Happy Holidays!

Well I know it's been a really long time since I updated this. I'm lazy and a lot has been going on!

I did indeed go and take pictures of my bandmate's other band. It was pretty fun. I got to sit around and listen to them practice and take some pics. Unfortunately the lighting was less than ideal.

The DJ event was a big success! Although I had no idea what I was doing up there... the small crowd seemed to like what I played so that was nice (I was the first person on so most of the crowd hadn't arrived yet). As the night went on a lot of people came and danced so that was great. I was the official photographer so there are some photos of the event. They have not been posted anywhere YET but they will be at some point. I got to meet a lot of cool people that night so I'm pleased. We're going to do it again as the venue was really pleased with the turn out but this time we get to do it on a weekend. Yay.

I am in my hometown of Vancouver now visiting my family. It's 4:30 in the morning and my jet lag got me up really early. I'm kind of at a loss for what I should do now until everyone wakes up at like 7 or 8. I dont even know how to turn on the TV!!? I've already fed the cat way too much smoked salmon and made myself breakfast.

Oh. I also declined another contract with my company so in June I'm officially jobless. It's kind of nice to have a bunch of possibilities of what to do next. :)

I think that should bring everything up to speed!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Ghetto Happy Dining - Restaurant in Shibuya

Not a whole lot has been happening lately. But there are some things happening in the not so near future.
-My bandmate's other band has asked me to take pictures of them... Maybe I'll have a gig as the band's official photographer haha.
- I'm going to a taiko drumming concert - not sure what to expect there haha
- I'm DJ'ing for an event my bandmate is throwing. I have no idea how that will go as I have absolutely no experience in that field. I like music but I'm not sure that will translate to me being a decent DJ.
- I'm going back to Canada for Christmas/New Year's!! I dont think I can even begin to explain on here how excited I am to go home for a visit. So I wont.
- My band is having another gig sometime in early 2012, we have no new material and no time to practice so it should be another gong show haha. Good thing we aren't in it for the money/fame/glory!
So lately it seems like I have a lot of free time on my hands as all my friends seem to have found lives of their own. Because of this I've started using my DSLR camera, that I bought in Canada before I came to Japan, a lot more recently. So here are some pictures I took a week ago in the Iidabashi, Ochanomizu, Ebisu and Shibuya areas of Tokyo.

Ooze Charm - An Italian Restaurant in Nishi-Shinjuku

So I had a great blog entry all typed up and then lost it. So... here's round two.

I tried that 'pungency' tea that was the title for my last entry and I have to say, it was quite good. Not pungent though. A little disappointing but I'm willing to look past that.

It was pointed out to me that in all my entries not only do I apologise for my tardiness but I'm also always sick or getting over a cold haha. I am very happy to report that I am not sick at the moment and nor do I feel the need to apologise as I updated this blog recently. Go me.

So recently I've been wandering all over Tokyo during my days off as I have nothing better to do haha. Last weekend I went on an epic journey that took about four hours to acomplish. I went from Ginza to Tsukiji (the massive fish market) to Daimon (where I stayed the first time I came to Japan TEN years ago) to Zoji shrine, then I walked up to Tokyo Tower and around down to Akabanebashi to Azabu-Juban and wandered around the shopping area there (it really reminds me of Kitsilano in Vancouver haha) and then up to Roppongi where I caught a train to Ikebukuro because there was no way I'd be able to walk there haha. After that I walked around Sunshine City and then went home. Phew. So, since it's my weekend again I decided to go on another trek in the city and, at the request of a special someone, I brought my camera to take a few pictures. These pictures were all taken around the Nishi-Shinjuku and Kabukicho areas of Tokyo.

Pungency - name of a tea beverage found in most convenience stores

So instead of saying something like "wow, it's been ages since I last updated this blog" as I seem to do in every entry... I'm going to dive right in!

I have been up to a lot of hijinks lately and it has been fun. What have I been doing? Glad you asked...

1) I attended the Great Japan Beer Festival - it is a beer tasting festival held every year in various locations around Japan. The main goal of the festival is to taste a variety of craft brews... Granted I take it as a challenge to taste all the different craft brews in attendance. This year was my second year to attend the festival and it was great! There were different beers there this year than last year so I was a bit disappointed that I wasn't able to drink with the Italian brewers I met last year - oh well.

2) I went back to Shimizu-shi in Shizuoka. This place is near to my heart. Let me explain: during my first trip to Japan many moons ago, the school I came to Japan with had a sister school in Shimizu-shi and so when we came to Japan we came to Shimizu to do a mini exchange with the sister school (and then the students we stayed with stayed with us when they came to Vancouver). So! Late last month I went back to Shimizu and met the family I stayed with TEN years ago. We had sushi, chatted all day (only in Japanese - eek!) and looked at pictures from the trip. It was quite the trip down memory lane.

3) I attended Octoberfest in Yokohama. Again, this is a festival I went to last year and wanted to keep the tradition going. This day turned out to be one for the ages so I feel like I should write it down before I forget it all together haha. It all started off with a phone call from my co-worker asking me to go to Octoberfest with her and her husband... I of course agree and run out the door to meet them. The day started off slow with some polite beers with a bunch of couples and me... the single foreign one hahaha. Eventually I got a phone call from a friend who had gone to Octoberfest with me the year before to say he would be arriving shortly. I met up with him and our mutual friends and started playing drinking games (Eek!). We began to compare the current fest with the previous year's fest and remembered our favourite story from last year - our friend getting up on stage to sing polka to the massive crowd and then getting removed by security. We decided to do this again this year. Unfortunately when we got on the stage (just one other friend and I) the microphones were unplugged so we ended up having to yell quite loudly and only one group of people sang back to us. We were quickly removed from the stage.
Eventually once Octoberfest died down we hopped on a train for Shibuya. Oddly enough my friend and I got separated from the main group so he and I were listening to music (still very much in the singing mood) and singing to the rest of the train. Now if you have ever been on a Tokyo train you know that what I'm about to tell you is quite amazing. Some how... I managed to get about half our train car to both sway/dance AND sing "You can call me Al" by Paul Simon with me and my friend. This lasted for a little while until a major stop when my audience left and I lost interest.
And last but not least for my amazing Octoberfest day - I met these three stray Australians sitting by the side of the road... at this point my friend and I had purposely ditched the big group of friends we were with and my friend was off somewhere for the time being. So I sat with the Australians and started chatting with them and they offered me some champagne and then showed me these great costumes they bought... naturally in my state of mind I ask to wear one and they being cool guys agree. For a little while I was walking around the streets of Shibuya in a "Sento-kun" costume by myself until two of the Aussies decided to bust out their costumes and join me in a rilakuma and pikachu costume respectively. We were dancing in the streets and drinking champagne while the third Aussie and my friend watched (and of course various passersby).

I think my Octoberfest will go down in history as the coolest.

At the moment I'm a bit sick so I'm trying to take it easy so I can go out and do that all over again hahaha. I have to say, looking back on my adventures - sometimes I meet the coolest people and do some really silly things. I love the stories.

Yikes! It's been ages since I last updated. What can I say... I'm really lazy. But I guess now I have a lot to say.

1) My birthday night was pretty great. I got to see my closest friends, have a lot of laughs and even more drinks and even a little cat nap in a restaurant. All in all, it was pretty good! Over the course of the three days I celebrated my birthday I had the lights dimmed, cake brought to me and the entire bar singing happy birthday to me FOUR times. Unbelievable and very embarassing haha.

2) Hong Kong. I went for five days in early August and I really enjoyed it. I have to say one of the most memorable moments for me was before I even set foot in Hong Kong. When we were flying into the city it was around 11 p.m. so it was dark and all you could see was the many islands that make up Hong Kong lit up by traffic lights and buildings. The view was stunning.
The hotel we stayed at was really nice and had a great view of Victoria Harbor and Hong Kong island. The only thing is, it was on Kowloon. The travel agent told us that Kowloon was the better island with more things to do but I would have to disagree, I spent most of the time on Hong Kong island except to watch the symphony of lights.
While I was in HK I took a day trip to Macau. That was an experience in and of itself! While it was really great to see the Portuguese architecture and the massive casinos, I found it stressful because of the lack of English haha. I ended up getting lost on a bus for a while and missed my ferry back to HK... it didn't really matter because the ferries run every half an hour.
I spent most of my time there doing what I love best -- eating and shopping. Unfortunately I'm too big to fit most of the clothes there! (Wtf?) I guess when the British left they took their big bones with them? The food was good, my travel companion doesn't like Chinese food so we didn't really get to try too much authentic Chinese food haha but I convinced her once to eat some and I thought it was fantastic. We found a lot of western style restaurants and surprisingly enough a lot of Japanese restaurants with strange Japanese dishes like omuraisu.
That brings up one thing I noticed that I was surprised about - how much Japanese pop culture etc you can find in HK... I always thought the Chinese and Japanese despised each other? Guess not so much.

3) Good byes. One of my closest training buddies has finished his contract and decided to leave Japan so we had a good-bye party for him last Sunday. It was really fun but also really sad. We ended up going to a few bars and mid-way singing karaoke (as we always do), during one of the songs me, Nathan (the one who left) and my other training buddy Javier all got kind of choked up. I guess it hit us that it was the last time we'll probably ever do that together. After Karaoke we went to my favourite bar, the Loft in Kabukicho, and managed to convince the manager/owner to let us play one of the really nice Fender guitars and sing on stage (haha) so Nathan played guitar and we sang together for the bar. Finally, we ended the night true to form with an early morning snack, and since there are no pizza by the slice shops out here we had a little gyu-don instead (beef bowl). Rather than have a long heartfelt good-bye we just kind of said "See ya later." and walked our separate ways. I'm beginning to feel like an orphan or some kid getting left behind at the mall haha. Everyone is leaving! Javier will be leaving in December. Which brings up my last point of this entry...

4) Visit home. I've booked my flight and I couldn't be more excited that I'm going home to visit for eight days at the end of December/early January during Oshogatsu. Unlike my whirlwind visit last March, this one will be planned and I will savour every minute of the time I get to spend with my loved ones.

Lupus - A Restaurant's Name

Wow! I haven't updated for a long time - my apologies! I have no real excuse as to why I haven't updated. Actually, I kind of forgot about my blog. Oops!

Did I mention how the gig went? The first gig went pretty well. While my bandmate and I did make some mistakes on stage, the crowd loved us (granted they were all my students and friends). We couldn't have asked for a better crowd for our first gig. I was so nervous to perform, during one song I completely blanked on the lyrics for a while haha! Our second gig (We had a second gig on July 16th) went well - no mistakes but due to the last minute invitation to play and the time of our performance there were only about five people in the audience. Oh well! We had a lot of fun playing. We dont have any plans to perform again in the near future. I think there is talk of another performance at the first venue in October or something. The second venue asked us to perform every month but we declined - we're too busy for that kind of commitment.

So since Vietnam was cancelled due to an overall lack of interest by Japanese people (the tour needed 10 people to be held and only my friend Ayano and I signed up) we have decided to go to Hong Kong! We decided to opt out of going on a tour and to just sightsee by ourselves. We're going for five days leaving in about a week and a half. My travel companion is a bit nervous about going to Hong Kong so I have assured her I will be better than any tour guide so I have to start finding out where to go and what to see. While we're over there we are going to stop by and say hello to an old high school friend of mine. I haven't seen him in seven years! Wow time flies!

Speaking of time flying - it's my 25th birthday today. I had a nice video chat with my parents and brother, it was really good to see their faces. My family sent me birthday presents too!! I got some lovely clothes which I'm very excited to wear! So for the birthday festivities... tonight I'm keeping it a bit low key with a small birthday dinner with a few students and my coworker (it's her last day today). I took tomorrow off so I plan to relax all day and then head into Tokyo to celebrate with some friends. We're planning to have a photo scavenger hunt which should be very entertaining.
As a side note... people keep saying "congratulations" to me because it's my birthday. It makes me think.... are you congratulating me that I've managed to stay alive this long? Surely it cant be that big of a feat. It makes me think of dogs who get into the garbage and eat some chocolate and accidentally die. "Congratulations, you haven't accidentally killed yourself (yet)".

Fresh Radicals - Some Guy's Hat

Wow it's been a while since I last updated. I'm a total shmuck when it comes to keeping regular contact with people.
So a lot has been happening!
1) I had my first encounter with a chikan (pervert) on the train. That was interesting! He kept staring at my chest and asking if he could pay me to touch my boobs. Poor guy was not expecting me to be able to swear at him in Japanese hahah. He quickly got off the train and went to another car. For people saying how common chikans are on trains I'm kind of surprised it took over a year for one to bother me.
2) I rode my bike for the first (and probably last) time. What can I say? The bike is too small for me, I feel ridiculous on it. I think I'd feel more comfortable on a bigger bike for safety reasons too, not like a bigger bike could do much against a car anyways.
3) I booked my trip to Vietnam for August!! I'm going for six days with my coworker. We chose to go on a tour that would allow us to see most of the country, starting in Hanoi and ending in Ho Chi Minh. The tour, interestingly enough, is all in Japanese. With the tour we get to see four world heritage sites which should be cool (I'm not exactly sure which ones as the brochure was all in Japanese haha all I know is that I'm going to Ha Long Bay and getting to do a river cruise on the Mekong so I'm happy.
4) My gig is in less than two weeks and I could not be more terrified! I think I might have the lyrics down for two of the three songs I'm singing. The Japanese song is proving to be very difficult.
5) Rainy season started almost a full month early which apparently means we're in for a ridiculously hot summer. It's a good thing the air conditioning at work has been broken for about two months and the classrooms are now getting up to 30+ degrees.

Guilty Parties Shake a Lady - Guy's T-shirt in Osaka

I've managed to catch a cold this past week so for some reason this means I'm awake at 5 in the morning and can't fall back asleep. At least this gives me ample time to catch up on emails and update my blog.
Last weekend I had to say goodbye to my friend who is going abroad for three months. We had a nice day of driving all around Tokyo. He actually gave me a bike I have named Jiminy. And true to the idea that everything in Japan is small, Jiminy can fold in half and is very small. I have not tried riding Jiminy as I'm afraid I'll get hit by a car.
I also did a bit of exploring this weekend. My coworker and I went on a massive hunt to find this "rumored" Aeon mall in our area. We found it after walking over 7 kilometers! The mall was pretty cool but unfortunately I was with my male coworker so once we found it, we basically turned around and caught the train home.
So Golden Week has come to an end meaning Obon will be here in August. Recently I've been looking into taking a trip abroad during Obon. I'm looking at Vietnam, Thailand or Bali. My coworker is going to come with me so now all we need to do is find a deal. My first choice is Vietnam as I really want to see Ha Long Bay.
In other news, I have been offered another contract extension. The manager told me she would like to see me stay at the school for a long time. I'm torn. I'd dearly love to stay but also get to see my family more than once a year.

Happy Japanniversary!

So today marks a very special day for me. It has been exactly one year since I moved to Japan! It's been a very interesting year full of new experiences, I'm lucky to say I've met a lot of good people along the way. Hopefully this is the first of many years to come in Japan.

So what have I been up to as of late? Nothing outrageous.

For Golden Week I went to Osaka. I decided to do something a little different regarding mode of transportation down there. Instead of taking the bullet train or highway bus as I have done before, I took the local trains. The bullet train usually takes two and a half hours and the highway bus (depending on traffic) takes about six hours. The local trains took roughly ten hours, 8500 yen and nine train transfers. It was a fun experience and definitely worth the time. By taking the locals I got to see a lot of the countryside and because of all the transfers it kept things interesting and gave me the opportunity to walk around and see some small towns. Osaka was fun as usual and I saw some people I met last month. I can't say I did anything special or noteworthy. I ate a lot of food, sang Karaoke and walked around parts of Osaka.

Last weekend I spent my entire weekend alone. It was a first for me as I tend to be a socail butterfly but for some reason I just felt like being alone and having a relaxed weekend. It was great! On Sunday I went to Shinjuku and just walked around Kabukichyo and Shinjuku-sanchome, I also went to Shinjuku park which is a hidden gem in the city! I've been to the bigger, more popular parks like Hibiya, Ueno and Yoyogi but I had never been to Shinjuku park before. It's truly beautiful! It has a good sized lake with bridges and koi fish, a traditional tea house and thick forests. It was great to see the contrast of a serene lake against the back drop of the skyscrapers of Shinjuku. I'm looking forward to returning soon for a picnic! I went home and made myself some Japanese food for dinner!! Nothing too crazy, just some yakisoba.
On Monday I decided to do some more exploring. I went to Nakano (a little bit west of Shinjuku) to see this shopping arcade they have (It is said that Nakano is the new Akihabara but I didn't see that at all). Apparently in this arcade they have a store where you can things people have found on the train! Unfortunately I did not find this store. I got bored of Nakano quickly and went to a regular spot of mine called Kichijoji, it's good for shopping and funky little cafes. I just wandered around there and found a foreign food shop so I bought a couple western food items and cooked myself dinner. I'm seriously impressed with myself as I have cooked myself dinner four nights in a row now (if you know me, you know that this is quite rare).

Needless to say, nothing really noteworthy has been happening. Life is good! :)

Bum's a Bet - Hair Salon

I was rudely woken up at 4:30 this morning to some alarm blasting over the loud speakers in my town and some man on the loud speakers announcing something... the echo is so bad I cant understand a word he says. Sometimes I feel like I'm living in the book 1984 and I'm just supposed to wake up at 4:30. I've woken up that early almost every day either by an announcement or by an earthquake. In the past week we've had quite a few large aftershocks (I've counted five). They were all up north so they weren't too strong down here but I've definitely felt them. The big earthquake started off pretty small and then built up pretty strong so when the aftershocks hit I keep waiting for it to get stronger. A few people I've talked to say the plate near Tokyo has been weakened a lot from all the quakes and we should expect a relatively large one to hit sometime soon.

I went to yet another hanami party and I think it's safe to say I've ingested enough sakura petals for one year. The blossoms have begun to turn into leaves now and the weather is getting warmer and warmer. I'm not looking forward to summer if it's going to be anything like last summer!

This last week has been eventful enough I suppose.

I broke things off with the guy I had been seeing for about eight months. He was pretty good about it, as I knew he would be. He said I was too good for him and deserve someone nicer. We're going to try and be friends, I think that's better for us because it has removed all the obligations to see each other regularly.

In other news, my new band went to the studio last Monday and it was pretty successful, we started writing a song even! (Did I mention I started a project band with my friend?) We have a gig at the end of June and we need to perform ten songs then. We dont have a name for the band yet - we cant find one we both really like... any suggestions?

Work is going well, we just started new kids classes this month and so far... some are great and some will be a test of my mental strength.

What's on the cards coming up? Golden Week is rapidly approaching so I'm trying to hammer out some plans of what to do. I'm mulling about going back to Osaka and/or maybe going to Izu Shoto or Kyushu. I'm still not sure if I want to travel with a friend or just go alone and have all the say in what I do. It might be nice to have a translator though. Thoughts?

Rodeo Crowns - Brand Name

Hanami season is among us! That being said I've already been to two hanami parties. (Hanami literally means "flower watch", so what we do is get together in a park and drink all day.)
My first hanami party was also a goodbye party. The aftermath of the earthquake took its toll on my friend so he decided to move back to America. He was my first friend at my hometown and really went out of his way to show me the ropes and make sure I settled in nicely. He doesn't really speak any Japanese and was quite bothered by the lack of information getting to him regarding black outs, water contamination etc so he decided it would be safer for him to return home. I can see what he means, it's frustrating being here and in a way trying to compete with people to get water and food while everyone around us is panicking and getting information before us. My Japanese is ok but I dont know the words for things like "radiation", "evacuation", and "contamination" hahah. I guess I should try to learn those at some point hey?
At my second hanami party I got to see my friend who lives up in Sendai right by the epicenter for the big earthquake. I cant imagine what it was like up there. He said his building was swaying about four meters back and forth and people were flying across the school into walls. He also said that twelve of his students are missing. It's really amazing the fragility of life, one day you're doing the same thing you always do and the next it's all over. I still cant believe it happened.

Arise Therefore (Dont remember where I picked that one up)

So I made it back to Osaka and then Tokyo safely without major incidents.

I must say my flight to Osaka was a lot more pleasant than my flight from Osaka.

On my way into Seattle I was sandwiched between an overly talkative middle aged Japanese woman on one side and an American man who would not stop talking about plane crashes and radiation poisoning. How lovely. While on one hand I was able to practice some Japanese but it was rather frustrating trying to get to sleep when all she would do it tap me and show me origami and ask me to fold her some. The only one I know how to fold is a paper crane so I taught her how to do that. The American man was fleeing the country with no intentions of returning and was telling me that we were all going to get leukemia. He was from Nagoya which is (I think) roughly 600km away from the Daiichi plant. Needless to say I was happy to get off that plane.

On my way to Osaka I was pleasantly surprised with a seat in Economy Plus right beside the emergency exit, the bathrooms and a chatty but interesting British man who lives in Kyoto. He and I managed to talk for the entire eleven hour flight while getting slightly pissed. As luck would have it the flight attendant missed us with drinks during the first service and felt so bad she was smuggling in things from first class for us and giving us extra drinks. All in all... one of the better flights I've been on.

I arrived in Osaka and was able to get out of the airport very quickly... through customs, immigration and baggage claim in under an hour! I hopped on a bus headed towards my hotel and managed to find it without incident. After that I went out for dinner with one of my new Osaka buddies, we went to two restaurants - one was kushikatsu (like kushiage - meat and veggies on skewers) and the other was Okinawan food (a lot of goya and tofu) both were delicious! After that I was exhausted so I called it a night and went to my hotel and crashed.

The next day (Saturday) one of my Osaka buddies and I went to Kyoto because we plain old had nothing better to do. It was really great for me because I had never been there before and had a tour guide to show me his favourite places. We didn't end up staying too long as I wanted to get back to Tokyo that evening. I saw some temples and wandered around Gion where I was able to catch a glimpse of a couple geisha/maiko (I dont know which one they were) so I can cross that off my list of things to do in Japan.

I bought my shinkansen ticket and boarded the train only to find that I was on the really slow one when I had paid for the fastest train... how nice. I ended up transferring to a faster train half way and arrived about a half hour later than planned.

It was eerie arriving in Tokyo. I couldn't even tell we were approaching Tokyo because it was dark out and the majority of the lights in the city were out. As I walked through Tokyo station the atmosphere was subdued and cold. The heaters on the train seem to be out and almost half the lights in the stations and in the city are also out. It left me feeling pretty uneasy. That night I had a terrifying nightmare about trying to escape radiation by scrambling to find a fall out shelter where I live. It was a mass exodus of people trying to out run an invisible poison. Of all the dreams to remember...

I have started work again. My students and most of my coworkers are happy to see me. My one twat of a coworker is griping and moaning about how I left and what a martyr he is for having stayed.

In the end the trip home was really good for me. It made me realise I want to stay in Japan as long as possible. I guess while I was gone I had been glorifying Vancouver and how great it is. While it is great because my parents live there and the food and views are phenomenal, my home is Japan for now.

Starvations - Kid's clothes store in Nanba, Osaka

So for the past week or so I have been observing the Japanese nuclear situation from afar at my parent's house.
The trek back home was a long adventure. Kansai airport was really busy with all the departures, but all in all it wasn't too unpleasant. I had to fly from Osaka to Seattle and then to Vancouver with a six hour layover in Seattle. I had an interesting time waiting around Sea-Tac airport and had a "Talking to Americans" moment with the gentleman sitting next to me. He asked where I was flying so I reply "Vancouver" and he asks "so that's what... a four or five hour flight?", I give him a dead pan stare "What?! No, it's 35 minutes."... his response? "I was always under the impression that Vancouver was directly above New York."
Excellent.
The week home has been relatively uneventful. It was good to catch up with some old friends, see the family (of course) and eat some delicious Canadian cuisine. It's funny how different everything looks, everything is so green and trees are everywhere, not to mention the mountains and ocean. Needless to say I was taking a lot of pictures. It was amazing how hard it is to tune out people speaking when they are speaking in English!
I'm on my way back to Osaka tomorrow morning bright and early. I know a lot of people are concerned for my health but after staying as updated as possible about the situation and a deal of consideration I've decided to return home to Japan. I wouldn't feel right staying in Vancouver much longer. I'm going to spend a day or two in Osaka and see how things are going up in Tokyo before I return. I'm really looking forward to seeing my adopted family in Japan. :)

The Waiting Game

Wow. So unless you've been hiding under a rock somewhere you have probably heard about the big earthquake that hit Japan on Friday. Dont worry, I'm safe and sound.
The earthquake hit about 200km north of where I am so there wasn't a lot of damage here. The quake itself was the strongest I've ever experienced and our building shook for a good two hours because of all the aftershocks. The quake hit at about quarter to three in the afternoon and immediately after all the trains stopped running. We spent most of the evening wandering around near our school expecting the trains to start back up again. A lot of people were stranded all over Tokyo and the line ups for taxis and payphones were huge. A student of mine said he walked for six hours to get home on Friday night.
The atmosphere here is really strange to say the least but I guess that can be expected. Everyone is kind of panicking and buying as much food, water and candles as they can get their hands on. Most stores have run out of bread and water... of course I do not have any water haha.
So today Tokyo has scheduled rolling black outs for each area... we were told 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. but the lights did not go out and again at 12:20p.m. to 4 p.m.... the lights are still working. We're wondering if it's all a hoax. It would be nice if the company I worked for would contact me and let me know what is going on. My coworker and I were saying this feels a bit like pergatory or limbo. There have been quite a few announcements over loud speakers today but I can't understand them so hopefully it wasn't anything too urgent. I've spent the whole weekend staying very close to home and just waiting to hear some news or for something to happen. I'm not quite sure what I'm waiting for but a lot of people have said there is a large chance of another big earthquake to hit within the next few days. There was a relatively large one in Ibaraki this morning which woke me up.
I've heard through some friends that a lot of foreigners have decided to just leave Japan all together and go back home. I cant say I really intend to do that, either way I've heard that the airports aren't operating so everyone who's flocked to the airports are just sitting there waiting.

Marverous - Name of a bar in Fussa

After a month hiatus, I'm back blogging.

What have I been doing you ask? Nothing particularly special. In the past month I have:
-Worked, worked and worked. I was given the opportunity to teach some silly classes... French, darts and bar. No, I do not speak French.
-Taken a day off and got lost in Gunma on said day off. I ate a horrifying kaiseki dinner at the hotel in Gunma which included fish kidneys and clams. I'm still shuddering about this. The dinner had good points too... like salad, wild boar and some unidentified fish. Breakfast at the hotel was much of the same. I also went to an onsen where I could watch the snowfall. I went to a farm (which I later discovered was intended for five year olds) and saw some goats and sheep. I got lost on the way home because I foolishly got off the train to pee (turns out the train had a bathroom) and found myself stuck in darkest Saitama for an entire hour and a half with Take. We made some friends with the locals and wandered around. They laughed when we asked where we could find a restaurant haha.
- Caught up with some friends... Mainly drinking around my area and singing Karaoke, there was also some darts and purikura.
- Had an evening out with my co-workers and got to know them personally a bit better. We ended up drinking until 5 am... unfortunately most of them were drunk after the first.

What's on tbe books for the next little while? A friend of mine from Scotland is coming in for a few weeks to visit so I'm really looking forward to that. I'm celebrating a friend's birthday and successful surgery next weekend. I'm teaching English to the masses. That's about it. Glamorous life, I know. :)

Shady son of a bitch whatever - t-shirt on a guy

How agro!

Well... I havent been up to much, hence the lack of updating.
I've been missing my Mum terribly... and missing my Dad even more.
It's one of those things though... how do you get the best of both worlds? Until I have a Doko demo doa (go anywhere door) like Doraemon I'll just have to make do with what I have. Beautiful pictures! Enjoy! They are both of Kamakura where there is a large Buddha statue. It once was in a shrine but due to a large tsunami it is now outside. I went there with my Mum a few weeks ago.

Both the cooking and the life had better be pleasant - words on a sauce cup

The deepest apologies with a very deep bow. I know it's been ages since I last blogged. I have been very busy with my week off from work and my two weeks back to work.

What on Earth have I been up to?!
My lovely Mother came to Japan. I was very busy showing her the time of her life. We covered a huge amount of ground in the short time she was here (only nine days). I tried to show her as much of Tokyo as possible and some of the outside areas and then show her my favourite parts of Tokyo again. I also gave her a rudimentary education in the Tokyo train and subway system... I'm not too sure how much of that she grasped (no offense Mum!!)
In the short time she was here I:
- Took her shopping (duh!)
- Took her shopping
- Tried (and somewhat failed) to get her to try authentic Japanese cuisine... she ate (very reluctantly) sashimi and takoyaki, she loved ramen and shabu-shabu
- Took her to Mount Fuji
- Took her to an onsen
- Took her to some traditional Japanese places... shrines, Buddhas etc.
- Introduced her to some pop culture... karaoke, purikura, bonnenkai etc. She had a blast
- Introduced her to my family away from my real family
- Introduced her to Take (ahhh) :)
In the nine days we went to: Mt. Fuji, Kamakura, Shinjuku, Nishi-Shinjuku, Aoyama, Harajuku, Omotesando, Shibuya, Haijima, Asakusa, Ueno, Akihabara, Ikebukuro, Yoyogi and Hino. Phew.. we walked a lot.
So now my Mum is gone and I'm very sadly back to reality. Work is the same. Enough about work... there are some exciting things in store for 2011 (as I hope there are for you!). What you ask?
- I am starting to learn how to DJ so I can DJ for my friend's CD release party... who knew I was so cool?
---> Anyone have any song recommendations? :)
- I get to tattoo Take! Which means I have to learn how to draw... he said not to worry and to just free hand it but I dont think he knows how bad of an "artist" I am. In return... he gets to tattoo me... he threatens Hello Kitty... I dont think he'll do it though.
- I have plans to learn how to fish. Although the general consensus is fishing is moderately to extremely boring.
Well that's all I have in terms of an update! Promise to update sooner rather than later... possibly with pictures.