Capicola

Probably no more posts

2009-08-04T19:04:00.002+09:00

I think my blogging days are over for now. The people that used to check here are actually on Facebook now, which is where I keep updates of my "Rockstar life-style". So if you actually see this and aren't on my friend list in Facebook, please look for me there and we'll get hooked up. First name Tokyo, last name Slim.

Tokyo Slim

Still no Pics

2008-09-09T21:23:00.002+09:00

Ok, so somehow, another month has slipped by. Technically, I could say I'm getting more frequent with my posts, and I suppose that would be correct, but you and I both know its bullshit. I have some pictures in my camera that I need to upload, almost 2 GB's worth actually, but for tonight, I'll just hit up a post.

Today, I got offered to do a small time TV spot on Japanese TV in the Aomori prefecture. I accepted and hope to hear more from the producer and the Public Affairs office here at Misawa. It's going to be of an English teaching nature, so my days in the adult film biz still aren't here...

Also, today, while waiting to see the TV people, I was talking with a Japanese friend of mine who plays on a local men's amateur hockey team. They are looking for more players and the season is starting now, so I'll be dusting off my old hockey equipment and hitting the ice soon! There's also another team representing Aomori (in our age group) that will be competing against other prefectures in Sendai later this year. I may try out for that as well, depending on how badly these local guys beat me up; there's a lot of big farm boys up here that I never expected to see.

That's what it is around here for now,
Tokyo Slim

Wow!

2008-08-09T22:09:00.003+09:00

So I guess four months is a bit of a gap. Could be my biggest gap yet. If anybody's still checking in on me, please leave a comment.

Things have been a tad busy 'round here. Work has been demanding, yet I manage to go home on time around 80% of the time; not bad. The more overtime people work in the AF, the more AF leadership thinks we can do with less manning, so I keep my non-reportable overtime to a minimum.

Had the pedal-boat out once this year and lost one of my boat carrier foamies. I'm not that happy about it, but sulking won't put it back on my car, so life goes on. I've recently been researching the different kayaks and canoes available here in Japan. There's a part of my mind that tells me to sell the pedal-boat and pick-up a canoe or kayak.

I bought a new tent and we're camping tomorrow. Expect some pictures soon, I've just got to
load them.

Less Than Stellar

2008-04-08T11:03:00.002+09:00

Sorry it's been so long. I went to Texas for some training, and right now I'm kickin' it in The Tokyo with The Fam. Its a rainy morning, but we're headed out for fun anyway.

Well, I don't know exactly what I expected from the folks down at Mitchum HQ, but here's their response. I accidentally emailed the Patent Lawyer but was redirected to the proper channels.

Dear Mr. Slim,
Your recent email to Joy Goudie, Revlon Senior Patent Counsel, was referred to me for a reply.

We were so sorry to learn that you were offended by a reference to "almost matching socks" on a Mitchum Man label. Revlon develops advertising only after thorough research determines what appeals to our consumers. However, we appreciate that an individual's response to our advertising is always a matter of personal taste. We are sorry that you were offended by one of our Mitchum Man slogans.

We do appreciate the time and trouble spent making your reaction to the Mitchum Man label known to us. Your comments are important to us and will be passed along to our advertising department.

Thank you for your loyalty to Mitchum products. Please be assured of our desire to be of service whenever possible.

I really want a major company to respond to my stupidity with a sense of humor. Irish Spring, M&M's, Pet Smart, and now Revlon have given me less than stellar responses.

It's now my personal mission to get a response from "the man" that at least acknowledges my immaturity and makes me laugh. I wonder who's next?

500 Pictures Ago

2008-03-13T00:44:00.004+09:00

So I was looking through some photos for another installment of "What The Hell Is That?" when I came across a Ham Broccoli Bread I made, some 500 pictures ago. Actually, Mrs. Slim helped out a lot on this venture, as it was very difficult to get this thing wrapped up; thanks Baby!

Anyways, this thing was delicious and I just felt like showing it off. Here's another picture of it, unsliced.

An Update to Messin' with the Man

2008-03-12T17:47:00.000+09:00

Well, I got a response back, kind of a generic one, and I was given a new person to contact with my marketing questions. Here's the email I sent out, hopefully I get a response soon.

Dear Joy,
I was given your name as a point of contact for some questions concerning the marketing strategy of Mitchum® Antiperspirant & Deodorant. I have been using Mitchum for a few years now and have come to enjoy its effectiveness and lack of marks it leaves on my black T-shirts, which I wear every day for work. Some of the 'If you need an audience to light the grill, you're a Mitchum man' type marketing has been something funny to read over the past few years.
However, my current Mitchum product contains a quip that has left me befuddled. This is what it says, "If your socks almost match, you're a Mitchum man". In case you don't believe me, I've attached a photo.
Is a Mitchum Man too stupid or too lazy to match his socks?
I was wondering who the targeted audience would be for this phrase; As a Mitchum user, where do I fall in to the picture?

I feel I'm smart enough to match my socks. I also pay attention to their degree of "matchness", so I don't feel I'm lazy. I feel that if you are too lazy to make sure your socks match, you probably don't wear socks anyway, or can't wear socks for work related issues, such as Harri Krishna, NFL Kicker, or professional nude foot model. The other professions of "Crack Whore" and "Assistant Crack Whore" might also be included in that group, but who knows for sure.
I've always thought if your socks almost match, you are an idiot, or if they almost match, you somehow didn't try hard enough, yet, how much effort does it take to match your socks? Which would it be, stupidity or laziness?
So does this mean that Mitchum Men can't perform the task of matching? I've taught my children how to match things at the ripe old age of 1 year. They may not be geniuses, but they've done well on matching exercises.
My socks have never "not matched." If a fire were to break out in my house, leaving me with only two socks that didn't match, I'd go with sandals and no socks until I could get a pair of matching socks.

Joy, to bring it all back to the original question, what demographic should be purchasing your product, because I feel I may be a bit over-qualified to use your product?

In case you were wondering, here's a little more info on me; a current Mitchum® brand Antiperspirant & Deodorant user:
Matches socks & shoes well. Bonus skill: can tie shoes
Performs basic math skills to the 12th grade level
differentiates between basic colors
able to distinguish between common barnyard animal sounds
can write own name
recognizes mirror image as self.

Tokyo Slim

Differently Similar

2008-03-05T22:29:00.008+09:00

So, while we wait for word from "them" I'll share some pics I took with a friend of mine.

Not too long ago, we left work at lunch to shoot photos in the local area. Once we got out of his van, we kind of split up and took pictures in the same area, but not around each other. I got lost in my viewfinder and forgot he was there, and I think he did the same. Our pictures were interestingly different, despite taking pictures of the same stuff.

I'm hoping he gets around to putting up a website. I would definitely link to it from here because he does nice work.
Anyway, here's a temple in Misawa that I didn't know was here. Thanks, bro.

From under the tori

Some odd winter blossoms

To wake the gods...

Messin With the Man, Again

2008-03-02T19:46:00.005+09:00

Ok, so I know its been a while, and I'm sorry. But hey, to make up for it, I've decided to mess with Corporate America, yet again. This time, I'm moving on to deodorant. I'd rather not mention what lucky corporation it will be, this early in the game, so I'll just give you a taste of what's to come, and a copy of the message I sent. I'd rather they didn't see this coming...

I have some questions about the marketing strategy for your *******® brand Antiperspirant & Deodorant, men's version. I would rather correspond via email, rather than telephone. Please let me know who to contact for this specific product.
Thanks,
T. Slim

I'll keep you posted as news rolls in!
Photo by Tokyo Slim, product not by Tokyo Slim

New Year's Eve

2008-01-29T21:50:00.000+09:00

Ok, so my lazy ass is just now getting around to what happened next for New Year's at Chez Slim. So after the New Year's Eve meal, we moved on to the actual countdown. At midnight, we poured the drinks. Some cheap-o Cold Duck and Kids' Champagne, some form of Power Ranger, served in a Totoro Glass. Totoro is in my top five favorite movies, I encourage you to check it out.

Here comes the sausage-fest! Actually, I'm the only dude in a house of dudettes, but I was talking about the snacks we had with our countdown drinks! Wieners, salami, crackers, and 3 different cheeses. If I had to gut-punch someone's grandma to eat it again, I'd consider it. Fortunately though, I'd just have to go to the store.

Here's one of our Kadomatsu. They are supposed to be set on both sides of a doorway or entrance to welcome the ancestral spirits of the harvest. It was kind of expensive, so we only bought one. That's called half-assin' a tradition... We have a smaller one also, but two of the same size would look better. The three bamboo represent Heaven, Humanity and Earth. The Heaven one is the tallest, the Earth one being the shortest, but sometimes, as ours, the Humanity and Earth ones are the same size. The pine calls the gods. Everything is wrapped in straw mat and tied off with straw rope.

Photos by Tokyo Slim

New Year's Eve Food

2008-01-15T22:57:00.000+09:00

I had some other shit going on so I'm sorry for the delay of getting this post out. Here it is...

As many of you know, my favorite time of year is New Year's. My favorite place to be on New Year's is with family and friends in Japan. There's always good times, great food, and awesome Japanese TV! This year was absolutely perfect. I always take vacation time from work, and this year I started it a little earlier because there was a chance I was headed out to Bangladesh on business right after New Year's. Luckily, I didn't end up going so I could really enjoy sitting around on my ass!

As you may know from last year's post, Mrs. Slim is phenomenal in the kitchen and very good at keeping up the Japanese traditions around Chez Slim. This year, however, I think she knocked one out of the park. There are different foods you are supposed to eat, at different times, for different reasons, throughout the New Year's holiday in Japan, which spans from 31 December to 3 January, officially. Below I've got some photos from our New Year's Eve mange.

This is some cold soba noodles; ALL Japanese people eat soba to get ready for the New Year. It's called Toshikoshi Soba. The long noodles are a symbol of long life.

My wife chose to eat her soba hot, in some soup with spinach... I snuck a taste , it rocked.

The big plate up in the top right corner is tempura. Mrs. Slim's tempura was shrimp, shitake mushrooms, squid, green peppers, and sliced sweet potato. To the left of the tempura plate is Shumai. Below and to the right of the Shumai is Inarizushi, or sushi in a bean-bag.

Photos by Tokyo Slim, food by Mrs. Tokyo Slim

What The Hell That Was

2008-01-15T00:16:00.000+09:00

Ok, so we have a winner of sorts. I'd like to move on with some more stuff for Capicola, so I'm taking the closest guess to What the Hell That Is? Congratulations to gwenmami for being the closest to What the Hell Is That? Here's the actual guess; it's as if you were looking right into the mind of gwenmami, let's take a look:

gwenmami said...
It's a ham sandwich on white bread oozing with French's yellow mustard.

9:18 AM

Technically speaking, this is What The Hell That Was: Braunschweiger and onions on toast with yellow mustard. Cheese was never in the mix, nor will it ever be. I would have been satisfied with Liverwurst or Braunschweiger and Mustard sandwich. The specifics I was looking for were Liverwurst or Braunschweiger, and then yellow mustard.

Here's What The Hell That Is

The fixin's

The Goods, 95% Assembled

Gwenmami, please email me your mailing address to tokyoslim at yahoo.com, so I can send your prize. If you had guessed correctly, you would have received something from Capicola Goods, but since you were only "the closest" you get another prize that you can only get from Japan. I'm sure you'll love it, even if you are from Japan and could get it yourself, you'll still think its cool!!!

What The Hell Is That?!

2007-12-28T13:27:00.000+09:00

So, I decided about a year ago that I wanted to have a little contest, but was undecided on some issues with this site. I've since then pulled my head out, and now present to you, What The Hell Is That?! Below is a photo I took of an "object" in my house. The first person to correctly guess what the hell this is will receive an item from Capicola Goods and the privilege of looking down your nose at the losers. You've gotta be moderately specific to win.










Drop your guess in the comment section, and don't forget to leave your name, so you can get your awesome prize!

Comments now CLOSED.
Update, January 9, 2008:
So far there are some really good guesses, a few odd ones, and some suggestions that make me question further association with humanity. I'm gonna give it a few more days before I decide who is the closest or who guesses  What the Hell That Is. Keep the guesses coming in, and don't forget to leave your name.
Tokyo Slim

Birthday Crabs

2007-12-27T23:12:00.000+09:00

It's not every birthday that you get crabs, especially from your spouse, but this year I did! Below is a picture of the crabs my wife gave me.

Actually, it was just crab legs and claws. I'm sure you weren't thinking something else... They were delicious, and there's still a little bit left in the freezer. Thanks babe!

After emailing some old friends from NY about Izakaya food today, I decided to make my birthday meal even better. So Mrs. Slim and I hit the store and then whipped up an awesome birthday feast. Thanks again babe!

Here's some asparagus wrapped in bacon. I rolled them up, then dusted them with garlic powder and crushed black pepper. Mrs. Slim sauteed them up to perfection. Freakin' awesome.

Although the picture is not very good, these bad boys are broiled leeks with miso paste and mozzarella cheese. I broiled the leeks in the toaster oven until lightly browned on both sides, then smeared on the miso paste, sprinkled with mozzarella and threw them back in the oven for a bit. I couldn't love a human baby more than I love these leeks. In fact, if you killed someone and then brought me these to eat, I'd probably not turn you in.

My wife found these huge pork cutlets marinated in ginger at the store today for 80 yen each. That's like around 70 cents a piece!! We bought two of them and two rib steaks. I seasoned the steaks with balsamic vinegar, garlic and thyme, then threw them all on the grill; kick ass!

When I was a kid, an awesome birthday was Stretch Armstrong, cake and ice cream. A few years later, an awesome birthday meant a night out with the boys, booze, strippers. Fast forward to today at 34 years old, an awesome birthday is good food at my house with my family... and strippers.

Photos by Tokyo Slim
Food by Tokyo Slim and Mrs. Slim.

Oh Jesus!!

2007-12-18T22:50:00.000+09:00

So back in the spring (yes, I'm aware its almost New Year's) I did a little traveling around the Tohoku area. Not very unusual for me, however, what I found was a little something out of the ordinary. I could give an intro to what I found, but the road sign below pretty much sums it up.

I could also spend some time typing what is in this next picture, or I could just let you read it. Hmm, what's a guy to do...

So, without further ado, here's Jesus!

And remember reading about Jesus's brother, Isukiri (aka Mr. Casual) above? Well here's the final resting place of the two brothers, not quite like their bunk beds were back in the manger. Note: being a Buddhist, I kinda lost track of Jesus after X-Mas night, just assuming he grew up in that manger also...

Oh crap, this was when Jesus came down and Smited my ass for talkin' shit...

The rest are some of the goods by your religion's leading dude, or dudette. Just insert his/her name...

The last pic's info:
Aperature: F/22,
Shutter Speed: .3 sec
Focal Length: 30mm
ISO: 400
Color Space: sRGB

As a child, I went through some Christian-type education, and I've perused the Christian "Book O' Rules"; gotta say, I didn't remember the part where Jesus' bro pulled the ole Folger's Switch on the cross. I also didn't remember the part where he moved to Japan, but according to the sign its true, 'cause Jesus said so...

All Photos by Tokyo Slim

Up North

2007-12-09T22:56:00.001+09:00

Ok, so it looks like there won't be any surgery on the ole neck until I lose control of my bowels, according to the Neurosurgeon. Not exactly the news I wanted, but I've been waiting for a reason to take a shit at the next schedulers meeting...
So I'm back from Hawaii, and leave again tomorrow for a few days of "work" at Yokota.
Here's some pics from the North Shore:

The North Shore, looking south from Banzai Beach, no good shots of the Banzai Pipeline

The focus here should be on the store's name, not the woman and her polka-dotted ass.

The goal was to get Shave Ice from Matsumoto's and one from Aoki's and then compare. I decided, after powering through Matsumoto's, that it would not be advisable to get another, as I could not feel my face.

As I was heading out of Haleiwa, the sun decided to do stuff through the clouds.

This was an awesome tree next to the Waialua Sugar Mill.

Here's a close up.

Photo's by Tokyo Slim

1st Stop; Malasadas

2007-11-29T10:26:00.000+09:00

Aloha, I made it safe and sound. I picked up the rental car and took a slight deviation from securing my billet.

Here's the joint.

And in this box...

I'd have better pics, but I really couldn't wait any longer to tear into these bad boys.

Photos by Tokyo Slim

A Little Bit of Aloha

2007-11-28T07:27:00.000+09:00

Well, if you know Tokyo Slim, you know I don't travel without my posse. Who's in the posse? Searing neck pain. I'm sure you've heard of him, we've been together for years; I think we first met around 2000.

I have some sad news though, the posse might finally be breaking up. Due to advances in medical technology, MRI's have discovered herniated discs in my spine. I was told "a couple." All comm has been brief and by phone since the MRI, so I really don't know everything. I will soon though.

So, in a few short hours, I'm a headed down to the Hawaii to get the thing that totes my noggin around checked out. If surgery can be done, and they can fit me in, my stay will be extended. Of course, the posse is rollin wit me, searing neck pain and my travel partner with lenses.

Completely unrelated to the issue at hand, here's a pic of some stairs I built with Kid 1 for her school project. They were clamped up to a table we built waiting for the glue to dry. They go inside a pyramid, which is next to them. More pics of the final project when I come back from the Hawaii. Aloha.

Photo by Tokyo Slim

Stumbling On Excellence

2007-11-27T22:06:00.000+09:00

Ok, so there's a Japanese dude thats an up and coming artist that has really caught my and my wife's eye. I wish him the best of luck, because I feel his artwork is very special. I'm considering employing him to do some more pieces for the Izakaya I want to open when I finish my current gig. My man was cool enough to do some drawings of me and my family, but thats not what he normally does. His plans are not to become "that guy at the fair that does caricatures". That's what makes these pieces so special to us. Here's a pic of what he's done on sheets of plywood for us.

There's meanings in the Kanjii and meanings of the red suns in the pictures that I can't get into for now, but if you are really curious, I can divulge a little.

In The Hands of Another Man

2007-11-25T22:20:00.000+09:00

So my friend H.R. (Not to be confused with H.R.Pufnstuf) has some skills in the photographic area. He's a film cat by trade, but I been tryin' to convert his retro-ass to the world of digital. Why? Cause I'm a dick and want to see him drop a few hundred dollars, muhahaha!!!

So, in my attempt to get him hooked on digital, I let him wield my travel partner for a few minutes. Click to enlarge...

Man vs Machine.

It's done, bring it...

Testing my 50mm lens on the new ABU

Photos by H.R. Un-pufnstuf

Has it Been That Long?

2007-10-30T23:40:00.000+09:00

Wow, the time has just flown by. We just got out of an exercise and I haven't done shit here for almost the whole month. My apologies. Some updates would include getting back out to Momiji (Maple Tree)s Mountain for the second year. It was awesome again.

Here's Kid#2, being herself. Her ~~sense of humor~~ level of retardation appears to be in line with Dad, according to Mrs. Slim. I found it funny enough to take a picture, so I guess Mrs. Slim is right.

Here's a cool old dude selling some Oden. That's Kid #2 waiting for a handout after payment. I don't know who the weird woman is on the right, but I really wish her face didn't get in my picture. I'm guessing she's left handed, has three Abba albums, and might not have tonsils anymore. Why would I guess that? Why the hell not?!

These folks are blurry because of their atheism. Or because I kept the shutter open longer for low light conditions. You choose.

Holy crap, did I finally get around to showing some maple trees? Yeah, I guess so. It takes forever to upload pictures and I'm tired, so that's all you're getting for now. I might put more pics up later.

Today's Lesson: Sounds

2007-10-09T21:58:00.000+09:00

Hey there, boys and girls! Welcome back to another installment of Capicola! Today we are going to discuss the wonderful world of sound! Sounds are all around us. Sounds can make us happy, like money riffling out of an ATM! Sounds can make us hungry, like bacon sizzling in the pan! Then there's email replies, like this one from Mars Snackfood US:

In response to your email regarding M&M'S CHOCOLATE CANDIES.

Thank you for your email.

We're pleased to hear you enjoy our M&M'S CHOCOLATE CANDIES and appreciate your taking the time to tell us so.

Our Marketing Staff is continually working on new ideas. Although we cannot say what they are, we hope you will continue to watch and enjoy!

Have a great day!

Your Friends at Mars Snackfood US

Sounds like M&M's coming out with a new flavor that Tokyo Slim won't get credit for... I bet it's that dirtbag "Red" that stole my idea. That shifty son of a bitch.

Photo not by Tokyo Slim

Note to Mars: When I was a kid, and my sister had an awesome idea, it would go down like this:

Me: I've got an awesome idea; Peanut butter, jelly, and butterscotch chips.

Tokyo Slim's Sister: I'm pleased to hear you enjoy peanut butter and jelly, and appreciate your taking the time to tell me so. I'm continually working on new ideas. Although I cannot say what they are, I hope you will continue to watch and enjoy!

By the way... You should try my new idea; Peanut butter, jelly, and butterscotch chips. I hear its awesome!

As my man Ross says, there's a hater born every 5 minutes... 4:55, 4:56, 4:57...

Easter in September

2007-09-25T23:13:00.000+09:00

Better than Christmas in July, its Easter in September. Am I the only Buddhist that celebrates this video? "thanks easter bunny, bawk, bawk!"

Re-engaging the M&M and More

2007-09-25T22:06:00.000+09:00

Ok, so if you were wondering about what happened with the letter to M&M's, you are not alone. I swung by their website and copy and pasted the same message as before. Maybe hotmail deleted it as junk automatically, so I will keep a close eye on the junk mail folder this time. Also this time, I noticed that, according to their website, you get a response within 2-3 business days. Because I'm a super guy, I'll give them 4. If I get no response then, its go time. More to come sooner than last.

So guess what happened after nearly fifteen years? I finally got the elusive marksman ribbon. Want a trip down ole memory lane? Click here for my story about marksmanship that happened a few years ago, on this blog's beginnings. I never got a reply about the rib removal...

What could possibly be more exciting than that? Okay, how about the fact that I ordered the new ABU (Airman Battle Uniform) from uscav.com today? Some sizes are limited right now, but it's a shorter time to get them from uscav than MCSS. I'm jumping on board with this new uniform, been wearing the same shit for too long.

That's about it, except I recently came across a photo of a Wingman. Gen. Jumper would be proud.

Photo not by Tokyo Slim

The Delivery

2007-09-23T19:21:00.000+09:00

Hey, in case you were wondering what the dish my wife bought looks like, from the last post, here it is with some of our dinner in it. Click to enlarge all pics, yo.

I've had my eye on an electric fish roaster since I got back from the Alaska, and today, I made my move on it. This was her maiden voyage. My favorite fish, the Hoke, with a hiraki cut. Hiraki means split down the top, hinged on the belly.

In case you didn't know, the official/traditional/proper way to serve fish in Japan is head to the left or belly towards the person eating. Sleep better knowing that. I also cooked some salmon cuts tonight.

In hind-sight, I'd say say I placed the fish the wrong way in the dish; the handles should have been to the left and right in order to view the fish in the horizontal. I'm not sure what the proper way is on this cut of fish. In Japan, food is like a good joke; the delivery is key. The flavor is important, but if you present it the wrong way, you've screwed it up in the grand scheme of things.

So did it taste good? You bet your ass it did, and here is why: The fish roaster worked like a champ and my recipe is always spot on. Drizzle on the sake, then sprinkle on the salt; the rest is up to the fish. The Salmon was from Aomori and the Hoke was from Hokkaido; both in Japan and from cold waters. In Japan, you can buy Salmon from Chile, but I'd rather not eat fish from warm water, so I go for the northern Japan variety. When it comes to Hoke, you can get the Hokkaido or Russian versions. I stick with Japan, as Russia never hooked me up with shit.

Photos by Tokyo Slim

Creative Juices

2007-09-23T09:24:00.001+09:00

Well, we were out shopping yesterday, looking at dishes and pottery type stuff, which can be ~~mind-numbing~~ great fun. While I do enjoy eating straight from the pizza box, plates can be cool sometimes, I suppose. We bought a few things. My wife picked a cool serving dish shaped like a leaf. Here's some items that I picked up. Click to enlarge all pics, yo.

So once I got this stuff home, this is what I did with it:

I bought the plants from a different store and had to snip most of their roots off to fit them in the little holes. My thinking is, they won't need as many roots if they have more exposure to water.

I thought it turned out pretty cool. Hopefully the plants live... If not, I guess we'll have two new serving dishes and some random crap to collect dust.
Photos by Tokyo Slim

Your Rice Art

2007-09-13T00:33:00.000+09:00

Alright, I just don't lie. I told you I had something totally awesome, and here it is: In the town of Inakadate, they have been making art for the last few years in the rice fields outside of the Inakadate city office. They plant different types of rice, which are different colors, in patterns to form pictures of famous paintings in the rice fields. This year, they have combined two Hokusai paintings into one.
If you are in Japan, come see this shit; if you aren't, come see this shit!

If I got there earlier, the sun would have been in front of us, not casting a shadow of the city office onto the field.

One of the Slimlings checkin' in out.

Both of the Slimlings getting a closer look

The rice

A late summer dragon fly

Photos by Tokyoslim

Updates, Repairs, and Stuff in "Quotes"

2007-09-04T21:50:00.001+09:00

So just to let you know, there's still no reply from M&M's on the new flavor idea. I'll be updating as soon as I hear something.

I've got something totally awesome to go check out this weekend. I heard about this place but never knew exactly where it was. Now I know and will be headed out early Saturday morning. Hint: rice and art...

Whilst in the Alaska, I was tossing the old pig skin around with "Me and my Ego" and "B" when I dislocated my Pinky finger *twice. I went to get repaired today and it turns out there was a fracture, but it already started to heal. I'm in a splint now to straighten the little guy out. The splint is flesh-toned like a prosthesis and, apparently, the only flesh tone the splint comes in is "white dude"; so much for diversity. Watch out for the medical "man", he's a real prick. Anyways, I want it to stop feeling like it's gonna dislocate again, so they splinted it up for a week. If it doesn't stop doing that shit after that, they may have to take "other actions"...

* Once is bad luck, twice is sheer stupidity.

I also had the ankle checked out. It didn't break, but after rolling it, then walking on rubble for a few months, and doing facing movements every morning on rubble putting up the flag, it healed quite crappily (word not recognized by Blogger's spell check). I've landed a waiver that has me not running until 20 October, and some physical therapy; Oh yeah! It's legit though, because I have a lot of limited movement and I can't stretch my calf out before running because the ankle is so jacked. Here's a pick a few days after the color started to leave and the swelling went down:

Nice jugs, eh? As you can see, the injuries are better, back in Alaska. Photo by, and of, Tokyo Slim.

The Altered Reality of Rape-Beer

2007-09-03T17:13:00.001+09:00

So the other day we wanted to get out of the house and take a scenic drive next to the ocean. I decided on heading north up Route 338. It was very nice and we got out along the way several times to soak up what's left of the warm Summer rays with the added bonus of cool breezes off the ocean. We continued north until we hit Mutsu Bay, then headed west through Yokohama Town, which likes to be famous for rape. I guess a better way to say it is Nanohana. Remember the Tasty Rape Cream Post from last October? Nanohana means rape blossom, the flower of rapeseed, which is a major ingredient in vegetable oil and canola oil. Well, they're making their own beer from rape, so I bought two bottles, here they are, each around $4 a piece. Glad they came as singles!

The one on the left is an "Alt" and the one on the right, a "Kolsch." Although I've drank plenty of beer, I had no idea what these terms were, so a severe googling was in order. Here's what I found:

Alt- Altbier (often abbreviated to Alt) is the name given to a form of pale ale that originated in Düsseldorf and the Rhineland region in Germany.
Kolsch- Kölsch is a local beer speciality, brewed in Cologne, Germany. It is a clear beer with a bright straw yellow hue, and it has a prominent, but not extreme, hoppiness.

But how did they taste? Here were my results: They were both tasty, the Alt being more of an amber-ish beer. I liked the Alt better. But why was the Alt an amber beer when an Alt is supposed to be more of a pale ale? Hmmm...

Further inspection of the back of the bottle, with lots of help from Mrs. Slim, revealed this beer did not contain Nanohana, was not brewed using water from Yokohama Town, and was not even brewed in Yokohama Town. It was brewed in Senboku, the prefecture south-west of Yokohama Town. So what the hell was going on here?

Well, you can buy a souvenir anywhere, with that town, or state, or zoo, or prison's name on it, but most likely, the shit was made in Hong Kong. This, from what I can tell, was a way to get tourists to buy some beer with a cool label and a not so cool price. It was very good beer, but I would not get it again; too expensive and not really all that special.

By the way, before I see the question in your comments, yes, I felt raped on the price and sincerity of this beer. Photo by Tokyo Slim.

A Letter to M&M

2007-08-28T22:36:00.000+09:00

Ok, so while I was in the Alaska, I ate a shit-ton of MRE's. We had a hot breakfast and hot dinner, but lunch was with the Meals Rejected by Ethiopians. It got me to thinking, and so I decided to shoot out an email to the good folks at M&M's :

I was recently on a military deployment where I became up-close and personal with the MRE (Meal Ready to Eat). Two of the MRE packs contained your two most awesome flavors of M&M candies; Peanut M&M's and Peanut Butter M&M's. They are in the Chicken Breast (Menu #5) and Chicken with Salsa (forgot Menu #). Now, it just so happens that these MRE packs are also moderately un-sucky, which, if you have to live on MRE’s, is a desirable factor. Needless to say, they are highly sought after and somewhat tough to get your hands on, unless you know how to handle a prison shiv.
When I was lucky enough to get these MRE’s, I would save the M&M’s until the afternoon and then savor them, slowly, much to the chagrin of my M&M-less co-workers.

During one of my ~~ha ha you ain’t got none~~ savoring sessions, I thought about which M&M flavor I liked most. It tore me up inside. Then, a fantastic thought occurred to me; why not combine these two awesome flavors into one; Peanut & Peanut Butter M&M’s! Let’s face facts here, they both are awesome, and when you are eating one, you are comparing its appeal to the other. It’s like M&M polygamy, which can only end up in jealousy, heartache, and ugly kids in Utah.

So, why don’t you guys combine these, and make something totally awesome?!?!
I’ve worked out a few names you could call them, but feel free to take your own, as I’m not too marketing savvy.

1. P&PBM&M’s (Acronym-friendly for our military folks and pretty damn catchy if you ask me)
2. Peanut Chaos
3. Nuts Galore
4. Ha Ha, You’ve got a Nut Allergy and Can’t Enjoy These (Negotiable)
5. Eat Your Heart Out, George Washington Carver
6. Tokyo Slim’s Nuts (you never know)
Let me know what's up,
Your M&M Lovin' Friend,
Tokyo Slim

I'll keep you posted

Tokyo Slim in the House

2007-08-25T09:47:00.000+09:00

Well, I'm back from the Alaska and I've got a confession to make; for those people that say you can't hate something without experiencing it first, you are absolutely wrong. Alaska is the dumbest state and I was right for hating it before I ever went there, and now I can say it with even more confidence because I've been there. On the upside, I'm now part of that elite group that can say,"Back in Alaska..."

Yes, there was some nice mountain scenery, but the whole world is covered with mountains and I didn't find anything overly gorgeous. It just didn't offer up anything that I hadn't seen before, aside from bald eagles. There's a crap ton of them "back in Alaska" and they are slightly less majestic than I was led to believe. They do soar around trees and water and stuff, but they also cruise the mall parking lots looking for scraps like the zillions of ravens that I saw. Kind of a scavenger/free-loader now. Maybe it was all those years on the endangered species list that made it soft. Something to think about I suppose...

Although I worked with and for some of the most retarded National Guard people Missouri has to offer, I did make some really good friends from other places. Its really unfortunate that those idiots had to ruin an otherwise shitty time in such a stupid state.

So, I'm home now and my time off is coming to an end. It'll be back to work for me in a few more days. I wanted to "cool off" a bit before I updated the blog, as I didn't want to say something hurtful that I didn't truly mean. To those people that were cool, thanks for keeping me sane-ish.

Here's a pic of typical Alaskan wildlife. These things were everywhere, back in Alaska.

Photo by Tokyo Slim

Ramen Pilgrimage

2007-06-16T07:07:00.000+09:00

I've been on leave for about two weeks but have remained quite busy. Thanks to the kids' school having so many days off throughout the year, their last day was Thursday. It kind of ruined my plans to hit Hokkaido before I left for Alaska, but we're heading out anyway now.

Sapporo is the capital of the Hokkaido prefecture and the motherland when it comes to Miso Ramen. My wife swears by Shoyu Ramen, but I find it boring and its Miso all the way for this kid. Anyway, we're headed out in a few minutes. Got hotel and ferry reservations, but we're missing one night's stay for a hotel and hope to grab something on the fly. Homelessness is eerie.

I've got a fence to finish putting up as soon as we get back, and about a day to spare before I head out of town. It's gonna be a tight schedule, but it wouldn't be "leave" if I was relaxed. At least I haven't worn any socks since it started, and I've got a kicking soul patch going, which are the two most important requirements to a good bit of time off from work.

5-Head

2007-05-28T21:59:00.000+09:00

Ok, so we were waiting on a light in traffic the other day, and I looked over to a Cell-Phone shop. Inside the shop was a female employee dealing with a customer. I couldn't help but notice that she had the largest forehead I've seen in quite some time. She had her hair pulled back, accentuating it.

I nudged my wife and pointed it out. Here's how the conversation went down:
Me: Hey, babe, check out that chick's huge forehead.
Wife: Holy cow! (Smack) Yer a jerk!
Me: It's not my fault its a huge forehead!?!!
Wife: Her hair is pulled back.
Me: I know!!! It's like she's telling the world, "Hey!!! Hey!!!! Look at my huge forehead!!!!"
Wife: Sssshhh!! That's mean!!!!
Me: Well, that's what she's doing.
Wife: That's not a good hair style for her.
Me: Duhhh!!??!! Maybe she's trying to attract a huge-forehead-lovin' man? She's all," Hey, boys, check out this big, sexy, forehead action!"
Wife: Shut up!! (Smack)
Me: And then some dude without a Cell-Phone's all like"Ohhh Goddamn! That chick's forehead is hot!! I'd buy a cell-phone from her any day! Oh god, I just wanna thump it with my finger! I wanna feel it's firmness!"
Wife: Your an asshole!
Me: ...yeah. It's big though, huh?
Wife: ... Light's Green.

A Hater's Karma

2007-05-28T20:35:00.000+09:00

One of my least favorite places in the world is Alaska. It's really too bad, cause Alaska did nothing to me. It's those damn Wanna-Be's and Use-To-Be's that I really hate. I'm sure you've ran into them. Hell, the majority of the people who read this Blog know the ones that piss me off the most!

So, after my exposure to these morons, I took a stance on Alaska that was just unfair. I hated it. I hated Alaska and everyone that was from Alaska. I heard so Eff'ing much about Alaska, that it turned my stomach to hear one more word about the joint.

My Old Buddy Matay was all set to head to Alaska, but at damn-near the last minute of leaving Korea, his assignment to Alaska was changed to Virginia. Its cool though, cause Virginia's for lovers, so I hear, and I also didn't want to lump my man Matay in with the rest of those Alaskan losers that don't belong there.

So, after a few months here in Japan, when the war in Iraq was in full swing, I found out, much to my chagrin, where I was needed most; Mudda-Grabbin' Alaska. Why? To make water for the troops that were building a road through Annette Island. What is this project called? Operation Alaskan Road. Yup, they thought long and hard over that one I bet. But don't take my word for it, watch the video right here:

So here's some words we've heard (and read) today, click them for definitions:
Metlakatla
Operation Alaskan Road
Hater
Pickle Weasle (actually not used anywhere in this post, but goddamn, its a funny word and the definition makes me laugh my ass off!)

Cloud Cult

2007-05-15T22:55:00.000+09:00

I don't often push music, but I came a cross a band recently that I just kinda dig. They're an Indie band called Cloud Cult, and I think they're the shit. The music, vocals and lyrics are all really good. The emotion of the lyrics is on a level I haven't heard in a long time, and I just think its cool.

I tried to post some songs I really like directly, but ran into some difficulties, so here's the links to those songs. Yeah, I know there's better places than YouTube out there, but a lot of people still only post to it, so that's why I seem to only reference to YouTube. Anyway, here's my two faves from Cloud Cult, go ahead and checkum out.

Pretty Voice and Chemicals Collide. They are both from the album "The Meaning of 8".

About Those Horses

2007-05-08T23:32:00.000+09:00

So a couple of weeks ago, we drove up to Cape Shiriya, where the wild horses hang out. As we found the place, there were 3 horses in a fenced in area. Yeah, not exactly wild. Next to this was a gate controlled by motion sensor. I pulled through the gate and headed out to the lighthouse at the north-eastern-most point of mainland Japan. There was horse shit everywhere. I took some pictures, not too good, as it was a cold and windy overcast day.

We drove all through this area seeing lots of evidence of horses, yet no horses. We finally gave up and drove back out to the gate. There they were. I pulled the Slim-mobile over and took a few more pictures.

There was probably around 8 horses in the area, and then 4 more came haulin' ass up to the spot from the coast. I got a little nervous and made the Slimlings get back in the van as they approached. I didn't quite know how "Wild" these horses were.

That motion-sensor gate is the yellow and black thing behind the horses. These guys are wild, but they keep them partly contained to protect them from traffic. Good times.

Here's a young one.

Monkeys, Yo

2007-05-01T17:25:00.000+09:00

Ok, so I know its been a while, and I'm sorry. But hey, I got monkey pics, so shut it.

They were all kinda bored and stuff, but then this one got a wild hair up his butt and started bouncing up and down on this chain thing. Yeah, chain thing. Look, these are zoological terms people, don't question me.

This group was huddled up, in a row, and I thought it was cool, till Junior gave me "The Steam Whistle". Then it turned awesome.

Wooh wooh!

This guy looks like he's tossing a few algorithms around in his head.

Anyways, shit's been really busy again, but there's more pictures to come. I got some wild horses on the northeastern most point of mainland Japan and Cherry Blossom pics, so stay tuned.

Photos by Tokyo Slim

Newses

2007-04-18T21:40:00.000+09:00

Old news: My apologies for not posting in a few days. My homework for college has been a bit large lately and work has been keeping me pretty busy. Next week looks to be even busier, with lots more homework. Shitty.
Good news: My new flash finally came in, and it's effin' gi-normous!
Bad news: Time has been scarce to mess with it too much.
Awesome news: I've found a little slice of Utopia with free admission nearby. What's in there? Monkeys, in all their mite-picking, poop-flinging, grab-ass-tic-glory. Yeah, there'll be pictures, you can bet your ass on that. Monkeys. Yeah.
No news: I'm supposed to be heading out of town again soon, but just got word that there is no word. "They" will either spring it on me at the last minute (likely) or I won't be going after-all(excellent).

Other Gnews: On the Great Space Coaster, Gary Gnu's catch phrase was, "No Gnews is Good Gnews with Gary Gnu" but for some reason, he didn't put a "g" in front of "no". Oh, Gary, your attention to detail is gnegligent. If you don't remember the Great Space Coaster, this clip will take you back, Family Guy style.

The Tough Questions: Finale...

2007-04-09T22:29:00.000+09:00

We all know a good thing can't last, a mediocre thing too. Usually a crappy thing lasts longer than you want. Well, where the Tough Questions fall into, that's up to you, but the fact is, this is the last of 'em.

If you don't know the answer, try sneaking in a variable to the test. If it works, you win! If it doesn't, you get zero. Booo!

If you don't know the answer and can't sneak in the variable, just make your own damn question. And then TOTALLY ROCK THAT BITCH!!!!

If all else fails, try making X= something offensive/suggestive. It's a sure-fire winner.

The Bank Job

2007-04-08T01:06:00.000+09:00

During the trip to the Iwate Prefecture, we visited the city of Morioka. Pretty cool town. Lots of good restaurants, shopping, and history. One building I read about before we got there was on my list of things to see. Its the Morioka Bank, built in 1911. I've seen buildings that look like this in upstate NY, downtown Great Falls, MT, and other various places throughout "Any town, USA". I don't know shit about architecture, but I found this building to be really cool.

Same as the last post, I loved it, but had trouble photographing it. The traffic kept me out of the street, bushes and trees hindered shots from a distance, and being on a busy corner it had traffic signals in front of it.
Being built in 1911, I wanted to keep as much modern stuff out of the picture as possible, but it was just about impossible, so, I took around 30 different pictures and hoped for the best. I brought this one to Photoshop's world and tried my best to distract attention away from the modern stuff and focus just on the building itself. Here's what I came up with:

The original, cropped a lot, highlights adjusted

Here's the same shot with Sepia Tones

Plastic Wrap

I can't decide how to explain this one.

We were about to walk back to the Slim-mobile when I decided to photograph this:

A reflection of the past. Two modern buildings with a reflection of the old one.

Here she is, zoomed in. Another reflection of the past.
Photos most definitely by Tokyo Slim

Double-Take

2007-04-07T22:42:00.000+09:00

Ok, so the trip today turned up no Cherry Blossoms; it's just too early up here. It was cool to go to a new prefecture though, and we had a good time. There were some really cool buildings, one of which is here. I just thought it was interesting, but as I took it, some powerlines were in the way, and no matter how I shot it, they were there. Well, I decided to load 'er up in Photo Shop and see what I could work. Pretty cool.

The original version...

... and the wireless version. Not too shabby.

New Hat, Not Old Hat

2007-04-07T08:54:00.000+09:00

Well, after more than a year and half relationship with my travel partner and more than 7200 pictures together, he's finally getting a new hat. He's needed one for awhile, but his need for glasses was greater. Now, with the help of my tax refund, he'll finally have a little cover up top. This hat wasn't cheap, and I've been putting off this purchase for over a year. It should arrive in the mail next week. I'm excited for both of us.

Until it arrives, we're gonna hit the road this morning, traveling south to look for Cherry Blossoms in the Iwate Prefecture. It's the dark green section in the north. I'm located in the section above that, called Aomori Prefecture. We're like Iwate's Canada, without all the "eh?" talk.

Something new, as we've mainly only traveled North, North-West and North-East. Got some travel prep, so that's all for now.

By the way, here's my travel partner's new hat, front and back.

Photos not by Tokyo Slim

Update and Another Tough Question

2007-04-04T22:15:00.000+09:00

Ok, so I finally got around to fixing the problem here. The pictures are back up, and should stay up for awhile. If you click on the newer pictures now, they take you to my Google photo album. It'll have to do for now.

I'm taking another Japanese language class this semester, so my time is somewhat limited again. I didn't really have to study too much during the last class, but I might have to actually apply myself in this one. This might slow down the new website development, but not by too much.

I'm a little bit pressed for time tonight, but I'll leave you with another installment of "The Tough Questions".

Photo not by Tokyo Slim

Charles Has a Licking Problem

2007-04-03T01:04:00.000+09:00

Ok, I came across this a few days ago, and I can't seem to get it out of my head. The more I check out other stuff, the more I see it, so I hope you see it here first. If you've already seen it, enjoy it again. I can't stop watching it. I can't stop singing the song either. I might seek help soon.

By the way, I would check out Tooth Paste For Dinner for some other stuff. Enjoy!!!

Just a Test

2007-04-03T00:07:00.000+09:00

I'm using this photo of Grilled Scallops I ordered in Aomori as a test photo post. Yeah, they were freakin' delicious.

Don't forget to check out the sidebar, to the right. Check out that pancake teaser.

That's all.

Photo by Tokyo Slim

Not April Fool's

2007-04-01T21:31:00.000+09:00

So there's this part of my brain, we'll call him Sven, and he fires off (again) today with "Hey Slim, go look for snow". Then, that other part of my brain, we'll call him Steve, decides to argue with him. Steve's all like, "Hey Slim, there ain't no snow. This is one of them wussy winters" And Sven's all, "Yeah there is, you just gotta go a ways" and Steve's all, "whatever."
Anyways, here's what me and Sven came up with:

Tokyo Slim, in self portrait mode, with some snow in the background, but how much could there be?

Well, to help judge it all, here's one of the machines we met on the road. It carves its way through the roads. Yeah, peoples, this is Hakkoda Mountain. It was raining with not a speck of snow on the ground at my house this morning. Up here, the shit's deep.

Here's the Slim-Mobile. I pulled'er over and snapped a few hunderd pics.

Mrs. Slim and the Slimlings get to 3rd base with the wall of ice.

Mrs. Slim grabs a photo of me next to the tree-tops above someone's car. With 9 years in Minnesota and 9 years in upstate NY, this was the most snow I've ever seen, hands down.

There's the Slim-Mobile, a la Matchbox. Yeah, those are pine tree tops poking through the snow. Is that cool or what?

If this was a mild winter, they may want to think about raising some of the road signs for next year.

This is a river we crossed on the way up, I made sure I got a pic on the way back down. I think it turned out pretty good.

Same spot, zoomed in on some snow covered branches that hung over the river.

And here's the Tokyo Slim Seal of Approval. A much better way to leave your mark than yellow snow.

Photos by Tokyo Slim

Hangin Out with the French Homeless

2007-03-27T23:06:00.000+09:00

Ok, so I wondered what title had the least to do with this post, and I think I scored big time. The weekend went well, we had an awesome time with the family from Tokyo. The onsen was freakin' sweet, the food was equally freakin' sweet, and we got passes for them to come on base and check out Chez Slim. They liked our Chihuahuas (Smithers, release the hounds).

The plan is to post some pictures from the trip and also some footage from a Shamisen player at our hotel. He was awesome. Too bad its late and I'm not in the mood to post it all tonight. But it'll come.

Until then, Jaws is on and it reminded me of this awesome movie trailer. Don't miss the man-boobs on "Bad Hat Harry" and for Weez, you'll like the music.

From the same people that made Must Love Jaws, here's 10 Things I hate About Commandments.

They also put out this new one called Glen & Gary and Glen & Ross. They have Tourettes. Rough language...

The Tough Questions, Volume 2

2007-03-23T08:19:00.000+09:00

Well, we're headed out of town for a couple of days, gotta get away from this mother-huncher. I was gonna throw up something witty this morning, before we left, but my brain hurts. Here's Volume 2 of the Tough Questions. It's all I can muster.
Click to enlarge and have a great weekend.

This one took me a second to "get". Yeah, I'm not an Algebra kind of guy either.

Now this one, yeah, its always the first thing that pops in my head.

Photos not by Tokyo Slim

The Tough Questions, Volume 1

2007-03-11T20:46:00.000+09:00

Ok, so I recently got an e-mail containing test questions supposedly from students that would rather be somewhere else than taking a test. Some of them are pretty funny; stuff I could see myself writing, if I’d only had the balls to do it when a grade was on the line. I don’t know how authentic they actually are, but they are entertaining, so I thought I’d pass them on to you, a little at a time. Kinda like trying to fart quietly when you run.
As usual, click on the picture for a closer look, the words are kinda small.

Yeah, I suppose that would work too...

I don't know, I think it's a pretty good description, actually.
More to come soon...

Photos not by Tokyo Slim

A Different Cheese

2007-03-09T19:02:00.000+09:00

Ok, so I'm finally gonna put a little effort into this. For now...
Last weekend, we went to the Shimoda Mall and while we were there, we picked up a few baked goodies. I'm no stranger to this place, and one thing I made sure we got was the best cheese cake I've ever had. Yeah yeah, I know, "the best Jerry, the best!" But until you've had a Premium Cheese Cake from the Ginza Cozy Corner (since 1948), you have know idea.
It's pretty much the size of your standard American brick, shout out to the Masons, yo. It currently runs about 580 Yen, or roughly $5.
Here's some pics:

This Cheese Cake is so awesome; you might just shit a little when you taste it. I suggest waiting till you get home to try it. Who wants to shit a little in public, ya know?

If you are near Misawa and need directions to either Shimoda Mall or the location of this shop in the Shimoda Mall, do not hesitate to ask me. The quicker you get your hands on this cheese cake, the longer you can enjoy its awesomeness.

Photos by Tokyo Slim

No Material = Cheesy "Best Of" Post

2007-02-28T21:19:00.000+09:00

So I know it's been kinda slow at Capicola lately, and for that I apologize. As you've read, I got sent away to a school for six weeks. Since I've come back, I've moved to a new shop, and the shop I moved to is, for lack of a better term, all fucked up. I'll be nice and not go further into the reasons why. Cough(past leadership)!
Anyways, I've got a lot to fix and spend most of my spare time thinking about how to fix it all. Unfortunately, my spare time used to be taken up with odd ball thoughts that have brought you such classics as Yer a Bum, Rock, Cleanliness is Next to Stupidity, The Run Gets Racy, and Laziness Update. So instead of dazzling you with something new, I'm forced to let you reminisce in these sweet memories. It's a little something I learned from Sit-coms when they run out of material. Please enjoy.
New comments on old posts are always appreciated, as I care what you all think, and I'm wondering if you have given up on Capicola and my staff (aka me).

Slim's In The House, Yo

2007-02-19T14:47:00.000+09:00

Well, after 6 weeks of Professional Military Education crammed down my throat at the Okinawa, I am back with the Slim Family in sunny Misawa. There's more snow than when I left, but still not that much for the area and time of year. I wondered what all the snow hype was all about, so we decided to go look for it.

Our journey took us to Lake Towada for their annual Winter Story Festival. There were a bunch of cool igloos and colored lights on ice sculptures and tasty food vendors. Here's some pics.

Ice Sculptures

One of the Igloos at night. They made a fake bar inside.

Slim-ling #1 signs the guestbook. I put the address of Capicola in there. Hopefully I generate some hits from it.

Photos by Tokyo Slim

Nothin'

2007-02-04T13:41:00.000+09:00

I know I should be posting more, but my schedule is pretty full here in the Okinawa. When I'm not in class, I'm trying to catch up on homework, catch up with old friends, or catch up with new friends.

I'm doing well in my class, while putting the least amount of effort into it. I'm not interested in graduating first, just graduating. The sunsets are really nice down here. Here's one.

Photo by Tokyo Slim

In the Okinawa

2007-01-09T23:53:00.000+09:00

Ok, so I'm here in the Okinawa. Not exactly happy to be here, but here none the less. Interesting fact: my next-door neighbor at Misawa is my next-door neighbor in the dorms here. Neither of us knew the other was coming here. Yeah, communication...

I could probably fit two of my dorm rooms inside of my room in the Korea. I keep my paper plates in the fridge, to save space. Yeah. I'm pampered. I should probably eat at the chow-hizzy (chow hall for you non-Baxter speaking people) but I'm just not ready to do it again, after a year in The Korea. I eat alot of sandwiches, canned soups and canned vegetables; Del Monte whole leaf spinach rocks! Gots a pull tab, yo!

I thought I'd take a picture of the clouds while I was waiting for the "window seater" to get back from the john. I love the aisle seat. You rule your little airline area.

Photos By Tokyo Slim

On The Road, Again?

2007-01-06T01:49:00.000+09:00

Well, apparently 5 months seemed way too long to keep me with the Slim family, so Uncle Sam is sending me off to the NCO Academy in Okinawa for the next 6 weeks. I don't think I've been home long enough for them to be sick of me yet, but then again, they hide their emotions well, so...

I'm leaving tomorrow morning. It sucks. We had to have Slim-ling #2's birthday a few days early, because of this. I was in "The Korea" last year for her birthday, so this was a lot better, yet falls short of right. This will be the 6th time (out of 7 birthdays) I haven't been with her on her birthday. It's pretty fucked up. Yeah, the f-bomb. I dropped it.

So, I don't know what kind of internet connection I'll have down there on the isle, but I'll make something work. Keep checking in, I'll post something.

On a side note, I've not heard anything back from Vanessa at Petsmart.

Here's some options as to why:
1. She didn't get invited to the Petsmart Christmas Party.

2. She's married to a guy in the shipping department and decided it's better to not say anything, to keep me as a potential repeat customer.

3. I'm an idiot and she won't dignify my idiocy with a response.

I think you know how it went down... She didn't get invited for sure...

On a further side note, here's what my cool-ass wife, Mrs. Tokyo Slim, whipped up for our traditional Japanese New Year's breakfast. She's fucking awesome. (Yeah, I dropped the f-bomb earlier, so now its ok) My absolute favorite holiday is New Years, but I gotta be in Japan to enjoy it the most, and I was; double score!

A huge shout-out and thanks to Mrs. Slim, aka "My Babies' Mama" for an awesome New Years.

Photo by Tokyo Slim (a la fish eye lens, yo)

The Secret to Healthy Fugu

2007-01-02T10:09:00.000+09:00

Well, a few posts ago, I regaled you with the amazing adventures of my Fugu Fish Rescue, or Operation FFR-06. Well, I'm sad to report, that one fugu has died. It is now that I realize how to keep a Fugu fish alive; they need to be thrown down the garbage disposal.

The tiny, runt of the school is still alive and happy after his ordeal in the disposal. The bigger, school bully is dead and took the Porcelain Highway out of Slim-ville. Obviously he was in dire need of some disposal time, and I neglected to give him this essential ingredient to good Fugu health.

If you've got Fugu's (or would it be Fugi?) *I urge you: run, don't walk, and throw them down the disposal now! Their life may depend on it!

* Disclaimer: This statement is not endorsed by PETA, SPCA, or Joe's Crab Shack. Individaul results may vary. For the absolute best care of your Fugu fish, consult your local practitioner of fish medecine.

A Christmas Surprise!

2006-12-27T06:55:00.000+09:00

Well, my Pizzo's (Pizzo's is "baxter" for people) I'd like to say I've found another reason to not hate people. Tiffanee from inmyelement.net surprised me on Christmas by straightening out the hosting/admin/publishing/tokyo slim's a jackass issues at my new website.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! You've provided Frankenstein with a little more than "Maaahhnnnng!"

The most important step has been done. Now I have to design it, which will take some time.
So a super huge thank you goes out to Tiffanee for this awesome Christmas Surprise!

To the rest of the loyal Capicola readers, a heartfelt list of bullshit:
Yes, I will be moving to yet another location.
Time? Soon.
Destination? I'll tell you soon.
Reason? Several;
#1. I love keeping people on their RSS feed toes.
#2. My picture posting software is changing, and I fear change.
#3. Immigration has found out I'm not really the wife of a deceased billionaire in Nigeria who is requesting help moving millions of dollars from my homeland, rewarding you with a hefty percentage. Yes, hefty.
#4. I need more flexibilty with my website.
#5. I need to make it easier for you to post comments without becoming a member of blogspot.
#6. I wanted to use the words "feed" and "toes" in the same sentence. When's the last time you did? (See #1)

Update: Yes, Tiffanee, this is an excuse for not leveling my toon.

Back to You, Phil

2006-12-24T22:31:00.000+09:00

Ok, so I finally brought home a friend for Phil, for a little while... Who's Phil, you ask? He's the first plant we bought when we returned to Japan. Meet Phil for the first time here.

I've been keeping a keen eye out at the 100 Yen stores ($1 stores) because ~~that's where we bought Phil~~, ~~I'm a bargain shopper~~, I'm a cheap-ass. The selection hasn't been good, and I can't find one that's not almost dead.

So, after planning for a few Greek and Italian dishes too cook over the next few days, I brought home some Parsely... and named him Brent.

Here's a shot of Phil and Brent together, no doubt trading college stories. In case you didn't read the original post, or click on the link above, or you stepped off the sidewalk, got hit by a car, woke up in the hospital with amnesia and forgot what Parsely looks like, Brent is the one on the right.

Can't say I'm not lookin' out for ya, you amnesiacs.

Photos By Tokyo Slim

Yer a Bum, Rock!

2006-12-16T12:49:00.000+09:00

Ok, so in honor of the new Rocky Movie coming out, I think its high time we paid tribute to an acting role in the first Rocky film that was never nominated for any awards, yet has their own action figure.

Yes, when Rocky was released in 1976, I was but 3 years old. I was on my 4th pair of plaid pants, turtle necks took up a third of my wardrobe, and America was 4 months into her 200th year.

So what role has their own action figure? The meat. In particular, the meat that Rocky beat. Dude, that's hot. More specifically, the scene where Rocky was training and was punching the huge side of beef. That meat has its own action figure. Yes, yes it does. Much to PETA's chagrin.

I think this will go down in history as the most "in-active" "action-figure" the world has ever known. If you buy it here, you can beat your meat till you ~~go blind~~ need glasses.

Requesting a Side Bar

2006-12-13T22:14:00.000+09:00

There's still no reply from Vanessa at Pet Smart and not much else is happening. I did update the side bar with a couple of links in the Antipasti section and a link to My Christmas Wish List. Shop for me or another loved one. By the way, to explain the first item on my list: I don't actually have a tuba, but if I ever get one, I'm gonna need a Gig Bag; Hellooo?!?!

Tokyo Slim: Life Saver

2006-12-10T19:47:00.000+09:00

So we've got these two fish called fugu. It translates into blowfish or puffer fish. They don't have the spikes like the ocean kind. These guys live in brackish water, which is not as salty as ocean water, but has salt in it none the less.

Anyway, I cleaned their tank this morning, mixed up some new saltwater and was picking the tank up out of the sink when it started to slip out of my fingers. I tried to set it back down but about an inch from the sink, I lost it. The little fugu was close to the surface and as the tank hit the sink, out he sloshed. Guess where he landed?

Fugu Graveyard

Yeah, right down the garbage disposal, aka Fugu Graveyard. My hand can barely fit in there and I knew I'd probably squish him as I tried to get my hand back out. I tried to float him out, but this was the one time it drained too well to let him swim out.

I wondered if he was still alive after the dousing of freshwater. I grabbed a flashlight, and there he was, lying on his side... gasping. So much for a quick death. I grabbed some chopsticks, but the little bugger was to slippery.

I could hear him, his raspy little voice begging me, "Help me, Slim... can't... breathe... so thirsty..."

I reached in and gently scooped him up. Pulled my hand up, out, empty. I tried again, empty. A couple more tries and my hand was aching from scraping the edges every time.

Finally, I got him out. I examined him quickly. He glared at me. ~~I threw him in the trash and went back to bed~~ I dropped him back in his tank. He went and hid under the filter for a few minutes, a little shook up I guess.

Here's a pic of him. He's the ungrateful looking chap on the right. He seems to be alright, the dumb little A-hole.

Photos By Tokyo Slim

Being Ignored

2006-12-09T21:58:00.000+09:00

In the spirit of the Irish Spring posts (the First, Second, Third, and Fourth of them) I decided to mess around with the good people at PetSmart.com. Why? Well, just because. Here's what's gone down so far:

The Re: to "Your order has been shipped"

Where is my order. I tried to track it through your website. It says I don't have any orders, probably because I ordered through Amazon.com, but regardless, you have my money and my filters, so you know what you need to do next.

Waiting your response,
Tokyo Slim

The Reply:

We are sorry that your order has not yet arrived.

Your order is shipping to an APO/FPO address outside of the continental United States. Orders to these addresses are shipped via the United States Postal Service and typically take four to six weeks for delivery. If you do not receive your order by 12/18/2006 , please contact us and we will gladly assist you further.

Thank you for choosing PetSmart for the lifelong needs of your pet!

Sincerely,

Vanessa

And now,

Vanessa,
You work in customer service, not shipping so I know this isn't your fault. Please don't take offense at the rest of this email. It takes about two minutes, maybe three and a half if you work in the shipping department, to fill out a customs form. I've shipped packages from an APO to the States, and vice versa, and the packages arrived in under a week. It should never take more than a week, unless there's some kind of holiday in there.
Nothing against you personally, Vanessa, but I will never purchase anything from your company again. If they're going to sell via Amazon Market Place, they should advertise the fact that their shipping department can't wrap their feeble minds around how to mail a box.
In fact, you should hate those jerks in shipping also, as they probably make a lot of work for you. If you go to the PetSmart Christmas party this year, don't talk to them. Get your friends to do the same. Hate them with me, Vanessa. Of course they might not even get invited, in which case, you'll have a better time. Let me know how that goes, either way.
Anyways, I'm very disappointed at how much your company blows. Yes, blows. But don't let it get you down; just start looking for another company to work for, after the Christmas Party, because your company blows.

Good luck and Merry Christmas,
Tokyo Slim

P.S. PetSmart.com blows.

If Vanessa replies, I'll definitely let you know.
Power to the consumer (with time on his hands)!

Thanks Tiff

2006-12-08T23:04:00.000+09:00

I was totally happy, fiddle-farting around with the potential new website, and then I checked your website for your hosting company info. I saw your post and now I've got Mahna Mahna stuck in my head! Thanks a lot!

Update- Saturday, 11:00 am, the entire Slim household has been infected by Mahna Mahna. You are truly the devil...

The Drug Post: Volume 2, More Smack and Booze

2006-12-02T23:10:00.000+09:00

Ok, so well over a year ago, I posted this, The Drug Post, on the old blog. I've managed to find a few more gems related to the drug post, catch them after. First, here's the original:

So I found out where to score some cheap smack in Great Falls, Montana; at Smith's over by Pier 1 Imports, but more on that later.

About a week ago, we went to Barnes and Noble by Pier 1. I was feeling all rich and wasteful so I bought me and the wife a couple of Mocha Frappuccino's at the Starbucks in there. These things are like liquid crack!

They are so delicious that you can’t stop sipping on them, despite the ice, so you get the whole brain freeze, ice cream-head-ache thing going on. You have to stop, let your blood raise your cranial temperature so you can function, and then you take another couple of hits on the straw and start the process over again. Hurts so good!

Anyway, we were on that side of town so we decided to pop into Smith’s to look for red pickled ginger, and that’s when we found the cheap smack. Here’s a pic of our stash:

12 for a dollar; now that's cheap smack!

Close-up Smack. I'm not sure what "oriental" is supposed to taste like. Maybe laquer furniture, possibly Mah Jong pieces, Ultraman action figures in a light sesame sauce or maybe it somehow tastes like Tokyo grid-lock traffic. Ahh the mystery of the far east...

And now the update:
So here's smack for dogs. Apparently, dog's have an extremely high tolrance, so it comes in 10kg bags. Canine junkies...

Get your leash, Fido! Its time to tie one off!

Moving on from narcotics to booze, I found some candy today.
Yes, candy for Rummies!

At first look, I thought this was hilarious because of the name. I didn't have my camera with me, so I just ~~slipped it under my shirt while my kids were on lookout~~ bought it to take pictures at home.
When I got home and read the package more closely, this stuff actually has 3.7% alcohol in it from the rum raisins. Guess I should have taken paper instead of plastic. Cheers!

Photos By Tokyo Slim

Quitting Smoking...

2006-11-26T09:53:00.000+09:00

I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving this year. Mine was good, but didn't go exactly the way I wanted it to. As Chris was wondering, I didn't end up smoking the turkey this year for a couple of reasons. Here's why:

Excuse #1: I'm lazy. I tinkered with the delicate balance of "too soon" and "too late" on turkey purchases and found out that 4 days out from Thanksgiving would yield me a 17.5 pound turkey with no holes in the packaging or a perfect 10 pounder that was exposed to the environment in several spots. (If you saw this nasty bird loitering at the Misawa Commissary, leave a shout out in the comments section) At 30 minutes per pound, I would have to smoke my gobbler for 8 hours and 45 minutes. I just wasn't feeling it.

Excuse #2: ~~See Excuse #1.~~ I'm a considerate host. I had a buddy from work swing by Chez Slim and if I screwed up my first smoked turkey, I'd rather not ruin everyone's meal. My family is used to my screw ups, but why make others suffer my idiocy?

I did smoke a practice turkey breast that turned out really good. I used the cheap wine and apple juice brine that Opr12 suggested.
A 3 lb turkey breast-easy; 17.5 lb turkey-huge pain in the ass.

So I cooked my turkey in a Reynolds Oven Bag again this year. Its always a guaranteed juicy turkey and you don't have to waste your time basting it. Tip: sprinkle the bird with paprika to get a well browned turkey.

So Chris, you asked and I gave you your very own post for a reply. This counts as your Christmas present.

Giddyup!

2006-11-12T12:24:00.000+09:00

Attention:
Now you can enjoy such awesome Seinfeld episodes as The Soup Nazi, The Calzone, and The Hot Tub whenever you want, because you can finally pre-order Seinfeld Season 7! I've got mine on order, what are you waiting for?

Talkin' Turkey or Just Blowin' Smoke?

2006-11-03T07:33:00.000+09:00

So I'm home with Mrs. Slim and the Slimlings this year for Thanksgiving, which is good; usually I'm away on business. The few Thanksgivings I've been home for, my wife lets me take over the whole operation of cooking, mainly because I ~~am such a hottie in an apron~~ enjoy cooking.

I've always done the turkey in the oven, except for 2003 when I deep-fried it. It turned out like crap because I had a crappy recipe for a lemon injection that made the entire thing taste like bitter-ass lemon rind. Blech.

So this year, I'm leaning towards smokin' the turkey, but can't find rolling papers big enough. Yeah, I'm a riot.

My old friend OPR12 has smoked his turkey and it turned out awesome, so this year I've invited him to give us some guidance on how he did his. Thanks OPR12.

I used a cheap sweet wine with apple juice for my brine. I soaked the turkey for a few hours in this brine, which I also soaked my wood chips in. I strain off the liquid and put in into the liquid bowl over the coals and used it in the smoking process. Check this website to get some ideas. I will be using it again this year, Happy turkey eating!

The 32nd Flavor, Volume 3

2006-10-30T00:31:00.000+09:00

Ok, so here it is, the 32nd Flavor, Volume 3. After the Beef and Garlic Festival, we drove further away from home to check out a waterfall. We did some walking around, I snapped a few hundred pics and we headed back home. On the way back, we went past the festival area and back into Takko Town, where Garlic HQ is located. That's where we ran into the American Garlic Queen again, and her interpreter, who said she remembered us from the festival. We bought some garlic related products, Mrs. Tokyo Slim talked me out of buying the Garlic Wine, but then I saw a freezer. I walked closer to it and drew open the top. Inside, with bright green Katakana on it, was Garlic Ice Cream. It reads (in Katakana) Niniku Ice Cream.

Photos By Tokyo Slim
So how was it? Here's the official review:
Not so good. Of course I had to take a whiff and get the aroma of this ice cream. Some call it the bouquet. It was straight garlic, yo. It smelled like a big ole pile of minced garlic. I took a (small) timid scoop with my spoon and tasted it... Cold like ice cream, yet warm in flavor. I ate on. It kind of warmed my chest as I ate it. Like heart burn, yet in a recreational way. As I continued to dig my way to the bottom of this tiny tub, I wished the experience was over. I knew I was gonna reek of garlic, and with every bite, I knew I was gonna reek that much longer. Eventually it was gone, and, with both hands free, I could continue our drive home and talk about the experience with Mrs. Slim, who was crammed into her van door as far away from me as she could be, and urging me to use words that didn't start with the letter "H". I started to feel a litle rough after about 15-20 minutes. There was a desire to wretch it all, but I stood strong and toughed it out.

Over-all, I'd have to say the ice cream was horrible, just on the reason that I wished it was gone after the first bite. Would I eat Garlic Ice Cream again? Yes, because I'm a jackass and there's a brand of garlic ice cream called "Dracula" that I have seen on Japanese blogs, but have yet to see in person. I was expecting it at Garlic HQ, but it appears to be not backed by the city of Takko, which makes it somewhat more appealing, oddly enough.

So, the 32nd Flavor, Volume 3 is over, but my play-date with Garlic Ice Cream has only just begun...

Momiji Mountain

2006-10-29T12:50:00.000+09:00

We drove to Hirosaki yesterday and got let down by the "Castle" but more on that some other day. We came home a different way to see what all the fuss was about at Momiji Mountain. Momiji means maple tree in Japanese, and it's the star of autumn. Red, orange, gold, and the tougher leaves still cling to their bright greens to give you a spectacular view. Fall is my favorite season, hands down. The mosquitos are gone, its not unbearably hot and humid anymore, the fruits and veggies are all ready to eat, and the fall colors are just beautiful. So here's some pics from Momiji Mountain. These were only cropped in Photo Shop, not touched up or enhanced at all. Click to enlarge.

Here's my favorite shot. Throwin' it all out at the beginning.

A happy couple come back from the temple.

A shot from under the Tori Gate in the last picture.

The canopy

From outside the bridge gate

Mountain water meets up with the river under the maple trees.
Photos By Tokyo Slim

Quick Update

2006-10-24T01:21:00.000+09:00

Sorry its been awhile, but life has gotten hectic lately. I got stuck on nights for an exercise, and right after that was over we went out of town for a reunion with the family from Tokyo. We all had an awesome time, I hope to get some pics up of our meals soon. I'm also cooking up another volume of the 32nd flavor, but there's work around the house to get done. I've got an awning that's framed up and ready for roof panels, and I signed up for Japanese 111 at the University of Maryland. Gotta work on my Japanese grammar; my vocabulary's decent, I just can't make sentences. I caveman talk like, but fire make good and wheel I have license. Oongawa, zug zug. Wall of ice get closer.

Matay, thanks for the comments on the garlic post. I remember coming to see you once when we were in Korea and you had Garlic seeping from every pore of your skin. Paint curled on the walls as you passed! I'm definitely gonna get that Gyro action going, thanks for the link!

I'm somewhat embarassed to say I just found out that the World Series is going on, but I have no idea who's playing in it. I'm happy to say I've remained current with the Lil' Kim nuke testing situation. I've also now seen all of Season 1 of Prison Break, thanks to Netflix; I wish we could watch Season 2 here. My first 8 years in Japan I didn't give a rip about TV, but man, that Prison Break has got me by the short and curlies. I love that saying.

A Brush with Royalty

2006-10-11T08:39:00.000+09:00

So every year, there’s a Garlic Festival in Takko-machi. What is the Garlic Festival? I’m glad you asked. Every year, there’s a festival in Takko Town, the self proclaimed garlic capital of japan. Who’s gonna dispute it? Takko has a sister city in Gilroy, CA. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. I could be joking, but I’m not. I saw Gilroy’s Garlic Festival on the Food Network. It looked like a lot of fun, yet somewhat odd; just my style. They’ve got a Garlic Queen and everything! What’s that? A Garlic Queen? Yes, you heard right. And I’ve met her; she gave me a bag of noodles, but more on that later.

You can go to the Takko Garlic Festival for free, but you won’t get a bag full of beef, vegetables, and a big hunk of garlic without a paid ticket.

Once you get your bag of goodies, you head to a grill table, and cook it up. The Yakiniku sauce they had was freakin awesome.

There were food booths that had an assortment of different treats.

One of the vendors.

Here’s the American and Japanese Garlic Queens; the Garlic Royal Court.

Your paid ticket doubles as a raffle ticket for drawings they had throughout the two day fest. We tried to duck out before the festival was over to avoid traffic but heard our ticket number called over the PA. I slammed the Slim-Mobile into a parking space and high-tailed it to Garlic HQ. Once there, I drew a number out of a bucket to win a bag of fresh Garlic Ramen Noodles (not the dried instant crap, but soft, ready to boil noodles, keep refrigerated). The Gilroy Garlic Queen presented them to me. I don’t know who felt more embarrassed. I ran into her again, later on, about 20 minutes from the festival area, where I bought the ice cream featured in the 32nd Flavor, Volume 3, hmmm, what could it be…
Photos By Tokyo Slim

A Rainy Day

2006-10-09T11:39:00.000+09:00

Well, a typhoon tried to roll through town and ruin the weekend, but I had other plans. We drove up to Asamushi Aquarium and spent a few good hours checking out the sea life.

Rockhopper Penguin

Snobby Sea Lion

Found Nemo

Welcome to Ugly Town

After the big dolphin show, there's feeding time, which also has a show. I liked this one better.

A good rainy day.
Photos By Tokyo Slim

The 32nd Flavor, Volume 2: Tasty Rape Cream...

2006-10-05T19:59:00.000+09:00

Ok, welcome back to another installment of the 32nd flavor, where I find the ice cream flavor that didn't make the cut at Baskin Robbins. So what the hell is Rape Cream? Read on my friends, the answer lies within:

We were driving north from Misawa, with no plan as to where we were headed. Seeing signs for Osore Mountain, we decided to go check that out. It was a long drive to the north eastern edge of Japan. We kept seeing signs for the Nanohana Center, which my wife explained to me was a yellow flower that sometimes people ate and cooked with in Japan. She considered people who ate Nanohana to be somewhat odd; that's good enough for me, sign me up! I told my wife to be on the lookout for Nanohana Ice Cream, and sure enough, we found some.

It was tasty, a slight bit distant from vanilla, smooth, almost velvety. I wasn't quite impressed with my wife's translation of the word Nanohana, and I was curious as to what flavor I was supposed to taste; what was the "essence of Nanohana"? I realized a full-fledged Googling was in order, ASAP. (Note: googling hasn't made it into spell-check as a legit word just yet.) Here's what I found:

Nanohana means rape blossom, the flower of rapeseed, which is a major ingredient in vegetable oil and canola oil. I also learned that the leaves and stems are edible, comparable to kale and bok choy.

So, I'm still not finished fully exploring the flavor of rape, hopefully my research doesn't involve jail time. That reminds me, I highly recommend renting Prison Break, Season 1. I got mine from Netflix. I'm still judging how fast they get to an APO address.
1st Photo By Tokyo Slim, 2nd photo by Gary Houston

A Meal in Mutsu

2006-09-24T23:17:00.000+09:00

We did some exploring around Osore Mountain again and on the way back, we decided to stop for dinner. Wakana is the name and Tonkatsu is their game. Tonkatsu is a breaded and fried pork cutlet. It is always breaded with Panko, the world famous Japanese bread crumb.

On two seperate explorations, we passed by this Tonkatsu restaurant in the city of Mutsu, on Route 279. All three times we passed it, I noticed the brown spikey ball thing. On the fourth pass, we stopped.

It sits next to a canal and provides a nice, relaxing view while you eat. They open at 5pm, so the view doesn't last long.

You can enjoy a delicious draft while waiting for your food to come.

Being one of my top five favorite meals, I've eaten a crap-ton of tonkatsu around Japan as well as in Korea. This restaurant has The Best Tonkatsu I have ever had, and that is no exaggeration. Absolutely the best. The pork filet just melts in your mouth.

Before the food came out, the kids got to pick a toy from the toy basket; part of the kids meal.

The kids' meal had tonkatsu and fried prawns too. Lucky punks...
Photos By Tokyo Slim

Meet Phil

2006-09-22T00:07:00.000+09:00

So we were here for 3 days when we went to a big Haku En Shop, or 100 Yen Store (Dollar Store) where they had some small plants for sale. The price was right, and I figured it would be cool to get a small plant so close to our return to Japan. We could watch it grow and flourish along with the rest of the family in our new home. So I bought the plant below.

I named him Phil. He's a Peperomia. The little "Hello, my name is Phil" tag he is wearing is printed in Katakana. It's a Japanese form of writing to signify words that aren't Japanese in origin. A special alphabet for foreign words.
So here's your Katakana lesson for the day. The 1st two symbols sound like "Peh". #3, the square, sounds like "Low". #4, the 3 horizontal lines, sound like "Mee" and the last one sounds like "Ah."
You are now on your way to ridding yourself of illiteracy in Japanese; congratulations.
Photos By Tokyo Slim

My Weber's Japanese Debut

2006-09-21T00:47:00.000+09:00

My Weber Charcoal Grill on her Japan Debut. Two ribeye's, 8 hot dogs and a tinfoil full of fresh mushrooms, sliced onions, a crap ton of butter, rosemary, basil, garlic and pepper. Heavenly.

My Weber didn't quite make the trip to Japan in one piece. The retainer nuts that keep the wheels on are no-where to be found. Next slide please.

Yeah, vice grips holding my wheels on. "Big budget ghetto" might be accurate. If you can come up with a better description, please leave a comment.

My ideas so far for replacing the vice grips:
1. Tap and die kit; thread the axle, screw on a nut.
2. Drill through axle, pop in a cotter pin.
3. Put wheel on axle, put a washer on axle, sand, flux, and drop a bead of solder on the stainless steel axle to retain the washer, which retains the wheel. This is my favorite method.

If you have another idea for keeping these wheels on, please leave a comment. Its a stainless steel axle, the axle is stationary (the wheels do the turning) and there's about 1/2 inch of axle exposed when the wheels are on. The axle is aproximately 3/8" thick. Its a sagitarius, enjoys long walks on the beach, cuddling by the fire, and kittens.
Photos By Tokyo Slim

The 32nd Flavor

2006-09-17T10:45:00.000+09:00

Ever wonder why Baskin Robbins chose 31 as the magic number of flavors? Well, if you don't feel like clicking on their name, the original concept was a flavor for every day of the month. But what might the 32nd flavor be that didn't make the cut?

The city of Aomori, on the Mutsu Bay, is proud of their scallops, called Hotate (Ho-ta-teh) and if you go to the triangular ASPAM building, on the first floor, you can find a snack bar that sells everything scallop-y.

The blue banner on the right (its actually turned around backwards) says "Hotate soft cream." Yes, scallop soft-serve ice cream. I told my wife, "oh yeah, lady, I've got to have it!" After some discouragement from her, I ordered 3 vanilla cones for the women and 1 scallop cone for me.

Looks okay, yeah? It was nice and smooth, with no big hunks of scallop in it. A little salty, yet still sweet. Almost a little buttery. It was delicious and I'd get it again. In fact, it inspired me to try another ice cream I found on our travels yesterday, but this next one is a lot less exotic than scallop ice cream.

Stay tuned for the next installment of "the 32nd Flavor."
Photos By Tokyo Slim

Aomori Sunset

2006-09-16T09:05:00.000+09:00

Last Saturday, we took a practice drive to the driver's license center in Aomori in preparation for an early monday morning appointment. Once we made it there, the day was ours to explore Aomori. A later post will have the delicious food we ate in this coastal city.

We were at the Aspam building and Aomori Bay bridge for the sunset. It was more beautiful than I could capture with a camera. Here's the best I could do, click to enlarge:

The Bay Bridge in Aomori

The sky turns pinkish-gold, on its way to a purple-gold

The triangular Aspam building from under the bridge. They rotate the color of the lights throughout the night.

Here, the lights turn to a bluish purple.
Photos By Tokyo Slim

Kunizakai Festival

2006-09-13T21:14:00.000+09:00

Ok, so since I've been back in Japan, I've traveled around quite a bit, taken a bunch of pictures and eaten a lot of food, but you wouldn't know that. Why? Because I've been a lazy bucket of shit and haven't updated my blog, so I'm sorry. So here's a long over due post from the first festival we went to since our return.

This is the Kunizakai Festival in Towada Lake. Kunizakai means border line and the Towada Lake region has three Prefectures (Akita, Aomori, and Iwate) bordering each other around the lake. All the performers and participants in the pictures below competed in their home prefectures and won, so these are the best of the best representening their prefectures.

A note about the floats: they aren't built on top of an old Caddie convertible and driven. They are built to stand alone and then picked up and carried or they are built on wheels and pulled by people. No sissy-fied internal combustion engines for these hard core sons of guns!

A young girl that's not "too cool for tradition"

Just after sunset, the floats come alive

Another float
Photos By Tokyo Slim

The Grill Count Upped

2006-09-04T03:30:00.000+09:00

Ok, so Tokyo Slim ups the number of grills again. My reasoning: I need a charcoal grill dedicated to seafood. My wife quietly allows it. Tee-hee!!
After using it the 2nd time, I realized if I cook anything but fish, it will taste and smell like fish. So, I bought another charcoal grill, this time an American one. Cheap, $14.95. There'll be some pics of it soon, as I'm gonna do kalbi ribs on it tomorrow. This 2nd grill I bought without permission, but justified it well with the unknown delivery of my other grills. I sweetened the deal with a promise of ribeye steaks marinated in Balsamic Vinegar and ground Thyme. I know what my lady likes, Teehee!
Anyway, here's the new grill and the fish I cooked. Click to enlarge!

Here's the new Japanese Grill, on her first cookout. So new, so shiny, and chunk charcoal to cook on. I set up shop on the sidewalk outside, as far from the house as I could get; gonna get stinky grillin up some fish!

My favorite fish in Japan, the Hokke. I think its called an Arabesque Greenling in english. It freaking rocks. This guy cost me about $1.38. He's fresh; caught on the 27th, grilled on the 27th. He's split down the back, easy to cook.

These guys are called Sanma, or Pacific Saury. They are very greasy, but delicious. I bought these guys gutted and be-headed. The first ones I had to clean myself. I left the heads on. They grilled up great.

Here's a pic of the Sanma on the Japanese grill. I had to cram a beer can under the grill to raise them away from the fire. That chunk charcoal burns a bit on the hot side, same as American chunk coal. The briquets don't burn as hot.
When our stuff gets here from Montana, we'll have 5 different grills and a outdoor deep-fryer. Excessive, I know, but the 2 new ones are small portable jobbies that we can take with us to parks and rivers and cook what we catch on the coast. I also look at it this way: I take pictures of what I grill, on a regular basis, as you may already know. They won't go to waste and it sure beats washing a pan!!!
Photos By Tokyo Slim

Eating up Japan

2006-09-01T09:30:00.000+09:00

So the best thing about living in hotels is you are forced to eat out alot. This gives you more of a neccessity to not cook; guilt-free laziness. Anyway, we wasted no time getting off base and enjoying the foods of Japan that we missed so much. Here's just a few of the things made by other people.

There will be a post soon of my return to the grill, Japanese style. Until then, here's some food, click to enlarge.

Convenient Store Cuisine, freakin awesome.

Tonkatsu Restaurant in the Shimoda Mall, scrumptious!

Apple Juice from the Towada Lake area, Apple-licious

One of the greatest things in Japan is canned coffee. The American version (those crappy frappucinos in the glass bottle) don't even compare. This one is brewed with the moutain spring water found near Towada Lake, around the Oirase Gorge area. Fantastic.

Miso Ramen, not a great picture, but a great bowl of noodles none the less. Got this from the food court at Shimoda Mall.

Some gyoza from the same place as the ramen. My first gyoza in about four years, too long to go without!

An ice cream cone from a rest stop along the coast. A tasty cool treat with super cool coastal views.

The view that accompanied the ice cream, a-la fish-eye lens.
Photos By Tokyo Slim

Back in the Motherland

2006-08-21T06:46:00.000+09:00

Ok, so we made it, despite a delay in Iwakuni. The dogs breezed through customs and are being boarded on base. We found a pretty decent house and hope to get the keys this week (when our stuff arrives, only Buddha knows.)

We are borrowing a car from an old friend and co-worker, thanks R.J.! Mrs. Slim and the Slim-lings are all happy to be back in Japan, as am I. Life is good and has the potential to get better and better; we just gotta end this homeless thing.

I'll have some pics up as soon as I can get a wireless connection for my laptop and ditch this public computer.

Later all,
Tokyo Slim

Montana At Last

2006-08-04T16:24:00.000+09:00

Well, after a four and a half hour bus ride, thanks to construction and traffic, I was in my seat on the plane from Incheon with no more than 4 minutes to spare. I sat down and they closed the doors and shoved off. I got home late on the 1st and slept for a couple of hours. Thanks to Keith for a ride from the airport; I appreciate it, and it was good to see you again.

Just thought I'd pop in and say I made it back safe. The next few weeks will be busy. Here's the last 2 pics I snapped in Korea. They're far from my best work and only serve as closure for an interesting year. Korea was a blast, but the Kun' can kiss my ass.

The best kind of Kunsan ticket: ONE WAY →

Looking back at the gate for the last time. In case you were wondering, yes, that blurry thing is the bird. I'm sure the car following our bus was moved. That shiny thing to the right of my hand was their windshield.
Photos By Tokyo Slim

A Moron's Guide to "Art"

2006-07-30T19:28:00.000+09:00

Ok, so I've never owned a piece of art. I probably wouldn't know "art" if it snuck up and bit me in the ass. However, I do know Art Van de Lay, from the TV show Seinfeld. I'm a huge fan of the show and I decided to capitalize on being in a country which has no regard for copyright laws. I ordered "The Kramer" poster from the internet and brought it to a painter, who made me this:

The Kramer
I'd say I'm several steps ahead of any Seinfeld fan with this "original" piece.

Here's a link to the poster for you to buy. The eyebrows are not quite right, and that makes or breaks the painting in my opinion, but this was done during the exercise and I couldn't guide the artist in what I wanted. I'd say the artist did a very good job, not having the show in syndication here in Korea and never having laid eyes on the man we know as "Kramer."

Hopefully I have my own desk area in Misawa, as I will most likely have to hang this at work, I don't think my wife would want this in our home.
Photos By Tokyo Slim, the art collector

Get Fed

2006-07-28T20:19:00.000+09:00

So I thought I'd bring a little class to Capicola. No, you don't have to put your pants back on, I'm not talking about that kind of class, I'm talking about education, folks. Time to learn about feeds.

If you haven't seen it, just over to the right, there's a side bar on this page that (don't look now....ok, now, but do it quick) anyways, it has links to stuff I find funny out there, links to friends blogs (who don't update for months, I won't mention any names, but his name rhymes with MATAY) and other stuff I find worthy of a look. There's also archives, broken down by month, of posts here at Capicola.

Then there's a spot that says "Subscribe to Capicola." This is to set up a "feed" which will tell you when I update Capicola. Now, I love to see those hits go up on the counter, but I'm all about making life easy for you, so subscribe.

If you're ready to get fed, click one of these bad boys below, or use that sidebar that the cool kids like. If you aren't using one of these sites as a home page, I'm a Yahoo man, myself, I highly recommend doing so. Weather, sports, news, stocks, e-mail notification and Capicola updates, all before you hit the porn. If you want to learn more, click right here to learn all about feeds, why they rock and why hot chicks will want to bang you after you subscribe to Capicola, saavy?

Way Beyond F.I.G.M.O.

2006-07-25T22:15:00.000+09:00

Ok, so here's the skinny:

I'm just about out of Korea. I've gotta endure the rest of the exercise we are in, then I leave next week. Hopefully I've done everything I needed to do, because I final out of the base at 0600 on Monday, then kill time till the flight.

My stuff gets picked up this week, during the exercise, but I'm afraid the movers will be done before my shift starts, so I might not get out of the exercise that day, which sucks.
What completely rocks is, I turned in my chem gear and battle rattle before the exercise, so I haven't had to wear it! I think it's the first time I've gotten out of something in my career. I feel a little guilty not wearing any gear, especially in front of the guys who just got here. It's doubly painful for them to see me strut around and not suck rubber during chem attacks on top of being a single-digit-midgit.

Oh well, I'm way beyond FIGMO; I'm so short, I could parachute off a dime!

So Long Again, Matay!

2006-07-15T08:02:00.000+09:00

Yo Matay, hope you had a good flight! You, Miss Lilly, Squish and Squirt have a safe trip beyond that. Sorry we couldn't meet up one last time, but shit happens.

Don't forget, you got some catching up to do on fantasy golf! It's a small world and I'm sure we'll run into each other again. Until then, we got the email and Capicola for the latest news. Who knows, maybe you'll even update your own damn blog!?

Let me know how that last Gyro is before you take off from MT.

Here's a few pics from the last time we kicked it, with a little advice...

We had some good times Matay!

Remember, if you are in trouble, we know where "the man" eats

And if the journey looks daunting...

At least you have both eyes and your ears aren't purple.

Photos By Tokyo Slim

So long, Matay, I'll miss you bro.

Click here to see the last send off, a year ago at the old blog:
http://tokyo-slim.blogspot.com/2005/07/so-long-matay.html

Wasted Wishes

2006-07-11T21:11:00.000+09:00

So as I got ready for work this morning, I remembered I had two uniforms to pick up today. I like having exact change for the dry cleaners, so at $5.20 a piece, I needed 40 cents to accompany the sawbuck for the transaction.

I pulled 35 cents out of my pocket and started searching my room for that last 5 cents. The desk, the night stand, the dresser; all of them change-less. I checked my U.S. change cup; it was empty. My Korean Won change cup sat on the desk. I keep my change pretty well separated, but what the hell, you know?

As I reached for the cup I said out loud, “I really need a nickel!” I looked in the cup, and sitting on the top of the Korean change, was, not a dime, not a quarter, but a nickel. “Yes!!!” I shouted. As I put the nickel in my pocket, I froze for a second.

“I really need a million dollars!” I pulled the drawer open on my desk: Yeah, nothing.

Was it the fact that a million dollars wouldn’t fit in that drawer, or had I wasted a wish on a nickel? I think I wasted that wish. I think every-so-often, the stars align for a brief second, and a miracle happens.

From this day forward, when I wish, I’m wishing big.

As I type this, I am remembering a similar conversation I had with Baxter back around January. As he walked up to the chow-hall, he would wish that whatever food they were serving at that meal “would not suck.” I can’t remember the specifics, so Bax, if you’re reading, could you clarify your hypothesis?

World Cup Tickets

2006-07-08T11:04:00.000+09:00

Ok, so after a ten year boycott of the movie theater, my kids being the reason the boycott was lifted, I was shocked and appalled to see how expensive it all had gotten. I had planned on doing a post about financing a trip to the movie theater, but never got around to it.

Out of curiosity, I decided to see if you could even get World Cup final game tickets. I thought a matinee at the theater was expensive! Check out tickets for two for Sunday's final game. Click on the pictures to enlarge them:

Here's the price for two tickets to the final game. That's picking up the tickets in Berlin, not having them delivered.

What would that be in dollars? 3490 Euro is currently $4471. What a bargain!
Photos By Tokyo Slim

Kobayashi Wins Again, #6

2006-07-06T07:01:00.000+09:00

(Stephen Chernin, Getty Images)

Takeru Kobayashi wins again this year, at the 2006 Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest. His numbers were back up to 53, with an extra .75 of a hot dog to set a new record. Close on his heals for the first time was some rookie named Joey Chestnut of San Jose, Califonia, with 52 hot dogs and buns. For the full story, eat here.

Kobayashi-san, omedeto-gozaimasu!

This Year's Top Dog

2006-07-05T00:12:00.000+09:00

Who will win Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest, 2006? Stay tuned to find out. Here's the post from last year:

Originally posted on Tuesday, 5 July 2005.
Well, another July 4th has come and gone. The highlights? Takeru Kobayashi of Japan wins for the 5th year in a row at Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog-Eating Contest.

"Competitive Eating" as a sport is surreal. ESPN covering it live? Equally surreal. Kobayashi won last year with 53 hot dogs in 12 minutes. This year, he's down to 49. So sad to see the World's Great Champs on the downhill slide.
As George Jones sang, Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes?

Jirisan National Park: Busted

2006-07-04T22:05:00.000+09:00

Well, the weekend me and Weez have looked forward to for the past 2 months has turned into a complete bust. We left friday, right after work and made it as far as Namwon. Saturday morning, despite torrential downpours, we bussed it to Hwaeomsa, which turned out to be a mistake, but it really made no difference. Why? Because all mountain trails in Jirisan National Park were closed due to rain.

Had it not been raining, we still would have been moderately screwed. The info we had on this peak said there were 3 trails leading to it. We picked the starting point that went up the side of the mountain for 7km to a peak of roughly 1400m. Then it was another 26km along the ridge and up to the peak of roughly 1900m. We would not have made it up and back before dark and would have wasted most of the day driving around the bottom of the mountain to a shorter trail.

This was the first trip I've taken that turned out so horribly wrong. It had to be this one, and wasted 2 of the 4 days we had off. The only upside to it; we were off.

Here's the pictures I took from "The Biggest, Best-est Hike on the Tallest Mountain in Korea" trip!!!

Some small mountains, from inside, through a screen.

A river, from inside, through a screen

A huge moth, inside
Photos By Tokyo Slim

Other Things

2006-06-27T23:16:00.000+09:00

Ok, for the last week, work has been a tad bit demanding. We've had an exercise that took up a couple of days, I've been battling with outbound assignments, and we've had a couple of jobs that just won't let us fix them.

Worth mentioning is a sewer line that was 5 and a half feet short of being tied in to it's manhole; a real gem that spanned the weekend and has taken up 2 days of this week also. It's a "jungle-gym" out there of electric primaries, communication lines, and our own water lines. Of course we only hit our water line when we dug it all up, and broke one more water line when we backfilled. I'm sure the comm guys are pleased.

So I apologize for not updating in a week, but other things have kept me busy and too tired to post. I think me and Weez are hitting the tallest mountain in S. Korea this weekend; Jiri-san. More to come...

About That Kimchi

2006-06-18T21:03:00.000+09:00

So that Kimchi that me and Matay made is still sitting in my fridge. It's completely taken over. Its all you can smell when you open the fridge. It's in 3 different Ziplocs, 2 other plastic bags, and an airtight plastic container. Somehow, this Kimchi has permeated all of that, and taken over the room. So I've taken measures to reclaim what is mine. I bought some baking soda for inside the fridge, some air fresheners for the room, and some altoids for when I actually serve this stuff up.

Covering it up
Photos By Tokyo Slim

Soccer Hooligans

2006-06-09T19:28:00.000+09:00

World Cup 2006 starts tonight in Germany. I, for one, am looking forward to it. Japan's first game will be on the 12th against Australia. I urge all my friends in Europe to try to get to a World Cup game, if they can. I happened back through Tokyo when Japan hosted in the summer of '02, but it was about impossible to get tickets. Maybe there's an offer through the bases there. Check your community activities centers and outdoor rec's.

For those of us not in Europe, you can go here for coverage. And if you're still alive in 2050, you might want to check out RoboCup.

Fodor's Immature Guide to Seoul

2006-06-04T10:01:00.000+09:00

Disclaimer: Fodor's Travel has no actual affiliation with me. It's hard to believe, I know.

So being the host with the most, Matay took me to Seoul, where we kicked it all over town. We stopped at the N Seoul Tower, the Royal Palace, City Hall, and Outback Steakhouse, but more on the others later.
At 479 meters tall, the N Seoul Tower provides beautiful, 360 degree views of Seoul, the Capitol of South Korea. So why is it that I'm snapping pictures of the men's room? Is it the plumber in me, or just immaturity?

The Lookout

A shot from the cockpit, so to speak... It's like you're pissin on Seoul, man! If you look closely, there's a fly printed on the porcelain to combat the folks with AADD. There must have been a whole lot of moppin' before the addition of the fly. No matter how spectacular the view, you gotta keep your eyes on the prize.
So is it the professional plumber in me? Is it the appreciation of a well constructed urinal, coupled with breathtaking scenery? Or am I just that immature? You be the judge.

Matay in action!
Photos By Tokyo Slim

Deep Kimchee

2006-05-27T23:45:00.000+09:00

So me, Matay, and the boys from Matay's office headed to a Kimchee factory, with the guidance of KJ, also from Matay's office. She set the trip up and I'd like to thank her for an awesome time. I learned quite a bit about the history of Kimchee and the different types. Per the comment from the last post, yes Baxter, the smells were fantastic! I did not know that original Kimchee, known by street thugs as the O.K., did not have red pepper in it. The red pepper was introduced to Kimchee by the Japanese. Click to enlarge.

Me and Matay at The Kimchee Museum

Cabbage Cut-Ups from the factory

Movie time, we all learned how to make different styles of Kimchee. Side note: Your feet don't stink at a Kimchee Factory...

Below, we all got to make Kimchee. After it was made, we bagged it up and got to take it with us. I'm gonna let mine stew for a week or so.

Matay strokes his cabbage

Yes, I'm man enough to wear an apron

After the Kimchee portion of the day, Matay showed me the Hwaseong Castle, which was built in 1794. It took us over 3 hours to walk the whole perimeter. Weez, it only involved a small incline at the beginning, but I'll get a climb in next weekend! Through the entire day, I snapped 322 photos. Below are the 4 photos I'm most proud of. Again, click to enlarge.

A rose in the rain on the way to Hwaseong Castle

The front of a gate at Hwaseong

Risking life and limb from the median, another shot of the front

The back of the gate
Photos By Tokyo Slim

From The Road

2006-05-27T00:46:00.000+09:00

Hey there, I'm in Suwon visiting my bro Matay! It's friday night and I found a wireless connection in his dorm! Life is good. It took about 2 and a half hours to get to Osan and then I waited 30 minutes to get a taxi to the subway. The subway from Songtan to Seryu went very fast. I enjoyed a few games of pool, and now its bed time. We will hit the Kimchee Museum and Factory tomorrow. It's great to be back, hangin' with my buddy Matay!! More to come...

So Long, Old Friend

2006-05-23T22:40:00.000+09:00

Well after a few days in the hospital, time has won the battle, and it's with fond memories that I bid farewell to my laptop. It seems to be more logical to replace rather than repair at this stage. I did pay alot for that laptop, but I'd say I got my money's worth.
I took it to Louisiana twice, California once, and back and forth from Korea to Montana. It helped me through 5 college classes, started two blogs, and kept me in touch with my wife and kids for 9 months.
I researched recipes, played lots and lots of poker, and downloaded ukulele chords. It's been my source of entertainment and education, my outlet for expression and release of aggression.
I've ordered airplane tickets that lead to great vacations, researched adventures here in Korea, kept in touch with fellow airmen, soldiers, sailors and veterans.
I ordered refills for my "Reach Advantage Flosser" from drugstore.com when I couldn't find them here, and got some great magnetic bumper stickers from Prankplace.com.
Above all, I've downloaded hours and hours of raunchy porn, just kidding, kinda.

One of the best memories I have of this laptop is from a post I submitted 1 year ago on 23 May, 2005. Below is a copy of that post, followed by a link to the old Blog, enjoy.

I am sitting in my backyard in the shade with my laptop. Got a big glass of lemonade with a crap-load of ice in it. The chihuahua's are chilling in the grass. My kids are making treasure maps and "exploring" the backyard. It's a beautiful day and I think I'll play some online poker out here. Wireless internet is fantastic. The Contender is on tonight. Gonna barbecue some ribs, Korean style. Summer Sundays kick ass.My best friend had his wedding reception yesterday. I made two pans of baked ziti for it. I started the gravy on Friday night, it turned out spectacular. What a great weekend.My wife just joined us out here. I hope she doesn't want to go anywhere today, this backyard is just too comfortable.

Oh yeah, Happy Anniversary, Matay and Miss Lilly!
The Original Post

To the Weez

2006-05-23T06:40:00.000+09:00

So I get home from work friday and turn on my laptop to get saturday's weather. The laptop gives me a whole bunch of attitude. Here's how it went down:

Me: Hey laptop, turn on and don't suck.
My laptop: no

So it's in for repairs, and I'm throwing up this post via email. I've got some pics from saturday's hike, but you won't see 'em. Not until a certain laptop we know changes it's attitude.

Enough about that. Let's talk about my hiking compadre and cell-mate here at the Kunsan Correctional Facility. Weez.

Weez is home on mid-tour right now, and he's gettin' hitched. Congratulations, Weez! I wish you and your new bride all the best. Now hurry back; we've got a bunch more mountains to climb!

Gyeryongsan National Park

2006-05-15T21:39:00.000+09:00

Ok, so despite having to work the weekend, me and Weez still managed to get outta here for a quick day hike. This park was a quick bus ride from my favorite town, Daejon. There were about 20 school kids that crammed on the bus after we got on; it got quite interesting.

The bus ride

The Map

Gyeryongsan National Park gate

Small falls in the background

The entrance

One of the temples on the way up

We went left, to Gwaneumbong Peak

Some piles of wish rocks

Look out for non-wish rocks

One of the temples we passed earlier

A view from near the top

Big valley

From the top

Me and Weez on the top

and again

The marker

About the peak

Me and Weez relinquish our seats for this group of hikers. Click here to listen to this group behind us enjoying life on the mountain.
Photos By Tokyo Slim

If you'd like to see a slideshow with more pictures, click here.