First Post From Japan

In this post I'm going to talk about what I've done so far and not what's different. There are a lot of things that are different so I'll save that for another day =D

My friends Ming and Ryu saw me off from the Vancouver airport in the morning. They both came down with me at 7:30 to say bye. Ryu was even hung over o_O crazy guy haha. It was really nice of them though. I showed them this neat trick you can do with your hand over your eye and we had a good laugh for quite a while doing that hahaha. I'm not sure if I should put the video up... maybe some other time though =D It was pretty sad saying bye to them though since they'll go to Japan before I go back to Canada. Actually almost all my friends in Vancouver I won't be able to see again for a long time so it's pretty sad. I'm really going to miss Vancouver after I get back to Canada. But I'm going to see my Hime and that's what's important now ^_^

When I arrived in Narita (Tokyo's Airport), I was kinda surpised - it's a lot like Vancouver's airport... Except that everyone spoke Japanese. But then again almost everyone spoke enough english to get by also. Twice I had to ask for help. I needed to transfer to a domestic terminal for my flight to Sapporo but I wasn't sure which sign said "Domestic" so I asked the girl at the information desk and she showed me the way. Then I need to call my gf from the payphone and i do know her number but only when calling from Canada so I tried as many possibilities as I could think of involving the area code and prefix (since I wasn't sure which was which) but nothing seemed to work. So I ended up asking one of the employees that happened to be walking past and he explained how to do it　難しい～。 But in the end it was all good. I bought a couple of things in the little shop they had. I was really hungry and thirsty as well so I bought a can of coffee and a rice ball. Sadly the rice ball I chose was one of the only kinds I don't like... but they didn't have any pictures and I wasn't sure what it said hahaha. I guess I'll have to study some more. While waiting for my plane to depart, they had Sumo wrestling on TV in the terminal so I ended up watching that for about 40 minutes I think. The pictures here are of the Domestic terminal in Narita.

After I arrived in Chitose (Sapporo) I got my luggage, which took forever, then went to meet my gf!! Long time no see. At first it felt so different because it had been almost 3 months since I've seen her but after about 30 minutes or so it was right back to the way it had always been. We had to take the train from Chitose to Sapporo and then again to Asahikawa but it was really neat. She had brought me this super tasty bento and we were both pretty hungry so we ate that (it was really good) and she had also bought some neat chocolate. It was like... rice cake and chocolate? I'm not really sure but it was also really good. And then she gave me a DS!! ありがとう私のお姫様ぁ～ It was for our anniversary. She had been working while I was in Canada so she decided she wanted to spend some money on me =D When we got to Sapporo we left the train station and walked around a little bit downtown. Actually I think Sapporo is a much nicer city than Vancouver. I didn't take any pictures while I was there but I'll be sure to take some next time. It was pretty cold and I was pulling my suitcase around everywhere so after walking a little bit we decided to go back to the train station to wait for the train to Asahikawa (where she lives). Actually inside the trainstation was just as cold as outside... It's really weird. A lot of malls and stuff aren't heated inside... But I'll talk about that in my post of "what's different" some other day. In any case we got on the train to Asahikawa and enjoyed it together. When we got off her brother was waiting to pick us up from the train station. I've never met her brother so I was a little bit nervous but it looked like he was also a little bit nervous hahaha. He's really cool - actually I like everyone in her family. They're all so nice. But anyway, when we got home her mom and dad were already sleeping so she showed me where I'd be sleeping and after some talking we went to bed. Long first day eh? =D

Now the following days I don't remember the exact order of what we did but I'll try to remember in the best order as I can so bear with me ^_^ So far I've done a lot here. At least it seems like a lot to me hehe.

We went out for sushi and ate a tonn of different types of sushi. In Canada we have so many kinds of sushi that they don't have in Japan and vice versa so it was cool seeing what they have here. Some of it is pretty "fishy" (no pun intended) but it's still good. After we finished I was stuffed and wouldn't have minded just relaxing but... We were going to the spa. So I went to a spa with her and her parents and it was really interesting. The spa is seperated male/female so it was just her dad and I and I don't speak Japanese so it was an interesting hour and a half together. We got along pretty well though - no major road blocks. Sign language works well and he knows some english words as well so it was all good. I pretty much followed him wherever he went and did what he did. I probably looked kinda weird to everyone else but what can you do right? I gotta learn some way. The spa was really nice. They had this circular shower that blasts you from every angle when you first come in (to make sure you're clean before you go in the water) and then they had so many pools to choose from as well as a shower area for cleaning your body and a hot sauna and a steamroom. The 4 pools they had were all different temperatures. The biggest one was like... luke warm. Like the same temperature as your body or something? It was my favorite. It wasn't warm and it wasn't cold. When you got in the water it felt the same as outside the water, just you're now sitting in water haha. Then they had a cold pool which was really cold. I'm not sure of the temperature but my body started to feel numb after I was in there for more than a minute or two. And there was a jacuzzi style tub - like a hot tub with jets which was also pretty big. It was right in the middle of the room. And there was another hot water pool which was about the same size as the cold one - it was really hot. It was really fun though. I've never been to a spa before so it was interesting to experience it with her family.

I went to meet Hime's grandparents also. They live in the house next door so it's not very far at all. The first time I went over there to meet them, only her grandmother was home so we talked to her for a couple hours but had to go back to hime's place. The next time her grandfather was home and I got to talk to them both... well, through my gf. They're both really sweet too. Her grandfather told me he was a samurai and had a picture of him with a katana. He told me to come back another day and I could try on the clothing he had worn in the picture and I could see his katana also. So fascinating! I accepted his offer ^_^

Then my gf and I went out together downtown to sing some Karaoke and go to Izakaya to drink to our hearts content. Karaoke is so... fancy here. Everything is "fancy" actually. She used her phone to show her membership card and we got to choose what kinda machine and it was on the 3rd floor! Three floors of karaoke! So interesting haha. Actually in Japan it's incredibly cheap as well. In Vancouver it's usually $20 for an hour but here it was ３４０円 or $3.25 for an hour (I think). I had a coffee and my gf had tea, we sang for 2 hours and our total was $12. The quality of the karaoke machine and the room you get to use is all a lot better also. And there's way more songs to choose from - English included. After that we went to Izakaya. Now, in Japan there is "all you can drink" for a certain price at some Izakaya restaurants so we went to one of those. We paid ９８０円 which is about $9.50 for all you can drink for 90 minutes. I had my new favorite drink 梅酒 (Umeshu - sweet plum wine) on the rocks. It's so good!! I think I had 9 drinks before we had to go. We bought a bunch of food as well and it was all really tasty. After that we walked around Asahikawa for a while then walked over to the spa her parents were at so we could grab a ride home from them instead of taking the bus. We had to sit and wait there for almost an hour in the lobby though but it was well worth it haha. It's cold outside.

We went back to her grandparents house the next day to talk to them and we ended up talking Izakaya. He asked me if I was a strong drinker and I said I was kinda mediocre. Then he asked if I'd like to try some shouchu? I'm not sure how to write it actually. It's kinda like Sake. I said "sure, I'll try it" so he poured me a small glass of it (straight) and it wasn't as bad as I expected it. Actually it was kinda tasty. But it was pretty strong. I drank about half the glass and then he asked me if I'd like to try the kind of souchu that he drinks (he drinks a little bit weaker stuff) so I accepted and he poured me a 2nd full glass. He also poured himself a glass. So now I had 2 glasses of it in front of me. I thought "I'll be okay... maybe a little bit intoxicated but I'll be fine" So I continued drinking the strong one first but he refilled my glass for me when I got just a little over half finished haha. The weaker stuff was a little bit better but almost the same taste... just less of a burn. But I wanted to finish the strong first so I could relax a bit more. But it was really strong. I could feel I was getting a little bit drunk. In the end he said I could keep the bottle of Souchu. He said it was from the most southern part of Okiniwa... actually I can't remember the city he said so I'll have to ask Hime but I was pretty suprised. I thanked him a lot and took it back to her place with me. But he had these really tasty peanuts too! They're Japanese peanuts. Usually peanuts are made in China so they're bigger (like probably all the peanuts you've ever eaten) but these peanuts are a little crunchier and longer and skinnier. Like not so big around. Man were they ever tasty.

Hime and I visited her local library here to study. She wanted to study English and I wanted to study Japanese so we sat in the library for quite a while trying to study. She found it really cold in the library for some reason so I told her to wear my jacket. Actually I was wearing a tshirt so I wasn't really sure why she found it so cold... but then again almost everyone still had their jacket on. It was pretty weird hahaha. Also we visitied a DVD store near her place to look at DVD's and stuff. We ended up going into the game area and they had Wii's for sale!! They actually had Wii's in stock! Actually her father really wanted one but they could never find one so Hime bought him a Wii and a game. I also bought him a game as a thank you present for allowing me to stay here in their house. I got him ぷよぷよ (PuyoPuyo) because he really likes puyopuyo according to my gf. He hasn't had time to play puyopuyo yet but yesterday he tried out the minigame game.. I can't remember the name of it though... maybe はじめってWii or something. It's pretty fun too. In Japan Wii sports doesn't come bundled with the Wii though... even though in Canada it's the same price as in Japan. It's kinda stupid. But whatever. Can't complain ^_^.

Just as an end note I'd like to mention the weather. It's absolutely beautiful. It's cold, yes, but it's really nice here. It seems like it's almost always snowing but snow is so pretty! Right now it's -13 so it's kinda cold but what can you do, right? I have a warm jacket so it's all good =D

Also I've probably forgotton some stuff but I plan on writing it on here as I remember. Hopefully I'll have more time from now on to write what I've been doing. And I'll try to take some more pictures too. I think this post is long enough as it is though hahaha ^_^

20th is When I Leave

It's confirmed. I fly out on the 20th. This morning I woke up, went and picked up my passport and went straight to buy my ticket. I'll be leaving Canada on January the 20th and comin' back home on the 13th of April. I'm pretty excited =D I can't even imagine what it'll be like. Right now it feels like it's all a dream - like I'm not actually going there. It's a pretty amazing feeling. My gf has been at work all day so I haven't been able to share the excitement yet but I think she'll finish soon ^_^

Here's some numbers:

• The passport took me about 2 weeks to get. I applied in person and picked it up in person. It cost me $97 I believe (with the $10 pickup charge).
• The plane ticket cost me $1057 (incl. tax) for a round trip flying economy on JAL Airlines. It's a flight to Sapporo (In Hokkaido - Northern Japan) so I'll transfer in Narita to Chitose.
• Other than that.. no numbers haha. Once I'm in Japan I might be able to give a little more insight but that's it for now.

I'll be moving out of my apartment before I fly off to Japan. I'm moving back home to Penticton so I can save more money and live with my family before permanently moving to Japan later in 2008. I'm kinda sad to say bye to my friends here in Vancouver but well, we'll only be a flight away ^_^ I'm not sure if anybody reads my friend's blogs I've linked on the right (at the moment only 2 update) but Bodhi is who will be moving in. She's mentioned it in her blog too but I thought I'd point that out. She has an interesting blog so go read it if you're looking for more reading material. If you're studying English, also go read it as she uses a lot of interesting grammatical styles that you probably won't find very often.

I'm going to Japan!!

A Man From Earth

A Man From Earth is a good movie. I watched it because... well mainly because I was bored. The 2nd reason was because it sounded interesting. More-so than most movies that have come out recently. The 3rd reason was because it's free to watch on certain websites. Now, I'm not condoning being a pirate however, on this site you don't actually have to download anything. It's great!! If you can find a movie hosted on Stage6 or S6 for short, you're laughin'. It's DVD quality and streams really fast. Wonderful website - use it while you can. (also the poster for the movie has no relevance to the actual movie itself... so don't be fooled - it's completely different haha)

ANYWAY the movie was really good. It's about this guy who's been around for 14,000 thousand years (or so he claims) and suddenly he just decides to tell his friends about it before he leaves town. The whole movie is situated in his living room (yes I know it sounds boring but bear with me) while he tells his story. His friends are all highly intellectual colleagues of differing professions. It's really well written, filmed and told. Despite it never changing location, it went by quicker than most movies - I was upset it was over so soon. But don't let the drab description I've given it dissuade you from watching it - go watch it because I said it's good. That is... if you like movies that make you think.

Skiing at Apex

Today my dad, his friend Chris, my sister and I all went up to Apex Ski Resort to go skiing. Well my sister and I were going skiing and my dad and his friend were going to go skating and play some hockey at the rink they have there. The forecast was for snow, moderate winds, and about -5 degrees... It ended up being quite different.

We arrived at about 10 and it was already snowing quite heavily and the wind was blowing pretty hard at 1500m (base elevation). I couldn't imagine what it would be like up the Quick Draw (that lead to the top of the mountain). But after getting some equipment and our passes that's where we were headed. One of the people working at Apex told us that if the winds hit 90km/h at the summit the Quad (Stock) chair would be closed. Meaning more than half the runs would be inaccessible. So we went fast haha.

We got on the chair and started riding it up and damn it was windy. It was really snowing hard and the wind wasn't helping it. My sister and I took cover under our jackets and kept our goggles on the entire time (except when we took pictures). Cold cold. Up at 2100m it was really cold and really windy... and really snowy too! I didn't even bother taking pictures because there was too much snow. The picture of me there is about 1/4 of the way down the mountain on the side that wasn't as windy haha. It was really fun though. After we went down the mountain once we went up the Triple Chair (Stock Chair) which is about 3/4 of the way up. It was also pretty windy but what can you do right? We went down a couple times then packed it in for lunch.

We went to the Apex Mountain Saloon if my memory serves me correctly and had a bite to eat at the restaurant. We took some pictures before ordering anything. My sisters face was just about frozen and mine had condensation all over it hahaha. Anyway, my sister ended up getting poutine and I had the chicken fingers. They were a little on the dry side but still pretty tasty. And anyway, who am I to complain - I'm hungry. The food did take quite a long time to arrive so we didn't tip very much ^_^. Time to head back to the mountain.

After we at lunch we discovered that the Quad had been closed. I guess the winds were above 90km/h now at the summit. Lame -_-' So we continued down to the Triple chair to get a couple more runs in. Overall it was a pretty good day. I haven't been skiing in soo long but it was really fun. I didn't even fall down! Then again we didn't do any black diamonds. BUT Apex blue's are pretty hard too - moguls and stuff.

I took some pictures of the scenery on the way home but none turned out all that well. It was cloudy, we were moving and I'm not a photographer haha. So because of that I'll just put this on picture here. Don't want to bombard you with crappy attempts at scenery photography.

On a side note, I watched I Am Legend last night with my brother. It was a pretty good movie but definitely nothing spectacular. I was really surprised at the ending. I won't spoil anything except the fact that there is almost no falling action. Really weird... There was the climax and then about 30 seconds more of the movie. When it ended my first thought was "that's it?". It doesn't leave it hanging for a sequel.. it just sorta ends haha. It's alright though. I like the idea and I like how it was made.. most of it.

Polar Bear Swim

I'm not sure who's familiar with a "polar bear swim" so I'll explain it. It's when crazy people run into freezing water in the winter to celebrate New Years. At least that's the definition for Penticton. Other cities might do it differently... but the 'crazy' part still stands haha. This new years afternoon my mom and I went down to watch this strange event. This is the first time it's been hosted in Penticton (It's our centennial year this year). There was quite a big turn out too! Usually it's in Summerland which is about 20 minutes out of town so it isn't so busy. This year there was a lot of people participating and a lot of people that just came down to watch.

The weather was pretty good - it wasn't windy. It wasn't snowing either though which is also good. But it was kinda cold. I think it was probably -2 or something near it. Also, as you can see on the left, the shore was completely frozen. That's a picture of some ice some of the kids that were there broke off before it started. The lake wasn't totally frozen obviously (only a very small part of it was) - but that's enough to keep me from going in haha.

Here's a shot of a bunch of the people getting ready to go in. If you look at the full size picture you might be able to see some people standing in the snow in their bare feet! (refer to my crazy statement) I was really surprised to see so many young girls going in - they'd be the last people I'd expect to go swimming in freezing water. There were also a lot of people in strange costumes too. There's a guy with a blue spiky plastic wig on, some sort of ladybug(?), a santa, some girl who just wanted to look eccentric, a guy in a Hawaiian t-shirt and some others I can't remember that aren't in the photos. Almost all the young girls in the picture were in an out of the water in just a couple seconds (before all the people were even in the water). There's a video of it at the end of this post if you want to check it out.

Also!! When I went to Kelowna a few days ago I found a place I thought was "Bon Appétit" but it was "Bone Appétit" I was a little bit disappointed but It was still interesting enough to take a picture. The reason I found it interesting was because Sam Soon from "My name is Kim Sam Soon" worked at a place called "Bon Appétit" so I wanted a picture of it. So here it is - even if it's not really what it was supposed to be haha.

And here's that video of the Polar bear swim I was talking about. I hope you enjoy it!