Hamster wheel fun

This is just what our old hamster 'Kiki' used to look like. We've got plenty of footage of her but we were never so fortunate to catch something like this on camera. These are normally non repeating off camera moments.

New Car Picks

Looks just like this. Should be a lot of fun, and if it's not, we shouldn't have too much trouble selling it (all going well).

Great Ad

I'll have a set of these speakers for my NEW CAR. Yes, that's right, we finally got ourselves a car at the auctions yesterday. The price came in just right, so now we just have to hope that it's not a lemon. We are now the proud owners of a white Subaru Legacy (Liberty in Australia) GT station wagon, with constant AWD and a powerful turbo charged two litre engine. Can't wait to get in it and give it a spin. Just gotta transfer the dosh and pick it up from the auction yard, which should be all done by tomorrow. New car for the weekend, YEAH! Just gotta work out where to go first...

Unreal Pool Player

If you don't let this guy break you might actually get to have have one shot. If he breaks, you're screwed.

ASX Sharemarket Game

Game 2 for 2006 is now open for registrations in the ASX Sharemarket Game. The game is due to start on August 3 and should be a bit of fun, even if it's just a bit of an eye opener. I played in the first game of this this year, which ran from February to June. I performed dismally, however, and need to give it another go. It takes a bit to get used to some of the games finer points, including the diversification restrictions, but there's still a lot to learn about the ebbs and flows in the daily market, even if you never plan on being a day trader.
One of the major reasons for my downfall in the last game was because I was always experimenting, and not sticking to a trading plan. My other problem with the game is that it doesn't truly match the trading style I'm aiming to have in the market, when I eventually just jump in there and start investing that is. I've been doing a lot of reading in the last year or so and I have become quite the fan of Warren Buffett, and also of his mentor, Benjamin Graham, who put into words the concept of value investing. Value investing sounds like the only true form of investing to me. Although it has it's critics, I can't see how researching companies thoroughly until finding a small number of bargain priced, low risk (as much as possible, generally due to the companies inability to be replaced in the market, and often due to a strong well recognised brand or something) companies before making any investment. Warren Buffett's puts accross that if you think a company is worth investing in, you should be willing to stake a large amount of your wealth on it, so you need only hold shares in a small number companies (5-10 Max). Also you should only sell when those companies become overpriced, or if you find another company that is of much better value. Why invest in your fifteenth best company when you could just put more money into your best one. Sounds pretty solid advice to me, especially looking at where it's gotten him. You've got stock market players like George Soros out there, but he is more attuned to the swings of finance than I'll ever be, and there's just too high a chance of losing everything with his kind of futures game.
Anyway, if you wanna give investing in the stock market a risk free trial, get on over to the ASX website and give it a go. Also the ability to start off trading with $50,000 isn't too bad either.

Tocoo for cheapish car rental

Just to again reminding people in Japan that if you need a cheap car for one weekend, you shouldn't go past checking this site out. There is an English and a Japanese version of the site, all the way through to the booking pages, so it's pretty damn easy to use. We're gonna be using them again soon to rent another car, cos we're gonna be moving this month. Mazda seems to be cheaper than Nissan by the way, and you can rent a commercial 750kg capacity van from them for 6000 yen a day or 7000 yen for a 1 tonne van. Should make moving the fridge, tv and sofa a hell of a lot easier. Still doesn't make me wanna move though.

Pure Deliciousness

This weekend was also the perfect time to crack open a bottle of Piper Heidsieck Champagne that we've had lying in the house waiting for such an occasion. We'd tried it once before when we won a bottle in a free raffle, absolutely loved it, and just had to get some more. It's definitely not your everyday bottle of plonk, and comes in at a higher price of just over 3000 yen a bottle, but this stuff well and truly makes up for that outlay. There's just something about it that you have to try out for yourself. When you take a sip, it simply dissovles on your tongue, and within what seems like thirty seconds you're grinning from ear to ear. I can't say anything much better for it, other than that it's delightful. Just gotta think think of a good excuse to buy another bottle now...

Anniversary

Just came back from a very relaxing weekend away in the ever increasingly popular area of Niseko, in Hokkaido, Japan. We'd previously only ever been there when it'd been completely blanketed in thick powdery snow (the reason for its popularity), but this time everywhere we looked was lush and green, and the sky even came through for us with varying shades of blue, blue, and blue.
Ange and I went away to celebrate the first completed year of our marriage, sounds like hard work when you put it that way, but it really hasn't been at all.
We rented a car from a site called tocoo cos we found that they had a great weekend rental deal, which gave us a zippy little Mazda 4 door hatch from Friday 5pm til Monday 11am, all inclusive for 11500 yen. Sounds like a bit of a sales pitch, I know, but it's just that I'm so happy with how the whole thing went, especially when a whole weekend of driving it around only came to 3000 yen of fuel as well. If we don't end up getting this car, insert grumble grumble grumble, then we'll definitely be taking advantage of this deal again. Another thing we'll be doing is renting one of their cheap vans for about 6000 yen for a day and using it to move house by ourselves in the next couple of weeks, rather than paying the exorbitant rates for a moving company.
Niseko ended up being a pretty pleasant place in the summer too. Not anywhere near as busy a place as it is when the snow is around 4 metres thick, but we still had a great restaurant or two to try out (the only two not closed during the spring/summer). One restaurant we ended up liking was the well touted place above the NAC (Niseko Adventure Centre) building called Jo Jo's. As far as I know NAC is one of the original companies in Niseko that was started to get people into a few adventure sport activities in the summer as well as the winter. They are most famous for their white water rafting, but also take people climbing, canyoning, mountain biking, snowing shoeing, backcountry riding etc.
The only thing I really know about them however is that the food served in their restaurant is pretty tasty. Great hamburgers and the pizzas are pretty tasty too. Definitely worth a try if you're in the neighbourhood.
We stayed in a fantastic little apartment, which was part of the Hokkaido Tracks group. The place was completely decked out with Australian style furniture and even Aussie whitegoods. Including an oven (Shock!), and a full size dishwasher. I want one of these places!! We had a fantastic view, a loft bedroom, and a feeling of space that's not available in our own cramped quarters.
All in all it was a great weekend, and I'd love to repeat a bit of the same every weekend in the future. Either that or get a job in Niseko myself, but that's for another post.