The Great Outdoors

Mama and papa took me to Karuizawa last weekend. Unfortunately, it was a long weekend (Monday was Respect for the Aged Day...or "Respect for my Papa Day" as I like to call it) and so it took us 4 and a half hours to drive there. We went there to meet our friends and I finally got to meet Gin-chan (see the link in "My favorite links"). We had lunch at a place called Dog Dept Cafe where there was also a small dog run for us to play while we waited for a table.



Everyone had a hamburger for lunch while I had sasami and rice...

After lunch, we went to a really big dog run. We had the whole place to ourselves!!!

Playing with Gin-chan!!!





On Sunday, mama's parents and aunt & uncle came over for a BBQ! It was to celebrate the birthdays of papa and mama's papa. They opened a $200 bottle of wine from Napa Valley and ate dinner on the roof balcony. I even got to eat my dinner on the roof balcony with them! Papa brined the pork and chicken for 24 hours before the BBQ so it was juicy and tender. They also had some sirloin steak and sanma (Mackerel Pike) which is in season now. I was hanging around the table hoping for some scraps to come my way but no such luck...mama and papa think I'm fat and won't give me any of their delicious food that I really want.

And on a final note (politics...sorry to papa's sister in Canada...), we were very pleased to hear that Prime Minister Abe has finally done the right thing and stepped down. It only took a truck load of bricks to fall on his head for him to figure out that his time was up. After a series of gaffes that rival George W., PM Abe did what he should have done months ago. Hopefully now we can get some real leadership, and preferably not the LDP. Contrary to their party name (Liberal Democratic Party), they are actually a conservative party. We hope that the Democratic Party of Japan (a social liberal party) can get elected and effect some positive change for Japan.

Beach Dog

I've been advised anonymously (by papa's sister in Canada) that I follow politics too closely and that I should get a life. It'll be a lot easier when the gaffe-master, George W., and the knuck-head, PM Abe, do us all a favour and leave office. But in the meantime, to take our minds off of the jokers who (poorly) run the 2 biggest economies in the world, we went to Chigasaki for a BBQ yesterday with mama's friends. It's a beach on the Pacific Ocean about an hour and a half by car from Tokyo. It was a blast!!! I love the ocean! I ran and splashed around in the water with papa. I was covered in sand and completely soaked by the time we finished. I guess that's what happens when you roll around in the water and lounge on the beach.

My first taste of the salty ocean water!

What the heck is that out on the water? Ahoy there...you, in the boat!!! Don't make me swim out there to play...

Debating whether or not to swim after the dude in the boat...can't see if he has puppy treats or not...

Mama's artistic Baywatch-type photo...
or a camera malfunction...

Where's my groomer when I need her??? Hey, you, over there with the nose ring and pink hair, can I borrow your blow dryer? I seem to be having a bad hair day...not as bad as yours, but...

Taking the sticks home after shredding the last ankle busters of the day...my cousins in Cali would love this place!!!

APEC? OPEC? Australia? Austria? What's the difference???

My buddy George W. had a bit of a bad day yesterday at the APEC summit in Sydney. He started by thanking Australian Prime Minister John Howard for being such a fine host for the "OPEC summit"...oops...wait a minute...neither Australia nor the US are members of the cartel of 12 major oil producers. But to George W., who cares? Same difference...right??? He went on to talk about the Australian Prime Minister's visit to Iraq last year to thank the "Austrian troops". Hmmmmm...nice of the Australian Prime Minister to go all the way to Iraq to thank Austrian troops...does Austria even have troops there??? Oh well, what the heck...Australia? Austria? Same thing...right? Besides, Miss Teen South Carolina has already taught us about the state of education in the US and how difficult it is for "US Americans" to read maps...especially since some of them don't have any...

Apparently, Sydney has put in place the tightest security measures in the history of the APEC summit...or "OPEC summit" as George W. likes to call it.

I say "apparently" because, despite those measures, and an eye-popping spend of $24 million dollars per day on security, it was a little disturbing to hear that 11 members of an Australian comedy show were arrested Thursday after duping APEC officials with a fake Canadian motorcade, and getting through 2 security check points carrying an actor dressed up as Osama bin Laden.

The motorcade got within metres of the InterContinental Hotel where George W. was staying. It was only stopped because they had gotten so much further than expected (they thought that they would be stopped at the first security check point) and were about to enter the restricted zone so they decided on their own to turn around. This suspicious move prompted police to stop them.

The show, "The Chaser's War on Everything" is an ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) program. The stunt was obviously meant as a joke, but David Campbell, the New South Wales police chief, was less than amused. "I don't see a funny side to what's happened today at all," he told reporters as he wiped the egg off his face. Obviously he's upset and will probably make sure charges are pressed against the comedy troop because they made him look like an incompetent moron (which he probably is) and will feel the need to seek retribution to try to preserve whatever shreds of non-existent self-respect he thinks he may still have.

On the other hand, Alexander Downer, the Australian Foreign Minister, acknowledged that the show's prank caused no harm...some of the police at the scene were seen laughing, even as they arrested the Australian comedians...

2 thumbs up to the incredible team of insecurity unprofessionals protecting George W. at the OPEC, oops, APEC summit in Austria...or Australia...or somewhere...

Apologies to my American cousins but...

We were watching TV tonight and there was a really funny program on called "Baka-demy Awards" (baka means "stupid" in Japanese). The Baka-demy Awards were dedicated to the very, very dumbest things people have ever done, some even captured on film.

There was an American woman whose friend showed her three fake 1 million dollar bills, but his lady thought they were real so she stole them from the friend and went grocery shopping. She bought about $150 dollars worth of goods and then tried to pay with a 1 million dollar bill, demanding her change from the cashier. Obviously not the sharpest knife in the drawer...I guess she can study and improve her level of education for the next 2 years that she spends in the slammer.

Then there was the bank robber who covered himself with real tree branches with leaves when he held up the bank. The police said that if the thief had strapped 1 more branch to himself, he may have gotten away with it...

My personal favorite was the window washer who, as he was lowering himself on a rope down the side of the building, slipped and almost fell because his partner hadn't secured the rope. He managed to hold on to the rope and was hanging on for dear life. As he desperately struggled to hold on and climb up the rope to safety, the camera, probably from a helicopter, panned out to a wider angle, and we see this poor guy's partner on the roof of the building with his shirt off sunbathing. He was sleeping and completely oblivious to his partner's predicament!!!

Papa said about the program, "Kono bangumi wa America no teikyo de okuri shimasu" (this program was brought to you by the United States of America) and thought it was amusing that pretty much every video and story was from the US.

Papa has family and good friends who are American so sometimes he feels guilty about making fun of them. Actually, that should be past tense...he felt guilty about making fun of them. Then he saw Miss Teen South Carolina and everything he ever thought about the American education system was confirmed...

Feel free to flame me or get upset about my America bashing, but unless you can explain what the heck Miss Teen South Carolina was trying to get at, you really have no right to criticize me and I am not prepared to listen...for all we know, she could be the smartest teen among the "U.S. Americans"...or perhaps she was speaking in code, "like such as they do in the Iraq, such as...". Of course, the real answer to the question she was asked is that many U.S. Americans can't locate the U.S. on a world map because the United States is so obviously the centre of the universe so who needs a map when everything else revolves around them...like, such as...

110 Jacks...

Say hello to my little friend(s)...

Mama and papa got me 2 new friends from Ikea a few weeks ago and amazingly, I have not killed them yet despite my best efforts. They are actually very well made. I tear at them, throw them, bite them, play tug-o-war with them and yet they are both still in one piece. No toy has ever endured this kind of punishment until now. Papa says I play like a girl and I'm losing my touch but hey, when I am playing tug-o-war, guess who's on the other side. My personal feeling is that the old man isn't pulling hard enough and of course, I don't want to pull too hard in case he dislocates something.

Today was the last day of obedience school for me. I am now a graduate of Canine Unlimited. I had quite a lot of fun over the past 8 months at the school. I am obviously so much smarter now than I was when I started, but papa still calls me "baka", whatever the heck that means. It must be another word for "genius". I sure will miss the friends I made at school but they have special classes sometimes that mama and papa said they will sign me up for.

After school today, mama and papa drove us to Grandberry Mall in Machida to join a Jack Russell Terrier event. It was crazy! I've never seen so many JRTs!!! There were 110 of us running around and playing. We also had a race. I was the 30th JRT to race and was in 5th place at the time but I think there were much faster JRTs who went after me. We went shopping after I ran so we didn't see the end of the races. So much for papa's theory that I am fat. And if papa had a better race strategy, I would easily have been in 1st place. The eventual winner was probably only about 1 second faster than me. Papa said, "it's not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game", but that sounds to me like something losers say... I don't think it matters if you win or lose, as long as you win...and win big!

Enjoying the view from the roof balcony

Until it started to rain...

Mama...help!!!

99 in the shade...

It's still unbearably hot here. 15 or 20 minutes into my daily walk, I am ready to go home so I walk slowly until mama and papa turn around and bring me back to the nice air conditioning. Last week, the heat gave me an upset stomach so papa made me chicken okayu. It was so good!!! Mama mixed it with my regular food so I had some home cooked gourmet food for a change! Papa calls me spoiled, whatever the heck that means... Anyhow, my stomach was better within a day and I am able to eat regular food again, but luckily for me, papa made too much okayu and he froze the leftovers so I still get to eat it even though I am not sick!!! OK, OK, maybe I am a little spoiled :-)

Since it's been so hot lately, mama prepares a wet towel for me to cool down after my walks but papa wraps it around my head and calls me an old women. He says I look like I should be selling fruits and vegetables by the side of the road in the countryside. I prefer to wear the towel around my neck because it looks like I work on a construction site. It's a little more manly.

My photo shoot at my dog school went fairly well last week...kind of...sort of...well, actually it was a little scary. When we got there it was great! I got to run around without a leash and check out all of the cool camera equipment and the white background screen. All was good until the flashes started going off. That kind of freaked me out and I wouldn't go in front of the cameras anymore. The photographers, the teachers, mama and papa all tried their best to get me in front of the cameras on the white background screen again but I wouldn't go there. Even when they tried to bribe me with food I wouldn't budge. Finally, papa calmed me down and picked me up and did the pictures with me. Mama also joined us and the 3 of us took the pictures together. That made me feel better and I wasn't as scared of the flashes. It's so much better when mama and papa are beside me. We don't know how the pictures turned out though so I don't know if I will be in the magazine next month. I hope I will be...I mean, how cute am I? :-) Just look at this face!!!

Yesterday, mama and papa both bought me a new toy! It took me just under 5 minutes to break the one mama bought me and then, in a moment of inspiration, I was able to break the toy papa got me in 2 minutes and 47 seconds!!! A new world record!!! Obviously papa doesn't know me very well! Luckily for me, and contrary to what papa says, I believe money does grow on trees so I don't have to worry because I know mama and papa can buy me new toys all the time!!!

Today, we went to the indoor dog run again because it was 34 degrees outside. I met a few wild and crazy pugs who I hung out with for a while until they left. Then I met an Italian Greyhound. To say he can run fast is an understatement. I couldn't run as fast as him even in my dreams! Unfortunately, there were some yappy Poodles there again. My goodness but are they ever loud and annoying. And they are no fun to play with. All they do is yap,yap, yap and then run away. I think I made one of them cry!!! Yay, 10 points for me!!! Anyhow, yappy and annoying...I think that's what the word "poodle" means...

Hot, hot, hot...

Wow...it's been in the mid-30's for over a week now. Tomorrow is supposed to be 36 degrees (that's 97 degrees Fahrenheit for those of you still using the ancient ways) and over 90% humidity. Luckily, mama and papa leave the air conditioner on all day for me or I would be well done by the time they got home from work. I don't mind the heat, but the humidity is a killer. Papa took me for a walk this evening but after 30 minutes I was ready to come back home. He let me off the leash for a while when we were in an enclosed parking lot so I was allowed to run around and play fetch. I'm not very good at fetch though. I love chasing the ball when papa throws it but it's a pain in the butt to bring it back to papa so I just leave it where I caught it. It's fun making papa fetch the ball. After a long walk in this heat, I love to get home to the air conditioning and lounge around on my sofa...

Papa's parents sent me an email today asking about our (my?) car. It's a Nissan Dualis. We got the 20G model in Cafe Latte Beige.

Papa says I'm too violent...no way!!! Me??? I just like having fun, and if the toys can't take a little rough play then too bad for them, they get what they deserve. Besides, why do toys need legs anyhow? If they were smart, they would use those legs to run away when they see me coming! But since they don't run, I guess they don't need their legs! Anyhow, mama and papa buy me an endless supply of toys so I'm not worried. I have 2 boxes full of toys now! Mama and papa say that they spend more money on me than they do on themselves now. I doubt it but that's what they say.

Papa has been reading a lot lately. I like spending the afternoon on the roof balcony with him while he reads. I stand guard for him to make sure he is not disturbed and can concentrate on reading. If anything moves, I bark like crazy and make so much noise that whatever moved will go away and not bother papa. I know that he appreciates me helping him relax by barking to keep away intruders like blowing leaves and dragon flies. He always says to me, "Thank you, Roots, you're a good boy...now shut up!"...whatever the heck that means...

Fame and Fortune

Poor papa caught a cold earlier this week and had to take 2 days off work. The good thing was that he was able to finish reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. He was disappointed with the ending and that's all he has to say about that.

Yesterday, mama and papa went to their friend's house in Kiyosumi Shirakawa to watch the Tokyo Bay fireworks. It lasted about 1 hour and 20 minutes and was comprised of about 12,000 fireworks. Papa said it must have cost millions of dollars. They had KFC, pizza and expensive wine courtesy of one of their friends who had opened an expensive bottle belonging to the host last time they all got together in March so she had to bring an expensive bottle this time to replace it :-) It was quite a good wine and everyone enjoyed it.


Today, mama and papa took me to the Pom Preece indoor dog run where I met another Jack Russell Terrier. He was as yancha as me so we had a lot of fun chasing each other around and play fighting. I kept stealing other dogs' toys again so papa was embarrassed and bought me my own toy to play with. It was OK but I still liked the other toys better. I just like what's not mine. After the dog run, mama and papa took me to Mogoo to get a shampoo and nail cut. They kept telling me I smell so that's why I had a shampoo.

This evening, mama got an email from my dog school saying that a magazine wants to take my picture next week!!! I am about to become famous!!! I will be in the September issue of the magazine. From there, who knows? Movies? TV? Hollywood, here I come!!!

Cheaters can finish first...

756 homeruns...hmmmmm...well, i guess cheaters can finish first. But in this case, I still think 755 > 756. To his credit, yes, Barry Bonds did achieve something big. Even with performance enhancing drugs, 756 homeruns is an incredible achievement. But is it fair? Of course not. Barry Bonds was probably always headed for the Hall of Fame, but now it will be with the dreaded asterisk beside his name, figuratively if not literally. Of course, he has never been proven to have taken, and penalized for taking, steroids, but come on!!! How can a pretty good hitter all of the sudden go on such a torrid homerun streak so late in his career and blast 70+ homeruns in 2001? He slammed 258 homeruns in a 5 year period between 2000 and 2004. Most players develop into contact hitters as they mature and gain experience. It is extremely rare that they develop into power hitters as they near 40 years of age. Bonds took steroids and it resulted in more homeruns. It's ridiculous to think anything otherwise.

Of course, the Babe faced controversy over corking his bat, but the media liked him so he was forgiven for a lot of his less desirable characteristics. No such luck for Barry. He is not very well liked, and has brought that upon himself. He would have had a lot less grief if he were likable and respected, but he has never earned it. When you cheat and you're an arrogant ass, you get what you deserve.

On the other hand, the great Hank Aaron never faced questions about corking his bat or taking steroids. There have never been any allegations questioning his integrity or natural ability. He played in a tough time for African American athletes and he still excelled.

Bonds' reputation is tainted and he is definitely no Hank Aaron. So hats off to Hank as the real and true homerun king. Bonds is not even in the same league. I may only be a puppy, but I know the difference between winners and losers.

Natsu Matsuri

Yesterday was the 中目黒夏祭 (Naka-Meguro Summer Festival). Mama and papa took me to see it and, as you can see, I was a little surprised by all the dancing, noise and people. The taiko drums were pretty loud but I enjoyed myself by barking along with them. We spent an hour there walking around and buying food for dinner. Mama and papa love the matsuri food, especially yaki-soba and yaki-tori. I hope they take me to more matsuri . Everyone has so much fun that it makes me feel really happy too. The sights and sounds and smells are wonderful.

After the matsuri, I was pretty tired but mama and papa went out to their friend's BBQ. He lives just around the corner so it's easy for mama and papa to get there.　They got home late and, like last year after the same party, papa fell asleep on the floor. I think he had a little too much wine...

On the way home, mama and papa saw Kimura Takuya from the band SMAP! He was driving home in his white Hummer. He lives just down the road from us and papa wanted to say "hi" to him but he lives in a big house with a garage and the garage door closed before mama and papa could get there. I think one of papa's dreams is to become a member of SMAP. He so silly...and he can't even sing...

Today we went to the indoor dog run again! I had fun as usual, running around and stealing other dogs' toys. But papa kept calling me fat boy...like he's one to talk...Papa thinks I am too fat and can't run like a real Jack Russell Terrier. He laughed at me because the yappy Poodles could run faster. Even the Papillon was faster than me. Maybe papa is right, but I still don't like being called fat boy :-( And I don't like the yappy Poodles either.