Technocriminals I

I'm thinking that technoculture is more of a techie geeky blog, and just the facts... well, is everything not as fun.

This makes a perfect place to announce the plan that myself and Dan have formulated for the next two years: break every computer rule that the University has.

I guess I'm starting small with this. Technically we're not allowed to access the internet from these computers. They merely have the OPAC browser. But we used some shortcuts and accessed the internet, so that's a small start. From there, we take it further. Dan is currently installing Firefox on his one, while I'm making a blog entry foolishly detailing our rule breaking. Oh, evil us.

I will blog the rule breaking exploits that Dan and I do during this year, unless somehow caught. Which we won't be, since I am doing this with no login. I think these no login computers are a good way to start. Bring on the anonymity. No splel check though

Waiting for Podot

That title is a reference to the fact that I want an iPod, just not yet.

I just updated just the facts, but I really felt stifled in not being able to express myself with my usual length and depth of description. Emma has decided that she doesn't want to get the internet in our house. Well, she wants the internet, just not enough to pay money for it. She says £7.50 a month is too much to pay for internet access. I willing to pay that and more for internet access, but it's how it has to be. Typical. I guess that means that I'll have to try and sell 0.5Mbit instead of 2Mbit, which is half the price and maybe I can get them to agree. But it's that damn extra £2.50 a month that throws them off (don't question my mathematics, I'm not telling you about the mandatory phone line rental).

Anyway, that's all my task for the next few days. Dan's here right now, we're just rocking out in the Southlands computer room. We're avoiding the library because Emma's slightly on edge (rightly so) about the fact that Katou is now living with us on a semi-permanent basis. Emma doesn't so much mind this, it's just the fact that shwasn't't consulted, or even asked. Come to think of it, neither was I, but I get by without being too angry at too many things. I just hope he contributes to at least some of what we have to pay. He is using our shower, television, DVD player, fridge... the list could go on, but I'll just inform you that he uses a lot of electricity, and he uses gas as well for his cooking. I don't particularly feel like paying for him. He's getting lucky in not paying rent, but a free house for three months... I hope he appreciates it like I appreciated Yoko's kindness in housing me (as in, no more sulkfests from Katou).

Yuri's leaving the country next Monday, which is another one of the Roehampton group who is departing back to Japan. It's a shame we never got to hang out more, but we got to have a nice meal before she left. She took us to her house, and offered us free roam of most things. Grabby Kaori took most things straight out, but she shared them around when we got back. The only thing I was really interested in was the Panasonic HiFi, which I got for my room. I have to say, I don't expect it was a very expensive HiFi, but it does not sound bad, Since my one became communal in the living room, the one I have now is a decent enough replacement. Yeah, it's not 5.1 and doesn't have a subwoofer, but I can hook it up to my computer and have a mini theatre with stereo sound to almost rival the downstairs one. The speakers are detachable, and they're pretty solid, with a nice bass response. They're just bookshelf speakers, but still, they do the trick for me, especially if I balance the sound right on my PC.

I have also decided to convert one of my many useless closets into a small computer closet, which I can close away until I need to use it, and then it's like a mini computer room. Oh, the plans I have for my room. It should be a technological heaven by the time I finish with it. All I need from there is an iPod.

While I wait for University to start, I have very little to actually do. I have to work for my mother this weekend, so that should help me get back with debts, and after I find a small job, I'll sort out my bank account.

I picked up my sister from the Reading festival yesterday. It meant a long, extremely hot drive for hours, waiting in traffic for hours, having my time thoroughly wasted for hours, and then finding that a tree obscured the sign for the turn off to get back to Kingston. I do hate the world sometimes. But not enough for it to fester and make me go Emo. Apparently the Emo children are like rats at Reading: everywhere. They express their sorrow and individuality by dressing and acting the same. It's not cool to be Gothic anymore, now you have to be Emo. The whole fashion of acting "individually" is sickening. Another ploy for attention, and it fits in with the times.

When I finally arrived at the designated pick up point for my sister (who would have thought there were two brands of blue and yellow self storage facilities within a few hundred metres of each other), there was another group of people waiting to be picked up. They were pretty stereotypically a group of people having just left Reading. They were a little dirty, they had the standard amount of piercings, the correct portions of dreadlocked hair, you know, they had read the Emo/Rock Chick handbooks and followed them pretty closely. Then a 30 foot black limousine pulls up, and all four of them got in. It wasn't hired, it was actually owned (I think; the chauffeur seemed to know them well). I found it hilarious that their entire "misunderstood child of rock" image was shattered by their parents getting a limousine to pick them up from a rock festival.

Anyhow, I'm boring Dan, and he wants to do something fun, like steal a water cooler refill or something. Maybe he should revise. I'm going to read Slashdot.

Delayed Reloading

Last night, after logging off, my ex phoned and talked to me about things until four AM. By that point I was very tired. That's the latest I've been to bed in a while. I hope not to top it tonight, but I'll probably be drawn into watching Futurama season three before I actually sleep.

One thing I did forget to talk about last night was the presence of the eerie guy who always seems to go past me whenever I'm at Uni. I see him almost every time, and last night in the library, he was there later than I was, only occasionally leaving for the toilet (or to kill someone; he's creepy). Emma sees him around a lot too, but I don't think he's seen us together. Anyway, that wasn't important.

Emma and I made our way to Wandsworth today, hoping to see the council about their charging us of council tax when we're exempt and followed proper exemption practice. But they were closed on a Saturday. Damnit, do those people ever work? Even banks are open on Saturdays these days. So instead we shopped around for stuff at the pound shop, bought some glue to fix the kitchen fittings and mosied on down to Argos and Boots. Emma bought some dye to get rid of some almost invisible red patches, and then we returned home. We had every intention of watching The Matrix: Reloaded today, but we were denied as Kaori and Katou were watching a tape of a Japanese TV show called Triangle until the early hours, and Emma went to bed.

So that happens tomorrow, after we make the awesome stir fry that we bought ingredients for today, and after we go skating. And probably after some more Futurama.

I got a little distracted there.

I don't have too much to say, other than I spoke to Yukina online tonight, and it was good because it had been ages, and she always cheers me up whenever we talk. I'm at my parents' house at the very minute, so there's been no creepy guy, but maybe I could start stalking him and turn the table. No, to answer your question I have no actual content, but hey, I'm giving you little bites of my thoughts to think over and enjoy.

Take care and stay happy.

The Fun of Public Terminals

I have to say, the network administrators at this University have got some serious fixes to implement regarding Internet Explorer. Scratch that, regarding the whole operating system we have to use. Every time I log on, the first thing I see after the password screen (apart from the extended delay) is an error message, telling me that an "Installation failed", and that I have to agree that it is "Ok". Shortly after that, another error message about the CD writing software has something wrong with it. But back to IE, which was the reason for saying this... I'm on a public terminal, people use it daily, every computer in this university is shared, with no computers actually reserved for particular people, with no preferences saved anyway, so, no, Internet Explorer 6.0, I don't want you to remember my damn password.

I'm logged on to Blogger, I'm not going to log out and log back in before I leave my desk. Idiot.

Anyway, I'm here again because I didn't want to go home again like yesterday, and it means saving petrol. But after I left my home yesterday, I looked out and noticed it was a beautiful night, so I drove to the nearest place without street lights, the local car park where I learnt to drive, and parked there. I stuck my head out of the window, and turned off all nearby lights (but left the heater on, as it was freezing last night).

You know how it is; you look up to the dark sky, and as your eyes adjust, more and more stars appear out of the blanketing dark. I stared for a short while, seeing a greater number every few seconds, until I saw a shooting star. It wasn't my first shooting star, I've seen them before, but it was my first unsolicited shooting star. Before, I'd always been asked to go and look at them, or had read about a shower of them, and looked then. I'd never just looked in the sky and seen one. It was amazing. Very brief, very small, very short, but perfect.

I returned home and slept, waking today at eleven, despite a very odd dream that involved me returning to Japan for just a few days, and in that time, getting injured in an earthquake in Osaka while on the tube system. This injury affected my memory, so in the dream, I had no recollection of it happening. That was a strange feeling for a dream, it was a realistic feeling of memory loss, compared to a memorable dream I had about seven years ago, which had a school friend use the memory wiping thing from Men in Black on me, which felt like being pushed backwards in time. I'm hitting a very obscure tangent here, especially considering that I started this paragraph talking about returning home. But anyway, I met a rabid Ta and my dream was over.

Today I finished my coursework, printed it and handed it in on time. So unlike me! I found the dedication of the students here to be ridiculous though. Ok, the printer gets an error. What does a normal person do? Read the error message. Here? They run away. They leave the print server logged on, and they run away. Maybe in search of help, maybe just another printer. I read their error message, it told me which part of the printer to open, what tabs to pull and how to remove the jammed paper. I unclogged the printer and went on printing while all the unresolving students queued for the upstairs printer, or queued behind me. It was all good, I got it done and handed in.

While printing at the library, I saw Weiwei for the first time in a while. She didn't really say much, she just gaped and told me how skinny I was looking. She should have seen me after I got back and discovered the two for one Pepperoni Pizza Pouches at Tescos. But it was wonderful to see her, albeit brief and spent mostly waiting for her to close her mouth.

Emma and I watched the Matrix, and despite her telling me she'd seen it, apparently she hadn't. Well, she didn't know key plot details. And she hasn't seen the third one, which despite its bad reviews, I find key to the experience. Well, we have a bank holiday weekend, and if the lovers can keep the noise down, we might be able to watch in peace.

I read Maddox today. Turns out he hates blogs. I can't really fault him much on what he says, but I won't change what I do because of his opinions. I still think he's awesome. I think he makes my awesome list. If you haven't seen my awesome list, then it's because I haven't written it yet. Here it is:

Dan W
Maddox
QT
Johnny
Edward Norton

That's about it for now. And I think that's about it for the blog. I am actually getting tired. There's probably some crazy stuff I left out and will forget to add next entry and will be forever lost in memory, but you know, it probably wasn't that interesting anyway. Later.

Again Minor Update

I thought I'd share with you some of the fine visual memories Japan offered me. Oh, and also, I fixed my RSS feed. It's http://www.quasiblog.net/rss/atom.xml, in case you're not familiar with the Firefox RSS button, or you aren't using Firefox, and in that case you should die.

Anyway, without further ado... I give you Kishiwada Castle.



The first, and most beautiful, and highest resolution photo I took with my broken camera phone. It's the smallest castle in Japan, I think, and it is very beautiful. I didn't actually bother going inside, because that would require paying.

Atop a tower in Tokyo I took this rather beautiful image. You can just about see me and the camera in the reflection. Think of it as adding authenticity.



And the final image a I leave you is this one. A few of you may know that my nickname when I was younger, occasionally, was Ritter. On our last day, Emma and I came across this ironic shop name, and I found it was very hard to frame this image.



Anyway, that's all. If you haven't read my last entry, get to it, there's more written content.

Trinoctem Delay

This is a first. Or at least, the first in a while without good reason. I forget how faithful I have been to my updating over the previous four months. But I know that the times where I leave the blog unupdated for three days are rare. So here's a three day late entry.

But to be honest with you all, updating is much more fun when there is something to talk about. When Kaori and Emma returned back from the Library for lunch, they were guessing whether I would be reading manga, watching Futurama, or "smokey kitchen", which I'm guessing is their way of saying I'm a terrible chef, so the third option was that of cooking. Had they come a few minutes earlier, it would have almost been a combination of all three. However, the episode had just finished, and I had actually been reading a book on grammar, rather than manga, and the smoke in the kitchen was pretty latent, so it wasn't going to disperse quickly.

But their game pretty much summed up my last few days. Futurama, burning bacon, attempting to translate manga, I haven't had too much excitement saturating these weeks. I did some actual work today though. Dan came over to Southlands College and we eventually did some work. He is getting ready for the Quantitative Methods resit exam, and I have to get him able to pass it. We joked about Italaway and observed the film crews filling up Digby (for some reason they're filming a comedy there). We also joked about making a fort in the newly divided library computer room, and we took the photos off my phone and emailed them to myself. I can finally show people some pictures of my wonderful journeys. But I'll post them later. It was good to see him, I did miss him a lot while I was away. I missed some people an awful lot while I was away, just not quite enough to make me want to stay here.

He came back and we chatted with Emma and we sang a punk version of Runaway by Del Shannon, and after a little delegation over the meaning of "disrepute", I drove him home to the tune of Hello Nasty by the Beastie Boys. And I got to see Julia when I went up briefly, despite the fact that she was sleepy.

Dan's constant begging of me to partake with him a devilishly dangerous and probably illegal ploy seems extremely tempting. I currently give us a 80% chance of succeeding and not being caught, but the punishment for being caught is too unimaginable, and I'm not willing to risk it. It is very tempting though. It wouldn't be fun to do, or even have that many benefits, but it would be fun to see if we could do it, and it would be fun to try and get away with it. There are so many times that I just wish to do something illegal just to see if I can get away with it, without hurting anyone. You know, victimless crimes and such. I'd like to try them with impunity.

But I'm digressing from my boring day.

The whole situation with Katou was sorted. He wanted Emma to apologise, and Emma refused outright. I admire Emma in her consistent refusal to apologise, and it's something that I'd do as well if I weren't so eager to placate people in delicate situations. Anyway, she told him what was what, and he understood. Neither of them wanted to risk saying something incorrectly, so they both used they own languages to talk. It was honestly quite amazing to see Emma argue in English, Katou respond in Japanese and Emma to retort once more in English, without any hesitation from either of them.

The Family Guy movie and Sin City both finished downloading. I watched the Family Guy movie, and I enjoyed it and I enjoyed watching what they can do without as much fear of censorship, but I didn't find it as funny as my sister, I found it more of the quality of an extended episode.

And you all know how I feel about Sin City.

I received emails from several friends I met in Japan, I will be sure to forward emails with photos when I get them all sorted. It feels strange to know so many people, and to be so confused over so many names.

Anyway, it's getting late, and I have nothing to do, but I'm getting bored of typing, I want to browse Bash. Maybe something interesting will happen, maybe it won't. Maybe I'll get married, maybe I won't. Maybe I'll dance the Funky Chicken... dance...

That's something interesting that happened! Emma and I had an 80s theme party night, with just us dancing until we were too tired to dance anymore. We emulated the club atmosphere, and I used all five satellite speakers on my system to really get the beat going. We had 80s music, and then we relented and had 00s dance/techno music, just because we could move more to it.

Anyway, consider that an epilogue.

HDH

I'm not explaining the title. Think of it as code. It's early afternoon in a miserable London day. I'm not complaining about the weather, it's refreshing, I do, however, feel that it puts off people to visit, and through that medium, that of people visiting, I am allowed to reach the outside world.

I say this because Qian arrived home yesterday. Home as in Mount Clare, the dump where Roehampton sticks the foreign students. Her actual home is back in China, where she wants to be. I saw her for the first time in months today, and it was hard, because I could tell that she, like me, wants to be back in the East. She hates this place maybe as much as I do, maybe less. But she didn't disguise the fact that she, after just one day, wanted to go home. She said it outright.

I have been seriously considering going to China next year, but apparently while she was there it was 38°C, and that number is scary. But still, maybe, maybe.

But seeing her again, speaking to her, it made me realise that I had really missed her and that I do owe her a lot. She gave me a lovely large Chinese fan, and she gave a little present to me for my sister, which is really beyond thoughtfulness. We both need to do resists, so this week will be spent probably doing work. But I appreciate seeing her again, I had forgotten how comforting her voice is, how comforting it is just to be near her.

To say there was an altercation at the house last night isn't quite true, but Katou was angry, it was my fault, and perhaps I take the language barrier for granted. Emma and I know that if we need to talk privately, we just obfuscate and we're either not understood or ignored. However it led to the belief, through a small comedy of unintentional misunderstandings, Katou believed we were bad mouthing him; waluguchi, as he put it. Emma and I didn't manage to sort it out that night, so some bilingual explaining might be on the cards.

But the actions within the house, while I won't go into them, I can see it as a problem at least until Mizuki returns, which may be a while, since we got her return date wrong already. But Dan coming around yesterday proved a fluid catalyst to the dynamic, which due to the recent changes, was necessary. I'm in Southlands with him now, maybe he'll come around again. I have some spare bacon that needs cooking.

Anyway, I probably should work, and so should he. It was wonderful to see Qian again, and I think seeing her probably sorted any issues I had arisen during the revelatory American Beauty viewing. But it's sorted. She, she's the original LL3 girl. It think it had been too long since I saw her. Bless.

Quick Update

Nothing to Report.

Well, not much. I saw American Beauty last night, only six years late. I have to say, it is spectacular, and a film that any self respecting human should see. It affected me strongly, in the way certain sad films do, and I have been stuck thinking strangely since. Emma said I was more quiet, and I think I can attribute it to being slightly disturbed by it.

Maybe it was the company I viewed it in, which I won't go into detail, but it reminds me of what I'm missing out on.

After the film I listened to True Love Waits by Christopher O'Reiley, and it's a stunning CD. I also listened to Hail to the Thief by Radiohead, which, while not my favourite Radiohead CD, has some really wonderful songs and some outstanding moments. Speaking of wonderful songs, I enjoyed the soundtrack to American Beauty almost as much as the film itself.

Anyway, I know that I'm brief, I won't keep you. Quasi out.

We Have Normality

So the final stages of this weird and wonderful Summer of change are closing. Everyone's returning to the house, people are coming back to (and leaving) England for good, and I'm about to get back to the normal way of life. Last night the group came back from Iceland, and it was great to see Kaori and Katou again, who both greeted me with a happy hug.

Seeing their Iceland photos took me back there. They saw the same geyser as us, and took an identical video, like us, they want to the same shopping mall (the only one), and saw the same city. While their route was that of touring southern Iceland, and my family did the Reykjavik-Akureyri-Geyser triangle, coming through the middle of Iceland, and missing most of the awesomeness that the group just experienced. All the shopping they did at "BONUS" reminded me of the obscurely eyed pig that advertised them. It's also very strange to actually be living with Katou. Seeing as he had to get out of the "Korean Guest House" that he was staying in as it closed for the Summer, he's been living here, and last night was the first time I shared a roof.

But it's great to have them back. My attempts to contact Yukina after getting back were in vain, as I discovered from Kaori that she'd left for Tokyo before I'd returned, which was a great shame because I held out hope on seeing her again. But some things are confined to memory.

Anyway, some of you have noticed that I didn't update again yesterday. This is despite access to the internet. It's because nothing's really happened. It was waiting for the group to return and watching films with Emma, which as the saying goes, is nothing to write home about. There's still not much to say, other than I have huge fears that I may have lost Stuart's bicycle key, which is very embarrassing.

Anyway, I can't be too long (my catchphrase) as I'm going to Tesco's soon with the group to replenish stocks of food. In my case, lemonade.

A final thought: I hate this place, I can't stand the people, they're are 90% a yobbish conglomerate, with shaven heads and cigarettes, I can't stand their existence, let alone their rule over Britain. The working class hold on England is disgusting, and so is the presence of the people who deride joy from causing others pain, of which I found none on my travels and know of many here. I really can't wait to get out of here, out of this hemisphere, and into some place where I feel a lot safer and more welcome.

Here's my plan: We will be departing England shortly, before making a brief stop at Japan. After Japan, we will head to our final destination, Canada. Thank you for riding Quasiair, we hope you enjoy your life.

Another Missed Entry

I feel terrible about missing days. It's like those days are lost forever.

But then I think that it doesn't matter, because all this is is a publicised journal, and therefore it reflects as such, and nothing more, public thoughts, and if I were to view a day unentered as a day lost, then all my thoughts that I have kept to myself are also lost, and only a shining public side of history remains.

And that just isn't true.

Anyway, one thing that I didn't cover at the point of last entry: due to a clerical error and a complete misunderstanding, I was Program Terminated. For all of those reading who don't understand the Roehampton lingo, basically means I cannot return to University to continue at my second year. And, much like yourselves right now, I discovered this with jaw agape, and eyes white. So I spent yesterday morning marching around Roehampton speaking to more and more senior people to get this entire situation rectified. Eventually, I made it to the Program convener, Rodney Stratford, who took me for Computer Architecture in the first semester. He knew me, he knew what I was capable of (I came top in his exam), and he knew that this was a mistake, so I explained the circumstances of it, and he made some phone calls and, fingers crossed, it'll be overturned, and the missing coursework can be handed in at a resit.

What it made me realise is that things are so easily lost in the beurocrap. Via paperwork, electronic or otherwise, there is no room for humanity, and therefore a human has to deal with what is obviously a grave error. The paperwork system in Roehampton deals in a clinical way, with no forgivings and no understandings, that lead to these stupid problems.

Terminating someone who is coming top in most exams and spends most of his term time helping others understand the coursework assignments is ridiculous, and yet by their own error they do it, leaving me and the convener to sort out their mess. Now I'm not saying I'm a perfect student; organisation is an issue for me, and some work that I did was late, however, the degree of reaction taken by late work is by far an overreaction, and I don't see it as beneficial to the student or the University.

But... it's their system. I can't change it, I just found my way around it.

I spent the rest of the day doing some hedge trimming and I watched the second volume of Kill Bill. At lunch, Emma made pork with ginger, and that was really good. My stomach reacts better to Japanese style food than Western food still (did I mention I am still ill?). I'm guessing it just misses Japan. When she returned from work at 5 we painted the bathroom and then chatted and finally started watching Final Destination 2. Apparently the pain fumes and the large screen gave her a headache, so she left after 15 minutes, and I decided to stop and watch the first one, seeing as I hadn't seen it in a while. Now, since I have been learning a little more about film since I first saw it, I noticed the bad parts of the film a lot more, but since I'm such a huge fun of graphical symbolism, the end scene still makes the whole film for me. I think that's what the second film lacked, despite being technically made better.

That was my yesterday. Today, I woke and went into Roehampton with Emma and now I'm on the computers typing away, emailing friends in Japan, about to go and cook some eggs.

I'm probably going to make a short entry on jtf now, and it won't be the same, so if you want the fill quasiblog experience, I recommend you read both.

Still Ill, Still Tired

My hope of meeting Emma this evening diminished with more rest, and finding her three missed calls on my charging phone made me feel guilt. I really want to be better, but I evidently lack the ability to fight off this illness, and it seems the stomach pain is getting less frequent, but worse.

Anyway, I have a joyous announcement. I have started a new blog, on this very server!

It's the top link in my ever expanding link sidebar, and it's the creation for everyone who's ever seen my blog and wet their trousers at the sheer enormousness of its wordiness. It's quasiblog - just the facts, and its a cut down back to basics form of my blog, with pasted extracts and the best parts which you might not have time for. Some may say, "Why bother? I don't read your blog anyway.". But then they'd have to be psychic to know about it this, and I'd rather encourage them to solve crimes than read weblogs.

But seriously? Why bother? Because it's a fun idea and took less then ten minutes to implement. No new news, and no improvement on the condition since this morning. I'll let you know tomorrow if something's happened.

Resolution

Well, for any of you who have been following the saga between Jenny and myself, you'll be pleased (or unhappy) to know it came crashing to a conclusion a few minutes ago. If you aren't familiar with it, the story started at this entry and continued in this post, and then made an appearance in a post in Erin's Blog, before coming to a screeching hiatus here.

Anyway, it concluded via MSN, and short of pasting the long transcript here, I'll leave you with the conlucsion of the issue, edited extremely slightly for context reasons.

Quasi says:
But my admission of oversight error, does it somehow enable you to warn people about my absolute 'incapablity' and 'rudeness' of arriving unannounced at their houses?
EuGéniA says:
but probably i shouldn't have done that......
EuGéniA says:
I know....
EuGéniA says:
yeah ripton
EuGéniA says:
hehehehe i always got your point.
Quasi says:
I'm glad that's in the open.
EuGéniA says:
but i never wanted to admit it...
EuGéniA says:
but yeah
EuGéniA says:
i am sorry.....
EuGéniA says:
stupid i am sorry ok?
Quasi says:
So why did you then go and make eleven entries insulting me on my blog?
EuGéniA says:
HEHEHEHEHE
EuGéniA says:
i just wanted to piss u off
EuGéniA says:
at that time, i just wanted to piss u off

Anyway, now that's over, I'm probably going to go and take some more medication. My headache is returning. I hope I'm well enough to see Emma this evening.

Day Off

Yesterday was the first time I didn't post in ages, and I realise that isn't like me unless I can't get to a computer. Well, yesterday, and for today so far, I have been horribly ill, so I couldn't get to a computer.

I won't go into details or I'll have to start putting up disclaimers, but it hasn't been pretty, and yesterday I was mostly confined to the house, apart from a short time at Tesco's getting some food, seeing as food is necessary for life and all. Today I'm feeling a bit better, but it comes and goes and I don't like it. It reminds me of when I had a Cryptosporadic Infection, which is a notifyable disease (the other notifyable diseases include Bubonic Plague and Anthrax). So apart from the films I watched and the colours we mused over for the bathroom, I haven't done much. I spoke to my sister about her new phone, which she's taking back, and I sorted some work with my mother, and I changed my template back (I did like the Japan one, but I'm not in Japan anymore).

But yeah, I've done nothing since. This is quite a short entry, just made because it's been too long. This entry also allows me to clear up some things that I didn't want to deal with in Japan because I was enjoying it all too much, so some loose ends can be properly tied up, or at least less frayed.

I haven't seen people about yet, and Kaori and Katou and Hosei aren't back from Iceland for a few days, so I will be looking for people around if I'm not sick tomorrow. I hope everyone is well, I have missed you all much, but it won't be long now. Keep rocking, and keep commenting, I'm back in this dull country, and I have to deal with it and its horrible inhabitants (I heard about the racism suffered by some of my friends' families due to the bombings, which includes being badly beaten, because they are Indian). So I guess for the next few years I have to suffer the awful people this country is breeding, but then again, enjoy some of the joys it offers (usually from abroad). I'm rambling, I'll speak to you all soon.

Jenny:

Cram it.

Getting Used to London

I got to sleep at around midnight last night, which left me eight hours sleep, but that wasn't really enough to combat the jet lag, but I wasn't late in getting up or getting to Victoria to meet Mi Jeung. In fact, I was early, but confusion over which McDonald's we were meeting at and where to find each other meant I had to wait for her to call me, and then from there it was ok. We made our way to Waterloo from Victoria by tube, and from there, walked to the Tate Modern. It's an amazing building, and we wandered the experimental architecture area and the Real Life floor for hours. The beauty of it was that she actually knows about art, and as it turns out we both studied Julian Opie, and we could talk about art with much less of an explaining tone, and I appreciated that. She studies furniture design, so she took notes and made sketches of form and design, and we had a great time wandering the huge gallery, despite the fact that I was feeling very ill for some of the time. We walked across the Millennium Bridge and bought some food at Marks and Spencer, before realising that at that time, we were both exhausted. Jet lag hit hard.

So I took her as far as I could towards her station, and we arranged loosely plans for the next few days, but nothing solid. I waved goodbye to her as my train left Clapham Junction, and went to the station, where, as I was phoning Dan to ask to meet him, I spotted an old friend who I hadn't seen for about a year. It was Andy, who I worked with at the Entertainer for 6 months, and it was really weird, because aside from a little facial hair growth, he hasn't changed much. Apparently he's designing shoes now, so it's going well for him. I thought he'd changed his number, but it turns out he'd just lost his phone for a while when I tried to contact him. We chatted for a bit, and he kept saying how much weight I'd lost. I realised that he wasn't a friend I wanted to lose contact with, so I'll give him a call sometime and we'll meet up. He hasn't seen my TV yet, so I can show him sometime.

I met with Dan, and we grabbed some food from Tesco's and we chatted for ages about Japan. I don't have many stories about it, but I always have something to say about it. When Dan and Andrew started playing Brian Lara Cricket on the XBox, I just fell asleep for an hour and a half. I'd taken some of Andrew's painkillers because my head had really been thumping, and I feel better now, but I have to sleep. I think another night of rest will get me working better, or at least I hope so.

Not much news, just plenty of desire to sleep and rest and be back to normal from Japanese time.

Igirisu, Igirisu Desu

Final Destination: London.
Status: Arrived.
Mood: Happy.

Yeah, I'm back in England, and I already made the mistake of trying to push Shift + 7 in order to get an apostrophe. That'll be a habit that will take a while to shake. Prepare for many "I&ll"s and "he&d"s. But I came back today. But before I get to all of this, I'm going to talk about what happened after the last entry at the Mac store, which feels like last night, but was actually about 40 hours ago.

As I left the store, Emma had made friends with new people, though they'd gone by the time I came out. She thought the air conditioning was too high, so she uttered the immortal words "I'll go wait outside in the hot". It put her in a friend making mood, so as we wandered looking for dancing places, a group of gaijin asked us places to drink. We gave them a direction, and they went it, but we soon bumped into them again as somehow we both made a circle. We chatted with them for a while. The main dude was Canadian, and the main girl was from Nottingham, and it was strange to hear a different English accent at long last. We led them in the direction of Pure, as it seemed alcohol was taking their fancy that night.

Emma and I decided to spend the last minutes before returning to sleep/England just waving to people on the bridge, seeing who we can get to respond. We should have played it long ago, it was great! We got some smiles, some waves, and eventually one guy came up to me and told me he loved me. Bizarre. But after he'd moved on, more people came. Some shook our hands, it was amazing. The Love dude came back, shook hands, and with his friend, clearly drunk, we chatted. His friend, dressed in a striking green top, spoke to me. He didn't have enough consciousness to speak in English, so he spoke very fast in Japanese, in an accent I later found out to be from Gifu, where they use strange, different words for complicated sentence parts, like... pronouns. But I managed to see past the fact that he called himself a house and we talked about the American dream and how it applied to Japan. He then found it fun to take me arm in arm with him to find girls. He'd break out a new cigarette each time he came to a group, and asked for a light. The second group he came to, as it turned out, were tourists from Shikoku, and the one girl was so excited to be near a gaijin that she started chanting it and jumping around. I told her I was German, and didn't speak English, but as it turned out, she didn't speak English anyway, so I told her I was actually English. We went to a quiet and atmospheric little bar. Our group (consisting of me, Emma, the two drunk male friends and the three accosted females), was the only patronage there. It could pretty much only fit us anyway. The reason I was happy about it was that I held a conversation with her (the excited-over-the-gaijin girl), entirely in Japanese, for hours. Occasionally we needed translating help, but we spoke fine. She is a Kimono teacher, and said that when I return, she'll teach me how to wear one. She also insisted on giving me a gift of a tiny fan and facial grease removing wipes, which I tried to refuse, but ended up being charmed by the eccentricity of it all.

After the bar closed, we found we were too poor for karaoke, so we had to part ways, but not without phone numbers and emails. I ended up completely satisfied with my trip, as it was another perfect end to an evening, with fun, with confidence building language training, with weirdness, and with another example of how Japan is just nice without good reason to be.

I slept well. Albeit for about four hours. We approached bed at about three and woke at seven. Well, I woke at seven, Emma was showering at six thirty and getting ready to leave. Due to myself not being energetically motivated, I slumbered out of the door packed at eight, the time we were meant to be at the airport. The train left at 8:18 for the airport, and took about 50 minutes, meaning we were over an hour late for check in. Not that it mattered, as KLM had overbooked our flight by 150 seats. It seems KLM are eager to take bookings and money but not actually have the flights to back it up. But unlike in Amsterdam, they were very apologetic, and pretty much upgraded us to a direct flight that left two hours later and arrived over an hour earlier. We were put on a Japan Airlines flight, and we had time for a final teriyaki burger, and time to cart around the extra hand-luggage that I had to carry due to Stuart's extra clothes. But at 11:50, we boarded the plane, and I had huge problems, as someone was sitting in my seat, so I made my way to the back and put my luggage in an overhead at the back, and the seat they found for me was booked and oh it was a mess. After a short wait, they went and moved the person in my seat one along, and the person in their new seat to the back. I ended up sitting next to the person who was in my seat, who, as soon as I saw her writing, I knew was Korean. She seemed shy, and we didn't speak much for most of the flight, apart from occasionally sharing sweets and gum. I decided that I might as well be friendly to someone coming to London, so I asked her about her trip. I wasn't quite expecting that she would be quite so friendly. It seemed she was shy of her language skills, as she didn't speak much English, and everyone spoke to her in Japanese. We spoke for pretty much the rest of the flight. Emma joined us briefly and chatted, and we discussed what to do in London, and pretty much there and then decided we'd spend it together.

She came back to my house with my family, which with the unexpected appearance of my mother, made it quite a squeeze in the car back home. After I hugged Becky hello and did the usual brief and rushed formalities, I drove Emma and Mi Juang to our actual house, and she seemed to love just looking at England and the weird things all around. I drove her to the station to get to Victoria, gave her directions for Clapham Junction and changing, and arranged to go around art galleries tomorrow.

I'm really enjoying friendliness and new found friends at almost every corner. I'm scared of the soon to be overflowing Inbox, seeing as how many times I have given out my address, and how many photos need to be sent to me.

I'm feeling good, I'm happy about this holiday, it was perfect. And taking one look at England, I want to go back to Osaka. I missed everyone, but I seriously feel like Osaka is more suited to me, it's just a nicer city. The vending machines are cheaper, and the ticket machines work, and it's cleaner, and there are so many fewer thugs in Japan. I'm worried about Mi Juang's safety, as she's just come from the world's safest country to London on her own for a tour. I felt so safe in Japan, it felt right. Well, only a couple of years. For now, I have a comfy chair and internet, and I'm really happy with the last month. All is well.

Final Eastern Entry

This will be my last entry from Japan.

It is the final night, I have just finished the final day, and it's very hard to say goodbye to this country. It doesn't help that they're playing sad music in the Apple Store right now, which I have decided to make my last post in, as it has been a home base for technology. I tried a little last minute fullscreen Google Mappage on that 30" beast, and I'm making this entry.

Today has been perfect. I made my way to Agata-san's house for the 1 o'clock lesson, which I was fifteen minutes late for, but that didn't matter as it was cancelled. I didn't mind, despite that with no bicycle it was a thirty minute walk and a thirty minute train ride, bbecause she gave me lovelyly lunch and we talked for ages. She let me play her guitar and she showed me some martial arts, and we exchanged email addressed and I gave her the quasiblog.net address. She was far too kind and gave me gifts for my mother and for a "future girlfriend". I popped in on Yoko's grandparents on the way back, and gave them a final thank you and a goodbye. On the long walk back, I pondered a bit which direction to go, and while waiting at a train crossing, a taxi started hooting at me. I looked, and they opened the door, and a woman I slightly recognised beckonned me in. I got in, against London common sense, and I remembered that it was a woman I'd taught with Stuart a while ago. She used the taxi to give me a lift to the station, and refused payment. She didn't speak a word of English to me, but we still got along all right. But it was the perfect example of how this country is, with a display of reasonless kindness from a woman I barely know.

Emma's waiting outside in the heat. My father's picking us up from the airport tomorrow, but I still reall don't want to leave. Kaori and Katou and Hosei and the new friends I have yet to meet are in Iceland. It's quite strange to think of them there, they're spending time in Iceand, while I'm in their home, the opposite: Steamland. Though the heat has been more barable recently.

We met Emma's friend tonight and she bought us a lovely Udon dinner, but it meant I missed the last Working Holiday class. That's a shame, but it'll have to do. I'll send Yoko's key to her, and send copies of the Mammoth photo to her later. I will talk more about the end of my J-Pan experience when I return and have my own unlimited computer access, but until then, goodnight Eastern world, thank you Osaka. I will be back. Fastest month ever.

This is Ripton, from Osaka, goodnight.

And I Could Write A Song 100 Miles Long

The first class I went to with Stuart to the Working Holiday Centre was the Wednesday class, which was the beginners, and the second highest advanced class. This has changed a lot since I knew it, with people switching around and moving from class to class, making some classes tiny, and others huge. The advanced class today was so full that I had to sit at the end of the table, which didn't happen before.

A week and a bit ago, a new girl joined the beginner class. I saw her again today. When she joined, I spoke to her one on one in her first lesson, and her level wasn't brilliant, but she was capable of communicating. If I'd been allowed Japanese, we would have spoken easier. But what made her memorable to me was not her language skill, it was that she was an ordinary Japanese girl, barely in her twenties, starting life and learning a language like so many Japanese people her age are doing, but her left arm was littered with self inflicted scars.

It wasn't the first time I'd seen anything like it. I'd been around an alternative group of people for much of my teen life, though never actually belonging. So self harm and the like was not new to me. But it was a culture shock. While it is never correct for me to do so, I generally judge people by their appearance, but save actual judgments for after I have communicated with them, and can actually start to get an idea of their character, or at least the character they emit. In a country where I am unable to communicate with most citizens, and I have so many preconceptions to the people I see and try to communicate with, I tend to form a stereotype based on appearance. By looking at her face, I formed a complete idea of what she was like, and then looking at her arm, that image was shattered.

It wasn't the shock of a Japanese person doing it, it was the shock of my image being so incorrect, and that I didn't expect it. It made me realise that I have so easily misjudged so many people, and I have so easily ignored histories that can so greatly affect people.

I know a lot about pain during childhood, and as CM has mentioned in his blog recently, school sucks. What this girl taught me is that this pain is carried through to so many people, that I meet and talk to, and that I know or don't know of. With self harm, the scars are literal and are visible. But self harm is such a small part of pain that meeting this one girl reminded me of how many people suffer tremendously during their lives. Being reminded of how many people died in Kobe ten years ago made this suffering seem trivial, and the total suffering the population of the world endures consistently reminded me of how little one person matters, and how much one person matters.

In all, all I mean is that when I meet people, I assume a history, and the history I initially assumed for this girl was so far off, that I wonder about the sufferings I have not known in the people I know and care about, and the people I don't know.

It makes my feelings seem like absolutely nothing.

The last class, which was packed, went about with me not having a consistent talking partner, and now having much to do in the way of help, as the class is pretty competent and capable. It makes me think about how much the teacher actually does, and I made a decision to be more active in my teaching. After the class, they were so impressed that I could write my name in Kanji that they all asked for my autograph. Well, most of them. I was feeling great until I wrote it wrong, but the amusing side took precedent.

When the signatures had subsided, several photos were taken, and then almost everyone went to an izakaya, where we had lots of new foods thrown at us. I had the usual, raw tuna, roasted "long fish", cheese balls and some salad, until the oddest food I have ever come across was put on my plate (figuratively). I was offered a piece of chicken sashimi. Put bluntly, it's a chunk of raw chicken breast, fresh from the bird. I have no sympathy for Japanese chefs, they have an easy life that mainly involves cutting. I dipped it in some kind of ginger paste and soy sauce, and tried it. I chewed about half of it at first. You know the texture of chicken that you feel when you are slicing it? It's kind of gummy and soft and consistent. That's exactly how it is if you eat it. The ginger didn't really hide the taste, and it tastes how it smells. I stopped chewing and forced myself to swallow then and there, because I try to avoid spitting out food until it is a last resort.

I drank all my water, and sat there shaking for a while. They all asked if I was ok, which I wasn't, but I tried unsuccessfully to hide it. Eventually even Emma asked if I was ok, and she was sitting quite far from me and involved in other communication. When I told her what I ate, she went slightly more pale. People apologised for making me eat it. I tried other things, unable to shake the feeling of chewing it. I realised that the only way to deal with this kind of disgusting experience was to repeat it successfully. I picked up the last bit of chicken (identical in every respect to the chicken I have at home before I cook it), and I dipped it again, and I ate it. I pretended it was raw fish, and ate it normally. I did actually feel much better, and less sick after the second piece, and I know now that I can eat it if I have to, or if someone needs impressing. Emma said she felt physically sick watching that.

There were long goodbyes, and lots of exchanging of emails, and even though I knew that in almost all certainty I will not see these people ever again, I told them I'd see them in two years. They are an amazing group of people, and very interesting to talk to. I will miss every person I met and spoke with at Working Holiday. Tomorrow is the last class, but I will probably miss it, as I am meeting one of Emma's friends tomorrow at six, and not close to the centre.

A never traveled much independently, so this trip has meant more goodbyes than I have dealt with before. Admittedly, the hardest has been Yayoi. I dealt with it with the idea of maybe seeing her again, but her email today confirmed that it would not happen. Of the people I have met, I will miss her the most. In her email, she included the photos that she'd taken during the times we were together, and when I get some resizing software to hand, I'll post them. But it was a hard email to read, and a hard one to reply to, but of the people I have met here, I have the most confidence in seeing her again, so I will not be sad in my goodbye.

This has been a long post, and in honesty I don't expect many people to be reading, especially considering the number of comments I get these days. But now is the last day. I'm about to hit the final 24 hours. I'm losing a lot going home, but there's a lot waiting for me. If the world could be smaller, it would be better because I would say goodbye less, but for every person I say goodbye to, I will say hello to another. My network has jumped in size, and I can never regret that. I will be back, and I will try my hardest to keep in touch with the people who have made this holiday so wonderful.

And I Mean it with No Bitterness at All

I can't be bothered with privacy settings and the like, and I won't be setting some up just so I can hide my feelings from those who it applies to, but I will still type them and I will still keep them secret. Apologies if this bores you, but you really don't have to read it, you won't understand it.

B lftrbff sp zmk uid qdpomd J gbuf rfqjnvrmx mhlde, vihdg hnfr gqpl Rhbm, un Ztlhoz, un Zzznj; sihoft cjc onu vpql. Lz efdmhoft zsd ugjr: js jr tze, BUT I MEAN THIS WITH NO BITTERNESS AT ALL, xpt'sd onu sid mzts cdbtuhgtm fjqm.

It's pointless for my to write it and code it, but I feel so much better doing it. Anyway, time to start preparing the end of the holiday. Not long now.

Back in the Routine

Today was spent in my usual fashion, wandering Midosuji and Shinsaibashi looking for fun things to do, ending in a trip to working holiday to teach English. Stuart and Yoko are now in Taiwan, so James, the substitute teacher is teaching Stuart's class. I can still sit in, and if he's tired tomorrow I'll offer to take the class for him, since I have had more experience of Stuart's teaching than he has. I was going to take over the class properly, but that damn Visa, damn it damn it.

I looked for the all-you-can-eat sushi place today, and it turns out that either it isn't all you can eat or it's only like that at night, or something, because it was pay-per-plate, like Satori sushi in London. But I went in anyway, and had six pieces of salmon nigiri, four pieces of tuna nigiri, two pieces of shrimp nigiri (I think), and six cucumber maki rolls, which was all I could eat, and it came to just over 5 pounds, which is a quarter of the price I pay at Satori, for more, and much better, sushi. I was full for the rest of the day. I don't know what it is, but there's something about raw fish on rice that really fills you.

Most of the class didn't show up today. It was just Yayoi and another girl who actually works there anyway. So James and I just talked about random topics for an hour, from films to food to exaggeration and enthusiasm. Then about kanji. I really enjoyed it, and explaining the hyperbole I used and the places I've visited. James said that it was exaggeration when I said that Japan had been my "best holiday ever", but I really didn't think so. It has been. But in my usual fashion, I felt the down side of all the happiness I have been feeling recently. Yayoi, Emma and I went to the place where Yayoi had stayed up all night talking with me before, and we had some food and we talked. Well, it was mainly Yayoi and Emma talking in Japanese, while as per usual I struggled to understand. That was probably the last time that I'll ever see her, so I feel regret at not understanding the majority of what she said.

I kissed her hand as I said goodbye, and Emma and I took the train back here.

Now, a short time ago I wrote something in code, as I didn't want people knowing what it said, but wanted to keep it in memory. Anyone with an ounce of determination could probably decipher it, but I have the same feeling again at the moment, of wishing to make a record, but not wanting it to be understood. I don't have time to code it, as right now I'm standing in the lobby of our hotel on one of their two free computers. So I'm going to mix every language I know into a bizarre stream of consciousness that Shun will be able to read if he studies a bit of Latin.

Toute les hitotachi que je suki itsumo eo, mais mai-jour, boku no sense wa jambe, et mon ideas reste ici. Gde la femme qui aime wo ima? Nande les personnages wa kanpeki ga, ce n'est pas possible? Pourquois watashi sense ca? Je deteste. Yet, itsomu c'exist. Wo ce wo dekirukoto ga hoshi, tamen dekimasen, et je voidrais ce immediatement yo. Itsumo itai, mais le finis est impossible-so.

That combined vocabulary and grammar from almost every language I've studied ever, and I mixed it in a way that won't make sense to someone even if they speak all six fluently. I hope. Bah, right now I desire to go to the room and listen to soft music until I sleep. I'm fearing what the spell check is going to throw at me when I click it. It's the 10th of August, I leave in two days. I don't want to go home, but it's necessary. This is the fastest month ever.

Minor Update

This will be te first time I'm updating twice in a day for a while, I have missed it. It's almost time to check in to our hotel, so I'm killing the last of the time by playing Google Maps on a full screen 30" widescreen monitor in the Mac store. Now that's fun. If only I had more time.

There are no Working Holiday lessons tonight, but no reply from Masaya, so I'm not sure if we'll do anything but seep tonight. Em's about to collapse still, and I'm pretty exhausted. We waited at a McDonald's for about an hour, still killing time, and some 16 year old Japanese boys started talking to us with their limited English, it was a fun thing, since we used none of our Japanese, which was better by far, in Emma's case anyway.

Time up, I'm bored because I have no bike, I am unshaven and dirty and not willing to sweat further in the awful heat. I'm done for now, speak to you later.

Home

I don't have to explain to anyone observant enough to realise that my flight isn't for another four days that I'm not home yet, but I am back home in Osaka. It is strange, but this place feels like home. Having spent the best part of three weeks here, browsing Midosuji, rocking Namba, etcetera, I have found this to be my place of choice in Japan. I am going to miss this the most.

Emma and I spent the rest of the remaining yesterday scoping out the departure area to leave Tokyo from. That was a good choice, seeing as it took us half an hour to find, and much longer to scrape our luggage there. Curse that luggage, curse it, curse it. It's pain-bringing-hell on wheels and a shoulder strap. My back aches again due to its presence and I am fearing the trek to the airport. We managed to find the departure area, and met a fellow English girl here, who had been teaching English in Kobe for fifteen months. She seemed to be loving it as well, despite speaking less Japanese than either of us, and not even having learnt katakana, which is by far the most useful thing to know when living in Japan.

We caught the bus, which provided even less sleep than before, and we survived off sugary drinks and complaining about the speaking manner of the bus announcer. We arrived about six thirty or something stupidly early in Namba, and tried trekking to Tennoji to find a hotel. I went ahead, and was so disgusted by the state of the street that we changed our minds and went to stay in the far more expensive hotel nearer Namba. We can enter the hotel at four, and seeing as it is currently 12:35PM, it gives us a while to go. So, since we arrived at about 7:50 or something, we've been kicking around Midosugi until 11, which is when the Mac store opens, and the free internet begins. I've been on something like half an hour and no one's thrown me out yet, so I'm feeling good. The seat isn't hyper-comfortable, but I'm not complaining. The music's good. We're about to go and find some food for Emma, who barely slept a wink last night on the bus, so she's too tired to chew.

I'm trying to meet with Masaya tonight, but I haven't heard from him. I'm still buzzing slightly about the earthquake. I feel a lot safer here, but it was really fun to be shaking of the room's own accord. The lamp chord banged against the lamp's stand, and bed wobbled, it was a real experience.

As is my usual tale, I have to be going. I spent too long reading the bash updates to really give this a proper entry, but it's open all day, so I'll be back. There's a gaijin working at this store, but his Japanese is amazing. Maybe I can get a job here in the future. All I need to do is learn Japanese, learn about Macs, live here, apply for the job successfully and then I'm in, no problem. Like pie. I'll update later today if time allows, but I won't have too much to say.

First Ever Widescreen

That title has very little relevance to my post, I'm just using it as I am short of an amusing one and I'm paying by the hour so I don't have time to be creative. It's only there because I am using a flatscreen widescreen monitor for the first time, and I actually really like it. Widescreen is the future.

I'm in a totally new internet cafe right now, and I'm making another post as if there weren't a thousand more things I should be doing, like checking my email or looking for a hotel for tomorrow night. But instead I'm talking to you, so be happy and appreciative, and leave numerous comments.

Last night I was in an earthquake. I have never been in an earthquake before, and it was an incredible experience. At about 1:05AM it struck, about a 3, they said. Emma was terrified, I was slightly scared, and when she reminded me that Tokyo was due for a devastating earthquake very soon, I became slightly more scared. We went downstairs to see what has happening, and it was business as usual. I'm not sure if people even noticed. The man at reception said that they had about 120 earthquakes here a year. Two weeks ago a 4 had hit, and it had lasted a lot longer than the four or five seconds we'd experienced. We stayed downstairs talking about it for half an hour, Emma discussing various topics, including earthquakes, with the receptionist in Japanese. I sat by and struggled to understand.

Since waking at having to check out, we staggered along with all our luggage towards Shinjuku station. I think the luggage is the reason my back is currently in agony. Once we found some lockers which cost us ￥1000 for the day, we were free from the pain of carting around our life possessions. Emma wanted to go shopping for shoes, which to me sounded like a wonderful-time-for-someone-else kind of thing, so I opted to stay in Shinjuku and find an internet cafe and observe the Tokyo vibe. It has an unmistakable vide, I cannot deny that, but I sometimes feel that perhaps some people resent foreigners here, as they make up such a core part of the demographic, in the same way that some people resent foreigners in London. I do not really get this feeling at all in Osaka. In reading Dr Dice's blog entry concerning racism, he noted that China and Japan are xenophobic, which I would have agreed upon earlier, but I have found, especially in the Kansai region, a huge proportion of xenophilic people that counteract this belief. However I cannot account for China.

Due to time limitations, I didn't quite have the chance to read much of his entry, so when I do, which will probably be when I return to England, I will comment and go into more of what I think.

Since I have missed out on several major events that have occured to me recently, I feel like relaying then still, but now that several days have passed, it's almost old hat to be still talking about them. So in this case, I will talk about them in a more general tone, rather than an actual account of events.

Emma had a wonderful plan in dealing with the heat. From the ￥100 shop she bought a little spray, and filled it up with water. On getting back to the hotel, she found it was a pump rather than a spray, so she filled it with the free shampoo. She then bought a proper spray, and has since been giving herself and me cool sprays of water which instantly dissipates the painful glow of the sun on our skin. Not wanting to be outdone, I purchased a bigger one, and have since filled it with ice. But I made the decision to never use it up fully, and always preserve about a third or a quarter of the water in it, so that no matter how many times I replenish it, I retain some of the water in it from the last time it was filled, and consequentially, it will always have at least some water from Tokyo in it, and for when I return, some water from Osaka in it.

I discovered last night that Koji has a Karaoke machine. Now, sadly, he let us down by not coming to Tokyo to meet us all, which is a great shame because it would have been fun for us all, but he must have had a good reason. But the idea of actually owning a Karaoke machine, it's now my next set goal in life. The Karaoke we have enjoyed over the past few weeks has been an experience that I will be sad to leave here, so getting a machine which will allow us to have the Karaoke experience in our newly acquired living room. That's one new goal. Emma and I have our new Karaoke favourites, like Barbie Girl and Bitch. I tried to keep up with here on Just a Girl, but she was born to sing it. Mizuki has a surprisingly amazing voice that really impressed me.

I was very tempted by ￥4000 512MB PC3200 RAM, which works out at around 20 pounds. That's a third of the price I paid for my last stick, and I was so tempted to make my machine a 1.5GB RAM supercomputer, but I feel that the RAM doesn't need upgrading, the HDDs need fixing. So one thing at a time. What's the point in having RAM that equals almost 10% of your total HDD space?

As the story usually goes, my time is nearing an end. I have made all my emails and I have said I think what I needed to say. I'll probably slap my forehead on the way out of this building, but at least I can say I have drunk enough Melon Soda here to make the ￥450 entry worthwhile. I also took their ice for my spray. Great to hear from you. I'll look out for the CD for you Carlos. And Ryan, if you don't link me again I'm going to stab you. Coalesce immediately, as I am off my rocker.

Strange Meeting

Well, of all the places I expected to meet and talk to people, Shinjuku, Tokyo seemed the least likely. But I'll get to that.

God this keyboard is bad.

I'm at an internet cafe in Shinjuku, and with the stickiness of this keyboard I seriously dread whatever the last person was doing. There's no History, so, I really have no idea what to think.

After posting yesterday we left Akihabara, took some purikura photos with Masa, which as soon as I get to a scanner, I'll probably do nothing with. We sang karaoke with him, he took us to a diner, and then wouldn't let us dance in Shibuya, as apparently it was too dangerous. A random guy trying to take us to buy ecstasy wasn't much of a case worth fighting, so we returned to Shinjuku, and he, having missed his train home, bought a night at our hotel, getting the room next to ours (despite this hotel having eleven stories). We didn't see him again though, and despite walking around late night Shinjuku, we found no places to dance after he'd gone to bed.

Today, we tried to sleep late but only Emma did, and I lay staring at the ceiling for two hours. But we woke, and sought our own purikura pictures (which are those insane photo booth pictures with colours and stamps and writing), and on the way, I saw a guy who looked like Warren from behind. I told Emma, I called his name, and... it was Warren. We randomly met a guy who we had little idea was actually staying in the same city, let alone the same street in an outer section of Tokyo. I met Warren after this year's birthday party, and he's Kiwako's boyfriend. I didn't meet with Kiwako much, but we were good friends in the times we saw each other, and Warren's a really nice guy. We spoke, and as it turns out he's staying with Hisato, another friend, as Kiwako's gone back to England.

Emma and I found our purikura booth, and we made some memories, and then we met with Mizuki again and took some more photos and sang some more karaoke, as well as trying some Omrice (ref. post on 26th of April), which was in a restaurant on the 13th floor of a huge shopping centre.

We saw a little band (an acoustic guitarist, keyboard player and a singer) performing with a very dodgy amplifier (it kept cutting out the microphone), but despite the technical difficulties, they played beautiful songs, and I bought their CD (as it was only ￥1000). They signed it too. But while they were playing, Chiyo arrived, who I hadn't seen since the first Nabe party, which occurred before this blog started, so I can't ref. it. She was very pleased to see us, and likewise to her, she was much less quiet than when I first met her that one time.

Shortly after that, Qian called, from China, and we talked about her results and how she was actually passed this first year and how she'll be ok. She seems happy and she seems to be getting along fine, and we'll sort her course when she returns.

Three separate people I did not expect to talk to today turned up practically at my feet. Imagine my shock. This really seems like the centre of the world.

We return to Osaka tomorrow, taking the night bus at 7PM from the local station. This means that my holiday is coming to an end. In honesty, I prefer Osaka, it seems friendlier, but I know more people here. I am also eager to return home. Since leaving, thousands of people now reside in our small little house, so I have plenty of friends I am yet to meet. But this is certainly not the last time I will be in Tokyo. Probably not next year, but in the near future.

I must return, and as usual this post is brief, but being short on time and the like has its costs, and in order to enjoy myself I must sacrifice full and rounded daily posts. I'm sure you can understand for the time being. I will spend the next few minutes of my time on here looking at the other blogs I have so neglected.

We'll meet Yayoi again on Tuesday, and hopefully something will happen around Osaka, and I'm sure I'll meet Masaya again before I go, I just need to be sure when. Anywho, speak to you later.

Tokyo Time

Indeed, the last post I made was from the Apple Store in Osaka, and it is actually a stunning place. I took some photos of it from the outside, but I still intend on getting some from the inside. It has an iMac themed staircase, with massive glass stairs and I have to say, after being able to use their free internet, I have become increasingly jealous of the Apple way of life, especially considering what a sucker for aesthetics I am (not that you'd know it from the current state of my PC).

Now, I'm in Tokyo. And I'm posting from the very heart of the digital world, Akihabara. It's also known as Denden Town, or Electric Town, just because every shop for miles around sells discount electronics. I just went and spent ￥1000 on old RAM for the old computers, including 128MB for my Skype server, which should double its capacity. Also, some classic DIMMs that should spice up those old 95 machines to spritely little internet ready beasts, and a PCMCIA Ethernet adapter so that my notebook can get online.

I love this place more than anywhere else in Japan just because I can appreciate it. If I had more money, I would have forked out the 100 pounds necessary to buy an old Sony video recorder. I'm not talking about a handycam, I'm talking about an actual TV camera. It was stunning, and I very wanted it. But sadly, my funds limited me to RAM and LAN.

I can't be long, but I'll update you with what I can.

We arrived in Tokyo with nowhere to stay, and long story short, ended up in a Japan style you-can-only-stay-here-from-five-to-ten hotel. We slept all of those available hours, being very tired from the huge amount of luggage we had to carry. Every part of my body hurts still, two days on. Sick of the time limitations, we moved to a proper hotel, which I had to draw money to use, as it's 4500 Yen a night per person, and Emma and I are stuck sharing a bed. A double bed, but still, apparently I roll.

As it goes, the stress of finding a place to stay put a serious strain on us, and much of the time looking for places was spent in a tense silence. However, things have since loosened up now that we have rested. We met Mizuki and we have been scouring 100 Yen shops for bargains and the like. I now have something like four pairs of chopsticks, and three cases. I also bought my sister a cool little present, but I won't say it here because she's probably reading.

Today we met Emma's old friend Masa, who is essentially a stereotypical Japanese businessman, far older than we, but once you speak to him for what, a few seconds, you realise he's actually really cool and highly amusing. He's my current Akihabara guide, seeing as he's a Tokyo native.

Now, I think my time is up, so I had better be off, but all I need to say is that Japan is fast, scary and furious. But it is how I planned, and the overwhelming sense of missing something cool while looking at something cooler is everpresent, and probably the driving force of my visit. I'll update as soon as time is not a constraint. Take care and style your hair.

Dilemma

I don't know how long I can keep up the Emma-based puns in the title, but I thought I could give it a go for as long as it's fresh for me. Now, since she's been here, I haven't really had a free moment to update, and right now I can't be certain of how long I have to type, but I'll make the most of free internet.

That's right, free internet, in the Mac Store, which I only entered so that I could get a better photo for Dan, seeing as I had to delete the last one due to it taking up about 50% of my memory. And for the first time I ventured upstairs, and they have a row of computers that are all online and free. Technically, they're for those who are waiting, but apparently they don't mind. Anyway, I'm posting.

I believe I left you last time as I was about to go skating. As it turns out, I wasn't as good as I thought I'd be, seeing as I was a minor expert before. But I was eleven then. So I found I wasn't going as fast as Emma or doing as well in general. But I did discover that many more people stare at you if you're rollerblading with another white person. Maybe it's because the 'blades made me about ten feet taller than everyone else, maybe it was just that there were two of us, maybe they don't have skates here, maybe it was the blood pouring out of my shoulder.

Entering the Convenience store, they shouted their usual welcomes and then stared in wonder, then I'm sure they hid smiles as we bought medical tape. It was fun though, and I only fell because I'd forgotten I'd taken my heel brake off in England. Trying to stop with something that isn't there, well, I think the natives learnt a new word.

After that, we went to another okonomiyaki restaurant, and I managed to mess up mine by flipping it off the hot plate. Emma also learnt the hard way that Stuart sometimes steals food. It wasn't exactly making her happy. But the trend only has continued.

Yesterday we made out way very early in the morning (8:30) to Nagoya to the Aichi EXPO. It was in the end an expensive advertisement for countries, with varying quality and consistency. Canada's was aesthetically beautiful, though less informative. Saudi Arabia basically focused on how they'd abandoned tradition and their history in favour of having huge oil-funded Western appearing cities. Yemen was like the real Yemen, it seemed, as in it was just salesmen putting bangles on you,telling you the extortionate price, and then knocking the price to something closer to what it is actually worth, but only if you liked it in the first place. We escaped by basically saying, "doitsujin desu", or "we're German". That meant I could apologise in Japanese and walk off. But during the exchange I occasionally shouted German sounding words at Emma, it was amusing.

The UK was disappointing, considering it was a small garden and some unrelated exhibits and some unEnglish sweets. The Czech Republic had a huge sound museum, which, had I not been rushed, would have been fun. The others that we visited were also entertaining, but I am dismayed at the huge amount of English. Though I was impressed with the capable trilingual Canadian helpers. I hope to be able to have that level of fluency in three languages one day.

Due to my hatred of suncream, my neck burnt, as I expected, but it's not too bad. Due to my hatred of anti-bug spray, I was almost bitten, but constant paranoia meant I was ok, I think. I caught one sitting on me, trying to bury through my shorts. I taught that critter a little something about natural selection.

EXPO is fun, but a little expensive, considering the price and quality of the food, but entertaining. I saw Hypervision something, the new phase of high resolution television. It has something like eight times the resolution, and they filmed the huge queue for a minute, and I could see every face, every freckle, on everyone. Then they showed shots of Japan, and the resolution honestly made it seem realistic. And this is on a huge, auditorium size screen. If they can make this into television, well, people won't want to go outside anymore. Is that good? I was impressed.

I then saw a frozen mammoth, and Emma won a free photo of all of us running from a mammoth, printed to look like a newspaper. I'll scan it when I return. It was a harsh, painful day though. I recommend it if you are devoted enough to queue for something that could severely disappoint, but may entertain.

Today we woke and rushed to dine with Yoko's mother, and I hurt my neck in wearing a strapped bag. I'm not sleeping there again, which is a shame because it's comfy and the internet is free, like here. But this place has better music.

Anyway, I'd give more details of today, but I think my time is up. I have bought more manga, and had a spree in a ¥100 shop. I'll go into more later. Tokyo tonight, and we meet Mizuki tomorrow. Hope everyone is well and everyone is happy, I'll be back to talking soon, and if I can, read other blogs.

Speak to you all later in time.