March 29th, 2008 (04:48 pm)
current mood: blah
Man, this blog's starting to feel more and more like a chore same as everything else ... training, commuting to work, eating, showering. I wanna go bush for a while :(
Trip to UK/Europe was an eye opener. I've grown accustomed to everything Japanese and by the end of my 2/3 weeks away I couldn't wait to get back home to Koenji. I'm stealing some of the below from an email I sent a while ago cause I just poured a whiskey and can't be arsed :)
== snip ==
Once I get past the depth of History of London/UK there isn't really a lot to be impressed about other than being a good base of Operations into Europe. Bunked up with my bro Brendan in a South-London Hostel for the majority of the stay. He was working during the week so I did all the touristy stuff and met back with him for dinner on weeknights and we went to Rome for a weekend.
Rome is dirty as hell and Italian restaurateurs are pinheads. Had to stay overnight at Stanstead airport as no trains earler enought for the 8am flight so tired most of the Saturday. Did bus tour as soon as we got there and went to a pizza place at about 2pm for some eats. Ordered a pizza and big bottle of beer between us for about 20Euros and the guy kept trying to sell us other shit. Bit of Lasagne about the size of a bit of toast for 8 Euros. Frig that, just the pizza and bear thanks. pinhead:'mutters under breath in Italian'. me: What was that? pinhead:nothing. me:I thought you said something? Guy walks up and starts mouthing off about why should he turn on his oven for 2 people sharing a pizza. The bottle of beer was open at this stage and we hadn't paid so got up and left. Guy was super pissed when I did the 'foo fukula' thing that Ryan does where you gesture with flick your fingers out from under your Chin. Don't think it's italian but he knew what I meant. He came out on the street, clenched his fist and rubbed his bicep as there were customers out front. We b-lined for another shop closeby incase he got his boys onto us. Similar storey in London but at a curry place with an indian mullet, 30min wait and still no curry. bailed.
Stabby stab stab:

Crazy guy in Rome

It was either travelling alone or the Hostel that left me with a more negative view of London. It was full of Aussies and kiwis. Most of them in early 20s and suckered in by the Hostel marketing. Party hard, sleep easy. Selling tshirts with stuff like 'im drunk, you'll do' 'my liver is naughty and must be punished'. Every night the same alcoholic slob would bust into everyones room and try to drag them out on a pubcrawl. Kinda lame that I didnt go at least once but meh .. I'm a total dad now anyway. Should have bought a pair of jandals .. The showers and now my toes covered with vomit, urine and STDs. Managed to catch something called the Norovirus just before my weekend in Bath which killed me for a day.
Feeling Unwell?

Trains from London to bath(well, anywhere really) were pathetic. Should've taken 1.5 hours but took 4. 2 trains broke down and multiple delays. Subways were surprisingly shitty too. Carriages were way too small, entrance gates were balls and the whole backend IT systems crashed at least twice while I was there shutting down entire stations. Was the first system in the world I suppose but frig me ... it's time to do some upgrading in collaboration with the Japs!
==snip==
LEGO:

Netcafes
UK: Mouse, keyboard, screen, 1 pound for 20minutes of slow/locked down net
JP: Leather chair/couch, gaming rig, ps2/dvd/comics and drink bar for equivalent of 3NZD/hour
Service
UK: money <-> goods. me feeling like I should be tipping cause they look pissed off.
JP: Whole store in unisen: Welcome, come in! 400Y plz. domo arigato gozaimasu! slight bow.
Got put up in Four Seasons hotel for 3 nights as I went to our London office for a few days. Way too posh for me. I think if I'm ever lucky enough to make buttloads of money, I'll be one of those guys that dies with it all sitting in a bank account. If spending it means I have to hang out with wankers, I'll just stash it under my bed thanks.
The trip home wasn't as bad as people made it out to be when I mentioned I was flying Russia's Aeroflot. Transferring at Moscow, I felt right at home once I was on the connecting flight full of Japanese people I couldn't understand. Fell asleep on the express train from Narita Airport to Shinjuku and woke up a couple of stops past where I should have got off. I was awake close to 40 hours so was in the midst of deep deep sleep when the train dudez woke up the snoring foreigner. Stepped outside on the platform and it was a real shock. The rest of the way home I felt like I had just touched down in Japan again for the first time. Compared to UK, completly different approach to urban planning/design although a lot of it is probably historical. Streets here so nallow and buildings so small.
Akane had decide to do some redecorating while I was gone so I got home to a Bedroom decked out in Pink.
Last couple of months:
Went to Akane's uncle's wedding at Four Seasons hotel which was okish
Akane has been taking pole-dancing lessons and her class does little shows every now and then. First was at a big all night rave last year and the second was a few weeks ago in Tokyo harbour on a floating bar with crazy neons. Looking forward to the next one :D
It's starting to get warmer now and the Cheery Blossoms have made an appearance for a around 2 weeks. Met up with Akane's parents and did a big walk around near where we watched the K1 MAX last year. It was only 4 hours walking around but we were toast and had to skip shopping at the mall after. I'm getting old.

Okasan, Ottosan and Oshima-san

Got a new gaming rig for super cheap in Akiba. Couldn't be arsed buying everything separately again so bought a close to high-end prebuilt rig from one of the DIY stores for equivalent of $1200NZD minus the screen. Wasting all my 1337 cpu cycles on CS source.
Got hax R4 card for my Nintendo DS Lite too so I can 'backup' my 1000s of legally purchased NDS games on the Internet. Got a wix Jap-English dictionary for it and haven't been able to stop playing Contra4. Akane has been owning MarioKart and I reckon she could give Tom a run for his money.
Thinking of renting a car this weekend and mishing out to Fuji-ko theme park for the weekend. http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=2663680
Ballz to the wall
Take this!
