Osaka Otaku

Welcome to the world.

2008-06-21T10:26:00.003+09:00

Born June 20, 2008 at 12:01PM was Noa Quinn Tang. She was brought into the world at the BC Women's Hospital after a sixteen hour labour.

Inquiring Minds Want to Know

2008-04-25T05:51:00.004+09:00

It has been months since I last touched this blog. I think the shock of moving back to Canada was part of the reason why I basically stopped communicating with everyone. Re-integrating hasn't been as difficult as one would expect but I guess my reluctance to change was hit hard by the sudden shift. Slowly but surely things will improve.

Well, now I'm living in Vancouver in a basement suite which isn't too bad. My preference would have been in an apartment or main level/top level of a house but the market has few vacancies. I have a job where I like the people I'm working with but the hours are dwindling. Our old Hyundai Accent has been traded in for a 2007 Toyota Matrix because the upkeep was getting to be expensive, and more costly than the value of the vehicle.

As for the baby, we are pretty sure it will be a girl. We have decided on Noa [のあ], which in Japanese is a girl's name. For those with excellent Kanji skills, we are excepting suggestions on which Kanji to use. Her middle name will be Quinn, a close approximation of Quynh in Vietnamese.

In so few words, I have summed up the events of my life. Lots of details were over looked but I wouldn't want to bore you with small details.

A place to stay

2008-01-25T11:46:00.000+09:00

We got into Vancouver and we started staying with our friend Colleen. Out of the blue my friend Grady asked me if we wanted to house sit for a friend of a friend. I told him yes, as we were couch surfing anyway. He gave my number to a woman named Brenda. When we met her I assumed that she was the apartment owner, but she was actually the neighbour. Brenda gave us a key but told us that she also had a key in case of any emergencies. Upon opening the door we met this mystery woman's boyfriend getting ready to leave.

So even with a neighbour with a key we were there to look after the cat and the place. Well, it was kind of strange but being the good Samaritans we are, we took the key and stayed. The place was very nicely decorated and cozy. Brenda has mentioned that the cat wasn't very cuddly but the cat turned out to be more so than she had made out. The cat's name was Doctor Hoffman and she was a cute black cat. One night I let the Doctor out and a black cat walked in after I heard some screeching and hissing outside. I thought the Doctor looked a little odd but attributed it to the fact maybe she was scared by something outside. Her hair seemed fluffier and she was very cuddly and loved it when I petted her tummy, which the Doctor normally doesn't like. Anyway I brought the cat into the bedroom to ask Jamie if something was wrong. Something was wrong, as the cat I had was not the Doctor! It was another black cat but with longer hair. As I was taking the cat to the back door when the Doctor waltzed in and they hissed at each other.

In the end all was well and we left the apartment and went back to Colleen's place.

Look back, but move forward

2008-01-07T22:51:00.000+09:00

In the year 2007, I experienced a lot of firsts. Some good some bad. I visited Thailand for the first time, and had my first warm Christmas there. It was also the year I got screwed by a failed company. Like many others who had worked for the Nova Group of Japan, I am now waiting to apply for my lost wages. The new company who took over seems to be having problems hiring all the old employees back. For those still with the defunct company, I wish them luck. I hope they all find more stable jobs this year.

This year was also the first year I bought used items and got a bad deal. Roger came and visited and gave me his old Canon Digital Rebel camera body so in my haste I went out and bought a used Canon EF-S 18-55mm F4-5.6 IS USM lens. It was a great deal at 40000yen (down from 70000yen) so I rushed out to buy it. Well, for the first week it worked like it was designed. One night I was taking some pictures of junk around the house and noticed the lens having problems with autofocus. It still hunts for a focus lock at all focal lengths of the lens, especially in lower lighting conditions. I tested the lens on my friend's camera and it exhibited the same problem. Hopefully back in Canada I can get it repaired.

This year was also the year I got Gout. As odd and funny as it sounds, it hurt like heck. So a warning for all those who do not get enough water in their diet: Drink more water!

This year has been good for lots of things though. I got a free DSLR and for the first time in years I have a hobby other than mucking around with computers. 2007 was good for computing as well. It marked the first time I got server/workstation class hardware.

This year I got a girl pregnant for the first time in my life that I can recall. Yeah, she is my wife. So we have to go home. It looks like 2008 is starting the next big chapter in my life. One where I'm once again a responsible citizen with a regular job and living in my own country, but this time with a family of my own.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-01T17:37:00.000+09:00

A big Happy New Year goes out to everyone.

I hope you all had or have a great New Year's Eve!

Merry Christmas

2007-12-23T16:47:00.001+09:00

Even though internet has been easy to get while on vacation, I have been a lazy poster. So here is the obligatory Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year post. So here it is.

Merrrrry Christmas from South East Asia!

The last month has been very busy.

2007-12-02T12:36:00.001+09:00

We have decided to move back to Canada. It was a tough decision but we had to make it. Leaving the new job was difficult as it was very enjoyable and I was only there for a short time.

The Nova situation is starting to clear up but no time frame for closure is available. The new company called G.Comm has opened up some branches and the MMC. So for friends still staying at least their immediate situation has improved.

Coming up is our trip to Thailand. We should be spending three weeks there. This was planned and paid for before we had made the decision to return to Canada.

Our friend Stephanie is slated to take over our ridiculously cheap apartment in Osaka and we are madly packing things to send home.

Roger does Osaka

2007-11-07T21:54:00.000+09:00

Our friend Roger from Atlanta came over to visit on his trip around Asia. He flew in from South Korea on Friday and we proceeded to do the right thing and we took him down town. We went sightseeing around Amemura before heading for drinks at Kasuga. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately we didn't have our camera with us.

The next day we slept in and then went to Den Den Town. This was a big thing because we ended up in Den Den for five hours and Roger left with a slightly used Canon 40D digital SLR camera.

As a reward for our hard work he gave his venerable Canon digital Rebel DSLR. It looks like I will be a Canon man from this point onwards. Who could refuse a free DSLR body? If I get my back pay then a lens and flash are in order.

The only sightseeing we did was in Nara. Lucky for us the weather held out and it turned out to be a nice day outside.

As usual we hit Todaiji and Nara Park. You can see Jamie and Roger in from of the big temple in this picture.

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Hello Engrish

2007-11-06T23:32:00.000+09:00

In all our years of living in Japan, our leasing company had always dealt with us in Japanese. Well, when Nova went under they sent us a letter asking us if we were staying. The best part was that it was in English. Well, Babelfished Engrish but that was better than nothing. So I guess it takes the fall of the largest chain of Conversation schools to get things done in English. Cool.

Halloween at Happy Blow

2007-11-04T20:04:00.000+09:00

On the actual night of Halloween we went over to Happy Blow, the house that Louise, Ryan, Adair, and Tracey live in. Louise and Ryan planned to leave the house by the start of November so they had planned a sayounara and Halloween combo event. To replace them, Tom and Paul were moving in as well as Adair's friend Sarah. I think Sarah was only staying until she can find a job and a place of her own. As you can see everyone dressed up nicely and got somewhat drunk.

The police came and the girls made sure they left with a smile. With much cleavage who could say anything bad?

We had to leave because we had to work early the next day but more than one person reported a nasty hangover so I guess it ended well. Adair even got his mohawk back!

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The Halloween Weekend: Saturday

2007-11-03T08:53:00.000+09:00

Friday was busy and Saturday was the same. As it was the last weekend before the 31st, many of the clubs and bars had their big Halloween bashes. We had decided to meet some people at Balabushkas because our friend Barbara was leaving Japan for sunnier pastures in Spain. She had returned from a trip to Thailand and was quite relaxed when we saw her at Slices before we headed over to Balabushkas.

When we got to Balabushkas we saw a madhouse as the costume party had already started. After a few minutes we all go separated and I lost Barbara in the crowd. It was too crowded and they looked for me but couldn't find me to tell me they were headed to another venue.

As it was a costume party there were many fine costumes on display. People who wanted to be judged wore a number all night so that people would know for whom to vote. The costumes ranged from typical store bought sexy costumes to elaborate home-made affairs. The originality was quite good in some of the home-made sets. Children in Canada get candy on Halloween night, and there was plenty of eye candy to go around at Balabushkas that night!

Even though we lost Barbara, we managed to find a number of other friends there. Cory B. from work was dressed as the pope, Sunny and Paul were a doctor and sexy nurse, the girls from Tenma were a cowgirl and a witch, and Yusuke was a salaryman, which is not his usually style. Colin from work was dressed as a well known anime character, though I had no clue as to who he was. Naoyuki and Sakamoto were both dressed as the killer from Scream.

The were almost 100 entrants in the costume contest, but in the end there were two finalists. Cory the pope and Colin dressed as a "Nova MM Green tag", as no-one, short of those who were born and raised in Japan, seemed to recognise his costume. He beat out Cory's Pope in the final audience vote.

After the winner was announced we left Balabushkas before the big exodus and headed to Kasuga to meet with Bri and Guillermo. We also got a chance to meet up with Alex and his girl Miki. As you can see the pics the usual cast and crew were there dressed up and ready to go. They were supposed to meet us early but they got sidetracked while drinking at Chez Daniel.

It was a little full in Kasuga as it's not really a big place, so I took a breather outside and saw some interesting costumes. Jessie E was directing traffic while Mark D was cuddling up to his Cruella. Obviously he was the 102nd dalmatian that got killed off before the movie started. Inside, Miki was wearing a nice (East) Indian costume that looked very nice.

The best part about Halloween is that for adults it a chance to dressed provocatively and flaunt. I was standing outside with my camera and some Japanese girls just stopped to pose, so I took a picture. I didn't even have to ask. Japan is awesome.

After Kasuga we headed to the Slices after party where a DJ was supposed to perform. He wasn't there so after we had some food and did some chatting we went home. It was too bad as the Slices staff were dressed up for the occasion. We found out later that the DJ was very late.

Alas, another Osakan Halloween had come and gone.

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The Halloween Weekend: Friday

2007-10-28T12:35:00.000+09:00

It was a very busy Friday this week. It started off early in the morning with a Halloween party at Jamie's school. I dressed up as a dragon/dinosaur/Godzilla while she was a shinigami from Bleach. We took public transport in our costumes and it was funny to note the wide range of reactions from the people around us. It ranged from outright staring to furtive glances now and then. It was a great party and all the teachers were decked out in their finest Halloween garb.

We had to leave the Halloween party early because we had to get changed into some nice clothing to go to our friends' wedding reception. Our friends Anna and Mike, who I met from working at the Nova MMC, had got married the day before.

They were holding their reception on the Santa Maria Tour boat. It was a dining cruise tour in the form of it's namesake. We dined while the ship made it's rounds around the Osaka Bay area. There was lots of food and drink, and great friends.

After the cruise ended we loitered around the dock for a bit and then some of us headed to the Hub for a goodbye party for some Nova MMC employees. Jamie and I got changed again and stuffed our formal wear into a locker outside the subway station. This time I was the shinigami from bleach and Jamie was a feline angel of death.

Everyone at the Hub was quite surprised when they saw us as we were the only ones in costume. Apparently the Hub was doing their Halloween thing on the Saturday night. People loved drawing my sword, but I had to be careful as the sword is decorative but still made of metal and the point was sharp enough to draw blood with sufficient force. Sharp things and drunk people usually don't mix well. It was a good evening as people joked and shared memories of better days.

It was a little later when we headed off to show Kouji and Masato our costumes. We headed to Kasuga where we met up with Sarah, who was with Yukie and some other Japanese friends, and of course, Kouji and Masato.

We managed another night of drinking and singing at Kasuga. This time we were in costume and it was all right.

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Chapter 11 The Mutiny

2007-10-27T04:47:00.000+09:00

The 33rd artillery division is in limbo.The whole division has been pulled from the front lines. The word around camp is that the General was ousted earlier that day. The battlefield was quiet as the commanders decide what to do. Apparently skirmishes are to resume tomorrow or in a few days. Supplies have been promised since last month but have not materialized, and with the General gone they may never arrive. Many have deserted and have gone home. Some are laying by their stations unknowing how to proceed. This lieutenant has joined another company, the 6th light infantry. I'll be joining the fight in another theatre of operations. Good luck and Godspeed to those in left in the 33rd.

The Pretition

2007-10-24T20:22:00.000+09:00

A co-worker named Greg found this at work the other day. I took a picture because the contents were very interesting.

The whole Nova situation is quite difficult to figure out. Some approach with intent on dragging the company to bankruptcy to end the lack of information and increasing amount of lost salary. Others who do want to keep the same job or have less opportunities obviously want the company to survive.

It's anyone's guess as to the outcome. For me, my opinion has been set, but I'll keep an open mind and hope that the authors who wrote this have a backup plan.

Sittin' on the dock of the bay...

2007-10-21T15:43:00.000+09:00

...drinking your sorrows away. That's what a group of Osaka Nova MM Centre employees and their friend did last night. It all took place down by the Namba Hatch on the docks. Everyone was out to share stories and to say goodbye to each other one last time. Some people were leaving by the end of the week.

One of those leaving was Mala, so it was also her sayounara that night. I had my camera as usual so I took a few shots of everyone. My Nova door entry tag was with me so I took snaps of people wearing it for a series called Congrats, you have been promoted because there is nobody left.

Before this Karaoke Queen and I caught a movie called Death of a President. It was pretty good as far as mockumentaries go. Not the most fast paced film but cool nonetheless. After the movie but before the docks we had a chance to get come yakiniku with Adair and his mom, who just arrived yesterday.

It was a wee bit chilly so KQ and I went to Kasuga, which has become our new local as you can probably already tell. There we saw Sayaka, Kouji and Masato. Later on, Daniel and his girl came by for some songs and drinks, as did Matt, Steph, Girl Jo and Adair.

Poor Sayaka was fast asleep as she had a long week. We made sure to get some sleeping pictures on her camera that was conveniently at hand. Heh heh.

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Drinking with Gerard

2007-10-20T14:35:00.000+09:00

Amidst this whole disaster with our company sinking and what not, a few people still manage to live life. This was how Gerard did it. He is an instructor at the Nova MM Centre, where I used to/am work/ing and I remember watching one of his first few lessons as part of my duties. It has been one year since that point in time and he decided to stay a few months extra and the whole situation spiralled out of control. I guess he plans to leave earlier than planned.

I met him last night(Friday) at Zerro (the website is annoying as you *have* to allow pop-up windows and there is no excuse for this), a local pub, where he was drinking with a visiting friend, Neil. My purpose there was to enjoy the Friday roast and I had arrived earlier than the other people in my group so I sat and chatted with Gerard and Neil. Their plan was to drink here and then they were going to enjoy what Japan is famous for: karaoke. It just happened that they too were going to Kasuga. When everyone else arrived we finished our meals and headed to Kasuga. Gerard and Neil and Delilah were not far behind. Daniel and his girl were also in tow but they had to gobble down the delicious Turkey roast first.

As always the Kasuga crew were in fine form. Masato was looking happy and Lidia was there, though not dressed in her maid outfit, but cute nonetheless. The drinking soon started and the karaoke followed. Jamie tried out her newly learned Angela Aki song Sakurairo, while Daniel and I belted out Journey's Separate Ways. Sarah and one of her Japanese friends were already there and they gladly partook in our mirth and merriment. Sayaka also made it in with a buddy of hers and they had a few drinks as well.

Gerard was plenty drunk by the time some of his songs came up and he had no problems singing them. Well, okay, maybe he had some problems with the reading bit, but who's counting? Robert, Gerard's good friend who also works at MM, had no such problems and he was able to do some duets with Delilah to the crowd's delight. In his defence, Gerard was dancing to the music and hugging everyone in the bar. It made up for his lack of literacy.

There at Kasuga we also met Hose and Petra, who are friends of Lidia. They were visiting from Spain. Petra is originally from London but moved to Spain to teach English. She too had worked for an English that went bankrupt so she had words of encouragement. In her case the workers were able to sue the guy and the government stepped in and paid them.

When we left Sayaka had a wet lap from a spilled drink, while Gerard was still dancing away. All in all the night was great.

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My Horoscope

2007-10-16T19:56:00.000+09:00

My horoscope predictions of late have been really close to the mark lately. Maybe I am reading too much into them, but wow. Things like this really make me want to re-evaluate my belief or disbelief in these things.

Friday (October 12th, 2007):
Don't count on getting an extension on a project or suddenly coming into some money. Just do your best and take care of what you need to get done.
(This is the day I got news that Nova was going to delay the pay until the 19th. So much for the 15th.)

Today (October 16th, 2007):
It's time to let a chapter of your life come to an end. It's hard to say goodbye sometimes, but important to realize when you need to move on.
(End of one job and the start of another? Does this mean I should Toppatsu from now on?)

First day of training

2007-10-15T21:59:00.000+09:00

I had taken Mondays off this month. I was going to sit around and be a house husband but decided to use that time to do training for the new job. I don't start until November but getting training out of the way would be nice.

I took the bus to Imazato, subway to Umeda, then Hankyu to Toyonaka. I called the school at about 8:30 and got a J-staff member on the phone. In the background I heard a lot of activity. It sounded like a riot. Anyway, I told her I was the new cover teacher and asked if someone was going to pick me up as per my instructions. She was confused. So I told her that I'd be at the South exit at 9:10 as planned. It all worked out when I meet other teachers at the station. I found out later that they didn't know that I was coming today.

In any case, I was to observe a class which consisted of 4 going on 5 year olds. They were cool but full of energy. I sat with them for a while. This time was spent observing circle time, where they practiced basic life skills and vocab. After that I sat in a different class. This time I was watching Workbook time. The day passed quickly with lunch, snacks, and activities. The only odd job today was washing dishes but that was easy.

I think the train ride was the longest part of the day. The good part of having a long train ride is having the time to write out a blog post.

More good news

2007-10-14T14:50:00.000+09:00

I have another computer for my menagerie. This newest addition was donated to me by Kevin and Sayo. It will replace my older laptop. I also want to thank Cedric for donating the parts from his dead laptop. Now this machine has 512MB of ram now. Sweet!

Transition

2007-10-14T14:06:00.000+09:00

As of November first I will no longer be working for Nova. Instead I will be working for a company called Kinder Kids. They offer a great vacation package as well as a excellent working environment. Testimonials from ex-teachers have all been positive. I can't wait! Working with the kiddies will be quite different, but change is always good.

Adelle leaves

2007-10-12T02:34:00.000+09:00

There was more sadness when Adelle had her sayounara the other week. She got here around the same time as Heather and had decided it was time to go. Her mum was a little under the weather back in England and Adelle really missed her family so her mind was made.

Adelle had been in Japan for over a year before she left. It seemed like we knew each other forever and had an awesome time the whole way. I'll miss going out on our hikes together where we were trying to follow the signs in Japanese and the occasional trip to Asian Days for Hot Pot.

Coincidentally Adelle's party started here. The group had already started the "all you can eat" bonanza by the time Bao and I arrived. We had just finished our shift at 9PM. As you can see in the picture, Adelle will be missed by quite a few people. It was a bit of a rush at the end because the 90 minute limit started when they arrived and not when they first ordered, but I got my fill of food.

After the feast the horde slimmed down a bit and went next door to the Hub, an English Style bar/pub. They have private party rooms in the back that you can use if you want. For a fee you can do karaoke and watch sports there. We opted for the free room and drinking instead. This is where Melinda, Rory, Danielle and some others joined us.

The Hub was the start of the alcoholic festivities but Kasuga was where it ended. We sang and drank and sang some more. Poor Masato, the bar owner, wanted to go to sleep though as the next day was his only day with his family. He was nice about it though and stayed open until 5AM. This was because the Stepheffect manifested at about 3AM and ran it's course. Not that we minded, as you can see below.

At the end of the night there was talk of food, but the plans fell through and we all went home to enjoy a few hours of sleep before the next day started. I think Adelle had a good time. She only cried when we sang Peter, Paul and Mary's rendition of Leaving on a Jet Plane.

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Kasagi

2007-10-08T13:38:00.000+09:00

Ah nature, where are you? Japan is known as being the concrete jungle of the world. High density cities like Tokyo and Osaka are prime examples, but there are plenty of natural spaces as well. That's why we went to Kasagi. Adelle and I had made a pact to be more active and go hiking. We went about once every two weeks unlike our original plan of every week. This time we brought along Naoyuki as well.

Where is Kasagi [EN][JP]? Well, it's kind of between Kyoto and Nara. They even have a website detailing the neat things you can do and see there. They forgot to mention this diorama of Samurai fighting, but they did mention the river, accommodations and canoeing lessons.

The hiking course (path) we took was called 銀の帯(Ginnoobi), Band of Silver in English. It basically ran along the length of the river. The river is basically in a gorge and at the top of the walls of the gorge was the hiking path. Along the way you could make your way down to the water, and some avid rock climbers did. In fact they were down there practising rock scaling with crash pads and ropes. We saw it as we went down there ourselves. We even hopped from rock to rock. Adelle slipped once and immersed her foot in the water. Luckily her hiking boots were waterproof. It was wild all along the path. We saw lots of spiders and some cool looking flowers. A salamander was seen at one point as well.

One of the main attractions on my list was the potholes along the river. These were formed after many years of erosion due to the flow of the river. It was a little disappointing as the website's picture was way cooler than what we found. To be honest, I think the translation (scroll down to #7) made it sound better than it was. To make the best of it we took our shoes and socks off and dipped our feet in the water. Mmmm, it was nice since the air temperature was still a little warm, especially if one was hiking around.

There weren't that many people along the way so it was good that I brought my tripod along. At a few different places along the way we set it up and took group shots. This one was taken before we dipped our feet in the water.

We had reached the end of one arm of the trail. The course would have had us go across the river and then back to the station. When we first arrived we took a wrong turn initially and walked to a small national park and we thought the trail going the other way lead to this park. What I didn't know and Naoyuki (the only one who could read the Japanese) didn't figure out was my initial guess of our position on a map along the way was incorrect. I guess he thought I knew my way around. Ha ha! A partial map had been found but it didn't show the fork on the road where we were because our spot was beyond the scope of the map.

What we should have done was consult the big map that I had photographed before we started the hike. I do weird paranoid things like that. In the upper left quadrant (Q1) you can see the fork where we had made the erroneous decision. You can see it in the lower right corner of Q1. There is a T in the path, one side continues and crosses the river in Q2 (upper right) while the other path goes towards a little mountain. It is clear in Q1 and Q4 (lower right) that the path doesn't go up the mountain at all. In fact in Q3 (lower left) you see it reach the next town.

So we continued on our merry way. The path turn this way and that way and it went on and on. Along the way there were signs teasing us with things like Ginnoobi this way 4km. We did get to see some nice scenery and a dragonfly and some cool dams. We even saw a plant that had pushed it's way through the concrete!

Since the trail seemed so long we decided to have some more tripod fun. At this point we thought we should have taken a group picture at the spot where we dipped our feet. At least there was a lot of greenery to use as a back drop for our photos.

We finally made it to civilization. This meant a road and two houses. We tried to hitchhike but I think there were too many of us and no-one had room. Naoyuki was not new to hitch-hiking as he did that to travel while in Uni. He said there were too many families and old people driving by. Our last resort was going down to the houses and asking for a taxi. It became apparent that a taxi would be coming from Nara, which was 20km away. Luckily as an alternative there was a municipal bus to Nara nearby. After a short hike to the bus stop we got on and rode to Kintetsu JR. We grabbed a snack at the Star Bucks there and headed back to Osaka. When we arrive in Nippombashi we found a porno magazine vending machine. Pictures were taken with it.

Afterwards we met with Jamie and went for all you can eat Hot pot. We filled ourselves silly with meat and veggies. On our way out we ran into Matt and Steph and their Japanese friend. As there wasn't a set plan we ended up loitering after getting some ice cream near the silver OCAT ball. That was our day of hiking through the bush and then through the underground.

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Not goodbye but later Dude.

2007-10-04T23:32:00.000+09:00

It's a little late coming but here is the post about a dear friend leaving. Her name is Heather and she arrived when the company was strong and life was great. The funny thing was I thought she was American but she was actually from the west side of Canada. She was and still is quite bubbly and positive. Now she has made her way over to the great metropolis known as Tokyo. She is working for the competition. I think she will be happier there but not as happy as when she gets home.

So before she left we all met one last time at Kasuga for drinks and karaoke. She unfortunately was working the next day at 8AM so we didn't stay out all night. We managed to get a few shots of Heather and someone else, but eventually it got too difficult so I got pics of everybody.

It turned out it wasn't her last night in Osaka as she went out again later on that week, but we had already made plans. So here's to you in Tokyo Heather!

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Baseball

2007-10-04T23:29:00.000+09:00

Back to the regularly scheduled program... Before I had to worry about the company situation I had a chance to catch a baseball game at Koshien stadium. It was to see the home team, the Hanshin Tigers. Mistakenly I thought they were playing the Tokyo Giants, their arch rivals but instead they were playing the Yomiuri Giants. Either way it was going to be fun as all baseball games in Japan are.

Thanks to our friends Ryan and Louise(mostly Louise), who fronted the money to get the tickets, a group of us got to go. We all sat in the same area so we enjoyed sticking out like a sore thumb. Well, except for me as I look but don't sound like the locals.

To reduce the staring most of us donned some Hashin garb. We had the hats, jerseys and the noisemakers. Who could forget the balloons? Here in Osaka and I think other places as well, the fans buy balloons and blow them up at a certain time in the game and release them. It's actually quite a cool thing to watch.

This is what happens. Release the balloons...
Here is the video:

Even without the balloons the fans make it worth going. They are crazy with different chants and songs for each player. At this particular game there was a moment the Giants could have overtaken the Tigers. The crowd was tense to see if the Tigers would pull ahead safely.

When they did, the fans went wild...
Here is the video:

Baseball was fun back home, but not this much fun. If you are a fan of the sport come and see. If you are in Japan and love to try something new, come down and watch.

Not as Dark, Dark Clouds

2007-09-29T01:13:00.000+09:00

Today was okay. I found that my pay for last month was deposited in my bank account. This doesn't alleviate the stress that much as I still have to wonder how long the company will stay solvent. At least on Monday I can venture forth and pay bills and send money home to cover bills there like my credit card.

Dark Clouds

2007-09-27T13:36:00.000+09:00

I work for The Nova Group of Japan. I admit it. Of late it has appeared in the media for a variety of reasons, as a result of their own doing and because of bad luck.

Let's start with their own doing. The company had been in the middle of a couple of lawsuits and in the end they lost. The result was that they had to refund a large sum money to disgruntled customers. The company was then investigated by the Ministry of Trade and Labour and they were found guilty of negligent practices and making false claims. As a result they were banned from taking on new contracts for more than one year and they were forced to bring in more teachers to meet their promise of a lesson at any time.

Now on to bad luck. Around this time a Nova teacher was murdered by a Japanese national. Her body was found in a bathtub full of sand while her killer waltzed past the local police in his bare feet. The details were unclear as to how the killer and the girl were connected but Nova's name came up again and the press was still negative. To this day the killer is loose, though the police claim to be working very hard to catch him.

So at this time people thought the company would go under that very moment. Subconsciously I had a small fear. It manifested in the form of a dream involving me at work and having the building topple. Hindsight is 20-20 they say. I stayed because I thought that management would have started a recovery plan to drag us out of the mud as most companies would.

The next omen was a delay in pay for half the company. The official word was that it was a bank error. Apparently a person in payroll left or was let go after this incident. The next delay in pay was not a bank error. The staff, which doesn't include the instructors, didn't get paid and their bonuses were nowhere in sight. Keep in mind bonuses in Japan are not the same as they are elsewhere. They are somewhat expected here.

At this point fears became apparent throughout the company at different levels, but the lack of transparency in the company kept most from jumping ship. The smart ones obviously left before or at this time. The fact the company was still importing new instructors gave most hope that the company was still stable. At this time no-one had translated the results of the investigation so no-one knew it was because the company was forced to do so.

On the fifteenth of September, all of the Titled Instructors company wide were told, when they came into work, that they would not get paid that day. Regular instructors in many areas got paid on time but not all. We all got a letter that stated we would be paid on the following Tuesday, then another letter on Tuesday that said we would be paid on Friday, then another that said the following Tuesday. It has been 12 days since I was to be paid and I still have nothing.

These facts can be found all over the internet in various forums and websites. Tomorrow I have to take part in the initial training for some new instructors. I'll try my hardest not to say, "Welcome to the hand-basket."

Hey, no-one is perfect.

Daniel's Birthday

2007-09-14T09:20:00.000+09:00

Oh my gosh! That is all I can say about Daniel's birthday party. Where do I begin this sordid tale of debauchery? Well...

Let's start with the dress code. Yes, Daniel had imposed a dress code for the night of festivities. It called for funny hats and or a cape. I repeat funny hats and or a cape. C-A-P-E. Someone suggested he just wanted to get more use out of his cheap halloween costume. He never denied it and he seemed pleased to be wearing his cape around Osaka, so you draw your own conclusions.

I had not the time to get a cape nor the ambition, so I opted for a funny hat. I went to the 100yen shop near work and, luckily for me, there was a selection of bonnets available. I know, who would have thought that bonnets were coming back? I guess the 100yen shop isn't the best indicator of high fashion, but I bought it anyway as it was cheap. This chain of 100yen shops is good but they break the golden rule of 100yen shops: everything must be 100yen or 105 yen after Japanese taxes. The bonnet was 210yen. My pocketbook was devastated.

Some of the revellers followed the instructions with more gusto than others; we had a pirate and a black cat. We joked that maybe some of the Japanese salarymen, who rarely left the office except for this night, may have thought they missed a month out of their lives and Halloween was upon them. Imagine if we had helped just one of those lost and overworked souls break out of their spell; the possibilities are endless! Some participants lost the memo but remembered the theme. Matt donned some sunglasses or goggles(?) and a fake kilt. Yeah, not even a real one. Well at least he was in costume.

But this was not the start of the story people. It actually started while I was busy at work. A group of people had made their way to Outback Steakhouse in Umeda. It seems like they had a great feast from the pictures. The wife got some steak while I worked hard. It hardly seems fair now does it? The world is shameful. You can see that Daniel is getting good use out of his cape and hat. There 'twas a pirate aboard as well, har!

I had missed out on steak so I wasn't going to miss out on the next event. Why? Well, who would skip out on Costume Karaoke?! They would be madmen, yes they would. This place wasn't like the one near where we live. This was all out and extravagant! They had more than a few different costumes. In our group we had a king, a maid, another maid, a schoolgirl, a tanooki which could have a been a dog or a monkey, superman and a student from house Gryffindor. I had to hide my wand to my dismay.

While the girls were getting changed I guess they made friends with some J-girls so a few minutes after we started the all night mixer package a bunch of Japanese people invaded our room. It was actually really awesome and we got a round of pictures with them. If you wanted to know, the mixer in the all night mixer package refers to the free softdrinks that we used to accompany the alcohol in our bags. A little after they left we in turn invaded their room. They wanted us to sing so Jamie did a rendition of Ayumi Hamasaki's Carols for them and they loved it. It's all fun and games until you lose an eye. Luckily no-one did, though it was a close call because of the Tanooki's sack 'o fun. You can see the glee in his face as he danced for us all. Yes, it's truly a sight to behold, in all of it's full motion video wonder:

So where can you take part in this gloriously delicious fun? Take the Midosuji Subway to Umeda, then find Whity Town Mall. Go to exit M5 in the East Mall of Whity Town, and go up the stairs. At the top make a U-turn to the left, look up and to the right and you should see 8F Karaoke(8F カラオケ) . The elevators are by the entrance to the Misty strip club.

The fun didn't stop there! The place is quite popular so they don't allow you to extend your time. After an hour we had to go. It was okay as some people had to work the next day and we needed to catch the last train to our next venue. As we headed back through the busy mall I decided to get some group action shots. I would choose a random time to turn around and instruct everyone to strike a pose. It worked out quit well and we drew some stares and even some snickers of approval. We managed to amaze this one Japanese girl who asked to have her picture taken with us. So we did. It was cute and we made it to the subway on time.

The hijinx continued on the Subway. Did you think it'd stop? There wasn't enough space so Jamie sat on my lap. The guy next to us moved over a bit but there wasn't enough space anyway. We had to pose for the camera, of course.

Jamie managed to get a few shots without the flash. Daniel looks so mysterious with the white light behind him. Mwah hah hah ha ha!

The plan was to revel all over downtown Osaka, but we ended up in Bar Kasuga for some cheap drinks and free karaoke. Bar Kasuga is the new place our friend Kouji, also known as Haku, is working. It's a neat little bar that's been around for a long time. Masato is the owner and his grandmother opened the bar originally. He runs it now on the weekends as he does have a day job, while his dad is running it on week nights. On the weekends it offers 500 yen drinks and free karaoke. On the week nights it is a private members only bar.

This is where we met up with Matt, who didn't have his costume on! We chastised him until he put on his kilt. He wore shorts underneath. I found out later that it was a towel that looked like a kilt. Daniel had invited some people at work and the usual crew came out to hang, sing, drink and well... be merry. As you can see the bonnet made it's way around the bar and Daniel had a good time.

We never made it to the next bar as the sun came up but I think the birthday was a hit. We know the funny hats and cape were well received. The End

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Thai with DW and Ryan's Sayo

2007-09-13T02:12:00.000+09:00

This last week was fairly quiet. We managed to meet up with some people we haven't seen for ages. There is a guy named DW who used to work at the same place the wife did. He's really boisterous and funny, but we put up with him because we can. Anyway, we hadn't seen him so we decided to get some Thai food and chit chat. The food was good but the service was awfully slow that night. It seemed like a table of Thai patrons who came in afterwards got served faster. Needless to say we were not too pleased.

After we paid the bill we headed out to our next function. We were to meet our friend Ryan for his sayounara. I know, sayounara this, sayounara that. What can I do? People leave me.

We went to Slices pizza which is owned by a really nice couple who lived in Toronto previously. It reminds us of home when we go there. He invited a few people to this party as he had a big one a few nights before. This one was to tie up loose ends with the people who didn't make it to the raucous one. Akiko, Adelle, Scott, the wife and some others from Ryan's workplace showed up.

Adelle had bought a new tripod so we were playing with it and getting some low light shots. I didn't get that many but you can see if she did. All I got was a pic of me and Scott fooling around with a thousand yen note.

I did managed to get one of Adelle before she attached the tripod. You can see it behind the red bag on the table.

In other news, Osaka was the host to the IAAF 2007 Games. It redirected traffic and brought in a good amount of tourism dollars. It was also fun for the locals and foreign residents to go see the competitions. They even decorated the giant mechanic crab with moving limbs.

Akame Shijuhattaki Falls

2007-09-11T10:20:00.000+09:00

Akame Shijuhattaki [EN] [JP] is located in Mie and quite a nice hike. We took the Kintetsu train to Akameguchi, which was about an hour long ride. This place is famous for having 47 water falls along it's four kilometre trail. Adelle even convinced Scott to partake in our expedition. When we arrived at the station the sun was blazing so I pulled out my umbrella and Adelle and I enjoyed the shade while waiting for the bus. The bus soon dropped us off at the beginning of our journey. Scott's Japanese is pretty good so he told us one of the ladies at the numerous food stands was saying there was no food on the way up the mountain. This turned out to be false except for the last 300 metres of the trail.

As expected in a natural setting like this there were plenty of animals to be found. Actually they were much harder to find than one would think. Thanks to the Salamander museum and Scott "Hawkeye" Mason we were able to see some of the natural denizens of the area. As you can see in the picture there is a stone carving dedicated to the salamanders of the area. We also saw some captive salamanders as well as a big terrapin at the museum. In the wild we ran across a grasshopper hiding in the grasses, some fish swimming about their merry existence in the pools of calm between waterfalls, a salamander scaling a vertical cliff while blending in with the detritus, a beetle scurrying along on some important mission while we sat and ate our food, and finally a green spider making his way across the green moss covered rocks by the river.

The animals weren't the only one communing with nature. We saw plenty of people making their way up to the top. Outside the ice cream shops at the rest stops we saw children enjoying the sun, cool breeze and of course, the ice cream. Adelle was enjoying herself and managed to get a picture of herself in a cut out of a blue ninja. Mie is known for being the home of ninjas [EN] [JP] in medieval Japan. As you can see in the pictures we had ourselves a great time running about, eating, posing for pictures and taking pictures. We weren't the only ones in and about the water. Japanese people, young and old, made their way up and they too touched the water and enjoyed the walk.

Finally, who could forget the reason why we came: the water falls. It depends on how you define water fall because some of the water falls were mere rapids or even streams lazily trickling down a rock slope. Well, however you describe them, we saw them all and took pictures of many of them. The combination of nature, friends, and atmosphere made for a great day out.

On a closing note. The bus that goes up to the beginning of the trail finishes early, so make sure to return to the beginning of the trail before the appropriate time. The end point of the trail is located in the middle of nowhere and there is no bus stop there. We missed our bus but luckily there was a taxi. You have been warned!

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Sitting on the Docks

2007-09-10T13:40:00.000+09:00

One thing about Japan that most foreigners love is that anyone can take their drinks outside. This includes alcoholic beverages. Usually the locals frown upon drinking and eating outside as it is considered low class, but most foreigners don't care.

There is a great place to do this located near the place where I work called Namba Hatch. This place is famous as it is the home of the well known (in Japan) FM Osaka. Morgan, a guy from work, was having his sayounara here and everyone came out. As you can see in the pics, there were a few who showed up who have already graced the pages of this blog before.

I got a chance to practice my low light shots, but I think I'm going to have to find a way to shake less, as the blur can be awful at times.

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Yakiniku and Karaoke

2007-09-03T10:11:00.000+09:00

We had made plans to visit our Friends Sayo and Kevin in Kitanoda. I had setup Sayo's new computer with Japanese and English so they invited us over for Yakiniku.

Kitanoda is south of Osaka so we had to take the Nankai line. It is known as the railway to take to Koyasan, which is a mountain where you can go to stay for a night at a number of monasteries like a monk. Actually some of them are pretty posh so you can pick and choose your level of realism.

When we got there we headed out to Amagasaki by car because we wanted to go to Costco. Each couple got a yearly Costco membership because the bagels and cheese are so worth it! As usual we spent a lot of time in the warehouse so we had to hurry home for the yakiniku. We did have time for a side trip to Carrefour where we ran into James, who used to work with me . After exchanging pleasantries we headed off.

Kevin's boss had given them a neato yakiniku machine for christmas so they could have bbq anywhere they had an electrical outlet. Sayo and Kevin had bought a load of meat and veg so we gorged ourselves silly that night.

Jamie had to work the next day so she wanted to leave a little early but Kevin convinced her to stay a bit with promises of karaoke. Needless to say she was persuaded.

Kevin had been to a local place that was cozy and he was like a local celebrity there. Keep in mind that Kitanoda is a medium sized suburb of Osaka so him, his boss and a guy who owns an Italian restaurant are the only foreigners for miles. It was a little snack bar but we went in anyway. Snack bars generally charge a sitting fee, as in cover, as well as for drinks. In Osaka they usually charge 2000 yen for the cheap ones near our place. That's why we don't do karaoke near our place. It was nice and cozy and there were already some patrons there who were singing so it was nice. We go our drinks and started on the karaoke. Kevin usually gets requests for Beatles songs so he started off with "Hey Jude".

The audience was quite active and some got up and danced around while we sang on stage. They also really liked when Jamie put in the Japanese songs. Rounds of "ehhhhh??!!" and "Sugoi!" were heard. We even managed a few duets. Even shy Sayo got in on it.

We finished off the night after Kev's rendition of the Rolling Stone's "Satisfaction". He was happy that he and Sayo were going to be the talk of the town.

Three things in one day.

2007-08-27T09:20:00.000+09:00

Sorry for the lack of updates. I've been kind of lazy with blogging of late. So two Sundays ago we had a lot to do. They say when it rains it pours. The original plan was hang out with Ikuyo for her birthday and then take her out to Pirates of the Dotombori, a improv comedy show.

We managed to get some things done in the morning like get me some new contacts and a new suit. Got to look dapper for work, you know. We got these things in Yodobashi Camera of all places. I even snuck in some browsing in the camera department. Mmmm. That's where we met up with Ikuyo.

The reason we were in Umeda was because Jamie was to pick up some stuff she forgot at a bar called Captain Kangaroos. Unfortunately as it was a holiday weekend the place was closed. At least we got the other stuff done.

After we finished in Umeda we went for a coffee and snack in the Namba area. We went into a small coffee shop that was near Pure, the venue in which Pirates of the Dotombori was to be performed, because their motto was pure genius.

Okay, it was also because of the air conditioning. Anyway, we were among the first people to arrive at Pirates so we got some choice seats. There were some people there we knew as well. It's funny how small Osaka seems sometimes.

This was where the story was supposed to end but a few days earlier we had received word that our buddy Yoshi was leaving Japan for England.

This would be his second time there and it will be an extended stay of one year or more. As it was still early and we were only going to stay for a drink or two, Ikuyo came with us. My friend Sakamoto had mentioned having a welcome back party for our mutual friend Yukie but he forgot to email me the details. Luckily this farewell party was a combo event and she was there. Actually it was a "welcome back for a short time before you leave for England again" party for her as she planned to return to her man in England. Sakamoto, being the thoughtful guy he is, bought a cake and we all shared it.

It was a full night and everybody went home happy. Well, Jamie was only mostly happy because she didn't get her stuff.

El Panchos

2007-08-16T02:02:00.000+09:00

After our trip to JR Namaze, Adelle and I made our way back to Osaka. We were to meet Jamie and Ikuyo for some Mexican food. We chose to go to El Panchos. Adelle and I wanted some steak but we were flexible.

We forgot Ikuyo doesn't like spicy food so we forgot to let the staff know. She couldn't finish her burrito, but I finished all of my food. So next time we'll go out for steak instead.

After dinner we walked down the Shinsaibashi shopping arcade and eventually met up with Valeria, Adelle's old roommate. Adelle parted ways and went with the crew to an Izakaya. Ikuyo came with us and we ducked into Rainbow Karaoke for an hour.

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Namaze

2007-08-15T00:17:00.000+09:00

This week's hike with Adelle took us to JR Namaze station. She got the idea from a local English magazine and so we set forth for a 5km hike along an abandoned railway track. The magazine had mentioned the scenic path and some tunnels.

There were five major tunnels along the way and it said we should bring some lanterns or torches. In preparation I went to Mr. Japan and got a head torch(head lamp) and bought extra batteries. Luckily the torch and my camera take AA batteries. It was while shopping I learned how to identify battery requirements for items. It's nice to know the kanji as it makes it easier to see what goes in the device.

When we go to the station the sky was menacing and it started to sprinkle down. It felt nice as it was really hot. Unfortunately it didn't last long and the sun came out with a vengeance. That said, the sun brought blue sky with it and good lighting for photos. Actually the photos tended to be overexposed because it was so bright. Often times I had to switch to spot metering to adjust the exposure levels to get a proper picture.

Alongside the path was a river. Well, actually a gorge with a river at the bottom. It was so hot that we wanted to get down to the river and have a splash. The long way down was a little disheartening. We thought about it a few times but the worn ladders looked a wee bit dangerous.

We did manage to get some good pictures today of various things. We saw the river, the tunnels, the light at the end of the tunnels, a cool looking bridge and a great blue sky with puffy white clouds. By the end we were exhausted but glad to have hiked the trail. It's amazing how the heat saps your energy.

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Kitaoke

2007-08-14T11:39:00.000+09:00

Kita Tatsumi station is located in Ikuno-Ku(Ikuno Ward), which is considered a slum of sorts by many Japanese people. They think it's unsafe in the area because of the high number of foreigners like Koreans, Chinese and of course the English teachers. Generally speaking the neighbourhood is like any other neighbourhood in Osaka, safe. Kita Tatsumi is home to a number of cool things, like the Ubou Karaoke Box near the station. On this Friday night I was to introduce some new people to the area, and I did so with... (karaoke)

Again, Armandina and Bill came along for the ride. Armandina brought along her friend Elle, and she brought her roommate from the Spanish team. Adair's friend Chris had just arrived in Osaka so he came out and Kathy, who has been here a while but hasn't been out with us before, also sang her heart out. Go Cali! Also making an appearance were Naoyukki, with some Rinda, Rinda, Sakamoto, Cedric, Ryan, Louise, and Matt. Matt's friend Ted from the US also came along for the ride. Jamie also came out even though she was tired and sick.

The theme of the night was dress up and bring a bottle in your bag. Well, most of the good costumes were gone so Armandina and I were the only ones to attempt the dress up. Here you can see her in a shop assistant's outfit. If you visit places like Joshin or Yodobashi Camera or BIC Camera, the sales staff all wear similar outfits.

We have been to this Ubou so many times some of the staff know us by sight. A large group always comes with us so they always put us in room 14. Last time we were in there the air conditioner shut down. This time the karaoke machine crashed. It crashed hard. It wouldn't start, even after the manager rebooted it by unplugging it from the wall. So like last time we were upgraded to the fancy room for free.

The above picture shows how much fun it was in Room 14 before the crash and how well we adjusted to the new digs. We were there for the songs so as long as we could sing we were happy.

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Lamb Dinner and the OCAT Dancers

2007-08-12T01:09:00.000+09:00

Ever since the demise of Dunk we had to find a different place to frequent. We found Zerro. It's a nice little place that has a bar, dance floor and a kitchen. The menu has everything from little snacks to full entrées. This last Friday the entrée of choice was lamb. Because I don't get off until after 9PM, Jamie had gone ahead and ordered a plate for me.

Also there with her were Adelle, Scott, Ryan S. and his friend Akiko. They had made plans to meet for dinner and then they were heading out on the town.

Jamie and I were going to meet others for some all night Karaoke. When everyone left for Balabushkas we made our way to the OCAT building because I had planned to meet Armandina and the crew near there. The OCAT building is a hub because the trains and airport buses all meet near here. It is also known as a place dancers come to practice their moves. That night we watch some amazing stuff as the dancers practised their head spins and other acrobatics.

Most of them have part time jobs and hone their skills on their days off in hopes of one day making it big like Jay Lo. One guy was really good and he kept spinning on his hands upside down. He was ripped but it still looked like more effort than it was worth for me to try it.

Of course they also did some easier moves as well. Easier is a loose term because these tricks required excellent balance and immense strength.

All in all it was quite impressive to see these guys in action.

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Isonoura Beach

2007-08-09T00:00:00.000+09:00

It was Sunday morning and the party was still going. The activity had dropped off significantly but the remaining hardcores toughed it out. Steph and Jamie got hungry so we made our way closer to the shops to find food. We went down a back alley and found a small toast shop for breakfast. We paid $3 for a slice of toast, a tiny salad, a hardboiled egg, tea, and a sixth of a banada. It was tasty but small. Luckily people back at the apartment were making pancakes.

Steph wanted to go to the beach and we had agreed to go the night before. At this moment in time the sun was already up and the sky was blue so we thought why don't we go now? Everybody else wanted to slow or something crazy like that so Jamie and I went home to change and pick up some beach stuff and returned to Shin-Imamiya station. There we met only Steph, as everybody else chickened out.

We got on the first express train and relaxed in some nice seats and noticed how empty the train was. We started to relax and chat and made jokes about how breathy the lady train driver's voice sounded. It was like she was trying to sex it up a little too much. Some pictures were taken of the countryside.

A few stations into our trip a lady train conductor arrives and asks us for our tickets. We showed them to her and it turns out we were in the posh carriage. Apparently to stay we would have had to pay an extra $5 each. Five bucks was too rich for our blood so we were lead back through four carriages mostly devoid of people and were crammed into the "economy" carriage which was standing room only because it was so full.

We managed to wrangle some seats because some chips were spilled upon the seat. The chips were brushed off and our butts got a seats. The usually leering was done by the girls across from us. It was awful to see that they were quite young and dressed like whores. Well, whores if they lived in Canada. They were straight out of a rap video. Steph commented that she didn't understand how one could take over half an hour to check one's make up on the train. I of course just made crude jokes. It would have been gauche to take their picture.

The sky between Osaka and Wakayamashi was crystal clear and blue blue blue. Once we got close to Wakayamashi the haze started to return, but not as badly as in Osaka. The beach was outside of town so we had to transfer trains and the weather by the beach was great.

Once we got to the beach we noted how crowded it was. We had arrived on the day of the Isonoura Beach Matsuri. They had cordoned off two large swaths of beach using some rope for some beach games. One such game involved the crowd digging for something in the sand. It was neat to see. At another point in time the crowd played Bingo.

A rental beach umbrella was obtained because the sun was fierce that day. On the way into the beach we had passed by a stand selling food and renting beach toys like floats and body boards. It was Hachi(eight) Store. We didn't buy anything on the way in but Jamie and Steph went back because they were interested in renting some beach toys. Well, when they came back Jamie had a story to tell about the kindness of the staff. The girls were given some free French fries and when Jamie asked for some bandaids to replace the ratty ones covering her blisters, one of the staff members lent her some socks to prevent the bandaids from falling off. So on the way out we got a group shot of the stand.
As you can see in the previous picture the girls had rented some body boards from Hachi. It had been a while since they had gone bodyboarding some getting into the groove was a little rough at first. Eventually they were doing it like pros. They even tried to stand on the boards to surf but falling off became a nasty habit so they went back to the regular method. There were some good sized waves for bodyboarding but the surfers didn't have as much luck. You can see that body boarding is hard work as the girls laid on the beach to recuperate.

Riding the waves takes a toll on one's body so we went back to the umbrella and opened the bento boxes for some sustenance. Jamie and Steph had chosen some variety bento boxes so we had a wide range of tastes to enjoy. After the meal the girls relaxed and read a book. Funny, the covers are very similar. Oh wait, it's the same book! They had both brought the new Harry Potter to read.

We snoozed for a bit and then the girls went for an icecream. They managed to get sidetracked by a drunken Japanese guy who tried to pick them up. So they extricated themselves and after another round in the water, we returned all of our rented gear and got the deposits back and rode the train home. The train ride was interesting because we were so tired from the all nighter that blinks lasted for 10 or 15 minutes at a time. It was on the train that we noticed Jamie was getting redder and redder by the moment.

When we got home it was evident that Jamie was badly burned. She missed a day of work because of the burn but she went to work the day after that despite the pain. She still may go surfing with Steph next week, but she'll get some new sunscreen.

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House Party

2007-08-08T00:39:00.000+09:00

Saturday night is a great time to get out and enjoy life. I have the day off on Sunday so I don't have to worry like some of the other people at the party. Stephanie, Mala and Te Rae were having a people-come-on-over-and-visit party.

They live in Shin-Imamiya which is in an area known in Osaka for having a lot of homeless people. Most of the homeless people are harmless and lots are people who don't want to be part of society. Once, I have even seen a wooden shack with an air conditioner/heater attached and I wish I took a picture.

The trio live in a nice 3 bedroom apartment on the fourth floor but with so many people inside it got quite hot. The air conditioner couldn't keep up so three fans were used to give it backup. After a few drinks people stopped worrying about it. Some even went on the balcony with the smokers and enjoyed a little warm breeze.

The kitchen was nice and roomy and there was a bar counter that separated the kitchen from the living room. In the kitchen on and off it was a mad frenzy of drink mixing. Some ridiculously good cocktails were made there, as heard from others.

In the livingroom people were dancing away and having a good time. Some even got a little silly with cups over their eyes and playing with stuffed animals on the dance floor. There was even a dog pile at one point in time. Don't forget dancing on the chair!

There were a few mishaps along the way. I mean, what kind of drunken party would it be if nothing was broken? A fight was dealt with quickly on the balcony and a guest was asked to leave. Someone else broke a glass or bottle on the balcony and Steph somehow ended up with two shards of glass in her a$s. Yes, her a$s. She showed it to a handful of people.

It was hot and sweaty but a whole lot of fun!

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A Night out

2007-08-07T00:21:00.000+09:00

Friday was a chance for me to meet Jamie's new co-workers at Captain Kangaroos in Umeda. She has a new job teaching at an English only Kindergarten called Kinder Kids. She loves it a lot even though its tough dealing with kids all day. It's really physical draining apparently.

After the Kangaroo we headed to Mad Cafe for some dancing. We met more of the Kinder Kids crew and had some fun even though they were playing some odd music.

While we were at Mad Cafe we were joined by Matt, Steve, and Daniel. We discovered that Kouji was working that night. He was there with his girlfriend... ah whatshername. The Matt and Daniel didn't like Reggae so we decided to move on to Karaoke. The Kinder Kids crew were staying at Mad Cafe so we had to say adieu.

We agreed on Rainbow karaoke. So for two hours of all-you-can-drink karaoke we paid $15 each. As you can see from the pictures we had a great time.

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July BBQ

2007-08-05T18:58:00.000+09:00

It was a dark and stormy night. Wait, it was a breezy and comfortable night and we had planned a BBQ. As we have access to a rooftop our BBQs are upstairs and outside.

We had invited everybody and the ones who showed up made a tight group. Naoyukki, Takuya, Sakamoto, Sarah, Ikuyo and her friend, whose name I still can not recall.

The BBQ was left for us by the previous tenants and hasn't changed since we first moved in, but I had added some music hardware. I have a CD stereo upstairs with a cable to connect to the audio port of a laptop. I did this and since my wireless reached we had mp3s streaming from the server. This is so 1990s you say and I agree but it caught Naoyukki's attention and he played DJ for a little while.

The main theme of tonight's BBQ was roasting marshmallows over the coals. We had a great time as it was a first for some our local friends.
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Sayounara Tara!

2007-08-03T00:00:00.000+09:00

I originally met Tara the first time over a year ago. She came with her boyfriend Andy. They were both from Prince Edward Island on the east coast of Canada. It's famous for being the setting for the book Anne of Green Gables. Anyway, they left after their contract ran out the first time. A little while later I was surprised to see Tara's name show up at work again. Apparently she returned to make some more money. Andy on the other hand got a decent job back home so he stayed.

As life was busy for everyone and Osaka is a big city we never really crossed paths except for at work. When I found out she was leaving again after about eight months I had to say goodbye properly. A group of people were heading out for coffee to see her off so I joined.

It was a small group of people from work. Tara had a lot of people to say goodbye to but they all had differing schedules so only a few could meet at a time. I met Tara and Jessica outside the McDonald's by work and eventually Dave arrived. Both Jessica and Dave were dressed in their business attire for work.

We decided to head over to the nearest Starbucks for one last coffee together with Tara. At first there wasn't enough space but luckily some people left and we got two tables side by side. We talked about nothing and everything. A little while later Seval on the German team showed up and we made room for her as well.

As Jessica and Dave were working eventually the conversation turned towards goodbye and come visit soon. We had our last pictures taken outside of the Starbucks.

Dave, Seval, Tara, Moi

Meeting Erika

2007-08-02T00:02:00.000+09:00

When we arrived in Osaka after a long day at Fushimi Inari we got a message from Erika to meet for dinner. Jamie met Erika on Facebook. I think they met in a group called Ikuno/Imazato. Erika was surprised that her neighbourhood made it on Facebook. Our friend Danni started it as many of us had and still live there. We decided on Asian Days for the all you can eat hotpot. We didn't really know what to expect when we arrived outside of BIC Camera, but we were pleasantly surprised.
A typical Osakan, Erika was outgoing and great fun. She was quite shy with the English though. She is an intermediate level student so she was capable but I guess was embarrassed as it was our first meeting. I think Ikuyo and Erika had a great time because they laughed and joked all throughout dinner. Ikuyo played translator for me and sometimes for Erika. Near the end of the meal I discovered that Erika was into taking photos too.

She had this nifty 35mm camera with a cool multicoloured flash unit. She could rotate the flash bulb and switch between different colours! After the last of the food was devoured we took some pics and even used my slave flash for some fun pics. For dessert we went for some icecream at a street vendor across from BIC.

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Fushimi Inari

2007-08-01T00:09:00.000+09:00

Adelle and I have this hiking plan so that we can stay in shape. Last time we were to climb Fushimi Inari but the typhoon hit. Well, we read the weather reports the night before and it was supposed to be crappy but the typhoon missed Osaka and it was actually sunny. We went to a hot rock spa place which was nice but missed out on Fushimi. This time we planned to go rain or shine. We even convinced Ikuyo and Jamie to come along.

The four of us took the Express Keihan train from Osaka to one near Fushimi and then after a transfer to a local train we made it. We stopped to have a bite at a cafe and walked to the Torii. Before heading up the mountain we had to pass through the shrine.

It was a nice stroll but it was like many of the other Shinto shrines so we got a few pics and continued to the path of Torii. The other common theme at this shrine was the presence of foxes. They were all over the place at the rest stops and along the path. On the way up we managed to get some really cool shots. There was a couple of rest stops and each had their own look and feel. At the main stop we made an error and chose the wrong path. We got a panoramic view but we had to hike down and back up a steep incline. Adelle and I liked it though because it was a hike after all.

After the hike up the steep part we made our way through the proper trail. We reached the top of the mountain soon after and had a rest and ate some ice cream. Since the path was paved all the way through the walk was pretty easy. The mosquitoes were terrible though. We had to constantly use the repellent and the after bite anti-inflammatory spray. Throughout the walk we met a few cats. Jamie of course made friends with them.

Getting lost was the big event of the day so when we came to another point where getting lost was highly likely we asked for directions. After some uncertain walking, as our direction giver was also lost, we did make it out. Some cool things happened on the way to the train station, like seeing a guy riding his bike with his cat on a leash on his shoulder! The trains were even painted in a Thomas the Tank Engine theme. Cool!

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Apaato Party

2007-07-31T00:35:00.000+09:00

Well, it was that time of year again. It was time for the annual How many people could we fit into Heather and Lou's place.

The hosts:

Heather, she hails from the great white North. Her home town is Calgary Alberta but she lived in Victoria for her Uni years. She's the level headed one of the pair? Maybe okay.

Louise comes from the other side of the pond. She is not your typical English Gal. Not uptight and can get down and dirrty just for a good time.

In fact Lou's room was the dirty sexy room. All manner of naughty things supposedly happened in there. They happened once the camera left though.

Heather's room was also a hub of activity but more of the wholesome type. Jamie read a Japanese book while the Japanese teachers guided her around the tough bits.

Out in the main room everyone had a good time. Many drinks were mixed and stories shared. I made sure to get plenty of pics.

There was even a cake made for the party. It was made by a co-worker of Heather, who worked on the German team at their company. It was delicious!

What was the final count you say? Hmmm. I think it was around 19 people all at once.

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Fresh Blood

2007-07-30T07:58:00.000+09:00

There are some new people at work and like always they are fresh, bright eyed and bushy tailed. One of them is in my group starting on Sunday I think. Her name is Armandina and she hails from Texas.

To celebrate the finish of their on the job training, the group wanted to do some karaoke so we made plans to meet at Spatz and then a move to Rainbow Karaoke. I think the guy beside Niko is named Dan.

At Spatz we picked up some more people, some have been here longer and we all headed out for some karaoke! I think the guy beside Armandina is named John.

What is karaoke without the group dance? TLC's Don't go chasing waterfalls came on and everyone got up.

Jamie gave a helping hand finding some Japanese songs and Parris sounded pretty decent giving a rendition of one of Utada's songs. Obviously he has studied some Japanese.

On the right is Dave and on the left is... um I can't remember but he works in a branch in Takatsuki and has been here for a couple of months now. Dave and I met online in a facebook group when he asked some questions about the place where we work. A couple months later he is here and now we are singing our hearts out.

Look at how eager they look and the smiles are so bright! Maybe that was the alcohol showing. Hmm. The guy on the right works at the place I work but I can't recall his name. Oh well, fun was to be had by all!

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Bye Bye Marina and Stephen!

2007-07-29T01:28:00.000+09:00

It's funny how things work. Both Stephen and Marina are people in the group I manage at work. They happened to meet and have stayed together since. Now they are heading to different places, but Stephen wants to come to Canada to join Marina after he finishes Teacher's college.

The place where we were to meet was Petit Rosa's Pizzeria, an Italian themed restaurant. It's located near the covered Shinsaibashi Shopping Arcade. If you are heading north, in the Arcade, towards the Loft turn right at the Jayro. It's on your right.

All 8 of us took seats at our table and enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere. No rowdy sayounara drink fest here. The menu included some pasta and meat entrées. The food that came was excellent. Jamie ordered some bread and it came with real (hard) butter, some sort of apple spread, and some honey concoction.

There was time for talk and jokes, especially since Chimbo took a year and a day to eat his chicken. He removed the skin from the bones with great care. I thought he needed more meat on his bones he is so skinny. But, whatever, since he fits in the clothes sold at high end outlets and I don't.

We paid the bill and left and Kate and Ann realized they had forgotten to include their dessert on the bill. The waiter had taken our word when separating the bill. Kate went back and paid and we made our way to the station. On the way we saw a great Engrish sign and Stephen posed.

Ah, the fun times! Here's to Marina and Stephen!

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Sayounara Dawn!

2007-07-28T00:03:00.000+09:00

Her arrival seems so long ago but it has been a while. Now she has gone home, like so many others. We did have fun while she was here though.

We lived it up one last time starting at Slices Pizza. Jamie brought a cake and everyone showed up for some pizza and chin wagging. I came late so I missed celebs like Mr. Banas, but I came just in time to see tall/DJ Alex come in with his new present to himself. He bought a new-used mixer and he was giddy as a schoolgirl on her real date. He could hardly contain himself, but he had to because he was DJing that night. We had some photo buffs in the group so I pulled out my slave flash to have some fun and people loved it. We took some experimental shots before we left. You can see Louise in all her glory with the flash.

Drinks and Karaoke were next on the list. This time it was at Cream Bar. We sat down ordered some drinks and asked for karaoke. We were given books, paper, and a pen. Whoa! Old school. So we all choose a song and gave the slips to the barkeep. Not as efficient as the remote but just as fun, well except when the barkeep put in the wrong song. Tee hee!

We kept playing with the flash here. I had bought new batteries so we could continue playing as they had run low at Slices. I got some okay shots but I need to work on judging distances so that the flash doesn't overexpose or illuminate the background. Rebecca and Dawn have some good pics on Rebecca's camera so you should go over to her Flicker site to see them.

We were lucky to have good friends like Kouji and Misaki as they negotiated with the management to get separated bills. Usually in small bars in Japan the table gets charged and if someone doesn't remember what they drank people often pay more than their share in order to leave. So if you have friends who are forgetful make sure to sit at the bar and order separately.

Dawn enjoyed herself and at the end of the night she and the girls went to another club to see Alex DJ. I had to say sayounara as I had to work the next day.

Have a good time in Uni Dawn!

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More Flashing

2007-07-27T00:23:00.000+09:00

On Friday, July 20th Scottish Louise's mum came for a visit so we HAD to go for karaoke.

It was great because this time we knew that costumes existed for us to use. We also continued the tradition of bringing our own fun. This time it was a 1L bottle of Gin and a 1L bottle of Vodka.

As always I had brought my slave flash so I pulled it out so we could play with it. Everybody knows that:

Karaoke + Gin or Vodka + Costumes + Slave Flash = Hilarious times!

Anime Battle

Fiery Hair

Fire

Fists of immense power.

Rapture.

The End

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Oudon

2007-07-26T00:01:00.000+09:00

On Thursday we had made some plans to meet with our friends Ikuyo, Cedric and Michiko. The event was in part because Ikuyo had the day off, but also because Ced's parents were in Osaka. As part of the festivities we all headed out to a famous Udon restaurant.

The kitsch factor of this place was the fact that all the Udon bowls were huge. The portions were big for a Japanese restaurant. It was a fun night of laughs and good food.

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Umeda Sky Tower

2007-07-25T00:07:00.000+09:00

To end our day we went to Osaka to see the Umeda Sky Tower located in Umeda, a famous shopping and entertainment district.

One of Midori's sisters lives in Osaka so we were to meet her as well. On the way back to Osaka we missed a transfer and had to double back and take the JR Loop line, and boy it's a slow train.

We made it to the JR Osaka station and there we got some Takoyaki while waiting for Midori's sister. Unfortunately for Midori her sister has been up the Sky Tower many times already and didn't want to go. So Ryan, Chiaki and I were to go up the tower. Midori's sister did, however, graciously lead us to the tower itself. I took some pictures at the base until Jamie arrived.

Midori and her sister went shopping together as the rest of us rode the elevator and escalator up to the 40th floor.

The ride up was a little scary as I'm not so fond of heights, but once at the top I chilled out and enjoyed the panorama. Jamie took some good photos while we were up there.

We wanted to stay until the lights came on but hunger won out. So we met Midori and her sister down in the Doutombori area for some Okonomiyaki. It was delicious.

This was the last night for Ryan and Midori. They planned to go to USJ the next day but didn't. I saw them off before I headed to work.

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Nara with Ryan, Midori, Chiaki

2007-07-24T00:13:00.000+09:00

The next day Jamie had to go to work but Ryan, Midori and I went to Nara for the day. Ryan wanted to see something neat. We were also going to meet Midori's friend Chiaki.

Chiaki lives in Shiga, which is outside of Kyoto and they met in Canada while on exchange. Chiaki is still in uni so she had the day off as well.

We all arrived at the Nara Kintetsu station and as a group we went to Starbucks for breakfast and coffee. Midori used her employee discount and saved us some money. Then we made our way up the hill towards Nara Park and Todaiji temple.

I'm pretty sure I've blogged about Todaiji before so I'll let Wikipedia say it all. One cool thing to do inside the temple is to pass your way through a hole that is about the size of the huge Buddha's nose. Some of our Japanese friends have told us it gives you one year of good health while Wikipedia says it gives you enlightenment in your next life.

I used my salve flash and got some decent pictures of the Gods of heaven. Usually they are hard to capture because of their size and the relative darkness of the temple. The extra illumination really helped out.

After Todaji we roamed Nara Park. The grounds around Todaiji had some great places for some scenic shots. There were two ponds, a bridge, a couple of waterfalls, and a river. I took some classic photos of the group posing in these places. I think the river shots were the best. I had Ryan and Chiaki walk over to the other side and we did some reaching over the river shots.

It was interesting to see Midori's enthusiasm for nature as we walked about. She had this great ability to see neat things around us. She seemed to find mushrooms everywhere. She pet the deer, showing no signs of fear. She even stopped to harass some ants.

After the photo shoot we went over to Kasuga Taisha. The thousand lanterns leading the way through Nara Park were really cool. One even had a symbol that closely resembled the Sogo logo. Sogo is a department store chain and we joked about that. The symbol pre-dates the department store by centuries.

Here we saw Midori's love for nature come through. She spotted a 蝉 (semi) or cicada for us English speakers. It had lost its way so she picked it up and transported it to a safer location.

We decided to go the the JR station to head back to Osaka to see the Umeda Sky Tower. But before we left we saw a statue of Colonel Saunders in a Yukata so we got pictures with him.

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Gion Matsuri

2007-07-23T00:21:00.000+09:00

We finally found the way to Yasaka shrine which is one step closer to Shijo street where the Gion Matsuri was being held. During festivals like this shrines are a popular place for the locals and tourists alike. All the festive decorations were put up and people dressed in yukatas made an appearance. As always the gold fish game was quite popular. I also got a shot of the "perfect" Japanese family with Mom, Dad, Son and Daughter. Jamie made friends with a cute dog and some guys dressed as Samurai came in and made some prayers at the shrine. I took a picture of Jamie and one of those guys.
At last we made it to Shijo street and saw the crowds looming ahead. From our initial standpoint it didn't look so bad. At one point as we were walking down the road the police and event co-ordinators were saying something so we thought a parade was coming through. To our dismay they were just clearing the street of car traffic to allow pedestrians to mill about on the road. As we got closer to the action the number of people increased until suddenly we were wading through a sea of people. It was shoulder to shoulder! I was a little paranoid about my bag and pickpockets. I think we were a lot safer in Japan than in other countries, but it's never a good idea to let your guard down.

Near the centre of the action was our friend Chieko who lives in Kyoto and was out for the Matsuri. She was spending the day with her friend and they got dolled up in their yukatas.

She lead us to the big thing in the middle. It was a big, for a lack of a better word, shrine on wheels. You can see it in the picture above standing tall above the crowds. It had a bunch of lanterns hanging down it's sides. Some guys were inside. Jamie had to buy some knick knacks to go up to take pictures. Unfortunately only guys could cross the bridge to get into the thing so she couldn't get pictures from the inside.

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Kiyomizudera with Ryan and Midori

2007-07-22T12:30:00.000+09:00

After Ryan and Midori had their nap we all climbed on the bus then the train and headed for Kyoto. At the beginning of the day the weather was not pleasing at all. We had our umbrellas and had a good time anyway. We made our way up to Kiyomizudera following multiple signs that said "Kiyomizudera 1km". That one kilometre never decreased as we got closer. We managed a few shots even with the inclement weather. Jamie saw this expression and had to have a picture.

You can see everyone cleaning their hands before entering the temple.

For such a rainy day it was amazing to see the amount of people out and about.

We did happen to arrive at the same time as a tour bus though. We made it most of the way through before they started to shut things down so we rushed down the water drinking place to make sure we could do it. Luckily there was time for us. Jamie got a pic of Ryan and Midori drinking the water for good luck.

After that we started to look for the Gion Matsuri. We made our way through the old streets of Kyoto and at least once we got lost along the way.

At least the sun came out to make appearances here and there. The blue sky is always a welcomed sight.

We even got to see some things we never saw before. This Buddha statue was hidden away at the edge of the forest. Apparently it was a memorial for foreigners who died in captivity during WWII.

We also got some good pictures along the way. Midori saw some water bubbled upon some moss and wanted a cool shot. Jamie helped out by taking some pictures on our camera as well to make sure we got something.

I like taking people pictures so I had Midori and Ryan pose with an old parasol we found in a doorway to a park or something.

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Flash Photography

2007-07-21T10:45:00.000+09:00

I got me a flash and it's kinda neato! I always wanted to get a slave flash but a good one was going to be at least $150, but one day in Den Den Town as I was meandering I found a unit for 4000yen. I was surprised and happy. I knew it wasn't going to be as good as a $150 unit but I thought I could experiment and move up later.

The first real experiment was at Adelle's birthday. This one was of her playing with it in a smoky environment.

So of course Scott had to try the obvious and pose like a well known video game character.

Getting the washed out look sometimes is good. This one makes Adelle look kind of angelic... uh more than usual.

It also gave this group shot a different feel to it. Everything is clear and crisp because the camera has more than enough light to focus.

The Sun makes a cameo

2007-07-20T00:05:00.000+09:00

On Monday July 16 Ryan and his girl Midori arrived. Midori lives with her sister in Tokyo and had met Ryan in Canada while on language exchange. Ryan was visiting Midori this week as part of his return to Japan for a visit trip. So as part of the trip they were going to visit the Kansai area as well as Fukuoka and Okinawa. They were staying with us for a few nights while in Kansai.

They had taken the night bus from Tokyo and hadn't slept much, so I let them have a little nap. While they were sleeping I went around the neighbourhood to take some pictures.

The weather was really nice because it was the day after a typhoon. The sun was shining and the blue sky was bright and blue.

People were out and about enjoying the good weather. I am not usually up at the time (ie: before 10AM) so I was surprised to see what life was like in the morning.

I really liked the lighting that day. I took some shots of random things around the place. These clothes pegs looked so nice as they matched the blue sky.

But alas, as time passed the clouds rolled in and hid the blue. It was great while it lasted.

Goodbye to Ashleigh

2007-07-19T01:01:00.000+09:00

The turn over rate in Japan can be pretty high and it really is true that when you have fun time flies. I met Ashleigh a year ago and now her one year is up.

I can remember when she was fresh and green behind the ears, but still so laid back. She started and ended as room-mates with Marina. To commemorate this day we all went to a new-to-us Mexican restaurant called El Charro.

It was recommended to us by Celio of the Drawing Battle fame. One of the things Celio mentioned was that the owner came by and playing the guitar for patrons.

He only played it these two hot Japanese women with big (for Japanese women) breasts. The girls at our table didn't appear to notice or care. So here she is enjoying her last night out with us. I think Chimbo was wearing an expensive shirt as usual.

Drawing Battle

2007-07-18T13:28:00.000+09:00

On Sunday we were supposed to go hiking in Fushimi Inari, which is located just outside of Kyoto. It is a 4.9km path up a mountain that is known for having the most Torii gates anywhere in Japan. The path runs under the Torii. It was used in one of the scenes in the film Memoirs of a Geisha. But, the weather reports on Saturday indicated that a typhoon was to hit the Osaka area which would mean rain and wind on Sunday so we called off the hike.

Instead we went to Sakai city and to a super sento which had a variety of sauna rooms. This place was famous locally for it's hot rocks sauna where you lay down in a sweat suit on the warm floor. It had rooms that ranged in temperature, light levels and aromas. It also had a sento attached with the usual stuff included. Thanks to Yuichii we made it there with no problems and had a great time. We couldn't take pictures in here so we didn't.

We had to return to Osaka because we wanted to go the SOHO Drawing Battle. SOHO is a gallery owned and operated by Celio, who I know from work.

The event was supposed to be a draw off between artists but since we were late we only saw the tail end of the festivities. Scott and I both were there for emotional support.

Jamie and Adelle drew some pictures as the pieces drawn on this day were to be shown at a later date. Jamie also took out the camera and took the pictures here. Adelle's hero was called Hana Banana. She turned people into flowers. She started as a good guy, but I convinced her to turn Hana into a super villain.

Jamie didn't draw a superhero per se but she managed to draw a close up of someone's face with pastels. It could fit in with a superhero theme without a problem.

It keeps going and going...

2007-07-17T08:20:00.000+09:00

It seems like the party never ends in Osaka. I do have hobbies but never really have time to do them. It's been a long time since me and the PC have had some quality 1:1 time. Instead I'm running around Osaka with the camera capturing friends in compromising situations. This in itself will be my new hobby I think.

The latest event was Adelle's birthday. We all headed down to Blow. It's a small Izakaya (Japanese Pub) style hangout that serves food and drinks for 500yen. Like all Izakayas the food was good but the portions small. This also applied to the drinks. The company however, more than made up for that. It started out small and then we suddenly had two tables worth of people.

After a few drinks were forgotten by the staff and everyone finished their food we headed off to Zerro for some dancing. When we got there it was starting to fill up. We managed to get some seats in a corner at the back. This was nearest to the dance floor. Some of the people in our group started to dance to the music.

A little later a group of asian, we didn't quite know if they were Japanese or not, people came in with their child! She looked like she was 12 or 13 in asian years. We know asians look younger than they are but we had enough children's teachers in our group to make a good guess. We watched their group and commented on hoe the little girl plugged her ears because of the loud dance music making all of deaf. Eventually they left and the dance floor was ours again.

Adelle really wanted to go out to a club. Scott was itching for some R&B or Reggae and was pushing Sam and Dave's. The club regulars in the group warned us that it was Saturday night that it would be too crowded. We eventually settled on Club Camon. It was a good sized club but it was newer so it wouldn't be so crowded.

Oh and there was a stripper pole there. Alas, after Dunk/Soire closed we had missed playing with a stripper pole. We got our money's worth of play time. In fact we even saved some money at the door because we knew Arthur who was working security. Jamie met him when she worked as eye candy at a now defunct lounge/club called Caligula.

Anyway, we all danced the night away, even Scott enjoyed himself since they were playing HipHop and R&B instead of the usual electronica.

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Saying goodbye is so hard.

2007-07-16T00:35:00.000+09:00

That's why Kirsten had another sayounara party. This time it was all Kita, baby! We started off with eats at Saizeriya. Those who came to see Kirsten off included Ikuyo, Adair, Stephanie, and Rachel. We all enjoyed some cheap Pseudo Italian dishes before the real party began at the Ubou Karaoke place nearby. Alas, Ikuyo and Stephanie had to bid their farewells early to get home to rest for work the next day.

At the karaoke box we met Sakamoto, Jean, Kouji, Miki, and Matt. It was extra special this time because someone discovered you could dress up for free. The karaoke box had some cosplay outfits that we could use. If we had know this we would have done it earlier! There was a bunch of creepy looking costumes, but we decided on some more normal variants.

After donning some of our gear we sat down and loaded up the songs. Everyone had a go at the mic but tonight was the night of duets.

You could feel the love and smell the booze. Oh yeah, did we mention we chose the all night all the soft drinks you can drink package. Then where was the smell of booze coming from you ask?

Well we seemed to have had some extra liquor in our bags so we broke out the gin and vodka to spice up the evening. So hilarity and hijinx ensued. It was good fun as the photos can attest.

When you work the world plays

2007-07-15T08:34:00.000+09:00

This is how I feel sometimes. Even though I had a great time at Shirahama I was still a little jealous when I found out about the beach trip organized by Adelle and Scott. The problem was that we had different days off. I had to work on the Saturday of the beach trip. While I was bestowing my knowledge of the language to somewhat eager and enthusiastic students, everyone else was frolicking in the sand and surf. They even took pictures to taunt me.

Another sayounara

2007-07-14T23:19:00.000+09:00

The Kita family keeps on shrinking. The latest departure was made by Kirsten. That leaves Jean as the last one, other than us. In the new tradition Kirsten had more than one sayounara.

For the official down town sayounara we headed down to the 280 in Amemura near Midosuji. Unfortunately it was packed and no reservations were made, but lucky for us the Umiya near Balabushka's was open and empty.

We all sat down in Umiya and had the a la carte menu, where all items were 380. I had their version of Loco Moco and it was pretty good.

I was Kirsten's photographer so I made sure to get pictures of her and everybody. This became more difficult as the night wore on.

Luckily no-one cried as some good byes were said at the end of the night. Some people had to work early the next day so they were going to miss out on the all night affair. I had already steeled myself for the madness. We left Umiya and headed for Mad Cafe. On the way we saw some awesome Engrish signs!

The Hyperactive Child Dining Lounge was my favourite. We eventually found our way to Mad Cafe so that Kiki could say bye-bye to the likes of Kouji and Misaki. We also found out that our friend Alex J was spinning records there that night. We all got in for half price. Sweet!

Once inside everyone started to drink and dance the night away. As you can see everybody had a great time on the floor. Kirsten had some shots, including a weird one that came from a container shaped like a sperm. It must have been kinda funky because she grimaced. Heh heh.

Anyway... at one point she was missing her man so Kiki went outside to call him so a few of us followed and sat outside a large parking garage. From here it was decided that we were all to go to Amemura to see if there was a party there.

It was sort of busy when we arrived at triangle park but we decided to head towards Zerro after a bit. We even got a chance to duck into a dress shop at 4AM. While the two girls were looking at dresses an old Japanese guy came up and shook my hand and mumbled something in Japanese while smiling. I think he thought I was the sugar daddy and the girls were my honeys inside. You know, Asian guy with two obviously white girls... one a blonde and one a brunette... obviously Eastern European call girls!

We made it to Zerro and hung out for a bit then we headed to Royal host to end our night.

Kirsten was still coherent at this point but she was happy nonetheless. We managed a lot for one night: Umiya, Mad Cafe, Triangle Park, dressing shopping, Zerro and Royal Host.

Hiking in the heat.

2007-07-13T11:06:00.000+09:00

I had made plans with Adelle to go hiking a few days after my sister left. Jamie was to come along as well but she never got out of bed in time. Our destination was Minoh mountain outside of Osaka city.

It's famous for a nice waterfall, marijuana leaf like maple leaves, and monkeys. We got to see all of these, though only one monkey was seen.

The hike up the first part of the mountain was gruelling as we went up the short vertical climb as opposed to the long lazy jaunt a little farther down the road. I found out that Adelle was scared of snakes. We encountered one on the path up. It was eating it's prey and it had stopped moving. Adelle saw it first and she froze. I had to lie and say it looked dead before she'd step past it. As she was moving past it, the snake moved just a little and I was caught in my lie. We moved on after that and made it to one of the many observatories around the mountain.

I had believed that there was a shrine or something in the woods nearby so we set off looking for this shrine. Of course we were relying on the word of a man who doesn't speak or read Japanese and who tends to make quick decisions on assumptions. It wasn't too much of a surprise when we didn't find it. We weren't really lost per se but the maps didn't help much. After we reached the 4.9km marker we gave up and chose a hiking path. It was great because we made it to another observation point where we stopped for a snack. I also discovered Adelle is made anxious by bugs. There was a worm or something on her bag that caught her attention. We took a picture to remember the moment because we missed the snake.

A few more signs were followed and eventually we made it back to the waterfall for a short rest. Here, I bought Jamie a souvenir monkey and it was at the souvenir stand where we saw a real monkey. It was perched atop of the stand. When it noticed me take out my camera it sauntered off into the foilage.

All in all it was a good day. Even though it was cloudy it was still hot and humid. I recommend the hike to those who love nature.

Many shades of grey/gray

2007-07-12T00:55:00.000+09:00

Sometimes some pictures come out less than perfect or the subject is wearing clothing that clashes with the background. Some ignore it while others delete the photo in question. I experiment instead. I got a few pictures from my birthday in the karaoke room without flash but some of them turned out a little fuzzy so I applied the BW filter in picasa to distract the eye.

In this one Jamie is re-adding the songs from the first karaoke room. We had just moved into the fancy karaoke room because the AC in the previous room failed.

Black and white also accentuates or creates a mood. In this one Monica was looking at something when I took the picture. The look of concentration turns into sadness when the BW filter is applied.

Just like in this pic with Joe and Rachel. They are busy texting (SMSing) on their phones, but the BW tells a story of isolation.

I also enjoy how BW allows your eyes to focus on other things in the picture. With colour I focus on the table and chair, thinking how distracting they are in the picture. I'm also annoyed a little at the blurring as well. It seems to stand out a lot. When BW is used the blurring is not so noticeable.

Life after the party...

2007-07-11T12:18:00.000+09:00

The vacation came to an end. My sister and her friends have returned home; Nadine is back in Kelowna and Monica is back in Panama. I have gone back to work.

I got old

2007-07-11T11:17:00.000+09:00

After spending the day in Nara we returned to Osaka to meet people for my hastily prepared birthday party. The plan was to go to a place called Asian Days for all you can eat shabu-shabu. It's a hotpot style meal where you add the ingredients.

The food was great and the company was excellent. I was glad to see everyone. I even got a few presents to take with me!

I was so full it hurt. For those living in Osaka I would recommend Asian Days near BIC Camera, above Wendys.

Over the course of my sister's visit we had hit karaoke so many times I figured why not one more time? So we headed back to Kitatatsumi and went into the Ubou for "free time" karaoke. Later on in the evening Steve and his visiting buddies came along to join us.

It started out fine until the AC failed. The room quicked heated up due to the number of people in the room. We had about 14 people in the party room. After some hardcore negotiating by Sakamoto we managed to get the other more deluxe party room. It used the new deluxe system and the room had plush faux leather seating. It was swank baby!

Winding down

2007-07-05T00:11:00.000+09:00

After Hiroshima the girls had a few unplanned days. We decided that if the day after Hiroshima was nice we would go to Nara, if not we would stay in Osaka and hang out. Lucky for us the weather was great.

It was another special day because we were going to meet people. This time we were going to meet our friend Ikuyo, and Taisuke again.

We all met in Tsuruhashi and discovered Taisuke and his friend from Korea named Hyun-Kyu.

Apparently the two met in Portsmouth England. Taisuke was working and studying while Hyun-kyu was just studying. Once we got to Nara we all got a group picture taken. Well, all except the photographer that is.

Nara is a place that is well known over Japan and the world. It is known in Japan for it's deer.

Like the ones in Miyajima they also like to eat things like paper, train tickets and maps. Luckily for us we were smarter than the average bear.

Plus we also followed the instructions on the signs.

The other thing that Nara is famous for is Todaiji Temple. Pictures always fail to capture the size of the building unless you look really hard and notice that the people are tiny in comparision.

The effect is clearly seen when you take pictures on the approach way to the temple itself. It was forbidden but we did it anyway.

Why is Todaiji so famous? Well it's the largest wooden building in the world for one, and it houses the largest metal Buddha statue in the world as well.

Again the pictures don't do the statue justice. There is the main buddha which is flanked on each side by a smaller buddha. You have to go and see for yourself.

On a side note you can also see a pillar with a hole on the bottom near the floor. It is said that if you can wiggle your way through you will have one year of good health.

Jamie wasn't keen on being sick so she wiggled through. Jamie also noticed that anyone can leave a lasting mark on Todaiji without resorting to graffiti. You can donate 1000yen and you can decorate a roof tile which would be used to repair the roof over the years.

She included everyone's name and wrote a little inscription on it for good luck. So we finished our tour of the temple so we could do whatever we wanted. The girls of course wanted to go shopping so the boys decided to go get some pictures. As you can see the girls tried all sorts of things on.

They made sure to hit all the souvenirs stalls on the way out.

Jamie and I have been to Nara before, but that was over two years ago and we only had a low end digital camera which couldn't auto focus to save it's life. I wanted to get more pictures to make up for the ones we didn't or couldn't get.

So with Hyun-hyu and Tai, I made sure to get some photos of the surrounding park. It was too bad that the camera over exposed most of the pics or maybe I should say that I didn't set the camera correctly so the sky was white instead of the nice blue colour. At least a few good ones came out.

Hiroshima day 2

2007-07-03T04:24:00.000+09:00

In retrospect we should have visited the Peace park on the second day because the weather was overcast with intermittent showers.

This would have been perfect weather for a jaunt around the small park and inside the Peace museum. Instead we rode the train and took a ferry out to Miyajima island.

This island is famous for a large Torii (red/orange gate) that appears to float in the water when the tide comes in. This wasn't the only thing that Miyajima is famous for but it's the most picturesque.

You can also find deer here. They say the deer will go for any paper you have, like maps or train tickets. We saw more than one person fall victim to a quick deer.

If you ask the locals they would say that Miyajima is famous for wooden rice spoons that look like paddles. They sold all manner of sizes in the souvenirs shops. Some even had decorative ones with inscriptions for good luck and what not. They even had a giant one.

The local delicacy was oyster. We had to stop and get some food so it was the perfect time to try.

Lana doesn't like oysters but like a good Japanese tourist she tried an oyster dish and said Oishii!

I declined and got myself a rice bowl with a pork cutlet on top. I should have taken a picture of my dish but then again, it would have looked like any other rice bowl you can get anywhere in Japan.

Miyajima has more than just that to keep you entertained! If you like the outdoors there is a cable car that will bring you to the top of the mountains and you can hike down. In these mountains there were some temples and onsens as well. We opted for the shorter hikes in town in between the Torii and shopping.

All in all we had a fairly full day and got lots of great pics and the girls got lots of souvenirs if pictures weren't enough.

Hiroshima day 1

2007-07-02T00:33:00.000+09:00

The rain in Kobe didn't keep the girls from sightseeing so there was no way it could keep us from going to Hiroshima. Jamie had booked a hotel for us and train tickets for herself, Naoyukki and me. The girls had the JR Rail pass so they had to take another train so Jamie, Naoyyuki and I rode together.

We had a few hitches along the way. One was that only four of the six people were registered at the hotel and there were only four single beds. Due to some limitation of the packaged deal we got it was the only cheap option. I guess Hiroshima is a popular destination. On a good note we were meeting two of Lana's friends there and one of Naoyukki's friends. Once we got there we met up with everyone and we all made our way to the hotel. While the registered guests checked in we posed for some pictures in the themed lobby.

The theme was barque or classical decor. It was a little cheese but nice. After getting registered we all hopped onto a streetcar.

Coincidentally, one of the names for a streetcar in Japan is Chin Chin Tetsu which is the sound that the bell makes when people get on. Chin chin is also slang for penis so we all rode on the penis train that day. It was a short trip from the hotel to the well known A-Bomb dome.

It was what was left of the Hiroshima Promotion hall after the bomb destroyed Hiroshima on that fateful day. The peace park was right beside the dome so we took a lot of pictures of the various monuments. This one was found near a restaurant we visited. I don't remember seeing a plaque indicating it's significance. Email or comment if you know.

This one was the Memorial Tower for the mobilized students. According to the plaque students were required to help out with the war effort. They did things like work in munitions factories and building demolition.

This one was the Children's Peace Monument. This was erected because a lot of children died in the bombing, as well as homage to the story of the little girl with leukemia who folded cranes in hopes of recovering.

This one was the A-Bomb mound. In the aftermath of the explosion many corpses were found and many could not be identified. There is a vault underneath the mound filled with ashes of unidentified individuals and those that have been identified but not claimed.

This one was taken by Jamie just outside the Peace museum. This cenotaph is for A-bomb victims regardless of nationality. This is a round about admission that there were forced labourers, ie: slaves, who were killed in the explosion.

This one was the monument in memory of the Korean victims of the A-bomb. These victims were part of a larger group of forced labourers.

We got hungry walking around so on advice of our guides we went to a famous Italian restaurant near the Museum. It was called Mario's and it was expensive. However it was very tasty. Plus, we had a good time with the company of good friends. This one was taken by the waiter at Mario's.

After we took pictures of the park we headed to the Peace Museum itself. Inside were displays showing artifacts from the bombing. It was a very somber experience that everybody should come see in person.

After the Museum we needed a break so the girls decided to go shopping. I think they got distracted as they headed to a print club place instead. Print club? Yes. Print Club is the name of those little picture stickers that all the Japanese girls have. They even got dressed up in costume to get a great pic.

After the print club was done we were all hungry so we made our way to a restaurant to have Okonomiyaki Hiroshima style.

The night wasn't over so we ended off with some karaoke. The room was expensive as we had to pay for each drink and the front desk staff wouldn't let us know when our hour was up. I think they made money that way because people forgot all the time. We had an alarm set so we got in our hour and left.

Blame it on the rain.

2007-07-01T12:32:00.000+09:00

The day after USJ/Tempozan the weather decided to get crappy. Luckily I was given the task of setting up Nadine's brand new second hand Laptop. Unfortunately it had less RAM than on the spec sheet so I had to go back to Den Den town. The girls were troopers and went to Kobe in spite of the heavy rain.

They were to meet some people in Kobe so I guess they had to go. It was weird seeing how many people Lana knew in Japan. In each city we went to there was someone who wanted to meet up with Lana.

Once they arrived in Kobe they hit the historic Kobe Chinatown. It wasn't surprising that it looked like all the other Chinatowns around the world. There were dim sum restaurants everywhere and street vendors hawking their wares, like bbq pork and the white pork buns.

There were some Zodiac statues as well. As we can see Nadine must be a boar, but in this picture she looks more like a drowned rat.

After some sightseeing and shopping the group went to Rokko mountain and took the cable car up to the top.

Despite the rain they took some pictures. It must have been really wet out there. You can barely see the background.

It looks like they made their way down to the Herb garden and greenhouse. Normally it's a nice stroll down the mountain with arranged flower garden and whatnot most of the way down.

As you can see in the Greenhouse there was no rain and everyone looked happier. After this I can only guess because I wasn't there and I had to switch to Monica's photo set to guide me. It looks like they went to Kobe's Bay area.

They took some pictures aboard the pirate ship and the surrounding area. The rain hadn't let up at this point.

The Kobe tower was also captured as well. These girls seemed to get all the sights in!

Also in the Bay area was the Kobe earthquake museum. Kobe was rebuilt after suffering a massive earthquake. As a reminder of the tragedy they kept some of the rubble left after the quake.

Last but not least the girls met up with Taisuke. He stayed at our parents place on a homestay visit to Canada, and he met Jamie and I in London on our Europe trip. It looked like they had a great time in Kobe.

Meanwhile in another part of the island...

2007-06-30T00:40:00.000+09:00

The girls met up with Sachiko and Adelle to enjoy an afternoon of fun and mayhem at Universal Studios Japan.

Although I wasn't there the pictures can tell the story of what happened. It looks like they took in some shows like Sesame Street.

Who could forget shopping? According to Adelle the girls shopped like there was no tomorrow, but the pictures seem to paint a different picture all together.

They even managed to get in some rides. I think they mentioned the Hulk or something.

Last but not least... getting into trouble! What is a vacation without a little mayhem?

Higher than a kite

2007-06-29T23:35:00.000+09:00

The day after the Rancher we had decided to split into two groups. Lana, Nadine and Jamie were going to USJ, as in Universal Studios Japan, and Monica and I were going to the Osaka Bay area.

The Osaka Bay area is host to two major attractions: the Tempozan and Osaka Aquarium. The Tempozan was the largest Ferris Wheel in the world when it was built, but now has been surpassed by many wheels in different countries as well as in Japan.

There is a shopping centre attached to the base of the wheel. We also had a walk through there peeking into shops willy nilly. The funny thing was that Monica was a little apprehensive about going up but I convinced her we should try it, even though I was scared of heights. In fact I had to sit on the floor of the cabin instead of on the seats to reduce my anxiety. The one good thing about being up so high was the excellent view. We got to see many things like the Osaka Kayukan or Aquarium.

The Osaka aquarium is a neat place with a few different tanks housing a variety of animals.

The cool thing about the Osaka Kayukan was that it had a bunch of tall tanks that spanned a few storeys. So the tour would start at the top of the building and spiral down.

It is very interesting to see how they managed to get the different groups of sea life to share the space. The height of the tanks allowed some segmentation by depth and the resulting layer effect was great.

Monica had a random connection with the Kayukan because one of the exhibits displayed animals from her home country of Panama. We had to get a picture of course.

After we made our way through the Kayukan we had to get something to eat. So we headed to the Tempozan Village Market to find some food. We randomly got some coupons for some stores and restaurants there so we made it our mission to use a coupon. With determination and Monica's hiragana and katakana reading ability we started our search.

After some fruitless but interesting results, like this oddly cheeky mannequin, we managed to stumble upon a cool little shopping area.

It was made to resemble the olden days of Japan with all the shops decorated with aged facades. We even managed to find a restaurant which would redeem a coupon!

The Texas Rancher

2007-06-22T20:28:00.000+09:00

After getting off the bus at Shin-Osaka we had to meet up with Masami. Our meeting place was the Silver Ball at the OCAT building. There weren't many dancers out that night but the girls got to watch a few practised routines.

Also on the list of must see sights was Doutombori. As we were walking there Jamie picked up some strays visiting from Korea. We gladly accepted them into our group and lead them there.
Many photos were taken of the bright and flashy lights of the streets in the Doutombori area.

The famous sites like the Glico man and the drumming clown. Unfortunately the big lit Glico man was under repairs so we settled for the other one.

Somehow we found ourselves down in the host/hostess club area near Soemoncho. Everyone has to visit the sleazy side of town right? At least it wasn't in Shinimamiya where the hookers are on display. No, not quite like Amsterdam but not subtle either.

Here we showed them how some of the bars are just little one room affairs. You can see that some buildings have so many venues that the signs are very small.

Well, one can only take in so much pseudo prostitution before one gets tired so we headed out and made our way home on the subway. We were all hungry so we tried the Korean place by our place but it was closed. The girls had made mention of the Texas Rancher as we passed earlier so we went in to have a bite and a gab. You can see Lana enjoying the American Hamburga.

The beach life continues

2007-06-22T10:28:00.002+09:00

Our second day at the beach started early. We managed to somehow extract ourselves from the comfy confines of our futons.

Already the sun was up and out in full splendour. This was a nice change from the day before where the start of the day was dreary and overcast. I took the opportunity to take some shots of the view from our balcony.

We had another feast as a "Viking" style continental breakfast was waiting for us in the mess hall. Mr. Rolland was loving it and had no problems getting his money's worth.

We headed to the beach to find it in fine form. We took the bus again but got off one station earlier. We walked down and saw some interesting beach umbrellas in the sand.

The water was nice the day before but it was awesome today. With the sun shining it was an amazing sight.

Monica was feeling like exploring so she headed out to a cool looking rock formation nearby. I went to see what she had discovered and it was a magnificent view of the Pacific.

Today the water sports increased in intensity as a fight between Thor and Odin broke out. Caught in the middle were three surprised looking Japanese guys. I think they thought we were Americans, and we didn't say anything to change their minds lest they tell their friends that Canadians and Scots are violent beings!

Kirsten and Louise had been to Shirahama earlier and suggested a cool outdoor onsen. We made our way to the spot but found it closed for some reason.

Sadness prevailed for a moment, but soon pictures were taken to make up for our efforts spent.

Check out time was early so we had stored our stuff in lockers before going to the beach. Our lunch was had in a restaurant downstairs and we hit the onsens at the hotel one last time for a soak and shower. I think everyone was pretty relaxed for the ride home.

The trip to an Australian beach in Japan

2007-06-22T10:08:00.000+09:00

After a long night of karaoke most people sleep in, but we had to get up at 8AM and ride out to Shin Osaka to catch a bus. Why? Well, we were going to the beach! Shirahama beach to be exact. It's known for having imported Australian sand. We met up with Mr. Rolland who was happy as can be. It was a long four hour ride out to the place with two rest stops for snacks and souvenirs. We finally made it to the hotel and we rejoiced in the lobby as Jamie checked us in.

We hit the beach right after we checked in. The sky was overcast and the temperature was a little cold but we all jumped in. We even managed to convince Monica to jump in. She's from Panama and was used to hot weather and warm waters, but she was a trooper and dove in.

One "tradition" that was started last time the group went to Shirahama was to buy beach toys and Jamie and Lana bought 2 blow-up dolphins named Thor and Odin. Needless to say they were a hit among the revellers.

Even without the toys we enjoyed ourselves. I convinced Lana and Nadine to act like synchronized swimmers and they did pretty well.

As time passed the weather improved and the sun came out. This was an excellent way to end the day at the beach.

Life is always good with sand between your toes and the sun to your back.

When we got back to the hotel we had a feast fit for a king. "Viking" style smorgasbord was on the menu. It was included as part of the package. We stuffed ourselves silly. We needed to wait and rest before hitting the onsens so we ducked into a small karaoke room downstairs and belted out a few before relaxing in the onsens before bed.

We even managed to sneak in some computer time.

Karaoke

2007-06-21T09:15:00.000+09:00

Lana knew that karaoke was an integral part of Japanese life so she wasn't surprised that we went for karaoke on their first night in Osaka. We had rounded up a bunch of friends to meet Lana, Monica, and Nadine.

Unfortunately time wasn't on our side. Some of the people had to work early and the girls arrived late due to unforeseen difficulties like Japanese signs. The people who reamined when they arrived gave them a warm welcome.

We managed to belt out tunes until five in the morning! We should have known we'd never get out at two like we planned.

Luckily we only had to get up at eight in the morning to go to Shirahama.

Who needs sleep?

Trying to maximize my value

2007-06-20T00:38:00.000+09:00

I'd like to get me a DSLR but the expense is too much just to play with pictures. So I am making do with my point and shoot Canon A610. It's a nice little camera with some manual settings like Manual mode, Program, Aperture Priority, etc. I share it with the wife so I don't get much time with it.

When I do get to play with it I try to do some fun things. This week I went to Kyoto and tried to look for some ordinary things to photograph as well as tried my hand at outdoor portraits without the portrait Auto mode.

In this picture I was trying to get a handle on how I could control the Auto Focus without having to set the focus to manual.

After some attempts at making the background fuzzy for some depth of field effects, I figured out that things will be come the focus if they take up a certain percentage of the screen or you can repeatedly hold down the shutter button to lock the focus until you get the reticule on the object you want.

In this picture I used a busy composition to see if I could focus the viewers eyes in a game of which of these things doesn't belong.

If you didn't guess it, the price tag was my focus. It took a while to get the framing right on this one. I couldn't touch the merchandise or the else the scene would have been staged, though no-one could verify either way.

Try to find the odd man out in this picture of some bottles in a bin. This one was a little easier to get right.

I find that the macro mode on the A610 isn't as good as my Nikon S1 point and shoot, even in bright daylight. The picture always comes out a little hazy so in this picture of something that looks like a berry or dried gum I tried to get things sharper.

I think the sharp points was the first thing that attracted my eye and the ball on top decided it for me.

Later on in the day we were walking through an old district in Kyoto called Gion and I noticed some umbrellas and liked the lines so I took a picture. These are traditional style umbrella/sun shades Geisha and Maiko use.

Also found in Gion are tea houses where the Geisha and Maiko work. Each tea house welcomes it's patrons with a red lantern. I was trying some depth tricks with the camera and got a nice pic of a lantern.

The last picture was taken as we were walking along a side road. I was looking at the way the city had decorated the district to make it appear old fashioned to match the theme of the Geisha's heyday. One of the best accoutrements was this post box. You can just imagine what it was like back then, just wipe out the English part in your mind.

Kyoto 2 and Starting over...

2007-06-18T22:47:00.000+09:00

When I got up today it was dreadful outside. Well, not the worst it could've been but pretty darn close. It was overcast and every once in a while we'd feel a sprinkle or two. Today we had planned to go see Lana in Kyoto again for another day in Kyoto. On the schedule was Kinkakuji and something else.

Jamie and I got there right on time and everyone, well, rolled in a little late. That didn't phase us. When everyone arrived we took a bus to Kinkakuji. It was nice because it didn't rain much when we were walking around the temple grounds. By the end of the walk we decided the next destination was Heian shrine.

We were to meet Sako at Heian. I think we misjudged the speed of the bus system in Kyoto because we were a little behind schedule. It didn't help that all of us except Jamie had to answer nature's call. Sako was a little worried since it had started pouring down at this point in time. Luckily when we arrived at the giant Tori the rain had petered out.

Heian shrine was nice and we went to the Kyoto Handicrafts Centre where the girls spent some cash. After shopping everyone was famished so we headed to a nice noodle place and had our fill. The girls went back to Seiko's place to pick up their gear and Jamie and I went home.

The girls are coming to our place tonight to stay and we are heading out for all night Karaoke... more on this later.

Oh and our camera rolled over at image 9900. So now we are counting from 0001 again. I have only reset the counter once by accident so we are just under 10000 pictures since we bought that camera last Christmas. Yay!

Spending time with famliy...

2007-06-18T00:47:00.000+09:00

My sister has come to Japan for a visit. She arrived a few days ago in Tokyo and has made her way to Kyoto. She, her friend Nadine from Vernon, and her friend Monica from Panama visited Disneyland and spent two nights at my friend Alex's house.

Today we met up with them in Kyoto. We went with them to Kiyomizudera, Yasaka shrine, and the Gion district. It was an amazing day weather-wise though it was hot and humid.

Today was interesting because we also met up with some girls Lana and Jamie knew from working at the college in Vernon. Lana planned to meet Seiko, but by chance we met Sakiko AND Chieko.

We all hung out in front of the Starbucks in Kyoto. Weird, no? Oh, and by the way, if you are claustrophobic please stay inside on the weekends and holidays when you visit Japan. Today was a slow Sunday at a tourist hotspot.

Learning English the hard way.

2007-06-11T20:55:00.001+09:00

I was rifling through Facebook Groups when I came across this oldie but goodie!

Another one flies away

2007-05-22T09:39:00.000+09:00

The Kita Family has decreased in size. This time it was Russ leaving on a jet plane. He's heading back to jolly old England. We had some good times here in Osaka with him. The most notable was the night I got a knock on my door at 6AM. I was content with ignoring it, but luckily for Russ and Kirsten Jamie made me answer the door. Kirsten stood there with a frantic look and a bloody jacket. She hadn't killed anyone but some did get hurt.

Russ and Kirsten had gone out to party that night. Russ and Jean had shared a bottle of whiskey and drank a lot on top of that so Russ was 3 sheets to the wind as some would say. Somehow Kirsten and Russ had managed to get most of the way back home when Russ fell off his bike and smashed his chin on the road. When Kirsten helped him up the blood got all over her jacket.

Anyway, we had a fun time of dealing with a bleeding Russ. It took some time to drag him into a ambulance. The hospital was an interesting experience. Jamie was interpreting. Russ was calling for Kirsten. But only one person could be in the room.

The doctors at the hospital seriously thought he had some brain damage and we had to convince them he was just really drunk. Luck for Russ I had my cellphone camera ready :)

Thanks for the memories Russ! We'll miss your rendition of Stevie Wonder's I just called to say I love you! Come and visit.

Yes, Facebook is a company

2007-05-03T10:48:00.000+09:00

It's no surprise that companies try to make a buck whatever way they can. Social networks aggregate tons of information from their users, and sooner or later they share that information with third parties. This may be old news, but Facebook has a dev platform and the default privacy settings allows developers access to almost everything in one's profile.

As you can see in the picture below, almost all of your information is free for perusal by anyone who joins the dev program. Facebook does include a disclaimer in bold on that page:

If you check any items, your name, networks, and list of friends will also be shared. If you uncheck all items, no information about you will be shared.

To restrict use of your information, do the following:Click "Privacy" on top right.Under the "Facebook Platform" section click"Edit Settings".Scroll down to the bottom and UNCHECK ALL of the items under facebook platform.

Me and ... Work buddies ALSEV

2007-05-02T12:13:00.000+09:00

Continuing back in time I found some pictures of me an ex-work buddies. In the previous post I showed pictures from a house party. Both Peggy and Janice worked with me at ALS Environmental Vancouver. Here we have Grady and Shirley. Both are now working elsewhere. The shot with Grady is at great Chinese place on Robson.

The one of me and Shirley was out in the middle of nowhere because she was in the Okanagan for work so we drove out to meet her. I can't remember where. I think it was Osoyoos.

Me and ... Party at our place

2007-04-29T10:00:00.000+09:00

I usually take the photos at events, but occasionally I get my picture taken. I've decided to post all the pictures of me and somebody else.

This is Janice. She used to work with me at ALS Environmental in Vancouver. We had great times at work, especially when dishing out the gossip about others with others. Yes, a little girly but good fun. She still works at ALSEV but in a better position.

This story involves Peggy, who also worked at ALSEV. Actually this was the same house party (2004) we held at our apartment in Vancouver. We were all getting intoxicated and Peggy had more than she could handle so we let her crash. It was quite early on so we decided to get a funny pic and I pretended to be asleep as well. Peggy knows not to overdo it now :)

I have returned!

2007-04-28T00:34:00.000+09:00

Sorry about the disappearance of late. I was just feeding my facebook addiction. I'm getting better. My sister was reminiscing about Halloween 2004 and I told her I'd send her the pics so I dug through some really old photos to get them. There were some oldies but goodies in there.

I discovered a few things as I looked at a large number of photos. One, when we lived in Vancouver we took a lot of pictures of our cats.

Two, I think I've lost some weight since I moved to Japan. The gout probably helped with that.
Three, my last camera was a piece of poo, but sometimes I got lucky.

Lastly, it's nice in Japan, but home is nicer.

End of the road...

2007-04-15T19:53:00.000+09:00

This past weekend marked the end of the road for a few people we knew. It was the end of their time in Japan. Claire, Havard, and Oliver had their sayounara at Umiya in Amemura. By coincidence there was also a sayounara party at the same place for Jordan and Cassie, some people from work.

Claire

Havard

Oliver

The mood was upbeat and happy as people were drinking and still having fun and the night was still young. This was where we started our night out. Our group was made up of me, Jamie, Rachel and Kiyomi. The group moved over to Mad Cafe to join the party. Moose was the man of the hour as he was heading back to Canada.

Moose licks the bottle

Usually at Mad Cafe there is a small area for dancing, but on this night it was filled with an extra table and some chairs for people to use. The girls really wanted to go dancing so the group decided to head to a club. Our first choice was Grand Cafe but they wanted 2500yen for cover because there was live music or something. We woudl have paid but the time was already 3AM so there would only be 2 hours until close. So Russ lead us to the nearest Sam and Dave's. The cover was 500yen but it included a drink so in essence there was no cover. There was room to dance and the music was okay, but it was Reggae night and they had some DJ yelling into the mike all night so it got old fast. To end the night we decided to skip out on Sam and Dave's and we headed to clubdunk. I think we got there a little before 5AM and we stayed a little longer than anticipated because I got home around 8AM and then started work at 1PM.

My personalDNA

2007-04-15T19:39:00.000+09:00

Dynamic Leader

An ex-coworker of mine, who returned to Canada, posted this on her facebook profile. I followed the link and did the half an hour test and these were my results. Why don't you try it out?

Meeting the parent...

2007-04-10T00:37:00.000+09:00

Here in Japan, people from across the globe meet and hook up. For instance, our friends Ryan and (Scottish) Louise did just that. So this week Louise's dad came over from Scotland to visit his daughter and he got to meet her new flame.

So we went out to Umeda for a meal at Christon's, a Euro fusion restaurant with a Christian Icons decor. We almost didn't make it as the wife and I both forgot and already had dinner.

It didn't take long for us to get to the restaurant and we met Louise's friend Yuki. We had some drinks and some pizza and our delectable things to nibble on.

Afterwards we all, except Yuki, took the train home.

More pictures...

A lazy Sunday Hanami BBQ

2007-04-08T23:41:00.000+09:00

I was hoping today was going to be a nice day. The reason was because Russ and I had decided that today was the day to go to Osakajo Koen to have a Hanami BBQ. We were lucky that it didn't rain, but the sky was overcast.

So Russ brought his brand new portable BBQ, some charcoal, and some accelerant with him and we met him at Osakajo. Already there waiting for us was the Tennouji trio, consisting of Naoyuki, Shigeki, and Takuya.

After some walking we decided to set up our party overlooking the outer moat of Osakajo. We had to hurry because Shigeki was returning to the army base later that day. In fact he had about half an hour to hang around. Well we setup the BBQ and were able to get some food cooked before he had ot leave. While the food was cooking Steve and Louise showed up. It was a bit difficult finding people in the park because it was big and very crowded.

After Shigeki had to run for his train, Jean, then Kirsten and then Rachel showed up. The party was getting started! The group eventually included more people and night fell. The view was excellent from our vantage point.

We started to head home with Adelle, Rachel and Dawn when we saw some fire jugglers/twirlers in the distance. Dawn used to twirl fire so she desperately wanted to meet these guys and try some fire twirling. We made our way towards the location of the twirlers and came upon a makeshift shanty town full of tents and hippies. It was a neat sight seeing the tents and camps in front of the city lights.

We didn't find the fire twirlers but we did meet a girl who was twirling. So Dawn went straight to her and asked if she could have a go. The girl obliged and we saw that Dawn had some mad skills.
Before we left we also met up with DJ Freebass, who had not gone to bed since the night before. He was drumming with some random Japanese drummers. We stayed to listen for a bit before heading home.

More pictures...

Another one leaves the nest

2007-04-08T03:52:00.000+09:00

The original Kita Family started out with Me, the wife, Becs, Amanda, Jess, Dolly, Russ, Kirsten, and Jean. Over the past year the family has shrunk. First Bec left, then Amanda, then Jess. Today was the day another one has left the nest.

Dolly is heading back to Canada to start her new life there. Her parents have moved out of their old house so things will be fresh and new for her. It was sad to see her go, but life must move on and so should people.

It's the way of gaijin in Japan. Many people compare it with college. You spend a few years having a great time with people, but in the end everyone moves on.

It wasn't all tears and sadness. We were able to see a bunch of different people at Balabushka's and at Soire. Apparently DJ Freebass, a friend of ours, was spinning at Soire. Well the pictures never lie, and they tell a story of fun and frivolity. Dance, baby dance!

More pictures...

She's leaving on a jet plane...

2007-04-05T11:41:00.000+09:00

Her name is Dali and she's heading back to England after some travelling. She spent a year in Japan and we spent some great times together.

Last night we spent some final moments in Soire having a blast. Singing some last duets and having drinks. No-one cried so that was good.

Ninjas, Karaoke, BBQs even though she was vegetarian, 280, Summers... Japan will never be quite the same.

More Pictures here...

I've been here and here...

2007-04-04T02:01:00.000+09:00

create your own visited countries map
or vertaling Duits Nederlands

I have been to a few places around the world, but it seems like I still have many more to go! So I'll have to start saving.

I got this from Rebecca T.

Update! On the subway.

2007-04-04T01:44:00.000+09:00

Sorry about the inactivity of late. I have been "testing" my 50Mb internet line and boy it's great. It shut down my router when my torrent speed hit about 2000Kbps! It was crazy fast though! Now I have the torrent scheduler stop when I'm awake as the load on the network is unacceptable with the torrents going.

In other news we have been up to no good. We went out to celebrate our friend Louise's birthday at a little place called Oasis in Miyakojima, a suburb of Osaka. It was great because our friend Alex, aka DJ Freebass, was playing.

We were having so much fun we forgot to take pics... or is it because it was too incriminating? Hmm... we did have some pictures from the subway though. Enjoy.

Too cold to BBQ?

2007-03-27T00:11:00.000+09:00

No, it's never too cold for a BBQ. I've had BBQs out in the snow before so I was not afraid of having one last weekend. Yes, it was cold, as far as Osaka winters go, but that didn't stop me or everyone else from showing up at our place.

It was actually colder than it was in January, when we had our last BBQ. Of course, the secret to winter BBQs is to be right beside the grill. Unfortunately for me, people started to figure this out and I was pushed away from the sweet spot. They weren't kidding when they said it was cold!

The turn out was pretty good. This time our buddy Yuuichi brought some friends. As it was a BYOB, and BYOM BBQ, anyone was welcome. His friends were shy as expected. Some of them were surprised when I started speaking, but I think everybody had fun. He wasn't the only one to bring some new people. Carolyne also brought some of her french language exchange partners.

More pics can be found here...

The Daily Commute

2007-03-22T01:20:00.001+09:00

So I was surfing around the internet and was looking at various Japanese sights(Japundit, Dark Diamond Network, etc.) when I stumbled upon this video.

It was kind of interesting as it had various themes that are common in many Japanese films. It was also cool to see some things that I recognize since I live in Japan.

If you have the time, check out this 35minute video and see if you can spot the themes.

Doki Doki (Short narrative by Chris Eska)

The bigger they are...

2007-03-19T13:04:00.000+09:00

The more it's going to hurt. Especially if you are in the front row at the Sumo tournament. These guys are big. They are tall for Japanese, and some of them aren't even Japanese. We went with a group of friends to see the battle of the bulge.

We got B Seki seats, which are in the middle. The A Seki seats were all booked, as were the ring side seats. I don't know how safe it was in the front. You would be sitting behind a row of Sumo wrestlers but I have seen some fighters fall and roll into the row of Sumo and then past into the crowd.

Though, it would be cool to tell people at work you broke your leg because a Sumo wrestler landed on you. The Sumo event started from 12 noon and lasted until 6PM. We got there around 1PM and we were able to catch some of the lower ranked Sumo matches. These matches were cool at first because they were quick and dirty.

When the second tier came on you could tell there was more finesse involved. Along with the finesse came the posturing. Sometimes the guys would hunker down and look like they were about to start but then they would get up and grab some salt to throw and slap their legs. Admittedly this was cool at first, but it got tiresome. In these matches it was harder to tell who the victor was going to be.

Finally around 4PM the top tier fighters arrived. These bouts were way better than the other tiers. Of course the posturing was incredible. They are allowed something like four minutes for posturing and hyping the crowd. So when they showed up in the ring we'd have to wait about 3 minutes before turning on the cameras, but the show was incredible. There were many fights where one fighter was almost pushed out of the ring, but he'd somehow reverse the situation. Apparently Moose and Russ had made a drinking game of predicting the victor. Moose said he lost a fair bit.

The best part was the end. Asashoryu , a Yokozuna, was beaten. This was a rare occurence so we got to join in on the age old tradition of throwing the seat cushions at the Yokozuna. Bryce made a short video of the fight that I took. He had the song in his head all day, and finally we can see things from his point of view.

Afterwards we walked, and I hobbled, to an Indian restaurant for some curry and company. All in all it was a great day.

Spring is in the air...

2007-03-18T00:49:00.000+09:00

The blossoms are starting to show on the trees here in the neighbourhood. Life is good. The ADSL modem arrived today, and we are now no longer relying on the community internet! Thank you Anonymous donor.

So now I have re-registered the domain. More of our pictures will go online this weekend. Have a look...
http://rjtang.gotdns.com

MOBILE POST: So close yet so far...

2007-03-16T12:24:00.001+09:00

We are still very eagerly awaiting internet. While the NTT guy has just set up the phone line for ADSL, we still need a modem.

Once we have everything life will good again. VoIP, TV, movies and our pics can go back online.

It's amazing how much we rely on the internet. Unlike our friend Dawn, we have community internet to fall back on. I guess she'll catch up on her reading, go out more, or take up a hobby like sleep or window shopping.

I'm still alive and limping

2007-03-14T13:22:00.000+09:00

For the past few days I have been quite lazy about posting, but I have been reading other people's blogs and I must also catch up on news.

As you may remember I got gout. I was in a lot of pain. The swelling has gone done and a dull ache remains, especially in the morning. The doctor told me that I should exercise it on my bike, and by walking about. Over the past few days I have done just that.

It's kind of weird how weak your ankle gets after a short period of inactivity. My right ankle just doesn't hold my weight like my left ankle when I do heel lifts. I just got back the ability to rotate my ankle, but the pain is still there if I over extend myself.

I have had the last four days off because I was wise enough to line up the swap payback days together. I might as well get some benefit from swaps for others if I can't say no. I have spent a lot of time at home because of the ankle.

That said, I got a lot done at home. I replaced the laptop with an older PC to handle the distribution of the community internet. I also swapped out the router with a switch so now all the computers can log into hotmail and msn. I guess hopping across two NATs was too difficult for MS Passport.

Pain

2007-03-08T17:47:00.000+09:00

I went to work yesterday on crutches. Today I feel the painful results. Needless to day I called in sick because between the gouty arthritis in my right ankle and the soreness in pecs, abs, shoulders, biceps, triceps, and hands I found it difficult to get out of bed.

Actually, the painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs have reduced the pain from the Gout. I can almost walk on my own now. The crutches are killing my arm pits though. My ankle is all puffy and bloated. It looks kinda scary big but at least it's not as painful. I think by tomorrow the pain should be gone. Maybe at least enough so I can hobble along on my own two feet.

Does God really hate me?

2007-03-08T01:21:00.000+09:00

Sometimes I can't tell. One thing about being a elevated peon is that you are responsible for giving bad and good news to the people in your group. Luckily I have a great group of instructors. I know of other elevated peons who have some real delinquents. These guys do enough so they are still in the bottom end of acceptability and won't get fired easily.

The other reason is that Sakamoto exists. He is one of the best guys I know anywhere. He took time out of his busy day to bring me to the hospital. He brought me a bento box there. He stayed to translate, which was good because they had no English speaking doctor at that time.
He even drove me around to deposit some money into my post office bank account and helped me pick up my prescription.

To top it off, today Sakamoto picked me up from the station and drove me home. He also came up and asked if I was okay for food. He looked in the fridge and nodded as I asserted that I could make some rice and blah blah blah. I was washing some dishes when I heard a knock at the door. Then I heard him say, "Hello. It's Sakamoto". When I let him in he brought a bag full of food. He brought over some bread, bananas, and some pasta to go for tomorrow morning. He had the I knew it look when he saw that I was making ramen. Mind you I was going to throw in some steamed vegetables into the ramen to make it healthy. What a great guy! What's even better is that he's fun to have around, especially when stripper poles are involved.

Anyway. He is one of the biggest reasons why I think God likes to test me now and then.