Footime party

Very busy weekend.. very tired right now.

Fri night, went out w/ the boys. Oldman, me and Vig. Oldman set up an outing w/ some Ritz girls he met. It was OK, nothing to write home about, but one gal was really bashing on Vig because he had this supertan from his weekend in Okinawa. Afterwards we met w/ marriedman, then later with Vig's coworker crew. Out till 4am.. really horrible. Tired.. geez man... its tough in tokyo.

So I got home after 4am.. had to wake at 830am to get to meet the movers at 9am. I was late, but apparently in Tokyo they don't mess around 'cause they were waiting for me. Move went smooth, I found I have a ton of kitchen crap because my ex-gf loved cooking, so we have the martha stewart like collection of random accessories like an egg slicer, 2 juicers, frying splash screen, etc etc. I'm like wtf... is all this crap that I shipped. Otherwise I am slowing putting shit away. Not sure if I have enough storage/cabinet space yet or not. After I figure it out I will hit IKEA!

All in all my apt is looking and feeling good. I like the unusual L-shape layout.

Last night (Sat) we went to Big-D's wedding reception, followed by a ramen snackaroo, then this somewhat hot gals party. The hot gal is a tough one to nail down. She has like 100 guy friends, and Vig has been working her for a long time, but I think she is into him... just there are 10 others working that too, and Vig isn't trying that hard. Good catch though. She also has cute friends (mixed in with the 5:1 guy ratio). Perhaps thats life, hot girls have lots of dudes around them. I exited the party w/ 1 number. In retrospect maybe I should have gotten 1 or 2 more from the subprime market.. need to get out of the mode of only going for prime and diversifying a bit. Also I tend to figure I can connect thru the shared contacts so I don't bother going direct all the time. Maybe not a good plan... ??

Today.. waiting for appliance delivery.. and just resting. .....

Big Brother / Work / Wii

I coded up this piece of crap that took me 3 weeks to do.. dammit it isn't that great. My design didn't quite fruitate into a masterpiece as has been in the past -- I think its because I didn't really know what the heck the problem space was. I had attempted to sit for 3 days understanding the moving parts, but alas.. it was too complex, so I just went forward.

Whenever you just move forward hack-step-style, you are gonna build a piece of crap. Well its not crap but its not a polished and clean design. Oh well.

So today I learned that there is a website where you can see what time you came in (entry to exterior door) and left (exit exterior), along with every access in/out of the inner doors. Holy shit, I better start coming in by 845am 'cause that is the official start time. I came in like 905am on Tues.. man I am slipping. Not sure if they use that as a measure but it doesn't help to know its all readily available.

Nintendo is #2 market cap in Japan. (Ie, 2nd biggest company). Holy shit. That Wii totally doubled their net in just a year. They can't make enough fast enough.. its like printing money. Despite the dearth of any games.. it dominates. Truly brilliant invention. Went against the grain of the two towers and are raking profits as a result. Halo3 comes out soon which will propel XBox. So will PS3 have any life left? Given the dying BlueRay consortium I say they are done. As is my ex-gf who is part of that mess. Hehe I don't wanna be a hater, so I will leave it at that.

Did I mention my old boss at GGI got fired last week. Yep just like that!!

Haters

My new home. Its narrow. Its about 650m^2. Thus long and narrow. I have a deck thru that window that connects to my bedroom. Straight ahead is the small kitchen, bathroom, and laundry closet. Straight to the right is the entry. Behind me is a den. Whats this cost? 285,000Y, or a stunning $2478 a month at todays USD/JPY rates. I hope my neighbors don't mind my throwing a party 3 saturdays in a row.



Lotta haters in this world. People who try to keep you down. Married man was telling me how this one gal doesn't share any female friends (intro, etc) 'cause she wants to find a man for herself. She's a hater -- bitter thus not helping the world! Lotta asians here hate the whiteman because they pick up alot of action in the clubs even when they are actually losers and dorks. Life is unfair but don't be a hater.

I recall months ago talking to this guy about moving to Tokyo and he thought it was a "must do" move -- gotta do it! Opportunity of a lifetime, etc etc. I told him many of my concerns about it, esp regarding the types of shallow women there, but he was like do it, do it.. gogogogog... Then I move, and I start hearing him rant about how the women in Japan are one dimensional losers, can't meet any good women there, that girl be ugly, they have hairy bushes, tokyo is full of weirdos, etc etc blah blah blah, negative negative. WTF right, I was the one telling him that before. So you know what that is? Its a hater! Hey kids don't be haters, its not so good.

Anyways I gotta lose some weight. Peeps are really skinny here, kinda makes me feel like I'm a phatttman.... went on a lunch date w/ a gal. Cute but not really my type. A bit too homely, but damn my buds have been egging me to go out with her for weeks.. so I am trying. Dunno what they see in her, other than the big boooooooobies..

One more note..

its amazing that pretty much any girl you meet in tokyo is going to be single.

why i don't know, but it seems the opposite of SF, where almost all girls you meet have a BF. To get a GF in SF you have to be very lucky w/ timing as I was in the past. In tokyo the numbers are way in your favor!

doesn't mean i have any action, just stating the facts.

Fridays are Tough

Its tough to stay out late Fridays.. after a grueling week of work, 830am-730pm on avg.. its tough man. I went out weds, thurs, and now fri. So let me tell ya it aint easy.

So today went for an inspection of my apt, and low and behold.. they sent some girl to represent my company and she was a cutie. I was chatting her up and I think we hit it off. So I proceeded to collect the digits, email, etc and I think its good shit. We'll see how it goes, apparently in tokyo girls give up the #'s quickly but often fail to respond to you.

Last night I should have gotten digits of this chinagirl but she was not really GF material but definitely hittable.. next time I should go tokyo style and get the digits and just not call if I change my mind. Right? I have issues w/ hitting on B- gals though.. just doesn't seem worth it, since I'm not a dog (despite the inclination to be one, its hard for me to be).

Anyways mellow night. Tonight we discussed the top girls in our radar system between Vig and I (married man was w/ us -- that guy has got the great married deal.. goes out 3 times a week). Oh we also discussed how the less good looking gal from last night (on the right in the pic w/ short hair) was digging me. Hmm.. not so good. Oh well.

Random Night Out

You axed for photos here you are.


First up is post bar action, these are two girls who apparently work at Vig's bank. Nice gals, really down to earth, but are B players at best. In the end, B players are more stable so maybe okay I suppose.



This girl is a secretary and was a B+, but she wasn't having my game it seems. (Next to her is the married man w/ 2 kids who goes out more most people I know -- note to Tombo, it can happen!!!). I noted Vig was hitting on some B- game and he was spending ALOT of time there.. I went to wing w/ him for a bit, but geez they were so B- that I could barely stand to hang w/ them.. hah, so I bagged that action. I don't know why he persists w/ the B- game. Note, there was nothing better than B+ at this venue, but still.. if they are B- u gotta hit and run man.

Anyways.. he's sharpening his skills I guess. I don't know. Last night met another gal who was B+ level. Lots of B+'s. I think I was at an A- level before, so its tough to move down. My plan is to shop around for a good 6 months. Hehe.

Yep damn girls. Oh Vig told me a story how this one gal wanted him to buy her stuff all the time. Tip of the iceberg in asia man... girls want the good shit, at least the young hot ones do. How lame. I am too poor for that nonsense.

Tagging / BBall in Tokyo? / Life

I been tagging w/ Vig alot. Its great, but at the same time I gotta focus on finding my own thing a little too. Too easy to just tag along. Maybe its not the best but as a backup plan its great!

So I played Basketball w/ my 22yo cousin Shooog and Vig in some gym out past Meguro. Team was me, Vig, Shooog, 2 korean dudes, 1 jap from seattle. (so we had 1 alt). The other 2 teams were imposing w/ full company uniforms, etc. We romped their asses like little kids. Game1: 20-0. Game2: 10-0. Game3: 15-15 (okay hey was getting frickin tired). Then the next games were like 16-12, 18-10, etc. The game in Tokyo aint quite the same. I got whacked in the chin really hard. Frickers. I need to get a mouthpiece/guard. My BBall game sucks btw as many readers know, so u can imagine how bad they are here!

Hows life? Life is good, could always be better but could be so much worse! I wish I could get more vegetables into my diet. Its tough in Tokyo, its all about rice, noodle, and meat. No veggies. U know I need my greens. Guess I gotta start cooking one of these days. So whats the life like really? For me I can remember the talks I had w/ Boo and Booby in Jan/Feb. It was about doing shit while you can and so I decided to go for it. I could have lived an easy life in SF but I chose to try something different so I guess my point is.. its been fun so far, but even if it turns out to be a lame time in Tokyo, it doesn't really matter. Point is that I'm living it, doing it, and in the end, I'll have done it.

Is Tokyo that expensive?

I think the common word is that Tokyo is damn expensive. I am here to debunk the myth. True the big-city lifestyle anywhere is expensive but.. lets compare. I believe the top expensive cities are:

1) London
2) NY
3) Tokyo
4) SF

Most of this stems from rent, in which case Hong Kong and Singapore would maybe fall in line, since a decent apt in HK costs $3k-$4k I hear. In London a god damn beer costs like $10.

Anyways why is Tokyo not that bad?

Let me list out a few things I have noticed in my expeditures...
1) Typical cheaper haircut at a salon $34
2) Lunch bento $5-8, out: $9-12
3) Train each way to work: $1.40
4) Tall Soy Chai Latte at starbucks: $4
5) Taxi home after missing last train: $23
6) 1/2 L of guiness draft: $7
7) Dinner at sushi bar, no alcohol: $32
8) Typical night at a bar or izakaya: $40
9) M&M peanut candy: $1
10) Bottle of H20: $1 (at work $.60)

So far.. as you can see, nothing on my weekly grind list is that crazy on this list. . there are plenty of places you can eat for $100/head, but thats the same w/ SF or any big city. I guess in Tokyo people tend to go out more, so it just puts a frequency multiplier on the spending.

I have this one critic who is dogging me about not hitting the hot j-girls and posting naked pics of them etc. Uh hello.. life is gotta be more than about just hot chicks. Of course in the end maybe there is nothing more. Haha. Okay I am working on it, geez I just moved here.

Mirror Mirror..

Funny, I think of myself as a goofoff for the most part. Not really that serious, pretty laid back, but someone said to me during happy hour that I look so formal/serious even during drinks. Hmm interesting. Made me think, do I look uptight? Like not a fun guy? Wtf man. Maybe I dont smile enough? Or is it my red eye syndrome I've been having.

Hmm.. weird. I guess I appear to be either really serious, really studious, really grumpy, or who knows. But in the end, everyone will perceive you in some way. I think I am perceived as semi-serious/studious, which accounts for why I am able to land jobs easily. People think I'm a good worker or smart worker. So sad.. for those fools who hire me.

Anyways one of Vig's friends at work is this dude is is a nice guy, but people perceive him to be a gayball/feminine type dude. The chicks totally don't dig him. They said he has no sex appeal. So life could always be worse! I could be that dude!!

In other news.. I gotta pray that my career moves forward. I don't have many years left of this shit to move up. If I were smart I'd have waited more year and moved into a role like this as an AVP or VP (or taken the Assoc Director job at YooBS). I really can't be dicking around as an associate at my age. People 3 years younger than me are AVP or VP level. Yep.. lets hope I can get some exposure and move up here. I think my studious/serious/uptight look might help in this regard. :p

Zany Japs

I have a few things on my mind but I'm going to split them into sep posts. Next post (prior) is about work and career.

1) Check these two articles.
http://www.wordpress.tokyotimes.org/?p=1760
http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/beauty/article605552.ece

So what do you think? Yes the Japs are zany weirdos aren't they? The gal next to me was telling me she drinks this collagen drink after working out at the gym, a "girls protein" type drink. I said what? U drink collagen?? what the hell? So I had to look it up. Geez man, japs are nuts. Esp the females.

2) I am evaluating the females at work on my floor. Here is the tally.

a) Super hot gal in the SF room who looks 30's but is hot hot hot. slender bod, maybe part chinese. Has a bit of Lucy Lu in her look.
b) Super hot gal's neighbor has a big juicy backside but is really cute and dresses really nice. Always has cutesy outfits and shakes her ass as she walks. Damn I'd love to get in on that. Also 30's-ish.
c) Girl next to me, not that hot, slim body, nice gal. bad teeth.
d) Girl 2 seats next to me, kind of boring looking but okay bod. A bit unhappy looking.
e) Girl behind/diagonal to me, wow really nice backside.
f) Some admin with flowing light brown hair a few isles over, always catches my eye.
g) Some young intern/new hire who is really young but cute, not sure if she is jap or chinese.
h) Our admin who probably has a fake rack but is pretty cute.
i) Couple of girls I met on the charity event all okay no one particularly hot. One gal in research, one in FX were okay.
j) Spotted a new gal today in elevator who is in Equities, nice bod.
k) reception desk girl on 1st floor, really cute. no chance to really talk to her.
l) a new hire from China/Stanford I met today is cute, but like 24. Way out of my generation!
m) some girl who is really cute and maybe is one of the managers of the MBS sales team. Always wears a nice lady suit w/ skirt. Really cute.
n) this ugly gal one row behind me freaks me out, she reminds me of my ex P*m!! uggggg....

*sidenote, most of the gals are in their mid-30's. lots of 30's office gals apparently in tokyo -- my coworker said that there are 2 types of gals. Young 20's who get married off really quick and mid-30's who are overworked career-ish office gals who never get married and stay at the company for a while getting overworked.

Nibbles

Ever think about how much it costs to borrow money for a few days.. like those payday loans that charge you 5% to get a 1 wk forward on your money. Its really sad. Imagine you need $1k 1wk early and they charge you $50. You may think wow cool 5% comis.. but alas, here's the real math behind it.

FV = Pe^(rt)

where FV = future amount ($1050). P = Principal ($1000). e is e (natural log), r= interest rate, t = time in years.

so to solve we have:

1050 = (1000)e^(r* 1/52)

or .. 1050/1000 = e^(r/52)

a little log magic gives us:

.. ln(1050/1000) = r/52

.. 52 * ln(1050/1000) = r

solve for r, you have: 2.53 or 253% APR!!! are you kidding me? Yeah baby thats how much interest you are really paying per annum.

Not much new in Tokyo today. I am pissed I just missed getting a haircut twice this week (shop had just closed). Frick. Little things like that are a god damn pisser. Otherwise work is cool, been busy. Met a hot sales rep from Gloomgerg today.

Drunken Weekends....

Too many drunken weekends have passed my way.

We went to a few local hotspots on Saturday night. It was the guys night out, me, Vig, Pot, and Oldman. Pot is a dude from Vig's office that is married, 2 kids, but his wife lets him go out alot! Oldman is an exec at a bank that has a $8k/month apartment thats dope (1+den 1200ft^2) and is Vig's buddy from a prior job. It was alot of fun, not as drunk as I am making it seem but still cool.

We hit on several girls that night, but I must say, they were all B-class girls at best. Why not hit on A-class? Uh they were not at the bars we hit, obviously we need better venues... result, no action. I must say I like Vig's game as I was able to observe in the open terrain last night. He's a good wingman, once he gets an intro he is pretty good. I am surprised he isn't getting more A & B class hits, I think there must be some fine tuning needed to his game to make it work better -- need to think about this.

Anyways I did find an apartment this week. I realize I sent way too much crap to Tokyo and it is stressing me out a little to think about:

1. How to dump this shit I may not want (from small electronics like an air purifier/filter to possibly my bed frame) because dumping anything bigger than a cereal box is really tough.
2. What to do w/ my big 32" TV given it may not fit that well either in my small place.
3. Have to buy a WD, Fridge, and extra A/C unit. WTF??
4. Not enough storage space for golf clubs, snowboard, etc etc. Maybe bad choice of APTS ?
5. No elevator on 4th floor so it is a huge deal to move a 32" 165lb tv. Gotta think if I should dump this or what. Those poor movers...
   

Otherwise my apartment is cool here's the details:

• Located in Ebisu which is a posh 30's crowd town of really hot chicks and yuppies
• 9min from the train station which puts my total commute at 9min + 6 train ride + 5 walk from train to office/desk== 20min!
• It is a 1+den, mere 59.48m^2 which is 640ft^2. But let me tell you its fricking hard to find anything big unless its ultra old or ultra expensive (see note above about the Oldman's place).
• It is on the top floor of a small building that has only 7 units. Top floor has just my unit, so no neighbors! I have a small deck as well that can seat 2-3 w/ a table.
• Living + den is really narrow its like 20'x10' and the den extends another 10x10 (so 30'x10' if I leave the sliding door open).
  
• Not enough storage space, so I may have to go to Ikea and get a wardrobe/closet to put in the Den.
• My huge queen platform bed is barely going to fit. I may have to scrap the frame in favor of a smaller one. Those extra 5-6" may be key.
• Not sure if TV works in this narrow place. Nor if my big couch works. Oh well.
  

Final note, my japanese fricking sucks. I really need to start studying. Vig has easily surpassed me. Can't just get by w/ my crappy skills no more.

Work Update I

Only been at work my 3rd week now, but so far... my thoughts:

1) I like it
2) I need to get out of IT/Software Dev / Technology
3) I am sleepy at work at times
4) I have a challenging project to work on.. to kill my sleepyness

Anyways, #1, I like it so far. I like the guy I work for, really cool chap. My coworkers I could do better with, in the sense that they aren't folks I can hang out with or even have regular lunches with.

#2, as noted before.. as I see people in the elevator who are obviously IT folk.. it really makes me realize I need to get out or at least get on top of it. I could manage a team of IT folk, but being one of the mass of smelly annoying immigrants is not what I envision in life. This role may be a good way to sidestep things since although I am a technologist I belong to the research org -- my hope is to be more removed from IT and more aligned to research/business. (Analytics is aa hybrid of Research/Quant work and IT).

My business card is cool, has no mention of IT:
John Doe
Fixed Income Analytics
Fixed Income Research Asia

#3, I guess it doesn't matter if I am working on the trading floor or if I have alot of work to do. No matter what, I am going to be sleepy at 3-4pm everyday.. man I almost dozed off a few days ago. Scary. WTF maybe I need to use the gym or something more often.

#4, I have a nasty bit of rewriting to do of this fairly complicated process in our analytics code. Damn its a bit nasty. Oh well gives me a 2-3 week project to prove myself. I gotta focus, I spent a day and a half now pondering what the heck to do. It usually hits me after a few days of pondering as to how to approach and design a solution. Right now I'm still just pondering.....

So overall the work life is good. I've pretty much been leaving at 7-8pm (closer to 7pm).

Just gotta nail down an apt next!! BTW I benched today, I did sets of 12x90,10x135,4x165,6x135. Damn that is sad. Max 165 is sad, hehe gotta start somewhere. I'll prob be sore for 6 days just from that.

Moto

I am thinking I may live in a town called Shirokane. It is not the most convenient place in terms of trains to work, but it is a nice town and a bit peaceful. Now, I don't know if the peaceful thing is good or bad, but maybe after hanging in the hell of Tokyo all weekend I can see the benefit of unwinding in a quiet home.

The other idea is to live in the heart of the hell/fun, which would be Ebisu or Azabu. Kinda cool to just wake up and hit it. But that has a price as well (smaller, more expensive, noisier, etc).

So due to train issues I am thinking.. scooter. Or motorcycle. Granted, I don't know how to ride a real bike. And this is tokyo, I would probably die on a real bike. I should practice w/ a 50cc scoot and see how I feel about this idea of a bike. But bikes are cool. Bitch to get a license though. And at my age, I don't know if I can really still learn how to ride those damn things. I got on my mountain bike before shipping it off, and damn I felt odd. I rode a bike from age 5-23 so I was typically one with a bike... but alas, age wears u down.

Tokyo is a tough town

Vig the Pimp with his 'hos. The first one on the right of him is pretty hot.



Anyways Tokyo is a tough town for many reasons. Tougher as an old man like me.
1) Expensive. Paying $3k for an apt doesn't get u much. Its only phat when u get to the $5k+ mark.
2) Work. Everyone frickin works late (not me yet). Vig's token white friend worked till midnight a Friday night. Vig had a meeting till 830pm on Fri night. wtf? Its not like Cali where we say oh its Friday, screw it don't do anything serious cause we know no one is focused and everyone wants to leave by 4pm. Come to think in the US, Monday is a bust cause people are tired and getting started, Friday is a bust cause of people dreaming of the weekend. So u only have 3 days midweek to get shit done.
3) Social bustle. Man its a big city which means lots of drinking. Lots of going. Seems 3-4 times a week. I was out Thurs till 1am, Fri till 4ami, Sat till 6am. Can't maintain that pace. I'm old.

But the 3 work in concert to create an action packed lifestyle. What can I say, it is good shit so far.