"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.
Showing posts with label Yakiniku. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Yakiniku. Show all posts
Friday, November 10, 2006
Monday, August 21, 2006
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!
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!
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Luck Can't Last a Lifetime Unless You Die Young
Well, it's now Sunday night, and it's been a rather eventful weekend! Let me now recap some of the highlights... Ok, Friday night Ly and David took me for Yakiniku. David even paid for me as a happy b-day/welcome to Japan dinner! Which was very nice of him. Went back to the dorm and spent a few hours playing Battletoads for the NES!!! For those of you less enlightened, here's a screenie:
On Saturday I met with Anton and Clement (from the Co-op Japan Program) and we toured Nara. We went to Kofukuji and Todaiji temples. Todaiji was amazing, we thought the gates (below) were impressive, then we get into the temple grounds and actually see the temple (also below). We don't have stuff like that in Calgary. Inside the temple is home to the second biggest Buddha statue, as well as some smaller statues, like the menacing figure also also below.
Hmm, two interesting things... there is a rather large deer park inside Nara. Clement and Anton both thought this was very cool, as the deer were extremely domesticated, you could pet and feed them, they'd walk along the sidewalk basically begging for food. Coming from Calgary and living 5 minutes from a provincial park, I thought this was a little... odd. As I expressed to my friends... "They're Deer!!!"
Also interesting was the first realization of my "Gaijin Power"... a group of 7-8 junior high girls started waving and saying hi to us, and even wanted a picture with us! It was hilarious! No picture for you guys though, we were holding up traffic on the walking path and decided we should get going.
Wandered around Nara for a bit, and then went to play Pachinko! Pachinko is a lot like slots, only weirder, and money goes very fast. Basically you turn a knob and try to get balls into this little hole, and when you do, slots start playing in the window above, and if you win you get more balls. Ly won 200 bucks (20k yen) the first time he played, lucky bum, and Clement won 50 bucks... I lost 10 :(. Don't think I'll be playing again, I used up all my non-existent beginner's luck.
On a side note, gambling is actually illegal in Japan, but that doesn't really stop anyone. See, in pachinko, you don't win money, you win little cards and a cookie (mmm cookie)... and when you're done playing, you go around to the back where there's a guy who (shockingly!) buys cards for money!!! Well, not a guy exactly, but you stick your cards in the slot, and a minute or two later, when you open the slot, there's money inside! It's like magic!!
On a second side note, I would have trouble working at a certain electronics store in Japan... Japanese stores seem to have theme songs, which is ok, unless the song is soooo bad that within 5.8 seconds you'll want to run out the door screaming in agony. I never actually did that, but I wanted to. But I will never go back to that store again, so I don't think it's a good way to bring up the company's reputation. But what do I know?
Oh yes, Clement feels the need to take a picture of every different kind of bottle he drinks in Japan... Even if it means laying down in a train station to do it. Crazy foreigner... here Anton feels the need to kick him in the behind:
I also got the famous picture of the melon soda bottle from Clement:
Moving on... went back to Anton's place for a bit. The lucky bum has 2 bedrooms, a kitchen, and his own bathroom and laundry facilities. But he has to take a train and bus to work, so I guess I'm not so bad off. I headed home around 10 (I have a curfew) so I missed what sounded like an interesting party, held by Clarissa (Co-op Japan Alumni), who lives near Anton.
This morning Anton was feeling a bit ill (sore throat), so me and Clement went exploring Kyoto. First we went to Fushimi-inari, which is a temple up in the mountains in eastern Kyoto. This temple was absolutely amazing. There's a path that winds its way to the top of the mountain and back down, and along the way most of the path is lined with literally thousands of Torii gates! It was amazing how many there were! Very pretty...
Then we went to eat lunch in downtown Kyoto, but didn't explore downtown much... we took a scenic (ie long) detour through Gion and area to get to Kiyomizu Temple. This temple, far up the mountains of Kyoto too, had some very nice buildings and quite the view of Kyoto.
Went to the imperial palace, but unfortunately it was closed :(. Here's the gates.
Hmm, better finish writing, the ones who are still reading this are probably getting bored too. We tried to go to Nijo Castle, but got there exactly as it was closing. So we returned to Kyoto station, Clement went on the Shinkansen back to Tokyo, and I went back to my dorm... So that ends my exciting journey for the weekend...
- - -- --- ----- -------- ------------- ---------------------
So, today marks my one week of being in Japan! I've written about what I did, but haven't written about my initial impressions yet, so here goes...
There are some difficulties for me living in Japan. There's a lot to get used to. Food is a big thing, there's so many things that are different from Canada. I've made an effort to try everything so far, including squid and cow's tongue (two things i've never had before). I've made an effort to eat more too... if it wasn't for the miles and miles of walking every day I'd probably gain weight. The bathrooms are hard to adjust to too, ie the squatting toilets and communal showers.
Some things are also quite difficult due to the language barrier. Shopping is hard; I can't read what anything is, I have to guess... and ordering food in a restaurant is a challenge; not only do I not know what it is, but I also can't pronounce it half the time.
I also feel like I stand out everywhere I go... because I do stand out. It's kind of a double edged sword. In Canada I always did my best to blend in. Half the time my friends didn't even know I was there. But it's neat to get the attention some times, just because I a foreigner.
There's some other things that are really neat too. I get to see and do and eat things that don't exist in Canada. The train system is amazing; not only are the trains on time, but there's different speeds of trains that stop at different stations, but there's 8-9 different train lines to switch between. And it all runs perfectly. Also I'm average height!!! There's so many people everywhere (and I'm just in Kyoto). You see tons of school kids all in uniform, which is weird to see. There's temples and shrines and neat things to see everywhere. I'm learning a lot (about Japan, but also about myself) and I'm really excited about the next 10 months here.
I have some fears and doubts too. I'm concerned that I won't be able to do the work presented to me at my company. I'm worried that I won't be able to learn the language at all and I will have to spend the next 10 months struggling like I did this week. I know that I shouldn't worry, that I'll be fine, but it's a bit hard to see at the moment. I'll just have to try hard and hope for the best.
Here starts my second exciting week in Japan. I'll continue my blog after my next exciting adventure, hopefully it won't be as long and rambly as this one... So, until then!
Oh yeah, I love to hear your comments, feel free to leave one if you like/dislike my writing, have suggestions, or just want to say hi.
On Saturday I met with Anton and Clement (from the Co-op Japan Program) and we toured Nara. We went to Kofukuji and Todaiji temples. Todaiji was amazing, we thought the gates (below) were impressive, then we get into the temple grounds and actually see the temple (also below). We don't have stuff like that in Calgary. Inside the temple is home to the second biggest Buddha statue, as well as some smaller statues, like the menacing figure also also below.
Hmm, two interesting things... there is a rather large deer park inside Nara. Clement and Anton both thought this was very cool, as the deer were extremely domesticated, you could pet and feed them, they'd walk along the sidewalk basically begging for food. Coming from Calgary and living 5 minutes from a provincial park, I thought this was a little... odd. As I expressed to my friends... "They're Deer!!!"
Also interesting was the first realization of my "Gaijin Power"... a group of 7-8 junior high girls started waving and saying hi to us, and even wanted a picture with us! It was hilarious! No picture for you guys though, we were holding up traffic on the walking path and decided we should get going.
Wandered around Nara for a bit, and then went to play Pachinko! Pachinko is a lot like slots, only weirder, and money goes very fast. Basically you turn a knob and try to get balls into this little hole, and when you do, slots start playing in the window above, and if you win you get more balls. Ly won 200 bucks (20k yen) the first time he played, lucky bum, and Clement won 50 bucks... I lost 10 :(. Don't think I'll be playing again, I used up all my non-existent beginner's luck.
On a side note, gambling is actually illegal in Japan, but that doesn't really stop anyone. See, in pachinko, you don't win money, you win little cards and a cookie (mmm cookie)... and when you're done playing, you go around to the back where there's a guy who (shockingly!) buys cards for money!!! Well, not a guy exactly, but you stick your cards in the slot, and a minute or two later, when you open the slot, there's money inside! It's like magic!!
On a second side note, I would have trouble working at a certain electronics store in Japan... Japanese stores seem to have theme songs, which is ok, unless the song is soooo bad that within 5.8 seconds you'll want to run out the door screaming in agony. I never actually did that, but I wanted to. But I will never go back to that store again, so I don't think it's a good way to bring up the company's reputation. But what do I know?
Oh yes, Clement feels the need to take a picture of every different kind of bottle he drinks in Japan... Even if it means laying down in a train station to do it. Crazy foreigner... here Anton feels the need to kick him in the behind:
I also got the famous picture of the melon soda bottle from Clement:
Moving on... went back to Anton's place for a bit. The lucky bum has 2 bedrooms, a kitchen, and his own bathroom and laundry facilities. But he has to take a train and bus to work, so I guess I'm not so bad off. I headed home around 10 (I have a curfew) so I missed what sounded like an interesting party, held by Clarissa (Co-op Japan Alumni), who lives near Anton.
This morning Anton was feeling a bit ill (sore throat), so me and Clement went exploring Kyoto. First we went to Fushimi-inari, which is a temple up in the mountains in eastern Kyoto. This temple was absolutely amazing. There's a path that winds its way to the top of the mountain and back down, and along the way most of the path is lined with literally thousands of Torii gates! It was amazing how many there were! Very pretty...
Then we went to eat lunch in downtown Kyoto, but didn't explore downtown much... we took a scenic (ie long) detour through Gion and area to get to Kiyomizu Temple. This temple, far up the mountains of Kyoto too, had some very nice buildings and quite the view of Kyoto.
Went to the imperial palace, but unfortunately it was closed :(. Here's the gates.
Hmm, better finish writing, the ones who are still reading this are probably getting bored too. We tried to go to Nijo Castle, but got there exactly as it was closing. So we returned to Kyoto station, Clement went on the Shinkansen back to Tokyo, and I went back to my dorm... So that ends my exciting journey for the weekend...
- - -- --- ----- -------- ------------- ---------------------
So, today marks my one week of being in Japan! I've written about what I did, but haven't written about my initial impressions yet, so here goes...
There are some difficulties for me living in Japan. There's a lot to get used to. Food is a big thing, there's so many things that are different from Canada. I've made an effort to try everything so far, including squid and cow's tongue (two things i've never had before). I've made an effort to eat more too... if it wasn't for the miles and miles of walking every day I'd probably gain weight. The bathrooms are hard to adjust to too, ie the squatting toilets and communal showers.
Some things are also quite difficult due to the language barrier. Shopping is hard; I can't read what anything is, I have to guess... and ordering food in a restaurant is a challenge; not only do I not know what it is, but I also can't pronounce it half the time.
I also feel like I stand out everywhere I go... because I do stand out. It's kind of a double edged sword. In Canada I always did my best to blend in. Half the time my friends didn't even know I was there. But it's neat to get the attention some times, just because I a foreigner.
There's some other things that are really neat too. I get to see and do and eat things that don't exist in Canada. The train system is amazing; not only are the trains on time, but there's different speeds of trains that stop at different stations, but there's 8-9 different train lines to switch between. And it all runs perfectly. Also I'm average height!!! There's so many people everywhere (and I'm just in Kyoto). You see tons of school kids all in uniform, which is weird to see. There's temples and shrines and neat things to see everywhere. I'm learning a lot (about Japan, but also about myself) and I'm really excited about the next 10 months here.
I have some fears and doubts too. I'm concerned that I won't be able to do the work presented to me at my company. I'm worried that I won't be able to learn the language at all and I will have to spend the next 10 months struggling like I did this week. I know that I shouldn't worry, that I'll be fine, but it's a bit hard to see at the moment. I'll just have to try hard and hope for the best.
Here starts my second exciting week in Japan. I'll continue my blog after my next exciting adventure, hopefully it won't be as long and rambly as this one... So, until then!
Oh yeah, I love to hear your comments, feel free to leave one if you like/dislike my writing, have suggestions, or just want to say hi.
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