Adventures in Japan

Relative Peace and Quiet

I say relative because there are still trains going by all the time and the construction is nowhere near done, but the election is over.

There was an election in the city we now live in. I have no idea if it was for mayor or what, all I know is that it was loud. There are two main ways of campaigning in this country, at least as far as we can tell. One is to load up a car with happy, waving people, throw a loudspeaker on top of the car and let them go to town.

The other is to have a person, or two persons, or a group of people stand near a populous area and scream your candidate's name over and over again. I really don't know how effective these methods are.



This is a board showing all the candidates. Even though the happy, smiling people smiled and waved at me, I was not able to vote in this election. At first I was going to vote for this guy...


Because, hey, he was the only one in a wheelchair. And, as the gripping documentary Ironside proved, people in wheelchairs are excellent at solving mysteries (which is what being the Mayor is all about). But then I saw this guy.


How can you not vote for hot pink Karaoke guy? That's right, you can't. Not. You can't not vote for this guy. Dad? You should totally steal this guy's idea. Next election, you should be the bright pink Karaoke candidate.

Also, Carla and I have made an interesting discovery. It's hard to save money when you keep going out and drinking. We don't mean to go out all the time and drink too much, but people keep inviting us out. And we are just too darn nice to say no. Last night we drank three Strongbulls each, ate some curry and then went off to play free pool. If Carla drinks three Strongbulls, she starts to take pictures. It's science.


This is a really good curry shop. Just watch your head.


Put 3 Strongbulls in Carla, and this is what you end up with. I do not say that in a mocking way. I take pictures of lights when I'm drunk all the time.


This is The Balabushka. Nice bar. Free pool as long as you buy a drink. Pretty sweet deal. The place is a fair bit bigger than most other Japanese bars we've been in, and it's never too busy.


I have to caption all the pictures I post to this site, even though you, at home, never get to see said caption. The caption for this pic was 'Spooky Cool Carla' and that about sums it up I reckon. See, we sometimes (read: almost never) post pictures of us.


And here's my little shark in action.


And this would be me, totally pooling it up!


Carla took this shot, I can take no credit for it.


I did take this shot however. Look, it's totally a drunken picture of a light. See, I told you that's the kind of picture I take when drunk. Just like Carla. It's true love.


Ben in action. For reasons unknown, he seemed able to beat us easily.


David showed up near the end and got a game in. For reasons unknown, he was also much better at pool than either Carla or myself.

After all that, Carla and I went home and watched some Lost. Man, the internet is great!