R2 Day 73 - Shoulders & Arms, ARX

Yo, wassup? Shoulders & Arms today, and then Ab Ripper X. I watched a few youtube videos of people doing Ab Ripper X and failing miserably, which made me feel great. I powered through it. This was the first time I've done Shoulders & Arms for a couple of months, and it is a little disheartening to see that my numbers haven't changed from the last time I did it, considering that I have been working out nearly every day in between. The thing is though, I haven't been doing the exact same exercises, so that's why. They body is an amazing thing. Actually, I did improve on the biceps curls, because I have been doing them in other workouts, but that's all.
Junko took the kids to an outlet shop in the afternoon, so after my workout I went to Matsuya. How to describe Matsuya? Think of it as MacDonald's for middle aged men. No playground, no characters, no toys. No fancy burgers or chips. Just beef on rice. And cheap! For 420 yen (about $4 US) I got: A bowl of salad, a bowl of hot miso soup, a bowl of hot beef on rice (gyuudon), and a cup of hot tea. Then you've your condiments like ginger strips, soy sauce, and salad dressing. Not bad! You walk in, buy a ticket at the vending machine, then sit down and give the ticket to the waitress/cook (talking is optional) and wait. I had to wait five minutes today, which is outrageous. They messed up my order. Usually it's ready in one or two minutes. Often, in the city, competing gyuudon chains have price wars, and a bowl of gyuudon can fall to around $1. Crazy times. I love Matsuya. I'm not crazy about the bigger gyuudon chain Yoshinoya, which you may have heard of (they have a few stores overseas) because you don't get the free bowl of miso soup that you do with every order of gyuudon like at Matsuya, and they don't have the vending machine system. You actually have to order what you want to the waitress/cook, which can be difficult if you can't read the menu, and you have to settle the bill after the meal, which means if they are busy you might have to wait a minute or two to get their attention before you can pay. They nearly went down a few years ago after a Mad Cow scandal in America stopped imports, while Matsuya surged because they use only Aussie beef, or so they say. If you're going to either of these places though, product quality is obviously not your main concern.
Then for dinner we all went out to eat at an Okonomiyaki restaurant, Great Grandmother's shout. My wife and her sister are always inviting her out to dinner because she pays. I used to feel bad about it, she's 80-something years old and she can't really eat anything but noodles and rice, while my wife and her sister go to town on her coin. But her husband was a councilman and she still gets his pension even though he died like 5 years ago, so she's loaded. And she's cheap, too, my wife reminds me. If you can't beat 'em...
I have to say, Okonomiyaki is probably my favourite Japanese food. Spare me all the sushi and cold, raw stuff. The fried "izakaya" food is awesome, and I see it's catching on in other places. And the okonomiyaki at this place was so nice. We had to wait half an hour to get a seat, which sucked, and a kid chucked right next to where we were waiting. Too much free soft drink, probably. But we finally got seated and went berserk. Here's a picture of Will sipping on his melon soda waiting for his okonomiyaki while Great Grandmother looks on, probably wondering how much this is going to set her back and if it is worth it.

Here's a picture of me from yesterday. I wouldn't exactly call this "lean", but then I've been eating my fair share of rubbish food. I'm going to try and lean out a little this last month, which might be hard to do this time of year, the traditional eating season here in Japan. Plus, it is so damn cold! My body might be reluctant to give up even the slightest bit of fat. But for what it's worth, I have stocked up on tea bags and milo at work to help me stop drinking coffee at work, and I've got some popcorn at home to help me with the chips.