Time At Home

I went to Roppongi again this morning, to the Chinese Consulate, to pick up and pay for my travel visa for my upcoming trio to Beijing. It's weird for me, even though I was too young at the time to fully appreciate it, to think that I have a Chinese visa in my American passport, something that was for a long time impossible. I'm excited for my trip though, despite the constant warnings and bowel-related horror stories I've been so warmly offered.

I worked at Nishi-Funasbashi yesterday as a swap with Christian, and apparently there was a slight problem with my swap form. See, I put Moraju Kashiwa as the branch I was working at one the swap form, which should have been no big deal because the staff check the sheet against the master schedule to make sure the information is correct before sending it off to the Area Manager for approval. Well, I guess someone didn't check it too carefully, because after it was approved, the staff opened my schedule at Moraju, despite the fact that Christian had received a help shift cover form sending him, and thusly me, to Nishi Funabashi.

So after my first lesson, I get a phone call from Cerie, and a talking to from Arno, about the 'situation', and I couldn't help laughing because, well, if there's anyone at all who's not at fault it's me. Christian should have corrected the form instead of just telling me when he signed the thing, the staff should have checked the master schedule and provided me with a cover form confirming the different location, and Cerie, my manager, should have checked with the staff to make sure everything was in order before approving it. Oh well. So she wanted to explain the situation to me, like somehow I had something to do with it having happened, and to make sure that I was in fact at that branch, and told me I should call my branch and apologize to the staff for the inconvenience of having to rearrange the schedule again three weekends in a row, which I refrained from pointing out was in no instance any fault of mine.

So after work I got a text from Natascha, and went over to her place for dinner after changing my clothes. We spent the evening together, she made dinner I brought wine, and we hung out with her roommate Chris and chatted for a long while before retiring to her room for some back rub action, which I did offer to pay her for but then I'm pretty sure I wound up giving her a far more comprehensive massage than she gave in the first place, so I'm not quite sure if that calls it even or not. Anyway, I crashed at her place, and was really happy just to stay up late listening to her talk about what's going on in her life. It seems she really needed someone to talk to about what's going on in her life/in her head, and I was happy to listen. She gave me some feedback about me, and what frustrates her about me, which I really listened to and took in stride, and I'll do my best to work on what she said, cause she has a point.

After picking up my visa today I met back up with her and we walked around taking pictures at the shrine up at the top of the hill next to my house, where one of my students, Myoshin, used to work when he was younger. We parted ways for a bit when she got a phone call, and picked up some CDs, which after she got back to my place, going to the store, buying too much food, and gorging ourselves while watching the Dave Chapelle Show, we put to good use making her some mixes. It was so relaxing just so sit next to the heater reading New Spring (I finished Knife of Dreams on the way back from Roppongi, hurry up Jordan!) while she rifled through my music library and making small talk. It felt like being home, and that's a nice feeling. She has a tendency to make me feel like I'm home. That's a rare thing, cause I don't feel at home when I'm at home, even at my parents' house.

That brings us up to speed. I'm chillen in here while Tascha's chatting Ty up in the living room. I've got three more days of work then it's off to China! I'm really excited. This is gonna be a great trip.

Haircuts and Cold

Are the highlights of my day. Today was the first actually cold day we've had in a long while. After what I've come to recognize as the invariable 2 weeks of abnormally mild February weather, the real bone deep cold has set in and I felt the brunt of it today coming home from work. My freshly cut hair was radiating heat from my head like none other, so I was really feeling it. I waited outside from 12 minutes for the bus once I got to the stop, and while I could have chosen to wait it out with my hands in my pockets, I read my book instead, leading to a hightened awareness of how cold your hands can be while at the same time numb from it.

I finally got a haircut today, the first since before I visited America for Christmas, and it was much needed. There wasn't a lot I could really do with my hair anymore, and Rie cut it nice and short, which is good cause that means in two weeks it won't be unmanageable all over again. It also means my scalp gets a good chill session. Some of you may remember that at this point last year, I still had not had my first official haircut, and recalling the pictures of me from that time will at the same time remind us that I desperately needed a trim and that I was probably much warmer from it.

Anyway, the exciting thing about my haircut today was that before Ms. Highbridge (Takahasi) began she told me she had a favor to ask of me. My imagination strayed immediately to her naked on a sweaty summer night in my bed, as it often does when she's cutting my hair, but knowing that's probably not the kind of favor she meant, I prompted her to continue. As it turns out, she wanted my permission to take pictures of my haircut after we finished, for sumbission to a couple of salon magazines for modern young hairstyles as part of their highlight and ad.

Photoshy though I may be (honestly, I am, I'm not photogenic in the least), I of course said yes, cause, well, it's the closest thing to the aforementioned recurring fantasy as I figure I'm realistically gonna get. Er, that and if they really think I'm worth taking pictures of, who am I to turn them down? There's one thing I've learned over the years, and thankfully through no experience of my own: don't piss off your hairdresser. It's arguably a worse idea than pissing off your cook.

So after she got done taking the pics, I told her that I of course will want to see the photos in the magazine, and see how I can get a copy for myself, so that I can keep it forever as a brief moment of fame in my life. Who knows, maybe other gaijin will see the pics leafing through the magazine while nervously sitting, waiting for their own haircut, scared to death of what a Japanese barber might do to their precious Western hair, see my photo, gasp with the sudden realization there is hope, point to my picture, and walk away with a haircut they like. I know a great many salons in this country pride themselves on and use their ability to cut Western hair as a mark of ability and repute, and as such being probably the ONLY white person to patronize that particular establishment marked me for publicity from the very beginning, but my ego has a hard time finding anything wrong with that, even if it's only by virtue of being a normal guy in someone else's very different normal environment.

Salons I figure show off their ability to cut Western hair even marginally well for this reason: the Japanese can shop around. Westerners I imagine, however, like myself, and many immigrants held in the dreadful manacles of the language barrier around the world, will find one place that does the job well enough not to complain too much, and never ever go anywhere else ever again so long as it's possible. From the moment I got a decent haircut the first time, they I and I knew I was never going to go anywhere else again. Not only that, but they, like me, will most likely tell their friends about their safe spot, and thusly ensure business for that company for however long we stick around.

Anyway, I got my picture taken today for being white and getting my haircut. Sweet action. Clostest I'll probably ever come to being a model.

Nothing Worth Mentioning

I started doing pushups again before going to bed, and after waking up, as part of my, "I hate seeing myself in mirrors" saga. As of yet I have not become the chiseled He-Man I had hoped, but remembering back to three years ago doing pushups every day for a couple months and seeing the results, I figure I probably gotta keep it up a while to really see any change.

I've been really manic lately, and I don't know if the excercise has anything to do with it. I might be that, or that I haven't had anything remotely dramatic happen to me since before I went to Hokkaido. These last few weeks have gone by in relative calm, and I think not dealing with anything emotionally taxing is freeing up all this energy I had forgotten was there to be had.

I'm in something of an introspective mood, clearly, since I'm writing in my journal, and all my paragraphs start with 'I'. My question is whether this is just who I am, or if it's a natural reaction to having very little time to really focus inwards, you know? Is this just normal or is it the balance to constantly having to deal with external factors. I'm also struck by this odd feeling like I'm just typing with nothing really to say. I feel like I ought to have something worth writing about, but once again my extremely high "this is worth talking about" threshold is probably preventing me from writing about it, either that or I really am just bored and want something to do by writing.

All my friends are pregnant. Or, at least, too many people I know are pregnant, or having babies, or something along those lines. What gives? Stop making babies people. I need a direct, brain to computer link so I can get my thoughts out without having to type, because for every thousand or so things that go through my head, one word makes it out onto my screen. *sigh* I'm putting myself to bed now.

PvP

*warning* extreme dork alert

I'm frustrated cause I just started a 2vs2 arena team with Ty (in-game, not RL) and well, it's difficult. I've never been a huge pvp player so it's a challenge to say the least, and it's doubly frustrating because I need better gear, but in order to do so I have to either 1) win a whole bunch in pvp or 2) do more instance runs. But the problem with #1 is that I need better strategy AND better gear, and the strategy will only take me so far, and the problem with #2 is that everyone is busy with pvp and it's damn near impossible to do instance runs cause I can't find groups. And PUGs are basically worthless for serious instances, so I'd need guild assistance, but my guild are a bunch of slackers and they're all leveling slowly, and I can't really just ask Ty to grab his guildmates, even though they're amazing in instances and we'd wipe the floor with the mobs that way.

So I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. It's frustrating to me, and it's frustrating to Ty, who's in there with me, losing 66% of matches right there along with me. I feel bad letting him down and all cause he's a great player, he was a Grand Marshal before the expansion, so for him to have to work with me, where I can't get a good Fear off to save our lives, makes me feel bad. I guess I just don't, I dunno, get it, the way some other players do. Or I need a better compie. Lol, but that argument can always be made. Anyway, my character and I need to suck less, but getting that done is proving increasingly difficult without the aid of qualified guild members.

Anyway, in other news I, in a moment of sheer David brilliance, signed on for some overtime today, making this a 7 day stretch at work prior to my departure for Beijing. But then again, hey, in a week and a half, I'm going to Beijing! Besides, I need to take any kind of overtime where I can, because well, there isn't any going around, and my paycheck ain't what it used to be back in the Great Overtime Summer of '06, and since switching my days off. Besides, all this travel is expensive, so any extra money in my pockets is a good thing. And overtime in Febuary is gold. 1 full day this month gives me 17,200 yen extra (~$160).

I didn't realize it till Emi was talking to me about my vacation request, but, I'm gonna have 7 days off in a row for this trip. That's pretty sweet. Additionally, she made me think that I could ask for unpaid holiday if I wanted. That leaves me with some options should I run short on Paid Holidays as the year progresses.

In other, other news I started doing pushups again cause looking at myself without a shirt on depresses me, and I still wanna know where my mega wonderful girlfriend I've been looking for is hanging out so I can hurry up and meet her. At least, I think I wanna meet her, I can't always tell. For years now I've been telling myself that I'm just gonna wait for the right person to come along, but as of yet, I haven't really had much luck. That tells me one of three things: 1) I have phenomenally bad luck, 2) I have phenomenally neurotic standards (true regardless), or 3) there's a lesson that the Universe is trying to teach me about being single that I've either yet to learn or am refusing to, and as such have not been presented with a new opportunity or have and haven't recognized it as such because of my failure to learn said lesson. Whichever it is, my body is becoming distractingly fixated on fulfilling its biological purpose, and executing a Manual Override, as Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse puts it, is only so effective, and while with age I've become increasingly good at dealing with it and also increasingly less rabid sexually, it's still more or less a constant subconscious presence, and needs to be taken care of on some level before I lose the ability to function anywhere close to normally entirely.

K, bedtime.

Scared Shitless

I think I may have just born witness to the saddest thing I've seen in years that started out funny.

I was just about to go to bed when I saw a taxi pulling up in front of the apartment. I automatically assumed it was Dave and Ty because neither were home yet and this is about the time they'd be catching last train to Shin Matsudo, and there's no way they'd ride their bikes in the rain. So I hear the drunken rowdiness from far, far away confirming my suspicions, but when the door opens, only Dave comes in. No Ty. But Dave's more than made up for the drunk. He's singing, thrashin around the place, pops his head into my room to say hi, but then, when he pops his head into his own room to get settled in, he sees what the cat has done. That is to say, he sees how many things near and around his computer the cat has knocked off. He flips out.

So he chases the cat around the house relentlessly, and the cat freaks. He hides behind the couch in the living room, but Dave continues his pursuit, throwing things at the couch and kicking it, and the cat is desperately trying to find somewhere to go. Foolishly, it runs into Dave's room where it corners itself and hides under his futon. Dave continues his assault. At this point, the cat is now hissing and growling and really going into protect mode. It's not even trying to run anymore. We decide it's time to get the cat out of his room, and so I grab my sweatshirt to try to wrap the cat up and push it out, and as I'm doing so, I realize that the cat has shit itself. It's literally scared shitless. At this point Dave catches up with my realization that this has gone way, way too far, and we both are feeling really bad, and just want to get the cat out of the room so it can calm down, but it's not going anywhere.

It's still there now, growling and not moving, we've cleared everything off the bed so he has a clear path to leave, but, I think it's going to be a while before he ventures out. It's uh....strange, to be reminded how much your pets really are animals. Dave's really done a number on him. It doesn't really make me happy at all to see the cat this way. I have a feeling this is going to end with me putting on as many layers as I can and attempting to physically extricate Hershel from the room. I hope it doesn't come to that because I like my skin intact.

Additionally, I've never seen Dave drunk like this before. I mean, I've seen him drunk, and I've seen him abusive, but it's usually verbally and misogynistic, rather than towards our cat.

This is one of those entries I'm writing not to glorify what happened in words, but rather to remember it so that I am never part or privy to anything like it again. I simply don't want to forget it happened.

Reflections and Hints of the Past

I was thinking today about how this last month I was exceptionally poor because of all the payments on travel I had to make, and I took inventory on how I feel about living this way. See, I told myself I would do whatever it took to travel as much as I could this year, including living in poverty should I have to, and this last month was a good example of doing just that.

Last month I had to start really thinking about where my money was going again, and that's probably a good thing regardless of whether I had to or not. But I went somewhere I promised myself I'd go before leaving Japan, and I learned how to snowboard, another thing I had been meaning to do for a long time. I spent time with Natascha before she leaves, which is also something very important to me. So I gained a lot, really, and all I gave up was a few all nighters, and junk dinners from the store I shouldn't really have been eating in the first place. Oh, and I get a couple one day weekends, but, being used to doing overtime, that's nothing new. So basically, no big deal.

Next month I go to Beijing, which will be a little harder to orchestrate since I have to arrange 5 days off, so what I'm thinking is that I will swap as many days as I have to, then request my vacation days for later in the month, on the days I swapped, so I can still have regular days off, and there's a better chance of getting them approved the further away from today they are. We'll see how that all works out. This month shouldn't be as bad either, since I had a lot to pay for when I came back from America, i.e. both my Hokkaido trip and my Beijing trip, rental snowboard equipment, and half of my plane ticket to Seoul. This time around I don't have any lingering trip expenses except for my travel visa and hotel, which together are about the same as my rental gear and then the other half of my plane ticket, so all in all about 60,000 yen less. I also have less money to work with thanks to no overtime, but meh.

I've got about 98,000 yen to throw around this month after all is said and done, for food, fun, and shopping in Beijing, which I understand will be pretty cheap. If I can't find a way to survive on that much, I've got problems. Especially because this time last year I had just moved in to this apartment (Happy Anniversary, room!) and I was broke as fuck, living on borrowed money and 390 yen a day, roughly 1/10th of what I'll have this month. On top of that I am seeing more of the world. So I'm richer, more well travelled, and better off in just about every possible way than I was at this time last year. Guess I can't really complain.

Happy VD!

It's Valentine's Day and of course it rained like crazy. On top of being single for it, I got drenched on the way home, but was able to let go of my desire to stay dry knowing full well that, well, my clothes are really the only thing that's going to get wet. It's not like I'm made of paper and will break apart if wet.

Single Awareness Day once again is going by without anything really special going on, I would complain about being single, and how today makes me feel miserable, but in all honesty, I like being single. Clearly, since I seem to push away every opportunity to change that that comes along. It's true that I get lonely now and again, but, when I really think about it, I want to be alone far far more than I yearn for the company of others, especially intimate company.

I get tired of the whole, "it's always when you least expect it that something comes along" philosophy. This just seems to me a rationalization method employed by singles to feel better about the fact that their search is as of yet unsuccessful. It is, however, congruent somewhat with my belief that the universe does not provide the opportunity for progress, nor would you realize it were it to, until you're prepared for it, until you've learned the lessons that the universe would have you learn. All the same I still hate hearing people say that. It doesn't come when you least expect it, it comes when it does, and it's just always surprising.

Anyway, my lessons today were fun, I got to eat chocolates, and in exchange I got soaked. I think there are worse outcomes. I could have to deal with V-Day crap, which I was never particularly fond of, so I can't really complain.

Travelling Is Spendy

Man. All this time I joked around with my students about how after all this travel I would be broke, but rich in experience, I was a lot more correct than I realized. At least about the broke part.

I've got like, zero money to my name at the moment, I borrowed 3,000 yen from Ty to last my until payday, and thank God it's only one more day till then. Even so, I'm committed for another large chunk of my livelihood when I pick up my Chinese travel visa on the 26th, the acquisition of which was an episode unto itself.

I got up early this morning, and thanks to the bright sunshine pounding down on my face (which I like, for the record, rather than despise), I was up and ready early enough to cruise to the train station to catch the train one earlier than I had originally planned. Sweet, extra time to find this place that I would undoubtedly get lost trying to locate. So I get there, and as the train is arriving on the platform, I stick my hand into my pocket as I always do and realized that, yes, yesterday I had in fact worn a different jacket, and as such my train passes and alien registration card, quite neccessary for a visa application, were sitting in my other jacket at home. So, scratch that whole, I'm ahead of schedule thing. Another quintessentially David-style move. Notice that I talked about doing this EXACT same thing in my entry about Hokkaido.

So I went back, got my shit, caught the train I had originally planned on, and when I got to Shin Matsudo, I wound up missing my train because the stupid ticket machine was broken, and the morons behind the counter were unable to provide me with an instant solution as they should damn well be able to working for an extremely time sensitive organization. I stood there answering questions all the while looking at my watch and realizing there was no way I was going to make my train and soaking in the irony of the whole, "I left early and now I'm late both by my fault and sheer luck" situation. Anyway, all in all I got down to Roppongi a only ten minutes or so later than I had planned, and I found the visa place just fine, thank God.

Except, that my visa is going to cost 9,000 yen for some strange reason, even though the website says it should only be 4,000, and it will be delayed until the 26th because of the Chinese New Year celebration, which starts on Saturday, which means there are only 3 full business days after I dropped it off, and they need 4, for whatever reason. Allen, who's Chinese that I work with, tells me that the Consulate does this all the time, overcharging people. Even him, who has permanent residency in Hong Kong. *sigh*

Anyway, on top of that I have to pay Samantha back for the hostel she booked for us, but that's only like 8,000 yen per person for the whole week we're going to be there. I really hope that China is as cheap as they all tell me, because otherwise I'm gonna be screwed for money. Especially because rent has been much higher these last two months thanks to winter heating.

On a side note, Natscha's only got like 6 weeks left in Japan, and that's starting to sink in. It's weird how when someone's leaving, you start taking inventory on all the shit you let go unsaid or undone for too long. I'm glad she and I are on better terms again now, she was over here the other night to see Dave and have dinner with him, and they invited me to join and get shitty drunk on wine, and she and I went to the store together to have some time to shoot the shit and all, and that was really nice. I think what I respect the most about her now is that she handled that situation exactly how I would, walk away from it, let it cool off, and then come at it like it never happened, allowing the other person to take whatever steps they feel comfortable with, making sure they know that I've looked past it already. I respect her so much for it because, well, no one else really ever does that, at least not for me. She just lets things go. I hate saying it like this, but, it's very Christian of her, and I like that. Too many other people I know hold grudges, or worse, rationalize against me. It's, lol, refreshing. That's right, I said it. It's refreshing.

Snowboarding Day 2

Day 2 we went to Kiroro, and the powder was just amazing. The skies were clear when we arrived, and the beginner slope was calling my name.

As soon as I strapped on my board I knew there was gonna be a huge difference that day. I had been thinking about the mechanics of turning during the time before heading up, and talking to Jenn about it, and kinda worked out in my head how toe vs. heel turning would work. It's just that my body had never done anything remotely close to a toe turn before so it required a little thought. We got up to the top of the run, and looking down at Jenn a few meters down the run I told her I didn't wanna fall anymore, remembering the previous adventure. She said, and was right, that I had to if I wanted to learn. In my mind though, I had already paid adequately in crashes, and deserved a little more result than I had seen. So I went down a little, tried to turn right, and ate shit. But not as bad.

The snow was really soft, and there was something different about it that day, when standing I could wiggle my board both left and right, and I tried to remember how that felt so that I could do it again while moving and see where it got me. Jenn took off, and I got some distance away from Ceska and Tascha quickly, and tried turning right again. This time, my board did what I thought it should have, and I paid close attention to what exactly it was that when I fell, made it happen.

It was about then that something kinda clicked, and the mechanics I had been thinking about finally started to make sense. I got up right away, turned again, and leaned forward on my toes the same way I had been pushing down on my heels going the other direction, and let my right leg really swing around so my board was adquately perpendicular to the slope to really give some stopping surface, and lo and behold I slowed down. And thanks to all that fakey practice as soon as I let my board straighten out again, as it tends to want to do to reduce friction, I swung my board out the other way and came to a grinding stop. On my feet. I plopped down on the ground, smiled immensely, and started cutting this way and that down the rest of the run. I only wish someone I knew were there to see it.

I went right back up and did it again. Bam. Done. Did it again, and I realized that turning that much was making me stop way too far from the entrance to the lift, so I turned less and cruised more. Twice more down that run and I was sick of doing it. I decided to kick it up a notch, and go on the longer beginner run, which happened to start at the summit.

I hopped on the Gondola and got one of those gut wrenching feelings when after 10 minutes I still had not reached the top. I knew where I was supposed to go, but, this lift was taking forever, I was by myself, and visibility was rapidly declining the higher I went. By the time I reached the top I felt like I was in a blizzard, and in all honesty when I started down the run I could neither see where I was going nor gauge how fast I was actually going. That's when the frustration kicked in.

The powder was slowing my board down, and the wind was so strong that my the condensation on the inside of my goggles was freezing, and I basically couldn't see anything at all. When I finally made it to the split where the 'panoramic route' started, I had to take my goggles off, and walk for a bit cause the slop was too gentle to even coast at all.

By this time, my nervous pee response had kicked in, and I was driven to get down the mountain more by my bladder than a desire to conquer the mountain. I had to one foot it for a long way because of the all too gentle slope and that made me tired. I was stressed, and my confidence was fading quickly due to what seemed like a huge mistake on my part.

Finally, two very important things happened. I reached the top of another lift, and I went pee in the snow. From that point on, I could finally see again, the slope was enough to actually not ever stop without effort on my part, and I could concentrate on boarding rather than needing to pee. The rest of the run was fast, steep (for me), and exhilarating. I was so engrossed in cruising and turning and the fact that I wasn't falling down that when I finally saw the lodge appearing at the bottom of the hill I was on, I almost felt disappointed that once it started going fast it ended so soon. I took comfort in knowing that there was a lift that would take me directly to where the action started, and vowed not to go back up to the top, where I would face more frustration than anything else. I wanted the fun.

I went back up the first slope one more time before stopping in to have lunch, just to compare it to the run I just finished, and I realized that it was just too easy, and I was too good to get anything out of it. What? Too good? Holy crap. I realized then I was no longer a starting snowboarder, but yes, a bonafide beginner. WOOOOOOT.

After lunch I ran the short version of the summit one two more times, and it was fun, but my legs were SO tired that I was catching lips and falling when I shouldn't have, and going slower than I was capable of too, so I called it a day after that. I was so dead tired, but at the same time, I was so happy to have come that far. Again, I wish that Jenn or Natascha or someone at all I knew could have been there with me to witness just how far I had come. I would have gone with the other four, as they all went up for one last run together, but they wanted to go to the summit, and I just wasn't gonna go through that again, so I chose to do that shorter run twice, that I just mentioned. Oh well, I was out to prove something to myself and myself only, and I did just that, so I'm happy.

Anyway, now I'm a beginner snowboarder. I can turn both directions, stop, and recover from a slip/bump without falling. Not bad for my first time. Go me.

Snowboarding Day 1

So, my previous post mentions snowboarding a couple of times but never really goes into detail because I didn't want to make the entry excessively long. So, I'll talk about it here, so you can fill in the day or two's worth of info I left out.

For starters, I never skateboarded or surfed prior to this, so I knew it was going to be essentially learning and entirely new skill, and I was right. Despite having experience skiing, the only good it did me was knowing how frustrating it was learning that, and how to deal with falling a lot without driving myself crazy. And fall a lot I most certainly did. Jenn and Tom G. where there with me the first time to go up the lift and tell me about the basics, but after a couple of minutes of me standing up, going a foot or two then falling down, I told them they could go on ahead and I would work on what they talked about without them having to wait around for my ass. Good call, as it turns out, cause it took me about an hour and a half to get down that run. I fell. Boy did I fall. I fell in every way imaginable. I did the first face plant of my life, which was just hilarious to me, and allowed me to get some good thinking done in the solitude of my self-made snow cave.

I hit my head several times from falling while turning to the right, something which I never got the hang of the first day. I did some damage to my left wrist as well, landing poorly and putting too much weight on it, but that much I expected. I also bruised my tailbone, which I expected. I got tired very quickly, but I took it in chunks and focused on one little bit at a time, and by the time I reached the steep part of the run I could stay up long enough to kinda stop on my own. I started to get my balance I'd say about halfway down the run, and by the end I had kinda figured out how to get down fakey. I decided I felt more comfortable going down fakey than trying to learn to cut right and crashing all the time, so after I got back to the lift, I went back up, and went back down again all fakey, which took me like 10 minutes. Big difference in times.

I ran into Natascha and Ceska and Sammy the second time down, and come to find out Sam had hurt her knee and was having a hard time getting down the mountain. Tascha and Ceska were doing alright, snowbunny style on their skis all the way. I didn't realize it was their first time skiing as well. I just kinda thought the three of them were poor skiers. My third time down I saw the ski patrol coming to pick up Sammy, and I made it down pretty fast, my fakey style proving to be sound and allowing me to adjust to standing on the board while moving and getting any amount of speed, though going fakey one can't really ever get going THAT fast, so I realized by the end of the run that style was going to hold me back. Besides, the whole time I was telling myself that I wasn't actually snowboarding as long as I was using that style.

My last run of the day I went down with Jenn, and I challenged myself to really give it a go, and I kept up with her the whole time, never falling once. I was really proud of myself to have accomplished that in one day of snowboarding, and I was fine with having done it fakey knowing that the next time we went up to the mountain I would train myself to turn correctly and then I could really claim to have learned how to do it. I felt really good about myself for the first time in a long while, having gone from zero to something workable in a day.

Sapporo

I got back the other night from my 4 day vacation to Hokkaido tired and sore, but overall, it was a great trip. Allow me to recount the events.

Day 1:
I woke up Sunday morning early, at my place, as Janel decided it would be best that I not stay there despite her previous invitation, a decision I respected, and in retrospect know was a good idea if for no other reason than I wasn't as monumentally tired as I would have been. I packed the night before in all of three minutes, but as it turned out, I actually managed to bring everything I needed. I cruised out to Haneda Airport but not before pulling a quintessential David move and going to the train station early, sitting there reading for 15 minutes, and then realizing at the last second I didn't have my train pass/alien registration card etc with me, as I had left them in my other jacket which I had worn to work the previous day. So I flew back to my apt. on my bike and got back to the station literally 1 minute too late to catch my train to meet up with everyone, and as such went out there alone, which I don't really mind so much. Getting to the airport was straightforward enough though and I arrived only minutes after the rest of the group thanks to some quick transfers.

Our flight was delayed by about ten minutes due to severe weather conditions around Chitose Airport, so we had a little extra time to wander around the airport and take pictures on the observation deck. We, of course, being myself, Samantha, Jenn, Ceska, Tom G, and Natascha. After boarding the plane, the captain announced that due to the weather conditions, one of three things would happen after we took off: we would circle the airport until things cleared up, land in Hakodate, or return to Tokyo. Lol. Return to Tokyo. Hell of a vacation that would have been. I sat next to Jenn on the plane, thanks to a nice Japanese gentleman who switched seats with me, probably to avoid being stuck next to a bunch of gaijin more than anything else, but I want to think of it as a selfless act more than one of self sanity preservation. We wound up circling the airport for 30 minutes, which was the best possible option really, so we weren't really that late. Immediately after getting off the plane, as in, one step onto the bridge, I snagged some snow and started the official vacation off with a snowball straight to Jenn's torso, as promised. We snagged some beers, hopped on the train, and made our way to Susukino, where our hotel, the Sun Route Hotel New Sapporo, was located, near central Sapporo. It was snowing pretty hard when we got there

After checking in, we went to the ski locker area to examine our rental gear, and chide one another about the flourescent gear we undoubtedly had rented. I was really gunning for neon camoflauge, but alas, our gear was relatively wearable, fit for the most part, and lacked the early 80's flare we had all crossed our fingers for. I did however, get a nice pair of flourescent orange snowboard pants that, as was pointed out to me, looked surprisingly handsome. Jenn, however, had no stuff there, so a few phone calls were made and they said they'd have stuff out to her by 5pm, which turned out to be more like 6:30, after the rest of us had already left for dinner.

The rooms were nice enough, twin beds with little in the way of real comfort, but a bed is a bed and as hotel rooms go for people in our price range, it was more than adequate. Tom took a quick nap while the rest of us ventured downstairs to find the fabled Hokkaido miso ramen, and we found it next door to our hotel and were relatively unimpressed, as we've all come to realize is unfortunately the case with a great many Japanese 'local delicacies' which are no better if not worse in their place of reverence than anywhere else. After that a quick nap for the rest of us was in order, and after waking we hopped in taxis and made our way to the Sapporo brewery restaurant, where we set out on our mission to consume as much lamb as humanly possible, and drunk Sammy bit my forefinger so hard she broke the skin. Yes, that's right, I went to Hokkaido and all I got was this lousy HUMAN BITE. Thanks, Sam.

After dinner we wobbled outside where we started a snowball fight, which spread quickly after I started throwing snowballs at strangers and got about 25 people involved in a multicultural snowball exchange program. Much hilarity ensued. We called it a night early that night, as the next morning we would all set out to Kokusai ski area for a fateful day on the slopes.

Day 2:
Monday morning we got up around 7:30 to catch our 8:30 ski bus, and things got off to yet another phenomenal start when Jenn discovered that though the gear all fit, the snowboard that was delivered to her was not only tardy but the size of a spatula. Jenn had some words with the rental company, who then offered her a discount for her troubles. After arriving at Kokusai they gave her a better board.
Notable events from Day 1 on the slopes:
I learned to snowbard. See Linked entry for more.
Sammy crashed in some way previously considered physically impossible within 5 minutes of getting to the top of the lift and injured her knee, requiring the assistance of the ski patrol to bring her down the rest of the way, and barring her from skiing for the duration of the trip.

After we got back, we were all dead tired, and went to dinner at this nice Cuban restaurant across the walkway from the hotel, where we ate some surprisingly delicious food and drank some surprisingly good rum, and had a surprisingly hot waitress who spoke, you guessed it, surprisingly good English. I'd had enough surprises so I went to bed after a shower and a fistful of Aleve. I slept poorly, as I did every night while there.

Day 3:
Tom left the room early to go sightseeing on his own, and Jenn slept in and went to an onsen on her own, leaving Sammy, Natascha, Ceska and me to go to the Snow Festival itself, the main event, together. Unfortunately due to a warm front there was some severe meltage, but actually it wasn't so bad because it kinda made all the snow sculptures have this creepy, deranged look which I've come to kinda like.
Highlights of the festival:
The girl in the pod playing Benny Goodman while Natascha and Ceska swing danced before a crowd of elderly Japanese who just couldn't get enough.
Lunch in the tower and the mistake of taking the stairs to avoid the elevator lines. It might be the 3rd floor, but it's 6 flights up.
German style chocolate roasted almonds. Yum.
After all our feet were sufficiently numb, we hopped in a taxi and went back to the hotel, which turned out to be all of 4 blocks from where we were. We took naps. Or, at least that's what I thought we were doing, everyone else apparently was in Sammy's room watching porn that somehow involved the spitting of egg whites onto someone's chest. Gotta love Japanese porn.

Jenn and Ceska and I split to go have dinner and enjoy some more 'local delicacies' before going back to the Snow Festival to check out the night time lighting. We ordered a bucket of sashimi that contained some surprisingly delicious crab, and some surprisingly bad stuff in the form of a dark green paste which none of us could identify. I was very happy to discover a food in Japan that was actually as good as rumor held. The crab, I mean, not the UDGP (unidentified dark green paste), which is not to be confused with NGDOPG.

After dinner we went to the top of some entertainment center near the hotel and got on the Ferris Wheel they had to admire the view of Sapporo, which was nice. The mountains surrounding the city are very pretty when illuminated through the clouds by the spotlights of chairlifts. It was over more or less as soon as it started, so we walked to the Snow Festival, took more pics, and then went back to the hotel, where we all watched Forest Gump and I tried to fall asleep but then As Good As It Gets came on and Tom kept it on, so I didn't actually go to bed until 1:30 am or so, despite having to get up early the next morning.

Day 4:
Waking up earlier than Day 2 wouldn't have been so bad had I not had to pack everything up before leaving. See, we had to bring all our stuff with us to Kiroro, our snow park destination, put it in lockers, and then hop on the bus afterwards to the airport directly and hop on our plane to go home. So that was annoying, and I was dead on my feet, not to mention still pretty tired from Day 2's snowboarding skill acquisition.
Highlights from Day 4 on the mountain.

As soon as I got on the bus, I knew I had to pee, and so I busted out the iPod, sat in the least stressful position on my bladder, and attempted to enter some sort of Zen meditative state, which actually somehow worked, and I made it to the airport without any sort of real actual dicomfort, unlike Natascha, who tried but was unable to find that same Zen state. I think the iPod helped. She came and joined me after an hour or so on the road and we shared headphones and chatted a bunch, which was really nice. All the ski bus trips we sat next to each other and slept on one another's shoulders, which was nice. We did our best not to aggravate our bladders, and I'm assuming the chit chat was to distract ourselves from having to pee. Maybe, who knows.

Our plane was delayed due to heavy snow, and we got back to Haneda just in time to hope straight on the trains home, but Jenn was hypoglycemic by this point so she was dancing like a madman on the train blasting hiphop with her earphones inverted, which normally would anger me but at that stage of exhaustion just made me laugh. I got back to the apartment around 1 am, exhausted but happy with the trip.