AAAAACHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOO!

Note: This blog was written this week Monday. I’ve been too lazy to post it till today. Sorry!

Well this week I caught a cold again. Or maybe I should say my cold bug returned, all because I went to enjoy a trip to the Onsen on Saturday. There’s a cold water bath you can go into after you enter the sauna, and spending too much time in there probably explains why I’m sick. It does feel really good after a sauna though, so I couldn’t help it. One of the cool things about it is that the air in your lungs become cold and it feels really good when you breathe. Anyways, I have to get better before I take my next trip.

Yesterday (Sunday), was practice with a few members of my band. We completely forgot how to play the songs, since it’s been so long. Hopefully we’ll have another practice soon. Voting for the elections was finished yesterday, so it put an end to the long week of election campaign cars with speakers that would wake my afternoon nap with screams of “Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!” (literally translated as “Please take care of us”), “This is Joe Schmoe, running for something something, Thank you very much!” and the like. These campaign cars drove around town for a whole frickin’ week. From 9:00am to 6:30pm. It was annoying. I felt like I should have hijacked the car, Grand Theft Auto style, just so I could put an end to it. Thumbs down to Japanese elections.

The votes were also tallied yesterday. With 11 of the 12 candidates running, getting a seat on the town council (basically only one candidate lost). The candidate that my supervisor was supporting received a seat, so there was a celebratory party. Of course, I was dragged along to go, which I usually don’t mind when I’m 100% healthy. I left around 12, after drinking a large bottle of beer, to head to bed, since today was busy day. My supervisor, being the party animal that he is, stayed till 2 in the morning. Needless to say he’s pretty sleepy right now.

Today was the elementary and the Jr. High school’s ceremony for those just entering the school (so the grade 1’s and 7’s respectively). I had to do a self introduction, which I did in Japanese and English. At the Elementary, after I had spoken English, people were talking to each other saying things like, “Wtf, he isn’t Japanese?” At the Jr. High I had no such reaction, unfortunately. I’m starting to get a kick out of throwing off any Japanese person off, by speaking English. Yes, its kind of “assholish” of me (I just made a new word, and no my name isn’t George Bush).

So what’s next for me? It’s back to teaching this week, which I’m looking forward to. Sort of.

I most likely have a lot of drinking party’s to attend this week, seeing as it is the start of school and all. There is a drinking party for the hockey club to celebrate the wrap up to the season. Speaking of hockey, hopefully, I’ll be able to start working out soon. I have to recover from this cold still, but I want to start seeing if I can bulk myself up for the next hockey season. I looked on Nike’s Hockey training website, for a few exercises I could do. Some of them require a medicine ball and free weights, which my gym just doesn’t have.

Next Monday is concert, with some female singer from Sapporo, coming to Kamikawa. I believe she plays acoustic guitar, but I have no idea what type of music she sings. I’m pretty sure it’ll be more on the popish or folk side. The day after that is D-day. Basically, I’ll be working from 6:30am to about 10:30pm (that’s 16 hours) doing an interpretation job for one of the former MPs from Alberta. I have to travel to Sapporo to meet her in the morning, come back to Kamikawa, eat lunch and translate for her, then travel back to Sapporo, and finally come back home. So that’s pretty much 10 hours in the car. *Start sarcasm* that’ll be fun *end sarcasm*.

Hope you guys are doing well in Edmonton!

My Busy Week

Warning: this blog entry is 4 pages long in Microsoft word on 10.5 sized Century font. If you can’t read massive amounts of text on your computer for a long time or have better things to do that sit in front of your computer for a half an hour, you’d best read a bit everyday. It’s probably going to be a long time till I blog again, so just take your time reading this one and hopefully when you’re done, my next one will be ready.

So I, bored at work, figured I might as well right something in my blog to you guys. Although I have no access to the internet as of now, so I am writing this in word, and will copy and paste this into my blog. It really sucks when they won’t give you internet connection at work. But I can’t complain, my work is pretty slack anyway. The last week has been pretty dead, in terms of work for me to do, as school is out. About 2 weeks ago we had graduation ceremonies and ending ceremonies (Japanese society is big on formal ceremonies), and everything till next week will basically be just me staying in the office. I will be studying Japanese and reading articles I have downloaded onto my laptop trying to waste away this last week of boredom before I get back to the nitty-gritty part of English teaching.

Anyway, getting back to the topic at hand…it’s the time of the year where some people leave for other jobs. In Japan, its regulatory for people to change jobs every 2, 3 or even 6 years, at around this time on year. So every year, there’s probably going to be people leaving a given office and heading to a new one. It’s like that with schools too. Of course, there will be new people filling in these positions, but that’s a story for later.

So tis the season for Sobetsu-kais or Farewell parties, in Hokkaido, which is kind of sad. Although I’ve only been here 7 months (almost 8) it is really hard to see people that you’re used to working with, go, especially if you’ve just started really settling down and enjoying the atmosphere at work.

Last week was really busy. Tuesday I had band practice, although that didn’t turn out so well because our vocalist couldn’t make it, and there were customers in the bar (It’s called Romance, I believe I mentioned it earlier) that we were suppose to be practicing at, so the bassist (who’s one of the bar managers) was busy with them. Not to mention that because it’s a karaoke bar, when there are customers we’re pretty much not allowed to start jamming. So that was a shame and I was a little angry at that.

Wednesday was Guitar lessons and then back to romance just to chat with the bassist.

Thursday was killer. It was Toda-san’s Sobetsukai, as she is leaving the office as of tomorrow. Kind of sucks, she gave me a lot of advice on Japanese living and I know shes a lot of help to the office. My supervisor, Takahata-san and my other co-worker Suzuki-san will have a lot of work to do without her in the office. Until the replacement comes (which will be sometime in April or May, I believe).

For her Sobetsukai, we headed down the restaurant they first brought me to when I arrived in Kamikawa, called Akashi around 6:30pm. We had dinner there (Sushi platters, all the good stuff, and all you can drink for 3000 yen). After 3 hours there, that we headed to Tomochan, another restaurant to go eat (we were hungry again). I actually heard news that the Mayor (who had his retirement ceremony on that day, I was in attendance) was in the karaoke bar across from Tomochan, so I sneaked in and grabbed a few pictures with him, before joining my group back in Tomochan. We had Ramen and beer and talked till about 11.

After that everybody decided to go home, that is except for me. I had to go Romance, so that I could meet with Dustin, a Muroran ALT who was also leaving his job and headed for Western Honshu, near Hiroshima. Takahata-san, my supervisor, being the good guy he his came along with me. In fact, he had to work the next day at 8:00 but ended up staying with me till about 3:00am in the morning. Wow, no 40 year old parties like that at home. No wonder why Japan is so fun.

There were lots of people there, Dustin was pretty popular here in Kamikawa. So we partied together, took pictures, drank some more, acted stupid all those things. At 3:00 I was pretty concerned that Takahata-san wouldn’t be able to get up the next morning. He had given me the day off the next day (Friday), but not himself, so I figured we should head out. I paid the bill (as thanks for hanging out with me so late) and we headed out. Unfortunately, two other people we were partying with went to outside to say good bye to Takahata-san and ended dragging me back in. They figured it was ok since I had the day off. So it was more drinking for me even though Takahata-san went home.

On Friday, I was pretty dead tired. I basically slept till 11:00am, woke up, got re-hydrated, slept again till about 5:00pm. Made dinner and then headed out to hockey, were my team lost, though I did get an assist. I think next year I’ll be joining the top league, as I need to play on a team with a closer skill level. I didn’t get home till about 12:00am

On Saturday, I helped Ike-chan and his family move into his new apartment with about 15 other people. So that went over pretty quickly. We moved everything in about 1 hour. Though we had to move a fridge and that was really heavy. It took 4 people to move it. After that we had lunch and some beers at his new apartment.

I was going to take a nap that afternoon, but Ike-chan called me to invite me to his Dad’s office to check out this killer Fender amp (I’m guessing its probably like a 50Watt, most likely more, I’ll double check later) his dad was selling for 20000 Yen (less than $200 CDN). It came with a Boss-ME30 multi effects pedal. The sound was great. So I bought it, even though I’m aiming for an Xbox360 and NHL 08 in the near future, just because it’s a great deal and it’s going to be good for the band.

I went to go drop off the Amp at Romance, since we would be performing there and they have a lot of extra space there anyway. The bassist invited me to dinner at her house with her husband. I couldn’t refuse, since I was extremely lazy and would of ate out anyway. I enjoyed delicious Teppan-yaki (basically roasting stuff on a huge hot plate). We finished up making practice CDs and tabs for the next songs in our band. (We’re doing “Bohemian Like You” by The Dandy Warhols and “You” by Hotei Tomoyasu, a famous Japanese guitarist who has collaborated with David Bowie.)

Sunday was a day of sleep, but some Elementary students managed to ruin that by somehow, finding my house and ringing the doorbell insistently. Of course, I didn’t answer, but I could still hear the ringing and children screams of “WING-SENSEI!!!”. I went back to sleep for a while and then I watched the Oilers beat the Flames 2-1, went to eat Ramen and do some grocery shopping. There was a Hockey practice match that day, but seeing as my knee was sore (it had gotten sore on Friday’s match), I decided not to go. That, going would mean I wouldn’t be home till around 1:00am when I had work at 8:00am. With my week of drinking, it didn’t seem like something I could pull off.

Anyway, at least this week will be a little slower, and involve less drinking, so I am to believe. They sometimes tell me about nomikais, just as I’m about to get off work, so I have no idea what to expect.

Today, I’m going to meet with a Japanese girl who wants to learn Cantonese from me. (All I can say is that’s a bad idea, although there are worse people to learn from, who will not be named, but instead, their names will be spelt. Those people are the following: T, M followed by an O and P, E, followed by two Rs and then a Y). Wednesday is another guitar lesson, which I’m looking forward to (yay, slide guitar). Saturday, is drinking with the hockey team, and Sunday is quite possibly band practice, where I’ll take a few pictures if it happens.

I should end this blog entry now, since its getting to be a hefty 4 pages in Microsoft word. Last time I did that, Tmo stopped reading after the second paragraph. But then again all I talked about was drinking.

Some updates...

So its been busy month and 10 days since I last blogged, so I figured I should at least write something down. At least let people know I'm still alive in Japan (haha).

Hockey is going great. So far, in the second season we're 3-0-1. Last game was pretty exciting as the Nayoro ALTs and my office came down to cheer me on. The opposition had a Japanese player that had played in college so he was really good. Though not good enough, I scored twice and added an assist. I think I was fueled to such success, by the fact that he was looking to hit me every opportunity he got, so I had to respond back in some way.

In fact, on one rush, I was going in on a semi-break away, he was the only defender left. He decided to come across and hit me, though I dodge he did manage to clip my head which left my neck sore for a few days. He then hit his own teammate who was in the corner, and by hit I mean completely ploughed over, it was awesome. So awesome, that I was just looking at him smiling and couldn't even score a goal on that play. Buggered weighed about 170-180 lbs, so his teammate must of been hurting pretty bad. Anyway, he seemed to hurt himself on that incident, guess thats karma.

But the season is winding down. The season ends on the 20th or so. After that I'll be looking forward to having a nice break from hockey. Most likely in April or so I'll start conditioning my body again and start weight training. I want to see if I can hit a weight of about 170 lbs. I believe I am about 150lbs from excessive eating and sitting on my ass playing guitar everyday.

While we're on the subject about guitars, we had a band practice last week, without our vocalist. (He's extremely busy because he works at the town hall.) But we managed lay the ground work to the songs, so to speak. It was especially helpful to practice with Saitou-san, my fellow guitarist in the band. We planned out who would play what part and some what sync ourselves to each others playing.

After practice we had a Jam session. Basically when I was jamming with them we were playing 12-Bar blues in the key of A with me doing rhythm and soloing parts. I never knew a rock band could be that fun when your play with people, just making music, even if its really simple. Hopefully, I'll develop my guitar skills to be able to jam with them more in the future.

Sorry, I don't have pictures of the band, I'll have to take some next time, and maybe a video during our next practice which is scheduled at the end of the month (the 25th is the tentative date). Hopefully we can decide on other songs to play then.

In other news, I'm really wishing I had a Canadian Xbox 360, so I could play NHL 08. I really miss playing NHL games and I've heard so many good things about 08. Maybe I should just wait till NHL 09 before I get an Xbox. The Japanese Wii also looks like fun to get, just because of Smash Bros, but its more of a party machine, and I don't have that many parties but I guess I could start (haha). Anyway, all this purchasing stuff is going to have to wait, as I kind of want to just save. Maybe save for that plane ticket back home for a visit.

Speaking of going back home, I may not be able to do it this August. With the Rocky Mountain house students coming over to Kamikawa, I'll be limited to 2 weeks in Canada at most. Getting adjusted to the time difference within those 2 weeks and then leaving right after seems like sort of a waste. I don't know, really want to come back home for a bit and chill out, but August is looking like a bad time to do it. May have to wait until Christmas break, we'll see how my schedule pans out.

I'm going to upload lots of photos on facebook. Take a look at those while your waiting for my next blog. Which may be a long time....

Jr. High Textbook Characters That Annoy Me #1

I'm sure many of the JETs who teach at a Jr. High at some point, and use the standardized textbooks, like me, loath the them. The English is plain and bland, and teaches students to use set phrases, instead of thinking for themselves. They should take a look at the Japanese textbooks we had in High School. Those were pretty effective.

Anyway, the characters in these textbooks are also cardboard cutouts of stereotypical personalities. I hate some/most of these characters. I'm not sure how many blogs I'm going to have with characters I'm going to bitch about, but since this character makes me so mad I need to vent, this blog is dedicated to her. Her name is Lisa, from The second year junior high English textbook. Shes a good friend of Aki (another character from the textbook), shes 14 years old and was born in New Zealand (Yes, each character has a history). She practices Judo with Aki. Funny how she doesn't have an accent in the tapes when she talks...

Why I hate her: Shes a whiny bitch. For those of you with a textbook, you can follow along in your textbook in Lesson 8-1. For those of you without a textbook I will happily transcribe it below. To set up the scene, Aki and Lisa are on their way to Judo practice.

Aki: Hurry! I think that we're going to be late for practice.
Lisa: I don't think we should practice so early.
Aki: But this is a tradition. You'll get warm soon.
Lisa: My feet won't. Your feet are cold, too, aren't they?
Aki: Of course.
Lisa: Thats not snow is it?
Aki: Yes
Lisa: I can't believe it! Why isn't this tradition in July?

The tradition they're talking about is Setsubun. Which doesn't matter in the context of this blog, but for your information it has something to do with beans and throwing them at someone with a devil mask to bring in good luck. If you want to know more about it check this wiki website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Setsubun.

Everybody who's not Japanese but lives in Japan can thank Lisa for depicting Gaijins at complete whiners. She needs a bitchslap... or two. Heck, just hit her until she's knocked out, tie her up and then just ship her off to Sahara so she can get die by dehydration. That'll show her to bitch about cold feet.

Uh...Sex Ed in a Japanese Elementary School...

I have a really short blog I want to make. I promise it will be shorter than last time. Ok..way shorter.

Anyway, today I was in the photocopier room at the Elementary school, and like every other school in this town, they have a pile of paper, (usually stored in box) that have something printed on one side of the paper, but the back side of the paper can be used for scrap, or whatever. I get pretty interested when I come across these boxes, and I always shuffle through the papers to see what was printed on them. Usually they're extra tests, hand-outs, quizes, homework, etc. that weren't handed out (maybe the teacher made too many of them). It's always interesting to see what kind of things the kids in Japanese schools are learning.

But today's experience was slightly disturbing. So as I'm waiting for my 26 copies of my worksheet to finish, I take a quick peak in the scrap paper box and see this funny looking shape, looking sort of like a stylized "W". The shape peaks my curiosity and I go in for a closer look. What I see is a drawing of a Uterus and the Ovas (I think I forgot my anatomy). And then I think to myself. Why is something like this in an elementary school?

It's hard to believe they teach a topic like that in a Japanese elementary school. If I had been introduced to something like that elementary, I probably wouldn't be able to look at a girl at the age I'm at now. Maybe I was introduced to this in elementary, just to traumatized to remember it. Maybe I'm over reacting. I dunno. But to me, this is WIERD!

Shinenkais and Winter Flags

In an effort to keep my "do more blogging" pledge, I will blog about this weekend! Are you ready for this one? Because it’s a doozy of a read.

Probably a lot more exciting than most weekends, I've had, this weekend started off with another Shinnenkai (New Years Meeting, if translated literally). It's basically a fancy term for New Years party, where you drink, eat and talk with other people. I've had about 5 of these this month, which means drinking hard for at least one day a week. I’ve had a Shinnenkai for the Rotary Club, Board of Education, Junior High School, the district which I live in and finally the Kamikawa Workers Union. All of which are fueling my raging alcoholism. Sweet.

In fact, about a couple weeks ago, when I had the Shinnenkai for my city district, which started at 12:00pm and lasted till 3:00pm, I was invited to someone’s house to do more drinking. So basically, I drank from about 12:00pm to about 10:00pm. Of course there was a break in between where I took a nap (or passed out) after the Shinnenkai. But I woke up again, only to start another round of drinking and eating shortly thereafter. Fun times in Japan…now only if I could remember them… (Just kidding, I’m not drinking so much that I forget what happens.)

My Shinnenkai last Friday, was for the Kamikawa workers union. It consisted of people that were working and that had joined the union, which surprisingly, is not very many. I think there were 100 people there, which is significantly small for a town of 4500 where I’m sure two-thirds the population or more are involved in some sort of occupation. Perhaps there were people absent, but I don’t think many people tend to skip things like Shinnenkai as they’re pretty important in Japanese work culture.

We started off at Coming Hall, the place where my Board of Education is located, and then moved on to a restaurant called Kyoshi, and finally to Manly, a karaoke bar (though we didn’t do much singing). By the last destination I was pretty hammered and didn’t feel so good, almost falling asleep on the sofas. I somehow managed to hold it together, stumble home, drink a few glasses of water and fall asleep.

Saturday was a lazy day, as I just stayed home, cooked food, watched TV and played the guitar all day. Right now I’m debating as to whether I want to put on a pickguard on my Les Paul, as it involves drilling holes in the wood (which I’m kinda scared of). Of course if I decide to do it I’ll go ask a professional technician to do it, rather than do it myself. The lack of a pickguard means there are a few scratches on the finish, nothing that can’t be touched up. But on the other hand a pickguard looks so much cooler on a Les Paul (especially if you want to look Jimmy Page, but don’t play like him).

Sunday, I didn’t even want to get up as I had stayed up pretty late just playing the guitar (thank god for amps that let you plug a set of headphones in, otherwise my neighbours would be hollering at my door). But I had to get prepared for Winter Flag, which is basically a race to retrieve a flag. The track is 1/3 ice and 2/3 snow.

The rules of Winter Flag is pretty simple, it’s about a 60 metre dash to the flag. You start off lying on the ice, facing away from the flag. At the sound of a gun (not a real one of course…) you get up and run to towards the flag(s). Starting on the ice is the hard part as it’s hard to get the momentum going, but once you hit the snow part of the course, you can really get going. Usually retrieving the flag requires diving for it, as races are usually pretty close. If you get the flag you make it to the next race, don’t and your out.

There’s also another version called Lucky Winter Flag, which is the same thing, except there’s a flag for everybody, but the flags have a slip of paper saying if you make it to the next round or not. Basically it doesn’t matter how fast you are, you just need to grab a flag that allows you to advance to the next round, where the Luck part comes in.

I invited two Nayoro ALTs, Jenna and Jill. By the way, if you’re a Hokkaido ALT, sorry if I didn’t tell you about Winter Flag, it was sort of a last minute thing and there was registration to be completed. Definitely, next time I’m going to send out invites on Facebook or something, so free up your schedule near the end of next January if your interested! I should mention there is a total cash prize of 100,000 Yen. Oh! You also get a free ticket to the onsen just for participating.

None of us did too well. For Winter Flag, I only barely made it past the first round and was out by the second round. In Lucky Winter Flag, only Jenna made it past the first round. Which proves that I still have no luck what-so-ever.

Despite not winning we definitely had a fun time. Though the boots we had to wear for winter flag made standing in the cold almost unbearable, as they were just rubber, with no insulation. Luckily, there were heating rooms in which you could warm your feet.

There was a food stand, where you could buy meat buns and ramen. There was also an ice slide that they made, which had a Mario bros. theme (I’m going to steal that picture you took Jenna! I really need to start brining my digital camera to these things). I was impressed, since the ice slide had you going pretty fast. Though the bumps on the slide didn’t feel too good on my Arse.

After that we went to ramen at Asahishokudo restaurant, the best place for ramen in Kamikawa, in my opinion. I tried the Maboroshi ramen, on the advice of another Nayoro ALT who we coincidentally met at Asahishokdo. It was really different than anything that I’ve had. It had a different broth and allowed you grind up your own sesame seeds and add them into the ramen (as well as pine nuts and leeks) to your own liking. It had delicious nutty taste. I only wish there was more meat added into it.

After that everybody went home. I had a nap, and then went to the convenience store to buy dinner. That was followed by sitting on my arse and playing guitar for about 4 hours.

We have two songs that are decided for the band. “My Sharona” by the Knacks and “Ame agari no yozora ni” (雨上がりの夜空に)By RC Succession, a Japanese Rock Band in the 1970s. I really some classic rock songs but I’m not sure if the vocalist can handle it, as some of them you pretty complicated English pronounced pretty fast. We’ll see what they decide on at the next Band meeting.

My goal is to get the solo part down for “My Sharona” (no matter how slow), “Let it be by the Beatles” and to be able to play a few Led Zeppelin songs. I’m currently working on “Heartbreaker” minus the solo part, as that’s going to require a many months to be able to play that up to speed.

Anyway, I’m hoping that my guitar skills will grow enough so that by summer, I’ll to be able to put on a decent sounding concert with my band come this summer.

Congrats if you to the finish of this blog. As it’s really really long. It fills up about 3 pages in word. I’ll end it here, because if I go any further, my blog is going to turn into a novel. Till next time!

OMG Wing finally wrote something...

So its been about 3 months since I wrote anything in this blog. I've been super lazy, but hopefully thats changed. As from now on I'll TRY to write in this blog on a more consistent basis. Why? Because 1) to at least let you know that I'm alive in Japan; 2) Because I want something for the record, where I can look back and say, "Yah those were good times"; 3)I can practice my English, which is slowly getting worse (I'm using spell checker more and more everyday); and 4) to entertain you when you are tired of staring at your desk and twiddling your thumbs.

So what has happened in 3 months, besides me being missing from the blogging world? I've been playing guitar as much as a heroin addict takes crack. Perhaps more...I devote about at least 2 hours a day playing guitar. On weekends, I just sit in front of the TV with my guitar, just playing random stuff and learning new songs to play. Then I have guitar lessons with my teacher 1 hour per week. So I would say about half my time here in Japan is spent playing the guitar. Kinda weird how I come all the way to Japan to just play guitar.

But lemme explain... I have a pretty well paying job in Japan, which means I can afford to fuel my hobbies now. I also don't go out as much as I do in Edmonton, and even if I do go out, I pay at most $50 a night to drink as much beer, and eat as much as I can. There has been NO night, where I have spent beyond $50 to party hard. Seriously, I love the Japanese country side. It's a good place to save money, while having fun.

Furthermore, I have access to a guitar teacher in my town. Hes only a 5 minute drive away. Super convenient.
That and the fact that he charges me $15/lesson (which is basically an hour). Each lesson is privately taught, I'm getting a much better deal than if I actually went to a music store to learn guitar. And yes, hes a legit teacher, he plays in band and teaches at the Shimamura Music Store (Big music chain store in Japan) in Asahikawa (the nearby city) on Sundays.

Lastly, I've found music connections really easily. In fact, I've formed a band with a nearby bartender, her friends and a guy at the Town Office. Which will further my musicianship (which is at the level of none or really really low). We have a few songs that we're thinking about playing and then expanding from there. The name of the band? We haven't decided on that yet...

Oh, by the way, I bought a Gibson Les Paul. Got it on sale, and its a hell of a guitar. Set-up is really nice and the tone is pretty versatile for rock music. You can play so many types of Rock music with it, which is great for me as I've been starting to listen to Led Zeppelin, Red Hot Chili Peppers and the likes. Of course its like 10lbs, but it feels really solid when your playing it. Somehow, I locked myself out of the hard case after I took the guitar out, so I'm waiting for Shimamura to fix it for me (I Love the customer service here).

I went to Hong Kong at the end of December, to visit my family and Les. Hang out with the family was really fun. It's been so long since I've seen my little cousins (10 years) and I was pretty surprised to see them grown up into full fledged Elementary school students.

One thing that bugged me was the people in HK who walk like jackasses. They would bump into you on purpose, or just get in your way. Even if theres like open area they could walk in. So eventually, I would just start walking like a dick and giving people the hard shoulder. Even little old ladies who refused to get out of my way. HK people seriously piss me off.

I also did a bit of exploring of HK by myself and got a hang of the transit system. It's pretty simple once you get used to it, and HK is not as big of a place as one might think. Well, at least its not as big as Tokyo, which I went to after my HK visit.

I hit a few tourist spots in Tokyo, but didn't really get to do too much in the way of touristy things (i.e. going to Disneyland, visiting Tezuka Osama world, taking a tour inside Fuji television and many more were things that I missed out on). But that couldn't be helped as my stay only consisted of 4 days. Most of which were hanging out with friends and shopping. I didn't buy too much, as I was planning to buy my Les Paul right after my flight to Asahikawa airport. But there will definitely be a next time, as I have to go back to Tokyo for my re-contracting conference. Hopefully, I'll be able to head there a few days before and do some of the things I missed out on with my friends.

Hockey is going well... Finally got a goal with that Vapor 30 some of you guys sent me. Btw, thanks. The card and that stick are great reminders of whats waiting for me back home. Hopefully I'll come back around July or August for 3 weeks ,to come visit you guys. I'll let you know what my plan is when it gets closer to the date. However, I do have to be a translator for a group of kids coming from Rocky Mountain House in late July, so I probably won't be able to leave before then. If I'm coming I'm not sure if I can bring my Les Paul over, and not sure if I want to, just because of the hassle it turned out to be when bringing my Epiphone Acoustic to HK just to practice. I have a Squire back home so I'll be able to practice on that. Although, it'll probably need a wipe down, string changes and a set up.

Anyways, I'll leave it at that for now. Making this any longer will probably make you quit reading altogether. Hope things aren't too cold back home. I'll upload some photos on to facebook later, once I get them off my camera (which may be a long time, just because I'm sooo lazy). Talk to you guys later.