Ralph Lauren

My first piece of real brand name clothing (or accessory I guess). Hime sent this to me from Japan for our anniversary. I've been using it but I always have this sense of "what if I lose it?" haha. The wallet is worth more than what I keep inside it probably lol. It's a super nice gift though and I'm glad she gave it to me hehe. It's not exactly like in the picture to the left but its the same color and a really similar style. It's really cool haha. Thanks hunnie!!!! I hope you like my present as much as I like yours ^_^

About the poll I got going on. If you read my blog, you've probably seen it (unless you read it via RSS). Anyway, please vote!! You can vote for more than 1 thing too if you'd like. I just want some kind of idea what people like reading about so I can better tailor my blog. I see right now the only vote is for "Daily Life" which I like writing about the most anyway (even though this post isn't about daily life at all hahaha).

So yeah uh.. that's it! I've been really busy lately. I'm working on something special at the moment and it's taking up quite a bit of my time. Okay, see you next post!!

Revert

Today I noticed I talk about the future a lot in my blogs. That is going to change. From today forward there will be no (or minimal) future-posts. Way back in the day when I first started posting I talked about all the menial and trivial things of everyday life - I'm going to start doing that again. This is the turning point of my blog! I was getting steadily offtrack, but now I'm back on. For updates on going to Japan I still might make the occasional "future" post but for the most part, trivial and menial. やっぱりつまらないブログだね。 I hope it's not quite so uninteresting as I might make it sound like it's going to be haha. I'll be going back to my roots talking about what I did, what video games I'm playing, which movies I've watched, what TV shows I'm watching, what I'm studying and even the odd purchase I've made. Let me know if the change is for the better (in the next post... possibly later today!)

Canada

So here I am again. Back in Canada. For some reason I find it so much harder to blog when I'm in Canada and I'm not really sure why haha. I think part of it had to do with the convenience of being able to blog from my phone in Japan. So I could write while I was waiting for the Subway (or riding the subway) or any number of things.

Anyway, So I'm back for a while. Right now I'm a little hurting for money so I think I'll have to work for a monthish before I go back (lame eh?) And I'm going to have to go to Vancouver to get my working holiday visa. For some reason you have to apply IN PERSON. So I can't just mail it to Vancouver, I have to actually take the bus (or drive) there to drop off a sheet of paper, then come home. LAME!

Well yeah, so, I don't have too much to say haha. My teachers (from Ai) are in Japan right now having a good time and I'm jelous hehe - good thing facebook is here for me to look at their pictures.

My Japanese is kinda coming along, but not as well as I had hoped. Learning a new language is definitely not something to take lightly I guess (not that I do).

This post is completely random and has no structure lol. My appologies. Please forgive my random story stuff. Anyway, with that said... Before I left Japan I had a sports drink that tasted like fruitloops. IMAGINE THAT!!! I'd say it was disgusting but... fruitloops aren't really that gross so I can't complain too much. My only complaint is that sports drinks should NOT taste like that.

See you next post!!

P.S. I'll be posting something in Japanese soon I think (on my Japanese blog [translated]). I have an interesting story to tell... but I'm saving it for Japanese practice. I'm not sure how interesting English people might find it so I won't bother buahaha. I'll put a link to the post here after I write it - it might take me a while.

Today I Felt Famous

So, today turned into one of the most interesting experiences I've had since coming to Japan. My gf and I walked to the nearby library to study a little bit this afternoon in a relaxing, quiet place. Recently, we go to the library to study quite often. Either the one near her place or the large Asahikawa Central library downtown. The one near her house is beside a Junior Highschool (age 13-15) so quite often we see students in the window who point at us as we walk by. It's both embarassing and flattering - even though I know the only reason they do it is because i'm 外人 (gaijin - foreign). But today was different.

At around 4:30 I was hungry - I had brought a pudding to eat because I knew I'd get hungry during studying, so I figured I'd eat it now. Outside the "study room" - the place where you're allowed to eat - there was a really stinky おたく guy who was reading Dragonball Z. He looked at me funny (gazed would probably be a better way to describe it) when we first entered the library so I wasn't so inclined to sit by him. I decided I'd just go outside to eat it. It's small so I wouldn't be too cold (at the time I just had a t-shirt on).

So I went outside to eat and was enjoying my pudding in the cold when a short おばさん (middle aged lady) came out and talked to me. 「さむくない？」 (are you cold) she asked me. I answered and we attempted to have a conversation in Japanese. She had a lot of questions from where was I from, what was I doing in Japan, where was I staying, what did I do in Canada, how old I was etc etc. It was a pretty good opportunity to practice my Japanese. Once the conversation started to get a little too difficult one of the employees of the library came out and apparently she speaks english! So the 3 of us started talking - she went to Canada and visited Edmonton and Iqualit? Nunavit? Something like that. She went cariboo hunting and stuff - so cool!

Then I heard a lot of 「外人外人」 from inside the school. There was a huge group of junior highschool students leaving the school and they were all looking at me. Being white in Japan is sometimes quite discomforting. They all walked out of the school and I attempted to keep the conversation going with the 2 girls I was originally talking to but the kids were so noisy. Suddenly one of them said "Hello" to me and stepped foreward (must be the brave one). I replied with a nice "Hi". She thought about her next sentence for a little while then tried a "Are you cold?" I tried to keep my sentence as simple as possible so I said "I'm not cold" but she looked pretty confused so I repeated "not cold" then she said 「なっと？」 (natto is fermented soy beans) - all of her other classmates burst out laughing and I tried to save her from being too embarassed by saying 「さむくない」 which resulted in a pretty resounding 「すげっ！」 (wow) and some whispered 「日本語を喋って」 (he spoke japanese). At this point I was pretty embarassed myself. The two girls I was talking to before decided they would leave and I thought I should do the same. I said bye to them and was about to say bye to the young girl I was talking to but she offered me a hand and said "nice to meet you" so I said "nice to meet you too" then went back into the library.

The library closed about 15 minutes later - I had explained the story to my gf inside the library. During the walk home we found a small group of about 6 girls that had been outside the school just minutes earlier. They were on the other side of the street and all waved at me. I waved back and started laughing. They all started a hushed conversation (since now I was with my gf). For me, I couldn't really understand anything so I just smiled and waved, but my gf didn't really like what they were talking about.. or more how they said it (in japanese there are levels of politeness and they weren't being polite) haha. They seemed quite concerned that I was laughing. My gf explained later that "are they laughing at us?" was the main point of their discussion haha.

I don't think I'll be able to experience this kind of stuff again since when I come back to Japan I'll be living in a bigger city, where foreign people are a little more commonplace. So for now I'll cherish this memory hahaha =D

What makes me happy

In no particular order, here are 10 things that make me happy:

1. My girlfriend
2. My Family
3. Helping people (especially if they don't know I'm helping)
4. Eating
5. Talking to and hanging out with friends
6. Speaking a different language
7. Reading
8. Learning something new
9. Remembering happy memories
10. Snow (pretty, dry snow)

I got this from here, where I go to read when I can find free time. If you have a little spare time, fill this out too ^_^ they're kind of interesting to read.

Also, read my previous post if you haven't already. It's actually new stuff I've written about.

Fortune Cookies

Why do they even make these? Do people actually take to heart what they say? Today I had Chinese food and got pretty lucky when I opened my wonderful fortune cookie. I didn't get 1 fortune... nor even 2! I got three! That's right, three small little pieces of paper with my destiny foretold:

1. "You would be wise not to seek too much from others, at this time."
2. "No Obstacles will stand in the way of your success this month."
3. "An admirer is concealing his affection for you."

Sadly the month is almost over so my success for this month better happen pretty quick. But I personally like the last the most. I'm not gay so I'm not really quite sure where the fortune cookie fairy gets her information but it always keeps you guessing. The first one does have a ring of truth in it though. I really shouldn't ask for so much - which I have been recently. I'll try my best.

New Jacket

This post is dedicated to my new jacket. Such an exciting topic eh? For me it is! I've finally got a new jacket after many... many years of using the same one. My dad bought it for me as an early birthday gift since I'll be needing one when I'm in Japan. I looked through most of the stores in Penticton and one in Summerland and I wasn't able to find any decent jacket. I found 1 I liked at The Bay but it didn't seem warm enough. Then I thought I found an acceptable one at Mark's Work Wearhouse but the sleeves were way too short. I had planned on going to Kelowna to look for one at some stores there but on our way home from Summerland today, my dad asked if I wanted to take a look at Canadian Tire. I said "sure" and we went inside. Immediately I found 2 jackets I liked - one more than the other. I chose one and tried it on and decided "I like this". I looked at the other one but it wasn't as appealing. I wore it around a bit to see if it was comfortable - it was great. So I decided to get it. Actually I made my dad take a picture of me so I could see it on myself. I thought it looked pretty good too. It's kinda long but whatever. The sleeves are long enough and and its warm. It's a down filled jacket so it should keep me pretty warm. Here's a link to the beige version if you're interested for whatever reason. It's a North 49 jacket from the brand World Famous of Sales. I don't think it's a very big name brand but it's a nice jacket so I'm not complaining.

Weather here is nice though. Today it was positive 1 but the snow stayed on the ground. I love the dry cold. I don't miss Vancouver's weather one bit. The picture above is near my place in Penticton and the one on the right is down mainstreet at the beginning of downtown. So this is a view of Penticton's downtown. Busy, isn't it?

This tasty looking treat is a shrimp dip my mom made to dip crackers in to. I'm not sure exactly how it's made but it has guacamole in it. It's super tasty and I ended up eating quite a bit of it. She made a giant plate of it and it was gone in no-time. I'll have to get the recipe from her and bring it to Japan with me =D (if I can even make it).