Intermission: Red Tree

The Trons

This is awesome. An actual robot band who play some (well, they only have one so far) catchy tunes.

Check them out.

Adventures in Jet Lag

The night before last, my first night back in Winnipeg, i fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. Around 1am. I awoke at about 3pm, totaling 14 hours of sleep. Last night, i couldn't sleep until about 7am and when i woke up, it was 3pm again. Jet lag never messed with me like this before. My bowels are acting up. Or not acting, rather.

I'm exhausted, but i really want to go to the Asian market. Also, i need to find my bike. I totally forget what i did with it when i left. I was in such a hurry to move and pack and leave...ah, well.

But in Japan they...

When i arrived in Japan 3 short months ago, i was impressed that even the workers who drove the airplane boarding dock thing would bow to the passengers as they filed past. They would even say "thank you very much".

When i arrived in Vancouver yesterday, the guy who was driving the airplane boarding tunnel was leaning up against the wall just beside his controls. He was looking down at the floor, ignoring all the passengers. I could almost physically hear his thoughts: only 20 minutes till break...man, i hate this job.

It seems that the Japanese take it upon themselves to put their entire being behind any job they are given, even if that job is just to stand outside a little 100 yen shop handing out free advertisement tissues. Perhaps some think they hate their jobs too, but you sure don't notice it. Can we learn something from this? Though, i do hear that so much Western influence is changing this in the younger generations...

I shouldn't say too much. I'm going to be coasting for a while.

Sigh...

Toshi-bo loves him some fireworks.

Welp...i guess that's it. I'm leaving tomorrow. I'm going to miss everyone here. They picked up up from Sapporo after my trip to the mainland today. We were all excited to see each other. Ray gave me the farm update, told me about an alternative summit that is being held in Sapporo parallel to the G8 one. We packed potatoes that they are selling at a farmers market tomorrow. We listened to music as we worked. We joked around, laughed. I wrestled with Ken-Ken, talked music and gadgets with Kazu, played with Toshi-bo. They had a going away barbeque. We ate grilled asparagus, zucchini, pork and lamb. Launched fireworks late into the night. Aki smiled and said it was an "itirasshai" party (a way of saying goodbye which literally means "leave and come back"). Ken-Ken told me to not to go to Canada. Kazu reminded me to get him a bag like mine from MEC if and when i come back. Toshi-bo said "abobo" several times and tugged on my pantleg(his way of saying "asobu" which means "let's play!").

It was a good day. A nice contrast to the 6 hours of standing, yes standing, on a packed train yesterday. Yeah, i'm excited to go home, i've had more than my share of traveling these last few months and i want to see everyone back home, but i'm going to miss it here.

in-ta-ne-to

So, i've got about 3 hours to kill before my trip back to Sapporo begins and i thought i'd find somewhere with some internet action. I asked tourist information and they pointed me to the nearest Media Cafe Popeye.

Wow.

For 500 yen you get your own little booth with a reclining chair (well, you can choose between four different types, i'm describing mine), a computer with internet access, a TV and all the free drinks you can handle. The free drinks are basically vending machines you don't need money for. I immediately got all three machines to simultaneously make me three different kinds of coffee. This is awesome.

A few couchsurfers i met said that you can stay at these places overnight for cheap, if you've run out of options. I daresay it'd be alright. This is pretty comfy. They have blankets and everything here for you.

Intermission: An English Sign in Japan