AND MORE PIX 4 UR VIEWING PLEASURE...

LIKE A WIND THAT JUST WON’T STOP BLOWIN’!

It’s been just over a month but I’m back. Now I’m not going to write thousands of words on what has transpired since late February, but I will touch on some of the more significant events, so bear with me, I’ll try to be as brief as possible.

At the end of February I made a clandestine visit first to Toronto and then to Montreal. My bro was turning 50 and had requested that I be there, but with the understanding that I probably wouldn’t return so soon after leaving Montreal. He strongly suggested that if I couldn’t be there, then amends could be made with a wikkid gift. Happy 50th Bernie, and many, many more to come. It was my pleasure being there. (No gift to follow!)

You see, my mom n sis worked on me a bit from overseas and via email etc., and I merely succumbed. But it was with the understanding that it was to be a total surprise,for everyone!

And it was. And it worked. And it was nice n fun. Except when I got sick and puked. Why? No clue. But it happened and I deem it significant enough to recount to all of you. But, generally I just hung out in Toronto for a couple of days checkin’ out my mom’s new place and chillin’, then we all packed up the van and headed to Montreal.... the Lebovits/Brodkin roadtrip!

I won’t lie, the weather sukt! It was cold n snowy. Compared to Toronto and Montreal, Tokyo was balmy and I couldn’t wait to get back. But, I had to admit it was nice 2 b back, even for a bit. I love my family, even though they have their eccentricities and/or rather foibles. I suspect may just have a few myself... So we all just hung out, drove each other pleasantly mad, ate, drove, feted, ate and drove some more and then parted again. Not too much to endure!

Since my return to Tokyo, my bro, his son Daniel and Natalie, his wife, have visited Cuba with friends on a dual-family vacation – kewl… My sis, Brad and the kids all visited Vegas for a Bar Mitzvah, and, they recently purchased their first house, into which they will move come August – kewl, kewl! And my mom is getting more used to living Toronto, day by day, for however long she may be there!? Shoguni! Me, I’m obviously in Tokyo with Hannah, being Tokyo-mopolitain (creative license invoked right here!!) so all in all I think thingz r alryte!

Not too long after I got back, my sister-in-law, Tina, and her boyfriend, Chiu, visited for 2 weeks. I was looking forward to it because we generally have fun together. We’ve watched movies, eaten, gone to festivals, visited Disney, shopped, bowled, drove around and generally hung out together for as long as I’ve known Hannah… so it’s all cool, NOT ALWAYS, but the large majority of the time. And with them visiting as tourists, it’d be fun to do some group-sightseeing.

It took them a couple of days to get into the Tokyo flow, but then they were fine. Having just come from Honk Kong, then just before Thailand, I guess it was hard to focus on now being in Tokyo.
I won’t lie to all of you, the apartment was cramped, but only in spurts. Most of the time we were out n about, either together or separately. I was worried about potty-access, but that proved not to be much of a problem at all (thank G-d!)

In their two weeks here they managed to cover: Ikebukuro, Ginza, Nakano, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Harajuku, Kichijoji, Mitaka, Odaiba, Kamakura, Hakone, Tsukiji, Karakoen, Pokemonland, Kiddyland, Daiso, Kaitan sushi, and probably some other stuff n places too… so they got around a bit, even though the are late risers (if left to their own devices.) Tina’s now back in Montreal, Chiu's back at work in Hong Kong. I wish them the best and it was good to have you – really!

During their visit I bought myself a new camera, or rather, a new-used camera. Although I wanted to buy Canon gear, because that’s what I had before and it was always dependable, and because I thought Nikon users were… snobbish… I bought a Nikon D70. I just couldn’t argue with the price. It was half what I had calculated I would have liked to spend on a Canon kit, and ostensibly does the same thing. So I bought it. Canon/Nikon...tomato/potato.

I had been toying with idea of buying one on credit and eventually paying it off, you know the cart before the horse (I think?). So that’ what I did. What would people do without credit... it would be dark dayz I tell ya!

I had garnered some interest in the photos I posted to this Blog, and thought that if I could interest someone with the equipment I was using (my trusty Canon G3 4MP), than an upgrade in equipment could only be a good thing, and could possible pay off earlier somehow, right? Stay tuned...

So after rationalizing all day about it, and just before heading home from the wikkidly-evil-n-tempting Akihabara (a.k.a. Electric Town), I caved and bought my new toy. And I have to say, I LIKE IT!
And it was fortuitous as well as the Cherry Blossom season was almost about us.

Every year across Japan (I'm pretty sure) towards the middle of March the Cherry Blossom trees start to produce their buds, which grow and flower toward the beginning of April. The bare trees start to look as if light fluffy white snow is resting atop their branches.

During these two or three weeks, all the parks are teaming with people who lay down tarps and spend the day eating, drinking, listening to music, selling hand-made crafts and basically commune with nature. It's busier on the weekends of course, but the weekdays have their revelers as well. Hannah and I went to a few parties and they were all fun. Song, dance, drink, all under the Sakura trees. Tres kewl!

During that same time I had auditioned for a part in an English/Japanese cable television show. They were looking for a native English speaking North American (read GAIJIN) and I fit the bill. Through Miki, who works at the Mini-Stop convenience store down the street while also singing in a Gospel group, who are pretty good I believe, I got the gig. Now she and I co-host ‘Waku Waku ABC’ on ACTV, Arakawa Cable Television, Inc.

The 3 minute, government sponsored show, airs 4 times per day, everyday, with new lessons starting every week. I joked to Miki that I want to be bigger then SMAP (look it up if you don’t know!), and maybe this is where it all starts.

In any case, the people are kewl, the work is fun, the pay’s fine and I’m on TV! (I love u mom, we're #1). C’est simplement ca! We’ve already shot 4 episodes with four more scheduled to shoot in the first week of May…

By the way, I just turned 38, well as of April 5th. Significant in that I look even younger than I actually am… a laborious burden to stagger under, but one that my shoulders alone must bear.
So that’s cool too.

And to top things off, a small piece I wrote and submitted over a month ago was recently printed in the latest edition of The Tokyo Notice Board. So I’m doingpretty ok here. Now I want to concentrate on getting some photos published, which would be the feather in my cap of the moment.

So, between briefly returning to/from Canada, having visitors stay with us, run around Tokyo sightseeing, experiencing Sakura and Hanami, shooting some instructional TV shows, turning 38, getting published and generally eating, drinking, sleeping, and getting by day to day, you can see why it’s taken me some time to let you know about it…. But now I’m done, for the moment of course. So I hope you enjoyed the read. If not – can’t really be bothered about it can I? Gonna put up some pix too, so you don’t have to tax yourself so hard, ok.

Kewl… say hi to all. Hope ur all well. If not, then work on it!

KISZ…

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