Archive for May, 2006

Doggie Ice Cream

Sunday, May 28th, 2006

We were out in the city the other day and saw this sign. It wasn’t a joke actually. Crazy stuff.

Doggie Ice Cream

Team building

Sunday, May 28th, 2006

Wakimoto-san’s team invited me and a bunch of others to their teambuilding on Friday, which was really nice. It’s not my team really, but I work with their team a lot, so it was good that they invited me. It started at noon on Friday, but because I was giving a bunch of presentations on Friday, I had to meet them at the hotel (off-site team-building) for dinner and drinks. I got there a bit late, mostly because I thought it was closer to Tokyo than I expected.

It turns out it was on the land where Tokyo Disneyland is, so I got to see the resort a bit. It’s very nice, with lots of nice manicured lawns and gardens etc. This quite stands out in Japan, because in general, the Japanese don’t manicure their gardens. Most places just seem to grow wild.

The Toyko Disneyland is so big, they have their own monorail, which runs the circumference of the resort. The second stop was where the hotels were, amongst them the Sheraton, where our meeting was. There were a bunch of top hotels in that little cluster and they all had great views over Tokyo bay and the resort.

There were also hundreds of car parks! That’s very rare to see in Japan, but they had lots of room there! I suppose it’s all land-fill, so they could afford to put car parking in.

The monorail was quite cute – cutesy decorated and the handles from the rails looks like Mickey Mouse head (inclusive of trousers with the big buttons) and the windows in the train were shaped like Mickey’s head. Very interesting.

The teambuilding was very nice, and I went around to all the tables and poured beer for everybody and met lots of new people. The dinner itself wasn’t so great, considering it was from a very posh hotel. It was a western meal, so it might have been really nice for eastern palates, but for mine it was pretty mundane. Nevertheless, the beer was really good and we all had a good time.

After dinner we got ejected and had to go to the bar on the 12th floor, which had a great view over Tokyo bay. I drank a “blue hawaiian” which was unusual. I usually try to pick the more unusual drinks if the company is paying. Otherwise I would have stuck with beer.

I did get to hear a bit about the other teams and a bit about myself, which is really what teambuildings are about. Finding out about yourself and your colleagues in an informal setting. It was all good and I’m glad I went!

Firetrucks

Sunday, May 28th, 2006

Late the other night, there was some sort of commotion at the house opposite us on Honmoku-dori. There were about 4-5 firetrucks, police cars and various other cars all there with their flashing lights on etc.

We reckon it was a gas emergency or something, because it certainly got a lot of attention. Lots of our neighbours were also outside gawking at the spectacle.

Tennis Tournament

Sunday, May 21st, 2006

Humio and I played in the YITC (Yokohama International Tennis Centre) doubles tournament today, which was great fun. The weather was brilliant and we all had a good time. There was some pretty impressive tennis being played and we easily lost both our games. It was a good time though and the family came out to, which was great fun. Now I’m just a bit tired… :(

Nicole’s birthday

Friday, May 19th, 2006

Last weekend was Nicole’s birthday and we had a bit of a party. Actually a big party. 16 people including kiddies were over. Nicole had bought herself a huge Costco cake (lots of icing) and we put on the barbeque. Unfortunately, I burned most of the meat on the barbeque, so we didn’t have all that much to eat. Peter, Naoko and Zen arrived just as everybody was leaving. The kids were well behaved and kept us all entertained. Nicole got a few CDs and an umbrella and some swim goggles that she wanted.