Dear diary:
It's been a few very rich days. So much so I didn't have the time to allocate an hour or so to write about them and it would seem I won't. Most of the memories have escaped me. But, before I start this week I want to dump the weekend onto here before I forget even more.
Friday:
I went to a parkour Jam. It was Jump the world day.
Then I worked and didn't play soccer.
In the evening I went to the "Love in Porn" screening, drank, faceplanted on the trampoline a few times. Drove home awesome.
Saturday:
Volunteered for Google Games. A chance of smart college students from USC, UCLA and CalTech to compete. All we company gets out of it is good publicity. Met Doga, Mahmood, Alec, Kim, Jesse and Brian. Yay new acquaintances.
Had a meet-and-greet with Andie who is a cool person.
Was supposed to have dinner with Alex L but he fell asleep and didn't pick up his phone. My body was recovering so I just watched anime (Knights for Sidonia) instead.
Sunday:
Woke up and tried to go on a hike with Chris and Alina. Failed to wait for them because I decided to see Katie as well. Did a 6.8 mile hike in 2 hours 10 minutes which included a 30 minute break in the middle there to chat with Chris and Alina when I encountered them on the way back.
Went on a beautiful bike ride with Katie and had sushi with her. Yay friends. Some of it was weird. Needs more discussion.
Went to a backyard party at Seraina's. Saw a few good people from the beach. Watched the sun set. Very tranquil.
Drove home hurrying to have enough time to watch the first two episodes of this season of Game of Thrones with Alina and Chris. Didn't want to make them wait.
--
I want to expand paragraphs and paragraphs about each one of my experiences, but I don't know where to find the time. I should just get more diligent about writing. I do think I was way too booked this past weekend. First world problems.
Monday, May 2, 2016
Thursday, April 28, 2016
I'm sorry dinner.
Yesterday was black and white day. Or I should I saw it was a gray day.
I woke up early because Pam was trying to get my attention. She got some, but then I felt like I needed more sleep so I didn't get to go to work as early as I'd hoped. I knew I'd have to leave early because I was meeting Sasha.
Work went well. But I wasn't terribly productive because I kept meeting with team leads from other teams to discuss transfer opportunities. The more I learn, the more confused I get about what I want. I did find out though that I need to stay on my team until we go to Vegas. Otherwise I can't go and I want to dammit!
I left work at 16:45 to meet Sasha at UCLA. She's a post-doc there with a funky visa status. Fresh from Italy, but originally she's from Russia. Interesting person. She talked a lot. She's got Russian values. I liked it and not so much at the same time. Thinking rationally though, none of the unexpected things touch me personally.
I didn't have a lot of time with her because I had a dinner to go to. We managed to go to the beach. But it was before sunset and the windows were terribly strong. We left as soon as we came. Got some tea and cake at Urth Cafe. Good place. Yes, expensive. But, it's worth it. We had a good chat, but she's leaving for Italy in a few days. She said I was welcome to go there. I told her she can call me when she gets back. :)
Then I rushed my ass over to Sherman Oaks to see Anna. I owed her dinner for missing her call on my birthday. She didn't get into my b-day party because I dropped the ball on checking on my phone. So, I owed her. She invited her boyfriend. Not the nicest person in the world... but we don't choose our friends' partners. But.. she also invited Victoria... who's been trying to hook me up with for a while and I just keep telling her I'm not interested. Like really not interested. But, Anna kept asking if she can invite her. And this isn't the dinner where I was going to dictate the rules.
We had a good time. We talked about Japan and girls and condos. No controversial talk. Good stuff. Me... Lev (Anna's boyfriend) and Anna that is. Victoria didn't say anything humorous the entire evening. It's kind of unsettling. But... I already told you I don't like her so I digress.
Something weird kept happening because Lev and Anna kept acting oddly violent. They were strangling each other, pretend-hitting each other. Pulling each other by the collar. Yeah. I made a sex joke. Duh. Then Lev said that I'm too forward and super-ego something-something. I think he was saying he wasn't having this kind of talk. I was a little put back. Did he really think he could act the way he did and didn't expect to be made a little uncomfortable? I don't know. I'd love to hear something from him aside from how hard his job is and how he invests money. I don't know what Anna sees in him. It's definitely not manners.
So the dinner was soiled. But I met Sasha who's a cool person.
I woke up early because Pam was trying to get my attention. She got some, but then I felt like I needed more sleep so I didn't get to go to work as early as I'd hoped. I knew I'd have to leave early because I was meeting Sasha.
Work went well. But I wasn't terribly productive because I kept meeting with team leads from other teams to discuss transfer opportunities. The more I learn, the more confused I get about what I want. I did find out though that I need to stay on my team until we go to Vegas. Otherwise I can't go and I want to dammit!
I left work at 16:45 to meet Sasha at UCLA. She's a post-doc there with a funky visa status. Fresh from Italy, but originally she's from Russia. Interesting person. She talked a lot. She's got Russian values. I liked it and not so much at the same time. Thinking rationally though, none of the unexpected things touch me personally.
I didn't have a lot of time with her because I had a dinner to go to. We managed to go to the beach. But it was before sunset and the windows were terribly strong. We left as soon as we came. Got some tea and cake at Urth Cafe. Good place. Yes, expensive. But, it's worth it. We had a good chat, but she's leaving for Italy in a few days. She said I was welcome to go there. I told her she can call me when she gets back. :)
Then I rushed my ass over to Sherman Oaks to see Anna. I owed her dinner for missing her call on my birthday. She didn't get into my b-day party because I dropped the ball on checking on my phone. So, I owed her. She invited her boyfriend. Not the nicest person in the world... but we don't choose our friends' partners. But.. she also invited Victoria... who's been trying to hook me up with for a while and I just keep telling her I'm not interested. Like really not interested. But, Anna kept asking if she can invite her. And this isn't the dinner where I was going to dictate the rules.
We had a good time. We talked about Japan and girls and condos. No controversial talk. Good stuff. Me... Lev (Anna's boyfriend) and Anna that is. Victoria didn't say anything humorous the entire evening. It's kind of unsettling. But... I already told you I don't like her so I digress.
Something weird kept happening because Lev and Anna kept acting oddly violent. They were strangling each other, pretend-hitting each other. Pulling each other by the collar. Yeah. I made a sex joke. Duh. Then Lev said that I'm too forward and super-ego something-something. I think he was saying he wasn't having this kind of talk. I was a little put back. Did he really think he could act the way he did and didn't expect to be made a little uncomfortable? I don't know. I'd love to hear something from him aside from how hard his job is and how he invests money. I don't know what Anna sees in him. It's definitely not manners.
So the dinner was soiled. But I met Sasha who's a cool person.
Wednesday, April 27, 2016
Date night
Somehow it's Tuesday. Yesterday was spent working and then watching anime. Good relaxation day. Played in well for today's soccer.
Today however, I had a date. Her name was Haley. What a beautiful name. And she was stunning in her photos. I was almost wondering what made her consider going out with me. Maybe she's got issues. That was my running theory anyway. When I met her, I realized it was something else entirely. She's too busy. Working without a sense of direction... and her body...well...reflected that. The photos looked to be 5 years old. She looked 23 in the photos and 30 in real life. I know that math doesn't add up. It's an exaggeration.
That being said it was another case of my knowing it wasn't going anywhere before she even sat down. Oh well. I made the best of it. I even walked away with a lesson. Some feminists who are actually for equality get offended when you bring up radical feminists. Which I'm still not sure don't make up the majority of feminists, but that's besides the point. I'd very much like to not push away potentially suitable candidates, so this was good to know.
So a couple drinks and a lot of food later I walked away. She had the amazing insight of picking a place right next to Antonio's where Alex L and I frequent. As luck would have it, and since I told him I would be there, that's where L was. I went straight there after the meet-and-greet. Another drink a lot of Japan-talk later I somehow ended up with a phone number of a women who wanted me to take her out on a date next week. Bobbi said if I pay for her dinner she'll give me some pointers. Well, I've got nothing to lose and she was closer to what I'm looking for than either L or bartender (Manny) did. So... I guess next week I'll see Bobbi? I'm not even sure how to spell her name. The whole thing feels weird. Maybe it's about time. At least she's sufficiently older than me that I consider that she's got enough life experience to rival mine.
That's all the interesting bits and it's after midnight. Stay tuned.
Today however, I had a date. Her name was Haley. What a beautiful name. And she was stunning in her photos. I was almost wondering what made her consider going out with me. Maybe she's got issues. That was my running theory anyway. When I met her, I realized it was something else entirely. She's too busy. Working without a sense of direction... and her body...well...reflected that. The photos looked to be 5 years old. She looked 23 in the photos and 30 in real life. I know that math doesn't add up. It's an exaggeration.
That being said it was another case of my knowing it wasn't going anywhere before she even sat down. Oh well. I made the best of it. I even walked away with a lesson. Some feminists who are actually for equality get offended when you bring up radical feminists. Which I'm still not sure don't make up the majority of feminists, but that's besides the point. I'd very much like to not push away potentially suitable candidates, so this was good to know.
So a couple drinks and a lot of food later I walked away. She had the amazing insight of picking a place right next to Antonio's where Alex L and I frequent. As luck would have it, and since I told him I would be there, that's where L was. I went straight there after the meet-and-greet. Another drink a lot of Japan-talk later I somehow ended up with a phone number of a women who wanted me to take her out on a date next week. Bobbi said if I pay for her dinner she'll give me some pointers. Well, I've got nothing to lose and she was closer to what I'm looking for than either L or bartender (Manny) did. So... I guess next week I'll see Bobbi? I'm not even sure how to spell her name. The whole thing feels weird. Maybe it's about time. At least she's sufficiently older than me that I consider that she's got enough life experience to rival mine.
That's all the interesting bits and it's after midnight. Stay tuned.
Monday, April 25, 2016
Weekend.
It's Monday and I have a PT appointment in 9 minutes. So I should get ready for that. But I'll give a quick weekend summary. I've been busy in the morning lately either with sleeping, waking up or cuddling with Pam. Chris got cat grass and apparently Pam has been much nicer since then. I can pet her back all the way down to her tail without her freaking out. So she's cuddled with me last couple of mornings. That's nice. Feels like. It's like she's a therapy animal. I just wish her and I were in sync.
Friday was rough sleeping wise. I woke up. Went to work. Went to dinner with Alina and Chris after that... came home. I was going to visit Alex or go out, or clean my damn room. But, I feel asleep. Woke up at midnight, stayed up until 04:00 and then went to bed again until 13:00. Yeah. Then gym, and then I had family over where I showed them photos from Japan. And then we watched family photos from 1974 to 1996. Hehe. Fun, but everyone left after 23:00 so I was pretty beat.
Sunday I woke up late again, around 11:00. Went to the beach until 15:00. Came home and discovered "Ajin", one of Netflix's animes. And this one is pretty good. So that consumed the rest of Sunday with the exception of going on a meet-and-greet with Tatiana. I'm still deciding whether to ask her out again. She talked so much I never did get to tell her that I want her to make the next move. Pros and cons.
Friday was rough sleeping wise. I woke up. Went to work. Went to dinner with Alina and Chris after that... came home. I was going to visit Alex or go out, or clean my damn room. But, I feel asleep. Woke up at midnight, stayed up until 04:00 and then went to bed again until 13:00. Yeah. Then gym, and then I had family over where I showed them photos from Japan. And then we watched family photos from 1974 to 1996. Hehe. Fun, but everyone left after 23:00 so I was pretty beat.
Sunday I woke up late again, around 11:00. Went to the beach until 15:00. Came home and discovered "Ajin", one of Netflix's animes. And this one is pretty good. So that consumed the rest of Sunday with the exception of going on a meet-and-greet with Tatiana. I'm still deciding whether to ask her out again. She talked so much I never did get to tell her that I want her to make the next move. Pros and cons.
Friday, April 22, 2016
JetLag
Dear Diary:
Nothing's happened yesterday. I woke up a little late and was sort of a zombie for a while. I got the photos onto the computer. Made sure they copied correctly. Then I went to work after noon. It was a lazy but productive day. I didn't try particularly hard so I was able to stay somewhat focused. The things coming onto my plate now aren't particularly challenging or annoying so I'm getting through them like cold knife through butter.
I met with a potential manager for another team. One down. Hopefully 4 more to go. Meeting another one in an hour. Excited to learn about my opportunities. I had a salad for lunch. It feels good but then I get hungry soon after. I got some snacks, and sadly they were sweet. Oh darn they tasted good. Yay 7-layer bars.
After a bit though I noticed people started being kinda dickish. Coworkers brushing me off. People walking away. Others saying the wrong thing. Then I thought the feels hurt, but the maths don't add up. Maybe it's me. I might be cranky. But I have no reason to be cranky... except. Oh wait. Jet-lag! Tun-tun-dun!
Some number of apples and bananas later I was feeling better. Went to the gym after work. Had all this energy. Kind of... too much, actually. I went up the wall and realized I was pushing harder than any time in the past year. Yeash! Also, scary! Toward the end of the night I started trying things I learned before going to Japan. Tried doing the front to back-bail onto a mat. My foot got caught and my toes still kinda hurt. I stayed till the end though. Can't wait for the soreness to set in. :P
Two days ago I went to bed at 04:00. Yesterday it was more like 02:00. Progress! I woke up at 07:00 though. I think it has to do with all the candy I finished last night. Damn sugar cravings. Need to get off this sugar-wave. I've been so good... prior to April. My birthday always screws me up.
Nothing's happened yesterday. I woke up a little late and was sort of a zombie for a while. I got the photos onto the computer. Made sure they copied correctly. Then I went to work after noon. It was a lazy but productive day. I didn't try particularly hard so I was able to stay somewhat focused. The things coming onto my plate now aren't particularly challenging or annoying so I'm getting through them like cold knife through butter.
I met with a potential manager for another team. One down. Hopefully 4 more to go. Meeting another one in an hour. Excited to learn about my opportunities. I had a salad for lunch. It feels good but then I get hungry soon after. I got some snacks, and sadly they were sweet. Oh darn they tasted good. Yay 7-layer bars.
After a bit though I noticed people started being kinda dickish. Coworkers brushing me off. People walking away. Others saying the wrong thing. Then I thought the feels hurt, but the maths don't add up. Maybe it's me. I might be cranky. But I have no reason to be cranky... except. Oh wait. Jet-lag! Tun-tun-dun!
Some number of apples and bananas later I was feeling better. Went to the gym after work. Had all this energy. Kind of... too much, actually. I went up the wall and realized I was pushing harder than any time in the past year. Yeash! Also, scary! Toward the end of the night I started trying things I learned before going to Japan. Tried doing the front to back-bail onto a mat. My foot got caught and my toes still kinda hurt. I stayed till the end though. Can't wait for the soreness to set in. :P
Two days ago I went to bed at 04:00. Yesterday it was more like 02:00. Progress! I woke up at 07:00 though. I think it has to do with all the candy I finished last night. Damn sugar cravings. Need to get off this sugar-wave. I've been so good... prior to April. My birthday always screws me up.
Thursday, April 21, 2016
Tokyo and back to LA
Dear Diary:
I'll keep this one brief because it's 02:30 in LA and I should have really been in bed for a while now. But it did feel good to do other things on the computer including catching up on Archer. And we both know I wasn't going to miss out on it any longer.
So, long story short in Tokyo I went to the Sky Tree. Cool name for a tower with a gorgeous observation deck. I got there and realized that it was *the* place to go see far. There was a line to buy the ticket. A line for the elevator. The line to buy the ticket to the next floor etc. I went all the way up to 450m mark. Felt high. In retrospect it's not super tall, but the height is ~137 stories which I think is significant. :P
I didn't spot anyone who I really wanted to talk to. I had a few brief conversation with this couple of girls from Britain who are now living in Hawaii and operate and observatory there. Ooh. Cosmologists. Or were they Astrophysicists? I'm not sure. We separated and then I saw them have lunch by the deck and decided to not cut into their time. There was another girl I was thinking about talking to, but she looked either really uptight or really shy. Either way I wasn't in the mood.
I took the subway to SkyTree. It was too far to walk to from Tokyo station. But the astro-girls recommended I go to this one park that we could see from the deck, so I went downstairs and headed in that direction. That only to find out that the area around SkyTree is magnetized and my Compass was showing false North. Yeahp. I went in the wrong direction. I finally corrected myself and went in the right way, until that is one of the super helpful Japanese people asked me if I needed directions. I explained where I was going and she explained in detail how to get there.
Now I don't know who fucked up. I could have been me. Or could have been her. But I ended up walking in the wrong direction again. For a while. And at that point I was hungry and sad I wasn't making much progress. I wasn't even in Tokyo. Just some city in suburbs. But! It had grocery stores. Not huge ones. But like a mom-and-pop kind. I bought cucumbers and tomatoes for food and proceeded, finally, in the correct direction.
I passed some interesting gold buildings. One of which had giant gold poop nugget on top. Got a photo from the SkyTree of it, in person from like 4 different angles. Across the channel there were ferry tours. I really wanted to take one, but I was under the impression that they were running all day and I was really close to the park I was heading for. So I decided to press on.
Ooh. The city got so cool so fast. So cool! The streets were narrow. The people were Japanese. It was crowded. It was like the mall in Sendai, but smaller. But also less touristy which made it more attractive. Very quickly thought I got stuck. I found this parlor where they did caricatures and oh my god I've always wanted one. And so I got one. I only planned to spend $13 on a simple sketch. And I was going to ask them to make it small so I could put it in my pocket.
The artist drawing me didn't speak English. She apologized that she couldn't make it smaller. Phrasing. But I digress. She was cute. I decided that extra $7 was worth putting in color into it. That way I could look at her a little longer. I kept making faces the whole time. The couple sitting next to me were getting their anniversary caricature drawn. They spoke a little English. They all kept looking at me, saying something, laughing very hard, asking me silly questions, and then it would repeat. We were all laughing for like 15 minutes non-stop. Best time of the day!
I asked if I could take a picture of my artist, Shu. She said I can take the picture of the drawing after. I explained that I wanted to take a picture of her. She said she needs to finish first. Duh. I explained that I want a photo of her working. She blushed. She said thank you and couldn't wipe the smile off her face for the next few minutes. I snapped a few photos. Such a moment
The caricature came out great. I ended up getting frame, too. Didn't want it to get ruined. Got photos with her as well. She gave me her card. It has her phone number on it and blog address. Sadly, there's nothing on the blog and I'm not about to call Japan to talk to a girl who doesn't speak English. Le sigh.
I walked through more awesome streets into the park where the temple was. There were many women in kimonos and so-so many kids. School-aged kids. With chaperons. Maybe 1500-2000 kids in total. A lot! So pretty. The sun was setting and the Temple was closing. I got to see masses rush to get their prayers in. I talked to some tourists. I thought I heard them speak Russian. But I was wrong. It was in the Slavic family but I couldn't place it. They had to go so I didn't have time to ask where they were from. Still curious.
I went to the ferry station to catch the ferry to Tokyo Station. Turned out I had missed the last one by 10 minutes. So sad. After all that I decided to head back to Tokyo station and enjoy the sights. I stopped by another grocery store and got mushrooms and cherry tomatoes. The tomatoes were fine but the mushrooms still had dirt on them. I didn't notice. That is until I bit on one that had like sand in it. Oh well. Ate it anyway.
For some reason Blink182's Adam's Song popped into my head. I looked up the lyrics and kept singing it on repeat. Nobody could understand what I was saying anyway. I knew the general direction where I was heading but decided to make a little detour and follow the setting sun. Which by the way looks way better than it does anywhere else I've seen sunsets. I don't know if it's the architecture, or the flatness of the island or what. But it was calling me. I followed. Once it set behind the buildings I got a strong urge to find something tall to climb to watch it set again. I spent the next 30 minutes walking from one staircase to another to try to find one with roof access. No dice. I think I finally found what I was looking for. And the gate was very low. Maybe 5 feet. I could have easily gone to the top. However, there was a woman in that alley just talking to someone through the door frame. Not coming or going. Just standing there and occasionally looking around. I waited for her to leave so I could do my trespass in peace, but I didn't get lucky. I saw the rooftops lose the red shade. It was over. :(
After that I really did finally just go to the Tokyo Station. GPS said 37 minutes. But this time I was tired. My feet hurt. I got blisters. My hips weren't happy. Took me over an hour to get there. Alan and Annmarie were somewhere away. Bria was heading to the station around the same time. I got to the station and was trying very hard to find where I left my bag but I kept failing. Walking was painful. I got desperate and asked somebody for help. Just a random guy. He barely spoke English. What did he do? He took me, personally to the JR entrance through which I needed to go to get to the lockers. That etiquette. USA - you suck balls when it comes to actually being decent to other human beings.
I met up with Bria and we were supposed to get on a train leaving at 19:36. Took me a minute to convince her that it was the right one. But... it was 19:38 and it hadn't left yet. That was interesting. Long story short, all of the trains were canceled. We waited around for 10 minutes for an update, then took the rapid train to another service. All of the carts on the rapid were reserved so we just walked around. It was cool. I've always wanted to do that. I saw how much nicer expensive seats are. They're nice, but nothing special.
On the private subway things were crowded. Very crowded. Once we finally got to a train that had room for us, we quickly realized that it sucks being in the middle of ever-more packed train. We had 9 stops. The first few were dreadful. I could barely hold on to something. And I was holding all of the luggage. In the mean time everyone was shoving and pushing. I'm lucky I have a strong frame. I was able to shield some people a little. Then we got to a major station and things cleared up. We made it to the airport just fine.
Their version of security was nice. It was like a small town in Pennsylvania. Everyone was friendly. Not super friendly, but they treated everyone like humans. I didn't have to take my shoes off, for example. Once at the gate... I noticed that Saya was there. She's been in Japan and like didn't reply to my message. So I unfriended her. I don't usually give people extra chances. I didn't say anything.
We had a few hours before the flight and I was going to work. But only ended up working for an hour because we got into conversation about why I dislike Feminism. I made many good arguments. My favorite by far came out when I realized that Bria for example doesn't see anything bad with only helping women. That one was easy to debunk: I told her that her version of Feminism was to succeed, you would end up with gender discrimination where men are disadvantaged. She didn't see a problem with it. I tried a few times to explain to her that gender discrimination is a bad thing. She didn't buy. I rest my case.
Then, believe it or not, Saya came up to me and said hi. Said she got my message but didn't reply. Didn't say why. I didn't inquire further. We caught up and chatted until we had to board the plane. I didn't see her after that. On the plane I sat next to a Jewish couple who we ran into at the Monkey Forest. They remembered me. I'm memorable :P Bria remembered them. We chatted for a while and exchanged Japan stories. Cool peeps. Wouldn't be friends with them though. But they made excellent plane partners.
When we reached cruising altitude I took out my work laptop and worked. The internet was cheaper than the ones on the flight to Moscow. Go $19.95 for 10 hours of internet. Or, you know, the 3 that I used it for. I fell asleep for a few hours in there. Then I realized that we'll be landing soon and frantically tried to watch something on the TV. Almost finished Trumbo. Had like 5 minutes left when the plane media system shut off. Need to find out what'd happened.
That's about it. Took Lyft home because somehow I managed to get out of the station faster than the other 3. I waited for them after every checkpoint, but only saw them once, briefly at passport check. Then when I went outside to wait for them a bus pulled up and I thought it was a sign and hopped on. Then shower. Then work. Yes work.
There was a fancy dinner event after work. The calendar event said it was from 18:00 to 19:30. I got to work just after 19:00 and decided I didn't want to pop in for just 15 minutes. So I just worked. And worked. Around 23:00 my manager, Tony came into the office and said I should've been at the dinner. Well geez. I wish I knew. :P I think I would have preferred telling Japan stories with drunk coworkers. But.. instead I worked.
That and chatted with a girl I met on OkC. I decided to give Asian girls another go because still-lingering fascination with Japan. One of them messaged back, got me on Skype and then wanted to exchange dirty pictures. When I said I don't do that at work she stopped replying. :P Fun times.
It's 03:09 now. I realize I won't be having this many adventures any time soon. I expect my posts to get duller and more meta. I was still so happy at work today. Yay good vacation! However I got a little sad on the drive back home around midnight. After all, adventure was over. I'm back to square 1. But I'm like level 70. And I just need to hope to find someone who's level 70 on level 1. But something tells me it's a rare thing.
I'll keep this one brief because it's 02:30 in LA and I should have really been in bed for a while now. But it did feel good to do other things on the computer including catching up on Archer. And we both know I wasn't going to miss out on it any longer.
So, long story short in Tokyo I went to the Sky Tree. Cool name for a tower with a gorgeous observation deck. I got there and realized that it was *the* place to go see far. There was a line to buy the ticket. A line for the elevator. The line to buy the ticket to the next floor etc. I went all the way up to 450m mark. Felt high. In retrospect it's not super tall, but the height is ~137 stories which I think is significant. :P
I didn't spot anyone who I really wanted to talk to. I had a few brief conversation with this couple of girls from Britain who are now living in Hawaii and operate and observatory there. Ooh. Cosmologists. Or were they Astrophysicists? I'm not sure. We separated and then I saw them have lunch by the deck and decided to not cut into their time. There was another girl I was thinking about talking to, but she looked either really uptight or really shy. Either way I wasn't in the mood.
I took the subway to SkyTree. It was too far to walk to from Tokyo station. But the astro-girls recommended I go to this one park that we could see from the deck, so I went downstairs and headed in that direction. That only to find out that the area around SkyTree is magnetized and my Compass was showing false North. Yeahp. I went in the wrong direction. I finally corrected myself and went in the right way, until that is one of the super helpful Japanese people asked me if I needed directions. I explained where I was going and she explained in detail how to get there.
Now I don't know who fucked up. I could have been me. Or could have been her. But I ended up walking in the wrong direction again. For a while. And at that point I was hungry and sad I wasn't making much progress. I wasn't even in Tokyo. Just some city in suburbs. But! It had grocery stores. Not huge ones. But like a mom-and-pop kind. I bought cucumbers and tomatoes for food and proceeded, finally, in the correct direction.
I passed some interesting gold buildings. One of which had giant gold poop nugget on top. Got a photo from the SkyTree of it, in person from like 4 different angles. Across the channel there were ferry tours. I really wanted to take one, but I was under the impression that they were running all day and I was really close to the park I was heading for. So I decided to press on.
Ooh. The city got so cool so fast. So cool! The streets were narrow. The people were Japanese. It was crowded. It was like the mall in Sendai, but smaller. But also less touristy which made it more attractive. Very quickly thought I got stuck. I found this parlor where they did caricatures and oh my god I've always wanted one. And so I got one. I only planned to spend $13 on a simple sketch. And I was going to ask them to make it small so I could put it in my pocket.
The artist drawing me didn't speak English. She apologized that she couldn't make it smaller. Phrasing. But I digress. She was cute. I decided that extra $7 was worth putting in color into it. That way I could look at her a little longer. I kept making faces the whole time. The couple sitting next to me were getting their anniversary caricature drawn. They spoke a little English. They all kept looking at me, saying something, laughing very hard, asking me silly questions, and then it would repeat. We were all laughing for like 15 minutes non-stop. Best time of the day!
I asked if I could take a picture of my artist, Shu. She said I can take the picture of the drawing after. I explained that I wanted to take a picture of her. She said she needs to finish first. Duh. I explained that I want a photo of her working. She blushed. She said thank you and couldn't wipe the smile off her face for the next few minutes. I snapped a few photos. Such a moment
The caricature came out great. I ended up getting frame, too. Didn't want it to get ruined. Got photos with her as well. She gave me her card. It has her phone number on it and blog address. Sadly, there's nothing on the blog and I'm not about to call Japan to talk to a girl who doesn't speak English. Le sigh.
I walked through more awesome streets into the park where the temple was. There were many women in kimonos and so-so many kids. School-aged kids. With chaperons. Maybe 1500-2000 kids in total. A lot! So pretty. The sun was setting and the Temple was closing. I got to see masses rush to get their prayers in. I talked to some tourists. I thought I heard them speak Russian. But I was wrong. It was in the Slavic family but I couldn't place it. They had to go so I didn't have time to ask where they were from. Still curious.
I went to the ferry station to catch the ferry to Tokyo Station. Turned out I had missed the last one by 10 minutes. So sad. After all that I decided to head back to Tokyo station and enjoy the sights. I stopped by another grocery store and got mushrooms and cherry tomatoes. The tomatoes were fine but the mushrooms still had dirt on them. I didn't notice. That is until I bit on one that had like sand in it. Oh well. Ate it anyway.
For some reason Blink182's Adam's Song popped into my head. I looked up the lyrics and kept singing it on repeat. Nobody could understand what I was saying anyway. I knew the general direction where I was heading but decided to make a little detour and follow the setting sun. Which by the way looks way better than it does anywhere else I've seen sunsets. I don't know if it's the architecture, or the flatness of the island or what. But it was calling me. I followed. Once it set behind the buildings I got a strong urge to find something tall to climb to watch it set again. I spent the next 30 minutes walking from one staircase to another to try to find one with roof access. No dice. I think I finally found what I was looking for. And the gate was very low. Maybe 5 feet. I could have easily gone to the top. However, there was a woman in that alley just talking to someone through the door frame. Not coming or going. Just standing there and occasionally looking around. I waited for her to leave so I could do my trespass in peace, but I didn't get lucky. I saw the rooftops lose the red shade. It was over. :(
After that I really did finally just go to the Tokyo Station. GPS said 37 minutes. But this time I was tired. My feet hurt. I got blisters. My hips weren't happy. Took me over an hour to get there. Alan and Annmarie were somewhere away. Bria was heading to the station around the same time. I got to the station and was trying very hard to find where I left my bag but I kept failing. Walking was painful. I got desperate and asked somebody for help. Just a random guy. He barely spoke English. What did he do? He took me, personally to the JR entrance through which I needed to go to get to the lockers. That etiquette. USA - you suck balls when it comes to actually being decent to other human beings.
I met up with Bria and we were supposed to get on a train leaving at 19:36. Took me a minute to convince her that it was the right one. But... it was 19:38 and it hadn't left yet. That was interesting. Long story short, all of the trains were canceled. We waited around for 10 minutes for an update, then took the rapid train to another service. All of the carts on the rapid were reserved so we just walked around. It was cool. I've always wanted to do that. I saw how much nicer expensive seats are. They're nice, but nothing special.
On the private subway things were crowded. Very crowded. Once we finally got to a train that had room for us, we quickly realized that it sucks being in the middle of ever-more packed train. We had 9 stops. The first few were dreadful. I could barely hold on to something. And I was holding all of the luggage. In the mean time everyone was shoving and pushing. I'm lucky I have a strong frame. I was able to shield some people a little. Then we got to a major station and things cleared up. We made it to the airport just fine.
Their version of security was nice. It was like a small town in Pennsylvania. Everyone was friendly. Not super friendly, but they treated everyone like humans. I didn't have to take my shoes off, for example. Once at the gate... I noticed that Saya was there. She's been in Japan and like didn't reply to my message. So I unfriended her. I don't usually give people extra chances. I didn't say anything.
We had a few hours before the flight and I was going to work. But only ended up working for an hour because we got into conversation about why I dislike Feminism. I made many good arguments. My favorite by far came out when I realized that Bria for example doesn't see anything bad with only helping women. That one was easy to debunk: I told her that her version of Feminism was to succeed, you would end up with gender discrimination where men are disadvantaged. She didn't see a problem with it. I tried a few times to explain to her that gender discrimination is a bad thing. She didn't buy. I rest my case.
Then, believe it or not, Saya came up to me and said hi. Said she got my message but didn't reply. Didn't say why. I didn't inquire further. We caught up and chatted until we had to board the plane. I didn't see her after that. On the plane I sat next to a Jewish couple who we ran into at the Monkey Forest. They remembered me. I'm memorable :P Bria remembered them. We chatted for a while and exchanged Japan stories. Cool peeps. Wouldn't be friends with them though. But they made excellent plane partners.
When we reached cruising altitude I took out my work laptop and worked. The internet was cheaper than the ones on the flight to Moscow. Go $19.95 for 10 hours of internet. Or, you know, the 3 that I used it for. I fell asleep for a few hours in there. Then I realized that we'll be landing soon and frantically tried to watch something on the TV. Almost finished Trumbo. Had like 5 minutes left when the plane media system shut off. Need to find out what'd happened.
That's about it. Took Lyft home because somehow I managed to get out of the station faster than the other 3. I waited for them after every checkpoint, but only saw them once, briefly at passport check. Then when I went outside to wait for them a bus pulled up and I thought it was a sign and hopped on. Then shower. Then work. Yes work.
There was a fancy dinner event after work. The calendar event said it was from 18:00 to 19:30. I got to work just after 19:00 and decided I didn't want to pop in for just 15 minutes. So I just worked. And worked. Around 23:00 my manager, Tony came into the office and said I should've been at the dinner. Well geez. I wish I knew. :P I think I would have preferred telling Japan stories with drunk coworkers. But.. instead I worked.
That and chatted with a girl I met on OkC. I decided to give Asian girls another go because still-lingering fascination with Japan. One of them messaged back, got me on Skype and then wanted to exchange dirty pictures. When I said I don't do that at work she stopped replying. :P Fun times.
It's 03:09 now. I realize I won't be having this many adventures any time soon. I expect my posts to get duller and more meta. I was still so happy at work today. Yay good vacation! However I got a little sad on the drive back home around midnight. After all, adventure was over. I'm back to square 1. But I'm like level 70. And I just need to hope to find someone who's level 70 on level 1. But something tells me it's a rare thing.
Wednesday, April 20, 2016
Osaka
Dear diary:
Yesterday I met Abby from Liverpool and Grace from Essex. That's the highlight.
In more detail... I'm on a train back to Tokyo from Kyoto right now. I still have a couple hours to go. I'm sad to leave. It's been a fun trip. Great way to get away. The weather is finally nice. Very nice. Summer-anime nice. I got window seat. Everything looks amazing. I just had delicious food. Had dessert, too. I gave up on trying to avoid sugar while on the trip. Bring all the yummies. Nom-nom. I can't even begin to describe what I ate. There was sashimi-like thing that basically just ate the fish off of. I had enough rice. I had a rice-ball for breakfast. Great idea. Costs a buck. Mostly rice but has pieces of salmon in it. Finally had a bowl of veggies as well. I miss veggies.
That being said, yesterday I woke up earlier. Around 06:00 this time and went for a run. It was my second day doing this. I really miss having East-facing windows. It makes me a happier person. I love waking up to feeling of being immersed in sunlight. Everything is quiet and serene. I haven't woken up this refreshed in a long time.
So, I went for a run. Just down to the park a block away behind the Nintendo building. I stretched and did a couple laps there. I did cart-wheels and 360 rotations in the middle of the jog, too. Felt so good to use my shoulders again. I've been walking a lot and not using my arms at all besides to hold chop-sticks. Definitely doing the travelling rings when I get back.
When I got back to the apartment Alan and Annmarie were already leaving. They decided to go see Hiroshima. Bria was still in bed and I needed to take a shower. I bid them a happy day and got ready to leave. With blogging etc. Bria was able to catch up and we set out for Osaka.
I had purchased tickets for a Bunraku (traditional Japanese puppet show) for 16:00 and just needed to pass the time until then. Bria and I took the train into Osaka. I wanted to hit up a viewing deck on a nearby tower and she wanted to go see the Aquarium. I didn't think I had the time for the fish because the National Bunraku Theatre was an hour away and it was already 12:30. Good call on my part. So I walked over to this beautiful mall with what they called "hanging gardens". There were gardens outside of the awesome building. And there was a suspended sky deck. But the gardens weren't hanging. Oh well. The elevator shaft was transparent. Going up to 37th floor and watching it happen is breathtaking.
Upstairs the view was great. My only comment is that the viewing floor only had windows facing South and North, and the roof had a 10-meter gap between the viewers and roof edge. So I couldn't look at things down. In case you didn't know, Osaka is located at the edge of Japan and has many rivers going through it. It's quite beautiful. Sadly though, the visibility isn't all that. I got some pictures but they weren't as good as the ones in Tokyo. I had a good conversation with a Japanese-looking German guy who spoke English with a British accent. As for what to do next, I still had a couple hours left, so I thought I would make it to the Osaka Castle Park and then head down to the Theatre, since the Castle Park was sort-of on the way.
I walked. We have a JR (Japanese Rail) pass but it doesn't cover subway costs. Everything in Osaka required taking the subway. Google Maps said it would take 43 minutes. I made it there in 30. Beautiful park. Great castle. Not very large, but it was on a mount and had only a couple of access points. Looked very medieval. Or, you know, the way it would in Age of Empires II. The entrance cost was 600 yen or ~$5.50. So cheap. It was kept in much better condition than the castle in Switzerland last year and that one was 12 CHF or ~$12.
There was a long line outside with clear signs saying that the line can be skipped if you walk. I walked. The exhibits weren't very good. I wanted a view, but all of the inside was modernized. All of the interesting floors had a no-photo policy. All of the tourists crowded around the samurai armour but I still remember what they're like from that time LACMA (Los Angeles Contemporary Museum of Art) had an exhibit. I just kept making circles on every floor then going up to the next one.
And that's where I met Grace. I saw her reading a letter or something and I asked if she spoke English. She said yes, in this thick accent. It was British but I couldn't tell which British. I asked if she was heading up or down. It was the 3rd floor out of 8 so technically a good amount of time to spend with someone if they're going in the same direction. She said "up". "Can I join you?" I inquired. "Of course" she replied. :P
Actually that's where the story ends. She started reading the next letter. I've read them all. She was really taking her sweet time reading them. Once she was done she took out the phone and called someone. At this rate I was going to miss the Bunraku performance. I couldn't have that. So I wished her a good day and went on.
There wasn't much after that. The exhibits got worse, but the story of the castle made more sense. When I got to floor 7 I found a sign that said "start on floor 8 then work your way down." ... Really? Now you tell me?! Oh well. I took photos from the balcony on the 8th floor then went down. I hoped to see Grace again on the way down, but no such luck. I looked up directions to the Theatre and realized I better start walking. I was barely going to make it.
I pressed on. Walking through Osaka was very memorable. It looked like a city I'd like to live in. The navigation in my phone suggested I take certain back alleys. I'm so glad it did. I saw kids going home from school. I saw kids going to the store. I saw kids! I miss kids! There was this 5-year old girl going to the grocery store, getting something and then walking back. So awesome. I felt more welcome there than I do in the US. Nobody was walking on the street staring at me like I'm creepy or something.
Side note: I'm so fed up with the US culture of fear. People talk about all sort of "culture" that's prevalent, but the only one that stands out to me is fear. Nationalism: fear of people with different culture. Rape-culture: fear of not being in control of one's body. Restricting parks to parents and children: fear of losing babies. Political-correctness: fear of getting sued. Racism: fear of change. Sexism: fear of change. Feminism: fear of no change. Everything in the media: fear of not fitting in.
Existential tangents aside I made it to the theatre with 4 minutes to spare and rushed in to find my seat before the show started. I was so pressed on time I didn't think to try to get English audio aid or something. I also didn't realize I was watching Part II of the story. It was highly advised, as I found out later, to read Part I beforehand. So, with all that in mind, understand that I hated it.
If you end up going to something like that, go to the theatre exhibit where they explain what to look for etc. Because from my foreign perspective, here's what I saw. There was a man sitting off to the side who was reading a story from a book. They put inflection at the end of every word/syllable so it just all sounded a monotonous mix of letters. There was a guy sitting next to him playing a Japanese music instrument akin to a 4-string guitar. They were in sync. On the stage, there were puppeteers holding complex dolls. It took 3 people per doll. Most of the time they just stood around. The story was just narrated. This went on for 2 hours and then it ended. 0.o
I kept falling asleep and waking up. I wanted to leave so badly. But I thought it was only an hour long and at $60 I wanted to see if it got better. It didn't. I was miserable the entire time. Most of the puppeteers wore black hoods so they weren't very noticeable but the people doing the heads didn't have head covered themselves. And they had no facial expressions. The dolls didn't either. I thought they all sucked. Then I realized that it was just most of them who sucked because one of the puppeteers was actually pretty good. He moved the hand of the puppet in a natural fashion. He shook the head and actually made his puppet blink here and there. Mostly importantly, he moved the damn thing when his character was being narrated about. Everyone else just stood there. It was horrible. The more I think about it the more I just want to tell them how stupid it all was.
So the reason why I even went was because I saw an amazing video online of Bunraku to the next level. It was a tennis game with the scene moving up, down, rotating 180 degrees so we got top-down views. The puppeteers moved ping-pong balls in a natural fashion, and the background was black, so they weren't visible. It was awesome. I wanted that level of amazement. I was so disappointed. :(
I got out of there around 18:00 and wanted to meet up with the gang. Bria said she was done with the meal, felt tired and was going home. Alan and Annmarie weren't even in Osaka yet. I was going to go to another viewing deck but was closing at 18:30. The only item on my list that was still open was the aquarium and that's where I went.
Navigation said it would take me 34 minutes but I made it there in more like 23. Fast walking, yo. When I was almost there I saw the sun setting over the horizon. SO BEAUTIFUL. Damn. I wanted to run out at the next station and watch it more. Actually, that's what I did. I got out and kept going in the direction of the sun so I could catch the last glimpse. I decided to be rational and made sure that it was also in the direction of the aquarium. And... I missed it. :( But luckily I got the tickets for the Ferris Wheel as well. What luck that two of those things were in the same place.
The aquarium was nice. There was mystic or magical music playing. Very uplifting. However most of the lights were off and the animals were going to sleep. Yes, animals. Dolphins, beavers, sea lions etc. It was too dark to take photos. :( BUT. And this is the-but. I ran into Grace. Her and her friend Abby. They were Abby from Liverpool and Grace from Essex. I asked if I can join them on the aquarium adventure and they agreed. This time I had no place to rush to so I spend the next two hours with them.
I know I'm going to sound cliche, but they were beautiful. Grace was drop-dead gorgeous. I've seen girls like that on YouTube. They do exist. I don't even know what to say. We looked at sea creatures together. Abby had a bad on a ring finger so I didn't pay her too much attention. Except, I think I probably spoke to her more. She was the extravert. Grace was an introvert. Into anime. History buff. 5'4" with a hot-and-messy look. I didn't get a photo nor exchanged info, so I can romanticise her as much as I want and nobody can prove me wrong. :P
I touched fish. They got a photo of it. I took photos of them, with their camera. We stayed till closing. Gift shop was closed but they insisted on getting something so they went up to a keychain vending machine and bought a bunch there. They had like 40 keychains on their purse. All that from today. Quite impressive. I was looking for fridge magnets.
While at the aquarium they were running around. I thought they wanted to lose me, but I double checked and no. They said it was fine. After everything we were walking and I stopped by a store and found them waiting outside. Aw. I made it in. <3 LOL.
We went on the Ferris Wheel together. Sat in the same cabin and talked about anime etc etc. I told them about my fear of heights. They told me about their hopes and aspirations. Turns out I was the only one in that cart who has cosplayed. We took a photo together. They took one of us as well. The lighting was terrible which is why I only have a vague outline.
We parted soon after. I had to get the train and transfer and they kept going. They had plans the next day to go to Universal Studios early and I needed to pack for Tokyo. I should have given them my card. I regret not staying in touch. I'm legitimately curious how the rest of their trip is going to go.
Regrets aside, this is the tangent where I want to thank YT:Simple Pickup for really driving the point across of telling yourself to "shut the fuck up" when negative thoughts arise. Grace is stunning and I caught myself thinking I wasn't somehow not good enough to spend time with for her. But I quickly told myself that it's her decision to make, not mine. That's why I came up to her. That's why I had a good time yesterday.
The rest is as they say "history". Took the local train home. It look longer than expected to come to Kyoto. Ran to the apartment since I didn't feel like waiting for yet another train. Slept well for 6 hours. Woke up 05:50. Didn't see the sunrise but was pretty darn close to it. Went for another run/stretch out in the park. Got back, showered and packed. The rest of the gang was still waking up. Alan had a cool story about hanging out with drunk locals.
I decided to not waste time lounging around on the last day and bolted for Tokyo.
Yesterday I met Abby from Liverpool and Grace from Essex. That's the highlight.
In more detail... I'm on a train back to Tokyo from Kyoto right now. I still have a couple hours to go. I'm sad to leave. It's been a fun trip. Great way to get away. The weather is finally nice. Very nice. Summer-anime nice. I got window seat. Everything looks amazing. I just had delicious food. Had dessert, too. I gave up on trying to avoid sugar while on the trip. Bring all the yummies. Nom-nom. I can't even begin to describe what I ate. There was sashimi-like thing that basically just ate the fish off of. I had enough rice. I had a rice-ball for breakfast. Great idea. Costs a buck. Mostly rice but has pieces of salmon in it. Finally had a bowl of veggies as well. I miss veggies.
That being said, yesterday I woke up earlier. Around 06:00 this time and went for a run. It was my second day doing this. I really miss having East-facing windows. It makes me a happier person. I love waking up to feeling of being immersed in sunlight. Everything is quiet and serene. I haven't woken up this refreshed in a long time.
So, I went for a run. Just down to the park a block away behind the Nintendo building. I stretched and did a couple laps there. I did cart-wheels and 360 rotations in the middle of the jog, too. Felt so good to use my shoulders again. I've been walking a lot and not using my arms at all besides to hold chop-sticks. Definitely doing the travelling rings when I get back.
When I got back to the apartment Alan and Annmarie were already leaving. They decided to go see Hiroshima. Bria was still in bed and I needed to take a shower. I bid them a happy day and got ready to leave. With blogging etc. Bria was able to catch up and we set out for Osaka.
I had purchased tickets for a Bunraku (traditional Japanese puppet show) for 16:00 and just needed to pass the time until then. Bria and I took the train into Osaka. I wanted to hit up a viewing deck on a nearby tower and she wanted to go see the Aquarium. I didn't think I had the time for the fish because the National Bunraku Theatre was an hour away and it was already 12:30. Good call on my part. So I walked over to this beautiful mall with what they called "hanging gardens". There were gardens outside of the awesome building. And there was a suspended sky deck. But the gardens weren't hanging. Oh well. The elevator shaft was transparent. Going up to 37th floor and watching it happen is breathtaking.
Upstairs the view was great. My only comment is that the viewing floor only had windows facing South and North, and the roof had a 10-meter gap between the viewers and roof edge. So I couldn't look at things down. In case you didn't know, Osaka is located at the edge of Japan and has many rivers going through it. It's quite beautiful. Sadly though, the visibility isn't all that. I got some pictures but they weren't as good as the ones in Tokyo. I had a good conversation with a Japanese-looking German guy who spoke English with a British accent. As for what to do next, I still had a couple hours left, so I thought I would make it to the Osaka Castle Park and then head down to the Theatre, since the Castle Park was sort-of on the way.
I walked. We have a JR (Japanese Rail) pass but it doesn't cover subway costs. Everything in Osaka required taking the subway. Google Maps said it would take 43 minutes. I made it there in 30. Beautiful park. Great castle. Not very large, but it was on a mount and had only a couple of access points. Looked very medieval. Or, you know, the way it would in Age of Empires II. The entrance cost was 600 yen or ~$5.50. So cheap. It was kept in much better condition than the castle in Switzerland last year and that one was 12 CHF or ~$12.
There was a long line outside with clear signs saying that the line can be skipped if you walk. I walked. The exhibits weren't very good. I wanted a view, but all of the inside was modernized. All of the interesting floors had a no-photo policy. All of the tourists crowded around the samurai armour but I still remember what they're like from that time LACMA (Los Angeles Contemporary Museum of Art) had an exhibit. I just kept making circles on every floor then going up to the next one.
And that's where I met Grace. I saw her reading a letter or something and I asked if she spoke English. She said yes, in this thick accent. It was British but I couldn't tell which British. I asked if she was heading up or down. It was the 3rd floor out of 8 so technically a good amount of time to spend with someone if they're going in the same direction. She said "up". "Can I join you?" I inquired. "Of course" she replied. :P
Actually that's where the story ends. She started reading the next letter. I've read them all. She was really taking her sweet time reading them. Once she was done she took out the phone and called someone. At this rate I was going to miss the Bunraku performance. I couldn't have that. So I wished her a good day and went on.
There wasn't much after that. The exhibits got worse, but the story of the castle made more sense. When I got to floor 7 I found a sign that said "start on floor 8 then work your way down." ... Really? Now you tell me?! Oh well. I took photos from the balcony on the 8th floor then went down. I hoped to see Grace again on the way down, but no such luck. I looked up directions to the Theatre and realized I better start walking. I was barely going to make it.
I pressed on. Walking through Osaka was very memorable. It looked like a city I'd like to live in. The navigation in my phone suggested I take certain back alleys. I'm so glad it did. I saw kids going home from school. I saw kids going to the store. I saw kids! I miss kids! There was this 5-year old girl going to the grocery store, getting something and then walking back. So awesome. I felt more welcome there than I do in the US. Nobody was walking on the street staring at me like I'm creepy or something.
Side note: I'm so fed up with the US culture of fear. People talk about all sort of "culture" that's prevalent, but the only one that stands out to me is fear. Nationalism: fear of people with different culture. Rape-culture: fear of not being in control of one's body. Restricting parks to parents and children: fear of losing babies. Political-correctness: fear of getting sued. Racism: fear of change. Sexism: fear of change. Feminism: fear of no change. Everything in the media: fear of not fitting in.
Existential tangents aside I made it to the theatre with 4 minutes to spare and rushed in to find my seat before the show started. I was so pressed on time I didn't think to try to get English audio aid or something. I also didn't realize I was watching Part II of the story. It was highly advised, as I found out later, to read Part I beforehand. So, with all that in mind, understand that I hated it.
If you end up going to something like that, go to the theatre exhibit where they explain what to look for etc. Because from my foreign perspective, here's what I saw. There was a man sitting off to the side who was reading a story from a book. They put inflection at the end of every word/syllable so it just all sounded a monotonous mix of letters. There was a guy sitting next to him playing a Japanese music instrument akin to a 4-string guitar. They were in sync. On the stage, there were puppeteers holding complex dolls. It took 3 people per doll. Most of the time they just stood around. The story was just narrated. This went on for 2 hours and then it ended. 0.o
I kept falling asleep and waking up. I wanted to leave so badly. But I thought it was only an hour long and at $60 I wanted to see if it got better. It didn't. I was miserable the entire time. Most of the puppeteers wore black hoods so they weren't very noticeable but the people doing the heads didn't have head covered themselves. And they had no facial expressions. The dolls didn't either. I thought they all sucked. Then I realized that it was just most of them who sucked because one of the puppeteers was actually pretty good. He moved the hand of the puppet in a natural fashion. He shook the head and actually made his puppet blink here and there. Mostly importantly, he moved the damn thing when his character was being narrated about. Everyone else just stood there. It was horrible. The more I think about it the more I just want to tell them how stupid it all was.
So the reason why I even went was because I saw an amazing video online of Bunraku to the next level. It was a tennis game with the scene moving up, down, rotating 180 degrees so we got top-down views. The puppeteers moved ping-pong balls in a natural fashion, and the background was black, so they weren't visible. It was awesome. I wanted that level of amazement. I was so disappointed. :(
I got out of there around 18:00 and wanted to meet up with the gang. Bria said she was done with the meal, felt tired and was going home. Alan and Annmarie weren't even in Osaka yet. I was going to go to another viewing deck but was closing at 18:30. The only item on my list that was still open was the aquarium and that's where I went.
Navigation said it would take me 34 minutes but I made it there in more like 23. Fast walking, yo. When I was almost there I saw the sun setting over the horizon. SO BEAUTIFUL. Damn. I wanted to run out at the next station and watch it more. Actually, that's what I did. I got out and kept going in the direction of the sun so I could catch the last glimpse. I decided to be rational and made sure that it was also in the direction of the aquarium. And... I missed it. :( But luckily I got the tickets for the Ferris Wheel as well. What luck that two of those things were in the same place.
The aquarium was nice. There was mystic or magical music playing. Very uplifting. However most of the lights were off and the animals were going to sleep. Yes, animals. Dolphins, beavers, sea lions etc. It was too dark to take photos. :( BUT. And this is the-but. I ran into Grace. Her and her friend Abby. They were Abby from Liverpool and Grace from Essex. I asked if I can join them on the aquarium adventure and they agreed. This time I had no place to rush to so I spend the next two hours with them.
I know I'm going to sound cliche, but they were beautiful. Grace was drop-dead gorgeous. I've seen girls like that on YouTube. They do exist. I don't even know what to say. We looked at sea creatures together. Abby had a bad on a ring finger so I didn't pay her too much attention. Except, I think I probably spoke to her more. She was the extravert. Grace was an introvert. Into anime. History buff. 5'4" with a hot-and-messy look. I didn't get a photo nor exchanged info, so I can romanticise her as much as I want and nobody can prove me wrong. :P
I touched fish. They got a photo of it. I took photos of them, with their camera. We stayed till closing. Gift shop was closed but they insisted on getting something so they went up to a keychain vending machine and bought a bunch there. They had like 40 keychains on their purse. All that from today. Quite impressive. I was looking for fridge magnets.
While at the aquarium they were running around. I thought they wanted to lose me, but I double checked and no. They said it was fine. After everything we were walking and I stopped by a store and found them waiting outside. Aw. I made it in. <3 LOL.
We went on the Ferris Wheel together. Sat in the same cabin and talked about anime etc etc. I told them about my fear of heights. They told me about their hopes and aspirations. Turns out I was the only one in that cart who has cosplayed. We took a photo together. They took one of us as well. The lighting was terrible which is why I only have a vague outline.
We parted soon after. I had to get the train and transfer and they kept going. They had plans the next day to go to Universal Studios early and I needed to pack for Tokyo. I should have given them my card. I regret not staying in touch. I'm legitimately curious how the rest of their trip is going to go.
Regrets aside, this is the tangent where I want to thank YT:Simple Pickup for really driving the point across of telling yourself to "shut the fuck up" when negative thoughts arise. Grace is stunning and I caught myself thinking I wasn't somehow not good enough to spend time with for her. But I quickly told myself that it's her decision to make, not mine. That's why I came up to her. That's why I had a good time yesterday.
The rest is as they say "history". Took the local train home. It look longer than expected to come to Kyoto. Ran to the apartment since I didn't feel like waiting for yet another train. Slept well for 6 hours. Woke up 05:50. Didn't see the sunrise but was pretty darn close to it. Went for another run/stretch out in the park. Got back, showered and packed. The rest of the gang was still waking up. Alan had a cool story about hanging out with drunk locals.
I decided to not waste time lounging around on the last day and bolted for Tokyo.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)