Happy New Year, Part 1

Hello all. I just got back from my winter vacation travels and thought I would pay a visit to my long-neglected blog. I traveled to Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. It was a long, good, interesting trip, but not without some hardships. The most notable being my New Years Eve and New Years Day. Intense pain prompted a trip to a dentist in Taiwan, and then another, and then another (all in the same day).



In the end I was told that I needed immediate oral surgery at a hospital. I had to have two wisdom teeth removed, and since the bottom one had three curved roots, they had to cut my gums. Needless to say it wasn't pleasant, and it took about an hour and a half. After the anesthesia wore off I felt what I think might be the worst pain I have ever experienced in my life. And this all happened right in the middle of my vacation. Doh! So I took a lot of medicine and lost a bit of weight since I couldn't stand to eat much, but I did my best to keep moving. Now that I am back home and have slept a lot and spent some quality sofa-time, I am doing much better. Yay.

Aside from all that, though, it really was a great trip. I don't want to try to put it all in one entry, but I will talk about Malaysia a wee bit and leave the rest for later.

My favorite memory from Malaysia was from the Batu Caves. This is a large cavern with a large statue and a large community of monkeys, one of which swiped my can of juice and drank it right in front of us as if to say "What are you going to do about it?" He then waited for us to leave so he could throw the empty can at our heads. Classic. I almost bought another juice to try to repeat it and get it on video. But I resisted the temptation, partly because I was able to get a picture of the symian in question in the act.









And of course the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur were really beautiful.



I also really enjoyed the friendliness of the people in the laid-back historical small-town of Malacca. I sang at a bar and took two rides in a trishaw (bicycle taxi). Note: when choosing a bicycle taxi driver, look for youth and strong legs.





















Okay, I think I will leave it there for now. Next time I will tell more about Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. Hopefully someone still checks this blog once in a while... ; )

DOH! Plus Random College Photo

So I had a little free time and I was messing around with the "customize" option on my blog. It said it would allow me to revert to my old design if I didn't like the new one. It lied. Grrr. So for now my blog is ugly & missing important toys, like a translator, wikipedia, etc. I am too lazy to fix it at the moment because it will take me a couple hours. So for the time being, enjoy the change.

And since I have blogged so little in the past year, I feel like now that I am actually writing something, well, I should write something. So again I look to my photos for inspiration.



Yep, I like this picture. It's unrelated to anything in this post, it's old, and in the picture I am not. Here's to old (young) friends. By the way a few years after this picture was taken (2000?) I bought a new pipe in Rome (January 2005) and I still have the tobacco I bought with it. What d'ya reckon? Probably ought to throw that away, eh?

Now listening to Beck: Odelay

Before September Comes

Hey,

So I turned 32 last week. And I got a new computer and a few nice surprises, including a lovely french dinner. It happened during my vacation which is now almost over. Sigh. Didn't travel this time, but it's been relaxing and I have spent some good time with friends. Miss my pals back home, though, who all seem to be intent on making babies and getting married. One other exciting development for me is finally getting WiFi, which among other things means that, at least in theory, I can now get beaten at MarioKart WII by some of my aforementioned friends. Just like the old days. Yay!

This looks to be another blog post lacking inspiration.... Maybe some photos will help compensate.



So yeah, that was an awesome dinner.

And here are some pics from a subsequent night out where some friends surprised me:






And I would just like to point out that in this next shot, I was aiming the camera and nothing else. I prefer to do some things indoors. By the way the Japanese says "Be careful of the electric cable" and "Don't do that". Really it does.

IKEA is Here!

And labyrinthine, I must say. I had to ask for directions to find my way back to the french press coffee makers. The staff lady drew me a map. It took 50 minutes from the time I decided I wanted it until it was mine. Oh my head. But I would do it again!

Three Months of Silence?

I am writing this despite not really having time to write it nor much that I feel a pressing need to talk about. My motivation is the simple fact that I just realized I haven't written anything since the end of January.

Some stuff that has happened in the last three months:

1. Visited the U.S. and spent time with family in Oregon. Thanks in large part to my cousin who let me use his car for a week, the trip was pretty good. I had missed driving. So much so that my beloved cousin was sent a speeding ticket in the mail with a picture of the car and my chin. Since it is not his chin, he will not have to pay. I am pretty sure. And neither will I. Phew.

Besides visiting family and friends, I shopped. Mostly for shoes. Thanks again to the same cousin, I was able to bring all of said shoes back to Japan, in his huge Nike dufflebag. I was stopped at the airport because the customs officer found it hard to believe that the bag really was full of shoes. So I showed him. It's not that I have a shoe fetish or anything, it's just that it is next to impossible to find shoes my size in Japan, plus they are a lot cheaper in the U.S. I also bought clothes and video games, but an American Nintendo WII eluded me, as did Cadbury chocolate eggs of all varieties. I probably spent too much time looking for the former and not enough looking for the latter. Oh well.

2. I finally got Saturdays off. I now work Monday through Friday, morning till night. But I have weekends to myself! It's like a dream!

3. I started teaching part-time at additional school. More work, fewer workdays.

And there is more, I am sure, but it is not popping into my mind at the moment. Anyway, I will try to put some pictures up in the next few weeks and resume blogging at least monthly. Apologies for the prolonged absence.

February Approacheth

Happy new year and stuff. I am cold. Brr. January 25th, and 25 days until my half-birthday. Unfortunately(?) 25 has nothing else to do with my age. I can't believe I am in my thirties. And I have spent most of my adult life in Asia. Wacky.

Anyway I thought I had better write something before January escapes. But I don't feel like writing anything. Duty-driven, I am. Enough to try and post once a month, at least.

Spent a week in Taiwan for Christmas, relaxed, ate good food, slept in big bed, enjoyed warm weather. Made it back to Japan for New Year's Eve, but really couldn't be bothered to do anything about it. Had a similarly disinterested friend, so rang in the new year with cocktails and video games at my place.

Speaking of my place, it has yet to recover from the pre- and post-Taiwan explosions. It was so clean, but then I spent two hours ransacking the place, vainly searching for an old cell phone. Then when I came back I just dumped everything on the floor. Much of it remains there to this day.

But I have an excuse besides being busy and living in a small apartment. Here goes: It is especially difficult to get motivated to clean when you know you are most likely moving in a month. Yep, still no confirmation, but the plan is to move into a bigger place, a little farther from work, but much more convenient otherwise. This apartment has been good to me, but I feel it is time for a change....

In other news, it looks like I will become much busier with work from April, as I am slated to teach English classes at a music conservatory in addition to my already full schedule. I am looking forward to it. My hours will increase dramatically, I think, but instead of working 6 days a week, I will be back to 5. So I reckon it is a good trade-off. Especially since I will be making a bit more money. Yay.

And the romance department is a secret soap opera. But at least the TV is working, even if I don't always like what's on.

OK, hope you enjoyed that fairly mundane update. There is of course much more to tell, but there is a time and a place for everything, and as the quote at the top of this blog suggests, this is certainly not the place for everything. To those who have been through hell recently and talked to me about it, you are in my thoughts and prayers. May the rest of this year bring only very very good things....

Nuts & Bolts

A sign in a train station. I never investigated further.

Drin-King

A bar in Osaka. No, I didn't go inside. Didn't feel I was qualified.

YouTube Video Recommendation #1

Since my new and improved blog now includes YouTube, I'll go ahead and provide some occasional ideas for what you might watch. Try typing "Japanese exercise video" into the search bar. Push play on the the first one and try to do the exercises while repeating, without laughing. Or just watch it.

It's Mii!

Just testing my mobile phone blogging set-up. And it appears to be operational. That means more fun for everyone. Oh, and for the uninitiated, a "Mii" is a character you design to represent yourself on the Nintendo Wii. Seems appropriate since I just added VIDEO GAMES to my blog! Enjoy! ;) (Btw, if you play the Mario game, the SHIFT button is what you use to kick the shell.)

वहत हप्पेनेद तो अक्तूबर?

Hmm. That title said "What happened to October?" before it was automatically transliterated, but I have to admit Hindi looks cooler so I think I will just leave it that way.

And the answer to the question is, uh, well, like this blog, under construction. In other words I don't know. But the good news is that I found some make up and it seems I am mostly finished applying it. To my blog I mean. It is supposed to be a metaphor. Work with me here, people.

Speaking of this blog, not only do I not know where my old template disappeared to, but I also have no idea where the majority of the music came from. But most of it's not bad, so I can live it for the time being. Weird.

So this is one of those times when there is so much I could say to make up for my extended silence that I will instead say nothing. Well, nothing further. Until I do say something, that is. Right. Leave a comment to let me know you haven't given up on me completely. Much obliged.

What happened here?

Apparently my blog is tired of being neglected. And it is fighting back by parading around without any make-up on. I don't know how this happened. Someday maybe I will do something about it. But that day is almost certainly not today.

The train ran over my shoe but thankfully my foot was elsewhere.

So I tried to write another post but it died because I killed it. So I will just say that I turned 31 years old on August 19th and to celebrate I bought myself an electric toothbrush.

Oh yeah I just remembered something I can talk about. The evening before my birthday I went to a friend's house to play poker. I am not very good at poker but I won the final hand, probably because I didn't completely understand the rules. Low stakes, but it was still nice. Then I went with some friends to catch the last train into Osaka for a night out. While we were waiting on the platform I accidentally kicked my sandal into the air and into the train track below. No time to retrieve sandal, so the night continued with me barefoot. When we arrived in Osaka, I was planning to remain unshod, but was strongly encouraged to get something on my feet. The problem is they generally don't sell shoes in Japan that are big enough. The biggest size is usually between 27.5 and 30 cm; I wear 32. But I agreed to try to find some cheap flip-flops/beach sandals. The biggest pair I found were still way too small, but I went with it. Good news, only about $3. Bad news, lavender. Why were the biggest ones they had THAT color? Oh well, just adds to the memory. I got many comments on my footwear for the remainder of the evening.

The next evening I went to the beach to say hi to some friends who had been there partying all day. As it grew dark, some of them thought it would be fun to go skinny dipping. I found this mildly amusing, as an observer rather than a participant, but sobriety in the midst of revelry can be a bit of a downer, especially on a birthday. So while I was happy to see my friends, and boy, did I see my friends, I was happy to get home to some peace and quiet after three days of people people people.

And now I have some lavender beach sandals that I will almost certainly never wear again. Anybody want 'em? ;)

There is no need to read this.

At some point in the near future I intend to post something. But not right now.

Choose my own adventure

Here's a shot a friend took from a night out to karaoke last month. We are in Japan, but on this night there was not a Japanese person in the room. So I invited the girls from the room next door to join us. And they did. I will probably never get to see the pictures THEY took, though. Aaah.

In this scene I am busy singing and therefore have delegated my drink-ordering responsibilities to the young lady on my left, who does not live here and speaks no Japanese.

Or perhaps we both just saw the camera and struck a pose. I actually don't remember.

Robby is waiting!

I noticed that I hadn't posted in about a week, so here's a little something to keep certain faithful supporters from getting restless. Perhaps it will even motivate one or two of them to come visit me in physical reality rather than just in cyberspace? I found a great place to stay, after all!

Cucumber Cola?

On my way home from work tonight I stopped by the 99 yen store. This is what I found. Has anyone else seen this? The initial taste is kind of cucumber-y, but then it just tastes like cola, pretty much. Seems pretty weird to me, but then so did "Clamato" juice when it was new. In fact it still seems weird. But it caught on, so I reckon just about anything is possible. I will be sure to let you know if I find Clam Cola.

Bottled Up

And they tried to tell me it couldn't be done....

Sticks and Stones

So I went to a nearby zoo the other day. It was like any other zoo.



Penguins are cute wherever you go.



If you watch certain primates long enough they will do things that might embarrass you. Well maybe not you, per se, but normal people.



Ostriches are weird and a little scary.



Llamas are, well, llamas.



And so on. But what made this trip special was not so much the zoo, or the animals in it, but an animal I encountered shortly after leaving the zoo. It was a parrot, on a perch outside a coffee shop, with no physical restraints to keep him from taking off.



I had tried to get similar birds in the zoo to say 'strawberry', like in the movie "Up In Smoke" with Cheech & Chong (I think), but to no avail. I decided to give it one more go, and wonder of wonders, the bird spoke! In Japanese. Here is what he said in reply to my 'strawberry. strawberry' proddings: 「ばかやろう！ばかやろう！」("Baka yarou! Baka yarou!") To the uninitiated that does not mean strawberry in Japanese. It means 'You're an idiot! You're an idiot!'

Wanna Rumble?

Image034.jpg
Originally uploaded by Hack Rambler

A few months ago I finally experienced a part of Japanese culture that I had been missing out on: SUMO. It was everything I hoped it would be and more. But I prefer to be a spectator when it comes to this particular sport.