Those damn onsen blues

So today I was hoping for some onsen action. For those out of the loop an onsen is a hot spring, Japan being on a major fault line is blessed with both Earth quakes, and shit loads of hot water coming out of the ground. The best onsen are out in the forest somewhere, and that was what I really wanted, to go out to some freezing cold mountain somewhere and sit naked in a pool with a bunch of strangers. But unfortunately due to my lack of research and sleeping in, there was no time for a trek to some onsen out in the middle of nowhere. Instead I did some research and found that there are a few onsen in the city. Even though I hear there are many around my neighbourhood, but my lack of ability in the 3rd Japanese alphabet(kanji-from the goddamn Chinese) means that I have no clue to the fact that there's probably one right next door to my house.
Anyway, where was I? Yes, I smsed young Matthew from Canada, and he was "all systems go", but when I met up with him he asked "Do we have to get naked at this thing?". Of course, immediately his enthusiasm died, that's the best bit about about it I said, sitting in a boiling pool naked with a bunch of Japanese men, whet more could anyone want??? Then we met up with Energi(probably spelt that wrong) from New York, his enthusiasm was also lacking. What is it with these young punks, they've never been naked in public? Anyway, we took part in my greatest specialty for the next few hours- procrastination(thanks my father for passing on to me one of your more formidable traits), through the means of coffee and looking at bicycles. After a while we decided the onsen plan was truly dead and the best option was to visit the viewing platform in the nearby Carrot Tower. I have no idea why it's named that, but I think once we were in we could've gone anywhere in the building, cause it seems at one stage we wondered into a bunch of offices and no one seemed compelled to stop us.....
Man, it looks like this is gonna be one of those longer rants, so buckle in folks and enjoy it while you can. I've been feeling guilty the last week for not writing in this, but who the hell is reading anyway? So where was I? Yes, the Carrot Tower, after it was decided we would head to Shibuya, this is kind of the down town, but after tonight I've decided it bites arse, here are a few notes from the various bars we visited-"Chelsea Bar- The scene feels like we've crashed someone else's party. We just sauntered in, the dudes at the door had puzzled looks on their faces(so did I), but some chick made them let us in(those goddamn foreigners, but we spent 3000 yen here.-I've never seen a bar where the bar tenders are sitting down.). Anyway, the rest of these notes are bullshit, basically no one wanted to talk to us cause we weren't hip enough and had no rock'n'roll cred. The atmosphere there was ok though, especially compared to the next joint we ended up at. The dreaded "Gas Panic". This is a chain of cheesy bars full of the world biggest wankers, the owner must be commended for his uncanny ability to assemble such a vast array of fuckwits, but nonetheless the bar is consistent in this area. There are a few of these gas panics around Tokyo, and this one had a rather large crowd of pale Arab dudes, guess they might've been Afghans, anyway, not the kind of freaks we wanted to get in any kind of confrontation with. There were also a load of cheap as Japanese girls there, but after a while it seemed to be mostly guys dancing here. The most notable was this extremely stylish Japanese dude in a kind of 80's suit strutin' his stuff all over the dance floor. I tried to shake his hand in admiration but he didn't seem to understand my point, a true stylemaster.
Well if anyone's still reading this installment, I went to Kamakura last week, it was pretty cool. This is a place with heaps(literally) of temples and shrines, we saw a few, but there are many more, it's a massive place, I put some pics on the pic page. The highlight of the day of course was meeting Steve from San Diego, some random dude that approached us just after sunset as we were wandering around town looking for somewhere to eat. He asked us if we knew where he could get a map, the only map we knew of was stuck to the wall of the train station, but he was welcome to take it if he wanted. We talked to him for about 10 minutes, during this time he told us he was heading back to the states tomorrow, after our exchange he felt obliged to introduce himself to us. Now this is the best bit, what compels a man to introduce himself to someone he's almost definitely never going to see again in his life. We were kind of stunned as we presented out hands and names to this complete nutball. My biggest regret is that I told my real name and didn't take this precious opportunity to tell him crazy tales of giant snakes and that my name was Bruce from Broken Hill and I'd never seen the sea before I came to Japan. Next time, if I ever get this opportunity again. Anyway, the place was cool, but make sure you get up early if you wanna go there. Think I'll end this one now, if I've said the same thing twice I'm sorry, but I don't see anyone else writing here. Argh...

............untitled blog no.22947

Man I have a sore back today, dunno what I did, think it might've been the darts I played last night, intense physical action. Made me lurk around like an old man, since most of the time at work is spent sitting in seats while teaching I was stuck in the bent over position everytime I had to get up between lessons and do things....argh, a glimpse of my future maybe, next time I should take a wheel chair.
Like I said last night I played some darts, in a kind of Mexican-Cowboy themed bar, was interesting. It was in a basement, you had to duck to get in through the last part of the entrance, and all the walls were jagged and crooked like the old buildings they used to make in the good ol' days. I believed it was true, a nice change from the right angle accuracy and factory sealed robot precision that is the majority of Japanese buildings...then of course I touched a wall and realised it was hollow, an empty fibre glass facade, like most things in Japan....ohhhh.
After a bit of darts we headed out, ended up basically crossing the street where we found a place with cheap beers, which was all we wanted. I think it's called an izikaiya, kind like a restaurant, so then they try to give us all this food, but I wasn't that hungry. Eventually we got some, couldn't resist the fact that we had our own mini grill type thing on the table, so we got to cook our own meat. The meat looked fine, then of course I was told that it was cow tongue, it was a bit chewy...looked like bacon, only thing is, when I eat cow tongue, I'd rather be told after that it was cow tongue, not before that it is. Of course what else is there to do after you've finished eating and you have a massive burning pot on your table, why not take part in a ritual chop stick burning, along with some extra tooth pics thrown in for added effect. Still I dunno where my back got so screwed up, cow tongues aren't bad for the spine are they?
Anyway, the other day I was chatting to my oldest friend Ross, who I've known for most of my life(amazing), he was drunk in the UK, I haven't seen him for a few years, so it was a bit nostalgic. We were talking about the river were we used to hang out as youngsters, swimming around and harassing cows and throwing the dog in the river amongst other things. After chatting I was feeling a bit nostalgic and I went to the supermarket, though my mind was out the window, just thinking about the river, I had no idea I was in a supermarket. Still I managed to get my stuff, the way the system works here is that you get your stuff and then you have to take the basket to this bench where you can put it all in bags. Somehow with my mind in the river I missed the bench stage and just wandered out with all my stuff in the basket. So I was strolling home and I heard someone running up behind me speaking Japanese and I thought "What's going on here?". Then they get to me and I realise I'm still holding everything in the basket, though we couldn't speak to each other, I figured they thought I was trying to steal the stuff. And what a getaway I was making, slowly wandering up the street with my stolen products in plain view right outside the supermarket. So I gave them the universal hand sign for being a mong and having my mind out the window, and they looked at my receipt and then the main guy sent his back up buddy away, assessing that the situation was in order. Guess they thought that being foreign I was too dumb to figure out that I had to leave the basket behind.
On a positive note, even though this post isn't overly negative(is it?), my students the other other day said I was (quote)"smart and handsome""(I) look like a movie star", so beat that. This was based on my ability to explain the difference between fraternal and identical twins. Enough.

Words for today

I had a nice day today. I went with some nice folks(another Finn and a Japanese girl) to the park and saw some Samurai type dudes riding horses and shooting arrows at targets, pretty good. Then we wandered about and checked out this stylish cafe. I feel the theme there was some kind of bird's nest, cause in the toilet there were bird sounds that activated automatically when there was movement. Photo's weren't permitted, guess they don't want people stealing their bird's nest idea, I took some photo's with my telephone(pretty good resolution) James Bond style, not because I was particularly excited about the place, but more because it was against the rules and I wanted to show that it was possible...yeah whatever.
I met up with this dude I know from the job last night, a Canadian chap, thought we were gonna have a few beers, turns out he had a bit of an entourage, all from the north American continent. They all wanted to go to karaoke, which is odd as a beginning to a night, I had no choice so I went along, the price includes unlimited petrol flavoured fruity cocktails, so I threw a few of them down to get in the mood for some songs. Meanwhile the main broad starts lining up all these songs, the shitest selection for karaoke, top forty crap like Hillary Duff and the like. I tried to get some cool old school tunes flowing like some Stones and Bowie, and a bit of Beatles, but the freaks kept fast forwarding em, opting more for Boys II Men. God help me. They weren't impressed with my Tom Waits style renditions either. Their problem. The best bit though was this American dude that sat next to me stiff as a board, I asked him if he wanted to sing a song and he just replied "I don't sing." So why the hell did you come to karaoke then you mong. He barely partook in the rancid cocktails either, just sat there looking like a tree. I put the mic to his mouth and asked him for a note, he just got more tense, just a sound....please, anything. No. Afterwards I asked my friend what was up with the dude and he replied "Well he's a republican." He was good value even though he never meant to be, I'm still laughing about him now.
I couldn't end this though without saying one more lame thing about my job- Today I had to quickly stop by and pick up a piece of paper I need for tomorrow, since I won't be at my branch. I was told it's against the rules to come to work without a shirt and tie and all that, even if it's my day off and I'm just stopping by for a minute. Basically I'm expected to catch the train 40 minutes home, get changed and come 40 minutes back to pick this up. Laughable-hahahaha.....the saga continues.