Nerdy Times at Brent’s House (Japan – Autumn 2018 Day 16)
Brent is one of my oldest friends… we go way way back… as far back as almost 24 years ago, when Netscape Navigator was what you used to browse the web, and back when LASER TAG was THE thing to do… especially at Ultrazone in Milwaukie, Oregon!
Brent and I met at Ultrazone, a place where I met a handful of people that I am still proud to call my friends to this day! He’s from the greater Portland area, and I grew up there too. Brent has been living in Japan for 10 + years at this point, so naturally we new that we had to meet up at some point so I could meet his wife and baby boy too.
Apparently a Game Night happens once a month at Brent’s house… actually it’s more like a game day since people start arriving around 11 am and drop in when they like, stay until as late as everyone wants to continue playing. When I was first invited I wasn’t certain when we would be leaving for Kyoto, but once I knew the date I quickly accepted the invite.
Brent and his family live in the Adachi-Ku region of Tokyo – kinda far from the center of the city so the normal hustle and bustle is far removed from there… it’s definitely more neighborhood-ish and less urban and a refreshing change from throngs of people around.
They live in a three story detached house… think like a townhouse, but not attached to a row of townhouses. It’s like a tall, square house. First floor is two bedrooms, bath and laundry room combined – a separate tiny room with the toilet and plenty of storage spaces. Second floor is living space and a roomy kitchen with every inch of possible space used wisely for storage. Top floor is bedrooms also.
I settled into a comfy spot on the arm of the sofa, and we all played a round of Fibbage… then another and another. A couple more people arrived and three of them went to the grocery store to get chicken wings that David was going to cook for everyone… we all chipped in the Yen and David does all of the cooking – what a nice guy!
The whole time they were gone we played The Great Dalmuti, a card game that Richard Garfield of Magic the Gathering fame, although The Great Dalmuti is absolutely nothing like MtG!
It’s an older game, first published in 1995, and it was a staple at our weekly gaming gatherings when all of us Ultrazone peeps would hang out before our weekend laser tag sessions… several rounds were played today and we introduced a new generation of players to the game who also seemed to enjoy it as much as we did… if they weren’t peons too often lol! You can read about it in detail here: The Great Dalmuti – at Board Game Geeks
David cooked wings and we played Dalmuti, then the table was cleared and we quickly demolished the first batch of wings, then another, then another… he made some REALLY spicy ones that referred to as “Death” – aptly named as the longer it was after consuming them, the more hot my mouth and lips became – I literally had sweat beads on my face from these wings!
Thankfully batch 5 and 6 were not as spicy and thus I did not die.
I played Overcooked with Brent and Kyle-Kun his son helped – Kyle is a year and 8 mos old and is already promising to be a gamer!
Kyle-Kun is adorable!
Kyle wanted his own chicken wing.
After wings Magic the Gathering was played and since it’s been way too long since I’ve played and I have no idea what I am doing, I just watched and then had to leave early around 7 since I knew that I needed to finish packing up and getting to sleep early for our trip to Kyoto the next day.
It was great to meet so many new people!
Tokyo Disney Sea – A Disney Day Is An Excellent Day! (Japan – Autumn 2018 Day 10)
DISNEY! DISNEY! DISNEY! We were SO excited to get up early this morning to meet Chris at the main gates of Tokyo Disney Sea… the guys decided to sleep in and meet us later in the day (those silly guys)… Paulina and I jumped on the train and we were on our way! Buuuuut our train was late and we missed our connection, so we ended up running a half hour later than planned.
BUT IT WAS OKAY BECAUSE WE WERE GOING TO DISNEYYYYYYY!
We arrived and Chris met us at the gates, tickets in hand so we did not have to wait in line – what a sweetheart! Into the park we zoomed, stopping of course to get a photo of Paulina at the big globe since it was not only her first time into Disney Sea, but ANY Disney park anywhere! A special moment that I am so glad that I got to share with her!
Paulina’s first time in a Disney park anywhere! She’s so happy!
A photograph of me photographing Paulina – photo courtesy of Chris Danford
There were cosplayers EVERYWHERE today… normally this is not a thing allowed in Disney parks but many people were dressed in costume (of all ages) so I’m thinking that it was one of those Halloween events that Disney puts on at this time of year.
6 Captain Jack Sparrows!
One of the things that I love about Disney parks is the attention to details… from the music everywhere you go to the tiny and oft missed details…. like on this small mosaic tile – Ariel!
There are small details everywhere you look, like on this small mosaic tile.
Disney really does it right.
There is beauty everywhere you look.
There are feasts for the eyes, ears, smell and taste. No detail seems to be overlooked, and this tradition continues at Tokyo Disney Sea.
Photo courtesy of Chris Danford
There were fun times for all! I think they MAY have loved the Indiana Jones ride.
Photo courtesy of Chris Danford
Adorable merchandise everywhere…
Photo courtesy of Chris Danford
… and happy friends too!
Photo courtesy of Chris Danford
I wasn’t feeling well today at all and you can see it on my face – I think that I’m getting very sick, because as I write this my throat is hurting very badly – but I still had loads of fun with my friends!
A meal before Chris left us – he had to leave early, sadly.
Photo courtesy of Chris Danford
Beautiful places everywhere in the park. This is one of my favorite spots.
A short post tonight because I am feeling oh so badly… I really do not want to be getting sick! Ah well… to sum it up, the day was a good one and good memories were most certainly made.
Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden Was Open! (Japan – Autumn 2018 Day 6)
Cooler weather has arrived, though it is still warm and still quite humid. It feels great to me until the mid-afternoon, when I really start sweating and my hair freaks out. I swear… I just cannot look good while I’m in Japan in any other season than winter… naturally curly hair and humidity do not mix well so I get about half a day looking okay and unless I take pains to wash and actually style my hair in the afternoon, then it becomes a wild and woolly mane that is out of control. Because I do not like to fuss over my appearance for more than a very short while, I choose the wild hair rather than look my best. I wonder what this says about me as a person?
My compatriots woke about an hour after I did and we did not take too long to relax this morning since we wanted to make it out of the house and to Shinjuku with time enough to enjoy the park before it closes at 4pm.
Paulina, Fredrik and I went to our station (Hikifune) and jumped onto the train to Shinjuku. I had expressed the desire for a proper coffee as did Chris, so I looked online for a good place to go… and found a Blue Bottle Coffee right next to Shinjuku Station – oh the joy! They have really good coffee and I was surprised to see that they expanded from Northern California into Japan!
Chris suggested that he pick up the coffee, since he would arrive shortly before we would, since he was only coming from Shibuya. He also surprised us with some tasty pastries from a French bakery that was right next to Blue Bottle, which we saved to eat in the park.
Yes, we finally made it into Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden – wooooooooo!
I took SO MANY PHOTOS but I was not alone… Paulina is also a photographer and Chris has gotten the photography bug so it was nice to not feel rushed to move on when I was busy composing nice shots. Prepare yourself for a very photo heavy post today!
This was my second time in the gardens… the first being back in June of 2015 when Chris and I lived in Tokyo for 3 months. On that first visit I was solo, and spent the entire very hot day there. It was 91 degrees F with 90% humidity, and this time it was much cooler, and about 10% less humidity – much more pleasant weather for certain! Regardless of the weather, I feel like I could visit this garden over and over and never tire of it. I am VERY much looking forward to when the leaves start changing their colors – this is one of the gardens that I will definitely be going back to!
The 4 of us strolled the garden and stopped at a large field to enjoy our tasty French treats, and then strolled more…
We had quiet times
We walked a lot – photo courtesy of Chris Danford
Chris roaming in Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden
Taking closeups of…. something.
Photographing me photographing a tree – photo courtesy of Chris Danford
Wandering Boo. – photo courtesy of Chris Danford
Views like this make me want to move to Tokyo.
Those are my feets with smushed fallen Autumn leaves.
…. and silly times
We felt compelled. – photo courtesy of Chris Danford
Fredrik… STAHP! (DEUTSCHLAND!)
Caught in the act! – photo courtesy of Chris Danford
It’s THIS way!
Chris demonstrating exactly what this sign means… complete with stick!
Somehow this moment just… happened… and it was glorious.
WHA! A wild Fredrik suddenly appears!
and selfie times.
Happy people in the happy greenhouse!
We happy!
Happy! – photo courtesy of Chris Danford
But mostly, plant times.
We liked the greenhouse. – photo courtesy of Chris Danford
photo courtesy of Chris Danford
Something was interesting! It was probably that brown plant that I was fascinated with. – photo courtesy of Chris Danford
– photo courtesy of Chris Danford
I love the greenhouse in Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden!
Just a little bud… I’m sure it will open soon!
I risked life and limb for this shot. – Photo Courtesy of Paulina
I wish that I knew what sort of plant this is…
Potted plants in pleasing arrangements.
The upper level in the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden greenhouse.
I want to know what this plant is also!
This tree is going to look SO nice with Autumn color!
Why yes, this plant WAS FUZZY! Yet another that I desire to know the name of.
Oh, and cloud times too. So many beautiful clouds.
A couple was having kimono times. I’m pretty certain that we got better photos of them than they did of themselves. Thanks, Kimono Couple for giving me a nice photo subject!
Thanks for providing excellent composition, Kimono Couple! I think that we had better photos from you being there than the selfies that you two ended up taking. 😀
Garden times with my special friends was so needed, and what a sharp contrast to the inner turmoil that I was experiencing the day before! I was feeling completely opposite emotionally and while physically I still wasn’t great, I was much better in comparison.
We were all pretty hungry at the end of our garden visit. Chris suggested Gyukatsu Motomura, another beef katsu restaurant. This place was special! At the table are pots made of pottery that they light up so there is an open flame in each pot. Each person gets to choose their own pot, which is topped with a slab of pottery – this slab gets VERY HOT…
We actually cooked our meat on these!
The gyokatsu is breaded and quickly deep fried, then sliced up and served with many sides. You take slices of the breaded beef and place them on your hot slab of pottery where it sears the meat – you get to choose how well or not well you cook your meat!
The accompanying sides were delicious: Pickled vegetable, miso soup that I think may have had a beef base instead of fish, sweet mochi with what seemed like it had a syrup either made out of light molasses or maple, rice with barley and mountain potato which was in it’s stringy form of goodness – I do love mountain potato and on top of rice! OH YUMMERS! Two sauces were included as well… one that seemed like garlic and the other a sesame of some sort?
After dinner a very tired Chris said adieu… Paulina, Fredrik and I went to Flying Tiger, a store that has origins in Denmark. We found all manner of quirky and useful things! I was after a nail brush and a sleeve for my MacBook…. I found what I needed! A Llama MacBook sleeve came home with me, and I don’t even find the pink background too annoying! x
In Flying Tiger – they had all sorts of fun things.
The three of us then went to Akihabara to meet up with Joy and Zach, who had been in arcades all day again… Fredrik left Paulina and I for a boys night out of karaoke with another friend from Sweden – Paulina and I went to a few arcades and then dragged our weary bodies back home with the intent to go to an Onsen in Asakusa, but once we were still and comfortable at home, we decided to not go anywhere.
I called it a night fairly early – no plans as of yet for the morrow except to find some useable wifi so that I can upload some photos to my blog posts!