It's been awhile

It's been awhile. I have been neglecting this blog like one neglects say, an unwanted cat. I specifically say cat as I have neglected cats on the brain, having just finished reading Breakfast at Tiffany's, which is an amazing story and truly puts the movie to shame.
Quite a bit has happened in the past few weeks, so I shall start with the most recent and work my way backwards.

Tanjoubi

This week, it was not one, not two, but THREE of my friends birthdays, so it was quite a week. First, on Tuesday, we had a nomikai for Martin the Swede. I like Martin, interesting guy. Heavy drinker, heavy smoker, but few urbane man with an interesting history and intelligent demeanor. So a number of us got pissed for his birthday with great aplomb. We have a group of Swedes here notorious for partying, thus Hessu the Fin named them the "Swedish Mafia." Hysterical guys, those three. They were there, along with Gaddy the French-Canadian, myself, Leena the Fin, Toby the Canadian/Hong Kongese, Noah the Jewpanaese Californian, Phil from Oxford, Takumi my good Japanese friend, Noellia from Spain and many many more. It was a great time until the party ended.
On the street, afterwords, some crazy girl from SoCal decided it would be fun to steal a pack of cigarettes in a foreighn country, not realize that the store employed a guard. After snatching said pack, the guard kicked at her, and our friend Hiro, drunk off his ass, went to defend her and ended up getting punched int he face. Phil and Hesus, being LARGE men, pulled the guard off of Hiro, and to prevent him from demolishing the guard, Hiro's friend spirited him away. I come 'roudn the corner with Takumi, see Phil and no less then four police, and send Takumi in to take care of it. An hour later everyone was free to go, much shaken and pissed.

Fun

Immedietly following, now stressed to the max, I had an all-night karaoke-a-thon for my friends Seojon and Mindy. Alot of tiring fun, and a good way to destress from a night negotiating the release of our friends from the local policia.

The next day was another party lol. I had organized a Nabe and Sukiyaki tabehodai for Seojon's Birthday, which was great fun. We stuffed ourselves silly, then went back to the dorm for a bit of Wii and beer. Not a bad week.

On Tuesday day time, my Japanese classs went on a field trip to a Japanese traditional confectionary factory in Akasaka, whcih was really very interesting. We were able to observing the candy being made, and sampled some Autumn candies. Traditional Japanese candy is seasonal; as with most japanese food, taste, colour and look are tailored to express the season. As many Japanese will proclaim, Japan and Japan alone has four season (which is quite a shock to we Northeasterners, because like myself, we could swear we have four, but are apparently wrong lol).

Kamogawa

This passed weekend, I went with some crazy Japanese guys to the Waseda Seminar House in beautiful Kamogawa, about two hours from Tokyo propper on the other side of Chiba. The House is set on a hill, with a comanding view of the local area and the Pacific. It was a week of drinking, Onsen, more drinking, and Baseball. Everyone had fun except me, as Saturday night I was bed ridden by an aweful migraine the likes of which I haven't experienced in years. Enter Matti with his wonderful Brittish Paracetamol, which cured my up enough to sleep. Despite the pain, it was an amazing weeked; the view was amazing, the onsen right on the beach, and the weather lovely. The food was provided with the cost of staying at the House, and was also amazing. For dinner we had a lovely sashimi arrangment, and an amazing meal of grilled chicken, salad topped with ray, miso, and all the rice we could eat.

Nikko

The weekend before that, I travel with a few friends to Nikko. My god. We stayed at a quaint but downtrodden old ryokan, which had a nice little onsen so wasn't too terrible, and spent our first day wandering the Toshugu shrine. Toshugu is a sight to behold. A sprawling complex that takes hours to get through, it is ancient and considered (for those who don't know) a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I was amazed and astounded by the sheer beauty of this hilly shrine, cut into the Japanese mountains, surrounded by pines.
The second day, we travel up the mountains to see a touristy yet pictauresque waterfall, and the beautiful Lake Chuzenji. The lake is almost at the top of the mountains, and it's crystal clear water shoun in the sun and cold mountain air. We saw Japanese monkeys parading around town, and spent the afternoon in a nice little sulfur onsen, watching the lake and the ticking clock. Truly a nice and relaxing trip.

The larger events are truly amazing, but most of my time is taken by the grind of daily life. Wake, class, lunch, coffee with friends, dinner, sleep. Perhaps take a walk, perhaps hit a bar, but usually boring, boring everyday sort of living.

I have a number of things to comment on, but will save that for the next post, hopefully not in a month but perhaps a week lol.

Untill then, keep reading!