random

Hell hath frozen over

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Brace yourself. Hell hath frozen over.
….I now own a pair of Crocs.
Yes, feel free to cut ties of friendship with me. I don’t blame you.
This is coming from the girl who once subscribed to Croc-hating group “I don’t care how comfortable they are, you look ridiculous”! I used to give a lot of flak to Croc-wearers. I am now one of them.

I hadn’t intended on purchasing on a pair. Was out shopping in Shinjuku with a friend for outdoor camping gear, trying on beach/summer footwear etc.
I happened to try on a pair of slip sandals. They felt weird…like walking on silicon jelly. They were comfortable, but weird.
Maybe my feet have never known comfort until now.
My friend remarked that they were Crocs (she knows I hate Crocs). I called BS. Lo and behold, checked the shoe and they were indeed Crocs.

I succumbed and actually forked over cash to acquire these Crocs.

They’re no ordinary Crocs though. Check these out. I am totally rockin’ the Crocs.

From Crocs

Do they look any cooler/hipster-ish with an Instagram filter?

From Crocs
From Crocs

In other fashion faux pas, check out this sleeping bag one-piece suit. I mean, why bring a sleeping bag, when you can WEAR one instead!

From Crocs

An array of colours to choose from to suit any wardrobe and skin tone:

From Crocs

There’s a hell of a lot of zippers and cords and pockets:

From Crocs
From Crocs

Where can you get one of these, you ask. Amazon Japan.

I resisted the urge to purchase one, and instead bought a $40 tent. Am going camping this Golden Week long weekend!

Last Saturday. This Saturday.

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Last Saturday – Book Club.
I love reading, but don’t read as often as I’d like. I am attempting to read more this year. My friends and I have started up our book club – an excuse to meet up once a month over wine and do a book swap and talk about, you guessed it, books!

Here is what I gained for the month of February:

From Saturday random

This Saturday (ie today) – an attempt an apartment-hunting. I went to check out the part of town where I want to move to. I’ve got it in my head that I’ve already picked out the area. Thing is, I’ve never actually been there. I thought I should go check out the area today. Didn’t actually see any apartments per se, because I didn’t make an appointment to see a real estate agent, but wanted to suss out the area anyway. Walked the pants off Tokyo.
Took the train back in towards home…thought I would get off a few stations earlier and walk some more. Was just randomly walking around parts of Tokyo that I’m not too familiar with. Lo and behind, came across this gem of a humble abode – complete with suspicious dude out the front.

From Saturday random
From Saturday random

He was just standing there. Perhaps a security detail? Even though I was clearly taking photos, he still didn’t budge out of the way. Random house. Fancy living there!

Sydney Pool Crawl: Part I

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During my summer Sydney visit, I thought it would be an awesome idea to do a Sydney Pool Crawl (as opposed to a bar crawl). Like most good plans, it never quite turns out the way that you plan it. I had planned on visiting 4 swimming pools around Sydney City and swimming 1km at each pool. The reality – – I only did two pools. Hence I satisfied the “Sydney Pool” part of my idea. The “Crawl” came into it, because I ended up walking about 10km all over town! I did sooo much walking that I didn’t get to do the four pools. Did I mention that I had planned on walking from one pool to the next pool?! Hence all that walking around, meant that I didn’t get to quite fit in as much swimming as I would have liked. The day started off with a train ride into the city all the way to North Sydney station. From there I walked to North Sydney Pool – a wonderful pool (and probably one of my favourites). It’s situated right under the “Coathanger” aka the Sydney Habour Bridge. Can’t complain with a harbour-side pool. It’s also quite an historic pool and the water more saltwater than chlorine. Part 1: North Sydney Pool. Prime piece of real estate, that.

From North Sydney Pool

The “Coathanger”:

From North Sydney Pool

Lovely 50m outdoor pool. A whole 7 laps dedicated to lap swimmers!

From North Sydney Pool
From North Sydney Pool
From North Sydney Pool

Enjoying the Sydney sunshine, blue skies and a refreshing swim:

From North Sydney Pool

Dedicated lap swimmers:

From North Sydney Pool
From North Sydney Pool
From North Sydney Pool

Harbourside:

From North Sydney Pool

Luna Park amusement park right next door.

From North Sydney Pool

Swam 1km here and enjoyed a quick bask in the sun. One pool down. Sydney Pool Crawl to be continued…. 5193381 2013-02-12 22:43:33 2013-02-12 13:43:33 open closed sydney-pool-crawl-part-i publish 0 0 post 0 Australia down under : oz Fitness passing time photography Random Swimming Swimming Travel travel _edit_last 253158 _encloseme 1 _encloseme 1 Sydney Pool Crawl: Harbour Bridge Walk http://memoirsofaleisha.blog.com/2013/02/15/sydney-pool-crawl-harbour-bridge-walk/ Fri, 15 Feb 2013 04:35:56 +0000 aleishariboldi@gmail.com http://memoirsofaleisha.blog.com/?p=5193383 Part II of the Sydney Pool crawl was walking the Sydney Harbour Bridge. From North Sydney Pool I thought it would be a good idea to walk all the way to my next pool – the Andrew “Boy” Charlton (ABC) Pool. I did not realise how far that was! From North Sydney train station, you can walk along the entire length of Sydney Harbour Bridge. Blessed with blue skies and sunshine, it was the perfect day to tale in the sights of Sydney’s main attractions – namely the harbour, the Bridge, Opera House and Circular Quay. Near North Sydney Pool – Under the Bridge:

From Walking the Harbour Bridge
From Walking the Harbour Bridge
From Walking the Harbour Bridge

Luna Park:

From Walking the Harbour Bridge

Circular Quay:

From Walking the Harbour Bridge
From Walking the Harbour Bridge
From Walking the Harbour Bridge

Start of the Bridge walk:

From Walking the Harbour Bridge

Sydney’s harbour bridge has a pedestrian walking path on one side – open to walkers, joggers and the occasional person with a bicycle, and train tracks on the other where the North Sydney train line runs. Over and across the Bridge:

From Walking the Harbour Bridge
From Walking the Harbour Bridge
From Walking the Harbour Bridge
From Walking the Harbour Bridge

Great views of the harbour from the bridge:

From Walking the Harbour Bridge
From Walking the Harbour Bridge
From Walking the Harbour Bridge
From Walking the Harbour Bridge
From Walking the Harbour Bridge
From Walking the Harbour Bridge
From Walking the Harbour Bridge

I love harbour cities!

From Walking the Harbour Bridge
From Walking the Harbour Bridge
From Walking the Harbour Bridge
From Walking the Harbour Bridge
From Walking the Harbour Bridge
From Walking the Harbour Bridge
From Walking the Harbour Bridge

Not only can you walk, train, drive, cycle across the bridge, you can also climb on the Bridge – if you do the Bridge Climb Experience (definitely worth doing!). Here are some bridge climbers:

From Walking the Harbour Bridge

You can also walk up to the Bridge lookout pylons (an $11 entry fee to walk up 200 steps).

From Walking the Harbour Bridge
From Walking the Harbour Bridge
From Walking the Harbour Bridge

A typical Sydney summer’s day:

From Walking the Harbour Bridge

Circular Quay:

From Walking the Harbour Bridge

From The Rocks:

From Walking the Harbour Bridge
From Walking the Harbour Bridge
From Walking the Harbour Bridge
From Walking the Harbour Bridge
From Walking the Harbour Bridge

Walking route from North Sydney Pool, across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, around Circular Quay, around the Royal Botanical Gardens and to the next pool (approx 5.3km – 1.5hours at a leisurely pace):

From Walking the Harbour Bridge

 

The Sink

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You like ice-cream, you say? Have I got a challenge for you! Back in Sydney, I went up to the Coast and spent some time with a few besties. And good ol’ Jess delivered, with an ice-cream-eating challenge.

From The Sink
From The Sink

The Terrigal Ice Creamery offers a dish called The Sink! And it’s actually served in a sink. Oh, the novelty of it all. How awesome is that! It’s 15 scoops of dairy bliss. We enlisted a group of 5 (including 2 guys) to wade through 15 scoops of ice-cream. The first and only dilemma in such a fun eating challenge is what 15 flavours of ice cream to choose! The wall of flavours:

From The Sink

Me thinks someone wanted the “Strawberry Summer”

From The Sink

My friends anxiously wait for The Sink:

From The Sink

I present The Sink:

From The Sink
From The Sink
From The Sink
From The Sink

And if 15 scoops of ice-cream wasn’t enough calories – they threw in flake bars, waffles, topping and sprinkles!

From The Sink
From The Sink
From The Sink
From The Sink

So much fun to eat all this! We all dug in like it was our job. It was a hot summer’s day so we had to eat it pretty fast before it all melted. And with there being 15 different flavours we all jostled to try each one. The Sink slowly, slowly, vanishes as we all tuck in.

From The Sink
From The Sink

Halfway through….

From The Sink

Going, going…

From The Sink

Gone.

From The Sink

Mission accomplished!

From The Sink

If we had straws, we probably would have have drunk all the melted ice cream! We actually ate all this, seriously, in a space of 20 minutes! Everyone who orders The Sink at this ice-creamery gets their photo taken with it. If you ever happen to go there, you’ll see a photo of us stuck up on their wall. The Sink is pretty good value too. Only 30 bucks for 15 scoops, so between the five of us, it was only 6 bucks each. If you were wondering what 15 flavours we chose, here’s what we went with (we each chose 3 flavours each): 1. Chocolate gelato 2. Vanilla 3. Rainbow 4. Coffee 5. Hokey Pokey 6. Hazelnut 7. Cookies and cream 8. Watermelon 9. Mint choc chip 10. Old English toffee 11. Choc chip 12. Rocky Road 13. Mango 14. Banana 15. Ginger (!!!) That was just random. Trust Nell to pick that flavour 😉

Taxirobics

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Move over Zumba, Taxirobics is in. I was walking around the streets of Ginza yesterday armed with my camera (as I was on my way to an afternoon tea), and lo and behold, I saw a taxi driver who was obviously taking a break and thought he’d get in a bit of aerobics. He was doing a variety of aerobics moves – side kicks, jogging on the spot etc. He was pretty intense about it. Totally oblivious to everything around him, I managed to capture a few discreet shots. I would have loved to have watched him for longer and taken more photos, but instead of him being the weird one, I started looking like the crazy person taking photos of him! I love that he’s wearing his taxi driver uniform complete with vest and everything. Although, I see he did take off his white driving gloves.

From Taxirobics
From Taxirobics
From Taxirobics
From Taxirobics
From Taxirobics

He’s in pretty good shape, so it’s definitely working for him. Taxirobics – the next big thing. You heard it here first!

Happy NEW year: 2013

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Excuse the hiatus. Have been super busy since the end of last year. In a nutshell: finished up old job, went back home to Australia for two weeks, ate way too much, caught up with family and friends, busy, busy, busy, flew back to Japan, started new job and new firm the next day, getting familiar with new job, and have been away the last two weekends that I’ve been in Japan since coming back this year. So it’s that time of year again – – New year. New word. And the word for 2013 is…

From January 21, 2013

I’m going to focus on NEW things this year. The new year has started off with a NEW job. New work environment etc. Am also planning on moving apartments this year, so hopefully a NEW residence. I plan on trying NEW things, gaining new skills, new confidence etc. Maybe somewhat a bit of make-over year in terms of lifestyle. Nothing drastic. But sometimes change is good. Out with the old, and in with the new. Also need to lose me a few KGs. I’m at my highest weight ever. I ate all sorts of good stuff back in Oz, and have not found any time to exercise in the last couple of months! So I’ve got to do something about that. Time to focus on a new mindset and let go of the past. So here’s to a Happy NEW year for me…fingers crossed. Will have lots of posts forthcoming. Took way too many photos as usual during my trip back home.

Murakami tri

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What would 14,000yen get you? (That’s about 175AUD.) – my grocery bill for a month (maybe even longer than a month)! – My water, electricity and gas bill combined for a month – 4 high teas – a Michelin star meal or two (well, lunch anyway) – Over 130 items from the 100yen store – half an iPad OR It can buy you a few hours of pure torture. Mmmmm sounds tempting. There’s nothing like paying 14,000yen and hauling arse to Niigata for some public humiliation on a long weekend at that! I made the rookie mistake of making my FIRST EVER triathlon race an Olympic Distance one! Most people start off with a short, sprint distance. Me thinks, I’m not like most people. What’s with that?! Instead, I plunged headfirst into an OD tri (which I did 2 weeks ago). A 1.5km swim. Check. Can do. A 40km cycle. Can do. Albeit only once! A 10km run. Can do. Barely. But try doing them all in one go. 51.5km. An Olympic Distance (OD) triathlon. We eat breakfast, lunch and dinner over a day. We know we can get through each meal. But try eating breakfast, lunch and dinner all in one sitting, consecutively, without a break. That’s what a triathlon is like. Except only one of the legs involves sitting on your arse. So whilst I knew I could get through each leg individually… ..collectively was going to be a struggle. I only gave myself 7 and a half weeks to train for an OD triathlon! Not the best idea…but it was all I had to work with. Argh sheer panic! On the upside, I lost 3kg whilst training for this. Ok, to tell you the truth, the hardest part of a tri (or at least IN Japan) is signing up for it. Now, I’m not trying to be deep and all Confucious on you with all that stuff about mentally taking that first step, the committment, the being brave, the opening up the purse strings to enter in your credit card details and actually register for a triathlon. I mean that it was ridiculously hard to sign up for this particular triathlon because the online registration process was all in Japanese and was so convoluted! They did not make it easy at all navigating through the registration process. I reckon getting into NASA would have been easier! So after 5 attempts I finally registered and still had yet to pay for it. Again another process that required more Japanese and walking into a conbini and using a different payment machine. With very little training (but a lot by my standards), I rocked up to the Murakami triathlon in Niigata. I chose this particular triathlon for a couple of reasons. One, it’s called MURAKAMI! How could I not enter this one?! You should know by now I’m a massive Haruki Murakami fan. Also, Haruki Murakami himself has actually entered and completed this particular triathlon. Murakami at Murakami. He competed in this back in 2010. I totally stalked the Internet and found out his time. He finished in a time of 3hr and 21 minutes at the then age of 61! And he totally put me to shame! I have actually driven through Murakami before on a road trip a few years back, so was a little familiar with the area. Also, this particular triathlon draws a big gaijin triathlete crowd (mind you, they are all hardcore and seasoned triathletes and ironmen/women). I actually felt like an imposter at the starting line. I’m hardly a triathlete by any definition of the word. More like a try-hard. Furthermore, I had heard the bike and cycle course were relatively easy as far as triathlon courses go (easy my foot!). It’s a predominantly flat course (no hills. Yay! So I’d heard…). Let me make it clear — I swim. I don’t cycle. I don’t run. Run and cycle are two verbs that don’t appear in my repertoire. Getting to the race venue was a feat in itself, that I’d be lucky if I even made it to the start line. The race was on a Sunday of a long weekend, and required staying overnight in the area the night before. I spent the whole Saturday getting myself to Murakami. The bullet train from Tokyo to Niigata, another express train from Niigata to Murakami, arriving at Murakami and registering, and then because a lot of accommodation was booked out, I had to take another 20min train up north to a further up town where I would stay the night. It felt like quite the epic journey. I did meet some fellow gaijin triathletes on the train journey up. Everyone was so hardcore. Carrying my road bike and all my gear on three trains was a huge pain in the arse! Lugging that thing was no fun. Poor, sore shoulders. If I never have to lug my bike halfway across Japan on a handful of trains, I will be one happy girl! Niigata scenery:

From Murakami tri 2012
From Murakami tri 2012

Lugging the bike on trains all day:

From Murakami tri 2012

I spent the night in Kuwagawa at a small minshuku. Was pretty buggered after a super long day of travel and hauling gear. Right on the west coast of Japan, got to see a pretty sunset…

From Murakami tri 2012
From Murakami tri 2012
From Murakami tri 2012
From Murakami tri 2012
From Murakami tri 2012

Sunday morning: Race day A train back down to Murakami and then a taxi to Senami Onsen beach where the swim start was. The start and finish line for this race were are two different points. This race was pretty big. Over 800 participants in just the age-groupers. There was an elite category with some international triathletes too (even from Australia). This race is part of the JTU series as well as the Asia Cup triathlon. A pretty big deal. I set up my transition area and prepared for the race. What the hell had I gotten myself in for? Transition area:

From Murakami tri 2012
From Murakami tri 2012
From Murakami tri 2012
From Murakami tri 2012

Setting up my gear:

From Murakami tri 2012
From Murakami tri 2012

The day was really hot. A sunny 33 degree day, with 80% humidity, and water temps of 26 degrees. It was going to be a race in tough hot humid conditions. Swim course: And because I’m too tight to pay to for the photos…here are the screenshots….

From Murakami tri 2012

Swim – 1.5km The swim was a floating start out in the water. Wetsuits were compulsory, despite the super warm temperature. There were 5 start waves, with the women’s wave being the last…which was to be to my detriment. The course was 750m horizontal swim across the beach and then back again. The water quality was poor. Very murky and quite dirty. I felt pretty decent in the swim. Despite what felt like a strong swim, I was disappointed with my time of 33minutes. I was however, in the top group of females out of the water though which would be a nice lead in the bike leg. T1 Transition was decent enough. Peeled off the wetsuit and already had my tri suit on, so no need to faff about with clothes, except for socks and shoes. Helmet on, and away with the bike. Bike leg This is where it all went downhill. Thanks to the swim lead, I got a decent getaway on the bike. It was a bit hardgoing on the bike, trying to make the legs pedal as fast as I could. I was expecting a pancake flat course…but there were a few smallish hills, which I still struggled on. It was a 20km course out along the coast of Japan by the Japan sea. The headwind going out was intense! And ultimately my downfall. I was pedaling as fast as my legs could, but really could not get any speed up. Literally, hundreds of people passed me. I could not overtake a single person on the bike. I felt as though I was riding a mamachari, whilst everyone else sped past me. It was very disheartening seeing people that were 20min behind me on the swim, pass me on the bikes. I was out on that bike course for a ridiculously long time. Embarrassingly so. It took me well over an hour to reach the halfway point (20km). Headwind was too strong for me. Coming back was a lot easier, and did the last 20km in under an hour. It killed me that I couldn’t even maintain an average speed of 20km/hr. Oh the shame! The training I did would not have suggested that I would be that slow. Just goes to show the importance of aerodynamics in triathlon and cycling in general. It took me over 2 hours to cycle those slow 40km. I had totally gone into the race thinking that I would do it comfortably in under 2 hours. Clearly, I’m not in the most aerodynamic position…

From Murakami tri 2012
From Murakami tri 2012

My cycling makes my running look good! My cycling skills are pretty lame. Non-existent aerodynamic positioning. Also, I had only just learnt the couple of weeks prior to drink (water) and cycle at the same time! Retrieving the drink bottle from the holder is one thing…but getting it back in is another! Also I was limited to hydrating from my own drink bottle because I cycle lefthanded and drink with the right hand, but the drinks on the course were passed out and had to be retrieved with the left hand…and I can’t cycle one-handed with my right hand. Yes, I am that unco!!! I was also mega sore on the bike… sore arse, cramping leg. A whole world of pain. Spent way too much time on that bike on that course! Finally got back to T2, and was about to start the run leg. When I approached the run start, I was stopped by a race marshall and a barricade. I was not allowed to start the run leg. I had been too slow on the bike and would be stopped from completing the race! Oh, the disappointment! This triathlon had a time limit of 4 hours. At this point, I still had 1 hr and 15minutes to get to the finish line and complete within 4 hours. However, in addition to there being a total 4 hour time limit, there were cut off times foe each leg! So because I had been too slow on the bike, I couldn’t make up for that on the run leg! All competitors had to have started the run course by 1:05pm (regardless of whether you were the first swim wave or the 5th swim wave – there being a 20min difference between the first and last swim wave). I had missed it by about 5min!!!! I was not allowed to finish the race much to my disappointment. Had the women’s wave not been the last wave (20min after the first wave), I would have made it to the run start by 1:05pm! At the end of the day though, I was just too slow on the bike…but it’s a shame that in this triathlon race, you couldn’t make up for a weaker leg in a stronger leg. Every leg had cut off restrictions. It shouldn’t really matter how long a particular leg takes, so long as you can complete the whole race within the time limit! So, anyway, found myself stuck at T2, and considering the finish line was in the centre of the town, I ended having to ride my bike to the finish line (where they had transported all our gear). The official result will forever show a DNF (Did Not Finish). More like WNATF (Was Not Allowed To Finish). Oh the shame! And I had actually put effort into training for this! I mean just two weeks earlier I had done a 1.5km swim and 10km aquathlon race in 1hr 39min. I had not anticipated taking over 2 hours on the bike course. The headwind bit me in the arse big time! What was more disappointing, was that when the results were released, I didn’t even get a time recorded for the bike leg…despite completing it. I only got a swim time recorded. Man, it was a friggin achievement I even completed the 40km cycle, so I had hoped I would get a time for it. Most disappointing. I guess, I will just have to make Murakami my bitch next year!…if I can ever get over the devastation of this race. Will know to improve my cycling. And yeah, they should totally not make the women start 20minutes behind the first swim wave! Had the women’s swim wave been the third or fourth wave, I would have made it to the finish line. Lesson learned: Need to get more tits (time in the saddle)!

Onjuku OWS – not a race report

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I thought that by the end of today, I was gonna be able to post up another ows race report. But you, like me, are SOL today. Instead of a race report you get a whinge session. Try to contain your excitement, please.

I am totally bummed out right now and have no one to whinge to, so this blog bears the brunt of it today. I don’t like to vent too much on this blog, but today I’m gonna make an exception. It’s a long weekend here in Japan, because Monday is a public holiday. I made plans not to do anything this weekend, because I was going to compete in an open water swim race today. I was almost going to enter in two races – one on Saturday and one on Sunday. But the one on Sunday was going to cost me 100buks just in entry fee alone, so I opted just for the Saturday one. Today I was supposed to do a race at Onjuku beach. 3.84km. I had been really looking forward to it. I haven’t done a race since back in July, so was keen to race, and was also keen to do another open water session before Turkey.

Last night (Friday), at around 7:30pm I got an email from today’s race organizers saying that they had cancelled the event! The reason – “bad water conditions”. Yeah, it was raining a little last night…but not so heavy as to cancel the event. They should have made that decision in the morning! It’s been 30 degrees all week, and I pretty much knew that the weekend would be fine. It’s been nothing but hot all summer. It’s an open water swim race – let’s face it, we’re going to get wet anyway…so even in light rain, the event should go ahead. A few raindrops aren’t going to harm any swimmers. We’re used to getting wet and cold and being in rough water. So they made the decision last night to cancel the event. I was so bummed. It was way too early to make such a call. It had better pour torrential rain all day on the Saturday, I thought to myself. “Bad water conditions” – what did that mean exactly….that’s not the same as bad weather conditions. Are they talking about polluted, contaminated water, or just high waves. How could they have known the water conditions for today, last night to make such a call.

And it comes as no surprise to me that, of course, today is not wet or raining at all. No impending typhoon or tsunami, so the race could totally have been on. It’s actually ideal weather conditions for a swim race. In fact, the temp range for today over in Chiba prefecture is 26-31 degrees. Right now, at just after 11am it’s 31 degrees, with a very, small chance of rain, although today will be both sunny and cloudy. I’m sitting at home with the ac on, very much wishing that I was out swimming in a race today. So, yeah, to say I’m disappointed would be an understatement! Especially, it being a long weekend, and I forwent other plans so I could stick around to compete in this race, on this now glorious, sunny hot day! Am also disappointed because I had done a lot of preparation for this race. I had my swim bag already packed on the Friday. Look, I had even frozen 5 drink bottles (water and sports drink) so they could withstand the heat and stay cooler, longer. I would probably drink a litre of it before the race, and than another couple of litres afterwards. Just shy of 4km, I was gonna need all this!

From Random Saturday

In amongst those drinks, I even purchased a sports drink during the week called ‘Thorpedo’ – presumably named after Ian Thorpe? It’s made by Yakult though…the company that makes that bacterial cultured yoghurt…so I’m not sure how it would taste. It’s low GI though and says that it’s diet sports water. I thought it was hilarious and had secretly hoped it would make me swim like Thorpedo. Now it will have to be consumed in vain.

From Random Saturday

The course map of the race I did not swim (I would have been swimming the long 3.84km red course – a full return length of the whole beach bay area): Not to mention the training. I didn’t actually train a lot this week per se as I was easing back a little, but the prior week, I had been training for this swim. Oh, and the fact that I had paid over 7000yen to enter the race, which they have now just pocketed! No refund, and no offer of a free entry for next year’s race. So bye-bye 7000yen – that would have been enough for two high teas! So, yeah, I’m bummed. The ocean is free…so I’m not sure where or whom that money is going to…. They are however giving us a free t-shirt which they will post out to us for those that want one. Yay, a t-shirt proclaiming a race, that we didn’t even swim in! I use all these race t-shirts as pillow covers anyway. Considering that the weather today is awesome, and dare I say, even a little too hot for comfort, I would much rather be swimming and competing in the actual race that I paid for! On the otherhand, it does mean I have the whole day free to do absolutely nothing! Hence the time to write this whinge session. Looking on the bright side, I now have the whole long weekend to do whatever I want. Mostly bumming around home me thinks. Have a lot of preparation I need to do for Turkey, a bit of housecleaning, I’ll swim at the pool instead…and no doubt, I will find something else exciting and impromptu to do over the next few days off. I’m also looking to buy an underwater (waterproof) digital camera so might do window shopping. I am having trouble deciding which camera to buy. Any recommendations, let me know. A picture of a bag I saw in a store once. I loved the slogan on it!

From Random Saturday

Aquarium Art: Part I (as seen through the SLR camera)

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Last night I caught up with Jeff. I had invited him to come see this really cool art installation/exhibition thing that I had wanted to check out. Today is the last day of the exhibition, so I had wanted to go see it over the weekend before it ended. Ahh, yes, art is fleeting. We met up last night in Nihonbashi where the exhibit was on at. The exhibition was so darn cool. Way cool. I’ll be blogging about it over three posts – taken over three different cameras. I took way too many photos! Today’s Part I are photos taken on the SLR. About a third of the way into the night, my battery died on the SLR. I hadn’t recharged it, so I had to use my iPhone camera and the pocket digital camera for the remainder of the night. So we finally arrived at the Coredo building in Nihonbashi at around 8.30pm-ish. The Coredo building:

From Aquarium Art

The building houses some really nice restaurants. It’s got some great design features in this building. Here were some of the walls and stuff.

From Aquarium Art
From Aquarium Art
From Aquarium Art
From Aquarium Art
From Aquarium Art

Super cool and stylish. So the exhibition I had wanted to check out was a thing called “Art Aquarium” which featured around goldfish. Lots and lots of goldfish. I wasn’t really sure what to expect. It was part goldfish aquarium, part art gallery, part nightclub, and part lounge/bar. If you go at night time – they turn it into a lounge/bar where you can drink beer and sparkling wine as you peruse the “exhibit”. I was not expecting a live DJ, strobe lights and thumping music – but there they were. But it was so super cool! We saw fish tanks of goldfish.

From Aquarium Art

It was dark inside except for some strobe lighting, and the lights within the fish tanks. The lights changed all the time throughout the whole exhibit, so you’d get all different colours reflecting from the fish.

From Aquarium Art
From Aquarium Art
From Aquarium Art

Taking good camera shots was somewhat challenging. You had to work with the glass tanks, the water, the moving fish and the changing lighting conditions – all in the dark!

From Aquarium Art

The exhibition centered purely around different species of goldfish…some of which are cross-bred to produce some fishy-looking goldfish. I found myself having to wait it out by each tank to wait for the lighting to change. Managed to capture a couple of good ones though.

From Aquarium Art

This was a freaky looking fish with a red bulge attached to the head. I don’t know much about fish…except for the fact that they taste good beer-battered with chips! Sorry Nemo!

From Aquarium Art
From Aquarium Art
From Aquarium Art
From Aquarium Art
From Aquarium Art
From Aquarium Art
From Aquarium Art

Lots of fish!

From Aquarium Art
From Aquarium Art

This was a bizarre-looking goldfish with some beady eyes!

From Aquarium Art
From Aquarium Art

Same fish, but different lighting. The lights would change every few seconds.

From Aquarium Art

Another fish under changing lights:

From Aquarium Art
From Aquarium Art

The first part of the exhibition was a series of small fish tanks built into and protruding from a wall.

From Aquarium Art
From Aquarium Art
From Aquarium Art

The Art Aquarium got even cooler as we made our way into the second part of the gallery. This was my favourite part and we spent sooo much time in here. It was like snapshot central in here. Everyone had cameras of all shapes and sizes. We were like goldfish paparrazzi. I kid you not! It opened out into a bar area with a live DJ, and giant diamond-shaped fish tanks!

From Aquarium Art
From Aquarium Art
From Aquarium Art

So cool. I love water and fish and aquariums. This was just so much fun! It was really mesmerizing. And the music was pumping too. Such a cool vibe.

From Aquarium Art

Everyone was going nuts with cameras! Jeff managed to capture a photo of a dude who was taking photos with his iPad. Hilarious! Taking photos on an iPad has got to be cumbersome. I always wondered if iPad owners ever actually used the camera feature on it!

From Aquarium Art

And the lights kept changing colours!

From Aquarium Art
From Aquarium Art
From Aquarium Art

There was a glass mirror panel, so I took a photo of the reflection:

From Aquarium Art

It had a real bar vibe, with drinks being served and people just chilling out listening to the music and watching the fish do their thing.

From Aquarium Art
From Aquarium Art
From Aquarium Art
From Aquarium Art
From Aquarium Art

I loved the shape of the fish tanks, as if they were also real massive diamonds being showcased! There were two diamond fishtanks – one housed small goldfish and the other had bigger goldfish.

From Aquarium Art
From Aquarium Art

I like this next shot of a girl gazing at the goldfish:

From Aquarium Art

The whole atmosphere was super cool!

From Aquarium Art
From Aquarium Art
From Aquarium Art
From Aquarium Art
From Aquarium Art

And then my favourite and the main showpiece was a giant fish bowl water fountain feature.

From Aquarium Art
From Aquarium Art
From Aquarium Art
From Aquarium Art
From Aquarium Art
From Aquarium Art
From Aquarium Art

I’m going to end it there for today. My SLR camera battery died at this point, and we were only halfway through the exhibit. I’ll continue on with the next installment taken on my other cameras later on in the week. Art Aquarium – super cool! A most excellent way to spend a Sunday night. I’ll post more info about it later on in the week. Entry: 1000yen. Totally worth it! Today (Monday Sep 12) is the last day it’s on. Get ye on down to Nihonbashi! It’s open until 11pm tonight.

August by numbers

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August. 31 days. 31 blog posts. … Sorry about that. I should have warned you. That’ll teach ya to sign up to my RSS feed!

From August 2011

My challenge/project for the month was to write a blog entry everyday for a whole month. Success! What a mammoth effort! And time consuming too. Don’t think I’ll be doing that again in a hurry. It was a good opportunity though to finally getting around to doing a backlog of posts.

August by numbers: 31 days. 31 blog posts.

23 days worked.

16km swum (training). 25km jogged/walked (training).

1 marathon application entered.

1 high tea.

0 ows races. (Sadly no ows races competed in this month. The only two races on this month were in Shiga and Hyogo prefectures. Way too far to get to. But I have signed up for another long swim race in September and even a short run race too).

A quick setsuden update. July’s electricity bill was 2360yen – without using the a/c at all. Totally switched to an electric fan and was using it liberally as well (it was on for about 12 hours a day). Compared to last year’s July bill where I used the a/c liberally, my bill was 3,853yen.

From August 2011

During August, it got ridiculously hot, so I took to turning on the a/c for a few hours a day, as well as liberally using the fan. So my electricity bill went up a little. This month’s bill was 2689yen with using the a/c sparingly. A huge difference from last year’s August bill where I was using the a/c on overtime. Last year’s August bill was 5,657yen! Safe to say, August is the hottest month of the year.

From August 2011

My setsuden project was successful too. By switching over to an electric fan instead of using the a/c – really does make a difference! Up to 50% reduction in electricity bill. That’s impressive. But I will admit, sometimes a fan ain’t enough on a 35 degree day! But we didn’t suffer any brownouts because, collectively, Japan was able to reduce electricity consumption over the summer. Every business over the summer had to cut electricity consumption by 15% from last year by government order. That regulation will end on Sep 22.

Glad that August is no over. Way too much blogging! Now I can have my life back! And back to my sporadic blogging whenever I feel like it. September is gonna be a very busy month! Have heaps of stuff planned. So there will still be plenty of my alventures to read about. I’ve got to live in order to blog it about it, I suppose.