Then & Now

I was browsing Google Maps the other day and thought of looking at the house where I grew up. It's interesting how much you forget when you haven't been somewhere in a while. Compared to where I live now in Japan it's pretty different. I took two screen captures to show the difference. Both are on the same scale.

The Old:

Aww swimming pools how I miss thee (I still haven't found one here but I'm told they exist). Grass and trees are also things only found in parks here.

The New:

City life! There's a ramen store across the street. The owner Matsui-san has my order remembered now (chaashu shio ramen and gyoza) so I just have to walk in and he makes it. Theres a meat shop up the block that sells some delicious black pork that I buy every now and then to snack on. My bank is that light blue building on the top left of the picture so if I ever need cash I can run there. Though sadly ATMs aren't open 24 hours here. They are only open when the bank is.

To be fair there used to be more trees here. That is until WWII and firebombing found its way to Japan. My city though small as it is was one of the most bombed cities in the country. It's position in the middle of the Osaka-Tokyo railway, its many factories and the Army Air corps training base made it a prime target. It also had the luck of being one of the cities the bombers would fly over on their way back from missions to Tokyo and Nagoya so it was a secondary target for many bomb runs. Thus the no trees part! Aside from parks they never bothered to replant them after the war.

Here's an after war pic to illustrate what happened to the trees:

This 1945 image shows the area around the train station in the center of the city. About a 15 min walk from where I am now.

Oh, the Humidity!

Rainy season is in full swing.  It started mid June or so and probably will last till mid July I'm guessing.  With the rain came the humidity.  Oh humidity.  What fun it is.  I never knew 82F weather would make me want to turn on the AC.  It was worse last year because I had to ride the bike to work.  Soon the rain will end though and the real fun of summer heat will begin! 

The car in the picture is a Suzuki Cappuccino.  It's a 2 seater 'kei' class car that is powered by a 3-cylinder 660cc turbo charged engine. 

and 50lbs lighter!

At the end of 2008 I weighed in at about 225lbs.  At the Mazda R&D center I worked at there was an old digital car scale that I would sometimes go stand on to make myself cry.  I remember the horror when that scale went over 220lbs the first time and didn't stop there.  225lbs is the highest I really remember it ever being.

But then February '09 came and I was no longer working at Mazda.  I had two months to liquidate a lifetime of being a pack-rat/collector.  The liquidation of stuff not only included our 2 bedroom condo but a 10x10 storage unit packed full of junk.  Those were probably among the toughest months of my life as I had to sell or throw away one prized possession after another.  But that's another post for another day.

Those two months of hard moving shaved a few lbs off my gut.  The first sign that I had lost some weight came on moving D-day.  The size 40 jeans I was wearing (and used to be about the only pair I had that fit!) just wouldn't stay up.  I had a belt in the suitcase but due to it being so packed I couldn't dare open it and ruin my perfect Tetris packing that took me the better part of a day to accomplish.  Sadly they don't sell belts at LAX either I found out.  

After making it to Japan I found a scale in the bathroom.  95kg is what I clocked in at.  kg?  What the heck, dang metric system.  Turns out thats about 210lbs.  Hey not bad 15lbs in 2 months!

Over the next few months more and more of my clothes became too big and too loose.  Sounds great right?  Well turned out to be a double edged sword.  In the two months before we moved I spent a good bit of money buying new clothes figuring (and at the time rightly so) that finding clothes my size in Japan would be a bit difficult.  My $300 Calvin Klein suit got used once before becoming way to big.  The size 40 jeans I had were the first to go.  Then the 38's.  Now I don't have a single pair of pants that I brought with me that I can wear.

The good news is I can find clothes that fit me in pretty much every Japanese clothes store now.  My size 34 Uniqlo jeans fit fine if not a bit tight at first but now require a belt.  I'll have to try on some 32's eventually just to see.

That same scale that weighed me at 95kg when I first arrived over a year ago now has me at about 78.5kg.  Or about 173lbs!  The how and why I'll have to save for another post!

3 years later...

Well it's been 3 years really since I did anything with this blog.  A lot has happened!  I went from being a tourist in Japan to a resident.  Been here for over a year now.  My how time flies.

Tokyo Disneyland (Pt. 2)

Ah finally part 2 in the eagerly awaited Todd's trip to Tokyo Disneyland series!

So back to Space Mountain. Unlike California's Space Mountain the one in Tokyo Disneyland still doesn't have speakers in the seats. I liked it a lot! Just like the outward appearance of Tomorrow land the music-less Space Mountain brought back many memories. Also they still had the escalator in the front que unlike California's that got ripped out and replaced with a long walk back behind the Pizza Port to enter the que.

Growling stomachs brought us back to the west side of the park for lunch at the Blue Bayou which was still open even though Pirates was not. Food was of course definitely different than what you would get in the US thats for sure!

It had a tentacle, shrimp, okra, cold potatoes and some other fine extras. Surprisingly enough it filled me up enough to last the rest of the day until I was able to get a bento box at Tokyo station.

Next up was a trip to the Autopia. Being a ride I used to work it was interesting to see. They don't get much shade to work in either. Let me tell you Autopia has to be one of the worst rides to work. Not only is there no shade, you are surrounded by cement which just makes it even more hot. Also those cars aren't electric so they do burn gas and you get to choke on the exhaust all day.


I haven't been on the one in California recently so I don't know if they have the same system but at Tokyo Disneyland the cars have an electronic cutout which stops your car in its tracks if it gets too close to the car ahead. Having seen many accidents/injuries because of bumping while I worked it I can see why from a safety standpoint. But to me it takes away too much fun from the ride. For me a big part of the fun was always crashing into your party members as you go around the track. Now its just a slow ride with nothing to look at and no fun to be had.

Pooh's ride was closed for rehab also when I went which sucked because that was one I was looking forward to with its magnetic operating system. Next time maybe.

Hot and Crowded!

Next we attempted Splash Mountain which thanks to an ending parade and fastpass ended up being a nightmare wait. As someone who used to work in the parks let me tell you I hate fastpass. I liked working the Matterhorn because it didn't have fastpass. I liked working that ride when people would ask me where to get a fastpass and I could see the expression on their faces as I told them to go to the back of the line. I liked telling the wheelchair people too that our line was for the most part wheelchair accessible. What these people don't understand and something I experienced on Splash that day was fastpass slows the line down ridiculously. In the end you waste just as much time waiting in line to get a fastpass and then the que after using fastpass as you would have just getting in the line in the first place (as long as there is no fastpass). The Matterhorn's line because it didn't have to suffer from fastpass was always moving along at a fast and steady pace which kept the wait times down. Now thanks to fastpass the standby line completely stops and leaves you sitting there while they let all the fastpass on. Ok I will end my fastpass rant here since it's getting long but thanks to everyone using there fastpass at the same time after the parade ended the line for splash in the non-air conditioned tunnels of the que was a nightmare I don't wish to repeat.

The shooting gallery was fun also. There you win a plastic sheriffs type badge if you score a perfect 10/10 shots (for 200Y). So I had to do that twice (See all that marksmanship training in the Boy Scouts does come in handy even when you don't go to Iraq like a good trooper) to get some badges for me and the missus.


Big Thunder, Mansion, Star Tours and some shopping were about all we had time left for before we had to begin the mad dash to make the last Shinkansen to Hamamatsu of the night (actually there were two more trains we could have taken after ours but we didn't want to push it).

All in all it was fun. I would like to go back on a colder less crowded day thats for sure. Next time we go though it will be Tokyo Disney Sea. Most of the rides at Tokyo Disneyland are practically the same as California so I don't have that great of urge to go back to TDL. Especially since we will be getting season passes to Disneyland sometime soon.

Tokyo Disneyland (Pt. 1)

I finally got a chance to visit Tokyo Disneyland on my recent trip to Japan. It had always been a goal of mine to someday visit this park. I started working at Disneyland in California back in 1998 in the Attractions department with Autopia being my first Attraction. I spent over 5 years working for the mouse so for me it's always interesting to see how the other parks run things.

Unfortunately the day I went was the hottest day of my entire stay in Japan! Plus the humidity didn't make it any better. And to me it seemed like no place in Japan ever turns on that AC unit full blast.

Anyway back to the park. It definately felt newer than the park I was used to. Newer and better laid out. The walkways were wide and not as cluttered as in California. And did I mention how hot it was that day?



First ride was Jungle Cruise. Practically the same deal as in California but here the skippers jokes were actually funny because I had no clue what he was saying.



Since Pirates was down for rehab (boo!) We ran over to Tomorrowland next for a trip on Space Mountain.



I liked their Tomorrowland. The colors reminded me of how California used to look before the fatal overhaul in 1998 that got rid of the smooth whites and blues for some god awful gold, green and maroon colors.

Their Space Mountain recently had gone through a "Re-Launch" but to be honest I can't figure out what they must have changed besides the space ship that hangs over the loading dock. I don't know what used to be there but it's definately not the ship from 2001 like in California. And the costumes they make those poor castmembers wear. Must be torture when they are outside!



I'll have to finish this later in a Part II. I'm pooped.

Finally the Todd blog

I've always been curious about creating a blog so finally at long last here it is!  
Well I don't expect anyone to actually ever read this though to be honest.  But oh well I might have some fun doing it.  So here goes 
nothing!