such a thing as underground in this city.  So I crawled out of my futon and headed into the dining room.  At least it has a corner which isn't in the direct line of an outside facing window or sliding door.  Then I measured my blood pressure and heart rate.  Blood pressure was not too bad but my heart rate was notably high...then it dropped on the second measurement I took.  I don't know...this isn't my idea of excitement on a Friday morning....

So Much For Summer....

Well.... Summer has come and gone.  This year's summer was a bit of cool and soggy affair.  So I didn't do a heck of a lot.  I did attend a local Obon-odori (Obon is that time in Japanese tradition where it is believed that the souls of the deceased pay a visit to our mortal realm.  The "odori" portion is from a Buddhist tradition.) and for the first time in decades, actually participated in a dance.  I also made a couple of quick trips to Sendai to renew my visa.  Aside from that, I spent the summer slowly cleaning up my apartment, getting a bit of exercise on my bicycle, and taking in a handful of movies at the local cinema.  And of course there was my friend's yukata party which accounted for the one time I wore my yukata this past summer.

The defining moment of my summer was the night I received an e-mail from Canada advising me that my father had passed away.  I didn't get any sleep after that and it goes to say that the next few days were a bit of a train wreck.  It's strange but right now I just don't have anything I want to say other than "It happened".

The Dragon Next Door

Well, actually it's a crane.  But when I woke up and looked out my window one morning, the top of it definitely looked like a dragon's head.  This photo doesn't quite capture the image but it'll have to do for now....

Anyways, construction has started on the new ten story apartment building which will be built next door.  It's going to take 18 months for it to be completed.  I guess I can look forward to lot more shade in the future.

Since the property was denuded of trees last fall, there are no cicadas this year to serenade us.  For a short while there was a small colony of Japanese tree frogs in some puddles next door.  Or perhaps they were toads.  Either way, the creatures let their mating calls loose in the wee hours of the morning.  They were quite loud...to the point where they could just barely keep a person awake.  But they're gone this week.  More equipment and material has been moved onto the property and some bulldozer work was done also.  So I guess all the amphibians have made good their escape.

I've seen the architect's drawings of the new building and it doesn't look like there will be any green space on the property once construction is completed.  It'll just be a concrete tower with everything else around it paved to serve as parking spaces.  So the chances of hearing any animal or insect sounds from next door in the future seem quite minimal....

Where was I?

This year has been an odd one; two trips back to Vancouver under less than happy circumstances (one for a funeral for a close relative and another to pay a possibly last visit to another ailing relative) and each visit I stayed the roughly same amount of time, five days.  I arrived on a Thursday each time and flew back to Japan on the following Monday.  When I booked time off for the second trip no one checked if I actually had days off to use.  Turns out I didn't have any paid days off left so they put down as unpaid days off which I'll make up with workdays during the Obon break.

Not having any vacation days off could've been extremely embarrassing if I had requested July 18th off.  I had agreed to purchase a spare ticket a friend had to an X Japan concert on the 17th.  There was no chance the concert would finish prior to 8:38 PM, the departure time of the last Yamagata Shinkansen train from Tokyo station.  So I was going to stay overnight any ways.  As it turns out, I managed to return to town with time to spare prior to my first class.  Though my original work schedule would've seen me trying to catch the very first Yamagata Shinkansen train...something which would've been extremely difficult if I had booked a hotel room in the Shin Yokohama area.  Nonetheless, fate turned in my favour and I was able to get back home in a relaxed manner.

Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

In this case the answer is "They've faded or wilted away".....

Last Tuesday I was working at a company up north of Yamagata city.  I returned in the early evening on a Tsubasa, Yamagata Shinkansen, express train.  Somewhere south of Kaminoyama, the train passed a rather striking scene: a considerable stretch of trees choked by bright violet coloured wisteria bloom.  I was a bit surprised to see that sight as it was the first time I had ever noticed it during my almost six years of residence in Yamagata prefecture.  Unfortunately my reflexes weren't quick enough, and the train was travelling a bit faster than a local train, so I wasn't able to get a photograph of the scene.

The following week I returned to Yamagata city.  On the way I thought I'd be able to see the flowers again, possibly on my return trip.  Then I realized that I'd be heading back to Yonezawa later in the evening and it would be dark.  So I shifted from my seat on the left side of the Shinkansen cabin and across to the right side.

Alas, the wisteria bloom had faded and wilted away.  I spotted a few dull grey coloured remnants of the previous week's bright display.  I snapped a photo of the wisteria plants I could make out against the green facade of the woods.  It'll be up to the imagination of those who view that sad, dull photo to recreate the previous week's scene....

A Short Post

Last night a friend and I went to see "La La Land".  It's only playing for a brief run here where I live...about 10 days.  I suppose anyone who really wanted to see it has already done so.  Two of my students saw it a month and half ago.  One went to Sendai ("That's the only place where it's playing", she said).  Another saw it it Yamagata.  Interestingly enough, she saw it only a few days after the first student.  Not sure what was going on there.

After the movie was over, I asked my friend if she had enjoyed it.  She said she liked it...but mentioned that musicals are probably a hard sell in Japan.  "A lot of people just don't understand why characters in musicals have to sing about what's happening in the story", she said.  I don't know if that was the first time I had heard that comment but I could see where it was coming from.

Today when I mentioned I had seen "La La Land" to an acquaintance at lunchtime, she went spouted off exactly, almost verbatim, the observation my friend had made last night.  The coincidence certainly caught me off guard.  Then she mentioned how she was a bit put off when she saw "Frozen", which was titled "Anna and the Snow Queen" in Japanese, and found out that it had singing in it too.  I casually offered the observation "When's the last time you saw a Disney cartoon without singing in it?".  She stopped for a moment and said "Hmm, good point".....

-*-

Life has been up and down and up recently.  Things were fine during Golden Week but I caught a cold at the tail end of that.  It took about two weeks to shake it off...just in time to take my mom and sister around while they were in town for a weekend.  The weather was hot then...both a blessing and a curse.  Vancouverites are not prepared to 30 degree weather in late May.  But the sights are much nicer in sunny weather.....

Someone I Know Had a Dream...

I dropped in at a bar I sometimes visit a couple of nights ago.  The purpose of the visit was to unwind a bit but also to apologize for the behaviour of one member of our party when we last visited the bar on Sunday night.  "Not to worry" was more or less the response I got from the bar's owner.

At some point or another the bar's owner, Yasu-chan is what I usually call him, asked me about something.  I didn't quite catch what he said and when he repeated it, I didn't quite comprehend.  He did a quick search on his smartphone and pulled up a Youtube recording of something.  He played it for me.  I couldn't quite decipher the kanji but the sound was rather distressing.  Then he explained what it was; it's the alarm sound to alert the population of a missile attack.  I've attached a link to what was probably the Youtube recording my aquaintance pulled up and played for me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wkc9iQdbbwk.

The gist of him bringing up the topic was the dream he had had that morning.  He was out with his girlfriend for a walk in a park when his smartphone went off with that alarm.  As it finished playing he looked up to the sky and said, "Oh look!  There's a missile".  That was when he awoke.

The rest of the conversation went on to topics such as whether or not Japan had an active defense against incoming missiles, whether combat aircraft from a US carrier stationed in the Sea of Japan would be able to counter a missile attack, and conjecture on how to intercept and shoot down a missile.  There really wasn't any real conclusion to those discussions other than all we can do was hope for the best if we ever hear that dreadful sound....

Gambling Drivers and Drivers Who Gamble

Last night as I was barrelling down the road a car pulled onto the road ahead of me.  There might of been 15m of open space between my car and the vehicle in front of me.  Given that I was travelling in a 50kmh zone, that open space vanished quickly.  I blew my horn to alert the other driver but they were oblivious to the incoming danger.  By the time they started to accelerate, I was about a metre off their back bumper.

The place of business they had pulled out of was a pachinko and slot machine parlour.  As things would have it, the place where they turned off the road was at a slot machine parlour.  Yes, I was on the tail of a gambler drifting from one gambling establishment to another...which was in line with how they gambled on pulling into a small gap between vehicles travelling at full speed.

The above isn't my first incident of annoyance with people driving to pachinko or slot machine establishments.  It may be just me but they seemed extremely focused on where their going and pay a little less attention to the traffic around them than they ought to.  Another classic example, they'll be driving along the road 10kmh below the speed limit until they read their destination...start their turn into the parking lot and then turn on their turn signal.  Actually, that is quite a common occurrence regardless of the drivers' destinations....

Not Quite "Omiyage".....

The Monday before I left on my short trip back to Canada, I mentioned to Minako, the manager of the cafe where I was having lunch that day, my intentions.  She quickly asked me if I could bring back some maple syrup...and then back-tracked a bit by musing that it might be expensive.  I mentioned I had purchased a couple of 500ml bottles of the maple syrup for about ¥1000 each on my previous trip.  "Oh!  Then can you get some for me?", she asked.  "I'll pay you back", she added as some kind of assurance.  A week after my return, she had in her hands a bottle of President's Choice brand maple syrup which ended up display on the cafe's counter.

On my previous trip I had brought back similar bottles of maple syrup.  When my mother and I went shopping for it this time, I didn't have any luck finding it.  As it turned out, the bottles were on the bottom shelf of that particular section at the Shopper's Drug Mart store I was shopping in.  My mother asked a store clerk about the product and he pointed out its location to us.

Later on we were at Walmart.  The prices were lower but the packaging wasn't as attractive.  Sure, it was a couple of dollars cheaper but the aesthetics of a bottle with a stopper are a lot better than that of a tin can of maple syrup.  In my books, the humble can wasn't going to cut it for an item I was going to haul back to Japan from Canada.

"Omiyage", as mentioned in the title of this post, is the term for the gifts one buys for the folks back home when one goes on a trip.  (I pointed out in a class this week that the word "souvenir", unlike "omiyage", can refer to things one buys for oneself...though souvenirs can also be gifts for others.  Yes, my students thought that was a bit puzzling because no one had pointed out that distinction to them previously.)  Anyways, in this particular case, since I was reimbursed for the cost of the item then it ceased to be "omiyage".  It's now just maple syrup in a particular cafe's stockpile of ingredients...which I've been told tastes very good according to Setsuko, an acquaintance who also is a regular customer at the cafe, who was the first person to taste it.  (^.-)

A Short Visit....

Late last month my great auntie suffered a stroke.  She lasted for about a week after that.  She had stopped eating after the stroke so essentially I was on a death watch from a great distance afar.  When I received word of her passing away, I advised my office manager that I would be returning to Canada to attend the funeral.  She jumped to the conclusion that the funeral would be right away.  She called the regional manager and advised me I could have the rest of the week off.  She was a tad perplexed when I explained to her that funerals are not held that soon in Canada.  It takes time to make arrangements for funerals.  So she would have to wait until I got word.  When I told her it would take a few days she wasn't exactly happy but she grudgingly accepted the situation.

I was waiting on word of when the funeral was going to be held whilst keeping an eye on air fares.  Seeing fares jump from the $1800-1900 range to $3400 range made me push the button and book flights.  I picked a time period which I thought would be a good gamble.  As it turned out, the funeral was held the morning of the day after my arrival.

My great auntie had had a son with her first husband.  As her first husband was Chinese, my mom's cousin followed the Chinese custom of handing out small white envelopes after the funeral was over.  In each of the envelopes there was a candy and a coin, a $1 coin.  Recipients are expected to spend the coin that day.  I used the money towards a purchase of a cup of Tim Hortons coffee.  The "Roll Up the Rim to Win" contest is on and my great auntie's luck rubbed off on the purchase...I won a cup of coffee.  My family members got a chuckle out of that.  We had often purchased scratch and win lottery tickets to put in my great auntie's birthday cards when she was alive.  She had always been one to play the odds for a bit of fun.

It goes without saying that my visit was a bit of a sombre one.  I didn't touch an alcoholic beverage during the time I was in Canada.  I had breakfast with one friend and lunch with another friend with his family.  I dropped in on a friend's coffee shop and he was a touch surprised to see me.  I hadn't contacted him to tell him I'd be back and he doesn't subscribe to any of the social networking apps/sites I use.  That was all the socializing I did.

I'm typing this up as I wait to board my flight back to Japan.  Once I arrive, I'll hit an ATM, forward my suitcase by Yamato Transport, head to Tokyo station by limousine bus, catch the train back home, and then, after a night's sleep, trudge off to work the next day....  Yeah, I'll be in fine shape then.

Trying to Keep Warm

It may be the first of March but the nights are still a bit cold.  I overheard someone say that temperatures might dip below zero at night this week. 

Last week wasn't much warmer.  At one point I was sitting in our "satellite" office with the heater/air-con unit going at 28C.  It didn't feel particularly warm in the room but I did notice that the pieces of white chocolate I was munching on were just a touch "sweaty". 

About an hour later I collected my lesson materials for the last class I was going to teach that day.  As I stood up I remembered I had one piece of white chocolate left.  So I grabbed the box and gave it a shake...nothing came out.  I thought to myself, "Hmm...I'm sure there was one more piece left".  So I took the inner tray out of the box.  This particular brand's packaging has the inner tray tucked inside a plastic envelope/wrapper.  I pulled the tray out and saw what had become of my last piece of white chocolate...it had melted.  So perhaps the heater was indeed on high enough....

-*-

This year's snow lantern festival was the 40th edition of the annual event.  The older brother of one of my students was a member of the organizing committee.  He was on a sub-committee responsible for coming up with some type of amusement for kids.  In the past the festival has had things like miniature train rides.  My student had mentioned that they were looking into more ambitious projects this year.  The organizers had floated the idea of a maze built out of snow.  But the lack of snow over Christmas and New Years made them decide to aim for a more modest goal.  I think their next idea was a petting zoo or polar animal exhibit.  They had lined up a deal to rent some penguins from a zoo in Niigata but that fell through.  So in the end they decided to set up a skating rink.

Yonezawa is very much in the "snow country", Yuki-guni, of Japan.   So one would assume that there are plenty of winter sports activities.  In fact, there aren't.  People are just too busy digging themselves out of the snow to bother to go out and play in the stuff.  I suppose they get sick of the sight of the stuff.  The city lacks a large enough body of water which could freeze over well enough to serve as a natural ice skating surface.  And the local ice rink was torn down a number of years ago.  Which to me seems peculiarly odd.  After all, it's not often one hears of a Canadian community without an ice rink or somewhere to skate.

Anyways...when my student told me they were going to set up an skating rink I immediately assumed it would have an ice surface.  So I was a bit bemused when I checked out the festival and found the skating rink...and its plastic board skating surface.  That really just wasn't what I had had in mind....

What the Heck?....

Recently I looked at my iTunes account balance.  It's been untouched for some time.  So I said to myself "What the heck with it" and decided to spend a bit of it on games for my iPhone (one can play a free version of Minesweeper for only so long).  One of my purchases was a game called "Transistor".  Initially I was rather cautious and only played my way through a few initial battles.  Then something clicked and I couldn't stop playing.  It took me a couple of sessions playing until the wee hours of the morning on Monday and Tuesday this week to finish the game.  Unfortunately, the long hours spent awake caught up to me.  The sore throat I got on Sunday, which was the result of belting out Zaz's "Champs-Élysées" a bit too exuberantly at karaoke, turned into an all out cold on Wednesday morning (today).  Symptoms are a sore throat, cough, and runny nose.

Ah...runny nose.  I've had some fun explaining that one to students.  Many of them encounter that in an elementary level text.  Up to that time they've only been introduced to using the verb "to run" for the physical activity of moving rapidly on foot.  It often takes me a few minutes to explain how the verb can be applied to the flow of moving liquid.

Anyways, I found myself in a situation where I need to blow my nose and there wasn't a box of tissues close by.  So I tore off a few sheets of toilet paper.  Whereupon I found myself whiffing a faint strawberry scent.  Yes, our office uses strawberry scented toilet paper with images of the Sanrio character Miffy printed on it.  Yet another "What the heck?" moment.  Who ever would of thought of making strawberry scented toilet paper.  The minor wonders of the world never cease to amaze me.

PS: "Transistor" is a darn good game.  One not only has to employ quick movements to control your character in battle, but you also have a mode of combat called "turn()" where you can lay out a series of attacks and movements to damage and destroy ones opponents.  That aspect of the game caught my fancy.  Some of the opponents are quite challenging and it took a bit of thought to figure out a "method", in an object oriented programming sense of things, to defeat them.  The programming metaphor is appropriate to this game.  The weapons your character has on hand are called "functions" and their names echo a syntax which is similar to that found in computer programming languages.

A Belated Happy New Year

...As in, it's January 23rd already?  Where did the time go?  Nonetheless....

We haven't had much snow this winter.  Like last year, we didn't have a white Xmas.  There was less snow on the ground this year on New Year's eve in comparison to the previous one.  By the next week it had all melted off.  Then we got hit by a big on one January 13th....

We've had a few snow flurries since then but not enough to compensate for the melt which has been gradually going on.  Last night I noticed the snow banks of snow cleared off the streets was less than knee high.  Significantly less than what was there on the 16th....

Last night I was out with a friend and we were talking about the upcoming annual Snow Lantern Festival.   I wondered out loud if there was going to be any snow left by the time of the festival which is usually the first weekend in February.  She said that there were some concerns since this year's festival is the 40th edition.  Not only does the city need a good amount of snow to impress visitors but they have some unique projects in store.  One of them is a snow maze.  I'm guessing it'll be on the scale of the corn field mazes which can be found in North America.  Perhaps it'll match those ones in the height of the walls of the maze but probably not in the area it will cover...if there's enough snow to go around.

This morning I looked outside to discover a pleasant surprise.  We had had a decent amount of snow fall last night.  Almost a case of "Ask and ye shall receive".  Hopefully this will keep up until February....

Post script:  When I logged onto Blogger today I was required to go through an ID verification process.  It involved receiving a text message.  A cute way for Google to collect ones phone number by forcing you to hand it over.