Beer run
Had a grand old time tonight touring Shibuya with Chris C., my old friend from back at U of Oregon who now works at (and despises) Nova. He took me to this liquor shop somewhere in the guts of Shibuya so that I could buy some Oregon Rogue Beers as a present for Host Dad. I bought Dead Guy, Shakespeare and Golden Ale for those who are curious. I'm not sure whether to give them to dad now or wait until Father's Day. I'll probably give them now, as more can always be bought later.

We headed to Chris's place in Meguro, a house he rents with four others, and stopped at the grocery store on the way to buy some raw ingredients for barbeque. I've cooked maybe five times since coming to Tokyo so I was pleasantly surprised when the marinade I made for my 350yen chicken breast turned out to be *really* tasty. Also barbequed up some pork, red peppers and mushroom and drank a few import beers of our own while everything cooked.

Tonight was the first night I've been to anyone's HOUSE since I arrived in Japan. That's one thing I've really missed about the states-- the comfort of being able to call on friends instead of having to go out somewhere and in the process, spend huge amounts of money on food and drink. Chris's place doesn't have a shared living area (common room) so we mostly hung out in the kitchen. It was really nice to talk somewhere quiet and personal where to have a conversation we didn't have to raise our voices above the level of a million other people. I'm getting really sick of shouting but I still don't feel like shutting up.

He and I talked for several hours, pretty much about whatever crossed our minds, and in the process I was made fairly desperately nostalgic for all the geeks from Micro, where we used to work. I can't wait to be in the company of friends again.

That's all for today. A busy week ahead... sounds fun nonetheless. Photos in the Inner City Galleries are almost ready to be posted; I only have one more album--the big one, Shinjuku-- to edit before they'll be up.

Thank you, Oma and Opa, if you're still reading this, for sending me the letter that I recieved today. It means a lot to me. You're in my thoughts, too.