Where is Derek?

For those who don’t know, we love themed days off. This Wednesday’s theme was Jewish culture. The day started off with Lori, Liza, Christine and I going to a Jewish Deli to have Falafel with hummus. Oy Vay, where’s the matzoh?!! We went to this place called David’s Deli, owned by David an Israeli guy who wasn’t there but his manager Don was there. The falafel was subpar because it got Lori, Liza and I a little sick but Christine was fine. We also met up with this guy Vincent, an American I met as he was traveling Japan. Vincent was a nice guy and the experience was interesting.

We then proceeded to the Tokyo Stock Exchange where we planned on getting trashed while the Japanese stockbrokers fought to sell and buy shares. Boy were we surprised when we got there. I was expecting the mayhem of the NY Stock Exchange but everything was stream lined… There were only 15 people working on the floor, everything was run by computers. But despite be disappointed by the Japanese stock market floor, Vincent and I found out that in the bathroom, they dispensed mouth wash! I also met a nice girl at the Tokyo Stock Exchange named Naoko, who is a student at Meiji University in Tokyo. We then proceeded to Shibuya to check out the many faces of Bob Dylan aka I’m Not There.

Let me just say that if you don’t have a boner for Bob Dylan, then don’t watch this movie. Cate Blanchett was a cool Bob Dylan but that wasn’t enough to keep me awake, I fell asleep twice during the movie. The only thing that I got from the movie is… Try not to own things, especially art. And everyone has an 11 year old black kid inside them.

Afterwards was an all you can eat feast at Sweets Paradise, where we were the only ones over the age of 14 and not dressed in a uniform. Awesome!

We then we for an hour of karaoke at BIG ONE, ahaha, that’s right, BIG ONE, the cheapest place for karaoke in Shibuya next to Pink Mic’s, not the actual name but the picture of the character of the karaoke joint. The night ended with Club Asia and watching Liza’s friend Laurante DJ.

All in all, a very Jewish Day, Falafel and hummus, stocks/money, Bob Dylan, sweets and pasta and clubbing. A very Jewish day indeed!

[ Life.Iz.Good ]

Effing Awesome…

[ Life.Iz.Good ]

I have been really into these forms of dance lately…

The first one is Kizomba a Portuguese dance created in Angola, a predecessor of Samba but with an African rhythm.

The second one is Zouk a dance from the French islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique. The music is a mixture of French/Creole and African influences.

Both are very sensual and I find the beat rather hypnotic. I think I would like to tour the world and learn about each countries dance and music. That would be a nice angle for me to travel for. Along with art and design. The ideas are flowing like crazy.

[ Life.Iz.Good ]

Why its hard to find a good roommate….

Don’t wake the neighbors!!!

[ Life.Iz.Good ]

So the other day, the topic of discussion was about Madonna. Yay! or Nay! One side of the discussion was that Madonna is awesome because she constantly reinvents herself and has being doing so for ages. The flip side is that… Granny needs to stop. Pop music is for the young and Madonna has passed her prime and should go away with dignity. Guess which side, I was on this discussion. What do you think? Yay! or Nay!

[ Life.Iz.Good ]

This weekend was pretty good. I met a lot of cool people and reorganized my priorities. Went to a co workers birthday party at the classiest place in Shibuya, a place called Pure. Pure has nomi hodai or all you can drink, so you know what kind of night I was in for. Hung out with the newbies from work and met an awesome Chinese chick from Xian, Elsa. Elsa has perfect English and goes to school at Waseda University. A real cool chick and dayum fine too. We are going to hang out at Waseda next week. Cool. Today, Sunday, I went to Yoyogi Park with Liza, Lori, Atsuko, Azusa and her friend and later met up with Henry to check out the Reggae Festival that was going on for this weekend. It was a real relaxed day and quite enjoyable. Liza and Henry took us all to this real cheap izakaya over looking the Shibuya crossing. This place had sours for 150 yen and draft beers for 250. Awesomeness! A definite winner. This place will now be called Ketchi Ketchi, for those who do not know what Ketchi means, it means cheap. All in all a good weekend. We are planning a flash water balloon fight right in the middle of the Shibuya crossing. We will see how this goes.

[ Life.Iz.Good ]