Moshiwakenai

I.E. There is no excuse. My last post on here was about 2 months ago. I have been keeping busy.
Japan. Japan is full of so many kinds of awesome it is fairly difficult to summarize them in a text format. Everybody strap in for a bit, and I'll do my best to keep this interesting.

I have been traveling all over the place. I've been back to Osaka for clubbing, bars, shopping, meeting up with Jeremy Bazinet and Hoang Nguyen (sp.?) and going to the electronics district/a maid cafe/an all you can drink club, and even for a couple dates with a Japanese girl I met at said club. In fact, I've been meeting a lot of people, some of them Japanese, some from America, some from Australia, some British, etc., etc. A small percentage of these have been attractive women, but that is not to say that attractive women are in any sort of short supply in this country. I once overheard a friend of mine say that he didn't come here with an asian fetish, but he's sure gonna leave with one.

I went to a play called Takarazuka. The acors are all women, even the male roles, and some of the overblown acting and setwork puts Broadway to shame. No, seriously. And the best part is, I went to this fairly expensive show on the program's dollar. They pay for a surprising number of things, like making Japanese sweets, going to temples (like Enryakuji, on Mt. Hiei), going to festivals, and next week we're talking a field trip to a ryokan (traditional Japanese style inn) in Hiroshima.

I've been out an about in Kyoto too. I've seen all sorts of temples and shrines, been to two different types of fire rituals, one involving a masive bonfire made of sticks with people's misfortunes written on them, and one involving monks running around a temple with massive torches made of bamboo and pine branches. I've been to two different clubs here, one of which had a drag night, I.E. all m freinds were in dresses, on stage, dancing in front of a massive crowd of Japanese people. I''ve been to all you can eat, all you can drink, and all you can eat and drink establishments. I once put away 14 plates of sushi at a revolving sushi restaurant. The bar street is full of restaurants, from Yaki Niku, to Ramen, to sushi, bar food, soba, udon, tenpura, everything Japanese, and Italian, French, Korean, Chinese, and more as well.

I went to Nagoya to visit Liz Ling, who was in my Japanese 1 class, do some tourism with Shinko Hattori, my Japanese 1 TA, and meet up with a really cute Korean girl I met way a ways back. While there I went to castels, shopping districts, museums, gardens, and even a randomly placed pellet gun shooting gallery. I saw guys in Samurai outfits fighting each other, Katanas from every era ever, and a tree that is apparently also an important Kami. Also, combination revolving sushi/arcade is a brilliant idea.

I've been learning judo which is cool. Except for the fact that my friend kevin, who is 6 foot and change, and at least one and a half of me, is also in judo class. Being thrown at the ground, even if you know how to take a fall, hurts. Speaking of my hobbies, I also met some fire spinners In kyoto, and managed to participate in a burn in Osaka. This famous poi spinner named Yuta was there. There were also a whole bunch of other random funky performing arts acts. It was a good time.

Sorry, that was kinda list-ey, but in summation, I love this freaking country. But I'm also excited to get back to the states and see everbody.