I went to watch a BMX jam today for the first time in Japan and I truly miss the bike culture from back home when I saw this.  Nothing very specially happened that I couldn`t really find back home, but it seemed to happen more frequently back there and there`s always the MTB jams as well to complete the process.  However, I met some really cool people there and hopefully took some really nice shots.  I took about 60 or 70 shots on my film camera and I`m hoping I can do the pictures some justice.  I`m not very skilled in the action photography section, but I can only try to do a good job.

 

Besides that, the last few days have been really strange.  The first thing that was weird was my drunken flirtatiousness with a high school girl, which got me into no real trouble except laughter from my friends who all knew she was young.  Of course, flirting can go nowhere, and that`s perfectly well that it didn`t.  BTW, she was 19, whatever high school she was in didn`t let her finish.  I don`t have a clue what really happened since I was drunk.

 

The next night, i had an arm wrestling match against a japanese guy who was very quiet and much bigger than me.  I lost, eventually, although the fight must`ve lasted well over 5 minutes.  It was a strain on my poor muscles.  Sitting down and talking to kids isn`t exactly going to develop my muscles.  Besides, he was 6 years younger than me. No excuses...

 

Then I went to kareoke and that was a lot of fun.  Afterwards, I headed to a bar alone, and the rest of that, I hope to forget because then the rest of the night just got weirder and weirder, like some kind of tricky game played on me by forces outside my control.  Pretty much whatever happend in that bar might become my reputation from the other gaijins living in this city.  Oh well.  We`re all ちょっと　おかしい　ね. 

 

I wish to reclaim my own mind.

 

and oh yes, I am so much into the japanese fashion...they just have better, cheaper clothes than we do back home...at least, clothes that make me look good, rather than clothes made for bulky hamburgers.

Well, there`s always a chance that I could end up living here:

 

My apartment in Japan must be a mansion to these people, however small it is to me.  It`s all relativity.  Einstein is never wrong.

BTW, I finally finished reading the Chronicles of Narnia.  It`s one huge book about Christianity.  Now that I`ve been in a out of Church here, I see the relationship more and more.  Do I have the power of God on my side yet?  I`m not ready to give up my mind for it yet.

 

I can stil talk about bike though: http://videobomb.com/posts/show/491

 

And if you don`t take anything away from my blog, make sure you at least see this video about a biker.  Is it inspirational?  Yes, of course.  It makes my little bitching about life in Japan weak sauce.  I`m just a poor boy, nobody loves me...I`m starting to think I`m just a whiny little brat because I`ve gotten everything my way for my entire life.  well, I gotta change soon.  I`ve got to ganbaru...you too.

 

And here`s some 80s videos for you, Andria, if you`re still alive: http://www.milinkito.com/los80.php

 

I have a bit too many things on my plate now.  This week, I played 5 hours of soccer.  There were breaks in between, but pretty much 5 hours of soccer.  I`m sitting in a massage chair now trying to rid myself of all the aches and pains from playing that much.  I ran a hell of a lot, but I`m such a slow runner and my skills are non-existent.  However, I`m having such a great time playing, I don`t really care.  The kids are obviously better than I am.

 

As well, I`ll try to wake up on Fridays for Kung Fu at Tsushima Church.  This will be interesting as the class will be taught by an American.  I thought it could be fun.  How often can I say that I`m learning an ancient Chinese martial arts in Japan (being Chinese myself) taught by a white American from Texas.  There is nothing more than a story to tell my grand children.

 

Other than that, the weather has been really hot here.  Apparently it`ll get hotter.  My poor Canadian blood can`t handle all of this.  Sure, genetically, I`m from warmer climes, but this kind of heat is bad.  I`m always sticky and I think I`ll go through some deodorant quick.

 

Oh well, next month I`m back in Vancouver.  Catch you later.

 

New shoes, they say `Wave`

 

So last week was Golden week so I spent my days running around Japan getting lost and being homeless.  But the trip started out bad to begin with.  Rich came to town and I didn`t expect him to stay so long so there were a few things we had to work out before we could do anything.

 

Monday: Osaka.  I went to Kansai Airport to meet Rich.  I was really late meeting him because of a few problems back here.  Mainly I didn`t wake up on time to catch my bus out there.  I also knew this would be tough since it was Golden week and looking for a place to stay would be next to impossible at this point.  HOwever, during my bus ride, I met another Canadian and he told me where he was staying.  It ended up being a pretty good connection since there was room at the YMCA for us to stay.  The only problme with the Y is the curfew was 10pm so we pretty much missed all the cool shit in Osaka.  We spent 2 nights there.

 

Tuesday: Osaka.  We travelled around and took a few pictures.  I bought a digital camera and came home.  With a 10pm curfew, there`s not much we could have done.  We found a Hockey shop so that was kind of cool.

 

Wednesday: Osaka --> Kyoto.  I went back to the camera shop to redeem my points.  I got 6700 points on my card.  1 point=1 yen so I had a lot of a discount.

When we got to Kyoto, it was about 10am and we started getting worried because by this point we knew we couldn`t stay anywhere.  We spent about 4 hours looking for a place to stay and we couldn`t find anything.  we were stressing out a lot and we hung out in an alleyway for a while.  We met up with Sundeep at 6pm and he said he`d find a place for us.  This never happened.  We met some of his friends and he showed us pictures of all the japanese women he`s conquered since arriving in Japan.  Because he`s East Indian, Japanese people think he`s a black guy.  I guess they are culturally blind here.

Anyway, I got totally trashed while I was here so I don`t have much to say about Kyoto.  we ended up going to an internet cafe and breaking into the bedded cubicles and crashed.  We tried to use their showers too but by then, they were on to us and we were stuck without a shower for a day.

 

Thursday: Nara.  Nara is where the biggest mofo Buddha statue is in Japan.  This thing is massive.  We saw it and took some pictures.  Nara is a city of shrines and temples.  It`s quite modern but strange.  We had a pretty good time in Nara until we had to think of a place to stay again.  We were homeless and felt depressed.  At least, Rich seemed to be down.  But we found a place to sleep and left Nara at 5pm.  Where did we go? 

 

Nara City is in Nara prefecture and since it`s a prefecture, there are many places we could`ve gone.  We went to a Spa called Nara Kekko Land and it was amazing.  Rich is seriously homophobic so he can`t stand the sight of another man`s naked ass so this was a difficult time for him.  As you may know, Japanese spas being public bath houses.  YOu shower and everything with everyone around you.  this can be a problem if you`re not used to it.  But I`ve done this before in Tokyo so I was cool with the naked men.  This spa was in Tenri cicy about 1 hour away from Nara City.  It was really cool and there were lots of people there, probably also unable to sleep anywhere else.  The price was $25 Canadian for the night.  It`s better than a hotel, except you don`t get that kind of privacy.  Oh well, I don`t think that stopped people from having sex.  This was an experience.

 

Friday: Kobe.  Kobe was where I wanted to live when I applied to work for Peppy.  Now that I`ve actually been to Kobe, I feel even more upset that I`m not living there.  Kobe was spectacularly beautiful.  It was like Vancouver.  People were laid back and the scenery was fantastic.  They wre very well rounded.  They also had a Chinatown and I missed Chinese food so much I wanted to go.  However, the food was not authentic enough for me.  Even in Vancouver, they have a closer tie with China.  The worst thing about their Chinatown is the name: Nanking Square.  Ironic isn`t?

 

Saturday: Hiroshima.  I sucked it up and took the Shinkansen to Hiroshima with Rich.  Hiroshima is where a big bomb was dropped if you didn`t know.  It was fun, but that`s about all I can say about Hiroshima.  When I get pictures developed, you`ll see them.

 

This has been a long blog entry.  I gotta go.

 

ugh, errors.

I‘m lost. Rich and I are somewhere in Kyoto but we areN@t too sure where.  We`re having to crash at in ternet caefe. I@m yaburai and tsureda so I can`t talk