if anyone knows of a better way...

Luckily, English is a standard in Singapore. I would love to be multilingual, but I am not. However, I did start some online Mandarin lessons last night, and I believe I am doing pretty well. 100% so far on my "tests" of tonal recognition.

Anyway, neither Mandarin nor English is a standard in Japan, or at least, Tokyo. So, I managed to find my way around Tokyo, from the airport to a bus terminal, to a hotel, around "electric town" Akihabara, (getting semi-lost in the process...I swear that these maps are upside down / backwards - same thing in Singapore - I wasn't lost in relation to the hotel, just in relation to what I was trying to find - I did stumble across a building with the official title being the Nintendo logo), and eventually back to the airport the next day after a little touring this morning. While I feel I did well, I must accredit basically everything to a friend of mine, from booking the hotel to giving me directions via email.

So, back to the issue with English vs. Japanese. In my attempts to use my google account, or just google in general, I had to figure out how to get it displayed in English. I finally deciphered that the url required "hl=en" attached in order to set the default to English. After trying to make setting changes, I still could not get the pages to remain in English - even when I tried to make this post. So, I added the "hl=en" to the url and found success. The new problem was that with each link clicked, I would be on a new page with everything once again in Japanese. I initially tried to conquer this by using Picasa on my computer to make the blog post, but to no avail...
So, I want back to the direct way have added "hl=en" to every new url. When I go to add these images, it's still in Japanese, with no url display up at the top to edit (the address bar can be changed to always display, but I just didn't bother...)

So, that's that. Which gives way to my request. If anyone knows of a better way, let me know!

amazing bachelor party...

While I haven't been to very many, I must say that the bachelor party we held for my no longer single friend was just amazing. The morning started with us holding a picnic at the beach with the family and friends of bride and groom. With a massage therapist on hand, we also happened to hold a fundraiser to help with the costs of the "B.P." event. After raising $90 (Singapore dollars) and a great lunch provided by the bride's family, seven singles headed off to start our fun.

We started out with more fun in the water, then moved on to a great dinner followed by even more fun at the pool. The evening was unforgettable, the enjoyment of reminding the groom of his antics in the past, warning of his future, and just having fun! The laughter as we played cards, gave gag gifts, and got the groom to say some things that he may never say again, and the pure and genuine time with friends was what made this so amazing.

Crossing the Pacific!

After waking at 4:00am for a 6:00am flight to Detroit, a 7 hour layover with a 1 hour delay once on the plane before my 13 hour flight to Tokyo, then a 2 hour layover that extended to 8 hours before my next 7 hour flight, I finally met an old friend at about 4:30am in Singapore.

After driving to his house, I finally went to sleep by about 5:30am, then slept until about 5:15pm.

I soon met his family and went with them to have a great dinner with them in a small, packed restaurant with a to go line comparable to the soup kitchen, but alas, no Soup Nazi.