too bad about my bruins...

...but it's alright. they done good this year. now i can focus on the warriors playoff push!! and what's this, do i smell BASEBALL!?

the past few weeks have been MAD busy, in a very unproductive, yet awesome way. it is currently the sakura season here in japan. i did "hanami" (flower viewing) a few times this past week and it is definitely an experience. just going out to the park, eating/drinking far too much, singing, playing games...all under hundreds of sakura trees and millions of falling pink petals. it's surreal, to say the least. sadly, my pictures do not do justice to hanami. please come next spring and experience it for yourself!

also, reason #7654321324 why i love tokyo. last night, i was getting home from work around 9:40pm. i ran into a friend of mine that lives nearby and he told me to go over to his restaurant for a second because there was something we had to talk about. the restaurant is in the next alley...so literally just feet from my house. so i go to the restaurant, a few other older men from the neighborhood association (including my uncle) begin to trickle in, all of us wondering what is going on. then my friend announces that last night was the final night that his restaurant would be using asahi beer. starting today, they will switch to sapporo draft beer. thus, it is our job to finish the remaining asahi beer so that he doesn't have to throw it away. suffice to say, good times were had, and it didn't cost anybody a single yen!

although i have been professing my love for japan a lot lately, just wanted to add that this country is still far from perfect. last week, one of the employees at my company was brutally murdered and the killer is still on the run.

although that was super messed up, i really think that this response by the father as delivered by the british ambassador to japan is not helping the situation at all.

also, while i never really liked monta mino in the first place, this article makes me hate him more. but the way the article seems to shift blame on the victim is also pretty disgusting.

sigh.