Music day

CD buying day today - joy. Went to Zulu Records, which embodies both the good (great selection, used section, good music on the in-store speakers, clerks who actually know something about music, large wall displays about Big Star) and the bad (high prices, odd smells, 'whimsical' takes on alphabetical order, clerks who know something about music but very little about clerking) of indie music stores. Picked up Ryan Adams' 29, Bright Eyes' Motion Sickness, the Jimmy Chamberlin Complex's Life Begins Again (Smashing Pumpkins drummer...), The Dears' End Of A Hollywood Bedtime Story, The Decemberists' The Tain and 5 Songs (which, obviously, contains six songs), The Flaming Lips' Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots (shiny, surround-sound DVD edition), and Modest Mouse's Good News For People Who Love Bad News. That'll keep my expensive headphones happy for a bit.

Had dinner at Gyoza King downtown, one of the minority of Japanese restaurants in Vancouver actually run by Japanese people (they're mostly run by Chinese). Very good spring rolls and spinach gyoza, though the oolong tea and vodka that Sammy ordered as an experiment was not exactly a hit. Stopped in at Konbiniya for some more pocky, caramel corn and chocolate (Japanese chocolate, while not terribly good, is about the best eating chocolate easily available here, given that the alternative is American chocolate, which tastes more or less exactly like poop. Decent European chocolate is hard to come by and costs a fortune when you do.) I learned the kanji for 'art gallery' and 'wine' (well, sake) yesterday, which (as I remarked to my mother) is exactly as much Japanese as I'd need to know in order to take her on holiday there...