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--- Coup De Grâce ---vox populi 31 December 137 - 2008: The year in movies There was only one distinct new year's resolution I had last year; watch a 100 movies at the cinemas. I have failed miserably. You know what though, I think I can live with myself. Every half-decent movie that has been released in Australia this year, I have seen, and equally, I have chosen not to watch quite a few movies, having heard horrendous things about them. My only regret is that I was hardly a film festival goer, and that is something I will rectify next year. Even if I have to go alone, damnit! Anyways, you know the drill, ranked top to bottom, no justifications.
20 December 136 - The Christmas Party How did I think it was going to end? Cradling that 700ml bottle of Bacardi throughout the boat ride, it pretty much HAD to end as it did. I open my eyes for a second, then clutch my neck [it kills] and close them again. I open them again, and I see towels. Lots and lots of towels. Marvellous. I stumble out of the room, make it to some kind of service elevator, press 'G', walk through a kitchen with some surprised looking chefs, see an emergency exit with a warning that the door is alarmed, proceed to open it, and walk out into The Rocks, with the sound of the alarm adding some ring to the already large amount of ring in my head. Then I turn around, look up, and see that I was in the Park Hyatt. I then, ONLY then [stupid stupid] check to see whether I have my wallet, etc, and to my surprise, I find an additional credit card slotted in; Jen's [as in, our Partner]. *PSY HARD*. I think I tried calling Rita to see what the hell had happened, but the useless woman didn't pick up, so I wandered into Level 2, 225 George Street, got my bag, and got in a cab. Why did I just switch tenses in the middle of that? Hmmm. Oh, by the way, it's around 5am when I get into the cab. Even as we stood on the dock/platform, everyone noticed the suitably rocky nature of the seas, especially Cerry [yay, she made it back], and then we were off and away, boating around Sydney Harbour. It took a little while to get used to, and I do remember Apurva's magical moment; soy sauce + rocky boat + 3 people wearing white = phail. And then, drink drink drink is all I remember, until a moment when there were lots of shocked faces with the very low level that the Bacardi bottle was at. I think it was confiscated, but the damage had well and truly been done, and I probably managed to sneak that last bit of it into me anyway. One other highlight was the impromptu karaoke on the boat. There was a mic that the captain of the boat was using to deliver instructions, information, etc, and it was just lying there for a while, so during the time we docked halfway through the ride, I took it and started testing the volume, and possibly belted out a note or two, before I was rudely interrupted by said captain [I think will call him Captain Haddock], saying I can't sing when it's docked close to houses. I completely forgot about it after this point, but someone, maybe Alex, got it up and running when we did get moving again, and I reckon my voice sounded even better than usual, with the acoustics of the sea. The boat ride ended, and so did my recollection of the night. For some reason, I went with Jen and Vishy to the Park Hyatt for drinks, instead of going to Cruise Bar with everyone else. We had a few drinks, even a shot found its way in I think, and then, yep, blank. I still feel like I'm on that god damned boat, with this whole room rocking back and forth. Whoa, that rhymed! 11 November 135 - Japan. Part 9.My final night in Japan, so this will be more general thoughts on the trip and the country than anything else, but first, a brief recap of today.
The day was spent at Joypolis, a high-tech amusement park, which was disappointing for the most part. Can't really think of anything else to say about it really Q_Q We headed back to the hotel and thought we'd spend our final night here, going it solo.
Hmm, I think i've witnessed the best hour of Japanese television yet, a really interesting interview with a supermodel. Japanese t.v. in general has been really disappointing, as I came here expecting a channel dedicated to anime, another to game shows, and another to..ah, something else; it hasn't been anything like
this.
Anyways, my credit card hadn't been maxed out yet, and I had jacket cravings, so I went back to Harajuku to witness some more of the crazy and max out the card, and I think i'm nearly there. Had my third crepe of the day [even with the RIDICULOUS amount of walking we've done, i'm sure i've gained some weight [or at least fat], with all this eating] and then explored Shinjuku for a while, where none of us had been yet, and it wasn't anything special really.
Thoughts, thoughts, thoughts...I'm just going to start ranting. I like Aoyama-Itchome a lot more than Juso or Karasuma-Oike [god I hope i've spelled those correctly]. It feels like a suburb I could live in.
If Hugo and co. thought station-to-station search was difficult, they should try their hand at the Japanese rail network. There are networks within networks, and then to further complicate things, a lot of the stations have rail lines as well as underground subway lines, and I think it's quite commendable that we haven't once got on the wrong train, or should I say, not taken a completely round-about way, as there's no real wrong train, with the multitude of options at each station. Still on the trains, they're complicated, but they run like clockwork. I've experienced one "delay" in my time, while on the train today, and that was a delay of about a minute, max. There's also a lot of little things on the trains themselves, like little LED indicators, that make it easy for travellers like us to get around [and have some idea of where we're going] easily. And who can forget the ticket machines, from that fateful first night, where we had no idea that you just choose an amount that works in a certain radius from your current station [it is a great system]. Ah, i'll give the tickets a mention too, they're "cute" for lack of a better word. We bought the JR RailPass assuming that it would get us everywhere, but we've still spent a good chunk of money getting to most places, as the pass doesn't cover any transport within the subway system, which we had to use a lot.
The fast head nods. I'm a big fan, and I think i've slowly adopted it, and notice myself using it more and more. I hope it'll stay with me, and it's probably kept me involved in a few conversations with the locals when I have no idea what they're saying. Speaking of the language, i've learnt a few key words, that i've bastardised at times, but still used correctly. Let me just list them for the heck of it [minus the accents, and probably spelt badly/wrong]:
Hai ~ Yes
So ~ I see [use in rapid succession - "so-so-so, so"
Naandé ~ What's going on/what the ["Naaaaande?!" The more incredulous your tone, the better]
Gomeno sai ~ Sorry
Samé masé ~ Excuse me
Aregato/Domo Aregato ~ Thank you
Choto/Choto-maté ~ One moment/Hang on
Honto ~ Really/Seriously [can be a question/statement depending on tone]
Ikuzo ~ Let's go ["Ikkkuuuuzzooo!"]
Sugé/Sugoy ~ Cool
Damé ~ Stop/Don't
Niku ~ Meat
Sakana ~ Fish
Yasai ~ Vegetables
Surprisingly, and stupidly, I don't know the word for "No", so the hands forming a cross has carried that point across.
I love the way the Japanese dress; men and women equally. The coats, good lord, I love the coats everyone wears here. I'm glad we came during Winter just for that reason. Such a stylish bunch, from the minimalist to the extreme, it just works. If it wasn't such a pain lugging aroung this suitcase, I would have spent a crapload more money here on all things fashion related. I'd like to think i'm there to some extent anyway.
The women, *psy*, awesome.
The food, I haven't had that difficult a time really, probably because dessert has always been an easy backup, but to be honest, Kyoto was the best place for food for moi. I also have a new found addiction to crepes that I need to kick ASAP. My other food highlight were the various sweet-bean desserty things.
Sha, Ronald and Jack; I could have done worse for three peeps to go on my first overseas-with-friends trip with. Sha's been a good room mate, given the locals of Japan an eyeful of his hairy legs, and bearings guy, Ronald's been an exaggerated, Japanese version of himself, and Jack, well, most of the quotes in these blogs have been in relation to Jack, so his strange outlook on life has given us many a reason to laugh throughout the trip. They've also been very accommodating to my vegetarianism, and it's probably held them back from going to a few restaurants they otherwise would have gone to, so thanks for putting up with that, dudes.
There's probably a LOT more i've forgotten, but I still need to shower, and then sleep, to prepare for the ~24 hours of travel that await us; *psy HARD*.
This will also be the last blog I write in god knows how long, as WoW and t.v. will take over when I get back, so thanks for reading and commenting, it's been great to get back into it.
Sayonara,
Coup-san 10 November 134 - Japan. Part 8."Stop using excuses. If you want to see it, just say it, Ron" - Chris
This will be a drunken blog, so be reasonable..
Ronald-chan's and Chris-chan's new favourite drink is the Amaretto Ginger Ale. Holy moly, Ronald's back is covered in weird rashes, from the alcohol I think O_O VERY disturbing. There's also a guy on t.v. that looks a lot like Mark Nam.
Today we discovered the gloriousness of Harajuku, and it has just made me love Tokyo even more. It was such an overload on the senses, and it's still very clearly [and will be for a while yet] ingrained into my mind. A crapload more shopping was done, and I was so close to buying numerous jackets, but pulled out, and am kind of regretting it, so I might have to find some time to ninja myself there.
The streets were just saturated, and it seems like the place to be on a Sunday, even for the locals, and the crazy outfits [cat-women, emo-women and just crazy women] I saw will keep me desensitised to normal women for quite a while. After some crepe [real chunks of cheesecake in a crepe; WOW] action, we walked it to Shibuya, and did some more window shopping before heading to our new double rooms in the same hotel [4 of us in that gigantic room was too much for me really].
Dinner, then drinks [Jack decided on some solo action in the hotel room while the three of us went out], where we all got quite drunk, and are hence in this state. We also saw the Seibu Lions winning the 7th game in the Japanese Baseball world series type thing, and might have even cheered once or twice, although the American tourists sitting near us were a real drag.
Ronald's still got a crapload of weird rashes on his back. Hmm, can't think of much more, so ciaO. 09 November 133 - Japan. Part 7."Moé! Moé! Chooo!". Or something like that, is how the little chant at the maid cafe we went to goes. It has been the highlight of Tokyo by far, and I doubt it can be topped.
Today was all Akihabara, the otaku [geeky] district of Tokyo. Actually, I don't think I can go any further without mentioning Jack's use of the blanket while sleeping, whereby his extremities [head, hands, feet] are outside of the blanket, because otherwise he feels trapped or something. "I've been doing it for the past 20 years. Try it...It's all about getting comfortable before sleeping." he says. He looks like he's wearing a ghost costume, but whatever works for the weirdo *shrugs*
Jack also got owned by Ronald in the following exchange:
"That was uncalled for. You could have stacked it." - Jack, as Ronald tried some acrobatic jump over a small stone pillar.
"You're uncalled for. Your mum stacked it." - Ronald
Ok, back on track now, after that long detour, and yeh, Akihabara is just lots of electronics, comics and games stores, so we all got a decent amount of shopping done, especially Ronald, who bought a bunch of books and what not. We then found our way to a maid cafe, one which was over a few levels, and it was packed. From the moment we entered, there were lots of high pitched voices and bright strobe lights. That shock of sights and sounds that I was expecting finally kicked in, and I loved it. There would be little performances on the stage every hour, and when food was delivered, there'd be the "moé! moé! chooo", with the accompanying gestures/dance routine, that Chris and I have now perfected. There's probably a page or two I could write about the thing, but suffice it to say, it was awesome, and I want to go again! We got photos with various maids, so stay tuned for that.
Dinner was at the posh posh posh Roppongi Hills mall, although the mall is just one part of a little city within Roppongi, with millions of restaurants, fancy boutique-like clothing stores, a cinema complex, and a Bentley dealer for god sakes! I had some nifty tempura, and then dessert was at an ice-cream place, where they plop a scoop of ice-cream on this cold stone, and then add in other toppings and then dump it in a waffle cone; YUM. I apparently have a doppelganger in San Francisco. Oh, and I was wearing my newly purchased coat, which i'm lovin'.
Clearly I haven't gone out on an all night bender, but at least it's been a satisfying day, and a damn cold night.
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