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
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
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.
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