Back in Aomori

Came back to Aomori tonight to catch my plane in the morning. Had a decent time in Rokkasho. The first day, we walked around, had some meat on a stick, the second day we stayed inside because of all the rain (typhoon and all). So basically all that got done was a lot of Scrubs and other dvds were watched.

The third day I walked for 20 km trying to find the ocean... which I failed too. Maybe next time Ill zoom out the map to see that it was east of me, and that body of water to the south was a marsh. Pretty though. Afterwards I went out with Chans co-workers. 2 Koreans, a German, and his Japanese boss. It was a good time, and they payed for me.. Also got me lightly drunk with delicious drinks. And after trying some of the finest food Japan has to offer, I still haven't changed my "Japanese food sucks" wisdom :)

Next day, went to one of Chan's schools. It was cool.

This place is closing. Ill go back to my hotel and do nothing.. as I usually do in Japan.... whee...

Tokyo and Hong Kong tomorrow! Next day, O-Town!

Aomori

Well, finally in Aomori, Japan. Visiting my friend Chan. The flight to Sapporo ws sweet, I Was bumped up to first class, so it was all Champaign and Hog N Dos ice cream. Anytime I finished my Champaign, I'd jsut ask for a refill, and bam, refilled. I don't even like Champaign.

It's nice being in first class, to get on the plan, you don't have to wait in ong lines, an you get to look at the economy class people with distain as you walk by them avoiding any contact.

This good time ended in Sapporo though, when Japan again "randomly" searched me. They pulled apart eveything this time, watched parts of the dvds I had, confiscated all the porn I had baught the day before, confescated this super nice sword I baught in Thailand (it had like, an ivory looking sheith and handle, super nice), went throug every picture on all three of my memory cards, wouldn't let me take pictures, unpacked every single thing, then made me sign all these consent forms. Then they bruaght me to the hospital for x-rays (the less gross way of doing a cavity search), and in the car they STILL wouldn't let me take pictures. One of the guards was giggling so much at the airport that I was sure the unflavoured latex gloves were about to come out... uckaly they didn't though.

Anyways, got my passport back ,got back to the airport, somehow made my connecting flight, and then got to Aomori. Chan was waiting for me with a sign reading "Gomez", he wanted to go with "Big Fag" but thought that was a little too obvious. So we make it into the town, like all the Japonese cities I've seen, it's pretty dark compared to everywhere else, met up with his Korean friend Angella, really cool girl.

Went out to soe bars.. couldn't find any girls, just all guys, and only a few at that.. Finally we met up with some other white people, they gave me free drinks, and then we went for Kareoke! Now, Kareoke is a bit different in Japan, instead of a bar with a stage, you go to a Kareoke place and you get a room, and 10$ an hour for All You Can Drink. It can be beer, or you can get girly drinks, whatever. It was pretty fun actually. We song Material Girl, Vanessa Carlton's 1000 Miles, Backstreet boys, Hero by Mariah Carey, some weird Japonese songs, and some Korean ones.

It was a good time.

Now I'm at Chan's place about 2 hours away. Distance wise it's close, just the roads suck here so it takes forever to get anywhere. And we were taking public transportation... wheee...

Anyways, gonna get some food. peaz

Lessons

I'll probably edit this a few times but...

1. Getting an airport taxi guy at the Bangkok airport to use the taxi meter is one of the hardess thigns you'll ever do
2. People in Thailand and Vietnam never quote the real price
3. Walking away is sometimes the only way to get a good price
4. The DVD guys on the fourth flore of MBK near the escalator are lying pricks.
5. When people answer "yes" to a question, it's not because they understood what you asked, it's that they want to rush the sale
6. Some lady boys are friggen hot, so be mindful, and watchful. Often the only sign is behaviour
7. The free Hong Kong airport express bus, as free as it might be, doesn't run past 11:08 pm. After 11:08pm, you're walking
8. Vietnamise girls don't smoke
9. Fast food chicken in South East Asia isn't really chicken.... And if it is, it's really different than home.
10. Aiste's hot
11. Hebrew is written in the wrong direction
12. Japanese customs officers hate me
13. Japan is dark
14. Kareoke in Japan is different and a lot more fun :)

So, got to go SCUBA diving! t was awesome, except for the instructor imposing debt limits of like, 10 meters, and he kept grabbing me al lthe itme, and telling me to not use my arms, and to relax.. wtf.. relaxing during scuba to save air to me is like driving a race car at an idling speed to save fuel. It's not the point, you're in anexciting situation and you should get as much as you can out of it.

But yeah, was cool, tonnes of other divers too, which I loved. Everyone else seemed to be annoyed with this. I liked it cuz you look down, and there is a packof 5 divers 10 meters below you, and you see their trail of air bubbles, and you swim through the air bubbles,or watchthem break up as the pressure lowers.

I also loved starrnig up at the surface, as any one whos gone snorkelling with me, you know I love seeing the surface from under the water, that circle of refraction that appears, and seieng the bubbles burst again it.

Saw crazy amounts of marine life too. Schools of fish, snake-like things, huge ass fish, tiny fish. I still don't understand how an entire school of fish will all jump to the right or something all simultaneously. But ya, good times.

Afterwards, was trying to find Haad Yao, when I cmae accross a sign for a water fall. I decided to check it out, had no where to leave my 30 lbs of stuff though, so took it with me, the first sign read "Waterfall 200m", so I figured I could do that. Then I notiecd it was up a mountain, with a difficult path to climb. I carried on though, then saw a second sign, again "Waterfall 200m", so continued, then the third sign.. then the fourth sign. I think in total it was 600 meters. On my way, I passed an Israilly couple. This made me feel like I was in shape, the fact that I, with 30 lbs on my bag, could way overtake people who were carrying next to nothing.

At the top was a new Zealander.. Cool guy, we chilled at the top for a big, then the Israillies cme, chilled with them, they left, and then we (the New Zealander and I) left.

I continued to try and get to Haad Yao when it started to rain, and I was going to the wrong one.. So, I decided to go back (20 minutes of motorbiking) to the guesthouse to get a helmat.. At 50 km, you can't see anything on a bike without somehting covering your eyes. This was a dumb thing to do, as I could have just gone to the south were there wasn't really that much rain.. But no, I went to the north and biked through crazy hard rain. I was soaked and topless by the time I got there.

I decided to try and wait the rain out, so watched a movie I picked up, Blackbeared. i got it cuz tmy friend in Thailand is in it. He's Robber #1.

Anyways, taxi'ed back to the south (which wasn't easy.. taxi service out here, in effectly, the country, isn't as reliable as taxi service in the city.) Got another warning about Lady-boys, etc.. And went to the jewish bar. Was kind of bored.. so I just went to bed.

Jews

Heh, everyone I thought was German, was actually Jewish.. Never thought I'd make that mistake... but here I am.

This place is full of Israillies. So much so that there's a jewish bar that shows jewish movies, there are some hebrew signs around, etc.

I can't imagine why I thought they were german, they weren't wearing laiden-hosen or whatever, no anti-semetic jokes, etc..

Night one on Koh Phang Ngan

Came to Koh Phang Ngan. Really nice place. The place I'm staying tonight looks like it's straight out of a postcard. Unfortunately though, like a postcard, not very many people. So, I rented a motorbike, and spent a few hours driving around the island.

First place I stopped was at a bar, the girls there holler at people from the road and invite them in, so I went. By girls, I use that term loosely, I'm fairly certain that two of them are male, one other, Lola, the hot one, was questionably a man too. Why am I convinced of that? Well, the first two.. it's pretty frigging obvious. And Lola? Well, despite that being a transvestite name (blame "lThe Kinks" for that, don't get mad at my for that statement), s/he had no real breasts, and I just had that feeling... (You know, the feeling that a man wants to ravage you?) Fun people though, we played connect four, jinga, drank, etc. Good times.

Afterwards, I continued looking for people, went over some hills and got to the other side of the island, the party side as it were. Things were pretty chill tonight, and everyone was suspiciously German. Even the smoking hot German girls were German. Some locals entertaining people by playing with fire, some movies, lots of sitting on the beach. It was like (to steel a description from someone) a perfect chill-party scene, but cuz I didn't know anyone, what should have been awesome, was kind of boring.. so I left.

On my way back, I got dragged into the earlier bar. At this point, Lola didn't care that I had a gf (I even showed a picture to keep them off, a hot picture from Halloween last year, if you're reading this Aiste, the one I think is really hot but you don't. You were wearing jeans and a puffy silver shirt, I was in my Second Hand Blows t-shirt and a pink sweater (of course).. the night I found Sasha). But ya, none of this discouraged one of them from grabbing my crotch. I managed to get out, but not without kissing one on the cheek.. french style goodbye.. This one was one of them that I was more convinced was a girl.. I hope.

Fatties

Whaaaaa?

"Overweight people now outnumber the undernourished"

Obesity epidemic 'engulfing the entire world'
14:00 10 September 2006
New Scientist

This is insane... But I guess on average, we're all fit... So that's a good thing, right?

Ooo.. I feel all exotic. Had breakfast in Fukuoka, brunch in Taipei, lunch in downtown Hong Kong, and a spicy supper in Bangkok. (And airplane food ranging from disgusting to tolerable. Even the ice cream bars didn't taste good)

One thing struck me as odd, I couldn't wait to leave Fukuoka, and as soon as I do, I spent the evening hanging out with a Fukuokan girl. She's Damian's girlfriend, Damian is an old friend from TKD, I also went to his school sometimes back when he was in Ottawa, so I guess he's an instructor of mine too. They showed me around a little, staying in their building for now too.

Damian warmed me about the Lady-Boys here. Apparently it's perfectly acceptable here, and only 50% of them are like the trannies back home, the other 50% are really well disguised.. a few of them even lost their man parts. The ones I just met though were noticeable though. But that's maybe because I was told about that place (Travel Agency) by Damian, and Dr. Port, a random guy in an Irish Pub.

I notice that there are nice Irish Pubs in every country. Not as prevalent as KFC, but they exist.

But ya, Thai girls are supper hot, but now all the warnings have me worried. Instead of checking out the classic face and T&A, now I'm checking for an Adam's Apple first, and then body ratios. I'm told Europeans love these Lady-Boys, or "Chick-with-Dick"s though (That's not my opinion.. well... Anyways, it's what I was told by a local here.)

I got to do some TKD here too. Felt good to finally work out. And I believe I learned a lot from one of Damian's instructors.

I'm gonna go down south tomorrow to Koh Phangan. Originally I wanted to do SCUBA certification there, but I won't have times. The way the ferries and the planes line up makes it too expensive to get enough time. Flying is pretty cheap though, it's costing me about 65$ + ferry one way.

Anyways, haven't done anything exciting here yet. Haven't even made out with one Lady-Boy. Tragic, I know. But I'm having fun.

Red Lights

I decided to try the other side of the Hakata station today, since the side I'm staying on is so uneventful. There wasn't much at first, more lights than the otherside for sure, but still not much.

Then, more and more, I was seeing these gorgious girls dressed up as if it were prom. So I continued, and came accross what seemed at first to be the club district. What struct me as odd though was every club had their prices based on how many hours you were going to stay, and an aweful lot of these had posters showing off a wide veriety of hot girl. It could be a cultural thing.

Another thing I noticed was, instead of lines of 20 year olds, half guys, half girls, like you'd have at The Heart and Crown, but more of.. almost all guys, mostly in suits, a lot of older men too.

Again, might be a cultural thing, and it was early.. Maybe most of the girls havne't come out to even out the ratio.

Another thing I noticed was that old ugly rich-looking men seemed to often have a super gorgious extravigantly dressed young hotty on their arm. Where did they get these girls? Probably accross the street where I saw a line of girls being picked off one by one by men who would then introduce them selves, and enter in the hotel with them. On the other side of hotel were "couples" coming out, and parting.

The last straw was when I was offered a massage from a girl holding a smut poster. I'd found it, the essential red light district. Also the only part of town I've found so far that seemed to have a night life.

It was mildly entertaining to walk around in.

I spent most of the day walking around, visited some temples, spent hours trying to find the museum, once I did, it was closed.. Looked glorious on the outside though.

Also saw this sport these kids were playing that looked awesome. There wer elike, 50 japonese boys, with a bit of protective gear one, and one long pole, about 8 feet tall, 7" diameter. The goal of the game, as far as I could tell, was that one team had to keep the pole up, and the other, knock it down. So before starting, a bunch of kids raised the pole, and wrapped them selves around it forming a base, then other kids supported it more, etc.. Then a whistle blew, and the other team just rushed them, they were throwing each other in every which direction, tackling, etc.. Then one kid just jumped on another kid, and another, and grabbed the pole, and tried to pull it down with his weight, and then another did the same, just lept on to the crowd and ran on their backs to the poll.

The game looked awesome, next time we have 30 japonese kids, we (whoever we is) should play.

This was after enjoying a classic cheese burger from Freshesh Burger, which was after trying out real japonese food, and not being able to eat what I ordered (man that picture didn't communicate that dish well)..

Off to the airport tomorrow morning!

Lots of time to spend online...

Gotta admit, everyone evere, especially service workers, are exceptionally nice. They go out of their way to make you comfortable.

Last night, after the hostle plans failed, and I was as board as ever, I went to a Bar, Pronto's. nice place, and the waitress, exceptionally cute, was awesome, really nice, really smilely.. No english though. but her niceness, in combination with the vaguely entertaining Japan VS Yemen soccer game + postcards and beer, made for a decent night. And I realised that professional soccer players are stunningly to outstnadingly better than I am.

Tomorrow night, Bangkok!

maybe Ill do some school stuff now or someting...

haha, someone as bored as I am!

Right now, it seems as though my job is to be the Canadian in the office. I come in and be Canadian.. which means I sit here and check my email.. (and check random websites).

Shit is fun, just not when I have nothing to do at work. I guess I could draw.. or make a sculpture. My coworker gave me a candy which I spent the last 5 minutes savouring. Too bad it didn't last an hour. That would have been amazing..

I haven't started visiting schools, so I show up in the morning, have some tea, play on the net.. then at 12, I have lunch, go outside, walk around, then come back at 1pm, where I sit on the internet and drink some more tea or coffee. I've almost fallen asleep a few times in the afternoon. Though.. I don't wanna look like a slacker, so I try not to fall asleep.

In either case, I love the flute versions of Disney songs in the background here. Right now its Aladdin, I Can Show You The World.

I'm sure if Dom were here, this music would result in a singing outbreak. But he's not, so I'll keep quite.

Day 2 in Fukuoka

I haven't been this bored in months. Theres nothing to do in this town. It's so not for tourists its not even funny. For instance, I can't even find a place to buy postcards.

One more day here, I guess I'll check out a temple or something..

I was able to get cash from the ATM at the post office. My buddy Chan had the same problem, but never mentioned it and the solution until after I was in Japan :)

I went to Marine Land today, it was the best I could find. It was vaguely entertaining, dolphins are cool. Would have been more fun, but overall I'm jsut depressed here. And I couldn't seem to sleep last night so that adds to the pesimistic outlook.

Hmm.. no ones on at 5 am EST, odd..

At least prostitutes aren't following me back to my room anymore. They really don't take hints, you have to be direct with them: No, and don`t pick my pocket.

I`m going to find my hostle, maybe there will be people there, if not I'll check out a bar. If nothing else, I can spend the night writting postcards. The messages may not be entertaining or remotely interesting, but I assure the recipient that the picture on the cover is pretty. (except the Ho Chi Minh ones I sent.. those were kinda boring abd ugly)

hey, I just found the appostrophy key, at least I accomplished something today. :)

PS; I managed to get my Nah Tran pictures up. And fortunatly they're also the most fun and interesting pictures.

---

Well, after getting to the middle of nowhere, I called them as instructed by their card.. and turns out its a Holiday and they're closed. *sigh* What a hostle. Managed to make it back.. If there was an earlier flight out of here, I'd pay the 150$ Flight Changing fee to take it in an instant. So depressed here.

Can't wait for Bangkok, and eventually (2 weeks) home.

Night one in Fukuoka

Well, my bank cards dont work anywhere, no one takes mastercard (except for hotels), and the airport treated me like I was Arab or something, pulled me away from customes, kept asking me if I had drugs, searched all my stuff, kept checking that I had a return ticket, etc.

I hope that half eaten chocolate bar in my bag will be satisfying, its all I can eat tonight.

(No money makes me poor)

I don:t think I:m really in a touristy area right now, and if I am, it sucks. I:ll try and find some place better tomorrow. And in the worse case scenario, I have a meal waiting for me on the plane in the 8th. (Of course, without the means to buy a train ticket to the airport, a measly 2.50$ CND, Ill be hungry after the walk there)

And sorry about the use of : instead of appostraphies. This is a japonese keybored. Also, half the space bar is a language toggle, so everytime I go to press space with my right thumb, as I quite enjoy to do, suddenly I:m typing in Japonese (A language that as it turns out, I reallly don:t speak). In a word, the whole issue is annoying.

On the bright side, the girls here are gorgious.

Leaving Hong Kong

Leavng Hong Kong today for Japan. I had fun here. Lost of musuems (but like most museums, dissapointingly uninformative). And the space museum told me I was too fat to try the moon walker simulator.. 4kg over the max.. so umm.. fuck them.

Went out to dinner with two tkd instructors last night. Instead of boring and awkward, it was actually fun. We hate a nmber of things, including Pigeon. Left the restaurent tipsy too. (China beer is good)

They really beleive in that "Chi" stuff though, one of the instructors was actively training his ability to use Chi. Chi is comparable to Star War's 'The Force' for those of you who don't know. Except for the stringling at a distance and mind control.. It's more like, maximizing your force to ridiculous degrees, etc.

They were also telling me about the Showloon monks. Aparently recently there was a compitition somewhere, then the winners when to Showloon to play against the monks. I asked how they did, I was just explained that they can't compare at all.. The showloon monks train all day every single day. One of the excersizes I hear is that they have to crawl down a montain every morning, worse yet, they cannot use the palm of their hands, only their finger tips. Facing down the montain too, no short cuts.. eseentially, the majority of their weight, the whole crawl down, on the finger tips. I estimate I could make 10 meters before crying.

It would be cool though to chill with them for a week.. The ridiculously hardcore training, all that.

Gee too Gee.

Pluto

Wtf? While I'm gone you people loose a planet?

Food

I gotta be honest, I prefer the Chinese food back home to the food here in Hong kong. Maybe it's cuz I'm used to the food at home, or that I've been sticking to cheaper restaurents here.. But it's still my opinion.

Comparing a dish, sweet&sour pork: The pinnaple here was better, but every peice of pork had a bigass bone hidden in it. At Chu Shing, you'd never get a bone.

I'm going for dinner with Master Chaing, a TKD instructor here, tomorrow for dinner, maybe we'll go to a good restaurent.

Vietnamise food on the other hand, really good. I didn't try dog though. (ran out of time once I figured out it wasn't a joke). Except for the shrimp and fish, they also come with bones, you're suppose to eat them I'm told... good calcium.

Oh, and I prefer the vietnamise spring rolls at home too.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is beautiful. It's like, imagine the class and transit of Britain, mixed with the size of New York, and throw a bunch of chineses in, and bam, you got Hong Kong. It also has the nicest subway system I've ever seen, and I've been in a few. I compare all subways against Toronto of course, it's the "zero" of subway appearance in my opinion. There is also a lot of annoying brit stuff left, like, everything tells me to "Mind The " something, "mind the door", "mind the gap", "mind the ..." It gets annoying really fast. At least the chinese one is in chinese, and it sounds chinese to me.

Went up to Victoria Peak, so beautiful.

What surprises me is, a lot of Indian Taylors, they're everywhere. Really talkative too.

I also noticed that all hot girls here speak some English. Al the old men.. nothing... they just stare at you blankly, and sometimes point at something really not helpful.

Some buildings here are beautiful, others, like the one I'm staying in, looks like ass, like, passed condemed, oh well.

If any one wants gold, the base price is 21$ for 22k, and 23$ for 24k. That's CND/gram. And it doesn't come any cheaper, that price is standard throughout the city. jewelery is even more, but you can bargin it down a bit.

Suits are anywhere from 150$ (cashmier, 100 or something), to whatever. A pure silk shirt will run you almost 100$

I can bring any of these back, I'll need measurements though.

I decided to go visit Chan instead of going to Bali. Traveling alone is lonely.. So, though it's been nice and stuff, and fun at some points, that should be fun. Surfing season is still on their too, so, I should get a lot of beach time.

Still can't find Catherine, and my camera case that she still has.. Oh well. Maybe it's time I say good bye to that 15$ case :( Or start plotting.

My sentences are all short and choppy because I gotta head out.

After wards, I guess I'll go back to my guest house, and if my stuff is still there, I think I'll stay there for a few nights. So sick of packing every morning.

Hong Kong is awesome, always stuff to do. I was on the conceptional comparative to Sparks street a few minutes ago, so packed. So bright too, I didn't even notice it was night. So many lights, without looking up, it looks like day.

Not many Canadians around that I can find, all the white people, or "Westerners" as the more politically correct term goes, are European. And of those, most are British. Oh well.

Tomorrow I'm going to check out the History and Space museums, and depending on what day tomorrow is (man this 5$USD watch from Ho Chi Minh sucks), meet up with Master Chiang.

Oh well, later.

Oh, does anyone know what England has pents and pounds, but all the English colonies seem to have dollars? Canadian Dollar, Astrallian Dollar, Hong Kong Dollar, American Dollar, etc..?

I'm also hoping to find out from the History tomorrow why the Brits took Hong Kong, and why China didn't seem to try to take it back, and just took Tibet and stuff.. And what the state of Hong kong is now.

Just watched a Japanese movie.. Luckaly it had chinese subtitles since my Japonese is about as good as my chinese.... The plot was generic at best but it had a really hot girl in it.

I miss Aiste... and the Daly Show :(

hey hey

been a while since I've gotten a chance to post. I'll have to be quick:

Vietnam:
Beautiful!

Ho Chi Minh was boring, so I went to Nah Tran, so awesome. Went snorleing the first day, warm water, drunk captain passing hooch onto us, table dancing, etc.. We dove off the boat into the beautiful blue water, had lunch with stuf they caught, etc.

After wards, I got to go Para-sailing! best ting ever. it's like sex on a parachut.. but without the girl. The only negative thing I have to say about it is that I wish they would have taken the time to secure the straps.. or maybe even pay slight attention to seuring the straps.. by the end I was being supported by my crotch since they weren't put on right.. and instead of looping stuff around, they just made sketchy nots that came undone with any slight touch. Oh Vietnam...

but yeah, it was so awesome, and they dip you into the water, and raise you again.. It's sweet.

Afterwards, went out, etc..

next day, motorcycle tour accross Vietnam for 3 days.

beautiful, but boring

In Hong Kong now.. Internet place that took 6 hours to find is closing, gotta go.

Hong Kong is so cool