Spaceman Spiff's Nippon Adventure

Fight - Finished

2007-10-27T19:40:00.001+09:00

Fight - Finished
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

I spent the early hours of this morning finishing off Halo 3. It really was rather good. Its definitely the best game in the series...

I didn't realise how good the graphics and visual design was until I tried out the theatre mode. You can watch replays of your games, including online gaming... It lets you get up really close to the models and take screenshots. I'd recommend pulling back from the action and using the zoom to get some forced perspective.

Anyway... I had fun :)

Charlies BBQ

2007-09-28T23:58:00.001+09:00

Need to pump some cash into animoto to make better vids...

Bora Bora by Animoto (and SAB)

2007-09-28T10:13:00.001+09:00

Testing out the funky Animoto. If you like it, I'll post more!

Father and Son Education - Monkey Class

2007-05-02T08:10:00.001+09:00

Father and Son Education - Monkey Class
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Quick update for the Monkey fanciers out there. Monkey and Monkey are getting on just fine. I could tell from the look in Monkey's eyes when they first met tha they were going to be great friends. It almost brought a tear to my eye.

Monkey has took it upon himself to be the train Monkey in the arts of Monkeying. So far he has covered:

1) Monkey Wrenching (foo fighters)
2) Monkey Dancing (Clint Eastwood - Gorillaz)
3) Monkey Magic (Monkey Magic)
4) Salesmanship (Al & Monkey via you tube)

The wee guy is a fast learner...

later
SAB

baby monkey!

2007-04-16T15:23:00.001+09:00

baby monkey!
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

the stork arrived today and dropped off a little bundle of joy.

should i take him home to his older brother?
or should he be an office monkey?

thanks purves!

meets?

2007-04-11T07:34:00.001+09:00

meets
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Its been a while but hey, thought someone might still be checking this.

Blue Monday Monkey

2007-02-27T14:59:00.001+09:00

Blue Monkey
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Still learning this off-camera flash photography thing. The picture I've posted is pretty simple right? It still took me forty minutes to set up! It was a useful learing experience though. It can be quite difficult to control light in small environments with small subjects.

For this shot, I put Monkey on the low table that houses my DVD player and Amp (which reminds me I need to replace that with a cheap-o surround amp if possible). The table is right up against my living room wall between my rubbish bin and a stack of shelves for DVDs. After about 35 minutes of experimentation, I finally managed to get the right balance of blue background and amber foreground. One problem remained - the amber light hitting Monkey was reflecting onto the right hand side of the background. My intention was for the RHS to be DARK. Damn. The only option would be to move everything further away from the wall. Some day I might actually try it...

Monkey Valentine

2007-02-15T23:28:00.001+09:00

Monkey Valentine,
originally uploaded by sab-chan.

As zefrank says, "Valentines day is like a box of cat-poopy"

I'll leave you to interpret that as you wish.

Experimental Fisheye Photography

2006-12-04T11:06:00.000+09:00

After Dan's birthday(documented here) we went clubbing in A-Life: A club in Roppongi.

Apart from the usual chanting and disco dancing (disco STU loves the sexy disco laydeez) I took my fisheye lomo and new colorsplash flash out for some fun. The results were unpredictable and fairly random, partly because I decided to try slide film in there as an experiment.

For the funky long exposure shots, I put the camera in B [Bulb] mode and took a couple of exposures of people dancing, then just kept the shutter open and pointed the camera at the lights for a while.

I'm quite happy with the results and apart from the difficulty of framing exactly what I wanted to capture (there is no viewfinder on the camera) it mostly worked. The slide film - although very colourful - was a mistake. It has taken about a month to get them developed then scanned. Grrr. Also - given that the lens really isn't that sharp, I just have some very colourful but blurry fisheye shots.

Decacentenery

2006-11-24T09:40:00.001+09:00

Reading the Card,
originally uploaded by sab-chan.

My Flickr stream recently hit 10,000 views. To celebrate I thought I'd put up one of my better photos from the last couple of batches.

This one was taken at Cherry's Birthday. I really like the bokeh on the wine glass front right.

Thats all folks
SAB

What kind of Cheese are you?

2006-11-24T09:05:00.000+09:00

I guess that sums me up...

Up We Go

2006-11-14T12:16:00.001+09:00

up we go,
originally uploaded by DJChan.

(Photo courtesy of DJChan)

I went outdoor rock climbing for the first time on Sunday the 12th of November 06. Thanks to DJC, we were able to get down out to a big park with lots of routes and try our hand at a couple of climbs. Its hard work, and quite different from climbing in the gym. For a start, I'm covered in scratches and insect bites. But its totally worth it.

The weather was fantastic and those of us that were able to make it had a great time. The wall in the picture actually beat me in the end, despite a good first haul up the lower section, I just couldn't make use of the footholds to get the leverage I needed. I eventually made it up a much easier wall, but it was still a bit of a hair-raiser. I was much more afraid of falling than I was in the gym... maybe because it was my first time outdoors or maybe because I was out of practice.

The surprising aspect of the whole experience (to me anyway) was that there were so many people there. I wasn't counting but there were probably thirty climbers nearby: young, old, japanese, gaijin, men and women. Everyone was taking part. There were also vending machines selling hot drinks (trust me, hot corn soup kicks ass when you are half way up a mountain) as well as sports drinks. The convenience of Japan came through yet again.

Looking forward to the next trip...

SAB

Fisheye Karaoke

2006-10-09T01:40:00.000+09:00

Karaoke Crew
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Had a great time on Friday thanks to Andy and co.

For posterity's sake -
- Zero east is a good live venue. Cut Chemist absolutely rocked.
- The K place next to Don Quijote ain't bad. I expected any non-shidax places to suck
- I took my new fish-eye camera along for fun. The photo you see was taken with four exposures I think. Tried to squeeze in as much of hte sensation of Karaoke as possible in one distorted image...
- Muse is better when its late on a Friday or Saturday. But still pretty lame. It makes up for it with the Table Tennis though!

Its bright in here

2006-10-02T11:31:00.000+09:00

Its bright in here
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

There really is no food in my fridge (just wine, chuhai, water and japanese tea)

Update. Those shades were broken at the weekend. I bought them in HK about a year ago and unfortunately they got mashed during a game of park american football.

Nev and Jim (in a Fridge)

2006-09-27T16:10:00.000+09:00

The less said the better I think.

Just a variation on this group, which caught my eye. Take a look...

If you want to send me a gift...

2006-09-26T14:52:00.000+09:00

Please don't send me Money Orders or Cheques. I've heard this a couple of times now but the anecdote is still good. Sometimes Japan can suck:

"[He] got a 10 GBP cheque sent to him as a present.

It was going to cost him 3000 yen to cash.

They were effectively saying 'You give us 1000 yen, and we'll throw this nasty piece of paper away for you!'"

Great huh?

Just send me Irn Bru instead...

I want... GREEN JELLY!

2006-09-20T21:11:00.000+09:00

Purple Jelly
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

This one is for Nev. There was an aquarium display next to my office on Monday night. There was quite a bit of variety but the surprising thing were the Jelly Fish tanks. I've never seen that before. There were a few of tanks there and they all had these glowing jelly fish. Very cool.

They also had some specialist tanks - Disco, Goth, Titanic... all terribly bad taste.

Nev - when can I expect your order?

Abstract Sunset

2006-09-19T11:24:00.000+09:00

Abstract Sunset
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

In the office last night (sigh - it was meant to be a TKO holiday). I looked out the window around 5.30 and saw the beginnings of this sunset.

It was amazing - there had been a storm through the night, crazy high winds, rain, and bizarre clouds all day.

I took a couple of hours out to watch it and snap some photos. Click on the picture to see the results. The photo set is on Flickr as usual.

Enjoy
SAB

Onjuku Surfing Trip

2006-09-14T08:17:00.000+09:00

Some of you know i've been off surfing recently.

Here are a couple of the videos I've taken:

And here is the Flickr badge:

www.flickr.com

sab-chan's Surfing - Onjuku Set 2 photoset

Guess The Movie II

2006-08-28T20:29:00.000+09:00

Guess The Movie II
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Go on... you know you want too!

Plus, its really obvious

Take Anything You Want

2006-08-15T22:47:00.000+09:00

Thanks to Stuart Croy for pointing me towards this gem:

I honestly can't comment. It speaks for itself.

Rock Climbing Photos

2006-08-07T11:46:00.000+09:00

I took a trip back to Fuchinobe with the crew for another rock climbing trip. Pretty much the same as before but these photos were taking with my shiny (actually, matte black) new camera. I actually gave some of the safety and starter lessons to the newcomers which was fun. I'm slightly worried that the Japanese only speakers might not have understood me very well but they seemed safe enough (for the rock gym). Anyway - below is a photo of one of the rock gym regulars. This guy looks well over 60 but is able to hang upside down for at least five minutes:

Hawaii Rocks and the rocks of Hawaii

2006-07-26T18:59:00.000+09:00

Don't have much time to fill out the details here so I'll mostly link to my photos of Hawaii and point out how much of a surprise the place is...

(update, I've fixed that link...)

I had a great time in Hawaii. Mostly thanks to the great company (Thanks again Akane and Dave for Organising most of it, and Yuka too of course for the car rental). I feel kind of bad that I couldn't really organise much so next time I'll make a bit more effort.

Trip highlights included: a surprising amount of rain, volcanic wastelands, golf lessons, beautiful golf courses, great food, lack of extreme tourist nonsense (as expected in European resorts), sea turtles and of course the volcanoes.

Hawaii really wasn't what I expected. That despite the research I did on-line. Most of the stuff I looked up was focused on surfing (which I didn't do anyway) and golf. The thing that shocked me was the landscape. The beaches in Hawaii are really _nice_. Like most beaches. Hawaii stands apart by its incredibly variable ecology and geography. Specifically Big Island. The north of the island is a mix of North American coniferous forests, arable farmland and sub-tropical foliage. The South is a mix of desert, volcanic wasteland, rolling plains and volcano. In a five hour drive its possible to see much of the worlds geology and ecology on one island.

So my advice is that if you ever go to Hawaii for more than a week, try to take a plane to Kona or Hilo and rent a car to go up to the volcano park. We trekked across an old crater and looked down into a more recent but still old crater. [I'll link to the photos here if I get a chance].

Apart from that, if you are a golfer - be sure to golf. Surf if you can because I stupidly missed out and snorkel/swim/dive/photograph your heart out. You'll have a great time.

Oh, and make sure to eat the local version of sashimi. Spicy raw tuna... Mmmm.

SPIFF OUT

ps, This is my favourit photo of the volcanic area we went to:

A Scanner Darkly

2006-07-12T15:44:00.000+09:00

Want to see my brain? Then click below.

I highly recommend you visit the Brain Scan Set page and click on the 'View Sideshow' button. You can set the transition time to be 1 second.

Three days tilll Vacation!!

2006-07-11T21:42:00.000+09:00

Yes yes, I'm looking forward to my vacation. In fact, its about all I can think about right now. Health problems excepting of course. I went back to the GP yesterday and they gave me a random MRI (not that random, I have an ear infection, but the symptoms could have been attributed to something directly affecting the brain. When you go to the correct Doctor, they can be very thorough). I ordered the CD so hopefully I'll be able to upload some images tomorrow. So if there is one reason I'm looking forward to my Vacation its because I'll get a chance to rest. Also, I'll get a chance to get away from work which has increasingly become a chore. In fact, I'm tempted to believe that work is what is making me sick - even if its psychosomatic - because as soon as I left the office today my mood was vastly increased and my symptoms were easier to ingore.

Anyway, another random bit of news. I bought a Digital SLR today. I've uploaded the results at The usual place so feel free to take a look. So why the new camera? Three reasons 1) I've been thinking about it for a while out of genuine photography interest (I'm sure you've noticed the 600 odd shots on Flickr) and 2) I haven't been able to take a lot of the Macro shots I've wanted. Finally 3) I just wanted to cheer myself up with a new toy to play with in Hawaii.

Oh, didn't I mention. My holidays will be in Hawaii. Watch this space for updates.

SPIFF OUT

OH! PRETTY!!

2006-07-08T19:47:00.000+09:00

OH! PRETTY!!
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Thought the juxtaposition here was worth sharing. This pass was obviously designed for cute Japanese kids, not hulking face pulling gaijin.

Anyway, as theme parks go, Fuji-Q is pretty good. If you are here for a long time, it might be worth a visit (on a quiet day)

Artists Impression

2006-07-04T11:28:00.000+09:00

Artists Impression
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Artists impression of the diagnosis as performed by my Doctor in Fuchinobe...

MAS*H

2006-06-30T18:44:00.000+09:00

Some news for the people back home: I hurt my back a couple of weeks ago. It wasn't too bad - I took a couple of days off for rest over the weekend and thought I was back on track. So when I went to Fuchinobe at the weekend I didn't expect to be knocked flat by a sudden spasm that rendered me incapable of standing never mind walking.

I'd spent the day with the Rock Climbing club learning how to tie the different knots we'll be using in the upcoming outdoor rock climbing trip. I couldn't climb obviously - bad back and all, so I just generally sat around and rested. By the time we'd went for lunch and started back I was feeling about my old self. Suddenly I felt something spasm in below my shoulder blades and my entire back started to cramp. I couldn't stand up. I couldn't even support my own weight. No one else noticed (I was at the back of the line and couldn't speak) so I was left hanging onto the bicycle rack next to the train station by myself. Eventually everyone else realised something was wrong.

"Stu - are you okay?"

"Nnngggh"

The cramp had been on for about a minute at this stage. I could feel the sweat starting to bead on my forehead and the look on everyone else’s face was pretty serious.

Shortly afterwards I recovered the power of speech and we tried to figure out what to do. My limited knowledge of self administered chiropracty failed to produce any viable avenues of treatment. Therefore, a taxi was arranged to bring me to the nearest hospital. So far so good. This is the standard response to this kind of situation right? Its not an emergency so lets not get an ambulance, but still, its bad enough that I need to get treatment soon.

Dave and Andre went to get the taxi... apparently they got in and asked to pick me up, then go to the nearest big hospital. The response wasn't hopeful: "Hospitals are closed on Sunday". WTF?? How can hospitals be closed on Sundays?? Do people not have heart attacks, strokes, unfortunate zipper accidents and chiropratic emergencies on Sundays in Japan? Apparently not. As soon as the driver understood our predicament though he came through for us. After talking to a local hospital on the phone for 10 mins the driver took over the call and just told them we'd be there in 10 minutes. Once we got there though the place did look a bit closed. I say a bit because although the Emergency Ward doors were closed, there were some lights on. The driver new what to do though as he led us (Dave and Andre supporting me) into the side entrance. Parting ways (the driver 3000 yen richer) the guys got me into the emergency room.

The first thing we had to do was fill out a form. Now, I can't read Japanese, much less write it, and the kind of pain I was in wholly prevented me from even writing in English. On this point the hospital was oblivious. I've heard from other sources that everyone who goes to hospital has to fill out a form. And its a different form for every hospital. I also discovered that they then generate a medical card (like a medical insurance card) for your 'convenience' which will only work in that hospital. Another waste of time. Andre took great pleasure in running through the form with me (the guy seems to be easy to please).

After about forty minutes I was taken to be examined by the on staff doctor. The so called doctor looked like a character from Pokemon. He had big hair, a pair of sandals, an un-shaved face (OK, that’s standard issue for Emergency doctors these days) and a Lab coat. After the initial barrage of diagnosis questions I took a look around the room. Everything was so small. And old. And the nurse plainly didn't look like the kind of Japanese 'nurses' I've been led to believe work in Japanese hospitals. In fact, she was clearly only there to gawp at the Gaijin (this was a local hospital for local people after all) and spent more time playing with the Doctor's desk toys than helping with the examination.

Anyway, whilst this was going on, the Doctor took up a big rubber stamp, opened my nice new file, and used the stamp to put a picture of a torso from behind on the page. Taking his red pen, he circled the areas I had indicated as suffering from pain, drew a line to the blank page and wrote "Pain". That was it. That was his diagnosis. I only managed to stifle my laughter with the aid of the spasms of pain shooting up my back. The guys noticed it too. After about a minute of contemplation though the Doc actually seemed to know what he was talking about.

I'd never been manhandled before. But, the X-Ray technician couldn't speak English. He gave up trying to explain which postures I was meant to take and just pushed me around whilst I was lying on the slab with mumblings of "gomenasai" and "onegaishimasu". Still he was fast and the x-rays came out quite nice (I saw them later, and I'm glad to say my organs looked pretty healthy).

Finally we made it back to the examination room and the Doctor wrote up a prescription. He also gave some explanations of what he thought the issue was, how I should treat it (rest for the next few weeks) and explained what the drugs were. He'd prescribed me two suppositories (for the serious pain over the next day or so) and Ibuprofen. I've never been prescribed suppositories before! Turns out they're pretty effective.

Back in the reception Nursey gave me my prescription and asked us to wait. So wait we did. I didn't know why we were waiting for about the first 15 minutes but then Andre pointed out I'd have to pay for the prescription. Good point. But why did I have to wait? The receptionist was just chatting on the phone to his Mum as far as we could tell. I could pay for the prescription at any time right? No... they needed to finish printing my Hospital card before they would let me pay... right. I had to sit in pain for an extra 30 minutes because the system was working its way through my application form. Grrr.

Finally, about three hours after we first arrived, we paid and got on our way.

~~~

Lessons For the Sick Gaijin in Japan:

Don't get sick on Sunday
Learn to read and write the kanji for allergies, and any serious illness you've had in the past. Better yet, get a native Japanese who can do this otherwise you can't fill out the form.
Prepare to wait
Don't go to a hospital in the sticks. They are old, the doorways are too low and the staff are more interested in your colour than your condition
Don't get Sick.

SPIFF OUT

FujiQ video II

2006-06-12T22:20:00.000+09:00

Hey, this is pretty easy!

Fuji-yama Video

2006-06-12T21:57:00.000+09:00

Playing with the narrowcast medium of the intarweb, please enjoy this SAB-chan productions special release of "The Fuji-yama Incident":

So Big!

2006-06-12T19:54:00.000+09:00

So Big!
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Not sure what to say here... Any guy thats in need of a confidence boost should go to Fuji-Q and use this bathroom (next to the Gundam simulator). For me it was merely a reflection of the truth... honest.

MSwaps

2006-05-11T16:53:00.000+09:00

My mates from b1te entertainment just launched a new app called MSwaps. It allows you to swap collectors cards on your mobile phone. They are launching with the England footy squad (they are English afterall) so if you are following the World Cup be sure to get it on your phone (for free) and start collecting.

SPIFF OUT

Guess the Movie

2006-05-04T14:13:00.000+09:00

Go ahead - guess the movies. I used the random toys I've picked up whilst here to recreate some famous movies/movie moments. Some are obvious, some aren't. Feel free to make a few suggestions. Definitely make a few guesses.

SPIFF OUT

Pi-ta-go-ra-su-i-chi`

2006-05-04T11:53:00.000+09:00

Or Pythagoras Switch. Ever wanted to build the kind of contraptions you saw in the goonies when you were a kid? These guys do it, but they do it sooo much better! The ones with the magnets are just awesome: Pythagoras Switch on Transbuddha. Thanks to Stuart Croy for bringing this to my attention.

Kagoshima Trip

2006-05-03T11:37:00.000+09:00

On April 21st I had to get up at the inhuman hour of five am to get ready for the weekend trip. Some friends from work had kindly organised a trip to Kagoshima. We had originally intended to visit Okinawa - some of the islands at the very southern point of Japan, but there were no flights available. Kagoshima is as close to Okinawa as we could get in the end but as I discovered it has plenty to do and see anyway. For example (click on that link for evidence) it has a VOLCANO! If nothing else, I was able to practice my evil laugh whilst prospecting for locations for my evil lair…. MUAHAHAHA!

Travelling in Japan is, like most things (I may have harped on about this before) very convenient. Our group of seven arrived at the conveniently located domestic airport - Haneda - to go through the conveniently simple check in procedure that requires no ID, before boarding the plane, which was conveniently quick and completely lacking in inconvenient delays. At Kagoshima airport we just got on the conveniently located bus outside the conveniently small terminal and within an hour we were strolling around the centre of the city. Total elapsed time four hours. The same trip in the UK would have had me tearing my hair out and probably two hours late thanks to Easy jet.

My travelling companions were ghosts with empty sockets. No hang, on, I'm listening to Paul Simon while I write so I may break into lyric at any moment. My travelling companions weren't the children of my first marriage, but six friends variously from work or met through work friends: Steph, Mun, Amy, Yuka, Yen and Naho. That’s right, it was just SABchan plus six laydeez. Oh yeah… Actually, we met up with Toan in Kagoshima. So the official M/F ratio was 3:1. Excellent… MUAHAHAHA.

Our first stop was for Lunch at the main shopping centre in Kagoshima. Shopping centres usually have decent restaurants included in Japan and this place was no different. I love the fact its possible to go to any department store and have a decent lunch. Post lunch we struck out for Sakurajima - the Volcano. The weather was a rainy, so whilst we should have seen something like this, we actually saw this. For those too lazy to click on the links: clouds. The visitor centre was OK though. We got to watch videos of the most recent eruptions. Yes, its an active Volcano - which only increased my desire to set up an evil headquarters there. The evil deeds I could perform with fresh hot molten magma… We also took a trip round a volcanic garden. As you geologists know, volcanic soil is very rich in nitrates, but its also high in Ash. The garden looked dark and grungy (probably due to the weather) with all the ash on the pathways and by the beach.

Afterwards we did some more shopping before getting on the train to our Hotel. Surprisingly, the train journey took a while. We were on a local train that looked like it was old in the fifties never mind today. We eventually arrived at the town (I really can't remember its name now) and stopped for dinner at a local Japanese restaurant. Have you ever been to a restaurant with tanks of fresh fish/lobster etc? This was one of those places, except pretty small so that in total it could sit maybe thirty customers. Every time I've been to one of those places, the tanked food pretty much sits there unmolested - especially in the west where too many people are squeamish about ordering live food. Well, this time I got the chance to watch some poor chef climb up on a wobbly stepladder with a giant fish net to catch the huge fish sitting at the bottom of the tank. It disappeared into the kitchen never to be seen again. I think we had all our food before it was extracted so I'm pretty sure it wasn't served to us.

On to the hotel which despite its age and obvious signs of mould, water damage, and overpowering smell of dying flowers (probably to cover an even more off-putting smell), was quite nice and better decked out than I expected. I'd gotten so use to staying in Ryokan that I was dreading another back-breaking night on a futon. So finding decent western style beds and a lush balcony view was a treat. Our organisers had done a good job… The view was of the ocean, as the hotel is on one of the southern most peninsulas of Kyushu. Anyway, it was a Japanese Hotel, so we put on our Yukata, went to the Onsen, then went for a late night stroll along the beach before snacking on Haagen Das. Mmmm, chocolatey ice cream goodness.

Next morning we went to a nearby garden. This was my favourite part of the trip. The gardens were pretty rich and varied, with waterfalls, ponds, cliff top ocean views, huge butterflies and cool little statues dotted around. I took the opportunity to fill my memory card with as many snaps as I could. My favourite photo is here. I still haven't figured out what kind of flower it is, but I'm too lazy to make the effort so if anyone knows feel free to post a comment. In fact, please post the comments on the pictures themselves as it will improve their ratings and hopefully encourage others on flickr to take a look.

I had my first taste of Soshomen for lunch on the Sunday. Its kind of like Soba, except the noodles are dropped into a tank of swirling water (the traditional version is a stream, or pipe coming out from a stream) so that you can just stick your chopsticks for the noodles to collect onto. The noodles bind due to the water so its really easy to eat. You dip them in a soy based soup (also cold - and laced with spring onions and wasabi) for flavour. Slurpingly tasty. From there it was onto the nearby lake (god I'm terrible with names - I can't remember what its called!!) for a brief stopover and finally to another nearby tourist attraction (we were running out of time at this stage) for a look at the traditional Samurai style houses and gardens that exist in good condition nearby. I got a couple of good shots there too so take a look.

After a trip back to the same old shopping centre for souvenirs we waved goodbye to Toan and went to the airport. We were back in Tokyo by ten o'clock and I was in bed by 11. Another busy weekend….

I AM A NED

2006-04-11T12:56:00.000+09:00

Check out http://www.thetruthrockets.net - The Truth Rockets and download their song "I am a Ned". If you listen to The Tartan Podcast then you may have heard of them. So far I've only listened to one track: "I am a Ned" done in a 50s rock stylee. Its a pretty awesome dig at Nedism without going over the top about the wee nyaffs. Although, if you aren't from Scotland you might not follow this thread at all...

Update
In other music news: Weird Rocks. That is all.

Hanami 2006

2006-04-02T23:03:00.000+09:00

Cherry Blossoms
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

This week brought on hayfever, Hanami and the start of the spring weather I remembered from my trip to Tokyo last year. I now know why the surgical mask's that people wear are so popular. A whole lot of hayfever blues are avoided by wrapping your mug in an air filter, and the small price of looking like an extra from Holby City is totally worth it for allergy sufferers.

But the talk all week was Hanami. Hanami (if you haven't been paying attention) is the time of the year when people appreciate the Cherry Blossoms trees (Sakura) whilst they are blossoming. The blossoms are only as depicted for about a week so you can imagine the anarchy as most of Tokyo's populace descend on its few parks to make the most of it. Of course, its not just about viewing the trees but also about getting drunk in the park with your friends. Nice. If you want to re-live those moments of illicit under-age alcoholic indulgence then Hanami is a good way to do it.

My hanami line up was as follows:

1) Work sponsered event in Aoyama Cemetery on Thursday (perfect for the morbit among us)
2) The Ark Hills Hanami festival on Friday (perfect for the family guy)
3) Kinuta Koen with an organised TKO tech folks/games programers event (perfect for geeks like me!)

However, the promised spring weather was slow in kicking in. Thursday started with grey clouds and high winds. High winds are fine, but high winds in Roppongi hills (the only office apparantly modelled after an aerofoil) are really dangerous. When I got to work people were leaning into the wind and falling over with random updraughts.

Anyway, knowing this I went home after work to change into something warmer. I'm pretty close to the cemetery, but I decided to cab it once I was ready. I got there and started to look for everyone. The first thing I noticed is how quiet it was (I was in a cemetery so I was a little freaked out) but I eventually spotted a few people. None, however, were part of the work event. Damn, I called someone who told me they'd packed up early and went to the work bar. Bastards! I'd been walking about in the cold for 20 minutes and no one called me to let me know they were moving! Well, I just went to the bar and got pissed anyway. This meant I never managed to get any of the promised photographs... although I did take a few of drunk colleagues that I couldn't possibly post on the web. They are available to view for a small fee however... ;)

OK, I still had the Ark hills event to get the night photos... but NO. I forgot my frackin camera. I took a few on my phone and some using Yuka's camera (I'll post a link to her Flickr account if she uploads them) but all I have now are my keitei snaps. They suck. Never mind, we all went to a great Thai restaurant near Ark Hills and then went back to my place for a music video marathon and Project Gotham blow out. So the night turned out to be good fun.

At last, day 3: The Hanami that was. Dave had invited us along to a Tokyopia (games and geeky/tech forum in Japan) Hanami event. This was to be in Kinuta Koen which is pretty far out of the centre of Tokyo but was totally worth it.

After starting the day with a Double Double Freshness Burger (mmmm) at about 2pm, we got on a train to Yoga. The area is a fairly quiet suburban part of outer Tokyo, which is no doubt how they managed to fit such a big park there. Kinuta Koen (Koen means park btw) is the first park I've been to with lots of space for grass and the associated games you'd expect to see people playing in parks. If you go to other parks in Tokyo, they tend to be heavy on trees, short on space and full of winding paths. Kinuta Koen had people playing footy. Awesome!

We eventually made camp with the Tokyopia group which included a few familiar faces. By the time we arrived people were well on the way to either a food coma or alcohol coma. Actually, most people in our group were holding out quite well, but there were plenty of Frat-like chanting and drinking games on the go. There were also a few patches of vomit and a long queue outside the obligatory disgusting chemical toilets.

So we drank our drink till we started feeling drunk, ate our food till we started getting too full to drink, and generally made merry whilst enjoying the company and the blossoms. I was actually put in mind of the Lund spring festival Matt and I attended with Linus the past couple of years, but surprisingly less crowded.

As our evening appointment approached, we packed up and headed to Greg's place on the other side of Tokyo to play cranium, watch Chappelle's show and also watch Walk the Line. This meant in total I drank from about 3pm to 3am. As far as I know, a lot of the people who stuck around at Kinuta Koen had been drinking since about 7am and probably went on till that time the next day.

Did I ever mention that I love Japan? Well... I do. The opportunities to eat and drink all day are boundless and usually involve great company.

Oh, and on Sunday, I went to a party with a bunch of my Doki at Yasu's place to meet his new baby daughter. Another day of drinking... and it was really nice. If the family's don't mind, I'll post a picture from that day too.

SPIFF OUT

Sakura Season is Here

2006-03-25T19:22:00.000+09:00

Sakura
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Just an FYI - this week there will be lots of Cherry Blossoms opening in Japan. The sakura tree blossoms for about two weeks at the start of Spring and signals the start of two months of really fantastic weather. If I get a chance, I'll head out and take some photos. There are a few famous spots for Sakura photos and I reckon tomorrow morning could be a good opportunity to go out and capture some of them.

If anyone in Japan is reading this - then let me know of your favourite places in and around Tokyo and I'll see if I can get out there and get a few snaps for you!

PS, this photo comes courtesy of the Shinkansen Vagabond. Thanks Dave.

Update:Bah, I didn't get out for photos on Sunday. Between feeling ill and going to pick up my new glasses I didn't have time. Stay tuned though... I'll be out and about during the week

Final Fantasy Potion

2006-03-16T13:18:00.000+09:00

Final Fantasy Potion II
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

After lunch I stopped at a combini (convenience store) to pick up a soft drink to have at the office. Tae pointed out The Final Fantasy Potion drink.

It tastes like [insert generic health/medicine drink here]. Suntory is clearly planning to cash in on all the hype. After gettting back to the office, I opened the package to discover a cool blue bottle with apropriate RPG stopper. As far as I can tell, the ingredients are Royal Jelly, elderberry, cammomile, sage, thyme, fennel, hemp... plus some others I can't translate

Check out the commercial here - this is a taste of what advertising is in Japan.

Hakone Trip

2006-03-08T14:01:00.000+09:00

Edo highway
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

I uploaded the photos from the Trip to Hakone. I think the photos cover the day pretty well. Thanks to Jeff, Dave and Yong for coming. And also, farewell to Yong who is leaving Tokyo next week.

This weekend will be another snowboarding trip... Nozawa Onsen: THE REVENGE. I'll try to take some photos/footage and upload it for you. I'm not sure how the footage will work out though.

The actual Ro-ma-n-su ka

2006-03-06T08:53:00.000+09:00

The actual Ro-ma-n-su ka
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

This train looks like a 1950s space shuttle design. It even has a cockpit for the pilot to climb into. They major cool thing is that if you sit up front, you can look straight out of the train. The lame side is that it is pink, old (made the same year as me) and doesn't actually go very fast.

In case you haven't figured it out. The title is "Romance Car". Sadly, I took the trip with three other guys for sight seeing in Hakone. Check out flickr soon for more photos...

Pull the other one...

2006-03-06T08:48:00.000+09:00

Pull the other one...
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Not to be confused with the Door Handle...

Nozawa Onsen (AKA - Cliffhanger)

2006-02-27T22:44:00.000+09:00

Its been a while eh? Between working like a mule and boarding like a lunatic I haven't had much time to update the blog. However, I couldn't not to fill you in my little adventure the weekend of the 18th.

Last Friday, a brave crew of seven boarders set off on a trip to the famous Nozawa Onsen village. Nozawa is north west of Tokyo near to many of the places I've already visited. However, the resort is famous for its many onsen (hence the name). We were also looking forward to some fantastic off piste runs as promised by our guide Eric (from now on referred to as GBE).

We set off on the Friday from work in two Subaru legacy station wagons. Stuart Croy tore up the road with the sport mode on the automatic gear box. I swear we used twice as much petrol getting to Nozawa than we did returning. But I'm grateful for it. We left the Rental place after 8.30 and had a five hour drive to look forward to. Its a testament to the lackadaisical traffic police in Japan (and almost complete lack of speed cameras) that we got there at 1am despite getting lost up some dodgy side road on the face of a mountain that looked like it was ready to avalanche any second...

Special mention to GBE for his ipod broadcaster and the "Tra la la" song. Words can't describe. No, hang on, they can. The lyrics went something like: "Ooh, you touched my tra la la. My ding ding dong." Now, imagine a greasy deep voiced camp lothario whispering that in your ear... no, not GBE - this was just the lyrics. I can't imagine how GBE discovered it, but its one of the stupidest songs I've heard. I tried googling it but didn't find anything that wasn't porn.

Anyway, we got there at 1am, crashed in the ryokan and got up bright and early for boarding the next day. The weather was very good. Bright, not too cold and no wind. Unfortunately that meant the pistes were packed and a lack of recent snowfall meant they were icy too. Undeterred we did a few runs between the trails and eventually met up with the eighth member of our party. With that, we set off down what I'm calling 'The Brown Streak Run'.

The plan was simple: From the peak, head down the right most valley in the resort, hugging the right face of the valley and eventually dropping into the powder bowl that leads back into the main runs. The execution of said plan was a complete disaster! We actually went down the valley next to our target. This means we were technically outside the resort. Take a look at the map I've uploaded. Our target is the pleasant green line. The route we took was somewhat similar to the brown skid-mark smeared to the right. To be fair, it was a very interesting run, with lots of scenery. For example:

1) The view from the top was amazing
2) About 10 minutes into the run we encountered a waterfall. Its lucky we didn't just go over what we thought was a short drop. After stopping Jay heard the water rushing below. We had to go around the waterfall hugging the side of the valley which was at about an 80% incline (check out GBE on his own trying to get round). Once we got round we discovered the waterfall was actually pretty high - maybe about 20ft.
3) A tree covered river run that we had to board VERY carefully round..
4) densely packed trees with only ice (not snow) covering the ground between the trunks
5) Avalanche damage. There were huge chunks of ice that had clearly formed by rolling down the sides of the valley in what experts call an 'avalanche'. These chunks were perfect for causing a boarder to fall on his/her head. Lucky I was wearing a helmet!
6) A twenty minute uphill hike through waist deep powder
7) Last - a full scale Olympic cross country ski course. Complete with a shooting range and a few trainee ski-ers trying to get round. We went down it the wrong way (i.e. downhill) and really pissed the ski folks off.

After the 20 minute uphill climb in deep powder I was totally beat. When we got back to the resort I had a headache and wanted to give up for the day. Fortunately, the wonders of Japanese food and plenty of water had me back on my board and doing jumps in the snow park. Pretty awesome stuff. There are no photos of me, but check out Jun going over one of the jumps.

We got back to the Ryokan at about five. Just in time to get dinner and go to one of the famous onsen. As I've mentioned before, onsen rocks. So after relaxing in the hot springs for about an hour, we got changed and went out to see the town. Nozawa is pretty cool for tourists so we ended up in a Karaoke bar (five guys singing karaoke you say? Nev - I can tell you are going to comment on this, well you'll be glad. We had a contest to see who could sing the gay-est song. My butch version of 'Eternal Flame' was a clear winner). At this stage Andy was abducted by a random Japanese guy and taken to another Karaoke room to sing Beatles songs with some crusty old folks. We left him to it and decided to get some snackage. Cup Noodles are awesome... Imagine a Pot Noodle that actually tasted like decent ramen. For people that allegedly can't handle their drink, the Japanese have good post-pub food.

Day two was a slightly subdued affair. We managed a few more runs in the morning but I was beat so went back to the Ryokan. The others actually made it onto the run we aimed for yesterday and reported that it was pretty good. Ho hum, I went souvenir shopping instead and bought some nice chocolates.

We left for Tokyo in the evening and got back just after 9, again, thanks to Stuart C's driving. We paid for the car, and with that,I went home, and promptly fell asleep.

Until Next time - SPIFF OUT.

ps, I'll quickly mention Snow Jam - the work Ski/Snowboarding event. We went to Shiga Kogen last weekend with the work. There were forty people and 6 serious injuries. Always wear a helmet folks. I'll also be buying knee pads, elbow pads and an ass pad for my next trip. Trust me, I've seen the bruises. It'll be worth it.

GONG XI FA CAI

2006-01-30T09:19:00.000+09:00

Mun's birthday Nabe
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Happy Chinese New Year to everyone!

I just had a busy weekend and I'm pretty tired right now. So I thought I'd try to get some info up as soon as possible before forgetting it all. This weekend is the FIRST weekend I haven't been snowboarding since Christmas. I was so exhausted after the trip to Niseko that I decided to let my body recover instead of throwing it down the slopes a few more times. That means this is the first weekend I've had available to do anything other than wash my clothes in time for work and sleep.

So what did I do? Well, work has been a bit of a pain the last two weeks so I was in till 10.30 on Friday. I was so tired I just went home and slept off my stress. Saturday was reserved for shopping with Yuka. I was helping someone by a laptop, and considering getting an XBox 360 now that PGR3 is available. After about four hours in Yodobashi Camera in Akihabara (this has to be the biggest electronics store I've been in - they have EVERYTHING the aspiring geek could possibly want) we narrowed the laptop choices down to three, balked on the queue in the games section, ate salmon pizza and managed to buy a golf bag (?!?) So, mission failed on the first half of the trip.

The second half of the trip was to visit Jimbocho to find thermal gear for the next snowboarding trip (which is 10 days from now). This was kind of embarrassing. My shopping partner had no issues - being japanese she found stuff that fits straight away. I on the other hand discovered that there were no clothing items in Jimbocho that would fit me. My only hope is to go to an international outdoor wear store like Mont-Bell. I also kinda stretched the thermal gear I tried on so I don't think the shop owners want me to return... I did spot some very nice snowboards though. I'm very tempted to get the new Vapour all-round board from Burton. My current board is meant for powder which means its not great on the piste. Hmm...

That reminds me, I've been thinking about the following shopping list

XBox 360 (If only for Project Gotham 3)
New Snowboard + Boots + Bindings. I'd like to get Flow Bindings, but my current bindings are only a year old so its hard to justify.
A canon kiss 350D Digital SLR. This is purely technolust. I want a Digital SLR to take round Japan on photography trips - but I don't really _need_ one. Sigh..

Decisions, decisions...

Finally - Sunday saw Chinese New Year, and a surprise birthday party for Miranda (Mun). Its not her birthday yet and the surprise was ruined by last minute scrambling to trick her into coming late. I don't think it will be possible to trick Mun that way. For example, the party was to be at 7:30 but she tried to get there at 5. Steph did her best to save the day but since Mun was calling the office - which is where Steph claimed to be - she started to grow suspicious. So when the door finally opened all we could hear was Mun shouting "I knew it! I knew it!". Still, the party was fun and Eric cooked up some great Nabe.

I got home at about 11. Just in time to hang up my washing, go to bed and set my alarm for 5.15 (ugh).

SPIFF OUT

View from the top (Ezo-fuji)

2006-01-24T19:39:00.000+09:00

View from the top (Ezo-fuji)
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Greetings fellow earthlings

Last weekend I visited the famed Niseko ski and snowboarding resort and boarded till my legs wouldn't work anymore. The downside of this was that I crashed into a tree. Lucky I have a helmet eh?

The trip was arranged by Amy and we were accompanied by Yoko, Mun, Colin and Michael. Thanks guys for a great weekend!

You can view the complete photo set at the by looking at my Niseko Photo Set.

Enjoy

(ps, I may post some other choice snaps from the other participants if they are OK)

Kotatsu!

2006-01-17T13:05:00.000+09:00

Kotatsu!
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

This is some of the furniture I bought myself last week. The thing in the middle (a kotatsu), and the book shelves.

A kotatsu is a little table with a heater underneath it. You sit under the blanket and the heater keeps you all warm. You can cook Nabe or Shabu Shabu on top... Mmm, nice. And of course, you can play footsie with your opposite number. This one sits four so there could be plenty of footsy going on.

Christmas, New Year, Boarding Boarding Boarding (Oh, and my birthday)

2006-01-17T08:19:00.000+09:00

First off, thanks to Nev, Sam, Steve, Michelle, Craig, Niall, Stelly, Jim, Sian, Purves, Alan, Vicki and Dan for my food parcel/birthday gift. Last Friday a hyuge box landed on my desk (I'd asked to get it redelivered to the office) which contained the following:

A Calendar with pictures of Scotland to make me feel homesick
A box of highland fudge to make me feel sick after eating it all in one day
Three bottles of awesome beer I drank on Sunday
A box of shortbread that I managed to make last the weekend
A tin of Haggis I'm saving for a week on Wednesday (Burns night! Wahey!)
And SIX CANS OF IRN BRU BABY YES OH YES OH YES...

I've managed to string out the Bru so far. I have two cans left which I'm saving to push on unsuspecting locals. I don't think the Japanese pallette can handle the sugar overload that one sip of the Amber Nectar will provide.

Also - Thanks to Dave, Akane, Yuka, Miranda, Yong, Amy and Pollen for the Surprise party they threw for me at Dave's place. Well - it wasn't much of a surprise (I already knew we were at least having a Nabe party) and Amy gave the game away by shouting "Surprise" every few minutes. Saying that - when a round of "Happy Birthday" started and the cake came out I didn't know what to say (as usual).

What else has been happening? I have to reach back to the dimmest recesses of memory to recall what I was doing four weeks ago... Christmas! Thats right - I went on a Snowboarding trip over the Christmas weekend with some of my work colleagues. Antony organised a great trip to Hakuba in Nagano (where the Winter Olympics were held so many years ago) and we stayed in a cottage for three days near the slopes. The trip was so good in fact, that I've been boarding EVERY weekend since then. You see, in Japan, snow sports (like everything else) are incredibly convenient. For example, on Hogmanay, a group of ten of us got on a Shinkansen (bullet train) at 6:20 am to Joetsu-Kokusai. We were on the slopes by 9 am. We boarded till we could board no more at around 4:30 pm, then went to the Onsen (I've already mentioned how awesome Onsen is), then got the Shinkansen back to Tokyo for about 8:30 pm, had dinner and got back to my apartment for 11:30! I was so exhausted I slept till about 11 am the next day.

The only bad thing about sleeping over New Year was that I missed some of the culture. I'd been planning to go out to take late night photos of all the people visiting Temples over New Year. For the Japanese New Year is very important, but it is important as a spiritual day rather than a day of partying sans Ecosse. I hear that Meiji Jingu temple is packed all night and day with people making prayers, buying fortunes and doing other New Year-ish things. I managed to get to the Temple at Tokyo Tower at about 4 pm on the 1st and things were winding down. Still - that atmosphere was quite spiritual. I saw photos from Meiji Jingu in which the police have to wear riot gear to protect them from the offerings that the crowds throw into the temple. Since most offerings are handfuls of coins I'm not surprised.

So the week of my birthday came round and I went to buy some furniture. I bought a kotatsu (very japanese), some shelves and new curtains for the living room. I also bought a rug and a light for my bedroom. The apartment feels much more homely now they've arrived (as of Monday the 16th) and I look forward to having a Shabu-Shabu party with my kotatsu. I'll need to buy a Shabu-Shabu+Nabe kit though. Oh, and I still need to buy some floor seats... All in good time.

What did I do that weekend? Oh yeah, I went boarding on Kagura-san. And last weekend? Back to Kagura-san it was so good. I love Japan...

ps, this weekend I'm flying to Hokkaido with five friends. I'll let you guess what for. Four days in Hokkaido. Awesome.

pps, Happy Birthday HN-san

Asse Nuggets

2006-01-12T08:46:00.000+09:00

Asse
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

I went to see King Kong last night... very good. However, on the way home I stopped into the Convenience store near to the office where I saw the product mentioned on the right.

"asse: Strawberry and Mocha Flavour"

Do you think Chris Rock would switch from Surf? Maybe...

Nouvo Spugna

2006-01-05T18:18:00.000+09:00

Nouvo Spugna
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

I love shopping in Japan...

On that day...

2006-01-05T14:08:00.000+09:00

I thought I'd post a selection of stories from the 4th of January from the BBC site. Most interesting is probably the story on Donald Campbell - who died attempting to break the water speed record.

Happy Birthday to Me!

2006-01-03T22:07:00.000+09:00

Happy Birthday to Me!
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Thanks to Yuka, Miranda, Akane, Amy, Pollen, Dave and Yong!

Message from our Sponsor

2005-12-25T23:26:00.000+09:00

Sushi Documentary

2005-12-19T16:00:00.000+09:00

Here be a guide on how to eat sushi.

Move Along, Nothing To See Here

2005-12-15T16:25:00.000+09:00

I'm reminded of a scene from Fight Club when Edward Norton's character is sitting in his office after a particularly rough night of Fighting and is unable to hear because of the high pitched whistling in his ear which in turn was due to a perforated ear-drum. My personal experience was that of sitting on a conference call unable to concentrate on the fairly pointless drivel assaulting my afternoon due to the fact I was fighting a headache right above my left eyeball which in turn had been brought on by a particularly stressful week in the office. I'd pre-booked some holiday days for that Thursday, in the knowledge that if I didn't use it soon I'd lose it to the black hole of HCM's Artemis time-keeping monster. Before me was an expedia search result - Narita to Busan, Thursday, 11am returning Tuesday at 2.30pm. One click was all it would take. So what would it be? Snowboarding or Korea? The thought of actually being within reach of the desk sent me over the edge:

- CLICK -

Shit. I'd better try to get in touch with Stephen (a guy I've known since I was about eight years old, but haven't spoken to since moving away from Scotland). But no matter how hard I tried, Stephen was out of reach. I knew he was just back in Korea, and back to teaching. But he hadn't checked his email in a few days and as it transpires, didn't have a phone or home internet connection! If I couldn't get a hold of him I'd just make my way up to Seoul and do the tourist thing. Given how quickly I exhausted that avenue, I'm bloody glad I managed to get hold of him after arriving. So the plan was to meet up on Friday in Daegu and go out for some drinks. In the meantime I'd take a good nights sleep in the hostel I'd booked into, then spend the next day walking around Busan.

What I hadn't realised was just how cold it is in Korea. First off, I don't think it got above 1 degree celcius, and with the constant wind chill, it was easily -5 to -10 most of the time. Fortunately I'd overpacked and was able to wear three layers the whole time. Still, it was Brass Monkeys and my face was numb when walking about outside.

My first foray into the Korea tourist scene was done under the dubious direction of the "insight Guide" to Korea. Don't get me wrong, I'm very grateful to Steph for lending it to me, and when it came to Seoul it was spot on. But its clear that outside of Seoul the author had only done the most basic research. So let me fill in the gaps the author neglected to mention: "Russia Street" or "Texas Street" which is where the Russian Sailors drink, is a depressing back alley market street with bad karaoke bars and a worse prostitution problem. It was midday when I arrived there and already the ladies of the night, with bad peroxide blonde hairstyles and shopping bags under their eyes, were already offering their wares. The flimsy pretense of trying to sell ear-rings wasn't going to fool me. Only two types of lady have ever called me "Big Boy" when I'm fully clothed. One works in clubs with names like Pierre's or Hooters, the other works on street corners and two or three times an hour, on her back. I didn't stop to get a closer look at any of the shops.

Next stop in Busan was the famous Jagalchi fish market. To get there I had to walk about 5k or jump on the Subway. I decided to walk. That was my next mistake. Within minutes I was gagging on the smell of raw sewage sloshing just below street level. This was something I hadn't expected in Korea. I really thought it would be just like Japan in terms of cleanliness. So, trying not to breath through my mouth I found my way down through a surprisingly nice urban/office area lined with trees and into the Fish market. It was kind of disappointing, but I was there at the wrong time of day. None of the better food was left over and I didn't fancy haggling for the fresh fish to take to the sashimi bars. Fortunately, Jalgachi is right next to the shopping district, so I took a walk round there and admired the clothing. Its incredible how cheap clothes are in Korea - At least 20% less than Japan. Unfortunately they don't come in my size so I just stuck to window shopping.

I couldn't bear the walk back to Busan station so I took the subway. However, this turned out to be the lesser of two evils. I don't know if it was body odour or bad breath or bad toilet hygene, but the subway smelled almost as bad as the street. I later discovered (after going to McDonalds a few days later) that it was probably bad breath. Obviously it only takes one or two people that like to eat to much garlic and kimchi to cause a stink that permeates an entire subway carriage. So let me stress that NOT ALL KOREAN'S smell. ONLY the few that are unhygenic. The same would be true in the UK if the food wasn't so bland...

Busan is only an hour from Daegu so I took the local train and met Stephen at the Station. I dropped off my bags at his place and we went for Beers in Downtown. I can recommend the bar called Itaewon (named after the downtown area in Seoul) for its good atmosphere, great beer and friendly patrons. Even the GIs, who can get a wee bit carried away sometimes, were on good behaviour. Just don't ask me to give you directions. I found Daegu a and Downtown especially very confusing to navigate. This was largely due to the lack of landmarks and the grid layout. I'm sure once you've been there a while you get to know your way.

After getting pretty wrecked and meeting a few other teachers, we went for Real Korean Barbecue. If you ever go to Korea this should be your main choice for food (see the photos). The combination of Beef, Kimchi and rice is hard to beat (although I think the Japanese version is better... shh, don't tell them I said that). We got back to Stephen's around 5am with a plan to get up at 11 and take a trip to Palgong-san.

Day three in Korea started with a thumping. A dull thumping that made my skull feel like it was two sizes to small for my brain. I got up and had a shower. Unfortunately, I also used all the hot water! Poor Stephen had to have a cold shower later that day. We got dressed, went for some breakfast and took a cab to Palgong-san. When we got there the sky was clouding over and the temperature started to drop. After five minutes in a freezing cable car we got to the tourist station about two thirds of the way up. Unfortunately the visibility wasn't great and the wind picked up so we could only manage about ten minutes of attempting to take photos before fleeing to the restaurant. A warming cup of tea later we went back down to the bottom to catch a bus back to the city. Wow, we'd managed to waste two whole hours doing nothing, seeing nothing and being cold. We started calling it the Palgong-san fiasco. But to be honest, the tourism in general was a fiasco in Korea. Earlier that day we'd visited one tourist info booth:

Stephen: "Do you have any Bus time tables?"

Attendent: "Huh?"

S: "When is the bus to Palgong-san"

A: "I don't know" {slam's shutters down}

Apparently during the world cup Korea invested lots in the tourism industry but they just don't seem to try anymore. Maybe its because no-one wants to visit... I guess they heard about the miasma.

The evening was spent in Itaewon again. With a two hour stopover to a nice restaurant (I can't remember the name) to help another English teacher (I can't remember her name either) celebrate her birthday. The best part was when she set her hair on fire. Hoho, we had a giggle at that. What I can report though is that the crowd seems to be quite good. We chatted to various teachers the whole time and got to know their opinions and backgrounds. Like Japan they come from all over the place and seem to get on quite well. Further evidence that those who are willing to travel and experience new things, are willing to get along with other cultures and peoples. Admittedly, they were all westerners (except for one Korean and one Japanese - they didn't talk) but I'm sure the point is still valid.

It was good to catch up with Stephen, so on Sunday we went for Bimbimbap and reminisced about old times and old friends. So it was with a nostalgic mood that I got on the train to Seoul on Sunday evening.

One thing I really liked about Korea is the Bullet Train. Surprisingly, the first time I took the bullet train was in Korea, and not Japan. Well, it was fun anyway. We hit 295 kph which is the fastest I've traveled whilst still on the ground. I crossed Korea in under two hours and disembarked in the impressive Seoul main station. This is where Stephanie's guide material really came in handy. I looked up the hotels in Itaewon and jumped in a Taxi. I got a standard room no problem and for pretty good rates right in the middle of Itaewon. Normally I would have booked ahead but lack of internet access restricted that option. Besides, its not peak season so I knew there was a good chance of getting a decent bed.

I had one day of tourism left. Monday in Seoul was where I actually managed to get some sight-seeing done. There were three places on my hit list. First was Changdeokgung palace. Built almost 500 years ago by order of Emperor T'aejong, it is an impressive set of official and residential buildings. Its surrounding wall is to protect the residents from prying eyes, and also to protect the women from venturing into harm. However, it also prevented me from actually seeing the place. It was closed. Closed on Mondays apparently. My heart sank. I was expecting that everything would be closed. And having walked twenty minutes in the freezing cold I wasn't to happy about that. Fortunately the rest of my choices were still open.

The Korean folk museum was quite cool. A giant pagoda sitting at the northwest of Gyeongbokgung palace. It is surrounded by lots of examples of traditional folk architecture and sculpture. This is the first time I felt I saw any true culture in Korea - with the exception of the old rooftops in Daegu - as unfortunately most of the cities have flung up with depressing haste. Inside the museum were the usual dioramas depicting Neolithic peoples right up to modern Korea. Korea has an impressively varied and troubled history. For a land which is so strongly Buddhist it is a pity that imperialistic Japan crushed it so heavily during its many attempts to get to China. Also, the Korean war of the 50s really tore the country apart. I get the impression that most Koreans are grateful for the American intervention, but at the same time they want the Armed forces out of the country. That's probably not wise but there is definitely some mistrust there.

Gyeongbokgung palace is the other big palace in Seoul. Not as beautiful as Changdeokgung, as it was the main seat of power for only a generation and was actually burnt down by the Japanese in 1592. Only the foundations survived for 300 years before its restoration was ordered. Due to further Japanese imperial encroachment, the restoration work is still underway today. Check the photos out for more details, but the restoration looks very authentic. There were big crowds of people there, even though it was cold, and a pretty impressive "changing of the guards" ceremony was held with some pretty mean looking Korean guards.

After a surprisingly long day I went back to Itaewon to sample the nightlife. It seems quite varied - Rock bars (I really miss live rock music), clubs, pubs, theme pubs, restaurants etc. In fact I quite liked Itaewon. I ate a meal in the nearest Irish bar so I could drink some Guinness and went to bed early because I was convinced my return flight the next day was at 11am (and not 2.30 pm as it turned out).

I got up at 5 so that I could catch the 6am train to Busan. I got there shortly after 10 o'clock and jumped in a cab to the airport. It was only then that I discovered I'd arrived three hours early. Sigh. So I read my book ("The Picture of Dorian Gray") and bought some omiyage to take back to the office. Mmm, kimchi chocolate. My bad organisation also gave me some time to think about my trip. What disappoints me most about Korea isn't the fervent Nationalism, or the blindness to poverty, or the repression of women, but the fact that all these are done as part of an ideal which has lost much of its beauty and soul. Korea was heavily Confucianist. This means that life is ordered into relationships defined by a superior role and an inferior role. Whilst this means that women are degraded, it also means that elders are respected. The culture that was born from this and which was reflected in the Folk museum, aspired to some amazing architecture, awe-inspiring gardens, and a satisfying pastoral lifestyle. Unfortunately, much of the beauty has been stamped out by the Japanese, the Korean War and finally, South Korea itself. In its attempt to emulate the west, its taken the same route as China and previously Japan. All the stylism of past centuries has been forgotten in order to throw up depressing high rise apartment blocks and plastic looking offices, without any real aesthetic for architecture. Korea could be a beautiful progressive country. Instead, many areas are reminiscent of Brixton in London. I'm sure I missed out on the nice areas and that they do exist. Its just a pity that most of the new areas have none of the style of the west, and none of the soul of the east.

Tell me why! I don't like (Mondays)

2005-12-14T22:52:00.000+09:00

Tell me why! I don't like (Mondays)
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Yo... I've uploaded the Korean photos I can bear to expose to the public. Take a look. As always, they are on Flickr.

I don't think you can read this one unless you click on it. But it says "Closed on Mondays". Tourism eh? You pay X hundred bucks to visit the country and they can't be bothered to open...

Nose-plugs not included

2005-12-12T15:58:00.000+09:00

Hi all. Just to keep everyone posted... I'm currently in Seoul and finally getting some decent touristy stuff done. I can't upload photos though and want to keep it short just now. I'll fill you all in with a full post when I get back.

I'll leave you with this tantalising glimpse into the past few days of debauchery. Korea stinks. It stinks of arse. It stinks of putrid kimchi. It stinks like someone just vomited a rotten curry into a used nappy. One thing I love about Japan is how clean the place is. Korea has opted for the open sewer technique. I can only say I'm glad I'm here in Winter instead of Summer.

More on this subject whence I return to planet Nippon.

Korean Hotstep

2005-12-08T18:11:00.000+09:00

Well, I'd booked some holiday time at work and found myself quickly approaching H-day without any real plan. Fortunately, the old school network kicked in and I found myself contemplating Korea to visit a friend from Scotland. Its one of those places I've had on my list to visit since I got to Japan, and given that I've already got three snow boarding trips planned for next year I decided to give it a go...

So here I am, sitting in the Aspira youth hostel in Pusan on the south coast. I'm not really sure what I'll be doing next, but I'm certrain I'll be doing it with gloves and a woolly hat. Its bloody cold over here. At least, compared to Tokyo its freezing right now. Plus I reckon they like it cold. My fingers are getting stiff sitting in the hotel lobby typing this entry!

In true Spiff stylings, I woke up this morning with a hangover and regretted the fact I had to catch a plane from Narita. I got to the train station and couldn't find the bloody entrance for the Narita express. I didn't bother with a map because we all know how useless I am at even remembering I have them with me! After six hours I was sitting on a bus in a strange country wondering where my stop was and feeling pretty silly for even contemplating the trip. Especially since I hadn't got in touch with my friend yet... I've now made contact and even have a phone number. Thank Feck for that! If that had fallen through I was looking at a six hour train journey to Seoul. I might still do that though. I'll have to see whats on the cards. My plan for tomorrow is to get a train to Daegu and see what the city has to offer.

Goddamn, my fingers are cold. I'm going for a whisky in the bar.

Fuji-san

2005-12-07T09:36:00.000+09:00

Fuji-san
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

I uploaded a few snaps of the view from my office. Sunrise, midday, and sunset. Check it out on Flickr.

Portrait of Kawagoe

2005-12-01T10:07:00.000+09:00

Portrait
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

I uploaded the photos from the Kawagoe trip to Flickr. Please enjoy them, it was a great day and the lighting was fantastic. Also, I got a few lucky snaps like the one in this post.

Also, I noticed that my hit counter is over one thousand! Glad to see people are enjoying the blog.

Can we go tae Kawagoe?

2005-11-27T22:57:00.000+09:00

Its been pointed out to me that all my entries start with either allusions to some form of alcohol induced disability, or an admission that my navigational prowess is comparable with that of the famous, if misrepresented, lemming. Lets set the record straight. Last night and today I did not touch a drop of the Devil's drink and occupied myself with emotionally balanced and well adjusted past-times. It all began on Saturday, when I woke up with a hangover at 3pm (DAMN!)...

Actually, this particular story goes back to Friday night. I went to dinner with Dave and Neil (Booth, not Mochan) to celebrate financial year end. We dropped into a place called Tengo, which serves Izakaya style food. It was surprisingly good and pretty cheap too. The interior reminded me of a tribal hall, and brought back memories of Beowulf and the LOTR films. We chomped down our food and one of my other colleagues turned up. A couple more beers to celebrate year end and Neil and I went off to Bauhaus. Bauhaus is the local rock bar/club. Actually, I'm not sure what sort of venue it was but it was laid out with very American style diner tables that faced towards the back corner. In the corner was clearly the set up for some band to play. Also, on our tables was a menu of songs. This sounded interesting. The disconcerting aspect was that we were the only patrons. Neil assured me it would liven up a bit. It turns out there was only one band, but boy did they rock. The selection of tracks came from the classic rock eras: 60-80s. There was one Nirvana track thrown in for good measure. I was really impressed, and this is a band that had honed there skills. I was further surprised when the waitresses started to get up to sing. They were both pretty cute and had pretty awesome voices for that kind of music! By the end I managed to get them to play my selection - Immigrant Song - and its the best version I've ever heard. As the Wraggster might say: Fuckin' A. Afterwards I met up with Dave again but we were both worse for wear. We staggered into 911 (one of the many local meat markets) and danced like idiots for a while. At that stage, a game of pool seemed like a great idea. One thing I love about Japan is its 24hr convenience. In this case we went into a fairly packed pool hall at 3am and racked up a few. We played darts too. The less said about that the better. Suffice to say, rubber dart boards suck. The night was polished off with a lovely bowl of Ramen and we left for home around 4.30 am.

So, now you understand why I woke up at three on Saturday. I really hate it when you wake up and it takes about an hour before you find the strength to do anything. Feeling slightly ashamed at my guitar skill level after the previous nights' rock fest I thrashed out a few of my favourites. Around about six I got a call reminding me I was supposed to be at a movie night in Shiba-Koen. D'oh, I got there about 7 but couldn't find the apartment for about 30 minutes. Anyway, they'd ordered me KFC (or Kentuck as Japanese like to call it) and I broke fast. Mmm, chicken and biscuits to start the day. I have to commend our host on his choice of Movie: Anchorman - The legend of Ron Burgandy. Its the funniest Will Ferrel movie I've seen. And the funniest movie I've seen in a while! "I would like to extend to you an invitation to the pants party." Nuff Said. This was followed by Appurusheed. Or Apple-seed for English speakers. A really cool Anime/Manga but no English subtitles. I was pretty lost so just sat back and enjoyed the graphics.

On to the main event. Today was spent in the pleasant company of six of my work colleagues and one Non-work colleague. The plan was formulated on Friday to go to Kawagoe. Kawagoe is a beautiful town that still has many Pre-Tokyo era buildings, plus many pre-war buildings. One of the main attractions is a beautiful temple called Kitain. It has many buildings that were transported from the original Edo castle (Edo is the town that became Tokyo) before Edo castle was burnt down during the war. The former site of Edo castle is now home to the Imperial place. Hopefully the snaps will go up tomorrow, but this place was beautiful. Thanks to Steph for picking it. Oh, lest I forget: I got lost on the way there. I was meant to go to the office to check out the directions but didn't have time so jumped on the subway. Big mistake, I should have got the over-ground train which would have taken 20 minutes. In the end I had to get a taxi to the tune of 2,800 yen!

Its now late Autumn around Tokyo which means the parks and towns are bedecked with the warm colours of Autumnal leaves. Kitain temple is especially beautiful. We were fortunate to get such a clear bright day. I think my fondest memory was sitting in the West porch of the temple with the crew and watching the sun play through the leaves. At that moment a woman in full kimono garb sat down by herself on the opposite side of us. It was such an anachronism - like something from 350 years ago being replayed for our benefit. The mood was broken when everyone started taking photos of her (including me). Like I say, the lighting was perfect, so I've managed to get a few photos I'm really proud of.

Today was also Children's Day. So the temple was very busy. Children's day is a special ceremony for 3,5 and 7 year olds. There were lots of you kids in very well done Kimonos. It must have taken hours just to get them all done up. Also, the hair on the girls was perfectly coiffed. We were standing behind the shrine watching one of the ceremonies when an old lady tapped me on the arm:

"Excuse Me!" - I instantly assumed she was trying to get passed so backed up and smiled.

"Excuse Me!" - This time she tugged on my sleeve. Ooh er, she was a bit crusty but probably sane. I replied "Hello."

"Where are you from?" I answered but she didn't understand.

"Where are you from?" (Remember - just keep nodding and smiling) "I'm from Scotland." "Neee!?!".

Before I could get over my shock and return the polite enquiry she backed off - smiling and waving the whole time. I couldn't do anything but smile and wave back. I'm told this is fairly common outside Tokyo, but apart from a five year old kid on my flight to Yunnan a couple of months ago, I'd never experienced any kind of interest in my origins. Apparently the further you get from Tokyo, the more fascinating white people are. I could faintly make out her exclamations to her travel buddies: "Su-kot-o-lando-jin ga!". Cue gasps. I almost expected one of them to faint. I was officially freaked out at all this. Fortunately the zen like qualities of Kitain temple soon put me at ease.

The day was finished with my first proper experience of Nabe (see photos). Its a kind of hotpot type soup dish. I opted for the Tofu Nabe and supplemented it with grilled whole fish and fried Chicken. Nothing left to do but go back to Tokyo and write this blog... Ahhh

Beer Goggles

2005-11-24T15:22:00.000+09:00

Beer Goggles
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Those beers Dave made me drink.

Damn! We're in a tight spot!

2005-11-24T15:17:00.000+09:00

Also known as "Cows! I hate cows worse than coppers!"

So, two weeks to report on. I'm nursing a hangover right now so I'm not getting anything serious done... may as well do me blog.

First up - Karaoke last Friday. We went back to the big Shibuya Shidax for some more K. The big surprise (well for me, not for the locals) was one of my work colleagues' dulcet tones. This guy was reaaally good! Anyway, after screeching my way through California Dreamin' and Champagne Supernova I called it a night. Or rather, tried to. Dave tricked me into downing the last couple of beers. Of course I was sitting next to an attractive intelligent woman. So I had to try to impress her by demonstrating how much of a man I was by drinking beer as fast as possible. Hmmm. The result can only be measured in hammer blows. I was running at about three every ten seconds when I woke up the next day. A real side to side headache with up-down thrown in for fun. If you don't know what I mean, next time you have a head-ache. Try shaking your head and then try nodding. Usually only one direction elicits a pain response.

Next - Yokohama and the Raumen Museum. I took a trip to Yokohama to visit the large warehouse style furniture store called Homes on Saturday Morning. It turns out they've got loads of other stuff... in fact they have everything you could possibly want to set up a place. If only I'd known about it when I was _actually_ furniture shopping. Sigh. Anyway, I did find the coolest sofa and armchair set I've ever seen. The idea is that there are speakers built into the chairs above the shoulders, as well as a sub-woofer under the seat. You can get a pretty decent volume without disturbing the neighbours due to the proximity of the speakers, and you also experience pleasurable vibrations. One concern is whether or not having a big electro-magnet under your ass will leave you sterile and wipe all your credit cards. Anyway, I'm thinking of getting the arm-chair with my bonus. Argh, no I can't - it costs over 500 quid! I'll go ON HOLIDAY instead. (I need to keep reminding myself that... I'm soo tempted!) To polish off the afternoon we went to the Ramen Museum. It has a pretty cool diorama of a 1920s style Japanese street. There are a number of pretty famous Ramen shops in the museum and you can sit down and have some of the best noodles I've ever tried. They also sell a bunch of authentic traditional sweets and snacks. Awesome. Upstairs is a "Make your own Cup Noodle" factory. You can pick any ingredients and they'll make a cup noodle for you on the spot. Awesome!! We didn't have time, but if I go back I'll be sure to get some. In fact, if anyone comes to visit me we'll go there for a day trip.

Saturday Night - Party in Mita. Another work colleague was having a party. Unable to resist the lure of Pizza + Beer I turned up a little ragged from the previous night's excess. I'm yet to find a proven hangover cure, but the Ramen I ate at the museum was putting up a brave attempt. We ended up laughing our asses off to Dodgeball and indulging in that proven student baiting game of building towers out of beer cans. Thumbs up to Yoka who managed to knock it down seconds after taking a photo of it ("it was the flash that did it!" - yeah right).

Wednesday- Yasumi! (Yasumi == holiday). I somehow ended up drinking again on Monday with a couple of guys from work, discussing what to do for the coming holidays. I ended up eating in La Jolla, my local Mexican restaurant. Mmmm, Chimi Changa. I took a night off on Tuesday because I was feeling sick and slept in yesterday because it was a Holiday!! Awesome, I had a looong bath, went to buy an electric heater (its frickin' cold now), picked up a couple of books, and ended up going to a really cool bar. In Shibuya there is this little street near the station with a bunch of tiny little pubs (I'll try to get the photos up soon). The door is almost too narrow for me to get in, there is an almost vertical staircase that I couldn't climb properly because I kept hitting my knee on the next step up - there wasn't room to go up sideways, and four bar stools. That's it. The bar (called "Tight") could legally fit 17 people, but we had six in and it felt cosy. There was one couple sitting at the `far' end of the bar, then me and Dave, and then two random punters who had to stand on the stairs, and on the banister whilst hanging over the staircase. To go to the loo, we had to climb under the guy's legs! The decor was modern, and there were two 14inch LCD TVs behind the bar playing the latest Director's Label DVDs. The sound system was a decent Bose set up too so the tunes were pumping out. The locals ended up trying to teach us various swear words and bad English to Japanese translations. My top three where

1) Hold Me - Sounds like "Ho Mi". Which means c*ck.
2) First Kitchin - an American style diner - gets shortened to "Fir-Kin". Phonetically - "Fuh King"
3) Little Policemen - These guys didn't like the police and told me a sure way to insult them (and get arrested) was to call them Chotto Police ga.

There were more, including how to call someone a bitch, but to me it was just a random string of syllables that I can't remember... Dave'll post it if anyone asks.

Anyway it was all fun and games till we realised Dave had been robbed of about $100 :-(

I got home at around 2am. Hence my need to go for Curry at lunch today. Mmm... I think I'll round it off with a tall Mocha from Starbucks. Yummy...

Classic Spiff

2005-11-18T08:53:00.000+09:00

I've added a Classic Spiff section under my Links - this should make accessing those favourite posts easy peasy. Just leave a comment if you would like any entry added.

- SAB

Office with a View

2005-11-18T08:43:00.000+09:00

Office with a View
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

This is the view from my office at about 7am on a clear winters morning.

Atari!

2005-11-13T15:37:00.000+09:00

Atari!
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Spotted on Saturday after taking a wrong turning on the way to Shibuya from my place. I was tempted to go for a closer look but the place was closed :-(

Hong Kong? Phoeey... (China pt.III)

2005-11-13T15:35:00.000+09:00

I landed in Shen Zhen on Thursday at about 6pm-ish feeling a little groggy from the flight. Before we even left for China Dave and Raymond had been teasing me relentlessly about the kind of thing that can happen to a lonely white guy in Shen Zhen, especially if they have a large golf bag with them and the shiny aura of a bewildered traveler. However, it seems getting through domestic Chinese flights were not a problem. Also, when I landed, there were actually plenty of English signs pointing me towards the Hong Kong bus companies. So it was a simple matter of buying a standard ticket to Kowloon, jumping onto the bus and hopping over the border when I got there. Border control between China and Hong Kong was a little odd. I had to fill in a form to get through the China side of the border, then another form to get through to the Hong Kong side. It was essentially the same form too, so I've no idea why they think its necessary to manage it this way. And since I was the only tourist and I was carrying loads of baggage, that meant I held the bus up and annoyed everyone. Its not as if there was anything I could do though. I eventually arrived at my accommodation (the Kowloon YMCA - I can see Nev's comments now...) at around 11pm and dropped straight into bed.

Friday started with the cleaning lady barging into my room. This happened every day I was in Hong Kong apart from that one time I remembered to put the "Do not disturb sign" on my door. It was the same cleaning lady every time too. Its fair to say I wasn't impressed at this. However, it did have the fortunate side effect that I got out of bed before breakfast finished. One odd thing about the YMCA was the fact that it seemed to be mostly couples staying there. At breakfast I was the only person sitting on their own. Its not pretty to watch to newly weds spoon feed Greek yoghurt to each other whilst making not very subtle jokes about the similarities between Greek yoghurt and well, I'm sure you can guess. At the other end of the spectrum were the crusty old couples (variously smelling of urine) spoon feeding eachother Greek yoghurt and making not so subtle jokes... you get the picture. Some things aren't worth considering over a bowl of cornflakes and Greek yoghurt.

Anyway, my plan for Friday was to head up to the Peak (which I didn't make) after visiting the office and looking for some cheap PSP games. I dropped into the office at around 11 and met the HKG crew. They took me out to lunch at a local noodle shop where I had my first taste of genuine HK noodles. Yummy. Afterwards I got some advice on socket converters (annoyingly, Hong Kong runs a UK electrical setup. So all the converters I'd bought for china didn't work), and went out to find the knock off psp shops. I ended up buying Burnout for the PSP which I am yet to play. I don't know why I do this - buy a game/console and never actually work up the patience to sit down and use the bloody thing. But anyway it gave me a chance to walk through the financial and shopping districts of the main island. I was fairly impressed. Although the buildings are ridiculously tall and crowded together, the quality of architecture generally surpasses that of Japan and China. This is for two reasons. Firstly they don't have to worry about earthquakes so the buildings can be extremely tall without worrying about structural expense. Secondly, there is a lot of money floating around out there so they don't cut corners. Another aspect that helps make HK attractive are the abundance of old colonial style buildings. Some of them could have been lifted straight out of Bank in London. Later that day I also stumbled into a couple of VCD and import DVD shops. I was sorely tempted to splurge my cash but I really didn't have room for much beyond the VCD of Kung Fu Hustle I bought on my last day.

Friday night was another matter. I met up with Alex from London who has moved out to Hong Kong permanently with the firm. She is getting on well and should be renting her own place by now rather than staying in Corporate Apartments. We ate in Lan Kwai Fong (there was still no sign of Nev's illustrious lady boys) and chatted about relocation etc. Eventually we met up with one of her mates from the UK who also happened to be in town and went for some drinks. Alex seems to know all the cute barmaids (from being stranded out there with no one to hang around with) which meant her mate and myself had a nice time enjoying the view! Also, towards the end we just stood on the street and watched the girls go by. After about eight or nine pints I hit the road, the ferry and eventually the sack.

Saturday was that one morning where I was blessedly spared the attentions of the cleaning lady. That was fortunate because it took till midday to unglue my eyelids. My plan for the day was simple: Get to the Peak. I didn't know what I'd do when I got there but by Jove I'd do it old boy. Anyway, I got ready and put some needed fuel down the gullet. The tram to the top leaves from the main island so I hopped over in the ferry and walked up to the tram station. It was a fantastic old fashioned mountain tram that creaked and bumped its way to the top. It also slows down near the top so you get an awesome cross bay view. At the top is a couple of observation points, a path round the peak, and a shopping mall. Still feeling squeezy I decided to limit my wanderings to the polished colonnades of the shopping centre and grabbed a book to read whilst sitting in the sun. One of the nicest aspects of sitting up there was the fact that the sounds from the city didn't make it all the way up....

Later that day I met up with some work folks and went for a meal in a plush restaurant near my hotel. I can't remember the name of the place but I do remember they served sweet crispy noodles. Mmmm. The evening was completed by a tour of the main island and a brief stop in Stanley. A little fishing village that reminded me of ye olde British sea side towns.

My last full day was spent enjoying Lan Tau island with my Boss and his Wife. First stop was the awesome Buddha - biggest I've ever seen - near the central peak of the island. This spot is isolated and beautiful. The monks at the monastery live a life of quiet service and ask only that we respect their peace... its a pity then that a hulking cable car service is being constructed right next to it... sigh. We also visited another fishing town called Tai O on the far western point of the island. This was a rustic little affair with genuine weather-beaten locals and shanty town style plywood huts. It was a little weird to see this kind of poverty so close to the hubbub of the airport and on such a small island too. Its like the government doesn't really care about these people... Anyway, you can see the photos on flickr. Oh, lest I forget. I had some fantastic Char Sui pork courtesy of Raymond at one of his local restaurants. Mmm

Then it was Monday and I was on my way back to Tokyo... What had I achieved in China? Lets recap, in order of importance:

1) A nice tan
2) Eating Dog
3) Eating Frog
4) Eating Sweet Crispy Noodles
5) Eating Crazy sweets in Tai O
6) Seeing a hyuge Buddha
7) Buying import PSP games
8) Meeting cute Locals
9) Losing lots of money at golf
10) Getting my worst recorded score at golf.

Hmm, next time I go on holiday, I think I'll hold off on the Golf.

Birth Anouncement

2005-11-01T13:06:00.000+09:00

-----Original Message-----
From: Neil Mochan
Sent: Tuesday, November 01, 2005 12:34 AM
Subject: Great news!

Hi everyone,

Today at around 5pm, my fiance Teika give birth to our son, who is as yet unnamed. He weighed 2.5kg (about 5.5lb) at birth. This will probably be a surprise to some of you, and also to me as he was due to be born in December! Regardless he is very healthy, as is Teika (albeit very tired), and is probably the biggest baby in the ward!

Regards,

Neil

Japan Highland Games

2005-10-31T09:54:00.000+09:00

On Sunday October 30th, the 23rd annual Japan Highland Games were held. With contestants from bonny Scotland, England, Ireland, the US, Canada, Switzerland, France and of course Japan, it is fair to say the day was a success for Highland Gamers everywhere...

However, Given the cold haggis, colder neeps'n'tatties, nasty whiskey, frothy beer, undercooked shortbread and dodgy fish'n'chips, its also fair to say that the event was a disaster for Scottish cuisine. The saving grace was the cheap 'britz' crisps on offer. Mmmm, I haven't had Salt and Vinegar in ages!

Anyway, the day started at 10 am for me. I woke up, staggered out of bed, fumbled my way to the bathroom, drained the bladder then finally opened my eyes. A quick shower later I felt refreshed enough to make the two hour trip to Makuhari. But not before a stop to the office to print out the map I'd need to find the event. I got to Tokyo station around 11am, and discovered it takes about 20 minutes to transfer from the Marunouchi line to the Keiyo line - Ouch! I knew I was on the right track when I saw other folks in kilts looking lost. It was at this point I remembered I had a kilt myself. Oh well, too late for that. I later discovered I'd left my camera on the charger too. Somewhat over an hour later I arrived in Makuhari and trusted my map to get me there. It turns out the map was TOTALLY RUBBISH and I spent an extra 10 minutes walking round the event grounds when I was meant to head into them. I discovered this when I took my headphones off and could hear bagpipes behind me. D'oh!

So I arrived on the scene well past lunch time and took a wander round the field. The first thing we saw was the standard fair stall setup with food stalls, beer stalls, souvineer stalls and random 'Scotland Society' event stalls. Adjacent to this on the right was a fenced off area for the heavy games (hammer throw etc). On the left was a stage for dancing contests. Between this and the fenced area was a section for the pipe band contest. Further afield were the track events for kids, as well as the tug o'war area. Finally, the football pitches (the 'modern event' were at the back of the field.

I found Mochan huffing and puffing on the last pitch. His team had just won their second game 1-0. Teika was there too, so we sat down for a chat and watched the footy for a bit.

By this stage, my hunger got the better of me. I'd been steeling myself for some luvly haggis but it wasn't to be. I queued for a good 15 minutes before proudly standing at the food stall and with a smile on my face asked for "Haggis, neeps an' tatties please!". The woman, clearly ready to take her own life if one more person asked for brown sauce, slopped something browny-grey onto a polystyrene container. I assume this was the haggis. It was closely follwed by a gloop of yellowy chunky stuff I am hoping was the neeps'n'tatties. The photo below shows this gristly concoction in its full glory, along with my pasty blue thumb.

Being sure to masticate as slowly as possible I trundled over to the dancing and watched a bit of that. They were actually pretty good. Although some groups seemed to miss the 'scottish' part of the 'traditional scottish dancing'. Still, it was entertaining.

Next up was the caber toss, I only watched a few folk attempt this. Most couldn't really do it but a few managed it as below.

The final event worthy of note was the pipe band contest. There were a fair few teams taking part in this and the Japanese pipers were really good. They even mastered the dour 'a seagull just shat on my best shoes' look for true authenticity. I took some videos which I _wont_ be uploading but here is a picture of the winners instead:

The remaining dregs of the day were spent enjoying that most traditional of Scottish past-times: Drinking. I had a few pints of Bass, a couple of Boddington's and topped it off with what appeared to be a quadruple shot of Ballantyne's finest firewater. All this to the accompaniment of various be-kilted blokes complaining about football. I had flashbacks of knocking back cheap cider at the tryst in Larbert. I hadn't drank in a park like that since I was 18.

I then staggered back to the train station with Mochan and Wife before complaining loudly all the way home on the train. The evening was topped off with a McDonalds and a reprise of 'Garden State' before bed.

ps, The hangover I had this morning is one of the worst I've had in ages!

I am not Dave Gorman

2005-10-27T09:24:00.000+09:00

While indulging in a bit of vanity surfing to see how high my blog is ranking on Google these days I found This website dedicated to a band called Byrney. The origin of their name is a bit crap, and I suspect the band probably split up some time ago... Anyway, I thought it was worth mentioning.

Wiki-wild-wild-pedia

2005-10-25T10:09:00.000+09:00

I couldn't resist commenting on the current Reg articles about wikipedia. I've always liked wikipedia because its ease of access but hadn't really considered the accuracy of the content. This put it all into perspective. One comment that stood out:

"I believe that the tone of the article is quite demeaning and misses out on the one indisputable quality that Wikipedia has brought into being. Now, thanks to the convergence of a million monkeys typing on a million keyboards, and after more than two millennia of breathless waiting, we finally have a modern, technologically advanced and incredibly complex version of the stables of Augias. One can only wonder, amazed by this Babel tower of Klingonesque beauty, if and where from will our modern Heracles will emerge, to transform this gem of astounding impurity into something worthy of the name "encyclopaedia".

As for me, I won't hold my breath for it." - Pascal Monnett

China Part 2 - When Golf attacks

2005-10-24T00:35:00.000+09:00

"... Having ate Rover, I felt ready for what the holiday would bring." It was true, but I didn't really know what to expect either. This is what I _did_ know: There were four games of golf lined up for the next four days, one of my golf partners I was yet to meet, and when that was over I'd have to find my way back to Hong Kong. All this in a country where English isn't the lingua franca, but something uttered by evil outsiders (OK, I'm being xenophobic - but the Great Wall of China was built for just that reason, to keep out the evil outsiders, and there is still some fear in China big though it may be).

So Day Three began. After about 10 hours sleep, I finally felt refreshed enough to get up and face the day. As is usual, the lack of sleep from the previous two days had left me drained. I always get this when I travel but fortunately I knew I could take this day easy. The plan was to meet Will at the airport and go to the golf resort. With that special non-motivation that only holiday-goers seem to be able to muster we roll out of bed and get ready. The view from the Window is still the contrasting shanty town against the backdrop of shiny towers and giant arches. More on this later - the dichotomy that is China still fascinates me but this isn't the right place to discuss it... The taxi we took to the airport was filthy. I was wearing my blue engrish.com T-shirt but it looked like it was a blue/brown camo shirt by the time I got out. Also, the taxi driver was a woman that insisted on taking maximum advantage of whatever slipstreams she could shoehorn her cab into. I can't imagine a Donkey cart generates enough air turbulence to have an effect on an approaching vehicle but she seemed determined to find out every time we narrowly passed one at high speed. Actually there aren't many donkey carts in Kunming. The pecking order -lowest to highest- seems to be: Pedestrians, cyclists, electric-motorcyclists (these were cool - and environmentally friendly... not that it made a difference there were so many cars), cars, buses, trucks and finally Animals. OK, not dogs etc, but horses, donkeys and anything else that someone's welfare might depend on. It shows that the Chinese value human life in a different way from western cultures. I'm not saying the value it less, just differently. For example, if someone were to be run over on a road, it is their fault for being on the road, but if someone were to run over a horse, the driver would probably have to cough up. To be fair, I respect this more than the how the home of litigious excess that is America devalues human life with its charade of revenge/justice (this is true of the UK too, and I'm not attacking Americans, just part of the culture), but its a bit unnerving, and as a foreigner you have to remember that "roads are dangerous" and listening to your stereo or reading a billboard while walking across the street is a bit of a death-wish. Indeed I almost got ran over once, not because I wasn’t paying attention but because I didn't realise that drivers WILL NOT STOP in China if you stand in front of them, and with my Rabbit in Headlights reaction it was a close thing. Luckily the traffic was heavy anyway so the car was slow and I got my act together. In this case, I wouldn't have been hurt.

At the Airport I had to pay Will so I handed over my wedge of Renminbi (it was a large wedge - the exchange rate is 14.2 vs. Sterling at time of writing). Will paid the travel Agent. I didn't even realise who the guy was until he got out of the van and disappeared into the sunset with my hard earned cash, they spoke Chinese after all. Then we were off ourselves. Introductions over and it was clear that Will is a smart and ambitious kind of guy. I won’t go into details but I could tell that a) I'd lose money to him at some point during the holiday and b) he probably grasped this as well. I wasn't bothered though because he is actually a nice guy. A consummate salesman; he had us geared up for the golf in no time. We arrived at the resort and I was pretty impressed. The view of the valley and the lake was stunning, especially at sunset. We were put up in a two bedroom villa near the top of the Valley. The course is on the Northern side and collects a lot of sunlight during the day. This meant the grass was lush, the air was fresh, and the general atmosphere was incredibly relaxing. This may have been due to the beers we necked in the club-house (I say clubhouse, it was really a hotel reception with appropriate bar/restaurant) but it felt good at the time.

Six-am is golf o'clock, or so I'm told. Aaaargh... I'm yawning just thinking about it. We started at about 7.30 after breakfast and a quick jolly to the driving range. The first hole was pretty impressive. The early morning light and the dew on the grass reminded me of Scotland. It was far to warm to be Scotland of course but the dramatic scenery tickled something at the back of my hippocampus and I could smell the peaty incense of burning turf. Looking back I think this is because the nearby villages actually do use peat fires. We were in the middle of nowhere after all.

Golf is as Golf does, to abuse a Forrest Gump truism. The scores I'm saving for a later entry but suffice it to say the course was a lot tougher than Shen Zhen. In fact, the courses got progressively tougher as the week went on so my score increased linearly with the number of balls I lost. That doesn't matter though; I had a great time and surprisingly felt no frustration. That’s not entirely true. I was annoyed that I wasn't allowed to drive my own buggy (two to a cart remember) but since my caddy found my wobbling belly a source of infinite humour I was happy that she could concentrate on the road while I concentrated on putting double figures down on my score-card. Back at the clubhouse Dave and Will discussed the inevitable gambling that had emerged. They were playing skins on the back nine and Dave lost. Not surprising, even with the handicap system we'd worked out. Will is pretty good and shoots 100 on a good day. I was invited to join in too. 50 RMB a hole, but I get an extra shot a par threes/fours, and two on par fives. Oh well, it made the game more interesting so I would join in the next day. After a surprisingly average meal (everything else in this place far outshone the standard Chinese "just make it look good at a glace" approach to architecture and service. Since I'd eaten Dog the before I could hardly complain right? Anyway the Qing Dao (Tsing Tao, pronounced Ching da-o) beer was smooth and crisp and since I was on vacation that’s what mattered.

Next stop for the evening was the massage parlour. Having only heard rumours of Beijing massage parlours, and having been offered many massages by the ever present (and usually Korean) girls that hang around Roppongi, I've always thought the whole affair seemed a little seedy out here. I was proven wrong with this place. First off you shower, then sit in the Jacuzzi for a bit, get into some loose fitting shorts and a jacket, and head up to the massage room. We went for one of the full body options: the "Aromatherapy" massage. My protestations that this was probably for women went unheeded so I sat patiently in the room waiting for my masseuse. I didn't fall asleep, of this I'm positive, but somehow this two hour marathon massage session passed by in what seemed like minutes. I'm sure if it wasn't for the concern that I might fart when she was massaging my stomach it would have went quicker too. I also ended up smelling of Lavender (surely the campest of aromas) but we were told not to shower for a few hours at least. When I hit my bed I was out like a light... but the next day I'd never felt so energised. My limbs felt supple and strong, my swing was more open and accurate and my emotions were lifted. Maybe it was just the ego boost of having an attractive woman caressing almost your whole body or maybe the forced relaxation does something more than just normal sleep. Maybe its the psychological effect of allowing yourself to be kneaded like a dough but I think massage works. Also, I'm sure smelling 'purdy flower smells' helps.

I say all that, but it sure didn't help my golf. End of day two and Will was up several holes on Dave and up a few on me, but I was up on Dave too. The cool thing about skins play is that if you blow up on one whole, you only lose _one_ point. If you blow up during stroke play, you lose a point per stroke. At 50 RMB a point that can be expensive. Never mind though, the money was a distraction, the golf was the real reason we were there. I nearly had two birdies, but settled for a couple of pars instead. My short game is definitely the better part of my game at the moment. Its not _good_ but its not as bad as my game from the tee. Ugh, that reminds me about the fourth game. That's for later though.

Day three was bad for golf too. We'd moved to a different hotel (we were only in Spring City for two days). In fact we were back in Kunming and experiencing the delights of the local cuisine once more. This time it was more 'civilised'. Our driver took us to a neat local theatre were pissed up old guys toasted each other over the strains of a surprisingly lavish celebration of the 51 Chinese ethnic groups, or Minorities as they insisted on calling them. Numerically I guess minority is correct but you miss the idea that there are 51 distinct cultures in China. I'm sure there are more than 51 anyway but some are too 'minor' to count. The food was the kind of mix you see at a dim sum restaurant, but with what seems to be a more local spin on the contents - more mushrooms, beef and chicken rather than fish. Back at the hotel we went to the night club. It was a pretty seedy affair with cheezy singers and cheezier decor (I don't use that 'z' lightly you know) but they served alcohol so we were happy. But as I kept reminding myself, Golf was the name of the Game so we hit the sack in anticipation of another day of rooting through deep rough and bemoaning water hazards.

At this point it should be mentioned that on days three and four we played stroke play. The idea being that if we focus on stroke play it would help improve our score as we would hedge against the blow ups that don't matter so much in skins. This is a simply not true. Golf has a huge psychological component. By making the stroke play important we were bound to bottle it. Much to Will's lucrative delight... Even though his game suffered the same degradation. The third game was also the most tiring; I don't know why but maybe drinking in the sleazy club had undone the efforts of the masseuse at the golf resort. I think the fact that our game was ailing tired us emotionally too. So the final night was spent eating Chinese take-out in our rooms. Char Sui pork kicks ass in China. Its OK in the UK sucks in Japan but until I ate it in China I didn't know what it was _really_ meant to taste like!

This is the last golf story, I promise! On the last day I was feeling confident. I'd come to the conclusion that the previous day was the low point. I've often found that if you do the same thing to often you get worse before you get better. Having suffered the psychological low point and fiscally damaging round during the third day I thought it was time for a turn around. These are the stories we tell ourselves to get us through the trial that is life. So in retrospect I don't know why I was surprised by my first tee shot of the day. Golfers know when they are about to fluff a shot, maybe its psychosomatic, but moments before you strike the dimpled little bastard you either know its going to soar, or its going to end up in the exact same spot, but two inches into the soil. This was one of those shots. Backswing, nice and smooth - a little fast but I would hold it together. Keep watching the ball. Downswing, take it easy, don't smash it, just hold it to... awww Fuck. The ball made a sound like tearing a sheet of paper. PFFFffffft - thud. On this particular hole, the tee overlooked a rather fetching rock outcrop. The fateful 'thud' was the sound made by my ball falling several feet short of it. No problem - "Give me the Seven" I said to the caddy. The look I got should have said it all but today was going to by _my_ day... Clunk - pook - Thud. Pook is a word I've just made up. Its sound a golf ball makes when it hits a 15ft sandstone rock. Awww sheeeyuuut. Clunk - pook - Thud. The second time it hit the rock it ended up further behind me. The third time I just moved my ball past the rock. The way I saw it, I'd just lost 200RMB. Now was the time to cut my losses. Well, that was the omen for the day. At least the club-house had a nice pizza.

I think you are probably as tired of Golf as I am. So let me just say that the last golf game was played on another stunning course. The proclivity of wealthy courses and Chinese players is astounding. Playing golf there far outshone the courses I've seen elsewhere. I think on the top ten its still mostly Scottish courses but I've never played on any of those. Just Camelon, Larbert and Grangemouth. Sure the country has a bigger population than any other, but the truth is that just makes the divide between the rich and poor that much starker.

Sigh, enough of that. I was on HOLIDAY - I don't need to be thinking about sociology (I'll save that for my next article). There were three things left to do in China. 1) Pay Will the money he'd won from me (ouch), 2) Get a painful reflexology foot massage and wolf down some bullfrog (croak) and 3) Get on a plane to Hong Kong! But that, as they say, is another story.

Harf Engrish

2005-10-23T21:12:00.000+09:00

Harf Engrish
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Busy night eh? More engrish for you. Spotted in the yakiniku restaurant. "Half and Half" is a mix of light and dark beers - usually kirin. Its actually pretty good.

Yakiniku (again)

2005-10-23T21:08:00.000+09:00

Yakiniku (again)
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

This is one of my favourite forms of restaurant in Japan. Yakiniku is basically korean barbecue. You order kimchi, leafy veggies, rice, and then you barbecue choice cuts of beef. This stuff melts in the mouth and its soooo good. I'll take anyone that visits me to one of these places. Its the best.

Karaoke

2005-10-23T20:58:00.000+09:00

Alice at Arms
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

After the Tofu'll goodness, we went to Karaoke ('K' as they call it here). It was pretty good fun, and while Andy bested all comers with his rendition of Brown Eyed Girl and the impressive mime rowing, I noticed a few random quotations. I remember a line from a conversation I read once: "'Who was that a quote from?', 'I dont know, its just a general quote'". Anyway, this is deep gnomic stuff if ever I've seen it.

Go to Flickr for the fully documented experience.

Tofu-ll

2005-10-23T20:47:00.000+09:00

Tofu-ll
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

I went to a Tofu restaurant on Friday with a group of cool folk from work and beyond. This is one of the courses we devoured. There were eight successive courses of Tofu dishes (with the exception of the chicken course...). I'd been eating some filthy steaks and curries in preperation for this healthy poison, but it turned out to be really good. I'd even go back for some more!

Appypollyloggies

2005-10-21T10:27:00.000+09:00

Sorry I haven't updated the blog in a while - I certainly wanted to finish the China saga while it was all fresh in my memory, but work has been unbelievably hectic for the past two weeks. Let me keep keep you entertained with my sheer apoplexy at the BBC news (my one link back to UK day to day happenings) who have put THIS story on its front page. I can't believe the kind of tripe they think us non-licence payers will accept as news. This is daily sport quality material. Whoever allowed that to go up should be taken outside, offered a cigarrette, blindfolded and have the Blue Peter dogs set on his genitalia.

OK - anger vented. Time to get back to work

Doggy Style

2005-10-16T18:38:00.000+09:00

Doggy Style
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

The meat causing Dave to grin like someone looking forward to an unpleasant experience is Dog. Mmm mmm

China Boy

2005-10-13T12:11:00.000+09:00

Day1+2: Outward Bound
The date was Friday the 7th of October and I was sitting in the office counting down the minutes till I had to leave for my first holiday in Asia. I spent the last hour doing my check list:

1) Passport
2) Cash (I was planning to change money at the Airport)
3) Credit Card
4) E-Tickets
5) Shades
6) Golf Clubs
7) Clothes
8) Directions and Chinese translations for key waypoints
9) Camera, Phone, Chargers, PSP, Book...

Check. All is sorted and Its Midday. Time to get the train. Get to the Airport Early and check in... I thought to myself "This is where the fun begins!!". I was right...

"Excuse me sir - I am secret agent". Ummm... hokay. I had just got into the Northwest (the airline I was flying with) check in section and was about to put my ticket and passport on the counter. Some old dude was standing there and since I was the only person checking in at the time he obviously felt he should take advantage of the situation. I still haven't decided if he really meant he was a secret agent, or if he just had a bad translation.

"Please step this way". I had visions of latex gloves and a table to lean against but thankfully he directed me towards two pleasant looking women with a laptop and a blank face. I was still confused as to the claims of 00pushingEighty so I wasn't sure what was next. It turned out they just wanted to know where I was going... Phew. I didn't know that yet. 10 minutes and a pat down later I was heading through security.

So through security, sit in the lobby, get on the plane, waste three hours playing psp and reading book, get to HK and start sweating like an Eskimo in a Sauna. Hong Kong is a very humid place. It sits at the southern point of China and suffers a permanent cloud of hot sticky vapour ready to make you put your anti-perspirant to the test. It was about 10pm when I hit the office to dump my bags... After an hour of chatting to work folks on the phone I decided to hit Lan Kwai Fong (see the results in "Honkey Tonk Man").

Its possible to find a place like Lan Kwai Fong in almost any city. Its the spot where all the tourists go, its full of bars and some good restaurants, the people spill out and drink on the street, there are LOTs of pretty women (Nev - I've been assured that Honk Kong's lady boys are conspicuous by their absence), LOUD music and a friendly atmosphere. Its a must visit for any traveler in HK. I spent about three hours on my own just walking around, listening to live music and drinking beer. I had intended to meet up with a GS colleague but my phone wouldn't work. It turns out I needed to switch on 'automatic network' before I was guaranteed a signal but I didn't realise this at the time. Anyway, it was fun and I got chatting to a few American tourists.

3am - right, off to the office, phone home, grab bags, head to bus terminal. I met Dave in time for the 4am bus to Shen Zhen. Shen Zhen is just over the border into china. It was a bit of an economic 'experiment'. In other words its a run down third world city with cheap clothes and the highest crime rate in China. I heard a story about two guys on a motor bike trying to snatch a purse from a woman who wouldn't let go. They chopped her _HAND_ off to get it! Fortunately, Dave and I were only passing through. We met up with Raymond (my boss) and Michael Pang. So it was straight off to the Golf course - which put into stark contrast the difference between rich and poor in China. It was strange to be driving through Shen Zhen's worst district only to hit the green pastures, wide plains and well manicured lawns of the golf course. They also offered a range of houses to sell to government ministers and business men. I wasn't complaining though - I was still a little drunk and feeling squeezy. The temperature at 6am was already in the twenties!

Quick change, drink some water, and onto the course. Golf in Asia is vastly different from golf in the UK. Take Japan as an example, you travel an hour to get out of the city, tee off around 7-8am, play the front nine, take your one hour lunch break, play the back nine (since you often have a beer at lunch this can be entertaining), have a wash, eat dinner in the club house and get home around 4-5pm. You also get your own four person golf buggy to get you around. If you want a caddy you can have one but its not necessary. China is different again: Get there early, play all 18 holes, wash and grab lunch. So you can play more golf per day in China if you want. Also, you _have_ to have a caddy, whom you have to tip afterwards. I wasn't bothered about this though because we got to drive the golf buggies! If there is one reason to play golf, its to get your hands on the golf buggy. Unfortunately the courses weren't well enough maintained to drive the buggies on the course in the morning so we had to stick to the path :-( Otherwise it would have become a Jackass Movie re-creation holiday.

So, by the time the golf was finished I'd been awake for thirty hours. There was no time to rest though - we had a flight to catch from Shen Zhen airport to Kunming. Get washed, get in the car, check in at Shen Zhen (no secret agents this time), grab KFC for lunch, get on the flight - it was only a 1hr hop to Kunming, get off, get Taxi to Kunming and check in at hotel, get changed and sleep... no scratch that last one. There was no sleep. We went out to take a look around and eventually we were hungry enough to find a restaurant...

The Chinese will eat anything. Thats a bit of a sweeping statement but Its a pretty vast country. Given its Fifty One ethnic groups, its possible to eat just about anything by traveling from one side to the other. Some of it is really unique. For example, there is a special meal where a live monkey is trapped neck up in a table, the top of its skull is removed, hot oil is poured over the brain and you eat the brain whilst the monkey is still kicking. Thats level ten. I settled for level six...

The restaurant we found serves a special kind of hotpot from the North. On one side you've got a nice broth with lots of veggies etc, and on the other side an extremely spicy soup. In typical Chinese fashion we were given a checklist of dishes. The idea is that you tick off the dishes you want to eat, the waiter brings them, you cook them in the hotpot to your liking and you use the same checklist to pay at the end. Unfortunately neither Dave or myself can read Chinese. Dave could recognise the broad categories - beef, pork, veg - but not the specifics.

Fatal assumption #1: "Order the most expensive dish - that means it'll be high quality" - Stuart Byrne. This felt like a safe assumption becase a) It always works in Japan, and b) the most expensive dish was five US dollars...

In true dumb foreigner fashion we did just that. Luckily, they realised Dave didn't speak Mandarin. They brought the only English speaking waiter over who brought the English menu... A quick check of what we had ordered revealed that Beef's Penis was the most expensive beef dish. Ooh er, just thinking about it made me queasy. Those things are THREE FOOT LONG for christ's sake! I later discovered its is served chopped, so its possible we wouldn't have noticed WHAT we were ordering!!

The english menu brought up some other intriguing choices. Number one being Dog. Yes, we ordered dog. It was a bit gamey, but tasted mostly like Lamb and Venison. Compared to the streaky beef, liver, and cow's stomachs we also ordered, it was the nicest dish on the table! Dave didn't enjoy it though.

After a couple of hours, a small poodle, another walk around Kunming (during which I bought a golf t-shirt), I finally managed to get to bed. Having ate Rover, I felt ready for what the holiday could bring...

Holiday Snaps

2005-10-11T13:31:00.000+09:00

Please check out Flickr for my latest holiday snaps. I'll be putting up a report when I get a spare few hours to write one...

Honkey Tonk Man

2005-10-01T03:20:00.000+09:00

Its a thousand miles to Yunnan, there'll be a full game of golf, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark and I'm wearing sunglasses. OK, it is dark, and the view is awesome. I'm sitting on the 61st floor of the Cheung Kong Centre building. It looks over Hong Kong bay onto kowloon. Every hackneyed cliched zoom and pan shot of Hong Kong is visible from this spot. I'm also drunk. I landed at 10.20, got to the office around midnight, arrived at the local nightlife mecca (Lan Kwai Fong) and drank a few brewskies. As you can see its now about 3.20 am. My bus leaves at 4.30 to Shen Zhen where golf is promised, and then I'll be catching my flight to Kunming. Watch this space for further updates.

ps, I couldn't believe how many gorgeous women (yes Nev, actual women and not, I repeat not ladyboys, were walking around.

Caddy Shack

2005-09-29T13:21:00.000+09:00

Just an FYI - I'm off to China for a holiday on Friday. I'll be flying to Hong Kong, spending the night there enjoying the bar scene, get on a bus at 4am to play golf at dawn in Shen Zhen, then jumping on a plane to Kunming in the Yunnan provence for four glorious days of golf on the Spring City Golf and Lake resort. I'll then return to Hong Kong for the weekend to see the city and do some shopping before returning on Monday. I'm sooo looking forward to it. I'll be going home tonight to wash my gear and buy some golf shoes!

Definitely Cliffhanger

2005-09-26T14:17:00.000+09:00

Definately Cliffhanger
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

This isn't fake - it really is Dave hanging batlike from the big overhang at the climbing wall. He did fall off right after taking the photo - but it looks cool at least!

Cliff... er, Wallhanger

2005-09-26T14:15:00.000+09:00

Cliff... er, Wallhanger
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

I went indoor climbing on Sunday with a bunch of folk from GS. Didn't get a photo of everyone but this one of all the guys that went along. I'll see if I can get a hold of ones with some other folks.

It was great fun - and you definately take more risks when you've got the safety gear on. Knowing that you won't fall makes it a lot more fun!

Enjoy Nature the Okinawin way

2005-09-26T13:26:00.000+09:00

Enjoy Nature the Okinawin way
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Brought to you by Onozuka-san. Its traditional to bring back omiyage from your holidays to give out in the office (omiyage = souvineers).

This little nugget is Gofflette. No idea where they get the name from but it is a surprisingly pleasent wafer product. See if you can spot the (not) deliberate mistake.

Ze Germans Are Coming!

2005-09-26T12:36:00.000+09:00

Don't mention the WAR!!
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Friday was a holiday in TKO so I took the morning off to laze in my flat and look forward to the lazy weekend ahead.

After completely wasting the day by wandering around aimlessly Mochan called me up for a spot of light supper at the Oktober fest in Hibya park. Lets not forget, it is still September, so quite why they are having Oktober fest now is unbeknowest to me.

I was in the middle of making dinner though so I said I'd be there in an hour. This was about sixish, and since the celebrations were to end at eight o'clock, I knew I was going to miss the majority of the thigh slapping fun. Thank God. However, in the moment I tried to drain the water from my pasta most of it went down the sink. Oops, there _is_ a food collector down there, but since I hadn't emptied it since I've arrived I was hardly likely to attempt a resue. Not to worry, I was sure I'd get to suck on some sausages (as it were) at the party.

Side note, I'd been watching Blackadder Goes Forth at the time. Specifically the one with Baron Von Richthofen and Captain Flash-Heart (Woof!)

Hibya park seemed pretty empty at first sight, but then its big enough to hold a couple of concerts so I took off round the park and eventually heard some of "the birdy song" and thought "Ah, only in Germany would that be considered a party tune". I was right. I found a big tented area next to the fountain. Within it were about 200 revellers, some with *gulp* lederhosen, some with fraulein outfits and some just pissed as farts. It was actually quite an impressive affair with plenty of beer on the go and plenty of sausages. There were only two problems

1) the queues were about 20 minutes long
2) I couldn't find Mochan

A quick inventory later I was standing in the Beer queue with a 1000 yen note in my hand ready to buy as much beer as I could carry. Lets be honest I can get bratwurst any time. After managing half a pint I eventually got throught to Neil and joined the motley group of Gaijin at the fountain side.

There I met Chris - I'm madder than a Mad hatter who has just lost his favourit hat, Stuart (an Aussie), Dave, Some other guy I can't remember his name, Eamon and a bunch of Japanese girls that were 'studying' English with Dave. I wont go into too much detail, but they were cute and drunk. Which I suspect is exactly what Dave had intended. Its only a pity/mercy that Dave himself was absolutely legless.

About an hour passed, along with four beers, two renditions of "the birdy song", and Dave's ability to talk before we started on the War jokes. The classic moment was when the attendents started walking around with the big 'Deutschland in Japan' banners as if the Nazi's were back in fashion. Chris (think Rab Hitchen on a mix Cocaine and coffee) started marching along behind them executing a fairly accurate Fawlty Tower's style Nazi march with appropriate finger come Hitler moustache. Funny, but inappropriate. Shortly afterwards he was swimming in the ornamental lake (by choice). We had to stop him teaching the japanese kids how to play American Football - they were only about 5 feet tall afterall - before heading on.

So what could top all this fun? Ginza's collection of 'Three Coin' bars. Or three hundred yen bars. That translates to $3 for a beer (or 1.50 in Sterling). Now, at this stage people were getting drunk. I had the ignoble advantage of having arrived about four hours after everyone else and had to play catchup a little but I don't think I can match Eamon's attempts to defoliate the bar's expensive potted plantage.

Anyway - It goes a little blurry at this stage, and there is no photo evidence on hand. I remember Stuart II getting a deserved punch in the balls but I'm not sure who administered it.

Oh now I remember, we ducked out of that place at around 10 and tried to find another bar. After 40 minutes of wandering aimlessly through Ginza and chatting up street performers I decided to head home.

All in All a succesful evening.

Enjoy your Rich time

2005-09-26T09:23:00.000+09:00

Enjoy your Rich time
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Another classic Engrish moment. I think this one has actually been on Engrish.com

The colour of money...

2005-09-26T09:22:00.000+09:00

The colour of money...
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Mr. Housing racks them up in a pool hall in Roppongi. Like I've said before, when the japanese do something, they do it properly.

My whisky is as sweet as an Amber Rosebank

2005-09-26T09:21:00.000+09:00

My whisky is as sweet as an Amber Rosebank
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Spotted in "Abbot's" in Roppongi. Rosebank Whisky. I plan on having a wee dram at some point but didn't order it at the time... I'll let you know how it goes!

Blog readership

2005-09-22T18:59:00.000+09:00

Blog readership
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Check it out - my blog readership.

Notable entries are:
1) Saudi Arabia
2) Iran
3) New Zealand
4) Canada
5) Germany

Nice to know lots of folks are watching it...

Hainanese Chicken Rice

2005-09-21T13:52:00.000+09:00

How to eat - Singaporean style
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Step by step instructions on how to eat a steamed chicken rice dish.

1) With a spoon, dab some sauce on top of steamed chicken - you could sauce it individually or mix all sauces together.

2) Using a spoon like a knife, cut the steamed chicken into desired portions.

3) Using a fork, shove the cut chicken and fragrant rice together onto a spoon.

4) In one shot, EAT! Just focus on myriad of bursting flavours.

5) Have a sip of chicken soup to cleanse your palate.

6) Ahh!!! The perfect balance of steamed chicken and heavenly flavoured fragrant rice. Complemented by the complexity of the sauces. Perfect!

My favourite step is step six. If you look closely, you have to wag the chopsticks about while they are still in your mouth. Less practiced patrons often suffer from splinters...

DBZ Collectables

2005-09-20T17:24:00.000+09:00

DBZ Collectables
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Another one for Lauren. There are vast amounts of collectables in this country. Ones I've seen so far:

1)Dragon Ball*
2)Batman
3)Doraemon (weird Japanimation)
4)Cowboy Bebop
5)Gundam*
6)Final Fantasy VII*
7)tonnes of random stuff I can't identify.

They are pretty mad for it over here. There are kids (and adults apparently) who will invest all their effort into getting their hands on this stuff. It really is a big money spinner.

Even bigger are card collectables. God, they spend so much money on those fricken cards, and they are pretty advanced too. They have smartchips in them so you can play arcade games with them!?! Its a huge industry over here.

Draft Hemp

2005-09-20T16:40:00.000+09:00

Draft Hemp
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

I'm assuming this is a genuine beer from Jamaica. I was in a Jamaican cafe at the weekend. The food was nicely jerked. Jerk chicken, jerk pork etc. Mmmm. I didn't have the beer as it was around midday but next time I go... oh yes, it shall be mine!

According to TLAPD -

2005-09-20T10:15:00.000+09:00

You are The Cap'n!

Some men are born great, some achieve greatness and some slit the throats of any man that stands between them and the mantle of power. You never met a man you couldn't eviscerate. Not that mindless violence is the only avenue open to you - but why take an avenue when you have complete freeway access? You are the definitive Man of Action. You are James Bond in a blousy shirt and drawstring-fly pants. Your swash was buckled long ago and you have never been so sure of anything in your life as in your ability to bend everyone to your will. You will call anyone out and cut off their head if they show any sign of taking you on or backing down. You cannot be saddled with tedious underlings, but if one of your lieutenants shows an overly developed sense of ambition he may find more suitable accommodations in Davy Jones' locker. That is, of course, IF you notice him. You tend to be self absorbed - a weakness that may keep you from seeing enemies where they are and imagining them where they are not.

What's Yer Inner Pirate?
brought to you by The Official Talk Like A Pirate Web Site. Arrrrr!

Sunburn baby burn

2005-09-18T13:56:00.000+09:00

Sunburn baby burn
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

I Woke up this morning and - completely forgetting I was burnt from yesterday -jumped in a hot shower and screamed like a little girl.

I'd been out playing golf again. I'm sure Nev will laugh but I scored 144 (I was doing much better until we stopped for lunch and had a beer). The problem with playing golf out here, as previously noted, is that you have to get up ridiculously early. At least I planned for it this time. I had an early night on Friday, got up at 5am, got ready and went outside to wait on my lift. I forgot only two key items.

1) My hat.
2) My sunblock.

One of the guys I played with had some factor 8 with him, but we all know that my pasty blue complexion would never survive 4-5 hours in the searing hot sun with just factor 8. I need at LEAST factor 30.

About half way through the back nine, I began to feel it. Which is bad, you usually get burnt before you notice so if I was feeling it I was in for a painful one. My only rescue was the hand towel I'd lifted from the gents. I wrapped it round my head and would have knotted the corners if it was big enough. As it was I had to stuff the corners under the rim of my shades. As you can imagine I must have looked pretty stupid.

The final straw was when I got inside. I took of my shades and Lo, I had raccoon eyes. Great. Lets hope I peel enough for work in Tuesday (Monday is a holiday).

ps, I'm off to the Tokyo Games Show. Expect pictures of cute scantily clad girls trying to sell their wares (lit. games).

Oden

2005-09-18T13:45:00.000+09:00

Oden
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Kevin and Nev wanted me to post something so here it is. My first blog in (gosh) three or four days!

This is an example of Oden. Japanese fast food for the Autumn/Winter time. Its usually a mix of rice and fish based foods. This one is a weird pastry bag filled with sticky rice paste. Mmmm, its actually pretty good.

I had it on Thursday night during a little soiree I held at my flat. I had a bunch of the Napas, folk from work and a few cute girls round. This was basically my flatwarming. Now that people have been round I'm getting requests to do movie nights.

Thunder Bolts and Lightning. Very Very... wet.

2005-09-12T16:04:00.000+09:00

Thunder Bolts and Lightning. Very Very... wet.
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

This is what you call a Monsoon. Sheets of rain. Both falling and flying horizontally in the wind. Fortunately I was inside when it started. Most of the tourists weren't so I had a laugh at them running inside. It was pretty close to typhoon weather actually, but the typhoon had went past Tokyo so we missed the worst of it. Anyway, thats another natural disaster to look forward to...

You don't say.

2005-09-11T14:13:00.000+09:00

You don't say.
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Yes, Minnie IS well known for being Mickey's girlfriend...

NOOOOOOOOooo....

2005-09-11T14:12:00.000+09:00

NOOOOOOOOooo....
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

You just can't get away from him.

Mo-Chan & Teika

2005-09-11T14:09:00.000+09:00

Mo-Chan & Teika
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

I visited Mochan and Teika on Saturday in Yokohama. Its a nice port town/city that has the first seaport in Japan after Matthew Perry forced open trading with west in 1854.

It was a pretty rough morning, having got to bed a 5am after clubbing in the extremely cheezy A-Life. I was meant to be there about 12 ish so I got up at 9, had a bath and left for the train with a headache and instructions of how to get there. By the time I arrived at Yokohama I'd forgotten that the instructions detailed a final leg which involved going to Neil's local station. Never mind, a hasty phonecall sorted that out and I finally met Teika.

We spent a nice afternoon walking through some shopping centres, along the docks, sitting in a park watching street performers, dawdling through China town (the most expesive China town I've ever been to), finding the 'big and tall' store and finally resting in Neil's apartment.

The best part of the day was Neil's wedding video. Actually, it wasn't the full wedding, but a kind of wedding ceremony involving a carriage, some dancing lions and an M.C. keeping it real. This was all in Teika's home town (don't ask me the name) and was taken a few months back. Oh, and I was treated to some fantastic food made by Teika.

It was a pretty long day and I got back at around 10pm and sat down to some BlackAdder DVD action.

Baaaah!

Sliiime...

2005-09-11T13:45:00.000+09:00

Sliiime...
Originally uploaded by sab-chan.

Why do the Japanese love slimy foods so much?

So far there have only been three foods I've had difficulty eating in Japan.

1) Tororo. Made from some kind of ground potato. This is basically snot. It looks like snot, it behaves like snot and it tastes only marginally better than snot. The japanese love to put it on rice to make it sticky. When you take up some of it on your chopsticks it has the same stringy tendency as nasal expulsions. Mmmm... not.

2) Natto. Fermented soy beans. They taste like rotten socks and have a sticky slime coating. I managed to order some once by accident. I pointed at a picture of what I thought were noodles in an omelette. No. When they arrived I let my American guest try it then left it on the next table. It really stinks.

3) Whatever this stuff is in the Photo. I went to a teppanyaki place in Azabu Juban on Friday. The first thing they put in front of us was a shot glass filled with slime and seeds. I decided to treat it like a shot and down it in one. Bad move. I almost ended up spilling the cookies on the hotplate in front of me. I kept it down though.

Anyway, If I find anything worse, I'll put up a picture..