Bentron's Blog

Finally, a new post

2009-02-06T08:42:00.002+09:00

February 5th, 2009. How absolutely perfect that I have trouble expressing myself while I'm stricken down with this damnable sickness that robs me of my voice, yet again. Why is it that I always seem to lose my voice? Is it that I talk too much? Perhaps it's the effect of alcohol, loud bars, sickness, well I guess I may never know, but I'm definitely going to try and be more conscientious of taking care of my Voc-chords.

Sometimes you just feel like the world is pressing in on you. Today is definitely a day where this sentiment rings true. Work is so utterly involved that it eclipses my daily desires to pursue my goals of artistry. From graphic novels, to reading, to writing, to thinking, to hitting up the gym, I feel like my time is so unevenly divided between my obligations and my goals that it's like I'm treading water. (And if anyone has ever seen me in a pool, you can see how hard that is for me.)

At least I'm not in a situation as difficult as some of my friends, and at least there are moments of escape to keep me content. Also, I'm glad to have a job, seeing how the economy is going to be 'harder' over the next two years. My job would be more enjoyable if it had less responsibility, but therein lies the conundrum. If the job didn't have so much involvement, it'd be hard for me to take it seriously and to enjoy it. I guess what I'm saying is that I need a new change of pace, something to pull me from this static pond, and into another river.

I need some chapstick, 'cause my lips are breaking apart.

Episode 28: (delayed post, Fuji-continued)

2007-10-03T12:41:00.000+09:00

Konnichiwa Mina-san!

Well, since Laura and I didn't finish the posts from our trip around Japan, here's some more pics, experiences, and fun that we had.

We got picked up from the Bus station here in Tsu, right close to the station. Yumi-chan (my old co-worker back at my home branch), her boyfriend Hiro, her father, and her sister all met Laura and me bright and early in the morning. We were all packed up, and excited to climb the highest peak in all of Japan. Measuring in at a whopping 3776 meters, it's a huge mountain, and so lovingly adored by the general populace that it's referred to as "Fuji-san."

Through a couple naps and a lot of conversation, we arrived at the fifth level of Fuji-san with lots of energy and ready to go. Here's a quick pic of the group.

Fuji is divided up into ten different 'levels'. Not like RPG game levels, but just levels of height somehow distinguishable from each other. Laura and I paused to take a photo on each level, and had a great time doing it, as I'm sure you can see by this one taken at level 7.

Now one thing that I should mention was that we started the climb about a half-hour late. Not only that, but there were a few kids and elderly people on the trip, most of whom were not very good at climbing a mountain. (go figure). It was a pretty hefty hike up the mountain, and we were really worried about oxygen deprivation issues, so Laura and I bought a couple of cans of Oxygen to bring up with us. Anywho, we ended up being fine, but the children and elderly people had a lot of trouble, and we had to pause very frequently to wait up. This meant that by the time we reached out resting spot at level 8, we were quite late, and pretty much had our two-three hour sleep reduced to a shabby 55minute freeze fest. Instead of sleeping, poor Laura pretty much spent an hour shivering in those thick and very cold blankets. It wasn't the fact that the mountain was really that cold, but our 'mountain bunks' had some freezing cold blankets that took forever to warm up.

At about 2am, we got up, used those terribly stinky toilets (we honestly almost spewed from the smell) and started up the last legs of the mountain. The view was incredible, and I'm sure you can see from the pictures that we were given some great weather to see the sun and sky.

We hung around up top for a good little while, soaking in the view, and then began our long, LONG, decent back to level 5. I don't want to say too much about the walk down, but let's just say that there were a few moments were it was very difficult, and our legs were pretty tired. We paused every once in a while, and took a couple pictures to bring up our spirits. I especially like this one here on the left.

After a LONG long and almost never ending walk back down, we had finally made it! Yosha! To celebrate, Laura removed her long worn hiking boots (which at this point she made her hatred of them quite vocal) and then placed her Birks on her feet, which made her quite happy.

The Bus ride home was long and we all tried to have a nap... though none of us succeeded quite as excellently as Yumi and Hiro.

Finally we got home and though we had to wave good bye to the Mori family, I think we were both pretty happy to have accomplished something like climbing a mountain together. Of course, if you were to ask us whether we'd do it again, you'd probably get two very different answers. :)

ja na,

-benjamin

Episode 27: A bit of a crash...

2007-10-03T11:13:00.000+09:00

I've been waiting to do this post for what seems to be an eternity now. It's been over a month, which is the longest I've taken a break since the get go, and furthermore, I haven't finished everything that I've wanted to post.

Is this just because I've been lazy? Or perhaps just because I've been in a bit of a down-time? I can tell you that though I may be a little lazy these days, (I've been spending less time working-out, less time cleaning, and even less time cooking) I can assure you that I'm not lazy. Each and every day is full and busy, and some days even turn out to be all-nighters in order to soak in as much of this culture as I can. The other night was spent being up all night, trying different kinds of Sake, and enjoying some new foods, new people, and new areas. I probably only sleep for about 6 hours a night on average, and my Japanese fluency recently took a boost. I can formulate simple sentences in about half the time that I could before, in fact, sometimes I've convinced people that I speak a lot more than I actually do based solely on that fact. If only they knew that I can barely speak...

No, laziness isn't the problem. I'm in a bit of a sour-mood this morning, and so I'm going to try and elaborate on some of the reasons why my life has recently been a little... different/difficult/darker.

Ben's 8 Reasons why his life here in Japan has been difficult recently: (not really in any order)

1) Nova. For anyone who doesn't know, Nova has been having some serious problems recently. Not only is there a very good chance that we won't be paid in October for a month of work, but the company has been fighting off Bankruptcy for the past couple months. We have been paid late, which due to the Japanese payment system, means that I received pay on September 19th, for work that I did on August 1st. I was kicked out of my apartment (something that ended up working to my benefit, but I digress) because Nova didn't pay my rent to the landlord. They of course took my rent money, but just decided to keep it instead of paying my landlord. He wasn't very happy and he evicted the lot of us (myself, Jon, and Miles.) In case you didn't know, yes, that's illegal, and there is a lawsuit (I'm not involved) getting ready to be launched, on account of over 50 other Nova teachers who have been subject to this same treatment. Our students come to work worried, but because of the social norms here, they never ask about the situation, and furthermore, I'm not really allowed to tell them that they should try and use up all their points as fast as possible. All of this has changed the Nova experience of back room conversations from 'fun and happy talk' into a lot of doom and gloom, and really brought down the energy. A few of my friend teachers haven't even given their 30 days notice, and they've just walked out half-way through the day saying "I quit. Bye." Now, I don't advocate that behaviour, but then again I have quit myself... which brings me to number 2.
2) Quitting. I haven't always been happy with working for Nova, but the good times have definitely out-weighed the bad. I'm just sad to be leaving the company that took me here and helped me have this great experience.
3) Losing my students. I have grown to love a lot of my students, and there have been some mornings where after a longer or somewhat sleepless night I have wanted to just lie in bed all day instead of going to work. It has been the promise of seeing some of my favorite students that has gotten me up and ready and off to work. I really enjoy the kids classes, and students like Yuuta (the little monster), Sou (the coolest kid), Tomohiko (class clown), Mami, (the smartest and most fluent English speaking senior I've ever met... she helps the other students and sometimes even teaches me a little Japanese) and Tetsuya (the shy but hardcore Chuunichi Dragons Baseball fan) are all really enjoyable to teach. To top that wicked list has to be Hotaru, Kenta, and Kaito, who are all family and have been pulled out of regular lessons to be put into 1-to-1 lessons with me, and are just a really sweet family. Hotaru is hilarious.
My adult students are also a blast, and a lot of the older women have become like my moms away from my mom (who I miss!). Kuniko, Taeko, and especially Kaeko (the loudest laughing woman I've ever met) have been great fun to teach, learn from, and to become friends with. They've taught me a lot of what the Japanese experience of being a married woman in Japan is, and have given me an in depth understanding of how important this time is to them. Sometimes Nova is less of a language school, and more of a social therapy session, and students like these really enjoy this time, so not being able to talk to them anymore will be difficult for both me, and for them. I feel a little upset about that.
4) Losing my coworkers. They have been the single most important part of my experience here. Ashanthi, Jon, Neil, Kaori, Nao-bear, Miles, Yumi-chan, Karen, Rachel, Matthew, and others, have been my friends, my social bubble to help me when I'm missing friends and family back home, and also they've been my travel companions. Each of our experiences have been changed by having the others there, and so without them, I wouldn't have ever done all the things that I've done, or seen the things I've seen. Karen's moving away, but the rest of us are still going to hang out outside of Nova... of course that'll be a little more difficult when I'm living in Shiroko... which brings me to number 5.
5) I'm moving further away from my friends. This will be my 4th move in just over 8 months, and like pretty much everyone ever born, I don't like moving. The packing sucks, the difficulty in setting up and taking down everything without breaking it sucks, and getting used to a new place again kinda sucks. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy about moving to Shiroko, to my own new private apartment, (It's also SUPER cheap) but at the same time, I'm going to miss being able to walk over to Ashanthi Karen and Rachel's place in literally 2 seconds. (They live next door.) Also, it'll be more of a hassle to get to the gym, Japanese lessons, and also Archery in the mornings.
6) "Binary life" I don't know exactly how to call this one, so I just tagged it as 'binary life.' Basically, this one has been taking it's toll on my ever since Laura went back to Canada. I came to Japan for a number of reasons, but one was to live my life by my own in a new place where I'm forced to conform, adapt and survive with little to no support. Call it a test, or a coming of adulthood, or whatever you want, but that's what I was after. Well recently it has been very difficult to do that while trying to be connected, and function like I was back home. In case you haven't done this whole "Living abroad for a year" deal, you may not understand, but essentially it is very difficult to live two lives, in two different countries, especially when they're on the opposite sides of the clock. I've have many plans here in Japan, and I'm almost always running around busily and sometimes I get caught up in those plans and have trouble making sure to do the things that I would normally for friends and family back home. For example, I didn't call my mom on her birthday, I have totally forgotten about e-mails for upwards of 30days at a time, I've missed some scheduled Skype conversations times with Laura, I haven't been updating my blog for the benefit of those back home as I planned, I haven't sent back the gifts and souvenirs that are piling up in my room for my friends and family as originally planned (though, I wouldn't worry about them, you'll still be receiving some souvenirs guys). Obviously none of these missed opportunities have made my happy, and believe me, they're never intentional, but I guess that's just the difficulties of living abroad. I can't really blame any real reason besides myself for this, but it just feels like sometimes I'm torn between two lives. This one in Japan, and that one back home. My thanks go out to those of you who have been patient with me for any of the above mentioned.
7) Weather. I love that we're finally getting some cooler weather here, but it seems like forever since we've had a sunny day. It rains more in Mie in September and October than it does in the rainy season. Go figure.
8) Lack of days off. My days off are normally Wednesday and Thursday with Nova. But, I work every Wednesday as well, and so after taking my obligatory relaxation period and clothes washing, cleaning, etc, I don't really have any time to go traveling around. Today is my first Wednesday off since July, and I was planning on going to Osaka, but instead I'm opting to wait until Mid October because then I can hang out with some cool Canadians who have just come overseas working with ECC. Anyway, I guess I just want to have some more time to myself, to feel like I have enough time to do my blogs at a leisurely rate, and get caught up with everything back home. I'm looking forward to my new job as then I'll have the actual weekend off, every weekend.

Alright, well that's my 8 reasons as of right now. I hope it didn't sound like I was complaining too much or anything, because I'm still having a good time, but like most experiences there are ups and downs. Well right now is a bit of a down. I'm looking forward to when it hits another up.... like when my brother comes to visit in November! Yosha. He's really gonna like it.

Okay, I may just go back and post a lot more details of the Laura-Ben trip, seeing how you guys are probably really interested in those photos that we were going to post, but didn't end up because we were, well, busy.

matane,

-benjamin

Episode 26: Mounting the mountain

2007-08-25T23:14:00.000+09:00

Konbanwa Mina-san!!! (Konbanwa = good evening)

So, just a quick update instead of a full blog posting, as it's 11:15 at night, and Laura and I didn't sleep last night. The reason, you ask? Well, we climbed the biggest piece of rock in Japan, a big ol' sweet mountain man, the one and only Fuji-san! Anyway, this is what dawn looks like from the highest point in Japan. (Almost 4km above sea level.)

More to come, but we're too tired to post tonight, and we're off to Kyoto tomorrow morning... followed by a few other destinations. Yosha!!!

-benjamin & Laura

Episode 25: Bullet train with butterfly wings

2007-08-22T12:50:00.000+09:00

Konnichi-wa Mina-san!!!

Ben: "Well, that was a disappointment and a half. So get this, Laura and I got up at about 5:20am in order to have enough time to make it out to this fabled Tsukiji fish market, which is potentially the largest fresh fish market in the world. Basically, they serve up some crazy fresh and delcious fish between the hours of dawn and maybe 8am to people, restaurants and anyone cool enough to be up that early. Unfortunately for us it just wasn't in the cards."

Laura: "Obon is a three-day period when people celebrate their ancestors. Lots of people get this time off work, so a lot of stuff is closed. Obon this year was August 13-16, and we went to Tsujiki on the 17th -- apparently since they hadn't been out fishing the day before, there was nothing to sell on the 17th. It reallly sucked-- I was looking forward to eating some really fresh and delicious sushi! Oh well. We went to a corner store and bought breakfast there instead. FYI, the prepared food at corner stores here beats the pants off of anything you buy at 7-11 back home. It's better for you, and pretty tasty. I got a couple onigiri- triangles of rice full of various kinds of fish wrapped in seaweed. Maybe not for everyone, but I really like them. After that, we had to find something to do in the area so that our early morning trek wasn't a complete waste."

Ben: "We decided to hit up the Emperor's walking gardens about a twenty minute walk away from the empty Tsukiji market. It was actually closed when we arrived there, seeing how we were still so early, but we just chilled out for about a half-hour in the shade by the parking lot. After getting into the gardens, we were pretty happy to be there. It's really actually quite cool to be in a big space that is simply some trees and grass, a few flowers, and a few really old walk-ways while being fully enclosed in a huge urban city-space. I know I've remarked on the odd dichotomy of huge city space and super-calm, traditional park/temple spaces here in Japan, but when you're in Tokyo... it's just, well, remarkable."

Laura: "I'll second that emotion. Japan, especially urban Japan, is such a weird mix tradition and modernity-- there's literally temples smack dab in the middle of huge shopping centres. After the garden, we hit up Subway. I got a shrimp and avocado sub with miso/soy sauce, it was really good. We checked out of the hotel, then made our way to our mode of transportation from Tokyo to Nagoya: the fabled Shinkansen."

Ben: "With it's shiny big nose, long sleek body, and agility of a puma, the Shinkansen, is the sweetest ride in the East. Just look at it's glorious train-i-ness. Still, despite it's outward appearance, and accessibility, it isn't cheap. Basically, the one way trip from Nagoya to Tokyo weighs in at about $110 CND. It doesn't actually feel like too long a trip (it's only about 1.5hrs) but some of our fellow train-riders still managed to grab a few beers or shots in order to fall asleep for the ride. Laura even managed to get a nice pic of the guy who was sitting beside us totally asleep. It is included here for your amusement.

Laura: "This old sleepy man and I pretty much became best buds...we were pretty entertained by his various sleeping poses. The bullet train was pricey, but I think it's worth it to say you rode on a bullet train. They go about 300 km/hour!
We took the train to Nagoya, then caught another train to Tsu, the city where Ben lives. It was nice to finally get to home base!

The next episode will detail our travels in Nagoya! Here's a hint: it will feature both fleas (of the market variety) and robots. Until then!

-Benjamin and Laura

Episode 24: Tokyo Disneyland, a rollercoaster of emotion

2007-08-22T11:38:00.000+09:00

Konnichiwa mina-san!!!

Ben: "Holy shnikes, this is our trip to Disneyland, in a nutshell. That's right, you heard it right here, we went to that magical land where time ebbs and flows like the drifting sands of the Sahara, and old age becomes youth at the drop of a hat. Even those big hats that cowboys wear."

Laura: "In regular people speak, that means that the day lasted FOREVER. We left our hotel at at 7:00 am on a magical shuttle that took us straight to Disney. We got there at about 7:30, and in true Japanese fashion waited in a huge line to get our tickets, then another, separate huge line to enter the park. We booked it straight to Space Mountain, and were rewarded with a very short wait for the most popular ride in the park."

Ben: "After our trek into space, we made our way over to the dinky rides. You know, those little kiddy type rides that most adults don't really want to ride on, but then after they wait and get on the ride, they're always shocked at how much fun it actually was, and then they won't shut up about how much fun they had? Yeah, well those are the ones we hit up. Basically there was this little airplane ride thing that went around in circles (made by JAL), and some other little ones. Afterwards, we decided to celebrate with a mean spicy chicken wrap from a food stand. To our surprise, the price wasn't so jacked up that you had to mortgage your first born child to be able to afford it.

Laura: "It was at this point that the reality of Tokyo Disneyland began to reveal itself. Up until it had been all fun and games --- not anymore. First of all, the crazy heat began to sap our (or at least my) energy. It was over 40 degrees that day, probably 41 or 42 around lunchtime. The sun was intense, there weren't many places to sit, and pavement everywhere. I asked Ben what time it was totally expecting him to say "It's 2:00" - it had just turned 11:00. I couldn't believe that we had 9 more hours to go. But we solidered on, conquering the Honey I Shrunk the kids 3-D adventure and a few other not-so-popular rides, mainly because the lineups were starting to get ridiculous."

Ben: "That's fact. Thunder Mountain, for one, was 'down for repairs' and once it opened, there was literally a three hour wait to get on that ride. Big Thumbs Down! Suffice to say, at that point in the day, we had neither the will nor the time to squander on such short winded entertainment. Instead, we took a train ride around the park, one that took us into the Canadian Wilderness to see some native Canadians, and also some natural wild-life (pronounced "anamatronic deer and people." That ride was a short break, and it luckily took us away from the wicked-crowded Japanese line-ups. I'm being totally honest here when I say there were no less than 30,000 people, I wouldn't be surprised at numbers as high as 50,000 or more. It was crazy... and I mean crazy in the full sense of the word."

Laura: "We also went on a crappy river cruise to Tom Sawyer's island-- it lasted literally 30 seconds. But the day wasn't all disappointment. There were some cheesy, but really fun parades of all the Disney characters. The pixar float was the best, mainly because Sully (the big blue monster from Monsters, Inc.) looked like he was telling the crowd to "Suck It!" (look at the picture and you'll see what I mean).We went on a fun Buzz Lightyear ride where you got to shoot bad guys with a laser gun. Also, at the end of the day we went on Splash Mountain, which was totally worth the wait.

Another highlight of the day was the 'It's a Smal World' ride -- if you've never been on it, it's as creepy as you think it is. Think hundreds of tiny animatronic robots that look like little kids singing "it's a small world" in creepy robot voices. Oddly, North America was completely left out of the ride - no Canada or United States! I mean come on, even Finland was represented! The heat was a killer and the crowds got to be kind of suffocating, but Tokyo Disneyland was ultimately a pretty fun place to be."

Ben:"True. We had a wicked time, and it felt so good to get home after a long day, and just have a nice cold-shower, while relaxing at the hotel. Our feet were pretty sore, but you know that good feeling you get when you get home after a long day skating and take off your skates and put your feet up? Yeah, well it was kinda like that. Oh, and to top it all off, we finished off some of the delicious strawberry white cake we got from Tomo, and watched some Japanese television on our 40" flatscreen. Hilarious."

The next day promised exciting fun at the Tsukiji fish market, as well as our long trek home to Mie-ken. Until then,

matane,

-benjamin & laura

p.s. Ben: "In "Western Land" we went to a shooting range, where you had a lazer rifle, and you could pay money to shoot at things in a bar. If, and only if, you managed to hit 10 targets out of your 10 shots, then Goofy told you that you rocked out harder than a drunk Japanese salaryman at a 2am Karaoke session. To reward you, he would give you a sheriff badge. Well guess who rocked out that game? Watashi!!! (me!)

Laura: "I didn't hit any of them :-( "

Episode 23: Lovers in a Dangerous time

2007-08-19T09:54:00.000+09:00

Konnichiwa mina-san!!!

Ben: "SO, the day has come and gone. Yes, the one day, that one special day where my lady friend made her way across the world to meet me here in this strange and cool land known as Japan. Suffice to say, 'I'm elated' doesn't cut it."

Laura: "My flight was pretty good. I sat next to a woman who was a professor of Women's Studies at a college in northern Japan, so we had some stuff to talk about. She thought I was Korean....weird. We made it to Japan in about 12 and a half hours, which seemed like record time (there was no stopover). And of course it was great to see Ben waiting for me outside the terminal with this sweet homemade sign:

Ben: "So, then we made our way out to the hotel in Daiba, via the Airport shuttle, and for a paltry fee, we ended up getting the whole bus to ourselves! I personally couldn't have wanted any more personal space, seeing how the airport in Tokyo is, well, in a word, packed. Anywho, stupid me somehow lost my luggage ticket stub when we were getting off, and if it weren't for the fact that it was just the two of us, it might have been a problem getting my luggage from the bus-man. He was a douche (the bus man.) Anywho, here's a sweet pic of us sitting on a bus. Sweet."

Laura: "Then we arrived at our palatial hotel, 'Le Meridien Grand Pacific' right on Tokyo Bay in Daiba (a district in Tokyo). Ben's motto for hotels must be "go big or go home", because it was actually the largest hotel in Tokyo. Our room was great, and the air conditioning was even better. We would have gone swimming, but to get into the pool was about $20 per person- no thank you! Our room was on the 25th floor, so we had a great view of Tokyo Bay and the Rainbow bridge. On our first night there, Ben's friend Tomo sent a cake and some champagne to our room, which was lovely and very sweet. Thanks again, Tomo!"

Ben: "In case you were wondering, the hotel was a little expensive, but you can find cheaper accommodation quite readily within most districts of Tokyo. So no worries, you don't have to bust the bank just staying in Tokyo. And if you male, single, and with forty bucks, you can always sleep in a capsule hotel room. Righto, so now let's get on track with traveling throughout Tokyo in a flash... (Those two icing cookies say the following: "Happy birthday Ben!" and "Welcome to Japan Laura")

We got ourselves up and made our way out to Asakusa pretty early in the day, maybe 8ish? And we tackled the reputable giant of the Tokyo subway system. Despite what you may think, it was actually quite manageable , and we didn't have too many problems the entire time... well at least, I don't think we did :)"

Laura: "I don't think we did either! There were a few times when we were a bit confused... and the hot weather and crowds can make me a bit of a cranky muffin....but overall I think we did quite well. Asaksa is a traditional marketplace, and there is a temple there as well. There was a large variety of goods available for really good prices, so I got some cool souvenirs for some lucky people. We had lunch there, and I had my first bowl of authentic Japanese ramen, which was delicious."

Ben: "Asakusa is a totally touristy place, so we weren't really surprised by all the other Gaikokoujin (foreigners) hanging around. Oh, it's about this time that I want to mention the heat. There were record highs in Tokyo and the surrounding areas for the past few days, upwards of 43 degrees, and we had to take a lot of breaks for refreshment. If we didn't, we'd be walking husks of dried nori. (seaweed)."

Laura: "The heat is pretty killer. Unfortunately, every day I've experienced a period of heat-induced nausea...it goes away with some water and rest, but I've seriously never been in such hot weather before. Every day it's been about 37-40 degrees without taking the humidity into consideration. Japan is having a heatwave! In the Tokyo area about 10 people have died from heatstroke in the past week. But don't worry about us, we're young and vigorous.
Immediately after Asakusa, we went to the Ginza district to do some window shopping-- because that's the only kind of shopping we could afford there. Think Luis Vuitton, Prada, all the major designers. It's right up there with Paris and New York as a major fashion capitol. We walked around for about an hour, then caught the subway back to our hotel.

Ben: "Ginza wasn't as fun as I remember it. Still, it was a cool place to burn your money. Anywho, after we made our way back to our nicely air-conditioned hotel room, took a quick bath in our marble bathroom, and chilled out for a bit, we decided to hit the sack early... we had to get up extra early in order to catch our shuttle bus to DISNEYLAND TOKYO!!! Pretty flippin' awesome if you ask me. But, we had a bit of an early wake-up call... in the form of a minor Earthquake that shook the room a bit. Laura woke up and said 'hey Ben, what's that?' and I was like 'shit son, we be dead.' (translation = 'yes, that's an earthquake.') No worries though, everyone was A-ok.

Alright, before we turn this into a novel, we'll finish'er off, and say that the next update will detail our trip to Disneyland Tokyo. It should be up soon.

ja matane,

-benjamin & laura

p.s. Here's a video of Laura eating a Japanese Pickle! Totally worth the 50 seconds it'll take to watch it.

p.p.s. Kusai!!!

Episode 22: A Sneek Peek(er chup)

2007-08-07T11:04:00.002+09:00

Konnichiwa Mina-san! Genki?

So, just a few more little developments going on in my life that I want to brush up on: So check it out! It's coming at you like a Spider Monkey.

Okay, so my last Japanese lesson on Monday went quite well. I felt like Tomo-san had a bit more preparation going on, and though we were covering a topic that I had already covered before, this time we expanded on it to include more variations. Anywho, though that was all fine and dandy, and I did learn how to say some things in a pretty casual fashion, I was more impressed by the fact that I finally started writing in Japanese! YOSHA!!! Honto-ni, it's been really cool to be able to actually fashion my sentences out of Hiragana, Katakana, and even the odd Kanji. Now, working in the Kanji seems most impressive to me, but it all seems really cool. I mean, I figured that after about six months, I should be writing in the Japanese alphabet, but it's just so cool once it actually starts happeneing. It's like learning how to ride a bike for the first time. You just get this great feeling inside, like you've finally accomplished something that's a pretty crucial step in life. (Okay, not that most people need to learn how to write in Japanese, but still...)

Anywho, Tomo-kun also bought a text-book for me up in Nagoya. My morning thusfar has been filled with studying Japanese, drinking some Tim Horton's Coffee, and of course, relaxing to some tunes on my luscious laptop. This Laptop has been great btw, and I know that I often go ahead and plug that I've recently become a Mac user, but seriously, once you go Mac you'll never go back. They're sexy machines, and they've recently become a lot more affordable to the average person who wants a cool laptop. Check out the site. Also, if you're a university student, you can get a free ipod if you buy one right now. Pretty sick.

The MOST exciting thing going on right now is the promise of Laura's arrival here in Japan. I kinda want to post our temporary itinerary online here, but I don't really want to wreck the surprise... ah well, here goes nothing:

August 14-17: Tokyo
August 18-19: Mie-ken
August 20: Day trip to Nara
August 21-23: Ise, Nagoya, and Iga
August 24-25: Climbing Mt. Fuji
August 26-29: Kyoto for 2 days, Hiroshima, Himeji, and Osaka.
August 30: Chill
August 31: Baii baii Laura. :(

Obviously I haven't listed all the details here, but that's because you're gonna have to stay tuned and check out the nigh daily updates that we'll be posting over this time-line. Be on the look-out for the key moments, like the Peace Memorial, Disneyland Tokyo, Himeji Castle, and Tsukiji fish market!

Alright, I'm done my break, and I'm gonna head back into doing my studying before work. There's still so much to learn... life is study....

-ja mattane,

-benjamin

Nothing gets me hungry like cream filled colon. Mmmmm... now a snack you can enjoy at any time of the day!

I love this picture! I can't believe that the Japanese have managed to do the impossible, and place God in a can of coffee!!! It tastes divine... (okay, sorry, that was a bad one...)

Nothing can wash down God Coffee like a nice cold bottle of... Tap water?! Hahahahaha.

Episode 21: Overtime's a Bit... much.

2007-07-23T10:12:00.000+09:00

Konnichiwa mina-san!

After a few 'helpful' reminders from my one and only, I have resolved to at least put up a quick update of my life during my most busy and hectic scheduled period thusfar. Yes, I'm working like a fiend at the moment, and yes, I barely have enough time to do my laundry, but at least I'm living it large, and having a good time, despite the lack of sleep/blog-updates/sanity.

... That being said, I'm not too worried about upholding my "One-post a week" motto, seeing how in just over 3 weeks, Laura will be here in Japan, and we've decided to do some blog updates together. That means, we'll probably have a lot of them, and they'll more than make up for the three week draught I've caused. If you're interested in what you can accomplish in a two to three week extravaganza through Honshu, then stay tuned, 'cause Laura and I will put in the details of our trip around here, as well as any little fun places we try out. For all I know, this could be worthy of "Lonely Planet." Just saying that gets me excited...

One thing to talk about is that I've joined a gym here in Japan. More on this later (when I finally get a single day off), but here's a quick pic of me doing some bench-presses. The gyms here in Japan are almost always expensive... but this city gym (more akin to a Rocky movie gym) is very cheap. We're talking almost as cheap as the dirt on the pull-up bar. One stamp card allows you to enter the gym twelve times... and at my current calculations, one stamp card costs $17.32 Canadian. Subarashi desu yo. (I believe that it's awesome.)

Oh, and hey, I just got an e-mail from a really nice guy that I've been e-mailing a bit over at Nova! He told me that they've decided to put my face up on the official Nova Website. Check it out, and check out the "TESTIMONIALS" page. You may just see my ugly mug talking about my experience with Nova, as well as a link to this very site.

http://www.teachinjapan.com/

Now that's exciting,

ja mattane,

-benjamin

Episode 20: Canada Day in Japan?!

2007-07-02T00:13:00.000+09:00

Konnichiwa Mina-san! Genki?
Hello again, and happy Canada Day everyone! Yes, it is July 1st, as of right now (in Canada) and though the day has ended here in Mie prefecture, it was definitely a rockin' day.

When I first got the e-mail from Matthew about having a Canada festival here in Japan, I was totally blown away! I mean, come on, who has a Canada festival besides Canada, right? At least, that's what I though, but I wasn't going to pause for a minute, and being that slightly patriotic person that I am, I managed to get a shift swap just in the nick of time! (Thanks Karen!!!) The festival was great, as I'm sure you're about to find out, and although there was a little bit of rain, the beach was pretty clean, and enjoyable.

Anywho, yesterday night I was scrambling around for things that I could find to wear for the festivities, and I was at a loss. All I had that was Red and White (besides my super-hot sweatshirt) was a gift from Hiroyuki-sama (my archery teacher) which, although beautiful, doesn't have the words Canada on it anywhere... anywho, it was just at that time that I went to check the mail one more time before bed.

CHECK OUT THIS SH**!!!!

My mom totally rocks, and Mrs. Lynch definitely came through! In the package were the following pieces of Canadian paraphernalia: a Red T-shirt, a Grey T-shirt, 2 pairs of boxers, a set of Red and White sandals with a flag design on them, A Red bucket-hat, a big Canadian flag, a set of Canadian flags on a string, and of course, some more chocolate (Canadian foil coins), and.... Tim Horton's Coffee!!! (She really does love me, eh?) Decked out with my new armament of goodies, I attended the festivities in style... I kinda felt like I was at the Olympics though... lol.

Anywho, Ashanthi, Kaori, Matthew, Rachel, and some of our friends all attended the festival at the big beautiful Marina. There, I got to meet a lot of really cool people, some students from other schools, some teachers from other schools, and even some Canadians! Surprisingly, there were about 8 of us Canadians at the festival of around 60 people. An amazing turnout, and much more than I thought there would be. We were checked at the door, and then got a ticket for a free drink, and were offered some discount price Yakiniku. A special thanks goes out to Queen's English school for hosting this bad-boy of a party, as well as Matthew for putting our names down on the Guest list and allowing us each to save $5. Rock on man! The two people on the left are Jo and Dominique, both are pretty cool Canadians (notice the Quebec representation???) and if you don't love their hats, then I'm going to have to Ninja you right in your face. For serious.

Anywho, here are some wicked pictures of some of the festivities. As you can see, there's nothing like some hardcore rock bands playing, and some Gaijin and Japanese people awkwardly trying to rock out....

Also, check out this kid! He played so well that we were all blown away... alright, so he didn't really play mic'd, but still, I mean, look at him! Kawaii, neh? (I think his dad played lead guitar in the band.)

This woman was a hardcore Bassist, and her band played some wicked Led Zepplin. My only complaint was that I wasn't sure if the lead singer was singing the words to the songs, or just the sounds... hmmm....

Anywho, we finished off the day at Kappa Sushi, and I ate until I was full for about $7 Canadian... such a great deal. I hope everyone back home had a great Canada Day, and that you got off your lazy duffs and watched some fireworks, and celebrated multiculturalism. Honto.

Just before I go, I want to take a moment and share the fact that I've recently been feeling really happy and loved, as my brother and sister and old workplace did something wicked, and they sent me a shirt in the mail. The new PPV t-shirt, in exactly my size. I was totally blown away, and have worn it with pride. I'll have to post a picture... how about now!

Ja mattane,

-benjamin

On a side note, I just wanted to mention that I've been spending an exorbitant amount of time at Starbucks, or "Staa-Baa" as it's called here in Japan. I don't even really like Staa Baa, but since the rest of the coffee here kinda sucks, it isn't too bad, and also, they play some decent music... in fact, the other day they were playing some Rufus Wainright.

Would you check out the Naans on her? Yes, Ashanthi has contracted Elephantitis.. of the food-ear variety. It all happened when Ashanthi and I went out seeking adventure the other day, and we found ourselves at Everest. Everest is basically the best place around for getting some Indian cuisine. It isn't really cheap, but it certainly is delicious... and their typos in the menu are hilarious... and of course, the Naans are Oki. (big.)

Episode 19: Bentron's Back Baby!!!

2007-06-23T20:22:00.000+09:00

Wow, you can't belive how good it feels to be back on board. I feel like I've been riding this buckin' bronco known as Japan for the past twenty weeks, and it finally gave me a good kick or two, and I've been caught under the hooves of "laziness," "overtime," and being "sleep-deprived." Still, there's a good Rodeo Clown out there, so I'm back on top, I've gotta hold of the reins and I'm getting ready for a longer ride!!! Yosha!!!

Alright, so first thing to talk about. My baby's coming to Japan!!! SUBARASHI DESU YO!!! Laura (depicted here in an intense B&W picture with me) bought her ticket a few days ago, and she's going to be departing on my birthday from Toronto airport, heading up to the big Tokyo. From T-dot, to T-dot, her flight will probably take her around 17hrs, plus 13 hours time loss, which equals a big 30 hours. Yikes! Anywho, you can be sure that I'm planning a sick trip, and have been doing so for quite some time... still, I'm at a bit of a loss recently, seeing how the prices of international flights have gone up so drastically in the past month or two... apparently Japanese people have a special travel time for five days, basically right when she gets here... so that drives the costs up large. Much more than I anticipated... still, it may make for some sweet prices here in Japan, so we'll cook it up at some Ryokans (Japanese hotels), eat some Tacoyaki(fried octopus balls), and maybe even take in a Hanashin Tigers game. This'll be sweet, mochiron (for sure.)

Oh right, and about the fog in my mind that was the past couple weeks. I don't really know what to say about what went on, other than... a whole-flippin-lot! A little bit of travelling, overtime, late nights, bowling parties, paper work, archery, shift swaps, coffee at Starbucks (more than a few times), Japanese lessons, and to top it off, in one week I was at 3 all night-karaoke goodbye parties. One of those was a traffic light party, where you had to wear Green (if you were single), Yellow (if you had a crush/interested in someone), or Red (if you were taken/had a partner.) I didn't really have enough Red, so I wore pink instead, and a whole lot of it! Pink shirt, Pink Tie, and even a Pink Usugi kabuto (Pink Rabbit Helmet.) Some of the less sexually secure men at the party scoffed at my hat and appearance, but during my singing/performance of the Thong Song, I think I proved them wrong. (The picture on the left is of me after the all-night Karaoke in Ise... I'm in my GQ outfit, with new short hair, and some facial hair as well... and I certainly don't look impressed. The picture on the right is Hilarious! It's an All-night Karaoke/Car Rental store. Amazing combination, neh?)

As I mentioned previously, I've recently begun my new hobby of Archery. Yesterday morning was a very rainy day, but yet, it was still a good'un. We shot for the better part of an hour and a half, and tried not to get soaked. I'm still the worst archer of the four of us, but that being said, I'm not terrible! Just look at the picture! Those little babies are mine, and my bow didn't even have a sight! Go me... now if only I had shown the pictures of my missed shots... *sigh*...

Though this news seems slightly less important in comparison to Laura's arrival, it's still pretty big. Jon (pronounced Ju-on, lol) is back in town! Yes, his amazing trip back to Canada had to come to an end sometime, and now that he's back, he's a welcome part of the Central 21 family! He's even sporting some "Pepsi Nex" which though he seemed to enjoy, I rate a flat 5/10 in comparison with the next up and coming Pepsi product... Ice Cucumber... BARF!!! Seriously though, I had to buy one just to try it out. Cucumber flavoured pop? Who wouldn't gorge themselves on a bottle, or five? It tastes like it sounds... only more sweet.

Special thank you goes out to Ju-on (it means evil spirit) for his Canadian Maple cookies, the Skor Bars, and of course, a big thank you on behalf of everyone here for buying me some extra Deodorant.

Oh yeah, I went CD shopping and found this one. Nice title, eh?

Also, check out the wheels!!! I know I posted a while back about getting a scooter, but sadly guys, it ain't gonna happen. My liscence expires on my B-day this year, and I can't renew from here, so it's a no go. Still, I was able to live vicariously through my old co-worker Yumi-san, who has got this sweet ride right here. Take 'er out on a spin? You got it!!! VRROOMMM!!!

Did I ever mention how much I loved the train advertisements here in Japan? Absolutely priceless. (Please read these...)

ja matane,

-benjamin

Episode 18: Continued...

2007-06-08T01:08:00.000+09:00

Okay, I lied. I had to work overtime on Wednesday, and didn't get time to post.
Thursday passed by like water in a sieve, and Friday I'm doing archery before work. I'm really hoping to get the post in Friday after work, so stay tuned, I swear it'll be up soon... and it'll be good.

-love & peace,

-benjamin

Episode 18: Coming Wednesday...

2007-06-05T00:57:00.001+09:00

Stay tuned everyone, new blog update coming on Wednesday, when I get my day off... should be a good one. :)

matta suiyobi,

-benjamin

Episode 17: There's never enough time...

2007-05-28T00:41:00.000+09:00

Konnichiwa mina-san! (Hello Everyone!)

Yes, it has been another heck of a week for me over here in Tsu, and as promised, I'm going to deliver some new and exciting news in the life of a Canadian abroad. To any of my attentive readers, I'm sure you've noticed that today's entry is a little, well, tardy to say the least. Let me explain why:

Here in Nova, it can be difficult to get a day off. In order to alleviate this, there is a "Shift Swap" program, where you can exchange certain days off with other teachers, allowing you to "Work each other's shifts" to grant you a three day weekend, etc. Well, this week, my new roommate Jon went back to Canada, and my good friend Karen had her cousin come up from Australia. Due to conflicts, etc, I ended up working a shift for Jon, AND a shift for Karen, which happened to be both of my days off this week. Thus today was my first day off in about eight days, which when you've pulled a muscle in your neck and managed to catch the first bit of a cold in four months, can be trying at best. Anywho, it's over, and I've actually had a great week, despite all this, so I've got Sunday off, and then I work Monday & Tuesday, and then back to another two days off. That'll be sweet. (This picture is a picture of me with our Tsuminami Nova worker Kaori. Recently Ashanthi has been teaching her and our other worker Nao some great English words. They're wicked fun people.)

To get back to the 'thesis' of today's entry, I have to say that this last week has been full of ups and downs, back-flips, the like, but mostly, it has been a mad dash to a finish line. I've got mainly three things I'd like to talk about, so let me 'get at'er!'

Two of my good friends left for England this past week. Neil and Ellen, you will be sadly missed. (Yes that's them on the left.) That being said, they went out with a serious bang, and not only did those two deliver the goods, but they also 'cut the mustard' like the best of 'em. The stage was set for success, and from the beginning of the night we all knew that we were going to be going on a wicked ride until the early morning... or late morning...

The plan was a simple tri-pronged attack. First Bar, then Bowling, finally Karaoke at the one and only Shidax. Bar at 7, Bowling at 9:30, Shidax from 12:00 until 5:00am. It went as planned, and then some.

Ashanthi, Rachel and myself were working that night, so we met up with the slightly intoxicated gang at Grandbowl! (The bowling place I mentioned a couple weeks ago.) Not only did they give us a royal welcome for our approximately 40 bowlers, but they gave Neil a special ball, and told him that the festivities would begin on his 'opening pitch.' Well, the ball didn't look that special, since it was just a clear plastic ball with white inner plastic as the center. Of course, that would be merely to the mortal eye, for if a divine being, such as "Bowl-ar" (lord of bowling), placed his icy gaze upon the solid ball of majesty, he would have seen the motion sensitive LEDs implanted within its Titanium exoskeleton. After everyone had quieted down, and Neil took a microphone to announce the opening bowl, he placed the ball in his hands, and a hush fell over the audience. Surely enough, he threw that ball with all of his might, and as it hit the lacquered surface, the spinning ball of rainbow LED goodness went straight and true. STRIKE!!! Now that's an opening to a good night. There was much rejoicing, and much fun to be had.

After a riveting couple games of bowling, many of us were ready for the Karaoke to begin. I remember Ellen specifically being so excited that she grabbed a few of us and just began walking out the door, leading the train to the excitement that is Shidax! In case you didn't know about how much the Karaoke costs at Shidax, let me explain it for you. That night we opted for the "Special 12-to-4am" price, which was 3400 yen (approx $32). That is four hours of Karaoke in a beautiful private area, and all you can drink alcohol & coffee/tea/pop, etc. Not bad, eh?

The night began rather simply, with a few fan favourites, and after about the first hour or so, it became an all out brawl, with music from all facets of life. We had Billy Joel, followed by White Snake, followed by Queen, Boys 2 men, Madonna, and Billy Idol. We had single singers, duets, teams, choirs, and pretty much everyone in the room singing with, or without, mics.

One particular highlight of the night came in form of getting our friend Rachel (in the middle), who, well, let's just say 'isn't a professional singer' to sing "All By Myself." Pretty much... all by herself. It was one of the best Karaoke moments I have yet to experience, and as I'm sure you can see by the picture, I look particularly happy during the singing of the song. Kudos go out to my sister from another mister, Ashanthi who took a lot of the pictures for this night.

Right! I almost forgot! Here are a few pictures of my brand new apartment! Yes, I managed to make my first move from my old Nova apartment (which wasn't to my liking) to this newer, and better location (still Nova accommodations.) My room is now bigger, my storage space more plentiful, I have a beautiful shower, my place is in a better location AND it costs less! Can you think of a better move? I can't. My only worry is that I'll have to do a lot of work on my old place for the inspection that will occur sometime soon. Frankly, the place was in quite the disarray when I arrived, so I hope they don't ding me on anything. My old place actually got much better when I moved in. (I replaced some things, and cleaned like mad.)

Anywho, that's it for me this week. But stay tuned for next week... I try out a few new restaurants, and also, I go down to the beach with Tomo-san and light off some 2" wide Fire-crackers that we had to get a Fire-Marshall's license to ignite! Do I blow my hand off? Does Tomo-san make his mouth even wider?! WAIT AND FIND OUT!

Ja matta ne,

-benjamin

p.s. Check out these funny pics I found!

No smoking adds have never been better. "But he lives in an old movie." diss!

Ahh.. Bubble man 2, return of the beverage that tastes like sugar. Yes, I purchased one, and I can tell you this stuff gets you wired more than coffee any day of the week.

I just love this guys facial expression... he's so bitter... and sharp. Just like the beer.

Episode 16: Archery and Animals start with 'eh?'

2007-05-18T22:44:00.001+09:00

Konnichiwa Mina-san!!!

Wow, it's been a week, and already I feel live I've been neglecting this baby. For that, I will have to post extra big, extra high definition pictures this week, so hit the refresh, make yourself some tea, and sit back down for some amazing animal adventures!!!

On my Thursday off Rachel and I made our way up to Nagoya to check out the Hagashiyama Zoo! Once you ride the Kintetsu Train into Nagoya, you hop on a Subway (The Lemon Line) and ride for about 15 minutes... after that it's a two minute walk. Overall, an easy trip, and including all travel fees, travel times and Zoo costs, we were out about 3hrs of travel time and $30 Canadian dollars. Not bad, eh? Anywho, it was raining like crazy, and so instead of going straight to the Zoo, we went to a place called "Jonathan's" for an early lunch. I ordered the above pictured BLT sandwich, which was to my liking. Rachel went for the pasta, which she was craving and assured me was good.

The weather quickly cleared up, and before long it was a hot and humid, yet beautiful day... So the 'Zo' it was. Without any further ado, here are some pictures I snapped on our Safari through Hagashiyama!

I've recently found that I enjoy Rhinos. They're pretty awesome. One of them was going nuts on an orange ball, pushing it around and playing with it. They're basically land hippos.

Check out this Camel! His teeth are better than most of my students'! Hahaha, I joke, I joke...

The Penguins were really cute. They were having a race around the circular pool, as well as just hanging out. At one time the cool-misters came on, and a few of them crowded around for a shower. I've got a video, but I can't post it here. I may put it up on www.youtube.com so if you're interested, swing by and look for videos under "Bentron." (PS if you're really bored, you could always check out the other films I've got posted.)

Giraffes are really cool too. I can really see why they're the tallest animal in the world... basically, they're just that tall. At one time I kinda thought that two of them were going to make babies, but they decided not to at the last second... probably for the best, seeing how a group of hyperactive 6yr old Japanese elementary students were hanging over the railings.

This guy here was my buddy monkey. When he saw me, he came running out of his hiding spot, and sat on the ledge and started making farting noises with his mouth. Anywho, I clapped for him and he clapped for me, and we spent the next couple minutes taking turns giving each other one clap.

Hippo Lovers.

I don't even remember what this guy was called, but he was pretty cute, so I thought I'd include him in the photo.

This guy wanted to kill me. He's beautiful, eh Laura? (She hates snakes...)

After a few hours, and a trip up the Skytower, we had to say good-bye to all the animals, and though I really enjoyed it, I couldn't help but feel bad for some of the poor guys as we disappeared from view. Their cages were much smaller than they should have been. The comparison I'd make would be that of Japanese houses to North American houses. It was really cool to look at them all and see what the world has in terms of species diversity! I think they had over 540 different species of animals at the Zo.

Also in the world of Ben, I have recently begun a new sport... Archery! Check out some mean pics of Jon, Yumi, Hiro, Hiroyuki and myself. Hiroyuki is my teacher, and he's a really nice guy. You may remember him from a previous post, where I mentioned that he took Yumi, Jon, Ashanthi and myself out to Tsu-museum, and Shinjuji Temple. Anywho, he's also an Archery master. (Hahaha, he wouldn't claim to be a master, but we all know it's true.)

As the new guy, I had a lot to learn in my first experience with 'proper' archery. After a little bit of a learning curve, and once all the smoke had cleared, I could shoot pretty consistently at a target from 30 metres away. I even came within a couple centimeters of the bull's eye. I'm impressed with myself, and I didn't expect anything that close for my first try.

Okay, and so though I'm tired and want to go to bed, I also want to let everyone know that I have moved! Yay!1! I'll be posting new pictures of my apartment very soon, so stay tuned for next post! Until then,

Mattane!

-benjamin out.

Episode 15: Keep the Bowl rollin'...

2007-05-11T23:07:00.000+09:00

Konnichiwa Mina-san!!!

Another week flies by, and thus, so doth my keystrokes. Welcome to yet another posting to mark some of the newest experiences in my beautiful trip accross the land and into a the world of the East. This week's entry involves some new developments in housing, a new hobby, and new friendships.

First off, let me speak about the beautiful world of Bowling. Yes, I have finally had a chance to embark on that long polished wooden trail, down the laneways, and smack dab into the pins of life. I'm talking about Bowling, and in Japan, it is no less than a phenomenon. Last Sunday Ashanthi, Kaori, Nao and myself pioneered "GrandBowl," and we achieved only success. (Unless you count score that is.)

Please allow me to introduce you to the Auto-Shoeser. Yes, this mammoth vessel of unholy greatness is a behemoth in its own right, capable of distributing different sized shoes to over twenty different sized people simultaneously.... What is that you say? But it would take the dedicated efforts of over twenty people to accomplish that feat? Why yes, that is true young grasshopper, and thus, the Auto-Shoeser is one of the greatest inventions of all time. And look a that beautiful name.

Of course, one short-coming is that we have different sizing in our North American shoes than they do over here, and Mr. Auto-shoeser doesn't let you try on a pair to see if... well... 'the shoe fits.' In any case, I managed to snag the perfect size based solely on the fact that Ashanthi has feet that are similar in size to mine. She bought hers first. :)

The bowling lanes shut down once an hour for a few minutes to reveal what could only be described in North American terms as "COSMIC BOWL." Though the pictures are of terrible quality, I am sure that you can catch the gist of the moments inscribed upon a digital format for all time. (Check out that Halloween decore!)

By the end of the night, Kaori had lost her thumb nail in a bowling ball (ouch!) Ashanthi had mastered her ball spinning technique, Nao couldn't use her right hand (but somehow managed to get a strike with her left) and I had got some practice for Neil's going away party on May 20th. Things were great that night, and afterwards we hit up 'Shidax' for Karaoke.

After that delicious start to my week, I began a new step in my adventure here in Japan... I started packing for my move to a new apartment. I'm going to have two new flat mates, a nice shower, more space, pay less, and be in a more convienient location. Win-Win-Win-Win baby!!!

My official move date will be May 16th, and so post then, please contact me for my contact information. Tristan will be picking up my mail for now, but he may not stay here that long anyway, so please make sure to get that information. You can also contact my parents, they'll have the address & postal code.

Finally, to finish off this post, I'd like to say that I'm beginning to learn about some nook & cranny places here in Tsu. This is mainly due to a couple trips with my new friend, Matthew, who has been here for about three years now. He happens to know a little too much about this place, so we had a great time the other day looking around at new places, eating some real Indian Curry (!) and also doing some shopping. Check it out guys, I'm holding 8 Litres of Whiskey for less than $49 Canadian! Now, if only I liked Whiskey...

until next week,

-benjamin

Ahhh... "Oh MyReade" Probably the best toilet paper the world has ever birthed from her birth canal. Love the name.

Episode 14: See no Ninja, Hear no Ninja, Speak no...

2007-05-04T23:26:00.000+09:00

... Ninja.

That's what it's about ladies and gents... ninja. Lots and lots of Ninja.

For all of you who don't know, Iga is the site where the best ninja of all time came into power. They were capable, powerful, stealthy and though most people think they used to dress in black, they actually traditionally wore dark navy blue. I managed to snag a ride with my buddy Tomo-san out to Iga on Thursday, and we surely didn't see any ninja. "Why not?" You ask? Geeze... as if guys... think about it. They're NINJA! You could never see ninja, otherwise they're just be a ninja poser. Think about before you ask another silly question, savy?

Now of course, as I was waiting for Tomo-san, in a brand new shirt that I had bought the day before, it turned out that Tomo was going to arrive late. That in itself didn't bother me, as I had my Ipod out, it was a nice sunny day, and I was feeling great. I spent about three minutes looking around for things that Ninja would climb, and I noticed that they're everywhere! Check out this totally climbable telephone pole! Anywho, after pretending to be a ninja for a bit, I took out my celly, flipped it open to give Tomo a message and then it hits me... BIRD CRAP! Yay! I was crapped on by a bird in my new shirt, and all over my phone. I would have been more upset were it not for the amazingly great shot the bird took, and the fact that in Japan, it is considered to be great luck to be crapped on... by a bird. A few minutes of cleaning up, and a quick photo later, Tomo picked me up and we were on route to a 'lucky' day in Iga.

On the way there, Tomo-san and I decided to get some grub. He took me to this Sushi place called "Kappa Sushi." To make a long story short... I was blown away. It was decent sushi at a ridiculously great price, and their buffet special is even cheaper. 90 yen, (or 90 Canadian cents) per plate of two pieces of sushi, all delivered on an abnormally large sized conveyor belt. Not only that, but they had fun dishes too, like these Hello Kitty golden rice cake things, as well as deserts, but that's not even the best part... they've got a Shinkansen! (Bullet Train!) That's right, you can order food as well, and if you do, then it arrives on a little plastic Shinkansen that has spots for orders built into it. Can you imagine how cool that is, 'cause I can tell you now, it's kinda difficult. It definitely reminds me of an old television show I used to watch with a little train that would go from room to room delivering food or drinks to people.

Anywho, after our fill of Sushi, desert, soup, tea, etc, for less than $10 Canadian each, we drove to Iga.

All I can say is ninjas are awesome, and so was Iga. We parked and then made our way into the park.

Check out these mini Ninja kids!!! They have costumes that you can wear for the whole day for only 300yen/person. They fit almost any size (including most Gaijin) and come in a rainbow of colours. Of course despite Tomo-san's strong feelings of apathy to the situation, I was stoked to get a costume on... Red ninja here I come!!! ... *sigh*... we got there late and due to the fact that we were checking out the Ninja house demonstration and the show, I wouldn't have had time to do the costume thing... ahh well, next time!

Speaking of the Ninja house, check out this picture on the left here. Basically, the ninja used an elaborate system of revolving doors, secret rooms, and hidden weaponry in floorboards, etc, to pull of their near magical execution of intrigue, mystery and assassination. The kunoichi (female ninja) on the left here is demonstrating how to draw a sword from beneath a floorboard, and man... she was quick. Like lickidy split. She could have cut me in half in the time I could take to cover my mouth for a cough. Honto.

We also checked out a Ninja show! It was pretty sweet, and totally full of Ninja action. They demonstrated a lot of weapons, in some comedic ways, including Bo, Sai, Thrown Kama, Shuriken, Chain & Weight Kama, Katana, Rope, and Tai-jutsu (hand to hand fighting.) They were great performers and quite funny, as most people in Japan seem to be. The demonstration with Shuriken was my favourite, as they had a guy at about 30 feet away throw one, two and even three shuriken at one time, each with quite good accuracy into a wooden plank. Borat would say... "It is nice."

(Real Ninja weapons.)

Ninja Odour. Funny? No. Deadly? Yes. For a ninja, life was study, dedication and hard rigourous work, and therefore so was their diet. I mean, what ninja in their right mind would train for twenty years straight only to have their first (and last) ninja mission ruined by the bean curd they ate yesterday night? Not I, that's for sure. Bowel control was important, because an untimely tute, fart, stinker, air busicuit, bronx cheer, trouser cough, or even the dreaded S.B.D. (cousin only to the Silent but Violent variety), could give away even the greatest hiding spot. This is covered in most ninja manuals.

After the ninja house, and ninja show, I posed outside of the ninja temple for a picture. Sadly, Ueno castle was closed for the day, due to Golden Week. I vow I will return here once to uncover further Ninja secrets. (Check out the kid in the ninja pose in the background of this pic.)

matta raishu, (until next week)

-benjamin

p.s. I found this poster in a department store. It's the poster for Snakes on Plane here in Japan. Of course, the movie title is called "Snake Flight" and the slogan is "Snake on a plane." ... Hahaha... somehow it lost something in the translation.

Episode 13: Like a Ninja over the walls...

2007-04-28T00:10:00.000+09:00

Konnichiwa Minna-san!!! Choshi wa do? Naniko I koto ata? (Good day everyone!!! How are things? Any good news?)
Watashi wa mecha genki! (I'm very healthy.)

To start off today's blog entry, I must quickly declare that I have been delayed in my posting due to the fact that I didn't bring my camera on a huge trip that Ashanthi and I had Tuesday and Wednesday up in Nagoya. As such, I needed to get the pictures that Ashanthi had on her camera, which took time to get, hense the delay. Without any further ado, voila... Majesty at some of its finest!

Where to begin? Hmmm... here's the story from the beginning. First off, Ashanthi and I decided to bring our stuff with us to work so that we could just head directly to Nagoya when we finished at about 10pm. The plan was to stay over at Mel & Sophie's place up in Nagoya that night, maybe have a couple drinks, and then have a fun filled day full of adventure, sight seeing and of course, some of the delicious cooking that Mel promised us. We managed to do some of, if not all of those objectives before our return late Wednesday night.

Upon arriving in Nagoya, we met up with Sophie and Mel and decided to hit up an Irish bar not far from the station. Here's a couple pics of us chilling out in the pub. Now, they had some awesome stuff at that pub, including some delicious chicken fingers and fries that Ashanthi and I managed to gorge ourselves on since we were famished from our hard day at work. The only problem with the bar is that it is WAY too expensive, with Guiness being $8.50 per pint and even mixed drinks being around six bucks. Anywho, we stayed for one drink, and then got the hell out of there, hit up a convenience store for cheaper booze, and continued drinking & catching up until about 4am.

In the morning, we walked around Nagoya doing a little shopping along the way, and managed to check out some local stores and then went back to the girls' place for some delcious cooking.

When Mel told us that she wanted to cook, we had no idea that she was actually talented at cooking! She made us some scrumtralescent pancakes, coated in some sensual apple-cinnamon sauce that was just crazy delicious. After a tardy start to the day, some groggy coffee drinking and finally some fresh air from the 14th story of their apartment (top floor baby!) we decided that it would be a good day to make a trip to Nagoya castle... YOSHA!!!

Of course, most of you know that I'm a bit of a Japanese history buff... and of course by 'buff' I mean that I'm really interested in it, as opposed to really well versed in dates and events. In truth, besides the Sengoku period, I don't really know enough to claim to have even read a book on it... so much for that Asian history university course... haha.

No, seriously though, it was an amazing castle. Here are some details that you can freely skim over, should you be more intersted in the pictures than the story. I'll try and make it brief. *Cough* Okay, after the battle of Sekigahara back in May 1600, when the realm of Japan was essentially divided and basically conquered by Lord Ieyasu Tokugawa (Eee-ya-su, Toe-ku-ga-wa) defences were as important as offences, and so was trade. This trade was strongly affected by the Tokaido highway, a huge road that was used by many travelling Japanese.

Anywho, Tokugawa decided that he wanted to protect his domains from any potential threats from Osaka (west of Nagoya) and so he decided to build Nagoya castle... and he wanted it done PRONTO! He got 20 different feudal lords to contribute to the building, along side one of the greatest architects of the day, and together (along with thousands upon thousands of people) they managed to complete the building in just two years. It was completed in 1612, and basically just kicks ass. It was badly damaged in 1945 by American bombing runs during May in WW2, and has been rebuilt, and refit with new 18 karat gold dolphin statues (exactly like the one that Ashanthi and I are riding.) It played a huge role in the development of Japanese government until the Meiji Restoration.

Whew! Done and done. That's about all I happen to know about the castle, minus these lovely pictures on the left. Check out the sword wall! It's a wall that would be lined in blades to deter attackers during a siege... a siege that never happened mind you.

The whole of the castle is quite beautiful, and climbing to the top of it, I could feel some of the majesty that the Tokugawa clan must have felt back in the day. Of course, it doesn't rival the love in my heart for good'ol Osaka castle, but I can definitely say that it was a cool trip.

After the trip to Nagoya castle, we met up with one of Sophie's friends and made our way out to a wicked restaurant for dinner. We had some delicious food that was essentially an extremely hot bowl of raw food that somehow managed to retail its heat long enough to cook the food therein. The rice in the bowls was already cooked, but the meat and egg weren't. You stir it for a while, and then it's pretty much done, and you dig it. Mmmmm... so good. Sophie ordered the Unagi and let me have a try. Mmmm... eel.

Finally our trip came to an end, and we said good-bye. We'll hopefully be having them down here sometime soon, so that we can have another adventure! :) Thanks again Melissa and Sophie!!!

So I must say, I'm a little confused at some things here in Japan... especially when it comes to housing. Here in Mie, there seems to be an abundance of dilapidated housing, sitting on land doing nothing, yet simultaneously, land in Japan (even here in Mie) is extraordinarily expensive... and so is housing. My house and it's lot here in Japan would be worth a minimum of eight times its value. Can you imagine the value in Nagoya, Osaka or even Tokyo? We're talking millions of dollars here people. So... my question stands... why the dilapidated housing? My only solution is that perhaps there's a tax break for lots that have traditional houses that have registered for some sort of historical significance or something... in any case, all they do is house the many stray cats that roam the streets.

In other news, I received my first phone bill... yeah, well I'm kinda upset. See, the website must have lied, and so must have my contact, because instead of the paltry 12 cents a minute rate that I should have received, I found out that a one hour conversation I had ended up costing me $60. Anywho, for future reference, I'm not going to call anyone from my apartment anymore.... except for the phone company and of course my contact. Grrrrrr....

Whew. Well since this blog entry has come to an end I may as well take a bit of a seat in this weird looking thing that I found in Nagoya. This is benjamin signing off.

Ja matta ne.

-benjamin out.

p.s. Ashanthi thought the thing that she's on looked like one of those toilets that I detailed in my last posting... hense the squatting.

Hmmm... Homo sausage, eh? Never thought I'd see the day where you could buy that in a tight package from the grocery store.

Awww... why do I always have to be the bitch? j/k.

Episode 12: A quarter don't come for free

2007-04-20T11:22:00.000+09:00

I'm a quarter finished my stay here, and as I sit at my computer I can't help but think of all the experiences that I've missed back home. Three months without my family, my mom's cooking, my brothers, my sister, my girlfriend, her graduation, my friends and their continuingly interesting obsessions. I'll be missing another summer at the laboratory, some good cash, Canadian food, BBQs... okay, lots of BBQs... extended family get-togethers... essentially, I have, or will be missing everything that was a normal part of my life for one full year, including some events that only happen once in a lifetime. Does this bother me? Does it make me want to return early? Kind of yes, but kind of no. I love my friends and family and Canada, but in exchange for all this, I have made new friends, seen new things, and experienced so much culture. I know for me this was a good deal, an enlightening experience and totally worth it in every sense. If you feel yourself in a similar situation where you're not sure about taking that leap, then I can tell you that I feel your pain, and I know how hard it is to make that decision... still, I'm reminded of a quotation I heard recently where "a one point in our lives, the cost to remain a bud is more expensive than the cost to blossom." Here's hoping that the next three months are as exciting and interesting to me as the past three.

Okay, now onto the pictures and the explanations of fun!

First thing I want to touch up on is the toilet situation... now I know most of you have probably heard that some Asian countries don't have traditional Western toilets and that they have to take a crap into a hole in the ground... well this just isn't the case with Japan... They have something that resembles more of an outwards facing scoop, not a hole. You squat, you do your business, and then water shoots along the scoop like thing, and voila, you're done! Now there are a couple things you'll need to know of course. First, most bathrooms have a bar for you to hold on to in order to keep your balance. Second, if you make it a quick go, you might not even cramp up! Third, they don't normally have toilet paper in the toilets, so you have to bring tissues wherever you go. Of course, this isn't always the case in Japan, since many places will have normal Western style throne toilets to do your business on. Still, if you use the scoop, then you can be guaranteed that your buttocks won't touch the hairy remains of the person before you. It's cleaner! Many Japanese would say "good situation." I just wanted to give you all a heads-up in case you visit.

With that delectable tidbit of information out of the way, I want to touch up on some new hobbies of mine. I just recently bought some Calligraphy paper, a big paint brush, and lots of india ink. Yes, that's right, Benjamin is trying to get into the art of Calligraphy... well at least a little... You see, the problem is, I don't have the technique, a teacher, or even any necessary skills. Furthermore, I lack an understanding of brush stroke order. Finally, I'm also lacking the knowledge of volumes of Kanji that most adults here possess. That being said, here's what Takeda Shingen's Chinese banner would have looked like back in the day. FURIN KAZAN. (As quick as the wind, as silent as the forest, as fierce as fire, as immovable as mountains.) With all my calligraphy ineptitudes in mind, I have also taken up a second hobby, water colour painting. This doesn't require any level of Kanji memorization, and in fact, I can do much research and learning about techniques through self-practice and internet searching. This one here on the left is my first work. Yes, I know, it's a little cliche to be putting a mountain that resembles Fuji-san in the background, but hey, it's my first day. ...Quack quack quack (Simpson's reference.)

I'd like to extend a special thank you to everyone who as sent me any goodies in the mail as of late. I'm kitted out in Canadian coffee for the moment, and for that I feel especially blessed. Domo Arigato Gozaimas Mina-san!!! (translation = Thank you all so very much!)

Now, I'd really like to get into some beautiful advice that I read at the "Foods Garden" in Kuwana the other day. I think it applies to all of us, and will aid us in our understanding of what is acceptable in terms of eating, drinking tea, serving dinner, as well as bringing our simple lives back into perspective. Without any further ado, I present my search for meaning in the Foods Garden of Kuwana!!!

"Please spend such great time by all means in this place." This one is very deep, so please allow me to interpret. What this Foods Garden proverb decrees is that you should always spend your time, your time here on Earth, by all means. Not any means, but ALL means. You shall experience all different walks of life, through this place (Earth) and thus, it would be folly to deny yourself some of it's experiences. Deep.

"A pleasant meal is... 1/Eat with a precious family and friends, 2/Eat with a your lover, 3/Eat a delcious and reasonable foods." Ahhh yes... I happen to especially enjoy dining with 'a your' lover. Though delicious and reasonable foods are quite wholesome for both the stomach as well as the wallet. Such good advice, how could you refute such a statement? The answer = it is impossible to do so.

"Isn't tea drunk for just for a moment after doing some shopping?" Definitely deep. What this one is saying is that material acquisition is but a long moment between what really matters... taking sips of the world. Ahhh... O'cha. (green tea)

"Resting will also become time important for you." This one is simply stating that after life we have no rest for we are reborn into a new state of being. Therefore rest is one goal that all can acheive but few understand is intrinsic to our soul's existance on all planes of being. Or something like that.

Since my head is spinning from all that deep advice, I'm gonna cut it short this week. Thanks for tuning in, and make sure to check back next Thursday (Canadian Thursday) same Ben time, same Ben channel!

Ja mattane,

-benjamin

p.s. Here's some delicious Engrish on a magnetic basket I saw in a 100 yen store. In case you didn't know... "It is possible easily to install and to detatch and to do by tha magnet type." Beautiful.

Episode 11: Tempis Fugit (Time Flies)

2007-04-13T12:51:00.000+09:00

["Drug Store's" The clothing store.???]

Appologies for the late update ladies and gents, but things were out of my control. Blogger has been doing some maintence recently, and there is a scheduled outage coming soon. The site may be unaccessible for at least a few hours. Still, it appears to be working now, so I want to take advantage of my time and post post post! Due to the most recent opinion that I need to spend more time detailing the types of food that I've been eating here, I must say that this particular blog update will be decorated in food commentary. Without any further ado, let's get crackin'.

First, let me educate you on the fine science of taco-yaki. Now, for those who don't know what Tacoyaki is, let me break it down for you in super simple terms. Taco is Japanese for Octopus, and yaki simply means fried. Therefore Tacoyaki is fried octopus, but it is of a particular variety. Tacoyaki is small fried octopus balls. Of course, this means that since they're Japanese they must be smothered with coat upon coat of mayo and some form of teriyaki sauce, sprinkled with seaweed. But, before you get yourself in a knot, it isn't as bad as you'd think. First off, the're balls that are made of a batter as well as just octopus, and they put things like ginger and onion and etc in the balls. Also, I would like you to note that they're a party food and are sold from food stands during celebrations as commonly as you'd see hotdog stands back home. We just had to have a party.

One more thing about Tacoyaki that you probably don't know is that Karen doesn't like Taco, or any seafood, in the slightest. Yet, she's one of the most genki people you'll ever meet, and that being said, she wanted to have a tacoyaki party, minus the taco. We opted for some pork and some chicken instead, cracked out the tacoyaki maker, and began cooking up a storm. As you can see from the pictures to the left, there were quite a few ingredients once the batter was complete, and of course, the difficulty lies not only in preparation, but also in cooking the balls. There's a secret technique that we discovered during the second batch, where instead of just prodding the partially cooked balls with a few toothpicks and forcing them upon their heads, we instead coerce them into flipping over by slowly spinning them a few times then applying a tender force to one side, tipping them, and then they end up doing the rest. Suffice to say that the second batch was much better than the first... of course, the fourth was an entirely different matter all together. Ashanthi decided that she wanted to make some dessert balls, and broke out the pancake mix, some strawberries and some chocolate. Instead of mayo and teriyaki, we broke out the vanilla icecream as our topping of choice. An hour of feasting later, and we were all so stuffed full of batter and fried goods that all we could do is relax and watch "Pricilla of the desert." (A rather interesting, and strange, movie) It was a good party, and almost as cool as the party Ashanthi and I threw for Yumi-san...

Our Yumi-san party definitely took the cake, so to speak. Yumi-san is one of the sweetest people that I've met here, and she's been working so hard at our branch that she makes all the other Nova staff at all the other branches look like they've got nothing to do. Being the only staff worker at our branch, she generally works about 60 hours a week, of course, only being paid for about 40 of those hours. Because she was so great, we had a party during our break period last Tuesday. Ashanthi and I ran out and bought her some flowers, some cakes, some desserts (as you can see from the pictures) and some balloons. Then we smuggled them into the room, set up for a party, and threw on the Chibiko CD. (The 2-3yr old music CD we have to use for Chibiko classes) We then proceeded to sing and dance to the Chibiko music while eating food and desserts. We got her a really nice card, and Ashanthi videotaped the event. As you can see the big cake on the table was a collection of some strawberry chocolates, two different sized Baumkuken cakes (they're super popular multiple layer cakes) and a candle on top.

This month I get to work at Suzuka-bell city on Sundays (Tristan's branch) and because of this, I get to check out a big mall during my break period. I snapped a couple good pics last time I was there, and I'd like to direct your attention to the sign at the top of the picture on the left. HEIDI! Hahaha, I couldn't believe it. Cycling to work and checking out a place with the same name as my sis was hilarious for me. Also, the other pic on the left is a no-littering add here in Japan. See unlike the ones back home that say if you litter you will be fined, or in a less accusing way, they say that you're ruining the environment, the ones here in Japan say that should you litter, an evil black Kami spirit will sneak up behind you and assault you with what looks like the reach-around, whether you like it or not. This place is weird man.

Two more things that are worthy of noting. First, we're making all the kids classes and preparing report cards. Check out the report card on the left. Little greet frogs for marks. So cool! Second, I've got a Yukata. Check it out! I'm gonna wear this thing during the fireworks ceremonies in July and August. They're traditional and stylish.

Okay, well I've gotta get ready for work.

Love & Peace,

-benjamin

p.s. Apparently I was in the Great War movie documentary this week, and they audibly mentioned my name, as well as showing my face. Sounds kinda cool to me.

p.p.s. RUNNY EGG BURGER RETURNS TO LOTTERIA!!!

Episode 10: First double-digit posting here I come!

2007-04-05T16:51:00.000+09:00

Another week flies by, and what do I have to show for it? Easter chocolates, experiences, drawings, stories, and more Japanese phrases, that's what!!! This week has been good to me, and despite the overtime shift from last week, I don't feel too hard pressed to do everything that I wanted to do last week on my current time off.

One thing that has been getting me pretty excited over the past couple weeks has definitely been the Sakura (Sa-ku-ra.. with a bit of a higher intonation on the 'ra') AKA, the Cherry Blossoms! As I'm sure you can tell from the pictures to the left, they're quite beautiful. At least they better damn well be! I'm enthralled by the fact that almost all of my students have been excited about their bloom since the end of February. Indeed, Japan is well known for its cherry blossoms, and the fact that so many people here love their beautiful pink colour. Unlike back home, the colour pink is adorned by a huge percentage of people, men and women, and they don't call it "Salmon" to stay manly. "Pink-o," or pink in Japanese, is a popular spring colour, and I myself have even bought a pink tie to wear during this harmonious time. Now, though there are many different kinds of cherry blossoms (three different species are most prevalent here) they are all very similar, differing in phenotype as simply different hues of pink colour in their petals... at least, to my untrained eye anyway. Regardless, I find them beautiful, and only wish that I had my beloved Crane-Katana (or, Yoru-ken, my black blade) in hand, and outfitted in my Hakama so that I could have some really wicked pictures taken. I'd even use photoshop to jazz'em up for you guys. Ahhh... the saddest words truly are 'what could have been.'

Unfortunately for many of us here in Mie, the last few days haven't been very beautiful, and so there has been little opportunity to take a long walk late a night through the illuminated Tsu-park and eat some Taco-yaki. (Fried Octopus in ball form.) The good pictures you see here are a result of my long walk this afternoon around Tsu-shinmachi. The poorer quality ones are from my camera Ketai, from my first Japanese lesson with Tomo-san on April 1st. We spent half the class learning in the International Center in Tsu-city, and then the other half walking through the park. Tenoshi-desu.

Earlier this week we had a going away party for Steven, one of the cooler English blokes here in the Nova circle. He has been here for almost two years at this point, and was ready to go home. We went out to this ridiculous restaurant that I had been to only once before. It's a great restaurant, minus the fact they they have trouble getting orders correct. There was a great deal of alcohol consumption that evening, and though I wanted to hit up the Karaoke party that ensued post-dinner, I politely refuted the invitation due to a little nagging problem in the back of my mind. Work first thing in the morning. Being a vetran of the all night party and then 6am train home manouver, I recognize that it is simply a once every couple month technique. Sadly, it was the last I saw of Steve, and I wish him well back home.

Oh, and yeah, some of the Japanese women that were there (students from his branch, etc) were crazy! And crazy cool. Sachio for one was ridiculously fun, and she was teaching Ashanthi and me some pretty cool Mie-ben. 10 points to whoever can figured out what "Watashi wa me-cha gowakaru!" means.

Also this week, a few glorious moments occured in the form of delcious treats from back home. First, I purchased "Pandada-kun," my white and fun coffee maker. He and I have already brewed a couple delicious pots of imported Tim Horton's coffee, compliments of my mother and father. Rumour has it that my grandmother has sent a package that is due to arrive any time now, which could quite potentially contain more of this life-enhancing trademarked coffee bean. In addition to those great gifts, I received an Easter package from Laura's mother Barb this aft, and it contained many luscious chocolates with which to sate my great foreigner hunger. They make a great snack food for when I'm doing my writing or drawing here in my apartment. My apartment is kinda drab still, and as they'd say in England, it just doesn't quite cut the mustard, if you catch my drift. Thus, anything to enhance my writing experience here has been a great blessing. Thanks guys!!! I feel loved.

Also, I got my first haircut in Japan Wednesday evening. I stopped in, and made a quick reservation at a swanky hair salon around the corner of my place, aptly called "un peu." When I first went in, the staff didn't speak English, which would have been a bit of a problem, but luckily, Futoshi-san (F'to-shee) knew quite a bit of Eigo (English.) The whole process to just take off 'un peu' managed to occupy the majority of my evening! I couldn't believe how long it took them to wash my hair, cut my hair, give me some tea, etc... Probably abotu 1.5hrs in total. It was also quite expensive, totaling some 4200 yen when all was said and done. On the plus side, I got to use some the stock phrases that I know quite well, and I got a few kudos on my Japanese pronounciation and understanding. Either that or they were being nice and polite because I was paying them over $40 to cut some hair on my head when I could have gone down the road and paid $20. In either case, I liked them, and Futoshi was a cool guy. I also like my hair, and even though the whole Japanese style of having a bit of longer hair at the back (not quite a mullet mind you) looks a little funny, I'm trying to fit in here, so it's pretty much a must. Besides, I'm cool here.

Here's some funny things about food and food advertising. Dozo.

Ja matta ne,

-benjamin

Here's a strange looking bun thing that I picked up at a super-market. Look! It's a Holstein cow in dessert bun form. *note* it wasn't bad.

When Jack Bauer isn't out killing terrorists, he's chewing down on some Caloriemate Energy Bars. If you eat them you can shoot terrorists too.

What's tastier than meatballs? Pretty much nothing... unless... they're meatballs with Eggs in them. Mmmmmmmeat-egg balls.

Episode 9: Living & Loving Life at Large

2007-03-30T01:14:00.000+09:00

I think the garbage cans on the left say it all. After two full months, I can honestly say that I finally feel pretty set up here in Japan. Nothing is exactly as I want it currently however, but things are on the move, and that I can truthfully say is a nice thing. For one, my room isn't set up exactly the way I want it, but I've been slowly making improvements each week. My improvements range from something as simple as putting up a new picture or poster, to building a new piece of furnature, to re-maximizing my space, to outfitting my wall with a map of Japan. As I've mentioned before, keeping my room clean is now not only just something I enjoy, it's also an act of necessity. I don't have too much space here, and with every new improvement, addition, or purchase my room gets just a little smaller. Still, I'm rocking out to the fact that I've received some mail, some packages, and most recently, a new toy and some coffee from my mom and dad. (THANKS GUYS!) Now all I need to do is purchase my new coffee maker, and voila! The world has just followed my room's directions and gotten a little smaller.

About my new toy, here's a nice pic of it. Basically, it's something that normally is supposed to go into a specially designed pair of overpriced Nike shoes that you can get from Apple, and it is a glamourized pedometer. But, man, I have to say, thus far I love the thing. Check out first, how beautiful it looks. Second, you will notice that the transmitter receiver is just a tiny little plug that goes in your ipod, rendering it into a super-powered workout medium of incredible design. This thing measures and records not only my distance, time, calories, and is able to graph it in full colour, but it also voices over and lets me know my distance between songs. It is also programmed to have a POWER SONG, which kicks in if my tempo falls below a certain level. For those of you who are American, yes, it can speak in your foreigner Imperial system speak (Miles, etc.) Now, instead of putting it in my shoes via knife and cutting, you can just stick it under your laces, and make sure that it is taped in as well. Works just as well, saves you $200. Beautiful? I think so. :)

Okay, with that off my chest, I am ready to divulge some of the events of this past week.

First, let me begin with elements of bad news. Nova experienced a gruesome murder recently, which I'm sure many of you have read about over the international papers by now. A young beautiful English woman was murdered by some deranged guy after going to his house for a private tutoring lesson. I myself never met the woman, but I feel really bad for her family. I can only imagine how painful it would be for my family to have to fly over to Japan to collect my corpse. Not really the thing you'd want to think about. Anyway, if any of you are concerned, I will state this now. No, I am not privately teaching at the moment, and if I were, then I would definitely have to do it in a public space. This experience is one that is really sad for all international teachers, and hopefully they find the SOB who's still running from the Koban (Japanese cops) as far as I've heard.

We also had a pretty big earthquake just recently. I personally missed it, and I kinda feel bad since it would have been my first real earthquake, but at the same time, I'm also just glad that it wasn't any bigger than it was. I heard that it was about a 7.0 on the Richter scale at its strongest point, and it toppled some houses and killed one woman. About 80 others were injured in the quake, and it could be felt all over central Honshu in varying degrees. It woke up some of my friends who work for Nova, and Steven really didn't like it. (He lives on the 12th floor of a shakey apartment.) All in all, none of my students seemed too phased by it. Apparently the last big one killed around 6000 people, so they seem pretty content with anything smaller than that.

Another negative thing that happened this week was an injury to my closest Japanese friend, Tomo-san. We were playing a friendly game of Footsal (small field soccer) and Tomo-san resumed his normal position of keeper, since he's pretty good at it, and we started playing as per usual. It was a nice night, and everyone was in good humour. Then, all of a sudden, after resuming a play, we noticed that Tomo-san hadn't gotten up from the ground after his last attempted save. We asked him if he was okay, and he didn't answer. This was bad news, so we all ran over and saw that he couldn't get up. After sitting for a minute, I noticed that one of his shoulders was hanging a little low. I quickly asked Neil for conformation in my observation, and he looked at me and nodded. Neil, being a man of intelligence, quickly kneeled down beside Tomo-san and said "now Tomo, have you ever seen the Lethal Weapon movies?"

One ambulance ride later, and we were back on the field. I scored the first goal of the night, and nailed another couple before the night was through. In case you're wondering, he's doing well, this wasn't his first time dislocating his shoulder, and he should be back playing with us in a month.

Other bad news is the fact that I had to work overtime today, making it a one-day weekend. I'm a little short-pressed on time, and so I feel like I haven't had the relaxing time this week that I would have otherwise enjoyed.

Now, FINALLY, on to some good news.

This week I received my internet access.... YES!!! FREEDOM!!! This will be the first blog post done from the comforts of my own home, and I have to say that though this is a lot fun here in my chair, I kinda miss going to the International Center, getting my can of Ko-hee, and my Cho-ko-rat Su-ko-ne. (Coffee & Chocolate Scone) I would have had my blog uploaded way earlier, but sadly, I had to do some overtime work today and so, I didn't get a chance to do everything that I wanted. My grocery shopping took a hit, and so did some of my cleaning efforts. Still, with the promise of internet, I'm in a great mood.

Also, this week, one of my fellow Gaijin friends got a Mac-book. One more convert in operation "Mac-in-tsu-city." I helped her set up her mac, and gave her some software to get her started. Here's a cool pic of my comp and hers side by side. Wow, I'm really a convert from my earlier PC cult days. If you haven't tried a Mac, just think about no viruses and easier nicer looking software. It's here, it's real, and it's the future. Do it.

In the world of fun and positive events, I would like to add that won poker the other night. After feeling pretty rejected by Lady Luck in the past couple games (2nd place twice in a row) I'm glad that I finally had some horseshoes up my arse. The pot wasn't as big, but it was still pretty decent. So far my winnings are $150 Canadian, and my losses are $40. I'm up, and it only costs $10 a night, so I'm gonna be up for a while. I'm pretty happy about the situation, but no doubt, people will be really suspicious next game, as I've had a pretty good track record thusfar. Also, the nice thing about going out for Poker with the guys is that it's a chance to get hang out with different people. I've made a few friends so far, and probably some good opportunities to travel as well. I'm also friends with a bar owner, which is always a good thing in this neck of the woods.

In celebration for my Nana who turned 97 on the weekend, I would like to leave off her words of advice.

"Eat food every day, and ... knit."

Experience in literal format.

Ja matta neh,

-benjamin

Have you ever had warm apple juice from a can or a juice box that kinda tastes a little bit like pee smells? Well, not only do they have that here, but they also have the real thing. Check it out man! PEE!!!

If these look like deep fried whole baby crabs, that's probably because that's what they are. barf. Of course, I've eaten crab brain since I've been here, so I guess I'm one to talk.

Ahhh... the perfect Japanese family... except... they're not Japanese.... hmmm....

Episode 8: Green with Envy: Japan's Irish live on.

2007-03-22T18:13:00.000+09:00

Two months go by, and I'm still at it. I'm actually impressed with myself on this one. I'm normally the 'ideas' person who comes up with the idea and then starts it, but never gets around to finish it, as I'm sure my friends can contest with. Yet, thusfar, I haven't missed a single blog, and during a week that was as busy as this last one, I've also managed to survive while eating enough food. Bonus.

So, that's Tokyo tower in case you didn't know. Erin Go Bragh! Yes, the Japanese illuminated Tokyo tower with green lights on the 17th, just for all the Irish Japanese in Japan... of which there are probably a little less than human's have digits. Still, for such a big phenomenon, one would expect his English students to at least have heard of St. Patty's day. Well, I was sorely disappointed during this week, since not a single student of mine had any idea what green beer was all about. Taking it as a personal crusade, I went about informing many Japanese about the glories of this wonderful 'should be holiday.' On the 17th, I armed myself with an assortment of green clothing, including Green Lantern shirt (go me), Green sweater (thanks Grams), Green pants (thanks Mom), Green Shamrock sporting boxers (thanks Laura), Green Irish pins (thanks Barb) and of course, my first Guiness since I've arrived (thanks God). I took my green-self to a local Gaijin bar called "The Melting Pot" and I began what would quickly become a party until 4am. I made a lot of new friends, Japanese and Gaijin alike, and also got people to begin doing some terrible Irish dancing. With my highland dancing facade safely in place, I was free to slip away into the night so that I could manage to sleep for a couple hours before work in the morning.

The next night however was also a very late night, and it was a going away party for Leigh, one of the Gaijin teachers here who has been a resident for almost two years. She's also Irish, and so we had to have ANOTHER green party for her. Out came the pins, out came the green, and out came the madness. Karaoke style.

Without making it too big a deal, we said our goodbyes at about 6am, while catching the morning train back our stations. Yes, a couple very late nights, but yes, a lot of fun. I ended off the night with a little Boyz II Men rendition of "The end of the road," which I felt was appropriate for the time. I've got about fourty pics from that night, including the good, the bad, and the ugly shots as things became strange once a few English blokes got really sloppy, but I've only included a couple pics in this post. I'd rather leave it as a great night, clean and fun.

Let's see... On top of all that jazz, and my probation observation, which went quite well, things were great this week. I found a lot of excellent signs, some cool pictures, and even made a day trip up to Nagoya yesterday with Karen. We hit up an Anime shop and that's where I got this picture of me posing in a Wanted poster. Thing was, there was room for two people, and so I figured that I'd put my photoshop skills to work, and make Laura my partner in crime. Deal with it Laura, you're a pirate. After the Anime store, we went to Starbucks, and also the (yes, there is about 1) English book store in Nagoya. I bought another little Japanese-English phrase book, as well as Shogun for the second time. I've just had a recent hankering to re-read that 1200 page monstrosity. If you haven't read it, and you like historical fiction, giver'a'go.

I know that there's really not too much to look forward to, weather wise in April, but I have to say that here in Japan, it'll be cherry blossom season in about one to two weeks. With our warm winter this year, it'll probably start a little bit earlier, so I'm thinking that probably around March 27th, Tsu-park will be blooming. I'll be posing tonnes of pictures in the near future so stay tuned and get excited with me! I'd like to add that since the famous Japanese poet Basho was born in Mie prefecture, the haiku is celebrated here as a national event, and this celebrating culminates in Cherry Blossom time with many people breaking out their poetic inspirations to join in the celebration. I got one of my Voice classes in Yokkaichi to write a haiku for an activity, and this is what the five of us over fourty minutes came up with:

Pretty Pink Petals
Resemble my glowing face
Under Tsu's blossoms

On that note,

ja matta ne,

-benjamin

P.S. I've got some other good news! My landline is up and running... so if anyone wants to chat it up, drop me a line on e-mail and we can chat it up for discount rates. Calling with my celly is just too expensive.

ENRISH!!!! (& cool things)

Check out that price!!! Can you believe that a single Cantaloupe comes in a box and costs... $40 Canadian Dollars?!!! What the heck! I really should have filled up on Cantaloupe before I left...

Mmmm... Georgia has a brand of drink that's entitled... "DEEPRESSO!!" Mmmmm... depressing. I think it's supposed to be a de-caffeinated espresso... where's the joy in that? Perhaps it is properly labeled afterall.

Perhaps this is just me, but that whale's drink looks particularly phalic...

"Neither returned goods nor the exchanged are done in our shop. Please acknowledge it." I just loved the phrasing.

Episode 7: Tuesdays are the new Fridays

2007-03-15T16:30:00.000+09:00

Wow, another week blows by, and still, I'm excited to be posting blog entries and sharing my enriching experience with family, friends, and anyone who cares to read. I've got some cool pics, and some fun experiences to talk about, so hopefully you'll enjoy it. Without any further ado, I-ku-zo! (Let's do it!)

This last week was full of tons of exciting and fun activies, from Art museums to Temples, to dinners, to mad e-mails. I even found the first donut from Mister Donut that I haven't enjoyed. It's a specialty seasonal donut that has black seasame seed paste and some sessame seeds on it. Without stalling too long on it, let me just say, it is worse than it sounds.

On a different notes, I have to say that with my current schedule of Friday to Tuesday work weeks, I'm pretty much the only one at Nova that really looks forward to Tuesdays. Normally they're one of our busiest days, but that doesn't really bother me. Tuesday is my Friday, my chance to relax for the 'weekend' and stay up late doing nothing important. Some days I make my Wednesday so productive that I may as well be at work, but one thing changed for me yesterday (Wednesday.) I actually enjoyed doing my house chores. Yeah, that's right, I did laundry, vacuumed the house, did all the chores, including Tristan's dishes, and I did it with a smile on my face. Japan and my lady friend back home are to thank for that I think.

That being said, let me now elaborate on the famous temple known as Sen Ju Ji.

For starters, let me begin with temple etiquette here in Japan. It is expected that all visitors wash their hands in the holy water located near the entrances. Normally this water comes out of a stone feature, like a dragon. You use wooden ladle to pour the water over your hands, and then put it back. Pretty simple, right? Well, apparently not if you're name is Jon, and you're a funny guys because then you can manage to inject your arm directly into a dragon's mouth, and make a funny face while people watch in awe.

Sen Ju Ji was built in 1666, and is the largest temple in Japan, with a floor space in its main chambers of over 100 tatami mats. It is sub-divided into several large buildings, each having its own history and stories, as well as dedications. Unfortunately for us, the main temple area has been closed for the past seven years for repairs. It is supposed to be completed within the year, and so if that happens while I'm still here, I'll definitely go back to try and find it. Still, that being said, there were millions of dollars of donation money going to restore it, so I definitely believe that it will be quite the sight. The rest of the rooms aren't supposed to be photographed, but I managed to sneak a quick peek for my peeps back home.

I've been lucky to visit numerous temples around Japan in my previous trip here with my hetero-life partner Chung. Together we ran around Japan like crazy kids in candy shop, and between that experience and this one, I have to say that Sen Ju Ji had a bit of a different feel to temples in the Kanto region, or even in Kyoto. It may have been that not too many people were there that day, but I somehow couldn't shake the feeling that there was little to no soul at the temple. I hope I don't offend any Japanese readers here when I say that, but it was just the way that I felt about it. Almost like it was overcompensating for it's lack of energy in the air. It was still a great trip, and I'm very glad to have gone there.

I also managed a trip to check out some of the Tsu-University art student's exhibits. Some of them were really cool, and it was a free open house for the public. I saw comments in the guest book from French people as well as English, and of course, many Japanese. I liked one artist's work that was mainly a perspective India-ink sketch set, that was to be viewed in cut out feet holes from a certain point on the floor. My phone's background is now this pic on the left. Also, in a strange coincidence, the next day at work, I was working in Tsu-city branch, and I had one of the artists from the exhibit as my student! The next day, I had the museum's curator! Ridiculous!

I also managed to go out for some delicious dinner one night with Ashanthi and some other people. We had Nabe (Nah-bay) which is a special Japanese dinner that is more commonly called a "hot-pot." Obviously this style of cooking comes in numerous dishes, and so we ordered one that we were sure to like. Chicken, mushrooms (big weird ones) and cabbage, some little noodly-things, radish, etc, etc. Quite delicious actually.

I'm trying my best to enjoy foods that I wouldn't normally enjoy back home, and so since I'm not a mushroom fan, I've been eating them when I go out to restaurants just because I want to learn how to eat them and enjoy them. On that same note, we ordered a small plate of Sashimi (Sa-Shee-me) which is raw fish all by its lonesome. Check out the pic on the left for the beautiful presentation. I made a video of me eating some Tako (Tah-koh) which is octopus, and I'll probably include it in a montage sometime soon on youtube.com. For now, you just have to know that the Squid piece was about the size of both my thumbs together, and took a full 4 minutes to disolve/be swallowed. I did it with a forced smile.

Other than that, the soccer game this week was decent. Though it was a cold night by Japanese standards, ten of us still showed up, including Tristan, and we played for a couple hours. Team Gaijin ended up just on top. It was all tied up in wins, losses, and ties until our last game. We managed to score five goals in 10 minutes, and have a shut-out. I guess the cold finally got to our Nihonjin competitors. They're great players, but we've got a couple ringers who are really solid players. I'm not a great player, but I have fun.

Alright, well I don't know if there's anything else I should really mention except for the fact that I'll have a land line by next Wednesday, and internet within one week of then. Perhaps these day trips to the IC will become a thing of the past.

Shigata ga nai,

Ja matta neh,

-benjamin

p.s. I've got a pic or two for you.
Mmmm... Egg Dog. Is it a hot dog, or is it an Egg Bun... only a waste of money will tell.

These pigs looked wicked, what can I say. They're pig cookies! One filled with a green tea paste, the other filled with a sweet red bean sauce or something. They were expensive, and so a picture was all I have to remember those guys by.

Sugakiya! A Raman chain fast-food place here in Japan. After my first visit, I noticed something funny... it was as if the invention of the Spork in Canada has a conjoined-twin cousin here in Japan. That utensil is neither spoon, nor fork, nor both simultaneously... it is some sort of Siamese love child.

Episode 6: Shopping, Improvements and Comforts

2007-03-08T13:28:00.000+09:00

*DISCLAIMER*
BEFORE I BEGIN, let me state that I would never ever ever steal a wild monkey from its family and abduct it for my own butlery purposes. That was photoshop! But, due to the numerous e-mails I received, I'll just simply take it as a compliment on my photoshop skills, and not that you think I'm a cruel and unusual person. Now on to my sixth posting!

I really went out of my to spoil my Thursday morning post today. I'm scarfing down a delicious sweet-milk chocolate chip scone, a "green-tea-steam-cake" (it actually wasn't that good, despite the name) and some semi-acceptable coffee from "Vie de France" (A coffee and bakery chain here in Japan.) Things are good here in Japan, and I'm gonna show you guys some crazy stuff from this strange land to the east. (Check the last pic for an amazing name of a hair salon.)

Okay, so check it out. First, because I'm really excited about my own personal gains this last week, I'm gonna have to toot my own horn for a little bit. If you're not in the mood to hear about how I'm improving myself then please, feel free to skip this section, of course, if you choose to read it, perhaps you too may become inspired to improve yourself. We could even become "Improvement Pals!" Alright, well if you remember back to a few posts ago, you'll see that unlike the Britney Spears of late, I am not going into rehab, but instead strengthening my resolve to become a better person. I started learning Katakana, and as of yesterday, I have now memorized over a quarter of the alphabet (about 30 characters out of 105 or so) and I can write them out with good clarity and speed. I've also managed to learn some Kanji (the 3rd alphabet of Japan, about 10,000 characters) and I can write more than 10 of them. That includes how to write numbers, up to 1000, the days of the week, and even the coveted "Fu-rin-ka-zan" phrase, made famous by warlord Takeda Shingen, of the Sengoku period of Japan. (That one impressed my students, let me tell you!) Also, I've been trying to improve my body as well as my mind, and when I came to Japan, I decided to do a simple workout every night. I started with 20 push-ups, and 50 sit-ups a night. Well, I've blown past my previous goals now, and my nightly workout consists of 120 push-ups, 260 sit-ups, and 100 leg raises. Between that, walking, biking, soccer and my low fat diet chalked full of green tea, I think I've been a little healthier here than at home. I still need work on balancing my diet, but at the same time, I'm making progress. Also, I can communicate in simple situations pretty well, even understanding some little nuances that can take a long time to master. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm impressed with myself. THERE, NO MORE tooting my own horn. Thanks for letting me show-off for a minute, 'cause I just needed to get that out of my system.

Right, well back to the topic at hand, "Shopping in Japan!" Where to begin... well, I guess the first thing to describe is the atmosphere. Shopping here in Japan is quite similar to shopping back home in a few ways. First, there are lots of people milling around malls, you see people from all walks of life, and well, people buy things. I think the similarities start to end around there, and the variations begin to come in. I'd like to bring your focus to the concept of music in public places. Now, this is something that could be very annoying to many people, but I personally find it hilarious. You see, when you go shopping in Japan, you must realize that the music you hear is NOT going to be good. No no no, instead, it is "Musak" of old popular songs from North America, adapted for terrible synthesizer. Yes, I frequently purchase my groceries to the melodies of Bon Jovi synth, and that delightfully overplayed "Ooom-bop, ba ba doooo-op, dee bee da da-doo-op" by Hansen ringing in my ears. (If you thought the original was bad, try imagining it with a sharp droning synth sound for a melody.) But luckily, if you look around at music stores, you might find something that catches your eye. They still sell tapes, and also records at certain stores... this picture here is for my mom to check out. Gotta love the Y&R, eh mom?

Music aside, you'll have to deal with the fact that every store is way over packed. Most displays look like they've been orgainzed by someone who's trying to cram more product per square inch than humanly possible. It's like they've perfected a technique to bend space around their product, allowing a single unified front of consumerism to be provided like a Jenga stack. I'm always worried that if I even touch something, the whole display will come tumbling down, probably ending my Japanese experience right there and then. Oh, and they love the colour pink.

The Manequins are definitely different. The words on signs and posters are normally quite wrong, and to top things off, sometimes you'll even see something that'll make you turn your head and say "Eeeehhh??" (a popular Japanese expression for confusion.) Like getting a pig doll to show off your clothes, for example. Now, I don't know if that's simply because it's the year of the pig, or because the shop loves pigs, but in any case, that last picture is for you Barb. (Unfortunately I can't purchase one, in case you were wondering.)

Another difference that you'll notice in Japan is that the cost of alcohol, and also the regulations surrounding its consumption are very different. You can drink alcohol in the streets, in public places, and even on a train (though normally regarded as a little impolite.) One time when many people drink in public is actually coming up soon, known by many to be the Cherry Blossom Festival. Essentially, picture two weeks of people being crazy and drinking in public parks... pretty much straight. You'll see businessmen in full suits next to people dressed up as Spiderman, all sharing booze. I can't wait. I just wish that the cost of beer wasn't so high. (It's about the same as in Canada, but the hard liquors are all about 1/2 price.)

For all of my video game loving crowd out there, unlike back home in Canada, arcades are alive and well here in Japan. You can see arcades in almost all major malls, and also just out on the street. They have huge four player games, new and old classics, prizes and even gambling places at the back. Also, the biggest craze is in arcade games that give you a specialized card, and when you play it, you put your card in the machine, and it saves your progress. Young girls play tons of games where you advance by getting more outfits for your chacter... in some sort of fashion game. Strange, but true. And, incase you were wondering about those arcades on the streets, normally the street ones are gambling huts, specializing in the craze known as pachinko. Now, since it's illegal to gamble in Japan, the crafty Japanese simply circumvented the situation. Let me enlighten you as to how: It is not illegal to spend money on tiny silver balls. It is not illegal to play those silver balls in games that give you more silver balls (like Pachinko.) It is not illegal to trade in silver balls for prizes, should you accumulate enough. And finally, it's also not illegal to trade in prizes for cash value. VOILA! Gambling is now legal.

I also wanted to add that for the first time since I've been here, I rode on a train all by myself. Here's the pic for proof.

Kampai mina-san!

ja matta neh,

-benjamin

What a beautiful name for a hair salon, eh? Fab-lice. Makes me want to go. Do you think they know what lice are? "Yosh for hair!" Hahaha... (Yosh = expression for excellence. If you do something really well, you could say "Yosh!"... I say it when I score goals in Soccer. Totally awesome.)

Episode 5: Mountains and Monkeys and Poker, oh my!

2007-03-01T14:03:00.000+09:00

Well well, it seems as though you've come back for another blog update. Today will not disappoint, for I assure you that I had a great last week, saw a great load of funny things, and took a lot of pictures. It all begins with an invitation to poker, and ends with the bagging of a monkey for a third roomie. Exciting, no?

Well, let me begin with the Poker game, 'cause it's fresh on the brain. Essentially, it was a 1000 yen ($10 Canadian) buy in, 9 guys, and Texas'hold'em limit rules. Since it was my first time, and I had just cycled over from my place in the rain all the way to Tsu after work, I was feeling a little tired, but luckily I found the place. The location was called amiably, "Hack's bar." The owner, who's name is surprisingly Hack actually plays in the poker game every week, and speaks great english. He's a really nice guy, as are all the other blokes who are sitting around a smokey table with cards in their hands. I made another 8 friends that night, most of which were American, so that was already a bonus. Of course, when I then proceeded to put six people out of the game after an additional 4 re-buy ins, (bringing the pot to $130) I had to be extra kind in order to keep them as friends. Hahaha, don't get me wrong, I'm not a great poker player, but I'm not terrible either. Anywho, I didn't win the game, but I did come in second, getting my money back. I also chatted with Hack for a while, and we both shared a large cup of Shochu on the rocks (something akin to Rice Vodka.) I've been invited back pretty unanimously and so I think I've got my Monday nights from here on in booked.

Besides the poker, I had a decent week with regards to work having my second observation as well as an assortment of interesting and fun students. For those of you who have never really taught before, I must say that when you know your students, teaching becomes all that much better. After a solid month of teaching, I have found that I'm finally getting to really know some of my students, remember their names, jobs, hobbies, and interests. I've even begun to key in on their weak points, and strengths, so that I can adjust my teaching style appropriately. It isn't that I really feel super obligated to try my hardest to teach people for the sake of the company that I work for, but more so that I actually enjoy the process of helping people make headway in something that they feel is important enough to spend $30 for a 40 minute on, especially when they book a Man-to-Man lesson, which is four times the cost. I think that my attitude towards helping people has begun to shine through a little, and my last observation reflected that. My first one wasn't that great, but this last one was, well, "Yosh-a!" worthy.

Also, I really want to talk about my most recent day trip, which was on Wednesday. I took a trip up to a mountain about 1.5 hours train ride away and hiked around with a few people. Neil and Ellen, Leigh and Tristan, and I spent the day on a mission to scope out the beautiful waterfalls hidden amongst the mountains in Yokoyama. I've included a few pictures from the trip, as you can clearly see, and I must say that the landscape reminded me a lot of the Canadian forests that I've hiked through in northern Ontario. Though I can't say that these mountains were more beautiful than the ones in Canada, I can say that they were a little different, and still quite nice on the eyes. Also, the fact that here in Japan there are wild monkeys that run around gets me pretty excited.

After hiking around for a few hours, and also taking a bit of a strole (or a "paddle" as they say in England) through some freezing cold water near the top of the mountain, we began our decent back down the mountain, without seeing any of the fabled monkeys. But, when we were almost down the mountain, what did our wonderous eyes see? Oh yes, a big family of monkeys! After some quick picture taking, as well as some biscuit grabbing, I decided to venture forth to see my ancestral cousins face to red-face.
One of the mothers, being used to people I guess, came up and took a biscuit from me. I was amazed! I had just fed a wild monkey! Also, instead of just letting the monkey take the cookie, I held onto it a little bit so that the monkey had to pull on it, and when she did, she turned towards the camera a little bit, and almost seemed to smile for the picture. Definitely a lucky pic. Anywho, the monkeys weren't interested in taking cookies from anyone else, so I also felt a little special that day.

On our way back down the mountain, I was talking about my cousin Ronnie, and how much he would love to have a monkey, so using all the skills that I've learned from him, Tristan and I bagged one, and smuggled it home into our apartment. Her name is Ampersand, and she's learning how to be our butler.

Well, thanks for tuning in to this week's blog update. I'm sure I'll have some wacky adventures and pictures to show you for next week. Who knows, maybe I'll have found some time to apply for my Japanese License by then, and could be well on my way to owning a deliciously used Scooter.

Ja matta neh,

-benjamin

p.s. Oh, and here are some great pictures that I found while rooting around in some random stores... they definitely contain a good dose of Engrish for those of you who are interested.

These green guys are smiling about something... I don't know exactly what, but I'd definitely point the blame down to their abnormally tight pants, right around the crotchal region. It could be that they were on sale at some sort of "potentcy" stand.

It reads, and I quote: "You are freer than whether to use with what kind of use." Ummm... I have no clue. I love that they've got a recycling sign, a world sign, and then for some reason an airplane symbol? I have no idea what that means! And for a "Storage-Case" (read bag) it defintely has... "Terrific Power!" The thing was a dollar.

For those of you who don't know, big in Japan is only big when spelled with a "Y." Also, Cola isn't Cola unless it's SUPER COLA.

This last one is just of my office at Tsu-minami branch. (My home branch.) I was lazy one day so I bought some curry and had myself an instant coffee in my Panda mug. Oh yes, I've got a Panda mug. And I love it.

Episode 4:Have I really been here a month?!

2007-02-22T14:13:00.000+09:00

Konichiwa-mina san!

Wednesday and Thursday trips to the IC have become a routine that I'm particularly fond of these days. In order to better appreciate my situation, let me explain why these trips are almost therapeutic in quality. I normally sleep in, then take a leisurely pace to have some breakfast, some green tea, and I then gather my computer and belongings into my travel bag. After a quick trip on the train (for a buck fifty) I walk over to the fabled Mister Donut. Since MD has dollar donut days on Wednesday and Thursday, I pick any donut for 100 yen. (Normally this would be an outrage for Timmies' fans, but here, it's a pretty decent price.) 120 yen for a heated can of coffee, and I'm on my way to sit in a comfortable chair, with free wireless internet access. With my headphones jacked in, I listen to music, reminisce about my week, eat my food, drink my coffee and respond to e-mails from friends and family alike. I also watch my favourite TV show (Heroes) and check out a full week's worth of online comics, and website updates. it's almost like a tiny Christmas just for me. Anywho, I'm quite normally in a very good mood for the day's posting, and today is no exception. Now, onto the strange and the new, like the pancake/icecream/maple syrup sandwhich that I'm eating in the picture above.

I had my first Karaoke experience the other night! That's right, Japanese Karaoke at its best. When you read this post, remember that Karaoke is pronounced (Ka-ra-o-kay) and directly translated from Japanese means "Empty Orchestra." Anywho, here are a few pics of Neil, Leigh, Richard, Tomo-san, myself, Joey, Graham and Ellen. We went to two different Karaoke places that night, and the night ended at about 4am. Though almost unheard of in Canada, it is quite normal for Karaoke groups in Japan to go all night, catching the first train home in the morning to get ready for work. Also, unlike Karaoke in Canada, where you sing infront of a whole bar full of people, you actually go and rent a small room, bring your own booze (which is inexpensive in Japan btw) and pay by the hour. With a group of 6-8 people, you probably only have to pay under $20 Canadian each for the night, and you can have all the free softdrinks you want (for mixing or otherwise.) Now, hopefully you don't have to be in a place with kitchy leopard print walls, but hey man, c'est la vie. Everyone who was there that night were from the EU, except for Tomo-san and myself. Benjamin + Bohemian Rhapsody = Canada Represent!

Right, so I promised a little info on Tristan in this post, and I don't like to disappoint. Where to begin, I wonder... well he's been here for one week, and he's finished his OJT (on the job training) as of yesterday. He's an Aussie, and he's 21. He has never lived on his own before, and he has never been overseas, until now that is. I have no doubt that this is quite the system shock for him, but despite this fact he seems to be adjusting quite well. He has begun learning a few stock phrases in Japanese, and he's a snappy dresser. We share some similar interests when it comes to comic books, and though I feel like we're very different people coming from two very different walks of life, I'm not worried that there will be any conflicts. Thusfar it has been good, and I hope for that arrangement to continue.

On an entirely different note, I want to mention that I may end up purchasing a scooter. That's right, a scooter. I'm pretty stoked, and I think it would really make some trips pretty fun. I've got a fellow co-worker and Canadian (Jon) looking into insurance, international licence, etc, and he's also thinking of getting one. $500 can buy you a scooter here, and the insurance on a $500 scooter isn't that bad, as you'll probably just get the basic on that covers damage to other people's vehicles. I think it would be pretty cool be ride around in Japan on a scooter taking pics of the countryside on my days off. Not to mention, I could paint it in Red and White colours, representing Japan, Canada, AND Switzerland.

We've had a lot of rain here recently, and though it's nothing compared to the -30 C weather going on in Canada, I've had to carry an umbrella around most of the time. I find that Japan looks quite beautiful in the rain, and I've uploaded a picture from my appartment balcony for you to see. Not a great pic, but still, maybe it'll help capture the atmosphere here.

Finally, before I sign off, I just want to mention that though my Katakana training has been slow, I've got a few more characters under my belt, and I've joined up with Tomo-san's Japanese class Monday and Tuesday mornings before work. He's a great guy, and I'm sure that under his training my Japanese will improve quickly.

See you all next week, same Ben time, same Ben Blog.

-ja matta neh.
Did you know that when you order food at a food court here they give you a buzzer, you go sit down and when you're food's ready they beep you? I thought this was amazing, as the picture clearly shows.

Also, I don't know what to say about that last pic... apparently it was a shape to be revered... ummm... ???

Episode 3 - Oddities and Tribulations

2007-02-14T12:38:00.000+09:00

Konichiwa Mina-san!

There are so many things to talk about and so little time to talk about them! I'm on a time restriction today, as my new roommate will be arriving today at 2pm. He's an Aussie (like 40% of all Nova Teachers) and his name is Tristan Barry. I spent all morning cleaning up my 'lovely' appartment and setting up his room, so hopefully that works out. I'm going to dedicate a portion of my next posting to talk about Tristan, but until then, let's get back to my story.

Right, so I finally got a chance to see something that many Japanese people are embarassed about! About once a week at my school in Tsuminami there is a large group of people who drive in large cars and trucks in a parade of sorts waving HUGE banners and shouting over megaphones. I was obviously curious as to what all the noise was, and so I went out and asked the Japanese staff at the desk, "Whoa, what's that all about?" She nervously and shyly responded saying that it was a right wing activist political party group that basically hate all foreigners and want them out of Japan. Apparently they have a bit of a following here (not a huge one mind you, so don't you worry!) I thought it was hilarious, and I asked Neil (a fellow teacher) about it. He said that he thinks it's so funny, because sometimes they'll come by during a lesson, and he says his students all start rocking in their chairs and looking down at the floor. Hahaha. A very uncomfortable situation for them, but as long as we don't draw attention to it, I'm pretty sure that nothing bit will come from it. I would guarantee that almost 100% of our students don't belong to that party, seeing how Nova's teachers are exclusively foreigners.

Oh, and hey, I finally got a chance to go walking around through the underbelly of Tsushimmachi! So exciting. I went down a few dark side alleys and found a lot of "snack" bars. (Snack bars are essentially like prostitution bars.) And in case you were wondering, NO, I didn't go in! I also found a cool temple and some neat stores. One store that I found here in Tsushimmachi probably has the best sign I've ever seen. Now, the picture didn't turn out so well (camera phone pic) BUT, I will tell you now that the sign was brown.

Right, so teaching has been pretty good thusfar. I had an observation recently, and I did quite well. I've also had a chance to teach some kids classes. Right now I'm the teacher for 3 Junior classes (ages 6-9) and 1 Senior class. No Kinders, or Chibikos at this point, but hopefully next month I'll get the chance. I may sub in for a Chibiko class sometime soon, so that will be awesome... Chibiko classes are for 2-3 year olds, and they're there with their parents. All you do is sing and do some games. Krazy fun.

Our Soccer team had a challenging night on Sunday, since there were some new Ninhonjin teams out. I must say though, team Gaijin (we wear orange vests) has dominated in the last two nights. On Sunday, we played about 6 games (20min each) and we won each and every one of them! We're kicking-ろば and taking names! (If you can read Japanese, you'll be fine with that last sentence.) I'm in the midst of making a video for our soccer team, but you'll have to wait a few weeks before you get to see it. I've gotta get a lot more footage, and of course, some crazy Japanese music to re-mix it to. I'll try and fly a Canadian banner in there somewhere.

Also, one of my new friends Gill (like a fish gill) and her friend Leigh (Lee) hosted a trivia night on Monday night. I've got a few pics of some of us, but don't let these deceive you because it was a killer turn out with 21 people in total. Although my team didn't opt for the name "Team Optimus Prime" we still managed to take the bronze medal. 3rd out of 7 isn't that bad... Our game was excellent in the beginning, but after a bottle of Sake and some beer, it's sometimes hard to get all the answers, right? Haha.

Well, with that I believe I will bid you fairwell for now, and if you've got an $40 bucks, ship me some Tim Horton's Coffee... the stuff here is terrible.

Ja mata neh,

-benjamin

(Mmmm... deep fried Squid tentacles!)
(Japanese Graffiti is so hardcore, eh?)
(Although one person is lonely, he is making it cleverness.... ???)

Episode 2: Bentron's Training!!!

2007-02-07T14:14:00.001+09:00

Well well, hello there again. It seems like it has been way too long since my last post about my arrival in Japan, and perhaps that's just the case. The reason you ask? Definitely, definitively, and directly put: Training. Simple as that... I've been running around like crazy trying to get everything done, trying to do new things, and trying too darn hard to keep swimming! But I'm sure you'll get that feeling by the end of this post. First thing I want to talk about is some pictures. Alright, check it out:

So my training began on Monday, January 29th, and it was at the Nova office in Tsu-city. (This is about a 5 minute train ride from where I live.) It was a three day long set of training exercises with our trainer Mustafa. (He's pretty cool btw.) Ashanthi and myself were the only people getting trained at the time, and though we did really well, I know like both of us felt underprepared for the next week of actual teaching. By the last day of our three, we had taught 6 lessons, and had learned the "Nova Method!" (Or at least, mimicked it really well, haha.) At this point, we still had Chibiko and young student classes to learn, but that would be Monday and Tuesday of the next week, all the way up in Nagoya.

With the Thursday of that training week off, we had the chance to go around town and check out some sights. Let me tell you, there are things here that you won't see anywhere else. First of all, there are people who dry out their fish on their home balcony. There are more Engrish signs than you could imagine, and if you look hard enough, then you can see some pretty beautiful pieces of scenery. I even managed to find a pic of a couple other Gaijin who were posing near the Samurai monument that I posed at recently (see my previous post for a photo.) It isn't the greatest picture on the left, but the woman was posing with her arm out just like I did. Hahaha, I nearly fell over laughing.

With that day off, Ashanthi, Simone, Sherice and I decided to make the most of the day, and make a trip up to Ise (pron. Ee-Say.) Due to the severe jealousy that I have been suffering with due to the opening of a fantastic Indian curry restaurant next to my parents house in Guelph, I found an all you can eat Indian curry restaurant with the girls and we gorged ourselves for 800 yen including tax, drinks, Naan bread (regular and cheese), and salad. Good price (approx. $8 Canadian), but the curry was sub-par in quality.

Ise shrine was a very nice walk. Though it was a little windy, the shrine offered us protection from the wind, and there was definitely an evident tranquility in its setting. I took a lot of pictures, most of which are not posted (or else this page would take FOREVER to load...) But I wanted to include a picture of Ashanthi next to the wash station. For those of you who don't know, when you enter a shrine (or most temples) you are supposed to wash your hands in the holy water that comes from a special spring. Some people drink from it, but usually not... (Ashanthi is just doing so to be funny.) Though I was excited to be there and more than willing to walk around for hours, soaking in the moment, Simone and Sherice had places to go, so we cut our stay short. Ashanthi and I will probably return in the near future.

After a couple more days of work under my belt, Ashanthi and I made our way back to Nagoya for training over Monday and Tuesday. These days were pretty awesome, seeing how I was reunited with some of my Canadian friends from the flight over, namely, Melissa, Sophy, Cassie, Claire and Yvette. I don't seem to have a picture of all of us together, but I can tell you that it's a good day for Nova who are populated by mainly male teachers to have 6 out of seven new teachers being female. (Apparently female teachers are in higher demand in Nova at the moment.) I didn't feel out of place at all, since I'm used to being outnumbered many to one from my days at the University of Guelph. (70% female campus, and most of the guys are in Sciences... ) Anywho, point is good and fun classes were the hand of the day, and I held all aces. Acting like a five-year-old all day is something that I can do very well, and I think I took a lot away from that class. I'm really looking forward to getting a chance to teach the young'ins. Chibiko (classes for 2-3yr olds) is pretty cool. Essentially, you play a CD that lasts 40minutes, and you sing and dance with them the whole time. Their parents are of course involved, and apparently it is super great, but super tiring. Anywho, here are some pics of me around Nagoya in some anime-shops, etc.

Oh, and these guys were fantastic. They dance in Nagoya for fun, all done up like 50s greasers, and their hair is huge. Tight pleather pants, jackets, and 50s rock. I just couldn't stop taking pics.

Finally, to end my post, I'd like to show you an Engrish picture or two and some funny things I've seen... I'd like to keep a running tab on all the funny signs I see, but I doubt I will have enough space on my harddrive to store them all... at least I now have an idea for later on in life. I will hire myself out as an English translator for companies that don't want to put ridiculous phrases on their products. (For clarification, that is a shirmp burger from McDonalds, those are red-bean paste shaped frog cookies, the sign was posted in a train station, and the Spicy tatoo parlour is the first English pun that I've seen here thusfar.)

Ja matta neh, (see ya)

-benjamin

First Few Days in Japan

2007-01-27T14:42:00.000+09:00

Kon-n-ich-i-wa!

It’s 12:10pm here in Japan and I just got home from shopping and calling both my parents and Laura-chan. I’m drinking some O’cha (green tea) and eating a little bit of maki that I picked up from the local grocery store called "Eddy's." I think I’m getting a little ahead of myself though, so here’s a quick re-cap on my last couple days.

(I'm going to begin with a personal note that I wrote to myself on Thursday the 25th.)

"It’s 9:15pm on Thursday, the 25th and I’ve just finished my first shower at my apartment. I threw on some CCR, put on my favourite sweater, and I’m getting ready to head on out on the town for my first night here in Tsu-Mie (“tsu” the city, “Me-yay” the prefecture.) Ashanthi, one of my fellow ESL teachers has an apartment just up the street along with two other girls who are also ESL teachers, and who have been here for about six months. They’re going to show us the ropes here in the city.
I haven’t really begun missing anyone too much as of yet, and I point my finger in accusation at the culprit known onlly as "exciting discovery."
So far, my place is a lot less glamourous than I expected, I’m not in Osaka per se, and I don’t know when I’ll be getting internet access to post this, but ultimately I feel like this experience is something that I’m going to love. Japan is quirky, funny, and the door wells are all 5’10”; all of which are things that a person of my stature and qualities can quite easily cope with.

Tomorrow will be a busy day, and I will no doubt have some interesting things to say about that. Until then,

Ja matta ne, (see you later)

-benjamin"

And now back to Friday and today.

Friday was a good day, though speckled with moments that were a little disappointing. One of the first things that I attempted to do was to get a bank account at the UFJ (a major Japanese bank chain,) and was denied due to the fact that I don’t have a phone. Bah! Nova wrote me out their personnel number and told me that it would be okay if I gave it to the bank in lieu of my own number (which I don’t have.) Oh well, what can you do? I decided to make myself feel better by indulging in a little Japanese baking from a local bakery. A couple hundred yen later and I was chewing down on some Green Tea buns. They’re a little neon green in colour, but I can assure you that they’re sweet and tasty. After that, Rachel, Ashanthi and I decided to make a run all over the place, going from grocery store, to 100yen stores, to “Mister Donut,” and back again. I got to check out the international centre and I will most likely be posting this blog from there on Saturday, as they offer free WI-FI internet access to Gaijin (foreigners) like myself.

(My toilet at the Osaka hotel was Sanatarized... I love Engrish.)

On a side note, a cool store called "Mister Donut" exists here in Japan, and it is pretty much the closest thing to Tim Hortons here in Tsu. That kinda fills me with glee, as I'm going to miss the Canadian institution that has brought us all so many yellow teeth and caffeinated highs. Also, I was reminded of the coffee church of Canada when I saw a book for sale at the International centre that was entitled Timbit Nation, a hitchhiker's guide to Canada. Hilarious.

(This is a picture of me posing along with the famous Samurai of the area. I think I look a lot like him.)

Later that night, after a quick nap to rejuvenate from all the walking and shopping, some of the Nova instructors and I went out for pizza at a nearby restaurant. It began to rain for the first time since we had arrived, and so with a few umbrellas and a couple train tickets in hand, we departed for some delicious pizza, or at least, that’s what we hoped for. We arrived and met up with Karyn, Gill, Graham and another bloke that I never really did catch the name of. FYI, Karyn, Ashanthi, Tara, and Gill are all Austrailian, Graham is Scottish, Rachel is from New Zealand and the other guy was English. (Thusfar, I’m the only Canadian representing Canada, which is kinda fun if you'd believe it.) Finally the pizza arrived, and it was quite… different. There was a lot of somewhat nasty tasting cheese coating a few withered pieces of chicken, and the crust was pretty soggy. On the plus side, along with the pizza, I ordered a couple pints of Asahi beer, and those were very nice. Overall, I would have to say that my experience of non-native food here in Japan is that it isn’t very good. That being said, the Japanese food here in Japan is excellent, and so I think my diet will mainly consist of Japanese foods.

Anywho, here are a few pics from my trip thus far, including several pictures from my apartment, that will hopefully help you get a better feel for where I am. Also I have included a couple of “Engrish” phrases or comedic signs that I’ve seen along the way for your enjoyment.

Sayonara,

-benjamin

(The apartment is a little small, but by Japanese standards, I think I'm getting a pretty good deal, seeing how it's a double, and I'm the only one living there.)

(Check out how nasty the tub/shower is... I think some bleach is in order.)

(My kitchen isn't that bad... though I think a microwave would be a good purchase... agree?)

Bentron Finishes off San Fran... Battle Royal Style!!

2006-11-21T18:01:00.000+09:00

Alright, now I've gotta cover some of these pics before I get to bed, but I'm getting pretty tired seeing how it's already 1:30 and I've gotta be at the airport at 7am! Argghh... why did I put off uploading these pics?! Well, I guess I can't be too made, 'cause Andrew and I were making the most of our last night hanging out. Anyway, without any further ado, let me elaborate on the awesomeness of the last couple days...

First off, let me say that I have been to a fantastic restaurant. Yes, another one. This one was the "Pork Store" a breakfast place that rivals the food of the gods... now though one review I read said that this place uses more saturated fat in each dish than you could fit in a children's wading pool, I have to say that I don't really agree. In fact, I had a fairly healthy meal prepared directly infront of my face, along with some very nice staff to keep the atmosphere delicious... I don't know what the best part of the meal was though... either the food, or possibly the one cook who was wearing a Backstreet boys oldschool T-shirt.

Oh, and here's a pic of some of the trees and vegetation scattered around the city. Pretty cool really.

This is a pic of a small castle located in San Fran... it's on Gough street... of course, it is pronounced "Goff." Weird, I know.

Hey, and here's a pic of yours truly, and Andrew having a good time by the Golden Gate Bridge. It is a HUGE bridge, and the cables used are actually made up of thousands of tiny tubes all bundled together... also, apparently there are TONS of suicides off this bridge, since the railings are only like, 3 feet tall. Sad, but still, such a cool bridge.

That same night, Drewple and myself took a ton of pics of the sunset. Sunset at the Golden Gate... oh baby. Now, that is sexy.

Yesterday, Drew and myself made our way through the San Fran China town. It wasn't as large as the one in Tokyo, but it was still really big and reallly neat. There were tons of shops, each with different specialties, and though we couldn't find the one that offered up 'naughty fortune cookies' we were still happy to see some crazy squids, etc. See that big white boat thing in that one pic? Yeah, that was carved from Ivory, and was about four feet from head to tip. It was also valued at $20,000 american. CRAZY!!!

Later, we went to the Palace of Fine Arts... which is where they shot a few scenes from Andrew's favourite movie "The Rock." He gets turned on at the thought of the movie...as I'm sure you can tell from his easily provocative pose in that pic. Of course, we made our way to the Rock as well... and you'll see those pics in a second.

Oh, and down by Pier 39, I got some pics of me hanging out with the sea lions. They're pretty cute, and I'm pretty happy to have heard them getting all crazy on the dock. I was trying to blend in...

Yeah, so back to the Rock. Alcatraz had a pretty wicked audio tour, and after ferrying our way over there, we took that and chilled out walking from scene to scene from the movie. Here's a pic of me exercising in the same exercise yard as renouned killers Al Capone, and the Birdman.

After the Rock escapade, we made our way out to the "Fog City Diner." Now, this diner was pretty cool, and there's a nice pic of me using their 'fancy' mustard, of a particularly well known name. I think that overall the food was over priced, but since it was my first Guiness of the trip, it was delicious, and so I tried to keep that in mind as I enjoyed my dinner. The Guiness tasted a little different... actually, lots of things are different down here... I haven't been able to see any MARS chocolate bars, but instead, they've got MILKY WAY bars, owned and produced by Mars, and they're essentially identical... strange.

Again, the houses here are pretty cool and very stylistic... you're pretty hard pressed to find a house that looks identical to another house, so they must have enlisted a huge number of architechts when buildling this city.

At the Embarcadero Centre, I had a delicious beer called Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, and also, it was only $3 for a pint (I went for "Happy Hour.") After walking the city for the majority of today, I have to say goodbye to the city, but I'm glad I made the trip and I'm also glad that I'm basically done this post, 'cause I'm totally exhausted.

w00t!!! SAN FRAN COMPLETE!!!!... now all I need to do is ride planes and wait for the next 9 hours...

-bentron out.

The SMOMA & the Drewple

2006-11-18T16:03:00.000+09:00

Another day in San Fran, and everything starts blurring together. Thursday was supposed to be the day that I went to the SMOMA (San Fran Museum of Modern Art) as well as the Computer History museum, but sadly, those did not come to fruition. Instead, I spent the majority of the day chilling out and scoping out Andrew's living quarters. I've got a few pics to post, and so you can check those out at your leisure. He lives in a very nice place, and it's all open concept. I love the open concept architecture! The beige stone look is totally in in San Fran, and the whole place beams with radiant Spanish/Mexican glory. It was pretty overcast, but you can see some of the beauty of the water and the mountainous areas around. Makes Guelph look a little flat, and a wee bit boring.

Friday, yee haw! Now today was awesome! First thing we did was drive into Andrew's work, and while he was working all morning, I spent my time in a local Starbucks, watching the first season of Arrested Development, which by the way, is probably the best TV show made in the last 4 years. SO AWESOME! And after that, I had the chance to visit the Google Campus! Now, I have to tell you, everything that you heard about Google as being the coolest company to work for, is all true. When we pulled up, we were greeted by two nice security guards (it's high security there) and then ushered into the naturally lit parking garage. Since it was packed full, we had a Valet (yes, they have valets) take the keys, park the vehicle for us, and then we were off to the sites of the campus. Everything has the prismatic Google colours motif, and the campus is adorned in natural flora and fauna, completed only by multicoloured scooters everywhere. You can use them at your leisure!

After seeing Andrew's office and meeting one of his co-workers Chris, we were off to see some of the nicer parts of the buildings. We saw lap pools that are current driven, and adjustable, so that they're only about 3 metres long, as well as beach volley ball courts, work out rooms, huge parks, and 11 cafeterias. (I don't have to tell you that for four buildings, that's a ridiculous amount of food.) We ate a HUGE lunch, prepared by masterful servers, and you wouldn't believe the selection, or the price. The cafeteria was about twice the size of the University of Guelph UC servery, with all gourmet foods, including fresh seafood still in shell, various ethnicities, and lots of deserts. It was of course all free. Free even to me! Guests eat free as well. Anywho, after a long haul, I had to bid Google goodbye, and make my way to the Caltrain so that Andrew could get back to work. It seriously looks like Google is the best company to work for, and I'm very happy Andrew gets to work there. (Sorry for no pics, but it was high security, and I didn't want to offend anyone.)

On the Caltrain, I saw some crazy things, from weird parks, and strange sculptures, to weird buildings of all sorts. I had a guy ask me how to use the ticket dispencer thing, and I had to confess that it was my first time as well... luckily some woman came by to help him out. I snapped a pic of them anyway, just for kicks.

When I got off the Caltrain, I made my way down to the SMOMA, and saw a small exibit that was being filmed outside on new energy efficient cars. I had to take a couple pics, because if you know me, you know that I love environmentally friendly cars, as well as Hybrids in general. Anywho, they had a fuel cell car, as well as another car that could get 100 miles per gallon. Minis get 35miles/gallon and that's considered crazy good mileage!

The SMOMA was really cool, and I spent a good three hours checking out all five floors! From Freida, to Henri, I saw some pretty classic pieces of art, as well as some weird ones. One pic is of a urinal from early 1900s France. Apparently that's art... go figure. I think that if I were to decide on one thing, it is that anything that you find beauty in can be an art, and that's essentially my definition of art. Art is something you can find beauty in. SMOMA helped me come to that conclusion... oh, and I have to elaborate on that last picture. The guy singing in that picture is from an exhibit that was by Phil Collins, where he went to Turkey to get random people to sing the Smiths songs Karaoke style in order to create a counter-culture rebuttal to the Western perceptions that Turkey is a backwards country. Sound crazy? Well not as crazy as these videos. Hilarious.

Oh, and so after that, I took the MUNI (municipal transport) to California and 23rd, to a place called Pizzetta 211. It's essentially a cool and very intimate little pizza place with an atmosphere similar to that of Guelph's bookshelf. I had one of their cool beers (okay two of them) and Andrew and I ate a couple pizzas. I was quite impressed. Also, the bathroom was really cool, which if you know me, the you'll know that I normally judge a restaurant on its food, price, and bathrooms. Not necessarily in that order either.

Okay, well that was the majority of my day, but I have to say, I'm having a great time here in San Fran! Oh, and I also took a couple pics of the Golden Gate Bridge tonight, though they didn't all turn out so well... it was really overcast and dark, so the focus was a bit of a problem. Tomorrow Andrew and I are hitting up a Hippy Diner for breakkie, followed by an illustrious trip to 'The Rock' Alcatraz, and finally we'll try and do something krazy for dins. More posts to come.

-bentron out.

Arriving in San Fran! Thank God for Sammy and Cheryl.

2006-11-17T06:26:00.000+09:00

There's nothing like getting up at 4am when you've got a trip to get to. My father was kind enough to drive me to Toronto and wait around with me until I got in through the baggage trip. I love you dad! I got into the air port at about 5:45am, only to see a huge line in front of me. Anywho, once we were through that, I only had to wait for about 25 minutes before I was chilling out in the lobby for my flight to start boarding. I was flying AA, and here's a pic of my plane.

At about 7:50, I was in Chicago, only to discover that my flight was pushed back another half hour. Seeing how that was the case, I decided to appease that desire in my belly, and of course my grief at having to wait another half hour, with some super discount McDonalds breakfast. $3.35 including tax you say? Sounds delicious.

I arrived in San Fran at about 1:15 (remember to include a three hour time difference, otherwise it seems like my trip was only five hours long.)

Anywho, I learned how to use the BART (Bay Area Rail Trail) and make my way over to the well known and extremely touristy Pier 39. I've included a little pic of a map off of train. I actually ended up using that map as my map for a little while through my camera view finder. Gotta love high res.

Pier 39 was really cool! There were a lot of weird and funny things going on, from street performers who were juggling fire pins while balancing on a tight rope, to people walking around with tiny dogs dressed like royalty, to sea lions on the pier, to eating clam chowder out of a sourdough bowl. (Although, I ended up opting for the Fish and Chips instead of the Chowder, as well as having an "Anchor Steam" local draft, specially prepared by the pier... I won't lie, it kinda tasted like bottled bum.)

After my little excursion, I decided that the best course of action would be to take the ONLY Mobile National Treasure, i.e. the oldschool wooden Trolly Cars, back over to downtown, and then walk my way through San Fran over to see Andrew. I've included a couple pics of my trip, although they fail to do justice to what San Fran actually looks like. You'll see a pic of the Gap (Gap started in San Fran) as well as a ridiculous picture (or should I say mural?) of a guy outside of American Outfitters. I didn't opt to include pictures of Porn Dungeons, and strip joints from the underbelly of San Fran, but I will say that I was a little nervous walking around all by myself with my camera and laptop on me, at night, through 'dirtsville.'

After about a 10 mile hike with 40lbs of equipment on me, I have decided that San Fran needs less hills. OMG I WAS SO TIRED!!! I'm glad I've got an adventurous heart, because if I didn't, I probably would have fallen over and started crying. Did you know that pay phones don't exist in San Fran Bay area? I sure didn't... made it hard to find Andrew when I couldn't call him, didn't have a cell, and of course, made my way to the exact OPPOSITE area of San Fran in my 10 mile hike. That's right, I went the wrong way. So much for maps, eh? I even tried stepping into a couple stores and asking if I could place a local call, since there aren't any pay phones around. I said it would only be a minute and that they could dial it... regardless, the answer was an abrupt "No." I was beginning to formulate my opinion of what the typical San Fran person was like when...

Luckily, I ended up meeting up with Cheryl and Sammy, two people I befriended in a Bar called St. Mary's Cocktails. Cheryl and Sammy were both very kind people, and Cheryl got me a phone from the bar, quelling most of my worries right there. While I was waiting Sammy, who works at the Docks, bought me a pint of American Beer. (For all my skeptical Canadian counterparts, it honestly wasn't bad, so it IS possible to come down here and enjoy the beer.)

Andrew ended up coming down and picking me up in his car, and then we made our way out for some authentic Mexican in the form of Burritos. Despite giving me the worst case of the runs in my life, it was pretty good.

And so ends yesterdays excursion, I'll try and include some more info about Andrew and his place in my next post. We're planning on hitting up Alcatraz on Saturday, and tomorrow I'm going to go to the Computer History Museum, get a tour of Google, and also check out the SMOMA (San Fran Museum of Modern Art.)

LOVES IT!

Bentron VS. San Fran

2006-11-09T05:49:00.000+09:00

How much would a ticket to San Fran, plus Medical Insurance cost in Canadian Dollars you might ask? Well, speaking from experience I can comfortably say that I'm play a little under $600, which is just the right amount. I don't know if I'd have been able to swing over $750, but hey, then again, you only live once... that is unless you believe in reincarnation... in which case I probably would have to say... Worth it?

Going to see Andrew will be quite the joy ride, and frankly I'm glad that he's having a good time down in the States. We miss him up here, but how can you complain when he's offering you a free place to stay in San Fran? I for one, am going to take advantage of the situation, and his amazing hospitality. Seeing San Fran sounds like such a riot, and if I can enjoy it along with someone who knows the ropes and happens to be hilarious, then damn... I may just have to visit him again when I get back from Japan.

Now to go off and plan what to do from November 15th to the 21st.... what to do, what to do...