Osaka, Japan

*Konichiwah!* I have just returned from 4 crazy days in Japan! Where to even begin... well, Lee and I left our apartment at 5 in the morning in the rain to find a cab, which was as fun as it sounds! Our flight was overbooked when we arrived, so the amazingness that always happens to other people finally happened to us: we got bumped up to first class!!! It was only a 2 hour flight so we barely had time to enjoy it, but it was sooo awesome to have these big comfy seats, good food and drinks, a personal movie monitor, and we were even in the upstairs seating :o)

We arrived in Japan and it was FREEZING!!! It is 21 in Taiwan now, winter just ending, and was a high of 6 in Osaka! Including the weather, the city really reminded me of Toronto - a lot of landscape and space and parks and trees and sidewalks, friendly people, normal drivers, very clean and nice and everyone spoke at least some English! They drive on the wrong side of the road over there, but there are almost no scooters and everyone is on a bicycle! One of my favourite things: in all public washrooms, the toilet seats are HEATED!!!

So we stayed in a nice budget hotel, with a double bed and fridge and closet and tv, and there was a communal washroom down the hall - and I mean COMMUNAL in the true sense of the word!! It was like living on a nudist colony or something! But no peeeking allowed :o)

Our first day in Osaka we saw a big famous temple, thousands of years old, and the Sky Building which is an incredible piece of architecture! We moved around the whole city on trains, railways,subways and cabs, and it costs about the same as Toronto prices, so, not overly expensive but compared to Taiwan it was! Every night we went out for dinner and drinks and explored the nightlife in town!

Our 2nd day was spent in Kyoto, where we visited the authentic geisha district and watched a world famous sumo match! It was sooo cool! We also went sight seeing into shrines and shopping and stuff. The big rage here is this combination of arcade-slash-slot machines, they are EVERYWHERE!! We went back to Osaka at night.

The next day was spent in all the famous shopping districts, and at night was supposed to be the Chili Peppers concert; IT WAS CANCELLED!!!!!!!!! Yea!!!! Keides, the lead singer, was in hospital for 10 days sick with bronchial pneumonia or something and cancelled the concert at the last minute. Needless to say, Lee and I were devastated. I mean, this was our main reason for going - but there was nothing we could do about it so we made the most of our time there. We got our money back for the show, but obviously I'd rather have the concert... I also caught the flu on our 2nd day in Japan, so I was sick the whole time!!

We had authentic Japanese food on our last day and saw one last shrine on the way back to the airport. It was the fastest 4 days you could imagine, but we did and saw everything we could and had a wonderful time! Hope to hear from you soon!!

Living New!!

"Long time no blog", and I'm sorry about that! But having no time AND no internet will do that to a person :o) So school is good, still loving almost all of my classes, rockin' the gym, and Lee is great!

All of last week I was consumed by The Move!! Everyday, I would walk or scoot over to the new apartment with little things to unload, a couple bags or boxes, a shelving unit, a bed!! etc. But then last Saturday was a holiday for us as part of Chinese New Year, so the plan was to completely emtpy out the dorm and finish moving - until our high school decided that they needed us! So after teaching from 9-2, we went back to the dorm and packed every single thing that we could before Lee went to work again at 3:30 leaving me alone to move everything single-handedly! AND I DID!! I got every single belonging out of the dorm, into the hallway, the elevator, down to the lobby and out into a cab all by myself! We had too much stuff so only half of it would fit; I had to go to the apartment, unload everything and take it all upstairs, then go back to the dorm and do it all again one more time! I had to move all our furniture back in the dorm to the way that it was when we moved in, have our rooms checked and inspected and okayed, and I did all of this with my own huge muscles in 2 hours!! I met Lee at 6 for one of our privates and then a night out of dinner and a movie: Thai and "Pursuit of Happiness", all good things! We ended the night by celebrating a friend's birthday; it was a busy Saturday!

Sunday was the usual, gym and groceries and laundry and unpacking, and a trip to Taipei that ended with us coming home in a horrendous rain storm...! This whole week was just filled with classes and privates and the gym and going out with friends and setting up the place, not to mention dealing with our still-not-working internet!! But the place looks great, Nate and Lee and I all get along really well as roommates, and I am just so much happier being out of the dorm! This weekend was a lot more fun and a lot less stressful! After teaching a full Saturday, Lee and Nate and I went to toast 2 more birthdays which lasted until 5am!!

And now, the countdown is on: 6 DAYS TILL JAPAN!!!