Keith Watanabe * NET 2.0

Well, for myself it was more physically exhausting than mentally exerting.  I did have some bouts in terms of working against some nasty problems at work, but I managed to complete most of them.  But the telling story was just me sleeping all day Saturday.  These days, I use Saturday as a mental recovery day.  It's truly irrelevant what I do the previous night.  Drinking probably slows me down another half a day, but lately I really need my Saturdays to recuperate.

On the other hand, this week was nuts because I also purchased my ticket for May.  Can't wait to get back to LA for a few weeks.  But the price was ridiculous!  Sadly, the price of gas is roughly the same cost as the ticket itself!  I easily spent $400 just for the gas.  My friend suggested trying Singapore Airlines next time because the gas is cheaper.  I guess I'll have to take a look at the prices a little better.

Unfortunately, the price of gas really set me back this month.  I've got 19 more days before the next pay day, so I have to play it humble.  On a positive note, I will have just about a week off for Golden Week.  I'm so happy to be out of the financial service market, since those people are practically working as long as the market is open.  I can actually do something relevant for myself during that time.  Of course, I plan to send a good chunk of change home since I'll be spending 3 weeks in LA.  But I'd like to see or do something, hopefully outside of Tokyo for once.  I kinda doubt it though.

Also, I saw my friend who works at this Lady's Bar last Friday.  I was kinda saddened to find she got a finance in Hawaii.  Sucks because she was cute.  But very flaky.  I guess that'll work out for the better as I really need to avoid flaky girls these days.

Went to Kudanshita to check out the cherry blossoms with some friends.  I was pretty much in awe at the number of Yatai setup as well as the sheer number of salarimen (and women) sprawled around the Yasukuni Shrine.  When I tried looking for my group, I was slightly intimidated in that it was nearly impossible to differentiate between all the generically attired people.  When it was finished though, everyone was pretty plastered (except me because I'm attempting to avoid drinking to cut down on my body fat).  I wish more ladies attended and was disappointed to not see many people.  However, the crowd around us was a riot.  Some idiot kids were just slipping and sliding in front of us.  It was like watching a Vaudville comedy act, except these guys were landing hard.  I suppose they'll feel it on Monday when they recover.

I'm not looking forward to the coming week as weather reports indicate that it'll rain from Monday.  This year really blows in terms of weather.  This winter was immensely cold and even now it's still pretty chilly.  And it really hasn't warmed up that much.  But the cherry blossoms quickly are dissolving into the water so there's really not much to see or do this year.

Tomorrow I should be meeting with Leron for some yakitori.  Hopefully, the weather holds up as I'd like to hit Shinjuku and grab some grub.  Also, I hope to hit the gym.  I've been doing fairly well recently in terms of my attendance at the gym.  I'm trying to average between 3-4 times a week.  This week, I hit the gym 3 times and last month I managed to go 15 times.  Since the cost of going to the gym is quite high out here, you have to be economically minded in how you utilize your membership.  I figured that 4 times/week will bring the cost down to less than 1000-en/entry.  Also, that factors in to your home water usage as I simply shower at the gym.  And of course, I have a lot more energy as a result.