Life is only…
As good as the memories we make
And I’m taking back what belongs to me
These relics of remembrance
Are just like shipwrecks
Only they’re gone faster
Than the smell after it rains
Wow, hard to believe I’ve gotten to this point… Today, 10 months after my first blog entry, comes my final post. I have been in Japan for 304 days now, living on my own in a completely foreign country, and now at last it’s time for me to return home…
There are 3 days left in Japan, filled with farewell parties, all night JJ, and sakura viewing. And then I head back to my life in Calgary. I’m kind of sad to leave, I have a lot of awesome memories of Japan...
And I’ve learned a lot here, about engineering, about Japan itself, as well as made some really good friends. I’ve gained confidence in myself, and that’s very important.
Thanks to family and friends back home who kept in contact with me and made me not so homesick, to my friends here, for always keeping me entertained and putting up with my lame jokes, and to the internship program and my company for giving me the chance to live and work in Japan.
After 60 entries, this Adventure of Link comes to a close. Until my next adventure!
So long Japan
I’d found a map to buried treasure
And even though I go home empty handed
I’ll still have my stories, battle scars,
Pirate ships and wounded hearts,
Broken bones, and all the best of friendships…
And when this hourglass has filtered out
Its final grain of sand…
I’ll raise my glass to the memories we had…
This is my wish, and I’m taking it back
I’m takin’ 'em all back…
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Friday, March 23, 2007
Yakka foob mog. Grug pubbawup zink wattoom gazork. Chumble spuzz.
Things are winding down… the current countdown rests at 8 days, 3 hours… wow, getting nervous/excited about going home.
Well, just a recap of my more recent events. 2 weekends ago, on Friday I went out with Byron, Tyson, Keith, and some of Byron’s friends, including Kaihei. You may remember him from such adventures as me singing a duet of A Whole New World with him, with myself as Jasmine.
The place we went to was an Arabian themed isakaya, which was not bad, but, ironically, played nothing but Disney songs, in Japanese. Including, obviously, A Whole New World. I didn’t stay too long, I was very tired that night and wanted to make curfew…
Saturday, Keith and I went hiking to a mountain we had read about online. Unfortunately, mountain meant hill, and hike meant leisurely stroll. But it was alright I suppose. After a stop at Spa World, we went to spend the night playing DDR, Donkey Kong, pool, basketball, ping pong, and other stuff at JJ. Then we were disappointed by the fact that 90% of JJ was closed for renovations… the only things open were pool and karaoke. But JJ grand opening March 21, and it should be pretty impressive.
Original plan for Sunday was to get some sleep at Spa World then go shopping… only Spa World closes for an hour in the morning to clean…so that combined with the crappy weather, we decided to head home.
Last weekend was just as lucky I suppose. Dave and I went to an Irish pub on Friday night, because every Friday they have a Japanese band playing Irish music. But knowing our luck, that night was the only time in 2 years they were very late and not answering any of their phones. But the food was good. Saturday, gym, and a trip downtown to get clothes, souvenirs, and peanut butter!
Yesterday I was off to Shirahama with Keith, Jen, and Hamada-san from Keith’s work. It was a long trip... 2.5h to Keith’s, and a 2h drive from there (and back the same day), but it was very fun. Had sashimi and grilled squid for lunch, then went walking along some very interesting rocks/islands near/on/in the ocean (pictures online). Went to a supposedly famous onsen, which, well… was quite wide open. Anybody in the nearby hotel or along the lookout on the beach that had a pair of binoculars could see quite a bit in the guy’s section. Anyway, nice, but kinda small, though I hear it’s great at high tide (the ocean waves splash into the baths). Then we had dinner on the beach (with white sand imported from Australia), then sumo and hacky sack, then back home.
Last night I dreamt I was in a gang... what does that mean?
My final full weekend in Japan starts tonight, then next week, packing, farewell parties, sakura, and a long flight home back to Canada… Next week will be my final entry in the Adventures of Link… at least until my next adventure!
Well, just a recap of my more recent events. 2 weekends ago, on Friday I went out with Byron, Tyson, Keith, and some of Byron’s friends, including Kaihei. You may remember him from such adventures as me singing a duet of A Whole New World with him, with myself as Jasmine.
The place we went to was an Arabian themed isakaya, which was not bad, but, ironically, played nothing but Disney songs, in Japanese. Including, obviously, A Whole New World. I didn’t stay too long, I was very tired that night and wanted to make curfew…
Saturday, Keith and I went hiking to a mountain we had read about online. Unfortunately, mountain meant hill, and hike meant leisurely stroll. But it was alright I suppose. After a stop at Spa World, we went to spend the night playing DDR, Donkey Kong, pool, basketball, ping pong, and other stuff at JJ. Then we were disappointed by the fact that 90% of JJ was closed for renovations… the only things open were pool and karaoke. But JJ grand opening March 21, and it should be pretty impressive.
Original plan for Sunday was to get some sleep at Spa World then go shopping… only Spa World closes for an hour in the morning to clean…so that combined with the crappy weather, we decided to head home.
Last weekend was just as lucky I suppose. Dave and I went to an Irish pub on Friday night, because every Friday they have a Japanese band playing Irish music. But knowing our luck, that night was the only time in 2 years they were very late and not answering any of their phones. But the food was good. Saturday, gym, and a trip downtown to get clothes, souvenirs, and peanut butter!
Yesterday I was off to Shirahama with Keith, Jen, and Hamada-san from Keith’s work. It was a long trip... 2.5h to Keith’s, and a 2h drive from there (and back the same day), but it was very fun. Had sashimi and grilled squid for lunch, then went walking along some very interesting rocks/islands near/on/in the ocean (pictures online). Went to a supposedly famous onsen, which, well… was quite wide open. Anybody in the nearby hotel or along the lookout on the beach that had a pair of binoculars could see quite a bit in the guy’s section. Anyway, nice, but kinda small, though I hear it’s great at high tide (the ocean waves splash into the baths). Then we had dinner on the beach (with white sand imported from Australia), then sumo and hacky sack, then back home.
Last night I dreamt I was in a gang... what does that mean?
My final full weekend in Japan starts tonight, then next week, packing, farewell parties, sakura, and a long flight home back to Canada… Next week will be my final entry in the Adventures of Link… at least until my next adventure!
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Ok Jack! Time For Your Lobotomy!
To be lost in the forest
To be cut adrift
You’ve been trying to reach me
You bought me a book…
What a weekend! Friday night involved staying at Jen’s, we were have a file sharing/picture swapping/Scrubs watching party, me, Jen, and Keith. It was fortunate that we decided to do this, as Jen’s cell broke and Keith didn’t know where her place was.
Next morning Keith and I went to Spa World for a workout at the gym and then a quick dip in the baths. Then we met up with Vincent and Victor in Osaka, and headed on our way to Himeji Castle. Himeji’s quite impressive to see, a huge castle, you can go inside the walls and even to the top floor of the main tower. A couple pictures on my webalbum, and more when I steal the ones from the others.
Dinner was in Namba… we didn’t go to the place with the fried cheese balls, it was too busy, so we went to the place above it… which had bacon and cheese wrapped mochi… mmmm sooo good. Then some karaoke, and another night at Jens.
Don’t get offended if I seem absent-minded
Just keep telling me facts and keep making me smile
Don’t get offended if I seem absent-minded
I get tongue-tied…
Sunday I started on my solo quest to Tokyo… got there an hour or 2 before the first Bloc Party concert, so just went straight there. Spent the night in a capsule hotel, which was interesting… I took a few pictures, they’ll be posted soon. Looked around Tokyo a bit on Monday morning, unfortunately there wasn’t a lot to see, I’d already toured Tokyo quite a bit, so off to Nagoya.
Nagoya was a bit brutal to find the concert, I got lost many times. After the show I met up with Victor and we went to an isakaya for dinner. Good food, chicken wings, shrimp crackers, and fried cheese, then I spent the night at Victor’s, which was very nice of him. Next morning Victor had to get up early, so I was going to tour around Nagoya for a bit. But everything was closed and I was tired, so I went home for a nap, where I dreamt I was a fish like Nemo getting attacked by a giant version of Sebastian the crab from The Little Mermaid. And then I went to the final concert.
Ok, so the concerts were excellent. The opening band in Tokyo I don’t know the name to, but they were British, and the lead singer was a black woman playing electric bass… I shoulda bought their CD, I have to figure out who they are. The opening band for the other two shows was a Japanese band called Monobright, their music was alright, the lead singer was very… excited… and whenever he wasn’t singing he had a Buckley’s face going on.
Tokyo’s show was extremely moshy, and I learned a valuable lesson (thankfully not the hard way) about double knotting your shoes before a concert. Nagoya and Osaka were a little better, I was very center stage, two rows from the front for both those shows. At the Osaka show I was even talking to a girl from Winnipeg and her friend from Wales, they were trying to bribe their way to the front with drinks haha.
What are you holding out for?
What’s always in the way?
Why so damn absent-minded?
Why so scared of romance?
The music was awesome, of course they played all the big songs from both albums, and my own favorite, This Modern Love, but I was hoping for more variety between shows, and more of their less popular songs… the only song different between the shows was Two More Years added at Nagoya.
Then I went home and downloaded the new Arcade Fire album…
And now I’m back home, sleep deprived, dreaming every night, 117 hours left of work, and 3 weeks, 2 days left of Japan… Future events include hiking, souvenir shopping, and spending the night with the monks in a mountain temple. Though I should be careful, my horoscope this week was foreboding…: "In a tragic twist of fate, you'll be overwhelmed this week by both a sense of fear and a pack of wolves”…
Do you want to come over and kill some time?
Do you want to come over and kill some time?
Tell me facts, tell me facts, tell me facts, tell me facts…
Throw your arms around me…
To be lost in the forest
To be cut adrift
You’ve been trying to reach me
You bought me a book…
What a weekend! Friday night involved staying at Jen’s, we were have a file sharing/picture swapping/Scrubs watching party, me, Jen, and Keith. It was fortunate that we decided to do this, as Jen’s cell broke and Keith didn’t know where her place was.
Next morning Keith and I went to Spa World for a workout at the gym and then a quick dip in the baths. Then we met up with Vincent and Victor in Osaka, and headed on our way to Himeji Castle. Himeji’s quite impressive to see, a huge castle, you can go inside the walls and even to the top floor of the main tower. A couple pictures on my webalbum, and more when I steal the ones from the others.
Dinner was in Namba… we didn’t go to the place with the fried cheese balls, it was too busy, so we went to the place above it… which had bacon and cheese wrapped mochi… mmmm sooo good. Then some karaoke, and another night at Jens.
Don’t get offended if I seem absent-minded
Just keep telling me facts and keep making me smile
Don’t get offended if I seem absent-minded
I get tongue-tied…
Sunday I started on my solo quest to Tokyo… got there an hour or 2 before the first Bloc Party concert, so just went straight there. Spent the night in a capsule hotel, which was interesting… I took a few pictures, they’ll be posted soon. Looked around Tokyo a bit on Monday morning, unfortunately there wasn’t a lot to see, I’d already toured Tokyo quite a bit, so off to Nagoya.
Nagoya was a bit brutal to find the concert, I got lost many times. After the show I met up with Victor and we went to an isakaya for dinner. Good food, chicken wings, shrimp crackers, and fried cheese, then I spent the night at Victor’s, which was very nice of him. Next morning Victor had to get up early, so I was going to tour around Nagoya for a bit. But everything was closed and I was tired, so I went home for a nap, where I dreamt I was a fish like Nemo getting attacked by a giant version of Sebastian the crab from The Little Mermaid. And then I went to the final concert.
Ok, so the concerts were excellent. The opening band in Tokyo I don’t know the name to, but they were British, and the lead singer was a black woman playing electric bass… I shoulda bought their CD, I have to figure out who they are. The opening band for the other two shows was a Japanese band called Monobright, their music was alright, the lead singer was very… excited… and whenever he wasn’t singing he had a Buckley’s face going on.
Tokyo’s show was extremely moshy, and I learned a valuable lesson (thankfully not the hard way) about double knotting your shoes before a concert. Nagoya and Osaka were a little better, I was very center stage, two rows from the front for both those shows. At the Osaka show I was even talking to a girl from Winnipeg and her friend from Wales, they were trying to bribe their way to the front with drinks haha.
What are you holding out for?
What’s always in the way?
Why so damn absent-minded?
Why so scared of romance?
The music was awesome, of course they played all the big songs from both albums, and my own favorite, This Modern Love, but I was hoping for more variety between shows, and more of their less popular songs… the only song different between the shows was Two More Years added at Nagoya.
Then I went home and downloaded the new Arcade Fire album…
And now I’m back home, sleep deprived, dreaming every night, 117 hours left of work, and 3 weeks, 2 days left of Japan… Future events include hiking, souvenir shopping, and spending the night with the monks in a mountain temple. Though I should be careful, my horoscope this week was foreboding…: "In a tragic twist of fate, you'll be overwhelmed this week by both a sense of fear and a pack of wolves”…
Do you want to come over and kill some time?
Do you want to come over and kill some time?
Tell me facts, tell me facts, tell me facts, tell me facts…
Throw your arms around me…
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Time is an Illusion, Lunchtime Doubly So.
"It was only meant to be a safefy drill but dozens of children were left in tears after an animal escape drill at a zoo went hilariously wrong..."
'Don't cry children, I was only aping about'
Aww man this story made me laugh... poor Japanese schoolchildren... check it out, and make sure you click on the link at the top of the page for extra pictures. I like the lady in the medical van with the shotgun.
Other enjoyable items afloat in the intertubes... I check this blog every day... indexed.blogspot.com. The writer makes a few flash cards a day with interesting graphs about... well... everything. For example...
Yep, taking a shot at myself there!
Speaking of which, this weekend is my big Bloc Party Japanese Groupie event, which should be awesome! Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka, ahoy!
I just finished reading an excellent book, Last Chance to See, by Douglas Adams and Mark Cawardine. Non-fiction about Adams (a comedy sci-fi writer) and Cawardine (a zoologist) go out in search of some of the world's rarest creatures. Amazing book, both hilarous and rather sad. The first adventure can be read online here. Highly recommended.
On the way to see the Komodo Dragon:
"You're proposing twenty hours on a boat-"
"A small boat," added Mark.
"On violently heaving seas-"
"Probably."
"With a three-day-old dead goat."
"Yes."
"I hardly know what to say"
I found out yesterday that everything I've done for my project at work may be null and void once I leave... so that's kinda unfortunate, it's hard to be motivated to work once you find that out. Of course, that would have required me to be motivated in the first place.
The past week I've had trouble sleeping, thanks to some really weird dreams. I decided to start a dream journal to improve my memory of my dreams, which means when I wake up I'm supposed to write down everything I remember of my dreams...
Highlights from this weekend (in no order and not connected to each other):
My friend Brady had bear feet.
I was on a bus and the driver was shot.
I returned a lost dog to my neighbour only to find out she had died 6 weeks earlier. After kicking down her door I found out she was now an undead witch skilled in elemental magic, and we had a duel in the skies above her house with me using my Awesome-o ninja skills.
Frying sausages on a George Foreman grill.
Statues of octopuses and a chocolate river.
Saturday morning I woke up but kept my eyes closed, remembering my dream and making a list of what had happened. Then when I opened my eyes, I realized that me making a mental list of my dreams was also a dream, and I had to do it all over again!
Eventually I want to learn how to lucid dream... this is where you realize in your dream that you're actually dreaming. The benefits to this are great, most importantly, if I'm aware I'm dreaming maybe I can stop dreaming and go back to sleep. And second, maybe if I get good at it, I can free my mind like Neo, and show that undead witch who's boss!
"It was only meant to be a safefy drill but dozens of children were left in tears after an animal escape drill at a zoo went hilariously wrong..."
'Don't cry children, I was only aping about'
Aww man this story made me laugh... poor Japanese schoolchildren... check it out, and make sure you click on the link at the top of the page for extra pictures. I like the lady in the medical van with the shotgun.
Other enjoyable items afloat in the intertubes... I check this blog every day... indexed.blogspot.com. The writer makes a few flash cards a day with interesting graphs about... well... everything. For example...
Yep, taking a shot at myself there!
Speaking of which, this weekend is my big Bloc Party Japanese Groupie event, which should be awesome! Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka, ahoy!
I just finished reading an excellent book, Last Chance to See, by Douglas Adams and Mark Cawardine. Non-fiction about Adams (a comedy sci-fi writer) and Cawardine (a zoologist) go out in search of some of the world's rarest creatures. Amazing book, both hilarous and rather sad. The first adventure can be read online here. Highly recommended.
On the way to see the Komodo Dragon:
"You're proposing twenty hours on a boat-"
"A small boat," added Mark.
"On violently heaving seas-"
"Probably."
"With a three-day-old dead goat."
"Yes."
"I hardly know what to say"
I found out yesterday that everything I've done for my project at work may be null and void once I leave... so that's kinda unfortunate, it's hard to be motivated to work once you find that out. Of course, that would have required me to be motivated in the first place.
The past week I've had trouble sleeping, thanks to some really weird dreams. I decided to start a dream journal to improve my memory of my dreams, which means when I wake up I'm supposed to write down everything I remember of my dreams...
Highlights from this weekend (in no order and not connected to each other):
My friend Brady had bear feet.
I was on a bus and the driver was shot.
I returned a lost dog to my neighbour only to find out she had died 6 weeks earlier. After kicking down her door I found out she was now an undead witch skilled in elemental magic, and we had a duel in the skies above her house with me using my Awesome-o ninja skills.
Frying sausages on a George Foreman grill.
Statues of octopuses and a chocolate river.
Saturday morning I woke up but kept my eyes closed, remembering my dream and making a list of what had happened. Then when I opened my eyes, I realized that me making a mental list of my dreams was also a dream, and I had to do it all over again!
Eventually I want to learn how to lucid dream... this is where you realize in your dream that you're actually dreaming. The benefits to this are great, most importantly, if I'm aware I'm dreaming maybe I can stop dreaming and go back to sleep. And second, maybe if I get good at it, I can free my mind like Neo, and show that undead witch who's boss!
Monday, February 19, 2007
Metabolic Syndrome…? Oh, That’s Fear of Metal!!!
Victory is mine, another awesome trip is now over. Along with Keith, Erica, Victor, Jen, Kelvin, and Kouda, I went to Yuki Matsuri in Sapporo, Hokkaido.
Sapporo is famous for its beer, Hokkaido for its crab and dairy products, Hokkaido’s up north so it’s cold and snowy, and Yuki Matsuri = Snow Festival = Snow/ice sculptures and tourists.
After spending the night at Keiths (instead of spending 2+h on the train in rush hour), both of us, along with Erica, headed to KIX airport for our flight on Friday morning. Nothing really exciting right away, flying, landing, train, meeting Jen and Victor outside the lame clock tower, rearranging luggage, then off to the first tourist destination… the Chocolate Factory!
Which was actually quite lame too… it was more of a chocolate museum of weird stuff… teacups, chocolate labels, pictures of Napoleon who, believe it or not, liked chocolate! There was a large room filled with miscellaneous toys, from old metal cars to Where’s Waldo books to Astro Boy. I bought omiyage, and the girls bought lots of chocolate since on Valentine’s day here, the girls give all the guys chocolate. It’s fair though, on March 14 the roles are reversed.
Next we went to look at the Snow Sculptures in Odori Park. Amazing! Pictures are better than words, but a 10 feet high snow Stitch in front of a Disney castle! A whale that could easily swallow a dozen people. And an ice palace with a band playing in front.
Our hotel is at the Gateaux Kingdom Resort… has its own indoor/outdoor onsen and pool, a huge buffet area, palm trees, etc… It’s used a lot for weddings actually. Our room (especially the bathroom) was very nice too! The only complaint… the first floor plays non stop accordion music at all hours of the day.
Oh, turns out, Sapporo is a lot like Calgary… cold… snow… grid layout of streets… so just great, 6 weeks till I go home and now I’m not homesick at all!
We snowboarded twice, the first time just me and Keith, in Teine… the mountain was pretty good, but the view was incredible! You could see the entire city of Sapporo, the ocean, farms, mountains, etc from the ski runs. Niseko was very different… cloudy and grey, with wind and snow, but the best powder I’ve ever been on. Not only did my snowboarding skills improve, but I impressed the others by going the whole day with no goggles or scarf, and gloves that literally froze solid, making me ใใกใ macho!
After Teine we went to the Potato Circus for dinner, Westernish isakaya, where you wave a flag if you want service. We had the Colombian national flag. Along with eel, garlic bread, sticks with ketchup, and pasta we had a travesty of a pizza, with no tomato sauce, but with ham, French fries, corn, and tuna o.O. Then we headed to an Aztec themed nightclub, for the Tokyo BigAir snowboarding competition afterparty. Interesting I suppose, a lot of foreigners in attendance of course. 4 bands played… the first was forgettable, the second was wacky (that’s the only word to describe them), the third was supposed to be a hip hop group but reminded me more of a boy band… had the guy in shades and a backwards cap with arms crossed, another in plaid pants, goatee, and funky hat.
The fourth band deserves a paragraph of it’s own… Trouble Andrews… wow… The lead… umm… “singer” (a white guy, think the band’s friends with the boarders) woulda put J-roc to shame (not you J-rock, the one from Trailer Park Boys, nome-sayin?) Let’s go over the dress… red and black plaid shirt covering a tanktop with sleeves that went down to bellybutton level, fake gold bling, a black hat with white cannabis leaf designs on it, and huge sunglasses. Other points of interest… he called the microphone a “mizzike”, his band spilled (as in was throwing around) beer, causing a 10 minute technical difficulty when it got into their computer, and besides the horrible music, they ran out of songs and felt the need to play the last song twice in a row (“What is this, the nome-census?!?”) Aaaah… survived the night, got back to the hotel at 6am, and had a nice relaxing morning of sleep.
What else… TV tower was cool, 100m up observation deck, looking over the city and snow sculptures. Beer museum, slightly better than the chocolate factory, and lunch at the Bier Garten was good. Food for the trip, well, mostly normal stuff (for Japan), but fried lamb (Jinjis Kan (Ghengis Khan) yakiniku) is pretty big in Sapporo. We had it twice, it was my first time eating lamb. Not too bad, I prefer beef of course, and it makes your clothes stink for hours and hours afterwards.
Interesting flavors of ice cream at the beer factory… along with some normal flavors (Green tea, white chocolate, pumpkin, salt), they had lavender, soup curry, cheese, and squid flavors. Jen bought (and finished) the soup curry flavor (“It’s salty… AND sweet…o.O”), and squid, which had real chunks of squid inside, yay!
And now I’m back to work. Not too much interesting. I learned at the gym that certain colors of spandex are more revealing than others. Gray being one of them. I was sitting down doing leg extensions when an old guy wearing short gray spandex started wiggling his hips and shaking his rear right in front of me… There was nothing I could do!!! There was nowhere I could look!
I also applied for another job… they advertised 60” plasma screens and 32 way X-Box matches in their job description, how could I resist!
I also had a dream a few nights ago. It started normally, we inherited an ancient printing press with some valuable original prints from Calvin and Hobbes inside. I wanted to save the prints, but everyone else wanted to sell them. Then Jessica Simpson appeared to me inside a blacksmith's workshop and told me that I must not succumb to the forces of evil. Whatever that means...
Starting to wrap up things in Japan, 6 weeks left… souvenirs to buy, reports to do, luggage to pack, weight to gain… work to get back to! Until my next update, whenever that may be!
Monday, February 05, 2007
Here Be Dragons!
I appear to be blogging today... With 2 months left my motivation for things seems to be slowly diminishing. Well, for certain things, like work, and learning Japanese, and I suppose blogging a bit too, since the small adventures aren't as interesting as many of my previous ones. But alas (a sad lad) I push on! Mostly because my motivation to blog is slightly higher than my motivation to work.
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.
Last week was a little interesting. On Monday I had a 3.5 hour meeting that consumed half my lunch hour, which irritated me. But during the meeting I received an email from IBM, to schedule a preliminary interview for their internship program out east!
I had the interview on Wednesday night, I think it went ok, except I was nervous, and that they were looking for someone with more software experience, and my background is mostly hardware unfortunately. They said they'd email back if I get a second interview, but nothing yet... Too bad, it would be a great job!
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.
Also, Bloc Party's new CD, A Weekend in the City, comes out today in Japan... 3 hours till I get to listen to it! I can't wait! And I'm almost done reading I, Robot, amazing book!
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!
I appear to be blogging today... With 2 months left my motivation for things seems to be slowly diminishing. Well, for certain things, like work, and learning Japanese, and I suppose blogging a bit too, since the small adventures aren't as interesting as many of my previous ones. But alas (a sad lad) I push on! Mostly because my motivation to blog is slightly higher than my motivation to work.
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.
Last week was a little interesting. On Monday I had a 3.5 hour meeting that consumed half my lunch hour, which irritated me. But during the meeting I received an email from IBM, to schedule a preliminary interview for their internship program out east!
I had the interview on Wednesday night, I think it went ok, except I was nervous, and that they were looking for someone with more software experience, and my background is mostly hardware unfortunately. They said they'd email back if I get a second interview, but nothing yet... Too bad, it would be a great job!
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.
Also, Bloc Party's new CD, A Weekend in the City, comes out today in Japan... 3 hours till I get to listen to it! I can't wait! And I'm almost done reading I, Robot, amazing book!
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!
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.
"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.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
"You Just Steer, Ok!"
Summertime is gone, I miss it so much
My board lives in my garage
Waiting for that snowy season
And again I will slide!
They finally drained the waterways in my area of the city to prepare for winter. It now looks eerily like Route Kanal... In fact, my neighbourhood could easily pass for City 17, decrepit buildings, rust, power lines. All I need is a crowbar.
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.
I've Got Soul, But I'm Not a Soldier!
Can we climb this mountain, I don't know
Higher now than ever before
I know we can make it if we take it slow
Let's take it easy, easy now, watch it go!
We're burning down the highway skyline
On the back of a hurricane that started turning
When you were young
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.
Summertime is gone, I miss it so much
My board lives in my garage
Waiting for that snowy season
And again I will slide!
They finally drained the waterways in my area of the city to prepare for winter. It now looks eerily like Route Kanal... In fact, my neighbourhood could easily pass for City 17, decrepit buildings, rust, power lines. All I need is a crowbar.
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.
I've Got Soul, But I'm Not a Soldier!
Can we climb this mountain, I don't know
Higher now than ever before
I know we can make it if we take it slow
Let's take it easy, easy now, watch it go!
We're burning down the highway skyline
On the back of a hurricane that started turning
When you were young
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.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
My Brain Always Rejects Attitude Transplants
I've got a hunger, twisting my stomach into knots
That my tongue is tied off
my brain's repeating, "If you've got an impulse let it out"
But they never make it past my mouth
Our youth is fleeting, old age is just around the bend
I can't wait to go grey...
I'll sit and wonder, of every love that could've been
If i'd only thought of something charming to say...
This is the sound of settling...
For some odd reason, every time I'm in a meeting, I end up wishing I was Gambit (X-Men). I dunno why Gambit specifically, maybe it's cause I have my pencil in my hand and a strong desire to throw it at something, or perhaps someone. If I were Gambit, I could charge it up, throw it at the lights, and end the meeting early, yay!
Last week I had 3 hours of meetings in a row on Thursday, followed by 2 days in a row of Accordion Afternoons...
In other news, another one of the Prophecies of Link have come true! Byron encountered Mr. Dictionary on the weekend. I burst out laughing when Byron told me... nearly every white intern at the company has been caught by the guy now, always asking us to edit his dictionary. If Byron read my blog, he'd have been prepared for it!
Last last night I dreamt that I was looking for a washroom in Egypt, and eventually that my friend had a sarcophagus in his house. This apparently means that the friend I dreamt about is keeping secrets from me... I'm watching you! I can't remember what I dreamt last night, but it was even weirder.
I applied for 19 summer internships at 7 companies yesterday. Though to be fair, one company offered the same job 6 times (I suppose they need 6 people), so I applied to the same job 6 times ><.
And I already recieved a rejection letter from IBM's Extreme Blue program!! Hurray! Though I think it was an auto-mail from the US program, likely because I'd need sponsorship to work in the States, and they don't wanna do the paperwork.
If anyone has any suggestions for companies to apply for, anywhere in Canada, let me know... I got a few more companies to apply to, and if nothing, I'll probably consider alternate plans for the summer.
Weekend was extremely exciting, I went shopping, bought some clothes, souvenirs, and peanut butter. On Coming of Age Day I went to the archery tourney I read about, but nobody was there, so I went downtown, only saw a couple girls in kimono (which were pretty, but there weren't enough of em), so I went back home. Where I read 550 pages of Angels and Demons in one night. Keith lent it to me, I liked it better than Da Vinci Code. Though it felt like the author was plagiarizing his own material... the structure of both books was almost identical. Gonna go teach myself to snowboard hopefully this Saturday, then got the Killers concert on Monday.
I wish I was surfing right now...
I've got a hunger, twisting my stomach into knots
That my tongue is tied off
my brain's repeating, "If you've got an impulse let it out"
But they never make it past my mouth
Our youth is fleeting, old age is just around the bend
I can't wait to go grey...
I'll sit and wonder, of every love that could've been
If i'd only thought of something charming to say...
This is the sound of settling...
For some odd reason, every time I'm in a meeting, I end up wishing I was Gambit (X-Men). I dunno why Gambit specifically, maybe it's cause I have my pencil in my hand and a strong desire to throw it at something, or perhaps someone. If I were Gambit, I could charge it up, throw it at the lights, and end the meeting early, yay!
Last week I had 3 hours of meetings in a row on Thursday, followed by 2 days in a row of Accordion Afternoons...
In other news, another one of the Prophecies of Link have come true! Byron encountered Mr. Dictionary on the weekend. I burst out laughing when Byron told me... nearly every white intern at the company has been caught by the guy now, always asking us to edit his dictionary. If Byron read my blog, he'd have been prepared for it!
Last last night I dreamt that I was looking for a washroom in Egypt, and eventually that my friend had a sarcophagus in his house. This apparently means that the friend I dreamt about is keeping secrets from me... I'm watching you! I can't remember what I dreamt last night, but it was even weirder.
I applied for 19 summer internships at 7 companies yesterday. Though to be fair, one company offered the same job 6 times (I suppose they need 6 people), so I applied to the same job 6 times ><.
And I already recieved a rejection letter from IBM's Extreme Blue program!! Hurray! Though I think it was an auto-mail from the US program, likely because I'd need sponsorship to work in the States, and they don't wanna do the paperwork.
If anyone has any suggestions for companies to apply for, anywhere in Canada, let me know... I got a few more companies to apply to, and if nothing, I'll probably consider alternate plans for the summer.
Weekend was extremely exciting, I went shopping, bought some clothes, souvenirs, and peanut butter. On Coming of Age Day I went to the archery tourney I read about, but nobody was there, so I went downtown, only saw a couple girls in kimono (which were pretty, but there weren't enough of em), so I went back home. Where I read 550 pages of Angels and Demons in one night. Keith lent it to me, I liked it better than Da Vinci Code. Though it felt like the author was plagiarizing his own material... the structure of both books was almost identical. Gonna go teach myself to snowboard hopefully this Saturday, then got the Killers concert on Monday.
I wish I was surfing right now...
Saturday, January 06, 2007
I Refuse to Answer that Question on the Grounds that I Don't Know the Answer.
I wish the world was flat like the old days
Then I could travel just by folding a map
No more airplanes, or speedtrains, or freeways
There'd be no distance that can hold us back.
So this is the new year…
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.
Ok, dream diary time, just to scare everyone off now that my post is almost over. Correction, scare everyone off that is still reading after the Japan TV section. I had a few very vivid dreams over the holiday. The first involved my friends on a roller coaster… one managed to get out of his safety device and onto the track, then was using his ninja running and jumping skills to chase the coaster car to try to get back in before it went down the hill. Only he failed, and managed to derail the coaster, and we all fell in the river below.
In the second dream I was a reporter, and the producers of the Daily Show promised an advance copy of America: The Book to the reporter who could best tell them why we must “put an end to celestial violence”. Now I don’t have any clue what this dream means, but you gotta admit, celestial violence would make a good name for a rock band.
The day before the third dream, we discussed whether there were lockers in Beppu Station. That night, I dreamt that we did find lockers, and then the next day, my dream turned out to be true. I think it was a premonition, let it be known that I am psychic.
The fourth dream was creepy… it involved: Killer bees (“No! No Bees!”), the monster from Lost (though this coulda been the same as the bees), a dead body (this definitely came from Dan Brown’s book, Angels and Demons, which I was reading before I went to bed), the evil man-eating plant thing from the safari game we played in Fukuoka, and I also remember a bag of bananas, a street vendor, something about Harry Potter, and a red high heeled shoe.
Any dream interpreters out there? I need serious help.
I wish the world was flat like the old days
Then I could travel just by folding a map
No more airplanes, or speedtrains, or freeways
There'd be no distance that can hold us back.
So this is the new year…
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.
Ok, dream diary time, just to scare everyone off now that my post is almost over. Correction, scare everyone off that is still reading after the Japan TV section. I had a few very vivid dreams over the holiday. The first involved my friends on a roller coaster… one managed to get out of his safety device and onto the track, then was using his ninja running and jumping skills to chase the coaster car to try to get back in before it went down the hill. Only he failed, and managed to derail the coaster, and we all fell in the river below.
In the second dream I was a reporter, and the producers of the Daily Show promised an advance copy of America: The Book to the reporter who could best tell them why we must “put an end to celestial violence”. Now I don’t have any clue what this dream means, but you gotta admit, celestial violence would make a good name for a rock band.
The day before the third dream, we discussed whether there were lockers in Beppu Station. That night, I dreamt that we did find lockers, and then the next day, my dream turned out to be true. I think it was a premonition, let it be known that I am psychic.
The fourth dream was creepy… it involved: Killer bees (“No! No Bees!”), the monster from Lost (though this coulda been the same as the bees), a dead body (this definitely came from Dan Brown’s book, Angels and Demons, which I was reading before I went to bed), the evil man-eating plant thing from the safari game we played in Fukuoka, and I also remember a bag of bananas, a street vendor, something about Harry Potter, and a red high heeled shoe.
Any dream interpreters out there? I need serious help.
Friday, January 05, 2007
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
Note to Readers: This post is a week late; I wrote it last Thursday, and parts may not be relevant anymore, but may still be amusing. I especially like the bit about the horse. Also important to note is that my webalbum has my pictures up for my Kyushu trip, and my New Years blog will be up… by Monday at the latest.
Second Note to Readers: This thar be my 50th blog! That thar be half of a hunnerd, arrrrr! Congrats to me, avast!
Oooh, last day before a full week off of work, yay! And that makes it desk cleaning day too. Which is probably good, I got teeth coming out of my ears! Well… not MY teeth… and not literally, thank goodness. But there are still a substantial number of teeth on and in my desk. As well as the collection of post it notes from work people that I’ve been saving since July. Pieces of wire, ear wax, and other fancy stuff. Well, fine, no ear wax, but there’s a bit of peeled skin in my drawer from the week of pain following Okinawa >< gross. Ooh, my learning objectives sheet! Excel graphs: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, and billions of food coupons. I gotta spend those. Holy crap there's a lot! Well, my hands are now black from all the dust in/around/under my computer. Sandpaper?!? When did I ever use sandpaper!? Rusty Kleenex, interesting… But this is a good example of Japanese office telepathy in action, everyone starts cleaning at exactly the same time!
And now back to work.
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.
Still busy planning my post-Japan life, job searching for this summer and even looking at the school year and summer beyond. Applied for few more jobs this week, I wish I knew when they were hiring though. And if nothing else comes up, I’m considering doing a working holiday in Australia for 3 months in the summer! If anyone knows anything about working holidays… or Australia… or the cane toads that are taking over the north… let me know!
So yeah, no more blogs till probably Jan 7 or so, but there’ll be a big update then with tons of pictures yay! Happy New Year everyone!
Note to Readers: This post is a week late; I wrote it last Thursday, and parts may not be relevant anymore, but may still be amusing. I especially like the bit about the horse. Also important to note is that my webalbum has my pictures up for my Kyushu trip, and my New Years blog will be up… by Monday at the latest.
Second Note to Readers: This thar be my 50th blog! That thar be half of a hunnerd, arrrrr! Congrats to me, avast!
Oooh, last day before a full week off of work, yay! And that makes it desk cleaning day too. Which is probably good, I got teeth coming out of my ears! Well… not MY teeth… and not literally, thank goodness. But there are still a substantial number of teeth on and in my desk. As well as the collection of post it notes from work people that I’ve been saving since July. Pieces of wire, ear wax, and other fancy stuff. Well, fine, no ear wax, but there’s a bit of peeled skin in my drawer from the week of pain following Okinawa >< gross. Ooh, my learning objectives sheet! Excel graphs: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, and billions of food coupons. I gotta spend those. Holy crap there's a lot! Well, my hands are now black from all the dust in/around/under my computer. Sandpaper?!? When did I ever use sandpaper!? Rusty Kleenex, interesting… But this is a good example of Japanese office telepathy in action, everyone starts cleaning at exactly the same time!
And now back to work.
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.
Still busy planning my post-Japan life, job searching for this summer and even looking at the school year and summer beyond. Applied for few more jobs this week, I wish I knew when they were hiring though. And if nothing else comes up, I’m considering doing a working holiday in Australia for 3 months in the summer! If anyone knows anything about working holidays… or Australia… or the cane toads that are taking over the north… let me know!
So yeah, no more blogs till probably Jan 7 or so, but there’ll be a big update then with tons of pictures yay! Happy New Year everyone!
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