agroove

which ever it is, here i am

arrived on the weekend, it was pretty hilarious, we were so late for the train and then right before the bus stop to get off some old ladies were like oh we put in 500 yen, then bus driver goes oh sorry bus machine has no change, and then old ladies go something something how do i get my yens back (i’m assuming) and bus driver goes something something and then i go omg just get off or else i’m gonna miss my shinkansen! but it all worked out, ran thru the station and finally got on, but i got screwd and sat in a smoking section for 2.5 hrs, i smelled like cancer afterwards, and my train tix was $125 cdn (and that’s cheap) so dont’ take uber fast bullet trains unless you have to

my boss picked me up and drove me to my place, it’s in a nice location, i’m in btwn kinda 2 shopping/downtown ish area, so pretty convenient to walk everywhere, and then my boss invited me to stay at their place for the first night, which was pretty cool, they got lots plants, and a really pretty place. There was a welcome/farewell party for me and another coworker on sunday, and i met most of the people at Little America there, everyone is really cool, and i also met my supervisor Travis who helps me out with everything. Food was so good, probably one of the best meal i’ll have in japan, and then afterwards, some of the coworkers went out for more drinking and invited me too, so obviously i can’t say no to drinking, it was pretty sweet, went to some pub up at 7th floor and had a nice view, there’s some pics in flickr
started work on monday, kinda got to know how to ride bus to work, things around work, using crt and the worst thing ever, japanese keyboard, the @, apostrophe, dash are in different location, the space bar is about 4 keys long cause you’re supposed to only hit space with left hand, and there’s a ton of work lined up for me already, it’s pretty crazy, and i have to create all designs with japanese illustrator, NO INDESIGN?!?

oh man another thing, yesterday i went to do my alien registration (foreigner registration) and i filled out the form and stuff, one of the field was where i was born, and i put Taipei, Taiwan, and then after i was done and they reviewed it, and they came back, and the lady added at the end, “Taipei, Taiwan, CHINA“, and asked me if it was okay, and i was just like WTF? are you for real? like i’m still okay with it because she totally didn’t realize that was not cool, but man, some people would probably go nuts (i would think), even myself i almost never associate with china, man it was pretty messed up, i didn’t even know what to say at that moment, gg

i did quite a bit and i didn’t post everyday, so i’m gonna make a super condense post, and even faster, here’s a flickr link for ppl that doesn’t even want to read, though i have way more pics than what’s on the album though

day 1: got to himeji by some limousine/express bus thing from kansai airport, took about 2 hrs? and then waited at mister donuts – they have the best donuts, sooo good, then got picked up, and then drop off stuff, ha ha janet has a hole for a toilet, and then we went out for yakitori for dinner, it was sooo good

day 2: went around everywhere in himeji, went to himeji castle first, it’s pretty cool, so ancient style, and so hot inside, but ya, there’s holes in wall to drop rocks/oil, hidden rooms that you can’t go in, weapon racks, climb super steep stairs to go up to the top floor of castle. Then walk around everywhere in himeji, mall ish street, department stores, muji and loft! the cool stores in the area, then got too tired and went starbux, and had… katsu curry for dinner

day 3: went to kobe because janet has the conference thingy, her hotel was so cool, i used the future toilet for the first time, they spray your bumhole! but it doesn’t dry you! so i found it pretty lame… had okonomiyaki for lunch, so much cabbage and sauce, seemed healthy and not at same time, and then i just walked everywhere around sannomiya for the rest of the day, shopping street, then to china town with super expensive meat buns, then merican park and saw 2 jap girls doing a model shoot, then mosaic, some funky mall ish place, and then a bit in kobe station, there’s a store call comme ca, and it’s cool, nice stuff and cheap clothes, and then went back by myself

day 4: since janet is away for 3 days, no point of me sticking around, so i found a hostel and went all the way to kyoto, while i was lookin for the hostel/dorm i met some dood from sweden who’s also looking for same place, and then after i dropped off luggage we just hung out together, though he took super long time to do some errands so i looked around kyoto station, then went to fushimi inari taisho and walked through 34832 gates, went back hostel and met another guy from las vegas, at night went to watch geisha show at gion for too much money, and then had dinner with 2 more new people, staying in a dorm is sorta cool cause you get to meet all these random people, and the hostel had a cute jap girl that was working there

day 5: supposed to meet janet in osaka at 1:30 but i didn’t get to do much the day before so i got up super early and went to kiyomizu temple, where you can get pure water but i didn’t because it’s like.. some field trip week for all the school in japan or something, there’s soooo many kids running around all going to the temple, so i just went down, but walk through this cool old jap style street, after temple i went to the famous kinkakuji (the golden temple) with a dorm guy from france, again 23493 kids running around so i took pics and then just left, i had no time left anyway, so went down to osaka, and had lunch, we walked around, and i found nintendo ds lite!!! but i didn’t buy it!!! and now i’m totally regretting it… anyway it was all shopping in osaka i had enough sightseeing lol, went through shopping streets and went to dohtonburi? and saw bunch of crazy stuff, it’s like a crazy street with crazy bright things, giant crab on wall, giant glico man, ferris wheel on top of buildings, and then went do dendentown or something? and i finally found my camera for cheap, and so i bought it, the panasonic dmc fx01, for about $320 cdn + 1 gig sd card $40 cdn, then dinner and finally back to himeji

then today i packed while janet went tutoring, and well, now i’m down in fukuoka, but i’ll do another post about the beginning of my next work, and man i gotta redesign my site, and move everything to new server still lol, sorry amrik, but know this, at least i didn’t get a hentai magazine for ur bday

so ya, i took a bath today, ya

i took a bath n3kk1d, like everyone else, cause you know, clothes usually get in the way

i also took the bath in a hot spring, it was pretty uber, a hotspring tub, a sauna, a cold water jacuzzi thing, and a waterfall thingy that hurts like a shower head for elephant

i took a bath in a public bath, you can look outside, or up in the sky, or many other unnecessary things

and then after, i went to an ice cream store! the best of the best, cause it’s a Haagen-Dazs ice cream store, yes Haage-Dazs has its own store, it’s 3 floors giant ice cream restaurant, and it was soooo good, they have crazy ice cream, like egypt pyramid style, tokyo tower something, ice cream milk shake, if you can ever find parking (man don’t get me started on driving here, street lines are useless, everyone park along red line road)

man amrik if you were here you’d be eating dessert 24/7

hotpot is everywhere, 299 (+10%) all you can eat, it’s one of those things you have to eat, so what’s it like? yesterday i went to one, it’s in a basement, concrete wall/floor, with a giant air con at one side (it’s like wall size), first time so far i ever felt cool in taiwan so far, it was so awesome. Hotpot is all about the soup base, there were regular – no flavor, kim chi, little spicy, spicy, very spicy, super spicy, super ultra spicy, of course i’m all about the little spicy cause i don’t want to lose my tastebuds and have ring of fire the next day, and man the things you eat in hotpot, aside from the regular stuff, there were also fried porklet things, chinese donut, instant noodle, japanese rice cake thing that you eat with peanut powder… so basically, you get bunch of people, everyone wiping away the sweat because of super ultra spicy soup, sitting infront of giant wallsized aircon, eating away their super soaked spicy red donut, with all disposable paper plate/bowl/cup. hahah k i exaggerated, just 1 person was doing that, and oh ya, they had a UNISEX bathroom that made me felt totally out of place because at that moment i was waiting for the sink with 6 other girls (no it’s unisex because i used a urinal)

today is skytrain everywhere day with ky, my one free day, i have to be the tour guide cause i can speak the language, atleast i know i get to go shopping, yay~ i think i want to get the panasonic lumix dmc fx01 digicam, even though canon seems to dominate, esp the IXY800, anyway, i have to wait till i get to japan to buy it because it’s $15000 (~$530 cdn) here and $33000 (~$330 cdn) there, and man, i should’ve bought my webcam back in canada, cause they have the exact same thing here, should’ve listen to keiko ;p

i’ve been here less than 3 hours, everything is hot, and damp, and it makes me sweat like mad, i felt like i was eating dinner in a sauna, when really, i’m outside, and it’s RAINING cause there’s a TYPHOON (just wait till it’s sunny, i might as well go out n3kk1d), i showered, and after i’m done i wasn’t even sure if i was wiping off water or sweat, i wish i can have some ice cube fun~

i almost read the entire da vinci’s code book on the plane ride, i’m staying at my aunt’s place, it’s so cool cause it’s so small but has everything, but i can’t believe no one has wireless around here! so i gotta go figure out how to make stupid internet work on my own laptop, post more later