The High Price of Clean Living

Well, I've reversed the format!! Most recent entries now come closest to the top of the page.. lucky you!! Which means if you don't visit ofen, you will be forced to scroll to the bottom and read up..

So, today was Thursday, had a fantastic day at work - we set up our new rack of servers (that I've been playing with for 2 weeks) at the KDD building, and that connection goes live on Monday!! YAY!! Tomorrow night, Bruce said we're having a Utigachi or something (UPDATE: Bruce just ICQ'd me... uchiage = launch.. woo hoo!), a special party to celebrate a project's completion! All I know is that it will involve food, drink, and Shinjuku (the craziest part of town!).. I took a great deal of photos today (over 70, in fact) and some may make the cut onto the web page this weekend!! I still have a few other things to work on!!

The title of this entry actually refers to doing laundry! I finally broke down and went today to figure out how to use the coin laundry near my home.. I managed to get some change by going to the grocery store, handing over a 1000 yen note, and said "sen... hyaku hyaku hyaku hyaku.." counting on my fingers.. then "co een ron dor eee".. The wonderful woman there giggled at me, and gave me change.. Then, there were two dispensers (one pink, one blue) at the laundry.. So I asked a passerby "sekken?" (soap?) and they pointed at the blue one, before launching into some monologue regarding the use of softener (the pink one) in your laundry, not realizing that I didn't speak word one of Japanese.. To wash my t-shirts, dress shirts, socks, and underwear, it took two wash loads (200 yen each), 2 sekken pouches (30 yen each) and 40 minutes in the dryer for the underwear and socks (400 yen), and 70 minutes for the many shirts (700 yen).. all told, 1360 yen on laundry, then another 240 yen on drinks (to get more change).. 1600 yen to have clean and non-stinky footwear.. That's $20 to you and me.. I now have about 3500 yen to last me until the 25th of this month.. I'm, as Threepio would say, doomed...

The Japanese version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire was on TV tonite.. Except for the language, it is IDENTICAL!.. You have to see the Japanese Regis!!! He's WICKED! He does a dead-on Regis impersonation.. final answer? *LAUGH*.. Really, I'm gonna have to find a way to show everyone!!

I've had two requests I'm going to try to fill on Sunday (Saturday for you people "over there").. First off, I've had a request for more pictures of me in Japan, to prove that I'm here.. Bubba, it will be done. As well, Shawna (I love my hat, thank you very much) has asked that I put less words on the pages with pictures, as it takes her a long time to read them (is she American?).. I'll have something great for you folks on Sunday!!

Well, time to go yap with Keiko some more, and sort through these 70+ photos.. Take care..