Here Be Dragons!
Last last weekend I went snowboarding with some others in my company, Byron, Ono, Yoko (Ono's GF (And bring the joke on, it's been said already)), and another guy who's name I forgot. It was quite fun, we went to Fukui to board, and the mountain was much better than the last one. And I'm getting better too. Though the 4h drive each way was a little long.
Sunday the CJP gang went out for all you can eat dimsum, then the guys went to JJ while the girls went shopping. Afterwards we went to Tin's Hall, a foreigner bar at Tennoji. It was open mic night and Byron was performing...
Notable performances include... the French magician performing to Marvin Gaye, the short Chinese woman belly dancing to Pretty Fly (For a White Guy), and the 250 pound white guy dressed up as Elvis, belly dancing to Burning Love.
There was one guy, Steve, from Chicago, who was really really good, the whole bar went quiet while he was performing. If he ever becomes famous, I can say I saw him live... in a small bar... in Japan!
Oh, and a random old guy started yelling at Byron on the train, completely unprovoked. We only caught a few words, something to do with gaijin, so it was most likely a racist rant. Weird, usually OMLGP brings friendly old guys. The two ladies across from us seemed to be embarassed on his behalf, smiling at us and bowing apologetically.
Then this weekend, Keith and I went to JJs... got our groove on with some DDR, played some pool, and most importantly, beat Donkey Kong Country! Got about 2 hours of sleep... next day we went to Yodobashi Camera, Keith needed a hard drive, and then we went to Spa World!
Europe theme this time, which is functionally exactly the same, but still interesting/cool. We also went to the gym area to work out for an hour.
At the baths we see this old guy, rubbing his head against the rocks and kinda sputtering water. We were laughing a bit at first, considering it to be Japanese weirdness, but then he started drifting into the middle of the bath, struggling to stay afloat (<2 feet deep water), someone had to go over and pull him out of the bath, they even got a stretcher for him.
Nothing else too special at Spa World really. We went to Namba to find Keith some snowboarding gloves, and to meet up with Jen and Victor for dinner. We went to an isakaya, which was quite good except Victor forgot to order my second plate of fried cheese, the bumcloud! And the 3 girls right beside me, while nice looking, went into "High Pitch Squeal Mode" whenever they got excited, which was waay too often.
Sunday involved going to Jen's house for Pizza Hut pizza, Poker, and watching Little Miss Sunshine! It was a very good party, but I forgot my hard drive at Jen's and have to go get it tonight.
And finally... a 4 day work week this week, and a 3 day work week next week, since it's a vacation to Hokkaido this week! Full of ice sculptures, snowboarding, onsen, chocolate factories, and beer factories! Long blog when I get back.
Until my blog next Wednesday-ish!
Sunday, February 4, 2007
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
You are Disoriented. Blackness Swims Toward You Like a School of Eels Who Have Just Seen Something that Eels Like a Lot
"You know, it's at times like this, when I'm trapped in a weightlifting gym with a man whose odor knows no boundaries, and I'm about to die of asphyxication, that I really wish I'd listened to what my mother told me when I was young."
"Why, what did she tell you?"
"I don't know, I didn't listen."
The past week's gym experiences have been difficult on me, but I think I'm finally ready to share what I pay 89 bucks a month to put up with.
The Konami Sports Club is open 6 days a week, and I try to go each of those days unless some fun and exciting plans come up. And since I started going there in September, I've noticed one simple thing.
People are insane.
It's so bad that I can categorize the different types of insanity in the gym. And of course some people deserve a category all to themselves.
I apologize if any of these events are considered normal, I just know they are funny to watch. And some not so funny.
The first category is attire. Notable mention goes to all the people with engrish on their clothes, or wear a towel on their heads, or have radioactive shoes, or the old guys in spandex shorts. But the gold medal winner goes to the average aged/sized guy who wore both spandex shorts, with a spandex training bra type thing that showed off his stomach. It was... wow. He'd get beaten up within seconds anywhere besides, and the police would come, but wouldn't charge anyone, saying there was just cause for the beating.
The second category is reserved for people whose exercise habits are, well, more unique than they should be. There's a lot in here.
First we have the hip hop dance class, filled with usually older people, some overweight, in which one of the dance moves is, well, a hip thrust ><. Also, one guy weight trains using a hip thrusting move. Plus many of the other "hip-hop" moves are very amusing, because they are being done by older japanese people and not young rap artists.
Related to innuendo-type exercises, we have the old guy who uses the tensor band thingy... to do... well, an up and down arm motion that just looks wrong. Very hard to do weights when he's in your field of view.
There's another old guy I saw yesterday, on one of the machines for the lower back, he was lifting up his t-shirt and rubbing his belly with both hands while he exercised.
There's another old guy who does literally thousands of crunches in a row. Like 1.5 a second for over 10 minutes. He either has abs of adamantium or he doesn't know what he's doing.
One stretch that a lot of people do resembles a cockroach... lying on their back flailing their arms and legs in the air.
And one poor younger guy, who is super super thin, who spends tons of time on the bike machines. He looks almost anorexic and yet he continues to use the bikes. I feel bad for him, but nothing I can do.
As far as gold for this category, gotta hand it to the tensor band guy who never fails to... well... creep me out.
But the gold medal for "Oh God!" at the gym goes to the guy on Friday. It was impossible to do any sort of weight training around him, he smelled so bad. But the weirdest thing was that his odor travelled a long distance but only very close to the floor... so bending down to do hyperextensions nearly killed us, even if he was far away. He gets a category all to himself.
What fun adventures await me tonight? I'll find out... after measuring more teeth.
"Why, what did she tell you?"
"I don't know, I didn't listen."
The past week's gym experiences have been difficult on me, but I think I'm finally ready to share what I pay 89 bucks a month to put up with.
The Konami Sports Club is open 6 days a week, and I try to go each of those days unless some fun and exciting plans come up. And since I started going there in September, I've noticed one simple thing.
People are insane.
It's so bad that I can categorize the different types of insanity in the gym. And of course some people deserve a category all to themselves.
I apologize if any of these events are considered normal, I just know they are funny to watch. And some not so funny.
The first category is attire. Notable mention goes to all the people with engrish on their clothes, or wear a towel on their heads, or have radioactive shoes, or the old guys in spandex shorts. But the gold medal winner goes to the average aged/sized guy who wore both spandex shorts, with a spandex training bra type thing that showed off his stomach. It was... wow. He'd get beaten up within seconds anywhere besides, and the police would come, but wouldn't charge anyone, saying there was just cause for the beating.
The second category is reserved for people whose exercise habits are, well, more unique than they should be. There's a lot in here.
First we have the hip hop dance class, filled with usually older people, some overweight, in which one of the dance moves is, well, a hip thrust ><. Also, one guy weight trains using a hip thrusting move. Plus many of the other "hip-hop" moves are very amusing, because they are being done by older japanese people and not young rap artists.
Related to innuendo-type exercises, we have the old guy who uses the tensor band thingy... to do... well, an up and down arm motion that just looks wrong. Very hard to do weights when he's in your field of view.
There's another old guy I saw yesterday, on one of the machines for the lower back, he was lifting up his t-shirt and rubbing his belly with both hands while he exercised.
There's another old guy who does literally thousands of crunches in a row. Like 1.5 a second for over 10 minutes. He either has abs of adamantium or he doesn't know what he's doing.
One stretch that a lot of people do resembles a cockroach... lying on their back flailing their arms and legs in the air.
And one poor younger guy, who is super super thin, who spends tons of time on the bike machines. He looks almost anorexic and yet he continues to use the bikes. I feel bad for him, but nothing I can do.
As far as gold for this category, gotta hand it to the tensor band guy who never fails to... well... creep me out.
But the gold medal for "Oh God!" at the gym goes to the guy on Friday. It was impossible to do any sort of weight training around him, he smelled so bad. But the weirdest thing was that his odor travelled a long distance but only very close to the floor... so bending down to do hyperextensions nearly killed us, even if he was far away. He gets a category all to himself.
What fun adventures await me tonight? I'll find out... after measuring more teeth.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
"You Just Steer, Ok!"
On Sunday I completed the self-hazing ritual required to become a snowboarder. Which means as I write this, most of my body, especially my arse and knees, are in pain. Note to self: Don't learn to snowboard on a Sunday, for Monday mornings equal painful meetings. Also don't learn to snowboard the day before going to a rock concert.
Tons of fun though, I went solo to a hill about 2 hours away (2 trains, a bus, and a gondola). I was a little worried at the bottom of the gondola, as there was 0 snow at this point, but halfway up, everything turns instantly to white, it was kinda cool. As for the hill itself... tiny. I imagine about the size of COP if I had ever actually been there. Pricy too, 4000en (40 bucks) for afternoon pass (I slept in, had breakfast, long travel time), but 4500 for a board rental. Plus transportation, which luckily wasn't too bad thanks to seishun 18.
Snowboarding itself, fun and painful, as everyone knows. It was my first time on a board, and did better than I thought, but I had low expectations. But very fun! My knees hurt. Maybe I'll go next Saturday too, to use up my last Seishun 18 ticket.
Aww man, Killer's concert last night! It was at Namba Hatch, surprisingly easy to find. The concert hall is excellent, quite small, so everyone has a good view of the stage... kinda like the Mac Hall Ballroom where I saw The Music, only the hall is way newer and modern and cool. I can't wait to see Bloc Party there, but I gotta get to the very front middle somehow :). Unfortunately, while waiting for the band to come out and play, they had a Johnny Cash cd playing... add the fact that the band came out 20 minutes late, and I got a full hour dose of Cash... that's waaay too much cash for one little man to handle!
But the Killers themselves were really good, they played all the best songs and none of the bad ones, with plenty from both their albums. They seemed slightly uncoordinated between songs, no smooth transition and fancy lightshows like Coldplay, but that's ok. And they saved the best song for last... All These Things That I've Done, woohoo! Of course he tried to get the crowd to sing along at the Soul part, but of course, that was largely unsuccessful with a mostly Japanese crowd ><.
Well... back to a lovely Tuesday morning of teeth measuring.
Tons of fun though, I went solo to a hill about 2 hours away (2 trains, a bus, and a gondola). I was a little worried at the bottom of the gondola, as there was 0 snow at this point, but halfway up, everything turns instantly to white, it was kinda cool. As for the hill itself... tiny. I imagine about the size of COP if I had ever actually been there. Pricy too, 4000en (40 bucks) for afternoon pass (I slept in, had breakfast, long travel time), but 4500 for a board rental. Plus transportation, which luckily wasn't too bad thanks to seishun 18.
Snowboarding itself, fun and painful, as everyone knows. It was my first time on a board, and did better than I thought, but I had low expectations. But very fun! My knees hurt. Maybe I'll go next Saturday too, to use up my last Seishun 18 ticket.
Aww man, Killer's concert last night! It was at Namba Hatch, surprisingly easy to find. The concert hall is excellent, quite small, so everyone has a good view of the stage... kinda like the Mac Hall Ballroom where I saw The Music, only the hall is way newer and modern and cool. I can't wait to see Bloc Party there, but I gotta get to the very front middle somehow :). Unfortunately, while waiting for the band to come out and play, they had a Johnny Cash cd playing... add the fact that the band came out 20 minutes late, and I got a full hour dose of Cash... that's waaay too much cash for one little man to handle!
But the Killers themselves were really good, they played all the best songs and none of the bad ones, with plenty from both their albums. They seemed slightly uncoordinated between songs, no smooth transition and fancy lightshows like Coldplay, but that's ok. And they saved the best song for last... All These Things That I've Done, woohoo! Of course he tried to get the crowd to sing along at the Soul part, but of course, that was largely unsuccessful with a mostly Japanese crowd ><.
Well... back to a lovely Tuesday morning of teeth measuring.
Saturday, January 6, 2007
I Refuse to Answer that Question on the Grounds that I Don't Know the Answer.
Wow, lots to write about… too much almost… so I’ll do my best to be brief, if possible.
Last Friday I got kicked out of my dorm for the week. So I went to JJs, to practice my awesome Dance Dance Revolution skillz. Then I decided that that was a stupid way to spend the week, and went to meet Keith in Tennoji and headed to Kyushu by ferry.
As it turns out, ferry is only slightly better than the night bus. Each passenger (unless they pay a fortune for upper class), gets a sleeping area of about 3 feet by 7 feet, with a blanket and an uncomfortable pillow. This sleeping area is located in a room filled with 39 other sleeping areas, occupied by drunk people, screaming children, and very loud snorers/sneezers. Ferry food is also quite unpleasant, but it is interesting to note that in the Ferry buffet, there was raw chicken sashimi. I can’t even think of how much I’d have to be paid to eat raw chicken from a buffet, on a ferry, but it would be astronomically high. “Please! Just inject me with salmonella right now!”
After the (relatively) short 12 hour ferry ride, we arrived in Beppu, then left almost right away for our first destination, Mt. Aso. Mount Aso is a live volcano that is currently smoking from the crater. Because of 4 eruptions tens of thousands of years ago, the volcano collapsed, forming a special type of crater called a caldera, which is 18-25km across, with a 120km circumference. Not quite as impressive as Yellowstone Caldera, but still cool to see. Looking from Aso Station, you could see an almost vertical rock wall in the distance with a plateau on the top, very neato.
Anyway, we had lunch at Aso Station, then took a 40 min bus ride up the mountain. Though you can take the gondola up to the crater, we walked it. It wasn’t a bad walk, but we were hoping for more hiking trails to go on. But the crater was cool to see.
Headed back down the mountain and to our hotel, had KFC for dinner, looked on the internet for stuff to do in Fukuoka, and went to bed.
I could almost cover Fukuoka in one paragraph. It was pretty dead when we were there… coulda been because of new years though. We went to Canal City, a large mall with stores, arcade, theatre, restaurants, hotel, etc. Stores were very pricy for the most part. We saw a magician perform too, but he wasn’t very good, other than his balance, but I must say it was interesting to hear Robert Miles played on loud speakers while watching a cheesy magician in a mall in Japan. We attempted to look for a bar/club for new years, I had heard Tenjin was the happenin’ area, and assumed we wouldn’t need instructions to find the nightclub street. I was wrong : (. Tenjin was dead, and we ended up walking to Canal City by accident without finding anything decent. We had dinner, went back to the hotel to recover, got directions, and headed back out at 10 to midnight.
We found the nightclub area, it looked like a miniature Roppongi, pretty dirty, lots of foreigners, etc. The only club we found, Sam and Dave’s, was packed, charging 3000en (30 bucks) and it was well past midnight… so we gave up and went back to the hotel.
We went to the Fukuoka Castle Ruins the next day, then went to Fukuoka’s most famous temple for the new years celebrations, hoping for lots of girls and kimono, but really finding neither. It was more like Gion Matsuri, billions of people all moving in a large blob towards the temple. Not a lot to see, but the temple guards had facemasks to protect them from people throwing their go-en coins. Had Fukuoka ramen for lunch, then went back towards our hotel. At this point we had given up on Fukuoka, decided to find billiards or an arcade or something to kill time for the rest of the day, and had dinner at Kaiten (Conveyor Belt) Sushi.
The only other interesting point was we had the traditional new years breakfast at our hotel. It was not bad, mochi soup, veggies, very strong fish eggs, etc. Keith was expecting it to be a lot weirder, haha. After breakfast we left Fukuoka and took a 4hr train ride to Beppu.
Beppu started off as a bit of a drag… our hotel was ok, we had our own bathroom and separate beds, but it was pretty old, not nearly as nice as the Kumamoto one. We ventured off to look for one of Beppu’s famous onsen. The first one we passed by looked like a house, so we moved on. The second one we found after traveling through the shady area. It was in a very old Japanese style building, and was known for its sand baths, where you pay to strip naked and have attendants shovel sand on you. That part was closed, so for 100en we checked out the normal bath, and were kind of surprised. There was one small concrete tub crowded with naked guys, and a small bucket shower area. It was like my dorm, only older, dirtier, and more crowded. We decided to keep searching.
After a long walk, and us being a bit depressed after our past few days bad luck, and it raining out, we finally found a decent, modern sento. I think this was where our luck started to improve. The bath was good, had a hot, an aroma, and a cold sauna, the cold water baths, the jet baths, and the electric baths, which I don’t understand, but I suppose some people enjoy getting an electric shock while they are naked in a public bath.
We had a feast (as Keith put it) at an isakaya place for dinner. We got everything from pork skewers to fried rice and noodles to kimchi stirfry, plus large ice cream sundaes for dessert.
The final day was the best, if a little short. We rented bikes, 900en for 5 hours, with little motors on them to assist with acceleration or climbing hills. We made our way halfway across the city to Beppu’s famous Jigoku, or Buddhist Hells. Toured the Mud Hells (bubbling mud pits), Sea Hell, Mountain Hell (with a zoo), Crocodile Hell, Devil Hell, White Pond Hell, Dragon Hell, Red Hell, and Geyser Hell. Most of them were impressive, with a few duds, but cool to see. Photos on webalbum, with more to come once Keith posts his. We raced back on our bikes so we wouldn’t get charged for extra time. Ate lunch quick, went to the onsen that looked like a house for a quick shower. It was worse than the sand bath place, but at least less busy. Then we caught the bus for the ferry terminal and got on the ferry for home.
The second ferry was a lot longer because it wasn’t direct… made stops at Oita, Matsuyama, and Kobe… so 17 hours total. We met a grad student from China and talked to him for a bit, Keith managed to finish his book, Angels and Demons, I finished my Asimov book, I watched Donnie Darko and some really really bad Japanese TV (more on that later), and had a very uncomfortable sleep. Makudo pancake breakfast in Tennoji, then it was farewell to Keith and off to my dorm.
Overall, the trip was decent, the places I expected to be not so good (Mt. Aso and Beppu) turned out to be the best, while the place I thought would be exciting (Fukuoka) was a drag. But at least we had some good days in there, and ended on a high note. Thanks again Keith for coming with, otherwise I’d have been very very bored haha.
So Japanese TV – What I saw on my vacation to Kyushu.
A show in which 3 guys pretend to be corpses in a morgue. The police officers would be examining the bodies, and kind of torturing them, smacking their heads, pouring hot wax on them, sticking things up their noses, etc., to see if they would react. And when the cops laughed at the “dead” guys’ reactions, other cops would come in and give the cops a spanking with large rubber sticks. At which time the whole thing would repeat. For 30 minutes.
A competition in which the goal is to sprint and get underneath a falling ball before it reaches the ground. Imagine spending your life training for that sport :P.
On the ferry I saw a show with a topless black girl with a chest big enough to belong in Jerry Springer’s hall of fame, a guy that had burning towels placed on top of him, a dating show where the guy had to choose a girl based on video footage of their chest and stats on their body sizes, and 2 guys fingerpainting, nude, in a field, and NOT using their fingers o.O.
Last Friday I got kicked out of my dorm for the week. So I went to JJs, to practice my awesome Dance Dance Revolution skillz. Then I decided that that was a stupid way to spend the week, and went to meet Keith in Tennoji and headed to Kyushu by ferry.
As it turns out, ferry is only slightly better than the night bus. Each passenger (unless they pay a fortune for upper class), gets a sleeping area of about 3 feet by 7 feet, with a blanket and an uncomfortable pillow. This sleeping area is located in a room filled with 39 other sleeping areas, occupied by drunk people, screaming children, and very loud snorers/sneezers. Ferry food is also quite unpleasant, but it is interesting to note that in the Ferry buffet, there was raw chicken sashimi. I can’t even think of how much I’d have to be paid to eat raw chicken from a buffet, on a ferry, but it would be astronomically high. “Please! Just inject me with salmonella right now!”
After the (relatively) short 12 hour ferry ride, we arrived in Beppu, then left almost right away for our first destination, Mt. Aso. Mount Aso is a live volcano that is currently smoking from the crater. Because of 4 eruptions tens of thousands of years ago, the volcano collapsed, forming a special type of crater called a caldera, which is 18-25km across, with a 120km circumference. Not quite as impressive as Yellowstone Caldera, but still cool to see. Looking from Aso Station, you could see an almost vertical rock wall in the distance with a plateau on the top, very neato.
Anyway, we had lunch at Aso Station, then took a 40 min bus ride up the mountain. Though you can take the gondola up to the crater, we walked it. It wasn’t a bad walk, but we were hoping for more hiking trails to go on. But the crater was cool to see.
Headed back down the mountain and to our hotel, had KFC for dinner, looked on the internet for stuff to do in Fukuoka, and went to bed.
I could almost cover Fukuoka in one paragraph. It was pretty dead when we were there… coulda been because of new years though. We went to Canal City, a large mall with stores, arcade, theatre, restaurants, hotel, etc. Stores were very pricy for the most part. We saw a magician perform too, but he wasn’t very good, other than his balance, but I must say it was interesting to hear Robert Miles played on loud speakers while watching a cheesy magician in a mall in Japan. We attempted to look for a bar/club for new years, I had heard Tenjin was the happenin’ area, and assumed we wouldn’t need instructions to find the nightclub street. I was wrong : (. Tenjin was dead, and we ended up walking to Canal City by accident without finding anything decent. We had dinner, went back to the hotel to recover, got directions, and headed back out at 10 to midnight.
We found the nightclub area, it looked like a miniature Roppongi, pretty dirty, lots of foreigners, etc. The only club we found, Sam and Dave’s, was packed, charging 3000en (30 bucks) and it was well past midnight… so we gave up and went back to the hotel.
We went to the Fukuoka Castle Ruins the next day, then went to Fukuoka’s most famous temple for the new years celebrations, hoping for lots of girls and kimono, but really finding neither. It was more like Gion Matsuri, billions of people all moving in a large blob towards the temple. Not a lot to see, but the temple guards had facemasks to protect them from people throwing their go-en coins. Had Fukuoka ramen for lunch, then went back towards our hotel. At this point we had given up on Fukuoka, decided to find billiards or an arcade or something to kill time for the rest of the day, and had dinner at Kaiten (Conveyor Belt) Sushi.
The only other interesting point was we had the traditional new years breakfast at our hotel. It was not bad, mochi soup, veggies, very strong fish eggs, etc. Keith was expecting it to be a lot weirder, haha. After breakfast we left Fukuoka and took a 4hr train ride to Beppu.
Beppu started off as a bit of a drag… our hotel was ok, we had our own bathroom and separate beds, but it was pretty old, not nearly as nice as the Kumamoto one. We ventured off to look for one of Beppu’s famous onsen. The first one we passed by looked like a house, so we moved on. The second one we found after traveling through the shady area. It was in a very old Japanese style building, and was known for its sand baths, where you pay to strip naked and have attendants shovel sand on you. That part was closed, so for 100en we checked out the normal bath, and were kind of surprised. There was one small concrete tub crowded with naked guys, and a small bucket shower area. It was like my dorm, only older, dirtier, and more crowded. We decided to keep searching.
After a long walk, and us being a bit depressed after our past few days bad luck, and it raining out, we finally found a decent, modern sento. I think this was where our luck started to improve. The bath was good, had a hot, an aroma, and a cold sauna, the cold water baths, the jet baths, and the electric baths, which I don’t understand, but I suppose some people enjoy getting an electric shock while they are naked in a public bath.
We had a feast (as Keith put it) at an isakaya place for dinner. We got everything from pork skewers to fried rice and noodles to kimchi stirfry, plus large ice cream sundaes for dessert.
The final day was the best, if a little short. We rented bikes, 900en for 5 hours, with little motors on them to assist with acceleration or climbing hills. We made our way halfway across the city to Beppu’s famous Jigoku, or Buddhist Hells. Toured the Mud Hells (bubbling mud pits), Sea Hell, Mountain Hell (with a zoo), Crocodile Hell, Devil Hell, White Pond Hell, Dragon Hell, Red Hell, and Geyser Hell. Most of them were impressive, with a few duds, but cool to see. Photos on webalbum, with more to come once Keith posts his. We raced back on our bikes so we wouldn’t get charged for extra time. Ate lunch quick, went to the onsen that looked like a house for a quick shower. It was worse than the sand bath place, but at least less busy. Then we caught the bus for the ferry terminal and got on the ferry for home.
The second ferry was a lot longer because it wasn’t direct… made stops at Oita, Matsuyama, and Kobe… so 17 hours total. We met a grad student from China and talked to him for a bit, Keith managed to finish his book, Angels and Demons, I finished my Asimov book, I watched Donnie Darko and some really really bad Japanese TV (more on that later), and had a very uncomfortable sleep. Makudo pancake breakfast in Tennoji, then it was farewell to Keith and off to my dorm.
Overall, the trip was decent, the places I expected to be not so good (Mt. Aso and Beppu) turned out to be the best, while the place I thought would be exciting (Fukuoka) was a drag. But at least we had some good days in there, and ended on a high note. Thanks again Keith for coming with, otherwise I’d have been very very bored haha.
So Japanese TV – What I saw on my vacation to Kyushu.
A show in which 3 guys pretend to be corpses in a morgue. The police officers would be examining the bodies, and kind of torturing them, smacking their heads, pouring hot wax on them, sticking things up their noses, etc., to see if they would react. And when the cops laughed at the “dead” guys’ reactions, other cops would come in and give the cops a spanking with large rubber sticks. At which time the whole thing would repeat. For 30 minutes.
A competition in which the goal is to sprint and get underneath a falling ball before it reaches the ground. Imagine spending your life training for that sport :P.
On the ferry I saw a show with a topless black girl with a chest big enough to belong in Jerry Springer’s hall of fame, a guy that had burning towels placed on top of him, a dating show where the guy had to choose a girl based on video footage of their chest and stats on their body sizes, and 2 guys fingerpainting, nude, in a field, and NOT using their fingers o.O.
Friday, December 29, 2006
Mom and Dad Say I Should Make My Life an Example of the Principles I Believe In... But Everytime I Do, They Tell Me to Stop It
Well, the last day of the work year in Japan is good news for me. But first I’ll recap the events of the past week. Umm… Friday I went down to Wakayama with Jen, it was Keith’s birthday and so we were gonna go clubbing. So of course when we get there, the club is closed, even though the calendar says there’s an event scheduled for that night. We ended up playing ping pong and pool at Wakayama JJs instead. Stayed at Keith’s for the night, at lunch with him the next day, then went home when he went back to work.
Sunday, I went to the gym in the morning, then we went for all you can eat yakiniku in the evening. When we got to the place, there was a 2hr wait! Christmas Eve, what did we expect… so we put our names down, and try to look for another place… an hour and a half later with still no luck, we went back to the yakiniku place ><. Work on Christmas Day, I was surprised how under-celebrated it was after all the decorations and lights. I went to Dylan’s place for a small Mexican Christmas dinner. Dylan’s a friend of Anton and Jen, the party was fun, but I had to leave early to make curfew, and so I missed Love Actually :(. By Boxing Day Christmas decorations were virtually gone, it was weird, like Christmas never happened… which it barely did. I got some good gifts in the mail from my family though, which was very nice, including some money from my grandparents and great aunt, which was very much appreciated. And I got a bonus (or maybe taxes back) on my paycheck yesterday, can’t complain about that either. Well, over the past 2 weeks (3 now) a lot of my fellow CJPers have returned home to Canada. Anton, Boon-hau, and Tongxin have left in the Kansai area, and more elsewhere in Japan. No more crazy old man adventures with Anton /cry. I’ll miss you guys, it’ll be a lot different here without you, but keep in touch and I’ll see you back in Canada! CJP Reunion Party Ohhhhh Yeah! Or you guys could come visit me in Calgary! Pffft >< Yeah right.
Mmm, one more night of dorm showers, then it’s… a night on a ferry… and then 4 nights of private showers!!! And then… a night on a ferry… and then dorm showers… That’s right, kicked out of my dorm tomorrow afternoon, and the trip to Kyushu begins. The plan is the same as before, except I’m taking the ferry instead of night train. Should be interesting, I’ll take pictures.
Sunday, I went to the gym in the morning, then we went for all you can eat yakiniku in the evening. When we got to the place, there was a 2hr wait! Christmas Eve, what did we expect… so we put our names down, and try to look for another place… an hour and a half later with still no luck, we went back to the yakiniku place ><. Work on Christmas Day, I was surprised how under-celebrated it was after all the decorations and lights. I went to Dylan’s place for a small Mexican Christmas dinner. Dylan’s a friend of Anton and Jen, the party was fun, but I had to leave early to make curfew, and so I missed Love Actually :(. By Boxing Day Christmas decorations were virtually gone, it was weird, like Christmas never happened… which it barely did. I got some good gifts in the mail from my family though, which was very nice, including some money from my grandparents and great aunt, which was very much appreciated. And I got a bonus (or maybe taxes back) on my paycheck yesterday, can’t complain about that either. Well, over the past 2 weeks (3 now) a lot of my fellow CJPers have returned home to Canada. Anton, Boon-hau, and Tongxin have left in the Kansai area, and more elsewhere in Japan. No more crazy old man adventures with Anton /cry. I’ll miss you guys, it’ll be a lot different here without you, but keep in touch and I’ll see you back in Canada! CJP Reunion Party Ohhhhh Yeah! Or you guys could come visit me in Calgary! Pffft >< Yeah right.
Mmm, one more night of dorm showers, then it’s… a night on a ferry… and then 4 nights of private showers!!! And then… a night on a ferry… and then dorm showers… That’s right, kicked out of my dorm tomorrow afternoon, and the trip to Kyushu begins. The plan is the same as before, except I’m taking the ferry instead of night train. Should be interesting, I’ll take pictures.
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Van Gogh Would've Sold More Than One Painting If He'd Put Tigers in Them
A busy weekend again, though I didn't travel too far. Friday night was a typical gym/dinner/home evening. Saturday was a typical gym/haircut/downtown peanut butter expedition day, followed by Hikari Lightup in the evening.
Pictures will be most effective for this blog... so I'll just write about the other parts. Hikari Lightup, like many of Japan's lightups, involves lights. In this case, as in many cases, trees and paths are lit with lights. This one was a bit different though, as there were lightup displays made by students from Rie's university, which were cool and interesting. There was also a large number of vendors selling foreign food: tequila, tandoori chicken, donuts, hot dogs, etc...
There was also another Christmas concert, which was interesting because they were playing African and Latin American Christmas songs too o.O.
After stopping at Osaka station (Rie needed a computer mic from Yodobashi Camera), we said farewell to Anton and Rie and went to Kyobashi, with the goal of getting drunk as quickly as possible. And by we, I don't include myself. We found an all you can drink (nomihoudai) place, but misinterpreted the price outside, finding out it was a hostess bar too... so we moved on and found Beetle Girl's Bar. 2000-en for nomihoudai shochu. I had water :P.
Keith and Erika came late, I went to fetch them from the station, they wanted beer and not shochu so I went with them for snacks/beer. Then I left to return to the dorm, as the others were planning on clubbing the night away. Made curfew by less than 3 minutes, whew.
Saturday was Kobe, I met up with Keith, Erika, Boon-Hau, and very eventually Tongxin at Kyobashi, then headed for the Bruce Lee Weapons Store in Chinatown. Quite the selection of nunchakus, fake weapons, clothes, posters, figurines, etc... Boon bought a lot, I wonder if he'll have problems with customs...
Next was Kobe Luminaire, home to the largest lineup I've ever seen... about 10 blocks long with the entire street packed with people. Eventually you pass through large arches filled with lights, and at the end of the street is an arena of lights.
Afterwards I bought two hot double chocolate cookies (this is very important (to me)), and we went out in search of dinner. After walking in a very large cold circle we came to where we started... and found the restaurant we were looking for. Mmm, Kobe beef steak... Our meal cost 60 bucks each, for 10 bites of steak, but sooo good. Definitely worth trying once, though meals go downhill from here.
Oddly enough we saw Jen at the restaurant, not expecting her to be there at all! But she was the one to recommend the restaurant to us in the first place.
6 days till Christmas, and I'll be all alone... both Dave and Byron will be leaving this week, and I probably won't see them till after New Years. So I'm all alone for a week :(.
Pictures will be most effective for this blog... so I'll just write about the other parts. Hikari Lightup, like many of Japan's lightups, involves lights. In this case, as in many cases, trees and paths are lit with lights. This one was a bit different though, as there were lightup displays made by students from Rie's university, which were cool and interesting. There was also a large number of vendors selling foreign food: tequila, tandoori chicken, donuts, hot dogs, etc...
There was also another Christmas concert, which was interesting because they were playing African and Latin American Christmas songs too o.O.
After stopping at Osaka station (Rie needed a computer mic from Yodobashi Camera), we said farewell to Anton and Rie and went to Kyobashi, with the goal of getting drunk as quickly as possible. And by we, I don't include myself. We found an all you can drink (nomihoudai) place, but misinterpreted the price outside, finding out it was a hostess bar too... so we moved on and found Beetle Girl's Bar. 2000-en for nomihoudai shochu. I had water :P.
Keith and Erika came late, I went to fetch them from the station, they wanted beer and not shochu so I went with them for snacks/beer. Then I left to return to the dorm, as the others were planning on clubbing the night away. Made curfew by less than 3 minutes, whew.
Saturday was Kobe, I met up with Keith, Erika, Boon-Hau, and very eventually Tongxin at Kyobashi, then headed for the Bruce Lee Weapons Store in Chinatown. Quite the selection of nunchakus, fake weapons, clothes, posters, figurines, etc... Boon bought a lot, I wonder if he'll have problems with customs...
Next was Kobe Luminaire, home to the largest lineup I've ever seen... about 10 blocks long with the entire street packed with people. Eventually you pass through large arches filled with lights, and at the end of the street is an arena of lights.
Afterwards I bought two hot double chocolate cookies (this is very important (to me)), and we went out in search of dinner. After walking in a very large cold circle we came to where we started... and found the restaurant we were looking for. Mmm, Kobe beef steak... Our meal cost 60 bucks each, for 10 bites of steak, but sooo good. Definitely worth trying once, though meals go downhill from here.
Oddly enough we saw Jen at the restaurant, not expecting her to be there at all! But she was the one to recommend the restaurant to us in the first place.
6 days till Christmas, and I'll be all alone... both Dave and Byron will be leaving this week, and I probably won't see them till after New Years. So I'm all alone for a week :(.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
I Wonder If You Can Refuse to Inherit the World
Lots to write about. I journied west this week, to the city of Hiroshima.
I departed Friday night with Keith, Jiang 1 and Jiang 2 (both are Keith's co-workers from China). We took the night bus from Tennoji, about a 7 hour trip. Luckily this night bus was much better than the last, with each seat separated (seat, aisle, seat, aisle, seat) and there was a washroom in the back. Which was too short for me to fully stand in.
We arrived at Hiroshima Station at 6am, played cards and ate breakfast at Makudo for a while, then went on a hike to a shrine on top of a nearby mountain. We were mostly just killing time (Kelvin was due to arrive from Tokyo at 10am), but it was a good view.
Kelvin arrived in one piece, but not feeling the best. Another case of food poisoning: he had eaten expired tofu a few days earlier, adding to the list of "Food to Avoid". After taking awhile to plan our day, we made our way to the trams.
The first stop was Genbakudomu-mae, where the Hiroshima Peace Park and Atomic Bomb Museum are located. The weather was gloomy when we arrived, which seemed to fit the mood of the park. The dome was one of the few buildings left standing after the bomb dropped. We also saw the Children's Peace Monument, surrounded by glass cases holding tens of thousands of paper cranes.
The museum was pretty chilling... first displaying the history of Hiroshima, then showing before and after views of the city. The middle section showed artifacts that survived the bomb... clothes, lunchboxes, a rusty tricycle, a section of wall with a silhouette on it. A huge wall of letters, written by the mayors of Hiroshima, advocating the abolition of nuclear weapons. Pictures of the victims, covered in burns, describing death tolls and how the victims suffered, and teaching the science behind the atomic bomb and radiation sickness. It was a good experience, but difficult...
From Genbakudomu we went to Miyajima by ferry. The island is home to the Miyajima Floating Torii Gate, one of the 3 most beautiful views in Japan apparently. I think for this section a picture is worth a thousand words, so check out my webalbum instead for pictures.
The one interesting thing to note was one of the items in the gift shop... A towel with a picture of two women on it... and when the towel gets wet, their clothes disappear! Or, as the sign beside the towels put it "Surprise! A naked woman appears!". /sigh
Afterwards we decided to check into our accommodations for the night, a type of inn called a Ryokan (Translation: "Type of inn"). Upon finding out that we weren't staying in a hotel I must say I was a bit disappointed, I was looking forward to a private shower... Instead it was very communal, even compared to my dorm, as there were four buckets extremely close together. As in, if the room was full, the buckets must have been touching o.O. But I went at 1am when it was empty, hurray. The room was ok, slept on futons on tatami floors, and I got one of the better sleeps I've had in a while. Probably because the futons are softer than my bed, and because I wasn't listening to any weird music while I was sleeping. (Thanks a lot Brady, your crazy music invades my dreams and makes me think I'm going insane!)
Day 2 we went for breakfast at Lotteria, which serves its pancakes in a burger wrapper, with no butter, syrup, knife or fork. And orange drink sucks. We walked to Shukkuin Garden, which was quite nice to see. Kelvin came up with the idea of using our bodies to spell Hiroshima in Kanji (which was a humorous failure). We also saw the ruins and reconstruction of Hiroshima Castle, and went shopping in Hiroshima's downtown area.
On our walk we passed by a mall where a Christmas Concert was being held out front. To everyone who's seen A Christmas Story (ie, to everyone)... remember that scene at the Chinese restaurant where the staff sings Deck the Halls? Like that, only add another 20 people, a stage, microphones, background music and a bigger audience.
Not to mention the weirdest part. They weren't singing traditional Christmas carols, but religious songs, like "Oh Happy Day". In a population of less than 1% Christians, and after seeing Christmas (er, XMas) as a purely commercial affair here, this was very weird to see and hear.
After trying on interesting hats in the hip-hop stores (Yes, people aren't wearing enough hats, and yes, I want an Indiana Jones style fedora), we headed back to Hiroshima Station for our 7 hour train ride back home.
I departed Friday night with Keith, Jiang 1 and Jiang 2 (both are Keith's co-workers from China). We took the night bus from Tennoji, about a 7 hour trip. Luckily this night bus was much better than the last, with each seat separated (seat, aisle, seat, aisle, seat) and there was a washroom in the back. Which was too short for me to fully stand in.
We arrived at Hiroshima Station at 6am, played cards and ate breakfast at Makudo for a while, then went on a hike to a shrine on top of a nearby mountain. We were mostly just killing time (Kelvin was due to arrive from Tokyo at 10am), but it was a good view.
Kelvin arrived in one piece, but not feeling the best. Another case of food poisoning: he had eaten expired tofu a few days earlier, adding to the list of "Food to Avoid". After taking awhile to plan our day, we made our way to the trams.
The first stop was Genbakudomu-mae, where the Hiroshima Peace Park and Atomic Bomb Museum are located. The weather was gloomy when we arrived, which seemed to fit the mood of the park. The dome was one of the few buildings left standing after the bomb dropped. We also saw the Children's Peace Monument, surrounded by glass cases holding tens of thousands of paper cranes.
The museum was pretty chilling... first displaying the history of Hiroshima, then showing before and after views of the city. The middle section showed artifacts that survived the bomb... clothes, lunchboxes, a rusty tricycle, a section of wall with a silhouette on it. A huge wall of letters, written by the mayors of Hiroshima, advocating the abolition of nuclear weapons. Pictures of the victims, covered in burns, describing death tolls and how the victims suffered, and teaching the science behind the atomic bomb and radiation sickness. It was a good experience, but difficult...
From Genbakudomu we went to Miyajima by ferry. The island is home to the Miyajima Floating Torii Gate, one of the 3 most beautiful views in Japan apparently. I think for this section a picture is worth a thousand words, so check out my webalbum instead for pictures.
The one interesting thing to note was one of the items in the gift shop... A towel with a picture of two women on it... and when the towel gets wet, their clothes disappear! Or, as the sign beside the towels put it "Surprise! A naked woman appears!". /sigh
Afterwards we decided to check into our accommodations for the night, a type of inn called a Ryokan (Translation: "Type of inn"). Upon finding out that we weren't staying in a hotel I must say I was a bit disappointed, I was looking forward to a private shower... Instead it was very communal, even compared to my dorm, as there were four buckets extremely close together. As in, if the room was full, the buckets must have been touching o.O. But I went at 1am when it was empty, hurray. The room was ok, slept on futons on tatami floors, and I got one of the better sleeps I've had in a while. Probably because the futons are softer than my bed, and because I wasn't listening to any weird music while I was sleeping. (Thanks a lot Brady, your crazy music invades my dreams and makes me think I'm going insane!)
Day 2 we went for breakfast at Lotteria, which serves its pancakes in a burger wrapper, with no butter, syrup, knife or fork. And orange drink sucks. We walked to Shukkuin Garden, which was quite nice to see. Kelvin came up with the idea of using our bodies to spell Hiroshima in Kanji (which was a humorous failure). We also saw the ruins and reconstruction of Hiroshima Castle, and went shopping in Hiroshima's downtown area.
On our walk we passed by a mall where a Christmas Concert was being held out front. To everyone who's seen A Christmas Story (ie, to everyone)... remember that scene at the Chinese restaurant where the staff sings Deck the Halls? Like that, only add another 20 people, a stage, microphones, background music and a bigger audience.
Not to mention the weirdest part. They weren't singing traditional Christmas carols, but religious songs, like "Oh Happy Day". In a population of less than 1% Christians, and after seeing Christmas (er, XMas) as a purely commercial affair here, this was very weird to see and hear.
After trying on interesting hats in the hip-hop stores (Yes, people aren't wearing enough hats, and yes, I want an Indiana Jones style fedora), we headed back to Hiroshima Station for our 7 hour train ride back home.
Friday, December 1, 2006
It's Not Denial. I'm Just Very Selective About the Reality I Accept
Kansai Invasion. I suppose I have to blog about it. But it'll be brief, don't worry.
First off, it was a blast, people came to Kansai from Tokyo, Hamamatsu, Nagoya and Fukui. 20+ people total involved in the events this weekend.
So I'll start up where I left off... Thursday night consisted of an all nighter at JJs... doing everything from basketball to pool to karaoke to DDR vs Boon Hau, it was a blast. I even got to sing Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)! Me and Keith even discovered the Super Famicom (SNES) and spent a few hours playing Super Donkey Kong (Country). Oh the memories, and we still knew where the secrets were. Only got halfway through world 5 before going to bed, but we'll be back to finish it! And then I got 2 hours of sleep in a hammock.
Friday, I went with Keith, Kevin, and Victor to Universal Studios Japan. It was just like walking back into the US (United States, not Universal Studios... though i suppose both would be applicable)! Except of course, for all the Japanese people. The rides were all the same (except in Japanese) with two additions, Jaws and Spiderman. Spiderman was done quite well, half ride, half 3D movie. Lineups were huge compared to the last time I went to US Hollywood (when lineups were about 5-10 minutes). 60-90 minutes per ride usually. We went to Namba for a bit afterwards, since Keith had time to kill before meeting up with his friend, then it was off to Nara for Anton's party.
Party was fun, loud, and full of alcohol. Thanks and sorry to Anton, who had to apologize to the neighbours for all the noise we made. I watched the drinking games from my futon throne, and we watched Neil on Cool! Japan, a Japanese TV show which follows gaijin around to see what they think of Japan. Cool to see Neil on it. Amusing videos of Jen were recorded, cake landed on the ground but was recovered according to the five second rule, Neil succumbed to the effects of eating eel liver combined with too much alcohol, and I slept in my private bed in Anton's closet.
Not a lot of sleep again, 4h max, and then off to the Arashiyama Monkey Park. "None of us is as dumb as all of us" applies here, when the group is too large, trying to get everyone both together and moving is next to impossible. Monkey park was the same as last time, only Boon Hau and Clement learned firsthand why not to stare at the monkeys. And we got to see the feeding this time. And the fall leaves were very cool. However, combine the fact that this is the best time of year to go, plus it being a long weekend, it was very busy. The train ride back to Kyoto was brutal, the worst I've seen it yet in Japan. Kinda like during the Stampede on the C-Train.
Well, after 6 hours of sleep in 3 days, I decided to skip clubbing, I went home and went to bed. Others went to temple light up and clubbing, but I was too tired. My Kansai Invasion ended there, with a relaxing Sunday at the gym and downtown.
First off, it was a blast, people came to Kansai from Tokyo, Hamamatsu, Nagoya and Fukui. 20+ people total involved in the events this weekend.
So I'll start up where I left off... Thursday night consisted of an all nighter at JJs... doing everything from basketball to pool to karaoke to DDR vs Boon Hau, it was a blast. I even got to sing Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)! Me and Keith even discovered the Super Famicom (SNES) and spent a few hours playing Super Donkey Kong (Country). Oh the memories, and we still knew where the secrets were. Only got halfway through world 5 before going to bed, but we'll be back to finish it! And then I got 2 hours of sleep in a hammock.
Friday, I went with Keith, Kevin, and Victor to Universal Studios Japan. It was just like walking back into the US (United States, not Universal Studios... though i suppose both would be applicable)! Except of course, for all the Japanese people. The rides were all the same (except in Japanese) with two additions, Jaws and Spiderman. Spiderman was done quite well, half ride, half 3D movie. Lineups were huge compared to the last time I went to US Hollywood (when lineups were about 5-10 minutes). 60-90 minutes per ride usually. We went to Namba for a bit afterwards, since Keith had time to kill before meeting up with his friend, then it was off to Nara for Anton's party.
Party was fun, loud, and full of alcohol. Thanks and sorry to Anton, who had to apologize to the neighbours for all the noise we made. I watched the drinking games from my futon throne, and we watched Neil on Cool! Japan, a Japanese TV show which follows gaijin around to see what they think of Japan. Cool to see Neil on it. Amusing videos of Jen were recorded, cake landed on the ground but was recovered according to the five second rule, Neil succumbed to the effects of eating eel liver combined with too much alcohol, and I slept in my private bed in Anton's closet.
Not a lot of sleep again, 4h max, and then off to the Arashiyama Monkey Park. "None of us is as dumb as all of us" applies here, when the group is too large, trying to get everyone both together and moving is next to impossible. Monkey park was the same as last time, only Boon Hau and Clement learned firsthand why not to stare at the monkeys. And we got to see the feeding this time. And the fall leaves were very cool. However, combine the fact that this is the best time of year to go, plus it being a long weekend, it was very busy. The train ride back to Kyoto was brutal, the worst I've seen it yet in Japan. Kinda like during the Stampede on the C-Train.
Well, after 6 hours of sleep in 3 days, I decided to skip clubbing, I went home and went to bed. Others went to temple light up and clubbing, but I was too tired. My Kansai Invasion ended there, with a relaxing Sunday at the gym and downtown.
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Link
When Brett came to Japan, he chose a new name.
He thought it'd be fun, just like a Nintendo game.
He called himself Link, to impress all the hoes,
Then went to the store, to buy some new clothes.
Things were different here, there was no doubt at all.
He was tired of being called, skinny and small.
So he started to eat, much much more food,
And others would join him, while he bathed in the nude.
The thing about Link, which most of us know,
He's a little bit off, he's not one with the flow.
So what has Link learned, in all his time here?
How to live on his own, and drink lots of beer.
- Keith
Before Kansai Invasion, I went to Anton's with Keith and Tongxin, and met up with Billy and Vincent there... Tongxin thought it would be fun if we all wrote anonymous letters to each other (written in advance), saying, well, whatever we wanted... her original idea was to have it kinda sentimental, since she was going to be leaving Japan and probably wouldn't see us all together for a long time. And Keith wrote me a poem!
That night (Wednesday) was fun, we played a game kinda like Broken Telephone mixed with pictionary. One person would write a caption, then the next person would draw the picture of it, and hide the caption, next person would write a new caption, cover the picture, and so on...
Conan the Barbarian does indeed protect his Jam Jars.
More on Kansai Invasion to come... including all nighter at JJs, Universal Studios Japan, Party at Anton's, and CJP invasion of the Monkey Park! But I'm a little tired, and still have to write my weekly report for last week, and my resume, and study for Japanese, and make second dinner, and finish cleaning my room, and eventually get to bed.
He thought it'd be fun, just like a Nintendo game.
He called himself Link, to impress all the hoes,
Then went to the store, to buy some new clothes.
Things were different here, there was no doubt at all.
He was tired of being called, skinny and small.
So he started to eat, much much more food,
And others would join him, while he bathed in the nude.
The thing about Link, which most of us know,
He's a little bit off, he's not one with the flow.
So what has Link learned, in all his time here?
How to live on his own, and drink lots of beer.
- Keith
Before Kansai Invasion, I went to Anton's with Keith and Tongxin, and met up with Billy and Vincent there... Tongxin thought it would be fun if we all wrote anonymous letters to each other (written in advance), saying, well, whatever we wanted... her original idea was to have it kinda sentimental, since she was going to be leaving Japan and probably wouldn't see us all together for a long time. And Keith wrote me a poem!
That night (Wednesday) was fun, we played a game kinda like Broken Telephone mixed with pictionary. One person would write a caption, then the next person would draw the picture of it, and hide the caption, next person would write a new caption, cover the picture, and so on...
Conan the Barbarian does indeed protect his Jam Jars.
More on Kansai Invasion to come... including all nighter at JJs, Universal Studios Japan, Party at Anton's, and CJP invasion of the Monkey Park! But I'm a little tired, and still have to write my weekly report for last week, and my resume, and study for Japanese, and make second dinner, and finish cleaning my room, and eventually get to bed.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
If Mom and Dad Cared About Me at All, They'd Buy Me Some Infra-Red Nighttime Vision Goggles
On Saturday I went with Anton and Rie to Anton's company's president's BBQ. Since I'm trying to keep this short, I'll only write the important points.
The President had to come fetch us when we got lost in his neighbourhood.
He wore a dirty straw hat and rubber boots.
There was basically a jungle in his backyard.
That's pretty much it, we had fried steak, and fried veggies, and BBQ banana. Some of Anton's other coworkers were there too, so we talked to them. And Anton and I went exploring/photographing.
Sunday involved a trip to Spa World, feeding Dr. Fish, and getting a wedgie.
Spa World - A resort dedicated to what most North Americans would see as an act of personal hygiene. There's 2 main bathing floors, one with an Asian theme, one with a Europe theme, one per gender and they switch every month. And there's a dozen rooms with different baths, showers, saunas, etc.
The Asian theme had rooms for Egypt, Japan, Persia, India, etc... Some baths were freezing cold, others super hot, some with jets in them, some outside, and all are full of naked Japanese men.
Interesting points: One sauna had a bowl of salt in the middle, you are supposed to take some salt and rub it all over your body. I don't get it. There's also a decent water park (swim trunks required) on the top floor with two decent water slides. We were nearly out of time so we didn't go on, and the water slides are an extra 300Y per ride anyway.
There is also a part of Spa World dedicated to Dr. Fish. Dr. Fish involves taking off your socks, rolling up your pants, and sticking your feet in a pool of fish-filled water. Then the fish come and nibble at your skin, eating away all the dirt/germs/dead skin. My feet musta been very dirty, they really liked me! I wonder if my feet smelled fishy after... pictures on my webalbum.
We attempted to find a gaijin hangout near Tennoji called Tin's Hall, famous for its hamburgers apparently, and after 20 min of walking we did manage to locate it. Oddly enough we found one of Anton's coworkers on his cell outside the place... small world. Then we found out there was a charity party, which meant 1000Y cover, and we were a little short on cash. So we went to Denny's instead.
The President had to come fetch us when we got lost in his neighbourhood.
He wore a dirty straw hat and rubber boots.
There was basically a jungle in his backyard.
That's pretty much it, we had fried steak, and fried veggies, and BBQ banana. Some of Anton's other coworkers were there too, so we talked to them. And Anton and I went exploring/photographing.
Sunday involved a trip to Spa World, feeding Dr. Fish, and getting a wedgie.
Spa World - A resort dedicated to what most North Americans would see as an act of personal hygiene. There's 2 main bathing floors, one with an Asian theme, one with a Europe theme, one per gender and they switch every month. And there's a dozen rooms with different baths, showers, saunas, etc.
The Asian theme had rooms for Egypt, Japan, Persia, India, etc... Some baths were freezing cold, others super hot, some with jets in them, some outside, and all are full of naked Japanese men.
Interesting points: One sauna had a bowl of salt in the middle, you are supposed to take some salt and rub it all over your body. I don't get it. There's also a decent water park (swim trunks required) on the top floor with two decent water slides. We were nearly out of time so we didn't go on, and the water slides are an extra 300Y per ride anyway.
There is also a part of Spa World dedicated to Dr. Fish. Dr. Fish involves taking off your socks, rolling up your pants, and sticking your feet in a pool of fish-filled water. Then the fish come and nibble at your skin, eating away all the dirt/germs/dead skin. My feet musta been very dirty, they really liked me! I wonder if my feet smelled fishy after... pictures on my webalbum.
We attempted to find a gaijin hangout near Tennoji called Tin's Hall, famous for its hamburgers apparently, and after 20 min of walking we did manage to locate it. Oddly enough we found one of Anton's coworkers on his cell outside the place... small world. Then we found out there was a charity party, which meant 1000Y cover, and we were a little short on cash. So we went to Denny's instead.
Sunday, November 5, 2006
Even If Lives DID Hang in the Balance, It Would Depend on Whose They Were!
Last weekend I went to Rie’s (Anton’s Friend) University, the Osaka University for the Arts, for the school’s festival. And I know what you’re thinking… ("A festival run by Fine Arts Students?! Uh oh!") and you’d be correct. So after a 2 hour journey we arrive at the festival in time to get harassed by food vendors!
Oh, I should mention "we" being myself, Anton, and Rie of course, but also Boon-hau, Philo (one of Anton’s coworkers) and her parents.
Actually, half the festival seemed to be made up of food vendors. Everything from hot dogs to yakisoba to bubble tea, and more. Other vendors too, selling used clothes/cds, some selling items that they had crafted themselves.
It was rather interesting, many of the students were dressed up. Besides the numerous male students dressed as schoolgirls or in Chinese style dresses, there was a girl with eggs on her head, an cardboard samurai, a guy dressed up in a chicken costume meant for a 6 year old, and Darth Vader advertising donuts.
The first show we saw was the martial arts performance. They started off with a little skit about guys possessed by evil magical pantyhose they wore on their heads, and the good guys had to use their karate skillz to exorcise the stockings. Then each group performed a routine, some involving demonstrations of throws, or breaking boards (two good ones), and one that appeared to be dancing with sticks.
Next we went to a taiko drum/dance performance which was outdoors on the main stage. They were both very good. All the guy performers had multicolored hair, and some had facepaint, which is expected for arts students. At the very last move of the dancing, the guy at the front in the very center of the stage split his pants, quite visibly, right down the middle! Talent… you couldn’t have planned that better. Then our bad karma earned by laughing at/with the guy resulted in us being dragged onstage (not just us, lots of people) to dance with them ><. Of our group, only Boon-hau showed any signs of coordination. It was amusing.
Next were some ninja-themed stage performances. They probably would have been more entertaining if I had been able to understand the plot, but what kenya do? Besides learn Japanese of course (I’m workin on it!!!)
Wow, that bird’s a good fisherman! The cormorant I’m watching just caught a 4 inch long fish and is trying to force it down it’s throat without dropping it… Mine! Mine! I’m sitting next to the river downtown writing this, it’s a very nice spot for just hanging out. But maybe for not much longer, it’s getting rather cool.
Didn’t do much this weekend, went to the gym all three days, studied, played vid games with a friend back home, and started writing my resume and cover letters, yay! Gotta start applying for summer jobs soon.
There’s also a girl that lives a few houses down from my dorm (no, this story is not going where you think it is…). She’s about 8 years old and she has her own unicycle! I see her practicing on my way back from the grocery store occasionally… I don’t think I could ever ride one of those, too many directions to fall in.
Officially half done my internship now. I’ve been here 161 days! And 5 months, or 146 days to go till I’m back in Canada. I hear planning is underway on my welcome home party, there’s gonna be ducks, clowns and balloon animals! I can’t wait!
Oh, I should mention "we" being myself, Anton, and Rie of course, but also Boon-hau, Philo (one of Anton’s coworkers) and her parents.
Actually, half the festival seemed to be made up of food vendors. Everything from hot dogs to yakisoba to bubble tea, and more. Other vendors too, selling used clothes/cds, some selling items that they had crafted themselves.
It was rather interesting, many of the students were dressed up. Besides the numerous male students dressed as schoolgirls or in Chinese style dresses, there was a girl with eggs on her head, an cardboard samurai, a guy dressed up in a chicken costume meant for a 6 year old, and Darth Vader advertising donuts.
The first show we saw was the martial arts performance. They started off with a little skit about guys possessed by evil magical pantyhose they wore on their heads, and the good guys had to use their karate skillz to exorcise the stockings. Then each group performed a routine, some involving demonstrations of throws, or breaking boards (two good ones), and one that appeared to be dancing with sticks.
Next we went to a taiko drum/dance performance which was outdoors on the main stage. They were both very good. All the guy performers had multicolored hair, and some had facepaint, which is expected for arts students. At the very last move of the dancing, the guy at the front in the very center of the stage split his pants, quite visibly, right down the middle! Talent… you couldn’t have planned that better. Then our bad karma earned by laughing at/with the guy resulted in us being dragged onstage (not just us, lots of people) to dance with them ><. Of our group, only Boon-hau showed any signs of coordination. It was amusing.
Next were some ninja-themed stage performances. They probably would have been more entertaining if I had been able to understand the plot, but what kenya do? Besides learn Japanese of course (I’m workin on it!!!)
Wow, that bird’s a good fisherman! The cormorant I’m watching just caught a 4 inch long fish and is trying to force it down it’s throat without dropping it… Mine! Mine! I’m sitting next to the river downtown writing this, it’s a very nice spot for just hanging out. But maybe for not much longer, it’s getting rather cool.
Didn’t do much this weekend, went to the gym all three days, studied, played vid games with a friend back home, and started writing my resume and cover letters, yay! Gotta start applying for summer jobs soon.
There’s also a girl that lives a few houses down from my dorm (no, this story is not going where you think it is…). She’s about 8 years old and she has her own unicycle! I see her practicing on my way back from the grocery store occasionally… I don’t think I could ever ride one of those, too many directions to fall in.
Officially half done my internship now. I’ve been here 161 days! And 5 months, or 146 days to go till I’m back in Canada. I hear planning is underway on my welcome home party, there’s gonna be ducks, clowns and balloon animals! I can’t wait!
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Homicidal Psycho Jungle Monkeys!!!
Been waiting to use that title ever since I found out there was a monkey park!
Once again I'm late on the blog, my sincerest apologies. Busy busy, what with studying, weekend activities, going to the gym...
Week and a half ago I went to the World Dental Show in Yokohama. The trip by shinkansen was of course covered by the company, which is by far the best way to travel. The show was interesting/gross. I got to see the different products my company and its competitors make, which was good. There's some fancy dental equipment that my dentist sure doesn't have. Panoramic X-rays machines that create a 3-D image on the computer, some very hi tech dental chairs, very cool stuff. One display showed off their product using Asimo! Which was neato! Of course some displays were a little gross, with videos of some very invasive dental operations... mmm... Having no place to stay in Tokyo, I just headed home afterwards...
That week Tuesday, I went with Dave to the Arashiyama Monkey Park! Monkeys! The monkeys aren't caged, they can go wherever they want! At the top you can go inside the house/cage and buy bananas/apples/peanuts and feed the monkeys from inside.
The park was excellent, but I hear it's even better in the fall (it's not fall here yet) when the leaves change... good thing I plan to go back with the CJP gang!
After the monkey park we went downtown, Dave showed me some cool stores I had overlooked... clothing stores, foreign food stores, anime stores, you know... stores! This of course means that I found peanut butter. This is good for two reasons. It tastes good. It's very fattening. In fact, since I bought the peanut butter, I've gained another 2 pounds! Coincidence? Probably, since the PB container's only 350g, but it helped.
This weekend I went down to Wakayama again for some JJs and wakeboarding action! The Wakayama JJs has basketball and soccer on the roof, unfortunately it's pretty run down, one hoop was torn off, the other is bent. Also played some vid games and pool. On Saturday me and Keith went with two girls from his work wakeboarding... in the river... in October. My history on boarding... never skateboarded, never snowboarded, and have no balance! And wakeboarding I went last summer, managed to get up my first time, and fell over promptly 2 seconds later. But this time I managed to get up and stay up for a while. No tricks though... but that can come later. Keith was really good! Jumps, turns, etc... showoff! Pictures of monkeys and wakeboarding on my webalbum.
That brings the total water sports count to 7! Wakeboarding, surfing, windsurfing, kayaking, scuba diving, skimboarding, and snorkeling! That's more activities than the nine years I spent in Calgary... too bad we didn't go rafting here too
Once again I'm late on the blog, my sincerest apologies. Busy busy, what with studying, weekend activities, going to the gym...
Week and a half ago I went to the World Dental Show in Yokohama. The trip by shinkansen was of course covered by the company, which is by far the best way to travel. The show was interesting/gross. I got to see the different products my company and its competitors make, which was good. There's some fancy dental equipment that my dentist sure doesn't have. Panoramic X-rays machines that create a 3-D image on the computer, some very hi tech dental chairs, very cool stuff. One display showed off their product using Asimo! Which was neato! Of course some displays were a little gross, with videos of some very invasive dental operations... mmm... Having no place to stay in Tokyo, I just headed home afterwards...
That week Tuesday, I went with Dave to the Arashiyama Monkey Park! Monkeys! The monkeys aren't caged, they can go wherever they want! At the top you can go inside the house/cage and buy bananas/apples/peanuts and feed the monkeys from inside.
The park was excellent, but I hear it's even better in the fall (it's not fall here yet) when the leaves change... good thing I plan to go back with the CJP gang!
After the monkey park we went downtown, Dave showed me some cool stores I had overlooked... clothing stores, foreign food stores, anime stores, you know... stores! This of course means that I found peanut butter. This is good for two reasons. It tastes good. It's very fattening. In fact, since I bought the peanut butter, I've gained another 2 pounds! Coincidence? Probably, since the PB container's only 350g, but it helped.
This weekend I went down to Wakayama again for some JJs and wakeboarding action! The Wakayama JJs has basketball and soccer on the roof, unfortunately it's pretty run down, one hoop was torn off, the other is bent. Also played some vid games and pool. On Saturday me and Keith went with two girls from his work wakeboarding... in the river... in October. My history on boarding... never skateboarded, never snowboarded, and have no balance! And wakeboarding I went last summer, managed to get up my first time, and fell over promptly 2 seconds later. But this time I managed to get up and stay up for a while. No tricks though... but that can come later. Keith was really good! Jumps, turns, etc... showoff! Pictures of monkeys and wakeboarding on my webalbum.
That brings the total water sports count to 7! Wakeboarding, surfing, windsurfing, kayaking, scuba diving, skimboarding, and snorkeling! That's more activities than the nine years I spent in Calgary... too bad we didn't go rafting here too
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Scientific Progress goes "Boink"?
Over the past 4 months I've noticed something weird in Japan. I'll call it the Doppelganger Effect. Basically, some people in Japan that I've seen, or met, or even work with look (and act) very similar to people i knew back in Canada. One OL here, I keep thinking of her by the name of my friend's sister, who she looks exactly like. I'm always concerned I'll call her by the wrong name by accident. And one person I met looked like an Asian version of a friend in Calgary, and even had the same first name o.O.
If it was one or two people I could understand, but I can think of at least 6 occurrences... does anyone else get this effect or am I weird/hallucinating?
I wonder if the duplicates have ethicators with built-in moral compromise spectral release phantasmatron:
"Strictly speaking, I'm not Calvin. I'm the physical manifestation of Calvin's good side."
"If that were true, you'd be a lot smaller."
In other news... wow, guess I'm over a week behind in blogging... so I'll keep it short... Last weekend I did nothing on Friday. It was nice. On Saturday I went to a picnic in Nara with Anton and his friends/co-workers. It was nice. We ate food, played soccer/frisbee, talked, had fun. I impressed Anton with my artistic ability by drawing him a sign to protect him from bugs while he was napping. The picture is on my webalbum, along with other pictures from the past two weeks.
Anton and his friend Rie came along with me to JJs, where we met up with Boon-hau, Keith, and Byron. JJs is a wonderful place. At 105-en every 15 minutes ($4/hr) you have unlimited access to the video games, bowling, billiards, karaoke, basketball, ping pong, and lots more. That night most of our time was spent at karaoke, but we also played on a big blow up, cylinder shaped tube, that we'd run over each other with. Poor Keith forgot to remove any personal items before riding in the tube, and died. Oops, I mean, his camera broke ><. Which was unfortunate. Headed towards Boon-Hau's place, where we were staying for the night, and stopped at a family restaurant along the way. Uneventful, cept when the forces of karma kicked Byron in the butt... Self serve drinks, so while we all ordered water, Byron got a glass of pop without paying for it, and promptly spilt it on his white shirt ><. Sunday we woke up early to... rainy weather! On Ninja Day! Gah. 2 hour trip to Iga-Ueno, then an hour wait for the train to Uenoshi. We actually got there early, before the transfer train left. However, we were too busy taking pictures of the lovely pink train that we didn't realize it was the train we needed to be on. So we watched it leave the station without us. Haha.
Ninja village was interesting, we saw a ninja house, with all the trap doors and secret passages, and a museum showcasing various tools and clothes the ninja used. The highlight was the Ninja Show, where they performed stunts and demonstrations of the ninja weapons onstage. Afterwards you could pay to try your hand at throwing shuriken at a target too. Following this was a long period of souvenir shopping, followed by the costume museum, which was interesting, but a little small and not very exciting. Ninja village was good to see, but maybe a bit too touristy.
On the way home we stopped at a Brazillian restaurant... which was odd, because all the menus were in Portugese, and even the waiter didn't know what each item was. We needed the waiter to translate the menu into Japanese for us haha. Very interesting.
On Saturday I went to Danjiri Matsuri in Kishiwada, with Keith, Tongxin, Rie, Jen, and some of Keith's coworkers. It was very cool, they have floats like at Gion Matsuri, only people ride on top of them, and then they are pulled as fast as possible around sharp corners. There have been a few deaths caused by this festival in the past, but thanks to my amazing agility and balance (and the fact that I was far back from the action) I survived. There were quite a few people out to see the events, it was rather busy. Went back to JJs after, and met up with Tyson and Boon-hau. Tyson is tall. This makes him good at 3v3 basketball. His team won. Grrr...
Keith and I attempted to go surfing on Saturday, expecting big waves since it was so windy. No go... the smallest waves we had ever seen there... so we went back, and took the bus to the windsurfing beach instead, rented 2 boards and wetsuits. Only, because the wind was so strong and the water so choppy, it was much more difficult this time. Not to mention the water was freezing... we didn't stay too long.
It makes me sad to admit it, but summertime is gone, and it may be years beforeI have the opportunity to surf again...
Spent the rest of Saturday studying Kanji with Keith, with a few breaks to watch Fullmetal Alchemist, which is an awesome anime. Or rather, I spent Saturday watching FMA with a few breaks to study Kanji.
Now it's already Wednesday, and more plans for the weekend than I can keep track of (or fit in)... everything from clubbing to stalking to poker to dental expo to Kobe steak eating... shouldbe fun no matter what I do.
If it was one or two people I could understand, but I can think of at least 6 occurrences... does anyone else get this effect or am I weird/hallucinating?
I wonder if the duplicates have ethicators with built-in moral compromise spectral release phantasmatron:
"Strictly speaking, I'm not Calvin. I'm the physical manifestation of Calvin's good side."
"If that were true, you'd be a lot smaller."
In other news... wow, guess I'm over a week behind in blogging... so I'll keep it short... Last weekend I did nothing on Friday. It was nice. On Saturday I went to a picnic in Nara with Anton and his friends/co-workers. It was nice. We ate food, played soccer/frisbee, talked, had fun. I impressed Anton with my artistic ability by drawing him a sign to protect him from bugs while he was napping. The picture is on my webalbum, along with other pictures from the past two weeks.
Anton and his friend Rie came along with me to JJs, where we met up with Boon-hau, Keith, and Byron. JJs is a wonderful place. At 105-en every 15 minutes ($4/hr) you have unlimited access to the video games, bowling, billiards, karaoke, basketball, ping pong, and lots more. That night most of our time was spent at karaoke, but we also played on a big blow up, cylinder shaped tube, that we'd run over each other with. Poor Keith forgot to remove any personal items before riding in the tube, and died. Oops, I mean, his camera broke ><. Which was unfortunate. Headed towards Boon-Hau's place, where we were staying for the night, and stopped at a family restaurant along the way. Uneventful, cept when the forces of karma kicked Byron in the butt... Self serve drinks, so while we all ordered water, Byron got a glass of pop without paying for it, and promptly spilt it on his white shirt ><. Sunday we woke up early to... rainy weather! On Ninja Day! Gah. 2 hour trip to Iga-Ueno, then an hour wait for the train to Uenoshi. We actually got there early, before the transfer train left. However, we were too busy taking pictures of the lovely pink train that we didn't realize it was the train we needed to be on. So we watched it leave the station without us. Haha.
Ninja village was interesting, we saw a ninja house, with all the trap doors and secret passages, and a museum showcasing various tools and clothes the ninja used. The highlight was the Ninja Show, where they performed stunts and demonstrations of the ninja weapons onstage. Afterwards you could pay to try your hand at throwing shuriken at a target too. Following this was a long period of souvenir shopping, followed by the costume museum, which was interesting, but a little small and not very exciting. Ninja village was good to see, but maybe a bit too touristy.
On the way home we stopped at a Brazillian restaurant... which was odd, because all the menus were in Portugese, and even the waiter didn't know what each item was. We needed the waiter to translate the menu into Japanese for us haha. Very interesting.
On Saturday I went to Danjiri Matsuri in Kishiwada, with Keith, Tongxin, Rie, Jen, and some of Keith's coworkers. It was very cool, they have floats like at Gion Matsuri, only people ride on top of them, and then they are pulled as fast as possible around sharp corners. There have been a few deaths caused by this festival in the past, but thanks to my amazing agility and balance (and the fact that I was far back from the action) I survived. There were quite a few people out to see the events, it was rather busy. Went back to JJs after, and met up with Tyson and Boon-hau. Tyson is tall. This makes him good at 3v3 basketball. His team won. Grrr...
Keith and I attempted to go surfing on Saturday, expecting big waves since it was so windy. No go... the smallest waves we had ever seen there... so we went back, and took the bus to the windsurfing beach instead, rented 2 boards and wetsuits. Only, because the wind was so strong and the water so choppy, it was much more difficult this time. Not to mention the water was freezing... we didn't stay too long.
It makes me sad to admit it, but summertime is gone, and it may be years beforeI have the opportunity to surf again...
Spent the rest of Saturday studying Kanji with Keith, with a few breaks to watch Fullmetal Alchemist, which is an awesome anime. Or rather, I spent Saturday watching FMA with a few breaks to study Kanji.
Now it's already Wednesday, and more plans for the weekend than I can keep track of (or fit in)... everything from clubbing to stalking to poker to dental expo to Kobe steak eating... shouldbe fun no matter what I do.
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Always New Depths
Summertime has come and gone, all used up with wishful thinking
Get sussed up, get cynical, in this world there are no second chances
Crawling round on all fours, curl yourself into a circle
I will tear myself apart, if you promise to paint me
As a work of art...
- Kele Okereke
A lot of the other CJP members have been doing some reflecting on their Japan and university experience, asking themselves a few questions… "Why am I here?" and "Is this what/where I’m supposed to be?" So I figured I would give it a shot at answering the questions for myself…
So first off, why Japan?
My interest in Japan probably started around junior high school. I remember studying Japan in my social studies class, with Mr. Abrams, who, besides being insane, was a very good teacher. He went on stress leave for a few months at one point, but that seemed to be normal in my school. My science teacher actually had a bottle of hard liquor in her desk, and the substitute that replaced her when she went on stress leave was driven crazy by the students himself. ("That was my favorite shell!!! /cries")
But besides all that, I actually really enjoyed learning about Japan, the history and culture. It was so much more interesting than all the months we spent learning about Canadian history, because Japan is much older and is so much cooler. Canada is young and kinda boring.
Around the same time I read a book that really got me interested in Japan. Oddly enough the book was a humor book, "Dave Barry Does Japan" (I’ve mentioned/quoted it before), basically describing the culture of Japan from a typical western perspective. And while the book made me laugh a lot, and made me want to go to Japan just to see some of the funny stuff, I also really related about what the author said about the people. How even if they couldn’t speak English, they would try to help you as best they could; how people would welcome you into their stores and actually want your business; how people would show kindness and respect to each other at all times; and how silence can be golden, and it’s ok to sit in quiet.
That last part was very important to me… not only was I very shy in junior high, but grade 7 was my first year in Calgary. I had no close friends, and I was stuck in the one class that had all the loudest, rowdiest kids in my grade. So learning about Japan and reading Dave Barry’s book really made me want to go there.
My interest in Japan steadily grew, first from the great company of Squaresoft, then from all the other cool technology I read about from all the hi-tech Japanese companies. I considered Japan to be cool, with its history of samurai and ninja, its current culture with the crazy teenagers, bright lights, and high tech gizmos in Tokyo, and the calm, peaceful setting and rich culture of Kyoto. And I knew it would be a place I would travel to lots once I was able to.
So that’s why I chose Japan, but is only part of the reason why I came here. Did I find what I was looking for here? Well, I’ll discuss that a little later.
I guess the second question people are asking is whether they should have gone into engineering in the first place.
When I was in high school I knew I was going to university, but I really didn’t know what I wanted to take. I was good in math and science, took the AP classes. I still don’t know why I took bio, I hated bio, but the people in the class made it so much fun. But in university, what could I go into? Business? Heck no, I couldn’t sell, manage, or market anything. Med school? Never liked bio, and hated the dissections especially. Science or math? It was my original choice, but I couldn’t picture myself stuck in a lab for 50 years. So by default, I went into engineering. It combined math and science with some design and creativity, I figured it would be perfect for me.
What do I think now? To be honest, some parts of university scared me off of the field. Design class in first year was supposed to prepare us for what being an engineer would be like. This was scary because we were given very dumb projects, with very dumb group members (The only good group I had was for the dumbest of the projects… speed skating crash mats). For our Engineers Without Borders assignment, we had to design a waste management system for an extremely poor region in Africa, and my group members came up with the idea of indoor plumbing. The second semester project of building a speed skating robot was done completely by myself, with only one of the other three group members showing up for only one very short meeting. Was real engineering going to be like this? I hope not… I figure if you manage to get through all four years, you should at least have some knowledge and motivation, but it’s something I won’t know till I’m there.
The other thing that I found out is that eventually engineers shift from the design and building part of things to management. I know many people are looking forward to this aspect, but it scares me actually. I’m not a manager or a leader, and doubt I ever will be. I hate telling people what to do or how to do it. But there’s hope I guess, I do have choices… Woz was founder of a major computer company (Apple) and he still stays behind the scenes, and does the more hands-on, design work, and is one of the most important people in that company.
So was engineering the right choice? Besides these concerns, engineering seems to have been the best choice for me. It’ll get me a good job when I graduate, it’s interesting, and it combines all the things I enjoy. Besides the bad professors (probably the majority), I quite like most of the material I’m studying. And not only was it a good choice for me, but I think I made a difference to other people too. I helped many of my fellow engineers out with homework and studying in my first year especially. And also, would I be here now, living by myself in a country halfway around the world, if I didn’t go into engineering? Unlikely…
Hopefully my concerns about the engineering field will be dealt with once I graduate, and so I won’t worry about that until the time comes.
And now the question, why am I here?
This one’s difficult. I’m sure all you CJP’ers get the same question I do, "Why did you come to Japan?" all the time. And it’s difficult because the real reason I came to Japan is never the reason I say I did.
I’ll start by explaining how I got here… At the end of my second year at university, while looking up the internship program on my school’s website, I saw a tiny link at the bottom of one page about some sort of Co-op Japan Program. I couldn’t believe it… wow, a chance to go to Japan for my internship!? I knew at the start of third year I’d have to look into it, but didn’t seriously think I could ever get a job.
I met with the co-op coordinators in September of my third year to discuss the program. I was the first one to show interest. He told me I’d have to go through the UBC to get all the information and apply and everything, but he would hold a meeting with a past CJP student to describe the program. An email was sent out to the other engg students, and about 20 showed up to the meeting. It was quite informative, but most of it I had known about from my own research. At the end of the meeting, only 3-4 people said they were seriously interested. I was surprised actually… a once in a lifetime opportunity like this and so few wanting to go?
So I did most of the work myself, applications, signing up for night classes in Japanese (brutal in the middle of winter in Calgary… staying at school till 9pm and then goin home in the freezing cold). I think I was the only one from my school to apply. Many of my friends were quite surprised, they thought it was just an idea, that I wouldn’t really go through with it. I still wasn’t very optimistic about getting a job, I figured competition must be very fierce.
When I got the phone call from Jenny at the UBC in December I was in shock… I was actually going to go to Japan for my internship!
"I always had an interest in Japan, and the culture is fascinating. In Canada we don’t have the history and culture that Japan has. I thought it would be really neat living and working here" is along the lines of what I say to people when they ask why I came to Japan, and the reasons I say it are twofold. Number one, obviously, is as a compliment to their country, but number two is that it’s hard to explain the real reason why I’m here. Not that the reason above is untrue, it’s very true. It’s a good reason that I came to Japan. But it’s not THE reason.
Then there’s the fact that it’s good for my future. "Any internship is great experience. Useful for finding a job in the future, and great hands on experience, and it gives a chance to relate what you learn in school to the real world. And then having international work experience as well as a foreign language looks even better on a resume. When I get out of school I should have no trouble finding a job, especially in Calgary." Once again, a reason, but not THE reason.
The reason I came to Japan was a little more selfish. I came to Japan for me, for self-discovery and self-improvement. I wanted to experience new things and challenge myself in ways I haven’t before.
Back in Calgary, before I came to Japan, I was a very shy guy (more than now). Not able to talk to strangers at all, and even around my friends, in a group, I’d sit in the back, listening more than talking. I was a picky eater, not liking to try new things, not really liking to eat at all, cept for my sugar cravings while playing poker. As a result, I was (and am) quite thin, and my friends would always bug me about how young I looked. Looking young, thin, shy, geeky, the smart guy, doesn’t do a lot for your self esteem.
I’ve never been very good at making or keeping friends either. I keep in touch with one person from my elementary school now, and two people from junior high, but even in Calgary talking with them was mostly through MSN. My current friends in Calgary I’ve only known since grade 11. But just before I left Calgary, most of my friends were dating, and the ones who weren’t were partying in Europe. So there weren’t many reasons to stay, and lots of reasons to go to Japan. I was hoping that my adventure would open my eyes a bit, and it certainly has.
So how has Japan affected me? Well I have a lot more independence than I did back home. In Calgary I didn’t even live in my parent’s basement, I lived on the main level. >< Now I live by myself, and have learned to cook and clean (kinda), but also follow my own rules, sleeping, goin to work, payin the bills, etc.
Public nudity scared the crap outta me back home. And what better way to adjust than to be forced right into it hours after stepping off the plane.
My confidence has improved… the fact that I am by myself, halfway round the world from where I’ve been all my life, in a country I’ve never been to, where I can’t speak the language, will do that to you. I’ve joined the gym, and with my own cooking I’ve gained 8 pounds since I’ve been here. I have new friends to think I’m crazy. I’ve impressed myself with my ability to try new foods, such as cow stomach and horse sashimi. Public nudity and communal baths don’t even phase me anymore.
Probably the biggest example of my confidence is right here… I’m actually writing my real thoughts and posting them on the internet. I rarely open up to anybody, most people only see my outer, crazy side. So maybe this post will let you know a little more about me.
Though there’s still more I’d like to work on, I’ve changed and grown a lot by being here.
Did I find what I was looking for here, culture wise? Well, maybe it’s too early to tell…
The one thing that is still extremely difficult is talking to strangers. Starting a conversation with someone I don’t know still terrifies me, but that may be due to the language barrier too. Hopefully I will improve my Japanese and be able to talk to people more easily.
Because of this language barrier too, it’s hard to experience life in Japan. I tend to be more of an observer than a participant, like I am in groups back home. I get to see the culture of Japan, but it’s difficult for me to get involved, to see what people are like. Once again, maybe when my Japanese improves…
As for the "Stages of Adjustment" that people are supposed to go through when they arrive in Japan, I never went through the typical stages: "Excitement, confusion, frustration, depression, homesickness, and acceptance" (thanks Boon Hau). I remember I had one stage on the airplane, fear and doubt… what would the people at the company be like? What would the dorm be like? Will I be able to eat the food? Will I have to talk all in Japanese? Are my language skills good enough?
And then I went right into acceptance. Having a random stranger on the train invite you to a public bath will do that to you. Not that I haven’t been confused (trust me, I have), frustrated, depressed, and homesick, I have, but just for a short time period, maybe a couple hours of homesickness every once in a while, not in a stage. I was rather prepared for the Japanese culture. I had read a lot of travel guides and culture guides about Japan before coming here, I knew pretty much what to expect. Maybe I read too much? I’m sure a lot of stuff would have been more shocking and funny (like the onsen cleaning ladies or the greasers in Yoyogi) if I hadn’t been expecting them.
I guess the final question would be "What now?"
Well, I have plenty to do while I’m in Japan. I gotta learn language first so that there’s no excuse not to get involved in Japanese culture. I gotta keep going to the gym, and gaining weight, and getting my confidence up. I gotta make friends with more Japanese people and maybe talk to some random strangers myself.
Once I get back to Canada, the main thing is to find myself a summer job. Maybe, since I can’t do a traditional interview anyway, I’ll start looking for jobs outside of Calgary and have a fun exciting summer. Then it’s back to school for fourth year. After that, I really don’t know what I’ll get into. And I’m not really concerned about that. There’s so many choices out there, I’m sure I’ll find the one that’s right for me.
* In 20+ posts this is my first "serious" one. Sorry if you didn’t find it as entertaining, but please let me know what you think – leave me a comment.
Get sussed up, get cynical, in this world there are no second chances
Crawling round on all fours, curl yourself into a circle
I will tear myself apart, if you promise to paint me
As a work of art...
- Kele Okereke
A lot of the other CJP members have been doing some reflecting on their Japan and university experience, asking themselves a few questions… "Why am I here?" and "Is this what/where I’m supposed to be?" So I figured I would give it a shot at answering the questions for myself…
So first off, why Japan?
My interest in Japan probably started around junior high school. I remember studying Japan in my social studies class, with Mr. Abrams, who, besides being insane, was a very good teacher. He went on stress leave for a few months at one point, but that seemed to be normal in my school. My science teacher actually had a bottle of hard liquor in her desk, and the substitute that replaced her when she went on stress leave was driven crazy by the students himself. ("That was my favorite shell!!! /cries")
But besides all that, I actually really enjoyed learning about Japan, the history and culture. It was so much more interesting than all the months we spent learning about Canadian history, because Japan is much older and is so much cooler. Canada is young and kinda boring.
Around the same time I read a book that really got me interested in Japan. Oddly enough the book was a humor book, "Dave Barry Does Japan" (I’ve mentioned/quoted it before), basically describing the culture of Japan from a typical western perspective. And while the book made me laugh a lot, and made me want to go to Japan just to see some of the funny stuff, I also really related about what the author said about the people. How even if they couldn’t speak English, they would try to help you as best they could; how people would welcome you into their stores and actually want your business; how people would show kindness and respect to each other at all times; and how silence can be golden, and it’s ok to sit in quiet.
That last part was very important to me… not only was I very shy in junior high, but grade 7 was my first year in Calgary. I had no close friends, and I was stuck in the one class that had all the loudest, rowdiest kids in my grade. So learning about Japan and reading Dave Barry’s book really made me want to go there.
My interest in Japan steadily grew, first from the great company of Squaresoft, then from all the other cool technology I read about from all the hi-tech Japanese companies. I considered Japan to be cool, with its history of samurai and ninja, its current culture with the crazy teenagers, bright lights, and high tech gizmos in Tokyo, and the calm, peaceful setting and rich culture of Kyoto. And I knew it would be a place I would travel to lots once I was able to.
So that’s why I chose Japan, but is only part of the reason why I came here. Did I find what I was looking for here? Well, I’ll discuss that a little later.
I guess the second question people are asking is whether they should have gone into engineering in the first place.
When I was in high school I knew I was going to university, but I really didn’t know what I wanted to take. I was good in math and science, took the AP classes. I still don’t know why I took bio, I hated bio, but the people in the class made it so much fun. But in university, what could I go into? Business? Heck no, I couldn’t sell, manage, or market anything. Med school? Never liked bio, and hated the dissections especially. Science or math? It was my original choice, but I couldn’t picture myself stuck in a lab for 50 years. So by default, I went into engineering. It combined math and science with some design and creativity, I figured it would be perfect for me.
What do I think now? To be honest, some parts of university scared me off of the field. Design class in first year was supposed to prepare us for what being an engineer would be like. This was scary because we were given very dumb projects, with very dumb group members (The only good group I had was for the dumbest of the projects… speed skating crash mats). For our Engineers Without Borders assignment, we had to design a waste management system for an extremely poor region in Africa, and my group members came up with the idea of indoor plumbing. The second semester project of building a speed skating robot was done completely by myself, with only one of the other three group members showing up for only one very short meeting. Was real engineering going to be like this? I hope not… I figure if you manage to get through all four years, you should at least have some knowledge and motivation, but it’s something I won’t know till I’m there.
The other thing that I found out is that eventually engineers shift from the design and building part of things to management. I know many people are looking forward to this aspect, but it scares me actually. I’m not a manager or a leader, and doubt I ever will be. I hate telling people what to do or how to do it. But there’s hope I guess, I do have choices… Woz was founder of a major computer company (Apple) and he still stays behind the scenes, and does the more hands-on, design work, and is one of the most important people in that company.
So was engineering the right choice? Besides these concerns, engineering seems to have been the best choice for me. It’ll get me a good job when I graduate, it’s interesting, and it combines all the things I enjoy. Besides the bad professors (probably the majority), I quite like most of the material I’m studying. And not only was it a good choice for me, but I think I made a difference to other people too. I helped many of my fellow engineers out with homework and studying in my first year especially. And also, would I be here now, living by myself in a country halfway around the world, if I didn’t go into engineering? Unlikely…
Hopefully my concerns about the engineering field will be dealt with once I graduate, and so I won’t worry about that until the time comes.
And now the question, why am I here?
This one’s difficult. I’m sure all you CJP’ers get the same question I do, "Why did you come to Japan?" all the time. And it’s difficult because the real reason I came to Japan is never the reason I say I did.
I’ll start by explaining how I got here… At the end of my second year at university, while looking up the internship program on my school’s website, I saw a tiny link at the bottom of one page about some sort of Co-op Japan Program. I couldn’t believe it… wow, a chance to go to Japan for my internship!? I knew at the start of third year I’d have to look into it, but didn’t seriously think I could ever get a job.
I met with the co-op coordinators in September of my third year to discuss the program. I was the first one to show interest. He told me I’d have to go through the UBC to get all the information and apply and everything, but he would hold a meeting with a past CJP student to describe the program. An email was sent out to the other engg students, and about 20 showed up to the meeting. It was quite informative, but most of it I had known about from my own research. At the end of the meeting, only 3-4 people said they were seriously interested. I was surprised actually… a once in a lifetime opportunity like this and so few wanting to go?
So I did most of the work myself, applications, signing up for night classes in Japanese (brutal in the middle of winter in Calgary… staying at school till 9pm and then goin home in the freezing cold). I think I was the only one from my school to apply. Many of my friends were quite surprised, they thought it was just an idea, that I wouldn’t really go through with it. I still wasn’t very optimistic about getting a job, I figured competition must be very fierce.
When I got the phone call from Jenny at the UBC in December I was in shock… I was actually going to go to Japan for my internship!
"I always had an interest in Japan, and the culture is fascinating. In Canada we don’t have the history and culture that Japan has. I thought it would be really neat living and working here" is along the lines of what I say to people when they ask why I came to Japan, and the reasons I say it are twofold. Number one, obviously, is as a compliment to their country, but number two is that it’s hard to explain the real reason why I’m here. Not that the reason above is untrue, it’s very true. It’s a good reason that I came to Japan. But it’s not THE reason.
Then there’s the fact that it’s good for my future. "Any internship is great experience. Useful for finding a job in the future, and great hands on experience, and it gives a chance to relate what you learn in school to the real world. And then having international work experience as well as a foreign language looks even better on a resume. When I get out of school I should have no trouble finding a job, especially in Calgary." Once again, a reason, but not THE reason.
The reason I came to Japan was a little more selfish. I came to Japan for me, for self-discovery and self-improvement. I wanted to experience new things and challenge myself in ways I haven’t before.
Back in Calgary, before I came to Japan, I was a very shy guy (more than now). Not able to talk to strangers at all, and even around my friends, in a group, I’d sit in the back, listening more than talking. I was a picky eater, not liking to try new things, not really liking to eat at all, cept for my sugar cravings while playing poker. As a result, I was (and am) quite thin, and my friends would always bug me about how young I looked. Looking young, thin, shy, geeky, the smart guy, doesn’t do a lot for your self esteem.
I’ve never been very good at making or keeping friends either. I keep in touch with one person from my elementary school now, and two people from junior high, but even in Calgary talking with them was mostly through MSN. My current friends in Calgary I’ve only known since grade 11. But just before I left Calgary, most of my friends were dating, and the ones who weren’t were partying in Europe. So there weren’t many reasons to stay, and lots of reasons to go to Japan. I was hoping that my adventure would open my eyes a bit, and it certainly has.
So how has Japan affected me? Well I have a lot more independence than I did back home. In Calgary I didn’t even live in my parent’s basement, I lived on the main level. >< Now I live by myself, and have learned to cook and clean (kinda), but also follow my own rules, sleeping, goin to work, payin the bills, etc.
Public nudity scared the crap outta me back home. And what better way to adjust than to be forced right into it hours after stepping off the plane.
My confidence has improved… the fact that I am by myself, halfway round the world from where I’ve been all my life, in a country I’ve never been to, where I can’t speak the language, will do that to you. I’ve joined the gym, and with my own cooking I’ve gained 8 pounds since I’ve been here. I have new friends to think I’m crazy. I’ve impressed myself with my ability to try new foods, such as cow stomach and horse sashimi. Public nudity and communal baths don’t even phase me anymore.
Probably the biggest example of my confidence is right here… I’m actually writing my real thoughts and posting them on the internet. I rarely open up to anybody, most people only see my outer, crazy side. So maybe this post will let you know a little more about me.
Though there’s still more I’d like to work on, I’ve changed and grown a lot by being here.
Did I find what I was looking for here, culture wise? Well, maybe it’s too early to tell…
The one thing that is still extremely difficult is talking to strangers. Starting a conversation with someone I don’t know still terrifies me, but that may be due to the language barrier too. Hopefully I will improve my Japanese and be able to talk to people more easily.
Because of this language barrier too, it’s hard to experience life in Japan. I tend to be more of an observer than a participant, like I am in groups back home. I get to see the culture of Japan, but it’s difficult for me to get involved, to see what people are like. Once again, maybe when my Japanese improves…
As for the "Stages of Adjustment" that people are supposed to go through when they arrive in Japan, I never went through the typical stages: "Excitement, confusion, frustration, depression, homesickness, and acceptance" (thanks Boon Hau). I remember I had one stage on the airplane, fear and doubt… what would the people at the company be like? What would the dorm be like? Will I be able to eat the food? Will I have to talk all in Japanese? Are my language skills good enough?
And then I went right into acceptance. Having a random stranger on the train invite you to a public bath will do that to you. Not that I haven’t been confused (trust me, I have), frustrated, depressed, and homesick, I have, but just for a short time period, maybe a couple hours of homesickness every once in a while, not in a stage. I was rather prepared for the Japanese culture. I had read a lot of travel guides and culture guides about Japan before coming here, I knew pretty much what to expect. Maybe I read too much? I’m sure a lot of stuff would have been more shocking and funny (like the onsen cleaning ladies or the greasers in Yoyogi) if I hadn’t been expecting them.
I guess the final question would be "What now?"
Well, I have plenty to do while I’m in Japan. I gotta learn language first so that there’s no excuse not to get involved in Japanese culture. I gotta keep going to the gym, and gaining weight, and getting my confidence up. I gotta make friends with more Japanese people and maybe talk to some random strangers myself.
Once I get back to Canada, the main thing is to find myself a summer job. Maybe, since I can’t do a traditional interview anyway, I’ll start looking for jobs outside of Calgary and have a fun exciting summer. Then it’s back to school for fourth year. After that, I really don’t know what I’ll get into. And I’m not really concerned about that. There’s so many choices out there, I’m sure I’ll find the one that’s right for me.
* In 20+ posts this is my first "serious" one. Sorry if you didn’t find it as entertaining, but please let me know what you think – leave me a comment.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
That Which Does Not Kill Me Postpones the Inevitable
Primary Objective: Kansai Invasion of Tokyo
Mission Status: Complete!
Yep, that’s right, most of the Kansai gang, specifically myself, Keith, Tyson, Boon-Hau, and Byron, went down to Tokyo to see SUUUMOOO!!! Woohoo!!!
As you can gather, it was a good time (for the most part).
Mission Details:
On Friday night we took the night bus to Tokyo. This is not the best way to get to Tokyo. The best way to get to Tokyo is to already be there. If that fails, airplane would be a good (but expensive way to go), then Shinkansen, then maybe local trains during the day, then the second last choice would be night bus. Teleportation would be the worst way to go, since it is slightly hazardous:
"I teleported home one night
With Ron and Sid and Meg.
Ron stole Maggie’s heart away
And I got Sidney’s leg."
Night bus is pretty brutal. It’s about a 10 hour trip, with limited leg room, squishy cramped seats, and stops every couple hours. For the first while, Keith and Boon-Hau studied kanji, Tyson read Hemingway aloud to us, ("’Good luck old man’. ‘Good luck’ said the old man"), boy that man could write nasty run on sentences and even run on paragraphs.
Back on topic, got to Tokyo station at some super early hour in the morning, like 7:30. Went straight to the Sumo Arena to buy tickets, about 20 bucks for seats in the very back row. But better than spending a couple hundred on front row seats. Then we headed to O-Daiba, an island connected by bridge to Tokyo.
In O-Daiba we went to Sega Joypolis, which is half arcade, half ride simulations, half actual rides. Which adds up to 1.5x Fun! Well, that extra half is actually fear and creepiness… we went into the House of the Living Dolls…
Basically we walk through a completely dark hallway, and get to a room with a female mannequin at the head of the table. All five of us sit down around the table, put on the headphones, and the room goes pitch black. Then we hear (in Japanese) the story of an old woman who wants to revive her dead granddaughter by using hair, and eyes, and a heart from the Kansai crew members. With all the gory sound effects that the gouging of eyes and heart removal would create. Needless to say, when the granddaughter is revived she turns out to be evil, and goes crazy removing even more organs, and eventually a spirit tells us to pray to a doll on the table, and the demon is killed, and somehow we’re still alive, and the lights turn back on, and there’s bloody handprints all over the table. It was actually very creepy, the sound effects were done very well. I scared the pants off of Tyson by poking him in the dark haha. Sorry man.
Because the rides were not designed for too many people, and lasted a long time, lineups became excessive, 20-40 min so we decided to leave, and headed for the Toyota Showroom.
Lots of cool stuff there, some futuristic vehicles, cars that could navigate themselves along a roadway, and a robot that could play the trumpet! Stayed there for a while, taking pictures and seeing the displays, then we headed back to the Sumo Arena.
Sumo was quite interesting. Basically, before every bout there’s a long ritual, involving facing each other, stomping your legs, throwing salt, wiping yourself with the towel in the corner, repeat a few times, then try to push your opponent out of the ring. The actual fight only lasts a few seconds normally. Sometimes it takes a bit longer when the wrestlers are even matched, in which case they may try to swing or throw their opponent out of the ring.
To make things a little more interesting, we placed small bets on each of the matches, choosing a wrestler basically at random, depending on how big they were and the color of their thong. Cause it’s hard to bet on a wrestler with a pink thong. We ended up staying for about 3 hours total, got some good pictures, some of us got a little sleep, and some of us forfeiting a couple bucks due to his wrestlers constantly losing, grrr!
Not having a hotel or anything the night before, we stopped at a sento (public bath) after sumo to clean ourselves up. Not much I care to describe really, basically a standard sento. They had free toothbrushes that have toothpaste inside the bristles, which was handy. Oh yeah, there were cameras in the change rooms o.O. And probably the weirdest, there were women (employees) wandering around the all male baths, with all the guys in their birthday suits. I was prepared for this but it’s still very weird. They also allowed people to drink beer in the baths.
We met up with Clement, Neil, Leon, and Leon’s friend Mark, and went for dinner at a kaiten (conveyor belt) sushi place in Shinjuku, then got harassed by people on the way back to the station trying to get us to go to various strip clubs/hostess bars. One guy, Charles told us that he’d give us a special deal, since it was his birthday. He even had "proof" it was his birthday, he had a picture of his birthday cake on his phone! He must have been telling the truth!
Headed to Roppongi, with Gaspanic #1 being our first stop. I should probably mention to the people that don’t know, nightclubs aren’t really my thing. That’s probably because I’m not much of a drinker. Nightclubs sober are pretty brutal.
Gaspanic #1 was very crowded, and too many guys compared to girls. I got tired of it pretty quickly, and went to MacD’s for a break and to get some food, till the others called me to tell me they got bored of that club too. So I met with them and we decided to find a better club.
The first club we try, none other than Gaspanic #2! Which was much worse than the first one. We stayed maybe 15 minutes. So we continued exploring. Nearly every club has a guy outside (usually a black guy), trying to convince you to go into their club. Some will even follow you down the street. Japanese women will try to get you to go into the massage places too, and will chase you down the street. It’s a very weird place.
We tried sending in scouts to see if a particular club was good or not. This wasn’t an effective method, because the scouts wouldn’t come back out and we’d all have to go in and fetch them. The music in the clubs was mixed, one club had the Macarena playing, but mostly hip hop music. I heard only a few good songs the whole night, Santana and Fatboy Slim. One club in particular was quite creepy. We went down there because the guy outside offered us free shots, but all got creeped out one by one and snuck out before the guy could see us leave. Byron and Tyson stayed for the shots, which they thought were non-alcoholic, of course :P.
In the end (being 4am) we gave up looking for a good club, went to MacD’s for an hour till the trains started running, then us Kansai crew and Mark went to an internet café to get a few hours’ sleep.
So to recap, awake since Friday morning, 3 hours (bad) sleep on a night bus Friday night, and 4 hours (bad) sleep in an internet café on Saturday night, and a long but exciting day ahead of us… but an entertaining trip so far!
After the internet café and another trip to the sento, we went for lunch at Lotteria Burger. Interesting to note is that inside the restaurant was a sign saying "Please use the rest room". Also interesting to note was the lack of restroom in the restaurant.
We went to Yoyogi Park next. On Sundays, Yoyogi plays host to Japanese… er, I’d say indie but that’d be an insult to indie music… bands of all different genres. One band, LooVee, looked as if they belonged on American Bandstand back in the 50’s. Matching red costumes, lots of brass, 2 girl singers and a male lead. At one point, the lead singer removed one of the guitarist’s pants, which was very nice of him. I guess that doesn’t happen on Bandstand too often.
Another band was very punk. The guitarist was pantless to begin with, making things easier, and the lead "singer" enjoyed shouting while writhing in pain apparently on the sidewalk. There were two somewhat decent bands though, and my favorite was a single guy jammin’ on the drums alone while waitin for his band members to show up.
Me, Keith and Mark played some hacky sack in the park while listening to a band play the same 5-second beat on the African drums, over and over, for half an hour. Boon Hau, Tyson, and Byron were exploring the park, and when we met up with them, they had joined a ukulele troupe. They even tought me how to play (I sucked) and gave us drinks, it was quite fun.
Next we went to Harajuku. I won’t try to describe it, because the pics here speak for themselves.
For the last part of our trip we met up with Clem and Neil and went to a Maid Café in Akihabara. Basically at this café, the waitresses are dressed up in maid costumes. Not revealing costumes or anything, quite covered up actually. For a fee you can do stuff with the maids.
No, not that kinda stuff… For 800-en you can play a PS2 fighting game against the maid, and you get your picture with the maid "if" you win. Or you can order a song or dance (500-en) which a maid will perform on the stage.
When not playing with the maid, the screen on stage keeps repeating a minute long video of a maid making coffee, then washing the cup, then making coffee, then washing the cup…
At the center table were some hardcore otaku. I will rely on the power of the human imagination and only state a few facts:
They were dressed up as anime characters.
The anime characters were female.
They had magic wands, hand puppets, and anime porn on their cell phones.
They sang and danced (and had all routines memorized) along with the maids.
This appears to be rather common for maid cafes (at least in Akihabara).
We left after one drink (600-en), and went to get food. After a quick meal and a game of DDR and House of the Dead 4, we headed back to Tokyo Station. Tyson bought what were apparently "Fried Dolls" as omiyage… which brought back haunting images from the previous day.
The journey back on the night bus was almost as fun as the journey there, but it was nice to go home and sleep after. In all, very fun trip, the Kansai Invasion was a success, thanks to Keith for his planning work.
This weekend (Sept 22-24) I met up with Anton at Kyoto Station to retrieve my pants (I left my pants at Anton’s when he had Jen’s welcoming party… because somebody spilt alcohol all over them), and to watch a high school dance performance at the station. Rather busy, and rather impressive actually, it was cool to see. Each school had a group of performers and a different dance, maybe I’ll be able to get some pictures off of Anton later and put em up on my webalbum.
Then it was off to Wakayama, where I met up with Keith, Boon-Hau and Tongxin. We stayed up till 4:30 playing cards, slapping each other, and eating excessive amounts of junk food, then on Saturday we went skimboarding <-- Video Link! I also had a sumo fight against Boon Hau on the beach (I lost of course) and we practiced our nunchaku skills, and frisbee skills, and swimming skills (you know! Skills!). We attempted a group study session for the JLPT test, then headed home.
Ja…
Mission Status: Complete!
Yep, that’s right, most of the Kansai gang, specifically myself, Keith, Tyson, Boon-Hau, and Byron, went down to Tokyo to see SUUUMOOO!!! Woohoo!!!
As you can gather, it was a good time (for the most part).
Mission Details:
On Friday night we took the night bus to Tokyo. This is not the best way to get to Tokyo. The best way to get to Tokyo is to already be there. If that fails, airplane would be a good (but expensive way to go), then Shinkansen, then maybe local trains during the day, then the second last choice would be night bus. Teleportation would be the worst way to go, since it is slightly hazardous:
"I teleported home one night
With Ron and Sid and Meg.
Ron stole Maggie’s heart away
And I got Sidney’s leg."
Night bus is pretty brutal. It’s about a 10 hour trip, with limited leg room, squishy cramped seats, and stops every couple hours. For the first while, Keith and Boon-Hau studied kanji, Tyson read Hemingway aloud to us, ("’Good luck old man’. ‘Good luck’ said the old man"), boy that man could write nasty run on sentences and even run on paragraphs.
Back on topic, got to Tokyo station at some super early hour in the morning, like 7:30. Went straight to the Sumo Arena to buy tickets, about 20 bucks for seats in the very back row. But better than spending a couple hundred on front row seats. Then we headed to O-Daiba, an island connected by bridge to Tokyo.
In O-Daiba we went to Sega Joypolis, which is half arcade, half ride simulations, half actual rides. Which adds up to 1.5x Fun! Well, that extra half is actually fear and creepiness… we went into the House of the Living Dolls…
Basically we walk through a completely dark hallway, and get to a room with a female mannequin at the head of the table. All five of us sit down around the table, put on the headphones, and the room goes pitch black. Then we hear (in Japanese) the story of an old woman who wants to revive her dead granddaughter by using hair, and eyes, and a heart from the Kansai crew members. With all the gory sound effects that the gouging of eyes and heart removal would create. Needless to say, when the granddaughter is revived she turns out to be evil, and goes crazy removing even more organs, and eventually a spirit tells us to pray to a doll on the table, and the demon is killed, and somehow we’re still alive, and the lights turn back on, and there’s bloody handprints all over the table. It was actually very creepy, the sound effects were done very well. I scared the pants off of Tyson by poking him in the dark haha. Sorry man.
Because the rides were not designed for too many people, and lasted a long time, lineups became excessive, 20-40 min so we decided to leave, and headed for the Toyota Showroom.
Lots of cool stuff there, some futuristic vehicles, cars that could navigate themselves along a roadway, and a robot that could play the trumpet! Stayed there for a while, taking pictures and seeing the displays, then we headed back to the Sumo Arena.
Sumo was quite interesting. Basically, before every bout there’s a long ritual, involving facing each other, stomping your legs, throwing salt, wiping yourself with the towel in the corner, repeat a few times, then try to push your opponent out of the ring. The actual fight only lasts a few seconds normally. Sometimes it takes a bit longer when the wrestlers are even matched, in which case they may try to swing or throw their opponent out of the ring.
To make things a little more interesting, we placed small bets on each of the matches, choosing a wrestler basically at random, depending on how big they were and the color of their thong. Cause it’s hard to bet on a wrestler with a pink thong. We ended up staying for about 3 hours total, got some good pictures, some of us got a little sleep, and some of us forfeiting a couple bucks due to his wrestlers constantly losing, grrr!
Not having a hotel or anything the night before, we stopped at a sento (public bath) after sumo to clean ourselves up. Not much I care to describe really, basically a standard sento. They had free toothbrushes that have toothpaste inside the bristles, which was handy. Oh yeah, there were cameras in the change rooms o.O. And probably the weirdest, there were women (employees) wandering around the all male baths, with all the guys in their birthday suits. I was prepared for this but it’s still very weird. They also allowed people to drink beer in the baths.
We met up with Clement, Neil, Leon, and Leon’s friend Mark, and went for dinner at a kaiten (conveyor belt) sushi place in Shinjuku, then got harassed by people on the way back to the station trying to get us to go to various strip clubs/hostess bars. One guy, Charles told us that he’d give us a special deal, since it was his birthday. He even had "proof" it was his birthday, he had a picture of his birthday cake on his phone! He must have been telling the truth!
Headed to Roppongi, with Gaspanic #1 being our first stop. I should probably mention to the people that don’t know, nightclubs aren’t really my thing. That’s probably because I’m not much of a drinker. Nightclubs sober are pretty brutal.
Gaspanic #1 was very crowded, and too many guys compared to girls. I got tired of it pretty quickly, and went to MacD’s for a break and to get some food, till the others called me to tell me they got bored of that club too. So I met with them and we decided to find a better club.
The first club we try, none other than Gaspanic #2! Which was much worse than the first one. We stayed maybe 15 minutes. So we continued exploring. Nearly every club has a guy outside (usually a black guy), trying to convince you to go into their club. Some will even follow you down the street. Japanese women will try to get you to go into the massage places too, and will chase you down the street. It’s a very weird place.
We tried sending in scouts to see if a particular club was good or not. This wasn’t an effective method, because the scouts wouldn’t come back out and we’d all have to go in and fetch them. The music in the clubs was mixed, one club had the Macarena playing, but mostly hip hop music. I heard only a few good songs the whole night, Santana and Fatboy Slim. One club in particular was quite creepy. We went down there because the guy outside offered us free shots, but all got creeped out one by one and snuck out before the guy could see us leave. Byron and Tyson stayed for the shots, which they thought were non-alcoholic, of course :P.
In the end (being 4am) we gave up looking for a good club, went to MacD’s for an hour till the trains started running, then us Kansai crew and Mark went to an internet café to get a few hours’ sleep.
So to recap, awake since Friday morning, 3 hours (bad) sleep on a night bus Friday night, and 4 hours (bad) sleep in an internet café on Saturday night, and a long but exciting day ahead of us… but an entertaining trip so far!
After the internet café and another trip to the sento, we went for lunch at Lotteria Burger. Interesting to note is that inside the restaurant was a sign saying "Please use the rest room". Also interesting to note was the lack of restroom in the restaurant.
We went to Yoyogi Park next. On Sundays, Yoyogi plays host to Japanese… er, I’d say indie but that’d be an insult to indie music… bands of all different genres. One band, LooVee, looked as if they belonged on American Bandstand back in the 50’s. Matching red costumes, lots of brass, 2 girl singers and a male lead. At one point, the lead singer removed one of the guitarist’s pants, which was very nice of him. I guess that doesn’t happen on Bandstand too often.
Another band was very punk. The guitarist was pantless to begin with, making things easier, and the lead "singer" enjoyed shouting while writhing in pain apparently on the sidewalk. There were two somewhat decent bands though, and my favorite was a single guy jammin’ on the drums alone while waitin for his band members to show up.
Me, Keith and Mark played some hacky sack in the park while listening to a band play the same 5-second beat on the African drums, over and over, for half an hour. Boon Hau, Tyson, and Byron were exploring the park, and when we met up with them, they had joined a ukulele troupe. They even tought me how to play (I sucked) and gave us drinks, it was quite fun.
Next we went to Harajuku. I won’t try to describe it, because the pics here speak for themselves.
For the last part of our trip we met up with Clem and Neil and went to a Maid Café in Akihabara. Basically at this café, the waitresses are dressed up in maid costumes. Not revealing costumes or anything, quite covered up actually. For a fee you can do stuff with the maids.
No, not that kinda stuff… For 800-en you can play a PS2 fighting game against the maid, and you get your picture with the maid "if" you win. Or you can order a song or dance (500-en) which a maid will perform on the stage.
When not playing with the maid, the screen on stage keeps repeating a minute long video of a maid making coffee, then washing the cup, then making coffee, then washing the cup…
At the center table were some hardcore otaku. I will rely on the power of the human imagination and only state a few facts:
They were dressed up as anime characters.
The anime characters were female.
They had magic wands, hand puppets, and anime porn on their cell phones.
They sang and danced (and had all routines memorized) along with the maids.
This appears to be rather common for maid cafes (at least in Akihabara).
We left after one drink (600-en), and went to get food. After a quick meal and a game of DDR and House of the Dead 4, we headed back to Tokyo Station. Tyson bought what were apparently "Fried Dolls" as omiyage… which brought back haunting images from the previous day.
The journey back on the night bus was almost as fun as the journey there, but it was nice to go home and sleep after. In all, very fun trip, the Kansai Invasion was a success, thanks to Keith for his planning work.
This weekend (Sept 22-24) I met up with Anton at Kyoto Station to retrieve my pants (I left my pants at Anton’s when he had Jen’s welcoming party… because somebody spilt alcohol all over them), and to watch a high school dance performance at the station. Rather busy, and rather impressive actually, it was cool to see. Each school had a group of performers and a different dance, maybe I’ll be able to get some pictures off of Anton later and put em up on my webalbum.
Then it was off to Wakayama, where I met up with Keith, Boon-Hau and Tongxin. We stayed up till 4:30 playing cards, slapping each other, and eating excessive amounts of junk food, then on Saturday we went skimboarding <-- Video Link! I also had a sumo fight against Boon Hau on the beach (I lost of course) and we practiced our nunchaku skills, and frisbee skills, and swimming skills (you know! Skills!). We attempted a group study session for the JLPT test, then headed home.
Ja…
Friday, September 8, 2006
This One's Tricky... You Have to Use Imaginary Numbers, Like Eleventeen.
Well, it’s been two whole weeks since my last blog. The most important thing to note is that today marks my 100th day in Japan! Huzzah! Go me!
I’ll keep this short since there’s not a lot to cover. Two weekends ago I went up to Wakayama on the Friday night, then me and Keith went surfing! The weather was great this time, very sunny, but the waves were a little weak. But I did a lot better, could stand up on the board a lot easier this time. I’m really hoping that the weather stays warm so I can go again, but with plans this weekend and SUUUUMMMOOOO next weekend, it may be a few weeks before I even have time to go again…
Last weekend I did something quite cool (and similar)… Tongxin and I went down on the Friday night to Wakayama (déjà vu? Maybe yes). Stayed up late with Keith and one of Keith’s coworkers, playing cards and Tongxin demonstrating magic tricks, and going to eat ramen at 3:30 in the morning. The next day we went down to Marine City to the beach. We rented 2 windsurfing boards!
Windsurfing is quite fun, I wasn’t very good. It’s difficult to get up, since you have to balance on the board while pulling the sail up. And unfortunately it wasn’t too windy again, so we didn’t go too fast, but it was still good. Spent time playing Frisbee and stuff too.
Pictures of Wakayama on my webalbum: http://picasaweb.google.com/keidan.link
Joined the gym nearby, it’s a fortune, 89 bucks a month. But may be worth it. They also have martial arts classes, I’m considering joining. I know some people will be laughing at me: “Haha, Link, buff? Yeah right!”. And others may think “Aww, Brett, that’s so cute ^^”; Either way I can’t win…
Work’s going quite well this week. I’m doing PCB design work, on quite a big complicated project, and I’ve never done PCB design before. I believe you are supposed to have some practice in this field before attempting any serious projects, but what can you do? Not to mention the program is in Japanese, so pressing buttons often yields (bad and good) surprises. I keep having to restart, cause it turns out very messy, but it’s good practice. Also, I have no project requirements. In Japan, they give you vague details, you do the project, then they tell you what they want and you start all over again. Least that’s what I gather from my company.
My manager also wanted me to check over my calculations on an electrical circuit today, since the numbers were a little weird… so I had to explain to him, using trigonometry and complex (imaginary) numbers, why the calculations were the way they were. It was a bit difficult and a bit awkward, but I think he understood in the end (but I really have no idea what anyone thinks over here).
Went with Dave to a nearby restaurant (where he knows the owners) and had some okonomiyaki while we chatted with the people there. They were really nice but they thought I was both quiet (no way! Someone thinks Link is quiet?!?)… like a cat apparently, and that I looked younger than 21… (no way! Someone thinks Link looks young?!?)… cause I didn’t get enough of that back in Calgary ><.
I’ll keep this short since there’s not a lot to cover. Two weekends ago I went up to Wakayama on the Friday night, then me and Keith went surfing! The weather was great this time, very sunny, but the waves were a little weak. But I did a lot better, could stand up on the board a lot easier this time. I’m really hoping that the weather stays warm so I can go again, but with plans this weekend and SUUUUMMMOOOO next weekend, it may be a few weeks before I even have time to go again…
Last weekend I did something quite cool (and similar)… Tongxin and I went down on the Friday night to Wakayama (déjà vu? Maybe yes). Stayed up late with Keith and one of Keith’s coworkers, playing cards and Tongxin demonstrating magic tricks, and going to eat ramen at 3:30 in the morning. The next day we went down to Marine City to the beach. We rented 2 windsurfing boards!
Windsurfing is quite fun, I wasn’t very good. It’s difficult to get up, since you have to balance on the board while pulling the sail up. And unfortunately it wasn’t too windy again, so we didn’t go too fast, but it was still good. Spent time playing Frisbee and stuff too.
Pictures of Wakayama on my webalbum: http://picasaweb.google.com/keidan.link
Joined the gym nearby, it’s a fortune, 89 bucks a month. But may be worth it. They also have martial arts classes, I’m considering joining. I know some people will be laughing at me: “Haha, Link, buff? Yeah right!”. And others may think “Aww, Brett, that’s so cute ^^”; Either way I can’t win…
Work’s going quite well this week. I’m doing PCB design work, on quite a big complicated project, and I’ve never done PCB design before. I believe you are supposed to have some practice in this field before attempting any serious projects, but what can you do? Not to mention the program is in Japanese, so pressing buttons often yields (bad and good) surprises. I keep having to restart, cause it turns out very messy, but it’s good practice. Also, I have no project requirements. In Japan, they give you vague details, you do the project, then they tell you what they want and you start all over again. Least that’s what I gather from my company.
My manager also wanted me to check over my calculations on an electrical circuit today, since the numbers were a little weird… so I had to explain to him, using trigonometry and complex (imaginary) numbers, why the calculations were the way they were. It was a bit difficult and a bit awkward, but I think he understood in the end (but I really have no idea what anyone thinks over here).
Went with Dave to a nearby restaurant (where he knows the owners) and had some okonomiyaki while we chatted with the people there. They were really nice but they thought I was both quiet (no way! Someone thinks Link is quiet?!?)… like a cat apparently, and that I looked younger than 21… (no way! Someone thinks Link looks young?!?)… cause I didn’t get enough of that back in Calgary ><.
Friday, August 25, 2006
When You Hear Hoofbeats, Just Go Ahead and Think Horses, Not Zebras
Byron messaged me over Gtalk at work yesterday afternoon, saying one of the guys he met last weekend had invited him out that night. Apparently he had met a group of Japanese guys and girls at the Hub (Brit Pub) last week playing pool and had given them his email. After asking what we were gonna do, Byron replies with “He mentioned something about karaoke”.
Byron wasn’t sure whether the Japanese guy was bringing friends or not, and kinda wanted me to come along; I figured it would make a good blog story at the very least. Byron could also not remember which member of the group this guy was, so we really didn’t know what to expect.
So we met the guy outside the Hub. He’s my age, 21, rather thin, wearing tight low rider designer jeans and a fancy shirt, gold watch, earring and ring. Byron introduces me and we head off to the nearest karaoke place.
The karaoke place made me sad. It’s very new and fancy, probably a dozen floors high, each with little rooms that you karaoke in. Our room had a booth which seats 4 or a squishy 6, a tv and sound system, a phone for ordering food or drinks, and most importantly, a tambourine. What made me sad was I’m pretty sure this was the karaoke joint was the one that replaced Maruzen, one of the best bookstores in Kyoto. There’s enough karaoke places, don’t get rid of the best foreign book collection in the city!
We rented a room – sorry, I just figured out that every time my co-worker puts someone on hold his phone plays “My Grandfather’s Clock” – and Byron’s friend orders us all a gin and tonic.
So the singing begins. The Japanese guy opens up with a song by the KinKi Kids (KinKi is another term for Kansai I believe, and Kansai is the region of Japan that I live in). He’s not too bad of a singer either. Byron then opened up with Sweet Home Alabama. I opened up with telling Byron I won’t sing till he does Eminem.
In the end I was a major part of the singing of 5 songs. Oh, they had weird music choices… multiple songs for The Music and Bloc Party, and no songs for way bigger artists. Maybe they have good taste and really like the Brit rock ^^. Anyway, the songs I sang:
Eminem – Lose Yourself
Beatles – Hey Jude
U2 – One
Bloc Party. – Banquet
And finally, Byron’s friend puts on the Aladdin song “A Whole New World” and gives me the second microphone, so I do a duet with him, taking the part of Jasmine ><. Least I was a good sport about it.
The only other english song he sang was Enrique Iglesias – “Escape”, one of the few songs that I really can’t stand. I was forced to listen to it hundreds of times within a span of 2 weeks and quickly became sick of it. Luckily my weeks of intense accordion music strenghtened my ability to withstand song torture.
After karaoke we went to the Hub for drinks. They have good fish and chips, I could eat (and have eaten) multiple plates in a row. Oh, side note, I’ve gained another 3 pounds this month, meaning I’ve gained 7 pounds in the 3 months I’ve been here. That’s a big deal for a lil guy like me.
We talk for a bit about various things (does any CJP person know how you’d say various colors in Japanese? Is it iroiroiro?) such as Canada and Japan, school, work, and music. Along with asking if we have girlfriends (and him saying that he doesn’t), he asks an odd question about… er… “relative proportions” between white guys and Japanese guys. Using colorful language too. Dunno if this is normal for Japan or not, Az’s (English teacher in Japan) junior high school students were overly curious too. It could just be Japanese culture, I’m sure many of you have seen pictures of the crazy Japanese youth with their weird cool clothes and hair.
We say farewell at the train station and go home, with another interesting adventure for the record books.
Byron wasn’t sure whether the Japanese guy was bringing friends or not, and kinda wanted me to come along; I figured it would make a good blog story at the very least. Byron could also not remember which member of the group this guy was, so we really didn’t know what to expect.
So we met the guy outside the Hub. He’s my age, 21, rather thin, wearing tight low rider designer jeans and a fancy shirt, gold watch, earring and ring. Byron introduces me and we head off to the nearest karaoke place.
The karaoke place made me sad. It’s very new and fancy, probably a dozen floors high, each with little rooms that you karaoke in. Our room had a booth which seats 4 or a squishy 6, a tv and sound system, a phone for ordering food or drinks, and most importantly, a tambourine. What made me sad was I’m pretty sure this was the karaoke joint was the one that replaced Maruzen, one of the best bookstores in Kyoto. There’s enough karaoke places, don’t get rid of the best foreign book collection in the city!
We rented a room – sorry, I just figured out that every time my co-worker puts someone on hold his phone plays “My Grandfather’s Clock” – and Byron’s friend orders us all a gin and tonic.
So the singing begins. The Japanese guy opens up with a song by the KinKi Kids (KinKi is another term for Kansai I believe, and Kansai is the region of Japan that I live in). He’s not too bad of a singer either. Byron then opened up with Sweet Home Alabama. I opened up with telling Byron I won’t sing till he does Eminem.
In the end I was a major part of the singing of 5 songs. Oh, they had weird music choices… multiple songs for The Music and Bloc Party, and no songs for way bigger artists. Maybe they have good taste and really like the Brit rock ^^. Anyway, the songs I sang:
Eminem – Lose Yourself
Beatles – Hey Jude
U2 – One
Bloc Party. – Banquet
And finally, Byron’s friend puts on the Aladdin song “A Whole New World” and gives me the second microphone, so I do a duet with him, taking the part of Jasmine ><. Least I was a good sport about it.
The only other english song he sang was Enrique Iglesias – “Escape”, one of the few songs that I really can’t stand. I was forced to listen to it hundreds of times within a span of 2 weeks and quickly became sick of it. Luckily my weeks of intense accordion music strenghtened my ability to withstand song torture.
After karaoke we went to the Hub for drinks. They have good fish and chips, I could eat (and have eaten) multiple plates in a row. Oh, side note, I’ve gained another 3 pounds this month, meaning I’ve gained 7 pounds in the 3 months I’ve been here. That’s a big deal for a lil guy like me.
We talk for a bit about various things (does any CJP person know how you’d say various colors in Japanese? Is it iroiroiro?) such as Canada and Japan, school, work, and music. Along with asking if we have girlfriends (and him saying that he doesn’t), he asks an odd question about… er… “relative proportions” between white guys and Japanese guys. Using colorful language too. Dunno if this is normal for Japan or not, Az’s (English teacher in Japan) junior high school students were overly curious too. It could just be Japanese culture, I’m sure many of you have seen pictures of the crazy Japanese youth with their weird cool clothes and hair.
We say farewell at the train station and go home, with another interesting adventure for the record books.
Monday, August 21, 2006
The Problem With the French is that They Don’t Have a Word for Entrepreneur
Okinawa was awesome! There, got that outta the way. I put some of the best pictures on the bottom of this post, and there’s more at http://picasaweb.google.com/keidan.link I also uploaded about 100 more pictures recently and organized them all into nice neat piles. Some of the pictures have been on my blog before, but a lot of new ones too. Check em out, and leave comments if you want. Also, thanks everyone for the excellent comments on my blog. Some were maybe a bit subtle, but they all made me laugh, which is a good thing.
Ok, onto Okinawa (attempt 2!) To start, I told you deer were creepy! Almost as creepy as the miniature ponies that would give wagon rides during Stampede outside where I worked the past 3 summers. Thanks a lot Stacie for reminding me!
So yeah, Last Friday, the night before our flight, I met up with Keith for Nara’s candle festival. We got take-out food (with extra rice ><) and ate it near the pond near the deer park. After finishing we went to look for the main candle area. Apparently there is supposed to be a whole field of candles, like in the pictures, but we only found small paths of candles (which were quickly being extinguished and removed). Anton told us after that we didn’t go far enough, the main area was closer to Todaiji. Aah, well. But yeah, I had a run in with a deer. I was carrying a plastic bag with the remains of the take out food when a deer sneak attacked me from behind! He ripped open the bag, spilling rice and garbage everywhere, and everyone laughed at me, and I laughed at me hardest. Told you they were creepy Woke up the next day, and after having breakfast at the usual place, we took a 2 hour train ride to Kobe airport. Kobe seemed like a nice place judging by the limited view we had from the train, and the airport was very modern and new and clean. The flight to Okinawa was great, first class. Lots of legroom and big armrests. A cool thing about Japanese airlines is they have cameras in the front of the plane, so you can watch during takeoffs and landings. On the return flight there was of course, a Pokemon episode playing on the TVs, followed by a 20 minute instructional video on exercises you can do on the plane. How handy… Ok, finally, onto Okinawa (attempt 3!) I guess this would be a good place to describe what/where/how Okinawa is… Okinawa is a tiny little island chain off the southern edge of Japan. It’s pretty tropical, with palm trees and coral reefs and sea urchins with foot long spikes! Okinawa is kinda like ghetto Hawaii (in all ways but pric). It's got the beautiful beaches sure, but a lot of the buildings and roads are old and decrepit, and who wants to live next to an army base? And at the same time, it reminds me of a ghetto Las Vegas! Pachinko parlours, hotels with miniaturized historical landmarks (Pyramids, Arc de Triumphe, etc) outside. Light up Palm Trees! How tacky! So we arrived late afternoon on Saturday, took about 40-45 minutes to get to our hotel. Quite a nice hotel, got a balcony, 2 beds and a pull-out, a TV, fridge, and safe. The hotel had a few restaurants and a lounge and a spa. Keith and Anton wanted massages, but by the time they were ready for one, they were no longer ready… I don’t want to think how painful a massage would be with sunburns like ours. There was also a pool in the hotel, which we went to the first night, which was fun. Mmm… buffet breakfast. We went every day, they had pancakes, we got laughed at. Everyone else took one or 2, we’d take 4-5 and go back for seconds or thirds. Other interesting things on the menu… the soggy soggy french fries, and Spam (which was bad even for Spam, according to Keith). But the pancakes and pineapple made up for it. That day we went to the beach and were a little disappointed. Because of jellyfish, the total swimming area was not a lot bigger than a large swimming pool. And the water wasn’t clear at all. And Keith stole my sandals. So we rented ocean kayaks for an hour and had fun paddling in the clearer nicer water. A storm was coming in, so they were clearing the water, which was when we left. Went to another beach, kinda run by a family or maybe the homes nearby. We rented some snorkels and went in the water. Some very very cool things in there, sea urchins with foot long spikes, and others with half inch spikes, plus schools of fish zipping past us as we swam. Went for dinner at a local restaurant, and I used the tried and true method of pointing randomly at an Okinawan specialty. Turned out not too too bad, it was a dish of three kinds of fish in a spinach salad. Not really my thing, but least I could eat it. Second full day was scuba day!!! We met the shuttle in the lobby at 8am, took a half hour shuttle ride to the dock, then filled out forms and got on the boat. About 5 crew, maybe 10 guests on the boat. The boat ride was probably around an hour and a half. We got to sit at the front, which bounced up and down quite a bit with the waves. It was fun, and the view was amazing! The scuba diving was great! A bit short, only lasted a half hour. The water was maybe 20 feet deep, but you could see the bottom from the boat, so clear! Us three went down with two guides, saw cool coral, schools of tropical fish, and most importantly, Nemo in his anemone!!! Sooo cool. Spend another few hours snorkeling and swimming, Anton was diving from the top of the boat. Swam to the beach and Keith and Anton were nice enough to bury me in sand so I could barely get out. They deserve to be poked. A picture’s worth a thousand words, so instead of trying to describe how beautiful it was, check out my web album. On the way back we were in the front of the boat again, no shade either… so by the end we were all very sunburnt. Even as I type this I am shedding excessively. I've been peeling nastily since friday, and haven't stopped yet. My entire arms, face, hands, back, shoulders, neck, and feet have peeled. Half my lower back to go, and my legs just started peeling tonight. Gross. The last full day, Tuesday, was tourist day! We spent the day at the main tourist street in Okinawa. Along with omiyage, I bought a nice sharktooth necklace for myself, Anton got a super cool (and informative) T-shirt, and Keith bought snake alcohol, crazy guy. We stopped for ice cream, and Anton got a goya (bitter melon) float, which was one of the worst things I have ever tasted. I’d rather eat cow stomach, and you can quote me! We had yakiniku for dinner, then around ten we went to a nightclub nearby, called Re-Green (odd, yes). When we entered, there were a whole three visible customers besides us. Yet the music (oh, the music! Mostly 80s and early 90s, like George Michael and stuff. The most recent song we heard was a remix of Men in Black… if only I couldn’t remember ><. And that movie came out in 97) and the smoke machine were both going full blast. We stayed around for 2 reasons: 1) We paid 15 bucks to get in, and 2) The staff said the place gets busy after midnight.
Now you’re all probably in suspense about whether the staff were honest or not. Stress and nervous tension are now serious social problems in all parts of the world, and it is in order that this situation should not in any way be exacerbated that the following facts will now be revealed in advance:
They were lying.
I (unfortunately) did not drink.
The girl I danced with showed me her scar.
In order that some sense of mystery should still be preserved, no revelation will yet be made concerning the location of the scar.
Thanks Mr Douglas Adams… so yeah, the music was really bad, but for 15 bucks, you could get unlimited pop, rum and cokes, or screwdrivers. I sure got my money’s worth, ordering one whole coke. And the screwdrivers apparently sucked, as they were made with orange drink, not orange juice. People slowly started trickling in, one guy was sure getting his funk on (solo), dancing pretty crazily, in the dark, by himself. Later a group of guys came in, and were dancing awfully weirdly and close together, causing us to question which orientation the club caters to. Not to mention both (as in there were only two) girls on the dance floor were dancing together and/or with the wall. And of course the music…
So maximum attendance that night… maybe just over a dozen people… We went on the dance floor for a bit, there were the two wall dancer girls, and another girl as well. The new girl started dancing with me and Keith, and she took us (separately) over to the bar to show us a large, maybe 2 inch scar, on her foot, then brought us back to the dance floor.
"Time to go now" we said…
So we left, trying to decide where to go. There was another club across the street that looked shadier than Re-Green, and a nicer one down the street, but it charged $25 for cover, and it was already nearing 2am… so back to the hotel.
Not much left to write about… went home the next morning, and met two girls that stayed at the same hotel as us at the airport. We invited them for lunch, which was quite nice, got to practice Japanese a bit. I didn’t say much, but I could understand the entire conversation, so… Maybe I’m better at Japanese than I think, I just gotta get the courage to actually try speaking… but I’m even more shy trying to speak Japanese than I am trying to speak english back home.
So all in all, Okinawa was great. The scuba diving was the highlight of course, but everything else was either totally cool dudes, or overly interesting. Too overly maybe... Thanks to Keith for all the planning, and thanks to Anton to slapping me on the back when I had a sunburn!
Ok, onto Okinawa (attempt 2!) To start, I told you deer were creepy! Almost as creepy as the miniature ponies that would give wagon rides during Stampede outside where I worked the past 3 summers. Thanks a lot Stacie for reminding me!
So yeah, Last Friday, the night before our flight, I met up with Keith for Nara’s candle festival. We got take-out food (with extra rice ><) and ate it near the pond near the deer park. After finishing we went to look for the main candle area. Apparently there is supposed to be a whole field of candles, like in the pictures, but we only found small paths of candles (which were quickly being extinguished and removed). Anton told us after that we didn’t go far enough, the main area was closer to Todaiji. Aah, well. But yeah, I had a run in with a deer. I was carrying a plastic bag with the remains of the take out food when a deer sneak attacked me from behind! He ripped open the bag, spilling rice and garbage everywhere, and everyone laughed at me, and I laughed at me hardest. Told you they were creepy Woke up the next day, and after having breakfast at the usual place, we took a 2 hour train ride to Kobe airport. Kobe seemed like a nice place judging by the limited view we had from the train, and the airport was very modern and new and clean. The flight to Okinawa was great, first class. Lots of legroom and big armrests. A cool thing about Japanese airlines is they have cameras in the front of the plane, so you can watch during takeoffs and landings. On the return flight there was of course, a Pokemon episode playing on the TVs, followed by a 20 minute instructional video on exercises you can do on the plane. How handy… Ok, finally, onto Okinawa (attempt 3!) I guess this would be a good place to describe what/where/how Okinawa is… Okinawa is a tiny little island chain off the southern edge of Japan. It’s pretty tropical, with palm trees and coral reefs and sea urchins with foot long spikes! Okinawa is kinda like ghetto Hawaii (in all ways but pric). It's got the beautiful beaches sure, but a lot of the buildings and roads are old and decrepit, and who wants to live next to an army base? And at the same time, it reminds me of a ghetto Las Vegas! Pachinko parlours, hotels with miniaturized historical landmarks (Pyramids, Arc de Triumphe, etc) outside. Light up Palm Trees! How tacky! So we arrived late afternoon on Saturday, took about 40-45 minutes to get to our hotel. Quite a nice hotel, got a balcony, 2 beds and a pull-out, a TV, fridge, and safe. The hotel had a few restaurants and a lounge and a spa. Keith and Anton wanted massages, but by the time they were ready for one, they were no longer ready… I don’t want to think how painful a massage would be with sunburns like ours. There was also a pool in the hotel, which we went to the first night, which was fun. Mmm… buffet breakfast. We went every day, they had pancakes, we got laughed at. Everyone else took one or 2, we’d take 4-5 and go back for seconds or thirds. Other interesting things on the menu… the soggy soggy french fries, and Spam (which was bad even for Spam, according to Keith). But the pancakes and pineapple made up for it. That day we went to the beach and were a little disappointed. Because of jellyfish, the total swimming area was not a lot bigger than a large swimming pool. And the water wasn’t clear at all. And Keith stole my sandals. So we rented ocean kayaks for an hour and had fun paddling in the clearer nicer water. A storm was coming in, so they were clearing the water, which was when we left. Went to another beach, kinda run by a family or maybe the homes nearby. We rented some snorkels and went in the water. Some very very cool things in there, sea urchins with foot long spikes, and others with half inch spikes, plus schools of fish zipping past us as we swam. Went for dinner at a local restaurant, and I used the tried and true method of pointing randomly at an Okinawan specialty. Turned out not too too bad, it was a dish of three kinds of fish in a spinach salad. Not really my thing, but least I could eat it. Second full day was scuba day!!! We met the shuttle in the lobby at 8am, took a half hour shuttle ride to the dock, then filled out forms and got on the boat. About 5 crew, maybe 10 guests on the boat. The boat ride was probably around an hour and a half. We got to sit at the front, which bounced up and down quite a bit with the waves. It was fun, and the view was amazing! The scuba diving was great! A bit short, only lasted a half hour. The water was maybe 20 feet deep, but you could see the bottom from the boat, so clear! Us three went down with two guides, saw cool coral, schools of tropical fish, and most importantly, Nemo in his anemone!!! Sooo cool. Spend another few hours snorkeling and swimming, Anton was diving from the top of the boat. Swam to the beach and Keith and Anton were nice enough to bury me in sand so I could barely get out. They deserve to be poked. A picture’s worth a thousand words, so instead of trying to describe how beautiful it was, check out my web album. On the way back we were in the front of the boat again, no shade either… so by the end we were all very sunburnt. Even as I type this I am shedding excessively. I've been peeling nastily since friday, and haven't stopped yet. My entire arms, face, hands, back, shoulders, neck, and feet have peeled. Half my lower back to go, and my legs just started peeling tonight. Gross. The last full day, Tuesday, was tourist day! We spent the day at the main tourist street in Okinawa. Along with omiyage, I bought a nice sharktooth necklace for myself, Anton got a super cool (and informative) T-shirt, and Keith bought snake alcohol, crazy guy. We stopped for ice cream, and Anton got a goya (bitter melon) float, which was one of the worst things I have ever tasted. I’d rather eat cow stomach, and you can quote me! We had yakiniku for dinner, then around ten we went to a nightclub nearby, called Re-Green (odd, yes). When we entered, there were a whole three visible customers besides us. Yet the music (oh, the music! Mostly 80s and early 90s, like George Michael and stuff. The most recent song we heard was a remix of Men in Black… if only I couldn’t remember ><. And that movie came out in 97) and the smoke machine were both going full blast. We stayed around for 2 reasons: 1) We paid 15 bucks to get in, and 2) The staff said the place gets busy after midnight.
Now you’re all probably in suspense about whether the staff were honest or not. Stress and nervous tension are now serious social problems in all parts of the world, and it is in order that this situation should not in any way be exacerbated that the following facts will now be revealed in advance:
They were lying.
I (unfortunately) did not drink.
The girl I danced with showed me her scar.
In order that some sense of mystery should still be preserved, no revelation will yet be made concerning the location of the scar.
Thanks Mr Douglas Adams… so yeah, the music was really bad, but for 15 bucks, you could get unlimited pop, rum and cokes, or screwdrivers. I sure got my money’s worth, ordering one whole coke. And the screwdrivers apparently sucked, as they were made with orange drink, not orange juice. People slowly started trickling in, one guy was sure getting his funk on (solo), dancing pretty crazily, in the dark, by himself. Later a group of guys came in, and were dancing awfully weirdly and close together, causing us to question which orientation the club caters to. Not to mention both (as in there were only two) girls on the dance floor were dancing together and/or with the wall. And of course the music…
So maximum attendance that night… maybe just over a dozen people… We went on the dance floor for a bit, there were the two wall dancer girls, and another girl as well. The new girl started dancing with me and Keith, and she took us (separately) over to the bar to show us a large, maybe 2 inch scar, on her foot, then brought us back to the dance floor.
"Time to go now" we said…
So we left, trying to decide where to go. There was another club across the street that looked shadier than Re-Green, and a nicer one down the street, but it charged $25 for cover, and it was already nearing 2am… so back to the hotel.
Not much left to write about… went home the next morning, and met two girls that stayed at the same hotel as us at the airport. We invited them for lunch, which was quite nice, got to practice Japanese a bit. I didn’t say much, but I could understand the entire conversation, so… Maybe I’m better at Japanese than I think, I just gotta get the courage to actually try speaking… but I’m even more shy trying to speak Japanese than I am trying to speak english back home.
So all in all, Okinawa was great. The scuba diving was the highlight of course, but everything else was either totally cool dudes, or overly interesting. Too overly maybe... Thanks to Keith for all the planning, and thanks to Anton to slapping me on the back when I had a sunburn!
Monday, August 7, 2006
That’s More Fun Than Exploding a Potato in the Microwave!
Hmm, last weekend was my big adventure to Tokyo! As many of my adventures, it was completely unplanned except for where I was gonna stay. I packed my bags on Wednesday, went to Kyoto Station, bought my ticket, and was on the Shinkansen (bullet train) less than 10 minutes later.
Shinkansen is very fast. It is a distance of 500 km, and takes about 2h 15 minutes… which gives an average speed of 220km/h, and a max speed of nearly 300km/h. Unfortunately, since I bought my ticket 10 minutes before the train departed… I got the middle seat, so I couldn’t see anything outside ><.
Got to Tokyo Station mid afternoon. I was going to stay with Jeff, but he works a bit late, so I decided to explore a bit. Tokyo’s pretty crazy. It’s a lot busier than Kyoto of course, and people don’t seem as polite. And very strict escalator rules, which annoys people that come to Kyoto. Met with Jeff that night, it was very nice of him to let me stay. He has a cool place, with his own shower! Was quite fun too, I even did his Crossfit workout with him one morning.
I went to all the most famous neighbourhoods (multiple times), was very interesting. I went to Harajuku first which is where all the young hip japanese kids go. Unfortunately, not really knowing where I was going, I walked all the way around the neighbourhood before finding out where it was. Very hip place, lots of weird stores selling even weirder clothes. I saw two (separate) elderly ladies (I’m talking 70+ here) with bright purple hair. I went to Yoyogi Park too. On Sundays apparently live bands all get together and play in the park. In other words, I must must go back to Tokyo and stay on a Sunday. On the day I went, it was quite dead, just a few tourists wandering around. But quite a nice park for being in the middle of Tokyo.
Shibuya was very cool, I believe it is the busiest pedestrian intersection in the world. Kinda like Times Square in New York. There’s people everywhere, tons of shops selling more flamboyant clothing, electronics, food, etc. There’s pictures on my web album. Crazy busy, almost as bad as Gion Matsuri. Especially cool at night! 3 huge screens playing music vids/advertising. A famous dog statue. And lights everywhere!
Other areas like Shinjuku were also cool. More busyness and shopping and stuff, but didn’t really explore much. I went to Akihabara with… what? Word has Akihabara in it’s spellchecker database!?! What is this crazy talk?!?!… with Clement, talk about neon lights! Electronics stores everywhere, of all different sizes. Some huge chain stores, with entire floors of cameras, and other stores that are, well… garages, transformed into warehouses of (probably stolen) merchandise, not shady at all...
On Saturday afternoon I ran into Clement and Neil in Akihabara again, but not where we expected to meet. Then where I had expected to meet them we ran into Billy, unexpectedly. Along with Lynn and a friend of one of the Kanto crew. The plan was to go and see the fireworks, I decided to go along, at least for a little while.
The crowd! Oh boy, billions of people came out to watch the fireworks. You may think I’m exaggerating, in which case you may be right, but that’s not the point. It was insane, tarps and blankets lined up all the way along the river, apparently some tarps had been placed there a week earlier to save a spot for the fireworks. It’s an obstacle course just to get through everyone sitting down waiting. The Kanto crew was all meeting there, including Duncan and Leon and friends of friends of the Kanto crew. There was Korean, Chinese, Japanese and English being spoken.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have a place to stay that night, since Jeff was on an airplane to Boston at that point, so I decided to Shinkansen it back home rather than spend the night lost and alone. Little did I know that everyone else would miss their train too, and karaoke all night long, which woulda been fun too.
So thoughts on Tokyo… busy mostly. I think it would have been a lot more fun if I wasn’t exploring alone, but unfortunately, I was the only one to have a company holiday, all the Kanto people had to work still. I had fun anyway, very neat to see. I definitely want to go back and spend more time with the Kanto crew, and most importantly, see the hep cats getting funky in unison down in Harajuku. Next time…
Shinkansen is very fast. It is a distance of 500 km, and takes about 2h 15 minutes… which gives an average speed of 220km/h, and a max speed of nearly 300km/h. Unfortunately, since I bought my ticket 10 minutes before the train departed… I got the middle seat, so I couldn’t see anything outside ><.
Got to Tokyo Station mid afternoon. I was going to stay with Jeff, but he works a bit late, so I decided to explore a bit. Tokyo’s pretty crazy. It’s a lot busier than Kyoto of course, and people don’t seem as polite. And very strict escalator rules, which annoys people that come to Kyoto. Met with Jeff that night, it was very nice of him to let me stay. He has a cool place, with his own shower! Was quite fun too, I even did his Crossfit workout with him one morning.
I went to all the most famous neighbourhoods (multiple times), was very interesting. I went to Harajuku first which is where all the young hip japanese kids go. Unfortunately, not really knowing where I was going, I walked all the way around the neighbourhood before finding out where it was. Very hip place, lots of weird stores selling even weirder clothes. I saw two (separate) elderly ladies (I’m talking 70+ here) with bright purple hair. I went to Yoyogi Park too. On Sundays apparently live bands all get together and play in the park. In other words, I must must go back to Tokyo and stay on a Sunday. On the day I went, it was quite dead, just a few tourists wandering around. But quite a nice park for being in the middle of Tokyo.
Shibuya was very cool, I believe it is the busiest pedestrian intersection in the world. Kinda like Times Square in New York. There’s people everywhere, tons of shops selling more flamboyant clothing, electronics, food, etc. There’s pictures on my web album. Crazy busy, almost as bad as Gion Matsuri. Especially cool at night! 3 huge screens playing music vids/advertising. A famous dog statue. And lights everywhere!
Other areas like Shinjuku were also cool. More busyness and shopping and stuff, but didn’t really explore much. I went to Akihabara with… what? Word has Akihabara in it’s spellchecker database!?! What is this crazy talk?!?!… with Clement, talk about neon lights! Electronics stores everywhere, of all different sizes. Some huge chain stores, with entire floors of cameras, and other stores that are, well… garages, transformed into warehouses of (probably stolen) merchandise, not shady at all...
On Saturday afternoon I ran into Clement and Neil in Akihabara again, but not where we expected to meet. Then where I had expected to meet them we ran into Billy, unexpectedly. Along with Lynn and a friend of one of the Kanto crew. The plan was to go and see the fireworks, I decided to go along, at least for a little while.
The crowd! Oh boy, billions of people came out to watch the fireworks. You may think I’m exaggerating, in which case you may be right, but that’s not the point. It was insane, tarps and blankets lined up all the way along the river, apparently some tarps had been placed there a week earlier to save a spot for the fireworks. It’s an obstacle course just to get through everyone sitting down waiting. The Kanto crew was all meeting there, including Duncan and Leon and friends of friends of the Kanto crew. There was Korean, Chinese, Japanese and English being spoken.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have a place to stay that night, since Jeff was on an airplane to Boston at that point, so I decided to Shinkansen it back home rather than spend the night lost and alone. Little did I know that everyone else would miss their train too, and karaoke all night long, which woulda been fun too.
So thoughts on Tokyo… busy mostly. I think it would have been a lot more fun if I wasn’t exploring alone, but unfortunately, I was the only one to have a company holiday, all the Kanto people had to work still. I had fun anyway, very neat to see. I definitely want to go back and spend more time with the Kanto crew, and most importantly, see the hep cats getting funky in unison down in Harajuku. Next time…
Monday, July 31, 2006
The Trees are Really Sneezing Today
Link Adam, 21, goes on a weekend adventure surfing with friends. When he arrives, he sees things are not as they should be. He finds a city populated by demanding and slightly crazy restaurant owners, and by Jamaican Hawaiian Japanese surfer dudes. It’s a place where OMLGP has no effect. A city where currency… has no meaning! Link boarded the K-Limited Express Train… to the Twilight Zone!
Doo dee doo doo doo dee doo doo….
On Sunday, me and Anton got up early and went down to Wakayama to meet Keith. Taking advantage of the Everything’s Free in Wakayama train station policy to get to Keith’s station nearly free of charge. We went for breakfast #2 at the station, I had kekko desu ("I’m fine as I am thanks"), which has been the subject of many jokes directed at me since. Thank you Anton and Keith, my revenge will be swift and painful.
Then we headed to Isonura beach to rent some surfboards. The two rental shops, however, were both sold out! So we passed by a reggae bar, basically an old bus transformed into a… bar… painted in yellow and green with a Jamaican flag and reggae playing. The young dudes running the bar agree to rent us their surfboards, 4h for 2600 yen each, not too shabby, apparently we got 400 yen off the normal price cause we were so cool and hip and rad and stuff.
Surfing was a lot of fun, the water wasn’t too cold, and there were hundreds of surfers out there. To be fair, I sucked. It’s hard just getting out far enough, with the waves pulling you back towards the shore, especially for someone with no mass like me. Once out there though, it’s good, I was able to catch a wave quite easily, standing up was another matter. But still managed to a few times, for a few seconds, woohoo!
After a few hours I got cold and hungry and tired, (and I was a little bit wet) so I decided to head back and get changed. While waiting for Anton and Keith I hung with the Jamaicans, one guy knew a little bit of English… The conversation started out good, but eventually, without getting into too much detail, got a bit interesting, and some of the questions I got asked were… lacking good grammar and perhaps decency.
Anton and Keith arrived back, showered, changed, etc, then we went back to Wakayama. Where we had an crazy older lady, who ran a restaurant, pressuring us to come in. Anton and Keith wanted ramen, so they were reluctant at first. I was reluctant because there was a crazy older lady pressuring me into her store. But we finally broke down (pwned as Anton called it) and went in. We got the special I think? Pasta with ham and shrimp, and the lady talking to us the whole time we were eating. Eventually she went to a nearby restaurant and bought a plate of sushi, brought it to our table, and sat down and started sharing it with us. Which is very odd… But she didn’t charge us for it, and even gave us a bit of a discount on our meal. We eventually left (in my case, escaped) because I had to make it home for shower curfew.
And that was the exciting weekend. On Tuesday we went to Osaka to see the fireworks for Tenjin Matsuri. Unfortunately, with me being the only one on time, we missed them. But not totally a waste, had to meet Keith anyway, and we went for dinner for okonomiyaki and kekko desu. Anton and Keith bought beer off some attractive girls in bathing suits. And then I went home.
More to come on my Tokyo adventure, but that’s later, cause I’m too tired to write it tonight, and the cicadas will inevitably wake me up too early tomorrow.
Doo dee doo doo doo dee doo doo….
On Sunday, me and Anton got up early and went down to Wakayama to meet Keith. Taking advantage of the Everything’s Free in Wakayama train station policy to get to Keith’s station nearly free of charge. We went for breakfast #2 at the station, I had kekko desu ("I’m fine as I am thanks"), which has been the subject of many jokes directed at me since. Thank you Anton and Keith, my revenge will be swift and painful.
Then we headed to Isonura beach to rent some surfboards. The two rental shops, however, were both sold out! So we passed by a reggae bar, basically an old bus transformed into a… bar… painted in yellow and green with a Jamaican flag and reggae playing. The young dudes running the bar agree to rent us their surfboards, 4h for 2600 yen each, not too shabby, apparently we got 400 yen off the normal price cause we were so cool and hip and rad and stuff.
Surfing was a lot of fun, the water wasn’t too cold, and there were hundreds of surfers out there. To be fair, I sucked. It’s hard just getting out far enough, with the waves pulling you back towards the shore, especially for someone with no mass like me. Once out there though, it’s good, I was able to catch a wave quite easily, standing up was another matter. But still managed to a few times, for a few seconds, woohoo!
After a few hours I got cold and hungry and tired, (and I was a little bit wet) so I decided to head back and get changed. While waiting for Anton and Keith I hung with the Jamaicans, one guy knew a little bit of English… The conversation started out good, but eventually, without getting into too much detail, got a bit interesting, and some of the questions I got asked were… lacking good grammar and perhaps decency.
Anton and Keith arrived back, showered, changed, etc, then we went back to Wakayama. Where we had an crazy older lady, who ran a restaurant, pressuring us to come in. Anton and Keith wanted ramen, so they were reluctant at first. I was reluctant because there was a crazy older lady pressuring me into her store. But we finally broke down (pwned as Anton called it) and went in. We got the special I think? Pasta with ham and shrimp, and the lady talking to us the whole time we were eating. Eventually she went to a nearby restaurant and bought a plate of sushi, brought it to our table, and sat down and started sharing it with us. Which is very odd… But she didn’t charge us for it, and even gave us a bit of a discount on our meal. We eventually left (in my case, escaped) because I had to make it home for shower curfew.
And that was the exciting weekend. On Tuesday we went to Osaka to see the fireworks for Tenjin Matsuri. Unfortunately, with me being the only one on time, we missed them. But not totally a waste, had to meet Keith anyway, and we went for dinner for okonomiyaki and kekko desu. Anton and Keith bought beer off some attractive girls in bathing suits. And then I went home.
More to come on my Tokyo adventure, but that’s later, cause I’m too tired to write it tonight, and the cicadas will inevitably wake me up too early tomorrow.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Questions of Science… Science and Progress…
So first of all, I Saw Azrael!!! He was on a train, I recognized him from his picture online. I asked if it was him for sure, and said that me and my friends all liked his blog. He was with friends so I felt a bit bad interrupting though. And I’m sorry to my friends who thought it would be a good idea for me to shout "Breasts!" at him and teleport away.
Oh yeah, if you don’t know, Azrael (or Jeff, his real name) is a 6’6" black guy who lives in Kyoto teaching English to junior high students. He’s been chronicling his adventures on his blog for many years now, and is one of the funniest things on the web. You can find his editorials on www.gaijinsmash.net, or it’s the first link if you type "Japanese school teacher" into Google.
Another interesting thing that only one other person will blog about… I saw Coldplay!!! Woohoo!!! Took 5 trains and an hour trip to make it down to Intex-Osaka Saturday night, where Coldplay was playing. After spending a fortune on a ticket at the door (unfortunately far to the back), and waiting in line to go in, I got to see the concert. No opening band, which was disappointing, in 2003 they had the awesome Brit band "The Music" open for them. But the concert was quite impressive, opening with Square One and Politik, and playing some of the most important songs, Don’t Panic, Swallowed in the Sea, and the best song ever, The Scientist (which was extremely well done, much better than their 2003 version). Very cool stage though, they showed video of the band playing on the background, and had some laser effects too.
What a fun weekend! Basically the first large scale CJP reunion, as many people came down to Kansai (Kyoto/Osaka/Nara/Kobe) from Kanto (Tokyo). Oh crap, (was gonna say another word but Bush already said it), forgot about Thursday. Anton and I went to pick up my very sexy Yukata from Kinsho near his house. I chose the light brown one, which meant I stood out a bit compared to everyone else in their blue/gray/black ones. Then we stopped at Mister Donut, I got a double chocolate donut, expecting it to be tasty and sweet. It was neither… like 0 sugar at all, bleh… on a double chocolate donut! Gosh!! Then we met up with Uncle Masa and went to an Isakaya. Wasn’t too bad, only stayed for an hour and a half, and Anton did most of the talking since I’m maybe shy (sorry Anton). And then I went home just in time to miss shower curfew.
Accordion Friday, then I met up with Anton and then Billy at Kyoto Station. We went for dinner at the nearby isakaya (the one with the supercool owner and the two nice waitresses). Good meal, and we talked for quite a while. The owner remembered us, and Billy signed his gaikokujin book. Then we went back to Anton’s flat in Nara.
Saturday morning we met Clement, Neil, and Victor at Kyoto Station and went Yukata shopping. Along the way we were stopped by our obligatory old man, who gave us directions, even though we weren’t lost and didn’t need em. Not the most interesting old man experience, but with Uncle Masa on Thursday, I think we filled our quota for the week. I left the group around 2 to go to the concert.
Went back to the dorm first to figure out how to get to the concert, with a complex route involving 5 trains, and tried to buy a ticket from Lawson using my very limited language skills. That failed, mostly because Lawson stopped selling the tickets, since the show was starting in 3 hours, but at least I failed at speaking all by myself! So yeah, got to Intex-Osaka, ran around looking for the ticket selling place (veery hard to find), and saw an awesome concert, woot!
So I head back to Kyoto, and call Anton from Tambabashi station, to see if they’re still out at Gion Matsuri. We arrange to meet at Yasaka Shrine (basically the most important part of the festival, and about the easiest temple to find in all of Kyoto). When I get there… nobody. I call back, they say they’ll meet me between Yasaka and the train station… after running back and forth 3 times (and meeting Clarissa and her friends along the way, Random Encounter #1), we decide just to meet back at Anton’s… Turns out they were lost and nowhere near where I was… they needed my GPS abilities (but that’s later).
On the first train home I was standing beside someone who I swear was my arch nemesis from grade 7. Well, one of them at least… I had many. Stupid junior high. Anyway, if it wasn’t him, he looked identical. Then on the second train home, I was standing right near Mr. Azrael of OutpostNine! Three random encounters in under an hour, that’s a new record methinks.
Anyway, get back to Anton’s, and there’s about 11 of us total now… going to sleep in 3 rooms… with 2 futons… Yeah, not overly comfortable. Still better than camping last summer where it rained heavily for 3 days, man that was cold. What was I thinking… anyway… we had the door open between the two rooms, since there was only one AC… and Billy gets cold in the night, so he closes the door, leaving the other people to freeze. Clement wakes up and instead of turning the AC down (the obvious idea), goes to sleep and snore next to Billy! Interesting night.
Sunday we split up, and try to check out downtown, but we got caught in quite a storm. After me, Billy and Neil sacrificed ourselves to buy umbrellas for the group, we sheltered in a dessert place for dessert. Mmm large chocolate shake. Then we met with the others back at Kyoto Station for dinner at an Italian place. Our group now numbered 15, since the Osakans had arrived. After a lengthy changing process (some people wanted to wear their Yukatas), we headed downtown for the festival. Quite cool to see, massive crowds all over the place. We wandered around for a while, takin pictures, then using my mad GPS skillz I led everyone back to Kyoto Station for another lengthy changing process.
Another fun night, I gave up sleeping on the floor and slept with my head resting on the kitchen table. Oddly enough, it was an improvement. We got up too early and headed back to Kyoto to see the parade. Unfortunately it was still pouring, and we couldn’t get very close to the parade to see much, so we headed back to Tambabashi Station, met up with the Osakans for lunch, and headed back to Nara to change out of Yukata and to head home.
Gion Matsuri was a ton of fun, not really for the festival itself (which we were barely at), but mostly just spending time with so many of the CJPers again… Thanks to everyone who came down from Kanto and other areas, and especially to Anton and Tongxin for providing accomodations.
Oh yeah, if you don’t know, Azrael (or Jeff, his real name) is a 6’6" black guy who lives in Kyoto teaching English to junior high students. He’s been chronicling his adventures on his blog for many years now, and is one of the funniest things on the web. You can find his editorials on www.gaijinsmash.net, or it’s the first link if you type "Japanese school teacher" into Google.
Another interesting thing that only one other person will blog about… I saw Coldplay!!! Woohoo!!! Took 5 trains and an hour trip to make it down to Intex-Osaka Saturday night, where Coldplay was playing. After spending a fortune on a ticket at the door (unfortunately far to the back), and waiting in line to go in, I got to see the concert. No opening band, which was disappointing, in 2003 they had the awesome Brit band "The Music" open for them. But the concert was quite impressive, opening with Square One and Politik, and playing some of the most important songs, Don’t Panic, Swallowed in the Sea, and the best song ever, The Scientist (which was extremely well done, much better than their 2003 version). Very cool stage though, they showed video of the band playing on the background, and had some laser effects too.
What a fun weekend! Basically the first large scale CJP reunion, as many people came down to Kansai (Kyoto/Osaka/Nara/Kobe) from Kanto (Tokyo). Oh crap, (was gonna say another word but Bush already said it), forgot about Thursday. Anton and I went to pick up my very sexy Yukata from Kinsho near his house. I chose the light brown one, which meant I stood out a bit compared to everyone else in their blue/gray/black ones. Then we stopped at Mister Donut, I got a double chocolate donut, expecting it to be tasty and sweet. It was neither… like 0 sugar at all, bleh… on a double chocolate donut! Gosh!! Then we met up with Uncle Masa and went to an Isakaya. Wasn’t too bad, only stayed for an hour and a half, and Anton did most of the talking since I’m maybe shy (sorry Anton). And then I went home just in time to miss shower curfew.
Accordion Friday, then I met up with Anton and then Billy at Kyoto Station. We went for dinner at the nearby isakaya (the one with the supercool owner and the two nice waitresses). Good meal, and we talked for quite a while. The owner remembered us, and Billy signed his gaikokujin book. Then we went back to Anton’s flat in Nara.
Saturday morning we met Clement, Neil, and Victor at Kyoto Station and went Yukata shopping. Along the way we were stopped by our obligatory old man, who gave us directions, even though we weren’t lost and didn’t need em. Not the most interesting old man experience, but with Uncle Masa on Thursday, I think we filled our quota for the week. I left the group around 2 to go to the concert.
Went back to the dorm first to figure out how to get to the concert, with a complex route involving 5 trains, and tried to buy a ticket from Lawson using my very limited language skills. That failed, mostly because Lawson stopped selling the tickets, since the show was starting in 3 hours, but at least I failed at speaking all by myself! So yeah, got to Intex-Osaka, ran around looking for the ticket selling place (veery hard to find), and saw an awesome concert, woot!
So I head back to Kyoto, and call Anton from Tambabashi station, to see if they’re still out at Gion Matsuri. We arrange to meet at Yasaka Shrine (basically the most important part of the festival, and about the easiest temple to find in all of Kyoto). When I get there… nobody. I call back, they say they’ll meet me between Yasaka and the train station… after running back and forth 3 times (and meeting Clarissa and her friends along the way, Random Encounter #1), we decide just to meet back at Anton’s… Turns out they were lost and nowhere near where I was… they needed my GPS abilities (but that’s later).
On the first train home I was standing beside someone who I swear was my arch nemesis from grade 7. Well, one of them at least… I had many. Stupid junior high. Anyway, if it wasn’t him, he looked identical. Then on the second train home, I was standing right near Mr. Azrael of OutpostNine! Three random encounters in under an hour, that’s a new record methinks.
Anyway, get back to Anton’s, and there’s about 11 of us total now… going to sleep in 3 rooms… with 2 futons… Yeah, not overly comfortable. Still better than camping last summer where it rained heavily for 3 days, man that was cold. What was I thinking… anyway… we had the door open between the two rooms, since there was only one AC… and Billy gets cold in the night, so he closes the door, leaving the other people to freeze. Clement wakes up and instead of turning the AC down (the obvious idea), goes to sleep and snore next to Billy! Interesting night.
Sunday we split up, and try to check out downtown, but we got caught in quite a storm. After me, Billy and Neil sacrificed ourselves to buy umbrellas for the group, we sheltered in a dessert place for dessert. Mmm large chocolate shake. Then we met with the others back at Kyoto Station for dinner at an Italian place. Our group now numbered 15, since the Osakans had arrived. After a lengthy changing process (some people wanted to wear their Yukatas), we headed downtown for the festival. Quite cool to see, massive crowds all over the place. We wandered around for a while, takin pictures, then using my mad GPS skillz I led everyone back to Kyoto Station for another lengthy changing process.
Another fun night, I gave up sleeping on the floor and slept with my head resting on the kitchen table. Oddly enough, it was an improvement. We got up too early and headed back to Kyoto to see the parade. Unfortunately it was still pouring, and we couldn’t get very close to the parade to see much, so we headed back to Tambabashi Station, met up with the Osakans for lunch, and headed back to Nara to change out of Yukata and to head home.
Gion Matsuri was a ton of fun, not really for the festival itself (which we were barely at), but mostly just spending time with so many of the CJPers again… Thanks to everyone who came down from Kanto and other areas, and especially to Anton and Tongxin for providing accomodations.
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