Canada! Initial impressions

Touched down in Vancouver day before last. Hoorah! Canada! When I went to the taxi, I almost tried to get into the drivers side... then... I tried to get into the passenger side... you sit in the back though in Canada... whoops! Taxi driver turned out to be a real crazy... suggested I get an older Canadian boyfriend with a car and money to drive me around. He also gave me his phone number and said that he's gonna try and find a house for me to live. He was a right freak. I feel bad, I should have just said not to worry about it, I wasn't sure how though. I gotta learn how to say no to freaks.

Korean dude I was sitting next to on the plane who didn't speak very good english gave me his business card too, wants to meet up while he's working and living in Vancouver too. Shoulda said no.. Oh well. Not sure what's more mean, out right saying no, or taking the card and just never contacting.

Staying at Becks place at the moment, it's real nice. I've never stayed on a couch at someones place before, so it's kinda weird, but pretty cool too.

Went downtown yesterday to sus out job agency and housing place. Lady told me to chill till Thursday, have some orientation meeting then. So that's exactly what I'm doing. Pretty different from Melb in first appearanced. Not nearly as well presented. Cracks in the pavement, not as nice looking. Doesn't seem to have as much personality or spark. It's only early days though, so we'll see how it goes. Googled a few live music venues, so might sus them out to see what it's like.

Main differences and confusions:
- people driving on the right side of the road. Bigger deal than I thought it would be, especially when trying to cross the road, or catch a bus, really gotta think about it.

- walking on the right side of the foot path, and on elevators. All of a sudden it's me who's the arsehole pissing everyone off by standing on the wrong side. Had a few encounters of almost bumping into people coz we keep going the same way to dodge each other.

- tax! None of the prices on ANYTHING include tax. Tax rates change depending on the province you're in. In BC it's about 13.8% or some shit. In other states it's as low as 5%. It's annoying. Feel like I dont know how much anything is really worth, especially with conversion from Australian dollars.

- tipping. What the fuck. Worst shit ever. Apparently meant to tip between 10 - 15% of total bill. Makes dinning out a real pain in the arse. It's real rude to not leave a tip to because the people who work here get paid dick all. Apparently $30 000 a year is a good wage... wowzer.

So hopefully I find a cheap house somewhere conveniently located near the CBD or public transport. Hopefully it wont be as much of a shit hole as my last place. Hopefully I find a job that pays more than 4 dollars an hour.

Japan (a summary)

So much has happened... and I haven't really had time or energy to blog... so many better things to be doing... here's the highlights since the last post and a brief summary:

Takayama further described:
- there was snow! We went to this awesome old style village (the one where I'm licking snow in the last post). Man it was cool to see snow, and it was so soft and powdery, not like the crusted over month old artificial crap I've seen in Australia.

Hiroshima:
- Went to this island thing real early in the morning so we could catch high tide to see some floating red gate thing... it was okay, not sure it was worth getting up early for though.
- map of the island was deceiving, or we were stupid and thought we'd be okay... went on this mega fucking fuck up this shitty hill.... the steps when on forever, and my stupid hiking boots weigh over a kilo. Worst shit ever. People I was walking with, Jamie and Reena walk real fucking fast too. Reena was powering forward like we were in a real rush or something.. we weren't though.. we were on holidays relaxing.. everyone in the intrepid group seemed to have forgotten that, they were all real fast walkers, it really shat me. Anyway... we made it to the top and it took like an hour or two of millions of steep steps. I'm sure that it was one of those moments that was meant to be rewarding, I was too hot and sore to give a shit though. I just wanted to catch the gondola back down, regardless of how much it cost.
- Went to peace memorial. Pretty full on. Who the hell thinks it's a good idea to design a bomb, let along make one, let alone drop it on hundreds of thousands of people. We saw where the A bomb was dropped. Saw where it was meant to hit (400 meters away). Saw bits of melted skin in a jar, saw a luekemia effected spine, saw some burnt bits of kids clothing and toys. Pretty awful. Worth it though.
- Went to have a go in the hot tub at the accomodation, when I went to put my feet in there was something that looked a lot like jizz floating around in it... I was always concerned about the cleanliness of these things... this just confirmed my suspicions that they were gross..

Kyoto:
- Went for an excellent bike ride. Didn't wear a helmet. Felt real dirty... but kinda good. Lucky I didn't die.
- Prob saw some more temples, they're getting pretty boring though.
- Gold pavilion thing, cool temple thing made of gold! That was shit hot looking. Best thing about it though were these kids who had some school assignment to practice english to tourists. It was great, had to sign off to say we'd listened to them. All the guys in our group were getting photos with them. After teaching it feels a bit wrong to take photos of school kids... but fuck it hey!
- Saw some castle.. yawn.
- Got lost - family were laughing at me with my toppled over bike, map in hand and hellova confused look on my face... atleast they helped me once they noticed that they'd been busted laughing at me.
- Had Mcdonalds atleast 3 times... was really over Japanese food 3 times a day by Kyoto... such a dirty feeling afterwards. Oh well. It was cheap and filling. Seemed to be hungry like 30 mins after eating Japanese food, even if I'd eaten until being full!

Tokyo - the return
Everyone from intrepid had dispersed by now. I was left in a hotel a few stops up from Ueno in Tokyo, close to where Jamie was. Hung out with him until he left. Highlights include:
- Went to Sony building, checked out all the latest crazy gadgets. Some 007 promotion on, we had to fill in this form from looking at things in the store and finding the stamp on the 4th floor, then we got our own 007 secret agent cards! Hell funny. I felt super lame, all good fun though.
- Shibuya crossing from lost in translation, had another good look at the masses of people crossing.
went into HMV and listened to some Japanese rock pop music. Real good. Also had a listen to the new Franz album, I liked the sound of it, esp track 7, gonna have to make the dl asap!

Travelled around by myself today:
- went to wicked markets in Asakusa
- Saw a whole bunch of crazies dressed up in Harajuku, there was also an area near yuyogi park where there were all these dudes impersonating elvis and dancing around to music.
- Another temple
- This cool street called Takeshita... I kid you not. I was acually the coolest street I have ever been down shopping wise, right up my ally... ha. Real alternative crazy shit, I could have purchased so much stuff.. I settled for a scarf and a shirt though.

K, fucked on about shit too long. Here are some things about my stay in Japan:
- listening to music on long trips in different countries makes me feel real weird, sad almost... reminds me too much of things from home... only been two weeks since I left.. shit I'm lame.
- range of toilets I experienced in Japan ranged from a squat toilet with a damn floor and no toilet paper to one where the lid opened automatically, it flushed automatically, the seat was heated, it played music, there were buttons that sprayed jets of water on your vag or your arse. Really cool!!! The only thing I never experienced was decent toilet paper, it was all this thin rough as guts shit... didn't make any sense.
- Japan needs more bins, more benches and more J walking.
- Although crazy fucking confusing to look at and understand at first, the Tokyo subway sistem IS managable.
- Trying to scam the metro fare system is not a good idea.
- it's impossible to pick a favourite place or thing I've done. The things I've seen and done are just too diverse to compare.
- Birthdays away from home and friends can be a bit hard.
- Kimono's are a bitch to walk in.
- Bullet trains are hell cool (well good, proper good).
- Intrepid trips with fellow single travellers make for a more sociable trip.
- Many Japanese people are entertained by far different things to me - those arcade game places are freakin nuts.
- It'll take longer than 2 weeks for me to get used to not eating toast or cereal for breakfast.
- I'm no good at remembering (not new news)

Once again, go to flickr for updated photo's.

Feasts, Kimono's, Birthdays and Kareoke

Hmm, so much has happened... hard to know when to begin. Doing so many things I'm finding it hard to get the time to get on the internet, write a proper post, and upload photos. I'm doing the uploading of photos and the post today!

I will describe the people on the tour:
Richard - 48 - New Zealand (but he looks much younger)
Jamie - 27 - London
Brad - 45 - US
Wendy - Over 60 - Sydney
Gordon and Jane - 50's - Scottland
Reena - 25 - London
Jerry - 36 - Ireland
Takayama - 35?! - Japan - group leader

Highlights since last post:

- Nikko - very beautiful small town. Went to this awesome bean throwing ceremony thing, forget what it's all about. It was hell fun though. There wasn't a whole lot of beans being thrown, more like packaged food and towels. Japanese people are supposed to be really polite etc, and they are... but man it was wicked to see them pushing, shoving and generally cutting sick to get at these parcels of goodness. It made me so happy. Like being in a moshpit of short asians.

- Went on this pirate ship like boat.



- Open air museum in Hakone - holy shit it was amazing, best museum I have ever been to. It was this huge out door area with art such as statues etc. My fave part was that heaps of the exhibitions were interactive, for kids.... but I got in there anyway. Slides, this awesome ropes course, plastic play fun times... I had a blast. These was this excellent picasso building. Made me realise how excellent he is, how diverse his artistic abilities are.



- 5th of Feb! 25th Birthday! Tour group surprised me with this awesome little cake and a card that they'd all signed. They sang happy birthday too. We caught the bullet train to Takayama that day. They are freakin fast! Made me real excited. The train ride was real nice. Makes we want to come back to Japan and really explore it properly. So many lovely things to see. Really want to come back when all the cherry blossoms are out, or in Autumn when the leaves change colours.
I got to wear a kimono to dinner... a special one coz it was my birthday! This woman from the hotel put it on me and tied an awesome bow with the obe. Everyone else wore less cool ones. Went to dinner at the hotel. We sat on mats around individual tables. It was a real feast! Some of the food was a bit crazy, most of it was real yummy though. After the feast we went to Kareoke... holy wowzers! It was hell fun, everyone got involved... I sang I will survive (cake style) and Stayin' Alive... We were all in a private room. I wasn't too nervous coz everyone was singing so loud you couldn't hear the person on the mic. There were instruments too, maracas and tambarines, so it was real good.









Coldest temperature experienced: -7 degrees celcius

Click here for more photo's.

Memoir of a wanking tramp

Can only do a quick post, off on the train to Nikko in a few mins.

Brief summary of things:

- Met tour group - all seem nice enough. Much different to last intrepid trip I went on. Last one was two families from Melbourne and two kiwi couples. This one = One couple, the rest single travellers, all a bit older than last one, I am the youngest! 4 girls and 6 boys.

- when I got off the train last night was with Jamie, the second youngest member of tour (27) and he said that we were about to go down homess ally, I thought he was joking, he wasn:t though. There were about 30 homeless people all lying down sleeping. Then when I looked down at one I noticed that he had his hands down his pants... jerkin it... terrible.

- woke up at about 7am this morning to my bed moving back and forwards, my first thought was that some bastard was having vigorous sex in the room next door. I then realised there was no room next door, it was infact an earth quake! Hoorah! Prob only lasted maybe 10 seconds. Pretty exciting though.

- Just saw mount fuji in the far distance from this very tall government building.

- Having a super excellent time, it`s everything I dreamed it would be! Hoorah!