Blogs from Hyogo, Japan, Asia - page 10

The waitress was cute. Despite my newly married status this fact and the length of the girls skirt had not escaped my attention as we ate our meal. Needless to say my Chip Monster was all too aware of where my attention was and was making the command face that, according to the instruction book I came with, meant "stop it; you are being a sleaze". This I duely acknowledged and accepted with a wordless shrug and some mumbled excuse about me just admiring the boots she was wearing. (Without wishing to in anyway take away from the laddish nature of this meaty story thus far, there is a certain amount of truth in this... Patrick Cox, aubergine leather - ladies, need I say any more?) Anyway, throughout the ordering process and the meal, in the ... read more

Happy Halloween! Part of the funny part about me is I don't really enjoy being alone a lot of the time (as I'm sure you've noticed if you've managed to paid attention long enough). I do my best to avoid an empty room and leave it to the sleeping. I also tend to talk to strangers enough that I have them constantly around me when I travel. So even for me traveling isn't really alone. Granted I can make my own decisions. Like I did in Tokyo there's nothing stopping me from walking out of the restaurant and onto a bus with only a two second glance at where it's going. No one to tell me they're bored and want to do something else and no one to keep me places I don't want to be. ... read more

Sorry, this is rushed- I'm super busy this week! Last weekend I attended the Nada-no-Kenka Matsuri festival with Amy, Kristy, Luke, Asuka, and Diana. According to Asuka, it's a rice festival where several villages compete by bashing mikoshi into each other. Apparently it's good luck when one breaks! To me, it looked more like a weird kind of demolition derby- tons of sweaty, drunken, half-naked men trying to kill one another with large wooden structures. Each village had two mikoshi- smaller ones that were rammed at full-force into each other and smashed, and larger ones that carried four drummers and were more "bumped" into each other. One village (called Mega) befriended us and even gave us some bamboo pom-poms (see the group pic). Actually, I think they were only interested in my flatmates (Amy and Kristy), ... read more

great... read more

I'm so close!! We'll be in Japan in less just hours!! Japan! Whoa! So far in Japan, I'm doing a home visit where I'll get to hang out with a family for a couple of hours, I'm so excited! And besides that, I'm visiting a steel and alumninum plant, and then doing some independent stuff. I think a few of us were thinking of taking a train to Osaka on Saturday because they are having a huge festival there. Anyways! Since I'm sure you are just antsy as can be wating to hear of my adventures, here ya go! (Just so ya know, I wrote this a few days ago, and havn't had a chance to stick it on the internet. So it's kinda "old news" but still oh-so-good. September 8th, 2006 We lost September 7th. ... read more