USJ

For those of you who don't live in Japan, USJ is Universal Studios....Japan. I went the other day with some friends and one of their sisters from out of town. It was surely an experience. I'll have to go back sometime to hit the rides I didn't get a chance to go on this time. We unluckily picked a Monday that happened to be after a 'sports day' here in Japan which meant that kids were not in school that day and had swarmed the park. So.....it was a little busy. And we had to wait in line.....alot......it wasn't fun........but the rides were good. Here are some pics.


One mini skirt. Mwa ha ha ha.
2 peace signs. Mwa ha ha ha.
3 leather accessories. Mwa ha ha.

The Count is sure one lucky guy. Mwa ha ha ha.


Ikuyo and Kirstens sis - Bree.


Kirsten and Russ. Here we are all waiting in line for the Spiderman ride. I think it was a good 2 hours.


They had some cool stuff to look at while waiting in line - I'll give them that. Pics and bios for people and an imitation Daily Bugle to walk through. Here's a smashing pic of JJ himself.


One of the reasons people go to USJ is all the live 'shows' that are happening all the time. They have character actors wandering around all the time entertaining people. This of course is the Doc from Back to the Future. He was making audience members do all kinds of stupid stuff much to the entertainment of other audience members.


Its just not USJ without Snoopy and the Gang.


Munchkinland or somesuch thing. We went to see Wicked - a story about Glinda the good witch and the Wicked Witch of the West before she was wicked.


A classic Jurassic Park. He he. That rhymes.


Seeeexxy poncho baby! It turns out that you get wet on the Jurassic Park ride. K decided to buy a poncho to avoid the after ride wet hair look.


Peter Pan. Cool night show in the Man made Lake.


Sesame Street. Boy that brings back memories.


On my way to where the air is sweet......


Can you tell me how to get, how to get to E.T????


There it is folks. The big globe.


The Hard Rock. We were going to eat there for dinner until we looked at the price board outside. C'mon guys. I'm willing to spend $25 on a steak, but not macaroni and cheese. Needless to say, we went somewhere else. I don't remember them being THAT expensive in North America. Do Japanese people really pay that much for this crap food???

Anyway, that was our trip. It was fun. Probably do it again sometime :)

Nikko

Nikko is one of the most famous (and crowded) tourist attractions in Japan. In terms of finding Japanese culture and history, you can't get better than this. It's history is steeped in buddhist tradition stretching all the way back to the 8th century; hell, it even has the first shogun buried among the towering cedar trees at the top of the mountains. With such an impressive list of world heritage sites, I had to go! So, two and a half hours later, this is what I found.

Now this was a real steep climb, but it was worth it. You can visit the burial shrine of Tokugawa Ieyasu, who was the first shogun (overlords who wrestled control from the emperors for over three centuries) of a united Japan. Here you can pray to a man who has been deified and worshipped by countless people for years; the irony being that he was a ruthless warlord who at one point had his wife and son executed to further his goal for power.


The train ride back and forth was quite interesting too; the landscape would range from the typical japanese urban jungle to a bamboo forest. I was listening to The Chemical Brothers' song "Star Guitar" and found that the view from my train window did match up with the music video for it. Spooky...

You can catch the train from Asakusa Tobu Station. I highly recommend it.

I AM GOING TO SEE PUFFY!!!!

Wooo hoo! My friend Michiko helped me acquire some tix for the Puffy concert in Todaiji next month! 8th row, so we're gonna be able to see all the action. They're not rockabilly, but they are sooooo Japanese pop its great. I do have all their CD's and have been known to belt out a couple of their songs at karaoke. So Jason and I will be heading to Nara to see them perform in front of the Big Buddha. Yah us!! Love the PUFFY!

Heeeeyaaan. Heeeeeyaaan.

Aaah. The Heian Shrine in Kyoto. I know there are alot of posts revolving around Kyoto on this site but, gosh, darnit, there's just so much to see there!


Beautiful leaves inside the garden at the Shrine



Hello says my shadow


Another gorgeous shot in the garden


Here we are. The 4 of us grabbed a random Japanese person to take this picture for us.


Hop hop hop!


Contemplating


Tea House on the lake.


The beautiful orange of one of the shrine buildings


Fantastic Shrine


The enormous gates to the Shrine. They are actually located a good block or so away from the inner gates. Its hard to see the perspective in this picture, but trust me when I say they are huge.

Well, that was Kyoto and the Heian Shrine. Whats next.....?

Chilean Independence Day

Updates updates. I know I've been bad. I've been ignoring the blog. But I've been really busy I swear!!OK, now that I've finished with that!We went to some friends house for Chilean Independence Day. When the hell is that you ask? And why do we care. Well, actually we probably don't really care and didn't know until our friend who is Chilean said, "Hey, come over to my house for a BBQ in honour of Chilean Independence Day." . And that was that. It was fun. Good food, and good friends.

Tokyo, part 2

On my second day there I decided to head to the more (in)famous parts of Tokyo. Shibuya was something of a let down. It's basically a few crowded streets devoted to fleecing rich people of there money while buying useless tat (junk). The only place I wanted to visited was the crossing used in Lost In Translation. I sat in the Starbucks on the 1st (british definition of 1st) floor and just watched all the people huddle there way through the crowded streets.

All your snakes am belong to us...mutherfuckers!!

I'm Back.

Four days in Tokyo is worth a lifetime back in Scotland. I was staying at a cheap ryokan (hostel) in a neighbourhood called Asakusa which is famous for two things: the Senjou-ji buddhist temple and the infamous golden turd called the Asahi(japanese beer company) building.

Check this out...
The next day was spent doing the sight-seeing thing with a couple of really nice german people who were doing the whole "Lost in Translation" movie tour. They even took me to the hotel were Bill Murray and Scarlett Johanssan first met in the movie.

The Meiji-jingu

Underneath one of the holy trees there, is a selection of wooden plaques with prayers written on them. They're called Ema; some ranged from the sad to the tragic. Some were quite personal so I didn't take any pictures of them but I would like to share a couple at least. Here are some examples:

This one is my personal favourite...
I'll post some more pictures when I've caught up on my sleep. If anyone is curious you can go to the same shrine and try to find my prayer...

I've learnt 2 interesting things about women while in Tokyo. German women take a really long time getting ready to come to bed, and they do very interesting things when they think you're asleep...men still have ears, and while our eyes are shut our ears work 24/7 ;-)

Good night.

Japanese Rockabilly -HELP!!

So, our friend Jason is coming in October to visit us here in Osaka and wants to see this band called The 5,6,7,8's. Unfortunately, they will be in Okinawa when he arrives - right in the middle of typhoon season. So he probably won't be able to go. So a question for all of you out there - do you know of any other good rockabilly/punk etc bands that will be playing in either Osaka or Tokyo the end of October??? We really want to make sure he has a great time when he's here. And hey, who doesn't like a live show? :)

Evidence of Sunday Madness

Secret in a pot

This ones for you Ana-chan. The strangest engrish tshirt I have ever seen.

Sunday Madness!!!

Karaoke + All you can drink = madness. On a Sunday. SUNDAY MADNESS.

Paaaarty!

So we are all currently hanging at Dunk for the all you can drink night. Woo hoo!!!!! Everyone may have to wait a day or so for the pics cause everyone may be too hungover to post the pics - hehe. Heres to nomihoudai!!!

Tokyo, baby!

I'm heading to Tokyo (after the all-you-drink party at Club Dunk of course) for 4 days of sight seeing, drinking, taking pictures and testing Kouji's theory about Harajuku girls ;)

If anyone has some good suggestion about where to go and things to do, drop me a note in the comments. I may even bring back some souvenirs for people. But I can't promise I'll behave myself...

Tokyo by night

Tokyo by day.

ALL YOU CAN DRINK!!!!!

Club Dunk is having an all you can drink night on Sunday!! 2000 and 2500 yen for women and men. Check out the website for more info!!

Check out the new link - Club Dunk!!

OK, so everyone knows we go to this place called Dunk. We started a blog just for the club because we decided that we have so many posts just from there it deserved its very own space! So go check it out!!

Hahaha hostile takeover!

I'm dominating this blog! Okay seriously, I made this today and it needs to be shared with my close friends. I don't think Karaoke Queen has myspace YET, so this is for you!


Get this video and more at MySpace.com

The kindly thoughtfulness of the Pac. NW

Never would I see one of these in my hometown. Although I wonder if people steal from them. Is that a federal offense?? Nevertheless, I was pleasantly surprised with how resourceful this city really is. And yes, these are right along the sidwalk.

I'm still in tune with my Japanese lessons...

Let's see if Toshi can measure up...

The Party:my contribution.

Jessica and Dali

Yoshi.

Marcus

Jessica and Matt.

There were a lot of pretty ladies there that night.

Hmm.

Jessica and...Wait a second!

Jess and Jamie

Jess and Anna

Jess and Blaine

Jessica and I.

Final farewells are such sweet sorrow...

Good bye is always so hard to say, unless of course you're liquored up and groovin' on the dance floor. The DJ spun his tracks and everyone had a great time. Look at them go!

Touching the Pacific once again

Yes folks, the Ookami has finally made it to the pacific northwest. All I can say is, why didn't I come here sooner?? Such beautiful things to see each day. My apartment (which is really my friend's apartment) is quietly nestled in the hills of West Seattle. We get a clear view of the Olympic Penninsula on a clear day, and a few days ago I wandered down to a look out point that faces the downtown area...



I still think about the people on the other side of the ocean. Wish they could be here with me now to party it up, Seattle style! The job hunt has begun...but that's a different blog. I'm just here to report interesting and cool things about my new home. There are certainly a lot of people I have run into on the streets that are photo worthy. Now I just need to remember to bring the camera everywhere I go.

An interesting tidbit though...I did meet Terry Brooks, author of the Word and Void trilogy and the Sword of Shannara series. He's got a new series out now, Armaggedon's Children. Sounds cool...anyway my roommate Justin is a big fan so we had to go get books signed for him.

To our friends who are leaving...

Blaine and Jess
Jess and Blaine.

We'll miss you guys.


Jess in Japan.


Blaine in his many poses.

We're back!

Now we have arrived home. Safe and sound. We got to see lots of things. We had some problems, but everything worked out. We also met some nice people along the way. Our flight back was great as the service was excellent on the France to Doha leg, and was great on the Doha to Osaka leg. Tomorrow work will begin again. *Sigh*

J'étudierai le français...

J'étudierai le français...

J'étudierai le français...

Highlights of Paris

The coolest thing about Europe was the fact that there are so many old buildings around you. In Japan we also see this but, it's so much cooler when you look out your hotel window to see a massive gothic styled cathedral.


The first and foremost thing one must do in Paris is, of course, to visit the Tour Eiffel.

We did this at night to see the city lit up and sparkling.

We were lucky enough to be at the base at the right time to see the Epilepsy inducing light show.


The second attraction on our must-see list was Le Louvre.


It was huge and that's no bull.


The pieces ranged from astounding...

...to cheeky. There was pretty much something for everybody.


The third major attraction we wanted to see was Notre Dame de Paris.


We marvelled at the architecture and what not. Again the extremely long queues drove us to not go up the towers. Besides we walked on the roof of the Doumo di Milano which was also decorated in Gothic style.

We also got to see some of the Cathedral's treasures. Hmmm. Hidden message anyone?

One day I will lead my flock to salvation in the name of the Church of Mr. E.T.


We took a cheap bus tour to see the many monuments around Paris.


It was more expensive than using public transport, but the convenience was a big plus in our books.


We got to see many of the famous sights.


We also got to see some of the not so famous sights.

Highlights of Amsterdam

Amsterdam was quite nice, as we were able to relax and do things at a relaxed pace. We didn't take that many pictures because photos couldn't convey some of the amazing things we saw. We did however bring back many nice memories.




We walked around taking random pictures.



We visited the famous Cat boat. The poezenboot. It's a small cat shelter that is run totally on donations. There were a few cats there that were seriously hurt or abused. The one Jamie is petting suffered from chemical burns to his legs and couldn't walk very well, but he tried hard to play.





A visit to Amsterdam wouldn't be complete without a canal boat tour. We did this one at night.




Amsterdam isn't all sex, drugs and pancakes. It's also the home of several nice museums and such.



The coffeeshops were fun. The atmosphere was ... good ... although a bit hazy at times. It was nice to sit back and take in the aroma.


Some of them even had cool things to look at while you enjoyed the atmosphere.


We wanted to see this fountain, but the city council had it removed. We took a picture of a postcard instead. How sad.

Highlights of Roma

Rome was a city with many, many antiquities. Too many to see in a week even! We tried our best and took a lot of pics. Here are but a few of them.


The Coloseum.


On principles, I like to pay people for the work they do. That is, if they let you know first. These guys offered to take our pictures and then asked for money. As it turned out we only had plastic on us anyway.



Even "smaller" churches are decorated nicely.






The Roman forum.



One of the main museums in Rome.



The famous Trevia Fountain.




The Roman Pantheon


A random street.



More fountain action.


Our hotel lady and a glimpse of our room.






We went to see the Vatican, but the lines were too long. We got pictures of the outside instead.


This was Piaza Maggiore near to our hotel.

Highlights of Stresa/Isola Bella

We went with Vanni to a small town outside of Milano. The destination was Stresa. There we hopped aboard a boat to visit the isles in the middle of the lake. We spent a lot of time walking around the castle/palace on Isola Bella.


We ate some good Italian food in a nice quaint restaurant.


The island of Isola Bella from the boat.


Just a reminder of where we were headed.


Being a medieval village at one point, Isola Bella has it's share of narrow streets.


Enjoying the view of a nobleman.


Enjoying the view of a noblewoman.




The gardens were elaborately decorated.


They even had a greenhouse.


This was a quiet fishing island near Isola Bella.


People here lead a rustic lifestyle. Mostly restaurants that cater to tourists.


Hmmm. What is the meaning of life?


Sitting on the dock of the bay...

Unfortunately, we missed the last boat back and had to pay extra to get a "water taxi" back. Heed our warning and ask the staff when the last boat leaves because the signage can be misleading.

Dank U!

So, we've been lacking in the internet access area for the last few days, so its just gonna be a quick text blog until Paris. We went to Rome for a couple of days (which was fantastic and we will be posting pics later) and then headed back to Milan to catch our flight to Amsterdam. We landed about 11ish and managed to find our hotel - just minutes away from the Centraal Station. And the 2 'a's are not an accident. We are having a VERY nice time here in Amsterdam. Yep. Not so many pictures. We were having too much fun for that sort of thing. Uh huh. We did go to a very nice park called Vondelpark. Dutch people are really athletic. We saw tons of people jogging, and biking and some cool rollerblade/skaters. We saw lots of other things too, but maybe they weren't really there.....it was hard to tell. The park was great though.

We also saw the red light district. Not so sexy really, but worth seeing. It was more educational than sexy. Dutch people are really nice too and speak almost perfect English. Most of them anyways. I haven't run across a single person who doesn't speak at least some English. The houses are tall and thin and architecturally beautiful. And of course the canals are great. We took a night cruise through the canals which was fun. Pictures were hard to take, but I got a couple that are nice.

I love dutch pancakes. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Japan really needs to work on their pancake. Anyways, here's hoping we make another visit to Holland. It was tons of fun. Although it will have to be a summer trip I think, because it was really f&$king cold even now. I had to buy a scarf and Rich actually wore a sweater. So Dank U Amsterdam, and Bonjour Paris!

And now we return to our normal service...

 While I'm not as cute as the baby, I do feel the same after last night's
exploits. Osaka: sometimes 1 beer is never enough.

And now we return to our normal service...

It seems that Osakaotaku and Karaoke Queen are definitely having too much fun in Europe. Please remember you're both missed in Osaka, and we wish you a safe and speedy journey home.
Dunk seems a little quieter without you.

And now we'll return to our normal service.

I've just received some news from "The Olde Country" ; it seems an old school friend of mine is getting married...to my ex-girlfriend. Great news I'm sure you'll agree. I know I was "thrilled" to hear it.

Seriously though, I wish them all the luck in the world and hope they have many happy bouncing babies. Yes, Cassandra. I know the secret.