Can't wait to fly to Japan...

I came across this article in the Sydney Morning Herald this morning. It's a good omen.

This is QF180 to Melbourne - your crew is fighting outside

Stormy weather, rowdy passengers and security threats, sure, but squabbling flight crew? That was the reason behind the cancellation of a Qantas flight from Tokyo to Melbourne on Good Friday.

Qantas has launched an investigation into a fight involving several of the aircraft's flight crew that ended up delaying hundreds of passengers and left a crew member in hospital.

The scuffle started out as a heated argument in a Tokyo night spot, about 15 hours before the long-haul crew was due to start work on the flight to Melbourne. As it intensified at least one punch was thrown, with one crew member needing treatment in hospital, it is understood.

7 days until I go to Japan

This is a photo of Akarenga (lit. Red Brick). Its located near Yokohama, and I really enjoy going to that general area at night. Especially in winter! I know that sounds strange, but winter is far and away my favourite season. Not only is it the only season that you can go skiing, but there is nothing better than a windy, winter night, walking through an area lit up with lights. And listening to music! I reckon Lifehouse is the best music to walk to...

Anyway, I've been going through my old photos of Japan, thinking about all the things that I've been wanting to do, and all the places I want to go. I really want to go to Hokkaido for the skiing. I'm determined to learn howto snowboard this coming winter. I'd also like to do a castle tour across Japan. I think I've already visited 4, but there's meant to be a couple of dozen littered across the country.

Culture crap aside, I've decided that I'm going to visit all of the good clubs in Tokyo (Roppongi, Shinjuku, and so on) and Kyoto, because there are some really good ones that I haven't visited yet, and I don't think that there is much in the way of objective information available for the English-speaking community in Japan.

---------------------Akarenga-------------------

8 days until I go to Japan...

I just got an email from a friend who asked me whether I'm starting to get excited about going to Japan yet. It's not the first time I've been asked that... it could well be the 813th time, but then who's keeping count? It's a fair enough question, and a decent conversation starter, but honestly, it hasn't really sunk in yet. With only 8 days to go, it would be natural to get excited about it - nervous - anxious - giddy. I'm just really numb.

It may be because I've lived there 3 times before, and although it'll be a new dormitory, a new university, and so on, it's always going to be the small things that make living overseas such an experience, and its the small things that I already know.

What do I mean by this? I did a search for other blogs written by Australians living in Japan, and I came across a really good one by Brad Stephenson, and one of his first blogs after he arrived in Japan was that he was surprised that a coffee he bought out of a vending machine was hot, thinking that it was going to be an ice coffee. It was good to read, because it was something that surprised me the first time I had lived in Japan, but I had comepletely forgotten about it. But that is one of the little things that makes living in Japan so unique, but it's also one of those things that you get used to living with.

Maybe it won't really sink in that I'll be going to Japan to live for three years until I actually get on the plane. The moment I sit down in the seat is when the totality of everything I'm about to embark on comes rushing at me. For now, it still seems too far off, too remote, and I'm just too busy with stuff to let it really sink in.

For example, in the past two months, I've been working Mon - Fri (9-5), I wrote the memorials for the Space Law Mock Trial Competition 2005, judge a bunch of practice moots, editted the Case Notes for the Ritsumeikan Law Review, submitted a paper proposal for the 2005 Space Congress, read about 20 books in preparation for my Masters degree, read about twice as many articles (and download that many twice again), did the paperwork for the Univeristy application, went through all the drama for the Japanese Student Visa application, attended a Japanese Law Conference, renew my drivers license twice (the second time for four years), book plane and ferry tickets to here-there-and-everywhere, 1.5 day holiday to the Gold Coast, Easter holiday to St. Helens, pack (see blog below), and I've just finished washing my car.

Tomorrow I have to clean my car again, cancel my gym membership, pack my clothes, box up everything else, sort out which books need to be sea-mailed off to my apartment in Japan (once I know the address), and pay my library fines (otherwise they won't let me graduate). None of this includes all of the farewell parties/drinks/dinners that I've had already, and will have over the next week.

But I'm sure that it'll all sink in once I actually sit down in my seat on the airplane - and for those who haven't heard, its on the upper deck!! When I found out, I got very excited, thinking that it might be business class. And then when I found out that the price of this one-way ticket was $3,500, I got even more excited... but I did a check on the website, and it turns out that JAL really are charging $3,500 for a one-way trip to Japan. The last time I went there, I managed to book a return air-fare, open for 1 year, from Sydney to Tokyo, for $1,050.

I'm not paying, though, so I guess that it doesn't much matter, but it would have been nice...

Packing

Packing is a bitch. I've made piles of things that:

• I absolutely must take;
• I absolutely have to take, but it weighs too damn much, so I have to put it in my backpack, and hope nobody wants to weigh it;
• I absolutely have to take, but it weighs too damn much, and I can't fit it into my backpack without the zip bursting open, and the zipper dislodging and hitting someone behind me;
• I really wanna take with me, but I can't justify it to the Packing Dictator (aka: Mum), so it hides behind my bed until she turns her back; and
• Friends want me to take to their friends/family in Japan.
  

And to make things all the better - I've got about 14kg (the suitcase weighs 6kg) in which to fit this in. Short of me becoming able to manipulate the fabric of time and space (!!), something is gonna have to give... I've nominated that the underwear get 'voted off the island'. I can go commando, or, at the very least, I can pull the ol' inside-outside-back-to-front trick. This is a trick passed down through the generations, whereby a single pair of jocks can be used 4 TIMES!

The Packing Dictator wasn't fond of the idea, so it was a pretty short conversation. She nominated the CD collection - that was an even shorter conversation. Its going to be an interesting next couple of days...

Bloody Hilarious Animation on the Web

There is an animation available online called "Everyone Else Has Had More Sex Than Me", and I laugh my arse off everytime I watch it. Check it out at Squetch. Another good site is the TGSNT II Peoples Choice Award. Also check out Atomfilms, though it is not limited to animations only.

When I was a Koala Handler back at Wonderland...

These are some photos taken from back in the day when I was a Koala Handler at Sydney's now defunct Australia's Wonderland... (the website is closed down)

I'll never forget those mottos and advertising blurbs those brilliant people in management and marketing used to come up with that were supposed to inspire us (the staff), and lure the unsuspecting public into Wonderland - the epitome of mediocrity and incompetent managerial staff. Anyway, here are a few of the blurbs -

Where the fun never ends!
You'll always remember your time at Wonderland!
SMILES - Service Motivation Initiative Loyalty Energetic Smile

Or some crap like that.

-----------------------Me and the girls----------------------

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Joy Of Joys

One of the lesser known joys of Japan is what I affectionately call the "Izakaya (Pub) - Karaoke - Stumble-Out-Drunk-And-Hurry-To-Catch-The-Shuuden (Last train)" process.

This is a tradition that I picked up in Japan whereby you

1. go with a bunch of mates to a pub - drink, eat, and drink some more;
2. crawl to the nearest Karaoke joint - drink, eat, sing, drink, drink, sing, and drink some more; and
   
3. then when you realise that you're late, you're horribly, horribly late, and that you only have 10 minutes until the last train for the evening leaves... and you stumble away, or perhaps walk at a brisk pace, depending on how drunk you are.
   

-----------------------------Out at Karaoke----------------------------

--------These are just a few of the many drinking stages---------

The educated observer will note that the can in my hand is a VB can... that is because I was in Sydney, Australia when the photo was taken. Yup... this 'process' can be transplanted anywhere... it's not just limited to Japan!