And the Apes abroad are no longer Abroad.

That probably signals the death knell for this livejournal account but mabey not. We’ll see.

It’s been fun! Looking foreward to catching up with everyone in person soon!

Colin

Plane booked.

Landing next thursday in Nanaimo. Then we’ll wander around the province for a month or two and then pick a city to live in and start looking for work.

Have to admit I’m looking foreward to comming home.

Colin

Never got to mention the onsen we visited a few weeks ago because I kept trying to fit all its awesomeness into phrase and couldn’t. Well let me spit it out: it was, awesome. The Takaragawa Onsen is supposedly one of the most beautiful and large outdoor hotsprings in Japan, and co-ed which is unusual. It was more breathtaking and romantic than I’d imagined it could be.

We were set up in the old building pictured here, with a rushing river all around our corner room. We donned yukatas for two days and drank tea in oldtimey Japanese surroundings. Were treated to the most extraordinary dinner of our lives – so many courses we couldn’t count them all, many of them needing to be cooked or wrapped or dipped or in some way prepared, so it was as entertaining as it was delicious. Breakfast was a similar traditional feast, and we tried natto for the first time.

Okay, and so, the onsen: up in the mountains away from everything, forest and trees all around, and a rushing river a few feet away. The four pools could comfortably fit 15-20 people each, but it’s just us and a couple of old guys with season’s passes. Carved out of rock, decorated with stone statues and wooden pavilions. We stayed in until midnight then came out again after breakfast.

The onsen’s theme was bears, because there were supposedly a lot around (we were given sticks with bells on them to use when hiking), and because they had a caged area with a few of the little black bears in it. We met a little 2 month old bearling as he was being let out to romp around the place. He was so excited he could hardly walk on all those floppy legs. They let the bears bathe in the pools sometimes, even.

So, a wonderful time was had. It was so romantic even that Colin proposed to me – yay! We’re going to get married! At some point! :)

Look, I’m wearing my yukata backwards in this shot and drinking my tea with only one hand. Don’t worry, I figured things out eventually. ^_^

Yeah. Osaka.

We spent the day downtown around Dotonbori. Which is the famous place to be in Osaka. Seems like you can sum up different parts of Osaka as being ‘like such and such a place in greater tokyo but less so’. Dotonburi is like Shinjuku but less so. Which means it’s full of bright lights, pachinko parlours, shops, restaurants and a bunch of strip clubs.

Well shinjuku doesn’t really have shops or restaurants. But that’s why everything in Oskaka is ‘less so’. Because it’s all more balanced.

The food is definitely better. Cheaper, tastier, easier to access. One of my major gripes about Tokyo and especially Kyoto was the food. Osaka is much better. Actually it’s famous in Japan for food and is considered the countries ‘stomach’. There’s a saying that goes ‘dress till you drop in Kyoto and eat till you drop in Osaka’ referring to the popular passtime of visiting historic sites in Kyoto wearing Kimonos.

I would say Osaka’s food obsession brings it up to par with an average north american city. Not for breadth mind you. There are probably 8 types of restaurants instead of Tokyo’s 4.

Yeah so I forgot the camera today so no pics but google the ‘glico man’ and you’ll be good. Actually the one picture I really wanted was the sign advertising the ‘new style masturbation rooms’. Someone got a little too literal in their translating.

We went to see the new die hard because I wanted to see a movie. They went to the trouble to have two crashed cars, one on top of the other, riddled with bullet holes outside the theatre. I figure that kind of effort deserves some payback. Turns out it doesn’t open for a few days so we ended up seeing The 300.

Hated the message. Not real into lionizing pointless sacrifices. But I can love a movie and hate its message (signs springs to mind). I really like it when movies really crank up the fantasy nob. It’s a movie. It doesn’t have to be plausible. It doesn’t have to be realistic. I don’t know why there are so few fantastic (as in fantasy not as in great) films.

Hero leaps immediately to mind as a movie that accomplished this best. Total fantasy, totally great. And perhapse city of lost children played up the fantasy best while maintaining some kind of applicable to real life basic theme.

Anyway horray for a movie that cranks that nob. Even if the message was crap, the dialogue mostly sucked, and there was an under-emphasis on plot and characters. It looked great and felt great. I defy anyone to watch the introduction of whosit-the-evil-god-king being tramped up on his briliant art deco slave-powered throne and not cream their pants.

Not since The Cell have I so enjoyed such a bad movie. Also the theatre was rediculous with the sound which really added. The 300 is definitely best seen in as loud a theatre as possible.

Anyway then we wandered around Dotonbori again. Hit up a Chococro and called it a night. Back to the Banana House. Fingers crossed… yay noone stole our laptops.

So yeah. Osaka ain’t really doin it for us. There are some cool things in the vecinity. Some hiking to do and some castles to visit. We’ll probably be hopping a flight back home a little earlier than planned.

See you all soonish.

Colin

So we in Osaka now for the last month abroad.

We said goodbye to all the guys at the gaming group in Tokyo, packed all our stuff, and lugged the kitebag and everything through 4 trains and 6 hours to Osaka.

We have arrived at the ‘banana house’ where we’ll be staying. And good god. It’s like squatting in an abandoned building. There’s graffitti all over teh walls, one slimy kitechen for the whole 4 story complex, chipped dirty tiles, and well… just a general feeling of disheveled abandonedeness. I can actually hear the neighbours talking quietly in the next room.

So we’re looking foreward to exploring the bits of Osaka that aren’t here.