New Years Eve in Tokyo
Kendra and I spent the night at her place after letting me get to know our new cat, Barney. (aka the Barnacle, aka Fatso) I liken my first experience sleeping in a Japanese house to camping in the fall - lots of layers, kinda cold when you wake up, but ultimately nice and crisp.
We got dressed and headed out in Kendra's car to the local shabu-shabu place via the base, and I have to say that Atsugi is the nicest Navy base I've ever been on, with lots of trees, greenery, buildings that don't look like homages to faceless bureaucracy and a really nice flight line. Post tour we headed through Yamato to Don-tei, the aforementioned shabu-shabu establishment.
Shabu-shabu is a communal type of cooking - we had a pot filled with boiling water that was cooked the noodles, veggies, tofu and thinly sliced beef that we ordered, along with a skimmer to get the meat foam that accumulates during cooking. This probably sounds a bit bland, but the sesame sauce that accompanied the food was phenomenal.
We headed back to Kendra's place after the shabu-shabu, packed and walked to the train station for the hour trip to our hotel in Tokyo. The trains here are ubiquitous - you can get pretty much to anywhere from anywhere using the train system. This also tends to make car ownership a rarity here, which in turn encourages bike ownership. I've never seen so many bikes in one place ever, and they all have guards for both wheels and a chain guard, in addition to lights, baskets and step-through designs. Nice!
We dropped our bags off in the hotel and stepped out into the evening in search of food, only to discover that everything shuts down early on New Years Eve. We made our way back to the Zojo-ji temple, site of the New Years Eve ceremony, where Kendra had seen some vendors hawking Japanese festival food. We both had some yakisoba noodles to satiate our appetites and I had some squid balls. The squid balls were all hand made by a local guy in batches of 100 and were delicious - I've got to thank Kendra for daring me to eat them, plus five balls for 500 yen isn't half bad.
After watching some rice being pounded into mochi for a bit we were both chilly from the below freezing temperatures and wind, but there was a hotel nearby, so off we went in search of warmth and a place to sit down. It turned out that lots of other people had the same idea, so there weren't a great deal of horizontal surfaces free, but no worries - the karaoke rooms were open and a great deal of fun. (songs covered included Never Gonna Give You Up, Bust A Move, Faith, Don't Stop Believing, Low, Sexual Healing, et al) We'd had a bit too much fun in the booth and were almost late to the ceremony at the temple, but again it wasn't that far away.
The way the ceremony works is the monks of the temple bless the crowd followed by a short countdown to midnight, at which time everyone with a balloon lets it go, signifying their wish for the new year. What isn't obvious is the long line for the balloons being given out by the monks. We actually talked with an Aussie couple who got to the front of the line for balloons only to find that you needed a stamp in order to get one once ou actually got to the front of the line. We made the decision early on not to worry about the balloons, making our night much warmer and more stress-free. Indeed, even though we got to the temple grounds about 10 minutes from midnight, we still had a great vantage point from which to see the countdown, Tokyo Tower and the balloon release. It was quite a sight - think of 5000+ transparent balloons released simultaneously into a crystal clear night punctuated with a brilliant full moon. When the group of balloons got far enough away, Kendra called my attention to them again and sure enough, I got a second treat, as the mass of airborne plastic was shimmering like stars in the moonlight.
The cold and wind didn't let up and there were no places open nearby, so we retired to our hotel room for some much-needed sleep, but not before getting some corn bread (not cornbread) and Pinos at the local convenience store.
Hot Buttered Rum
Ingredients
- 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
- 2 cups brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg, fresh if possible
- Generous pinch ground cloves
- Pinch salt
- Dark rum
- Hot/boiling water
Directions: Thoroughly combine all ingredients except for rum and water. Cool in fridge or freezer until firm. For each cup of hot buttered rum, scoop out two tablespoons of the mixture into a mug. Cover with a shot (1.5 fl. oz.) or so of the rum, then fill mug the rest of the way with the hot/boiling water. Stir and serve immediately. Makes 12 one mug servings.
I made this last night for Bibber's annual Christmas Eve party and got requests for the recipe, so here it is. You can add a bit more rum per mug, but going with 1.5 to 2 ounces of rum ensures that you taste more than just rum. The water can be boiled or heated in the microwave - you just have to ensure that it's hot enough to melt the mixture and stay hot enough to be a hot drink. We used Sailor Jerry rum last night, but you can use any dark rum you like, although I'd stay away from regular Captain Morgan.
Buy my crap.
Harmony 1000 Remote
Harmony 880 Remote
Harmony 676 Remote
Harmony RF Wireless Extender
Roku Soundbridge M1000
PlayStation 2 Kit (controllers, games, multitap, etc.)
VTech 5.8 GHz phone with extra handset
Terk Amplified HDTV Antenna
Logitech WingMan Force 3D Joystick
Xbox with controllers and games
D-Link DGL-3420 Wireless Gaming Adapter
Yeah, I should probably stop buying remotes.
USAA makes a saving throw
On Friday I got in touch with my real estate agent to ensure that everything was as smooth as it could be. He let me know that Ekta, the awesome loan officer, had told him that it was going to be two to three weeks. I was puzzled at this, as Ekta had told both me and Rachel, the title officer, the night before - about 14 hours before, actually - that closing would happen no later than November 30. I asked Bob, the agent, what this meant for the sale - he didn't know, as he had just found out about this himself, but would get in touch with the seller and see what he wanted to do. (More on this later.) I got off the phone with Bob and contacted USAA so that I could let them know about Ekta's extreme unreliability and poor performance. I left a message with her supervisor and drove home after my last class for the day was cancelled.
When I got home Ekta's supervisor Leelee called me back. Having had some time to think over exactly what I was going to say, I remained calm and went over the litany of errors and oversights that had occurred in the handling of my loan - pretty much what was in my last post plus the added stuff from the top of this one. I also added that I had never experienced dissatisfaction like this with USAA before, including my first home loan that I had processed through them. This was really the heart of the matter, as USAA portrays themselves as being there for their members in the armed forces, but here I was, in a very stressful and demanding time, and they had been no better than Bank of America or any other large firm. To her credit, Leelee also stayed calm, and informed me that she had reviewed my file and that I was right - there were several issues in the way that my stuff had been handled; as a result, she was transferring my loan over to her most experienced officer, giving Ekta some remedial training, and would be contacting the VA daily in an effort to expedite the processing of the loan. She also apologized for my experience and hoped that the solutions she'd put forth would help. I agreed that they would, thanked her for her attention and time, and got off the phone with her.
About this time Bob called me back to let me know that the seller had agreed to let me move in before closing, so long as I would pay pro-rated rent in the amount of his mortgage, which seemed reasonable and far easier than rescheduling all the utility hookups, movers, and appliance deliveries I had scheduled, plus it cuts my commute in half.
So all told, USAA came through and the seller was awesome enough to let me move in on my original date. HUZZAH.
USAA Bones Me
Up until now, I've been moving, albeit slowly, through the home-buying process... and here's what happened today: I got a call around noon from Ekta, the loan officer, saying that
1) there was an additional form that had to be filled out and signed before the loan could be processed
2) I had not gotten flood insurance
3) THEY HAD NOT RECEIVED THE LOAN APPLICATION.
It's five days before closing, and you're JUST NOW telling me the loan application never made it there? (I sent it in back in October.) WHAT THE FUCK.
After WTFing for about 5 minutes straight on the phone to Ekta, who never proposed a solution or said she'd try and expedite matters, I proceeded to accomplish the following:
1) downloaded, printed, signed, scanned form and sent it back to Ekta
2) Confirmed that I *HAD* flood insurance, but that Ekta now wanted it pre-paid rather than waiting for closing... so I paid and
3) drove to the place I'm staying to get the copy of the loan application I had, signed and initialed everything all over again, got it scanned and sent back to Ekta. Again.
This isn't the first time she's messed up, either - she told me on Monday that I didn't have homeowners' insurance when in fact I had gotten it back in late October, and my insurance agent had faxed proof of it to Ekta on the 28th. I confirmed this by asking the title lady if she had gotten it that day, and indeed she had.
So now it's a waiting game to see if we'll close on time... or if the seller will let me move in early (we're both Navy, so maybe he will...) - otherwise I have to reschedule the power, water, internet, movers, and washer/dryer delivery.
USAA has been pretty good to me over the years, but they have seriously dropped the ball on this one... Kendra is forward deployed IN JAPAN and the I'm STILL in the process of PCSing! You'd think they would assign a bit more importance to this or perhaps put some additional oversight into the process. Regardless, five days before closing is NOT the time that you want to hear that additional paperwork is due or that other paperwork is missing.
What I'm Doing...
- Headed home with a mess of lumber in the car. The entire car. 2 days ago
- Got a fish tank and some chairs too. Not inclusive of the $100. 3 days ago
- $100 hot tub - score! Now to move it the 400 feet to the house... 3 days ago
- More updates...
Posting tweet...
Last Listened To
- Queen – You're My Best Friend
- Queen – Bicycle Race
- Queen – Fat Bottomed Girls
- Queen – Killer Queen
- The Raconteurs – Steady As She Goes