Home, Sweet Home

I am now safely home, among friends and family. For the time being. I head back in early October for my training. I'll now tell about the last bit of my trip.

Where did we leave off? Oh yes:
Much has happened since my last post. Many places have been visited, food been eaten and videogames played.
This was a wonderful Onsen with 3 separate baths, all looking out onto a waterfall and rapidly moving river. Fumipapa took this, and didn't seem to care that there were two naked men right in the center of this photo.



After the Onsen we walked around looking at shops, then sat and relaxed after eating some Japanese-style sundaes.
Later Shogo got the family and I entry into a packed sushi restaurant. We walked straight past the huge line of customers, because he knew all the workers there. He was their high school math teacher. It was very odd and funny to see kids calling this guy "Shogo-sensei!", because I'm so used to his goofy antics at home.

Fumipapa eating said sushi. It was pretty good. I've found a new love in Ika as I really enjoy the texture of it. This made me happy, as I'm trying to broaden my horizons and fish is the "final frontier" for me. Cooked fish however, I still nearly vomit after eating it.

Fumi and I spent two seperate days just lounging on the beach. Coincidentally they were pretty much the only two days when it didn't rain. We got lucky.

Here I am, blowing up a flotation device for Fumi, since she can barely swim.

No, I'm not wearing an undershirt. :(

Pictured here is some of the worst parenting I have ever seen. Second from the left is a toddler playing Pachinko with his mother on his right. Way to raise your kid, I'm sure he'll be the most upstanding gambler in all of the smoky, seedy Pachinko Parlours!


Much of my time was spent wandering around Fumi's local village with her friends...


As well as cooking and eating things. Cooking and eating is my favourite pastime.


Here I am with Fumi at her cousin Chika's wedding! I got to witness the infamous "Western-style" marriage. I giggled to myself a lot.

When I saw this however, I got depressed. Reminded me too much of church and so many Sundays of my youth wasted.

Here is the scheduled list of happenings for the event. Notice number twelve. I expected a hot, steamy kiss with the groom sucking the life out of his new bride's face... but he just gave her a peck on the cheek.

Here is the "minister". Some random foreigner who is paid to impersonate a priest. Note the lack of collar. He kept on doing weird stuff like whispering to Jesus under his breath, then promptly translating his whisper in whispered Japanese. Very, very creepy. His acting was alright, but his pronounciation of Japanese was with a heavy American accent. I came to the conclusion that he was reading off of romaji because he was otherwise seemingly very fluent. Anyways, it was pretty amusing to observe, as I've heard so much about this.

Here is the lovely couple (I sound like I'm 60 when I write this stuff).

Here is Shogo and Fumipapa. I think this picture accurately gives a feel for their personalities.

Sashimi served at the wedding reception. So, so, so, so good. Hamachi, Maguro and Ika Sashimi.

And before I knew it, I was sitting sour-faced with my girlfriend at the airport, about to depart.
And I did.
And now I sit here, back in Canada, writing this, feeling a little sad in that I have to wait three more months to see her again. We're pretty used to it though, so it shouldn't be too hard.

The Killer Typhoon!

Today I have a story of pictures for you, my dear reader. Accompanying the following pictures are witty captions to help you along the way. Let us begin!

This is just a piece of scenery to give an idea of what I am surrounded by when staying at the Sakata's house: Mountains, clouds and greenhouses. Quite a beautiful place to live, I have to say.

Except for the snakes. Why'd it have to be snakes!?

So there was supposed to be a typhoon hitting the village today, but it skipped over us. Just a little wind and hardly any rain. I put this photo up as a substitute; a torrential downpour (that happened 3 days ago). I was hoping to see my first Typhoon, but I guess I'll have to wait for another chance to risk my life. On that same topic, there has been one casualty so far. An 11 year old child drowned while playing with his ball. While sad, I have to wonder if he should be up for a Darwin award or not. Though I suppose the parents would be deserving of it, not the poor kid.

Here is Fumi at one of many restaurants visited. This particular location serves Okinawan food. It's quite good.

The beer isn't so good. But it makes for a nice photograph.

This is one of the more interesting plates of food I had at said restaurant. Very tasty, but Fumi was right when she said it looks like deep fried... hair from the nether regions.

This photo is just for Marc: I got to go to the arcade he (supposedly) frequented every day when staying in Fukuoka.

Here is Fumi. She is cute. End of story?

This is the entrance to the Daibutsu located two stops away from Fumi's house. She and I decided to tour the place completely. Within it were interesting statues and a very long trek.

This photo is for Pat. It's a statue of what looks to be an emperor or warlord of some sort, standing upon what I'm guessing is a foreigner. Possibly Chinese?

The guy is a masochist though, look at the little hint of pleasure he's getting. Look at that smirk! It's disgusting.

This was my favourite statuette of the many Buddhas. Very serene. Reminds me of the book I'm reading: Kim by Rudyard Kipling.

Fumi and I decided to follow a sign's suggestion of "walking to a serene location only 15 minutes uphill". I should have remembered that in Japan, a 15 minute walk is really a half hour. This applies absolutely every time you hear something like "a 5 minute walk from the station". Always multiply by at least two. Regardless, the walk through a bamboo forest was beautiful.

Here we are just embarking on that walk. And hey look! Fumi is wearing high heels! Sheesh. So... what is up at the top? What could be there? Enlightenment? Riches? All-you-can-eat chocolate Buddhas?

Nothing much actually. Just a crappy shrine.

We weren't too happy about this, but we still looked around and-

What the-

What the- Is that a Nazi symbol!? Are those monks from the shrine riding in a tank? WHAT THE HELL KIND OF BUDDHIST TEMPLE IS THIS!?
Actually, that's just the right-facing swastika and the monks... well they're supposed to be rallying in the tank for peace. I think they just think tanks are cool and wanted to ride in one.

Anyways, the Daibutsu was quite large as you can see, and very impressive. I was lucky enough to come when I was the only tourist there, unlike last time when there were people to sully my beautiful pictures.

Here I am; a new Bodhisattva.

Here's an interesting piece that pissed me off quite a bit yesterday. An enka singer dressed up in black-face. I have no comments other than that it's a shame that this can pass as entertainment.

So what have I been up to most of the time when I'm here?

Videogames. Sweet, sweet videogames.

Until next time my dear reader,
--

The Ten and the Only

I am alive, yes, I am alive.

The flight from Toronto to Fukuoka was a long one. Including the stops it was a 26 hour journey. A little longer than it's supposed to be, but it saved me a few hundred dollars so I think it's worth it.

On the longer part of the flight I was sandwiched between an 88 year old Vietnamese/Canadian lady who was travelling with her entire family to Vietnam and some other lady. The Viet-Canadian spoke neither English or Japanese, so the entire flight I had to squeeze out every bit of French I could remember high school. To my surprise, it was quite a bit. It also helped that she would just rattle on for minutes, never giving me a chance to think twice about what she was saying.

So the beginning of my trip to Japan was spent speaking and listening to French. For 20 hours.

Once I arrived in Fukuoka, I first stopped in the toilet and vomitted 4 times, then I went and got my baggage and I was greeted by Fumi and her mother, after which I was escorted to their house where I said hello to Shogo and Yoichi(Fumi papa) and promptly fell asleep.

These past 3 days have been sitting around the house, meeting Fumi's family members again, and one time going to the mall. So I'm going to post some pictures with captions, and hopefully they'll entertain you (whoever you are).

Sadly, this is the first photo I took. It's just some riced-out car parked near Fumi's house. The guy removes his steering wheel so no one steals it.

This is the view outside Fumi's house. I'll have a "tour" of it (because it's rather nice) later.

This is me cooking spaghetti with meatballs on the second day of my wonderful vacation.

Fumi is playing doctor here. Her friend Hori took a brutal fall to the pavement when we were out walking.

Here they are relaxing and recuperating.

This is Hazuki. She has (by Japanese standards) a "wild and crazy haircut", so she has to wear a wig in public so as not to shock people, and to function at her workplace.This is me wearing that wig. SEXY.Fumipapa wearing the wig and looking rather cute.Fumimama trying on the wig and looking... sort of like a transvestite.Fumi wearing the wig. No comment for fear of reprisal.Here is the drive to the mall. Very mountainous, wet and dangerous. Japanese people seem to have a tendency of not caring about seatbelts when they sit in the back of the car. I don't get that. I guess they didn't have as militant education about seatbelts as we did in Canada.

So today I'm off for an adventure on my own! I'll keep you all updated as I'm sure you're waiting with bated breath!