Banana Hut

Journeys and rambles in Japan.

9.29.2006

Two Evening Tableaus of Enlightenment

Tuesday was a good day. There was this moment, when I had just left the library and it was maybe eight in the evening, coming down the mountainside towards the station. Everything was so peaceful, and I ended up in this nameless noodle shop that could fit maybe ten people and the kanji for food were so difficult that I ended up asking for the 500 yen meal and sat, reading, while the young chef bustled and on the television behind me the Dragons were batting against the BayStars.

It had been a good day. I'd been to the gym, something I hadn't done in forever; I'd finished that story for the Ubyssey, the one about recycled pens that I'd been sitting on for two weeks; I'd talked with people from far away; I'd received some news from home, somewhat bitter sweet.

As I came down the mountainside I caught a view of the city by night, the horizon afire with the light of a million little chakras.



There was this moment, maybe it was two days after I had arrived, and I had just had dinner and my head throbbed from this damn language I was trying to learn how to speak and understand and I dragged myself upstairs and said goodnight to my mother and threw myself onto my bed still in my clothes and mumbled, loudly, into my pillow, "holy crap. I can speak Japanese."

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9.27.2006

Something you don't see every day.

Jesse was in need of a beverage this morning, and though he got us lost on our way to his usual watering hole, we did come across this massive array of vending machines.



Japan is an amazing country.

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Gah!

I hate computers so much.

I lost another post when I tried to plug in my digicam and the computer crashed. Fuck. I really don't want to type all that up again.

9.26.2006

Canada


I just put a photo album of my bus trip across Canada onto my Facebook. I've filled it with anecdotes and random chatter, so check it out.

I started in Toronto and arrived three days later in Vancouver at about 5 in the morning. I sat beside two guys, both of whom were in bands, and one girl who got on at Moosejaw and promptly changed seats when the bus started moving. It's quite possible I smelled bad by that point.

The first guy, whom I will call The Drummer because I can't remember his actual name, got on in Sudbury. I had been supposed to get off the bus and stay with my friend Evan (who moved there for god knows what reason) for a night, but the ticket's fine print said that it was not to be, so we scrambled out for dinner and then I got right back on and this drummer sat beside me. He was going to Edmonton, we parted ways in Winnipeg I think. For the life of me I can't remember his name. He was from Ottawa, and was moving to the prairies to do something with advertising. He was making good money too, but you'd have to be to move out to Edmonton. OH! POW! Anyway, The Drummer had some bands lined up that he was going to audition for in his new home town.

The second guy, Colvin, was in an actual band, The Hollow. Check out his awesome leather pants. And he was the shiest person ever too, very nice and down to earth and not at all, how you say, EMO. He'd been living in Toronto for the last few years after graduating with a music degree (incidentally, he'd spent some time in Edmonton I think) but had been in small-town Alberta visiting his parents. He said he also played with a pop singer named FiFi Dalore (NB: transliterations are approximate at best) but for the life of me I cannot find this person on the internet so I can only surmise that he was lying. My second best source for music, my sister, also had not heard of her. But apparently they're touring around Europe shortly. Who knows.

Colvin got off in Calgary to catch a plane back to Toronto, and I continued on my way. We hit the rockies in the early afternoon, and I went a bit camera happy.





Anyway, with very little room left on my camera I arrived in Vancouver and settled in on Colleen's basement apartment's living room's futon. I did some random stuff such as banking, changing money into Yen, watching Madison's Panic jam outside the SUB, shopping for お土産 souvenirs for my host family and generally carousing about. I finally got to go to Dharma Kitchen (oh-em-gee so good) and I saw my friend Tony and randomly bumped into Armand and picked up a story at The Ubyssey that I have not yet typed up because my laptop is caput (sorry Colleen and Carolynne), and I generally made myself a nuisance over at Staples because they wouldn't talk to me about recyclable pens.

Yes, my story is about recyclable pens. It will be coming soon, I promise. If I get it done today like I'm intending, and the Ubyssey website ever gets constructed, I will link you.

And that's enough for now I think. This is Colleen and Colleen's angelic aura :)

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9.25.2006

God Damn Al Gore



Bah.

I finally got the internet, sort of, and then I write out this long post to bring you all up to date on my trials and tribulations when I accidentally delete the post because Blogger somehow knows I am in Japan and has changed all the buttons to Japanese. Bah I say!

Anyway, I'm in Japan, doing a homestay with a wonderful family, learning all kinds of new things and meeting all kinds of new people. We went to 姫路城 on Friday and, typical me, I forgot my camera. So, until one of the more clever exchange students emails me some of their pictures, you guys don't get to see the best castle in Japan that is also a World Heritage Site. (I can't figure out how to make that sentence sound right)



There was this gorgeous garden nearby as well, that was a bit of a tourist trap (it was built in 1992 and isn't old at all) but well worth the walking. (and who am I kidding, I have a free pass) They had a tea hut, and I managed to kneel through a watered-down tea ceremony (just the ceremony was watered down, the tea was quite strong and very bitter and frothy) and chat with the very nice lady in a kimono. (sidenote: it may have been a yukata, I can't tell the difference)

Anyway, I didn't get any pictures of that either. I'll go back. This is Jesse and Eric looking like tourists at the school garden.

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9.13.2006

Test

Test test test.

私はマットヘールスと申します。どうぞよろしくお願いします。

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