Japan Boy

A day of no particular significance

2007-05-18T08:37:54Z

So I`m 17 on the 17th. That was yesterday for me, but that would be today for you folks so I`m technically not too late to write this entry. I just got my package in the mail from my awesome mum with lots of prezzies, including a collection of very nice cds my brother picked out for me that I`m enjoying as I`m writing this. I`m going to save all the tasty candy I got to make it last (an incorrigible habit I`ve had since I was little, thankfully, unlike all the Halloween loot I don`t have to worry about other people eating it if I don`t quick enough). I also got some Zen blocks which I can play with when I`m devising intricate plans and weaving complex thoughts. Wouldn`t I be suave, hehe.

What am I thinking at the moment? Nothing particularly stupendous, just reflections and realizations of how much I`ve grown and changed since my last birthday. Oh I don`t think I could begin to list how many thoughts, moments, journeys, mistakes, and adventures I`ve had, as egoistic and self-flattering as that sounds. That`s one change worth mentioning I guess, contrary to expectations, my ego has shown itself full force this year. I`ve never felt so confident in myself, nor have I ever been so eager, full of energy. I want to flex my potentials and strength to the limit. I want to expand in directions I would have shyed from before, like I`ve untangled myself from an old net I no longer have use for. There`s much less fear in me now.

Today is just one more reminder of the precious little time I have left in Japan, and admittedly that is a cause of some stress. I`m not eager to end this experience that`s changed me so much for the better, and I`m not eager to say goodbye to this beautiful country and all the people I`ve been so fortunate to meet here. But, what I`ve gained here will not be left behind when I go home. That`s encouraging. The same energy with which I explore and push myself here will serve me no less well back home, and judging by all the things I plan to start doing, I will need it for sure.

This day isn`t so much a marker of an end or beginning to anything (except perhaps the next year of my life, though honestly, is that not just a fabricated, arbitrary distinction?). It`s just a day I took a moment to reflect on myself (which, surprisingly considering my personality, I actually haven`t done too much lately). I`m pretty happy with what I see.

Thank you all for the birthday greetings, I hope all of you are doing wonderfully. I love you all : )

sanguinewitness @ 2007-04-17T21:09:00

2007-04-17T12:23:10Z

So we have some news. Both my parents are moving as of next year. If you remember, my Dad had a townhouse in Kanata, and my Mum lived way out in the country, on the very, very edge of Ottawa. Now, my Dad has decided to move out to White Lake (way out in the middle of nowhere) in order to pursue his new hobbies of beekeeping, horseback riding, and building his new house (he designed it himself). Now, this would have meant me no longer having a place to sleep that is on the bus route for my days in town (read: the death of any party-going plans). Dad initially was going to do this the summer after next rather than this year, for the sole purpose that I would prefer having a social life. He changed his mind, and I was very pissed (not that I told him about it, I`d feel bad if I tried to stomp on this project he`s been waiting to carry out for so long). However, thankfully *trumpet fanfare* Mum has come to the rescue. She`s decided to buy a little house in Stittsville. It`s close to Hazeldean and I think it`s very close to DJ`s house and Alex Wagstaff`s. It`s also on the 96 bus route, which means I will be able to go downtown anytime I want. Maybe I can get my parents to buy me a busspass.. hehehe. I`m so selfish. I`ll probably buy it with my own money once I get a job. Anyways, this basically just means my parent`s have swapped the job of providing the crashpad for my late night escapades. And that me, DJ, Alex, and anyone else who lives in Stittsville will be hanging out a lot more than before. All in all I`m quite pleased.

Black Wings

2007-04-16T10:24:51Z

These past weeks have been some of the most exciting in my life. I`m just elated with all the oppurtunities that have been opened in the world within and without me, and I welcome the confusion that comes with being in the crossroads of so many paths. I`ve come to love uncertainty more than I ever did false clarity. My perspectives have changed. No longer do I dwell in one mindset or dogma, I do everything to affirm and perceive all that I can. The world has become a much bigger, more complicated, and more interesting place to me. Simultaneously, I am at peace with more and yet have developed a great thirst to change the world in some way. This unchaining has been the most satisfying change in myself that I`ve ever seen, and, not surprisingly, it is one I did not expect to happen. But, to give myself some credit, I did expect any changes over the course of the year to be unexpected.

Adventures backed with some light reading up on subjectivist philosophy and the helpful advice of a very good friend can do a lot for the mind, it would seem. Thinking freely is lovely.

ライヂング　アン　シュチング　スター

2007-03-14T02:25:34Z

So the journal is quiet as always. I promised pictures, but I don`t think I`ll be uploading them until I switch host families because I still haven`t installed the software on their computer and there`s only a few weeks left until I change to my next anyway.

I can tell you what I`ve been doing though. Being bad. At least relative to the Rotary Club`s view of what amounts to "bad". I`ve been going to America-mura (infested with crazy awesomely dressed japanese young people) many times. I go to edgy used punk music stores, buying demo cds of ska/punk groups. I hang out in Triangle Park, maybe having a beer. Performers come by, and all the kids who are supposed to be doing their spring break homework or something sit around and smoke. It`s rare for kids to be doing anything they`re not supposed to be in Japan though, seriously. The high schools don`t have smoking sections, and for a student to be smoking (let alone drinking or doing drugs) is really exceptional. Not that I would EVER do ANYTHING of that nature. Of course not.

Anyways, it`s therefore a good place to meet interesting young people. Thus, I go there pretty much every chance I get. I`ve been frequenting this livehouse, called "King Cobra". It`s cheap and they play a lot of ska and punk, which is something I`m really getting into lately. They also serve alcohol and believe me to be 21 or so (just over the age limit of 20) so of course I partake quite liberally. Overall a nice place to hang out. Once they had a special event, running from 2:30 in the afternoon to 11:00 at night. It cost about 20$ equivalent to get in. They were bringing in ska bands from across Japan, and they were good enough that they got the whole crowd really animated. Usually Japanese concerts are a little tame compared to those back home, but this time we started a big mosh pit in the middle. It was awesome. I only fell down once, and someone stepped on my elbow really hard, but it was so fun. There hasn`t been one quite as exciting as that time yet, but if I keep frequenting the livehouse something interesting should happen.

Then there was the time I met a random New Zealander who talked me into going to a turkish bar and smoking "apple tobacco". It`s a weird thing sold legally that`s "sort of" like tobacco, only it has no nicotine. You smoke it out of a hooka. Inside the hooka there`s little pipes running through it and water. The smoke has to touch the water to get to your mouth so all the harshness gets absorbed by the water and it just feels like it`s trickling smoothly down your throat. And it tastes like apple. It`s cheap too, and it`s just fun to try and blow smoke circles. Luke could do it really well, all I could manage was clouds. That was an interesting time. I`ll get a picture of the hooka posted up in some distant era of the future.

The whole feel of the neighborhood is just great. They call it "America-mura", which means "America Village", but that`s definetely a misnomer. If you just see the style of the kids in the area, the kind of music that`s played, and the hordes of japanese people walking around, it absolutely screams Japan. I just love it.

おさしぶり

2007-02-26T05:17:38Z

Well, I lied. Instead of writing more, I ended up skipping a month. Hey, I`ve been busy. But, I think I have some stuff to talk about now.

Okay, first things first, school trip. I got to ride the bullet train for the first time ever, which was more interesting than I thought it would be. It was so fast, houses went by almost as fast as bugs headed in the opposite direction when you`re in a car. We went across Japan in about 2 hours from Osaka to Tokyo. On the way, I managed to get a decent picture of about the only thing that didn`t disappear from sight too fast - the summit of Mount Fuji. That`s something which at some point will grace my facebook I suppose (yes, you could say I have joined the legion of facebook zombies, the upload times for pictures are much faster than going through Photobucket to post them on LJ and I don` feel as obligated to write about them).

Anyways, about the trip. We had lunch in a Chinatown neighborhood on the sea, which was awesome. Then we got on the bus and rode it for four and a half hours until we got to the ski resort in the mountains. For the first time since landing here, I saw snow. Although I wouldn`t exactly say it was "cold" it was a nice break from this poser Japanese "winter". Skiing was fun, because for once I wasn`t completely hopeless compared to those around me, in fact, I was probably one of the better skiers there (yeah, everyone was that bad). We skied during the day and then got to relax in what was a somewhat mediocre but comfortable hotel. One of the best parts was a really good conversation with Hiroaki in our hotel room. We discussed ambition, the media, the presence of drugs and crime in Canada and Japan, justice, and freedom of thought, among other things. All in Japanese. Which I`m proud of.

After skiing we went to Tokyo Disneyland for a full day. It was decidedly unimpressive, but hey, I was with my friends, no complaints. The big rides were all down for maintenance, and the others had long waits. Food was over-priced and not terribly delicious, and the decorations got on my nerves. You get the picture. After that we rode the bus all night to get all the way back to Osaka. I drank way too much coffee so I couldn`t sleep. I got home finally and slept most of the day.

Okay, there`s plenty of other stories I could tell, but feel like practicing some guitar or something. Oh, by the way, I`m going on my first date with Kaeko (Kah-ay-koh) sometime this week. Will get back to you on that soon.

リベンジの　ラブスター

2007-01-29T08:24:14Z

Long time no post, so I just figured I`d try and find something to talk about before I go to Tokyo tomorrow. It`s the big school trip and it`ll be with all my Japanese friends. Finally I`m hoping to take some good pictures of people. I get to ride the Shinkansen (bullet train) for the first time, see Mount Fuji, go skiing, and go to Disneyworld (not my first choice of things to do in Tokyo, but then I wasn`t the guy who planned the trip).

Me and the other exchange boys around here had a big day out on Sunday. There was me, the german Florian, the mexican Adel, the belgian Thibeau, and the french Sebastien. We wandered around the downtown trying to strike up conversations with random groups of girls (which was hard being a group of five), eating ramen, messing around in arcades, playing billards and darts, talking loudly in various languages about stupid things, and otherwise killing time in the big city. We didn`t end up finding any girls, but very fun time anyways. We finished up by asking strangers on the street what their favourite cheap restaurant in the area was, and we were pointed to a nice Indian place by a very friendly american English teacher. That place made some good nan bread.

Wow, you`d think I`d have more stories to tell being in Japan and all, but to tell you the truth, this is home to me now. I guess some of it might make for interesting entries, but I would never think to write about it - it`s pretty much everyday stuff to me now. The easiest way I guess is to just take pictures - picture says a thousand words and all that. I`ll try and say something interesting after I get back from my trip.

I`ve decided I like ravens

2007-01-16T10:48:39Z

Okay, first off, the below post is all lies. Twisted abominable heathen lies meant to deceive you all into worshipping Zoomakallis, ending up burning in torment neath his angry feet as he sadistically steps on your ears. Purge your mind of that nonsense.

Firstly, my new host family does have a computer, and they are letting me use it for stuff.
Secondly, since they are going to let me plug my iPod in, I will not have to endure three months without music.
Thirdly, since they are going to let me plug in my camera, I have no excuse not to start posting up more pictures at some point.
Fourthly, there is no excuse for stabby pessimism this year. There is no time for that, I`m busy with going on adventures and stuff.

So my new setup is working out well. The host parents are nice, and lenient (no strict curfew or anything like that). Their cat is friendly and he`s named Totoro so he`s cool. My room doesn`t have a TV or stereo, but it has something which is almost as good - a desk and a decent chair. My back has been aching for a while so a nice, Western-style chair is a welcome break. The desk means I can store stuff instead of throwing it everywhere. If I feel like being tidy that is. There`s also a heater and a comfy futon. Windows offer pleasant views of the neighborhood too. For some reason it all reminds of Raito Yagami`s neighborhood and room in Death Note. Not sure why.

About Death Note. I changed my mind about the movies again. They are decidedly mediocre. I read the end of the manga, and it was so much better that it made the other version worse. Yeah, I liked the ending of Death Note. If you stick with the series even after the unnameable-event-which-everyone-hates-but-that-I-won`t-describe-because-it- would-be-a-spoiler, it`s actually turns out quite well. Have to say, the end can be a tad depressing for saps like me. But very good over all.

Back to reality, I recently realized that I am at the halfway point of my exchange. No longer is it a matter of counting how many weeks I`ve been here, it is no time to count how many weeks I have left. Which is about 26 give or take. A week goes by faster than a train, so... yeah feeling the pressure. My current plan is to flip out and panic and manically try to fill every last second of my time, dodging things that would spongily absorb it (aka, writing speeches for shit), and trying to get out every single day possible. Also, if I ever am going to get to get a Japanese girlfriend, the time is now.

I will try to find something good to write about once a week from now on, but since Japanese life is now normal to me it`s not quite so easy for me to find something interesting to talk about. So yeah, quite pleased with the new arrangement.

Stabby pessimism

2007-01-04T15:54:15Z

I`m leaving for my next host family tomorrow. I`m cool with that, a new family, house, neighborhood, all that`s fine. I`m grateful that they`re putting me up and they look nice so there`s nothing I *should* complain about. But I am going to miss my old family, and I can never stop thinking that this important phase for me, these four months living here, is totally over in about 36 hours. I will never experience anything like this again, it`s done. It`s not that there aren`t plenty of other experiences just as amazing around the corner, but that doesn`t change the fact that this one is now ending. Gah. Of course, this is now the time when I begin evaluating everything I did not take full advantage of when I had the oppurtunity, for no good reason and from which no positive result can come, and yet I still do it.

Yeah, um, my next host family doesn`t have internet or a computer so... I`m going to be very slow replying to e-mails, ljs, facebooks and stuff. I`ll try to get to an internet cafe once a week or so... I`ll try and think of something every week to post up here. I hate to say this, but unless you guys like staying up very late very often you won`t get to talk to me on MSN very often either. Oh, and since I can`t upload pictures to a computer that doesn`t belong to me, there will be 0 photos coming from me for the next... oh.. three months. Since I can`t plug my iPod into a computer that isn`t mine, I can`t recharge the batteries on my iPod. Since I can`t expect the luxury of having my own personal stereo system in my next house.. that means no music for the next 3 months too. Lovely.

This is getting me down needless to say.

Alright, I`m done spewing whiny bullshit now.

Happy New Year`s!

2006-12-30T00:09:01Z

So, though I didn`t get to see much happening for Christmas in Japan, they do quite a bit for New Years, and it`s not even New Years yet...

My host family is having lots of guests over on the big day, so they have to clean up the whole house, which is what everyone is doing at this time of year (traditional big cleanup for New Years). I helped scrub out air conditioners and vents and other stuff. I didn`t mind at all.. it gave me something to do for a change as I had been really bored the last few days. Then the next day they brought over all the boy scouts in the area to make Omochi. Omochi is a sticky rice paste which you can stretch out and roll into balls and all kinds of stuff. It`s really tasty. You make it by taking a huge ball of rice, soaking it in water, then pounding it over and over again with a big wooden hammer. Yeah, it`s fun to make. The boys were going pretty crazy with the big mallet... surprised we didn`t lose anyone.

I change host families in 5 days. It sucks. This is the coolest family I could possibly have and they live in the best possible location - right in downtown Osaka. My next host family is in Ibaraki, which is on the outskirts of Osaka, which is a drag... And it`s still like an hour and 15 minutes away from my school. It`s close to some of the other exchange students though..... although it`s far from just about everywhere else..... um... yay. But the family itself seems nice. The father is an English teacher in a school for mentally handicapped children, which means it`s about 99% certain he`s going to be a fantastically nice guy, and his wife seems very kind and a good cook too. They had kids, but they`re all grown up and moved out, I would have liked to have host siblings. My siblings right now are awesome. But as long as they`re nice it doesn`t really matter. There are trains and buses all over the place, I can always head into town on my own if I want to. No more walking to Dotonbori and in the park along the river to take pictures though. I`m sure I`ll like the new setup once I`m used to it, although I will definetely miss my old one on account of how great it was.

At last an open canvas of time to paint on

2006-12-22T05:09:37Z

It`s winter break. Finally, I have time to tune and start messing around with the 70$ guitar I bought, read some manga, head out with friends, and sleep. No Rotary events scheduled for a while too. My trip to Tokyo which my dad is paying for as my Christmas present won`t be happening until spring break unfortunately, but that does leave me more free time I suppose. And there`s Christmas. Sort of. I don`t get to see anyone, or the real side of Christmas which the plastic decorations and really annoying 80s versions of Christmas carols they play in the malls here can`t quite capture, but it is still Christmas. I got my Christmas package in the mail a while ago, and sent off my own a few days ago. It will probably arrive late, which makes me something of a loathsome bastard. But I have very little to complain about. It`s a quiet, relaxed day, my host mum and host cousin (5 year old girl, adorable) are dozing on the floor, I`m just sitting here at the computer having a good time.

By the way, I think from now on I`ll upload photos to facebook instead of here. It`s just so much faster to upload there than to send them to photobucket and then post them. If anyone doesn`t have facebook, they should get it, it`s actually pretty cool.

I`ve officially completely changed my mind on the Death Note live action movie. It`s actually not that bad, only thing is Misa`s actress sucks. Oh, and they added a previously non-existent girlfriend for Light which was a drag. The second one is pretty good though. I like the ending.

A stroll in the zoo

2006-12-16T12:07:49Z

Beautiful specimen of the numerous yellow trees to be found in the Japanese fall (still under way, until I see some snow it`s not winter)

These three birds are the only animal photographs I think are good enough to share. Most of the others have the grid of a cage imposed on them and I didn`t like the results. Oh, also.

Can`t forget the ephelant.

The zoo is a nice spot to eat lunch with friends, I must say. Speaking of them, I`m hoping to get some good photos of them at some point.

Just a few I felt like sharing.

Refreshingly paradoxical

2006-12-07T06:20:46Z

I`m having one of those days where I worry like crazy whether I`m using my time here as well as I could be. Paranoia is annoyingly cyclical in that you can very easily start worrying about your worrying.

It`s all illogical of course. I simply can`t spend EVERY day wandering around going on awesome Japan adventures with people. There ARE going to be some days that are going to be boring and all I really do is sit around and surf the internet, fiddle around with my various accounts (I`m starting to have quite a few, hard to keep track), watch stuff on youtube, read manga (and call it "studying japanese") and other time sinks. Still, everytime I catch myself lazing around I start getting nervous that I`ll look back on this and think "Damn! I squandered the best oppurtunity that ever came my way!!".

I talked with a university exchange student a while ago who`s leaving later this month. He`s freaking out because he`s not ready, he wants to stay. That is probably my destined fate as well, to want to remain and experience things but be unable to. It`s already been more than three months, I don`t know about you guys, but to me it felt more like three weeks. There`s simply no time.

Despite the above, I miss everyone so much. It`s kind of scary, but in a way I feel so out of touch with absolutely everyone. When I look at a picture of someone back home, it`s strange, but I recognize and don`t recognize them at the same time. Obviously I know who they are, and it does bring back memories, but some familiarity isn`t quite there. Their face seems new and different (maybe because they are??). It`s kind of interesting, Canada doesn`t seem so dull anymore. Ottawa has suddenly become this iconically exciting, icy, quiet city with loads of oppurtunities for adventures.

It`s ironic to me that the days where I tend to be the most paranoid about using my time here as best I can are also the days when I am most homesick. Why would I simultaneously long for home and for experiences in Japan? The two seem to contradict each other to me. Even more puzzling is that despite feeling anxious about all the above, I also feel extremely elated these days. I look at all the oppurtunities open to me now and in the future and I feel like I`ve been sleeping all my life up until now. It`s very liberating.

My back hurts

2006-12-05T23:48:36Z

So it`s test week here in Japan (they have them every two months I think) and everyone but me is freaking out over their exams. I`ve got a Spanish exam and a Japanese exam to worry about. Oh, and the English exams. Better study up for those ones. Last time both the Spanish and Japanese exams were pushovers so I have nothing to worry about. I`ve got an hour and a half before I need to head to school for my 50 minute exam (although it`s an hour and fifteen commute each way) so I`m writing about stuff.

Hmm... what do I have to talk about..

Ah. The day before yesterday I blew 50$ to take a bath. Or a bunch of baths, as it were. The place was called -and you`re going to laugh at me- Spa World. Yeah. Me and two friends went to take some traditional Japanese baths in this HUGE complex. There were hot bubbling baths, hot milky baths, scalding hot baths, herbal baths, outdoor baths, cold bath, gold bath (just a really cold bath), steam saunas, Finnish saunas, salt saunas (there`s a tub of salt in the middle and you put it all over your skin), and there`s also the "electric bath". It`s a little tub which you stand in and the water goes up to your stomach or so. There`s a low electric current running through the water so it basically feels like someone`s stabbing you with a million needles every second you`re in there. Also, if your heart or head gets fully immersed for more than a second you can die... but apparently some people like the sensation. Me, I passed on that one. All the baths are public and populated with many business men, but this isn`t my first time going to a public bath so it wasn`t that awkward. It was actually really nice, makes your skin feel good for three days. Whether it was worth 50$, well, who cares. I have hundreds of dollars of gift money I haven`t even bitten into yet, I`m not going to waste brain power on worrying about money or anything else for that matter.

Oh, the Death Note live action movie was pretty crappy, it totally buggers up the story and makes L seem like such a wussy child, when he should be portrayed as the coolest character in the series (although Light is an awesome villain). The anime is really good though, mostly because it stays as close to the manga as it can.

I found out I was on the honour roll last year not long ago.. that was a surprise.

Sanguine Ravings

2006-11-26T05:17:08Z

I am in such a profoundly good mood right now and I simply must find something to write about so I can put it to good use. Well, while sending a letter back to my Rotary Club back home I was suddenly reminded of just how awesome this experience really is. I`m really proud I made it here today. I`m so happy with my Japanese, it`s getting to the point where I can watch Death Note with no subs and understand what`s going on... as well as reading the manga at a decent rate. I feel as comfortable speaking it as I do French, although my vocab is smaller, admittedly. I can understand some of my classes now, which means the static which buzzed in my ears all day for so long is no more.

I drew a circle and succesfully turned it into a sphere, probably one of the only things I`ve ever drawn that didn`t explode with suckiness. Very annoying when that happens. Makes a mess everywhere. Hopefully with practice I`ll be able to draw something interesting someday. It`d be good for fleshing out my campaigns and such.

I`m now a decent DDR player (up to six feet, woot) and have made a really good friend at the arcade, a guy named Asai. Interestingly enough, he`s thinking of going to Canada next year for his own Rotary Exchange and I am going to offer hosting him at my place. It`s also likely that I`ll be staying with him for the last few months of my exchange, so it`ll a splendid arrangement overall should it all work out. I could teach him English and he could teach me both Japanese and how to draw better (he`s a sweet artist). He`s also just a really cool guy and I`d love you guys to meet him.

I`m really starting to enjoy using my camera, although I have a lot to learn before I`ll even consider attempting to claim to potentially have any marginal amount of skill. I`m thinking of experimenting with long exposures, weird angles and night shots (which I suck at). I have an idea or two. If they work out the results will find their way here. Also, Erik finished a feature-length comic because he`s awesome, Alex`s music is as kicking as ever, and we`re finally getting see Betty`s webcomic. I think I need to use my energy for something, so I think I`ll take a walk down the river and take some photos. Adios.

Zombies!!

2006-11-24T08:50:31Z

So... I took this zombie attack survival quiz and I think I did pretty well, despite not having studied. Voila my results:

Survivor
You scored 68 Survival, 68 Leadership, and 92 Psychological!

Oh you're good. Your survival skills and leadership are good enough to keep you alive and organized for at least a little while. Your real strength, however, lies in your very admirable ability to keep your calm in even the most intense situations. Your body and command qualities may be decent, but your mind is a powerhouse of stability. Estimated Survival Time: 2 Months

Wrrd. I`m good at the whole surviving apocalypses dealy it seems. Of course, this is only on my own, with allies for back-up it could be longer. Anyways, all of you must take this.. everyone should know how long they`d fare against the undead.

Link: The Real Zombie Attack Survival Test written by WillOlmen on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Awesome Japanese People

2006-11-15T10:06:28Z

Alright, I fulfill my promise at last. I restored my relationship with my camera, it works now. I was doing something wrong with the charger or something. I took it to school and got some good shots of the grounds and its inhabitants.

My classroom and where I spend most of every day. You don`t move from class to class, the teachers come to you. My desk is in the bottom right, with the red and black bento bag on it. This was taken at lunch, and I got a lot of strange looks for whipping out my camera. I`m not sure why, but everyone was really shy about being photographed.

First friend I ever met, Hiroaki. He`s on the student council, is a pretty good student, but is pretty laid-back most of the time. He laughs a lot. He does most of the translating for me when I don`t understand stuff.

Shinya. Captain of the swimming team, very upbeat and energetic. He dislikes just about every class except gym, and the following is a more accurate portrayal of what he`s like during the day:

Yeah, you`re allowed to sleep in class here. It rocks.

Dai. He`s in the class next to mine. I don`t talk to him too much, but his English is probably the best of all the Japanese I know. I can talk to him at normal pace and as long as I keep it simple he understands it all. He`s an all-around intelligent guy.

A not terribly flattering shot of Tenki. He`s really friendly and is tied with Shinya for the best at basketball among us. He`s really shy too, so this one picture had to do.

.
Also a not particularly flattering photo. This is Takashi, and he usually looks way cooler than this shot would have you believe. He`s a good and bad kid at the same time. On one hand, he gets great marks and often is involved in student council. On the other, he snuck out during school festival to buy a motercycle (not allowed for high school students, but legal from age 16, don`t ask me how that works) and I would not be at all surprised if he smoked or drank etc. He`s a cool guy and is good at absolutely everything.

And that`s all the pictures of people I have for now. I wanted to get some more, but everyone hid behind things and freaked out when I tried. I don`t get it at all. But I did get some nice ones of the grounds that are worth taking a look at.

The school is two wings, with each composed of three floors of exactly this. Each hall has six classes which look exactly like mine. It`s all pretty standardized. Apart from the gym, caf, and a few special classes, this basically sums up a lot of the interior.

On to the interesting stuff, the courtyards.

All taken from the third floor walkways between buildings. They offer some nice views, and now that the Japanese fall has actually started and the leaves are beginning to cover the paths it`s getting to be absolutely beautiful.

The, um... artwork near one of the buildings. Seems a little... uninspired to me.

Here are three shots from the walkway between wings.

Looking up:

Looking down:

And looking behind me and down:

And finally, my great daily pleasure, looking out the window across the hall from my class, a panoramic of Minoo and the mountains (more like hills) behind it:

Yeah, I like it.

It`s a really nice school and I wish I had gotten enough pictures to give a better mental image, but to do that would require a very long entry indeed.

I haven`t been anywhere too cool lately, but I`m thinking of doing more experimentation. I have a few good ideas. I also want to figure out how to get satisfactory night shots so I can show you all what it`s like to overlook Osaka at night.

Finally something to put on top of the blatherous two entries preceding this. For a few days I was in a bad mood. I was getting very homesick for all of you, and I had a quarrel with my host father. Saint Fuminori is not so great when he`s mad. I had agreed to go to a Rotex (Rotary Youth) event and fully intended to go, and I promised I could manage to get there on my own. The family was a little busy and didn`t have time to babysit, nor would I want them to. I screwed up and slept in way too late and missed the event, and my host dad was not happy. He carries responsability for everything I do, and people at the Rotary Club would talk about how he couldn`t manage accomadating my needs. Reputation, especially in Japan, is no joke. While I don`t think he needed to get quite so... animated about it, I could understand his irritation. But needless to say it makes for an unpleasant and awkward few days.

But now I`m in a good mood. I have a cold and it pisses me off, but in a good mood. I`m enjoying school and my Japanese is still sky-rocketing. I`ve finished the kanji textbook that was meant to last most of the year and I can understand enough of class to vaguely follow where the lesson is going (but it`s boring so I usually read, sleep, or study Japanese).

I bought three Japanese indie rock cds and I`m very pleased with them. All of you add "The Backhorn", "Bump of Chicken", and "Porno Graffiti" to your list of good bands to check out. Bump of Chicken has a nice clean, smooth sound, which kind of reminds me of the Shins mixed with some Weezer. The Backhorn is the opposite. They have a rough, dark sound, a really cool lead singer (who likes to yell out lyrics coarsely from time to time) and beautiful lyrics (even if you can`t understand them, they send vibes pretty clearly). Porno Graffiti is not as artistically serious as the other two, but they`re fun. They`re lighthearted, and are tinged with pop sound, but nothing too bad, as long as you can get past the occasionally irritating weird little attempted English exclamations ("Jazz Up Feeling!", "Dive into the girl! Dive into the mother`s sky!").

I`m going to go enjoy my good mood now (and by that I mean eat dinner) so ta ta for now.

Take note, my blood is not mundane at the moment

2006-11-11T11:34:39Z

Alright, first things first. As I am writing this, I am slightly drunk. Perhaps not slightly. I can walk, and speak coherently and I am certainly handling myself better than the Japanese businessmen I have just been drinking with despite the fact that a) I have had more than they have and b) I am only 16 and therefore allegedly should have less tolerance for the poison as opposed to a 30-year old man (the validity of that paradigm however has been called into question multiple times, for example, they were having trouble holding their glasses properly before my hands were even shaking). But this post is not to brag. I do not claim to be some kind of amazingly tolerant heavy-weight or something. I have had.... let`s see.... a glass of beer and about seven glasses of sake. Judging from the way I`m writing (no typos that I can see etc) I seem to be alright. This will likely be my only oppurtunity for a while to honestly set my "mood" as drunk at the bottom, so I decided I should use it.

Here`s my thesis:
Japanese sake is the best alcholic beverage. Period.

Reason 1: It does not have a strong bitter taste like the drinks so many of my comrades prefer, if anything, it has a mild sweet taste sure to please even those who cannot stand the strong taste of alcohol.

Reason 2: The traditional way to drink sake means that no one`s cup is allowed to be empty for even a moment, so the second you`ve finished your glass someone will automatically refill it, even though you`re 16. This tactic works particularly well if you wait for them to get a little *buzz* before hand and thus their judgement is a little off.

Reason 3: Despite Reason 1, sake has a solid 20-30% alchoholic content, meaning it suits the purpose of getting drunk quite well without getting too pricy.

Conclusion: A teenager has many tools at their disposal for the purpose of intoxication, but sake is truly the greatest.

Think it`d make a good essay? I certainly do.

Anyways... There really isn`t any purpose to this entry. It`s more than anything an experiment. I write something which seems reasonable to me while I`m drunk, tomorrow I`ll look at this and I`ll see what I think in my more rational state of mind. Although it also serves the purpose of knocking the below slightly whiny entry from the top of my journal.

So.... What else is there to say............

Oh yeah. So... I had school today (today is Saturday) for some lame reason, but thankfully only a half day. So I get home, and there`s a buddhist festival going on (if you remember, I`m staying in a buddhist temple). This involves having guests over and drinking sake. I was chatting with an older man about how I plan to study philosophy. Because I look older than I am (to Japanese anyway) he served me up some sake and as he grew less and less sober he was more and more comfortable with filling up my glass every time I emptied it. At the moment I`m not too drunk, but it`s a nice comfortable buzz which is refreshing considering the one, two, almost three months of complete sobriety I have endured until now.

This is likely of no interest to most of you, though I suppose some (*cough* Robyn) are likely chuckling or something similar. It`s possible that tomorrow I`ll read this, laugh, become slightly embarassed and either a) finally post those pictures I took a few days ago or b) post something just to get this off the top of my journal or c) Delete the entry. But, as I said before, this is almost entirely an experiment. Should I bother continuing to write more? I think not. That`ll be all.

I am most irked at the moment

2006-11-01T08:58:51Z

Holy crap I`m bummed right now. I know I promised pictures of awesome Japanese people, but that will have to wait yet longer. I made a resolution to not post again unless I could deliver on that but I`m breaking it now because resolutions tend to be dysfunctional anyways and I have other stuff to say. Anyone in a good mood and not up for reading a negative post should stop now.

Alright, so here's the good news. Felix has been revived, though in a somewhat fetal stage, and I'm tempted to rename him Fenix due to his rejuvenation and because of the phonetic similarity. At the moment "iPod" is simply too generic a name for such a talented being. In other words, a pile of cds arrived from home a few days ago. I've got all the White Stripes except Elephant, the Arcade Fire, Bloc Party, Pinkerton by Weezer (which I'm rapidly starting to believe is the only album of theirs that's much good), the New Pornographers, the Shins, Franz Ferdinand, Metric, and Seargeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Add that to the cocktail of stuff from Hermie and the Pillows and L'Arc en Ciel albums I bought here and you've got a decent start, but it's not complete. I need more.... more! Ok, that's all great, but because of the fact that Windows is stupid it took forever to put em all on, and because of the fact that Windows (which must be to blame for this somehow) is even stupider the upload settings for bit rate were set at 56 for some reason so with the exception of Hermie's mezclada on the data discs the drums on all the tracks sound like some cheesy machine crap from some laser rock band and the guitars run together homogenously sometimes. I'll have to delete it all and upload it again. Very annoying.

Well, perhaps it was jealousy from all the attention that precious, lovely, wonderful, pleasant, obedient, dear Fenix has been receiving lately, but my camera doesn't love me anymore. His batteries for some reason won't recharge, despite the fact they've been through a handful of cycles, which means when I took him to school with me to get the requested photos, he only had enough power for a handful of shots, despite the fact that I had charged the batteries all the night before. The few I got were lame, clearly the result of sabotage from my metallic so-called "friend". My camera's being immature and selfish. He should be punished. Unfortunately doing so would not produce what I require, namely pictures of my friends.

And then there's Halloween. Well, for all of you there is. There is none here. Unlike most other North-American holidays, it seems to have virtually no presence in Japan. I asked my host mum why, and it's kind of ridiculous and somewhat twisted. A while ago, kids who were into western culture would go trick-or-treating on Halloween like we do, but they wouldn't get much loot because the adults weren't up to snuff with the latest imported fads. It was growing though, until one year. One teenager about my age went out dressed up as some monstrosity and went up to an older man's house and rang the bell, saying "trick-or-treat" as one might expect. Unfortunately the old man was a somewhat out-of-the-loop type and thought the young man was some kind of threatening hooligan or something and called the police. They arrived, and despite the young man's efforts at explaining, something he did must have spooked some jumpy officer and he was shot dead. Since then talk of trick-or-treating is simply not done. Of all the holidays of the year, I thought I would miss this one least, but at the moment I'm more homesick than I ever was in the first weeks, or at Thanksgiving. I also realize that it's not ever going to be really cold here, which is strangly sad for me.

There's more stuff that's irking me right now, like the ignorance of certain groups (none of you or people you know, don't worry), the ever-irritating onslaught of stuff to do, something which if it does exist there's no point in hating and if it doesn't exist (which it doesn't) there's no point in hating, and some fucking disturbing dreams I'm just remembering now, but I'll spare you all.

For those of you with less emotionally needy digital cameras, send me or post some pictures of cool Canadian people, namely yourselves and your friends. I could use it right now.

Digestez sil-vous plait

2006-10-24T04:49:07Z

Ok, another big photo update for you ladies and gentlemen. Firstly we have some kind of city festival which I attended with my host sister and her girl scout friends. Fortunately I did not have to man the bracelet making stall due to my total lack of competence with arts and crafts so I wandered about taking pictures of stuff. The photos afterwards are from Dotonbori, which is this cool trendy awesome street in downtown with no accursed cars, just shops, restaurants, a canal, and loads of wakaimono (young people). I hope to return there soon, maybe chaperone-less as it offers more freedom of movement and time to snap photos of stuff. Anyways, photos below. Hope you enjoy.

Three shots of the park and a taste of Osaka cityscape. This is everywhere.

The pictures below are from a little stage a traveling troupe of dancers set up. I sat there and watched the dance for quite a while, it was kind of hypnotic really. The dansers performed one by one, all the same kind, a traditional Japanese dance to drums and a ringing gong/bell thing which I don`t know the name of. It was a really pleasant thing to watch or just have in the background of an afternoon like this. When I showed the pictures to my host mum she looked at me weird and explained that this dance is considered to be pretty low-class and crude and is seen as erotic and improper. So, a huge warning to the squeamish out there, the following pictures are leud, lascivious, and crazy hardcore:

.... Only not really right? If you ask me, the dance is as tame as they come. I mean, the girl is kind of pretty, but the movements don`t at all employ her curves or in any way seem suggestive, and her costume is hardly revealing. I suppose it`s one of those cultural things. These pictures sort of make the dance look somewhat mechanical or strict, but it was actually really smooth and flowed with the rhythm of the drums and the ringing, it was awesome.

There were more pictures at the festival, but nothing particularly interesting.

Next up is Dotonbori. I didn`t take that many so as not to hold up my host dad as we explored, so here`s just a few of the better ones.

Man in black shirt to the bottom left is my host dad.

Next time I go here, hopefully it will be at night. Mmmm....... shiny lights

Bah! Blurry? Blurry!? Why does it hate me so much?? It looked alright on the display....... anyways so as you can see the street is just absolutely packed. Most of those stores have other stores on the floors above them and some are underground so you can find just about anything here. There are signs all over the place as you can see, and they advertise everything from digital cameras to "The next generation of masturbation rooms" aka the latest legal cover-name for prostitution. *Shudder*. But yeah, as long as you dodge the shady parts Dotonbori is a pretty kickin place.

And finally the canal. Brings back memories of adventures had shortly before my trip here, hehehe...

And we`re done. There will be more in not too long of my school as soon as I can get some good pictures of my bad-ass friends. Exams are finally done so that might actually be possible.

A long-awaited meeting with one of my favourite teachers

2006-10-18T08:12:48Z

Last weekend was another trip to Nara, this time to the Nara basin which is filled with Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. I went with Kuwata-san (fourth favor he`s done for me) and Phil, the exchange student from Chicago. Phil is pretty cool, but really, really chatty. He talks really loud too. Fortunately he`s not your stereotypical biased, ignorant, arrogant American (he hates Bush as much as any of us), although he knows absolutely nothing about Canada ("Who`s Harper?") so the conversation is actually pretty decent. We spent at least an hour discussing Trigun at one point, making him the first person other than me to be able to do that. This was only a day-trip, but a really interesting one, and as you may have guessed, loads of pictures were taken.

Slight error uploading this, hence the grey bar at the bottom. Anyways, these stone lanterns line the paths absolutely everywhere, and are quite numerous, as seen here:

I try to keep obstructing tourist people out of my photos, but they were many and persistent. Anyways, the little white papers on the lanterns have kanji written on them. During the summer festivals all the lanters are lit, so at night there are little lights all over the place. Again, I missed such a display, sadly.

Rubbing this guy`s nose will bring you good luck. Do it.

There are many of these red gates all over the place. Someday I`ll come back and climb on top of one. I could do it. I climbed a lamp pole once, how hard could it be?

A guardian lion somewhat similar to the miniature pair I have at home.

A surprisingly tranquil park considering it`s surrounded on all sides by cityscape.

This area of the city is full of these. It is illegal to kill them as they are considered sacred by the Shinto religion so how they keep the numbers under control I cannot guess. They just wander the streets harassing people for food. They don`t give up easy, either, and they`ll headbutt you to get your attention. They have to cut the antlers off the males so they don`t gore any small children.

A mediocre shot of the entrance to Kasuga shrine.

A handmade lantern, one of 3000 in the shrine. Predictably, they are all lit up at night, which adds one to my list of awesome views I`ve missed out on. Grr............

A photo of the outer edges of the shrine. It`s greatly frowned upon to snap photos of the main shrine, so this is the only other photo of Kasuga I took.

On to the other major religion of Japan, Buddhism.

Gate to the Dai-Butsu temple. To be found inside the gate was:

This guy who due to the very awkward lighting in the gate (I swear it`s true) is not particularly visible. He has a counterpart on the other side of the gate who is slightly different. The wooden statues are wards against evil spirits.

After passing through one or two more lesser gates we arrived at the Dai-Butsu Temple.

Today there was a public ceremony with monks performing chants. Some of it was scheduled for the evening so they set up the lighting and speakers seen in front of temple, as well as those banners. A little irritating as they obstruct part of the temple, but the chanting was enthralling so no complaints.

Inside the temple it was very dark and the only light was pretty bright coming through thin windows, making it tricky to get good shots. Apart from the main feature later, there were several smaller statues around the perimeter, three of which shown here:

I`m not at all happy with the way these turned out, but I couldn`t hold the whole group up just to fiddle with settings in order to get better ones. Oh well.

All of these statues depict guardians and followers of this guy:

Dai-Butsu. Largest statue of Lord Buddha in the entire world. I`ve been eager to pay him a visit ever since getting here. I missed him on my last trip to Nara but now I`ve made my little pilgrimage. To put things in perspective, this picture probably shows about half of his body, and the palm of his hand is much taller than I am. It was impressive, to say the least.

After leaving the Great Buddha Hall, we wandered along the streets of Nara, pausing at a few other smaller temples.

A so-so picture of one that caught my eye. The man in the blue shirt in the bottom right is Kuwata-san.

One of the two towers flanking the Great Buddha Hall.

A close-up of the corner of a temple`s roof. For some reason whenever I take pictures of these they turn out really, really well.

A pretty shot of a turtle-infested pond.

Well, after all that we went and got a bite to eat at a cafe and then we were all pretty tired so we went home. That`s the last of these pictures. There are many more coming though.

Hungry for Less Obligations

2006-10-10T09:16:59Z

Well, it seems someone doesn`t enjoy reading of the somewhat strange mechanics of my mind (cough Gribbon). Now we return to discussing Japan.

Last weekend I went to Biwako Barei (which is a hotel on top of a mountain overlooking a lake) with a whole bunch of other Rotary exchange students who I know pretty well. There is a guy from Germany, a Canadian girl from Haliburton, two American boys, a French girl and a somewhat annoying French guy, a Belgian guy and a Thai guy. There`s also a number of university exchange students from all over the place. Anyways, it was a RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Association) meeting and the weekend was equally divided between fun hiking around the mountain and mercilessly boring panel discussions and speeches which would have been pretty dull even in English but since I couldn`t understand most of it it was unbearable. Saturday was mostly the former, Sunday was all the latter.

Overall the trip was so-so, although the scenery was pretty amazing.

A decent shot of the hotel itself.

A rock which reminds me of something I read when I was a kid. Two things, actually.

More awesome Japanese mountains. It`s so crazy how all that space can be so empty while the rest of the country is so packed with buildings, busy roads, train tracks and people.

The awesome view of Biwako Valley and the lake. Unfortunately it was a little foggy out there, so it`s a little unclear further out. Also, believe it or not, the view was twice as cool in the middle of the night. There was a full moon which illuminated the lake in the most beautiful way, outside of the mountains, the land was covered with little lights. I do mean covered. One of the prettiest things I`ve ever seen, but where I was standing was way too dark to actually get a picture that would even come close to accurately representing what it looked like... so you guys have to miss out on that one.

On a more negative note, I am getting very tired of having every weekend occupied by Rotary events and outings with Rotarians. I would very much like a free weekend to go out and explore on my own. I am getting very bored of making speeches, making small talk with people I don`t know, and otherwise fulfilling diplomatic roles. I know that`s the stated reason for me being here... but still, I want to do some adventuring.

It`s kind of interesting, I`ve heard from most people that Osaka is really safe, despite the fact that the Yakuza make their home here. Even at night as long as you stay away from nasty neighborhoods even a gaijin like me has little to worry about, for the simple reason that there are people everywhere at all times. From what I`ve heard, the Yakuza make Western organized criminals seem like daycare teachers, but they`re much less interested in petty crime like mugging exchange students. They`re more into big things like manipulating the politcal sphere, dealing high-price drugs in clubs, and extortion. This of course, means I can afford to go shopping on my own at night so long as I`m not ludicrously stupid and wander around in alleys and such.

First thing on my list is finding an empty VHS (not as easy as it sounds) to tape Waterboys on so I can finally send it off to Po, next is buying more Pillows cds and other awesome Japanese indie rock, then stuff like trying to find VHS anime, and maybe practicing DDR at the arcade. Of course, my plan is that other things will present themselves while I`m on my way to doing all this, which will inevitably happen. I love how all I have to do is indulge my curiosity and almost guaranteed I`ll find something intriguing here. I just wish I could truly share all of this with my friends back home.

My Brain is Infected with Nihilism

2006-10-05T09:10:34Z

I caught myself doing something I haven`t done in a while. I was just sitting around staring blankly into space as I often do and I started thinking how utterly believable it would be for the images I see in front of me with my eyes to disintegrate, like fabric ripping, or glass shattering, or for it to all just mix together and drip off the edges of my vision like water leaking out of a very shallow bowl with holes in it, revealing something else behind it, or maybe just nothingness.

I also have been occasionally playing the game where you pick a word (any word) and start saying it to yourself, over and over and over and over again, until it loses all meaning. For example, if you say "cat" just a few times you`ll get some kind of automatic brain reaction when you say it, maybe an image of the feline animal, or a memory of something related to cats, but if you keep on saying it many many times it stops being a word and starts being merely a sound with no more significance to you than some random noise. The kind of creepy thing is the more often you play this game the fewer amount of times you have to say a word before it becomes nothing to you.

Thirdly, I discovered that if you stare at a picture of someone you know, and relax your mind, you can actually detach the face of that person from all your memories and feelings of that person, in other words, for a brief moment you can convince yourself that you don`t recognize their face. It actually feels quite scary, but thankfully if you just snap out of it it stops and things return to normal.

And there`s more! I was digging around in my memories and realized that I really have no way of knowing how I really felt in past situations, because my present mind distorts it for its own purposes, whether that is making me look better than I actually was, or making my past self look worse so I can feel like I`ve grown in some way since then. It`s pretty impossible to be objective about it.

Yeah, just a few contemplations on the completely transitive, empty existence of things. I probably need a shot of absolutism to compensate. Maybe I just need to reread the section on Dependent Origination in the Dalai Lama`s book. If I sound completely crazy feel free to say so by the way.

Tongue Feuds

2006-10-04T11:09:53Z

Interesting thing. I had to write a speech on Canada to present in front of all these students, and I thought I would have to do it in English since my Japanese is still a little shabby. I wrote this fairly wordy speech in English and since I had to make it as simple as possible it was really awkward in boring. I was a little anxious that the whole thing would put the students to sleep, so I thought I`d translate some of it to Japanese so they wouldn`t be frustrated and give up trying to understand. As I started translating, I realized I was fairly easily able to express it all in Japanese. With just a little vocabulary help from Hiroaki, I rewrote the whole speech in Japanese. The presentation went really well, although I did have to read a lot of it off my paper. It`s really strange, I think I know more Japanese than I think I do.

When it comes to speaking it, for many things I don`t have to translate in my head anymore, they just come out completely naturally. When I`m watching TV or listening to my music I may not understand each word or even the general idea, but I can actually pick out each syllable pretty well.

I`m studying kanji like crazy every day. It`s hard to keep track of all of them, but my guess is I`ve memorized about 150-160 symbols. That means there`s only 1840 or so to go. I want to learn every single one used in Japanese. If I don`t, I may never be able to completely understand all those Hellsing and Trigun mangas. That simply won`t do of course.

Long story short, my Japanese is improving way faster than it feasibly should. Downside is I`ve forgotten almost all my Spanish. I tried to count to ten a while ago and went "un, dos, tres, cuatro, go (five in Japanese)". Yeah. It`s that bad. Basically all of it has been replaced by Japanese. So far my French is holding out but sooner or later this will start chipping away at that too, I`m sure. I alternate between the Spanish and French classes so I can keep as much as I can, but since they`re being bombarded with Japanese from all sides the state of my Latin languages is somewhat perilous. I don`t think I`ll lose too much French, but now that I`m really considering studying philosophy at McGill I want all I can get. Well, in any case, I`m really happy with the progress I`m making here.

My Canadianess is slowly perishing `neath the horrible shiny tyrant

2006-10-02T09:30:03Z

Two of the cool things Canada`s climate granted me up till now are being stolen from my oftimes nemesis, the sun. Because my metabolism has shifted to adapt to the heat here, I no longer have any tolerance for cold. In Canada, I could walk home from fencing in the middle of winter, with hair frozen solid and with nothing but a decent coat on and I`d be fine. Here, if I open my window in the night to let in the wind, I`m shivering in bed, even though it`s early autumn. Furthermore, although this might be paranoia, I think my skin is starting to tan. Save me! I don`t want my skin to tan!

Saint Fuminori

2006-09-28T07:48:49Z

That`s right. My host dad is not an imperfect human being, he is some kind of strange entity built entirely out of pure good karma or something. I got a day off school today because I had to go to a Rotary meeting for which I made a speech in Japanese that went really well.

After we went to "Tower Comics" a store which ironically enough is underground. It`s like a small mall but with nothing but manga, dvds and music in it. We looked around some and guess what I found....that`s right.. Waterboys! We also found Trigun Maximum, all 12 issues! Now, because of the fact that I am stupid, I didn`t know we were coming here before leaving the house, so I didn`t have any money on me. I had enough at home, so I asked him if I could just borrow enough to buy Waterboys, which I would pay him back for as soon as we got home later that day. I didn`t want to push it, the Trigun would have cost over 60$ equivalent, and I could always come back for it later, but there were only two copies of Waterboys left and I sure as hell was not going to let the movie get away again.

He asks the clerk to fetch the dvd AND all 12 issues of Trigun, turns to me and says "Presento". My eyes probably went out of focus for a second right there. I tried to say it was alright, that I would pay him back when we got home but he just chuckled and told me to not to tell Muneaki or Kie-chan so they wouldn`t get jealous. In total this gift probably cost him almost a hundred dollars, and it wasn`t even a special occasion or anything.

I thanked this...this angelic person as best as I possibly could, but nothing can express what an awesome present it is. I now own the entire manga of Trigun. For free. And I can finally watch this Waterboys movie and then send it off to Po... so... yeah... I think today wasn`t too bad.