Copy of the July 2006 Update group email

Hey all.
It`s been 4 months since the last update email, so I guess its time
for another.

Since the last email I've had 2 flatmates move in, & 1 move out (because
of cheaper rent). My existing flatmate (I'm almost accustomed to saying
roommate-how north american is that! Suzanne is going to mock me so bad when I get home with my quasi-American accent and mannerisms!) Kevin has 1 day off the same as
me, so it has been good, being able to travel together, something that
was difficult to do previously. We've been to the mountain near
Yokkaichi, Nagoya the odd time, and some waterfalls on the way to Osaka. We've
also attempted to visit a ninja city but got on the bus & missed our
stop, therefore running out of time, so we called it a day & went to the
800yen all you can eat pizza place.

As i am writing this, I am on a shinkansen back to Nagoya from Mt Fuji.
Kevin, I, and Anandia, (another friend I seem to do a majority of
things with) attempted to climb Mt Fuji last night, however we had to fight
the wind, rain, & terrain. In the end we decided the prudent thing to
do would be to stop and sleep in the hut for the night, and possibly
resume the climb in the morning, if conditions had improved. As it was,
they weren't much better, and lacking many more spare clothes, we headed
down.

In April I did a trip to Osaka, to see my mate before he went home, and
also to visit Kobe, which was a nice place, conveniently sized &
interesting. I managed to complete my sightseeing in Osaka, less Universal
Studios Japan, however I missed the last train back to Yokkaichi, so I had
to stay another night & come back in the morning. Also in April I
partook in the traditional japanese custom of hanami parties (in the park to
view the cherry blossoms, and an excuse to drink beer.)

In June I managed to string 5 days off together (through shift swaps)
and headed down to Hiroshima via Osaka to visit Universal Studios Japan,
and Himeji, to see an original castle there. While visiting Hiroshima,
I stayed with some old Hamilton friends that I used to work with, in a
town 40mins away called Kure.
Universal studios was fun- I dont like roller coasters, so I was glad
the rides were quite tame, however I did feel a little sick after a
couple of them, probably due to the heat. Himeji was interesting, a cool
looking castle, in its original state. Hiroshima of course was an
interesting place too. It was quite beautiful. I went to the peace park and
peace museum, which was sad and eye-opening. I also went to a shrine on
an island, called Miyajima, which was nice, but had lots of
over-friendly deer.
Kure was also nice, surrounded by mountains and ocean, and i also
visited the museum there, as it is and was a naval town.

Since then & between times i have been working hard making up the
shifts, and also seem to struggle to have a night at home, due to the social
calendar kicking in because of summer.
I have one place left in Japan that I want to visit- Nagano & then i can
sign off on Japan. Next month i want to visit Korea, and in the remaining
time here, I envisage seeing China, Thailand, & either Guam or Okinawa. Mum & Dad are also planning to visit in October, so it will rather eventful.
Hopefully i can achieve all this in the time left. I`ve always been someone who works well in the final hours, I kind of need that pressure to make me efficient.
Anyway, Kia kaha and Aroha nui
J

When your going down, go down with both guns blazin`

Sorry folks, its been a while, its just I’ve been kind of busy lately with shift swaps, making up the time for Hiroshima, and more recently, for the trip to Fuji, among other things.

The unfortunate thing about not being a bit more regular with my entries is that some memories are lost in the sands of time, so I will try my best to reconstruct the past month.

Not long after I came back from Hiroshima, we had some kind of party somewhere (there’s been a few, so many in fact I’m happy this week has been very quiet), I think it was at a karaoke bar, and we decided to move the party to a local park, in order to avoid paying more of a fee, or simply because convenience store beer is cheaper than from a pub. Anyway, the reason I bring this up, is because Kevin and I decided to call it a night early on, however on our way home we passed a sushi bar. On the sign outside, it had 50 surrounded by kanji. Previously I had got the impression that that meant each piece of sushi was 50yen. Anyway, being guys we stopped to have a feed, since we thought it was cheap. We went so far as to have raw beef sushi as well, Matsuzaka beef – a famous Japanese beef. However the prices were in Kanji too – to us it looked like a meaningless series of circles and lines. So at the end of the experience we had a bill of 5600yen (roughly $56+) between us. Naturally we weren’t so impressed.

More recently, at the start of this month, an American friend asked me to help her with something. She had some students going to New Zealand, so she wanted to record a Kiwi saying some traditional Kiwi colloquialisms, for example “Sweet as”. It was an interesting experience, hearing myself and making myself say stuff that I haven’t used in 8 months. I think the strangest thing was the fact I seem to enunciate more than I used to. When I first came here, I would say beer and bear the same, also bed, and beard. Now I guess I put more effort into clarity or something. Anyway, I had to get back into the slang mode. There are some things that I have adopted for simplicity, such as “roommate” instead of flatmate, despite my opposition to the use of that description. Since I’ve been here I have been mistaken for an Australian, however more recently I have been asked if I was American. WTF? I guess Kevin’s accent must be wearing off on me.

The following day, Kevin and I went to one of those international parties. It was alright, but at the same time annoying because it is a glorified English lesson, and a bit empty.

The next day I finally had Indian for lunch with Raj and Michelle (the Aussie couple) – a long time plan we had had. Miyuki (Lee’s girlfriend) came too, as I was hanging out with her while Lee was at work.

The next day was Monday – Kevin and I decided to check out the Italian village at Nagoya, something we had heard of. It was OK, but more of an interesting place to take a girlfriend or something, not really a great place for two guys. We ended up having some expensive pizza for lunch.

I actually had the following day off as well; due to a favour shift swap I had done the previous week. So Kevin and I decided that we would check out the Ninja museum etc, which is about an hour and a half away by train. What happened was that we headed there, and we had to make several train changes, as you do. The last one, we were almost there, but we had to wait half an hour for the connecting train to come, which was OK. However, when we finally reached our destination, we asked how do we get to the museum and castle etc. The people at the station pointed to a bus for us to get on… basically we thought if we hoped on the bus, it would take us just to the castle, but instead we missed our stop, and ended up traveling for about an hour before guessing we had missed it. Basically we were so far away from where we should have been, that it wasn’t worth us trying to get back. So we ended up just heading home via a Pizza Hut that Kevin had located near Suzuka, which was 800yen for all you can eat. So the day wasn’t a complete loss.

The following Friday I went to Nagoya with the abovementioned American friend, as I happened to have a shift slide. We went to farewell party at the hard Rock cafe, for a friend of hers. It was OK, but I’m not sure how I fitted into the equation. The funny thing was I actually saw three different people that I had met previously there. It was like I was back in Hamilton – not being able to escape from people I know!

The Saturday night was a quiet one, as I had to work the next day for a shift swap, and because on the Monday we were going to Fuji.

So Monday – we headed to Fuji, on the Shinkansen. The first thing to go wrong was the fact that it wasn’t as cheap as we expected – we had roughly investigated it, and thought it was 3500yen one way, instead it ended up being 6800yen.
The next thing to go wrong was once we got to Shin-Fuji the bus that regularly takes you to the 5th level on the mountain, wasn’t operating that day, because, wait for it… it was a public holiday. Apparently Japanese people don’t climb Mt Fuji on the public holidays available to them in the short two-month climbing season – Yeah right. So we had to split a taxi fare to get there. Basically it was only $10 more each, but it was the principle that annoyed me.
Anyhow we ventured up the mountain, in the dark, and soon it started to rain, reasonably heavily. So eventually we made it to a hut, and decided the prudent thing was to stay the night there, rather than going all the way to the top, especially when the temperature at the top is below zero. The purpose of going at night was to see the sunrise. We decided if the weather was OK in the morning we would attempt it again, however the weather was only marginally better, and we were running out of spare clothes, so we had to call it a day.
As much as it was an expensive exercise and test of patience, staying in the hut was kind of fun, and it was an adventure with good mates. I was happy that it ended up only being the three of us, (Anandia, Kevin, and me) as at the moment they are the people I am closest to over here, and anyone else would have just been a added extra, and would increase the risk of annoying me. The good thing was despite what went down, we didn’t end up hating each other, rather I think it made us closer. Unfortunately Tuesday afternoon I had to head back home to work the next day, whereas Kevin and Anandia had another day and two days off respectively, therefore they headed up the coast. Admittedly I was a little jealous.


This is a packet of chips at high altitude. Sugoi ne?
Anyway, the next day was work as per usual. I actually worked with my kiwi boss for the first time in about a month. At the end of the day we had a bit of a D & M about rugby and work stuff, so that was kind of nice. He has and is videoing the Tri-nations for me, which is cool. He had videoed the Ireland game for me a few weeks ago. It was interesting watching that, seeing the haka, and hearing the anthem, admittedly it brought a slight tear to my eye.

Tonight I hung out with Kevin and Anandia, and watched a DVD called Alfie. It was kind of interesting, it showed the emptiness of womanizing. At some points of the movie I wanted to kick his ask me later.

Tomorrow (Friday) I intend starting the process of getting my reentry permit sorted, so I can go to Korea next month. Today I worked out, that if I play my cards right, I can go to Korea next month, China in September, Thailand in October, have the olds come in October as well, and make it to Guam or Okinawa in November, and go to Singapore on the way home. Choice bro!

Saturday and Sunday I have to work, (another shift swap) and Monday I think I will go to the beach with Kevin, if he doesn’t have to work. I have Thursday off next week because of Sunday.

Today (20th) was actually the marker of me being here 8 months. It has gone so quick recently. The first three months were really slow, but since then it has shot along.

Sorry it has taken me so long to post this entry. It was a case of lack of available time, and struggles with posting pictures. On top of that I was learning about myself. For example, I have noticed when I try to correct one of my flaws, I end up going so extreme, an example being: instead of saying something wrong, I have ended up not saying much at all. On top of all of that I have realised my Christian walk has taken a bit of a backseat, so I am trying to rectify that. I finally have found a local church that speaks English, I have also changed my Japanese lessons to another day other than Sunday, so that will help I hope.
Anyway, Kia Kaha.