Anyone who has ever seen or read about the ninja adventures of Naruto Uzumaki has certainly seen an episode featuring Choji eating copious amounts of meat at the yaki niku restaurant. For the rest of us, 焼肉 (Yaki Niku) literally translates into “grilled meat” and it acts like an open fire version of fondue in the States. It’s rather expensive, and time consuming, so the restaurants are usually large with several compartments that can be open or shut off with sliding wood doors. The smells of seasoned charcoals and grilling meats greets you as you enter the door, The restaurant we visited was set with large, traditionally styled rooms. You removed your shoes at the door, and then walked around barefoot on the cold wooden floors. Once we were called to eat, we were shown to ... read more

Home of the Ninja Iga is considered the home of the ninja, and their history is intertwined with the history and developments of ninjas. It was a cold day, and my meanderings through ancient forests guarded by castles and training temples was crisp indeed. There was practically no one around and I soon saw why – nearly everything was closed until the weekend. After hearing this bit of disappointing news (I was planning on spending the entire day in Iga to save some money on train fair), I decided to walk through the ninja museum. This wasn’t like a typical American museum, but was instead an old ninja house. It had trap doors, secrete observation rooms, places to hide weapons and tools, revolving walls, the whole nine yards. There were many women donning traditional ninja ... read more

Sleeping very soundly beneath three blankets and on top of an electric blanket, I ended up oversleeping in my windowless room. So I hopped up, grabbed some コンビに (konbini "convenience store food") and dashed to the train station. Today’s destination was 京都 (Kyoto), one of the more historic cities in Japan, and I remembered it being full of excellent おみやげ (omiyage “souvenier”) shops that I had very little time to enjoy on my first visit. I hopped on a train, managing to make it to Kyoto despite failing to plan ahead. Things always worked out for me, even though the train stations were relatively complex and mostly in Japanese. It’s amazing how quickly you can remember a language you have not used in years once you are completely immersed. Most of the shops were closed, I ... read more

Despite having been to Cairns before, I have never flown further north than Townsville. The route to Cairns is ocean bound, and we were in an incredibly small plane (with rather large seats considering) that even had two propellers on each wing instead of jet engines. The flight was loud, rickety, and immensely enjoyable. Since we were in a small plane, we flew at a relatively low altitude. I found myself peering out of the window trying to catch a glimpse of a massive shadow. Townsville, and the magnetic islands especially, have a reputation for being the shark capital of the world. Of course, I have yet to see a shark here – something I’m rather dismayed about. Today’s plane ride didn’t oblige with the view of shark shadows or even whales. Apart from a large, ... read more

I spend a lot of time blogging about those awesome adventures I get to go on, but I wanted to dedicate a little time to the everyday. If mostly because some people seem to be under the impression that I dive every weekend, run into common brown snakes every Tuesday, and generally live a life full of adventure. It's true, I am adventurous. But there's a lot of well needed and much appreciated down time between it all. Pets! I live with four pets; two dogs, Azgaurd and Komizar, a cat named tiger and a beta fish. Whose name and gender I don't actually know. Both dogs are puppies, although Komizar is about as tall as he is going to get. Each time I go outside to wash my laundry, or say hi to the dogs, ... read more