Porno and guns

So, Calen, Joel and I went to Tenjin today. We had one important goal in mind. Guns and porno. Actually, we only really wanted guns. I found a large Mandarake the other day in Tenjin and from previous experiences, I knew they have a large selection of models and airsoft. Well this one didn't but we did find lots of porno. Calen bought a cool little desk thingy and I bought Lemmings for my gameboy, so now I can practice some Japanese while playing a really sweet game. As we left I suddenly remembered that I had seen a store that specialized in airsoft guns on my last walk to Tenjin, so we went in search of it. We found it rather easily and were really suprized at what we found. The place was packed to the brim with replica guns, model kits of guns and tons of airsoft guns. Joel and I both got one, since they were only $15. Yeah, I know I'm a big nerd, but its so much fun to shoot and I am in Japan so I have such easy access to this crap. SO SCREW YOU!!!!

Not really important

I was walking to the store and noticed two motorcycle cops. It's not really important, but kinda cool that the standard police motorcycle in Japan is the Honda VFR800. I would definitly become a cop, just to use one of those bikes. Definitly beats the cruisers that North American cops get to use, in my opinion.

Concerts, a cat, and A new home fore ma PHISH!

Huzzah. I conquered the hell out of Lawson's convinience store today. I went to buy my tickets and successfully communicated in Japanese with the store clerk who helped me use the machine which gives out tickets. Its kinda neat, since all you have to do is go on the internet, find out where your concert is, and get the concert number, then go to Lawson's and use the machine. You get a reciept and then the cashier prints out your ticket. Since there are millions of Lawsons(sometimes one on either side of the road, directly across from each other) getting tickets is SO easy!Thank god for Japanese convienience stores actually being as convienient as the name promises.



In other news, That's a cat that keeps coming and eating my food. I bought it some cat food, but it is really mean and keeps scratching people when they try to pet it. It has a sneaky trick. It lets you come up to it and reach out, then it scratches the hell outa you. Luckily, I am smart enough not to try to love a stray cat, so I am unaltered. It sure likes french baguettes, tuna and milk though.



I went for a really long bike ride today, and ended up at a really far away beach. I basically followed the coast until the roads ended, and then walked a few kilometers up the beach. I found a ton of cool new stones to decorate my new bigger fish tank, and also got a little rained on. I found a lot of tide pools, which had a lot of small hermit crabs and sea urchins.


On the way back, I stupidly forgot my towel after I put it down to take a picture of the crab, and didn't realize it until I got all the way back to my bike. The blue thing in the middle, way off is my towel.


On the way back, I rode my bike really fast, and I think I made record time, except when I hit a bump and my shit flew out of my basket. I really hate Japanese sidewalks! I don't know why a country where so many people ride bikes has such extremely steep transitions from street to sidewalk. If you don't slow to a crawl, you get tossed like a bi-sexual beef salad. Anyway, I stopped halfway home to take pictures of the ferris wheels at Marinoa city, since I think its the law that gaijin do this.


I got home and finished pimping the SHIT out of my new fish tank.

Yeah, that's right!!! My fish tank has a bubble machine, AND lilly pads!!! Oh, and that Sweet ass wave backdrop. That's just some junk mail that I used..... cuz I'm thrifty. Yeah, that IS the best fish tank you've ever seen.


Man, look at all these photos. I am a really generous guy. Send me money to show your thanks.

Weekend

God. Weekends blow here. I need to get out more, you know, greet and meet the locals. I did actually do that today, so I shouldn't complain though. Calen and I rode out bikes into Tenjin today and found a bunch of music stores to browse in. The first one is in a huge, tall, mall-like think called IMS building. It is a fancy music store which only has really expensive stuff. Calen brought me to another store, where I proceeded to play the hell out of some really expensive electonic drum sets. I played one that was worth $3000 which was really fun, and another which was $5000 and was actually less fun, although I preferred the drum pads a little more.

I also found out that my favourite band is going to be playing in Tenjin in a month!!!! I am overwhelmed with a sense of joy, as I will get to go to another Japanese live and it will be my favourite band AND its only 3000 yen!!!!!
so far I have convinced Calen to come, but I think it will be better with more ladies. Since everything is better when there are ladies. LADIES AM I RIGHT????

I have nothing lined up for tomorrow, so I think I will summon all of my will power and study my ass off. I am working on studying kanji from the 3rd year textbook, since our other classes refuse to admit we need to know them and already don't :P

NO MSN!!!

My MSN is broken, and I can't fix it, so if you want to speak to me, you have to Skype me!!! Sorry for the inconvienience.

Sports Day and A New Pad

Hey, was Sports Day today! A bunch of us went to the Elementary school with Nogami san from the CIE office and got to participate in a bunch of fun races and stuff. I was reluctant to lose a whole Sunday to this but it ended up being a lot of fun. We got a breakfast box when we got there, and a bottle of tea, followed by two bags of candy and Japanese souvenirs(paper balloons) and half way through the day, we got melon bread!! Nogami brought his kids (all 4 of them. He is the most energetic Japanese guy I have met) which entertained me the whole day.

This is his daughter Waka. She is really cute and loves to get carried around almost as much as her brother. That's Hansen carrying her at the moment.
This was one of many cheerleading groups that performed a song and dance. I think it was entire schools on each team, since each group had about 100 kids. This group had cross-dressers and sang an annoying song which is always heard in Supermarkets.
I saw this shirt and I though "now there is a down to earth guy".
From left to right. Natsuki, Nogami's son, Waka, and Kari one of the Japanese students living in I-house with us this year. She's so nice!!!
Those are the bento we got. The had a lot of delicious stuff, some wierd stuff, and a bunch of horrible Japanese delicacies which I hate to death.
That's Miwa, my favourite Japanese girl. If I had the means or the money, I would make t-shirts with her face on them and wear them in the afternoons. Waka is performing shrimp surgery
This is one of Nogami's twin girls. This is Sae and she cried every time I looked or talked to her. This was the very first time she had ever seen foreign people, so we scared her. She cried like 100 times today. Her twin sister Miwa is a lot cooler and didn't cry at all.
That's just some of the free swag we got. Candy and party favours!!!
Seinan's top-notch cheerleading squad. Here is a link to a video of the cheerleading guy kicking a ton of ass. I think that Japanese cheeleading is tops and Seinan's team is definitly the best I've ever seen.
Oh, on a completely unrelated note, this is my weekly grocery pile. This pile cost me 5030 en, which is about $50 canadian. It usually lasts me the whole week, with a few new purchases to boost my supply.

Thats all for now. I think that video is really crappy, so I will try to make a higher resolution one and switch it.

Praise the lord

Hey, Im finally healing. I was even able to go to the gym. Then I followed that with a healthy dose of Judo practice. Now my body don't work so good. And my abs hurt, and my muscles hurt. And it hurts when I cough. Oh well. At least I'm healthier. I have not been doing anything. I am really quite bored as of late. I am probably just going to start studying Japanese more. Since I am supposed to be here to study. Nothing new yet, but I'll be sure to write about anything exciting that happens.

Video #1

Ok, here is a video of my flight from Osaka to Fukuoka. The video screws up in the middle and theres something wrong with the sound, but I don't feel like struggling with Premiere Pro anymore. VIDEO VIDEO VIDEO

Phone Pictures FINALLY

Ok, there are now pictures up off my phone. Sadly, I still can't get my videos to play in anything but QT, so I can't edit them and put them on the internet yet. Go to my photo page now.

I'm a bricklayer, not a Doctor, Jim

So I am still sick, but I hope not to be sick soon. I went to a Tuberculosis clinic and got an x-ray and some really good antibiotics, apparently. I have made this assumption upon the basis that since the pills are $5 each and there are only 6 of them, they must me really good. I am almost done taking the medication for my food allergy as well. I hope mixing the two doesn't make me more dead than usual.

The gang and I went to Round 1 last night in Tenjin. I don't know if you've ever heard of it Meaghan, or if you went but basically, you pay $5 to get a member card, then $11 everytime you go, and you can play all night long, starting at 11pm. They have an arcade, batting cages, soccer, manga libraries, showers, karaoke (With The Pillows and Sparta Locals songs). There's also massage chairs!!! We didn't end up staying all night. Siggi and I walked home at around 4am, and everyone else waited until 6 for the trains to start running again. The evening actually started with curry at an indian place near I-house. I may have mentioned it before, but we met some rugby players at a nightclub about 3 weeks ago, and we occasionally hang out with one of them. His name is Mark Ransby and he is probably the most famous person I know.
He's the guy on the left.... He's currently centre on the Coca-cola corporate rugby team in Fukuoka, but he used to play for All Blacks, which is a huge team in New Zealand. If you have satellite, you can even watch him play Rugby. He's also really great at karaoke, LOL. Anyway, We ended up going to Round 1 because some others from I-house were going and we needed something to do. We sang karaoke for about 1.5 hours, then went and played arcade games. I went up to the batting cages after that, but the 2 right hand cages were dead, so I had to bat lefty. This was probably one of the most embarassing things ever. I ended up hitting some balls though. Then I played more arcade and had an overcooked microwaved cheese burger. super fun start to the weekend, and the walk home was really peaceful. Today, I went and watched the Kendo club practice. One of the guys from the CIE office is a coach and we always go out with him to drink and stuff. He's really cool. I'll put up the video as soon as I get it off my phone. Which I'm actually going to do right now dammit. No more procrastination. Here's another picture of my fish. Oh and a picture of a Strongbad cartoon.

Kyoto Trip and Hirakata YO!!! Part 2

Ok, so I know it sounds bad, but I spent a lot of Sunday sleeping. It really wasn't my fault though. I was really sick, and so tired. I think tomoko's parents understood and besides, I helped out as much as I could. Sunday was mostly cleaning their old house and watching the movers do their thing. Then we went to the new apartment and we unpacked everything. It was nice though. we finished unpacking most of the kitchen and living room, I got several hours of naps in, and to top it off, we went out for a steak dinner!!! It was honestly the best meal I have had in..... forever. It couldn't have been more perfect. Medium rare steak, sesame dipping sauce, and a great big bowl of rice. Once again though, the sickness and food got the better of me and I was out like a light when we got home. Their new appartment is really cool and modern. It was just built and is almost as big as their old house. Their kitchen is WAY bigger and the bathroom is really neat, with a large japanese bath. The wall even tells you how much water you are using. I considered this a challenge and only used 11 litres for my shower! I should probably put some photos in to spice up this blog eh? OK DESU!!! RANDOM PHOTO TIME!Ok, its me and I look so excited to be outside of the building with 1001 buddha statues. I went inside afterwards and was actually excited.

Anyway, on Monday, my last day in Osaka, we had to go back to the old house and put out the garbage and extra furniture so the waste removal people could take it away. It turns out that Japanese furniture is really light. I singlehandedly moved two armoires and some kind of computer desk. Then we went out for some Osaka ramen. I love ramen, because its cheap and comes in a huge punch bowl. After eating, Tomoko and I set out in search of the elusive "ambasa" drink, which we have only been able to find in vending machines. We went to a bunch of big stores, but ended up with nothing. We walked home in the rain, and then napped before making out way back to Kyoto station. The best thing about visiting Tomoko is how relaxing it is. Even with all the excitment of the move it seemed like a really restfull weekend, and my cold actually got a lot better near the end. Tomoko rode with me back to Kyoto station which takes about an hour from her house. We walked around, got some McFlurries, and took this really awkward looking picture..... We're good friends, I SWEAR!!!So I got on the shinkansen to continue my trip and was suprised at how easy it is to get around a Japanese train station. I remember it was a hell of a lot more difficult last year. It turned out that I got to ride one of the brand spanking new Shinkansen that goes like a bajillion miles an hour, or as the metric system would want you to believe, 300 km/h. It was new, but that didn't stop me from getting the seat that 1000 asses has sweat in. It honestly smelled like a pet shop in the middle of july, in the rainforest, next to a poop vendor. SOO bad. And a HUGE british guy sat next to me and pinned me to the window. Anyway. I got back, and guess what??? I broke out in horrible, horrible hives, courtesy of some Grapefruit water I drank. I would have taken a picture if it weren't for the searing pain and itchiness clouding my judgement and shrouding my thoughts. They got worse as the night went on, and by 4am, I had gotten 10 minutes of sleep and was going into scratching frenzies everytime my brain allowed my body to slip into the near nether-world of sleep. It happened in the half-sleep, half-awake, feverish state you get in before you actually lose consciousness. I would scratch for 10 or 20 minutes before I realized what I was doing and then would wake up and moan and whine. At around 5am, I took a cold shower which did nothing, and then woke Joel up for some strong anti-histamines. They worked well enough, and I finally slept for 4 hours before class, which I slept through....... When I went to the CIE office to make an appointment at the hospital, my whole body had bruises from the sleep-scratching I did. I got some drugs from the doctor though and a shot, so now I feel much less itchy. I am a little sad though, since I lapsed back into sickness due to the sudden lack of sleep. I also had a VERY antisocial day today. I didn't want to talk to anyone or do anything. I did have lunch with Kazu though, and it was really good curry.

I also tried again in vain to install the drivers for my phone on my pc, but it won't have any of that. I can't believe it doesnt work. This lack of working also contributed to my antisocial mood. I really don' want to bug a Japanese girl to get my photos, but I think I have to. That's it for now. I took a kanji test today without studying, due to the fact I was in Honshuu all weekend, but I think I still got a high mark. I have noticed a pattern though. There's always one question I can't answer... I said it was a pattern... not a good pattern. PEACE IM OUT

Kyoto Trip and Hirakata YO!!! Part 1

Hey, I just got back... kinda. I had a shower and then sat around for a bit... Anyway. I hate sitting in smelly shinkansen seats. There, I said it. My seat smelled like spoiled cabbage. In hindsight though, it was worth it. This was one of the best weekend/vacations of my life. It started out quite crapee. I had a cold all weekend whose main attrribute was an overwhelming chest infection. I had trouble walking up one flight of stairs, so try to imagine how I looked trying to climb all the stairs to shrines and temples... Yeah and for those of you who are knowledged in Japanese religion, this is no easy feat. The Japanese are obsessed with putting shit at the top of mountains. Anyway, the chest thing was bad enough, but I went the the gym on Thursday, before we left and stupidly did a leg workout, so the entire day Saturday, my butt and leg muscles, or glutes and quads for all you Kin majors out there were in a state of dying attrophy. Up was painful. controlling my speed of descent was a whole other level of torture. I want to send a shout out to Tito, who acted as a fantastic human brake during that dark day. Anyway. the whole first day, Friday, was devoted to touring Kyoto on foot. This was great, since I can look back on it now and see that it really did me good. It did work out all the pains in my body and it exhausted me and let me get a solid sleep and recouperate properly. Anyway, the tamples were nice, but the best part of the day was the end when we all went to dinner for all you can eat/drink. I sat ar the veggie table with Calen and Siggi, and constantly ran back and forth, fetching meat from other tables for myself. Calen and I also indulged in more than a few Peach Fizzes. Both he and I pretty much never touch booze, but it was all you can drink and the Peach Fizzes tasted SUPER!!! Anyway, the restaurant was followed by an English pub that Professor Olsen led us too. It was pretty much exactly like The Winchester Arms from back home and there wasn't a cover charge, which was great. Everyone played drunken darts, and we found out that we all play better sober.... Anyway. The night was great and we got to spend a lot of quality time drinking and having fun with Prof. Olsen, Nogami-san from the CIE office and Kojima-san from the CIE office.

Luckily, the following day, we got an exclusive bus tour around the city. It was much easier on me bod. At the end, I went to meet Tomoko at the station. We went and had dinner with Calen and Joel, and then took a tour up the Kyoto tower. The actual train ride to her house was about 1.5 hours, and I went to bed as soon as I got in and had a shower. I got to sleep on an authentic Japanese futon, since all their stuff was packed, but it turned out to be REALLY comfy and I was pretty much dead when I het the pillow.... I have trillions of kanji to study last minute now and a huge japanese journal entry to write so I have to bid you adieu for tonight. I promise I'll write more tonight. BYE