How Am I Supposed to Write My Blog When I'm Trapped on the Ceiling? It's Impossible.

Explorers are we, intrepid and bold,
Out in the wild, amongst wonders untold.
Equipped wit our wits, a map, and a snack,
We're searching for fun and we're on the right track!
- Watterson

Continuing on where I left off, I stayed at Anton’s Saturday night, along with Vincent and Keith (and anton was there too). Somehow I got cold during the night, so I slept on the floor underneath my futon… I’ve had better sleeps… I’ve had worse too though, stupid mosquito.Eventually we all woke up, and decided to go get breakfast.

Anton’s Old Man Luring Gaijin Powers (OMLGP) benefited us again! We were discussing plans outside a coffee shop, when an older gentleman came out to usher us in, saying what a great place it was, and to come in and eat! Only he wasn’t an employee, he was a customer! Turned out good though, toast, hard-boiled egg, ham, potato salad and ice coffee (I still don’t like coffee, bleh).

Next on the agenda was climbing to the top of Fushimi-Inari. Anton was sick last time, so I was the only one to have been there… We climbed to the very top this time, which took us quite a while, since we took some detours, but it was fun. Once again there were high schoolers doing endurance training on the stairs up the mountain. Anton got some very good pictures, here’s one or two:






We came back down and went to get some food. Anton and I got the same thing. Anton asked what it was, and he thought the waitress said fox o.O… When he asked her again, "Is this fox?" she confirmed that it was indeed! No, kidding, she laughed a bit, and said, no, no, it’s tofu. So yeah, cold tofu and noodles in a very sweet broth, wasn’t bad, but quite different.

By this time it was time to head to Kyoto Station, Vincent’s bus was leaving at 4. Only Keith’s ticket got stuck in the ticket booth! So Anton and Vincent went on ahead, I stayed with Keith. We hopped on the next train and went to downtown Kyoto, hoping to cross over to the subway line and take it down to Kyoto Station… only we weren’t really sure where the subway line was (I take responsibity for choosing the route). We walked for about 15 before we found it, then met Anton at about 4:15… he was waiting for about 25 minutes, he took a much much shorter route not involving getting lost in downtown, and made me feel rather dumb, but oh well.

So Vincent departed from us, and we continued on our adventure by going exploring around Kyoto Station. We pass by a large hotel, and Anton sees an attractive Japanese Policewoman. He asks to take her picture, but she seemed hesitant… and eventually said no. There were a lot of cops around, and it probably wouldn’t look too good for her. So we move on, then start thinking why there’s so many cops… at least one on every street corner! I suggest some sort of famous person passing through soon. So we pass by another cop and ask him, turns out I was right, in an hour a Japanese prince was to be passing through.

Not wanting to miss an exciting opportunity like that, we decided to hang around for awhile. Keith and Anton figured this was a good idea to do something that would be considered illegal in Canada.














I should also mention there was a cop standing about 6 feet away at this point. We also saw a Japanese tour guide, even in Japan they have their flags to direct tourists.



So went back to where the prince was passing by, and met a good looking Japanese girl. Anton of course asks for a picture, that seems to be his favorite Japanese phrase :P. They take a picture of us too on their fancy phones. And we got pictures of the prince too, he passed by with quite a large escort.













Kinda reminded me of the one scene in Kill Bill, with Lucy Liu in the anime scene as the assassin on the roof… I mention this, and we look up. Sure enough, there’s cops on the roof for security purposes.

So we go back to visit the policewoman, where, after waiting for her for about 15 minutes (she did tell us to come back after the prince and she’d let us take a picture), we got some of her posing for us.

At this point it was about time for Keith to head home, so we took him back to the station and found a good route for him to get home. Sounds like he had some good luck on the train! Anton and I went wandering around looking for a place to eat.

Anton’s OMLGP worked again, only not in a good way; an older man came up to talk to us, asking if we wanted to take his picture. Anton does, then takes one with me in it as well. Then the man tells us he’s homeless, and if we had any money, since he posed for us. Anton tells him we don’t really have any to spare, since we’re students, so he left us… Wow, we really seem to draw attention to ourselves, I’ve never heard of any panhandling in Japan, not to mention such creative panhandling.

Dinner time, we pass by a little sign saying dinner bar, and some stairs leading down, and Anton and I, the adventurous type, go right ahead down. We’re greeted by some very cute Japanese girl waitresses, who seat us right away, then the owner comes to talk to us. He gives us a sheet of paper, explaining that he’s very happy we have come to visit, but that he can’t speak any english besides "Hello" and "I love you"! He was extremely cool, he was palm reading at other tables, managed to tie a piece of wire into a knot inside his mouth, and was wearing a Tom and Jerry sweater! He also showed us the notebooks he had collected… All the foreigners that come to his restaurant he has sign a page in his book and write/draw whatever they want. He’s had people from all over the world, a lot from Europe, North America, Australia, and Asia.





















We order a beer each and our meals, Anton got Tuna and Mushroom Spaghetti, I got Grilled Chicken. Anton was also quite happy about the seating arrangements, he was facing the two cute waitresses. We chat with them too, find out their names and what they do. The food was quite good, and we even got dessert (Sesame Ice Cream, since it was the waitress’ fave ^^). Anton got one of their emails, so that they can practice their english together!













Time for me and Anton to head home, we go back to the station and take the Keihan line home. Another adventurous weekend complete!



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Ok, so I'm combining two posts together just cause there's a lot to write about, and I'm four days behind on the Kyoto one, so please forgive the length...

Music in Japan Part 2 - If I Wanted American Music I Wouldn't be in Japan!

Music in Japan, as I have mentioned, is a mixed bag. A lot of what you hear wandering around is very old American music that you don’t really need to hear (Funkytown), or just downright bizarre (Accordion music at work, or the Midori theme song that was written by the Devil and sung by Phil, the Prince of Insufficient Light).

However, the actual bands (least the 4 indie bands we saw on Saturday), were really good! I guess being in a band isn’t exactly a well respected career in Japanese society, where everyone is expected to fit in, so if you’re going to be in a band, you had better be good. But then again, I've only heard 4 bands so far... gotta check out Tokyo before I make a professional opinion.

I don’t particularly like the American influence however. In general, I much more enjoy Canadian and British music than American (with a few exceptions), So like the second band’s whole "What!" thing really worsened their songs… and the fact that they did it every single song, well… I think it would be better for the bands to find their own style, rather than trying to copy the United States, but maybe that’s just me.

If It Ain't Broke, It Doesn't Have Enough Features Yet!

Shoes are loud! I got dress(y) shoes to wear at work, but they’re extremely loud and clunky. I can hear myself coming a mile away. And I can hear other people from half a mile. I quite enjoy walking completely silently at all times, and find it funny when I can sneak up on people, so this is fairly annoying… ah well.

The person beside me at work likes to talk to himself. Normally I would find this annoying, but he has a very cool voice. It sounds like Vincent Valentine! Check back in a few weeks to see if it’s still cool though, or whether I'm annoyed yet.

I’m not the newb anymore. I got called to a meeting yesterday, where my boss introduced the new guy! Though to be fair, I haven’t seen him around since, so maybe he’s in a different department? And either way, I’m still the lowest on the pagoda, since I don’t speak Japanese very well (or English either, for that matter).

Also, I got paid! (I hope… I should probably double check that…) Hurray, now I can buy a big screen tv and a stereo system and the pet gecko that I always wanted! Or I could save it for travelling to Tokyo for Canada Day!!! Wooooo!!!

14A Alert for the next paragraph!
Hmm, I’ve received multiple requests (from the same one individual) for confirmation that there was some scary equipment at the Onsen. So, to clear things up, I shall describe! Lucky all of you! Here goes… if you have long hair, it could get caught in the equipment that cycles the water. That would be scary. Burning yourself with the hairdryer equipment, also scary. I guess if you were very very clumsy and slipped while showering you could manage to strangle yourself with the shower equipment? Ok, enough! I’m out of ideas, and it was lame, but my point is, I wasn’t considering your feelings and I’m sorry I didn’t take notes of what I saw in the Onsen. Maybe next time…

I Like Maxims That Don't Encourage Behavior Modification

Onto more attractive topics, Anton and I got our cell phones yesterday, though I won’t post my email or phone number on here for obvous reasons. We looked around for Vodafone since we heard they were cheapest, but the only one we saw was closed, so we went to AU. We got a family plan, which worked out quite well, but we were in the store for an hour, signing all the paperwork and activating the phones. Rather fancy though, if I get a mem stick (Stupid Sony and their expensive Duo sticks), I can play music on it. Haven’t looked into what else it has yet.

Umm, afterwards Anton was pretty hungry, so we went into the Tomato Cooking Club and faked dumb, asking if it was a restaurant (obviously not, but there were girls our age inside, so, yeah, you know…). Nothing much came of thatthough. After asking a few random peopleon the street for a good place to go, we found an isakaya (Japanese pub). A very loud group of girls and guy was beside us, Anton wanted them to invite us over, but they never did. He even tried to get the waiter to ask how old they were. Crazy Foreigner.

Both of us were too tired to try and decipher the menu, so we asked the waiter to bring us whatever. (Note to others: while in Canada, this may be an ok idea, since you’re unlikely to get much weird, in Japan it’s a different story. But being the brave adventurers that we are…). So yeah, first dish was sashimi, which was quite good. The second dish, mmm some sort of shellfish! This did not look appetizing to me, and I wouldn’t have considered eating that in Canada, but I haven’t refused to try anything yet… It was squishy… Last dish was some sort of pasta with peppers, sausage, and asparagus, quite tasty. We pay the bill and leave the bar. Once again, too late to head back home, so I crashed at Anton’s for the night.

Not an overly eventful night, but the Tomato Cooking Club, the oyster things, and Anton acting like a dumb foreigner like myself to get a family plan kept up our adventurous streak.

Anyways, heading home from work now, where I have the night to prepare for the inevitable Accordion Afternoon. Next blog after next adventure!