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An Aussie in Japan

Sunday, June 19, 2005

I'm so excited...

It really doesn't take much to get me excited.

For example, I got excited when I found out that the Seven Eleven down the road sells Ramune in a can (traditional Japanese soft drink). I got really excited when I went to buy a laser printer on friday - I've been dying to print out my notes and research. It didn't bother me that I had to spend 10 minutes hunting down a salesperson to get them to get one for me out of storage - I was too excited about getting my printer... It didn't bother me that it took him 30 minutes to find one - I was going to be printing out notes until the early morning... (or as Loz suggested, I could use it to print out porn, but I don't need to print it out - I can just buy a Playstation Portable for that) It didn't even bother me that it ended up weighing 400 kilograms by the time I got it home... after carrying it home through the rain... without an umbrella. What did bother me, however, was, after this whole ordeal, realising that the cable necessary for connecting it to the computer was missing. The swear words came thick and fast, and the printer box was physically traumatised - it now sits by the door in 5 pieces awaiting the day I could be bothered taking it to the rubbish bin, and there are little pieces of foam lying here, there and everywhere, in places I've yet to discover - and that is saying a hell of alot... I can't stand packing foam - touching it, smelling it and hearing it rub against something... anything... drives me crazy. I specifically asked the moron if the necessary cables were included - to which he responded with a resounding "Of course!"

BREAKING NEWS - just had an earthquake... just a little one though - we get them occasionally. The freaky thing is that I still feel like I'm moving...

But what I'm really, REALLY excited about is HANABI (fireworks). Hanabi is one of my three favourite times of the year in Japan. Unlike Sydney, where the only fireworks you see are during the NYE celebrations, the Hanabi Festivals in Japan go all out. Everywhere has their own special firework festivals, but my favourite one is back in town I lived in when I first came to study here in high school. They're held on a little island in the middle of a river that runs on the outskirts of town, and everyone just sits on the riverbank drinking beer and eating fried noodles, and ice-Slurpy like products.

Back in the day, I went there with a friend of mine, and we decided that we weren't close enough to the action, and after a few beers, we decided that it was high time that we drank some more, and after drinking all of that, we made the somewhat inebriated decision to walk though the 7 foot reeds to the very edge of the river. And so we did. I wasn't so sure that cutting straight thought the reeds was the very best idea, but my friend said it would be ok, and so I sent her into the reeds ahead of me to see how far it was to get to the other side. She walked a few metres, declared that she could see the sand on the other side, and so I, with a six-pack of beer, started to do my best Indiana Jones impression and cut myself a path through the reeds with my imaginary machete. It took a good five minutes of both of us getting caught in the reeds, falling over, and laughing, getting lost, getting up, and falling over again, before we reached the other side. When I reached the other side, I realised that I had left the beer in the reeds when I had fallen over - so I got out my machete again and ventured back in. Another 5 minutes later of groping around in the dark, with only the occasional fireworks to light my way, did I manage to escape with my alcohol firmly in my grasp.

I can't wait for the Hanabi to start.

1 Comments:

  • Sounds like a blast!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:42 PM  

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