Unexpected visitor!

And here I thought I wouldn't have much to post, with Jeff gone and all.

Thursday, I think it was, was a great day. I paid the rent nearly by myself! This may not seem like a big deal to you, but I have to get cash from a post office ATM (one of the few places where I can use my American cash card), over two days (you can only take out a certain amount per day, due to some old ladies getting robbed or something). Then I have to decipher the ATM at the bank down the street, where I make the deposit to the real estate company's account. Luckily, after being walked through it last time, I made a cheet sheet of the touch-screen button locations (the buttons are labeled in kanji), and after I figured out I had a number order transposed, I did it alone! I walked out of the bank happily bobbing my head to the music on my iPod and took off down the path back to the kids' school, where I had to deliver M's lunch, which he had forgotten. It's a pretty little path by a creek and a few fontains. As I was walking, I spotted a crane by the water. Of course, it wouldn't cooperate and stand still while I tried to take its picture, but I did manage to capture it atop a lightpost:


















Later that night, watching a movie with the kids, we heard my cell ring from the other room. D and I both raced for it, but we were too late. Luckily, the caller ID gave me the number. Thinking it might've been Jeff from the states, I called.

'Montauk,' someone answered.

???

'Did you call me?' I asked.

'Is this the Davis residence?'

'Yes...'

'This is Chaz!'

Imagine my surprise! I had seen Chaz once in the past ten years, I think. he was one of the first people we had known in Seattle, as he was Jeff's stateroom-mate on The California, when he was in the Navy. We used to hang out with him and his girlfriend Anji a lot. The they moved to Chicago, broke up, etc. Anji moved back to Seattle, and I used to see her bartending/waiting at various bars around town, and she came by our house once with another (short-lived) boyfriend. Then a year ago, I saw her working at Peso's and she told me that she and Chaz were back together. !!! Some time in the summer, he unexpectedly showed up at one of our parties with Agudelo. It was awesome to see him then.

SO, he called because he was here. He was working on a ship that was docked in Yokohama harbor. He wasn't sure how long he would be here, or if he could even get off the ship, but a couple days later, he managed to talk his captain into a little liberty time. We met him at Sakuragicho station, because he had always wanted to ride the giant ferris wheel he'd been staring at from the ship he'd been stuck on for weeks.

We started with that. It used to be the biggest in the world, but it's the second, now, I htink. There's a bigger onIt's called the CosmoClock, because it has a big clock on it.















Here's Chaz & M:














Chaz's home in Japan (the big red boat):














The view from the top. Pretty impressive, ne?














The rest of the time, Chaz played Favorite Uncle and bought rides and games for everyone. The kids had a blast. I enjoyed it immensely myself.













































Ramen cups?















We had a late lunch and then went to part II of CosmoWorld.














Best display of plastic food I've seen.















We stopped at Ice World. Let me tell you about Ice World. We saw this on vacation here last year. Two years ago? It was a small building, just labeled "Ice World." Anyway, we were curious about this time, but forgot about it. Here we were again, and the kids wanted to see what it was. It was a What the Hell kind of day, so we said 'what the hell?' and went in.

This has to be the weirdest attraction at any amusement park in the world. Seriously.

You walk in and immediately notice how unbelievably cold it is. Then you round the bend into the place proper, and there's ICE and SNOW everywhere. Everything's frozen and there's super-chiller fans blowing really cold air. Like Cleveland in January. My nostrils hairs were freezing like they hadn't since we last visited Chicago several years ago. There are stuffed animals (I mean, real stuffed, not like plush teddy bears) standing posed in the ice and snow, arctic beasts like white foxes and wolves, forever snarling. What the F??? We wandered amazed around the corner and it's COLDER (shocked shrieks from us all) and there's an ox or something covered with snow and a giant, rearing polar bear. Very amusing, very weird, let's get the hell out of here, it's freezing!








































Merry Xmas Bear





It was relatively warmer outside, leading us to speculate that this attraction must be popular in the hot, humid summer. But WHY would such a thing be open in December? Just for unwary tourists? No one else would be eager to go in and freeze their asses off in winter.

Hot coffee. Now. But we were distracted by a street performer in the courtyard of the shopping plaza. He seemed really eager to please, desperate, I'd say, from the constant cues for applause and funny little embarassed noises he was making. He did, however, do some cool stuff, and had one trick after another. Hardest working man in show business, Chaz said.















BMX jumprope
















Riding a very small bicycle thru the ring of fire

We finally got our coffee and hot chocolate and headed back to my house. We ate a little and watched Princess Mononoke (which was an incredible coincidence: long story, ask Chaz), and Chaz feel asleep on the couch with both kids after a fun-filled day.




















The next day, I put Chaz on a train back to Yokohama (hopefully we'll see him again while he's stuck so nearby) and the kids and I set off for Tsunashima, where the kids had a 'play date' with a school buddy while I went shopping to kill time. I was supposed to meet Jason and Alex at the BC at 4 for a beer, but lo! it doesn't open til 5 on Sundays! After wandering a bit in search of beer, Jason called a halt in favor of a coffee and a donut (Jason's first in 10 years, he said). I had a delicious pumkin-sesame pastry. Picked up the kids and went back to the BC to wait for Shingo, who was not there, so we got our beer after all. Michael eventually led us tback to their house for our first practice (I still don't think I could find it on my own).

We did a couple songs, and any anxiousness I'd had about the difficulty of pulling this together disappeared. Jason and Shingo are pros and knew exaclty what they were doing, and that made me relax. The xmas party is going to be a breeze. I'm actually excited now!

And now, because maybe I'm making this a regular feature, like a Moment of Zen, here are this weeks random pictures.














A strange cloud. I thought it looked like a bunny.


















Carddass Masters. Draw your own conclusions, because I don't know what to say.


















Proof that anything in Japan can be rendered cute.

Hope all of you are well, in your corner of the world.