w00kie's ramblings

Category: Me, myself and I

  • Sumo beer cup

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    w00kie
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    I went to see Sumo 2 weeks ago for the second time since I’m in Japan. This time around, I was sitting in the boxes on 1st floor (really just a tatami with 4 thin cushions) instead of far out in the poor people’s late gaijins’ cheaper seats on 2nd floor. Of course, I had…

  • Recruiting

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    Today I had my first interview from the recruiting side of the table. My contract will end in less than 6 months so we’re looking for someone to replace me in job. Right now I’m working 50% on technical administration and 50% on functional administration. My replacement would take 100% of the technical stuff and…

  • Shibuya at 4am

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    A friend of mine is leaving Japan tomorrow, coming back to his girlfriend in France after 1 year here. So we had a little sayonara pub crawl for his last weekend in Tokyo. We started out in 高田馬場 and took one of the last trains to 渋谷. Hopped around 5 different bars and izakayas until…

  • Shiodome 42nd floor

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    This weekend, a good friend of mine invited me and his girlfriend to dinner for celebrating his yearly bonus. We went to the Oregon Bar & Grill, on the 42nd floor of the Shiodome City Center. The dry-aged charcoal-grilled steaks were extremely good, but came with just a small piece of mashed potatoes, nothing else.…

  • Kani-shabu

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    What’s better than the snow in Hokkaido? The food of course! Every time we’ve hit the restaurants over there, it was like we were discovering a whole new level of Japanese food. Say to a Japanese person you ate 蟹しゃぶ (crab legs splashed in boiling soup) in Hokkaido and you will see them shed a…

  • Definitely cursed

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    After the Wii near miss and the lost sunglasses episodes, the events of this weekend do not come as a shock to me anymore… I came to Japan with my trusty 15″ Powerbook and an external 250GB Firewire 800 drive. I never found the time to set up the hard-drive around the house, so since…

  • Hiroshima Report

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    I’m back home, in good old Saitama. As usual, the trip went like a breeze, I arrived 20 minutes before my flight, checked in, passed security and boarded my flight all in one stride. Not the shadow of a line anywhere, a wonder for french guy used to american and european airports. Then once I…

  • Almost dead

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    So I arrived saturday afternoon in Hiroshima, it’s now wednesday evening and I’ve only started visiting today… Why? would you ask me. Well as soon as I got here I fell sick with influenza type A as they told me at the hospital on my 2nd coming… I peaked somewhere at 39.5°C and was litteraly…

  • Valentine brownie

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    Wednesday, my girlfriend told me to be home at 8PM for a Valentine Day surprise. And here what I received by special delivery: A hand-made, heart-shaped Valentine brownie. Isn’t she a sweetheart? 愛ちゃん、ありがとう！愛してるよ。

  • Wedding party

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    I went to a friend’s wedding party this weekend. Nothing fancy, just a nice meal at a french restaurant with everyone dressed out for the occasion. They got married in December but the party was only now. We ate good food, talked a lot and of course all got pissed drunk. Fun was had by…

  • Ségolène wants my money

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    I read via Thomas’ blog that Segolene Royal, the leftist candidate to the french presidential election in April, plans to tax French citizens living abroad. Retrouver une citoyenneté fiscale Il n’est plus acceptable que des citoyens français parviennent à échapper à l’impôt en s’installant hors de France. Nous proposons de définir une contribution citoyenne qui…

  • JLPT results

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    I received my 日本語能力試験 (otherwise known as JLPT or Japanese Language Proficiency Test) results today after more than 2 months. No surprises, I passed. Actually I got a nice 87% but it was only level 3 which is not that hard. I probably could have made level 2 with a lot of work and dedication,…

  • I can barely move

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    This saturday I went to Naeba in Niigata-ken for my second snowboarding trip of the season and I had a horrible day. Through a combination of sleep deprivation, bad physical condition and poor equipment, I could barely make a turn 3 hours in the session. That and I went there with two of my friends…

  • Got me a new TV

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    Tonight, most of my favorite shows come out of christmas recess: 24 (after the first 4 episodes were shown 2 weeks ago 2 days in a row) Prison Break Heroes And this makes me happy. Why? Because last week I bought a new TV, being fed up of playing the Wii’s Zelda on the old…

  • Cerulean Tower – 34th floor

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    Last week, since my girlfriend was moving, we had no place to stay in Tokyo for her last night (after the movers took everything and we gave back the keys). So since she didn’t exactly looked forward to the idea of staying at my place, Saitama being far from romantic, we looked for a hotel.…