Archive for the 'rant' Category

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2013 63rd Annual NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen

Here we go for another music extravaganza from Japan.  With the declining economy, the presentation has been getting progressively sparser, but hopefully the talent will shine and carry the day.  We’re doing this live, so bear with the typos and frequent updates!  Ikimassho! Continue reading ‘2013 63rd Annual NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen’

Hatsuhinode 2013

Yet another year of thoughts of waking up early and riding up Koko Head for hatsuhinode ignored as I rushed up the street 10 minutes before sunrise. Pretty clouded over so couldn’t see actual moment of sunrise. Wasn’t until a good fifteen minutes later could get a decent picture.

Continue reading ‘Hatsuhinode 2013’

Old ‘Ou

Okay, I’m back in the land of cinnamon-scented urinal screens.  The old HAL 767-3G5 ER, tail number N586HA had to return to the gate to get the brakes worked on.  This is another one of the three Lufttransportunternehmen transfer aircraft.  Apparently, the ABS light came on while taxiing to the runway, and that’s a mandatory checklist fail, so we had to come back in and get it looked at.  It was probably a bad sensor, mabye affected by the cold temperatures, as they cleared it up in short order and we left only one hour late.  I guess that’s what happens when you actually depart the gate early!

Mmm… Mexican

Well, “like” Mexican.  As I experienced many years ago at Sombrero in the basement dining arcade in the Paseo building adjacent to the JR Sapporo station, it looks right, but doesn’t taste right.  The fried chicken and fries weren’t really “Mexican”, but the chili con carne and enchilada were… somewhat.  They did a lot better than last time.  To this day I don’t know what that white stuff that came with my burrito was, but it wasn’t sour cream (I think it was cream cheese).  Continue reading ‘Mmm… Mexican’

Hui, Percy!

Oh I tell yuu!

Percy, what part of my name in my voicemail message sounds like L/Risa? And I don’t think this is the first time I got a call from this North LA number!

Flightulence

I noticed a correlation between pre-flight meals and the level of altitude-induced flatulence created on this last trip to SLC.  On the way out, I had a home-cooked dinner and only had a beer at the airport: On the way back, I had a big bacon burger at LAX.  The result – no issues outbound, but painful gas inbound.  So as an experiment, I didn’t get a Whopper Junior and onion rings at the airport terminal BK as I otherwise would have done, but instead stopped at the Gordon Biersch consession and had a pils and clam chowder.  The result – a significant decrease in gas.  There was some gas (I don’t think you can avoid it completely in the low-pressure environment), but it was manageable.  Only thing was shelling out nearly $20 to not get thunderfarts!

Beep beep!

Thank goodness the horn on the FR-S is decently loud! A Porsche Cayenne/vw/audi almost backed directly into my drivers side in the Koko Marina parking lot. Came extremely close. Doesnt your fancy shamancy car have backup sensors? Sheesh!

Yiff-tastic

First it was weird kids putting Southeast-Asia Altis badges on  their Corollas, now it’s K-boy wannabes putting YF badges on their Hyundai Sonatas.  Forget the fact that the Korean-market Sonatas DON’T actually come with YF badges where the oval marque badge should be, nor at the wheel centers (the YF is red subtext to the Sonata nameplate).

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Oh, There They Are

While wandering around Shirokiya’s yatai-mura, I happened across Akimune-an’s taiyaki stall.  I guess they didn’t shut down as I thought, but had just been relocated to the second floor.  My unfavorite Micronesian worker had a cold as evidenced by a mask, but she was holding the mask to her face with one hand.  Great.  I hope that hand gets washed before it touches food or food making apparatus!  I’m sure that’s wishful thinking.

Zombie Radio

Okay, 97.1 is back from the dead today.  The morning DJ was apologetic, saying there was an electrical issue at the transmission tower.  I did check yesterday, and their K-pop station was also out, so this makes sense.  Even with them back on, there were occasional random dead spots throughout the day.

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