Easily Distracted

Finally got around to posting some pictures.

Scott & Kim’s Wedding

Ben & Mayu’s Wedding (and the following evening)

Happy Birthday, Canada!

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Thanks, Shirley!

I’m at work right now, tired after having only a few hours of sleep last night – on the floor, not on the bed.

Yes, I was suppose to get lots of things done (that *really* need to be done), last night. Little did I know, that when Alex entered my room around 9:30pm, that I would be talking for the rest of the night. Initially, Ben, Alex, and I had to talk about our plans to hike Fuji-san on the weekend (no rest for the wicked). We looked at a Hiking-in-Japan book that Ben has (he has lots of really cool books) and a train tome that Alex has trying to figure out where we were going to go, and which route to hike. Unfortunately, I couldn’t provide much to the conversation: I don’t know maps like Ben does, and I don’t know Kanji like Alex. So I mainly listened and attempted some extremely slow searches on an online train planner.

We had something sorta figured out, so Ben left to do his laundry. Alex and I continued talking, but not about the hike. Topics ranged so wildly, and largely consisted of rants. In person, rants are much different. Nearly everything you read on the net will be a “rant,” but a rant on the net is well composed. The author has had time to organize their thoughts, and it’s usually fairly coherent. But having done a few myself last night, I realized I couldn’t just say what was on my mind – I had so many things on my mind that I couldn’t concentrate on one and convey a clear thought. I had to really stop talking, and take time to organize my thoughts. This is okay, because I saw Alex doing the same thing, later. We talked about anything from video games, to religion, to relationships. It’s really funny, and I would not have expected it, but Alex and I have a lot in common.

Eventually, we said good-night a little after 4am. I was afraid to go to sleep, fearing I might not wake for work. I went to the bathroom, and saw at least one person also walking in the hallway on my way – this is Japan, after all. I came back to my room and read my email, and then I must have laid down on the floor….

Had it not been for my life-saving cell-phone which was nestled in its charger, I may not have waken up. But I had cleverly set the alarm on that awesome cell phone of mine to go off every day at 7:45am. Usually, I wake up by the Wal-Mart alarm clock I brought from Canada, but I must set that every night. Maybe I won’t bother, anymore – my ketai works great! I can wake up to melodies of sorts rather than that irritating beep. Much better. Amazingly, I managed to have a shower and still be on time for work. God, did I need a shower!

So, I just finished reading Ben’s monolithic journal entry about his crazy adventure around Japan during Obon the holiday. Yes, I’m at work, but I was alternating between technical documentation. I actually relied on Ben’s writing to keep me awake, so I can justify it. After reading it, I’ve decided I may go back and try to add a few details from my Obon holiday – which I completely glazed over.

I have to wait for a computer to arrive before I can “work on my project,” but I can always read… it’s just so boring. So my day today is not so interesting. Can’t wait for lunch.

10:20pm – Just got back from dinner with Ben and 3 Japanese Girls: Yukko, Mami, Mayu

And a good time was had by all…

The girls took us to an Okonomiyaki restaurant in South Ogaki. They even picked us up! Ben knows an uncanny amount of information about food! And maps. But, I guess he enjoys both of those things, so that’s ok. I love food, too… but Ben is not satisfied til he knows all the details of how a certain dish was prepared and exactly where the ingredients came from! However, this kind of info is great for ice-breaking, because it’s really quite interesting. As such, during dinner, we talked mostly of food. We also talked about Vancouver and Canada because all of the girls had been there.

I have been wondering where the closest swimming pool was almost since I got here, and Ben remembered I wanted to know that, so he asked the girls. After dinner, they looked at map books in their car (I could see Ben was getting excited – maps!) and they made a couple calls, and they decided to drive us there. It didn’t take long for us to appear completely lost in the deep dark inaka (countryside). That’s okay, we soon found it, and it turns out it’s really easy to bike to. It’s about twice the distance as the Hashima train station we usually bike to, however, so it’s a little far.

That was a nice casual night. Didn’t cost much (1200yen), and it was refreshing. Thanks to the three ladies for taking us out!

I’m tired… and must do things BEFORE I sleep. *sigh*

Jeff was gracious enough to provide accomodations. Have to leave soon. Going to meet Hana (she stayed at our house in Canada a few years ago) in Shinjuku.

12:49am

I just got out of the shower (at Hana’s house!!)

This is a big surprise: I’m sitting in a room that Hana’s family has prepared for me! There’s even a TV and a Super-Famicom (Super Nintendo) and a Playstation! It’s a traditional Japanese room with sliding paper doors and really nice tatami mats! SUGOI! When I went to meet Hana, I had no idea that she had planned for me to stay a week at her house! I thought I would be back in Jeff’s dormitory with Alex eating konbini food… which would not be bad, but this is really cool! Already, I’ve learned so much Japanese. My Japanese level, which is VERY low, will probably double just because of my stay here! I’m so excited! =) Thank you, so much, Hana and Hana’s hospitable family! ^_^ The only bad things I can possibly think of would be that I can’t seem to connect on my wireless Internet, and that I don’t have any worthy omiyage for Hana’s family. =( I will have to “order” something from Canada. =)

I actually met Hana in Meidaimae. Sadly, this marked the first time I took the train by myself, in Japan – but I made it! I’m so proud! Actually, I was early, because Jeff and Alex were meeting Sound, John, and Larry (I think) later that day, so I had to leave with them, of course. I took a long walk around Meidaimae, sneaking into air-conditioned stores whenever possible, and met Hana a little later. I would not have been able to do it if I did not have this super-cool Japanese cell-phone with VERY USEFUL email support! *phew* I love my ketai denwa. =) Hana showed me where she goes to school, Meiji University, but we were not able to go inside.

8:15am – the next day (I fell asleep) ^_^

From Meidaimae, Hana and I went to Shinjuku.

She took me to a famous ramen restaurant, where we must have stood in line for 45 minutes! But the ramen was the best ramen I’ve ever had! SO GOOD! Unfortunately, it was a very hot day, and I was sweating badly, especially eating a hot bowl of ramen. =) After that, we went to Shibuya, I believe, and walked around some “popular” places where I got to see SO MANY crazy fashions! Many girls dressed up like dolls. I really wanted to take pictures. I will ask, next time. We walked around a lot, and were pretty tired, so we decided to find the closest cafe and sit down to have a drink. At this cafe, which had a really cool fountain in the middle, I had the 2nd most expensive drink I’ve ever had. 500 yen Orange juice. Yep, about $6 CDN for a large glass of OJ (filled half w/ice). But, it was the best glass of OJ I’ve ever had! I think they used 3 real oranges. I saw them make it – they rolled the oranges into some kind of juicer. It was so good! I even had a seed in my drink! heheh ^_^
So we sat at this cafe for a long time, trying to decide what to do. You see, I did not know I was going to be staying at Hana’s that night, so I did not bring all my stuff. It was at Jeff’s. I had to wait for Jeff (who doesn’t have a cell phone) to tell me when he was going back so as I could grab my bags. We decided we would go to a “game centre” to kill some time; after all, I saw F-Zero GX when walking earlier. =) But we must have really liked that cafe, because we went back again! (Hana forgot her hat ^^).

Earlier, I had given Hana some cookies I bought while waiting for her, and she put them in her bag. They ended up falling out of their package and making a mess of her bag! Gomen!

I got an email from Shirley saying Jeff had already left, so then Hana and I changed our destinations, and I immediately left for the dormitory. I would meet Hana and her mother at Shinjuku, later (once again, taking trains all by myself – scary, but necessary). A few non-interesting events followed: I went back to dormitory; I packed; I left; I met Hana and her mother and appologized for making them wait; we road trains together for maybe an hour, and Hana’s father picked us up at a train station, and drove us to their home. Hana’s family does not speak any English, so I will have to try to speak a little Japanese! Cool! =)

Thank you, once again, to Hana and her nice family for taking me into their home. This Obon holiday is going to be great!

I’m with a couple country boys from Gifu (dorm mates), and we’re heading to one of the largest cities in the world. Typhoon Etau (“storm cloud” – not Japanese) is creeping across Japan. We left Anpachi just before it hit. It will probably catch up with us in Tokyo.

I barely got any sleep last night. Packing. Writing important emails. No really, they were important! Skipped going to the cafeteria for breakfast; as usual, no time. John, Alex, and I (Ben had other “bigger” plans, and Shirley decided to wait a day for possibly better weather) headed out at 7:45, running for the bus to Ogaki. We were rushed, and by the time we got on the bus, we were very wet. About 15 minutes later, we arrived in Ogaki; we had a bit of time to kill before taking the train, so we grabbed something to eat at Mr.Donut.

Train from Ogaki to Hasamatsu: ~2 hours

At Hasamatsu, we had to transfer to the train heading to Atami. This is the train I am currently on. When we transferred, I was not at all prepared for the rush of people to fill the train. We had to get off, but as soon as the doors opened, a flood of people rushed in. I’d like to describe it as opening a container under water. John expected this, and escaped before being crushed by the flow of people. Alex and I, however, were still scrambling to get our bags, and were pushed right back into our seats by the masses. Eventually, we squeezed out, holding our bags above our heads and repeating “sumimasen” over and over. I thought we were gonna get stuck on that train and end up backtracking! Luckily, we escaped. I’ve NEVER in my ENTIRE LIFE seen a huge group of people panic so much to get a seat! It’s like musical chairs: when the doors open, the music stopped, and whoever doesn’t get seat is SOTO!

Today, me and Ben… oh, sorry (Pat) – “Ben and I” took the train to Nagashima Spaland – a super cool amusement/water park.

Why did we decide to do this? Well, it was Pat’s birthday, and the plan was to meet Pat and some other guys (Adam, Wojtek, Edwin, and some french people I’ve never met before) at Nagashima. Wait a sec… Ben has these crazy fireworks on his birthday, and Pat has a party at an amusement park for his the next day… there better be something cool going on for MY b-day! =)

On our way there, we ran into a “fat sweaty Japanese man” who was selling discounted tickets for Nagashima that included the bus ride there. Well, it must be really easy to swindle some poor gaijin, because we got the water park ticket, the bus, and the roller coaster ticket… but this roller coaster ticket was only going to last for ONE ride! To cut a boring financial tragedy short, we ended up having to buy the all-day ride pass ON TOP of what we bought from the swindler. Okay, so he probably wasn’t really a swindler, there was just an evident language barrier.

Nagashima Spaland is home to the Steel Dragon. This is the biggest friggin roller coaster I’ve EVER seen. And so it should be! It holds 4 Guiness World Records! I think it was Fastest (150km/hr), Longest (2.5km), Highest, .. and something else. There was hardly any people at the park, so line-ups weren’t bad at all: 10-15 minutes, maybe. People were apparently going to a festival in the city later that night, so the park seemed very empty compared with most places in Japan. We went on almost all of the good rides. Oh crap! I just realized: Pat, Ben and I never got a chance to get super wet riding the crazy “Shoot the Chute” because we arrived a bit later. =( Oh well… looked super fun, though. After doing all the potentially stomach-tossing rides that we wanted to, we had lunch, and did a couple more after. Then, we decided to go to the big water park.

Ben and I got split up from the rest of the group at this point, but we had lots of fun riding the inner-tube slides and a couple regular slides. The weather was perfect, and so was the scenery… eheh. ^_^ It’s weird, I hardly saw any overweight Japanese – especially girls. They do exist, but not in the water park, it seemed. Eventually, we ran into the group again, and we went on a couple last slides, the fake river that used ocean water (filtered, I hope), and left.

After getting dressed, and some grabbed something to eat (I resisted with all my might, as the day was already SUPER expensive) only a few of us… okay, everyone except for the French people, went on a couple last rides. I really wanted to stay longer, because the park was looking cooler and cooler the darker it got, but it was good we left. We (Ben and I) actually had the easiest journey ahead of us, because everyone else was either from Osaka or near Kyoto, and Nagashima is near Nagoya. I bought a “chili dog” from a bakery in Nagoya train station, and that was pretty good. After we got to our last train station, (after switching a couple of times – I really have to do this on my own, some time), we got on our bikes and biked back to the dormitory. Home, sweet home! I sorted out a couple of things, had a BATH (so badly needed), and here I am. For some reason, it seems like I have SO MANY things to do! I have to organize my trip to Tokyo this upcoming week. I have to do school related and student loan related paper-work. I have to iron my clothes. I have to download pictures from my camera. Many more things, I’m sure….

Today was lots of fun! However, it easily cost over 10000 yen with travelling and food.

It’s now 12:47am, and I really REALLY do not want to iron. I want to sleep. What an exhausting weekend! Usually, I like to have one day of rest before going back to work. Not getting that, this week. So tired. Maybe my shirts and pants will just have to be wrinkly… can’t say it bothers me that much. =)