Cherry Blossom

I appreciated cherry blossom in my hometown, Shizuoka.
Of course, I could do that here in Tokyo, but I just wanted to be elbowed in half-drunk people's jam walking under trees and I wanted to avoid struggleing here and there to find some room to chillax.
It sucks !!


My little sis is working at Soba noodle vendor.
They had a great sales, according to her...
Yep, she has a side job, which I'm green with envy.

Chikuwa got crazy once he found her...

No woman No cry

I wanted to read a book on Bob Marley for preparation of "One Love Festival" that I'll be going with Linda and my little sis in May.
Contrary to my expectations, this was the only one available among my library grid.
I just thought much more published...
Anyway, everything would be more enjoyable with some knowledge ahead.
That's one of lessons that I've learned even in my frigging miserable life.

Overall, this was a sort of a bio of Rita Marley as Bob's wife and also one of his back up singers.
If you're crazy about Bob himself and his sounds, this book might not be the right one as the title tells literally. You might want to go to something different straightaway!

But, having said that, I knew almost nothing about this world phenomenal movement in 70's.
So it was worthwhile for me...

His music has attracted people all over the world and it's true, no doubt about it.
But this is just his one side. You wanna know a little dirty? to "Keep it Real " .
He was a real magnet for chicks.
I knew he was quite a one nighter but this gives you more details about that kind of thing from his "official "wife, Rita's perspectives.

If I were her, I just couldn't stand.
You're on the road with him, staying at a seperate hotel room from his.
And he rumples his bedclothes with a woman who is not you at least...
It's torture, isn't it, girls?!

Only one time, just once in her marriage life with Bob, they had a quarrel over his flirtatious relationships, Rita says in the book. At that time, Bob told her, "You don't have to give birth to all kids that I need in my life. Your body will be ruined."

Then she realized any kind of argument wouldn't cut it and never let an argument happened.

Do you think it makes sense? Theoretically, it seems to be barely OK... but I think I need to learn more about Rastafarianism to understand him better.

Taste the World

I made a little visit to photo exhibition "Taste the World".
My friend is one of the organizers.
He specialized in internataional relationships and cooperations at the graduate after having conducted his 2-year mission at the governmental organization as a musical instructor in Zimbabwe.
He and his graduate buddies actually held this event.

Besides, a dot-com business that I've been a bit involved as a weblog writer, luckily had a tiny space for displaying goods.

It was a great opportunity that we could merchandise firsthand, instead of through the Internet.

It's sometimes exactly what we should do, I think.

Unexpectedly in a good way, people stopped by and they were intersted in our authentic African goods.

They were sold more then expected, not like hotcakes though...

I, for myself, bought one.

It's from Uganda. Surprisingly, it's made from papers.

They are rolled up in a way and painted with ...what? Not sure.

Actually I'm wearing this today, but still don't believe what was made from because it doesn't look so. Absolutely NOT!!

Leaving the venue, I had my vital food Ramen.

Most of the time, I need to make it larger helping to fullfill my craving for this amazingly delish thing.

Rudo y Cursi Party

Have you ever had TJ Beer?
I have some at this mini-preview party for "Rudo y Cursi" a Mexican film starring Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal.

TJ is a sort of abbr of Tijuana, a boarder town between Mexico and the U.S.
I've learned that from "the O.C".
I'm not sure, but at least in the drama, TJ seemed to be one of popular destinations as an excursion for people in CA.

I was chatting with an East coast-guy that somehow I've got acquainted the other day and the subjest went to TJ.
He had no idea what TJ stands for.
It happens, considered the U.S is just so gigantic with time difference even stateside.
But the truth to be told, I was actually a bit proud of myself with having this tiny teeny trivia if I may call so, hahaha.

I was really pumped up for watching this film in the theater.
But show time they set didn't really mesh with my schedule.
Even if I would have been seated in the theater, I would have dozed off. No doubt about it...
So, having joined the party, I haven't watched it entirely.
I'd have a chance to see with a huge screen if possible, instead of my minuscule TV monitor reflected through DVD. Shizuoka might be my option...

By the way, the party was just great.
All-you-can-eat with ￥1,500.
I had a chitchat with my role model woman, who had organized the Cuban Film Festival, which meant a lot to me.

the Hurt Locker

It's about an Explosive Ordinance Disposal team during the Iraq War.
I thought for the duration it could be soldiers in the front line that conduct the ultimate task in all army camp.
So it was a total revelation to me that there was another fatal job of defusing bombs.

This is a film with a certain plot, but for me it seemed more like a documentary.
Everything was so real and authentic and I just couldn't believe this was directed by a woman.

Conflict among the team.
One places a premium highly on what they've accomplished rather than how they have worked, even though their goal is the same...

When they're out of the field, they kill their times mostly by booze and grapple, which seems universal men's behavior.
Their grappling starts just for fun, but sometimes it goes to half-serious one.

People are tense all the time even if they're off the duty. Once scuffle started, they get excited so much easily, which I understand. Just like dried grass, when set fire, it spreads out so quickly.

Japan has sent out our SDF to the battle field or some other lands in turmoil, but the details are not revealed enough and this kind of stuff doesn't make the talk of the city.
Few people see how they work there and what the place they are deployed is like.
I'm one of them, though...
So the film provided me with a little bit knowledge about war, which was great.

The team consists from 3 members and at the first glance, I thought the black guy was familiar to me. It was "Papa Doc" in "8 Mile", who is a rival of Eminem AKA "rabbit".

He had a sharper face and his role was mean, but I thought he was cool even back then.
Now he's well ripped up and become mature. I like him.

Apparently, he played 2pac in "Notorious", which is his next major film appearance.

I don't know it will be released theatrically, but I'd love to watch it !!

You wanna see my ****?

"Hey you", did you check this already?
All 4 guys from each diffrent race are amazingly hot, are they?
I know they have some stuffing down there, though...

Needless to say, my "Mr. Right" Nakata is gorgeous. But seriously, the black guy is the cutest.
I recognized him. He was starring on "Desperate Housewives".

At first sight on the drama, I just thought he was so sexy.

I've been waiting for the right time to show you how cool he is and this is the time !

Umm, why could I resist my hankering for watching the video again ?! And again...

Up in the Air

I've been kinda down lately,
probably it's because of this spell of very unsettled weather.
One day it makes me overjoyed that spring has definitely come, but the next day it was freezing cold like crazy. You, traitor !!

Then Linda offered me a helping out. It's a nightout.
In our case, it's not boozing. It basically means watching a movie in the theater.
Our choice for tonight was "Up in the Air" starring George Cloony.

Ryan (George Cloony) is a corporate downsizer.
He travels around the U.S and he's on the road on 360 days through a year.
This accounts mostly for what brought me to the theater.
I expected some unseen sights of the U.S in the film and I had some, actually.

Even if I couldn't have had enough, just knowing city names that I've never heard of would be excite me.
I'm a "map-addict" since I was a kid...

Omaha, Nebraska, where his company is located, is the first meet with me this time around.
According to Wiki, Omaha is famous for Omaha steaks and it's a birthplace of Malcolm X...
Umm, good learning.

He conducts layoffs for bosses too cowardly to do it themselves.
Not only physically, but also emotionally, he doesn't belong to anywhere.
He's single (maybe he's a catch at least financially;-) and he doen't have adequate contact even with his original family.
But this is all his will.

A voluntarily-isolated Ryan's story developes with two women. Alex is also a frequent flyer who starts a casual relationship with Ryan.

Personally, it was dull all through the course of this plot. I'd prefer more focused on his pink slipping business and I needed more stories evolved around this. I don't have any idea on how common this occupation is in the stateside, but at least it was a quite new to me and I just wanted more about this.

In that point, things with another woman Natalie was a good element for me, which I won't tell any here, though..

There was someone just behind my seat in the theater, who laughed out loud so ugliliy, which was annoying, to be honest. Nobody would have had any clue what was so funny about for her becasue she was the only one at certain points.

But there was one hilarious scene to me. Ryan heard her wrong when a CA spoke to him for collecting empty cans. "Do you have a can, sir?" Guess how he understood her. He took it "Do you have a cancer?" Can this happen to Americans ?? It was funny enough...

The movie starts with an American folk song "This land is your land" It might be nice to listen to an old song like this from time to time.