guess we're broke

TOKYO — The U.S. government has not paid the Japanese government rent for land where the U.S. Embassy is built since 1998, according to a document the cabinet adopted Friday. The Japanese government has been asking the U.S. government to pay the rent.
The document noted that the British Embassy, also located in central Tokyo, is paying 35 million yen annually for about 35,000 sq meters of state-owned land.

© 2005 Kyodo News. All rights reserved. No reproduction or republication without written permission.

Ever wonder why the bathrooms smell so bad?

I bet you can guess, but there's something I noticed while I was in Puerto Rico, and again here in Mexico. 'Course, my sample size is a bit limited, but at both offices, the bathrooms had a distinctly stronger smell than usual. I've taken a photo to show why:
Thats right, there's a garbage can next to the toilet. You don't put normal garbage in there though, no, that would be too obvious. Instead of letting the used toilet paper fall where used toilet paper belongs, you put it in the bin off to the side.

So now you know, and knowing is half the battle.

I'm in Mexico

Made it in last Sunday. Apparently, Mexico City is the kidnapping capital of the world. Such a comforting thought. Luckily, I'm not in Mexico City. I'm in Cuernavaca, about 45 miles southeast of Mexico City I think. Cuernavaca used to have the highest per capita kidnapping rate in Mexico, but that was in the 1999-2000 time frame. Lucky me...

Go to Engrish.com

TV Land

Cool TV shows: Well, I thought I’d put together a list of TV shows that I like. I thought it would be longer, but apparently, there’s not much to recommend anymore. I suppose I’ve been relatively busy, or that I’m just not finding many shows to get excited about, but only 3 to recommend? That’s crazy. Anyway, here they are:

Recommended:Family Guy- Almost always very funny. Very crude and not for younger viewers. I got hooked on this during its initial run back in 1999-2001. I left for Japan and it got cancelled. I come back from Japan and a year or later its back on. Su~arashii!~

Arrested Development- Again, an almost always consistently funny show. I also loved this one when it came out 2 years ago- why the hell don’t more people watch it?! The ratings on it are so bad, it almost didn’t come back for the 2nd season. And then again for the 3rd. Its won a bunch of Emmy’s but more people want to watch Will and Grace?! What’s wrong with the world.

Lost- I tried to avoid this one. When I saw the previews for it last year, I thought to myself, here’s another hour long drama that’s going to suck. I watched the first episode and thought it was ok. I caught a handful of other episodes, always out of order, while I was on the road. The more I watched it though, the more I got into it. Its pretty suspenseful and interesting. I caught the season premier this week and I’m still excited about how its going to end. I just hope they let the series die when its time comes and ABC does not try to drag it out, just because of its high ratings. When the story ends, it should end as well.

OK to watch if you have nothing else to do-Moderately funny
American Dad - This is like a poor man’s imitation of Family. Made by the same folks however. I think that having two series is just stretching MacFarlane thin. He should focus on Family guy only. Still, this show is ok, and better than a lot of others.

King of Queens- not sure why I like this. Very stereotypical and generic sitcom. I didn’t watch it until I came to Japan and noticed the previous tenant had taped some shows. Since tv was in Japanese, I ended up watching the stock of leftover videos multiple times to ease my boredom. When I came back, I found out that reruns of this show are on twice a day, so within half a year, I caught up on the whole series.King of the Hill Again, this is a generally ok show.

Too early to tell:
My name is Earl - Jason Lee. Need I say more? Ok, I guess I do. New show, only seen one episode, but it was pretty funny. Definitely in the OK to watch if you have nothing else to do category, but too soon to recommend.

Threshold –new sci fi show. Aliens. Government. Etc…sounds generic. I watched the first episode though, and it piqued my interest. Lets wait on this one.

TD you're lucky

for now at least. I tried to post some of your pics but am getting errors everytime I try to publish it..I'll figure it out soon enough though.

Well, as promised, here are some pics from a recent skydive adventure (not mine) and my most recent jaunt to japan. These are ground based photos as we had no money to spring for the mid-air ones... maybe next time. And yes, I realize they are out of order. Thank Blogger for that nice little feature.

Never before seen photo of Tenacious D's "So You Think You Can Dance" audition.

Signing their lives away on the release forms..

Nervous...but putting up a brave front..

After the landing, TD never felt better.

Here we go- Japan part 2

Having way too much fun...and too much to drink. Not to worry, anonymity is preserved.




This guy is superhuman at making this stuff.

Making Okonomiyaki...

Here are some lovely people enjoying a nice wooden plank of sushi. This was taken at Gonpachi--the restaurant that inspired one of the more memorable fight scenes from the first Kill Bill movie, as well as the place that Prime Minister Koizumi to Pres. Bush to once when he visited Japan.

I was planning on posting some pics (as noted in the
sidebar) but I was too tired to do so. Why? well,
because it was 3am! That's right, since I decided not
to go to Turkey for our opening meeting, I had to call
in instead. A 2am conference call is tough. I was
half asleep and when I finally woke up enough, the
call was over. oh well, beats the 13 hour flight over
I guess.

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Arrested Development is back! And here I thought that
they had cancelled the thing. While it sometimes
misses, it the most consistently funny live action
show on the air now (IMHO). Its on Monday nights on
Fox so since you're home anyway on Monday nights, go
watch it!

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word is getting out

There may be more people reading this than you think...I've been getting email and some people at work have somehow found the site...better post all the good stuff before they shut me down.

new movies

ok, well they're not really all that new. I saw one about a year ago, and another last spring, but I figured a title like "new" would get your attention...;)

Anyway, the first movie is called Suicide Club. Its a very interesting/gruesome movie about some disaffected kids in Japan who kill themselves. there's a detective trying to solve the reason why, a weird rocky horror -esque song segment, and a very annoying j-pop band. I won't expect any of you to actually go and buy this movie, so I went ahead and got myself a copy. you can borrow it it you like, or rent it from blockbuster or netflix. Seriously, this is a weird, twisted, but interesting movie.

the other movie is called 2LDK. This one's short, over the top violent, and yet proundly introspective and watchable. You can get this at blockbuster too.

So go out and watch these Japanese movies! You may not end up liking them, but at least its something different from the most of the rest of the crap that gets put on tv/movies...

Suicide club review:http://www.thespinningimage.co.uk/cultfilms/displaycultfilm.asp?reviewid=668

2LDK reivew:http://www.acdrifter.com/?page=Review&movie=(60)%202LDK

ok, made it back safe and sound. Not sure if I
mentioned it previously, but on my outbound flight to
Japan, Good Charlotte was sitting in first class. I
spotted them from the business section when I got up
to get a drink. No such luck on the way back though.
No one famous as far as I can tell. Well, the good
thing is, now that I'm a gold level (soon to be
platinum), they'll automatically bump me up into the
next class if there are any available seats. So,
here's to hoping on my next trip to Japan in November,
I get to go first class! (although, business class
ain't that shabby either).

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