Hunkabutta Archives
05.01.02

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Right after I post this message I'm going down to Akihabara, the electronics district, to meet Makis. He's going to help me buy an electronic kanji (Chinese character) dictionary and an air rifle.

I'm buying the electronic dictionary because, as some of you might know, I've recently found a renewed zeal for studying the Japanese language.

I'm buying the air rifle because, as most of you probably don't know, we have a terrible pigeon problem on our balcony. Our balcony is dirty beyond belief because pigeons roost there. They roost there because they were born on the neighbouring balcony, which was abandoned, but has recently been netted off. Now they live with us.

There is pigeon pooh and feathers and broken eggs galore. They carry disease. We need our balcony to dry our laundry and to let Jack get some fresh air.

We've tried everything to dissuade the pigeons from roosting on our balcony: wires along the railing, nails along the siding, blocking their landing spots, fake birds of prey, you name it.

I've never killed anything in my entire life, but I think I'm about ready to 'bust a cap' into one of these birds.

As you might have guessed from this rant, the pigeon issue has been weighing heavily on my mind for quite some time. I really disdain killing anything, but I feel that I've reached my limit, and I find myself trying to work up the nerve to do it.
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04.29.02

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On Saturday we went down to Hamamatsucho station on the Yamanote line. I wanted to photograph a canal with some riverboats that runs under a raised highway near the station.

Unfortunately, those pictures really didn't turn out so well, but on the way home we stopped at Ameyoko-cho market near Ueno station.

It's a hectic little place and it reminds me more of Singapore or Hong Kong than Tokyo -- lots of crammed, open-air shops. In fact, I think a lot of the people who own the stores there, as well as the people who shop there, are actually foreigners from other Asian countries.

We picked up a few deals on groceries and I got a lot of good photos.

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04.27.02

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I'm officially on Golden Week holidays. I have ten days off, counting this weekend and next.

For some strange reason, Japanese people often are reticent to take holidays when everyone else continues to work, which is usually how we do it in the West. I guess they feel some sort of group-pressure guilt. To solve this problem what they usually do is have official holiday times when everyone has to take a holiday, that way no one is left to work in the office.

It makes sense on the surface, but the problem is that the country more or less shuts down for a week. Also, transportation and accommodation prices go through the roof because everyone is trying to book a room or a flight for the same week.

On the good side, the trains here in Tokyo are noticeably less crowded because so many people return to their home towns to visit family.

We're going to take advantage of the smaller crowds and our own free time and hopefully go on some photographic excursions.

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In other news, congratulations to my sister-in-law Julie for her recent engagement to Rene, a guy who happens to be from the same part of Eastern Canada as my mother.

I guess these Spicer girls have a 'thing' for East Coast luv'n.

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04.24.02

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Happy nine month birthday to Jack. He's doing great -- standing, eating, babbling, etc. I've even got him to play the maracas, it's true, I've got the video to prove it and I'll put it up online soon.

Being a father is a lot more fun than I expected it to be, and, yes, as matter of fact, I did expect it to be fun.

I don't know exactly what it is about babies, they just offer hours of entertainment. Someone should rent them out or something... they'd make a fortune.

I guess that's what the Cabbage Patch Kids were all about.

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