Get Thai'ed

Woah.
Thailand is certainly something else.

I've been having an absolute blast here in Phuket and Bangkok. I'm finding it hard collecting the energy require to update the blog. I'll quickly whiz past my last 8 days or so.

There's been plenty of vegan places to eat about Thailand. As I mentioned in my last post, plenty of places hail the yellow Vegetarian Festival flag around their stall or the like. Unfortunately it's quickly dissappeared now that the festival is over (Finished on the 19th). Every place I've been to has been very accomodating however.

I've been eating all over the place in regards to venues. From nicer restaurants, to very Thai local places on the side of the road with friends. I was initially very worried about getting sick here from road side food, however as yet (touch wood) I've yet to get sick at all - And some of the places I've ate at look pretty dodgy, hahahha. But when a full meal and drink (coke etc) costs 40b ($1.25) how can you resist?

The prices here are so incredibly vast as well! You can have a fully fledged meal with soft drink for about a dollar, or go to one of the hundreds of places offering meals at Grange pricing. Alcohol is very cheap here if your not buying it from a bar. A beer is about 30-50b ($1.00 - $1.66) and mixed drink about 47b. In bars drinks are full priced at about 100-140b (Still not too bad considering in Australia you pay more still, and get no 'entertainment'...)

And speaking of entertainment here, it certainly is of a mind blowing degree. Unfortunately it requires alot more time that is currently unavailable to be able to even start to dip our feet into it. Not only that, but I'm using an utter piece of shit to write this, to which encounters a 3 second delay to see my own writing come up. Plus I'm justabout to head off to Soi Bangla (Patong, Phuket) for a drink and watch something pretty.

I was planning to go on a liveaboard to the Similan Islands on the 21st, but unfortunately 20 minutes out of dock, one of the motors blew and we had to wait until morning to be able to dock again and let the engineers have a alook at it. They came to the conclusion that the motor is indeed fucked and the trip was cancelled and put on hold to recommence tomorrow (the 25th). We have been put up at the Royal Phawadee Hotel in Patong, which is quite nice compared to what I've been staying in.

One final bit of bad news too is that unfortunately I've been in a solo motorbike accident. I was going around a corner too fast when wet (I was pissed as a skunk as well) and crashed. I got stitched back up in Patong Hostpital and grazing on my legs and left arm. I've got 2 internal and 8 external stitches for a hole just above my eyebrow. Because of both this and being forced to stay in Phuket I will more than probably extend my stay in Thailand by a week or 2. To be confirmed.

Anyway, I'm going to go as the delay is incredibly irritating. Will update more as I can (hoipefully a bit before I leave for the Similans tomorrow.

Cheers,
Wade

One Night In Bangkok

Bangkok.
Wish I didn't bring my jacket now.

I was planning to post about my SCUBA adventures previous to arrival, however time simply slipped past me. I will, at a later date, update about how my SCUBA study and instruction went. Needless to say it went swimmingly (hah!) and I'm now a certified Open Water SCUBA diver. Woo. I can dive without an instructor now, and just with a buddy down to a maximum recommended depth of 18m below.

Anyway, I arrived in Bangkok last night. My flight was delayed by a bit over 2 hours due to the emergency inflatable ramp blowing up or something causing them to install a replacement. Luckily enough, that was the last of the worries; The flight itself and the plane was pretty good. It was quite roomy for economy; They gave us free headsets which was advertised as being a cost of $5.00 for (even thought I used my B&O A8's); The toilet was nice and clean; Plenty of monitors to watch the movies if you wished as well (Of which the new Die Hard was the main feature).

So I arrived here at about 10 pm or so, and proceeded to immigration. I went to the line to declare my food just in case, and got it out for the people. They were incredibly nice, and pointed to it (noodles I made the night before) claiming (both of them) something something 'jey!' 'Jey' in Thai means vegan/vego, which was the only thing I understood. They seemed really impressed and were both smiling and asking if I was Buddist etc. The reason behind it is that the Vegetarian Festival is on at the moment. A time when Thai's give up the evils of meat, alcohol and sexual activity to cleanse the body and soul. (www.phuketvegetarian.com - I'd hot link, but everything is in Thai, so I'm lucky I can figure out the 'New Post' button)

Changed some cash into Thai Baht. The exchange rate in incomparibly better here. In Adelaide they were going to charge me $10.00 and 2.5% and only give me 24.80b to $AUD. As soon as I arrived, the price was 30.14b no fees at all. Amazing.
Change $500.00 for 15,070b. In Australia I would have got under 12,000b. I'm sort of getting 3 nights accomodation in BKK for free. Very nice.

I met my wonderful Thai friend Hnon at the airport as she offered. It's great to meet her in person finally. Luckily enough she checked the internet to see if my flight was delayed.

Unfortunately my suitcase had been cracked through the top; seemingly through a good sum of man-handling; so we went to report it. No JetStar or QANTAS office was manned, so after 20 minutes of wandering around we just left it.

So we caught a cab to town. Took about 30 minutes or so, and cost 230b I think. We went straight to my hotel (www.majesticsuites.com) and checked in. Very nice hotel for the money, and quite clean. Large bathtub too, which is great. Even got a complimentary cocktail of juice when we arrived :D

Went for a bit of a walk, with a subway (food) stop along it. I'm staying in the Nana area, which is well well known the world over for it's red light. Bars everywhere. Farang (foreigner in Thai) everywhere with nice Thai girl. O_o Sooo many pro's it's amazing. In a 5 minute walk up the street, I must have been asked, pulled to, followed by Thai girls at least 20 times.
"Take photo of me?" ; "I love you much, good time?" and every manner of the previous. The prettiest of the girls I think were actually guys, so if one were to dabble, look for Adams Apples.

So went back and slept after a short walk as I was pretty stuffed. Only 2 hours sleep the night before, and I didn't really sleep on the plane.

Woke up in the morning, had breakfast (Just a 'continental' breakast of juice, coffee and toast). And unpacked properly. But now it's lunchtime! So I'm off to find some vegan place to eat. Hopefully not too hard as it's the vegetarian festival now and many places advertise they have vegan food available by placing a yellow flag on their menu.

Will update soon :D

Wade

Musical Chess

Working casually (as opposed to full time) has it's benefits, however holidays is certainly not one of them. I've been working at Gametraders for nigh on 2 years now, and although only work 7 days a fortnight, I feel like I need a bit of a break. It's difficult taking a 'holiday' as such when only 2 people run the store; you feel that any time off would unduly burden the other with a 7 day week. I could write a lot about my feelings on many things in GT, but it will all end up saying I've decided to take a couple of weeks off anyway. But where might you ponder?

I was actually planning on going to Japan once more with Sachiko to attend her friend's weddings that she is heading off for. This would have been great, however the 'holiday' in Japan would have lasted a measly 6 or so days, with probably a day or two tied up with the formalities of the weddings and the like. The shortness of the trip when weighed against the cost of flight to Japan doesn't exactly sit well, not to mention the fact that Tokyo is not the cheapest of places to stay in. A few other reasons (family over there) make the situation particularly sour, and for that I'd rather keep my hard earned money and break out of Japan for the time being.

So I'm going to Thailand.

Thailand? Why Thailand? That's a pretty good question. Like decision like this, it's a few things that slowly compound themselves, until you realize it's something you really want to do. For me, this can include even the most trivial things like music. Murray Head's song 'One Night in Bangkok' has forever had me intrigued about this city of chess, bars being temples and gods in 'golden cloisters'. So much so that it lead to browsing information regarding the city, the country and such. From this point, the language started to pull me in with its hieroglyphic esque writing. How can these fascinating characters make up written words? How are they read and pronounced? It's a similar journey as when I started to become interested in the Japanese writing system.

Previous to all of this, I've also been internet friends with a Thai girl named May for just over 4 years now. I'm trying my hardest to remember where exactly (what chat room etc) we met, but I can't be sure. I think it was maybe MSN Messenger Chat rooms before they were taken down. As of now, I have 10 Thai chat buddies on my list :) Two of whom (including May) I really wish to meet. Very reminiscent of South Korea and going to meet Jiyeon and friends.

So Thailand wins. The major downside of course is the fact I will be going commando. Single; Alone. Sachiko still wishes to go to various weddings, and will be taking 2 trips to Japan in October and November, and as such going overseas again would be too much of a burden financially. So I've decided to brave this somewhat new frontier alone. I've been to South Korea 'alone', however my hand was held by Jiyeon and gang to an extent, so I had someone to fall back on if needed.

I'll be heading over from the 14th of October through 1st (evening), arriving back on the 2nd at this stage. I suppose the Thailand trip is one of the reasons I wish to 'revive' this blog, as to have a place to document travels and other activities. Before I decided to go to Thailand, I was researching various things I am able to do there to relax etc, as well as places to travel to. Some of the places that interest me are the exquisite looking beaches of southern Thailand (Phuket, Koh Samui, Krabi etc).

One of the activities that caught my eye, I actually had been researching for a little while myself - SCUBA diving. I often will spend a good whack of the evening browsing Wikipedia, and clicking various links within articles to learn more about something. I can often start looking up about a pretty standard sort of topic, like maybe a new game I'm interested in. Within an hour or so of following links, I'm researching about 19th century aesthetic philosophers.

My interest in diving started like that. For some reason I ended up researching about SCUBA, and have become quite interested in cave and cavern diving. So many other things diving related started to interest me as well so when I saw that Thailand included some of the best diving sites in the world, it surely can't be coincidence that has lead me here.. Obvious the first step to deep/cave diving is learning to dive..

Wade

Swindled!

"Thousands of Japanese have been swindled in a scam in which they were sold Australian and British sheep and told they were poodles.

Flocks of sheep were imported to Japan and then sold by a company called Poodles as Pets, marketed as fashionable accessories, available at $1,600 each.

That is a snip compared to a real poodle which retails for twice that much in Japan.

The scam was uncovered when Japanese moviestar Maiko Kawamaki went on a talk-show and wondered why her new pet would not bark or eat dog food.

She was crestfallen when told it was a sheep.

Then hundreds of other women got in touch with police to say they feared their new "poodle" was also a sheep.

One couple said they became suspicious when they took their "dog" to have its claws trimmed and were told it had hooves.

Japanese police believe there could be 2,000 people affected by the scam, which operated in Sapporo and capitalised on the fact that sheep are rare in Japan, so many do not know what they look like.

"We launched an investigation after we were made aware that a company were selling sheep as poodles," Japanese police said, the The Sun reported.

"Sadly we think there is more than one company operating in this way.

"The sheep are believed to have been imported from overseas - Britain, Australia."

Many of the sheep have now been donated to zoos and farms.

©AAP 2007"
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=263297

----

HAHAHAHAHA.
Hilarious. I know what I'll be selling in Japan when I go again!

Wade

VulgarGrad

The Adelaide Fringe brings about many new and exciting displays of incredibly talented people, not to mention many veterans.

I won't go too much into detail, but essentially it's a month long event where actors and artists from around the globe come and strut their stuff.

If one has to choose an epicentre of the festival, many will indeed point to the East End setup in Rundle Park. Anyway, as Sachiko and I were walking around the area, one 'bouncer' suddenly offered us free entry into an elaborate makeshift tent of steel. Seeing we really had nothing else to do apart from wander the sea of coloured lights, we entered the unknown.

It is here we discovered VulgarGrad. As we walked in and heard the husky, deep tone of the lead singer we were certainly hooked. It's like we were transported via some mysterious force to a gritty Russian club in an area you probably wouldn't want to be in at night.

We enjoyed each moment listening, and enjoying the music.
So much so we actually went back a few days later and paid $5 to get in.

Later research discovers VulgarGrad are a band who specialize in, and I quote, "Russian Criminal Sound". The lead singer is in fact Jacek Koman an actor/singer from Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rougue!

I'm in the process of editing some photo's I took on the night now, however here's one to get your blood pumping. And if that's not enough, here are some video's I took via mobile of the night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5T_mcqEXQs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF1G3Jcc8IQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0oMfenF58Y

Berlusconied!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9K6bs_fIWU

We all love Silvio Berlusconi, especially mixed with a hint of controversy. Although the flavouring added here may indeed be artificial, let that fact not deter from the hilarity that flows.

The redirection is complete!

Welcome to the newly redirected WadeBeger.com!

From this point forth, new and ever exciting content will be not too far away. You may never wish to leave your chair.

First on the list of things to post, is photo's from the 21st Party, on the 21st of last month. Expect these edited beauties within a few days.

I'm off to play with DNS and hosting. Happy time!

Wade

Billy Joel Concert - Melbourne 2006

I've become a deviant

And it's all going to be here http://wadebeger.deviantart.com/

I'll start to upload more of my stuff from now on, so fav this link too.

I'm normally very lazy when it comes to editing photos - Hopefully this will encourage me to edit quicker :)

-Wade

A quicky

Just something I edited...

http://www.geocities.com/wadebeger/Blog/MoshiMoshAndrei.jpg

Quick congrats

Just came back from the city where my good friends in the band "Moshi Mosh" played their first gig at the Jade Monkey in Adelaide. Unfortunately technical difficulties hindered some of the night, but that's something you get on your first night I suppose.

I took a few photos here and there, which I'll post up here when they're done.
- (Taken with 20D, generally 50mm 1.8 @ 800/1600 ISO, generally 1/80 and f/4ish)

Congratulations guys, and I hope things only get better :)

Wade

An espresso a day..

I like coffee.

However I don't own an espresso machine.
Which is somewhat of a lie, because I have 2 in my backyard. But they are there for a reason.
You see, they have a tendency to attempt to kill me by electrocution. As you can see, they have yet to succeed, but I have also now taken heed of their violent tendencies and removed them from my kitchen.

So for a while now I've been looking for a machine that I can buy when I have money, and I think I have found just the machine.

The Rancilio Sylvia with a Mazzer Mini grinder to go with it. This is my need to reach a state of espresso filled euphoria.
At the moment, I drink an instant coffee mix; namely 'International Roast' - What do others drink? Or what machine do you use?

Wade

I like my coffee 'hot'

Indeed everyone likes to have their coffee served rather hot, however Rockstar may well have turned the temperature up a little too high for comfort.

I'm sure by now everyone has heard of the predicament R* has gotten themselves into with their little 'sex-mini game' being found out not only in their PC version, but also now the Playstation 2 version of the game GTA : San Andreas.

R*'s defense is that the code should never have been seen by the public as it was not part of the game, however was left in there due to time restraints. Unfortunately for them the code has found its way into use, and shits hit the fan.

Pretty silly for Rockstar, but people are starting to overreact slightly. It is just a little game for fun anyway. The original rating for the game was set at 17+, with its new rating in America being 18+. I may be wrong, but I don't believe the maturity level changes that rapidly as such that a 17 year old is unable to witness such 'disturbing scenes of graphic sex' and then bang, at 18 the same person is able to enjoy such a game.

Please keep in mind however that stealing cars, viciously murdering people and other violent acts are fine.

--

On other coffee related news, McDonalds ran into litigations over some seriously hot coffee back in 1994 it seems.

http://www.vanfirm.com/mcdonalds-coffee-lawsuit.htm

It seems everything is quoted as fahrenheit in that article btw. I'm fairly sure a coffee shouldn't be made at too hot a temperature otherwise you also run the risk of burning the beans.
I know milk should be frothed at about 65C, but I forget what the coffee should be at O_o

Wade

Coming back online soon :D

Within a few days, I shall be back with vengeance updating daily on happenings in the world of Wade Beger :D

We live in exciting times.

Wade

Seoul Searching..

Sorry for the lack of updates, but moving out to my own place in Japan next month. Will update much more when Im out. I do apologize to my 3 readers.

As you may or may not be able to guess from the heading, Im in Korea atm, actually I just got here like at 2pm, so havnt been here long. Im a very lazy man, so Im just going to copy and paste an E-Mail I sent to Sachiko just then (well, most of it).

"I arrived here OK, and Im using the PC in the hostel Im staying at.I was a bit late getting through customs and the like, but eventually I met Jiyeon out in arrivals.It was very very strange being able to meet someone that I had only ever talked to on MSN and over the phone for nearly 3 years! With saying that however, it felt like we had already met (which we had in a way of course) but at the same time rather strange. Great though.
We took a bus from Incheon Airport to someplace in Incehon downtown area - It took just over an hour. Her Mum was with us too btw, but she just kept going on the bus. She seemed really nice!
Incheon Airport is like Narita to the fact that its also in the country. Korean country side looks very different to Japanese though - Hard to describe. On the way to downtown I even saw little house things that I see in games that people hide and and shoot machine guns though! Talk about security. Must be for older times.
In downtown I met my other friend Lucy whom Ive known for many years also - Very strange again, but great at the same time. We had pizza at Pizza hut together. For 1 normal size pizza, lasange, salad bar and a drink cost about 40,000 won I think, so about 4000 yen.
I have a shit load of money btw. Because I was running late, and I couldnt find Jiyeon, I changed 1000 yen into won at the airport for a phone call. I was suprised to get like 8 bills and 10 coins.And now with the money from Jiyeon, I have about 340,000 won, which amounts to about 40 notes in my wallet. Looks like Im rich, but its the equivalent of only 4 japanese/aussie notes.
Most things seem to be alot cheaper here. A drink out of a machine is only 400 won I think (40ish yen). Theres an amazing amount of street vendors too, most of them with a very basic setup consisting of a few tarps thrown over a pole. They sell things from vegetables to ready to eat little food stalls with like 2 chairs, shoes anything really. Some are really really basic where you have a very old lady on the floor of a busy street with some vegetables on pieces of cardboard in front of her. Cool though.
Anyway, after having something to eat, we took the subway to Seoul to my guesthouse. Its about 6 stations away from Seoul Station, and took about 1:20 from where we had lunch. Oh yeah! Btw they did give me a normal lunch on the place - ie rice with fish, cake thing, sushi, drinks etc. Pretty good.
The gueshouse is about 10 mins walk from station (probably less even because we didnt know where it was). I was surpised when I got into my room and realized its actually a pretty new place. I have a decent sized room with a futon, my own TV and fridge and heating. Oh and what heating it is.I should mention that the heater levels in Korea are very high. Even in Pizza Hut in just a tshirt I was sweating but my friends seemed fine in their jumpers. And in my room its very hot even, but nothing I can do I suppose.
Lots of rooms here too, with shared shower and toilet. I cant seem to find the toilet paper though.. hmmm. It seems in Korea they dont like to simple put a toilet roll next to the toilet. Oh and here they dont seem to flush their paper down the toilet, and they just put used toilet paper in a bin beside the toilet.No towels either so Im fucked. When I have finished writing I will go and try and buy a towel, but Im not exactly sure what towel merchants will be open at midnight in Seoul. Oh well.
Apparently breakfast is supplied too. They have a Internet PC here (which is what Im on now), washing machines, full kitchen etc. Everything is very new -I like it. Seems pretty secure too with pin operated front door etc.
Lucy and Jiyeon stayed with me in my room for a while and we had a chat, but they had to go home a while ago because of homework they have to get ready before tomorrow. We will meet up down the street at 6:30pm tomorrow after Uni, so I have time to play around for a bit. I noticed a small arcade up the street, so I may have a wander soon. Mind you, both of them advised strictly against going out after dark. I was under the impression that Seoul was a pretty safe place, or so I had read on the net. After they had gone, I asked the manager and he said it should be fine walking at night around here, so I might just got for a small walk."

Any mistakes, please ignore them. Also, I cant find the apostrophe key (I dont think I spelled that right), so sorry about that.

Anyway, really really tired, so Im going to go. I really want to have a shower but no towel.
And I should ask where they have hidden the toilet paper.

Goodnight!

Wade

There was an Earthquake!

Yes, you read write. There was indeed an earthquake.
First time for me to be in an earthquake - Quite an experience.
Japan is unfortunately prone to earthquakes, and they normally occur every couple of months. The earthquake this morning ranged from 3 - 4 depending on the area. Luckily enough, Sachiko believes it was only a 2 that we felt.

Looking back on what happened, Sachiko and I were just lying down on my bed together chatting, when suddenly the house began to shake. Sachiko immediately said "Earthquake!", and we both just sat still. It only lasted a few seconds, but to me it felt quite strong - Quite scary for the moments it was rumbling. Nothing actually fell off of anything, but there was a loud concrete moving sound and the house rumbled around, moving left and right slightly.
As soon as it stopped, she turned on the TV. Within 10 seconds the little warning beeps on the TV went off, and subtitles on the top of the current program (the news) told that an earthquake just occurred, detailing where and what each magnitude was.

Before I felt how strong this little one was, I couldn't imagine how strong a 6 or 7 would be. Now I worry about a 4 let alone a 6/7 etc!
A very new experience to me, and I'm glad that I was able to see what it's like, however scary.

Not thinking about earthquakes, Sachiko and I have decided to take a holiday from our 'holiday' by getting away from the house and going to Kyoto. We brought the tickets today, leaving 6:30am tomorrow morning at Tokyo station via Hikari Super Express Shinkansen (Bullet Train). It will be the first time for me on a shinkansen! So exciting.

We're staying for 2 nights, in a hotel quite close to the station (3 mins walk). I'll be posting up a lot of photos as soon as I get back ^^ The trip is costing about 28,000 each including train trip and accommodation.

In celebration of my trip to Kyoto tomorrow, I brought a tripod today! Whee.
I brought a Slik 500EX Pro. It set me back about 18,000 after I used up all my points. (Yodobashi has a point's card, where for every purchase, you get 10% worth of points. Ie, if you purchase something for 10000 yen, you get 1000 points. Each point is worth 1 yen, so you will get 1000 yen off your next purchase. Or you can choose to save up your points and buy something bigger later.)
It seems that tripods are a bit more expensive in Japan than in the US or Aust. I suppose due to importing and such, but I wasn't able to argue a better price anyway. Fantastic tripod though.
This photo is one I took with it outside my balcony window.
For those in the know of photography, it was a 20 second exposure, full manual, 100ISO, f/16 using a 50mm f/1.8

Also, for those who don't know, I'm a lover of Versace. We don't have any Versace boutiques in Adelaide, so I'm in heaven when I get to go to the 2nd largest one in the world. (LA has the largest, which is where Gianni Versace used to live.
I didn't buy anything this time due to lack of funds, however there were a few shirts I was dying for. But like anything Versace, it isn't exactly cheap - The shirts were 30% off and of an older collection and were still a good $450 Australian each.
But the guy there was super nice, and realized I like Versace and had a good chat with me. When he knew I liked Elton John too, he showed me the watch Elton has :D Elton has the same watch but serial number 1. It was about 6,000,000 yen too.

Anyway, I don't know if I have mentioned it before, but I have PSP's
I had 4 actually, but I sold one recently, and I'm trying to sell the rest on Ebay. See below :)
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=8168398075&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT
The story of getting the PSP's is quite a long one, so I'll talk about it later.

Anyway, I better start packing ^^

PLEASE NOTE! Photos aren't uploading properly atm, will fix soon.

Time goes so fast when your doing nothing.

Time goes so fast when your doing nothing.

I can't believe it's been nearly a month since I updated my blog. haha. And I'm only like 3 posts in. That's shocking.

It's super hard to explain unfortunately as to why I've been so lazy in regard to updating it, so I won't go into much detail, but it stemms from the fact I'm naturally lazy when it comes to any sort of writing - Actually getting anything done full stop. I think my passport took months of 'I'll do it tomorrow' sentences passing though my mouth before I finally got someone else to do it for me.
Also, not only just that. Unfortunately myself and Sachiko's father don't get along incredibly well. I could write on about it for hours, but I won't. But basically, I think he's stubborn and lazy with certain things, he doesn't like my age, he doesn't like the fact that I'm in Japan on holidays when he thinks I should be working, and he's also unhappy that Sachiko doesn't have a job here - Even though she's also here on holidays too. (On another note, she does have a job now part time)

So basically, I just try and see him as little as possible. That's not to say I'm not on the PC alot - I am practically everynight, I just never feel like updating this blog. BUT!
From this post on, I will strive to update at least twice a week. I started this blog basically so I could post super interesting things that I find in Japan. And by God have I found some. But, that is for a time very soon to come.

Annnnnnway...

I have done so much since I last updated, so writing it down will be awfully difficult. That and the fact that I've forgotten most of it. So we'll start from what I did yesturday and what I'll do is, when something jolts my brain on something interesting that I did, I will suddenly write a bit on what happened. Of course, this will fuck up the flow of the blog for a while, but at least we won't miss anything in the long run.

Yesturday Sachiko went and met up with some of her old work mates for lunch. Apparently it would have been rather boring as it was planned to be a quick lunch (while they were on break), so I decided to meet up later about 3:30ish when she met another friend for coffee.
We met in a place called Ochanomizu, which is about a 23 or so minute train ride from my station (Shinkoiwa).

I've been to this place before when I met my old exchange friends from Adelaide -

(At my school, we used to have exchange students come and stay for a few weeks every year. I was lucky enough to have hosted 3 students over 3 years, and every year I made many great friends. A few of those friends I've kept in contact with over the years. These bunch of great people are from the 2002 tour I think - So it was fantastic meeting up with them after 3 years. As I expected, they look exactly the same. Apparently my hair is longer though - Who would have guessed.. We went to Karaoke, got some purikura's done (little sticker photo things) and had lunch together. I'll meet up with them again as soon as their Uni entrance exams are over.)

- so I know my way around, but I had to meet them at a coffee shop though an exit I'm not used to. Luckily enough, Sachiko worked around here for 3 years, so she was able to draw me a fantastic little map of the place.

Before too long I was hungry as I hadn't eaten breakfast yet (got up very late..), so I wandered off to get some food. Unfortunately, I found myself spending money at the arcade.
This sorta thing happens to me alot - Getting sidetracked that is.
I wasted 1300￥ (Always divide number by 77 to get about what it costs me in $AUD after bank fees etc - ie this time $17ish) there on stupid UFO catchers (those crane type games) that never fucking catch anything. Or they just tease you by picking up the toy, and dropping it in an even more difficult to reach spot. I did however manage to win 2 toys (I'll post photo's tomorrow if I can). I also played a game of Quest of D, which is a Online RPG I'm addicted to atm at the arcades. MMORPG's as arcades games.. Only in Japan :D
I did end up buying some McDonalds too on the way back to the cafe too.

After we said our farewells, Sachiko and I walked around, visited her old place of work, and headed to a nice ramen shop before heading home.

Today I didn't really do much. In the afternoon I made my way to the city (from now on, when I refer to 'the city' I refer to around Shinkoiwa station - It makes life alot easier) and walked around a bit, played a bit of Quest of D, looked in Famicon House (Fantastic second hand game shop that I regular) and came home. I'm the King of Excitement.

Also, some photo's laying around that jolted my memory on some things that happened..

- Met up with my great friend Phil in Shinkoiwa. Fuck we rock at Karaoke together. Also we 0wned at some addictive as crack coin game. Whole post coming soon on arcade/medal games soon.
- Saw large dinosaurs in Shibuya
- Went to the Park Hyatt Tokyo where Lost in Translation was filed, and sat in the bar, on the same seat as Bill Murry. Dark I know, but no flash allowed. Fantastic view btw - 52nd floor above the busiest city in Japan - The train station there takes over 2 Million people per day. Mind you though, 3 drinks and a selection of cheeses cost me about $125 Australian..
- Went to Ginza and played with Aibo's in the SONY Building.
- Found a new lens for my camera that I wish to purchase for $700,000 (Pic from Net btw)

I'm sure many other things will pop up soon.

Will update shortly again

Be very very quiet..

Everyone's asleep now, and Sachiko is sick with a cold :( Poor thing
I'm going to go and get some midnight gyoza in a sec from the local 7/11. That's one thing that I will miss so much, is the 7/11's. For anyone who doesn't know (None in Adelaide, but all around rest of Aust I think), they are 24 hour convenience stores. Here in Japan, they are everywhere - The price of your property is basically judged on how far you are from the nearest train station and the 7/11. I'm about 10 mins bike ride, and another 10 mins walk from station, and only a 30 second walk to the nearest 7/11.
Actually, I can see it from my room :)

I'm going to comment on comments in my blogs now :)

One thing to clear up however, which I really should have explained previously, is that I'm not staying for a year. It's just that my ticket is a 1 year open ticket, so it doesn't expire for 1 year, and I can change the return date anytime for free. I had to change, because there were no 3 month tickets available. I do plan to stay for 3 months minimum, but hopefully for 6.
You see, I'm currently on a 90 day visitor VISA, so technically I can only stay for 90 days. But I'm going to Korea in March to visit friends, so when I come back to Japan, I should be granted another 90 days :D But not sure yet - So I plan to ring the embassy just to make sure.

And quotes -
" will you be getting a job there? That would be interesting... kind of like MegaTokyo the comic, if you have ever read that."
haha, very much like MegaTokyo I hope. I love that comic. Unfortunately because of the VISA I'm on, I'm not allowed to work here. But it would be nice to make an income somehow by myself - Hopefully though selling items on ebay :)

"remember to take heaps of photos for me mate"
Many photos have been taken already :D Just have to find the time to edit them and upload them. Because this comp is a pos, it takes a min just to load photoshop elements. It's a Duron 800 / 128MB RAM for anyone interested btw.

Anyway, back on track.
Last night I went to a place called Shibuya. It's about 30 mins train ride from where I am living.
It's probably one of the busiest places in Tokyo, with it's rival being Shinjuku. Both places are havens for young people, with massive 15 floor shopping malls, nightclubs everywhere, game arcades, tons of places to eat, you'll never get bored. I went there because it's showed often in the movie 'Lost in Translation', which I absolutely adore.
As soon as I got off the train, and walk out of Hachiko Exit, it was like standing in the middle of the movie. Absolutely amazing.
http://www.geocities.com/wadebeger/Japan/Shibuya.jpg

In Shibuya, I just walked around, looking in shopping malls etc. I went to a big SEGA Arcade (I'm a big SEGA person for those who don't know) which rocked. But the problem with big arcades is that they are more expensive. NFI why, they just are. But I brought a couple of ice creams from vending machines there and went back wandering around.
I found a nightclub that I had heard about so many times on the net, and it's always been a dream place to go. I really couldn't believe I was there. It's a place called Gaspanic (http://www.gaspanic.co.jp/), and is very popular with gaijin (foreigners). So as soon as night started to come, I went in.

Gaspanic is a very very small club compared to Australian clubs. Most nightclubs here charge entry of about 2000-3000 yen ($25-35) with 1 free drink, but luckily Gaspanic don't.
But, because of this, they do have one single rule. You must be drinking at all times. They even have signs posted around stating this. So you're meant to order a drink as soon as you finish your other one. This doesn't always happen if people are dancing and such, but when it's not very busy they do go around and shake you glass a little if you're not drinking from it.

They have a great happy hour though. 400 yen for any drink you want. Including cocktails until 9:30 every night. Needless to say I got quite pissed.
Anyway, great night. Spoke to many gaijin. And danced with a few nice girls too.

Sachiko didn't come with me, so she was a bit worried that I might not be able to get home (get lost etc) because I needed to change trains. But luckily I made it home safely - Mind you I did get into the wrong train once, but quickly realized.

For a bit of a change, I'll note on something a bit sad. Hachiko.
Hachiko is a dog. A very caring, loyal dog. A dog who became so popular that even a statue was erected just outside of Shibuya. The exit is even called 'Hachiko Exit'. It's become a super popular meeting spot, but quite a sad tale to hear. One of the reasons for me going to Shibuya was to pat Hachiko, because I read about him on the net.
http://www.fabuloustravel.com/globe/hachiko/hachiko.html

Also, seeing today is now over, to run down on what I did is a list below.


And that concludes my blog today.
Just kidding, but I didn't do much at all because I wanted to stay home with Sachiko.
I ran over to 7/11 and brought some super expensive ice cream (900 yen for 6 little 75ml tubs). It's a very popular brand called Haagen Daz, which unfortunately we didn't have in Adelaide either :(

Anyway, more to come soon :D
I'm meeting my old time Japanese friends tomorrow at Tokyo Station! W00t.
I haven’t seen them for years, I seriously can't wait - Will post photos soon.

Goodnight until then :)

A Long Time Coming...

First off the bat, I apologize for the major delay in updates. To wash away recent rumors, I am indeed still alive. I've simply been having too much fun :D

I am indeed in Tokyo at the moment, but we'll start from the beginning. And one thing I'll clear up also is the fact that I have Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). Basically it just means sometimes I have to rush off to the toilet without warning. It's a reasonably common and between 10-20% of adults have symptoms of it. I won't write about it too much, but sometimes it can be incapacitating, forcing me to stay home. http://www.ibsgroup.org/main/aboutibs.html Seems to be a reasonably good explanation if anyone wants to read it. Anyway, on with the rest of the blog.

26/12
This is it. The day I leave country I call home. Temporarily of course. The reason I brought a ticket for the day after Christmas is because I wanted to spend Christmas in Australia, and Sachiko wanted to spend New Years Day in Japan. I originally brought a 35 day ticket (due to only being able to have 1 month off work), but then changed to a 1 year ticket when my situation changed (no more work). In total the ticket cost me about $2600 excluding insurance (which luckily I get free on my Credit Card).

Anyway, off I go to a foreign land. A land to which I've never been. Heck, this was the first time I had been on a plane before. I was armed with my suitcase, my backpack and my camera.

My first plane ride was to Melbourne, where we stayed for 2 hours. Sachiko seems to have problems with her ears 'popping' and getting a terrible headache if she doesn't use ear plugs, but I had no such symptoms. I quite enjoyed the plane. Lovely staff, free alcohol, and a comfy seat with a TV packed with 50 stations. In Melbourne we just walked around looking at the shops in the airport. I had a nice coffee at Starbucks which I normally can't do as Adelaide doesn't have any. I also took more than my share of the free toasted sandwich samples.

After a while we were back on the plane to HK. The flight took about 9 hours in total, but it wasn't too bad. Nothing really special happened on the plane - Met some nice people who we (Sachiko and I) chatted to. We arrived in HK about 10PM (HK Time). It was quite exciting thinking that I was in a foreign country.

The first thing that went through my head when we got off the plane was how fucking big this place is. The airport that is. Adelaide International Airport is essentially a shed. We even had to climb up the plane via a ladder thing as the Airport is too small to connect the plane to it. As I've lived in Adelaide all my life, I've been pretty used to things being small. But now here I was in HK Intl Airport, where they even have a subway connecting Arrivals to the rest of the airport.

So after about 6 escalators, lots of walking on travelators (those horizontal escalators) and a 40 second train ride to arrivals, we were finally at Customs. From there, we had arranged a bus to take us to our hotel - Island Pacific HK.

Unfortunately however, 1/4 through the bus ride I was forced to stop the bus to run to the toilet. Being on the main highway to Central Hong Kong, I was very lucky the bus driver could find a toilet. So I spent the first 20 minutes of my Hong Kong trip in a little porta toilet, but a squat type ones, without a flusher. Where you had to manually push you foot on a pedal to shoot this blue liquid though it. It was quite disgusting. Actually, it was probably one of the worst moments of my recent life. And what I've written here makes it sound so much better than it really was.

But once we were finally back on the road, within about 20 minutes we were at our hotel. It was quite cheap, costing about $300 for 3 nights including breakfast. The room was reasonably small, but not too bad. And we had a fantastic view from our ceiling to floor window of the harbor.

For the next 3 days we did lots of walking around. Actually, it's basically 2 days because we arrived late the first night, and our bus picked us up at 6:30am on the 29th.

Hong Kong in the suburbs is incredibly dirty. It reminds me of a dirty, smelly china town. But here, no one can speak English. I was quite surprised about this, seeing as HK is such a popular destination. But for the majority of the time, we had to play the fun game of charades.

I'll just jot down a few things we did, otherwise this first post will be incredibly long. We were staying in 'Central', which is on Hong Kong Island. We were about 5 mins taxi ride to the port, where we could catch a ferry to Kowloon - The main shopping district. I might mention how cheap many things are in HK. Taxis including. The flag fall for a taxi in HK is $15HK, which is about $2.40ishAUD ($1AUD = $6HK Approx). With that flag fall you get 2km of travel, and after which you are charged $1.2HK per 0.2km. Because of how cheap taxis were, we were able to take a taxi wherever we wanted.

And the cheapness doesn't just stop there. The ferry ride to Kowloon is $2.20 - About $0.35. And arcade games! There are many arcades in Hong Kong, which a majority of relatively new games including Initial D 3 etc. All of which are either $1 or $2HK! So basically, you'll get 6 games of Initial D 3, compared to 1 in Australia for the same price! Even Initial D cards were only $4HK, compared to $4AUD in Aust. I probably spent a good $35HK in Arcades.

One reason I wanted to come to Hong Kong also, is because of one of my favorite games Shenmue 2. Basically just so I could go to some of the places in the game. So I went to Wan Chai, Kowloon and Man Mo Temple. I was so excited at Man Mo Temple, it looks basically the same as it does in the game. I took some pics there, so I'll see if I can do comparisons. It really feels very strange going to a place in real life that you've only ever been to in a game. Man Mo also is filled with an amazing amount of incense as well. Never smelt anything so strong - There was hundreds hanging from the roof.

We did a lot of shopping in HK. I brought many online games from the local 7/11 very cheap. One game was even just $2HK. No idea if they include a free month, but I'll try them out later.

We did so much more in HK, but I'm falling so far behind with this blog that I'll leave HK at that. If I remember anything exciting, I'll write it down later.

Anyway, on the 29th we made our way to Tokyo. A dream come true. I had been waiting so long to come here, but never getting enough money together. And probably if I wasn't with Sachiko, I would still be working at Dick Smith. We arrived in Narita Airport quite safely, however our plane was stuck for 20 minutes waiting for a free space to dock, as someone stole ours. And Snow! Outside the plane it was snowing! It was the first time I've seen snow falling from the sky before. When we left HK, it was about 20Cish, and now 4 hours later on a plane, it was 2C and snowing.

We met Sachiko's parents just outside of Customs, and a good family friend of there's (Tomiyama San) drove us home. While walking out to the car, I saw 2 brand new Bentley Continental GT's in the car park. Not something you see everyday - Someone parking an $800,000 car in an airport car park is rare enough, but 2! Unfortunately, they didn't own one, but it was a nice new car nonetheless. Narita is well known as being far away from anywhere, so it took us about an hour or so to get home.

I was so happy to get out of the car when we arrived here. Took off our shoes at the front, and I donned the new slippers the family provided me with. So cool, I started to feel like I was in Japan. Unfortunately, it wasn't just the cool things that were Japanese like. In Japan, you can't really sleep in your partner’s bedroom until your married, so I have my own room here :( Even though the parents know perfectly well we've been living together for the last 7 months in Aust. Luckily however, my room is adjacent to Sachiko's, which can prove convenient. Ironically, my room is also next to the parents.

Just to bring us up to date quickly, I'll just run though what I've done the last 1.5 weeks here.
I'll explain alot of these things in more depth soon enough. With photo's of course.

- Brought hot coffee from vending machines.
- Played Pachinko (I think I did anyway. It's like Pokies, but less interaction. If that's possible)
- Played addictive as crack coin games, that 10 year old kids spend thousands of yen on a day (Photos and manual coming shortly)
- Ate lunch at a place called 'Mos Burger'. Very nice btw, you gotta try it.
- Used fantastic heated toilets that spray water to clean you.
- Used awful run down, squat type toilets in stations.
- Gone to 2 Ramen shops. I love these things, will write and photograph more.
- Brought second hand games from the local game store 'Famicon House'. I love that place
- Complained how PSP is sold out though Japan. And how noone know when it's coming back into stock.
- Went to Ginza, and shopped at huge Louis Vuitton , Hermes, Chanel, Ralph Lauren stores
- Went to the big Sony Building in Ginza and complained about how PSP is sold out though Japan.
- Went to Nikko - It's very cold there.
- Prayed at Shrines.
- Went to Shrine at midnight on NYE and donated money, rang a bell and prayed.
- Drank Sake, and Beer.
- Complained about how slow this computer is at home countless times to Sachiko.
- Threatened to buy new computer
- Went to Akihabara
- Went to huge department stores
- Went to 8 floor store of just anime/manga stuff
- Brought Hellsing box set thingo
- Brought Bandai Wonderswan and game set from Sofmap

And I'm sure there's more, but will update daily (or so) from now on, so there will be no shortage of things to write about. w00t.
And plus in half an hour I'm going to Yokohama to meet Sachiko's friend, so no more time.

Photo's to come too! Once I work out an easy way to post them.

jyaa neeee

- Wade


P.S - Just to mention it, I can speak Japanese. Or at least enough to hold a very basic conversation.

EDIT : Thanks Eclipse! It did seem a bit strange without it..