Mount Fuji, guys vs girls, and random other happenings

It's been a busy past two weeks, with getting a lot of material together for several launches, going to an engineering retreat, and finding an apartment. So, it's time for recap mode~!
Earlier in the week, I attended a 3-day engineering retreat at Fuji Calm, a small resort near the base of Mount Fuji.

(More photos in my Picasa album)
Basically it was a big group of engineers working on projects not related to our primary work -- 20% projects, tools and side projects, and the like. I was able to get out a working version of an internal QA tool I've been meaning to write up for months.
Now, this is an engineering retreat, and engineering is a male-dominated vocation. This has unexpected benefits for those of the double-X persuasion. The resort had public baths, one for guys and one for gals. The baths were a bit small, with room for perhaps 4-5 people at a time. There being only 3 gals (including me) we had it all to ourselves. I understand the guys bath was rather crowded at peak times (right after dinner and right before bed.)
Yesterday, I looked at another set of apartments and have come to a decision -- a nice new development in Aobadai, just a bit past Daikanyama where I know a bunch of folks live. This is doubly beneficial as one of these people will be leaving soon and I will be inheriting most of her furniture. It also appears to be disastrously close to a Book-Off.
I ran into some UI Designers last night as I was heading home and ended up joining them for dinner at Chibou, an okonomiyaki restaurant near the top of Ebisu Garden Place. The seafood okonomiyaki was quite good, and we also split one that had spinach, asparagus and cheese. It was tasty, but the texture of the gooey cheese took a lot of getting used to. We also got a great view of Shibuya. Definitely a place to keep in mind for later....

Flowing Noodles [流しそうめん]

Yet another crazy dining experience I had today: Nagashi somen (literally flowing noodles). Basically, you set up some bamboo tubes, stick handfuls of somen noodles, and send them down the pipes with a bit of trickling water. Folks then swoop in with their chopsticks to grab the noodles before they pass them by. It's tricky! The noodles can slip down those tubes rather quickly, and if there are a bunch of people around you can get into some interesting competition for a blob of noodles.
I think this is best explained with a video.
Verdict: Strange, but tasty.

Ramen

Had my first ramen today. We went out to Ichiran for lunch. Apparently this is my boss' favorite ramen shop in Tokyo, and he goes there whenever he visits. They serve Hakata-style ramen with the thin noodles. I didn't get any spicy sauce with it. It was plenty tasty without it. A bit of noodle, some pork, green onions and garlic, mm delish!
Ichiran is a tiny shop with little stalls for each diner. Not exactly the place for a sociable lunch! You get tickets for the soup and any extras if you want it (like soft-boiled eggs, extra noodles, nori, etc), fill out a form with how you like your soup (how strong, how much green onion, how spicy) and take it to an open stall, sit down, and get a steaming pile of noodles a minute later.
Apparently they're open 24/7. Dangerous...

One week down

It's been a week! The past few days have been quite busy with work getting a bunch of material together for several launches.
Thursday evening I went out with the other webmasters to a tiny tempura restaurant near Tsukiji. It was a tiny place, room for about 16 diners altogether. We sat at the bar and were able to enjoy watching the chef preparing each part of the meal - shrimp, fish, eel, soybeans, eggplant and mushrooms. It was quite lovely, tempura as an art form. I will have to get more information as it seems like a great place to bring guests to.
On Friday, a day after Google Japan posted a Doraemon doodle, big box of goodies arrived from the parent company chock full of Doraemon goodies. I ended up with two Doraemon manga in English/Japanese (it's set up to teach Japanese kids English and apparently you can go to iTunes and download some files so you can listen to it in English too.) The office is now filled with Doraemon plushies.
On Saturday, I moved to temporary housing at Oakwood in Aoyama. I also went around looking at apartments. My head is still spinning from the trip. We saw over a dozen places over the afternoon. I'm still going through and trying to figure out which ones I want to follow up with. I like the Daikanyama/Ebisu area and the Aoyama area, and Meguro is also not bad.
I also caught my first anime on Japanese TV: the new Jungle Emperor Leo movie.
Today (Sunday) I slept in late, then did a bunch of walking. First I walked from Aoyama over to Shibuya to get an idea of how long it would take if I decided to walk instead of taking the subway. Conclusion: definitely walkable. Plus, I need the exercise. I'll probably walk back and forth most days, unless there's some really bad weather or something. I also went walking around Aoyama, mostly up and down Ometesando. It's lined with shops, but of course, the one shop that enticed me was a Lupicia tea shop. So many tasty teas to look at! I need to get a nice little pot or one of those mugs with the tea filters first, but I will certainly be going back there shortly to stock up on delicious drinks. Everything else was window shopping. I also got a bunch of groceries at the supermarket so I can finally start cooking again! Speaking of which, I should start making dinner. Mmm...

A few more photos

The skies were much clearer today. You can actually see Tokyo Tower in this photo!

Not much happened today. But it's depressing watching the wildfire coverage on CNN. California burns every year, but it's always terrible. When I flew out to Tokyo I had to change planes in LA so I had an amazing view of the fire that's raging in the Angeles National Forest. That thing is monstrous. The smoke cloud billowed for miles. Ugh.