i'm packing my backpack once again and i thought i'd give you content before i give you just another travel chronology. those, though maybe interesting and filled with zany stories (hopefully i won't lose my wallet because i won't have krista's sister sarah to rely on), i personally hate writing them.
segway segway segway segway segway
the other day i was criticized about my writing. not that i was offended, but it did make me think twice about my writing. then i was ichatting with Adam "Look Like Nirvana" Asher and i shared some of the bits and pieces i had written with him, and he said he enjoyed it. maybe he just can't say "it's crap", but regardless, i was encouraged.
so in my freetime this week i worked on some stories i have in the ol' unfinished folder, and they got a lot longer. and are starting to feel more complete. that means that you, the reader, must get ready for a wimpkiller update in April. huge. so, if you can, get your submissions in... (or post on your blog, mike).
so i leave soon. i've turned off comments to cut out some comment spam. if you love me, email me.
have a good week. happy easter y'all. He is risen indeed.
i think i had more. oh, yeah. i used to think that i'd be good at hiding a dead body... but after watching all this CSI i think i wouldn't be so good at it. so much evidence. oh well. that's some stuff i thought. sayonara.
P.S. I heard the monster's hate below freezing temperatures....
i'm going to Malaysia on Friday. surprise family! i'm pretty excited. i'm going with one of my partners in crime, Mary, from my town (the British girl who introduced me to the Lomo). we've basically determined to take as many pictures as possible. get ready for a slide show when i come home. it's kind of funny because just after we booked the tickets 3 Japanese were kidnapped by Malaysian pirates! if i'm lucky enough...
we're arriving in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, meeting some of her friends who are backpacking SE Asia (on a Shoestring). and then we're off. i'm excited. this will be one of many firsts:
first female travelling companion (no, we're not dating)
first muslim country
first tropical island (hopefully)
first country i haven't thought long and hard about going to
first time i'm going without a visa there
first time i kind of want to get stuck in a country just to know what it feels like
and don't worry mom. the penalty for drugs is the death penalty! so they should be good folk there. ok. i might be turning off comments on the blog for the week to avoid spam when i return. so comment fast!
this weekend was one of adventure and disappearing yen. due to the fact that the Japanese made the equinox a holiday, i got monday off. so it was off to Tokyo for a action packed equinox at the capitol. yosh!
my partner in crime was eri-chan, an ALT here in my wonderful castle town. he was planning on hitting up Tokyo because he's cooler than me and knows people there. i decided to tag along, but i couldn't go up until Friday. i took the bullet train and almost got a nose bleed i was so excited.
got to Tokyo and made my way to Shibuya, one of the happening-est places in Tokyo. ate Thai food and then checked into our capsules for the evening, then went out bar hopping. we went to a few places. walked around an ess-load looking for places that didn't charge us to sit down. there were none. even a place to sit costs $5.
the specifics of the weekend kind of blur together, but we played pool one night. and i found a place i really liked and would be a faithful patron of if i lived in Tokyo.
THE CURRY MUSEUM
On Saturday we went to Yokohama with one of Eri-chan's friends. Our mission:The Curry Museum. After some extreme Orienteering (that's a hobby here) we got to the museum. less a museum and more like 11 different curry restaurants under one roof. so we sampled a few of the best looking restaurants. all in all, we thought CoCo's is better... so we went there afterwards.
from a distance, i saw her...
on escalator down from the curry museum, i saw her. she was standing there minding her own and i caught her out the corner of my eye from about fifteen yards away. MY BELOVED! with just one glimpse i began leaping like a deer back up the escalator, pushing people, rounding the corner, and walking right up to her. i pulled out 120 Yen and put it in the machine. and out popped my beloved, a 12 oz can of beautiful, chilled Mountain Dew. i drank, and it was good.
i attempted to buy more but the machine was sold out. i ended up buying two more on my trip ... it's ah so good.
lotsa walking... and i mean lotsa
let me preface this by saying Tokyo is GI-NORMOUS. once eri-chan and i exited "The New South Exit" in Shibuya, and it's a miracle we lived to tell the tale. The exit itself put us about a mile away from where we needed to be in some dark lightless armpit of Shibuya. Then in Shinjuku (where most of Lost in Translation was, if i'm not mistaken) we spent a good 400 hours walking around in circles. i've decided that this train station/area is just something that i won't understand fully and entirely comprehend. like God at times. seriously, infinite.
then we went to Ginza and walked a lot only to find out that the kabuki play we wanted to see was entirely sold out, twice in a row. but that's okay because we went to the Sony Tower there and they have a floor filled with PlayStation2s and PSPs (the new handheld PS) and we just played videogames for about an hour or two. it was pretty cool. if i didn't bleed NINTENDO i'd have considered buying a PSP. oh, and i really suck at GranTourismo.
this is a bit of a fast forward, but topical...
when leaving Tokyo from Tokyo Station (quite possibly the oldest train station in Japan) we walked around the station for nearly an hour looking for an ATM so we could buy shinkansen (bullet train) tickets back to Osaka. this is blocks from the Emperor's house. we couldn't find anything. then we found one and it said "closed on sundays and holidays". ATMs! CLOSED! for pete's sake! so we had to walk more until we found one. i mean seriously.... what's the Emperor do if he needs cash on a Sunday!? we were fed up with walking and enjoyed being able to sit down for the train back. i think i was approaching hysteria.
summary: i'm old and not a player
it was a good weekend. lots of walking and i can check Tokyo off my box. it was good and fun, though i probably will go again, i don't really feel the need. i've realized i'm old. i don't mind not staying out all night. i don't mind crawling into a capsule and sleeping. i doubt anyone would think this about me, but i don't go to clubs looking to pull women, so the sex appeal/industry of Tokyo is totally lost on me. i'm just not a player. no digits acquired. no womenses in the mix. nothing. and i think that's okay.
bonus blog: but then, part of me feels like i'm getting older i should bust the mack so i can one day procreate offspring.
**all spelling mistakes and grammar mistakes are intentional
guess what. i'm sick. again. for like the umpteenth millionth time. seriously. i can remember like 4 days i haven't been sick in some capacity since... hmm... December. barf. actually, not "barf", more like "congest!" this time it's my throat. i feel like i swallowed a rasp by accident. now everytime i swallow food or liquid it feels like it's running down a jagged, rusty metal surface in the back of my mouth. my lymphnodes are swollen and my ears are in pain (probably something to do with eustachian fluid). here's where it goes down hill...
i went to the took the day off because of these ailments. not so much that i couldn't perform my job but because i've been sick for so long i felt like i owed it to myself to take the day off. i've "stuck it out" (in japanese, gaman) enough over the last 4 months, i needed a day to rest or hopefully two to rest up and heal. so to get the day counted as a sick day instead of vacation day i must go to the doctor and get this $40 slip of paper that says, indeed i was sick. i basically purchase my sick days from the hospital. fucking ridiculous (pardon my french, but it agitates me). well, the doctor... on par with the other doctor that slapped the bottoms of my feet to check for DVT ...he asked me questions, DIDN'T even touch my swollen neck and DIDN'T look inside my ear. what HE DID DO was take a radioshack flash light and a tongue depressor and - like a used car - checked my mouth. then he took a test for influenza by sticking a long q-tip into my sinus cavity via my nose, like a circus performer.
the other day i stuck a q-tip in my ear and pulled out a 3 ton piece of road tar. it grossed even myself out... but at the same time - i know everyone's like this so i don't mind sharing - you think, "that's pretty cool". in a scientific sort of way.
i've been watching a lot of CSI. this is a good show. not quite as amazing as my beloved, 24, but good nonetheless. it deals with a lot of science. i like that. for instance, now halfway through the first season, i too can immediately spot if a victim has defensive wounds on their hands. it's a good show and i'm getting more and more addicted to it. the puzzles are easy to solve, but getting the necessary data together to get a conviction - that's exciting. one thing i hate about the show is when the refer to Crime Scene Investigators they call them "Criminalists". that's probably the correct word, but it just sounds so wrong.
the doctor's influenza test came back negative and he sent me on the way with a perscription for 5 medicines and a fluid that i'm supposed to gargle. i haven't bought the perscriptions and i don't intend to. i'm fucking through with crackpot medicine in this town. i'd like a real doctor. flying home to america just to get myself checked out sounds like a viable option right now. i'm really irritated right now with japan. it's been a bad japan week. i'm sure my sickness has compounded that a bit (like i'm sick and i can't say what i'm thinking in japanese and that's frustrating and i constantly sound like an ass). and then i stand here, sick and frustrated, wondering if i should have recontracted. hmm... just hmm...
i tried to call you mom,but i just got answering machines. i just wanted to wish you the happiest of birthdays. just for kicks, i dug up pictures from your youth to remind you of the past. i hope you enjoy that little trip down memory lane. i love you mom!
coincidentally, your birthday falls on a japanese holiday called "white day". it's a complimentary holiday for Valentine's Day. in japan, valentine's day (sometimes abbreviated here as "VD Day") is a holiday for girls to give the men in their lives chocolates. lovers and co-workers alike. thus the complimentary "white day" was invented by a marshmallow company for men to reciprocate the valentine's day gift. apparently white underwears are also an appropriate gift. i however think it'd be quite inappropriate to give every woman in my office a pair of white underwears. so i oblige not to observe this holiday.
sorry this post is late, but did you get my on-time messages? love, your better son.
