A bit of history:
Known to the locals as 澳門 or ‘a-mon’ it used to be a Portuguese trading colony under a decade ago. With time the “colonial” fad faded and Macau was returned to China in 1999 just 2 years after Hong Kong was reclaimed from the British Empire. However, The mix of Portuguese culture and tradition still remains in much of the city.

Our first stop on the tour was the Macau tower. Although it was a very foggy day, we managed to enjoy the view of the island and its many beautifully long bridges. The tower itself is the world’s tallest bungee-jump attraction – it looked exhilaratingly awesome. At first glance I got an inkling to take the plunge, but the group atmosphere did not seem right. I would look like the crazy “gwai-lo” (common term for whiteguy) outcast, so I decided to save the thrill adventures for another day. Instead we had a buffet in the rotating restaurant on the tower, which was delicious. The food was a refreshing meld of European pastry and meats with lots of Asian-influenced cooking. Good times were had by all.

It was pretty interesting seeing such a mix of Eastern and Western culture and architecture on this little island. Seeing Chinese temples and Portuguese churches side-by-side definitely gave it a unique character. After some sightseeing, Ivan’s dad suggested that we visit “The Venetian” – a huge and famous 5 star hotel, casino and luxury mall. Decorated to the brim with fountains, chandeliers, murals, and tall ceilings - the place was spectacular. The more interesting part of it was the mall, where they tried to recreate a street in Venice. Complete with a river on which the gondola drivers sing to their passengers, overpriced boutiques built in a faux Venetian style, and party favors like real-live statues (a man with white facepaint standing really still) . There was also this tall guy on stilts who popped out from a corner and startled quite a few people – but then made up for it with some witty remarks and poses for pictures. Cool guy, cool place.

Then we proceeded to the casino, where I spent a whopping $20 Macau dollars on slot machines (a bit under $3 CAD). It wasn’t as glorious as it seems, I still cannot sympathize with people spending hours weekly playing slots. Macau is actually very known for its casinos from the time that gambling was outlawed in Hong Kong - people just took the 1 hour commute by sea to satisfy their cravings. Because of this, a slew of casinos emerged all over the island, including the prominent “Casino Lisboa” empire. From what I’ve seen, Lisboa is the biggest casino on the island, spanning several large buildings and running several hotels for the gamblers to stay in. The most notable structure was this oddly shaped building called the Grand Lisboa, the walls of which made up an enormous low-resolution LED screen with many flashy animations and scrolling messages. According to Wikipedia the building was meant to resemble a lotus flower, but I never got that image. Nonetheless we decided to go in and check it out.

This was an experience that eliminated any of my desires to go into a casino and blow some money. No, I didn’t lose a lot of money. Just seeing the sheer grandeur of this casino - the décor, the statues and paintings they have on display, the number of employees, and the thought of the electricity bill from the flashing lights - it all made me think: where is this money coming from? In the Grand Lisboa intricate jade and golden statues were put off to the side, because of the many more exotic exhibits for the public to look at: the most expensive statue sold in China (a horse’s head) and the largest cushion shaped diamond in the world just to name a few. Then I remembered that this is only one of many casinos owned by the same company erected side-by-side, each with an accompanying hotel. My conclusion? I think that the percentage of visitors leaving the casino with more money than they came in doesn’t stray far from the headcount of penguins in the Sahara desert. Excuse the exaggerations, but that’s just the image that stuck with me. I didn’t leave a single penny in the joint.

Originally we planned return home on the last ferry of the day, but once we realized how little time we have to explore the city we decided to spend the night at a hotel. Since “The Venetian” was fully booked, we settled on a Holiday Inn. After some clerical error and hassle with the front-desk attendants we managed to score an upgraded VIP room. They also had a spa where the massages were half price – that was probably the most memorable hour of the trip. A traditional Chinese pressure-point massage with a masseuse who didn’t speak a word of English and kept telling Ivan to translate to me that she thinks I should go to China to find myself a wife because I’m so handsome. Although I’m not so sure if I’ll take her advice the massage was great and I was surely entertained.

The two days in Macau were great. Although I didn’t get to experience the city as much as I did with Taipei, Tokyo or Hong Kong, I definitely recommend anyone visiting Hong Kong for a few weeks to take the detour to this island.

Photos:
For those of you without Facebook accounts, check out the pictures [ here ]. Otherwise just visit my profile and tell me what you think.

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As many of you know I have already left my life Japan behind - and of course there are many emotional stories behind that. I will save them for a later post, as the Hong Kong experiences are fresher in my mind right now.

A brief recap of the situation:
Before returning home to Canada from my Japanese (and briefly Taiwanese) adventure, I thought it would be a good idea to drop by another place in the East while I’m still here. Throughout my school years I have been force-fed the idea that Hong Kong is the most exciting and entertaining city in Asia - as many of my peers/friends have roots here. My current plan is to verify the rumors. These may include but are not limited and/or restricted to:

1. Hong Kong is the ultimate place for shopping as brand name items are cheaper than in Canada due to tax and exchange rate differences.

2. Hong Kong is famed to be the best place to eat. The best foods from all over Asia find their place in the HK streets ready for the hungry-hungry-tourist.

3. Hong Kong is the best place for young people to hang out. Ever.

4. Cities like Tokyo aren’t very special, and in a direct comparison HK is likely to come out on top.*

*This (or something similar) has been the claim of an un-named HKonger during his/her visit to Japan last year.

Now perhaps I may have skewed some of the wording of the above, but that’s the impression I got from the rumors about HK before coming here. I will be sure to comment on these in my final post about the trip.

How did this work out?
Ivan, my dearest roommate for the past year-and-a-bit is from the city and has of course helped form some of the rumors. When he said that he is going to Hong Kong after Japan and invited me to come along, I couldn’t refuse.

Here I am staying with his uncle Jack, a very energetic and guy who works at the H.K. University of Science and Technology. He lives in a nice pad on campus where he let Ivan, his dad, and I crash for the next little while. When he is free he takes us around the city in the car, but otherwise we manage to get around on the public transportation just fine. All in all - a great guy.

First Impressions:
Hong Kong in general is quite a sight to see to someone who has never been here. Since there isn’t much land in the province, people had no choice but to build upwards. In addition the geography of the place is very mountainous - similar to that of Taiwan. Combining these two factors together yields a very interesting place with endless mountains, tunnels and bridges, wily roads (often built above other roads), and of course endless buildings. In MOST of the areas I have seen in Hong Kong people have gone to great length to squeeze in another building or four.. and then make it very tall. Oddly enough, many people perceive Tokyo as this megapolis with endless skyscrapers, but it could not be further from the truth. Hong Kong is that place. At night many districts glow with neon. The amount of signage is unbelievable! There are huge signs hanging on teeny little cables stretching out across the road advertising BIG WANG RESTAURANT or something of the sort. Quite a sight to see. (yes I have pictures)

As a general impression it is quite a bit dirtier and grimier and more run-down looking than most parts of Tokyo. The spring weather is foggy and smoggy, but the temperatures are great. Most noticeably to mea though was the strong contrast between the poor and the rich, the new and the old. There are ridiculously gorgeous and expensive shopping malls right beside VERY run-down apartment buildings and people seem to get along just fine. People on the streetmarkets bargain to sell you their fake brand apparel for less than the cost of a phonecall in Canada, while others drive around in their Porsche and shop at very high-class boutiques. As I mentioned already: the contrast is very noticeable.

People act much differently here than in Tokyo. On a global scale, it’s probably Tokyo that is the outcast, but that’s not the feeling I get after just living there for 14 months. On one hand, there is more life to people - less manners and politeness enforced on everyone. On the other hand, I’m very used to the Tokyo way - a glance in someone’s eyes for over a second is an intimate relationship which should have many formalities preceding it.. not quite the same here. Some people sure don’t look like the type you’d want to make any eye contact with at all. Back to reality, where if you offend someone on the street.. they will probably try to do more than think impolite thoughts of you. Strangely enough, I do miss the way shopkeepers yell “welcome” as you enter/exit their store in Japan. However, I don’t intend to undermine the welcome of the Hong Kong crowd - all of the shops are welcoming but I just don’t know how to communicate with them properly just yet. The culture difference is huge in comparison to Tokyo, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Eating:
So far it has been VERY MUCH about the eating. Ivan’s dad and uncle have given me a very warm welcome by treating me to as many different types of food as possible (and that’s ALOT). I don’t think I have tried a quarter of the dishes yet, but so far so good. Everything tastes great and the prices are awesome!

Since I’m being treated to many of the dishes, there is a certain expectation of me to try as much food as possible - resulting in daily overeating. However I have been here for about 4 days now and my stomach has stretched to accept this harsh reality. With that said, my pronunciation of “I am very full, thank you very much” in Cantonese has improved drastically.

Chinese food is a very strong contrast to Japanese cooking where presentation matters most. Here many of the famed restaurants are decorated with a plain (and occasionally grimy) white tile and are full of people yelling and running around. Why? Because they’re too busy servicing the happy customers. It also gives the place a more down-to-earth and lively feel. Very different cultural approach though. The bottom line is the food tastes great - taste wins over presentation in my books as well.

I cannot begin to recap the names of the foods I have tried, but all of them have ranged from “decent” to “holycrapthatsawesome”. Yes I have eaten snake soup, and chicken feet among other interesting dishes. Both were delicious. We have visited all sorts of restaurants like little street-shops, food courts, dim-sum restaurants, and even a high-class seafood place. I have also had some home-cooking when we met up with Ivan’s mom’s side of the family. All in all: good food, good times.

Interesting Stuff:
Although a lot of time spent so far was eating, playing badminton, eating, getting a general impression of the city.. and oh yea, eating. However I did encounter some very notably interesting things thus far. In no particular order

• When I ate snake soup, our tourguides talked it up with the shopkeeper and as a result Ivan and I got to play with one of the snakes.
• When we went to the high-class seafood restaurant there were all these aquariums outside filled with live creatures ready to be picked for eating. I also got to hold one of the huge lobsters by the antenna and pose for my own camera.
• Most of the transportation system is powered by double-decker buses that from the outside very closely resemble tourbuses. The second floor idea is very cool. Up yours TTC / Mississauga Transit (not to even mention Milton).

Photos:
I have a running album to which I am posting pictures almost daily. Its on Facebook, so if you have access to my profile, please feel free to comment. If you don’t use Facebook, here is the public link (with no commenting). There have been many photos and this is only album 1. More to come soon! Once I’m done with all this I will put the cream of the crop onto flickr.

And for now.. that’s all folks. I still have much blog-catching up to do but it will be put off for a better day. In a few hours I have to be up for our trip to Macau!

Thanks for reading.

I made a map of the final journey using the ultimate power of Google! Click on the dots to read some info about that stop.

View Larger Map

I also took a lot of pictures. I plan on putting a full 100-photo trip summary up sometime, but until then here is the abridged set for Facebook. If you have me on Facebook, view them through my profile or else you wont be able to comment.

..So on with the rest of the long story..

Dave and I are masters of planning. That is to say, we need no planning - or so we think until 1 hour before we have to do something. This trip was no exception. Sure we exchanged some internet links that proved people did this before successfully, but we didnt write out a real plan or an itinerary or anything. First of all, we didn’t end up buying the right ticket for the trip, we bought something similar but it made the journey a little more complicated. Then, we thought of leaving in the morning of January second.. but love for sleeping in made that go away. No worries. “We’ll take the night train to Niigata, and then figure it out from there” was a catchphrase on the evening we supposed to leave. The evening came, then the train came, then we came to the platform only to find that it is “reserved seats only”. No problem - run to the ticket office at 22:59 before its closed at 23:00. “Sorry sir, all the seats on that train are full“- well that’s anticlimactic. With the next train that gets us closer to our destination leaving at 4:44am, we decided to re-group in an internet cafe, and just spend the night there. After about 3 hours of research we had things written down on paper with times of train arrivals and even station names! Foolproof plan. We were off on that train at 4:44 heading somewhere north.

On the way up Dave and I resumed with our hobbies: I put in my earphones and went crazy taking pictures of sunrises and just about everything else outside of the train; Dave slept gloriously. Our first stop was Sendai, a city on the eastern coast of Japan famous for Gyutan - beef tounge. Of course we had to indulge in the dish over some beer and then spent some time touring the city and taking pictures. Regardless of the fact that Japan shuts down for Jan 1st 2nd and 3rd, we still managed to have our entertainment. At 6pm we were on the road again heading to Hachinohe for the night (in theory).

Soon after our departure it started getting cold and we eventually saw snow as we reached Ichinoseki. Compared with the awesomely warm winter weather of Tokyo, this started to remind me of Canada. The trains also drastically changed from the metropolitan area. The 12-14car long monsters shrunk to about 2-3 cars in length and always had plenty of seating available. The whole atmosphere was very different including people and the way they dress and act. Perhaps it was the “middle of nowhere” effect. Throughout most of the ride i pondered on what it would be like to live so far out of a big city - kept my imagination busy.

Of course when we arrived at Morioka, one of the bigger towns on the way up, our foolproof plan went out the window (again). The train we were planning to take would cost us an extra 3000 yen ( ~28CAD), and the alternative route was not running until the morning. The two of us shrugged it off and rented a capsule hotel. It came with a ticket to a public bath/sauna, which would have been iffy up until about a week ago when we went to a hot spring resort in Odaiba and conquered the North American fear of public bathing. Back to our shameless European roots! After some food and sleep we were on the road again before 7am.

The trip between Morioka and Hakodate (our final destination), went surprisingly smoothly aside from small things. On our way we took an express train that took us through the longest tunnel in the world - 50 min of underwater travel from Honshu (the main island of Japan) to Hokkaido. We got in and couldn’t find an “unreserved seat” so attempted to “Gaijin Smash” [verb: to use foreigner ignorance to an advantage] and just take some empty spots. That didn’t last too long as we got moved out pretty quickly, but at least I managed to snap a picture of Dave being a bit edgy about the scenario. Once we got to Hokkaido, the trains degraded once again - now resembling 2-car diesel powered tractors that run as fast as real farm machinery. The people were also a bit less concerned about politeness and full out lay down on the seats when there was plenty of room (a horrid no-no in Tokyo unless you are a bit beyond happy drunk). Finally the Hokkaido winds were coming from the oceanside, so they were cold and wet making plenty of ice patches everywhere and feeling rather chilly on any unshielded skin. Strangely (and stupidly) enough, no one uses road salt here - the sidewalks are a disaster. Canada 1, Hokkaido 0.

Being the champs we are, we didn’t have reservations for a hotel in Hakodate, not even a recommendation from the internet. Asking the clerk at the information desk resulted in a room at “Smile Hotel”. To our surprise the place was very decent and had a nice view from a balcony (see pictures), but the price was in accordance with the name - cheap. Happy with our newfound accommodations we went and spent a pretty penny at a higher-class sushi shop - and it was good.

Our Hakodate time was spent pretty well. We went up to a very large hill/observation point on ropeway and witnessed what is apparently regarded as one of the top 3 night-views in the world. I made my first decent panorama shot *hooray*. Before calling it a night we spent twice our planned amount at a local bar where the crowd slowly dispersed from our diameter because of our foreignness. Savoured some good brandy and rum though. In the morning we went to the fish market and at some very fresh seafood (caviar, sea urchin roe, and clamfish on rice). Of course we made the trip to the local brewery - after all what better time is there to start a 4-glass sampler of beer than 11:30 in the morning? All satisfied I bought a small and useless keepsake from the souvenir store and we got on the train at about 1pm.

At this point in time Dave was beginning to worry about making it in time to catch his flight. Due to our rapidly changing plan and unplanned mishaps along the way, we had to buy tickets for the Shinkansen [noun: bullet train] to take us halfway back. If we missed that train, Dave would miss his plane, and then lose his reservation for on campus residence at Waterloo. Understandably, the stakes grew quite a bit and so did Dave’s concern. The “Wambulance” [noun: ambulance for whiney people] was en route.

The main highlight of the return trip was a stopover at Kanita, our northernmost station on Honshu. We had an hour to waste before our train arrived, so we wandered the tiny middle-of-nowhere town/village. By the oceanshore there was a flock of very large white birds relaxing, they could have been swans - my bird-identification skills are a bit rusty. Aside from the fact that the birds were very photogenic, the surrounding beach with distant mountains and a close-to-sunset sky made for glorious must-see pictures. My camera has a wide-angle lens with no zoom, so i had to get really close to take the good shots. Awesomely enough, as i slowly inched towards the flock, the smaller birds (probably the females) went into the water, and the bigger ones stayed on shore and watched. An unplanned encounter like this in the middle of nowhere was the kind of stuff that made this trip worth it. You’ve really got to see the pictures.

The final night was full of worries of missing the shinkansen home, so we had some good food at an izakaya (typical Japanese restaurant) and called it a night at the hotel in Hachinohe. At 7:10 we were on the ridiculously fast train bound to arrive in Tokyo in under 3 hours, this time with much more appreciation of it’s speed - it took us a bit under a day to travel the same distance on local trains.

Once back in the city we rushed to Imatake’s sushi, a very small and traditional sushiya close to my house where the only chef knows my roommate Ivan and I by name. He even remembered Dave from the time he came in the summer! We went all for the sake of Dave’s last hour in Japan - that was a good 5000yen lunch for the two of us. Surprisingly enough Dave did manage to miss the train to the airport because of the time it took to transfer photos to his computer. Luckily there was a tiny bit of forethought and we didn’t book the last possible train. Changing the ticket time also turned out to be free. Dave was on his way, and I slowly began returning to my routine lifestyle, harsh realizations of the amount of money I spent, and the mess that my apartment got turned into after having 5 people in it at a time. All in good fun.

On the whole, this trip was definitely awesome. I’m glad to have friends like Dave to accompany me and encourage spending money. I’m very glad to have the opportunity to show people around another country and give them a good experience. I’m also very glad to have friends that actually made it down here and had a good time with me. I am equally as glad to have friends back home that will be welcoming me back in several months - that should be fun. All in all, I’m a pretty glad guy at this point in time.

Oh, and another thing: I’m glad that some people are actually interested in reading the stuff i force myself to write here. Thanks.

Once upon a time, in a land far far away, lived a young man with a passion for drums. Of course his drums were in another land, far away from the land in which he lived but likely closer to the reader of the article. And so the lengthy story begins..

Jamming - I love it, and have missed it dearly in the first few months in Japan. I even bought a guitar to try to ease the pain.. but with no avail. For those of you who don’t know me that well, I have been playing drums on-and-off for about 7 years, the last 4 of which have been pretty intensive. In Canada I played in a band.. but it broke apart as I left for Japan, leaving my heart in the same state - broken. For the first few months I soothed some of my drum cravings by going to music stores and playing on an electronic drumkits on display for about an hour (got kicked out twice). Of course this didn’t compare to playing in a band where the music actually had energy people playing the instruments. Something had to be done.

The local music scene in this country revolves around these places called practise studios. They’ve got all you need for a jam - amps, microphones, and a well kept drumkit with a standard setup, all at an average cost of $7 CAD/hour per person. I decided to wander around these studios and collect some drummer-wanted posters in hopes of a jam. After, I asked the people hanging around the joints about where other nearby studios are, and before you know it i wandered into about 4 studios in one night. I emailed some bands with my information, interests, and previous experiences. I waited. Soon enough 5 people replied and i scheduled jam-dates with all of them.

During a good jam-session music definitly overcame the communication barrier that i had with many of the guys. I got to play Funk, Punk, Pop, and Rock with the bands which was definitly sweet.  Eventually i decided to team up with a band called SilverVein for more of a long-term gig - they were the most organized of the bunch. It’s hard to give a clear definition of the style.. but its something around “hard rock”.

We’ve been together for about 6 months now. The band’s name has been changed to Igrushka (russian: toy)  We’ve played a total of 5 shows so far and have a few more booked for the first months of 2008. Our live performances have been getting more nad more energetic (even with some double kick drum thrown in) so if anyone has the opportunity i’d love for you to come to a show. We also plan on recording a few songs in the early months of this year, so check back for updates if you are interested.

 The guys in the band are great, and we have become good friends. They are by far my closest set of Japanese friends - with whom i get to practise speaking. The very sad part about the story is that i plan on leaving the country in several months, and that means the band’s gotta find a new drummer. All good things must come to an end, i guess. I will enjoy it while i can.

First and foremost, I joined a band about 3 months ago. For those who don’t know, I play the drums. The name is Igrushka (russian for Toy) and the other three members are all Japanese. We play a slightly heavier style of rock, and have performed at two shows so far. Its all good fun. You can expect a more detailed post on this later.

My friends Dave and Raheel have visited me in this corner of the world in August. After showing them around Tokyo, we climbed to the top of Mt.Fuji and took the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto. Alot of really good pictures came out of that trip, but i have been too lazy and busy to put them up. In theory, this should be its own blog entry as well - check back later.

Ivan and I signed up for a Japanese profficiency test. There are 4 levels of difficulty, but instead of doing the easiest “beginner” level we went ahead and signed up for “low-intermediate“. This has really pushed me to study Japanese every day: to write, read, and speak. It has been a challenge so far, but I’m enjoying it and i have noticed alot of self-improvement. Hopefully by mid-December i will have attained a low-intermediate skill level in Japanese!! It even comes with a certificate and my picture on it. How nice. Wish me luck!

How is work? Pretty good. Emissary, the IT company, has expanded into Thailand in the last month, so we were a bit understaffed for the time. Very hectic for everyone. The good news is that, from the beginning of this month we’ve got a new guy on the team! Ivan and i get to show him around - this way we feel more important. I’m back to doing some design & development work, so maybe i will share some of it around here in the near future. All in all, work is going well.

At Gaba I have to wear a suit again, it is a bit annoying at times.. but i guess i look snazzier. I’m enjoying teaching a bit more now, and I would really like to think that my lessons have been improving.. I will let the clients and their ratings be the judge of that though. A different HUGE English-teaching company, Nova, has been crashing and burning in the past few months, and Gaba has been there to pick up the remaining pieces. Works out pretty well for us. Read more about Nova here.

It is getting late around here, so i plan to call it a night. I did have a hearty plate of self-made potato pancakes today so i feel a tad productive. Hopefully I won’t be too lazy to update you on other stuff soon!

End.

In other news, I have finally started working at an English teaching school. It is a part time job, and i do it mostly for the experience and the little bit of extra cash. It is definitely interesting. I have taught 6 one-on-one lessons so far. Basically the clients have their choice of a book-style lesson or a free conversation (at their English level, with corrections). Most of the people i’ve taught so far insisted that we have a chat instead of using the book. This means that i got paid sitting around in a suit talking to Japanese people and getting their opinions and stories - something i wanted to do in the first place! Of course the job has some difficulties in that i have to keep to a timeline, and emphasize certain sentence structures. I can’t learn Japanese while teaching, because the school forbids me to use that language while there. All in all it is a great time, and i occasionally talk to the other instructors and the receptionists - making some new friends. It seems to me that my social life in Japan is slowly improving, I think that’s pretty good news.

Anyway, its late, and I’m still in the office using the internet (because mine isnt set up yet!!). I will try to keep you posted, if you are interested. Adios.

If you’ve been keeping up with my recent escapades, you’re probably wondering “So what is that crazy Russian-Canadian fellow in Tokyo up to these days?”, assuming you use the term ‘fellow’ in your daily speech. Well, I might just have some answers for you, ‘ere mate. Week 2 at my new job is coming to an end, and I cant complain - it seems like a good place to be for the next little while. Apartments? Ivan and I decided to split a larger 2-bedroom apartment just to keep the cost of living down. We found one in the past week and I signed the lease today - not too shabby. Of course I recently bought some new stuff which combines with the huge appartment move-in expenses to make me utterly poor. As it seems right now, I’m over the ‘transitional’ hill of ’starting a new life in Japan’. Hourrah.

Job: “Who do you work for?! What do you do?” Easy there. It’s a small-sized IT firm called Emissary Computer Solutions, and I’m the newbie in the office (aka ‘nugget’ or ’snappa’) - basically an intern for now, and nobody really knows what department to permanently assign me to. The title IT Support Specialist means that I do some workstation maintenance, troubleshooting, and of course windows re-installs at the office or at customers’ sites. Its kinda fun wandering Tokyo, following this Australian guy around for the first little while; I fear that one day i will just pick up on too much of the accent and the Canadians won’t understand me at home anymore, eh? Also i’ve memorized a good section of the Tokyo metro subway and know my way around - thats pretty fly for a white guy. The company is growing very quickly into several markets - a very promising thing to hear - but this of course means more work for everyone. On top of IT Support i’m getting server migrations, VOIP server configurations, and of course webdesign tasks thrown at me amidst a never-ending pile of email (that I sort into folders). Hectic. All in all though, the people in the office seem great so far, and i’m happy to have an understanding boss (who teaches Aikido and reads my blog now and then..). Yea, thats about it for the job.

Apartments. It’s true - finding a place in Japan is a pain, especially for a foreigner. First of all, there aren’t that many english-speaking real-estate agencies, and to add to that, some landlords request japanese-speaking citizens only, and other B.S. restrictions like that.  Second of all, there is alot of up-front costs that set you back such as the 1-2month’s rent security deposit, several month’s rent as a bribe to the landlord for taking you in, and a month’s rent to pay to the real-estate company for finding you a place. On top of this, add the cost of the first month’s rent, the fact that 1 month’s Tokyo rent is quite expensive as it is - and you get the fun experience i got to go through recently. Nonetheless i have signed the lease for this one place that Ivan and i plan to share for the rest of our stay in Japan. It is a 40 square metre, 2 bedroom place and it is less than a minute walk from a subway station. The rent is a around 1000CND /month, and the move-in cost was only a bit over 4 months rent for this place. I will share more details when i actually move in - i dont know much more about it at this point - but i am relieved that i have a somewhere to stay.

Speaking of money spending, I decided to pick up a laptop, since my AWESOME (sarcasm) Sony Vaio is being taken away by the old company I worked at. I went out and got a used IBM x40 for something like 870CND. It is a very cool tiny little computer - finally i can have a laptop that i dont mind carrying around in my bag! The battery is supposed to last 5 hours when it’s new, but this one is a year old so it goes for about 3 hours - not too bad. Also as an impulse buy, i bought into the iPod craze so now i have a used 4 gig nano. Yay! .. but this also means i have to convert most of my music library from wma to mp3 or AAC. Eugh - stupid apple/microsoft war, can’t all filetypes just get along?! Oh well - yay Ipod!

Thats about it for now, will keep you posted on the appartment & job.

I returned from Taiwan feeling happy, rested, and relaxed. My sleeping patterns were messed up due to the 8am flight, so I casually ignored the email saying “important meeting - meet me on your own time” from the boss at Invio. After all it said “if not during the weekend, then on Monday morning”, and Jesse saw him earlier in the week without any new information, so I decided that Monday morning was a good idea. It’s not that I was wrong, Monday was a good idea - at least my weekend wasn’t spoiled. During the meeting we were informed that the company has closed it’s development division and is no longer sponsoring the co-op programme. Further on he continued to explain that we get paid for May, the appartment rent is taken care of, and that he contacted UWaterloo and confirmed that we can still join this term. “Also I have lost my job as well”, he says. I’ve gotta say, it was a pretty dramatic moment. The real decisionmaking part of the situation didn’t sink in for the first few hours, so I said some nice thankful and encouraging words at the end of the meeting and proceeded back to my desk, where I laughed about not having to do work “because i’m laid off!! hahahaa”. Only about 3 hours later did I start thinking about this entire scenario more seriously.

Basically I had two choices: go home, catch up on 2 weeks of school, and return to the Canadian lifestyle, or stay in Japan, look for a new job & appartment, and maybe use the ‘foreigner unemployment insurance’ - teaching English. On one hand, I missed my friends and family, and i dont want to break out of the school routine too much. On the other hand, I went to Japan, but haven’t learned to speak the language well enough to carry a conversation, haven’t made any Japanese friends, and haven’t even given a tour to any visiting friends! Clearly, I have much unfinished business here. After much mulling and pondering I made an official decision - to look for a job intensely for the next three days, and if I don’t have anything concrete I will leave ASAP. Ivan and Annabelle were in the same boat as me, which was reassuring. Jesse was gung-ho to leave. Those were the verdicts.

I started my jobhunt on an IRC channel where alot of english-speaking IT guys hang out - introduced to me by my supervisor and pseudo-teacher: Dave Brown. One of his buddies was working in an IT support company, Emissary, where a member of an understaffed team just left, so they were in need of assistance. I talked to the guy, and explained the situation. Apparently everyone was well aware of all this a week ago, and they already planned to hear from me and Ivan today since we had the type of experience they were looking for. Weird. So i sent off my resume, and booked an interview on the next day. Ivan did the same. Annabelle got a bit discouraged by our sudden success, mulled over her thoughts again and left for Canada. Little did she know there was another ’set-up’ ready to catch her fall. Dave really thought of everything ( If you’re reading: thanks alot ). The original plan only had one avaliable slot at Emissary, so Ivan and I would share the hours part-time, and teach English during the other time. I quickly looked into the teaching-situation, and got myself excited about it - I would meet lots of new people, gain new skills, and have alot of fun in general. I found a few schools, made up a less technically-oriented resume, and sent it off. The clouds surely began lifting from the situation.

The interview on the next day, Tuesday, went great. I made a decent impression on the boss, in terms of skills and personality (or so i’d like to think). I was invited to a second interview on Wednesday, and this was definitly a good thing. Ivan’s story is pretty much the same. During the meeting on Wednesday we were both offered full-time jobs, with similar compensation to our old placements, chances for promotions, and a few other perks like Japanese lessons. We couldn’t reject the offer. We partied it up sushi-style later that day. On Friday we attended an information session with a popular English school - Gaba. I did two interviews, including a teaching test with a cutesy japanese woman pretending not to speak English, and got the job on that day pending on one thing - a bank account and black suit-pants. I signed the contract and everything. Ivan had to leave to one of his many martial-arts classes, so he will do that on Tuesday. The point is, i’m now a fully employed IT Support guy, who will run around Tokyo in a suit fixing networks, as well as a contracted part-time English teacher able to select my own hours. Those will be fun to add to the next revision of my resume.

To add to all the fun, Micheal - my new boss, decided to take us out to a bar in Roppongi to meet the rest of the staff and have some ‘refreshing beverages’. Some impressive drinking feats and many drinks later we were all talking about how they were happy to have us, and we were happy to start work for them. Great fun. I’m glad I decided to stick around and see what the future has in store.

Currently i’m looking for a new place to live. It’s true, it’s a big pain to move in Tokyo - alot of fees and very small appartments. Now that i have to leave my current appartment I realize how awesome it is. Oh well.. I’ll see what happens and keep you updated.

Sorry for the lengthy post.

P.S. I bought a second-hand camera from Joe, a Ricoh GR-Digital, and got obsessed. Now I take pictures of everything I see and put the nicer ones here:

www.flickr.com/photos/aavdacev.

Check it out if you have time and comment!

On the Wednesday, a day before the flight back to Tokyo, Joe decided to take us to the beautiful mountains of Taiwan. In the morning (read: 2pm) we took a train to a rural part of Taipei and continued on foot from there. The first stop was a playground in a park, on which i enjoyed myself thoroughly. Second - a hot spring. What can i say, it was hot and a sulphury spring. Very relaxing and refreshing if you stay in for 10 min. Rinsing yourself with cool water afterwards is just awesome - just like the feeling any beverage advertisement promises. Upsettingly, the spring closed for an hour-break 45 minutes after we got there, so we decided to grab some sushi-express and head on up the mountain. By the way, Taiwanese sushi-express didn’t come close to Japanese sushi; Not even the cheap kind.

To get to the mountain-plateau we had to take a bus - it’s rather far. During the 10 minutes we waited for the late bus to show up, i noticed that in Taiwan it is acceptable to fit a family of 4 or 5 on a scooter. The ride to the top was entertaining - the driver decided to have some fun and drive really fast on bumpy mountain roads and hairpin turns. Getting off the bus was just like leaving a 30-min roller coaster. Once we got there, i was astounded by the view and the greenery of the place. I’ve never seen anything like it - even the air was much fresher. I frolicked around, took many pictures, and ran up many hills until I found this peculiarly small wall with a path leading from it. Of course, I quickly climbed on top and saw the most magnificent mountain view of my life. There was a town far in the distance and beautiful landscape all around. The part that intrigued me most, was the smoke rising from behind one of the hills on the way to the town. I said to my friends “Lets go there!”, and without much thought the real adventure began.

We set off without any thought about what we’re getting ourselves into. Everyone was quickly descending through the rocky mountain path, taking videos and pictures, and just having a blast in the nature-y surroundings. Soon enough we began to notice that the path we followed didn’t quite go to the smoky area, but into a forest instead. We kept treading, still excited by the environment and the tiny creeks and springs all around. Eventually, we decided to stray off the rocky path, get out of the forest, and make our own path to the intriguing smoke. Fighting valiantly through metre-high grass we managed to make to a little grassy plateau nearby the smoky area. The view was as grand as ever, but i’ve already mentioned that. Many videos were taken. As we proceeded towards the smoke, a repeating hissing sound and a foul sulphury smell filled the air. In front of us was this enormous rocky pit. Evidently we’ve discovered the origin of all the hot-springs in the area! Its hard to describe the feeling of being in the middle of nowhere, standing in front of such a scene, surrounded by beautiful mountains. Unforgettable.

After the effect of the new discovery passes, we quickly realize that we’re in the middle of nowhere with no certain way of getting home. The last bus from the plateu we arrived at leaves in less than 30 min, and it took us an hour and a half climbing downhill to get here. The sun sets in an hour. Quite a predicament. We retraced our steps back to the rocky path that provided some assurance - someone was here to make the path, so they must have been going somewhere. Further down the road we saw wooden direction signs on posts saying “to Bayan 80min in this direction”. We did not have 80 minutes, nor did we have flashlights, so we picked up the pace and marched on. Along the way some more beautiful scenes emerged, with bridges, waterfalls and the like. Without being able to resist we took short breaks for videos and photos, and then were on our way.

Right at sunset, our rocky mountain path hit a highway. Luckily for us this highway was moderately lit, so we decided to follow it for the next hour. The term ‘highway’ is a bit of an understatement - it was a two lane mountain-road with hairpin turns and the occasional fancy car barreling down at high speed. Eventually we saw signage for a spa-resort town just up on a hill - this was the town i saw earlier on in the distance. It became our destination, as resorts tend to have buses, or at least people and accommodations.

Once we got to the town, the scenery drastically changed. Suddenly we’re surrounded by high-end hotels, fountains, and clerks. It was great, Joe pulled out some of his Mandarin skills and *shoom* we had free bottled water in our hands, and the use of gorgeous (and much needed) restroom facilities. From this resort we were able to find a private bus route that took us to a town, from which we took another bus to get back to Taipei. The entire 2-bus ride took us over an hour. Once we were on the comfortable coach-bus, and no longer worried about our safety, we relaxed and reminisced on the experience. Truly great adventure.

The pictures from this adventure, as well as ‘Taiwan pt2′ are on facebook here:

http://uwaterloo.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2084095&l=12bd0&id=122602552

Also i made a lovely compilation video of this escapade, and even included background music!

We went to Chiang Kai Shek memorial hall on our first full day here - a memorial to the man who fathered Taiwan, so they say. In front of this hall is the memorial square: basically a large paved area with a few buildings symmetrically placed around it, little parks, and a fancy huge gate. The very cool part, is that standing in the middle of this square and clapping produces a weird squeaking sound, because of the way the sound reflects off the buildings. We tried to video-record this phenomenon, but failed miserably: the camera didnt pick up the squeaky sound. As a result i have a video with Ivan and I clapping and stomping like retards in the middle of the CKS square. Fun stuff. After that we watched the changing of the guards, which is a lengthy process with a very traditional and formal approach. I think the videos will speak for themselves:

Currently i use facebook to dump my pictures to. I will make a photogallery for this site soon, but until then you can view the Taiwan photos here:

http://uwaterloo.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2081854&l=5108a&id=122602552

And thats only the first half of the trip!!

Taiwan is awesome.