Hey there,

 

Only woke up about an hour ago, first time since being here that i've been able to sleep in.  I think it was becuase i was just that fucking buggered.  Andrew and I went to Kobe for the day yesterday and spent a good 5-6 hours walking non-stop, and i'm just not as young as i used to be, thats for bloody sure.  So yeah, buggered.  Lets recap :D

 

So yeah, Andrew wanted to go to Kobe, and suggested it on Monday.  I've wanted to go there since coming so sounded perfect.  I asked Tristan about it, he reckoned the best way to get there was to catch the bus that goes directly to Sannomiya (the centre of Kobe) from Sanda.  It's a little more expensive than the trains, but you dont have to change trains at all.

 

So we went down to the bank, i got some cash out (the atms are amazing, you can deposit coins and shit in them, it's crazy) before we headed to the bus stops.  Catching a bus was a lot more difficult that it seemed, even with our experience of the Aeon bus.  Took us ages to find the Sannomiya bus, i had to ask people, who pointed and ranted.  Was a useful experience.  The bus was more like a coach, and we jumped on. 

 

Around 50 minutes worth of looking at scenery and playing Pokemon later, we arrived in Kobe.  It's a really nice city.  I already knew after we got after the bus that i would like it more than Osaka.  It just had a better vibe, i cant explain it very well, but i think city's have vibes (Auckland doesn't really cos it has no soul), and it's the reason i didn't like LA a lot, but really liked San Diego.  Smaller cities feel more welcoming, homely, nicer somehow.  Maybe it's just me.  So from the bus terminal we started walking around and found another Daiei (a big department store thing with a food court, there is one where Andrew works.  We went and looked in there first off. 

 

Japan has this thing for very slender, very tall, department stores, so the floors aren't very big, but there's a lot of them.  So after we found a Wendy's Burgers on the 2nd floor, we looked through the whole thing.  On our way down, i stopped in the men's section and bought a t-shirt.  Which you can see below.  It cracked me up so much i couldn't not buy it, especially as it was only about $13.  Also bought some Mini-DV tapes for my camera (which are coloured plastic and have animals on them :D).  So we then went and ate lunch at Wendy's.  It was very good, i had some kind of double cheeseburger thing, Andrew had this awesome chicken burger with chilli mince on it!  I was jealous, shoulda picked that one too.  Next time.  Oh yeah, and also had a sundae, but mango flavour, was very interesting. 

 

Post lunch, the wandering began.  We had been warned there isn't a hell of a lot to see a such in Kobe, not sightseeing wise, and it was true, but that doesn't stop it from being a really nice place.  There's absolutely no sign of the major earthuquake that hit it, except for maybe these houses that are under the raised train tracks, and have massive cracks through them.  Wandering in a general square direction, we visited a huge electronics shop, looking for a DS Lite for Andrew, but surprise surprise, sold out.  Visited several other shops with the same result.  Though in one i did see a Sony poster with Liam Gallagher on it, that was awesome.

 

We managed to find our way into the centre of town and started going down huge arcades full of shops, not looking for anything in particular, just looking.  This carried on for some time until we found the mother of all arcades, Motomachi.  It starts at Motomachi 1 anf goes all the way to Motomachi 6, changing number everytime in crosses a small road.  It must be kilometres long, it's insane, but awesome.  I had come to Kobe expecting to find a manhole to add to my collection easily.  Boy, was i wrong.  They have all these square shitty ones and like zero round ones.  So i took a couple of photos of the square ones, upset cos they dont meet my requirements, but thought maybe thats it.  However, in blessed Motomachi, while checking to see if there was new square one, i found a round one! It's been added to the gallery.  We spent heaps of time in Motomachi, finding an HMV even (huge world music chain).  And found some fairly cheap, very cool cd's.  Makes me contemplate buying Japanese versions of certain cd's, like Tool ones, and selling them when coming back to Wellington, i bet they'd sell for heaps on Trade Me.  Also found this incredibly awesome Oasis singles box set, covering every one of their albums.  So every single for the last 12 years.  $350 though, dont quite know how i'd justify that.  We'll see, i'll think about it.

 

After exiting Motomachi we made our way in the general direction of somewhere called Harbour Town.  Took us a while to get there, but it was really cool.  Giant mall, that was really dark and really empty, reminded me of Queens Wharf when that was retail, just a forgotten mall maybe.  Following exploring that we left and made our way through yet another mall, with a strange obsession for things made out of buttons (see photos).  It was also an astrologically themed mall, there was huge constellations dispersed throughout.  It was in this mall that we found the bear, the moose, and that Hell's Choir of Manakins in some clothing store.  Makes me shudder even thinking about it. 

 

From there we made it to Mosaic, which we quickly learned was a small theme park, whether or not it had a cover charge we dont know, we didn't go in.  But it was right on the sea.  It was great to see the ocean again.  Hadn't seen it over 20 days, which though isn't long, it is in New Zealand.  Was a good place to photograph, and was just a really really nice place.  By this time, it was about 5 o clock, and we decided to walk the huge distance back to the bus terminal.

 

Man, the walk back was a killer.  By the time we got back to Sannomiya, i was fucked.  Andrew was fairing only slightly better, and just really wanted to get onto the bus and go.  However, where we got dropped off by the bus there was no timetable or anything, obviously NOT where you catch it from.  After waiting to see if one would turn up for about 15 mins we gave up and went into the main ticket building, scanned the boards, no sign of the Sanda kanji we've learned so well (三田, first one means says San, Japanese for 3 and the other one i presume says Da, which is field).  So I ended up asking the guy in the ticket booth, and for his complete lack of English he managed to communicate what he meant well.  So after learning the bus company name, and finding out where they left from (which we already suspected) we found the station, waited, jumped on the bus, and came home.

 

A very cool day, but very exhausting.  Later that night, the flatmates and I and Erica (tuesday is movie night in my flat) watched a recent German film called Perfume.  It's in english, but it's directed by Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run, Winter Sleepers), a guy we studied in the German Cinema paper in third year.  Was a bloody crazy film, about a guy with no social skills who has the most extraordinary sense of smell, and after killing a woman and finding that her scent leaves once she dies, he tries to find a way to bottle every scent in nature, in particular the scent of women.  Yeah, it's really good, really dark, but also has this fairytale aspect to it, the music, and a lot of the things that happen, reminded me of a very grim Edward Scissorhands in an odd way.  Worth a watch though, definitely.  Has Dustin Hoffman and Alan Rickman.

 

Weather's shit here, was intending to go back to the shrine, but thats looking unlikely, which is gay, but there ya go, rainy season's upon us here.

 

Until next time, appreciate the sea more than you normally do.

 

Neil

Hey everyone,

 

I just got home, and i'm feeling a wee bit boozed still.  After work our team had big plans for Karaoke, but we'll come to that shortly.

 

Because before that, i had my first Japanese Indian Experience.  Not knowing what i was going to do for dinner, and having two hours to kill (i finished work at 5, the place doesn't close till 7), Veronica and Christine, an Australian and San Diego American respectively, invited me to their local Indian that they were gonna go to before coming back to Takarazuka.  I thought this was a great idea, i've been missing Indian hard out.  So off we went.

 

Christine and Veronica flat together in this place about 10 mins by train away called Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi, or Nishikita as everyone calls it.  Caught the train on the Hankyu line (a line owned by a completely different company than my usual train route, the JR, Japan's crazy like that) down to Nishikita and got there around 6.  We strolled down the platform and to the Indian which was maybe 5 mins away and easy as to spot, a giant mo' fuckin' Indian flag being outside and all.  What was inside was magical.

 

It was so intimate, not room for more than about 20 people, and an open kitchen you could see into.  The head waitress (and only waitress) who is apparently the owner speaks quite good English and greeted us with our mother tongue.  Looking at the staff, the chef was clearly Indian but speaking Japanese, a completely surreal experience in itself.  But it was the others, who looked half Indian half Japanese that were truly fascinating.  Japanese features, but darker skin and different hair.  Completely bizarre and i couldn't stop staring. 

 

The food was really well priced, and well, crazy.  It was 1500Y ($15 roughly) for an entree with two tandoori chicken things, a small coleslaw and this spicy as tube of meat, yup, tube of meat.  Was great.  Then the main arrived.  I couldn't believe it, in fact i didn't, i thought it was some mysterious other course.  The plate had a massive Naan on it, a small bowl of curry and a half sphere of rice, literally 5cm in diameter.  I was like "where's the rest!? no wonder it's so cheap!" but i kept it to myself.  Then i watched the girls and you use a spoon, not a fork, and dip the rice into the curry! Haha, was hilarious, and then use the naan the same way.  It was great, an awesome way to eat Indian.  Filled me up surprisingly too.  After that the final course came, a mango lassi in a stainless steel tumbler.  It was delicious, the best i've ever had by far.   An amazing meal/experience. 

 

We sat talking the whole time about all kinds of things, what everyone is here for, wanting to get out of Japan etc.  Was a fascinating conversation.  Mentioned the mango clause hilariously.  As we sat, it dawned on me on what an amazing place Japan really is.  It is so unbelievably weird in some ways, like really fucked up, and full of contradictions, but it's also really wonderful.  The customer service is completely unparalleled.  Greetings and routine speeches every single shop you go in, and always the widest smiles.  Thought they are a strange people, they are also so kind and lovely.  Reserved yes, and the idea that "a standing nail will always be hammered down" as they say, certainly stops a lot of individuality and free thinking it seems.  But after all this pondering, I realised that the thing i will miss the most about Japan when i do leave will be the moist towelettes.

 

Yes, that's right, not the people, the architecture, the nature, the organisation or the efficiency, nope, it'll be the moist towelettes.  Every single place you go, from the humble McDonalds to the most expensive restaurant, they are plentiful.  You are given individually wrapped ones at takeaway places, just as we used to get in KFC in NZ, only bigger, wetter, thicker and better.  And at restaurants, they give you hot wet towels, just like in planes.  It's amazing, and instantly makes you feel better no matter how shit you're feeling.  It's so great, and something i especially love since i never expected it.

 

So ANYWAY, we went back to Takarazuka and met up with the colleagues before hitting the Kareoke.  So there was Krsthe (it's Chris, but it's Macedonian, he's an aussie wog), Kevin (am american), Jen (who everyone calls Ariel cos she's so straight laced, like a Disney character.  She's Chinese-Canadian), Christine, Veronica (or Vera as she's called), Scott (an american), myself, and Hawaiian Brian our boss.  Was a weird group to sing in front off, but as soon as we got in there, we ordered drinks and everything was sweet.  We had it for 2 hours, i think i sung maybe 5 songs, not too bad, as well as singing a whole bunch of backup vocals :D I sung Morning Glory by Oasis, Fast Love by George Michael (which was REAL hard, but i sung it for Anita, hope you remember why and are reading this), Paranoid by Black Sabbath, The Power Of Love by Huey Lewis & The News and Last Christmas by Wham!.  Really wanted to sing Linoleum but alas, no NoFX.

 

I sung Last Christmas the first time i ever tried karaoke, assuming i knew the words because i knew the chorus.  Ehh, wrong.  The verses are real fucking hard.  So everytime since then (like two years ago) when i've listened to it i've tried to get the verses down with the hope of singing it again.  Pulled that bitch out tonight and whooped it.  It was the very last song of the night and everyone sung the choruses with me, and although i could have done it better, it was comparitively awesome and topped off a real great night.  Karaoke is so much fun.  It isn't exactly cheap, but thats due to the the drinking more than anything.

 

So yeah, that was my night.  Maybe time for bed, got my half day tomorrow before the weekend.  Possibly going drinking tomorrow night at a local bar with Keith, Krsthe and Karl, i guy i met at the training i had on friday in Okamoto. We'll see how that goes.

 

Until next time, give your sister and or mother a big hug from me.

 

Neil

Hey everyone,

 

Get the bad news out of the way straight away.  We are not Champions League champs this year.  But we will be again, and soon.  I had to comfort my Liverpool FC obsessed student, who was fairly distraught.  Poor guy.

 

So yeah, i uploaded a shit load more photos, mostly of Miwa Shrine, to the Sanda folder.  I've been trying to find somewhere since arriving to be able to sit and relax, meditate, gather my thoughts, feel inspiration etc.  On one of my days off this week, i found it at Miwa Shrine.  Miwa Shrine is the local Shinto shrine here in Sanda (the national Japanese religion other than Buddhism).  It's really peaceful there and Andrew and I went there and poked around, having a look and expploring the bush behind the shrine.  Managed to find a huge bamboo thicket and a couple of places to sit, but nothing really of much interest. 

 

I returned the next day and gave it a close look.  I sat in the bush, but the Japanese wilderness did not want me there.  Giant ants, possibly termites Andrew reckons, started crawling on my feet, as well as small spiders and heaps of tiny flying beetles and mosquitoes.  They also have absolutely massive beetles here, size of your palm and jet black.  People keep them as pets, its freaky as.  Especially since the female ones can fly.  Imagine toxically mutated Huhu Beetles and you're still not even close.  So I gave the bush up as a bad idea and moved down to in front of the shrine.  Finding the solitary bench in the whole area, i sat with my notebook and started thinking.  It's really peaceful, and it was really nice to find somewhere where i feel close to at peace.  I did a lot of thinking (i haven't stopped thinking about everything full stop since arriving), but the shrine area gave me some clarity.  I also managed to scribble a few notes of a poem, but it's only a skeleton, i'll have to flesh it out a bit more later when i'm feeling a bit more inspired.  So about 5 hours later, i left, feeling the burden of my thoughts and responsibilities weighing a little less on my back. 

 

Back to work today.  Had absolutely no desire whatsoever to go back, but the day was ok.  Not great, not shit.  But i'm certainly not enjoying the job as i originally hoped.  It has been only a week however, we'll see if it improves.  I have training tomorrow in some other Nova branch, which i have to catch three seperate trains to get to.  I'm petrified that i'll end up somewhere completely wrong.  And the likelihood is great, which will go down like a lead balloon at Nova head office.  Oh well, i can only try my best.

 

Not any more news i'm afraid, except that the Heroes finale was a considerable let down.  Will still be tuning in next season, but i'm not happy about it.

 

Until next time, get a kami friend to assist you in a war against humankind.

 

Neil 

Hey there,

 

Now that i've grabbed your attention i'll explain.  Hiroshi was my last lesson today.  A level 3 (worst is level 7C, native speakers are 1), and about 40 years old, he hates taking actual lessons out of the book.  So we just chatted about stuff since his English is so good, and hey, he's paying.  So we ended up talking about how Kansai region (Osaka etc) is notorious for "Obachan", the anti-Japanese woman.  He was saying Western men like Japanese girls becuase they are percieved as meek and timid.  Obachan are middle aged women who are the complete opposite.  They talk to Gaijin (westerners), in either broken english or japanese, not caring whether you understand them.  They may also offer you candy and other assorted treats and have even been known to pinch bottoms.  "Wow" i said, "that;s rather crazy", to which Hiroshi replied "yeah, aggressive pussy".  I couldn't stop laughing for so long.  I'm pretty sure he knew what he was saying too.  Classic.

 

Also had my Liverpool student Shinji today.  He's about 19, and always seems to tie the conversation back to to Liverpool FC.  Today we were talking about dream houses, his of course, was in Liverpool.  A beautiful thing indeed.

 

So life's kind of plateauing out a bit.  I'm getting more used to being here, but i'm still completely unsure of how long i'll stay.  I'm not homesick for Wellington at all really, but i miss people immensely.  I came here with the object of finding perspective, to find out what i want from life, and how to get it.  I feel i have some clarity already, but i haven't figured everything out just yet.  So time will tell.  Work is ok, sometimes it drags and i really hate it. Not so much the work, it's easy, but when i feel shit, i have to pretend to be so happy and lovely and put on that "Nova Smile".  I mean please. At least with data entry or my phone job at Studylink if you were pissed off you can stay pissed off and still do your job competently. 

 

My flatmates are awesome, Tristan just got back from Taiwan, saw some photos, looks really cool.  Colleagues are pretty cool, the majority of them anyway.  A couple are kind of weird, but yeah, ya gotta expect that.  Kinda got my first warning today, very weird.  Noone told me that when noone shows up for the lesson (called a "free") you still have to do something that looks like being busy.  And this guy filling in called Richard was there saturday (my second day of work) and i was unaware he was a regional boss, the equivalent of mine, Hawaiian Brian (who only works weekdays so was away).  So when richard asked what i was doing i said "chatting".  And he left a note for Brian  saying how unproductive i was apparently.  So real good impression made.  Brian talked to me about it today, cutting me some slack cos it was only my second day and he said Richard should have been trying to welcome me to the company instead of narking on me.  Well there ya go.

 

Andrew and I adventured around Osaka last thursday.  Didn't really accomplish a hell of a lot, except some new photos (please see the new set up for them) including a couple of new manholes.  Oh we went to the Poke Centre which was surprisngly small, and had basically nothing from the original 150 pokemon, so dream of giant Jigglypuff well and truly dashed.  It appears Pokemon in Japan essentially reboots everytime a new game comes out, so yeah, just bad timing that Diamond and Pearl are so new.  But, most importantly, we stumbled across the Studio Ghibli shop in Namba train station.  And i came away from it with two different Totoro's!! a Bigish plush toy of the Big Totoro and a smaller one of the medium sized blue one off the movie.  Hehe, they're awesome.

 

Not a hell of a lot else to say, will keep you updated should anything interesting happen. Hope everythings cool in NZ. 

 

Until next time, watch some good tele for me.

 

Neil

Hi there people,

 

Just got home from my first day of work, and the lovely work friendly hour of 10:00pm.  More on that in a second.  So yeah i got bitten.  Not by the Japan bug, not yet anyway, but definitely by A Japanese bug.  So i woke up this morning and felt this bite on my lower back, i swiped it and popped something, presumably the bug, i didn't have my glasses on.  Suddenly i had a huge lump that hurt whenever i touched it.  I showed it to Tristan who said it looked like a bite and in the shower even the hot water on it hurt real bad.  It's since died down, but i was worried i had been attacked by some kind of crazy kamikaze spider.

 

So yeah work.  Well, what a rollercoaster.  When we arrived and we were going through everything it seemed hellish.  Got i haven't felt that unbelievably scared if starting a job ever, it's just something that i have never ever done, so i have no idea if i have the skills for it.  There's so much thinking on the spot involved.  After a while, they threw us in the deep end and made us do part of a lesson with another teacher.  I was with Jen, this very Japanese looking Canadian who was lovely, and we had this 12 year old boy who was really really tired and was pretty easy really, did a lesson on vacations. After our break, what was dinner i suppose, we did more learning of the theory, and when he told us we were to do a whole half a lesson i started to feel so damn sick.  Just so gross, nervous and sweaty and yeah, gross as.  We finally did it as the last thing before going home, i was with our trainer this time (a man affectionally named Hawaiian Brian, to avoid confusion with Andrew's flatmate) and had this probably 40 year old guy who is like a surf lifesaver/marathon runner, whose English is what is known as a 6 (they are ranked in levels, 1 being a native speaker, through to 6 then 7A, B, and 7C being the worst) and we did a lesson on bad restaurant experiences.  I pulled out the Tulsi Nightmare of 2006 (?) which got some laughs.  I could have done better, but handled it alright.  So 9 hours later we got to go home, finally, exhausted.  Two days of training left. I teach a full class tomorrow though, i'm petrified.  I'll keep you posted.

 

Yesterday, we went to Takarazuka (where we're currently training and where i'm posted) to check it out and look around.  It's quite a nice place, i took some photos so will post them up shortly.  I've discovered that you find different yet all elaborately brilliant manhole covers in different places.  Soi might start a photo collection of them.  Along with that, i will be keeping a photo diary of all the nutty things i eat, well, not really nutty, but funny or things i want at least some evidence existed before i throw away the packet.  So keep an eye out for that.

 

Oh yeah, we also went back to Aeon yesterday so Andrew could buy an external harddrive.  I also bought this Converse jacket for 1500¥, like $15! Amazing, and exactly what i needed, a windbreaker type thing.  Cheap cos the weather's about to get real hot.  Put a couple of pictures of it at the end of this blog,

 

Until next time, eat something with the name closest to "Crunky".

 

Neil

 

P.S. Hulk and Brooke Hogan were on tele the other morning! Andrew and I just happened to stumble across them on a variety show, with this stupid Japanese Magician who could bend spoons by rubbing them and had rope tricks.  Of course Hogan just bent the spoons.  Ahh Hogan, you hilarious man with your Kanji t-shirt, your appeal truly is universal.

Hey anyone out there,

 

I've been feeling a lot better today, not as homesick now that i've been able to talk to my mother through the wonders of G Talk and the internet.  It's been a busy few days really, We went to Osaka the other day, a ridiculously large place.  Went to the this electronics shop,Yodobashi Camera, absolutely insane.  Six floors of electronics.  We spent yonks looking at cellphones only to be told by the guys that they wouldnt accept our temporary Alien forms (our permanent Alien takes a month to process), so no fuckin cellphone.  My flatmate Luke was with us, and helped us with all the translating and finding shit, cos we would have been so lost, the train station itself is absolutely gigantic, and all underground.

 

Yesterday we set up our bank accounts in Sanda, got a really nice girl who spoke pretty good English which she'd learnt at Nova hilariously.  So we got that set up.  We intended to catch a bus to Aeon, this huge mall close buy, but we couldnt work out how the buses work.  We watched people get on (you get on through the back door), one person swiped some scan card and another person just hopped on and didn't do anything! So we gave it up, and went and caught a train to Flower Town, which is where Andrew will be working. 

 

Except that we didn't.  I fell asleep on the train, literally within two mins, cos the journey's only about 7 mins, cos i'm still not sleeping properly and waking up at 6ish each morning and Andrew missed the sign for Flower Town so we ended up catching the train all the way to the end of the line which was Woody Town.  We got out and had a big look around the mall there which was very cool, had crazy stuff outside and saw my first KFC in Japan in it too.

 

Today we decided we'd go to the 100Yen shop and buy some bits and pieces and also go back to Toys R Us cos my flatmate Luke wanted us to buy him a navy DS Lite as new stock came in today (DS is insanely popular in Japan, every man and his dog has one and stock, particularly of a certain colour, is usually gone within a day, everywhere just gets sold out.).  So I bought him that, and took out shopping back to the flat.  We then went and caught a bus to Aeon, as we were told by Tristan, my other flatmate, that you pay at the end of the journey.  So we jumped on the bus and were still utterly confused as we weren't sure how the machine gave you change.  Turns out it's an honesty system.  An electronic monitor tells you how much your trip cost from your stop and you just put the correct change into this box at the end.  You could get away with putting anything in there, hell, bottle caps would make the same sound.  Ahh, gotta love the Japanese.  So we paid the correct amount of money and went into this mall. 

 

Aeon in incredible.  The mall is gigantic, and feels like it's in the middle of nowhere.  It reminded me heaps of an outside mall i visited in San Diego, oval shapes floors with a big hole through the centre.  We had lunch, first experience of McD's.  It was great.  Andrew only seemed to get a burger, due to lack of Japanese ability, since all we do is nod to whatever they say.  I still managed to get a combo, this nice chicken burger, kind of like Chicken Royale, and was sure to also get a McFlurry.  Thats right, my fav dessert, McFlurry, has just started here.  And they were the size of the american ones, huge, about the size of a medium drink,.  Mmm, oreo.  The chips were also obscenely large, you could never get away with fries that big in NZ or any other really PC, fat-obsessed country. 

 

We carried on looking around, i got some earphones with a mic and a USB ipod cord, Andrew got nothing.  We went home via the 100Yen shop again, and i bought my first beer in Japan out of a vending machine.  Was alright, lager, reminded me of Mac's Gold, which i've recently gone off anyway. 

 

Shortly afterward my flatmates arrived home from work, and a whole big group of us went out to dinner.  There was Beck, a canadian, Erica, a brit, my flatmates Tristan, a brit, and Luke, a yank, Andrew, me, Andrew's flatmate Bryan, a brit, and a japanese girl who works at Nova booking appointments and stuff named Miyumi.  We went to a traditional Japanese restaurant down the road.  Was gorgeous, cooked it all in front of ourselves.  Had great conversation, a couple of beers (good ones this time), nice food (everything incl. garlic octopus was delicious) and killer desert (a tea green sponge cake thing filled with liquid chocolate and ice cream on the side.  Was quite expensive since we ordered so many dishes, about 3000 yen all up, (round about 35 bucks).  From there the party really started.

 

We went upstairs (this place in literally five mins walk from our place) and did some Karaoke.  Its different to NZ, you pay a flatfee each at the start, we paid about 800Yen for 2 hours, and you go into this small room and sit around a table together and have a screen in front of you.  So we made all these song choices.  Was brilliant.  You feel so much more comfortable than singing in front of a bar.  I helped Bryan out on the first song by doing Phil Daniels bits in Parklife by Blur (which are the hard bits).  Andrew finally sung a song half way through the night, Blood on Blood by Bon Jovi, which i helped him out with. 

 

Another couple of beers later and i was having the time of my life.  Other great songs sung include, Madonna's Holiday (apparently Bryan and Tristan's speciality), Sk8ter Boi, Black Crowes, the most killer version of Rollin' you'll ever hear (Luke's a good rapper and him and Tristan must have sung that song so often cos it was amazing), Sonny & Cher, Spandau Ballet - True, absolutely loads of things.  I sung by myself A View To A Kill by Duran Duran, which was hard, it gets real high in bits, Supersonic by Oasis and Come Together. Also sung Come Out and Play, with Beck doing my "you gotta keep em seperated" back up.  We closed out with an awesome rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody where we split into two sides.  Was amazing.  Most fun i've had in a while, and first time i've been really really happy since being here.

 

Everyone just went home and i'm waiting for the latest Lost to finish downloading.  Maybe i'll go to sleep instead, it's half one, and i'll probably wake at six for fuck's sake.

 

Love you all,

 

Neil

 

Postscript: Forgot to add that I had a Cherry flavoured Kit Kat! It was cherry chocolate, not a cherry filling, was very pink and very strange, but good! Also amazingly enough, went into a music shop at Aeon and found not only a small display with Hayley Westernra cd's on it but also one with Nesian Mystik cd's! Haha, a whole display for Nesian Mystik.  Crazy.  Oh and saw a Steriogram cd there too.

Hey there,

 

I wonder who's reading this.  It's Thursday and i've woken up after another night of sleeping badly.  Half of it is the jetlag, being used to NZ time, and the other half is that i have no curtains, the light streams through my door and wakes me up. 

 

I'm not going to beat around the bush, the last three days have been the hardest of my life.  I wasn't gonna write a blog, and have been putting it off becuase hey, noone wants to read about depressing things, but i thought hey, it's my blog, and my friends read it, so maybe they will care.

 

I think the reasons are many.  I'm missing home, i'm missing family, i'm missing friends, and i'm missing Anita.  It's funny, i've never been one to miss most of those things, but i've never been in this situation, such a hard adjustment.  I've felt continually sick for 3 days now.  My stomach's been a tight ball in my body and it makes me want to throw up all the time. 

 

Why do i feel like this when i should be having the time of my life? I'm not sure, maybe I just need time to adjust, maybe its the fact that it seems i've been here forever and it's been 3 days, and that i have a year to be here.

 

What will become of it all? Only time will tell.  To be honest, i just want work to start.  I dont feel like i'm on holiday, i don't feel like these 5 days or so before work are awesome, maybe i will in a couple of months, but i want to know whether this job will be my cup of tea, because if it isn't, what am i doing here?

 

The language barrier is hard, knowing zero Japanese, and contrary to Chris's remarks, not everyone speaks English, in fact most people dont at all.  It must have been his charming good looks.  But we did go to Japanese lessons last night in town with my flatmate Luke who's really good at the japanese.  Was the first time in these three days that my stomach unwound, and i felt semi-relaxed. 

 

There's not a lot further to say, we're going to open bank accounts today and have a better look around Sanda. 

 

Hopefully i'll be feeling better by my next blog so i can write stuff that i've actually been doing, but otherwise just check out andrew's blog at www.andrewdarlington.com

 

Love and miss you all,

 

Neil xoxoxox