Kobe, Osaka, and Missing Home -- Abriged version

Somebody (you know who you are Justice, you insolent boy) recently complained that I write too much in my blog entries. So I will keep this as succinct as possible given that I’ve done a lot in the last week.

Went to Kobe and Osaka for a few days. Had a JET conference in Kobe which wasn’t as boring as expected and the hotel was really nice so I really can’t complain. Partied almost every night, though the Friday in Osaka was by far the best as we went to an awesome place called Pure and danced till about 5 am. There was a hot bartender there with tatts all over his body and he told me he had one on his ass, and then showed me in front of all the other bar patrons. Also realized that I really like Nicole’s peeps from the Island – those are some chill individuals.

Met up with Alison (we used to fence together at U of T) in Osaka. It was nice to see someone from back home and hear some downright dirty-ass stories, Alison-style. It sorta showed me how much I’ve changed since leaving Toronto and made me miss home.

Came back on Saturday and went (with no sleep and directly from the train) to an Iaido enkai with a bunch of toothless Iaido masters. Was asked on a date and proposed to several times. Found a teacher for when I move to Omura though (Yay! He’s a retired Naval Officer, and says he runs a strict class – cool!).

Sunday was my second ever Iaido tournament. Performed well but messed up one part. Was told later that if I hadn’t made that one mistake I would have probably gone pretty far.

Sunday night I had a really deep, dead-to-the-world sleep. Woke up at 9 the next day, after 10 hours of sleep but with a horrendous cold, and thus now look like a piece of turd on my Japanese license which I went to get yesterday.

Well that is as short as I could make all that. Have to work this weekend which sucks poon. Reeeeeeaallly want to be back in Toronto right now because I’m feeling a bit homesick and un-loved.

Also, I really want a hug. That is all.

KOREA PICS

Well I was too busy enjoying myself to take any pictures....but luckily I have responsible, kind friends who took a few nice shots and sent them my way! Seoul, South Korea....I love you!

Sarah and I in a cute little bar in the Fuk the night before leaving for Seoul. 

Drunk in Fukuoka. Again. At this point though, we had no clue that we wouldn't find anywhere to sleep that night..... 

We're in Seoul, South Korea finally!!! And we're ....we're .....well, we're livin it up by hanging out on a street corner...hmmm..... 

Korean food kicks ass. For real! This was some of the best food I've ever had....spicy as hell too. 

Jenny, Me and Lima + bibs. 

I look sexy in bibs. Right? RIGHT??? 

Korean guys are WAAAAY more fun and flirty than Japanese guys. This dude was workin' it.... 

Hello little pony! (I actually did ride Lima shortly after this....but will not post that picture out of consideration for our lady-like reputations...) 

Ok I obviously didn't get the memo that we were supposed to be looking up in this picture....what can I say, I like to flirt with the camera. 

Random festival.... 

Some crazy ass Korean market. 

Check us out! Rrrraaau. We're ready to party it up in Seoul (only wish that I didn't have such a bad farmer's tan......) 

And so the partying begins....not with a bang, but a shot (hehe, a little word play there for ya) 

It was so packed in this club that we could barely walk around....yet somehow we managed to dance (and dirtily at that) quite well... 

Trippy dancing in the club. 

Ok, this was the coolest club ever. Every half an hour or so the sprinklers would come on and soak everyone as they danced. This night in one word? Amazing! 

The girls after many encounters with the sprinkler system.... 

The girls after the club at 7 am.....we were completely soaked!! Not to mention drunk, sleep deprived.... 

Me and Nicole at the end of the trip.....yes, we felt as rough as we looked. 

Raining.

It has been raining like crazy the last couple of days. Today I was informed that, according to the weather forecast, the rainy season has started early this year. Perhaps pathetic fallacy is not only a literary device....

Speaking of literature, my new favourite word is narcotization. Thank you, Chuck Palahniuk. I love when I can express something that would normally take me a paragraph to write in one word.

Postcards from the desert.

A stolen idea from a friend who lives on an island (literally that is, not figuratively), which created the following image:

I stared at the postcards everytime they came. I wondered who they were coming from. The postmark was always from the same place -- somewhere in the American desert states -- but each postcard was from a different country from around the world. A different scene.
The writing was artistic and yet simple and always contained some wise but general advice about random things. This ranged from the importance of honesty as illustrated with a personal anecdote, to the best way to ensure your house was free of spiders. There was also on occasion a drawing. I soon became completely enthralled with the source of these postcards and wanted to know who the mysterious desert artist was that infected my imagination in this way. If only I had been satisfied with these occasional magical wisdoms, however. I later learned that some mysteries are best left not explored. That to seek to know them destroys their magic. At the time, however, I was on a mission to achieve enlightenment at any cost. Little did I know the price that such ambitions would extoll.
Still, would I do it differently now?

I don't know why but the idea of getting random postcards from a stranger in the desert seems incredibly appealing. Thanks Nicole! I need to write that into the large story that I am already working on about a drug addicted club whore who moves to a farm. One thing at at time though......

Man, what a crazy-ass week/weekend. I don't normally talk seriously about emotions, but last week was not fun on a happiness scale. The truth is though, no matter how hard things get I know that now I am relatively good at dealing with myself (um, compared to before that is, because not everyone who sees me on a regular basis would agree with the previous statement I'm sure). However, I have learned the little tricks that can restore my mental sanity. For the most part anyways. I really can't wait to go home for a visit in July though!

A little Seoul......

Over here in Japan the wonderful Golden Week has just come and gone. Golden week is essentially a long sequence of national holidays that occur together and result in a lot of time off during one week. I took two days nenkyu as well to give myself the full week off since my friend Sarah came to visit me from TO.

Well shite was it a good week! The first few days were spent sightseeing around Kyushu and exposing Sarah to all the wonderful facets of Japanese culture (like stripping naked and bathing communally with nosey, old Japanese women for example). We also went to Nagasaki city, but basically we took it pretty easy for the first few days, in preparation for the partying that was to come later in the week.

On Tuesday we went to Fukuoka and met up with Nicole and a few other people. We partied there for two nights, but alas had nowhere to sleep on the second night because everywhere was packed due to Golden Week. We tried to stay in an Internet Café but even that was full so we slept on the street for about an hour before giving up and heading to the airport to catch our flight to Seoul, Korea.

Well sleep deprived and hung-over (and somewhat shaken by a turbulent flight and a complete disregard for gradual landing procedures on the part of our pilot) we landed in Seoul early on Thursday. Not speaking any Korean and having only a vague idea of where our hostel was located, we nonetheless managed to find it with only a few minor mishaps (which even though they were minor, still elicited loud swearing from all of us as we were hot, dirty, exhausted and carrying all of our shit). Once showered and changed though, we all felt much better and thus the flask made it’s first appearance of the night (I think that flask is currently my favourite possession). We were joined in the hostel by three other girls as well, so in total there were 6 of us ready to take the big city down.

Well from there ensued three days of drunken debauchery with one of the most fun groups of people that I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. We danced, we drank, we threw tantrums at idiot western men, we were pleased by how forward and aggressive Korean men were (in complete contrast to the shyness of Japanese men), we met various strange and fascinating characters of all races, religions and sexual orientations and just generally had a kick-ass time. Given how repressive Japanese society is sometimes, it was a welcome change for all of us. And holy shit did we let loose! It’s too bad that most of the girls that I went with are leaving this year, but Nicole and I have made tentative plans to go back (since she is staying another year as well) – especially because we have yet to see the Demilitarized Zone on the North Korean border, which is a good place to face military men with machine guns (and you all know that is my idea of a good time).

All in all Korea was totally different from Japan in so many ways and while I had a good time there, I have to admit it was nice to land back in Japan and be able to get on a subway without being shoved, groped or otherwise manhandled. It also made me realize just how clean Japan really is, and how incredibly efficiently everything runs. At the same time, it also made me resigned to the fact that I am going to be single for the next year unless I make frequent trips outside of the country….. ah well. At least I have my flask.