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September News


 September 1, 2003

 hey people, well the pics will have to be delayed a bit more til i can get my hands on those people with digi cams to send them to me. i met my host family on sunday, well saturday unofficially. and the host mom took me out to this little festival along the area where i live. it was pretty cool to be wearing a summer time japanese kimono, she actually bought it for me! i did the goldfish scooping, catching 9 b4 the little scoop broke. then caught 2 balloons with a hook held by tissue paper. and the food! there were food stalls everywhere selling shaved ice, fried octopus dumplings, fried noodles , candy apples etc etc.with my host family, i live in a separate building from them, so it sure feels like i'm living on my own. so it's sorta lonely but at least i don't have a curfew.

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September 2, 2003

 well people, with the virus killing the university's server, i don't know how much i can do if it keeps giving me an error. ie, it takes like 50 times to log onto hotmail.

somehow, within 1 week, i got hit on. and i didn't even try! i crossed the street, this morning at 9 am or so at the train station. i see these 2 old guys, in their 40's or so in business suits having a smoke. they're smiling and said to me in japanese, "good morning. u look pretty." they repeated that twice, i'm like uh, sure, nodded and quickly walked away. i don't think i was wearing hooker clothes! does a jean skirt, sleeveless shirt, and black sandals = hooker?

on the other hand, classes have started today with me being in level 4 japanese, 6 being in the highest.

for you japanese people, this computer sucks and won't let me write in japanese. will write again soon if the bloody internet lets me.

September 3, 2003

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well, i finally bought a cell phone! it was a hell a lot of trouble cuz my credit cards declined. reason? i had to call 2 days later back to canada, and the reason is cuz the expirary date is reversed. we have cards as month then year. nope, japanese has it as year then month. with that sorted out, got a sweet cell phone! only 90 bucks or so, with digi cam and everything and nice clear screen. if u wanna send messages, better to use my cell phone cuz i'll carry it around vs the internet. it's

[email protected]

September 7, 2003

ha ha, got into a scooter accident. and i wasn't even drunk or anything like that! sorry phil, jeff, glen, i'm not gonna get myself drunk and do crazy stuff. but i did some pretty stupid stuff being sober. why? even though i don't know how to ride a scooter, i asked my jap friend if it's ok to try riding his scooter. sure, all i know that u bend your wrists a bit on the handlebars and u go, but somehow it wasn't enuf. ok, give it a bit more and TOO fast! i smashed into another parked scooter and fell off. not too many injuries, my arm was scratched up, shoulder blades , knee and thigh. sure it hurted like hell, but it's very slowly going away. must make note to NEVER do that again.

shopping in osaka is expensive and i like them all! u know how there's brand name stores in canada? like gap, club monaco, banana republic, jacob? here, there's not really any specific clothes that's really popular. most of the stores carry styles that are popular so u have no clue what store it's from. i noticed that it's baginess here. chicks wear 2 camisoles, with lace on the top. and it doesn't taper to your body. so it's sorta loose and gives the impression of being fat to me. guess i'm not used to it. -_- and the chicks are so dressed up! going shopping, maybe jeans, shirts, boots. nope, it's skirts, hooker boots or heeled sandals, and knit sleeveless tops. guys it's bagginess. and guys and chicks, they wrap like thin scarves around their heads. i guess to soak up the sweat? and hair color? lite brown is popular, dying their whole head. not highlites. well, i haven't seen a lot of people with highlites. i iguess that's in the past? and i did highlites b4 leaving! ;_;

and anywhere u walk around in the streets, people are always passing out ads or tissue packs. so far, they're like pachinko's, gambling centres. at least i didn't get any ads for any love hotels yet!

service is unbelievable. anytime u go in, it's always "irrashamse!". i hear that over and over, that i'm getting a bit irratated. i went to this huge brand name store, comme ca, too many employees saying that over and over, it's like a broken record. and if u even STOP to look at something for 2 seconds, they come running over to help u. ie, shopping for my sis present, looking at diff items, the same guy keeps running over asking for size, style etc etc. i felt like telling him to go away! if he was cute, sure! but he wasn't my type. that was in the teens department. the guys in the men's department were pretty cool too! but i got pestered like hell.

cafe's in japan is diff. cakes look like good cakes that u wanna eat all day long to get fat. mmmm.... cake. the same store, comme ca also has a cafe of it's on on the top. mm... cakes everywhere, with fruit, chocolate.

btw, i discovered now that because i'm not "foreigner" looking. meaning i don't have the blue eyes/green eyes or blonde hair or brown hair and white skin, i'm not classified the same as white people. if i'm white, japanese people will go out of their way to be super nice and helpful. but me? nope, i'm asian looking so not helpful. i took the subways by myself in osaka and was gonna head home. apparently, i bought the wrong kind of subway ticket and i needed to get it exchanged for a new one. so i tried asking the station employees but they were so rude. they just gestered in a direction and said "overthere." yeah but where?! i asked if they could come with me and they said no. so i wandered around a bit b4 finding it and the guard thought i was retarded buying the wrong ticket. -_-

anyways, got class now. i'll probably attempt to write this section in japanese soon if i feel brave!

September 9,2003

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September 16th, 2003

 just spent the long weekend 4 1/2 days in tokyo. is that city crazy! everywhere, people people people people. and the train system is even more complicated than osaka. osaka has 8 lines and i'm slowly getting used to it, but tokyo had like 13 lines and they all intersect everywhere! and i learned 1 thing, tokyo trains do NOT have sensors!~ calgary c-trains have sensors so if u stick your hand in as the door is about to close, they'll open. nope, tokyo trains don't have any and i almost lost my fingers as i was waving my handing up and down trying to get the doors to open! tokyo is so much busier than osaka, i guess it's normal that if u bump into someone else, it's ok to not say anything. just keep walking. but it was a bit difficult cuz when someone smacked into me and didn't apologize, i had to resist the urge to hit them back.

shibuya was the place to go shopping. i didn't see many of the sun tanned blonde girls walking around, but there were some but they weren't as black as they were a couple of years ago. and their makeup, they CAKE the makeup on. black mascara, i swear, maybe 5 coats so it's all clumpy and black. apparently, they do that cuz to make their eyes bigger. yeah but, it also makes your eyelashes look like spider legs! and they use white eyeshadow around their eyes, so sorta like a panda bear look. the famous landmark, 109 store, had 5 floors just for female clothing. they weren't cheap but not too expensive, i guess ranging from the 40$ to 100$ ranges, depending what u buy. but the girls when they greet u, makes me wonder if they're making sarcastic, they really drag out their welcome greeting. so if u say welcome, they drag it out to weeeeelllllccccooooommmmmeeeeee in this high pitched voice. but shopping, good! and shibuya, i had to admit, it's pretty dirty and smelly. the cross intersection, everyone walking to another side. if the lites turn green for cars, people still take their time but the cars start moving! so i almost got ran over a couple of times. and the police, say a couple of events. 1, the police trying to get their criminal out, yanking on the guy's arm but he refused to move. so they gave up, and went back into the car. then later during the day, i saw a table of people selling louis vuitton bags on the street. but i saw someone being bodychecked! 5 min later, police tape around their table, all the bags being boxed up, people lining up sitting on the bench. i don't know if it was a drug bust or if it's illegal to sell designer fake bags.

then harujuku, the district next to shibuya. shibuya is all about fashion, but harujuku, it's about goths and lolitas! i actually got pics of people dressing up in weird outfits all in this one park, meiji park. black, pink, white, lots of lace, huge platform shoes, goths, makeup plastered. i definately haven't seen any of those in osaka, but i guess tokyo is the only place for it.

fashion wise, girls like to wear socks , like leg warmers and baggy but without the foot part. so if u wear sandals, u only have the socks wrapped around your legs. and chicks like to have their nails done, acrylics with funky prints on it. even on their toenails. wearing 2 tank tops or camisoles were also the style.

and cowboy stuff is sorta in. like the cowboy hat but a smaller version of it. and shirts with leather straps on the shoulders.

continuing at 3:30 pm

 disney sea was also good fun! it was a long weekend for japan so that meant lots of people there with brats, er, with their children. the rides weren't as scary, i was hoping more for rollercoasters, rides with drops, etc. and then at nite they had the disney symphony event, fireworks in the middle of their manmade lake. a lot like the one in florida's epcot nightly fireworks. thanks to hide and hide's gf and yuko and minako, i had tons of fun!

the game centers are so fun! everwhere u find those UFO doll crane games, i don't know if it's even possible to catch them cuz they looked really heavy. and for some reason, winnie the pooh is really in. they all call him pooh-san or the equiv as mr. pooh. damn, i had to resist the urge to freaking beat up this huge winnie the pooh doll outside the store. also, same goes for that wimp piglett, he's also asking for a beating! so at the game center, DDR's not in anymore, it's other kinds of rhthym games. so they had taiko drums, giant japanese drums where u beat in time with the songs. then the sticky pics booth, wish we had them back home! u take so many poses, then u pick. then over to another booth and u add other designs and borders on them! unfortunately, they give u very limited time to pose and design. :( but they were still fun!

September 17, 2003

 u know, i'm starting to get this feeling that i wanna go back to canada! why? because i've been pretty stressed out during this whole time in japan other than me going to tokyo last weekend. there may be a chance that i'll get another host family. the dad mite be transferring to another city/another island for 3 years from the company, and the mother mite go with him. so it's just me, the dog, and 1 brother. so it won't be much of a family. plus rite now they have 2 houses in their backyard so i live in the house by myself. so i've been pretty stressed about it, cuz if it's in october, that gives me 2 weeks! and i don't wanna repack my stuff back in my suitcase! i think this time it'll be impossible cuz i bought more stuff after settling down! plus the bank, i had to go to the downtown bank to sort out some issues cuz the card didn't work. rite now, i feel like eating shark fin soup and the chinese swallow soup and a huge canadian steak now -_-; my friends from tokyo, who haven't seen me from a month ago to other friends 4 months ago, everyone said i lost weight. and it's partly true, cuz of the stress i 've been going under. this month has been pretty bad, so i hope it'll get better soon.

September 18, 2003

 while i was away in tokyo, i apparently missed a lot of action. japan is known for it's perverts, especially on the trains. if the trains are crowded, it's normal if this middle aged guy starts touching u and it's diff to figure out who's who cuz too many people. anyhoo, so my friend's walking to school and this jap guy goes up to her on his scooter and starts jacking off in front of her. yep, jacking off=masturbating in front of her. she laughs at him, and calls him "chikan" meaning pervert/molester. and he goes away. 2 min later or so, he comes back doing the same thing and she had to call a couple of her guy friends in front of her to save her. but she laughed the hardest at him cuz she claims it was MAYBE 4 inches.

that was that, then last saturday when i was in tokyo, the same girl and some other people went to a club in the city i'm living in. so 2 of them are drunk and when they leave the club, they see this 40 year ish guy, wearing nothing but a shirt. and he's jacking off in public. then they do something crazy, 2 of the drunk girls run up to him and punches him, beating him, kicking him. 1 of them used her burberry bag and smacked him down when he tried running towards her. he curled up in a ball, and both of them are still beating and kicking him. until he runs away, but then they start chasing after him!

then, in osaka, in the big city 40 min from where i live, in broad daylite. another club, at around 7 am ish or so, they see this 70 ish old guy, shrivelled up and fragile. jacking off standing in the intersection, and cars are going around him. i don't know if this is a normal thing for jap guys to do or if it's by chance. -_-

oh yeah, at the club i went a couple of weeks ago in osaka, well those girls got some shots of these jap guys who jumped up on the mini stage, dancing and stripping. they did leave their pink and blue thongs on, (EW!) but they eventually stripped it. i don't know WHY they would want a pic but they did get it, and they estimated, only 3 inches. -_-

September 26, 2003

 should be soon but the host bro will be helping me to buy a wireless router so i can surf the internet at crazy hours instead of going to the other side of the house to use the net. then uploading time! yes, finally got pics on the digi cam, now it's just upload them.

the typhoon season looks like it's over. started from the southern side and worked it's way upwards alogn the sea. i live rite in the middle of japan, no sea closeby so we dont' really get hit much. just a lot of rain. a hell lot of rain! unlike calgary, it rains so little, but it was raining constantly for like 5 days. and when it rains, it's so unpredicateable. it'll rain hard for 5 min, rain a bit, stop, then rains hard again etc etc. repeats cycle for 5 days. i finally discovered, i guess u can't reteach an old dog new tricks. the saying how if u learn how to ride a bike, u'll remember? well, i had a lot of trouble riding a bike the first time. then i had a lot of trouble riding a bike in the rainy season. it was almost impossible for me to ride 1 handed while holding an umbrella with the other, fighting against the wind. the wind kept blowing the umbrella upwards and i had to stop and readjust it like 5 times! all in all, with me readjusting the umbrella, and cursing out loud, and getting all wet, and nearly falling off my bike cuz i can't use the breaks 1 handed, tooke me about 30 min to go to school instead of usual 20 min. but it looks like it's finally over, although were earthquakes in nothern japan today. hopefully it won't hit the area where i live. 1