Protection from that pesky SARS thing
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
The four hour internet extravaganza!
Hello everyone! Its once again been awhile BUT I am still here. My roommate Ben will get internet access on sunday so MAYBE i can give him some money and use his comp to blog a lot more, we'll see. Either way, my choice internet cafe now has a FOUR hour mid week special for only 680 yen, and while thats a good deal, i dont always have four hours to spare.
I hope that all enjoy the photos from HK. And as a double bonus i hope you 'enjoy' the photos from Dan and Tom's visit. In a word: Exhausting. If they dont say the same thing, they are liars. There are so many stories and photos, that i could sit here all day writing, but I'll boil it all down for you. Sunday march 6th. Tom gets here, he's jetlagged but i drag him to an izakaya where a four fingered man is yelling many many obscenities at the frightened staff. they basically say whatever he wants to here but he continues to yell. scary. and tom now realizes that he likes gyoza. Monday: I work. tom goes to kamakura. at night we go to an izakaya where nothing is in english. good times. we actually got somegood food by some unknown means. Tuesday: i work again. tom tours tokyo and meets dan. i meet up with them later and head straight to the bar (nomi hodai) ha ha ha. dan was so intoxicated and tired at the end he rolled on the floor of my apartment. wait... that might have been me (Hey, I was excited that someone finally came over okay?!).
Wednesday: Asakusa, Ueno park, akihabara and THE LOCKUP!!!!! Im going to let most pics do the talking, but we toured Sensoji temple, the oldest in japan. Then went to Ueno park where we saw a 97 YEAR OLD WOMAN!!!! SELLING CRACK!!!! heh. I wish i could tell this story for everyone at home to get the most out of it, but lets just say this: Tom, Dan and I met a (drunk? schitzo? lonely?) japanese man who asked us if we knew of jay leno and if he could tell us this hilarous joke: 'So there is this 97 year old woman selling crack... Where are the parents!'..... Um.... Wha.... Yeah.... Huh? we stand there in silence for about 10 seconds "Yes sir, do you know where the pond is?" 'Yes, the pond is that way, with many lillies, and a 97 year old woman selling crack'. "OK thank you sir".
Fast forward 25 minutes, somehow the man spots us from across the road, and yells "Did you see a 97 year old woman down there?!" I dont get it at all. we actually saw the man AGAIN later at the train station who told us anothwer joke that redeemed him. but o that first one.
Dinner was at the LOCKUP, a theme izakaya where at part of the meal, people dressed in costumes run in and try to scare to. i think they hit tom with a hammer. scary.
Thursday and Friday: We took the shinkansen to Kyoto for two full days of temples, geisha, and rain. again, the photos will say it all here. we had a great time, and for dinner thurs we ate a a traditional teppanyaki restaurant in the heart of the geisha district. Friday we traveled hpome and ate at the all you can eat Yakiniku and nomihodai place. too much food and beer.
Saturday we traveled to hakone. again, beautiful. but this time, windy and very cold. we went to the open air museum, the volcano, got some good photos of fuji. so we ended the day with a traditional onsen bath. (by the way, Tom and Dan, The traditional way to do on onsen is completely naked in front of dozens of nude japanese men) HA!!! credit is given to those two. they tried all the things i asked them to, even the nude bathing with old men. but hey... when in rome...
Sunday, Tom left. Sniff. Thanks tom for coming out! It was great seeing you!
Dan and I went to the oriental bazaar to watch dan go shopping crazy. wow that guy can shop.
monday, early, we went to tsukiji. stinky fish everywhere, then dan left. sniff sniff.
It was a great trip guys. come back anytime. for everyone else. YOU ARE STILL INVITED!
I will post some photos now, but for those of you that want to see alot more, see dans site: www.danielalansmith.com I dont know if he has posted them yet, but he will soon.
thats it for today. this next month is the month of the decision, so give me slack on my posts. I need to decide on staying another year (the latest i will be back permanently is next April, hands down) or going home. It is up in the air right now. But this blog and this entire journey has been based on the theory of no regrets. If I go back now, will I regret it, much like I did returning from New York? I dont want to make that same mistake, and i dont want to look back in twenty years, or two for that matter, and feel bad that i didnt stay longer, because once im back, its for good. Give me a month.
Take care folks, and enjoy the photos.
Scotto
Ps. aTm lost to St. Joes in the NIT quarter finals. good work this year guys.
I hope that all enjoy the photos from HK. And as a double bonus i hope you 'enjoy' the photos from Dan and Tom's visit. In a word: Exhausting. If they dont say the same thing, they are liars. There are so many stories and photos, that i could sit here all day writing, but I'll boil it all down for you. Sunday march 6th. Tom gets here, he's jetlagged but i drag him to an izakaya where a four fingered man is yelling many many obscenities at the frightened staff. they basically say whatever he wants to here but he continues to yell. scary. and tom now realizes that he likes gyoza. Monday: I work. tom goes to kamakura. at night we go to an izakaya where nothing is in english. good times. we actually got somegood food by some unknown means. Tuesday: i work again. tom tours tokyo and meets dan. i meet up with them later and head straight to the bar (nomi hodai) ha ha ha. dan was so intoxicated and tired at the end he rolled on the floor of my apartment. wait... that might have been me (Hey, I was excited that someone finally came over okay?!).
Wednesday: Asakusa, Ueno park, akihabara and THE LOCKUP!!!!! Im going to let most pics do the talking, but we toured Sensoji temple, the oldest in japan. Then went to Ueno park where we saw a 97 YEAR OLD WOMAN!!!! SELLING CRACK!!!! heh. I wish i could tell this story for everyone at home to get the most out of it, but lets just say this: Tom, Dan and I met a (drunk? schitzo? lonely?) japanese man who asked us if we knew of jay leno and if he could tell us this hilarous joke: 'So there is this 97 year old woman selling crack... Where are the parents!'..... Um.... Wha.... Yeah.... Huh? we stand there in silence for about 10 seconds "Yes sir, do you know where the pond is?" 'Yes, the pond is that way, with many lillies, and a 97 year old woman selling crack'. "OK thank you sir".
Fast forward 25 minutes, somehow the man spots us from across the road, and yells "Did you see a 97 year old woman down there?!" I dont get it at all. we actually saw the man AGAIN later at the train station who told us anothwer joke that redeemed him. but o that first one.
Dinner was at the LOCKUP, a theme izakaya where at part of the meal, people dressed in costumes run in and try to scare to. i think they hit tom with a hammer. scary.
Thursday and Friday: We took the shinkansen to Kyoto for two full days of temples, geisha, and rain. again, the photos will say it all here. we had a great time, and for dinner thurs we ate a a traditional teppanyaki restaurant in the heart of the geisha district. Friday we traveled hpome and ate at the all you can eat Yakiniku and nomihodai place. too much food and beer.
Saturday we traveled to hakone. again, beautiful. but this time, windy and very cold. we went to the open air museum, the volcano, got some good photos of fuji. so we ended the day with a traditional onsen bath. (by the way, Tom and Dan, The traditional way to do on onsen is completely naked in front of dozens of nude japanese men) HA!!! credit is given to those two. they tried all the things i asked them to, even the nude bathing with old men. but hey... when in rome...
Sunday, Tom left. Sniff. Thanks tom for coming out! It was great seeing you!
Dan and I went to the oriental bazaar to watch dan go shopping crazy. wow that guy can shop.
monday, early, we went to tsukiji. stinky fish everywhere, then dan left. sniff sniff.
It was a great trip guys. come back anytime. for everyone else. YOU ARE STILL INVITED!
I will post some photos now, but for those of you that want to see alot more, see dans site: www.danielalansmith.com I dont know if he has posted them yet, but he will soon.
thats it for today. this next month is the month of the decision, so give me slack on my posts. I need to decide on staying another year (the latest i will be back permanently is next April, hands down) or going home. It is up in the air right now. But this blog and this entire journey has been based on the theory of no regrets. If I go back now, will I regret it, much like I did returning from New York? I dont want to make that same mistake, and i dont want to look back in twenty years, or two for that matter, and feel bad that i didnt stay longer, because once im back, its for good. Give me a month.
Take care folks, and enjoy the photos.
Scotto
Ps. aTm lost to St. Joes in the NIT quarter finals. good work this year guys.
Sunday, March 20, 2005
HOLY SSHHIIIZZZNNNIIITTTEEEE!!! WE WON!!!!
quickee to say wow. cheers to the aggie mens bball team to win in the second round of the NIT. i canmt believe it! after all those years we finaly did something good. ill be listening live on thursday morn! and a BIG blog will be in effect that dsay as well. sorry for the miss spellings. i just spent 3 hours in a nomi hodai gay bar for one of my coworkers goodbye party. interesting to say the least. heh. talk to you soon!
Friday, March 04, 2005
Hong Kong Part Two
Let me start by saying that i really dont want to be here (the internet cafe) right now. the place reaks of smoke, and my head hurts. But alas... my fans are waiting for the next installment and the continuation of the story of Hong kong. When we last saw the dynamic duo they were in the midst of the dangerous temple of FALLING ASH!
We both made it out unscathed. We then ventured towards the area of the night market (closed because it was only noon). on the way i saw many shops that contained Chinese jackets (silk and reversable!) i went into one shop and the store owner started playing an instrument and singing right away, to create a pleasant atmosphere i guess? well, then kiyoe walked in. the owner began talking to kiyoe, and kiyoe translated: 'She says it looks very good on you'. 'she says that this is reversible and she can get a larger size if you need it', 'She says you look better in the gold and black but if you really want she can find the blue and gold for you'. Thank you Kiyoe! wow, this was great, i had an interpreter, and i walked out of the shop with a nice silk chinese jacket, for the low price of 25 american dollars! wow!
As we leave the store i turn to kiyoe: 'You know Kiyoe, I can't speak Japanese, but I know darn well that that wasnt it. And I also know that you cant speak chinese'. She turned to me and said 'Yes, but she didnt know that'. Heh. Kiyoe is awesome. Which brings me to the best of both worlds: Kiyoe can understand some chinese kanji characters, BUT I can understand more of the broken english that is spoken in hong kong, so together, we did just fine.
After a long walk we arrived at the street that was in the bond movie 'The Man with the Golden Gun'. Although we looked for almost a half an hour on the city block where it was suppossed to be, we couldnt find it, but the street lookked exactly as it did in the movie.
Since we had been walking all day, we decided to get massages, mine a foot, and kiyoe a pedicure. A word on chinese foot reflexology... OOOAGHSAGSYTWRTWDWWWWAAAHHHH!!!!!!!
i paid 15 dollars for what seemed like an eternity of foot torture. see, reflexology finds the weak points in your body,every point on the foot coressponds to a part of the body and where there is pain, that area of the body needs checking. it was SLIGHTLY relaxing, but that went away quickly. Just in case anyone is wondering, my main 'areas' with problems were my back and my gonads. hmmm.
after the torture I bought some crutches and retreated back to Hong Kong island. Once there we went up the fantastic peak tram. where there.. wasnt ... any.. view of ...anything. The clouds canceled the biggest tourist attraction in the city for us but no matter! We were ready to shop!!!
Back to Kowloon. Night market. "Lady lady, here here look! Real jade, see, (hit a green stone lion with a metal coin here) real jade! see! Cheap for YOU!" thats very nice sir but im not rea..."CHEAP FOR YOU!!! real jade, see! (coin clank again) real jade! look, one two three four five! Cheap for YOU!"
so now i own a most likely fake jade chinese lion.
I was also offered LV bags, Gucci junk, and Rolex watches ("dont worry man! they are cheap! because they are fake!") what a great sales strategy, dont lie, just come out and say that everything is crap.
toward s the end of the market both kiyoe and i were getting hungry. we needed to find something cheap. amazingly enough, at the end of the next block a man was clapping his hands pointing us to a table. 'this is in the middle of the market! how can we eat here?' to the side lay trays and tray of many kinds of live seafood (shrimp, prawn, snails, sea cucumbers, clams, oysters, and other brown things that coulndt be identified.) ready to be chosen for a quick death. looked good to me! but kiyoe wanted no part of it. 'i dont think its healthy, its in the middle of the street!' well, yes, but many people are sitting there, and the food portions lookk good! we walked away. darn.
somehow i got her to turn back...
and according to her, it was her favorite part of the trip, very spontaneous, good tasting, and truly Hong Kong. it was definitely a good way to say goodbye to the area.
All together it was a great trip, and as we boarded the plane the next morning i realized something... Hong Kong is probably the first place i have ever been to in my life that there is a very good chance that i will never return to. Europe, yes. Alaska, Yes. Texas? Ugh, but yes. Strange feeling ne?
thasts it folks. i must prepare for the texas invasion as tom and dan will be coming sunday and tuesday respectively. obviously tales of the shenanigans will follow.
Sayonara!
Scotto
We both made it out unscathed. We then ventured towards the area of the night market (closed because it was only noon). on the way i saw many shops that contained Chinese jackets (silk and reversable!) i went into one shop and the store owner started playing an instrument and singing right away, to create a pleasant atmosphere i guess? well, then kiyoe walked in. the owner began talking to kiyoe, and kiyoe translated: 'She says it looks very good on you'. 'she says that this is reversible and she can get a larger size if you need it', 'She says you look better in the gold and black but if you really want she can find the blue and gold for you'. Thank you Kiyoe! wow, this was great, i had an interpreter, and i walked out of the shop with a nice silk chinese jacket, for the low price of 25 american dollars! wow!
As we leave the store i turn to kiyoe: 'You know Kiyoe, I can't speak Japanese, but I know darn well that that wasnt it. And I also know that you cant speak chinese'. She turned to me and said 'Yes, but she didnt know that'. Heh. Kiyoe is awesome. Which brings me to the best of both worlds: Kiyoe can understand some chinese kanji characters, BUT I can understand more of the broken english that is spoken in hong kong, so together, we did just fine.
After a long walk we arrived at the street that was in the bond movie 'The Man with the Golden Gun'. Although we looked for almost a half an hour on the city block where it was suppossed to be, we couldnt find it, but the street lookked exactly as it did in the movie.
Since we had been walking all day, we decided to get massages, mine a foot, and kiyoe a pedicure. A word on chinese foot reflexology... OOOAGHSAGSYTWRTWDWWWWAAAHHHH!!!!!!!
i paid 15 dollars for what seemed like an eternity of foot torture. see, reflexology finds the weak points in your body,every point on the foot coressponds to a part of the body and where there is pain, that area of the body needs checking. it was SLIGHTLY relaxing, but that went away quickly. Just in case anyone is wondering, my main 'areas' with problems were my back and my gonads. hmmm.
after the torture I bought some crutches and retreated back to Hong Kong island. Once there we went up the fantastic peak tram. where there.. wasnt ... any.. view of ...anything. The clouds canceled the biggest tourist attraction in the city for us but no matter! We were ready to shop!!!
Back to Kowloon. Night market. "Lady lady, here here look! Real jade, see, (hit a green stone lion with a metal coin here) real jade! see! Cheap for YOU!" thats very nice sir but im not rea..."CHEAP FOR YOU!!! real jade, see! (coin clank again) real jade! look, one two three four five! Cheap for YOU!"
so now i own a most likely fake jade chinese lion.
I was also offered LV bags, Gucci junk, and Rolex watches ("dont worry man! they are cheap! because they are fake!") what a great sales strategy, dont lie, just come out and say that everything is crap.
toward s the end of the market both kiyoe and i were getting hungry. we needed to find something cheap. amazingly enough, at the end of the next block a man was clapping his hands pointing us to a table. 'this is in the middle of the market! how can we eat here?' to the side lay trays and tray of many kinds of live seafood (shrimp, prawn, snails, sea cucumbers, clams, oysters, and other brown things that coulndt be identified.) ready to be chosen for a quick death. looked good to me! but kiyoe wanted no part of it. 'i dont think its healthy, its in the middle of the street!' well, yes, but many people are sitting there, and the food portions lookk good! we walked away. darn.
somehow i got her to turn back...
and according to her, it was her favorite part of the trip, very spontaneous, good tasting, and truly Hong Kong. it was definitely a good way to say goodbye to the area.
All together it was a great trip, and as we boarded the plane the next morning i realized something... Hong Kong is probably the first place i have ever been to in my life that there is a very good chance that i will never return to. Europe, yes. Alaska, Yes. Texas? Ugh, but yes. Strange feeling ne?
thasts it folks. i must prepare for the texas invasion as tom and dan will be coming sunday and tuesday respectively. obviously tales of the shenanigans will follow.
Sayonara!
Scotto
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