Pins in the Map

Posted on 2006/06/12 15:51:26 (June 2006).

[Sunday 11th June]
Not a hugely interesting day, but one filled with assorted odds and ends which for no good reason I feel the urge to chronicle herein.

Chie went for lunch with one of her friends, and I opted to let them have some quality "girls time" together, so stayed at home. I had a fairly domestic daytime, largely catching up on chores like washing and cleaning, and also spent a bit of time on the computer sticking pins in the map, virtually speaking. I realise I've visited quite a lot of places in Japan now, and, albeit still incomplete, it feels good to see all those pins on the map there.

Oh, and I got my hair cut later on in the afternoon. I went to the same place as I went the last few times, not too far from our apartment. As always I made a struggled attempt at polite chit chat with the guy while he was cutting my hair. I wasn't in the most convivial mood, so to be honest I would have been quite happy to have him go about his business while I sat in silence, but for some reason he felt the need to strike up a conversation on a number of diverse and linguistically challenging topics. It occurred to me for the first time that the other customers in the place weren't actually talking to their respective hairdressers. Given that conversation (in Japanese) is clearly so much more difficult for me than the rest of them, I wondered why I was the only one not spared this ordeal. The big headed version of me might suggest this is because I am just a very interesting person. The less big headed, and somewhat more cynical side of my character would disagree, preferring instead the theory that the guy cutting my hair is secretly quite mean, and derives great pleasure from hearing my apalling grammatical errors and general inability to put coherent sentences together. The reality may lie vaguely somewhere between the two.

Later on I went to Shinjuku to meet up with Chie after she'd finished her very long lunch, and afternoon spending time with her friend. This excursion turned out to be largely pointless for me, as I didn't buy anything there apart from a couple of bits of bread, and soon after Chie and I met up we decided it would be best to just go back home.

I made a red wine stew for dinner, which, although I say so myself, came out really very well indeed. This is a dish I've been making a lot recently, albeit quite different every time - the only real consistent ingredients being red wine and onions. After that it is just whatever vegetables are to hand. I think it is a substitute for British food - it is nigh on impossible to make anything like a roast meal given that we don't have a proper oven. Somehow this dish seems to satisfy that craving for rich and hearty food.

Our dinner, and the remainder of the evening thereafter, was spent watching episodes of Frasier on DVD - which I'd borrowed from my friend at work. Perhaps I have just been starved of decent telly over the past few months, but I have to admit to really rather enjoying it, despite having seen several of the episodes before. Plus it is interesting to watch it now having actually been to Seattle a few times - whilst the impression given by the show is still at odds with the impression I have of the real place (it is not nearly as sophisticated as you'd think from watching Frasier), it is still oddly great to hear the names of streets and small suburban towns in the area and think "I've been there!".

The map looks good but the pins are too "clustered" together, it would be nicer if you click on a country to have a sort of zoom effect with the all the pins spaced out properly... I know it's a stupid thing to say maybe because it's too hard to make but still....

Posted by Lox at 2006/06/12 22:13:37.

If you were my mum, you'd have a pin in Hampstead just so that you could say you lived there. Not many people have, you know.

Posted by Rob Lang at 2006/06/13 10:10:40.

Rob: maybe I'll go and add one!

Posted by John at 2006/06/13 11:35:09.

Go on. GO WILD.

Posted by Rob Lang at 2006/06/13 21:58:33.

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