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.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Well, I Couldn't Figure Out this Subtraction Problem, So I put "Atlanta, Georgia"
What? Another blog? Yeah, been researching some random things online today, andI feel it is my duty to share these facts and bits of advice with you.
Interesting Fact:
Young sloths are so inept that they frequently grab their own arms and legs instead of tree limbs, and fall out of trees.
Advice:
You will need to know the difference between Friday and a fried egg. It's quite a simple difference, but an important one. Friday comes at the end of the week, whereas a fried egg comes out of a chicken. Like most things, of course, it isn't quite that simple. The fried egg isn't properly a fried egg until it's been put in a frying pan and fried. This is something you wouldn't do to a Friday, of course, though you might do it on a Friday. You can also fry eggs on a Thursday, if you like, or on a cooker. It's all rather complicated, but it makes a kind of sense if you think about it for a while.
- Douglas Adams
Advice 2:
Capital Letters are always the best way of dealing with things you didn't have a good answer to.
Something to Think About:
Anything that happens happens.
Anything that, in happening, causes something else to happen causes something else to happen.
And anything that, in happening, causes itself to happen again, happens again.
Although not necessarily in chronological order.
Why Calgary is Better Than Edmonton:
Smarter Criminals
Next time I'll teach you the difference between a blizzard and a lizard... stay tuned.
Interesting Fact:
Young sloths are so inept that they frequently grab their own arms and legs instead of tree limbs, and fall out of trees.
Advice:
You will need to know the difference between Friday and a fried egg. It's quite a simple difference, but an important one. Friday comes at the end of the week, whereas a fried egg comes out of a chicken. Like most things, of course, it isn't quite that simple. The fried egg isn't properly a fried egg until it's been put in a frying pan and fried. This is something you wouldn't do to a Friday, of course, though you might do it on a Friday. You can also fry eggs on a Thursday, if you like, or on a cooker. It's all rather complicated, but it makes a kind of sense if you think about it for a while.
- Douglas Adams
Advice 2:
Capital Letters are always the best way of dealing with things you didn't have a good answer to.
Something to Think About:
Anything that happens happens.
Anything that, in happening, causes something else to happen causes something else to happen.
And anything that, in happening, causes itself to happen again, happens again.
Although not necessarily in chronological order.
Why Calgary is Better Than Edmonton:
Smarter Criminals
Next time I'll teach you the difference between a blizzard and a lizard... stay tuned.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Scientific Progress goes "Boink"?
If it can be broke, then it can be fixed.
If it can be fused, then it can be split.
It's all under control...
First, I should thank those who read my last blog and left me comments. I didn't think anyone would read the blog, let alone like it, so it made me very happy to see all the comments on there.
Over the past 4 months I've noticed something weird in Japan. I'll call it the Doppelganger Effect. Basically, some people in Japan that I've seen, or met, or even work with look (and act) very similar to people i knew back in Canada. One OL here, I keep thinking of her by the name of my friend's sister, who she looks exactly like. I'm always concerned I'll call her by the wrong name by accident. And one person I met looked like an Asian version of a friend in Calgary, and even had the same first name o.O.
If it was one or two people I could understand, but I can think of at least 6 occurrences... does anyone else get this effect or am I weird/hallucinating?
I wonder if the duplicates have ethicators with built-in moral compromise spectral release phantasmatron:
"Strictly speaking, I'm not Calvin. I'm the physical manifestation of Calvin's good side."
"If that were true, you'd be a lot smaller."
In other news... wow, guess I'm over a week behind in blogging... so I'll keep it short... Last weekend I did nothing on Friday. It was nice. On Saturday I went to a picnic in Nara with Anton and his friends/co-workers. It was nice. We ate food, played soccer/frisbee, talked, had fun. I impressed Anton with my artistic ability by drawing him a sign to protect him from bugs while he was napping. The picture is on my webalbum, along with other pictures from the past two weeks.
Anton and his friend Rie came along with me to JJs, where we met up with Boon-hau, Keith, and Byron. JJs is a wonderful place. At 105-en every 15 minutes ($4/hr) you have unlimited access to the video games, bowling, billiards, karaoke, basketball, ping pong, and lots more. That night most of our time was spent at karaoke, but we also played on a big blow up, cylinder shaped tube, that we'd run over each other with. Poor Keith forgot to remove any personal items before riding in the tube, and died. Oops, I mean, his camera broke ><. Which was unfortunate.
If it can be lost, then it can be won.
If it can be touched, then it can be turned.
All you need is time...
Headed towards Boon-Hau's place, where we were staying for the night, and stopped at a family restaurant along the way. Uneventful, cept when the forces of karma kicked Byron in the butt... Self serve drinks, so while we all ordered water, Byron got a glass of pop without paying for it, and promptly spilt it on his white shirt ><.
Sunday we woke up early to... rainy weather! On Ninja Day! Gah. 2 hour trip to Iga-Ueno, then an hour wait for the train to Uenoshi. We actually got there early, before the transfer train left. However, we were too busy taking pictures of the lovely pink train that we didn't realize it was the train we needed to be on. So we watched it leave the station without us. Haha.
Ninja village was interesting, we saw a ninja house, with all the trap doors and secret passages, and a museum showcasing various tools and clothes the ninja used. The highlight was the Ninja Show, where they performed stunts and demonstrations of the ninja weapons onstage. Afterwards you could pay to try your hand at throwing shuriken at a target too.
Following this was a long period of souvenir shopping, followed by the costume museum, which was interesting, but a little small and not very exciting. Ninja village was good to see, but maybe a bit too touristy. On the way home we stopped at a Brazillian restaurant... which was odd, because all the menus were in Portugese, and even the waiter didn't know what each item was. We needed the waiter to translate the menu into Japanese for us haha. Very interesting.
A sense of purpose and a sense of skill.
A sense of function but a disregard.
We will not be the first...
An exciting workweek, where I worked on another side project which resulted in a pretty, multicolored excel file that took me all week to make. Link's soldering skill increases by +0.5! Link's soldering skill reaches level 2.
The long weekend involved Byron's 2 month late welcoming party, but even though the party was for Byron, I had to give a short speech anyways, in Japanese, because nobody there knew me. Dave was tired cause I gave him Dead Like Me (Awesome tv show) to watch and he stayed up most of the night working through it.
On Saturday I went to Danjiri Matsuri in Kishiwada, with Keith, Tongxin, Rie, Jen, and some of Keith's coworkers. It was very cool, they have floats like at Gion Matsuri, only people ride on top of them, and then they are pulled as fast as possible around sharp corners. There have been a few deaths caused by this festival in the past, but thanks to my amazing agility and balance (and the fact that I was far back from the action) I survived. There were quite a few people out to see the events, it was rather busy. Went back to JJs after, and met up with Tyson and Boon-hau. Tyson is tall. This makes him good at 3v3 basketball. His team won. Grrr...
You said you were going to conquer new frontiers.
Go stick your bloody head in the jaws of the beast.
Keith and I attempted to go surfing on Saturday, expecting big waves since it was so windy. No go... the smallest waves we had ever seen there... so we went back, and took the bus to the windsurfing beach instead, rented 2 boards and wetsuits. Only, because the wind was so strong and the water so choppy, it was much more difficult this time. Not to mention the water was freezing... we didn't stay too long.
It makes me sad to admit it, but summertime is gone, and it may be years beforeI have the opportunity to surf again...
Spent the rest of Saturday studying Kanji with Keith, with a few breaks to watch Fullmetal Alchemist, which is an awesome anime. Or rather, I spent Saturday watching FMA with a few breaks to study Kanji.
Now it's already Wednesday, and more plans for the weekend than I can keep track of (or fit in)... everything from clubbing to stalking to poker to dental expo to Kobe steak eating... shouldbe fun no matter what I do.
By the way, Alfred followed me home...
We promised the world we'd tame it...
What were we hoping for?
We will not be the last...
- Kele Okereke ("Pioneers" - Bloc Party)
If it can be fused, then it can be split.
It's all under control...
First, I should thank those who read my last blog and left me comments. I didn't think anyone would read the blog, let alone like it, so it made me very happy to see all the comments on there.
Over the past 4 months I've noticed something weird in Japan. I'll call it the Doppelganger Effect. Basically, some people in Japan that I've seen, or met, or even work with look (and act) very similar to people i knew back in Canada. One OL here, I keep thinking of her by the name of my friend's sister, who she looks exactly like. I'm always concerned I'll call her by the wrong name by accident. And one person I met looked like an Asian version of a friend in Calgary, and even had the same first name o.O.
If it was one or two people I could understand, but I can think of at least 6 occurrences... does anyone else get this effect or am I weird/hallucinating?
I wonder if the duplicates have ethicators with built-in moral compromise spectral release phantasmatron:
"Strictly speaking, I'm not Calvin. I'm the physical manifestation of Calvin's good side."
"If that were true, you'd be a lot smaller."
In other news... wow, guess I'm over a week behind in blogging... so I'll keep it short... Last weekend I did nothing on Friday. It was nice. On Saturday I went to a picnic in Nara with Anton and his friends/co-workers. It was nice. We ate food, played soccer/frisbee, talked, had fun. I impressed Anton with my artistic ability by drawing him a sign to protect him from bugs while he was napping. The picture is on my webalbum, along with other pictures from the past two weeks.
Anton and his friend Rie came along with me to JJs, where we met up with Boon-hau, Keith, and Byron. JJs is a wonderful place. At 105-en every 15 minutes ($4/hr) you have unlimited access to the video games, bowling, billiards, karaoke, basketball, ping pong, and lots more. That night most of our time was spent at karaoke, but we also played on a big blow up, cylinder shaped tube, that we'd run over each other with. Poor Keith forgot to remove any personal items before riding in the tube, and died. Oops, I mean, his camera broke ><. Which was unfortunate.
If it can be lost, then it can be won.
If it can be touched, then it can be turned.
All you need is time...
Headed towards Boon-Hau's place, where we were staying for the night, and stopped at a family restaurant along the way. Uneventful, cept when the forces of karma kicked Byron in the butt... Self serve drinks, so while we all ordered water, Byron got a glass of pop without paying for it, and promptly spilt it on his white shirt ><.
Sunday we woke up early to... rainy weather! On Ninja Day! Gah. 2 hour trip to Iga-Ueno, then an hour wait for the train to Uenoshi. We actually got there early, before the transfer train left. However, we were too busy taking pictures of the lovely pink train that we didn't realize it was the train we needed to be on. So we watched it leave the station without us. Haha.
Ninja village was interesting, we saw a ninja house, with all the trap doors and secret passages, and a museum showcasing various tools and clothes the ninja used. The highlight was the Ninja Show, where they performed stunts and demonstrations of the ninja weapons onstage. Afterwards you could pay to try your hand at throwing shuriken at a target too.
Following this was a long period of souvenir shopping, followed by the costume museum, which was interesting, but a little small and not very exciting. Ninja village was good to see, but maybe a bit too touristy. On the way home we stopped at a Brazillian restaurant... which was odd, because all the menus were in Portugese, and even the waiter didn't know what each item was. We needed the waiter to translate the menu into Japanese for us haha. Very interesting.
A sense of purpose and a sense of skill.
A sense of function but a disregard.
We will not be the first...
An exciting workweek, where I worked on another side project which resulted in a pretty, multicolored excel file that took me all week to make. Link's soldering skill increases by +0.5! Link's soldering skill reaches level 2.
The long weekend involved Byron's 2 month late welcoming party, but even though the party was for Byron, I had to give a short speech anyways, in Japanese, because nobody there knew me. Dave was tired cause I gave him Dead Like Me (Awesome tv show) to watch and he stayed up most of the night working through it.
On Saturday I went to Danjiri Matsuri in Kishiwada, with Keith, Tongxin, Rie, Jen, and some of Keith's coworkers. It was very cool, they have floats like at Gion Matsuri, only people ride on top of them, and then they are pulled as fast as possible around sharp corners. There have been a few deaths caused by this festival in the past, but thanks to my amazing agility and balance (and the fact that I was far back from the action) I survived. There were quite a few people out to see the events, it was rather busy. Went back to JJs after, and met up with Tyson and Boon-hau. Tyson is tall. This makes him good at 3v3 basketball. His team won. Grrr...
You said you were going to conquer new frontiers.
Go stick your bloody head in the jaws of the beast.
Keith and I attempted to go surfing on Saturday, expecting big waves since it was so windy. No go... the smallest waves we had ever seen there... so we went back, and took the bus to the windsurfing beach instead, rented 2 boards and wetsuits. Only, because the wind was so strong and the water so choppy, it was much more difficult this time. Not to mention the water was freezing... we didn't stay too long.
It makes me sad to admit it, but summertime is gone, and it may be years beforeI have the opportunity to surf again...
Spent the rest of Saturday studying Kanji with Keith, with a few breaks to watch Fullmetal Alchemist, which is an awesome anime. Or rather, I spent Saturday watching FMA with a few breaks to study Kanji.
Now it's already Wednesday, and more plans for the weekend than I can keep track of (or fit in)... everything from clubbing to stalking to poker to dental expo to Kobe steak eating... shouldbe fun no matter what I do.
By the way, Alfred followed me home...
We promised the world we'd tame it...
What were we hoping for?
We will not be the last...
- Kele Okereke ("Pioneers" - Bloc Party)
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Always New Depths
Summertime has come and gone, all used up with wishful thinking
Get sussed up, get cynical, in this world there are no second chances
Crawling round on all fours, curl yourself into a circle
I will tear myself apart, if you promise to paint me
As a work of art...
- Kele Okereke
A lot of the other CJP members have been doing some reflecting on their Japan and university experience, asking themselves a few questions… "Why am I here?" and "Is this what/where I’m supposed to be?" So I figured I would give it a shot at answering the questions for myself…
So first off, why Japan?
My interest in Japan probably started around junior high school. I remember studying Japan in my social studies class, with Mr. Abrams, who, besides being insane, was a very good teacher. He went on stress leave for a few months at one point, but that seemed to be normal in my school. My science teacher actually had a bottle of hard liquor in her desk, and the substitute that replaced her when she went on stress leave was driven crazy by the students himself. ("That was my favorite shell!!! /cries")
But besides all that, I actually really enjoyed learning about Japan, the history and culture. It was so much more interesting than all the months we spent learning about Canadian history, because Japan is much older and is so much cooler. Canada is young and kinda boring.
Around the same time I read a book that really got me interested in Japan. Oddly enough the book was a humor book, "Dave Barry Does Japan" (I’ve mentioned/quoted it before), basically describing the culture of Japan from a typical western perspective. And while the book made me laugh a lot, and made me want to go to Japan just to see some of the funny stuff, I also really related about what the author said about the people. How even if they couldn’t speak English, they would try to help you as best they could; how people would welcome you into their stores and actually want your business; how people would show kindness and respect to each other at all times; and how silence can be golden, and it’s ok to sit in quiet.
That last part was very important to me… not only was I very shy in junior high, but grade 7 was my first year in Calgary. I had no close friends, and I was stuck in the one class that had all the loudest, rowdiest kids in my grade. So learning about Japan and reading Dave Barry’s book really made me want to go there.
My interest in Japan steadily grew, first from the great company of Squaresoft, then from all the other cool technology I read about from all the hi-tech Japanese companies. I considered Japan to be cool, with its history of samurai and ninja, its current culture with the crazy teenagers, bright lights, and high tech gizmos in Tokyo, and the calm, peaceful setting and rich culture of Kyoto. And I knew it would be a place I would travel to lots once I was able to.
So that’s why I chose Japan, but is only part of the reason why I came here. Did I find what I was looking for here? Well, I’ll discuss that a little later.
I guess the second question people are asking is whether they should have gone into engineering in the first place.
When I was in high school I knew I was going to university, but I really didn’t know what I wanted to take. I was good in math and science, took the AP classes. I still don’t know why I took bio, I hated bio, but the people in the class made it so much fun. But in university, what could I go into? Business? Heck no, I couldn’t sell, manage, or market anything. Med school? Never liked bio, and hated the dissections especially. Science or math? It was my original choice, but I couldn’t picture myself stuck in a lab for 50 years. So by default, I went into engineering. It combined math and science with some design and creativity, I figured it would be perfect for me.
What do I think now? To be honest, some parts of university scared me off of the field. Design class in first year was supposed to prepare us for what being an engineer would be like. This was scary because we were given very dumb projects, with very dumb group members (The only good group I had was for the dumbest of the projects… speed skating crash mats). For our Engineers Without Borders assignment, we had to design a waste management system for an extremely poor region in Africa, and my group members came up with the idea of indoor plumbing. The second semester project of building a speed skating robot was done completely by myself, with only one of the other three group members showing up for only one very short meeting. Was real engineering going to be like this? I hope not… I figure if you manage to get through all four years, you should at least have some knowledge and motivation, but it’s something I won’t know till I’m there.
The other thing that I found out is that eventually engineers shift from the design and building part of things to management. I know many people are looking forward to this aspect, but it scares me actually. I’m not a manager or a leader, and doubt I ever will be. I hate telling people what to do or how to do it. But there’s hope I guess, I do have choices… Woz was founder of a major computer company (Apple) and he still stays behind the scenes, and does the more hands-on, design work, and is one of the most important people in that company.
So was engineering the right choice? Besides these concerns, engineering seems to have been the best choice for me. It’ll get me a good job when I graduate, it’s interesting, and it combines all the things I enjoy. Besides the bad professors (probably the majority), I quite like most of the material I’m studying. And not only was it a good choice for me, but I think I made a difference to other people too. I helped many of my fellow engineers out with homework and studying in my first year especially. And also, would I be here now, living by myself in a country halfway around the world, if I didn’t go into engineering? Unlikely…
Hopefully my concerns about the engineering field will be dealt with once I graduate, and so I won’t worry about that until the time comes.
And now the question, why am I here?
This one’s difficult. I’m sure all you CJP’ers get the same question I do, "Why did you come to Japan?" all the time. And it’s difficult because the real reason I came to Japan is never the reason I say I did.
I’ll start by explaining how I got here… At the end of my second year at university, while looking up the internship program on my school’s website, I saw a tiny link at the bottom of one page about some sort of Co-op Japan Program. I couldn’t believe it… wow, a chance to go to Japan for my internship!? I knew at the start of third year I’d have to look into it, but didn’t seriously think I could ever get a job.
I met with the co-op coordinators in September of my third year to discuss the program. I was the first one to show interest. He told me I’d have to go through the UBC to get all the information and apply and everything, but he would hold a meeting with a past CJP student to describe the program. An email was sent out to the other engg students, and about 20 showed up to the meeting. It was quite informative, but most of it I had known about from my own research. At the end of the meeting, only 3-4 people said they were seriously interested. I was surprised actually… a once in a lifetime opportunity like this and so few wanting to go?
So I did most of the work myself, applications, signing up for night classes in Japanese (brutal in the middle of winter in Calgary… staying at school till 9pm and then goin home in the freezing cold). I think I was the only one from my school to apply. Many of my friends were quite surprised, they thought it was just an idea, that I wouldn’t really go through with it. I still wasn’t very optimistic about getting a job, I figured competition must be very fierce.
When I got the phone call from Jenny at the UBC in December I was in shock… I was actually going to go to Japan for my internship!
"I always had an interest in Japan, and the culture is fascinating. In Canada we don’t have the history and culture that Japan has. I thought it would be really neat living and working here" is along the lines of what I say to people when they ask why I came to Japan, and the reasons I say it are twofold. Number one, obviously, is as a compliment to their country, but number two is that it’s hard to explain the real reason why I’m here. Not that the reason above is untrue, it’s very true. It’s a good reason that I came to Japan. But it’s not THE reason.
Then there’s the fact that it’s good for my future. "Any internship is great experience. Useful for finding a job in the future, and great hands on experience, and it gives a chance to relate what you learn in school to the real world. And then having international work experience as well as a foreign language looks even better on a resume. When I get out of school I should have no trouble finding a job, especially in Calgary." Once again, a reason, but not THE reason.
The reason I came to Japan was a little more selfish. I came to Japan for me, for self-discovery and self-improvement. I wanted to experience new things and challenge myself in ways I haven’t before.
Back in Calgary, before I came to Japan, I was a very shy guy (more than now). Not able to talk to strangers at all, and even around my friends, in a group, I’d sit in the back, listening more than talking. I was a picky eater, not liking to try new things, not really liking to eat at all, cept for my sugar cravings while playing poker. As a result, I was (and am) quite thin, and my friends would always bug me about how young I looked. Looking young, thin, shy, geeky, the smart guy, doesn’t do a lot for your self esteem.
I’ve never been very good at making or keeping friends either. I keep in touch with one person from my elementary school now, and two people from junior high, but even in Calgary talking with them was mostly through MSN. My current friends in Calgary I’ve only known since grade 11. But just before I left Calgary, most of my friends were dating, and the ones who weren’t were partying in Europe. So there weren’t many reasons to stay, and lots of reasons to go to Japan. I was hoping that my adventure would open my eyes a bit, and it certainly has.
So how has Japan affected me? Well I have a lot more independence than I did back home. In Calgary I didn’t even live in my parent’s basement, I lived on the main level. >< Now I live by myself, and have learned to cook and clean (kinda), but also follow my own rules, sleeping, goin to work, payin the bills, etc.
Public nudity scared the crap outta me back home. And what better way to adjust than to be forced right into it hours after stepping off the plane.
My confidence has improved… the fact that I am by myself, halfway round the world from where I’ve been all my life, in a country I’ve never been to, where I can’t speak the language, will do that to you. I’ve joined the gym, and with my own cooking I’ve gained 8 pounds since I’ve been here. I have new friends to think I’m crazy. I’ve impressed myself with my ability to try new foods, such as cow stomach and horse sashimi. Public nudity and communal baths don’t even phase me anymore.
Probably the biggest example of my confidence is right here… I’m actually writing my real thoughts and posting them on the internet. I rarely open up to anybody, most people only see my outer, crazy side. So maybe this post will let you know a little more about me.
Though there’s still more I’d like to work on, I’ve changed and grown a lot by being here.
Did I find what I was looking for here, culture wise? Well, maybe it’s too early to tell…
The one thing that is still extremely difficult is talking to strangers. Starting a conversation with someone I don’t know still terrifies me, but that may be due to the language barrier too. Hopefully I will improve my Japanese and be able to talk to people more easily.
Because of this language barrier too, it’s hard to experience life in Japan. I tend to be more of an observer than a participant, like I am in groups back home. I get to see the culture of Japan, but it’s difficult for me to get involved, to see what people are like. Once again, maybe when my Japanese improves…
As for the "Stages of Adjustment" that people are supposed to go through when they arrive in Japan, I never went through the typical stages: "Excitement, confusion, frustration, depression, homesickness, and acceptance" (thanks Boon Hau). I remember I had one stage on the airplane, fear and doubt… what would the people at the company be like? What would the dorm be like? Will I be able to eat the food? Will I have to talk all in Japanese? Are my language skills good enough?
And then I went right into acceptance. Having a random stranger on the train invite you to a public bath will do that to you. Not that I haven’t been confused (trust me, I have), frustrated, depressed, and homesick, I have, but just for a short time period, maybe a couple hours of homesickness every once in a while, not in a stage. I was rather prepared for the Japanese culture. I had read a lot of travel guides and culture guides about Japan before coming here, I knew pretty much what to expect. Maybe I read too much? I’m sure a lot of stuff would have been more shocking and funny (like the onsen cleaning ladies or the greasers in Yoyogi) if I hadn’t been expecting them.
I guess the final question would be "What now?"
Well, I have plenty to do while I’m in Japan. I gotta learn language first so that there’s no excuse not to get involved in Japanese culture. I gotta keep going to the gym, and gaining weight, and getting my confidence up. I gotta make friends with more Japanese people and maybe talk to some random strangers myself.
Once I get back to Canada, the main thing is to find myself a summer job. Maybe, since I can’t do a traditional interview anyway, I’ll start looking for jobs outside of Calgary and have a fun exciting summer. Then it’s back to school for fourth year. After that, I really don’t know what I’ll get into. And I’m not really concerned about that. There’s so many choices out there, I’m sure I’ll find the one that’s right for me.
* In 25 posts this is my first "serious" one. Sorry if you didn’t find it as entertaining, but please let me know what you think – leave me a comment.
Get sussed up, get cynical, in this world there are no second chances
Crawling round on all fours, curl yourself into a circle
I will tear myself apart, if you promise to paint me
As a work of art...
- Kele Okereke
A lot of the other CJP members have been doing some reflecting on their Japan and university experience, asking themselves a few questions… "Why am I here?" and "Is this what/where I’m supposed to be?" So I figured I would give it a shot at answering the questions for myself…
So first off, why Japan?
My interest in Japan probably started around junior high school. I remember studying Japan in my social studies class, with Mr. Abrams, who, besides being insane, was a very good teacher. He went on stress leave for a few months at one point, but that seemed to be normal in my school. My science teacher actually had a bottle of hard liquor in her desk, and the substitute that replaced her when she went on stress leave was driven crazy by the students himself. ("That was my favorite shell!!! /cries")
But besides all that, I actually really enjoyed learning about Japan, the history and culture. It was so much more interesting than all the months we spent learning about Canadian history, because Japan is much older and is so much cooler. Canada is young and kinda boring.
Around the same time I read a book that really got me interested in Japan. Oddly enough the book was a humor book, "Dave Barry Does Japan" (I’ve mentioned/quoted it before), basically describing the culture of Japan from a typical western perspective. And while the book made me laugh a lot, and made me want to go to Japan just to see some of the funny stuff, I also really related about what the author said about the people. How even if they couldn’t speak English, they would try to help you as best they could; how people would welcome you into their stores and actually want your business; how people would show kindness and respect to each other at all times; and how silence can be golden, and it’s ok to sit in quiet.
That last part was very important to me… not only was I very shy in junior high, but grade 7 was my first year in Calgary. I had no close friends, and I was stuck in the one class that had all the loudest, rowdiest kids in my grade. So learning about Japan and reading Dave Barry’s book really made me want to go there.
My interest in Japan steadily grew, first from the great company of Squaresoft, then from all the other cool technology I read about from all the hi-tech Japanese companies. I considered Japan to be cool, with its history of samurai and ninja, its current culture with the crazy teenagers, bright lights, and high tech gizmos in Tokyo, and the calm, peaceful setting and rich culture of Kyoto. And I knew it would be a place I would travel to lots once I was able to.
So that’s why I chose Japan, but is only part of the reason why I came here. Did I find what I was looking for here? Well, I’ll discuss that a little later.
I guess the second question people are asking is whether they should have gone into engineering in the first place.
When I was in high school I knew I was going to university, but I really didn’t know what I wanted to take. I was good in math and science, took the AP classes. I still don’t know why I took bio, I hated bio, but the people in the class made it so much fun. But in university, what could I go into? Business? Heck no, I couldn’t sell, manage, or market anything. Med school? Never liked bio, and hated the dissections especially. Science or math? It was my original choice, but I couldn’t picture myself stuck in a lab for 50 years. So by default, I went into engineering. It combined math and science with some design and creativity, I figured it would be perfect for me.
What do I think now? To be honest, some parts of university scared me off of the field. Design class in first year was supposed to prepare us for what being an engineer would be like. This was scary because we were given very dumb projects, with very dumb group members (The only good group I had was for the dumbest of the projects… speed skating crash mats). For our Engineers Without Borders assignment, we had to design a waste management system for an extremely poor region in Africa, and my group members came up with the idea of indoor plumbing. The second semester project of building a speed skating robot was done completely by myself, with only one of the other three group members showing up for only one very short meeting. Was real engineering going to be like this? I hope not… I figure if you manage to get through all four years, you should at least have some knowledge and motivation, but it’s something I won’t know till I’m there.
The other thing that I found out is that eventually engineers shift from the design and building part of things to management. I know many people are looking forward to this aspect, but it scares me actually. I’m not a manager or a leader, and doubt I ever will be. I hate telling people what to do or how to do it. But there’s hope I guess, I do have choices… Woz was founder of a major computer company (Apple) and he still stays behind the scenes, and does the more hands-on, design work, and is one of the most important people in that company.
So was engineering the right choice? Besides these concerns, engineering seems to have been the best choice for me. It’ll get me a good job when I graduate, it’s interesting, and it combines all the things I enjoy. Besides the bad professors (probably the majority), I quite like most of the material I’m studying. And not only was it a good choice for me, but I think I made a difference to other people too. I helped many of my fellow engineers out with homework and studying in my first year especially. And also, would I be here now, living by myself in a country halfway around the world, if I didn’t go into engineering? Unlikely…
Hopefully my concerns about the engineering field will be dealt with once I graduate, and so I won’t worry about that until the time comes.
And now the question, why am I here?
This one’s difficult. I’m sure all you CJP’ers get the same question I do, "Why did you come to Japan?" all the time. And it’s difficult because the real reason I came to Japan is never the reason I say I did.
I’ll start by explaining how I got here… At the end of my second year at university, while looking up the internship program on my school’s website, I saw a tiny link at the bottom of one page about some sort of Co-op Japan Program. I couldn’t believe it… wow, a chance to go to Japan for my internship!? I knew at the start of third year I’d have to look into it, but didn’t seriously think I could ever get a job.
I met with the co-op coordinators in September of my third year to discuss the program. I was the first one to show interest. He told me I’d have to go through the UBC to get all the information and apply and everything, but he would hold a meeting with a past CJP student to describe the program. An email was sent out to the other engg students, and about 20 showed up to the meeting. It was quite informative, but most of it I had known about from my own research. At the end of the meeting, only 3-4 people said they were seriously interested. I was surprised actually… a once in a lifetime opportunity like this and so few wanting to go?
So I did most of the work myself, applications, signing up for night classes in Japanese (brutal in the middle of winter in Calgary… staying at school till 9pm and then goin home in the freezing cold). I think I was the only one from my school to apply. Many of my friends were quite surprised, they thought it was just an idea, that I wouldn’t really go through with it. I still wasn’t very optimistic about getting a job, I figured competition must be very fierce.
When I got the phone call from Jenny at the UBC in December I was in shock… I was actually going to go to Japan for my internship!
"I always had an interest in Japan, and the culture is fascinating. In Canada we don’t have the history and culture that Japan has. I thought it would be really neat living and working here" is along the lines of what I say to people when they ask why I came to Japan, and the reasons I say it are twofold. Number one, obviously, is as a compliment to their country, but number two is that it’s hard to explain the real reason why I’m here. Not that the reason above is untrue, it’s very true. It’s a good reason that I came to Japan. But it’s not THE reason.
Then there’s the fact that it’s good for my future. "Any internship is great experience. Useful for finding a job in the future, and great hands on experience, and it gives a chance to relate what you learn in school to the real world. And then having international work experience as well as a foreign language looks even better on a resume. When I get out of school I should have no trouble finding a job, especially in Calgary." Once again, a reason, but not THE reason.
The reason I came to Japan was a little more selfish. I came to Japan for me, for self-discovery and self-improvement. I wanted to experience new things and challenge myself in ways I haven’t before.
Back in Calgary, before I came to Japan, I was a very shy guy (more than now). Not able to talk to strangers at all, and even around my friends, in a group, I’d sit in the back, listening more than talking. I was a picky eater, not liking to try new things, not really liking to eat at all, cept for my sugar cravings while playing poker. As a result, I was (and am) quite thin, and my friends would always bug me about how young I looked. Looking young, thin, shy, geeky, the smart guy, doesn’t do a lot for your self esteem.
I’ve never been very good at making or keeping friends either. I keep in touch with one person from my elementary school now, and two people from junior high, but even in Calgary talking with them was mostly through MSN. My current friends in Calgary I’ve only known since grade 11. But just before I left Calgary, most of my friends were dating, and the ones who weren’t were partying in Europe. So there weren’t many reasons to stay, and lots of reasons to go to Japan. I was hoping that my adventure would open my eyes a bit, and it certainly has.
So how has Japan affected me? Well I have a lot more independence than I did back home. In Calgary I didn’t even live in my parent’s basement, I lived on the main level. >< Now I live by myself, and have learned to cook and clean (kinda), but also follow my own rules, sleeping, goin to work, payin the bills, etc.
Public nudity scared the crap outta me back home. And what better way to adjust than to be forced right into it hours after stepping off the plane.
My confidence has improved… the fact that I am by myself, halfway round the world from where I’ve been all my life, in a country I’ve never been to, where I can’t speak the language, will do that to you. I’ve joined the gym, and with my own cooking I’ve gained 8 pounds since I’ve been here. I have new friends to think I’m crazy. I’ve impressed myself with my ability to try new foods, such as cow stomach and horse sashimi. Public nudity and communal baths don’t even phase me anymore.
Probably the biggest example of my confidence is right here… I’m actually writing my real thoughts and posting them on the internet. I rarely open up to anybody, most people only see my outer, crazy side. So maybe this post will let you know a little more about me.
Though there’s still more I’d like to work on, I’ve changed and grown a lot by being here.
Did I find what I was looking for here, culture wise? Well, maybe it’s too early to tell…
The one thing that is still extremely difficult is talking to strangers. Starting a conversation with someone I don’t know still terrifies me, but that may be due to the language barrier too. Hopefully I will improve my Japanese and be able to talk to people more easily.
Because of this language barrier too, it’s hard to experience life in Japan. I tend to be more of an observer than a participant, like I am in groups back home. I get to see the culture of Japan, but it’s difficult for me to get involved, to see what people are like. Once again, maybe when my Japanese improves…
As for the "Stages of Adjustment" that people are supposed to go through when they arrive in Japan, I never went through the typical stages: "Excitement, confusion, frustration, depression, homesickness, and acceptance" (thanks Boon Hau). I remember I had one stage on the airplane, fear and doubt… what would the people at the company be like? What would the dorm be like? Will I be able to eat the food? Will I have to talk all in Japanese? Are my language skills good enough?
And then I went right into acceptance. Having a random stranger on the train invite you to a public bath will do that to you. Not that I haven’t been confused (trust me, I have), frustrated, depressed, and homesick, I have, but just for a short time period, maybe a couple hours of homesickness every once in a while, not in a stage. I was rather prepared for the Japanese culture. I had read a lot of travel guides and culture guides about Japan before coming here, I knew pretty much what to expect. Maybe I read too much? I’m sure a lot of stuff would have been more shocking and funny (like the onsen cleaning ladies or the greasers in Yoyogi) if I hadn’t been expecting them.
I guess the final question would be "What now?"
Well, I have plenty to do while I’m in Japan. I gotta learn language first so that there’s no excuse not to get involved in Japanese culture. I gotta keep going to the gym, and gaining weight, and getting my confidence up. I gotta make friends with more Japanese people and maybe talk to some random strangers myself.
Once I get back to Canada, the main thing is to find myself a summer job. Maybe, since I can’t do a traditional interview anyway, I’ll start looking for jobs outside of Calgary and have a fun exciting summer. Then it’s back to school for fourth year. After that, I really don’t know what I’ll get into. And I’m not really concerned about that. There’s so many choices out there, I’m sure I’ll find the one that’s right for me.
* In 25 posts this is my first "serious" one. Sorry if you didn’t find it as entertaining, but please let me know what you think – leave me a comment.
Friday, September 29, 2006
In the Battle Between You and the World, Bet On the World
Wow, so many people blogging while they're supposed to be working... so i will too!
I have a new pet. He (or she) doesn't have a name yet. It's about a centimeter long, has 8 legs, and is yellow and black. It has been hanging around my desk for over a week, sometimes resting on my keyboard, sometimes jumping onto the wall and crawling around. It's quite talented, being able to jump a good 6 inches, and its fangs look rather sharp. I'm not exactly sure what to do with him yet. I don't want to put him down, he appears rather healthy and well, and so the ethics of that may be questionable. And I can't really take him outside and release him into the wild without looking partly psychotic to my fellow coworkers. So for now he is my pet, and I like him a lot. I think I shall name him Alfred, since Mr. Molina's characters have had multiple bad experiences dealing with large arachnids.
I shall name him Alfred, and he shall be mine. And he shall be my Alfred.
I have a new pet. He (or she) doesn't have a name yet. It's about a centimeter long, has 8 legs, and is yellow and black. It has been hanging around my desk for over a week, sometimes resting on my keyboard, sometimes jumping onto the wall and crawling around. It's quite talented, being able to jump a good 6 inches, and its fangs look rather sharp. I'm not exactly sure what to do with him yet. I don't want to put him down, he appears rather healthy and well, and so the ethics of that may be questionable. And I can't really take him outside and release him into the wild without looking partly psychotic to my fellow coworkers. So for now he is my pet, and I like him a lot. I think I shall name him Alfred, since Mr. Molina's characters have had multiple bad experiences dealing with large arachnids.
I shall name him Alfred, and he shall be mine. And he shall be my Alfred.
Sunday, September 24, 2006
MY Words Speak Louder Than Actions!
After the internet café and another trip to the sento, we went for lunch at Lotteria Burger. Interesting to note is that inside the restaurant was a sign saying "Please use the rest room". Also interesting to note was the lack of restroom in the restaurant.
We went to Yoyogi Park next. On Sundays, Yoyogi plays host to Japanese… er, I’d say indie but that’d be an insult to indie music… bands of all different genres. One band, LooVee, looked as if they belonged on American Bandstand back in the 50’s. Matching red costumes, lots of brass, 2 girl singers and a male lead. At one point, the lead singer removed one of the guitarist’s pants, which was very nice of him. I guess that doesn’t happen on Bandstand too often.
Another band was very punk. The guitarist was pantless to begin with, making things easier, and the lead "singer" enjoyed shouting while writhing in pain apparently on the sidewalk. There were two somewhat decent bands though, and my favorite was a single guy jammin’ on the drums alone while waitin for his band members to show up.
Me, Keith and Mark played some hacky sack in the park while listening to a band play the same 5-second beat on the African drums, over and over, for half an hour. Boon Hau, Tyson, and Byron were exploring the park, and when we met up with them, they had joined a ukulele troupe. They even tought me how to play (I sucked) and gave us drinks, it was quite fun.
Next we went to Harajuku. I won’t try to describe it, because the pics here speak for themselves.
For the last part of our trip we met up with Clem and Neil and went to a Maid Café in Akihabara. Basically at this café, the waitresses are dressed up in maid costumes. Not revealing costumes or anything, quite covered up actually. For a fee you can do stuff with the maids.
No, not that kinda stuff… For 800-en you can play a PS2 fighting game against the maid, and you get your picture with the maid "if" you win. Or you can order a song or dance (500-en) which a maid will perform on the stage.
When not playing with the maid, the screen on stage keeps repeating a minute long video of a maid making coffee, then washing the cup, then making coffee, then washing the cup…
At the center table were some hardcore otaku. I will rely on the power of the human imagination and only state a few facts:
They were dressed up as anime characters.
The anime characters were female.
They had magic wands, hand puppets, and anime porn on their cell phones.
They sang and danced (and had all routines memorized) along with the maids.
This appears to be rather common for maid cafes (at least in Akihabara).
We left after one drink (600-en), and went to get food. After a quick meal and a game of DDR and House of the Dead 4, we headed back to Tokyo Station. Tyson bought what were apparently "Fried Dolls" as omiyage… which brought back haunting images from the previous day.
The journey back on the night bus was almost as fun as the journey there, but it was nice to go home and sleep after. In all, very fun trip, the Kansai Invasion was a success, thanks to Keith for his planning work.
This weekend (Sept 22-24) I met up with Anton at Kyoto Station to retrieve my pants (I left my pants at Anton’s when he had Jen’s welcoming party… because somebody spilt alcohol all over them), and to watch a high school dance performance at the station. Rather busy, and rather impressive actually, it was cool to see. Each school had a group of performers and a different dance, maybe I’ll be able to get some pictures off of Anton later and put em up on my webalbum.
Then it was off to Wakayama, where I met up with Keith, Boon-Hau and Tongxin. We stayed up till 4:30 playing cards, slapping each other, and eating excessive amounts of junk food, then on Saturday we went skimboarding <-- Video Link! I also had a sumo fight against Boon Hau on the beach (I lost of course) and we practiced our nunchaku skills, and frisbee skills, and swimming skills (you know! Skills!). We attempted a group study session for the JLPT test, then headed home.
Ja…
We went to Yoyogi Park next. On Sundays, Yoyogi plays host to Japanese… er, I’d say indie but that’d be an insult to indie music… bands of all different genres. One band, LooVee, looked as if they belonged on American Bandstand back in the 50’s. Matching red costumes, lots of brass, 2 girl singers and a male lead. At one point, the lead singer removed one of the guitarist’s pants, which was very nice of him. I guess that doesn’t happen on Bandstand too often.
Another band was very punk. The guitarist was pantless to begin with, making things easier, and the lead "singer" enjoyed shouting while writhing in pain apparently on the sidewalk. There were two somewhat decent bands though, and my favorite was a single guy jammin’ on the drums alone while waitin for his band members to show up.
Me, Keith and Mark played some hacky sack in the park while listening to a band play the same 5-second beat on the African drums, over and over, for half an hour. Boon Hau, Tyson, and Byron were exploring the park, and when we met up with them, they had joined a ukulele troupe. They even tought me how to play (I sucked) and gave us drinks, it was quite fun.
Next we went to Harajuku. I won’t try to describe it, because the pics here speak for themselves.
For the last part of our trip we met up with Clem and Neil and went to a Maid Café in Akihabara. Basically at this café, the waitresses are dressed up in maid costumes. Not revealing costumes or anything, quite covered up actually. For a fee you can do stuff with the maids.
No, not that kinda stuff… For 800-en you can play a PS2 fighting game against the maid, and you get your picture with the maid "if" you win. Or you can order a song or dance (500-en) which a maid will perform on the stage.
When not playing with the maid, the screen on stage keeps repeating a minute long video of a maid making coffee, then washing the cup, then making coffee, then washing the cup…
At the center table were some hardcore otaku. I will rely on the power of the human imagination and only state a few facts:
They were dressed up as anime characters.
The anime characters were female.
They had magic wands, hand puppets, and anime porn on their cell phones.
They sang and danced (and had all routines memorized) along with the maids.
This appears to be rather common for maid cafes (at least in Akihabara).
We left after one drink (600-en), and went to get food. After a quick meal and a game of DDR and House of the Dead 4, we headed back to Tokyo Station. Tyson bought what were apparently "Fried Dolls" as omiyage… which brought back haunting images from the previous day.
The journey back on the night bus was almost as fun as the journey there, but it was nice to go home and sleep after. In all, very fun trip, the Kansai Invasion was a success, thanks to Keith for his planning work.
This weekend (Sept 22-24) I met up with Anton at Kyoto Station to retrieve my pants (I left my pants at Anton’s when he had Jen’s welcoming party… because somebody spilt alcohol all over them), and to watch a high school dance performance at the station. Rather busy, and rather impressive actually, it was cool to see. Each school had a group of performers and a different dance, maybe I’ll be able to get some pictures off of Anton later and put em up on my webalbum.
Then it was off to Wakayama, where I met up with Keith, Boon-Hau and Tongxin. We stayed up till 4:30 playing cards, slapping each other, and eating excessive amounts of junk food, then on Saturday we went skimboarding <-- Video Link! I also had a sumo fight against Boon Hau on the beach (I lost of course) and we practiced our nunchaku skills, and frisbee skills, and swimming skills (you know! Skills!). We attempted a group study session for the JLPT test, then headed home.
Ja…
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
That Which Does Not Kill Me Postpones the Inevitable
The hardest part isn’t finding what we need to be
It’s being content with who we are.
Stay who you are…
- Kris Roe (The Ataris)
Well, been a while since I blogged, and so much to say, and so little time to say it. If my blog runs too long and you get bored, well, that’s your own fault, cause this blog is pure awesomeness!!!
Primary Objective: Kansai Invasion of Tokyo
Mission Status: Complete!
Yep, that’s right, most of the Kansai gang, specifically myself, Keith, Tyson, Boon-Hau, and Byron, went down to Tokyo to see SUUUMOOO!!! Woohoo!!!
As you can gather, it was a good time (for the most part).
Mission Details:
On Friday night we took the night bus to Tokyo. This is not the best way to get to Tokyo. The best way to get to Tokyo is to already be there. If that fails, airplane would be a good (but expensive way to go), then Shinkansen, then maybe local trains during the day, then the second last choice would be night bus. Teleportation would be the worst way to go, since it is slightly hazardous:
"I teleported home one night
With Ron and Sid and Meg.
Ron stole Maggie’s heart away
And I got Sidney’s leg."
Flying (not in an airplane) would be a good choice too, which is done by, of course, throwing yourself to the ground and missing. Of course, this takes a lot of practice, and tends to hurt if you fail to miss the ground.
Night bus is pretty brutal. It’s about a 10 hour trip, with limited leg room, squishy cramped seats, and stops every couple hours. For the first while, Keith and Boon-Hau studied kanji, Tyson read Hemingway aloud to us, ("’Good luck old man’. ‘Good luck’ said the old man"), boy that man could write nasty run on sentences and even run on paragraphs. I was reading a Ray Bradbury book, very interesting book, managed to finish it too. Which means after I finish Catcher in the Rye, I’ll have only 4 more books to read. Better save some money for a trip to the bookstore. I’ve been reading a lot more since I got here, a lot of classic books (1984), as well as some weirder books (The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul), all of them have been very interesting so far. Educational too.
Back on topic, got to Tokyo station at some super early hour in the morning, like 7:30. Went straight to the Sumo Arena to buy tickets, about 20 bucks for seats in the very back row. But better than spending a couple hundred on front row seats. Then we headed to O-Daiba, an island connected by bridge to Tokyo.
In O-Daiba we went to Sega Joypolis, which is half arcade, half ride simulations, half actual rides. Which adds up to 1.5x Fun! Well, that extra half is actually fear and creepiness… we went into the House of the Living Dolls…
Basically we walk through a completely dark hallway, and get to a room with a female mannequin at the head of the table. All five of us sit down around the table, put on the headphones, and the room goes pitch black. Then we hear (in Japanese) the story of an old woman who wants to revive her dead granddaughter by using hair, and eyes, and a heart from the Kansai crew members. With all the gory sound effects that the gouging of eyes and heart removal would create. Needless to say, when the granddaughter is revived she turns out to be evil, and goes crazy removing even more organs, and eventually a spirit tells us to pray to a doll on the table, and the demon is killed, and somehow we’re still alive, and the lights turn back on, and there’s bloody handprints all over the table. It was actually very creepy, the sound effects were done very well. I scared the pants off of Tyson by poking him in the dark haha. Sorry man.
Because the rides were not designed for too many people, and lasted a long time, lineups became excessive, 20-40 min so we decided to leave, and headed for the Toyota Showroom.
Lots of cool stuff there, some futuristic vehicles, cars that could navigate themselves along a roadway, and a robot that could play the trumpet! Stayed there for a while, taking pictures and seeing the displays, then we headed back to the Sumo Arena.
Sumo was quite interesting. Basically, before every bout there’s a long ritual, involving facing each other, stomping your legs, throwing salt, wiping yourself with the towel in the corner, repeat a few times, then try to push your opponent out of the ring. The actual fight only lasts a few seconds normally. Sometimes it takes a bit longer when the wrestlers are even matched, in which case they may try to swing or throw their opponent out of the ring.
To make things a little more interesting, we placed small bets on each of the matches, choosing a wrestler basically at random, depending on how big they were and the color of their thong. Cause it’s hard to bet on a wrestler with a pink thong. We ended up staying for about 3 hours total, got some good pictures, some of us got a little sleep, and some of us forfeiting a couple bucks due to his wrestlers constantly losing, grrr!
Not having a hotel or anything the night before, we stopped at a sento (public bath) after sumo to clean ourselves up. Not much I care to describe really, basically a standard sento. They had free toothbrushes that have toothpaste inside the bristles, which was handy. Oh yeah, there were cameras in the change rooms o.O. And probably the weirdest, there were women (employees) wandering around the all male baths, with all the guys in their birthday suits. I was prepared for this but it’s still very weird. They also allowed people to drink beer in the baths.
We met up with Clement, Neil, Leon, and Leon’s friend Mark, and went for dinner at a kaiten (conveyor belt) sushi place in Shinjuku, then got harassed by people on the way back to the station trying to get us to go to various strip clubs/hostess bars. One guy, Charles told us that he’d give us a special deal, since it was his birthday. He even had "proof" it was his birthday, he had a picture of his birthday cake on his phone! He must have been telling the truth!
Headed to Roppongi, with Gaspanic #1 being our first stop. I should probably mention to the people that don’t know, nightclubs aren’t really my thing. That’s probably because I’m not much of a drinker. Nightclubs sober are pretty brutal.
"There isn’t any night club in the world you can sit in for a long time unless you can at least buy some liquor and get drunk. Or unless you’re with some girl that really knocks you out." – Holden Caulfield
Gaspanic #1 was very crowded, and too many guys compared to girls. I got tired of it pretty quickly, and went to MacD’s for a break and to get some food, till the others called me to tell me they got bored of that club too. So I met with them and we decided to find a better club.
The first club we try, none other than Gaspanic #2! Which was much worse than the first one. We stayed maybe 15 minutes. So we continued exploring. Nearly every club has a guy outside (usually a black guy), trying to convince you to go into their club. Some will even follow you down the street. Japanese women will try to get you to go into the massage places too, and will chase you down the street. It’s a very weird place.
We tried sending in scouts to see if a particular club was good or not. This wasn’t an effective method, because the scouts wouldn’t come back out and we’d all have to go in and fetch them. The music in the clubs was mixed, one club had the Macarena playing, but mostly hip hop music. I heard only a few good songs the whole night, Santana and Fatboy Slim. One club in particular was quite creepy. We went down there because the guy outside offered us free shots, but all got creeped out one by one and snuck out before the guy could see us leave. Byron and Tyson stayed for the shots, which they thought were non-alcoholic, of course :P.
In the end (being 4am) we gave up looking for a good club, went to MacD’s for an hour till the trains started running, then us Kansai crew and Mark went to an internet café to get a few hours’ sleep.
So to recap, awake since Friday morning, 3 hours (bad) sleep on a night bus Friday night, and 4 hours (bad) sleep in an internet café on Saturday night, and a long but exciting day ahead of us… but an entertaining trip so far!
Gotta study now, part 2 in Tokyo 2: Kansai Invasion should be up soon.
It’s being content with who we are.
Stay who you are…
- Kris Roe (The Ataris)
Well, been a while since I blogged, and so much to say, and so little time to say it. If my blog runs too long and you get bored, well, that’s your own fault, cause this blog is pure awesomeness!!!
Primary Objective: Kansai Invasion of Tokyo
Mission Status: Complete!
Yep, that’s right, most of the Kansai gang, specifically myself, Keith, Tyson, Boon-Hau, and Byron, went down to Tokyo to see SUUUMOOO!!! Woohoo!!!
As you can gather, it was a good time (for the most part).
Mission Details:
On Friday night we took the night bus to Tokyo. This is not the best way to get to Tokyo. The best way to get to Tokyo is to already be there. If that fails, airplane would be a good (but expensive way to go), then Shinkansen, then maybe local trains during the day, then the second last choice would be night bus. Teleportation would be the worst way to go, since it is slightly hazardous:
"I teleported home one night
With Ron and Sid and Meg.
Ron stole Maggie’s heart away
And I got Sidney’s leg."
Flying (not in an airplane) would be a good choice too, which is done by, of course, throwing yourself to the ground and missing. Of course, this takes a lot of practice, and tends to hurt if you fail to miss the ground.
Night bus is pretty brutal. It’s about a 10 hour trip, with limited leg room, squishy cramped seats, and stops every couple hours. For the first while, Keith and Boon-Hau studied kanji, Tyson read Hemingway aloud to us, ("’Good luck old man’. ‘Good luck’ said the old man"), boy that man could write nasty run on sentences and even run on paragraphs. I was reading a Ray Bradbury book, very interesting book, managed to finish it too. Which means after I finish Catcher in the Rye, I’ll have only 4 more books to read. Better save some money for a trip to the bookstore. I’ve been reading a lot more since I got here, a lot of classic books (1984), as well as some weirder books (The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul), all of them have been very interesting so far. Educational too.
Back on topic, got to Tokyo station at some super early hour in the morning, like 7:30. Went straight to the Sumo Arena to buy tickets, about 20 bucks for seats in the very back row. But better than spending a couple hundred on front row seats. Then we headed to O-Daiba, an island connected by bridge to Tokyo.
In O-Daiba we went to Sega Joypolis, which is half arcade, half ride simulations, half actual rides. Which adds up to 1.5x Fun! Well, that extra half is actually fear and creepiness… we went into the House of the Living Dolls…
Basically we walk through a completely dark hallway, and get to a room with a female mannequin at the head of the table. All five of us sit down around the table, put on the headphones, and the room goes pitch black. Then we hear (in Japanese) the story of an old woman who wants to revive her dead granddaughter by using hair, and eyes, and a heart from the Kansai crew members. With all the gory sound effects that the gouging of eyes and heart removal would create. Needless to say, when the granddaughter is revived she turns out to be evil, and goes crazy removing even more organs, and eventually a spirit tells us to pray to a doll on the table, and the demon is killed, and somehow we’re still alive, and the lights turn back on, and there’s bloody handprints all over the table. It was actually very creepy, the sound effects were done very well. I scared the pants off of Tyson by poking him in the dark haha. Sorry man.
Because the rides were not designed for too many people, and lasted a long time, lineups became excessive, 20-40 min so we decided to leave, and headed for the Toyota Showroom.
Lots of cool stuff there, some futuristic vehicles, cars that could navigate themselves along a roadway, and a robot that could play the trumpet! Stayed there for a while, taking pictures and seeing the displays, then we headed back to the Sumo Arena.
Sumo was quite interesting. Basically, before every bout there’s a long ritual, involving facing each other, stomping your legs, throwing salt, wiping yourself with the towel in the corner, repeat a few times, then try to push your opponent out of the ring. The actual fight only lasts a few seconds normally. Sometimes it takes a bit longer when the wrestlers are even matched, in which case they may try to swing or throw their opponent out of the ring.
To make things a little more interesting, we placed small bets on each of the matches, choosing a wrestler basically at random, depending on how big they were and the color of their thong. Cause it’s hard to bet on a wrestler with a pink thong. We ended up staying for about 3 hours total, got some good pictures, some of us got a little sleep, and some of us forfeiting a couple bucks due to his wrestlers constantly losing, grrr!
Not having a hotel or anything the night before, we stopped at a sento (public bath) after sumo to clean ourselves up. Not much I care to describe really, basically a standard sento. They had free toothbrushes that have toothpaste inside the bristles, which was handy. Oh yeah, there were cameras in the change rooms o.O. And probably the weirdest, there were women (employees) wandering around the all male baths, with all the guys in their birthday suits. I was prepared for this but it’s still very weird. They also allowed people to drink beer in the baths.
We met up with Clement, Neil, Leon, and Leon’s friend Mark, and went for dinner at a kaiten (conveyor belt) sushi place in Shinjuku, then got harassed by people on the way back to the station trying to get us to go to various strip clubs/hostess bars. One guy, Charles told us that he’d give us a special deal, since it was his birthday. He even had "proof" it was his birthday, he had a picture of his birthday cake on his phone! He must have been telling the truth!
Headed to Roppongi, with Gaspanic #1 being our first stop. I should probably mention to the people that don’t know, nightclubs aren’t really my thing. That’s probably because I’m not much of a drinker. Nightclubs sober are pretty brutal.
"There isn’t any night club in the world you can sit in for a long time unless you can at least buy some liquor and get drunk. Or unless you’re with some girl that really knocks you out." – Holden Caulfield
Gaspanic #1 was very crowded, and too many guys compared to girls. I got tired of it pretty quickly, and went to MacD’s for a break and to get some food, till the others called me to tell me they got bored of that club too. So I met with them and we decided to find a better club.
The first club we try, none other than Gaspanic #2! Which was much worse than the first one. We stayed maybe 15 minutes. So we continued exploring. Nearly every club has a guy outside (usually a black guy), trying to convince you to go into their club. Some will even follow you down the street. Japanese women will try to get you to go into the massage places too, and will chase you down the street. It’s a very weird place.
We tried sending in scouts to see if a particular club was good or not. This wasn’t an effective method, because the scouts wouldn’t come back out and we’d all have to go in and fetch them. The music in the clubs was mixed, one club had the Macarena playing, but mostly hip hop music. I heard only a few good songs the whole night, Santana and Fatboy Slim. One club in particular was quite creepy. We went down there because the guy outside offered us free shots, but all got creeped out one by one and snuck out before the guy could see us leave. Byron and Tyson stayed for the shots, which they thought were non-alcoholic, of course :P.
In the end (being 4am) we gave up looking for a good club, went to MacD’s for an hour till the trains started running, then us Kansai crew and Mark went to an internet café to get a few hours’ sleep.
So to recap, awake since Friday morning, 3 hours (bad) sleep on a night bus Friday night, and 4 hours (bad) sleep in an internet café on Saturday night, and a long but exciting day ahead of us… but an entertaining trip so far!
Gotta study now, part 2 in Tokyo 2: Kansai Invasion should be up soon.
Friday, September 08, 2006
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…
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…
Friday, August 25, 2006
When You Hear Hoofbeats, Just Go Ahead and Think Horses, Not Zebras
Turning... Away from the light
Becoming... Adult
Turning... Into my soul...
Byron messaged me over Gtalk at work yesterday afternoon, saying one of the guys he met last weekend had invited him out that night. Apparently he had met a group of Japanese guys and girls at the Hub (Brit Pub) last week playing pool and had given them his email. After asking what we were gonna do, Byron replies with “He mentioned something about karaoke”.
Byron wasn’t sure whether the Japanese guy was bringing friends or not, and kinda wanted me to come along; I figured it would make a good blog story at the very least. Byron could also not remember which member of the group this guy was, so we really didn’t know what to expect.
So we met the guy outside the Hub. He’s my age, 21, rather thin, wearing tight low rider designer jeans and a fancy shirt, gold watch, earring and ring. Byron introduces me and we head off to the nearest karaoke place.
The karaoke place made me sad. It’s very new and fancy, probably a dozen floors high, each with little rooms that you karaoke in. Our room had a booth which seats 4 or a squishy 6, a tv and sound system, a phone for ordering food or drinks, and most importantly, a tambourine. What made me sad was I’m pretty sure this was the karaoke joint was the one that replaced Maruzen, one of the best bookstores in Kyoto. There’s enough karaoke places, don’t get rid of the best foreign book collection in the city!
We rented a room – sorry, I just figured out that every time my co-worker puts someone on hold his phone plays “My Grandfather’s Clock” – and Byron’s friend orders us all a gin and tonic.
“It is a curious fact, and one to which no one knows quite how much importance to attach, that something like 85% of all known worlds in the Galaxy, be they primitive or highly advanced, have invented a drink called jynnan tonnyx, or gee-N'N-T'N-ix, or gin and tonic, or any one of a thousand or more variations on the same phonetic theme. The drinks themselves are not the same, and vary between the Sivolvian "chinanto/mnigs" which is ordinary water server at slightly above room temperature, and the Gagrakackan "tzjin-anthony-ks" which kills cows at a hundred paces; and in fact the one common factor between all of them, beyond the fact that the names sound the same, is that they were all invented and named before the worlds concerned made contact with any other worlds.”
So the singing begins. The Japanese guy opens up with a song by the KinKi Kids (KinKi is another term for Kansai I believe, and Kansai is the region of Japan that I live in). He’s not too bad of a singer either. Byron then opened up with Sweet Home Alabama. I opened up with telling Byron I won’t sing till he does Eminem.
In the end I was a major part of the singing of 5 songs. Oh, they had weird music choices… multiple songs for The Music and Bloc Party, and no songs for way bigger artists. Maybe they have good taste and really like the Brit rock ^^. Anyway, the songs I sang:
Eminem – Lose Yourself
Beatles – Hey Jude
U2 – One
Bloc Party. – Banquet
And finally, Byron’s friend puts on the Aladdin song “A Whole New World” and gives me the second microphone, so I do a duet with him, taking the part of Jasmine ><. Least I was a good sport about it.
The only other english song he sang was Enrique Iglesias – “Escape”, one of the few songs that I really can’t stand. I was forced to listen to it hundreds of times within a span of 2 weeks and quickly became sick of it. Luckily my weeks of intense accordion music strenghtened my ability to withstand song torture.
After karaoke we went to the Hub for drinks. They have good fish and chips, I could eat (and have eaten) multiple plates in a row. Oh, side note, I’ve gained another 3 pounds this month, meaning I’ve gained 7 pounds in the 3 months I’ve been here. That’s a big deal for a lil guy like me.
We talk for a bit about various things (does any CJP person know how you’d say various colors in Japanese? Is it iroiroiro?) such as Canada and Japan, school, work, and music. Along with asking if we have girlfriends (and him saying that he doesn’t), he asks an odd question about… er… “relative proportions” between white guys and Japanese guys. Using colorful language too. Dunno if this is normal for Japan or not, Az’s (English teacher in Japan) junior high school students were overly curious too. It could just be Japanese culture, I’m sure many of you have seen pictures of the crazy Japanese youth with their weird cool clothes and hair.
We say farewell at the train station and go home, with another interesting adventure for the record books.
Becoming... Adult
Turning... Into my soul...
Byron messaged me over Gtalk at work yesterday afternoon, saying one of the guys he met last weekend had invited him out that night. Apparently he had met a group of Japanese guys and girls at the Hub (Brit Pub) last week playing pool and had given them his email. After asking what we were gonna do, Byron replies with “He mentioned something about karaoke”.
Byron wasn’t sure whether the Japanese guy was bringing friends or not, and kinda wanted me to come along; I figured it would make a good blog story at the very least. Byron could also not remember which member of the group this guy was, so we really didn’t know what to expect.
So we met the guy outside the Hub. He’s my age, 21, rather thin, wearing tight low rider designer jeans and a fancy shirt, gold watch, earring and ring. Byron introduces me and we head off to the nearest karaoke place.
The karaoke place made me sad. It’s very new and fancy, probably a dozen floors high, each with little rooms that you karaoke in. Our room had a booth which seats 4 or a squishy 6, a tv and sound system, a phone for ordering food or drinks, and most importantly, a tambourine. What made me sad was I’m pretty sure this was the karaoke joint was the one that replaced Maruzen, one of the best bookstores in Kyoto. There’s enough karaoke places, don’t get rid of the best foreign book collection in the city!
We rented a room – sorry, I just figured out that every time my co-worker puts someone on hold his phone plays “My Grandfather’s Clock” – and Byron’s friend orders us all a gin and tonic.
“It is a curious fact, and one to which no one knows quite how much importance to attach, that something like 85% of all known worlds in the Galaxy, be they primitive or highly advanced, have invented a drink called jynnan tonnyx, or gee-N'N-T'N-ix, or gin and tonic, or any one of a thousand or more variations on the same phonetic theme. The drinks themselves are not the same, and vary between the Sivolvian "chinanto/mnigs" which is ordinary water server at slightly above room temperature, and the Gagrakackan "tzjin-anthony-ks" which kills cows at a hundred paces; and in fact the one common factor between all of them, beyond the fact that the names sound the same, is that they were all invented and named before the worlds concerned made contact with any other worlds.”
So the singing begins. The Japanese guy opens up with a song by the KinKi Kids (KinKi is another term for Kansai I believe, and Kansai is the region of Japan that I live in). He’s not too bad of a singer either. Byron then opened up with Sweet Home Alabama. I opened up with telling Byron I won’t sing till he does Eminem.
In the end I was a major part of the singing of 5 songs. Oh, they had weird music choices… multiple songs for The Music and Bloc Party, and no songs for way bigger artists. Maybe they have good taste and really like the Brit rock ^^. Anyway, the songs I sang:
Eminem – Lose Yourself
Beatles – Hey Jude
U2 – One
Bloc Party. – Banquet
And finally, Byron’s friend puts on the Aladdin song “A Whole New World” and gives me the second microphone, so I do a duet with him, taking the part of Jasmine ><. Least I was a good sport about it.
The only other english song he sang was Enrique Iglesias – “Escape”, one of the few songs that I really can’t stand. I was forced to listen to it hundreds of times within a span of 2 weeks and quickly became sick of it. Luckily my weeks of intense accordion music strenghtened my ability to withstand song torture.
After karaoke we went to the Hub for drinks. They have good fish and chips, I could eat (and have eaten) multiple plates in a row. Oh, side note, I’ve gained another 3 pounds this month, meaning I’ve gained 7 pounds in the 3 months I’ve been here. That’s a big deal for a lil guy like me.
We talk for a bit about various things (does any CJP person know how you’d say various colors in Japanese? Is it iroiroiro?) such as Canada and Japan, school, work, and music. Along with asking if we have girlfriends (and him saying that he doesn’t), he asks an odd question about… er… “relative proportions” between white guys and Japanese guys. Using colorful language too. Dunno if this is normal for Japan or not, Az’s (English teacher in Japan) junior high school students were overly curious too. It could just be Japanese culture, I’m sure many of you have seen pictures of the crazy Japanese youth with their weird cool clothes and hair.
We say farewell at the train station and go home, with another interesting adventure for the record books.
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!
Monday, August 07, 2006
That’s More Fun Than Exploding a Potato in the Microwave!
My mom once said she loved me
Just the way I am
So I wonder what would happen
If I became a clam
If her son was gray and grimy
Slippery and slimy
An oversized hors d’oeuvre
Would mom still have the nerve?
I’m once again one week late on my blog. Bleh. It’s hard to find time to write when there’s so much to do. Like watch fireworks. Or prepare my "speech" for the meeting tomorrow (which I still have to do). Or eat junk food. But it’s good to write my blog too, lets me remember what has happened so far, gives me something to look back on. And my fans await… whoever still reads this.
Hmm, last weekend was my big adventure to Tokyo! As many of my adventures, it was completely unplanned except for where I was gonna stay. I packed my bags on Wednesday, went to Kyoto Station, bought my ticket, and was on the Shinkansen (bullet train) less than 10 minutes later.
Shinkansen is very fast. It is a distance of 500 km, and takes about 2h 15 minutes… which gives an average speed of 220km/h, and a max speed of nearly 300km/h. Unfortunately, since I bought my ticket 10 minutes before the train departed… I got the middle seat, so I couldn’t see anything outside ><.
Got to Tokyo Station mid afternoon. I was going to stay with Jeff, but he works a bit late, so I decided to explore a bit. Tokyo’s pretty crazy. It’s a lot busier than Kyoto of course, and people don’t seem as polite. And very strict escalator rules, which annoys people that come to Kyoto. Met with Jeff that night, it was very nice of him to let me stay. He has a cool place, with his own shower! Was quite fun too, I even did his Crossfit workout with him one morning.
I went to all the most famous neighbourhoods (multiple times), was very interesting. I went to Harajuku first which is where all the young hip japanese kids go. Unfortunately, not really knowing where I was going, I walked all the way around the neighbourhood before finding out where it was. Very hip place, lots of weird stores selling even weirder clothes. I saw two (separate) elderly ladies (I’m talking 70+ here) with bright purple hair. I went to Yoyogi Park too. On Sundays apparently live bands all get together and play in the park. In other words, I must must go back to Tokyo and stay on a Sunday. On the day I went, it was quite dead, just a few tourists wandering around. But quite a nice park for being in the middle of Tokyo.
Shibuya was very cool, I believe it is the busiest pedestrian intersection in the world. Kinda like Times Square in New York. There’s people everywhere, tons of shops selling more flamboyant clothing, electronics, food, etc. There’s pictures on my web album. Crazy busy, almost as bad as Gion Matsuri. Especially cool at night! 3 huge screens playing music vids/advertising. A famous dog statue. And lights everywhere!
Other areas like Shinjuku were also cool. More busyness and shopping and stuff, but didn’t really explore much. I went to Akihabara with… what? Word has Akihabara in it’s spellchecker database!?! What is this crazy talk?!?!… with Clement, talk about neon lights! Electronics stores everywhere, of all different sizes. Some huge chain stores, with entire floors of cameras, and other stores that are, well… garages, transformed into warehouses of (probably stolen) merchandise, not shady at all...
On Saturday afternoon I ran into Clement and Neil in Akihabara again, but not where we expected to meet. Then where I had expected to meet them we ran into Billy, unexpectedly. Along with Lynn and a friend of one of the Kanto crew. The plan was to go and see the fireworks, I decided to go along, at least for a little while.
The crowd! Oh boy, billions of people came out to watch the fireworks. You may think I’m exaggerating, in which case you may be right, but that’s not the point. It was insane, tarps and blankets lined up all the way along the river, apparently some tarps had been placed there a week earlier to save a spot for the fireworks. It’s an obstacle course just to get through everyone sitting down waiting. The Kanto crew was all meeting there, including Duncan and Leon and friends of friends of the Kanto crew. There was Korean, Chinese, Japanese and English being spoken.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have a place to stay that night, since Jeff was on an airplane to Boston at that point, so I decided to Shinkansen it back home rather than spend the night lost and alone. Little did I know that everyone else would miss their train too, and karaoke all night long, which woulda been fun too.
So thoughts on Tokyo… busy mostly. I think it would have been a lot more fun if I wasn’t exploring alone, but unfortunately, I was the only one to have a company holiday, all the Kanto people had to work still. I had fun anyway, very neat to see. I definitely want to go back and spend more time with the Kanto crew, and most importantly, see the hep cats getting funky in unison down in Harajuku. Next time…
Next post should be up by Thursday, covering this week and last, since next week in Obon and I’m goin away to Okinawa, hurray!!! But that’ll be a whole other story…
Just the way I am
So I wonder what would happen
If I became a clam
If her son was gray and grimy
Slippery and slimy
An oversized hors d’oeuvre
Would mom still have the nerve?
I’m once again one week late on my blog. Bleh. It’s hard to find time to write when there’s so much to do. Like watch fireworks. Or prepare my "speech" for the meeting tomorrow (which I still have to do). Or eat junk food. But it’s good to write my blog too, lets me remember what has happened so far, gives me something to look back on. And my fans await… whoever still reads this.
Hmm, last weekend was my big adventure to Tokyo! As many of my adventures, it was completely unplanned except for where I was gonna stay. I packed my bags on Wednesday, went to Kyoto Station, bought my ticket, and was on the Shinkansen (bullet train) less than 10 minutes later.
Shinkansen is very fast. It is a distance of 500 km, and takes about 2h 15 minutes… which gives an average speed of 220km/h, and a max speed of nearly 300km/h. Unfortunately, since I bought my ticket 10 minutes before the train departed… I got the middle seat, so I couldn’t see anything outside ><.
Got to Tokyo Station mid afternoon. I was going to stay with Jeff, but he works a bit late, so I decided to explore a bit. Tokyo’s pretty crazy. It’s a lot busier than Kyoto of course, and people don’t seem as polite. And very strict escalator rules, which annoys people that come to Kyoto. Met with Jeff that night, it was very nice of him to let me stay. He has a cool place, with his own shower! Was quite fun too, I even did his Crossfit workout with him one morning.
I went to all the most famous neighbourhoods (multiple times), was very interesting. I went to Harajuku first which is where all the young hip japanese kids go. Unfortunately, not really knowing where I was going, I walked all the way around the neighbourhood before finding out where it was. Very hip place, lots of weird stores selling even weirder clothes. I saw two (separate) elderly ladies (I’m talking 70+ here) with bright purple hair. I went to Yoyogi Park too. On Sundays apparently live bands all get together and play in the park. In other words, I must must go back to Tokyo and stay on a Sunday. On the day I went, it was quite dead, just a few tourists wandering around. But quite a nice park for being in the middle of Tokyo.
Shibuya was very cool, I believe it is the busiest pedestrian intersection in the world. Kinda like Times Square in New York. There’s people everywhere, tons of shops selling more flamboyant clothing, electronics, food, etc. There’s pictures on my web album. Crazy busy, almost as bad as Gion Matsuri. Especially cool at night! 3 huge screens playing music vids/advertising. A famous dog statue. And lights everywhere!
Other areas like Shinjuku were also cool. More busyness and shopping and stuff, but didn’t really explore much. I went to Akihabara with… what? Word has Akihabara in it’s spellchecker database!?! What is this crazy talk?!?!… with Clement, talk about neon lights! Electronics stores everywhere, of all different sizes. Some huge chain stores, with entire floors of cameras, and other stores that are, well… garages, transformed into warehouses of (probably stolen) merchandise, not shady at all...
On Saturday afternoon I ran into Clement and Neil in Akihabara again, but not where we expected to meet. Then where I had expected to meet them we ran into Billy, unexpectedly. Along with Lynn and a friend of one of the Kanto crew. The plan was to go and see the fireworks, I decided to go along, at least for a little while.
The crowd! Oh boy, billions of people came out to watch the fireworks. You may think I’m exaggerating, in which case you may be right, but that’s not the point. It was insane, tarps and blankets lined up all the way along the river, apparently some tarps had been placed there a week earlier to save a spot for the fireworks. It’s an obstacle course just to get through everyone sitting down waiting. The Kanto crew was all meeting there, including Duncan and Leon and friends of friends of the Kanto crew. There was Korean, Chinese, Japanese and English being spoken.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have a place to stay that night, since Jeff was on an airplane to Boston at that point, so I decided to Shinkansen it back home rather than spend the night lost and alone. Little did I know that everyone else would miss their train too, and karaoke all night long, which woulda been fun too.
So thoughts on Tokyo… busy mostly. I think it would have been a lot more fun if I wasn’t exploring alone, but unfortunately, I was the only one to have a company holiday, all the Kanto people had to work still. I had fun anyway, very neat to see. I definitely want to go back and spend more time with the Kanto crew, and most importantly, see the hep cats getting funky in unison down in Harajuku. Next time…
Next post should be up by Thursday, covering this week and last, since next week in Obon and I’m goin away to Okinawa, hurray!!! But that’ll be a whole other story…
Monday, July 31, 2006
The Trees are Really Sneezing Today
Link Adam, 21, goes on a weekend adventure surfing with friends. When he arrives, he sees things are not as they should be. He finds a city populated by demanding and slightly crazy restaurant owners, and by Jamaican Hawaiian Japanese surfer dudes. It’s a place where OMLGP has no effect. A city where currency… has no meaning! Link boarded the K-Limited Express Train… to the Twilight Zone!
Doo dee doo doo doo dee doo doo….
I’m writing this well after the actual events have occurred, and I don’t have any pics to remember it by, so here’s hoping my memory serves me correctly.
Two Saturdays ago I had work. It’s a lot of fun to work on Saturday. I’d highly recommend it. In the evening I went to Anton’s place, bring my effects, but not my hat. After dinner we went to see Pirates of the Caribbean in Nara. It was in English, hurrah, with Japanese subtitles (Me and Anton still don’t know how they managed to translate "Savvy?"). The theatre was small and very level compared to Canadian theatres. Seats are reserved, so no looking about trying to commandeer the best seats. As for the movie, not as good as the first, but still very good, with some excellent scenes, to be sure! However, it was probably not the most opportune moment to go; most trains stopped before the movie ended, so we only made it to Saidaiji station and had to take a cab the rest of the way.
The next day we got up early and went down to Wakayama to meet Keith. Taking advantage of the Everything’s Free in Wakayama train station policy to get to Keith’s station nearly free of charge. We went for breakfast #2 at the station, I had kekko desu ("I’m fine as I am thanks"), which has been the subject of many jokes directed at me since. Thank you Anton and Keith, my revenge will be swift and painful.
Then we headed to Isonura beach to rent some surfboards. The two rental shops, however, were both sold out! So we passed by a reggae bar, basically an old bus transformed into a… bar… painted in yellow and green with a Jamaican flag and reggae playing. The young dudes running the bar agree to rent us their surfboards, 4h for 2600 yen each, not too shabby, apparently we got 400 yen off the normal price cause we were so cool and hip and rad and stuff.
Surfing was a lot of fun, the water wasn’t too cold, and there were hundreds of surfers out there. To be fair, I sucked. It’s hard just getting out far enough, with the waves pulling you back towards the shore, especially for someone with no mass like me. Once out there though, it’s good, I was able to catch a wave quite easily, standing up was another matter. But still managed to a few times, for a few seconds, woohoo!
After a few hours I got cold and hungry and tired, (and I was a little bit wet) so I decided to head back and get changed. While waiting for Anton and Keith I hung with the Jamaicans, one guy knew a little bit of English… The conversation started out good, but eventually, without getting into too much detail, got a bit interesting, and some of the questions I got asked were… lacking good grammar and perhaps decency.
Anton and Keith arrived back, showered, changed, etc, then we went back to Wakayama. Where we had an crazy older lady, who ran a restaurant, pressuring us to come in. Anton and Keith wanted ramen, so they were reluctant at first. I was reluctant because there was a crazy older lady pressuring me into her store. But we finally broke down (pwned as Anton called it) and went in. We got the special I think? Pasta with ham and shrimp, and the lady talking to us the whole time we were eating. Eventually she went to a nearby restaurant and bought a plate of sushi, brought it to our table, and sat down and started sharing it with us. Which is very odd… But she didn’t charge us for it, and even gave us a bit of a discount on our meal. We eventually left (in my case, escaped) because I had to make it home for shower curfew.
And that was the exciting weekend. On Tuesday we went to Osaka to see the fireworks for Tenjin Matsuri. Unfortunately, with me being the only one on time, we missed them. But not totally a waste, had to meet Keith anyway, and we went for dinner for okonomiyaki and kekko desu. Anton and Keith bought beer off some attractive girls in bathing suits. And then I went home.
More to come on my Tokyo adventure, but that’s later, cause I’m too tired to write it tonight, and the cicadas will inevitably wake me up too early tomorrow.
And pics of Tokyo are up on my web album. picasaweb.google.com/keidan.link
Doo dee doo doo doo dee doo doo….
I’m writing this well after the actual events have occurred, and I don’t have any pics to remember it by, so here’s hoping my memory serves me correctly.
Two Saturdays ago I had work. It’s a lot of fun to work on Saturday. I’d highly recommend it. In the evening I went to Anton’s place, bring my effects, but not my hat. After dinner we went to see Pirates of the Caribbean in Nara. It was in English, hurrah, with Japanese subtitles (Me and Anton still don’t know how they managed to translate "Savvy?"). The theatre was small and very level compared to Canadian theatres. Seats are reserved, so no looking about trying to commandeer the best seats. As for the movie, not as good as the first, but still very good, with some excellent scenes, to be sure! However, it was probably not the most opportune moment to go; most trains stopped before the movie ended, so we only made it to Saidaiji station and had to take a cab the rest of the way.
The next day we got up early and went down to Wakayama to meet Keith. Taking advantage of the Everything’s Free in Wakayama train station policy to get to Keith’s station nearly free of charge. We went for breakfast #2 at the station, I had kekko desu ("I’m fine as I am thanks"), which has been the subject of many jokes directed at me since. Thank you Anton and Keith, my revenge will be swift and painful.
Then we headed to Isonura beach to rent some surfboards. The two rental shops, however, were both sold out! So we passed by a reggae bar, basically an old bus transformed into a… bar… painted in yellow and green with a Jamaican flag and reggae playing. The young dudes running the bar agree to rent us their surfboards, 4h for 2600 yen each, not too shabby, apparently we got 400 yen off the normal price cause we were so cool and hip and rad and stuff.
Surfing was a lot of fun, the water wasn’t too cold, and there were hundreds of surfers out there. To be fair, I sucked. It’s hard just getting out far enough, with the waves pulling you back towards the shore, especially for someone with no mass like me. Once out there though, it’s good, I was able to catch a wave quite easily, standing up was another matter. But still managed to a few times, for a few seconds, woohoo!
After a few hours I got cold and hungry and tired, (and I was a little bit wet) so I decided to head back and get changed. While waiting for Anton and Keith I hung with the Jamaicans, one guy knew a little bit of English… The conversation started out good, but eventually, without getting into too much detail, got a bit interesting, and some of the questions I got asked were… lacking good grammar and perhaps decency.
Anton and Keith arrived back, showered, changed, etc, then we went back to Wakayama. Where we had an crazy older lady, who ran a restaurant, pressuring us to come in. Anton and Keith wanted ramen, so they were reluctant at first. I was reluctant because there was a crazy older lady pressuring me into her store. But we finally broke down (pwned as Anton called it) and went in. We got the special I think? Pasta with ham and shrimp, and the lady talking to us the whole time we were eating. Eventually she went to a nearby restaurant and bought a plate of sushi, brought it to our table, and sat down and started sharing it with us. Which is very odd… But she didn’t charge us for it, and even gave us a bit of a discount on our meal. We eventually left (in my case, escaped) because I had to make it home for shower curfew.
And that was the exciting weekend. On Tuesday we went to Osaka to see the fireworks for Tenjin Matsuri. Unfortunately, with me being the only one on time, we missed them. But not totally a waste, had to meet Keith anyway, and we went for dinner for okonomiyaki and kekko desu. Anton and Keith bought beer off some attractive girls in bathing suits. And then I went home.
More to come on my Tokyo adventure, but that’s later, cause I’m too tired to write it tonight, and the cicadas will inevitably wake me up too early tomorrow.
And pics of Tokyo are up on my web album. picasaweb.google.com/keidan.link
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Dear IRS, Please Remove Me From Your Mailing List.
Sorry all, a bit behind on posts, I have to tell you all about my adventures from last weekend. But unfortunately, no time to post cause I'm heading to Tokyo... which should make for a decent blog all by itself. So expect a double helping when I return sometime on the weekend!
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Questions of Science… Science and Progress…
Do not speak as loud as my heart
Nobody said it was easy,
No one ever said it would be this hard…
I’m going back to the start.
Hoooo boy, another blog, I’m sorry. I’ll try and keep this condensed as possible. And I’ll put the most important stuff first, since I imagine you CJPers are bored (or will be) of reading all the other Gion blogs.
So first of all, I Saw Azrael!!! He was on a train, I recognized him from his picture online. I asked if it was him for sure, and said that me and my friends all liked his blog. He was with friends so I felt a bit bad interrupting though. And I’m sorry to my friends who thought it would be a good idea for me to shout "Breasts!" at him and teleport away.
Oh yeah, if you don’t know, Azrael (or Jeff, his real name) is a 6’6" black guy who lives in Kyoto teaching English to junior high students. He’s been chronicling his adventures on his blog for many years now, and is one of the funniest things on the web. You can find his editorials on www.gaijinsmash.net, or it’s the first link if you type "Japanese school teacher" into Google.
Another interesting thing that only one other person will blog about… I saw Coldplay!!! Woohoo!!! Took 5 trains and an hour trip to make it down to Intex-Osaka Saturday night, where Coldplay was playing. After spending a fortune on a ticket at the door (unfortunately far to the back), and waiting in line to go in, I got to see the concert. No opening band, which was disappointing, in 2003 they had the awesome Brit band "The Music" open for them. But the concert was quite impressive, opening with Square One and Politik, and playing some of the most important songs, Don’t Panic, Swallowed in the Sea, and the best song ever, The Scientist (which was extremely well done, much better than their 2003 version). Very cool stage though, they showed video of the band playing on the background, and had some laser effects too.
And I could write it down
Or spread it all around
Get lost and then get found
And you'll come back to me
Not swallowed in the sea
I was kinda hoping they would play some new or some less popular songs though. I would have loved to hear Sparks, or A Message, or For You.
But anyway, back to chronologicalness… What a fun weekend! Basically the first large scale CJP reunion, as many people came down to Kansai (Kyoto/Osaka/Nara/Kobe) from Kanto (Tokyo). Oh crap, (was gonna say another word but Bush already said it), forgot about Thursday. Anton and I went to pick up my very sexy Yukata from Kinsho near his house. I chose the light brown one, which meant I stood out a bit compared to everyone else in their blue/gray/black ones. Then we stopped at Mister Donut, I got a double chocolate donut, expecting it to be tasty and sweet. It was neither… like 0 sugar at all, bleh… on a double chocolate donut! Gosh!! Then we met up with Uncle Masa and went to an Isakaya. Wasn’t too bad, only stayed for an hour and a half, and Anton did most of the talking since I’m maybe shy (sorry Anton). And then I went home just in time to miss shower curfew.
Accordion Friday, then I met up with Anton and then Billy at Kyoto Station. We went for dinner at the nearby isakaya (the one with the supercool owner and the two nice waitresses). Good meal, and we talked for quite a while. The owner remembered us, and Billy signed his gaikokujin book. Then we went back to Anton’s flat in Nara.
Saturday morning we met Clement, Neil, and Victor at Kyoto Station and went Yukata shopping. Along the way we were stopped by our obligatory old man, who gave us directions, even though we weren’t lost and didn’t need em. Not the most interesting old man experience, but with Uncle Masa on Thursday, I think we filled our quota for the week. I left the group around 2 to go to the concert.
Went back to the dorm first to figure out how to get to the concert, with a complex route involving 5 trains, and tried to buy a ticket from Lawson using my very limited language skills. That failed, mostly because Lawson stopped selling the tickets, since the show was starting in 3 hours, but at least I failed at speaking all by myself! So yeah, got to Intex-Osaka, ran around looking for the ticket selling place (veery hard to find), and saw an awesome concert, woot!
So I head back to Kyoto, and call Anton from Tambabashi station, to see if they’re still out at Gion Matsuri. We arrange to meet at Yasaka Shrine (basically the most important part of the festival, and about the easiest temple to find in all of Kyoto). When I get there… nobody. I call back, they say they’ll meet me between Yasaka and the train station… after running back and forth 3 times (and meeting Clarissa and her friends along the way, Random Encounter #1), we decide just to meet back at Anton’s… Turns out they were lost and nowhere near where I was… they needed my GPS abilities (but that’s later).
On the first train home I was standing beside someone who I swear was my arch nemesis from grade 7. Well, one of them at least… I had many. Stupid junior high. Anyway, if it wasn’t him, he looked identical. Then on the second train home, I was standing right near Mr. Azrael of OutpostNine! Three random encounters in under an hour, that’s a new record methinks.
Anyway, get back to Anton’s, and there’s about 11 of us total now… going to sleep in 3 rooms… with 2 futons… Yeah, not overly comfortable. Still better than camping last summer where it rained heavily for 3 days, man that was cold. What was I thinking… anyway… we had the door open between the two rooms, since there was only one AC… and Billy gets cold in the night, so he closes the door, leaving the other people to freeze. Clement wakes up and instead of turning the AC down (the obvious idea), goes to sleep and snore next to Billy! Interesting night.
Sunday we split up, and try to check out downtown, but we got caught in quite a storm. After me, Billy and Neil sacrificed ourselves to buy umbrellas for the group, we sheltered in a dessert place for dessert. Mmm large chocolate shake. Then we met with the others back at Kyoto Station for dinner at an Italian place. Our group now numbered 15, since the Osakans had arrived. After a lengthy changing process (some people wanted to wear their Yukatas), we headed downtown for the festival. Quite cool to see, massive crowds all over the place. We wandered around for a while, takin pictures, then using my mad GPS skillz I led everyone back to Kyoto Station for another lengthy changing process.
Another fun night, I gave up sleeping on the floor and slept with my head resting on the kitchen table. Oddly enough, it was an improvement. We got up too early and headed back to Kyoto to see the parade. Unfortunately it was still pouring, and we couldn’t get very close to the parade to see much, so we headed back to Tambabashi Station, met up with the Osakans for lunch, and headed back to Nara to change out of Yukata and to head home…
Ideas that you'll never find
All the inventors could never design
The buildings that you put up
Osaka, Japan... all lit up
The sign that I couldn't read
Or a light, that I couldn't see
Some things you have to believe
While others are puzzles, puzzling me
Gion Matsuri was a ton of fun, not really for the festival itself (which we were barely at), but mostly just spending time with so many of the CJPers again… Thanks to everyone who came down from Kanto and other areas, and especially to Anton and Tongxin for providing accomodations.
Looking forward to Pirates and surfin this weekend, too bad I have to work Saturday. And MIDI Wednesdays are almost as brutal as Accordion Fridays… I wonder what they play on Saturdays /cry.
And pictures will now be posted on my web album at http://picasaweb.google.com/keidan.link You can see me in a dress on there now!
Oh, weighed myself today, i've gained about 3-4 pounds since I've arrived here! Go me!
Until we meet again…
Nobody said it was easy,
No one ever said it would be this hard…
I’m going back to the start.
Hoooo boy, another blog, I’m sorry. I’ll try and keep this condensed as possible. And I’ll put the most important stuff first, since I imagine you CJPers are bored (or will be) of reading all the other Gion blogs.
So first of all, I Saw Azrael!!! He was on a train, I recognized him from his picture online. I asked if it was him for sure, and said that me and my friends all liked his blog. He was with friends so I felt a bit bad interrupting though. And I’m sorry to my friends who thought it would be a good idea for me to shout "Breasts!" at him and teleport away.
Oh yeah, if you don’t know, Azrael (or Jeff, his real name) is a 6’6" black guy who lives in Kyoto teaching English to junior high students. He’s been chronicling his adventures on his blog for many years now, and is one of the funniest things on the web. You can find his editorials on www.gaijinsmash.net, or it’s the first link if you type "Japanese school teacher" into Google.
Another interesting thing that only one other person will blog about… I saw Coldplay!!! Woohoo!!! Took 5 trains and an hour trip to make it down to Intex-Osaka Saturday night, where Coldplay was playing. After spending a fortune on a ticket at the door (unfortunately far to the back), and waiting in line to go in, I got to see the concert. No opening band, which was disappointing, in 2003 they had the awesome Brit band "The Music" open for them. But the concert was quite impressive, opening with Square One and Politik, and playing some of the most important songs, Don’t Panic, Swallowed in the Sea, and the best song ever, The Scientist (which was extremely well done, much better than their 2003 version). Very cool stage though, they showed video of the band playing on the background, and had some laser effects too.
And I could write it down
Or spread it all around
Get lost and then get found
And you'll come back to me
Not swallowed in the sea
I was kinda hoping they would play some new or some less popular songs though. I would have loved to hear Sparks, or A Message, or For You.
But anyway, back to chronologicalness… What a fun weekend! Basically the first large scale CJP reunion, as many people came down to Kansai (Kyoto/Osaka/Nara/Kobe) from Kanto (Tokyo). Oh crap, (was gonna say another word but Bush already said it), forgot about Thursday. Anton and I went to pick up my very sexy Yukata from Kinsho near his house. I chose the light brown one, which meant I stood out a bit compared to everyone else in their blue/gray/black ones. Then we stopped at Mister Donut, I got a double chocolate donut, expecting it to be tasty and sweet. It was neither… like 0 sugar at all, bleh… on a double chocolate donut! Gosh!! Then we met up with Uncle Masa and went to an Isakaya. Wasn’t too bad, only stayed for an hour and a half, and Anton did most of the talking since I’m maybe shy (sorry Anton). And then I went home just in time to miss shower curfew.
Accordion Friday, then I met up with Anton and then Billy at Kyoto Station. We went for dinner at the nearby isakaya (the one with the supercool owner and the two nice waitresses). Good meal, and we talked for quite a while. The owner remembered us, and Billy signed his gaikokujin book. Then we went back to Anton’s flat in Nara.
Saturday morning we met Clement, Neil, and Victor at Kyoto Station and went Yukata shopping. Along the way we were stopped by our obligatory old man, who gave us directions, even though we weren’t lost and didn’t need em. Not the most interesting old man experience, but with Uncle Masa on Thursday, I think we filled our quota for the week. I left the group around 2 to go to the concert.
Went back to the dorm first to figure out how to get to the concert, with a complex route involving 5 trains, and tried to buy a ticket from Lawson using my very limited language skills. That failed, mostly because Lawson stopped selling the tickets, since the show was starting in 3 hours, but at least I failed at speaking all by myself! So yeah, got to Intex-Osaka, ran around looking for the ticket selling place (veery hard to find), and saw an awesome concert, woot!
So I head back to Kyoto, and call Anton from Tambabashi station, to see if they’re still out at Gion Matsuri. We arrange to meet at Yasaka Shrine (basically the most important part of the festival, and about the easiest temple to find in all of Kyoto). When I get there… nobody. I call back, they say they’ll meet me between Yasaka and the train station… after running back and forth 3 times (and meeting Clarissa and her friends along the way, Random Encounter #1), we decide just to meet back at Anton’s… Turns out they were lost and nowhere near where I was… they needed my GPS abilities (but that’s later).
On the first train home I was standing beside someone who I swear was my arch nemesis from grade 7. Well, one of them at least… I had many. Stupid junior high. Anyway, if it wasn’t him, he looked identical. Then on the second train home, I was standing right near Mr. Azrael of OutpostNine! Three random encounters in under an hour, that’s a new record methinks.
Anyway, get back to Anton’s, and there’s about 11 of us total now… going to sleep in 3 rooms… with 2 futons… Yeah, not overly comfortable. Still better than camping last summer where it rained heavily for 3 days, man that was cold. What was I thinking… anyway… we had the door open between the two rooms, since there was only one AC… and Billy gets cold in the night, so he closes the door, leaving the other people to freeze. Clement wakes up and instead of turning the AC down (the obvious idea), goes to sleep and snore next to Billy! Interesting night.
Sunday we split up, and try to check out downtown, but we got caught in quite a storm. After me, Billy and Neil sacrificed ourselves to buy umbrellas for the group, we sheltered in a dessert place for dessert. Mmm large chocolate shake. Then we met with the others back at Kyoto Station for dinner at an Italian place. Our group now numbered 15, since the Osakans had arrived. After a lengthy changing process (some people wanted to wear their Yukatas), we headed downtown for the festival. Quite cool to see, massive crowds all over the place. We wandered around for a while, takin pictures, then using my mad GPS skillz I led everyone back to Kyoto Station for another lengthy changing process.
Another fun night, I gave up sleeping on the floor and slept with my head resting on the kitchen table. Oddly enough, it was an improvement. We got up too early and headed back to Kyoto to see the parade. Unfortunately it was still pouring, and we couldn’t get very close to the parade to see much, so we headed back to Tambabashi Station, met up with the Osakans for lunch, and headed back to Nara to change out of Yukata and to head home…
Ideas that you'll never find
All the inventors could never design
The buildings that you put up
Osaka, Japan... all lit up
The sign that I couldn't read
Or a light, that I couldn't see
Some things you have to believe
While others are puzzles, puzzling me
Gion Matsuri was a ton of fun, not really for the festival itself (which we were barely at), but mostly just spending time with so many of the CJPers again… Thanks to everyone who came down from Kanto and other areas, and especially to Anton and Tongxin for providing accomodations.
Looking forward to Pirates and surfin this weekend, too bad I have to work Saturday. And MIDI Wednesdays are almost as brutal as Accordion Fridays… I wonder what they play on Saturdays /cry.
And pictures will now be posted on my web album at http://picasaweb.google.com/keidan.link You can see me in a dress on there now!
Oh, weighed myself today, i've gained about 3-4 pounds since I've arrived here! Go me!
Until we meet again…
Friday, July 14, 2006
May the Forces of Evil Become Confused on the Way to Your House
Still and quiet feline form,
In the sun, asleep and warm.
His tail is limp his
Whiskers drooped.
Man, what could make
This cat so pooped?
Wow, gotta start writing earlier so I don’t forget stuff… It has been a busy week since the last time I blogged. And yes, once again I filled my quota for meeting random older men this week. But that’s later on!
Friday was a bit uneventful, I stayed in and relaxed. It was nice. I played video games and chatted on MSN… mmm Playstation emulators. Early to rise Saturday morning, I was off to have fun and excitement in Osaka! I met with Keith and Tyson (a fellow CJP member) at Tennoji station, and we decided to check out the Umeda Sky Building. Very cool looking building, you can go up a great glass elevator 35 floors, then take an escalator (which has nothing beneath it) up another 4 floors. Not a bad view from up there, unfortunately the view from the roof is a bit obstructed (you’re not allowed at the very edge). Got some ok photos though. We ate in the basement… udon and sashimi and other stuff.
Next we were off to meet Tongxin and Boon-hau. After a quick stop at Daiso (100Yen Shop (Dollar Store)), which has the super annoying MIDI music I hear in my office on Thursday afternoons, we went to Tongxin’s flat to wait for Boon-hau. Tongxin has quite a nice place, with her own bathroom! Plus a little loft area above her livin room. I’m jealous.
After Boon-hau arrived we went to the shrine right near Tongxin’s place. She’s been here a month and hadn’t been there yet. There was quite the path behind the temple, we decided to hike it up there. Took us about two hours and 15 bug bites for me to get up, boy was I hurting the next day! Allergic to mosquitoes sucks, I just hope I never get stung by a bee. And it was hot too, we were really hoping for a vending machine on the top… since they have vending machines everywhere. On a side note, climbing up Fushimi Inari shrine is quite the hike… and yet they have cigarette vending machines halfway up. So if you’re out of breath and really need a smoke :P. Anyway, we were outta luck, but we got a good view of Osaka from the top.
It took us way less time down… maybe 30 minutes max. After a quick stop for popsicles at Tongxin’s we went to an isakaya for dinner. The outside was quite interesting, it was shaped like a pirate ship (niiice). Inside, we got the top floor entirely to ourselves, it was pretty early, and the owner/waiter person was quite nice, helping us with the menu. We order drinks, and he explains some of the stuff on the menu. We end up getting… let me think. A Pirate Salad which is mostly various sashimi, yakisoba, okonomiyaki, yakitori, and Tyson decides it’s a fine time to order a plate of horse sashimi. Yes, that’s right… I had to try some just to say I had. Very interesting texture and flavor, I don’t know how to describe it. Not bad tho, but expensive.
Anyway, the owner guy saw that I was very quiet and polite, and wanted to be specifically my friend. I shook his hand and said Ok! He was also impressed that I sat in seiza position for the entire meal. Not many people can pull that off apparently (least without hurting themselves), but I have no problems with it. But you all know I’m not exactly normal anyways. So yeah, obviously my friends wanted me to get my picture taken with him. Yes, I know I’m not looking at the camera, but there were 4 cameras going off at once and I had no idea who was going when. We get a group picture too, but not on my camera, sorry. After I head back to my place in Kyoto, and made shower curfew by literally a minute! Which was very lucky, after the sweating and the bugs and the sweating.
- - -- --- ----- -------- ------------- ---------------------
Onto Sunday I guess… after spending half the morning deciding whether I should bother goin out or not, I decide I might as well… so I get to the grocery store and decide to get food and go home. It was very hot, and I figured studying my Japanese would be the most useful way to spend the day.
That was until I talked to Anton, who wanted to go exploring and practice his mad Photography Skillz in Kyoto. So I headed down to Takanohara first, so we could go Yukata shopping. Unfortunately for me, they only had one style left for guys’ yukatas, so Anton got his, and I’m going back to get mine tomorrow (Got it! Picture up later!) when they get more stock in. So after we head to downtown Kyoto.
So we get off at Shijo station and walk through one of the back streets looking for a place to eat. Not finding anywhere cheap we settle for (yes Erin, it’s true) Wendy’s. It was not bad, got a bacon cheeseburger, nice to have something familiar. And mmm bacon. So then we check out the Gion area, against my better judgement (still scared of the English prof). Not too lively for a Saturday night, I imagine it’ll change this weekend though! Mmm, Gion Matsuri! But I’ll discuss that later.
Heading back to downtown we saw the ultimo in cool. What the hell, my Word 97 has the word Ultimo (which is apparently a suburb in Sydney!) but not popsicles, or terraform, or Wendy’s! Anyway, Ultimo in Cool! Yeah, we see a large old American car (sorry, don’t know my cars, couldn’t tell you what kind). Anton stops to take a picture, and the driver, a young Japanese guy, sees us, and turns on the hydraulics! Didn’t expect to see that in Japan! A few minutes later we see another guy that had pimped his ride, with lights all around, and a laptop mounted on the front playin some American hiphop (sorry, don’t know my American hiphop, couldn’t tell you what artist). He was wearing a red jacket with a leopard print on It I think? Oh yeah, his ride was a bicycle!
So we decide to check out the river. There’s an area right beside the river, and at the time an amateur jazz band was playing. We take a few pictures and walk down a bit further, where there’s girls in yukata and guys not in yukata lighting off some fireworks! They start talking to us. And by us I mean Anton, since I’m inarticulate in the ways of Japanese. Oddly enough I can understand waaaay more than I can speak, while Anton claims the opposite for him. Anyway, after talkin for a bit, we part ways, and we head back up to downtown, passing by a Jamaican guy playing the drums.
We got drinks at a vending machine. Anton got a fruity rainbow drink outside a place that sells… Canadian whiskey, among other things. And then we went in search of pizza. Not having any clue, we ask a guy at a convenience store if there’s a pizza place nearby, and he says the closest one is a 30 minute walk. Then I start thinking… I kinda know where we are, and I thought there was a pizza place maybe 15 minutes away max. So I start leading the way, only to get to the exact store I was thinkin of 2 minutes later ><. Dunno what the guy at the convenience store was thinking. Anyway, it sure wasn’t Pizza Hut, thin crust, no grease, I was kinda disappointed. Oh well.We head back home, I’m always a fan of making shower curfew, so people don’t have to smell me.
- - -- --- ----- -------- ------------- ---------------------
Muuuuuchos other stuff new. Work is going much better recently, I’ve got a lot more to do. Monday was brutal, with the meeting lasting nearly 3 hours. But afterwards I actually got some work done! I’ve actually been fairly busy since Friday, measuring tooth impedance and graphing the data. I actually find it fairly interesting.
Wake Up Neo. The Matrix Has You.
So I finally downloaded Skype yesterday. I’ve been talking to my parents a bit on MSN, and I have a webcam, but unfortunately their microphone isn’t working. Doing my research on USB connections I think I know why that is, but anyway. So I figured I’d phone em. I was talking to my mom on MSN before I called, then as I called I typed "Ring Ring"… assuming she’d get the point and answer the phone. But nooooo… so the answering machine picks up, and I say "Ring Ring"… still nothing! My mommy is funny. Was nice to call home though, talked for 45 minutes, and it cost me a whole 75 pence! I expect compensation when I return.
Hmm, future plans… Gion Matsuri on the weekend, sounds like Anton’s place is gonna be absolutely squished to the max. The festival should be quite fun. I’m thinking of going to a concert on Saturday though… mmm Coldplay. Just gotta figure out how to buy a ticket. Going to get my Yukata tomorrow, then me and Anton are going to an isakaya with Uncle Masa (which we did, was alright, nothin interesting to tell really).
Pirates comes out a week from Saturday, definitely gonna see it the first day! I hear it broke some major records, rather impressive. Then that Sunday we’re thinking of goin surfing in Wakayama.The following weekend is a five day weekend for me, company holiday! I’m thinking of going down to Tokyo for a few days, since I haven’t been yet. So if anyone is able to put me up for a few days, let me know, that’d be excellent!
Then the next weekend is Byron’s first week in Japan! Then the next weekend is Obon week, with a potential Okinawa trip in the works, or a super massive rock concert if that falls through. Then the next weekend is Fuji-san!!! Wow, that’s a month and a half of fully booked weekends ahead!
I’ll probably post this in the morning, got pics to upload first, and links to add, and other stuff. Like pie. And my online photo album will be up soon I hope. Depends on the lack of sleep this weekend!
In the sun, asleep and warm.
His tail is limp his
Whiskers drooped.
Man, what could make
This cat so pooped?
Wow, gotta start writing earlier so I don’t forget stuff… It has been a busy week since the last time I blogged. And yes, once again I filled my quota for meeting random older men this week. But that’s later on!
Friday was a bit uneventful, I stayed in and relaxed. It was nice. I played video games and chatted on MSN… mmm Playstation emulators. Early to rise Saturday morning, I was off to have fun and excitement in Osaka! I met with Keith and Tyson (a fellow CJP member) at Tennoji station, and we decided to check out the Umeda Sky Building. Very cool looking building, you can go up a great glass elevator 35 floors, then take an escalator (which has nothing beneath it) up another 4 floors. Not a bad view from up there, unfortunately the view from the roof is a bit obstructed (you’re not allowed at the very edge). Got some ok photos though. We ate in the basement… udon and sashimi and other stuff.
Next we were off to meet Tongxin and Boon-hau. After a quick stop at Daiso (100Yen Shop (Dollar Store)), which has the super annoying MIDI music I hear in my office on Thursday afternoons, we went to Tongxin’s flat to wait for Boon-hau. Tongxin has quite a nice place, with her own bathroom! Plus a little loft area above her livin room. I’m jealous.
After Boon-hau arrived we went to the shrine right near Tongxin’s place. She’s been here a month and hadn’t been there yet. There was quite the path behind the temple, we decided to hike it up there. Took us about two hours and 15 bug bites for me to get up, boy was I hurting the next day! Allergic to mosquitoes sucks, I just hope I never get stung by a bee. And it was hot too, we were really hoping for a vending machine on the top… since they have vending machines everywhere. On a side note, climbing up Fushimi Inari shrine is quite the hike… and yet they have cigarette vending machines halfway up. So if you’re out of breath and really need a smoke :P. Anyway, we were outta luck, but we got a good view of Osaka from the top.
It took us way less time down… maybe 30 minutes max. After a quick stop for popsicles at Tongxin’s we went to an isakaya for dinner. The outside was quite interesting, it was shaped like a pirate ship (niiice). Inside, we got the top floor entirely to ourselves, it was pretty early, and the owner/waiter person was quite nice, helping us with the menu. We order drinks, and he explains some of the stuff on the menu. We end up getting… let me think. A Pirate Salad which is mostly various sashimi, yakisoba, okonomiyaki, yakitori, and Tyson decides it’s a fine time to order a plate of horse sashimi. Yes, that’s right… I had to try some just to say I had. Very interesting texture and flavor, I don’t know how to describe it. Not bad tho, but expensive.
Anyway, the owner guy saw that I was very quiet and polite, and wanted to be specifically my friend. I shook his hand and said Ok! He was also impressed that I sat in seiza position for the entire meal. Not many people can pull that off apparently (least without hurting themselves), but I have no problems with it. But you all know I’m not exactly normal anyways. So yeah, obviously my friends wanted me to get my picture taken with him. Yes, I know I’m not looking at the camera, but there were 4 cameras going off at once and I had no idea who was going when. We get a group picture too, but not on my camera, sorry. After I head back to my place in Kyoto, and made shower curfew by literally a minute! Which was very lucky, after the sweating and the bugs and the sweating.
- - -- --- ----- -------- ------------- ---------------------
Onto Sunday I guess… after spending half the morning deciding whether I should bother goin out or not, I decide I might as well… so I get to the grocery store and decide to get food and go home. It was very hot, and I figured studying my Japanese would be the most useful way to spend the day.
That was until I talked to Anton, who wanted to go exploring and practice his mad Photography Skillz in Kyoto. So I headed down to Takanohara first, so we could go Yukata shopping. Unfortunately for me, they only had one style left for guys’ yukatas, so Anton got his, and I’m going back to get mine tomorrow (Got it! Picture up later!) when they get more stock in. So after we head to downtown Kyoto.
So we get off at Shijo station and walk through one of the back streets looking for a place to eat. Not finding anywhere cheap we settle for (yes Erin, it’s true) Wendy’s. It was not bad, got a bacon cheeseburger, nice to have something familiar. And mmm bacon. So then we check out the Gion area, against my better judgement (still scared of the English prof). Not too lively for a Saturday night, I imagine it’ll change this weekend though! Mmm, Gion Matsuri! But I’ll discuss that later.
Heading back to downtown we saw the ultimo in cool. What the hell, my Word 97 has the word Ultimo (which is apparently a suburb in Sydney!) but not popsicles, or terraform, or Wendy’s! Anyway, Ultimo in Cool! Yeah, we see a large old American car (sorry, don’t know my cars, couldn’t tell you what kind). Anton stops to take a picture, and the driver, a young Japanese guy, sees us, and turns on the hydraulics! Didn’t expect to see that in Japan! A few minutes later we see another guy that had pimped his ride, with lights all around, and a laptop mounted on the front playin some American hiphop (sorry, don’t know my American hiphop, couldn’t tell you what artist). He was wearing a red jacket with a leopard print on It I think? Oh yeah, his ride was a bicycle!
So we decide to check out the river. There’s an area right beside the river, and at the time an amateur jazz band was playing. We take a few pictures and walk down a bit further, where there’s girls in yukata and guys not in yukata lighting off some fireworks! They start talking to us. And by us I mean Anton, since I’m inarticulate in the ways of Japanese. Oddly enough I can understand waaaay more than I can speak, while Anton claims the opposite for him. Anyway, after talkin for a bit, we part ways, and we head back up to downtown, passing by a Jamaican guy playing the drums.
We got drinks at a vending machine. Anton got a fruity rainbow drink outside a place that sells… Canadian whiskey, among other things. And then we went in search of pizza. Not having any clue, we ask a guy at a convenience store if there’s a pizza place nearby, and he says the closest one is a 30 minute walk. Then I start thinking… I kinda know where we are, and I thought there was a pizza place maybe 15 minutes away max. So I start leading the way, only to get to the exact store I was thinkin of 2 minutes later ><. Dunno what the guy at the convenience store was thinking. Anyway, it sure wasn’t Pizza Hut, thin crust, no grease, I was kinda disappointed. Oh well.We head back home, I’m always a fan of making shower curfew, so people don’t have to smell me.
- - -- --- ----- -------- ------------- ---------------------
Muuuuuchos other stuff new. Work is going much better recently, I’ve got a lot more to do. Monday was brutal, with the meeting lasting nearly 3 hours. But afterwards I actually got some work done! I’ve actually been fairly busy since Friday, measuring tooth impedance and graphing the data. I actually find it fairly interesting.
Wake Up Neo. The Matrix Has You.
So I finally downloaded Skype yesterday. I’ve been talking to my parents a bit on MSN, and I have a webcam, but unfortunately their microphone isn’t working. Doing my research on USB connections I think I know why that is, but anyway. So I figured I’d phone em. I was talking to my mom on MSN before I called, then as I called I typed "Ring Ring"… assuming she’d get the point and answer the phone. But nooooo… so the answering machine picks up, and I say "Ring Ring"… still nothing! My mommy is funny. Was nice to call home though, talked for 45 minutes, and it cost me a whole 75 pence! I expect compensation when I return.
Hmm, future plans… Gion Matsuri on the weekend, sounds like Anton’s place is gonna be absolutely squished to the max. The festival should be quite fun. I’m thinking of going to a concert on Saturday though… mmm Coldplay. Just gotta figure out how to buy a ticket. Going to get my Yukata tomorrow, then me and Anton are going to an isakaya with Uncle Masa (which we did, was alright, nothin interesting to tell really).
Pirates comes out a week from Saturday, definitely gonna see it the first day! I hear it broke some major records, rather impressive. Then that Sunday we’re thinking of goin surfing in Wakayama.The following weekend is a five day weekend for me, company holiday! I’m thinking of going down to Tokyo for a few days, since I haven’t been yet. So if anyone is able to put me up for a few days, let me know, that’d be excellent!
Then the next weekend is Byron’s first week in Japan! Then the next weekend is Obon week, with a potential Okinawa trip in the works, or a super massive rock concert if that falls through. Then the next weekend is Fuji-san!!! Wow, that’s a month and a half of fully booked weekends ahead!
I’ll probably post this in the morning, got pics to upload first, and links to add, and other stuff. Like pie. And my online photo album will be up soon I hope. Depends on the lack of sleep this weekend!
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
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!
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!
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