Where is Derek?

I reserved a sweet evening at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel’s Tapas Molecular Bar of my one year anniversary with MIna. What is molecular gastronomy you may be asking yourself, well let’s say, it’s like a mad scientist and chef ran a muck in the kitchen and created Frankenstein’s dinner. The course set includes 20 tapas that are meticulously created and presented. I can’t wait to see how this turns out and to see Mina’s face. Awesome.

Interior

Test Tube Drinks

Carrot Caviar

The pictures in the link above are from 2007, the menu changes every two months so I don’t know what will be on the menu for my Anniversary with Mina. Keep tuning in for more pictures.

[ Life.Iz.Good ]

Clubbing isn’t fun anymore, except for special occasions and random nights out.

So my friend Jeremy came back into town so I went to Camelot with him. Camelot used to be a real cool and sexy place to have a couple of drinks and mingle with Shibuya people but now it is overrun by douche bags and gaijin filth from GasPan!c, a place where you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.

I was disgusted to witness, gaijins harassing poor Japanese girls. The guys were pulling them and grabbing them. You could see the predatory desperation in their eyes. When I used to go clubbing, it was all about having fun, no matter the outcome. I really felt good inside knowing that I could go home and curl up on the couch and watch a movie with my Mina, I didn’t have to go looking for company.

The only thing I miss is the excitement of first encounters. But having someone feels so much better than having to look for someone.

[ Life.Iz.Good ]

Well, yesterday didn’t go totally according to plan but excellent nonetheless. The day unfolded like this…

We ate kaiten zushi aka conveyour belt sushi and went to Tokyo Tower. I wanted to checkout the aquarium because we had a lot of time before the concert and I had to disguise my plans. The Tokyo Tower Aquarium was really close to Suidobashi the station for Tokyo Dome City. Mina and I ended up going to the top of Tokyo Tower because both of us never had. The day was beautiful and clear. Also instead of going to the aquarium we went to the Guiness Book of World Records museum, we thought it would be more interesting.

After going to Tokyo Tower, I thought the Budokan was an open air venue and forgot to bring Mina a jacket for the night so I convinced her to go back home with me to get something for the evening. Then we finally headed to Suidobashi for Thunder Dolphin aka the best rollercoaster in Tokyo and a late lunch to tide us over until dinner. There also happened to be a Kat-tun concert at the Tokyo Dome, if you don’t know Kat-tun is a popular boy band with the teen crowd.

After hanging out in Tokyo Dome City, I said we had some time until our next stop in Shiodome, MIna thought I was going to take her to the theater, so we went to Yasukuni Shrine which so happens to be across the street from the Budokan as I mentioned in the previous post. From the walk to Yasukuni we could see are crowd gathering the entrance of the park surrounding the Budokan. We were intrigued by the crowd gathering and decided to investigate. Lo and behold, it was a Mr. Children concert! Wow, I said to Mna “That must be fun, watching a Mr. Children concert at the Budokan” and Mina said “Wow, I want to see the show” then I answered and we hung out in front for a little bit, watching the people buy souvenirs and what not. A little in the conversation about favorite Mr. Children songs, I pulled out the tickets! Booyah! She couldn’t believe I got the tickets and couldn’t imagine how I got the tickets because the tickets were sold out 3 months in advance. The concert was fun but the Supermarket Fantasy tour wasn’t like the Home tour that I have been watching on DVD. The songs were mostly new songs with Tomorrow Never Knows and a couple of old songs thrown in. The only song that I wanted Mr. Children to play was “Sign” but it was a no go. wahhhh! The concert was still a lot of fun and definitely worth every penny. After the concert, we decided to walk to Ichigaya because the Kudanshita station was packed.

Later that night, Mina was talking about how she wanted to hear “Sign” but that the concert had many songs that she liked. That’s when I busted out the guitar and played “Sign” for Mina. hahaha, you should have seen the look on her face. It was priceless. I didn’t sing as I played but sang the song separately, to the same affect. Mina liked that I was singing in Japanese to her. Wow, my head hurts with the Japanese overload but it was well worth it. Next up, one year anniversary plans…

[ Life.Iz.Good ]

So the Mr. Children tickets that I bought a couple of months ago have now come to fruition. I had the whole day planned starting with Tokyo Tower and checking out the aquarium and then off to Tokyo Dome City for lunch and the Thunder Dolphin. After lunch I plan on telling Mina that I want to see Yasukuni Shrine, which conveniently is located in front of the Budokan. I checked the Budokan today and it was packed! A perfect excuse to say… “What’s going on there?!!”, I plan on honing my acting skills and if things go the way I plan we will venture towards the Budokan and Mina will see that it is the Mr. Children concert. I plan on just hanging around and talk with her about things like, I wish we could see the concert and I wonder what songs will they play, yadda yadda. Then I will spring the tickets on her, I can’t wait to see her face! Oh yeah!

I also made white wine sangria for when we go back to my place. eheh

[ Life.Iz.Good]

I have a decision to make… I want to reproduce my illustration of MIna on canvas using acrylic but I have to decide on either using:

a blank white background

a green background with emphasis on lines

a blue background with emphasis on texture

What do you think? I am leaning towards the plain white background to emphasis the illustration as a whole without distraction what do you think?

[ Life.Iz.Good ]

Okay so I booked my flight to southeast Asia a couple of days ago. The tickets were cheap around $500 usd. The dates are from July 20 to August 30, almost 6 weeks!!! As I posted in an earlier post my trip will take me through, northern Thailand, Loas, Cambodia and Vietnam.

I am doing this trip solo and hopefully will be able to meet up with friends along the way, if not, I am sure I will meet people at the hostels that I will be staying at. I haven’t planned any places to stay or how I am going from place to place, all I have is a rough map of where I want to go. I have my concerns over getting lost in countries where I do not speak the language but my time in Morocco has taught me to keep my wits about me and I will be fine. This being my second solo trip, I will travel with more experience and knowledge. I can’t wait to see how this adventure will turns out.

[ Life.Iz.Good ]