Mom and I in front of Himeji castle. Two really nice Japanese women offerred to take a shot for us because we took one for them. Kind, eh? Sometimes foreigners are treated really well... It was lovely, though, with all the fall colours. Himeji was surrounded by reds, yellows, and greens. They seem to lack fire orange.


Looking down into Himeji, toward Himeji station. There were some great views once you got up into the castle. I hope to bring Emily up there one day, since it's such a great spot to take photographs, of the castle, the city, or even of the very closely laid out Koko-en gardens.


Inside the castle, here is mom standing on one of the beautiful hardwood floors. In Japan, you can't wear shoes inside. You have to remove your outdoor shoes, carry them around in a plastic bag. You get to wear these dorky slippers, that are clearly for one purpose only. To kill you. In Himeji castle, there are about 6 or 7 floors, and the steps in these slippers that are barely managed to stay on. Grippy socks would have been preferable. Hindsight IS 20/20!


Mom in front a lovely view of Himeji. This shot is taken from the courtyard sort of area, directly in front of Himaji Castle. This area is supposed to be lovely during cherry blossom time.


This is the famous and beautiful Himeji Castle. I actually don't know much about the history of the thing, but it was breathtaking all the same. Huge, too.


Mom wanted me to take this shot, of the crooked rooves of Himeji Castle leading out in the city, and then into the hills. It's actually quite pretty. Tiled rooves are the norm here, as they get rain, and not snow like at home, and the water runs off these quite beautifully. Rain season is May or June...


Tunnel area, or sort of, underground gate, at Himeji Castle... I didn't feel like climbing to take the photo, because it wasn't the way we had chosen to go... Call me lazy if you must.


Lily's stylish maroon and pink puma and... a big-assed bug of some sort. Couldn't resist documenting it, creeping thing that it is. I hear that these are rampant in summertime, and that the cicadas start their annoying singing at 5am or something equally wicked.


This is a really odd-looking plant we saw on the walk down from Himeji Castle. I truthfully am not what it is, mom and I were debating whether it was real or not, but there appeared to be a pot of dirt behind the wooden part, so my guess is yay.



Marking this as the correct day, when mom and I visted Himeji. Sunday, November 27, 2005.

Documenting mom's trip to Japan... starting right now. Himeji was where we headed on our first day. Mom arrived on September26, 2005. She was sleepy, but we took the train to Himeji... What a beautiful fall day. Not too cold; we even had ice cream cones, which was delicious... Take a look.

Lovely, sweet dog on our walk to Nishishimmachi station...


Statue outside Himeji station...


Sign outside Himeji Castle...


Himeji Castle amid the autumn leaves...


Lovely leaf on pale grey stones, in the shadows...


Mom and tree at Himeji Castle... In front a nice stone wall...


Japanese maple leaves are so lovely... I could barely stop clicking the shutter button...


Lovely coloured leaves in Koko-en... Red, orange, yellow...


Pristine little lake...


Pretty waterfall... This place was utterly breathtaking, very step of the way...


This is a shot in Koko-en Garden, Japanese Maple leaves over water...

So I'm back, and what do I come home to?
My blog turning into some hockey war!
I don't even LIKE hockey, for goodness sake.

Boiling some water for ramen. It shouldn't be complicated, and yet it is, because I can't read instructions. This particular ramen requires adding boiling water and packet one, then letting some (ALL?) of it out through a sophisticated drainage hole (keep in mind this is all styrofoam and paper; the Japanese are ingenius) and then adding two other small packets of God-knows-what, and then consuming. So intense. (Furhter note: made it, but it smelled too weird to consume. Tossed it.)

Long day today. Woke up at 7:30am, which I know is not a huge deal, but it is when you work until 9pm! I'm exhausted as I went all the way to Osaka to Honbu today. Nobody likes going to Honbu, especially not Chris, Ray and I. At least we had a chance to sit and talk, which was nice. Those girls keep me sane!

Making a new ramen, one that is reliable. Cold in here right now. Although my AMERICAN alarm clock reads at 69F. I think it may be lying.

Time for Scrubs and sleep. Buenos noches, amigos.

Argh.

For those out there who chose to dismiss and degrade Toronto, my words to you are... STUFF IT. I base my image of Toronto on a lot of things, but not hockey. If you dislike Toronto, or like Toronto, because of the Leafs, FINE. But don't judge a whole city based ona bunch of bad-hair, semi-toothless, huge hulking idiotic athletes, just as I will not judge any other city based on a sports team. Most of those people are paid too much anyway.

Still need to clean my apartment. I despite cleaning. Someday I will have a housekeeper. Or less stuff. Whichever seems more feisable. Likely the former. More to follow.

Friday night. Most hallowed of all nights for me. It represents the dawn of a new weekend, free from work. Sitting here with a nice glass of red wine, eating some cheese and crackers. I managed to track some weird-looking square brie... VERY sketchy. Will not be consuming it again.

Get this, according to my CheckPoint class, when you're sick you should drink sake with raw egg in it! I'm not totally weak-stomached, but that seems a bit much for me. People also eat nato here, which is fermented soya beans. It has a strong odour, but I've never tried it.

My jaw is acting up like crazy. I clench it because I'm feeling stressed out, and it starts to tense and it just gets worse and worse and prevents me from sleeping well. Today, one of the teachers went to the chemist with me to get some muscle relaxants. I'm supposed to take 2 pills, 3 times a day. I can see this is going to be an expensive solution, but I wear my TMJ bar nightly, so I'm at a loss for what else to do. I REALLY don't want to see a Japanese orthodonist, no matter how well he speaks English. I want my regular, nice, kind, funny Canadian orthodontist! I know I'm being a baby, but have you seen the tools those people have access to? I don't want even a minor risk of mixing up left and right! The consequences could be rather painful.

WARNING: Rant ahead, procede at own risk...

Spent some time checking out Sima and Jon's blog. Still can't figure out how to link the damned thing to my site. Pain in the ass I say! But, I felt oddly nostalgic for Sima's virtually-pregnant food tastes and desires. Sounds like Safeway in Vancouver is not up to the job of satisyfing my newlywed amigos. A pity, really, as Vancouver IS a nice city. It's no Toronto, but hey, nowhere but TO really is. (Any city that has a teensy weensy silver golfball and has the audacity to call it "Science World" deserves everything it has coming to it! Give me Ontario Science Centre anyday!) I miss my two buddies. I miss the days of American Chopper because Rav was occupied with his bike or rollerblades or IPE or caloric value... I miss cayenne-pepper Blood Mary's care of Isaac. I miss Makela's short attention span during a long paper leading to Rav and I yelling at him repeatedly to get out of the living room. I miss cheesecake with Emma and Sima and brutally honest talks. I do not miss La (fucking) Senza. What an awful and hellish place. I do miss Pub Italia and Bankok Thai Garden. And Siam Kitchen. I do not miss OCTranspo and their idiotic drivers, who were never on time, ESPECIALLY during a snowstorm or a cold snap (snap my ASS; they lasted for two months) of -30! I do miss the O Train; what a pristine, albeit goofily named, mode of transportation. I also miss the Rideau Canal, and walking along it on a summer's night. I actually miss AK College and the damned Loeb Cafe. Who'd have ever thought it possible? I don't miss Leeds, but I do miss Kim, who I need to email. I miss Marlo, Grover and the incorrectly-gendered cat, Jakob. And Ma, Pa and Junior Spek. (8 days and counting!) I almost miss the cold. I miss the MacOdrum. It sucked and it was cold and I did a lot of sleeping there, but it holds fond memories of TAing with Jamie, crushing the souls of young law students (kidding) (well, sorta), socializing, laughing at Neha and Araz for having such elaborate food, checking out piles of books I never read... I miss so much I always took for granted.

I keep having weird dreams and nightmares about the people I knew before I came to Japan. Sometimes it's comforting, sometimes it's disturbing. It's odd, but I never dream about Japan, or being here, or my job. Never.

Soooo, that was a large rant, time to hit publish and watch some "Dead like me." Amazing series, seriously, buy the DVDs, excellent entertainment.

Sad, sad, sad... My blog is worthless! Here's the proof...

My blog is worth $0.00.
How much is your blog worth?

*sigh* To bed for Lily.

Too Canadian...?



Here at Canadian World Domination Headquarters, we believe in promoting a "Total Canadian" attitude amongst our many legions of followers. We enjoy moulding the personalities of loyal Canucks to suit our special aims. Headquarters staff is looking for those gifted persons whose narrow-minded patriotic zeal blinds them to anything other than their glorious country and its exalted leaders (namely us). Perhaps this simple list will help you determine if you are the type of individual who may be willing to discard his or her personal freedom in order to join the great Canadian collective of collaborative dominators. Naturally, being "Too Canadian" is not an unwanted state, rather, we cherish those fortunates who fit the requirements below and plan to breed them in the future. Hopefully this long over-due scientific action will enable us to obtain a strain of Canuck (the uberCanuck) that will be very useful indeed when it comes to the indoctrination of the un-Canadian. Or we could just use them to help our Recreation Canada staff develop a new All-Canadian Trivial Pursuit.



1. You know all the words to "If I had a million dollars" by The Barenaked Ladies, including the inter-stanza banter between Steven and Ed.

2. You dismiss all beers under 6% as "for children and the elderly."

3. You hum David Foster's '88 Calgary Olympics theme in the shower.

4. You make up patriotic lyrics to go along with David Foster's '88 Calgary Olympics theme.

5. You cried when Gus "drowned" on Road To Avonlea.

6. You remember when Alanis Morrissette was "Too Hot To Hold".

7. You think there isn't enough of Peter Gzowski to go around.

8. You think it's normal to have a grain elevator in your backyard.

9. You wonder why there isn't a 5 dollar coin, as you can only use more change.

10. You spend hours in the dark making scale models of the Avro Arrow and cursing the Diefenbaker government.

11. You watch MuchMusic constantly, in the hopes of occasional fleeting glimpses of The Tragically Hip.

12. You have an Inuit carving by your bedside with the rationale, "what's good enough protection for the Prime Minister, is good enough for me!"

13. You have memorized the Heritage Foundation's Heritage Moments, including your favourites, "Burnt Toast!", "You know I canna read a word...", "One day we have tar paper roof!" and "Kanata".

14. You can sing "O' Canada" in French and actually know what the words mean!!

15. You advocate the abolition of responsible government, in favour of monarchist rule.

16. You think there isn't enough Queen on our currency.

17. You send angry letters to the CBC demanding the return of the Hinterland Who's Who spots so you can finally find out what happens to the arctic ptarmigan in winter.

18. You participate in Participaction!

19. You think Peter Mansbridge is sexy.

20. You think Lloyd Robertson is sexy.

21. You think Peter Kent is sexy.

22. You think Matt Damon is so-so.

23. You stood in line for hours for Another Roadside Attraction tickets.

24. You killed your best friend for Another Roadside Attraction tickets.

25. You think Great Big Sea isn't Maritime-centric enough.

26. Your graduation formal dress was made of flannel.

27. Your backpack has more than one Canadian flag iron-on.

28. You know the names of all the guys in Sloan.

29. You have been on Speaker's Corner. Bonus points if they edited out your carefully prepared rant against the Harris government.

30. You use a red pen on your non-Canadian textbooks and fill in the missing 'u's from labor, honor, and color.

31. You know the French equivalents of "free", "prize" and "no sugar added", thanks to your extensive education in bilingual cereal packaging.

32. You still haven't taken down your "NON" posters from the 95 Referendum.

33. You know more than 3 guys named Gordon.

34. You think Ashley MacIssac isn't celtic enough.

35. You remember "Jodie" from Today's Special and wonder why you keep seeing her reading news on the CBC.

36. You can do the hand actions to Sharon, Lois and Bram's "Skin-a-marinki-dinki-do".

37. You know why "killerwhaletank" is funny.

38. You can eat more than one maple sugar candy without feeling nauseous.

39. You had a crush on Joey Jeremiah from Degrassi Junior High.

40. You know that a "Premier" isn't a baby born a few months early.

41. You actually watch The Gemini Awards, The Genie Awards, and The Juno Awards. You wonder why Stompin' Tom doesn't get his own category in all three. You scream passionately at the television when your favourite Canadian performers are overlooked by their respective academies.

42. You are excited whenever an American television show mentions Canada. You make a mental note to talk about it at work the next day.

43. You think -10 C is mild weather.

44. You have twins named Donovan and Bailey.

45. You have twins named Wayne and Gretzky (alternately Gordie and Howe).

46. You know the ingredients for poutine.

47. You automatically read 'Z' as 'Zed' and don't give a damn that it doesn't rhyme with "now I know my abcs".

48. You know what happens in the Evergreen Forest when Bert Raccoon wakes up.

49. You dressed as Bruno Gerussi for Halloween. You spent hours sifting through garbage on the beach to prepare for the role.

50. You substitute beer for water when cooking.

51. You carry empty beer cans from your camping trips home with you in your backpack so you can recycle them when you reach civilization.

52. You know that the 'Extra Creamy' in Kraft Extra Creamy Dinner is 'add more milk.'

53. You prefer Elvis Stojko when he has 'hockey hair' - a.k.a. 'the mullet' or 'the shorty-longback'.

54. You brag about the sweet herb in BC.

55. You know the chorus of "The Log Driver's Waltz" and are particularly fond of the 'whirling down and down' bit.

56. You steal stationery from your Government of Canada co-operative education placement because you figure you can find lots of uses for paper with 'Human Resources Development Canada/Développement des Ressources Humaines Canada' written at the top.

57. You know where this theme is from (you will need Real Audio to hear it).

58. You are moved to tears by those Bell Canada phone commercials they show around Remembrance Day where the grandson calls his grandad from Dieppe. You understand the manipulative nature of the advertisement, but continue to be moved, nontheless.

59. You stay up until midnight (the end of some television station broadcasting hours) to hear the Canadian national anthem.

60. You get up at 5:00 am (the begining of broadcasting hours) to hear the
Canadian national anthem.

61. You spit angrily when Americans say "ruff" instead of the correct "roof".

62. You have daydreams that film-maker Don McKellar and Hugh Dillon from The Headstones skinned and ate Regis and Kathie Lee.

63. You recognize: CPP, RSP, and CCM.

64. You read rather than scanned this list.


Check out the list, and also the website for Canadian World Domination at the link below:
http://cwd.ptbcanadian.com/signs.html

Sadly, I have nothing more to offer tonight, but this made me smile. Don't we say "zee"? Damned if I know.

Technically Monday AM, but Sunday to me still, and I'm home, warming myself by the halogen heating lamp. Quite pleasant, actually. I wanna post something substantial, but I also want to post some pictures from yesterday. I wonder if I have the patience for both? Let's see!

Okay, so it is definitely about 1:20am, so I'm going to do a quick commentary/tag for each picture and then I'm going to sleep. This week has been ROUGH!

Went to a cafe called CENTRAL with Keiko on Saturday afternoon, had some Mauritius Vanilla tea, and bruler with bananas. (Yes, I realize that makes no sense.) Was quite a cool cafe, French and Italian.

This was a neat steel statue of a giraffe in Kobe, I wonder who made it? There were quite a few nice scupltures there; I'd like Em to take some photos when she's here in December.

Kobe Habour Front. Quite pretty, although it was getting a bit windy and chilly when Keiko and I were there. There were rides and stuff which was cool, even a big ferris wheel!

Things in Japan are weird. (If you're just tuning in now, check out cake hat photo and reindeer robber mask.) This is a doghouse that's actually a hollow strawberry. I hesitate to overuse the term, but WTF, seriously? What dog wouldn't feel threatened living a giant fruit?

We don't have these in Canada. Escalators that are wavy or look like a big staircase with moving stairs on it. I thought it was cool, mind you, clearly all the Japanese people around thought I was demented for photographing it.

This mall in Kobe was very pretty, lots of lights. I imagine at night it would be utterly stunning. there were even huge animals lit up: a bear (kuma), a whale, a fish, etc. Poinsettas everywhere, too. (If only I could have remembered that YESTERDAY! Keiko beat me to the punch.)

One last photo: the huge tree. You can see it in the previous picture, but this is a close-up. It was lovely, although the stroke lights were a bit much. Christmas is SERIOUS in Japan.

So, I think that's it for now. I did other things besides shop, like have dinner with Tomoe and stuff, but I'm too exhausted to tell the story now, more to follow.

So, I figured it was just about time for a new post.

Main idea: Why Lily almost got killed on the way home.
Also, HOW.

In a glamourous manner? Oh GOD no! I'm walking home in the rain. Laiden down with various bags (I got three packages today! Woohoo, SPICES, I can make some real food and chai, too Yummy. Also, my manager bought me awarmer blanket for winter. Uggo colours, but nice and soft and fuzzy, and I sleep in the dark, so who cares about colours.) and, of course, holding an umbrella rather awkwardly. I'm walking home, minding my own business, albeit dressed all in black with a black umbrella but two HUGE white bags, and an old man almost hits me on my bike. I was crossing something that wasn't even worthy of the term "street"! WTF. Old people drive me insane. I actually screamed. I'm one of those people who usually freezes instead of screaming. Not tonight. I let out a nice milk-curdling scream. (Blood doesn't curdle, mofo.)

Anyways, so being ill didn't improve my mood much. I got a nice letter from Jon and Sima, who reminded me to update my blog a little more often, since *gasp* a few people actually read this thing. Lovely to know. I miss those two. Married life seems to be treating them kindly. Oh also, for the record, I respond to all letters, and especially to packages. I love hearing from you guys.

Hmmm so today I got cheese tortellini, mashed potatoes, potato leek soup, garlic powder, parmesan cheese, a skirt, hickory smoked almonds, cashews, etc. Very very happy day for me. I watched so many Scrubs episodes the past few days. They keep me sane. "I think owning your burdens is half the battle." So true. Lots of good J.D. quotes. Makes me smile, especially when you have a day that just feels wrong. Today was one of those days. Sick all day, out for dinner, where my coworker tells me to fill up my cel phone so I won't get homesick. Uh huh. Right. *sigh*

Okay that's enough for now.

Only in Japan...

Many a time has this thought run through my pretty little head. Today I went to Sannomiya with my VP class, which was nice. We went to a nice little French cafe, called A la Compagne. Had some coffee and a raspberry custard pie thing. Yummy. Then we had some time to kill before dinner, so we went to Tokyo Hands, a store somewhat like Ikea. I bought some twinkle lights for my apartment, and now it's a bit more festive. After that we headed up a few floors to a Christmas display. I almost died. (See photo below.) Cake. Hats. Never should the two meet. Who on God's green earth would don such a frightening piece of apparel? *SHUDDER* $16 to have baked goods for brains. Sign me up!



And they didn't stop there, oh NO! Somehow this creepy mask is meant to make you festively reindeer-ish. My ASS it will. You'd like some sort of crazy Christmas robber. I am positive that were this North America, someone would have already held up a Sev'Lev in this dumb thing.



Aww, the land of faux pets! (I can't mock these two much; I own a blue one.) (Don't judge me; I was lonely!) So these are called "flip flap"; they're plastic plants whose leaves flap when it's sunny. There's a small solar panel on the front which serves to power the little beasts. I bought a large blue one, and I found it very pleasant. A little cold, perhaps. But they also have pet algae balls here, called "marimo." (Didn't get one of those because GOODLUCK getting it past customs!)



Up close and personal shot of two lovely Flip Flap plants: orange and red. Like a plastic pet fashion show!



This shot is from the Italian restaurant we headed to for dinner. Our reservation, care of Keiko, was at 6:30pm; we stayed until 9:45pm! It was great. Salad, pizza and some red wine. There was a nifty Ferrari class behind us and the warm light was quite pretty.



One last shot for tonight; the light hanging above our table. Very reminiscent of Ikea.



All in all, a very good day. Tomorrow, I was going to see Himeji, but Ray wants to chill so I'm gonna do that instead in lovely Tsukaguchi. If I can get there without completely losing my way. Wish me luck!

"A little respect"

I try to discover
A little something to make me sweeter
Oh baby refrain from breaking my heart
I’m so in love with you
I’ll be forever blue
That you give me no reason
Why you’re making me work so hard

That you give me no
That you give me no
That you give me no
That you give me no

Soul, I hear you calling
Oh baby please give a little respect to me

And if I should falter
Would you open your arms out to me
We can make love not war
And live at peace in our hearts
I’m so in love with you
I’ll be forever blue
What religion or reason
Could drive a man to forsake his lover

Don’t you tell me no
Don’t you tell me no
Don’t you tell me no
Don’t you tell me no

Soul, I hear you calling
Oh baby please give a little respect to me

I’m so in love with you
I’ll be forever blue
That you give me no reason
You know you’re making me work so hard

That you give me no
That you give me no
That you give me no
That you give me no

Soul, I hear you calling
Oh baby please give a little respect to me

Soul, I hear you calling
Oh baby please give a little respect to me

Gotta love Erasure.

12:05pm. I have ten minutes before work, why not just mess around the internet? Maybe keeping up with the blog is a better pursuit. Very happy yesterdya because I Gwyn sent me Atwood's "Oryx and Crake" and books here are like gold! (If you ever walk intoa Japanese bookstore you will understand.) Anyways, that song was on an episode of Scrubs in the first season, when Dr. Wen chose it as the song to play during surgery. The song spread like a virus in the hospital. Very amusing, except now it's spread to me and I cannot get it out of my head.

Spilled my liquid blush stuff this morning. My fingers got all pink cleaning it up. *sigh* I'm such a clutz. Time to clean up the desk area in my apartment. Tomorrow's a day off, Culture Day (November 3rd) in Japan, so I'll get to that tomorrow sometime. Haven't nailed down plans with Chris and Ray yet for tomorrow. I am planning on heading to Sannomiya with my VP class on Saturday, which will hopefully be fun. Their English is pretty decent.

I want to do some letters up for family members later on if I get a chance. Send some nice temple photos, that kind of thing. I've become this whirlwind with letters. I've written so many since arriving, but getting the internet slowed my pace a little bit.

One more listen to Erasure, and then I need to get going. Today I only teach 3 classes, thank goodness. I've been feeling a little blah lately about everything. Not sad, but kind of bored. It's not as challenging as I expected. I'd much rather have my personal life be easy and my job challenging, but you can't pick and choose everything in life I suppose. Hopefully, we go somewhere pretty tomorrow so I can post some new photos. If you want to see more photos, you can head to FlickR and look for CreepingLily.

Ciao for the day.