The Joy of Beef

Tuesday 3rd November 2009

AM

Least: At nearly 9:30am, I woke with an inexplicable headache. It may have been related to the weekend noise devastation or the sudden change in weather. A more likely explanation is a lack of water. Water is so boring that it is nearly impossible to drink enough. I just don't want to become one of those people who is always chugging from an anodised water-bottle.


Most: By 11:00am, I was beginning to settle into a lazy day off. I'm unsure of the purpose of the national holiday (I now know it's Bunka Day or Culture Day), but it was yet another welcome break from the routine of work. It was especially interesting because it co-incided with the bogan-fest Melbourne Cup. Until I saw it on the calendar, it didn't even make a blip in my thoughts. I wonder who won?


PM

Least: By 6:00pm, it was clear that I had lazed away nearly a whole day off. Because I now have an incredibly early start on Wednesdays, I will also now have the dread of the night before. The day before an early start is never long enough.

Most: Just after 12:20pm, I trundled down to the supermarket in search of a vaguely interesting lunch. As I searched the aisles, I was suddenly drawn to the beef section. I briefly scanned the cuts and settled on an expensive 200 gram porterhouse-ish slab of prime Japanese beef. After a few minutes on the hob, the steak was incredible and I cut it using a butter knife. The sheer quality and taste of the meat will make it very difficult to return to the wasteland of lean beef. Another great reason to live in Japan.

The Battle for Bloadband

Friday 25th September 2009

AM

Least: At about 9:00am, I woke feeling completely dehydrated. The weather on Thursday was expectedly warm and created an uncomfortably hot night. I feared for a moment that the cool of a couple of weeks ago was an abberation. I felt as if I had a hangover, yet without any memory of revellry and this feeling lasted until well into the afternoon. No amount of water or staring at the playstation screen seemed to do any good. An utterly empty morning.

Most: Close to 11:00am, I peered through the netting on the balcony to find that my intermittent study of katakana was beginning to pay dividends. A sign on a mountain of tissue-related product over at the Drug-11 read something along the lines of  "Early Bird Special". The sign finally explained the ridiculously long queues on certain days of the week that had been the subject of intense speculation for seven months. Now it all makes sense and fits perfectly into the Japanese habit of being incredibly bargain conscious. Hazaar!

PM

Least: Sometime after 6:00pm, I enlisted a our friendly neighbour in an attempt to set up the already boring router. Despite his best efforts, my dream of wireless internet was shattered. I became especially discouraged when I read the box and it read in English "Wireless Bloadband". I should have smelled a rat back in Den Den town.

Most: At nearly 7:00pm, I dashed up to the bottle shop to raid its supplied of tinned tomatoes. Outside the barn-like shop sat thousands of cans of the hangover inducing Chu-Hi and as many cartons of beer. Incredibly, the shop also passes as an understocked supermarket that allows the drinking man to cook up all manner of junk food for his night in front of the TV. The most interesting thing about the store though, are the massive barrels of what I assume to be Shochu. By any measure, the Japanese seem to be extremely heavy drinkers and appear to revel in afterwork drunkeness. At least it keeps the can scavengers in business.