World Rally Championship

Until I got cable here in Japan, I had never heard of WRC. It's a racing circuit that pits drivers against each other as well as against the twists, turns, and hazards of real roads around the world. Tires, suspensions, steering systems, brakes, and engines are tested, broken, and proven in the course of a race series. It's not just about speed but also the driver's ability to control the car in a variety of unpredictable road situations.

It looks like a complete blast.

How would one get involved in this type of thing? Is there some sort of Rally School where graduates go on to compete in the WRC?

I'm not this person

So in a fit of vanity, I headed over to Google to find out how well-ranked this blog is . Doing a search on the title "Lauren In Tokyo" doesn't find me at all. It finds a Democrat activist living abroad.

Not the same person as me.

Meeting other parents-to-be

For the past couple of weeks, my wife has been in the hospital for the fourth time since she got pregnant. Since the delivery date is fast approaching, they didn't want to take any chances and are going to keep her in until her 37th week which is another 2 weeks away.

Seemingly unrelated to that is that last week was Golden Week here in Japan. It is basically a national week of rest with three holidays smack dab in the middle of the week. Take Monday and Friday off and you have a whole 9 days to be away from work. In the past, many companies used to fly all the employees and their families to some tropical locale like Guam or Saipan, but since the burst of the bubble things haven't been so cushy. So for the past week I have been at the hospital every day to tend to my wife and the baby.

And I wasn't the only one there. Other husbands were also there and some of them seem pretty nice. So last week was a chance to meet other parents-to-be. With her in the hospital a lot, it has been tough to meet other parents. But with a whole week of hanging out at the hospital, it was actually pretty good.

One family lives about a 3 minute walk from my apartment and they seem really nice, so I imagine we may have them over for BBQ and beers in a couple months or so.

Wine review: 2002 Jean-Luc Colombo Cotes du Rhone

Bad. 2 thumbs down. 1 out of 5 stars.

Quite possibly the worst French wine I've had this year. The wine begins with a strong blast of turpentine followed by burnt toast and finishing up with an afterburn that would make Thunderbird jealous. The bottle should have come with a "Not fit for human consumption" mark on the label.

To use standard wine terminology for this wine would be doing it a huge favor. It is an overly-strong, immature, and boring wine. Maybe useful in sauces, but not fit for the glass.

It's cheap, less than 900 yen, but not worth it.

Damn these picture windows and glass sliding doors!

Well, when you want to get someone to start paying attention, sometimes it pays to fire a missile or two at a buddy of your enemy.

I just wish I had some better radiation shielding in these apartment walls.