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^The interior of a Japanese Shinkansen (or bullet-train) car^

I'm expecting there to be two of these post-japanlogs, only because I'm now and work and can't dedicate much time to this, for hopefully obvious reasons. I just wanted to let all my loyal readers know that I have returned from the land of the rising sun, and am now back in Chicago, at work, and trying my utmost to recover from a particularly cruel bout with jetlag. I have recently discovered that nighttime cold medicine will do wonders, and I hope that one crucial dose that I took at an awful hour of the night last night will have put me over the edge to normality in my sleeping habits.

Japan was, of course, wonderful and enlightening and relaxing and incredibly busy, as it always is. Having since moved to Chicago, I've gained a lot of responsibility and pressure at my job, so I'm now starting to realize just why people need to wind down every now and then. I understand country houses and golf habits. If you have been reading the blog recently, you will know how fond of ohn-sens I am, and so these two topics are about to dovetail into a head-first dive into finding out where some great spas are in this country. There HAS to be someplace in this country as relaxing as any of the Japanese ohn-sens and I'm dedicating myself to finding it. For some reason, I have a feeling its not going to be in the Chicagoland Metropolitan area, but that is no deterrent. I'll travel.

The trip had many highlights: The Japanese modern houses I saw, the trip to the South with Mrs. Architecturefootballandfood's brother, the great dinner with her cousin and her cousin's fiance and drinking way too much of way too many new alcohols, the realization by my niece and nephew that I, truly am, the coolest white dude to ever set foot on Japan, of course the ohn-sens, heading out on my own in the Tokyo metro subway system, and the food, food, food.

I'll add many more photographs later - hopefully tonight or tomorrow night. But for now, I guess I have to try and get some work done.

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some more photos from our trip south.

man for as long as this trip is, its harder than i thought to find enough time to piece together a blog entry.

i will do a short one again for now.

our trip to the south island and region was fantastic - we saw nagasaki, hakata, kurume, shinoseki, hirojima and a few other small towns and villages which names escape me. great photos to be uploaded at a later date.

got back yesterday and saw some more family just south of tokyo in Zushi, and today we are off to mt. fuji for a day/night/day of nature and hopefully an ohn-sen. sorry to be so short!

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Yesterday was a rainy day here in Tokyo. Which actually kind of heightened the senses a bit. We went to a couple of our usual Aoyama spots, such as Jangara Ramen and Anniversaire Cafe, where we saw they ubiquitous young television star with well to do suit-friends of his.

But what was more interesting about yesterday's excursions were the two houses we got to see - the Moriyama House by Ryue Nishizawa and the Small House by Kazuyo Sejima.

Jangara Ramen

This place looks like any old hole in the wall, but its known for the best Hakata Ramen in Tokyo and I make a point to go here every time we are in town. Hakata Ramen is ramen with white broth and a lot of fatty pork. Its a fast, loud, and incredibly delicious place for lunch and if you are lucky you can get a seat by this window, looking out onto the busiest street in Aoyama, where all the hilarious Harajuku girls walk down the street strutting their stuff.

Moriyama House - Ryue Nishizawa

Tucked away in a very dense part of old-downtown Tokyo, very near to Mrs. Architecturefootballandfood's Uncle's saw mill factory, this house, or more accurately, collection of small houses, sits quietly. This is every architect's dream, to design a complex of tiny, single-room structures like this. Actually we have very similar plans for a country house, if we ever get the opportunity. But the urbanity of this project is what makes it fantastic. Within this incredibly dense and urban city fabric, Nishizawa has created a hyper-dense and urban HOUSE, one which treats the lot like a small version of the city itself. Of course there are always questions like `well what if i have to go pee at 2am - you mean i have to go outside?` YES. You do. That is part of the experiment and the downfalls of living in a house like this in conjunction with the incredibly interesting relationships it creates with the users and the community are BOTH essential to its beauty.

Small House - Kazuo Sejima

This house has always been a favorite of mine, for its obvious simplicity and its attractive formal gestures.

It was quite tough to find - again tucked away in a different part of the city, but we finally did and it was worth the long, rainy walk. This was one of those times when it looked a lot different from the perfect, glossy photos they published just after it was built. The details of placement on site and building access became much more interesting and powerful than the actual form of the building.

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This will be short and sweet. We are into day 2 of the trip to Japan and its been an excercise in adjusting to time difference so far. Good times had, of course, but nothing huge to speak of besides three quick events.
1. The night we got there, (not being counted as a full day) we went to a restaurant called Popeye, because the owner, who used to be a professional baseball player in japan, looks exactly like popeye the sailor-man. He served us a traditional autumn soup which beats, hands down at that, any other food thats supposed to taste warm and atumn-y. This soup is basically stock, chicken, and a special mushroom (no, not that type of special) all put into a special clay pot (YES, that type of special!) which is heated directly over a flame. the pot has very little ventilation, but the aromas of the smoke and flame are directed into the pot, giving it its, well, smokey flavor. This was incredible. I cant think of the name at the moment, so that will follow in a later post.

2. We had lunch with two of Mrs. architecturefootballandfood's high school friends - one guy who i already knew, toru-san, and one girl who i only knew OF, the one and only, Ando Yuko. If you arent familiar with this girl, please get so because in my opinion she is putting out some of the best music from the island of japan. She is basically a pop-rock singer but incredibly creative and musical. the lunch started as this weird `you're ando yuko and i listen to your stuff more than i listen to oasis` vibe, mixed with a `you're white and bigger than i expected and married to my high school friend' vibe. i felt like i was sitting with this big star. but as usual, yuko-san eventually turned into just another nice, normal japanese friend of mrs. architecturefootballandfood's, and we had a great time over katsu, cabbage salad and beer. As usual, Toru-san was the life of the party, and it turns out he was recently in Aurora, on business. And he didn't even call.

3. Today we went to the local ohn-sen, or public bath. It was amazing and relaxing - just what i have needed for a while. This excursion is quickly becoming my favorite things about this culture, and I look forward to hitting the ohn-sen a few more times before we leave. Sitting there, naked, with about 40-50 other naked japanese men in 2-foot deep pools of red water (it has to do with minerals added so that your skin doesnt dry out after sitting in water for an hour straight), it struck me how different our two cultures were. I realized that, no matter how wonderful and logical and necessary a place like this was for humans, a place where you could go and relax and let the stress fall away, we as Americans could probably never appreciate or accept it. Certain people would think its somehow `too gay` or `evil` and ruin it for those of us who had graduated the fourth grade and could handle being in a natural state with other mature, civilized people who could appreciate the difference between nudity and pornography (John Ashcroft, anyone??)
I know it isn't everybody's cup of tea, and I'm fine with that. Anyway, see what a keyboard does to a guy with good intentions? Somebody take this soapbox away. I had a sweet time bathing with a bunch of other dudes today. End of story.

So hopefully I'll be able to write a bit more soon. Otsukaresamadeshita!!!

Off to Japan!!

This time for 17 days. Nice, long trip. We haven't taken any vacation from work since last November when we went to Japan, so I think it's about time.

I'll try to send links while we're over there. I'm sure I'll have time. Now it's time to go pack myself into a sardine box that is the 777. Siyonara!

The Cubs suck worse than Newcastle.

I don't know if that's true. But I support the two most pathetic teams in modern sports. THAT is true.

The Cubs, just moments ago, capped a 9-game post season losing streak, to increase their level of embarrasing ineptitude in the post season. This is not just another frustrating loss. This is monumental, I'm furious, and these players should feel incredibly ashamed of themselves.

Alfonso Soriano is the worst post season baseball hitter playing today. This is a fact. Of ALL active players who have at least 100 at bats, Soriano has THE VERY LOWEST batting average in the entire league. He's consistently showed it. People get on A-Rod for his post seasons. And they should, because he's terrible in the post season. Terrible. Guess who's worse? Our very own, Alfonso Soriano. Because, and I'll say this again - ALFONSO SORIANO IS THE WORST POST SEASON HITTER PLAYING THE GAME. And it was painfully obvious when he struck out for the last out of the series. He was nothing more than a child up there, swinging without conviction, without any desire what so ever to actually make contact with the ball and fight for a win. He simply wanted to go home. Alfonso Soriano should be removed from the Cubs staff, because he's simply not fit to wear the uniform. We need players with spines, who can show up and play in the post season.

After finishing the regular season with the best record in baseball, proving that they ARE good enough to succeed in this sport, over the last three games, they have shown that, while they are very talented baseball players, they are not men. They do not have courage or honor. For the second year in a row, they've gotten to the post season, and immediately folded under the slightest bit of pressure and excitement by being embarrassingly SWEPT away like children, and off to their summer vacations.

The Dodgers played a fantastic three games, and fully deserved to win. They are a good team - but the Cubs would have lost to a poor team as well. It didn't take a good team to beat them - it would have taken any team. A minor league team. A softball team. A cricket team. A curling team. Even a team with me on it could have beaten the Cubs over the last three pitiful games.

I hope the players go home tonight, and realize that because of their lack of any desire, courage, inner strength, or character, now most of an entire city is upset and depressed, and will have to endure yet another year of jokes directed towards US for supporting a group of losers such as these Cubs.

Crazy Joe Kinnear

I mean, what does it really matter who we chose as interim manager? If we're to believe the rumours and local papers, King Kev might be back as manager in the next month or so - maybe even with a 10% stake in the club. And whomever stepped in, it was always obvious that he would be stomped on by the London Press (God bless'em). I was under no impression that we'd ever get anybody of any quality - I mean, who on earth would perform the footballing equivalent of the following situation:

-April 15, 1912; 9AM: Man picks up paper, reads "TITANIC HAS SUNK!"

-April 15, 1912; 12PM: Man takes train to British coast

-April 15, 1912; 5PM: Man arrives at British coast, inflates raft, begins slow trek West, towards America

-July 22, 1912; 8AM: Man arrives at reckage of Titanic, climbs aboard empty ship and into captain's room, where he attempts to revive engines

-July 22, 1912; 9AM: Man dies.

[What do you mean, "forced analogy?" I don't see any forced analogy.]

But then Kinnear steps in. I'd never heard of this guy prior to his appointment - but I must say, he's been a fantastic addition. Just a load of common sense, good times and swear words. What more could you ask for? Jose Mourihno, kindly step aside. We have a new definition of "special one."

He's been slowly taking all the pressure off the players buy spitting out any crap that comes into his head.

-How long ya here for, Joe?

-"4 games. No, 6. No, until the end of October. But I'm still serving a touchline ban. No, I'm not."

-After a fairly typical mis-reporting by the London press:

-Kinnear walks into the room with reporters:

-Kinnear: "Which one is Simon Bird?" - he is the Daily Mirror’s north-east football writer
-Bird: "Me."
-Kinnear: "You’re a c**t."
-Bird: "Thank you."

This guy just gets better and better.