98% Grey

I am writing a book. I guess that is one of the main reasons I stopped blogging. It is taking an enormous amount of time.

But I know it is unfair to cut everyone off, seeing how I am a notoriously bad emailer. I will publish some excerpts on lottering dot com for those who are interested.

Just know they are kind of raw. I mean, I am uploading parts I like but they haven't been edited fully. Any comments are welcome. There should be no need to read chronologically, but I am posting the excerpts in the order that they appear in the book.

repause

I have decided to stop blogging temporarily. It may not come as a surprise to you, since posts have gradually petered off anyways. I am far to busy these days and my schedule has changed enough to make it very difficult to find time.

I will use this blog to post only some extraordinary events from time to time...But who knows? Maybe it will come back zombie-like one day in the future. So be ready and know your zombie escape route!

the people's Mario

check out this flash animation.

the people's Mario

the holidays are over

well, I haven`t written in a long time. There are some very good reasons for this.

1.) My good friend, Tom came to visit me.
2.) I had a 10 day vacation and spent it touring around.
3.) The future called and asked for its money back.

I was going to do a big thing about my trip. But you've probably seen most of the pictures of Kyoto. I will instead have to give you the highlights when I remember them.

For now, I will talk about Tokyo. i spent the last few days in Tokyo. We did almost everything you can do in that city. Everything from Shibuya, the busiest intersection in the world, to getting stuck in the National Museum for 5 hours in a freak tropical storm.

Her I am with Tom in Asakusa, where the biggest paper lantern in Japan is. It's a healing place...too bad we got there too late smell the incense from the huge burner. But It was really cool.

This is the pagoda near the shrine. Asakusa shrine is probably the most famous shrine in Tokyo next to Meiji-jinja.

This is the mandatory city view of Tokyo with Tokyo Tower (a red replica of the Eiffle Tour) in the background. It was a beautiful day and the city literally sprawls to the horizon in every direction. It is immensely big. And actually has the same population of all of Canada!!!

This is Tom in a pachinko parlour. Nuff said.

We also stayed in a capsule hotel. Mostly in order to experience all of the possible accomodations Japan has to offer. We stayed in a ryokan, a traditional inn in Kyoto, so aside from a Love Hotel we went slept nearly everywhere. (Sorry Tom, not with you, buddy). But in the capsule you get your own radio, alarm, and TV. When i turned it on there was some Japanese porn on the tube!

This is me when I realised they only have one channel!!!!

We also went to a lot of museums and galleries in Tokyo. My favourite was the 21_21 Design Shift gallery. They curator basically created my dream exhibit. I pretty much designed this kind of art show all through university, but it was never realised. This guy took samples of ever kind of writing throughout the world and typeset it. It was all very beautiful. Unfortunately we weren`t allowed to take pictures...but my camera "accidentally" went off and I got this one, blurry image.

Throughout Tom's trip the weather was perfect. Hot, not too humid, and sunny. The very last day, there was a storm that hit. We were lucky both times it rained. The first time we were in the National museum. We walked through the whole complex twice, reaching the final building just before they closed. The second time we were eating at this nice restaurant. This is the beautiful picture that resulted.

Culture tip #17: Fireworks

Summertime in Japan is fireworks time. After the rainy season companies, towns and cities, and individuals put on enormous fireworks festivals. People flock to them wearing beautiful yukata and drink outside. The fireworks in Kanazawa are consistently better than the biggest displays I've seen in Canada -- or anywhere else for that matter. So without further ado, I'll let you get to the show.








In the Edo period, the two main families who made fireworks were the Tamaya and the Kagiya. So when things heat up, people still shout 'tamaya' and 'kagiya' in response.

summer festivals

Summer is full of festivities in Japan. These pictures come from the Hyakuman Goku Matsuri, the parade celebrating when Lord Maeda entered Kanazawa city the first time. People watch the re-enactment of Samurai walking through the gates and to the castle. Then there is a BIG dance in the main street of the city.

The streets are packed with dancing people. Businesses have their own uniforms, but anyone can join in.



There are many drummers, most of them are ripped Japanese men playing enormous taiko drums, but there are some girls wearing kimonos who also play them...Then there is this girl!

Of course, with any parade there are food and game stalls that follow. The whole park is lined with there stores (most of them apparently run by the lowest level yakuza).
The group of uniformed girls is almost stereotypical Japan.

This is how is looks as you walk through the stalls. There are games, food, toys...video games (This is Japan, after all!)


Here's a traditional game people play. I guess, it's the Japanese 'bobbing for apples'.

They have absolutely every kind of food from Takoyaki...

...to choco-bananas.

But the best part of summer to me, is the people sitting around in yukata.

strange foods

"Good old-fashioned fried egg!"

And after that, you can wash it down with some Plussy juice...whatever that is.

childhood TV

So I know they recently made a Knight Rider movie, but who in their right mind would see it? I mean, you know it`s not going to be as good as when you saw it as a child. Even now, I barely remember any plot. As a child I could forgive the show for not having a story, because it had a car that could talk...But now, i`m an adult and can think about these things. So having a Knight Rider movie (was David Hasselhof in it, by the way?!) would just ruin another childhood memory.

I would rather they made an Airwolf movie, or a Street Hawk one. Remember those? The helicopter that shot down MIGs, and the motorcycle that could boost really fast. They didn`t have plot either, but then neither were those vehicles intelligent. It was just some wicked cool helicopter that lived in a volcano! How can you beat that?! I mean, it didn`t have plot either (not that I could remember) but the music was better than Knight Rider and IT LIVED IN A VOLCANO!!!!

Or MacGyver even. I know that show had a plot. And there was sometimes science involved. But then I also remember the time he made a water powered bomb to escape from prison using a few bed springs and his belt buckle...

Still it was amazing, and would make a movie a thousand times better than Knight Rider. My apologies to anyone who saw the movie and liked it...and also to any Hasselhof fans out there.

the executive colouring book

check it out!!!

Heaven and Hell

Last weekend I climbed Tateyama, the second highest mountain in Japan.
We had to take a cable car up to the top. From there we took a bus to the base station. Then we go from there on foot.

This is the mountain. The tip is covered with a massive cloud, but you can make out the gift shop at the top. Yes! you heard me! A GIFT SHOP!!! For centuries there was a shrine at the top. The monks built a house, then when tourists came, the house became a shop for charms, now it's a gift shop.

The whole mountain was still covered in snow. About 2 meters actually. If you slip down the side, there's no coming back. You'd slide straight into the valley a 1000 meters below. Man, I swear I'd piss myself in fear for the first 3 seconds, then I'd shout "Guys, take a picture! Take a picture!"

This is near the top. The area near the summit was just rocks. Not Fuji style rocks, either. Real rocks.

The summit was incredibly misty and cloudy. The shrine is actually the highest point on the mountain. Totally covered in white, it was a little like being in a waiting room in a virtual reality game.

Yuka taking a picture of Erin and Will.

The climbing was good and the sunset beautiful—although I sadly didn't get a picture of it...However, to me the most interesting part was the area around the base station. The Buddhists claim that Tateyama is holy because it contains 9 views of heaven from the summit at 164 views of hell around the mountain. This sign points towards the area known as 'Hell's Valley'.

Here you can see it literally looks like God wiped his ass on this portion of earth. (And smells like it too).

The signs warn you not to walk on water like Jesus in this area. Also under no circumstance should you fight the gas clouds!

The path you follow is through a sulfur pit. I never knew that sulfur leaves green stains on the ground. But I guess it makes sense.

While everyone else was taking pictures of the green water, or the grey rocks, I couldn't stop snapping pics of the pipes and barrels lying around. I suppose my idea of Hell is like a dirty, fart-smelly place always under construction. I have like 50 pictures of a barrel in this landscape, but I won't bore you all with them.

There were also some natural scenery like this geyser spouting off evil clouds of gas just asking to be punched in the face.





More of hell. Those clouds are actually indescribably BIG...

...and indescribably smelly.

a series of vending machine incidents

I discovered some unique vending machines last month. Here are the three I caught on camera before they could run away.

In Japan there are seriously too many drink vending machines. Like you can basically stop your car on the highway and buy a tea in the middle of nowhere. So I was pleasantly surprised when I finally found a snack vending machine. But where the Coke™ machine has a robot voice that talks to you and the other vending machines come with a TV screen, and Infra-red payment systems, this potato machine was...er, pretty bland.

This one is pretty decent (for not being a drinks machine). In fact, I saw this the first day and nearly keeled over when I realised it sold ramen, and oden, a kind of Japanese stew. I was like: "This is the perfect vending machine for me!" Then the next time I walk by it they added Aquarius, my all time favourite drink. How awesome it that? A complete meal from a machine?! All for less than $4!

Ok! This one is just weird. Bras? Strapless bras?! Is that for when women forget to wear one? Or when they all-of-a-sudden regret wearing that skimpy nightgown with the regular street bra with the straps? Still blows my mind. But only ¥2000! That`s a deal, right?

No way! LESS than ¥2000! That`s a steal!!!

But seriously, wouldn`t it be a little embarrassing for every passerby to see you select your cup size?

Remi's Farewell

In this last week I've had to say goodbye to someone who has become one of my best friends in these last 2 years. It was great to have him here. Together we climbed Hakusan, caught rock crabs, fought gundam wars, dug a 6-foot hole in the beach, travelled to Fukuoka for a day, survived a travesty, got harassed by the Penguin-Lady, made ridiculous movies, struggled with the 2nd level Japanese test, fought a duel under the sakura, drank over girl problems, saved each other's asses many many many times, created an awesome video game idea, witnessed the end of an era (NOVA), and once fought the evil creature only know as 'Kill'.

Over the last 2 years (from 2006, actually), I've napped a pic with my phone every time Remi bought cigarettes on the way back home from work. So here is my goodbye present for him, in chronological order:








The last one was 2008-05-30, the last day you could buy smokes from a vending machine without a special TASSPO card. Thus I guess we actually witnessed the end of two eras.

Good luck, Remington. Farewell. I'll miss you, buddy.