Two Trips for Ramen

I forgot to mention an elderly lady approached the babies and me at the airport and labeled them "kahaii" aka cute.

In the morning Candace and I took the babies for a walk down route 58. We took our daily trip to Family Mart, a different one, and bought more random stuff. I got what was possibly faux pork since it was out with the pastries. I also got a cheeseburger. Convenient store cheeseburger, you'd think not so good, but it was decent.

When we went back out for ramen, turns out we went to the exact place we took oir morning walk. That meant a lot of extra walking for me. It was very windy and the temperature was in the 50s.

The ramen place had a machine to order that we couldn't figure out. Turns out a staff member had to activate it. The babies loved Tayvon's mildly spiced noodles. I enjoyed the steak that was placed on mine.

On the walk we saw Shisa statues everywhere. The are dogs that bring good luck. They often come in pairs. We also saw aa statue of Colonel Sanders outside a KFC and got a picture of him squishing my head. We passed by many well manucured Japanese gardens in the Miyogi neighborhood of Chatan. I feel more confident in my ability to navigate around Chatan.

When we got back everyone took a 3 hour nap and the adults missed dinner.

Round and Round

Today was Candace's birthday. We took a walk along the sea wall in perfect weather with the babies. We later went to a park where Candace and the babies watched me play on a swingset. I got Candace a shaved ice. Candace's mom and nephew feigned like they were going back to the apartment so the boy could poop, but instead bought two cakes for her birthday.

We then walked to conveyor belt sushi which we luckily found. It was fun! Candace's mom tried natto, fermented beans. She guaranteed it wouldn't taste worse than the freshwater eel she tried. At first she gave a face that suggested, Hmm this is interesting, but things quickly turned south. Soon she was frantically searching for a napkin to spit it out. She sat there for the next five minutes disgusted and angry. The rest of us couldn't stop laughing. Tayvon saw what had happened and tried some himself to similar effect.

I liked the freshwater eel and fried sqid. The octopus was a thinly sliced part of a tentacle. I also tried fugu, the infamous poisonous pufferfish. My stomach started expanding painfully last night, ao I got scared it would kill me.

The babies spent a lot of time playing with older local kids from a neighboring table. The babies liked a beef bowl, sticky rice, and some fried corn. I couldn't take the salmon roe- the eggs were bigger than I like- so I gave one to Tali. She shuddered a bit, but swallowed it.

On the way back. Candace's scooter was rapidly losing charge so he  mom, Tayvon, and I took turns pushing the stroller and the scooter while it lightly rained. Candace's cakes were quite fancy and tasted good too.

So Nice We Did It Twice

For the second day in a row, we walked along the sea wall and went to Family Mart. The East China Sea was angry and the wind whipped even though the temperature remained in the 60s. I grabbed some random food from Family Mart. The dumplings and fried meat may have been pork. The hotdog was likely meatless.

We saw and ad for a burger restaurant that charged men more for their meal the than women. We then walked by Kumaya cave site. It was closed and lots of stairs anyway.

We are Coco' s Curry for dinner. The family made fun of me for having a low tolerance for spice- erroneously. My nephew got a level 1 spice, but they thought it was mine. I had a level 6.

I spent the rest of the night making a transliteration version of a Dumbo book I got for the babies. Dumbo is Danbo in Japanese. We also tried to figure out the kanji for whichever bad word the nail polish artists painted on the nails of Candace's sisters.

Th  babies thought it was tim  to sleep for the night at 3pm. We had to wake them up early. They're adjusting to the time difference but don't have it down just yet.

In Okinawa

After a rough night for the babies because of the time change, we went for a walk along the sea wall. The babies enjoyed it. Something in our American-themed lunch upset Candace and she ended up pooping in a garage. Luckily we were prepared for such an occasion thanks to the babies. Candace is gradually catching up to my lead in for my number of episodes of incontinence on different continents.

We also went to Family Mart and bought Japanese candies. Tali was still asleep so Candace and I took her for a walk while Abie played with the family.

The babies were better last night except Talk took a two hour break to play and eat. She is getting much better holding a pouch without squeezing it all over herself.

DC to Okinawa

We took the babies to Okinawa. First we flew to Toronto. Nana declared her single orange to the chuckles of the custom agents. Why we need to go through customs-but not passport control- I have no idea.

Once we got to Tokyo we went to the ANA counter to Okinawa. We had quite the ordeal again. Candace's scooter was an issue again. So were the babies. So was the amount of checked luggage we had. I learned how to count to 7 in Japanese. Sometimes it's nana and sometimes it's which I. I don't know why.

The babies were great. But they were way off schedule and had a rough night.

Property Brothers

After a brief run, HGTV has canceled the cult classic Property Brothers. The show was undeniably a departure from the network's usual insufferable couple clamoring for a white kitchen and a walk-in closet. The premise revolved around two Rohingya Muslim brothers, rendered stateless by the Burmese government, who fled Myanmar to the hopeful shores of Thailand where they were sold into slavery. Their brutal Thai owner worked them mercilessly. The show followed the brothers' lives.

Critics of the show came from a variety of arenas. Matthew Smith, head of Fortify Rights, a human rights group that tracks abuses against the Rohingya complained, "I spend my entire life in the service of the Rohingya, learning about the horrific genocidal actions of the Burmese military. I just want to go home and watch some jackoff whine about not having a jetted tub in his en suite. I'd rather not think about man's inhumanity towards man."

TV critic Art Wise agreed. "I loved the witty banter between Drew and Jonathan Silver Scott on the original Property Brothers. But there was no witty banter between the two nameless Rohingya brothers on the latest version of the show. And the little they did say was in untranslated Rohingya. We were witnessing, as Orlando Patterson described, these men's social death. Not unlike when Jonathan tells some unfortunate couple that a load bearing wall that separates the kitchen from the living room will undoubtedly hurt their ability to entertain."

The network has also decided to pull two other shows of similar sensibility.

Famous for its tagline, "What's unique about Flip or Flop Raqqa? We're ISIS!" only the pilot episode aired. In it, the ISIS flippers captured a church, destroyed all of its scriptures and portraits of Jesus, and turned it into a dungeon for infidels replete with cages. The flippers lost money on the project.

In Fixer Upper - Yemen, Chip and Joanna Gaines battle with Saudi bombs and Houthi rebels in an attempt to rebuild the country of Yemen. The show was canceled after the couple was murdered within a week of arriving.

Strange Selfie Match

I tried that Google Arts and Culture selfie match. Turns out I'm a 53% match with that Danish cartoonist's racist depiction of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) from 2005. I'm wondering, why is that even an option? That's fucked up Google!

Out of respect for the great and noble religion of Islam and its adherence of a ban on idolatry of the prophets, particularly in this most offensive form, I've decided not to post the match. I must say that I'm also offended that I most resemble a racist cartoon. And not even like a stereotypical depiction of my own people. I'm very offended.

Bills Come Up Short

In their first playoff game since I was in high school and before the existence of this blog, the Buffalo Bills came up just short in a valiant 10-3 loss. Neither Jacksonville nor Buffalo could mount much offense. The Bills scored first, notching a field goal after they had it first and goal from the one. Jacksonville managed to tie the game just before the half.

The best offense for either team was the Jaguars' Blake Bortles scrambling. Buffalo's Tyrod Taylor never threw the ball down the field. He is not a risk-taker. The all-time leader in fewest interception percentage per pass, Taylor usually opts to throw short. His interception today was a fluke; a ball tipped up into the air a few times.He is a good runner and very adept at avoiding sacks. Hes willing to throw the ball away rather than take a sack or force a pass into traffic.

Taylor's steady hand is appreciated, but without the potential of a big play, Jacksonville's defense could contain Taylor's short passes. Too often,. the Bills lost yardage. Losing yards is part of the price if risk is involved, but the Bills had far too many plays in which they lost yardage for such a conservative approach.

Taylor's injury on 4th and 3 with just over a minute to go was heartbreaking. Nathan Peterman came in and picked up the first down, but soon threw an "interception" to Jalen Ramsey, who first committed an uncalled pass interference, and then trapped the ball against the ground. Instant replay has not been kind to the Bills in their last two playoff games.

Bills linebacker Lorenzo Alexander came up big. He was impressive.

Hopefully, the Bills don't make wholesale changes. Taylor needs better pass-catching options, but Buffalo is on the right track.

Boxing Fights I Want to See

Last year was a little better for boxing in terms of making the top fights everyone wants to see. Ward-Kovalev, Canelo-Govkin, Lomachenko-Rignodeax, Joshua-Klitschko, and Thurman-Garcia all fit the mold. In that same vain, here are the fights I'd like to see in 2018.

Heavyweight
Some combination of Anthony Joshua, Deontay Wilder, and Joseph Parker. Please stop fighting Eric Molina!

Light Heavyweight
Adonis Stevenson vs. Sergey Kovalev for the legitimate light heavyweight championship.
Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol

Middleweight
Canelo-Golovkin 2
Billy Joe Saunders vs. Erislandy Lara (give me a skilled chess match any day)

Welterweights
Terence Crawford vs. Errol Spence, but Keith Thurman is currently the best in the division, so let Crawford or Spence fight Thurman and the other one fight Danny Garcia before Crawford and Spence face off.

Junior Welterweights
Mikey Garcia vs Regis Prograis (I'm high on Prograis and I wonder if Garcia can take a hard-punching 140 pounder's punch)

Lightweight
Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Mikey Garcia

Junior Lightweight
Gervonta Davis vs. Gary Russell (Baltimore vs. DC)

Featherweight
Tournament
Leo Santa Cruz vs. Gary Russell
Carl Frampton vs. Abner Mares

Junior Bantamweight
Naoya Inoue vs Srisaket Sor Rungvisai-Juan Estrada winner

Best Boxing Referees and Judges

When these boxing referees are announced I feel confident there will be a fairly officiated fight.

Here's a list of the 6 best in alphabetical order:
Kenny Bayless
Harvey Dock
Michael Griffin
Jack Reiss
Tom Taylor
Tony Weeks


Fewer judges stand out.
Here are two that I feel the most confident in their scores:
Julie Lederman
Steve Weisfeld