Christmas In A Submarine.

but ... neoprene?

sounds kinda miserable.

I need to check out Be A Good Neighbor - it's on my list but I never find the time.  I'm only here for 4 months, which should be a lot of time except I've got school, etc and it's flying by.  Definitely agree on the experience and feel > product.

Have you been to Paddlers Kiya? I'd be interested to hear what you think.

NB: I'm sitting at Paddlers right now and it's head and shoulders above any other coffee I've had in Tokyo thus far.

neat.

steven alan is already in the rendering, lulz.

not a very closely held secret:

(check last blurb)

coming to Tokyo from Portland has been kind weird, coffee-wise.  Obviously the general level of quality is drastically lower, but the little "3rd wave" (if you can really call them that) shops that i've been to have generally been good.

Bear Pond was satisfying, but definitely not some revelatory experience.  The macchiato I had at On The Corner was possibly better than the Dirty I felt compelled to get at the shimokita location.

It's been getting hot so my perception may be skewed since i've been drinking iced things more than normal.  I had an iced americano from Omotesando that was excellent, and a mediocre one from Streamer. 

Idunno, it definitely makes me appreciate Stumptown but even more so: the hundreds of much smaller roasters in pdx.

Oh, the espresso I had at the monocle cafe was legit.

so is it too soon to get excited about Self Edge PDX? I haven't stumbled across a timeline for Union Way opening, but I'm hoping it'll be close to finished when I'm back home in August... anyone know?

[edit: nevermind]

thanks for all the input - the place we're looking at isn't a shared house, it's an apartment right near ekoda park. a few blocks from shinekoda station, etc.

we're getting down to it time-wise, so i guess we're gonna probably go for it, i'll be sure to report back/sleep on one of your couches soon.

i stayed in the 'green lodge' koenji gaijin house for 2.5 months in 2009 - it was pretty good considering the price. ironically even though it was a gaijin house 4 of the 6 people in the house were japanese. unless things have changed, the company also had one in nakano, ikebukuro and sugamo - sakura house are probably the best known gaijin house company by far, but have some really strict/crazy rules from memory.

hmm, well we're in the process of talking to sakura - based on their website/faq section nothing pops out as crazy. what kind of crazy are we talking about?

thanks for the advice...

Housing advice...

My girlfriend and I will be moving to Tokyo at the end of this month for school. We'll be there from end of March through the end of July and are looking for places to live. (yes, last minute...) The university offered us dorms, but they were super restrictive in terms of curfews and the commingling of the sexes, so we are saying no. The campus is in Nakano, so ideally we're looking for something close by via metro or bike.

We've mostly been looking at Gaijin houses, specifically www.sakura-house.com but I have no idea if that's reasonable/sketchy/etc. The prices are absurdly good though...

thoughts? warnings? advice? thanks in advance.

edit: sorry - meant for this to be in General...

yeah - but i'm feeling uncreative.

my girlfriend's sister is in town this sunday/monday - anyone got any good sunday dinner + monday brunch recommendations?

I cannot publicly divulge this information just yet.

F.I.L. PDX - you heard it here first.

LOL. Denton, you gonna be in the shop on Sat.?

Is the Bauhaus Ball a new thing, or PDX program only? B.Arch feels like a million years ago....

not sure how new it is. I think the idea is that it's the PDX counterpoint to the beaux arts ball down in eugene... apparently everyone is going though - studio today was packed with girls fabricating spacesuit/whisker outfits. so yeah.

obviously you're in town for the UO arch "bauhaus ball" on the 26th. the theme is 'spacecats' so I know you won't miss it.

Finally went ahead and used up my WHO gift certificate on a new belt today. (first new belt since '04!) Replaced my trusty brown belt with a murdered out one, for variety's sake. Pics when they matter.

what's a good non-hype voodoo alternative?

tonalli's on alberta

there's a spot on powell across from HUB ... neither are real alternatives, since they're far from downtown.

if you just want pastries downtown, go to nuvrei or walk up to 21st and go to Ken's. Both are better than donuts.

Damian Lillard joins Oscar Robertson and Isiah Thomas as the only players in NBA history with at least 20/10 in their debut.

Also the first since Lebron to have > 21/9 in his debut.

I feel alright.

sorry - which one is the flagship store? based on the descriptions on the site I couldn't tell ...

does anyone have any tips about what 45rpm stores I should go to in tokyo? there are quite a few ... wondering if there are serious differences, etc..

thanks.

(tore thru the flyknits in about ten wears,and they were the runner not the racer)

if you don't mind me asking - doing what exactly?

Hey mike did you catch my email a few days back?

(tried to PM you on here but it gave my some error message)