My friend invited me to go see a play in Shinjuku (Ni-chou-me). Although, this was no typical theater production. The theater was in the basement of a building, very small, and very dark. I am not sure how to describe what kind of play it was, and my friends could not explain it to me either. It seemed a bit gothic to me.. but look at the flier or the video on the website and decide for yourself.
So now that I am on summer vacation, what do I do?… I work.
My old boss, the one from the C++ computer job in Okinawa, read my previous post about having nothing to do for summer and offered a solution. The program I made in Okinawa received an article in a Japanese computer magazine and the company decided to make some upgrades to it. So my boss offered me a job where I could work from home to improve the program. It is only a job for about a week, but it will keep me busy and I get a nice pay as well 
My friend started a new group: CPFA (Childs Play For Adults). The point is to go out and, even though we are adults, play games and have fun like children. A big group of us meet up in Odaiba to play Cops and Robbers. If you dont remember the game is a variation of tag where half the members, the cops, chase down and try to tag the other half, the robbers. If a robber is tagged he goes to jail. However, if another robber sneakily makes it past to cops to the jail he can free the imprisoned robbers. Although I sometimes play tag at my Elementary schools, I am much faster than most of the kids and its not much of a challenge. Playing in a large park with trees, bushes, hiding places, etc. with people of my own age is also very fun. I look forward to the next event.
The CPFA group.
in Odaiba.
Resting between games in the shade of the prison.
Going home exhausted after running around in the heat all day.
Last year for Doyoushinohi I had to settle on cheap Yohinoya unagi-don. This year, since I am back in the Tokyo area, I met my old coworker and like the years before we went out to eat good unagi. We went to a fairly famous place called Chikuyotei, and the unagi was delicious. Afterwards, we went out for matcha parfes.. also delicious.
I saw the latest Ghibli movie entitled 崖の上のポニョ(Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea). I saw it in the theater and thus without subtitles. Although, my Japanese is now at a point where I can understand 99% of the dialog, so I didnt miss them. As with most Ghibli movies the art was really nice and the music memorable. Overall, despite a little lack of explanation I enjoyed the movie and wait for the next one.
Street Fighter IV was recently released in Japan. It looks pretty interesting… although still no comparison to Tekken.
Because I work at an elementary school I have a long summer vacation ( 07/19 -> 08/31 )
However, since I still havent received my Japanese work visa I cant leave the country yet. I have no plans and very little money, so this years summer vacation will not be that exiting. I may travel around Japan a bit… I hope I will find something to do.
My friend Tatsuya is trying to learn to surf and drives to the beach early in the morning to practice about once a week. This weekend a friend and I decided to go along. We left about 4 in the morning and got to the beach before sunrise. As my friend surfed, my other friend and I walked and relaxed on the beach. Luckily, we also got to watch a long-board competition going on, and there was some famous Japanese guy, who I dont remember the name, participating in it. The time came for my friend to go to work and we headed back home.
Tatsuya and his board
A competitor in the long-bard competition
Last Sunday I got to play futsal again. Even though it was raining, I joined my friend’s team and went out to play in a tournament. It was really fun and our team was doing really well. However, in the game before the finals as I was about to shoot an opposite team member slid into my foot. I was unable to play after that and we lost that game and the next to end up if 4th / 12 teams. My foot was really swollen and it was hard to walk so I went to the doctor to get an x-ray. Luckily it wasnt broken, but the doctor said that I had a bone-bruise. It has been hard to walk this week, but by next week I should be much better.
<-- The weather has been changed from Okinawa to Yokohama
