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Published: December 5th 2007
Hiking Trail
This is the path that slowly deteriorated My whole perspective when coming here is, I can do anything and will try anything unless someone tells me that it will kill me. I'm beginning to slowly realize that maybe this isn't the best outlook on life; although it does tend to lead to interesting situations. For instance, the other day I found some trails that led into the mountains near my house. So mid afternoon last Monday, I decided that it would be a good idea to go for a nice stroll in the wilderness. It wasn't long before the path started to deteriorate and I was definitely in unfamiliar territory. Low and behold I come upon a run down house (still possibly inhabited but I really wouldn't want to meet the type of person who lived in it) and the path was leading right beside it. Am I trespassing? hmmm, theres a sign in Japanese, damn not being able to read kanji. There isn't any red on it so thats probably a good sign and theres an arrow pointing toward the path. As I continue on the path vivid memories of the dog from the temple flash into my mind. Shit, this is bad... but what would my
Hiking Trail
This is my not impressed with the hiking trail. faithful readers say if I turned back now? So I held my camera closely, practiced my defense of any foreign attacker in my mind and braved through my fears. With wind blowing, birds fluttering overhead and my imagination running at 100km per hour nothing could go wrong. I am happy to say that I made it to the topish area without any harm being done; however, I am embarrassed that there were a number of scuttles in the bush that either made me jump or quicken my pace.
To my surprise at the end of this path was a wicked playground. Apparently its some sorta space camp/museum/park. Either way I was in heaven and glad to be off that damn trail. I hiked/played through the park to find a more scenic side to this part with trails of its own. I wanted to see everything that I could so I followed the posted maps and went adventuring. After seeing most of the park, I noticed that there was one area that seemed to have eluded my glaze. I looked at the map.... I could take the trail back and take the long way or I could take this new
Space Camp
Not really sure... maybe some sorta outside Japanese shower? or part of a spray park but I'm sticking with outside shower short cut way through... with my sense of adventure still running high I decided that a short cut would be the best solution. Despite what some of you may thing, I believe my sense of direction is fairly good (when I'm not exhausted from training). As I was climbing this path I noticed that it really wasn't going in the direction it should have been. At this point I had already passed the two pictures of the men crying, that should have set me off. It was a steep hike and the bushes on either side seemed to be getting closer and closer the higher I got. I'm not sure if you're aware of this but I am not a big fan of any sorts of insects; in fact, anything that can hide in bushes and really jump out at you. The path was setting off alarms for me, but if I turned around now it would take even longer to get to the spot I wanted, so I trekked on.
Thats strange, that doesn't look like.. OMG.. its a giant spider!!!!!!! Now here was my mistake... I went forward and past the spider instead of back... this is
Space Camp
Some sorta tower, its crazy cause if I was a little kid I could climb up through the center... why do little kids get to do all the fun things? when I should have turned around. A few feet past the spider with my imagination full at full throttle all i could do was stand in one spot and frantically search the area, only moving my head, for more of these spiders. What the hell was that thing. It was massive and bright fluorescent yellow and red. Its definitely poisonous.. and what if it can jump... holy shit.. I know there are jumping spiders in Japan.. what the crap. As I started to settle down because I could see anymore of these spiders I realized that no one would ever believe if I didn't take some pictures. Then i would just be the wuss that was afraid of spiders. hmmm the logic doesn't really seem as strong now that i'm writing about it, but I choose to go back and take pictures of it and not be a wuss over potentially being jumped on and poisoned by a massive spider. Blogs make you do the strangest things. As I have been previously threaten about posting pictures of this manner on my blog, I have only posted the video I made of the spider and I will post the other photos
Space Camp
View from the watch tower on my facebook in a separate folder as you can choose to view it if you want, but i think either way we can all agree that I am not a wuss, I may be stupid, but i'm not a wuss. As you can imagine with my luck, I reached the top and it was a dead end and I had to go back the way i came. Dammit this is going to take forever. Shit! and I have to go past that damn spider. I don't want to do that... shit.. what if the spider isn't there anymore.. maybe its on me and I didn't even see it on me *insert picture of me frantically searching myself for spiders here*. Or what if it knows that I have to come back and its repositioning itself for a great attack... How long would I have to stay up here before someone would come get me.. Damn not telling anyone about me going hiking... alright.. I have to do this. As I walked down the trail and neared the den of the spider, I could feel the tension rise in my back. Alright... i'll just make a quick dash past the
Space Camp
Me at the top of the watch tower spider and it will be ok... What if I die.. god damn.. what if I die.. no.. it'll be ok... There it is... alright.. 1... 2... 3... go... holy shit it just jumped at me.. did it get on me??? OUCH!!! what the hell was that.. omg I just got bit by a spider...what the hell am I going to do...
Alright so it didn't jump on me, but just making it past the spider safely didn't seem like an appropriate ending to my story... So as you may have guess by now, I braved through and made it home safely.
I posted pics last time of an "Izikaiya" that I went to. Its basically a drinking establishment that sells food and a private place to hang out with your friends. As you may have seen I tried these pots of soup that they boil in front of you. They are delicious and entertaining, great service. I also tried beer with tomato juice (not bad) and beer with ginger ale (really good). Then some sorta mixed saki drink with yogurt or something but it was really good and served slushi type thing. But more importantly I found out
Space Camp
Pretty leaves/autumn and what not that one of my friends works for the police station as a psychologist of some sort. We asked her if she had any weird stories. She said that when they pull in someone for having illegal porn... they have to watch all of the porn that they have on their computers. She says that everyone has to watch it and it usually lasts from about a week straight of just watching porn. My first reaction was thats awesome... but I'm not so sure anymore. Thats 40 hours of pretty much straight porn.. I can honestly say that is a feat that I will never accomplish.. or have any desire to accomplish. My hat is off to you my dear friend. PS she said she hated it... but she was getting paid.. so I don't' think she can really complain.
On a less glamorous note, i was running the other day and I was passed by a speed walker. It was sad. The thing you need to understand is that they take these things really seriously, I've seen more speed walkers on my runs than other runners.. crazy. But honestly some of these guys are pretty fast. Needless to say
Space Camp
Am I here or there.. oh my he stopped a couple 100m in front of me and I passed him.. so technically my average was better than his... Thats my story and I'm sticking to it.
On a slightly sad note, I have run out of Canadian soap.. so I have, reluctantly, switched my showering habits from Canadian style to Japanese style. This means no more bar of soap but a cloth and liquid soap. This cloth that they use is rather rough (similar material to the luffa) and quite frankly the cloth intimidated me a little. However to my surprise this cloth is amazing. I love it, I'll never go back to just a bar of soap. Not only do I feel cleaner, but I'm left with a red glow that lets me know I'm cleaner. I feel that now is an appropriate time for this apology. One of my roommates, who will remain nameless, uses a luffa and I silently judged him (never voicing my concern). I feel horrible and naive for my previous judgement and I wish to extent a formal apology. For those of you that have never tried these bathing cloths or luffas do not judge, they are the superior form
Space Camp
Pretty leaves of cleaning.
As I've heard from some of you, it's starting to get cold in Canada. I think someone said that it was snowing in Vancouver. As you may have guessed it is getting cold in Japan now as well. I think it reaches down to 10 degrees during the day for now. My apartment comes with a fully functional heater and air conditioner; however, I now pay utilities. So for those of you that know me, you can imagine that I waited until the last possible second to put on my heater and as luck would have it, the heater was not as straight forward as I would have assumed. The controller had lost all writing and the big darker button, once pressed, did not turn on the heater. With my heater not working I now had the whole night of freezing coldness to reconsider my cheap ways and really wondering how much it would have cost me to at least try out the heater before I really needed it. That night was painfully cold; however, I made it through the night. Hopefully I have learned something from this experience.
I received a package from my parents
Space Camp
Mount fuji the other day, they told me that they sent me some presents from Christmas but they weren't sure if it was going to make it here on time. So as I received this package rather early I had a choice to make: Do I assume it is the Christmas package that magically appeared early or do I assume my parents love me enough to have sent me a package before I left for Japan (at this point I wouldn't have known my address, but did not realize this until later). I sent a quick message off to my parents to ask them. Being as inpatient as I am, I assumed that even if it was my Christmas package, my loving parents would want me to have the full experience of Christmas by wrapping all the presents. So i opened the package to find half the presents wrapped.. hmmm.. what to do.. Well obviously the stuff that isn't wrapped was meant to be eaten/looked at right away. And obviously the card is just a Christmas card and I can open it. Inside was a letter from my parents and a note saying that some money would be put into my account
Space Camp
So there was this giant panda bear... not really sure why he was at a space camp but I figured I should take my pic with it on Christmas day! thanks guys! hmmm so now that I've ruined half of my Christmas presents should I just finish opening the presents? What if something were to happen to me between now and Christmas... I would never get to experience the love that my parents sent over to me in the form of presents. That would be sad... But I shouldn't... but I want to... but I shouldn't... Well you'll be happy to know that I've resisted the urge to open the other presents until now. I cannot speak for the next 20 days. They are piled in a corner of my room that is slowly haunting me with the desires to ripe open the presents and see what I got. Christmas has never been so hard. Basically this is my way of telling my parents that I may have looked at half my presents. Sorry.
Hope everyone is doing well and that you're enjoying the pictures... Japan is gorgeous and treating me well.
Cheers
Geoff
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Jessie L
non-member comment
Way to keep the video in focus. . .doofaes. . . .