Entries this day: aquarium_with_Akiko_and_Nino

aquarium with Akiko and Nino

3:12am JST Friday 7 May 2010 (day 14653)

We went to an aquarium in Shinagawa "today;" it was great! I got to throw a ring onto a seal! From across the room!!!!

(written 11:56pm ICT Friday 7 May 2010 (day 14653))

With ample free time to chill, especially with no one else in the house, I was cleaning out my inbox and discovered I hadn't written back to Akiko for over a month or more. Emailed her and we decided to meet in Shinagawa.

About an hour before I needed to leave, Nino called me from Shinagawa! I was like, "dude! stay right there!" but didn't say, oh snap; I totally forgot you were coming!!!, though I had.

He was like, "no probs; I'll just get a beer and meet you at Starbucks," which seemed to work out well for all involved.

Met Akiko inside the gates in Shinagawa, and we walked down to meet Nino. He greeted us with his great Nino smile and walked to the aquarium near Prince Hotel. OMG since when has there been an aquarium in the Prince Hotel??? It seems to me like a perfect date spot, but I've never even heard of it, much less visited it! Maybe I had heard of it, but forgot about it cause I never went.

Anyway, the aquarium is great! Well, it's really nice. It's got an inverted halfpipe tank under which we can walk as [sting|manta]? rays fly gracefully around and overhead. One of them was hoooooooouuuuge!!!! Basically as big as me and I was like, "waoooowoowwwwww!!!" but before we even walked under it, Akiko was like, "dood there's a show going on right now," and pointed up some steps.

We ascended and walked into the room as the microphone bearer was like, "any other volunteer?" with two kids up front waiting for someone to...

I raised my hand immediately as I realized what was going on. 10 seconds later, down at the front by the tank, I was motioning for Akiko to go ahead and volunteer to throw a ring to the seal who was waiting patiently for a treat. (Akiko was just volunteering her translation services, though I imagine we would have sorted it, (save for one detail, involving ascending the steps again.))

The woman on the stage behind the tank tossed three rings to her microphone holding partner in front of the tank. I fake-tried to catch one or more of them over my head. The two kids and I were given rings, and I put mine over my head. In turn, the kids stood on a little platform and tossed their rings to the seal, who caught them on its neck and got a little treat.

When my turn came, I stood up on the platform, about to toss the ring to the seal for a job well done, and the girl was like, "blahblahalbhablhah" and Akiko goes, "it's only for kids," so I stepped off the platform and immediately sat down on it and made like I would toss the ring from there, and the girl goes, "blablaablhablhablhablhablah" and Akiko goes, "go to the stairs," pointing to the steps in the audience seating.

I stepped back about 5 feet till I was standing on the first step of the audience seating. The girls were like, [naw jack, go up the stairs,] and I went halfway up the seating area, genuinely surprised that this was what they wanted. And the message was like, [dude. Go. to the top. of the stairs.] I ascended, turned around and I was clearly like, "wtf???" cause I was like 20 meters away. 10? anyway, I was plenty far away to be throwing rings to a seal!!

They were like, "okay! throw!!!" and I threw.

- - - -

I play ultimate frisbee. I can throw a disc 40 meters precisely to someone's chest.

Let me assure my gentle readers: rubber rings for seals are not frisbees. They don't fly like frisbees. They have no aerodynamic lift.

They are soft and rubbery, but instead of flying, they just go thunk on the ground like rubber ring shaped rocks.

- - - -

The ring thunked to the ground fully 10 feet in front of the tank. It didn't even make it past all the steps. (Good thing I wasn't on a date!) I ran dramatically down the stairs yelling "はずかしい！！はずかしい！！" [embarrassing!! embarrassing!!], grabbed the ring and ran back up to prove my manly ring throwing ability.

From the top, I threw the ring again, and the seal caught it!!! It was right on target, but a little short (まだ！), but the seal caught it! Wowwwww!!! The audience clapped; the seal clapped; I clapped with zeal, and everyone in my ipote left the show smiling, especially the seal and I, cause the seal got an entire fish treat before retiring for the night, and I got to throw a ring across the room to a seal.

Then we went to the inverted halfpipe to see rays flying overhead, sharks chilling on the ground, and other fishes swimming around. In other tanks, big crabs crabbed around, lobsters climbed rocks, penguins waddled and swam, and anemones anemoned.

An announcement was made that the dolphin show would begin in 15 minutes at 8pm, so we went in there about 5 minutes ahead of showtime. I sat on the front row, where I was informed by two staff members that I would get wet. I asked, "びしょびしょですか？スプラシュですか？" [do you mean soaked or splashed?] and the guy said, "splashed." Fair enough. I can handle a splash or two.

The lights came up and the dolphins did a great show, including launching trainers into the air, letting their trainers ride on them, including surfing on them, and it was great. They jumped and did flips and they were great. Soness called to talk about the latest shenanigans of Facebook and then there was a slightly bigger animal who jumped around and did some flips of its own.

Interestingly, it did a flip right near where I was sitting. Soaked is the word I would use. I didn't even react in a way that Soness would notice over the phone, but a staff member brought me a small towel and I wiped off my face and put the towel in my lap to soak up the soak. After a couple of minutes, same animal, same flip, same location. Soaked again. This time I said, "I just got soaked a second time. wow!" over the phone to Soness, who may have been like, "really?" before asking for feedback on her story.

Hung up with her as the show ended, and smiled to the few other peeps in the audience who smiled at my soaked self. Akiko was like, "you're soaked!" and "don't catch a cold!" and "I'm worried about you!"

I was a bit cold, but the weather had warmed a bit since a week ago, so no problem. We went to TGI Fridays and chowed yummy yummies and then headed home. Really lovely aquarium night seeing Akiko!

12:55am ICT

The above took an hour to write, so I'm not going to detail the food we ate, but let's just say a lot of it was deep fried, and then we shared apple cinnamon cheesecake. yummmmmmmmm