Brb, Japaning

Izu 2

2008-10-15T04:38:00.000-07:00

Alright over a month later I have decided to update. Told you I would. This blog, once again, kicks ass.

So carrying on from where our brave protagonist left off, Alex was hungry for some dinner (yes it is third person perspective now) So the group and I (back to a narrative) decided to grab some munchies. Me and Keith throw on some clothes and waited for the girls, who I thought were going to be dressed to the nines. They just threw a dress and some make up on. The plan that night? Eat and Drink, duh.

We did a little hunting and found an Izakaya again.

Like the karaoke pictures, from one of the earlier posts, the chronological posting of pictures will show some wicked dive into drunken madness.

Beer and Food!

Empty Mugs

Rumiko's first experience with whiskey

I am deadly handsome

Then somehow after drinking and eating a bunch and waiting a really long time at this crappy Izakaya (food was good service was sub par) we somehow ended back at our Ryokan and more drinking ensued. The following was done:

Rock Climbing

Arm Wrestling

Beer Drinking

There was an episode involving an Onsen where we tried to change the hot water into cold water. We all tried to get in but only got parts of our bodies in. We thought that was no fun so we started a soap fight and hilarity ensued. Unfortunately it was one of those spur the moment things and no pictures resulted. Needless to say, everyone was pretty tired after the soap fight so it was time to crash. The next morning we actually did things! First stop, the shores of Irozaki.

Our mighty vessel

MONKEY! Side note, people bought yams to through at the island, from the boat, to lure monkeys into the spot light. Except most people who bought them had the worst throwing arm ever, so most of the yams went into the ocean. The best part was when the monkey excursion was over, people with left over yams just threw them into open water, hoping monkeys would swim for the yams

Next we went to an Aquarium. We had ice cream again. Steph got the Brown Algae which wasn't too bad. I had the Arbutus. It tasted like absolutely nothing. Much like Keith's mysterious flavor in Okinawa. The aquarium was pretty rad, much like all aquariums.

So the ultimate twist of the day comes form in a random cafeteria of this aquarium. Instead of selling usual Japanese cafeteria stuff like Tonkatsu-don or similar I had this for lunch.

Sushi Rice. And Steph has that shell, hopefully still with a piece of meat inside it. So the food over all was wicked, this is what everyone else had

Delicious. After chowing down, we decided to finish off our trip at the beach. Shriahama beach in Shimoda to be exact.

Between falling asleep and people taking pictures of me falling asleep, we killed a good couple hours. We grabbed dinner at a local resturant where I order some seafood thing, but got hamburger rice instead, delicious. We headed back to Atami where Keith and I got home successfully via train. And Steph and Rumiko got stuck in Nagoya again. You will have to see Steph for that story, I was asleep in my Atsugian bed when her events were unfolding.

Stay tuned for more , alot more

This blog sucks

2008-09-11T17:18:00.000-07:00

Hey,

to anyone who reads my blog, I know the frequency has dwindled immensely. Between work, going to the gym, and taking care of my house I have very little time during the week to sit down and blog. However, expect one huge update soon. I`m not gonna say when, just that it`ll come. Adventures still to be logged:

Izu Part 2
Hakone
Obon Week
Kamakura
Ochanomizu

Blogrolls will include:

My fridge
My guitar
My bike

Oh yea I got a guitar. And I`m going to Disneyland this weekend and Hakone again this weekend. Jealous?

Alex

Japan: Where God stores his Awesome.

2008-08-31T04:47:00.000-07:00

Izu

2008-08-28T17:27:00.000-07:00

The weekend of August 2-3, Keith, Rumiko, Steph and I planned to head to Izu. For the guys, we live maybe 2 hours away from where we were going to meet, Atami. But the girls lived across the country. They had several options, Shinkansen, night bus, or local train, the last being the stupidest option since it takes a million hours and more transfers than I care to count.

The girls took the last option.

The initial plan sounded good on paper. They would get there at 3am, since that`s how the trains ran, and Keith and I would meet them at 9ish. So waking up at 6, I got everything ready, only to find my cellphone had a text that said the following:

We will be there at 10.

Well not exactly, but thats the gist of it. So after killing some more time, I grabbed my bike, rode down to Hon Atsugi, and just as I was going to buy my ticket, I get another text:

"Theres orcs and balrogs all over Hamamatsu, the trains have stopped, we don`t know when we`ll be able leave."

Rumiko sent me this photo of Steph fighting a balrog at Hamamatsu.

Now, if that was the reason, it`d be legit. Balrogs and Orcs are scary as hell. But truth be told, the trains were stopped because of rain.

Being in this perdicament, I rang Keith, and we decided we`d head to Atami first and just wait.

When we got there, we searched for some food, but decided to just go with coffee. After that we went to Atami beach to catch some rays and enjoy some water.

Around 12, Steph calls and reports she`s at Atami. We wait a bit and eventually see the girls. Seems as though they had an adventure of their own. But it was beach time, not story time.

That beach ball was fun for about 15 seconds. But with the wind and all, it kept flying out of bounds. I was long distanced X`d by the lifeguards while fetching it. After some swims, we were famished, time for food. We strolled back to Atami and picked a random place.

Please note the following:

I have no food
Weiner coffee is on the menu

With our stomachs filled, we decided to head to Shimoda, our main destination. We saw some good views on the way.

When we got there, we needed Ice Cream and a place to live. Somethings are more important than others.

There were actually two flavors, but by the time anyone took a picture, only matcha was left.

After getting ice cream, it was time to head to our Ryokan.

At the Ryokan, we all settled down, took a shower, then decided to get some dinner and decided what to do for the night...

Steaks and Ice Cream Spinoff: USJ

2008-08-20T17:19:00.000-07:00

After touching down in Kansai Airport, we were not ready to go home from our weekend yet. We still had one more item on the list to crossoff: USJ. For the acronym impaired USJ is Universal Studios Japan. First we had to train to USJ. The train ride consisted of the following:

USJ

At the gates, we were super hungry, so food was in order. Food holds priority to fun. Soba.

Once we were at the ticket booths, we hung around like a bunch of cheap bums because we wanted the half day pass. After about 20 minutes, we were on our way.

We met up with Rumiko and her friend Nobu before embarking on any rides. The day consisted of given`r in between rides. The coolest ride was the first ride, a pretty sick roller coaster. The rest were themed rides with some simulated thrilling element. Except for the terminator "ride" which I fell asleep in. Being in an airconditioned room in comfy chairs is a recipe for sleep no matter how loud the gunshots and post apocolyptic robots are. Highlight of the day includes Waterworld not being shown. Here are some pictures I stole.

Its my hand, serious.

Searching for a picture for everyone in the group is like mining for gold.

At about 8, the Kanto boys had to go home. Work was still on the next day so we had to get home. Me, Keith, and Thomas grabbed the next train outta there and Shinkansen`d our way home, to end a busy weekend.

So theres still like a million things I need to blog about: Haircut, Japanese Steakhouse, Izu, Hakone, Kyoto, My stuff in Japan. It`ll all come in time. Masu.....

Steak & Ice Cream Continued...

2008-08-07T16:12:00.000-07:00

Carrying on...

After drinking Snake wine and catching some winks, the gang and I planned to hit up Zamami Island. However, feeling hungry as ever, we had to prioritize. Breakfast first. Strolling around Naha, we found the following for breakfast:

Steak: 3 Ice Cream: 3

This island becomes exponentially awesome with every occurance of steak.

After the breakFEAST, we grabbed the ferry to Zamami. The pictures will tell the appropriate story about this ferry ride.

Kickass comes to mind when I see these photos. However, these photos do not even match the amazing sign we saw on the ferry.

I tried to follow instructions. But got confused. On a side note, I saw posters up for a party of some sorts. In english it says "SAMMER PARTTY". With double Tees and all. Might have something to do with summer.

Anywize, we got off the ferry, and the plan was to rent some Mopeds. We armed ourselves with 50cc mopeds and prepared to rip around the island. The following events ensued:

At this point the group split up and Steph and I continued to explore the Island.

There is a story behind this photo. Its hilarious.

The mountain roads were quiet and we were able to go top speed on our mopeds. A blistering 35km/h. The ride was amazing. Every so often there were observatories.

After covering most of the island by Moped, we decided it was beach time. The beach on this island was different, but amazing. The shore was made out of white coral, the water was blue, and there were Suplexes.

Me, having a good time.

Steph, having a good time.

After about an hour, me and Steph headed to the ferry, with 5 minutes to spare, we met up with Keith and Tommy Gun on the ferry and proceeded to head back to Naha.

We had ice cream just before we got on the ferry.

Steak: 3 Ice Cream: 4

On the way back I found a Coconut shaped like a football, which provided hours upon hours of entertainment. It now sits in my room basking in its own glory.

On the ferry back home, please note the football.

The ride home was spent catching some rays on the deck. I already saw all the scenary going to Zamami, no need to see it twice.

Back at Naha, we were all famished and grabbed some eats at the resturant next to our hostel. I had the this:

Taco Rice. This was not awful tasting. But it was definetly not mindblowingly tasty. The Oishi level was definetly lacking.

For Dessert:

Green Tea Ice, with red bean and condensed milk. We kinda went bananas on the condensed milk.

After eating, we decided to spend more time at the International Street in Naha. While there we saw several intense shows. The first being:

Where the premise was the guy with fire was warding off this ghost thing with fire. Very intense show.

The second being:

Some dude hitting drums, pots, a guitar, the side of the building, and causing general mischief and having alot of fun. Intense, in a different way. I gave him 2 bucks I think.

We checked out a couple more stores, did a bit of shopping, ate 2 additional ice creams that night. Both Blue Seal Brand name, one flavor was Beni-imo and the other was Honey. Friggin delicious.

Steak: 3 Ice Cream: 6

We were a bit tired and decided to head back to the Hostel. We played some guitar, threw the Okinawin football around, at about 1am Tommy Gun had fallen asleep, Keith was no where to be found, but Steph and I decided to sneak out of the hostel for kicks. I nabbed the communial guitar and with some stealty manuvers, which included laughing and banging the guitar on stairs, managed to get out the door. The next 5 hours was spent having good times around Naha being barefoot, since we forgot our shoes and did not want to return. Sneaking back in with the same stealthy manuevers, we went back to our rooms to catch some sleep. In the morning, we ate another steak and grabbed the plane ride back to Osaka.

Steak: 4 Ice Cream: 6

Final Score. That was my Okinawin experience. Fun is an understatement. However the weekend was not over yet, USJ awaited.

Steak & Ice Cream

2008-08-04T17:57:00.000-07:00

Once again I have fallen off the blogging band wagon and will start another frantic attempt to catch up. Inability to do so will result in retaliation from certain individuals, you know who you are. On the weekend of July 18-21 we decided to go to Okinawa. The 21st was a holiday and I took the 18th off. The plan was to grab the nightbus out of Shinjuku with Keith and meet up with Steph in Kansai to fly to Okinawa. Thomas fits in somewhere there. Skipping all the details, me and Keith did our usual Kansai night busing ritual

-meet at Shinjuku
-Get on bus
-bus on bus
-get off bus at Osaka
-eat at VIE DE FRANCE
-wait for Steph

Between eating at Vie De France and waiting for Steph, a whole lotta nothing was done. Checked out stores, and ate more food. Once we met Steph, we ate more food. Then we went to Kansai airport, where we ate food as we waited for the airplane to Okinawa.

Before we boarded the plane, we got black seasame ice cream. Thus began the weekend of Steaks and Ice cream.

The plane ride was a good one. I stoked up Steph to listen to some Led Zeppelin before we took off. (Achillies Last Stand, Zeppelin fans knows this song is wicked on the flight)

Unfortunatly my batteries went out, and all the hype was in vain. Other events included me snapping Steph with a spoon. It left a mark. Steph`s blog has a better retelling of the incident. Some time later, we got to Naha Airport.

Keith and Tom rocking the non-walking.

After looking for a non existant bus to our hostel, we decided to grab a taxi instead.

Once at our hostel, the Legendary Ojisan (he is truly of legend status), showed us to our rooms and got all our paper work done. Since we hadn`t eaten in like 5 minutes, I was starving, so we decided to get some dinner. Our first meal in Okinawa consisted of Steak and Rice.

So just to keep count that`s Steak: 1 Ice Cream: 1. I`ll keep the counter going throughout the post. After a full day of commuting, we were all super beat and decided to crash in our comfortably airconditioned rooms.

The next day, we had planned to Snorkel. The breakfast consisted of no steak. While looking for the bus, we were intercepted by a taxi driver who offered us rides for 1000 yen each. Pretty solid deal, for a regular taxi cab ride. But an amazing deal for a ride with this driver. Just a brief summary of the amazing feat of this taxi cab driver will be enough to convince you:

-has 8 liscences
-has 145 family members
-mother and father are both over 100
-owns a Skyline
-owns a Harley

I probably missed a couple things, but I was impressed. How true any of those statements are I cannot validate. His english was broken but he still chatted up a storm.

Once at our destination, we were early, so we walked around looking for Steak, but we didn`t find any, so we went back to go snorkelling. We were given instructions in Japanese, which I didn`t understand, and then we were off to the ocean. Being in wetsuits at 30+ weather is really uncomfortable. Especially when you`re in a van, with people you want to suplex or don`t know. Especially if the van isn`t moving. After cooking in this van for a bit, we arrived and snorkeled. The experience was rad. We fed ocean fish and explored caves.

masu to Keith for the pics.

Watching all the fish eat fish food got me hungry, so after snorkeling, it was time to hunt steaks. The expedition was successful. We found a steak house that was movie poster themed. The following meal was served

Steak: 2 Ice Cream: 1

The entire table had steak. Keith had the exact same thing. Tom had just the tenderloin, and Steph had the chopped steak. Engineers are smart.

When we were all full, we decided it was beach time. So with no apparent destination in mind we just walked to somewhere that looked like it would be a beach. On the way we got an ice cream. It was a weird coconut sorbet kinda deal. The ice cream fell off of mine after two bites. Not to cause a fuss, I just ate the cone.

Steak: 2 Ice Cream: 2...kinda

We decided to go to a beach, that wasn`t really a beach. There were sharp rocks and barnacles everywhere. but I still braved through it. There was sand for a bit, then the terrain just turned into this weird rock/coral deal. But once we got to the water, the bottom was scattered with sea urchin and sea cucumber. The choice was to step on something sharp or oozy. I decided to carefully navigate this minefield. Eventually I found a pretty solid spot that was sandy and the water was at neck level.

After getting our fill of Sea Urchins, Sea Cucumber, and lost flip flops, we decided to head back. On the way to the bus stop, we bought another ice cream.

Steak: 2 Ice Cream: 3

At this stop, another taxi driver offered a ride, this one, however, was boring, and lacked 8 liscences. Needless to say, we were highly disappointed. Back at the hostel, we showered up, and took a small breather before we headed to Kokusaidori. I played some guitar and Steph pulled a Sea Urchin barb out of her foot, then it we were off. At Kokusaidori, we saw some pretty interesting items. We stumbled across a store that sold hand made clay sculptures of Shisa. This is a Shisa.

There are usually two. One with its mouth close and one with its mouth open. They flank each side of an entrance and in Okinawa, it is believed they ward off evil.

On Kokusaidori, I found a guitar shop, where I shredded for like 30 minutes while everyone waited. I have decided I will buy a guitar in Japan and become an Pop Sensation. We shopped a bit more, and ate some non-steak dinner. Me and Steph grabbed some colorful looking fruit.

To finish off the night, we went to Rehab, a bar run by Canadians. We had brews and Okinawin Snake Wine.

Tasty.

After a couple more drinks, we headed back to our hostel and caught some sleep. We had big plans tommorow, but that will wait till the next post.

Oh yea, and I realize the pictures are kinda screwey, I don`t know how to resize them in HTML. I`ll fix it later.

Eating Bagels at High Altitudes: Fuji-san

2008-07-16T22:50:00.000-07:00

The Tribute to my fridge will have to wait. This story is much more exciting. Its a pretty long one. So have a seat kodomos. This weekend we decided to hit up Mt. Fuji.

The expected hike was going to take roughly 14 hours, which is pretty decent. But this was not to be, more on this later. The initial plans went off without a hitch. All the CJCPrs met up at Shinjuku Station and we grabbed the next bus to the Base of Mt. Fuji.

After a 3 hour bus ride, we all grabbed some grub at the Kawaguchiko train station. I went with the horse meat udon.

Disappointing to say the least. First of all, I`m sure horses are much bigger, give me at least like a leg or something. Second of all, it`s probably just beef in disguise. Nonetheless, it was still tasty.

Here`s Keith, not eating horse. We goofed around for a bit then grabbed another bus to the Gogome, 5th station where the hike usually starts.

Upon arrival we were all pretty anxious to get goin. But we need proof we actually started the hike, so we took pictures.

After all that hoohah we started blazing some trails. Spirits were high, and alot of smack talking was done about Mr. Fuji. Our breaks consisted of banana chips, mixed nuts, incorrectly wrapped O-nigiris, laughter and smiles. The latter of the choices was delicious. Thomas warned us about rocks and Japan was safe again. The group became divided early on but we managed to assemble together at Base Station 6.

Rockin the Fuj early on.

After that, the group became permanently divided. A slower group and a faster group. For most of the hike, Keith Mah was with me up front, blazing some trails. The trail was highly trafficked so me and Keith spent the majority of our time weaving through people, throwing bows, and taking some unbeaten trails. We took a break at every station and waited for the front group to assemble each time. These breaks, again, included banana chips, mixed nuts, and laughter.

We continued to rip it up. At a certain point I got far ahead, but was alone, and thus bored. Also the trail was moving slower than snails pace since there were hundreds of people on this mountain. At this point, I decided to lie down by some rocks and wait for some CJCPrs. About 20 minutes later, Keith and Steph show up and I continued the trail with them. There was very little left to the trail, but traffic was so bad, we were inching foward every 15 minutes. Upon the sight of the Red Line on the Horizon, we knew we had to do some sick manuveours to get to the top ontime for the sun rise. At this time, we had lost Keith, but me and Steph decided it was Through or Bust. With some weaving and dodging we got to the top 30 minutes before sunrise, as we were told by a Japanese local. Me and Steph picked out a windy spot, but also front row center seats for the sunrise. We were suprised by Keith, when he came pouncing on us like an axe murderer. He had also made it on time. The following events ensued.

I saw the Rising Sun at the highest point in the Land of the Rising Sun. While eating a bacon, pastrami, spinach bagel sandwich. Best day ever? It gets better. So after seeing the Rising Sun destroy the night sky we had to gather the troops. We stuck around till the majority of the group had assembled. Needless to say, everyone was beat. I arrived at the scene to see a sleeping Thomas and a sleeping Rumiko. Everyone else looked absolutely bagged or really cold. However, spirits were still high. I went to help Amelia snap a couple shots on her camera. This distracted me just long enough so that as I turned around I see everyone wearing party hats, singing happy birthday, and holding a cake. For those unfamiliar with the character of Alex Yuen, his birthday is on July 8th. I was particularly touched and suprised that someone would remember my birthday prior to climbing a mountain and ontop of that lug a cake up a mountian for me. Thanks Guys!

We had to rep Canada as well.

So, seeing the sunrise from the highest point in Japan, eating Bagels at that altitude, and having a suprise birthday party. Pretty good day if you ask me.

A little while after, we decided it was time to go. Having the majority of the group, we started our descent. Nothing particularly interesting on the descent. Except for the bathroom at station 7, with the strange coloured water.

We finally made it to the bottom at around 9ish. At the base I got some ice cream and just relaxed. The hike was super solid and I had a really good time. Unbeknownst to me, the day was far from over, in fact it had just started. We had to wait for everyone else to arrive before we could leave. By the time 10:00 rolled around, everyone but two people were missing. Numerous attempts to contact the last two were thwarted due to crappy Softbank reception. At 1:00pm we decided to send the majority of the people home, since that was the original plan. A few of us including Steph, Rumiko, and Qijin stayed around to deal with the situation of the missing people. After getting a hold of one person, we told him to make his way down ASAP. Several hours later he shows up. We were told he had seperated from the last person. After thinking through several options, we made some phone calls to important people. After inquiring locals about this individual`s whereabouts, and after a couple runs back up to Station 6, we found our last man at Station 6. We hustled down to Gogome then grabbed the 8:40 bus back down to Kawaguchiko.

Since the trains were out, we stayed at Kawaguchiko for the night. We celebrated our triumph over Mt. Fuji and safety of all the members by eating 7-11 food and drinking Asahi. After a 4 hour wink, we got up and were on our way to work.

This epic tale was only made possible by banana chips and a big mountain. Please use the buddy system and stick to it if you ever climb this thing. Oh its not a walk in the park by the way. Its a pretty good hike.

Stay tuned for a tribute to my fridge, Or a blog about Okinawa, for I am there tommorow.

Hiking in Atsugi

2008-07-07T16:55:00.001-07:00

Here goes another frantic attempt to keep my blog updated. This weekend I decided to take it easy and stay in Atsugi. Being outside of Kanagawa every weekend in a row has taken a toll on my wallet. This also gave me an oppurtunity to check out the local trails. The first thing I noticed when I came to Atsugi was the amount of trees and mountains, similar to Vancouver, except the mountains are not as high, and it is always humid. So on saturday I decided to take a bus out to the middle of no where (Atsugi somewhere) and just explore the local mountains with no destination in mind. The day started off with a solid breakfast

mmmmmm tasty.

Followed by the packing of Lunch.

Additional tasty. After all the preperations were done I grabbed my bike and burned rubber to HonAtsugi station to grab the bus to the trail head. After an hour or so I arrived. The trail was relatively easy. Suitable for people of any skill level. It was just good to be away from buildings, noise, lights, and people for a couple hours.

Fortunately I live in an area densely populated with hikes and mountains, so expect to see more in the future.

After the hike, I grabbed another bus to the Station, rode home, and proceeded to eat dinner and read 1984 in its entirety (good book). The rest of the weekend was uneventful. Sunday was spent at the local catholic church and grocery shopping.

Oh yea! THEY DO EXIST

Next up, a tribute to my new fridge!

Oh, Osaka

2008-07-06T17:27:00.000-07:00

Time to catch up on my blogging. The lack of internet at my dorm has caused me to blog at nearly 2 week intervals. But here I go. I`ll start with the weekend of June 27th. That weekend some of the CJCPr`s decided to get together in Osaka. This meant a glorious 8 hour night bus ride from Shinjuku to Osaka station. Luckily, my trusty tour guide, Keith Mah, knew the ropes already. The weekend started off with waiting for the bus at Shinjuku.

Followed by 8 hours of driving

Followed by a stop off in Kyoto

And Finally Osaka!

Getting off the bus, me and Keith were starved, so we went hunting in the dense urban landscape of Osaka and came upon this feast

French food, in Japan.

Once seated with full bellies we waited for the remaining CJCPr`s (to bring you up to speed, CJCPr`s refers to Canada-Japan Co-op..ers), Matt and Steph. The plan was to grab a train down to Wakayama beach. The plan went through. Although rainy, the beach was still fun. We frolicked in the water, ate some food, drank some beer, and had an all round good time.

Once everyone had their fill of sand and water, we decided to head to Namba for some city time. There we met up with Rumiko (A fellow 2008 CJCPr) and ate our way through Namba. Note the high amount of pictures with food in it.

There were more pictures, but we ate them.

After eating all the food in Namba, creating a year long famine, we headed to Pure, for some clubbing. Good times all around!

Please refer to Facebook for more photos.

At the break of dawn, a weary group headed out of the club. Me and Keith grabbed the next Shinkansen home, and the rest of the weekend (Sunday morning) was spent asleep.

Special Thanks goes to Stephanie Wilson for showing me around Namba. Waterworld and Suplexes for all (yes inside joke)!

The Story so Far

2008-06-25T17:34:00.000-07:00

So before I start, I have to shamelessly promote my friend`s blog. She beat me to it but here it is anyways. Shes on her home stretch before leaving, so if you'd like a preview of my adventures take a look at her blog.

Today marks 3 weeks since being in Japan. Its only the start but I`ve been having alot of fun. We`ll start with my first real weekend June 13/14th. Friday after work, a group of people got together and watched a movie. This was mainly to kill time so the bars would open up. Once that hoohah was done, it was time to get goin. The group started off at an Izakya near the train station. Eating and drinking was done. Food was good, drinks were good. Now at this point, everyone was still somewhat tame, no pictures were taken because there was nothing really interesting going on. Then we get this fantastic idea to go to a karaoke bar. There is alcohol served there as well. The following ensued:

The photos are in chronological order. Please note the descent into madness. I`ll let you write the story for yourself. Once 3am rolled around we were ready to crash and the crowd headed home.

Waking up in the middle of the day on Saturday, very little was done. A party was in the works and its location was Shibuya. Hosted by Europeans, it was going to be out of control. After playing Freecell for a couple hours, I left for the train station. Party was at 9 and I had to be fashionbly late. Upon arriving in Shibuya I was greeted with the following sight.

Easily the busiest place I`ve been to. Party was eventful. Details aren`t important, Drinking was done, once underground, once on a rooftop, meeting new people was done, although names were forgotten. The Power Rangers showed up to keep things undercontrol.

NTT Boys repping it as usual

As the party died down, it was back home on the 5am train. The hangover to follow persisted for roughly 2 days.

Then for five days nothing really happened. I was at work. Got a fridge, made some meals. The usual. However, after the five days, excitement ramps up again. It was time for DisneySea. A Sea themed Disney. Check Steph`s blog. She has a pretty detailed retelling of the day.

I started off with a rainy bike ride at 4am to get to the train station. DisneySea was 2 hours away. Me and Rob, a fellow UBC Student and NTT Employee, navigated the treacherous train systems of Japan, followed by the magical monorail of Disneyland.

After meeting Steph and Matt, the day began.

The day ranged from rides to shows to eatting to Steph repeatedly getting だめ`d. When we had tackled all the big rides in DisneySea, we finished our experience off with an Epic Tale. A BATTLE BETWEEN WATER AND FIRE. Pretty unfair if you ask me. Spectacular display nonetheless.

The day, however, was not over. We returned to Shibuya to have some quality Izakya time and fill some empty stomachs. Feeling no real urge to get home that night, we decided to stay in a capsule hotel. These things are damn convenient and North America better start adopting these. For 40 dollars to you rent a 7x4x4 space with a TV an and alarm clock and a mattress. Common shower facility provided.

The next morning, we did some shopping in Shibuya and ate some ice cream.

This was a very long post. Stay tuned for more.

Where I live, What I Eat, What I do

2008-06-20T06:18:00.000-07:00

So I though the best way to start of this blog is to post stuff about my daily life in Japan before I start posting any interesting stories and pictures. Get the boring stuff out of the way. I got here June 5th and I have been living in the company dormitory. By Japanese standards this place is huge.

The room has one sliding glass door as the only window to the outside world. I live on the 5th floor so I wake up to this every morning.

Pretty solid view. Better than home. I live by the country side so there is alot of this stuff.

Its a quiet place, alot like Richmond. But nobody speaks english, and everyone is really nice. There is a train station 20 minutes away where all the bars and night life is, I'll save those pictures for next time. Since coming here, I have tasted all levels of food. The lowest being the following.

Instant noodles, the breakfast of champions. Followed by the best Sushi I have ever tasted.

I am a regular at this place. If you visit, I will force you to go to this place. However, I recently acquired a fridge and have been cooking since it is half the price of a regular meal and 3 times the amount. When not at home, I'm at work.

I'm infront of this thing for about 8 hours a day programming in C++ or reading about Haar-like Face Detection Methods combined with Simple Vector Machines.......or something.

Living here has been really fun so far. Its been an adventure trying to figure out how to do everything in a different language. Everyone at work and locals are very nice people. The parties have been really intense since Japan has this fantastic system of paying for all you can drink in a span of say two hours. But I'll save those stories for next time

So I started a blog

2008-06-17T23:20:00.000-07:00

This is my blog for Japan. I needed a place to put pictures and write about interesting stuff. This is where it will all be.