ダニエルの冒険

“Tadaima”, or “I’m home”, is a Japanese phrase I’ve been using a lot recently. It’s great to be back here, even if it’s just for a week. I haven’t updated the blog in a long time, simply because there hasn’t really been anything worth writing about. Life in San Francisco and my work are going well but there just aren’t any more adventures worth writing about. Well, now that I’m back in the Land of the Rising Sun, there are things to write about again.

I’m really failing at this blog. If it weren’t for my almost-daily posting in Japan I would assume I just can’t blog, but I know that’s not true. As I’ve been saying in almost every post for the last month, it’s just a matter of having no time. I know that I have no time because I want my glasses to be adjusted and need to get them to the opticians, but haven’t had the chance to at all. It’s pretty high on my list of things to get done, but it’s been waiting for about 6 weeks. Anyway, I had a wonderful weekend and that’s what I’m going to focus on this time! (more…)

I haven’t written anything in the last few weeks, but that’s not because I haven’t had anything to write about. Contrarily, I’ve actually been so busy that I haven’t found time to write anything. I’ll quickly go through the adventures I’ve had since we left off with the Wizard of Oz in Dolores Park as I give this blog some much needed love. (more…)

The plan for last Saturday was to meet up with Chiyo at Church St and check out the Asian Heritage Street Celebration, which due to an ambitious yet unsuccessful advertising campaign had a relatively poor turnout. There were much more attractions than the Sakura Festival a few weeks back but there were much fewer people. I have some hilarious videos of rappers scheduled in the afternoon rapping about the hos in da club to small crowds of little kids owing to poor scheduling. I had convinced Chiyo to wear her Yukata (like a light kimono) and she looked wonderful in it. When we got on the bus everyone was staring and one guy we passed said “nice dress” from his seat, and when we stood in the aisle, an old lady pulled on her sleeve and told her how beautiful her clothes were. (more…)

Continuing from my last post, I went to an Irish bar with Chiyo on Monday. It’s where my boss plays trad music with a few guys and I wanted to show her a little bit of Ireland so I invited her out. She wore the most adorable polka-dot dress with matching shoes and looked totally out of place there, but she had a good time and the way she looked at how the bar was set up and what drinks they were selling reminded me of how I look when I go into a big electronics store. On the way we passed a Scientology building and there were two ladies at the door who asked “would you guys like to see a movie?” as we approached. (more…)

It’s been over a week since I posted on this blog but I have plenty of news. The days go by so quickly here and once I have anything at all taking my evenings or weekend days, I suddenly have hardly any free time at all. For example, this weekend I spent Saturday with Chiyo around the Haight, then spent Monday night at an Irish bar where my boss plays with some guys in trad sessions every Monday night, with Chiyo. And tonight, I’m going to an oyster restaurant in the Castro… with Chiyo. (more…)

I guess I have a lot of stuff to talk about, but seeing as most of it has gone past the 24 hour mark I’m not going to remember it in enough detail to write a lot (which is probably a relief for you). (more…)

Just home from work now. It’s 10:35pm. Yesterday it was about 11pm when I got home. I’m contractually tied to 40 hours a week unless I request overtime, which I haven’t done. So what’s keeping me? Grand Theft Auto IV. The big IV came out yesterday so as soon as work was over I went to the nearest Gamestop/EBGames over on Powell St and marched straight up to the counter and asked for it. (more…)

My Sunday started off with noticing the crack on my MacBook. A co-worker at Rovsing got a crack in the same spot before so I knew it was an issue, and I checked my warranty on the Apple site and found I had two weeks left, so I went to the Apple store while I had the time. I didn’t get any breakfast when leaving so I bought a big steak-filled sub from Quizno’s while waiting for my turn at the Genius Bar or whatever it is they call the technical support desk in the Apple Store and the Mac Genius, or whatever it is they call the tech support guys, very quickly replaced the top part of my laptop for me. It gave me a new keyboard and trackpad (which were the most worn parts of the laptop), but it’s an American layout. I’ve been getting used to that over the last few weeks at work anyway so it’s no problem. At least we speak the same language so there aren’t any funny accents wasting space. After that, I popped down to work to leave my bag off because I was about to climb the Twin Peaks: the second-highest mountains right in the centre of the city. (more…)

Yesterday there were a few things I wanted to do locally. I wanted to check out the Copper Kettle on Taraval to the south (an Irish café with real sausages), I wanted to see the ocean up close from the beach, I wanted to walk through Golden Gate park, and I wanted to find a post office. I got the former two done and met lots of interesting characters along the way. (more…)