Recently

On Friday we had a farewell karaoke party for Douglas who is returning home after working with us at AIST for two months. It was lots of fun. And the Japanese are great at karaoke. And we were able to detect many “interest points” in the pieces. Here are some pictures.

Drinking...



And singing...



And that’s me, singing the Beatles “Yesterday”, probably with my mic turned off. Hiro was so nice to help me out with that difficult song.



And this is what is what we were looking at ... random videos with subtitles.



Afterwards we went to an Australian bar. In a dramatic game of pool the Europeans defeated the Japanese :-)



This is the view from my window at work. A sight I enjoy almost everyday.



I learned to say: “Chotto hen desu ne?” (Bisserl verrueck, oder?) This friendly Brazilian capoerista is driving while the picture is taken.



I noticed that there are only very few trash bins. Recently I found some instructions on how to deal with this problem:
“After the corner was turned, the trash was tossed away. It was a blind spot in the city.” In the lower right it says “meet your delight”. (Picture taken at a train station)



By the way, the Sockenpabst has moved to a new address. In her most recent blog entry she explains (in German) why they always give us so much plastic junk at the supermarket. Actually, the first phrase I learned to say and most frequently use is: “Spoon wa keko desu.” (Thanks, but I don’t need a plastic spoon with that yoghurt.)

Last weekend we had a capoeira event at a bonfire party. This picture was taken after our performance and shortly before the fire was lighted.



While warming up we had some difficulties getting used to the wet and slippery grass. It was lots of fun, and some of us (like me) got really dirty :-)