Let's Agree to Respect Each Others' Views, No Matter How Wrong Yours May Be

"End? No, the journey doesn't end here. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass...
"... And then you see it. White shores... and beyond. A far green country, under a swift sunrise."
"Well, that isn't so bad."
"No... no it isn't."
- Tolkien

My little rant for today... I found out my work schedule for next year. It turns out that my New Year's holiday stretches from Dec 29 to January 4. This is all well and good, although I still need to plan what to do (besides construct my igloo)... However...

I will never understand Japanese business. The holiday ends on the 4th, a Thursday, then we have to work on the Friday AND Saturday, then we get the Sunday AND Monday off. So they could have given us a nine day vacation and made us work Sunday... aah well.

In addition, I haven't had much to do this week. My boss has barely been around, and the assignments I'm working on require the work of other people first. Which means I've been following the election, coding AI for my robotank, and learning about cacti.

I went to the Fire Festival at Fushimi-Inari on Wednesday night. We missed the fire ritual at 2pm, but there was one part that started at 6. Unfortunately, big dud, there's no way to describe it except incredibly boring. Then we heard shouting/chanting nearby, decided to check it out, it had to be more exciting than what we were watching. Only once we started looking for it, we couldn't hear it anymore, aarrgh. So we left and got all you can eat yakiniku.

PS3 comes out tomorrow apparently! I should go check out the lineups tonight, see how crazy they are! The price of it seems a bit excessive for me (though I guess I could sell it... for millions of yen!), and besides, I don't want one till FFXIII comes out! I have my priorities! And I'm kinda a geek... ><

And Dems victorious... barely... in the US. As Dan Rather would say, the race was "As ugly as a hog lagoon after a bachelor party." Now we'll see if any changes are made, but Rumsfeld gone is probably a good start. The most important news story of the day, which was on the front page of MSNBC... Why not to insert a firecracker into your rectum and light it. It's a worse idea than designing a bra that can be transformed into a shopping bag. Aah, the news is so entertaining at work. And people wonder why I don't drink...

Beware, the French-Chinese are trying to take over Hawaii. That is all.

Homicidal Psycho Jungle Monkeys!!!

Been waiting to use that title ever since I found out there was a monkey park!

Once again I'm late on the blog, my sincerest apologies. Busy busy, what with studying, weekend activities, going to the gym...

Week and a half ago I went to the World Dental Show in Yokohama. The trip by shinkansen was of course covered by the company, which is by far the best way to travel. The show was interesting/gross. I got to see the different products my company and its competitors make, which was good. There's some fancy dental equipment that my dentist sure doesn't have. Panoramic X-rays machines that create a 3-D image on the computer, some very hi tech dental chairs, very cool stuff. One display showed off their product using Asimo! Which was neato! Of course some displays were a little gross, with videos of some very invasive dental operations... mmm... Having no place to stay in Tokyo, I just headed home afterwards...

That week Tuesday, I went with Dave to the Arashiyama Monkey Park! Monkeys! The monkeys aren't caged, they can go wherever they want! At the top you can go inside the house/cage and buy bananas/apples/peanuts and feed the monkeys from inside.

The park was excellent, but I hear it's even better in the fall (it's not fall here yet) when the leaves change... good thing I plan to go back with the CJP gang!

After the monkey park we went downtown, Dave showed me some cool stores I had overlooked... clothing stores, foreign food stores, anime stores, you know... stores! This of course means that I found peanut butter. This is good for two reasons. It tastes good. It's very fattening. In fact, since I bought the peanut butter, I've gained another 2 pounds! Coincidence? Probably, since the PB container's only 350g, but it helped.

This weekend I went down to Wakayama again for some JJs and wakeboarding action! The Wakayama JJs has basketball and soccer on the roof, unfortunately it's pretty run down, one hoop was torn off, the other is bent. Also played some vid games and pool. On Saturday me and Keith went with two girls from his work wakeboarding... in the river... in October. My history on boarding... never skateboarded, never snowboarded, and have no balance! And wakeboarding I went last summer, managed to get up my first time, and fell over promptly 2 seconds later. But this time I managed to get up and stay up for a while. No tricks though... but that can come later. Keith was really good! Jumps, turns, etc... showoff! Pictures of monkeys and wakeboarding on my webalbum.

That brings the total water sports count to 7! Wakeboarding, surfing, windsurfing, kayaking, scuba diving, skimboarding, and snorkeling! That's more activities than the nine years I spent in Calgary... too bad we didn't go rafting here too.

If heaven and hell decide that they both are satisfied...
Illuminate the "No"s on their vacancy signs
If there's no one beside you when your soul embarks
I will follow you into the dark...

On the weekend I had a strange dream... it was the apocalypse and everyone died and heaven got full... so everyone got sent to hell! Which of course meant big lineups and crowding down there... The weird thing was that it was in the style of the Simpsons, it was as if a Treehouse of Horror episode was being broadcast to my head while I was asleep. If this ever becomes a real Simpsons episode, let this be evidence that I am indeed psychic.

Edit: South Park Already Did It
Since it's been years and years since I've seen the South Park movie, I forgot that Kenny gets rejected from Heaven since the population has reached maximum (1500 souls)... However there was no apocalypse, or rioting in hell, so it could still happen.

This One's Tricky... You Have to Use Imaginary Numbers, Like Eleventeen.

When I counted up my demons
Saw there was one for every day
With the good ones on my shoulder
I drove the other ones away

So if you ever feel neglected
If you think that all is lost
I'll be countin up my demons
Singin everything's not lost

Where to begin…

Well, it’s been two whole weeks since my last blog. The most important thing to note is that today marks my 100th day in Japan! Huzzah! Go me!

I’ll keep this short since there’s not a lot to cover. Two weekends ago I went up to Wakayama on the Friday night, then me and Keith went surfing! The weather was great this time, very sunny, but the waves were a little weak. But I did a lot better, could stand up on the board a lot easier this time. I’m really hoping that the weather stays warm so I can go again, but with plans this weekend and SUUUUMMMOOOO next weekend, it may be a few weeks before I even have time to go again…

Last weekend I did something quite cool (and similar)… Tongxin and I went down on the Friday night to Wakayama (déjà vu? Maybe yes). Stayed up late with Keith and one of Keith’s coworkers, playing cards and Tongxin demonstrating magic tricks, and going to eat ramen at 3:30 in the morning. The next day we went down to Marine City to the beach. We rented 2 windsurfing boards!

Windsurfing is quite fun, I wasn’t very good. It’s difficult to get up, since you have to balance on the board while pulling the sail up. And unfortunately it wasn’t too windy again, so we didn’t go too fast, but it was still good. Spent time playing Frisbee and stuff too.

Pictures of Wakayama on my webalbum: http://picasaweb.google.com/keidan.link

Joined the gym nearby, it’s a fortune, 89 bucks a month. But may be worth it. They also have martial arts classes, I’m considering joining. I know some people will be laughing at me: “Haha, Link, buff? Yeah right!”. And others may think “Aww, Brett, that’s so cute ^^”; Either way I can’t win…

Work’s going quite well this week. I’m doing PCB design work, on quite a big complicated project, and I’ve never done PCB design before. I believe you are supposed to have some practice in this field before attempting any serious projects, but what can you do? Not to mention the program is in Japanese, so pressing buttons often yields (bad and good) surprises. I keep having to restart, cause it turns out very messy, but it’s good practice. Also, I have no project requirements. In Japan, they give you vague details, you do the project, then they tell you what they want and you start all over again. Least that’s what I gather from my company.

My manager also wanted me to check over my calculations on an electrical circuit today, since the numbers were a little weird… so I had to explain to him, using trigonometry and complex (imaginary) numbers, why the calculations were the way they were. It was a bit difficult and a bit awkward, but I think he understood in the end (but I really have no idea what anyone thinks over here).

Went with Dave to a nearby restaurant (where he knows the owners) and had some okonomiyaki while we chatted with the people there. They were really nice but they thought I was both quiet (no way! Someone thinks Link is quiet?!?)… like a cat apparently, and that I looked younger than 21… (no way! Someone thinks Link looks young?!?)… cause I didn’t get enough of that back in Calgary ><.

Other random happenings in my life:

Been reading a lot, just finished Nineteen Eighty Four, which was very interesting. Now I’m into a book about a horse in a college bathroom, an Electric Monk (in case you don’t have enough time to believe in things yourself, you can buy an Electric Monk to do your believing for you), and a mysterious couch that got itself stuck in a staircase. It’s a very good book.

Also been watching Fullmetal Alchemist, which is one of the best anime series I have seen. Quite handy with my level of Japanese, since I can catch more words and learn new ones, and practice my listening comprehension.

Speaking of Japanese level, I’ve decided to take the Japanese Language Proficiency Test… the main reason to take the test… just to give me more motivation to study and improve my language. Some days after work all you wanna do is chill out and watch TV. And a certificate proving your language ability never hurt anyone either.

Gotta go to bed now, Friday approaches soon…

The Problem With the French is that They Don’t Have a Word for Entrepreneur

I must have been distracted when I left my home because
Left or right I'm sure I went. (I wonder which it was!)
Anyway, I never veered: I walked in that direction
Utterly absorbed, it seems, in quiet introspection.

Quick summary of the week before Obon. Byron arrived August 3rd, and I went for dinner with him and his boss and coworker. We went to quite a nice restaurant nearby, where we had big slabs of beef sashimi. Omoshiroi, yes, ooishi, maybe no. (Interesting, but not tasty). I spent most of the weekend with Byron, explaining rules and showing him around. I tok him to all you can eat yakiniku on Friday, I ate more than him except for the cow stomach, which is gross. Also had pig cheek, which is very fatty. Saturday we explored Kyoto Station, downtown, and Toji Temple, then we traveled to Osaka, met Tongxin, Mark, and 2 girls (one foreigner) that we met at the train station.

Fireworks!!! They were amazing! Some of the best I’ve seen, and lasted long too, nearly an hour. The place was incredibly busy, with people nearly as far as you could see (though it was dark so…). Took about 45 minutes to walk a distance of 100m to the train station o.O.
Work was decent that week. I actually made some real progress improving George’s code, it works a lot nicer now. I think I’ll have a work related section later on in this post (Turns out no, maybe next post) , so… onto Okinawa!

Okinawa was awesome! There, got that outta the way. I put some of the best pictures on the bottom of this post, and there’s more at http://picasaweb.google.com/keidan.link I also uploaded about 100 more pictures recently and organized them all into nice neat piles. Some of the pictures have been on my blog before, but a lot of new ones too. Check em out, and leave comments if you want. Also, thanks everyone for the excellent comments on my blog. Some were maybe a bit subtle, but they all made me laugh, which is a good thing.

Ok, onto Okinawa (attempt 2!) To start, I told you deer were creepy! Almost as creepy as the miniature ponies that would give wagon rides during Stampede outside where I worked the past 3 summers. Thanks a lot Stacie for reminding me!

So yeah, Last Friday, the night before our flight, I met up with Keith for Nara’s candle festival. We got take-out food (with extra rice ><) and ate it near the pond near the deer park. After finishing we went to look for the main candle area. Apparently there is supposed to be a whole field of candles, like in the pictures, but we only found small paths of candles (which were quickly being extinguished and removed). Anton told us after that we didn’t go far enough, the main area was closer to Todaiji. Aah, well.

But yeah, I had a run in with a deer. I was carrying a plastic bag with the remains of the take out food when a deer sneak attacked me from behind! He ripped open the bag, spilling rice and garbage everywhere, and everyone laughed at me, and I laughed at me hardest. Told you they were creepy.

We went to Anton’s after, since our flight was semi-early the next day and we figured it would make most sense to travel to the airport together. So we spent a few hours talking, and me and Keith and a very involved game of War, in which after half an hour we were still quite even. I won after stealing all the cards when Keith wasn't looking.

Woke up the next day, and after having breakfast at the usual place, we took a 2 hour train ride to Kobe airport. Kobe seemed like a nice place judging by the limited view we had from the train, and the airport was very modern and new and clean. The flight to Okinawa was great, first class. Lots of legroom and big armrests. A cool thing about Japanese airlines is they have cameras in the front of the plane, so you can watch during takeoffs and landings. On the return flight there was of course, a Pokemon episode playing on the TVs, followed by a 20 minute instructional video on exercises you can do on the plane. How handy…

If Your Shoulders Aren’t Red by the End of the Day, You Ought to Seriously Re-examine Your Life

Being grown up isn’t half as fun as growing up
These are the best days of our lives.
The only thing that matters
Is just following your heart
And eventually you’ll finally get it right.

Ok, finally, onto Okinawa (attempt 3!) I guess this would be a good place to describe what/where/how Okinawa is… which brings us to tonight’s WØRD:

Okinawa

Okinawa is a tiny little island chain off the southern edge of Japan [It’s only 1000km long].

It’s pretty tropical, with palm trees and coral reefs [with sea urchins with foot long spikes!].

There’s a large American presence there, which is important! Bringing freedom to Japan!!! [Yes, exactly what they’re doing…].

The US was in control of Okinawa until 1972, but still has a large military force there, just in case the Japanese get outta hand! [Hmm… more likely that the Americans will].

But get this! Okinawa just loooooves to make contradictions! Native Okinawans have the longest life expectancy in the world, with men living on average 90.1 years, and women living 93.2 [Key Words: Native Okinawans]

And yet the island is having a big problem with obesity! A report just published today shows that the percentage of overweight men in okinawa has risen 5% in the past 6 years to 29%, and in Naha, the capital, 45.4% of men in their 40s and 50s are obese! How could this be? [Hmm… It couldn’t be the Americans with their A&W, or the excessive consumption of alcohol, could it?!]

And how can there be such beautiful beaches and water with such dangerous jellyfish [I shall name him Squishy and he shall be mine...] and sea urchins and scorpionfish in the water?! [Must be mother nature telling us to stay the heck out... what an environmentalist She is!].

Okinawa is kinda like ghetto Hawaii [in all ways but price]. It's got the beautiful beaches sure [but not enough of them], but a lot of the buildings and roads are old and decrepit, and who wants to live next to an army base? [Once again, probably not the Japanese].

And at the same time, it reminds me of a ghetto Las Vegas! Pachinko parlours, hotels with miniaturized historical landmarks [Pyramids, Arc de Triumphe, etc] outside. Light up Palm Trees! How tacky! [Gambling's not even legal!]

And I don’t know how to end this in a humorous way [Link = not smrt enough], so that’s tonight’s WØRD.

That was fun! I love using excessive brackets as it is, I should write in that style more often… in fact, I could make my own recurring segments in my blog. First there could be "Old Man in Japan", and "Brett vs the Bugs" (both self explanatory), then something to do with the daily poem/song that’s already in my blog. If anyone has any other suggestions, leave a comment, I’ll give you credit if I use it (and even if I don’t if it’s a bad enough idea).

So we arrived late afternoon on Saturday, took about 40-45 minutes to get to our hotel. Quite a nice hotel, got a balcony, 2 beds and a pull-out, a TV, fridge, and safe. The hotel had a few restaurants and a lounge and a spa. Keith and Anton wanted massages, but by the time they were ready for one, they were no longer ready… I don’t want to think how painful a massage would be with sunburns like ours. There was also a pool in the hotel, which we went to the first night, which was fun. The restaurant wasn’t that great for dinner. I got steak, which was good, but the veggies that came with weren’t that great (or warm) and the fries were very very soggy. We tried looking for a nightclub or something afterwards, but only found karaoke and hostess bars. Instead we went to play pool for a bit, then headed back to the hotel.

Mmm… buffet breakfast. We went every day, they had pancakes, we got laughed at. Everyone else took one or 2, we’d take 4-5 and go back for seconds or thirds. Other interesting things on the menu… the soggy soggy french fries, and Spam (which was bad even for Spam, according to Keith). But the pancakes and pineapple made up for it.

That day we went to the beach and were a little disappointed. Because of jellyfish, the total swimming area was not a lot bigger than a large swimming pool. And the water wasn’t clear at all. And Keith stole my sandals. So we rented ocean kayaks for an hour and had fun paddling in the clearer nicer water. A storm was coming in, so they were clearing the water, which was when we left.

Went to another beach, kinda run by a family or maybe the homes nearby. We rented some snorkels and went in the water. Some very very cool things in there, sea urchins with foot long spikes, and others with half inch spikes, plus schools of fish zipping past us as we swam. Went for dinner at a local restaurant, and I used the tried and true method of pointing randomly at an Okinawan specialty. Turned out not too too bad, it was a dish of three kinds of fish in a spinach salad. Not really my thing, but least I could eat it.

Second full day was scuba day!!! We met the shuttle in the lobby at 8am, took a half hour shuttle ride to the dock, then filled out forms and got on the boat. About 5 crew, maybe 10 guests on the boat. The boat ride was probably around an hour and a half. We got to sit at the front, which bounced up and down quite a bit with the waves. It was fun, and the view was amazing!

The scuba diving was great! A bit short, only lasted a half hour. The water was maybe 20 feet deep, but you could see the bottom from the boat, so clear! Us three went down with two guides, saw cool coral, schools of tropical fish, and most importantly, Nemo in his anemone!!! Sooo cool. Spend another few hours snorkeling and swimming, Anton was diving from the top of the boat. Swam to the beach and Keith and Anton were nice enough to bury me in sand so I could barely get out. They deserve to be poked. A picture’s worth a thousand words, so instead of trying to describe how beautiful it was, check out my web album.

On the way back we were in the front of the boat again, no shade either… so by the end we were all very sunburnt. Even as I type this I am shedding excessively. I've been peeling nastily since friday, and haven't stopped yet. My entire arms, face, hands, back, shoulders, neck, and feet have peeled. Half my lower back to go, and my legs just started peeling tonight. Gross.

Commander Coriander Salamander and ‘er Singlehander Bellylander

The last full day, Tuesday, was tourist day! We spent the day at the main tourist street in Okinawa. Along with omiyage, I bought a nice sharktooth necklace for myself, Anton got a super cool (and informative) T-shirt, and Keith bought snake alcohol, crazy guy. We stopped for ice cream, and Anton got a goya (bitter melon) float, which was one of the worst things I have ever tasted. I’d rather eat cow stomach, and you can quote me!

We had yakiniku for dinner, then around ten we went to a nightclub nearby, called Re-Green (odd, yes). When we entered, there were a whole three visible customers besides us. Yet the music (oh, the music! Mostly 80s and early 90s, like George Michael and stuff. The most recent song we heard was a remix of Men in Black… if only I couldn’t remember ><. And that movie came out in 97) and the smoke machine were both going full blast. We stayed around for 2 reasons: 1) We paid 15 bucks to get in, and 2) The staff said the place gets busy after midnight.

Now you’re all probably in suspense about whether the staff were honest or not. Stress and nervous tension are now serious social problems in all parts of the world, and it is in order that this situation should not in any way be exacerbated that the following facts will now be revealed in advance:

They were lying.
I (unfortunately) did not drink.
The girl I danced with showed me her scar.

In order that some sense of mystery should still be preserved, no revelation will yet be made concerning the location of the scar.

Thanks Mr Douglas Adams… so yeah, the music was really bad, but for 15 bucks, you could get unlimited pop, rum and cokes, or screwdrivers. I sure got my money’s worth, ordering one whole coke. And the screwdrivers apparently sucked, as they were made with orange drink, not orange juice. People slowly started trickling in, one guy was sure getting his funk on (solo), dancing pretty crazily, in the dark, by himself. Later a group of guys came in, and were dancing awfully weirdly and close together, causing us to question which orientation the club caters to. Not to mention both (as in there were only two) girls on the dance floor were dancing together and/or with the wall. And of course the music…

So maximum attendance that night… maybe just over a dozen people… We went on the dance floor for a bit, there were the two wall dancer girls, and another girl as well. The new girl started dancing with me and Keith, and she took us (separately) over to the bar to show us a large, maybe 2 inch scar, on her foot, then brought us back to the dance floor. "Time to go now" we said… So we left, trying to decide where to go.

There was another club across the street that looked shadier than Re-Green, and a nicer one down the street, but it charged $25 for cover, and it was already nearing 2am… so back to the hotel.

Not much left to write about… went home the next morning, and met two girls that stayed at the same hotel as us at the airport. We invited them for lunch, which was quite nice, got to practice Japanese a bit. I didn’t say much, but I could understand the entire conversation, so… Maybe I’m better at Japanese than I think, I just gotta get the courage to actually try speaking… but I’m even more shy trying to speak Japanese than I am trying to speak english back home.

So all in all, Okinawa was great. The scuba diving was the highlight of course, but everything else was either totally cool dudes, or overly interesting. Too overly maybe... Thanks to Keith for all the planning, and thanks to Anton to slapping me on the back when I had a sunburn!

Nothing else really happened since… work was kinda boring again, today I was given my next task with absolutely no information on how to go about it, no requirements, nothing… it’s the weirdest thing. So I’ll ask him tomorrow if he’s around.

Sounds like I missed a lot last weekend. The CJP crew climbed Fuji-san. I hear mixed reviews, Fuji-Q Highland was really good but long lineups, the climb was cold and difficult and the sunset may or may not have been worth it. I had work on Saturday, and was a bit low on funds after Okinawa, so I decided to skip out. And back home in Calgary, I missed a cabin party. You shoulda waited till April when I got back! Who else would stay sober and remind you of all the stupid stuff you did?! Who’s gonna tell you that yes, blood does indeed stain carpet?! /sigh.

And yes, another round of... Brett vs the Bugs!!! Last week I had an infestation of a different sort... cockroaches. I was sitting at my computer at about one at night when I feel something crawling on my leg... mmmm... so after panicking and shaking it off, it scurried away! After searching frantically for a whole 15 minutes, I found it under my desk. Taking decisive action I barricaded it in with books, then checked on the internet how long it can survive without food or water... "Needs water daily", Perfect! After coming back from Okinawa, I look under my desk to see if he's alive... and he's not there... where did he go? Is he dead? Maybe he's planning his next attack even as i type thAAAAAAAHHHHH!

As You Gain Experience, You'll Realize That All Logical Questions are Considered Insubordination

So you don't know where you're going but you want to talk
And you feel like you're going where you've been before
You'll tell anyone who will listen but you feel ignored
Nothing's really making any sense at all…

Mondays are difficult. Let me explain:

Imagine you’re 8 years old and your parents are having a dinner party… everyone’s dressed fancy and talking with big complex words and you can’t understand anything. After standing around bored for 2 hours, someone asks you a question, and everyone goes silent and turns to look at you, expecting an intelligent answer…

Or perhaps another example… Imagine being handcuffed to a chair, being forced to watch Ultraviolet in Portuguese, followed immediately by The Horse Whisperer in French.

Anyway, it’s not fun, but unavoidable I guess. 2+ hour meetings, all in Japanese. But it’s better than Friday afternoons… I still can’t tune out that evil evil accordion music.

I’ve been studying lots for Japanese, but while I know the rules, it’s hard to actually put em to use. I’m thinkin a good idea is to get some Japanese Manga (graphic novels) and practice that way, learning sentence structure, etc. I need to work on vocab too. I’ll get better eventually I hope, I still got 9 months to practice.

Work’s been going a bit better though. They have me working with tooth impedance and I feel semi useful. It didn’t take me long to do the work, so I killed some time by making a fancy excel spreadsheet, which got mad at me when I tried to input a formula that was waaay too big for it. I don’t blame it, the formula looked like the Horrendous Space Kablooie. And then I showed my supervisor who thought the numbers it generated were too low, even though I explained to him that I chose example numbers at random since nobody gave me actual values yet. Maybe tomorrow…

Edit: Got the data myself after confusing the guy next to me, and it seems to work in my table. My supervisor thinks there may be a problem with the calculations/data, some of the numbers weren’t what he expected. But they do match my calculations, and I’ve quadruple checked my calculations, so… I was supposed to meet with him to discuss the data, but we all know what happened there.

Oh yeah, apparently the guy who’s been directing my main project quit over a week and a half ago. Which explains why I’ve seen him once in the past three weeks. But it doesn’t explain why I still haven’t been told he quit! What the heck do I do now? Gah!

Hmm… have I described my office yet? There’s lots of buildings at my work, including a sales office, the R&D building (where I am), and various factory buildings where the manufacturing takes place. The cafeteria/main factory building looks kinda like an old firehouse, all red brick. Like a normal Japanese office, everything is quite wide open, no cubicles or anything. Which actually makes it seem way more cluttered; you are able to see papers and binders and files piling up everywhere. I’m in the project area, off to the side a bit, which is nice. But it does mean I can be easily forgotten about. And I’ve already discussed the music in my office o.O.

Pirates are cool.

You lucky bums get to see Dead Man’s Chest two weeks before I do. I’m jealous. The Kraken looks awesome.

I guess I should talk about my weekend at some point… On Friday I had my welcoming party. My section at work went out for Okonomiyaki, it was quite good. Afterwards the younger ones in our party went to a nearby bar where we met up with the some of the other guys from the company. Quite a nice little bar, we had a room at the back to ourselves, where we sat on the floor by a low table of course. I couldn’t understand much of what was going on, but it was still pretty fun. Nice to see my coworkers outside of work, makes me feel I can relate to them a bit more. And I’m very glad about the lack of Karaoke!

Saturday was supposed to be a sleep day, but Vincent, Boon-hau and Tongxin came down to Kyoto for the day, along with Boon-hau’s friend. We went for lunch at Kyoto Station. The actual train station seems to be a tertiary function of the station. The primary function, is of course, shopping. The escalator goes up 11 floors, with nearly everything you could imagine… tons and tons of clothes, a floor just for sweets and gifts, a supermarket in one of the two basements... The top floor is all restaurants. The secondary function is as a tourist attraction. From the top of the station you can see the entire southern half of Kyoto, perhaps the northern half too, I didn’t explore enough, but it’s pretty cool. Next time I’m there I’ll take photos. And then, I guess, it’s also a train station… A fair number of foreigners around Kyoto Station too, but I guess that can be expected.

After lunch we took the bus to the Golden Temple. Quite pretty, but long bus ride. Slow too… for the first half hour we coulda walked faster than the bus. The temple itself is covered in gold leaf, so it’s quite neat. The area around the temple was nice too, lots of trees and a little lake. But the area felt too much like a tourist trap I think, there were nearly more foreigners than Japanese there. I enjoyed Fushimi Inari much more.

We headed towards Silver Temple after that, but unfortunately it was closed when we got there. Tongxin bought 2 cheap flute thingys from a vendor and we toured down Philosopher’s Walk for a little bit. After we went to Gion, and I left the group just before dinner. I was going to meet David at the pub where he hangs out, but I was a bit delayed…

Two minutes after I left the group, an older man (yes, apparently it’s not just Anton with the OMLGP) starts talking to me. He asks where I’m from, how long I’ve been in Japan, then says he’s an English professor, and he’s writing a Japanese-English dictionary. He then gives me a handful of pages of his dictionary and asks me to proofread them… on the street… on a busy street… on a Saturday night… I’m too polite for my own good, I read a few pages, gave him a suggestion or two, then said I had to go, I was running late.

Now, you’re probably thinking this is rather odd (almost on par with some of my other experiences), but I was completely prepared for this, and the coincidence of it nearly made me burst out laughing. Dave had told me earlier that he had had two encounters with the same guy years earlier, who asked him to proofread pages both times. And another past intern at my company has met him too! So Byron, be prepared! He’ll be lurking, waiting for you.

Last night I had the strangest dream…
Where everything was exactly how it seemed…

Before I forget, why not turn my blog into a dream diary! And by that I mean, let’s annoy you all with the insanity that goes on in my head every night. So I was sleeping outside (in my dream), I forgot why, maybe I missed curfew and got locked out. When I woke up I was being eaten by tick beetles (an imaginary bug, think tiny beetles that dig under your skin and give you lime disease). Then I was outside a bar in England battling against O-ren Iishi from Kill Bill. And then I was concerned about the batteries I was chewing on. I thought maybe it wasn’t such a good idea. Then I realized, well, when you eat electronic devices you’re eating the batteries inside them too, and that works fine! So eating the batteries separately should work too, they’ll just join with the electronics in your stomach! That was the justification I remember in my dream.

Ok, take the blue pill and return to the Real World, Link. Don’t worry everyone, I’m ok now… until I go to sleep tonight. Dreams as weird as these are rather common for me, it makes sleeping rather interesting. But some nights the craziness is a bit overwhelming.

I’m surprised how normal it is to me that everyone (including my friends) calls me Link here. I mean, it’s a cool name and all, but the concept of being referred to by your last name takes a little adjusting. Though some of my friends forget that Link is not my first name… " ‘Link Brett Adam’… Adam? That’s a weird last name!" ><.

Oh yeah, Sunday I met up with Vincent and Anton at Kyoto Station. We were gonna go back to the dining bar nearby that I wrote about before, but unfortunately it was closed. So we went to a little ramen shop nearby. It was quite good, a little weird with the music from the 50’s playing…(once again, I was expecting to hear this kinda music in Japan. I really did my research before coming here). We went for dessert at a café, it was quite good as well, mmm aisu kokoa and chocolate cake. Explored Kyoto Station, and then Vincent had to take the bus home… Anton and I returned home as well.

What else can I write about? Hmm, bought a fancy new camera. It is half the width of my old one, and lighter too. Plus the screen is four times bigger and picture quality is much better. So now I have incentive to take more pictures, and Anton will be happy cause I won’t be stealing his all the time. I will also be setting up an album on Picasa, I'll let you know when it's up. So you'll get to see all the pics instead of just the ones on my blog.

My Alien Registration Card is ready, but the ward office closes before I get off work at night, so I gotta find a way to pick it up. Maybe I can make a mad dash during lunch.

I finished phase IV of the kitchen cleanup project. Phase I was the fridge, which had a healthy layer of grime on the inside. II was the garbage can, which we could smell from our dorm rooms. III was the dish drying rack. You’d assume that since clean dishes are going there, that it would be clean, and not have a nasty black coating on the bottom. You’d be wrong. IV was getting rid of the year of grease and miscellaneous foodstuffs on the stove, wall, pipes, shield for the pipes, and everywhere else. Byron owes me one. Maybe he can bring me candy from Canada. Maybe yes…

Reading the news this morning has made me a little bit uneasy. Missile test-fires very close to where I’m living can never be a good thing… I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens.

Anyway, another long blog so I should probably wrap it up…Further blog posts as events warrant. Farewell!

You’re Turning Into a Penguin. Stop It!

While lying on my back to make an angel in the snow,
I saw a greenish craft appear! A giant UFO!
A strange, unearthly hum it made! It hovered overhead!
And aliens were moving 'round in viewing ports glowing red!
I tried to run for cover, but a hook that they had low'r'd
Snagged me by my overcoat and hoisted me aboard!
Even then, I tried to fight, and though they numbered many,
I poked them in their compound eyes and pulled on their antennae!
It was no use! They dragged me to a platform, tied me up,
And wired to my cranium a fiendish suction cup!
They turned it on and current coursed across my cerebellum,
Coaxing things from my brain tissue, the things I wouldn't tell 'em!
All the math I ever learned, the numbers and equations,
Were mechanic'ly removed in this brain-draining operation!
My escape was an adventure. (I won't tell you what I did.)
But suffice to say, I cannot add, so ask some other kid.
- Watterson

Well, this blog entry is a bit special! Today, June 29, marks one month of being in Japan. That’s a pretty long time. I should get presents.

I do get something though… it took a month, but my welcoming party is on Friday. This means I’m likely gonna have to sing some karaoke. I hate singing. I dunno how much they have for English songs, but does anyone have song suggestions for me, besides the very obvious choice? Uh huh! Uh huh! The kinda bad thing about the welcoming party is that Saturday is Canada Day, and CJP was planning to meet in Tokyo at the Maple Leaf Pub… so it’s too bad I miss that, but on the other hand, I save some money, and get two days to sleep in.

Originally I was going to divide my blog into different topics, but I changed my mind. I’m gonna do my blog linearly in chronological order, but I should warn you now, I plan to go off on tangents a lot… it may be hard to differentiate between topics. I’ll also be integrating a lot of bad jokes, especially math ones, into my blog.

Yeah, work’s a bit boring. The person that is kinda directing my project has been away for all but one day in the past 2.5 weeks. And I did everything asked (I think), so I spend some of my time either learning Japanese online, or surfing Wikipedia. This week I read about game theory, space elevators, ravenous bugblatter beasts of traal, and somehow found my way to the lame mathematical jokes page while I was at it.

I’m hoping work improves, currently I know waaay too much about everything I’ve been asked to research and check. I seem to have been forgotten about too, my supervisor talked to me this morning asking to meet in the afternoon, between 3 and 4, then totally forgot, or got busy, or something… /sigh, maybe tomorrow. I keep hoping they give me a task with an actual goal, so I can start working and prove that I’m not completely useless (which may or may not be true). I’m actually hoping things improve after my welcoming party. I haven’t really seen my coworkers outside of work, maybe karaoke will help everyone become more social… which will lead to more contact with me… which will lead to more stuff to do?

Wow, the idea of going chronologically kinda went out the window. Let’s go back to last Friday. Nothing happened, I went home, and then slept in. Saturday I explored downtown a little bit, then spent the night studying Japanese. And then Sunday was a bit more of an adventure.

Ly says hi to all y’all CJPers in Japan. He’s a sexy [guy]! (Sorry Ly, there could be minors reading this).

Ok so Sunday, I meet up with Anton very early in Osaka, and we head south to Wakayama to visit Keith. It’s kind of a gray, rainy day. But we had fun anyway, cause Everything’s Free in Wakayama! We get off the train at Keith’s station with our 120-en tickets. We figured we’d fare adjust when we got there, only there was absolutely nobody at the train station. No fare adjust machine, and just a box to put your used ticket… So we meet up with Keith and start walking, and stopped by a little shrine. Anton talks to the lady there, who prints off some sheets (in English) about the shrine, as well as offers us free umbrellas, since they were left there by other visitors. Very nice of her.

So me and Anton hadn’t eaten yet, so we go to a burger place at Wakayama station. The place is called Lotteria, and is apparently known for its so-called "Straight Burgers". We each got some cheese straight burgers and received a bonus point for free stuff. Not as good as my bonus points, but a point is a point.

Oh yeah, changing the format of my blog a bit. Blogger’s a pain, and for some reason, whenever I try to upload my pictures directly it doesn’t work. So lately I’ve been hosting my pics (well, Anton’s mostly) on another site and linking them over, but as you could probably tell, the text and pictures don’t line up very well. So I’m gonna stick all the pictures at the bottom of each post, and you can click on them to see the big version. How Handy!

Back to the topic… we don’t really have a goal in mind, so we take a train to a small little fishing town/village/thing. We walk around the pier for a bit. They have really nasty bugs, cockroach-like, crawling everywhere. But it was nice to see the other side of the Pacific. Lots of fishermen on the pier too.

So we head back, and we see an onsen. Since Keith hasn’t been to one yet, we figure this would be a good opportunity. The onsen is basically on the roof of this building, and consists of only two baths! It’s way uncool compared to the one Uncle Masa took us to. But still ok I guess. Nearly everyone is basically heading out when we get there, so we got the baths to ourselves. The inside one was very hot, the outside one was a lot cooler, and quite nice with the rain again… As we get out, a big group starts coming in… I still don’t know if that was Gaijin Perimeter in action, but it’s possible…

Two other interesting points, one of the other men was smoking in the locker room. People smoke everywhere here, it’s very different from Calgary, where there’s tons of rules about it. Also, as we were leaving (and after we got dressed luckily), a cleaning lady comes into the locker room… while there’s naked guys inside… and where she can fully see the baths. I had read about this (Dave Barry again), but it’s still really weird to see.

Another tangent coming up, since I mentioned Dave Barry. Carin actually mentioned this at training week, I doubt anyone remembers, but here’s how to interpret what a Japanese person is saying and what they actually mean.

What They Say and What They Mean

	What They Say	What They Mean
	I see.	No.
	Ah.	No.
	Ah-hah.	No.
	Yes.	No.
	That is difficult.	That is completely impossible.
	That is very interesting.	That is the stupidest thing i ever heard.
	We will study your proposal.	We will feed your proposal to a goat.

Ok, back on topic. We go for lunch at a very Japanese restaurant. We order different kinds of fish, mine was rather sweet surprisingly. We also got mochi udon, which was pretty good, but a lot of food for me. I gave some away. Then we went exploring in the rain, walked for a good 20 minutes, hit a dead end, and walked all the way back. We took the train back to Wakayama and wander around a bit more. Eventually we go for dinner at a Chinese place, and then get lost on the way back to the train station. We arrive just in time to get our train, and take a long, uneventful ride home… I think I’m missing a lot, but I can’t remember. I had fun though.

Oh yeah, we passed by a beach with surfing while we were on the train. I definitely want to try that out this summer.

I Never Made a Mistake in My Life. I Thought I Did Once, but I was Wrong.

So I guess onto the work week a bit? Hmm, well, interesting things to blog about… another 2h meeting on Monday. I love the 2 hour meetings on Mondays, they’re very productive. Interesting to note is that you can crack your knuckles very loudly during the meeting without anyone caring. Also, my company has stretches every morning for 5 minutes… which I find a bit dumb, but oh well. I usually arrive halfway through and just follow along to the last minute.

Also, being bored allows me to challenge myself. With a sharp pencil I am able to write 12 lines of legible text in the space of one line on regular lined paper! I write small ><. I also doodle a lot. I got a set of pencil crayons free with my cell phone. You don’t get free pencil crayons in Canada. Oh, I also got paid! Not my full salary, cause I hadn’t worked a full month at cut-off time. But payday is payday, can’t complain. 420-en in taxes though, nice! I was worried it’d be a lot more. Hmm, what’s new around the dorm? I washed down the garbage can outside my room… Ly could smell it from his room, hadn’t been cleaned since before he got there. I have to clean the kitchen before Byron gets here, it’s not in the best shape at the moment. A trip to daiso is very necessary one of these days. Maybe on the weekend. I’m also feelin a bit homesick at this stage. With the time change it seems I don’t talk with you Canadians much anymore. And it’s not easy talking with people here (they don’t understand me); the people I talk to most I only see on the weekends. It’ll get better once I can speak better, I’ve been trying quite hard to study (at work), so hopefully it’ll all sink in soon. But you can help… by sending me presents! Or emails actually. Or just leave me some comments on my blog so I have something to laugh about during work. But don’t worry, I’m a bit homesick but I won’t get depressed. I’d hate to be the cause of a Shoe Event Horizon or anything. Certain Death… That Will Kill You!


So yeah, big plans in the next month. First, Gion Matsuri (Gion Festival) is coming up in July. From what I heard, the festivities take place throughout July, with the big parade on July 17th. I think a lot of people are coming down from Tokyo and the Kanto region, so it should be a lot of fun.

I also get a 5 day weekend at the very end of July. I think it’s a company thing, nobody else I’ve talked to gets it. And it’s not listed as a national holiday or anything. I’m thinking of maybe going down to Tokyo for the weekend, since I haven’t seen it yet (Stupid missing Canada Day, but not worth going down for one night). The only downside is the weekend before is a one day weekend. But I can live with that!

During Obon Week in August I’m considering going down to Okinawa. It’d be a lot of fun, but a little pricy. But probably worth it overall. Then the next weekend (if I can get the Saturday off work) is the Mt. Fuji climb. I’m heading down Friday night, should get there after midnight sometime. We’re going to Fuji-Q Highland, which is one very cool looking amusement park. I’ve seen videos of it (I’m a fan of Amazing Race, if you saw the last season, they went there on the finale), looks pretty intense I must say.

What else is there to mention? Hmm, I’m thinkin of getting a new camera. The ones here are quite impressive, big screens, tiny, good quality, so it’s probably worth it for the 9 more months I’m here. I also really need some speakers for my laptop. But I just got paid, so shopping spree! Wooooooo! Nah, gotta be careful on spending too much, gotta save for Tokyo/Fuji/Okinawa.

Well, time for me to end this blog, I must study my Japanese. I’ve been reading over grammar and vocab, as well as studying Kanji online. It really helps if you can come up with creative ways to remember what the symbols are. Sometimes I feel I’m a little too creative… but whatever works.

Dave also gave me two books dealing with Kansai dialect. One of the books has some unusual phrases to learn. Along with a complete chapter on smack talk ("He’s got a fat [arse]"), but a chapter on phrases related to love, including "I wonder if I’m pregnant" and "My son eloped with the girl next door". There’s a lot, lot weirder too, if you want a list, email me I guess?

And due to popular request, here’s the picture of the attractive policewoman:

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!



- - -- --- ----- -------- ------------- ---------------------

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!

The Conversational Equivalent of an Out of Body Experience

I think I felt an earthquake yesterday! I was on a pedestrian overpass, next to a train station, listening to a rock band perform, with people jumping up and down… hmm, maybe it wasn’t an earthquake o.O.

But anyway, that’s later on, I prefer to write my adventures in semi-chronological order so as not to confuse anyone (including myself).

First, I should mention work this past week… but not too in depth, I don’t want to violate the confidentiality agreement in my contract (or bore you all, this blog will be loooong)… I have 4 themes I’ll be working with during my 10 months here, and the first is improving upon a video memory circuit board. Only I don’t really know what I’m supposed to be doing. My first assignment is to check over the board, the circuitry, the signal, the VHDL code… only it’s not a very big job for the time I’m given to work on it. So maybe I’m doing something wrong? Or maybe I’m just prostar? I’ll let you all decide! I’m also helping a co-worker on one of his assignments, which involves me analyzing a nasty circuit diagram and figuring out what’s goin on.

Had another Monday meeting today, which means sitting for two hours, listening to things I can’t understand, and mostly trying not to sleep. Also, I’m supposed to describe what I did the past week (in Japanese).

Work’s not bad, it seems very independent, so I’m never sure if I’m going about it the right way. Anyway, not much happens after work during the week, I get home between 5:30 and 6. They tell me to leave if I’m not gone by then, not like poor Anton, who works till 9 every night. I have decided to devote 1-2 hours every night to learning Japanese… and I try to learn a bit at work too online.

Now to the good part of my blog… Osaka Adventure Vol. 1!

On Saturday Anton and I, armed with everything but my camera and a plan (both would have been good to have), went to Osaka for the day! First off, I would like to give a big thanks to Mr. Anton for letting me steal his pictures for my own use! So anyone reading the planetcjp blog gets to see the amazing pictures twice, lucky you!

We decided to meet in Nara instead of Osaka, seeing as how neither of us know Osaka at all, and didn’t want to get separated before we even met. So I went down to Yamato-sadaiji station and then we both headed towards Osaka.

We had our first… umm… experience?… within a few minutes of leaving; an older man (probably 50ish) started talking to us on the train, practicing his English. He asked where we were from, where we worked, our hobbies, all good. He said he had been to Canada (Banff of course). Eventually the topic turned to Onsen (for those who don’t know, Onsen are hot springs that you basically go in to bathe… naked… with other people. They’re supposed to be really good, and I’ll have to try one sometime.) . The older guy told us he likes to visit the Onsen once a week, and that since Anton lives close, he should come with him sometime! Perhaps on Sunday? He even offered to pick Anton up! Now coming from North America, this seems rather disturbing, but maybe it’s normal in Japan to be asked by strangers to go to Onsen? Thinking of how weird this was kept us laughing all day.

*Note: Asking the people at my dorm, and Anton asking at his work, this is considered weird even for Japan. Just so you know…

Next we went to Nipponbashi, Osaka’s electronics district. Interesting place, saw a store that sold miso paste, another that sold old photographs. We passed by a bookstore, Anton decided to go in. "Seems like most of the books in this store are about travelling" he says… look up, I says. The shelf above is loaded with a lot of porn books. Porn is rather, umm, accessible here. People had stands set up on the street with porn videos. Normal video stores had large cardboard cutouts of the very famous Razor Ramon Hard Gay. And yet, all their porn is censored apparently. Very odd…

We wandered around there in circles for a few hours. Anton needed some camera supplies (lens case and mem card), and he needed to change some dollars to Yen. Not sure where the bank was, he asked a lady at the department store, who was nice enough to take us halfway across the mall to the foreign exchange bank! That’d never happen in Canada. We also found Kitchen Alley (least that’s my name for it)… a long back street with every store selling miscellaneous cooking and kitchen supplies. Anton suggested that if I ever get fired from work (say from breaking the confidentiality clause), I should open up a sausage stand in Kyoto! It’s a great idea of course, Anton even found a good apron for me to wear! He suggested the blue, but I think the orange one woulda been better.


Eventually we decided to head more downtown, to Osaka Station.

This was an excellent idea! Just outside the station, on a large pedestrian overpass, were a couple Japanese rock bands giving a free live show! We stayed to watch for well over an hour (there were 2 bands, not playing at the same time, unlike some places in Japan. Speaking of which, anyone know where the park where all the bands play in is? I love live music (except Country).). Anton took way too many pictures, but got some good shots (below) and I bought the one band’s (Kaede) CD, and even got my picture taken with them! Very cool…


































Kaede is having another live show next Saturday in Osaka, me and Anton are thinking of going, if anyone in the Osaka area wants to join…

Next we went for lunch… Anton tried to force me to finish, but as all who know me know, I have a small stomach, /sigh. Was good, I got katsudon, but raw egg tastes a bit weird. Oh yeah, you order by vending machine, then take your ticket to the counter, I thought this was quite cool. Then we went to the Osaka Science Museum, which was a bit lame… not very unique, and we couldn’t read anything anyway. And having taken three years of electrical engineering, I didn’t learn anything. But we got some good pictures (of me sticking my head in a magnetic field).















Near the museum we saw some semi-engrish, the following street sign:














Now at first glance you may think this sign means "Ok, if you’re with children, hold their hand"… but then you notice, hmm, it looks like the girl is either struggling to get away, or perhaps dancing? Her dress is also quite short. Then you notice the weirdest bit; the man has tentacle arms! And they’re unequal length! And what the heck’s he wearing?! No, something’s not right here! Not right at all!!!
Anton says "Some signs are better left uninterpreted." But what’s the fun in that?


Anton wanted to stop at an internet café to check his email, hoping Tongxin (from the Co-op Japan program) emailed him. Tongxin works at Sanyo in Osaka, and she was supposed to have arrived a few days before. We were kinda hoping to meet here in Osaka…
But first, we saw this fancy pants bit of Engrish outside the Metro Media Café:




By the way, the only Special Memories Anton got was getting ripped off…390 yen just to check his email.



Still completely without a (logical/workable/sane) plan, and without an email from Tongxin, we did what any normal person would do… we went to her neighbourhood and try to find her randomly! What? You say that’s not what a normal person would do? You’re right, sue us.
So yeah, after asking around where Sanyo was located, we headed to where we thought Tongxin may be. Got near to the Sanyo building and actually passed by the dormitory… so we went floor by floor seeing if Tongxin’s name was on any of the doors. I told Anton he gets 50 million bonus points if his super Random Meeting Gaijin Powers led us to Tongxin.

No luck at the dorm, but Anton won 30 million a few minutes later: A few doors down was a man outside a restaurant, Anton asked if there were any other Sanyo dorm buildings around. He explained our situation, and it turned out that Tongxin may have been there the previous night! The man knew someone who worked at Sanyo. He called the person, and let Anton talk to her; turns out she knew Tongxin! Wow, the likelyhood of this is… wait! Was there an Infinite Improbability Drive nearby? Was that creepy street sign warning us of Zaphod Beeblebrox? Am I going off on some tangent here?

Anyways, the lady (Tomoe-san) actually came down to the restaurant (she lived close) to talk to us in person. Unfortunately, she couldn’t contact Tongxin and wasn’t able to tell us where she lived (for obvious reasons), but we gave her a note to give to Tongxin. We invited us to have dinner with us, she declined dinner but stayed and talked with us while we ate. She spent nearly 3 hours talking to us, teaching us some Japanese while we helped her practice English. It was very cool.

The restaurant was also quite good, very small, 3 tables and a bar, but extremely nice inside. It’s actually owned by Tomoe-san’s mother in law… even more coincidences! Dinner was the specialty, basically fried, squid filled doughballs. Not really something I’m used to but managed to eat it all, it was pretty good.


















By this time it was well after 9, and a long trip back home. I didn’t have much chance meeting curfew even, so I stayed at Anton’s for the night.

Two weeks down, 40 more to go… aaaah, time’s going so fast! So much to do!

Oh, side note, Music in Japan!!!
Music in Japan is quite unique… some of it (J-pop or J-rock) is quite good, but there’s a lot of music borrowed from the US… let me recap the most interesting musical selections.
The Electronics Store Theme Song – Written by the devil maybe? Pure torture!
Auld Lang Syne – Yes the New Year’s Song, I heard it in Joshin (similar to Future Shop in Canada).
Ice Candy! – We saw this ad in a store, it had very annoying music plus one of the weirdest videos ever… and it looped every 10 seconds o.O
My Grandfather’s Clock – In Japanese, playing in my dorm lobby at lunchtime…
And the most important… my office has music playing in the background. A lot of it is American music, minus the actual lyrics (just the music). I’ve heard (at least once):
Culture Club (Karma Chameleon and Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?), Queen, Disney (Whole New World, Under the Sea), Uptown Girls, and the Macarena!
Also, Friday afternoon had me listening to 3 hours of accordion music… /cry.

Second side note, cause Anton forgot... we saw our first really big person on the train in Osaka. He was big enough to be a sumo wrestler... and he had a very funny haircut too! But he was too far away to take a picture...

Third side note, which involves me making a bad joke… but since Anton has already posted it… In Japan, certain train cars are designated as ladies-only during rush hour. As many of you know, there has been a problem with ladies being groped on the train when it’s super busy, so these trains were set up to reduce the problem. This sign is on the platform so people know where the train cars are.



I suggested that that would make a good welcome mat for Anton’s apartment ><.

It’s now Monday night, and the World Cup game is on, Japan vs Australia. Sounds exciting, think I’ll go watch for a bit. Next blog probably next Sunday, after Osaka Adventure Vol 2.