Day trip to Kamakura and Yokohama

Hi all!

Yesterday I was taken by my new friend Yumie on a day trip to Kamakura, which was the capital of Japan from 1135-1333 AD. Quite a nice place and it's full of historic things to see, in much the same was as Kyoto and Nara are - in other words, lots of statues, shrines, temples and the like. So we went there in the morning (takes only an hour to get there from Tokyo) and started wandering around! Saw the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine, the Big Buddha at Hase (photos below) and a variety of other crazy things, including this weird cave network full of little statues that you're meant to pray at for good luck, prosperity, fertility etc.

Lunch was a big plate of sashimi. It took me 3 damn weeks to get some of that good stuff into me so I was feeling all good about it all day hehehe. Then we went to the beach - well, coming from Australia it wasn't particularly impressive, but then, coming from CANBERRA maybe it is, actually.

On the way back we stopped in Yokohama (it's about 1/3 of the way back to Tokyo from Kamakura) and wow, that place was really cool! Futuristic buildings, tonnes of shops and restaurants, lots of construction and other cool looking things - at one point I saw 4 layers of roads i.e. ground level and then three separate levels of roads suspended by various pillars above it. Seriously, amazing architecture!

We didn't get back till pretty late, and only when I finally got back did I realise that it was St Patrick's day so we quickly went and grabbed a beer and went home. It was such a fun day but a whole day of walking and talking Japanese (like 9am --> midnight) really took it out of me. So I came home, went straight to bed, and slept for a good 13 hours!! Unbelievable.

Anyway, here are the pictures! Seeya!

A "torii" - the trademark of Japan


Me standing in front of a bloody large statue of the B-Man himself. Apparently he used to be in a big wooden temple but it got destroyed by an earthquake.


Another shot, up closer this time. Actually for 20 yen you can go for a walk INSIDE the statue.


Yumie at the beach in Kamakura


Yokohama Night View!

Good thing to remember No. 1.

When you go to a Yakiniku restaurant (that's the ones with the little barbecue on the table in front of you) and you see something on the menu called "Horumon", remember that that isn't a plate of hormones, it's a plate of bits of intestines. Discovered that last night to my surprising delight but it seems my own intestines weren't quite so delighted by the presence of "their own kind" and promptly discarded the foreign intestines along with all the beer I washed them down with.

Once again, adventure at your own peril :)

Roppongi is fucked!!

If you were to ask me "Max Breaker, what is the worst experience you have ever had in Japan?" I would instantly be able to say "Going to fucking Roppongi!!!!"

This place is a cool looking place with lots of restaurants and karaoke and happening things, but it's just FULL of fucked foreigners and darky hustlers!

Walk out of the train station and within seconds you're accosted by someone - I dunno, Africans I guess, darkies anyway, and they get you to shake their hand and then give you a business card saying "Come into my bar! Hot ladies with revolving (sic) titties!! Gentleman's clubs!!!" Worse still, they follow you up the street!!

Anyway they are always offering some stupid deal like 4000 yen for 2 hours of non-stop drinking. And they always promise that there will be "hot ladies" inside for you to talk to. Anyway, we "negotiated" as much as we could with one guy and it seemed to be OK. Sure enough though, no other customers but us and the "hot ladies" were a mixture of overweight darkies and plastic surgery South Americans. Where are all the Japanese girls at?? Jeez.

So they talked to us for a while but I just couldn't be stuffed talking at all. Just small talk. Ordered a few more beers that took forever to arrive. Arrrrrgh the memories of it are nothing but memories of complete shit.

I mean sure, if you're there on a business trip and you just wanna get some P.I.V. ACTION, then sure, you want bitches - japan's got bitches. But it's complete crap going there if you want anything other than foreigner whores!

So there. My rating for Roppongi is a big fat 0 where 0 is the worst and the possible highest score is 10 to the power of a trillion. Adventure at your own peril.

First day at work

Well, yesterday was my first official day at work - although it doesn't actually seem like it yet because all I'm doing is sitting in on classes taken by the current teacher who hasn't left yet and isn't leaving till April. So, it's more like training by watching. Anyway it's ok.

It takes me about 45 minutes to get there, and I have to ride 3 different trains (for those who care, it's the Tobu Tojo line to Ikebukuro, the Yamanote to Takadanobaba, then the Tozai Metro line to Minami-sunamachi). Cost is 500 yen one way but work pays for that :) The worst is when I have to catch the train back late, like Mondays apparently have the latest class starting at 6:30, so by the time i get on the train home (say, 8 o'clock or so), all the office men are on their ways home and the trains are PACKED to SHIT. Last night it was all i could do not to be accidentally felt up on the train! haha no, just kidding. but we still looked like sardines in a train-shaped sardine tin.

Hmm, here's a random thought. For those who don't remember, I have a room with no windows. I was getting the shits because I'd wake up after x number of hours and still be out of rhythm no matter how many hours I slept, I think because my body didn't see any light and it wouldn't know to start waking up - i.e. I'd be all tired even after sleeping for like 13 hours or something. Well, problem solved! Now I set my alarm half an hour before i need to get up, wake up, turn my heater on and my LAMP, reset my alarm for half an hour later and roll over and go back to bed. So I fall half-asleep, start getting warmer, and start waking up a little bit. In half an hour my room is toasty and I'm ready to get out of bed! Works a charm.

Anyway, that's my genius thought for the day. Now I'm off to work! Seeya!

Got a job!!!

Good news everyone! I got a job at a little home-run English school called Jin-Yu English Club. It is run by one woman who started it for her daughters because she was so unsatisfied with the english classes they were attending, so she started her own! Anyway it has about 60 students aged between 4 and 10 or so, and basically they hire one native-english speaker to take classes of about 6 kids at a time.

So yesterday I went and sat in on one of the classes and jeez it looked fun, and easy!! These kids look like they WANT to learn (i.e. it's not part of school so they're only there cos they want to be), and they were all really energetic and happy and actually, their English was pretty good!

So yeah, it looks like a lot of fun. I start on Monday at 4pm - this first week I'll probably just be sitting in and helping out the current, departing native-speaker, this American guy named James, until I get it all worked out and then can take over from him in April.

But yeah, 250,000 yen a month, transport costs covered, and since it's a little school, I can probably negotiate my own holidays and stuff. So new laptop, here I come!

get this everyone...

You guys won't believe this, but i am blogging from a Nintendo Wii! That's right, I am typing each letter by pointing the remote at an on-screen keyboard!

Awesome!

Furthermore, I have another job interview tomorrow!

Ok, seeya!

First Job Interview

Had my first job interview today. I thought it might have been good and it offered 250,000 yen a month. With a company called Kids International.

Was greeted at the door by a mid-20s Japanese girl who spoke unbelievably good english, and she told me to sit and wait. Then an older, balding Japanese man came and sat down and in a thick American accent said "Naaaiiice to meeetcha!" And then he gave me the spiel.

Basically the jist is this. I don't TEACH them anything per se, instead I would be "providing an international environment for 0.5 to 12 year olds". Eat with them, take them to the toilet, wipe their bums as well probably. Sigh. Furthermore if i were to start, first I'd have to do a 4 hour unpaid trial. Then 3 days of 1000 yen per hour trial. Then go on reduced pay (230,000 yen per month) for 3 months. THEN go on full pay (250k/month) from then. Holidays? Well you accumulate 1 day per month. But you can't take any till your 7th month. So in the 7th month, you can take 7 days, but (and i quote) "you can't take them all at once!". Also sick days come out of holidays.

Anyway they were exceptionally nice. They understood that I am "in the recruiting stage at a lot of places" so I have till Monday to get back to them. Honestly, I don't think I'll take it. Sure it looks mega easy but it looks like a big pain in the freshly-wiped 0.5 year old bum. And I want my month of paid holidays like all the school-based teaching companies are offering.

Oh well, regardless, it WAS fun walking through the streets of Gotanda, Tokyo in my suit, although my new shoes gave me blisters on my heels god damn it! It's funny, when Japanese see a whitey, they give them a stare. But when they see a whitey in a suit with a tie and everything (helps if you're wearing sunglasses too), they give a long stare, like they're trying to perceive you from every different angle. Very strange and very noticable.

So, now I'm just chilling out in my windowless basement guesthouse, using my neighbour's computer like he said I could. Still have to find a map of this area so I can find the supermarket - everyone else who lives here or HAS lived here keeps saying there are no supermarkets nearby, but it's cheaper just to eat out at any one of the little food shops that dot the street between here and the station and around. And that's probably true - hell I went to 7-11 for dinner tonight and brought home a big plate of noodles and chicken nugget type things for 368 yen (~AU$4).

Aiight, wizz out.

Some more stuff...

Ok I am borrowing my new neighbour's computer at the moment, so it affords me a few moments to update my blog and stuff!

So, what's new... well, I moved into this place yesterday and then today i went to a shop called Nitori (which is like the Japanese IKEA) and bought $50 worth of stuff. But $50 goes a long way at Nitori! That was a cushion for my chair, two lamps and a set of bedsheets!

Furthermore, when I got home I looked behind this mysterious door (I was just exploring) and found a treasure trove of furniture! Must be left overs from the renovation that happened to this place last year or something. Anyway, using a combination of what i bought and what i "found", my room is looking pretty schmick! Below are some photos.

Also tomorrow I have a job interview for an english-teaching kind of job, except that it's more like babysitting I fear. I mean, the students are between 2 and 8 or something. 2?!?? What am i going to teach them? how to say "poo poo's and wee wee's"? "duck! cow! quack! moo!". All the meanwhile there are security cameras on us so over-protective parents can log in on the net and check what their little diddumses are up to. Give me a break. So anyway, I intend tomorrow to tell them "Thanks for the offer, I actually have a few other offers that I am considering at the moment..." and see what they do. I mean basically I want paid holidays, the ability to take some holidays whenever I want, and to not have to work weekends or public holidays. Is that too much to ask? Seemingly not, since every other company offers it...

Anyway, next time I come on here I'll undoubtedly have news. So until then, enjoy these photos of my room (and my dinner).







(This meal cost me 398 yen. Dirt cheap but tasty!)

You know what i love?

Shinkansen!

Found a place!

Well, I'm moving out of Saitama tomorrow and into Naka-itabashi! Found a great place there - large room, free electricity and internet, clean and renovated building, should be great! All for only 61,000 yen a month and that's INCLUDING utilities :)

So, until i get a computer this blog may not be updated so much, but I'll see what i can do. I'll try and get some photos up at some stage so until then, just know that I am happily making my new life in Tokyo in a cool new place just minutes from the city!

Until next time, then!

UPDATE: Here's the link for the place. I am in room B-08. Also it seems there IS a PC in the common area - well, according to this website anyway - so until I start working that'll be useful.

Only in Japan...

Found some rather amusing items at everyone's favourite store, Don Quixote...

UNIQLO

I forgot to mention that I bought some jeans from UNIQLO, possibly the best store in the entire world. You know how people say Japan is expensive? Well, sure, rent is a bit much and owning a car is practically impossible for anyone who's not a millionaire (because of exhorbitant parking fees and taxes), but food and clothes are DIRT CHEAP! While I was in Shibuya I stumbled across one of these fabulous stores and found a completely cool looking pair of jeans (which, in Australia would most definitely be close to $90 or $100) for 3990 yen or AU$43.56.

I can't remember the last time I found clothes of this quality for such a low price. AND if you're lucky, you can stumble into this store during a clearance and get the same stuff for half price! As for food, well, after buying my jeans I went to a noodle restaurant - you know one of those ones with the wooden bar and the stools - and got a giant bowl of soup noodles with what could only be described as half a pig's worth of pork floating in it, AND a bowl of rice, for 600 yen (AU$6.50).

Seriously, this rocks.

Photos from Shibuya

Went exploring all by myself for the first time today, and decided to go and visit Shibuya, just one of Tokyo's main shopping districts. Check out the lights and signs on the buildings and also, the amazing number of people crossing the road at this busy intersection in the photo with HMV in the background.

(photos still crap - is it the camera phone? or am I just shaking it around or something!?!)

Tokyo is a three-dimensional city!


Q-Front building with giant screen


Honestly, there must be 1000 people crossing this intersection every 30 seconds...


Bright lights in the street malls of Shibuya


Some pretty lights

Response!

Got a response from one of the three jobs I applied for yesterday, saying that I have passed the initial screening process and now have to fill in some email questionnaires and whatnot.

Check it out here.

I told you guys it wouldn't take long! Check out the pay, 250-280k yen a month, that's like between AU$2690 and $3013 per month. Cool!

Cold, cold, cold

Cold and windy today... nothing much occurring.

Applied for 3 jobs today and sent email inquiries about two places to live, so hopefully I'll hear from some of them in the next few days.

Haven't really done anything - except go to the supermarket and eat tsuna-mayo o-nigiri (tuna and mayonnaise rice balls wrapped in seaweed), but soon we might go to this hamburger family-restaurant type of place called "Bikkuri Donkey".

Great!

Got the photos

Ok they are a bit blurry but here are the ones I took in Akihabara. Remember i'm just trying to work out this phone so i obviously didn't have it on night mode or anything. Oh well, let's just say... "the quality will increase".

Akihabara

Went to Akihabara today and actually, took some pictures on my phone. But until I find the damn CD for the computer I can't actually download them. So, when i work it out, i'll post some of the cool photos of it.

Anyway, we explored Yodobashi Camera, a massive camera/electronics store with about 8 levels. On one of the floor we found a whole range of BB guns, like full-on shotguns and assault rifles just hanging there on the wall, hehe.

Went to McDonald's and got (for the three of us) one big mac set, one teriyaki burger set, two chicken burgers and two cheeseburgers - all for 1570 yen! Haha although Japanese McDonald's is still oily - I can feel the oil leaking out of the skin on my face as I am typing hehe.

Oh well, that's it. You can probably expect photos soon. As soon as i work this crap out anyway.

Keitai Denwa!

Went to Akabane and bought a mobile phone today on the AU network - free with a $50 a month plan or something (actually my friend did all the talking for me so she worked out a good deal). These phones can do everything - email, watch tv, play music with headphones, AND you can also use it at the train stations and convenience stores - you put money on it and can just wave it at the turnstiles to catch trains and stuff! Convenient, ne? And i got to pick my own number - well, the final four digits anyway - so you know what I chose?

1 3 3 7 :)

Awesome.

Don Quixote

Went to a shop at about 2am last night called Don Quixote, not far from where I'm staying in Saitama. This shop was absolutely amazing - it's like a variety store, but it sells literally EVERYTHING. AND! It's open till 5am every day! Want a $2500 television at 3 in the morning? No problemo! Clothes, bags, jewellery, all sorts of food (it has a supermarket section), vacuum cleaners, stereos, hell, it's even got Rolex watches. Basically, if it's not in this shop, it doesn't exist.

Need a new electric massage wand at 4:30am? Don Quixote to the rescue!

Registered.

Went to the City Office today and registered as an alien. Despite being forewarned that the non-english speaking staff and the bureaucratic methods by which they check, and check, and check again for the legitimacy of a foreigner's visa etc., the process was actually rather easy and took no longer than twenty minutes!

So, stage 1 is complete, onto stage 2, getting a mobile phone! I think for this one I might need some "native assistance".

Exploring.

Caught the Saikyou-line to Shinjuku today, that's just one of the many big places full of bright neon signs that has a sort of "entertainment-district" (restaurants and arcades and bars and whatnot), but nearby is also a business district full of some unbelievably enormous buildings. One of them, the Tokyo Government Building, has an observation deck on the 45th floor. Amazing night views!! And Tokyo just has this really amazing three-dimensional feel about it - you'll be on ground level, but the streets will be suspended above you, or you'll go down some stairs to some massive underground shopping plazas. It's just so massive, so awe-inspiring. It just "smells like money."

Anyway we just came back and ate japanese curry for dinner, which was good because after walking around town for just a few hours we were starving! So, now we're just going to drink some beers and probably have a slightly earlier night than we did last night (6am, lol!).

Tomorrow i plan to write my resume, but also i have to go and get a foreigner registration card, and perhaps a bank account too...

Ok, enough for now. Seeya!

Arrival

well, it's 9:50pm Japan time and i finally made it. I am now in Saitama, one station out of Tokyo! It's about 6 degrees and I'm about to go ride to the shops and get some beers. God knows, that after lugging a suitcase through the streets of tokyo, changing trains and whatnot, one deserves a 500ml can of the good stuff.

So, more to come...

Moving 40gb of data to an iPod...

... has taken close to two hours.

On another note, packing for a move overseas is utterly shit.

3 sleeps to go!

4 sleeps to go!

Well, here it comes! Only 4 sleeps until I fly to Tokyo. I plan to be there approximately 10 months - from the 24th of February to the 15th of December - and it is still unconfirmed whether I will return for more after that. I am doing a working holiday, so the first thing I have to do once I arrive (apart from find my own place) is find a job! I guess it will be English teaching for now, as I have a degree and a working holiday visa, which should put me a cut above most of the other foreigners there, also it pays anywhere between 230,000-300,000 yen/month.

So much to do before I leave though! Cancel/transfer internet/phone, buy stuff (like gravox which apparently they don't have in Japan), empty my computer onto my ipod, update my resume etc. Crazy times.

I am looking forward to buying a digital camera in Japan and updating this blog with actually interesting stuff for all my fans to read! So, look forward to that I guess... At the very least this way I won't have to write a thousand emails to you all... hehe.

Another!

Oops!

i forgot to post the previous song as well. This one was sort of accidental, but i like it anyway.

bizarre!

Piano music

A new song - this time a long (5m55s - too long?) piano piece.

Actually, I wrote this long ago before I was even able to record (before I had the program, or the keyboard), and just remembered it for like, 3 years until now.

So, finally i keyed it in. Actually by the end of it i was so god damn frustrated, which is ironic because according to the 2 people who have heard it so far, it is quite relaxing (read: boring?). You be the judge.

Chillax!

money is good

In fact, it's GREAT.

I've saved > $1000 in about 3 or 4 weeks, and that includes buying a number of new clothes, paying bills, and going out every weekend and getting so drunk that i forget my own name!

Love it!

latest musical offering

Played around again with Reason 3.0 tonight. This is nothing special, I just like the instruments really.

Since i haven't played with it for ages, I figured I might as well put it up here.

Enjoy!

Not the best two weeks of my life

Yo,

So, seriously, things have been so crazy and mostly shithouse for the last 2 weeks that you know, I feel like it's worth putting here. That way at least when things get good, I can look back on this and appreciate it all the more.

So here's what's gone down:

1. After a weekend away in Sydney, a friend of mine of about two years and I fall out. He is a compulsive liar, with a gambling problem, and a super-arrogant annoying facade.

2. A friend from Jujutsu class (i.e. part of the "jujutsu family") passes away from a diabetes-related heart condition.

3. Got into a fight with a busker on the street after he pickpocketed my friend. However, my friend managed to reprocure the wallet and run away, WITHOUT telling me. Hatred of this lack of responsibility ensues! So when the busker starts chasing him, I think he still has the wallet, and I give chase. Result: Unharmed busker (i took him down carefully) and one fucking painful and bloody nose for me that still hurts a week later. Then he tries to sue me for $260 (that's including $50 "loss of income", lol!).

4. A week after point 2 occurs, a message is received saying that another acquaintance has hanged herself! Then it is revealed that it was her ex-boyfriend who sent the messages. But just TODAY it is further revealed that actually it was HER who sent the message in order to get revenge on HIM for something else! Seriously, so soon after someone I actually like dies, to have this thrown in and then pulled out again is actually rather painful.

5. 11 hour casual work during the day, between the hours of 5am and 9pm. The boss picks on me for shits and giggles (just in the last couple of weeks!) This combined with World Cup Soccer (which Australia LOST) results in a weakened immune system and a cold.

6. Last night, a reclusive friend who I've been trying to get off everyday marijuana and I fall out, for the second time. Recently he told me "Yes, I've given weed up." He's the most odd person I've ever met (although smart at times), but last night he got overly sensitive (not the fucking first time) about another friend of mine whom he thought was laughing at him. Or so that's how it looked (and he denies it now, the pothead). He storms out without a word and drives home, with my keys, sunglasses and jacket in his car. Not responding to any phone calls or messages, I end up having to catch a cab to my friend's house, and growing increasingly anxious because it's -3 degrees, and I have to be at work at 5:30am the next day (I ended up an hour late). Finally at 4:30am he calls me up, and I yell abuse at him down the line. He comes to my friend's house and I open the car door and a cloud of green smoke pours out of it. What a fuckwit.

7. Upcoming move to Japan delayed from October to January.

So, the end result is one friend dead, two friends now on non-speaking terms, and one whose respect has just gone down the toilet. Furthermore, emotions having been toyed with regarding the (non)death of another acquaintance. Also a busted nose, a possible court case (unlikely, though), sickness, lack of sleep, loss of World Cup, and now I have to wait a further three months before I can get out of here.

All that in 2 weeks. Crazy hey! Well I guess 3 good things have happened though, come to think of it. One, despite losing a lot of friends in a short period of time, I am hanging out more and more with my new Sri Lankan friend now. He's cool, and likes drinking haha. The night of the fight I got it on with a slamming hottie (yes, I mean a girl) while in Canberra's only gay club (lol! it was my first time in there. weird!), and then today at work they tell me they've been underpaying me because of a computer glitch and that I can expect $100 a week extra in my weekly pay for the next 4 weeks :)

So maybe things aren't THAT bad after all...

Ole!

Here we come, fuckers!

Big Gay Bundanoon

Hello! Long time no write!

Well, I just got back from a weekend away for my boss's 50th birthday party in the counry town of Bundanoon. It was pretty good i guess. Except for the very large number of the campest gay middle aged men.

Seriously, except for that it was good. The hotel was really nice - an old early 1900's hotel with a bar downstairs and rooms upstairs. The main street of the town was just a short walk from the hotel. So we had coffee a fair few times in the little country cafes.

So we left at 1pm on friday.. got there by about 3. Checked into the hotel and then headed off to a house down the road where about 10 of the other guests were staying. There were about 60 guests in total - all paid for by my boss.

Now, of the 60 or so people, about 50 of them were gay men! My boss is a mega homo you see. And he invited all his gay friends - most of them are in couples of elder white fat man and young asian boy. It was pretty gross, i thought.

Now let me say here, I'm not gay right. But unlike a lot of my friends, it doesn't bother me to be around them! Since i came back i've been paid out constantly by my friends for going on this weekend. For example, I was so drunk both nights i was there that i was feeling so sick by the time i got back to Canberra. So I would say to my friends back home "Oh jeez, I feel so sick in the guts"

Their answer: "Must be from all that semen you ingested over the weekend."

Anyway, the gayness was pretty freaky but I could totally handle it. I wouldn't be surprised, however, if I am told next time i go to work that some of the fags there "fancied me". Yeuurgh. Anyway my butthole is intact, so that's all we need to worry about.

So yeah, back to the story. Friday night, we get there, head off to this house for a massive barbecue. All kinds of meat and salads and stuff, and loads of wine. We all got shitfaced and then headed back to the hotel.

After a restless night's sleep (my roommates were snoring like trains), i got up and we went to this place called Fitzroy Falls - in the Morton National Park. So we just walked along the little tracks and got to see some amazing landscapes and a big waterfall. It was so windy!

We came back from that and then I went into the huge hall where the party was to be held and started practising the piano (I had been invited mainly because the boss wanted me to play an hour of 'dinner piano' during the pre-dinner cocktail hour). I was a bit nervous and as time went on I got even more nervous! There was another guy there, one of the older gents who had a young asian boyfriend (yeeeuck) who could play piano really well in this jazz style. He basically told me over and over not to worry.. but you know, performance is by definition a bit nerve wracking.

Thankfully, when the time finally came to play piano, i came to the realisation that in a setting like that with so many people chatting and drinking champagne, it doesn't actually matter WHAT the pianist plays. The thing is, everyone recognises the thematic songs (like piano man, don't cry for me argentina, beatles songs etc) but when you're not playing one of them, people love it even though they're not really paying attention. In other words, people can hear the piano, but they're not listening to it.

So once i realised that no one was really noticing or anything, i relaxed a lot and just got into the groove. i tried to take a few requests and actually managed to do some pretty good impromptu adlibs. Like someone would say: "can you play so-and-so?" and i would be like: "i don't know, let's see!" And i'd try and play it for the first time ever and (as is my god-given talent), get it right. hehe! Cue everyone saying: "wow, that's amazing!!!"

So, it went alright. Once i'd finished, i got up to take a whizz and when i came back, someone had generously left me a $20 note in a little jar that was on the piano. Funny, I had been playing "piano man" that night... I just remember the line about "putting bread in my jar"...

There was a cute girl there actually. Which was good, because the other 50 guests were gay men being ultra gay and kissing each other on the lips and stuff. It was freaking me out so i'm very glad this girl was there. She was pretty cute, and she was totally impressed by me (and probably thankful that there was at least one straight guy under 35 there). So we .... did stuff... haha. Nothing too much actually, cos her grandma was chaperoning her. Damn it!!! But actually I'm going to sydney this weekend so i think she's going to come and hang out. haha! i've met her once! oh well, nothing wrong with some good clean 17 year old fun.

So then on sunday we went to another lookout-spot called Echo Point. Pretty amazing actually. You'll see in the photos I'm attaching... ... And then we drove back home! It's been a bit strange, 2 nights and 3 days surrounded by a very large bunch of the gayest men you've ever seen. It was like a total escape from reality hanging out with them and it was a bit scary. And now that i'm back to reality it really felt for a while like it was a longer time away! I went to work today (at my other job, not the one where all these people were from) and i was like: "oh that's right, there are HEAPS of hot girls around!!!" It was like the 2 days without any girls (apart from that one 17yo girl) had made me forget how many girls are around and how hot they can be! Phew! Thank god I'm not gay - I don't think i could live without being able to perv on the cute little things walking around :)

Anyway, it was a very weird weekend and I'm back now - i didn't have to spend a dollar so the whole weekend yielded me a $20 profit. Apparently the whole weekend cost my boss $6000, but after he got drunk and told me how much of a money spinner the business he owns is (i.e. the hotel for schoolkids of which i am an employee), i don't feel so bad about the fact i got through the weekend, aside from the piano-playing, scott free.

Next weekend I head up to sydney for my ex-housemate Steve's 21st birthday party. That should be even bigger than this last weekend. Too bad I have to pay for it. :)

Ok, Seeya!


The town of Bundanoon (pop. ~2000)


The Bundanoon Hotel




Various shots of and from Fitzroy Falls


The view from Echo Point


My boss in his birthday present - bright pink fairy overalls :)

A bit old now but still fucking awesome...

... is the song "My Immortal" by Evanescence. Make sure you get the 'full band' version for the epic drum finale!

you motherfucking cunts

I got a letter from the Japanese Embassy today REJECTING my application to the 2006 JET Programme. Can you believe that? I speak Japanese and have already got experience teaching English in Japan. Those motherfuckers!

Reassuringly, however, is the knowledge that they want total noobs to participate in JET, and I know I'm not the only one who can speak Japanese and has missed out on JET. Something to do with the fact that they don't want people to speak Japanese in class. Stupid!

Well, back to the drawing board. I guess I'll just have to save up enough money to get over there. With a degree and a working-holiday visa, it should be no problem.

God damn it though!

i am the pwnage, bitches

I just had the shits today with how many idiots actually fall for this kind of shite.

"Hey it is Andy and John the directors of MSN,

Sorry for the interruption but msn is closing down. Seriously.
This is because too many inconsiderate people are taking up all the names
(eg: making up lots of different accounts for just one person), we only have
578 names left.

If you would like to close your account, DO NOT SEND THIS MESSAGE ON.
If you would like to keep your account, then SEND THIS MESSAGE TO EVERYONE
ON YOUR CONTACT LIST.
This is no joke, we will be shutting down the servers. Send it on, thanks.

WHO EVER DOES NOT SEND THIS MESSEAGE, YOUR ACCOUNT WILL BE CLOSED AND YOU
WILL COST £10.00 A MONTH TO USE.
SEND THIS TO EVERYONE ON YOUR CONTACT LIST.
NOW YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO.
PLEASE DO NOT FORWARD THIS or REPLAY.
COPY THE WHOLE EMAIL.
GO BACK TO YOUR INBOX AND CLICK ON NEW. AND PASTE.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION"

I actually got forwarded this by a guy who actually believed it, and sent it to me and a number of others!

So, in the spirit of pwning n00bs, i wrote back:

"OK look,
Everyone knows that if Microsoft were to start charging for MSN, 99% of the people who use it would stop, and move over to another free messaging service.
Furthermore, that stupid BBC News Article that was posted in that last email was published in 2001 about Microsoft "maybe" introducing new services that it would charge for.
2001 people, come on. Pay attention here. They weren't even talking about charging for MSN, only the possibility of adding some extra features which they could charge for. That's right kids, 5 years ago.
Finally, there is a link directly from said website that takes you to this page: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4778046.stm , entitled: "Thousands fall for Hotmail prank".

Duuuuuhhhhhh.
p.s. "Hey it is Andy and John the directors of MSN, "
LOLROFL do you actually think that the directors of MSN (uh, don't you mean of Microsoft) would introduce themselves in a different way than "Hey it is Andy and John."? Perhaps they'd have a nice letterhead and put it at least in something slightly official-looking, rather than in a haphazard email. 578 names left? Oh no! Have we run out of letters? Better invent some more! How about some little crazy pictographs of people stabbing things and stuff. Yeah.. yeah.. sweet."

Seriously, how can people use computers and do whatever-else it is they do as well as they do it every day when they fall for things like this? The mind boggles.

A proud moment

After a week and a half with Reason 3.0 at my disposal, I've pretty much completed a song. I don't have a microphone yet, so assume that melodic, treble sound to be a voice .. one day.

Here it is!

New Developments

I'd just like to make a note of some of the new things that are happening these days, for the sole purpose of having a record of when they happened:

1. My second job (or rather, my first job working with kids) begins again in earnest this week! Fucking FANTASTIC! Now that I have two jobs I can stop being so poor.

2. Once again, I dyed my hair.

3. After much procrastination, I finally "acquired" and installed a music sequencing program, in this case, I got Propellerhead Reason 3.0. God only knows why I was so lazy to get into it, as creating music is for me one of the most satisfying feelings in life. Who knows, if I make a song that I can confidently believe is not bad, I may post it. But not yet. Haha.

4. A friend of mine has moved into my house for 3 weeks, breaking up the monotony of living here by myself. I just wish he'd stop flashing his arse! :|

5. Not that I'm particularly interested in sport, but last night Australia was playing South Africa in the final of the 5-game one-day series. Australia batted first, getting a World Record of 434 runs in 50 overs - a phenomenal score that beats the old record of 398. There was surely no chance that South Africa would get even close. But lo and behold, they start smashing balls all over the place, and got to 435 with one ball left in the game! This is unheard of!!! We held the world record for a total of ONE innings! I don't really care much about sport but that is by far the most exciting game of cricket I've ever seen.

6. Finally, my isp (iinet) has upgraded my connection to "up to 24,000kbps" with 20gb of downloads. That, plus the cost of the line rental (the 'bundled' deal) only sets me back $83 a month. Not bad at all.

Just another reason not to be a Muslim...

What the hell is going on here?

Cutting their heads to show their faith or something? Seriously, I'm all for freedom of religion but anyone who does that is just fucking stupid.

New trend in girls' clothes

What is with this annoying trend these days for girls to wear short shorts and BIG SUNGLASSES that make them look like blowflies?

According to a friend of mine, it began further north, in Queensland or something, and then has spread everywhere. There are two big problems with this stupid trend:

1. Shorts, despite tightly gripping the buttocks and looking quite nice on girls with an ass smaller than two oversized watermelons fighting in a pair of pants, make it exceptionally difficult to take ninjashots.

2. Those stupid glasses are so old fashioned and they make girls look like flies. Have you ever thought that maybe they are wearing such big glasses to cover up their ugly faces? While they're all wearing sunglasses, you can hardly see the condition of their skin or the juxtapositioning of their features. Oh! What a handy disguise! Thank god there's yet another way to cover up your ugly mug! Why not try eating better or not getting absolutely maggots drunk every night and your skin on your face might look a bit nicer.

It might be alright if only a few girls were wearing the same outfit - it's just that lately it's gotten to plague proportions to the extent that I can't tell the difference between one girl and another except by the colours they have chosen.

It's amazing, actually. I'll try and get a photo of it one day.

Parking in town...

... is a fucking joke!! $8 for 4 hours. How are people supposed to go to work in town when it is so ludicrously overpriced? I mean, it's not really THAT much compared with Sydney or other places, but to go to work every day and pay $8 when you're only working for 4 hours is super annoying.

The answer: public transport. As much as I hate it (the derros, the small seats etc.), the $2.60 return trip shits all over the inconvenience of having to find a park, then pay $8 + petrol expenses for it.

So here's a big GET STUFFED to the assholes who make it so prohibitively expensive.

Why do FM104.7 listeners love fireworks SO much?

I went to Canberra's yearly fireworks show, 'Skyfire' tonight. Sponsored, like its equivalents in other cities (well, Adelaide at least) by FM 104.7, that simple "appeal-to-the-lowest-common-denominator-yet-everybody's-favourite" radio station. Ok, i'll listen to it a bit and watch their fireworks. Hey, it's free, and who doesn't love fireworks?


(pathetically, that was the only photo I got)

Ok, it was cool anyway. Afterwards on the drive back into the city, 104.7 was having all these 'post-skyfire' interviews. "What did you think?" they would ask people. The weird thing was that people were actually saying that it was 'very emotional', and "when that song came on and the fireworks went off, I had tears in my eyes!"

What the hell is with that? It was fireworks. I don't get how they make you cry. Someone explain this to me please.

New Look

As you can see I have changed the template of my blog. I was just beginning to feel that the dark background wasn't adequately reflective of how i'm feeling at the moment! Hopefully the brighter background will rekindle my spirit of blog-posting, which has as its innate requirement a life that is sufficiently exciting to write about.

Basically, this is an easy way for me to 'start afresh' and who knows... maybe THIS time something will come good out of it!

Meanwhile, here's a picture with a small thumbnail.



"meow!!"

The Ice Cold Kitchen Evolution

Here are pictures, in chronological order, of the renovation of my kitchen. All parts are from IKEA in Melbourne.


The kitchen before we started. Notice the annoying breakfast-bar thing that halves the size of the whole room.


Breakfast bar knocked out, cabinets being removed.


Cabinets fully removed and plumber fixing the hot water system (which we broke in trying to move ourselves!)


New tiles, one IKEA cabinet built and positioned. Notice the forty-year-old galvanised iron pipe in the wall.


Cabinets being assembled, pipe now cut short.


The shit that fell out of that forty-year-old pipe when we cut it off!


More cabinets assembled, now standing on legs and fixed to the wall.


All cabinets now fixed to wall. The cool metal things you see in the middle of the picture are actually rotating baskets - they pull out and you can store heaps of stuff in them.


New wall cabinets! My world record time in assembling one of these cabinets - 9 minutes.


Cool laminex benchtops!


New carpets! Sink and hotplates! Extra cabinet at front left!


New tiles! It's nearly done!

And finally, the completed kitchen and living room. Drum roll please.



Total cost (including plumbers' fees, sinks, hotplates and all the other stuff that didn't come from IKEA): ~$6000. Not bad considering the next door neighbours spent over $15,000 for a kitchen not bigger nor better!

Total time taken: 22 days (but we had about 4 days off in the process).

Total impressiveness: 5000 points plus the new ability to make girls 'drop trou' on entry.

Awesome!

JET Programme Part 1 - Interview

Went today to the Japanese embassy for the JET interview. Got up nice and early (9:30am (hehe)), donned my shirt, tie, nice pants and nice shoes and off I went expecting to be grilled and questioned for ages. How wrong I was!!

After waiting in the foyer for 5 minutes, I am called in to see the panel. Entered a nice room with plush leather couches and marble coffee tables. Four people are in the room, one the First Secretary of Cultural Affairs (the only Japanese person in the room), one ex-JET, one of the JET coordinators, and some other guy who for whatever reason, I can't remember very well! I think he said his name was Jasper Jasperiton or something equally bizarre. That's why I can't remember it!

So I sat down and they started asking me questions in turn. They were pretty easy actually and I was feeling OK about everything. Questions like "Why are you interested in the JET program?" were very simple to answer. Some of the later questions were a bit tricky though - "How would you characterise the Australian identity in Japan?" or "How would you deal with a situation where you are not being informed of important school events because you are not Japanese?" I answered with suitably 'Australian' answers and I felt like I did ok.

One of the questions towards the end was "Why did you choose Chiba city as your first preference?" I answered truthfully - that I have a friend who lives in Tokyo, but moreover, I have already spent over a year living in the Kansai region of Japan, and am interested in the Kantou region for a change! The First Secretary then replies: "Actuarry, you made a good choice - my home shitty (city) is Chiba shitty!" Perfect.

In the end, the whole thing only lasted about 10-15 minutes! I was out of there lickety split. Now I just have to wait till April for them to tell me whether I'm in or out. I feel pretty good and I meet all the qualifications and more - if they don't take me, they're crazy!!

A New Beginning...?

Well, it's been a long time since I made any posts here. I guess things were getting a little crazy for a while! Let's try and summate what's been going down:

1. I moved out of the share-house I was living in (see this post to know why that was such a good thing) I moved into a 40 year old apartment a bit further north of the Canberra city centre. It looks a bit like this:



At least it DID look like that soon after I moved in! At the moment, my father is here renovating. It looks like this right now:



The stupid barricade that separates the two halves of the room in that photo above is now gone, and a new kitchen is currently UNDER CONSTRUCTION. (I'll post pics when it's done.)

2. I ran out of money. In fact, I'm STILL out of money. After graduating and losing my student payments from Centrelink, and my job at the hotel on summer holidays, I had to take another job at an Italian cafe/restaurant in the city. It's not so bad - I get free lunch for one thing. But I don't get nearly enough shifts and it's still fucking waitering work. I spend most of my free time applying for full-time jobs on the internet but to no avail so far. However, I have the interview for the 2006 JET program in 5 days time, so hopefully that'll go alright. Last night I was offered a temporary job as a tradesman's assistant working on a massive highway extension in Canberra, and that a 40-50 hour week would net me $1500. Well, anyone who knows me knows how I feel about tradesmen, but it's hard to argue with $1500 a week. More news as it happens.

3. I had an interview for one of the branches of the Department of Defence. I had to go out-of-town for testing and then have a psychological test. I shouldn't really say anymore about that. But I'll tell you that according to the psychologist I am "manic" (i think that means excited and bursting with energy for stuff), I have a "sense of grandiosity", am a "stimulus-seeker", have an "inflated sense of self-esteem", and am not very 'tender-minded' or empathetic. Tell me something I don't know, bitches!

4. As of last week I am going out with a nice girl! It's still early days yet so I won't say too much. Again, more news as it comes to hand.

5. Haha! Most people I know have to go back to uni again next week. That's what they get for dilly-dallying and failing classes. Not like yours truly, who completed the entire degree at maximum speed without failing anything, and I didn't even borrow a book from the library the entire time! That's something to be proud of :)

6. My mother tripped over while at a tap-dancing class, shattering her elbow. Damn those slick shoes!

7. I joined two bands as a keyboard player. Well, it's really just a group of people having a jam at the moment. I've had two jam sessions, both were pretty fun. But I think i might've underestimated the amount of practice and dedication that are required. Actually, that might be bullshit. The annoying thing is that not many other people can just play things by sound. They are very focused on handwriting (sigh!) these scores of music with ridiculous chords and strange rhythms. I just want to do it by the sound, man! I mean, i know what an A-flat-minor-9th chord is, but it feels like having it written down and then being expected to make the most of it in someone else's style seems counter-intuitive. Who knows. I think I should just concentrate on making my own.

Hmm, I can't think of anything else... At the moment my house is a total pigsty because of the renovations. It'll be fantastic when it's done but until then it's a bit hard to call up the usual 20 hot chicks for the weekly naked fiesta party held on my balcony. That's right, you heard me correctly - i said 'balcony'.

So, now that my life has progressed from uni-student, to 'summer-holidays party-animal' to 'get-down-to-business man', I feel like I might have some more interesting things to write about - the crazy stuff that happens and my thoughts about it. Perhaps not for anyone but myself to read, but at least it provides an outlet for the large number of things that swim in my head all day. Hmm, maybe that's what the psychologist was on about...

Anyway, back to assembling IKEA cabinets for now... I'll sign out by posting some random pictures.

Scarlett Johansson AND Keira Knightley naked. Does it get any better?


3D porn! Can you see it?


A freakin' laser


Me discovering that my tongue isn't quite long enough to reach the fat belly dancer. Taken yesterday at the Canberra Multicultural Festival.


Look at this! The sun was fucking RED! And the air smelt like bushfires:


See you soon!