31 December 2004 Well, it's early morning on the last day of the year. Very early (1:54am), so it really feels like the 30th still. On the 30th, Kumiko and I had the day off together, and we went into Umeda where we first had lunch together at Kotan ramen, and then went our separate ways. I did a lot of camera shop browsing, and Kumiko got a foot massage. We met up again after her massage, and I bought some supplies (film and display albums and stuff). On the way home we talked about the highpoints of our first full-calendar married year together. Our trip to New York City in May easily made both of our number one spots. We made a verbal catalog of the year's other highlights which I will embellish upon here: a fun, family New Year's celebration in January, a wonderful, snowy trip to Nagano and Nagoya in February, a trip to my father-in-law's hometown in Gunma prefecture in March, the exciting beginnings of the garden in April, New York City and Barry and Marga's fantastic wedding in May, big fun and extremely early mornings watching (and betting on) the Euro 2004 games in June, lots of cooking fresh garden vegetables, and some early summer festivals in July, as well as our technical marriage anniversary, a visit from our good friends Glenn and Chiemi, and more fireworks in August, our first official Hawaiian wedding anniversary, and a new camera for Matty, and a good photography month and some scary earthquakes in September, a fabulous visit to Nagasaki and Huis Ten Bosch in October, Geisha dancing in November, and a December you can read about below, highlighted by our first big party at our apartment, which was a smashing success. A highly satisfactory year. Last night (the 29th), we enjoyed a highly satisfactory day in Kyoto with Kumiko's brother's wife's family. We first visited wth Kazuomi and Chiaki and cute little Daichi at their house, then we walked over to a fugu (puffer fish) restaurant and met Chiaki's parents. We had a really delicious full-course fugu meal (no paralysis or anything), which included these weird things, plus undoubtedly some stuff I'm forgetting: cold gelatin cubes with pieces of fugu skin suspended inside, some fugu organ with a texture like chicken served with pickled plum sauce, excellent paper-thin, transparent fugu sashimi, fugu shirako, which is basically, deliciously, and embarassingly an organ containing the fish's sperm, fugu nabe (stew), and finally battered and fried chunks of fugu meat (also excellent). This, plus lots of beer and sake, which goes without saying in this family. We completed the evening with a trip to a karaoke room, where I must confess with all modesty, I wowed them all. Oh yes, I did. Some other people sang too, I think. Hard to remember what happened between my own numbers. Who cares, really? Kumiko's brother's wife's father talked to me in extremely fast, undecipherable Japanese on the way back to the station. I had no idea what he was saying, but he's a really likeable, interesting personality. One reason for the get-together was in celebration of him passing a difficult, work-related examination. So congratulations to my father-in-law-in-law. We were pretty late by then, and Kumiko and her folks and I had to take a local train back to Osaka (21 stations!). That's okay. We just managed to get the last train to Sone. It was a good night.
26 December 2004 Anyone remember my same scene every day photo project? I've been going at it pretty solid. As it happens, I can't actually get to that spot every day, but it's just outside my usual office, so there's a really good chance of being there most days. I remember the photo almost every time. If I forget to take it as I'm going in to work, I occassionally remember later and take it during my break in the evening. Some days, however, I do forget, or I work at a different office, so I don't get a shot, and of course I'd never go on my day off just for that photo. I've decided to call this projest complete after I have 100 photos. I just put the first third of them together in an album. It's pretty fun to cycle through and see what changes and what remains the same.
Merry Christmas! Kumiko and I had a wonderful Christmas dinner and gift exchange with our Japan family and Mrs. Hashimoto from downstairs. I've been home all day today, just goofing off and watching one of my Christmas presents, The Simpsons Christmas DVD. I'm getting the bug to get out of the house now. It's almost 4pm. Think I'll go down to the photo shop to order reprints and drop off some film from last night. Here are some pictures from Kumiko's Fujifilm "Cheki" instant camera.
23 December 2004 Today is the Emperor's birthday. Millions of people have the day off today, and many of them will come to my office to make me work harder. Ahh, the holidays. Christmas is coming up fast. Kumiko and I will both work on Christmas day, but we'll be home in time for dinner with the family. We've done Christmas dinner and gift exchange with my in-laws for the past two years and it's always a good time.
20 December 2004 For all who came to our Christmas party last night: thank you! We had a wonderful time, and loved every minute. My father-in-law gave a fine performance. He was in rare form. We've already cleaned up the mess, and we'll have some great leftovers for a couple of days. This really made Christmas Time feel Christmassy. I think today we'll do some Christmas shopping together. We're running out of time. Thanks also to the people who have responded to my ranking request. I've learned that there are few universal favorites, and that people can have entirely different reactions to the same photo. It was enlightening, but I could still use more input if anyone else wants to comment. My first 5 respondents were Shelly, Mike, Brian, Barry and Mom. Ernesto was 6th, but gave an excellent analysis, so he's made the cut too. Congratulations! You've each won a fabulous Moon Station Echo gift. Shelly and Brian, please email your shipping address if you want your free surprise gift. Here's a preview of the party pictures:
17 December 2004 Yesterday I worked at a new branch, and discovered a train line with endless photographic possibilities. There's so much cool stuff going from Nishinomiya to Takarazuka. I never use that line, but I think that next time I have some time off I'm going to take my camera and walk the distance. I have a request for Moon Station Foxtrot readers worldwide (all 7 of you): I'd like some feedback on my Moon Station Echo pictures. Would you please look at the 21 pictures there and then tell me your top 3 and your worst one as well? My first 5 responses will receive a free Moon Station Echo gift!
15 December 2004 Today is payday! It's also a good time to buy US dollars to save, but I never manage to save anything in December. I have Christmas to spend for, and then an 8-day holiday at the end of the month. It's hard to resist spending on a day off. Tomorrow morning is the much anticipated close to my Ebay film auction. So far, no bids have been placed, but that's standard practice. Everyone waits until the last minute to try and get a better price. I can see that there are 14 people tracking the auction, so I'm confident I won't lose my shirt. I put up a new photo album -- autumn 2004 -- on my photos page. This one is similar to the fall photo album I put up last month, in that there are lots of shots of Arashiyama in Kyoto, but I like these new shots better. I may put a couple on Moon Station Echo. It also includes a lot of pics from my favorite photo spot: Satsukiyama in Ikeda City. I keep going back for sunsets.
13 December 2004 I felt productive today. I got a package (film) mailed, applied for a new foreign resident card at the city office, picked a bunch of turnips at the garden, made a lot of film scans, organized my negatives, took a slew of them to the photo shop for enlargements, cooked dinner (turnips), and that's it. Last night we went to a Christmas party in Nishinomiya which was nice, but I didn't feel well. Today I'm feeling good. We're getting ready to watch some Avengers. It's time to order some more episodes.
11 December 2004 Okay, no more worries about selling the film. I have people emailing me after seeing it on Ebay, with offers to buy "as much as I can get" beyond what's for auction now. Looks like this will pay off for sure. Kumiko and I watched "A Charlie Brown Christmas" last night for the first time this season. I bought the video tape my first Christmas in Japan, since I'd watched this show on tv every Christmas for as long as I can remember. I'll never get tired of it. I wish we could enjoy all of the other specials this year as well, but hopefully next year we can spend Christmas in America.
7 December 2004 I really wish I hadn't bought all that film now. I didn't need to spend that money, and two days later, selling it on Ebay seemed like more trouble than it's worth. Stupid Donald Trump. We sent lots of Christmas cards yesterday, and I boxed up our Christmas gifts to my family. I love getting a package ready to mail. I always put it off, but it's a nice feeling to chuck a big box in the mail. We also saw the new Pixar movie, The Incredibles, yesterday. To be honest, we were both disappointed. From the reviews I've heard, I thought it would be great, but I didn't find myself very interested in any of the characters. Samuel Jackson's character was probably the most likeable, but it wasn't enough. I loved the style of animation too, but I really thought the first hour or so was pretty boring. There was also a Pixar featurette before the movie, called "Boundin'", which was massively boring. Kumiko summed it up well after the movie, "Thunderbirds did this story better." I need a Christmas movie. Is "Elf" out on DVD yet?
5 December 2004 Today I bought some film called Fujichrome Fortia. I'd been seeing it for sale, and hadn't really cared about it, but yesterday I noticed that someone in Tokyo was selling it at inflated prices on Ebay. I didn't realize that this was a Japan-only, limited release. According to the guy selling it, there's not much left in Tokyo. That made me want to try it, and also try selling it. It's really expensive, actually, but I bought two packs (10 rolls), with the quote "think like you're a billionaire" fresh in my mind from a Larry King interview with Donald Trump. Trump actually motivated me to buy that second pack. This film is special because it has ultra-saturated colors, which means the colors are much more vivid than in real life. Fujichrome Velvia was already famous for that trait, but this one goes even further. That hasn't appealed to me before, but I recently experimented with Velvia, and I really liked the results. So I'll give this a try. Kumiko asked me to make some vegetables for dinner, so I'm cooking some Indian-style eggplant/tomato stuff. Looking forward to an evening of Nikka whiskey and 2 episodes of "24" season II.
2 December 2004 Whoa. Moon Station Echo has some weird frame problems. Don't look. I have to fix that. A few days ago I received a package from LL Bean. Kumiko bought be some stuff for my birthday: clothes and a short wave radio. I love short wave. So far, I've listened to lots of Chinese, lots of Spanish, some German, Russian, English, and what I think was Polish. It's fascinating, even though I don't understand what's being said. I worked in Umeda today, and after work I walked by the Hilton Hotel and a beautiful new shopping building, which was only completed last month, and now has been decorated with fantastic Christmas lights. The trees around it have these new super-bright white and blue lights, which I think must be some kind of new technology, because I've never seen tiny tree lights so bright. I love Christmas time, Christmas music, and decorations. I'm going to go listen to short wave now. I have to go out on the balcony for reception. Remember not to look at Moon Station Echo now. Look at WEBMikey instead.
