During the next few days I’ll continue filling in the details of the past couple of days. In the meantime, Aki and I are going out with one of her friends during NYE, and I think a bit of drinking will be involved. Television here on NYE is going to be filled with three fighting matches (and not of the boring boxing type or as dramatized wrestling in the US). One of them (K1) is going to be Akebono (a huge sumo wrestler) vs Bob Sapp (a dark-skinned body-builder-looking wrestler who often appears in Japanese commercials and TV), which might prove to be interesting. We and Aki’s Aunts (who are so generous) will be taping three channels for us to watch later. I find these interesting as we dont get this kind of sport (K1 is described here as ‘a crass, brash, no-holds barred bloodsport combining kickboxing, karate, kung fu and tae kwon do’) in Australia.

Last Wednesday (Christmas Eve) I went for a ride around the neighbourhood and a little of the surrounding areas. I would describe the geography of this place as a cross between city/Hahndorf/Loxton. There’s the business, buildings, roads and traffic in the “CBD” areas, the hilliness, greenery and winding roads (yet thinner) comparable to those in Hahndorf (off it’s main street), and also the spaciousness and plains (rice fields) similar to that around Loxton in the Riverland.
The neighbourhood areas are filled with two-storey houses crammed on top of the tree inhabited hills, which in turn are surrounded by rice fields, roads, and power lines galore.

Christmas was quite a weird experience here - presents from Aki’s Dad etc were presented in the middle of dinner (a BBQ Japanese style) on Christmas eve and were opened then and there (shocking, yes? - I think I was!). After Christmas day I was very glad that all the Christmas decorations and repetitive Jingle Bells tunes had gone away from all the shopping malls and public spaces. I feel that most Japanese shops see Christmas as a celebration that lasts a month - and most things are sold with “christmas” as an adjective (no matter the type of shop, there will always be shopping assistants trying to sell you something [and they don't believe that you are 'just looking']), especially in the cake sections of shopping malls (and train stations). There are no christmas fruit cakes here as there is in Australia, just lots of cakes of every other kind (especially creamy ones) that they all call “christmas cakes”.

A week and a day since the last post, and a few things have happened.

Later last Tuesday (after watching TV etc), I went out with @ki and her Aunt Yoshimi to Tokyo. We went to a number of places, namely a large shrine, the Tokyo Tower, Roppongi Hills, and an English Pub.

The Shrines around Japan are really interesting places I find. They feature a number of well designed monuments scattered around the perimeter, with the main shrine and also incense pot-bowls (which can be really big) near the center. The local one which is around a 10 minute ride away has a lot of moss and a tropical feel about it.

The Tokyo Tower is taller than the Eiffel Tower, and on the middle and “special” (because it costs more) observation deck up the top we observed Tokyo. There are large buildings everywhere with a few parklands, but it was largely covered by pollution, and as a consequence we could not see Fuji-san (Mt Fuji).

Roppongi Hills is a place in Tokyo filled with restaurants, pubs, and a number of foreigners. The architecture and design of the new shopping centre/hotel (?) and surrounding spaces was quite jaw dropping, but I didn’t manage to take many photos - I have a brochure instead.

At the English pub we went to (which was downstairs on a main street; they mainly spoke Japanese there also) there was a few tv screens around showing Japanese boxing/kickboxing/wrestling matches which I found quite interesting. One of the things I had there was a peach flavoured beer, and it was quite good. Some brands of Beer in Japan are really good compared to some in Australia - My favourite is Yebisu beer, which feels thick yet thin and smooth.

Hey hey, we have reruns of Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman!! With a choice of English or Japanese soundtrack as well…

My results for Semester 2 2003:

Language Communication & Technology: 80 - Distinction
New Media Technology & Society: 79 - Distinction
Professional Ethics: 67 - Credit

It is a pity that I can’t put photos online as I have no USB cable and software CD. Perhaps I might buy a cable and download the software from canon.com - we’ll see.

I’m not sure what we’re doing for xmas or for new years yet.

During the last few days since going to Disneyland we’ve been not doing much, just sleeping in, taking it easy, shopping for food and walking around the neighbourhood.

On Thursday we went to Ueno which has some parklands, but we spent most of our time there at the National Science Museum. We went from there to Asakusa (a historical place), where we got a few souvenirs from the long market shopping mall near a shrine. Read more here.

On Friday we went shopping and got some reading (or ‘looking’) material from the library. I can now quite slowly read Hiragana, but I generally have no idea what it means :P. Despite this, it is very handy in reading place names at railway stations (when there’s no english around). We also checked out a local dojo where they were practicing Judo and Kendo. I might go there sometime, but I have no gi (uniform outfit) or armour, let alone a shinai (bamboo stick for hitting people :P). I do however have some tabi (feet protectors) that I bought for nearly half the price they would have cost in Australia, to prevent the blistering that my soft feet are prone to.

Last night we went out to Shinjuku to meet two of Aki’s net friends. We went to three places to eat and drink (we were going to the next place when we were requested to leave due to making room for the next customers and closing time). I had the most sensational food there (and it wasn’t sushi believe it or not), but drunkeness might have enhanced the bliss factor. The best food I ate was a type of yukitori - grilled skewered chicken/meat (I forget the type) which I can only describe as a juicy tasting meat with an incredibly smooth texture comparable to that of a cooked egg yolk. The other highlight of the night was drinking various alcoholic drinks (eg beer and chu-hi cocktails) from ONE LITRE MUGS. There was also on the menu a 1800 mL serve of beer, but we didn’t get that.

It is freezing here - we had a very small amount of snow this morning apparently - the puddles were icey and slippery
Aki’s just about to colour her shorter hair

Disneyland is the first theme park that I have visited. Disneyland is pretty big - I think it’s a bit bigger than the Adelaide Royal Showgrounds. It’s filled with lots of rides and souvenir shops. Unfortunately I lost the map and don’t have that as a memento and a reference for the rides we went on. However, we did go on most of the rides there.

I found the Star Tours ride (a Star Wars based ride - Lucasfilm must be a sponsor of Disney) a bit annoying. The 20 minute lineup (earlier in the day it was more than an hour long) guided us through a new age spaceport, where there were lots of posters and televisions advertising the moon of Endor (Ewok country) as a destination of travel. However, when we got on the ride (a film-ride, like the Venturer) the robot pilot announced that it’s his first time and instead of going on a tour to Endor to meet the lovable ewoks (as was advertised) we ended up crashing through the spaceport (apparently out of control - would be quite horrifying if it was actually real) and then escaping and getting trapped by a space cruiser’s guidance beam while TIE fighters roamed around. The hydraulic movements also weren’t syncronised with the screen… Oh well - it wasn’t the best ride.

The Cinderella castle tour was basically a tour of a dungeon underneith the castle and was quite freaky for many young kids. No castle tour in that - but the acting of the tour guide was fun enough
Other highlights were the spinning teacups, Haunted Mansion (great 3D video holograms of and other technical illusions), kids rollercoaster (we went on it twice, as the waiting queue was basically non-existant after sunset), Roger Rabbit ride and Splash Mountain (We got a photo of us going down it [scream!]). I also quite enjoyed the cartoony style of ToonTown.

When it got dark, there was not many lights to guide people along the footpaths and open areas. I also found some areas of rides very very dark (eg Haunted Mansion).

There was way too much Christmas stuff and songs. They were even singing Jingle Bells interwoven into “It’s a small world after all” in the It’s A Small World After All attraction. That ride is meant to be how everyone in the world can get along no matter the culture difference, but then they put christmas songs in the middle of it, and there’s no way that everyone in the world is a Christian and celebrates Christmas.

We got a few things there including personalised shot glasses, and might go again sometime in the new year.

When we got home my legs weren’t working. I’m 95% over the sickness, but I started getting chesty yesterday - I think that’s because of lack of sleep three days in a row and lots of delicious creamy cakes

Ok, here are the news items of the past few days:

Friday: Went to a Sushi Joint with Aki’s Aunts and had twelve plates of the delicious things + two desserts. I also learnt to jump start a car’s battery at midnight (+ to + and - to gnd).

Saturday: Mak arrived in Japan and visited us (stayed overnight), and we went out for dinner,

Sunday: Changed my ring size from 20 to 19 (pickup early January ‘04),

Monday: Went to Disneyland (very very entertaining),

Tuesday: Rested tired legs + returned hired videos and library magazines. Also got part of GIHSphotos working again
PS Friends and relatives: don’t be afraid to click on ‘add a comment’ and ask questions etc.