2013 Funny Facts and a look back at 2013

So far 2014 has gone all right. I started off with 1 and a half weeks of insane productivity, but then caught an ear infection which took me 3-5 days to get over(and it still isn't 100%).

I looked forward at 2014 and posted about my goals in my last blog post, but I never really looked back at 2013 to see what I accomplished and at what my highlights were, so here goes. Lots of funny facts and a brief look back at 2013:

Travel

Countries visited: 7
UK, The Netherlands, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore.

Favorite Country(excluding Japan): Hong Kong

Flights: 12
Amsterdam -> Paris
Paris -> Haneda
Kansai -> Seoul
Seoul -> Narita
Narita -> Seoul
Seoul -> Amsterdam
Amsterdam -> Seoul
Seoul -> Narita
Narita -> Seoul
Seoul -> Singapore
Singapore -> Hong Kong
Hong Kong -> Narita

Favorite Airport: Seoul Incheon Airport
Clean, New, Smoothie King!
Worst Airport: Paris
I don't get lost... ever, except for Paris airport and everybody speaks French!
Best Airliner: Korean Air
Seats, Food, Price, Entertainment, Stewardesses, everything!
Worst Airliner: KLM
Food sucks, seats suck, I don't like speaking Dutch with people I don't know!

Food

Favorite Meal: Ukai Tei Yokohama
This meal was siiiiiiiick!
Favorite Meal Honorable Mention: Sushi close to Nagoya station
2nd best sushi ever after Sukiyabashi Jiro. Kind of want to go back to Nagoya in 2014 to eat here again!
Favorite Meal Honorable Mention #2: 37 Steakhouse Roppongi
Best steak of my life. Better than at Ukai Tei Yokohama, but the overall meal was just slightly less. Still epic though.
Worst Meal: In a tower in The Hague(The Netherlands).
The view on the ~40th floor was nice, especially considering it was in Holland, but half the menu being 'unavailable' today and the other half not being very good made this a bad meal I can't forget :(
Favorite Piece of Food: Foie Gras @ Ukai Tei Yokohama
Best piece of food I've EVER eaten. Better than sushi. It made me cry is how good it was... I literally couldn't speak for 1-2 minutes.
Favorite Cuisine: Sushi
No-brainer.
Favorite Cuisine Honorable Mention: Unagi
Always liked it, really got into it in the last 2 months.
Favorite Restaurant: Midori Sushi Ikebukuro Echika Shop
I've been here over 100 times in 2013. I used to go 3-4 times a week when I lived in west Ikebukuro and now that I live a bit farther away in east Ikebukuro I still go 1-2 times a week.

Tokyo

Favorite Area: Ginza
As much as I love Ikebukuro, Ginza has a slight edge. Marunouchi and Yurakucho also woow me every time I go there.
Worst Area: Roppongi
I don't like nightlife, so clearly I don't like Roppongi.
Favorite Cafe: Suzu Cafe #2 Shibuya
I found a better one the other day, but I only found out about it in 2014. This one in Shibuya is pretty awesome.
Favorite Starbucks: Omotesando B-Side Bldg
Good location, cool staff(although best staff is in Ueno station SB), power sockets and the other people who go here!

Other

Best Day: Fireworks in Setagaya!
Out of many awesome days and nights, this one was #1!!
Worst Day(s): The 14th of June, 3rd of October and the 18th of November
Can't pick one. If I had to, maybe the 3rd of October when I was feeling terrible from food poisoning.
Favorite Month: September
May and March were great too and August ranks 4th. But September was #1 with serious gymming, no illnesses, sweet productivity and many fun meetings/events etc.
Funniest moment: My friend sending some pictures to a girl with my cellphone. Unfortunately enough the pictures came from group chats with my Dutch high school friends and were... it's hard to properly describe them, but let's say they are not pictures you want to see when eating. Made for one hell of a laugh though :D
Biggest Pokerhand: The 250k HKD pot in Macau where I ended up splitting AAxx vs AAxx. I flopped a nfd though and the other guy an oesd!
Best Movie I hadn't seen before 2013: Helpless, Strange Circus and A New World.
Although surprisingly enough I didn't see any movies in 2013 that I'd rank in my top 25 all-time, I cannot pick a favorite movie I saw in 2013 out of these 3 absolutely amazing movies.
Best TV: Code Geass 1 & 2
Admittedly this is the only TV I watched in 2013, but this anime is so absolutely freaking fantastic that I rate it higher than all but 1 movie I've ever seen. The deep, complex themes in here are so plentiful it's crazy. It makes you think about the future of the human race, a 3rd world war, weapons of mass destruction, discrimination, friendship, betrayal, various forms of governments and many many more. Best of all, it's all packaged into an amazing series that never slows down, never has dull moments and sometimes multiple plot twists per episode. Even if you don't like anime, I highly recommend this!


Overall 2013 was a pretty good year. I didn't make that much progress in my life as in accomplishing things in poker or business, but I progressed a LOT in Japanese, learned a lot of things about certain social situations/dynamics and learned many other useful life lessons. Looking back at a year ago, it's pretty shocking how much wiser I feel like I am.

Another area that lacked a little bit was fitness. I only gave it my all towards the end of the year once I settled in Japan, but I got interrupted by having to leave Japan for a month and by a few injuries/illnesses, hopefully this will go better in 2014. On top of that I was traveling a lot more than I like to and busy moving to Japan which also explains the lack of progress with regards to poker/business etc. Now that I'm all settled in though that should be different in 2014.


Hopefully next time I update, I will have a launch date or very close estimation of the Language Link mobile application I'm developing! I'm hoping it will be this month, but it may end up being February.