Guess where I’m writing from?

Come on… GUESS!

Last chance to guess before I tell you…….

OK, fine… I’ll tell you.  I’m writing this from 38,000 feet up in the air.  I’m currently on my way to ‘somewhere’ for two and a half weeks and I’m certainly looking forward to it.  So far the adventure hasn’t been all that bad either.  I had a nice shower in the morning to get ready for the trip, I caught my bus on time, had a nice leisurely trip from Tama Plaza to Narita Airport and even got to spend some time on the internet.  It wasn’t half bad.  However, there HAVE been a few hiccups since leaving the house.

The first trouble came about two hours into my twelve hour flight.  It wasn’t a mass disturbance or even bad turbulence… it was an older gentleman on the flight right behind me that decided it was a good idea to bring his own liquor onto the plane.  Normally this wouldn’t be that bad of an idea however he also proceeded to get very drunk, tried to sleep his way across three seats (on a full plane), was pretty loud and spilled his shochu (a Korean alcohol that is very popular in Japan) down the back of my seat while I was in the toilet.  Imagine my surprise when I get back to my seat, sit down and ‘wet’ my back.

However, I played the role of airline enforcer today since there were not air marshals on board (and if they were, they were pretty damn quiet).  I had to take over (somewhat) and usher the man back to his seat, then calm him down and explain in my best (or worst) Japanese that it was a good idea to sit down and shut up, or else he would have a large angry gaijin (a slang term for foreigners in Japan) on his hands.  Eventually he quieted down and went back to his seat, after which I suggested to the stewardesses the woman he was sitting beside be re-located as she looked very perturbed.  The airline staff politely complied and she was moved to a seat between two big Italian men who were letting off quite a nasty funk.  By the look on her face, I think she was thinking to herself “Why am –I– the one being punished?”  Sorry miss.

After politely bowing to other onlookers and explaining that everything is OK, I ended up having a couple people come over to me and introduce themselves.  One, a Chemist by the name of Yuuki, offered to buy me a beer for helping control the drunk.  Although that’s nice (and I am sure I’ll accept the offer once back in Japan), it just seemed odd to offer that after settling down a drunk.  Flattering, but funny.

I think there’s more, but I’m tired and I think somewhat jet-lagged…. so that’s all I’ll enter for now.  Another update (hopefully with photos!) later.

During one of my few days off, I took the chance to go exploring in the area that I live in.  Now, my apartment is located in the sub-city of Yokohama called ‘Tama Plaza’, a very nice new-money area.  I have no complaints about where I live other than the all too frequent party by those who are unemployed in the same building that I live in.  This gets very annoying very quickly.  Luckily for me, thanks to a few tussles back in Canada, I have developed my courage and am not afraid to take a punch as I know I’m not made of glass.

But, I digress…

On my day off, I thought I would start walking from Tama Plaza and head North from my apartment.  I recall from years ago that if I walk north and up a hill, I would eventually come to a very large (and beautiful) park.  Well, after about a twenty minute hike up a hill that would make most car engines over-heat, I finally made it to the top of the hill and was rewarded (in a sense) by two things.  First of all, I discovered that this is ’spider season’ in Japan.  The time of year when every tree, bush and leaf has a pair of ass-ugly spiders either mating or waiting for lunch.  Gross (I’m not a fan of spiders in the LEAST).  The second thing I was rewarded with was a lovely view (when I changed my focus away from the spiders of death in front of me) of a very nice park, the same one that I had walked through four years ago.

Many may think that this is where my days adventure would end, but they would be terribly wrong.  After taking a hop, skip and a jump through the park and after politely saying hello to a mother who was walking her children, one of which was learning to rid a bicycle, I continued my walk past the park and into a more industrial section of the city.  It was not until I returned home and talked to my good buddy Kazz that I found out I had strayed away from Yokohama and was then officially in Kawasaki city!  For those not in ‘the know’, Kawasaki is similar to Regina in a sense that it’s more of an industrial city, has lower taxes and is somewhat dirtier and more unkempt.  Walking through this city was certainly different from walking around the areas of Yokohama and Tokyo in that it was indeed somewhat dirtier and less groomed.  While I could explore Yokohama and noticed no litter on the streets, no weeds growing from between the sidewalk cracks… it was opposite in Kawasaki for some reason.  I’m not sure if there is less city pride, or if the city itself simply does not have the budget to keep it looking nice, but it is very different from the other parts of Japan.

Passing through the city, I stopped in an old favorite shop, the PC Depot and International Liquor Store (no, not together).  Both had the same layout that I remembered from before and both had unique items that I had to strain not to buy.  After forcing myself out the doors of these two shops, empty handed mind you, I continued in what I could only assume was East along one of the main roads.  Many people stopped and stared at me as I guess I was the first white face to show up ‘around these parts’ in quite a while.  I didn’t mind though and a few times I made eye contact, politely greeted and bowed with a simple ‘konichiwa’ and had it returned (to my surprise!).

Eventually after asking a beautiful young Filipina (who I had assumed was of Japanese descent), I was pointed in the correct direction of the closest station (Kajigaya).  I was informed that for a young guy like me, it should only take about thirty minutes to walk there (holy crap, it MUST be far) and after coming home and checking Google Earth, indeed it was a long ways away!  3 km away!!!  However, to the point of this post… while walking up hill, I caught a smell of something… something wonderful, something amazing, something delicious…. something that smelled like brownies my mother used to make back in Canada!  I kept walking and following the scent, every ten steps, deeply inhaling the delicious aroma!  Well, what had been a wonderful experience soon ended as I took one last deep breath in through my nose, only to be blindsided by a horrific smell of Japanese sewer….

After nearly throwing up, I figured I should just leave the brownies to my memory for now and begin to inhale air through my mouth instead.  Indeed I was assaulted that day.

I’ve always enjoyed my trips to cities around Canada, however one is a little more entertaining than the rest…. and that city is Calgary.  The reason that I can enjoy Calgary so much is that there is always something new to see, something interesting to do, and something (or place) that I drive by that reminds me of when I was young.  Take this recent trip as an example… driving down McLeod trail South and I passed by a big car-wash with a rather large ‘rocket’.  Well, I remember driving past that in awe back in 1998 and thinking “That is the coolest thing ever!!  A rocket ship outside of a car wash/gas station!”  It’s just the simple things like that.

And without further adieu, I bring you the first of six videos (pictures to come!) of the trip into Calgary, Alberta, Canada.