July 2003

July 30, 2003

Yesterday Laura and I took the day off to go into Osaka so that we could watch a special presentation of Noh in the park. It was to be held at the foot of Osaka Castle...an impressive venue indeed. Unfortunately, the world's longest rainy season decided to have a say in the matter, and the event was called off.

Never ones to be put off from a good time, we decided to go in search of live jazz...something with which we had remarkable success. We found a little Jazz bar in the Umeda area quite by accident, after an aborted attempt to go into the 'Blue Note Osaka'. The fact that there were a bunch of people in tuxedos working the door clued me into the fact that my shorts and sandals might not go over so well.

July 28, 2003

I've survived the last few days back from vacation and made it to the weekend. Laura and I crossed another 'to do' item off our list last night by having dinner on the patio of a restaurant along the Kamo River. It was absolutely lovely. We dined on Italian food while listening to the rushing of a waterfall in the river below...Heaven indeed.

As we strolled down the banks of the river after dinner, we stumbled across a rare glimpse of Kyoto's other side. Up on one of the many raised dining platforms along the river was a Geisha entertaining guests at one of the many Ponto-cho restaurants that are the exclusive domain of Kyoto's elite. Though all we could manage was a grainy photo as we balanced Laura's camera on my bag, it was an amazing opportunity to see a side of Kyoto that is generally hidden behind closed doors.

July 22, 2003

Strangely enough, I think right about now I am over Alaska once again, cruising along into yet another alternate reality. It's funny how when you're in one place it's so hard to imagine the other, yet either one of the two can give so much perspective on the place where you are not. Does that make sense? I feel like the experience in Canada gave me time to reflect on what I am doing in Japan, and my time in Japan gives me the space to consider what I will do in Canada. It's nice to get the chance to gain a little perspective on what you're doing, where you're going and where you're from.

July 21, 2003

It's Monday night, and in the morning we'll be on a plane once again, headed for Japan. It's been a crazy whirlwind of a visit, and at this point I feel almost as if going back to work will be a little more relaxing! I've had an absolute blast, though, and it was really fantastic to get to see people. Thanks to everyone for showing me a good time, and I'll be seeing you all again soon.

For now, Laura and I are headed back to Japan with a renewed determination to play the tourists, and to keep working toward the goals that took us there in the first place. I was very happy to have something tangeable done on my book, and I'm ready to attack it again with a vengeance. Laura's itching to hop on her bike again and tackle those mountains...

July 20, 2003

Sunday night is here, and with it our trip to Canada has almost drawn to a close. I think we've logged somewhere close to 1500 km in the car so far, and I can't even speculate about just how much of these fine Canadian beers we have consumed.

At this point I think that Laura and I are pretty exhausted, and I for one am looking forward to having a slightly less complex social calendar in the near future. Both of us are actually looking forward to the plane flight, if only just to relax and do some reading.

Speaking of doing some reading, as a gift my great uncle gave me a copy of his recently published book about his travels; a 716 day circumnavigation of the globe. They hit 62 countries and sailed into 180 ports around the world...I'm really excited to read about it. It will be a neat example, as I've had thoughts of my own about writing about my own travels.

July 18, 2003, 4:43 pm:

It seems like we've just been from one beautiful place to another, touring through the Canadian countryside and seeing all that Ontario has got to offer.

One thing we really noticed is just how much of Canada is made up of farmland. It's funny how driving from one city to another you're able to ignore all of the farms in between, convincing yourself that the cities themselves are really what Canada's all about. But what about all that other space? Are we supposed to ignore all those tractors, all those cows and tell ourselves that cities are what Canada is all about?

July 18, 2003

The weather has finally cleared up here in Muskoka. The first few days here in Canada were truly traumatizing, as Laura and I hadn't exactly packed for extreme cold. It's looking really nice now, and last night it was actually clear enough for me to see the Northern Lights...a real treat.

July 16, 2003

In all of my excitement in travelling around Canada, I've allowed a very important date to pass. As of yesterday, I have had this website going for 1 year. To mark the occasion, I think I'll put together a little page with some of my favourite pictures from the past year.

For now, we're stuck inside at the cottage on another rainy day here in Canada. Though we were told that it was scorching hot here in Canada before we came, it's been arctic weather since we arrived, with a little rain thrown in for good measure!

July 15, 2003

As of today Laura and I have driven 1044km on this holiday...and counting. It's amazing how huge this country actually is, and hard to believe that all that driving is only within one province.

Right now we're up in Muskoka cottage country in Northern Ontario visiting Laura's family. The weather has been pretty rainy so far, but we have high hopes for some good weather this week.

Driving in Canada has been pretty interesting so far, and I have to say that I've never been so aware of how much farmland lies between all of the cities. Though it's not something that we as Canadians identify as being part of our country, it is remarkable how much the landscape is defined by farms. We have taken a tonne of pictures so far, and I've gotten a lot of ideas for a new comparison page between the two countries. Keep an eye out on the Canada page for updates.

July 14, 2003, 9:19 am: I'm finally settling in to the swing of things here, which naturally means that my body is adjusting to the food. The size and the space of Canada, however, is another matter entirely. The houses here are so big it boggles the mind, and the space in between the houses is enough to put in a whole neighbourhood by Japanese standards.

Laura has been taking advantage of the bike trails behind my parents' house which lead along the Ottawa River. The trails have been a really great example of something that is really easy to take for granted about your own country. I rode on those trails for years, but seeing them again I wondered if I had really ever appreciated how beautiful they are.

July 13, 2003

We're still in Ottawa as of right now, and still trying to recover from jet-lag, which has been particularly harsh so far. Saw a few sights around Ottawa, and I'll be putting up a few pictures later on. It's strange, but it now seems like I'm a tourist no matter where I go!

I visited Mike and Jen's new place yesterday, which was really amazing. It's pretty crazy to see that they have a real home...and a nice one to boot. Mike also showed me the heaps of new music that he has, which I'm going to try and get my hands on today...woo hoo!

July 12, 6:32 am (local time...finally): Yesterday was an absolutely manic day...lots of driving and jet lag. I woke up at 4am and by the time dinner rolled around I was really only semi-conscious. By ten in the morning I had already driven 500km straight, with no stops. We did some shopping, changed our money and generally just walked about in a stupor trying to adjust to our surroundings. We're still absolutely shocked at the size of the food here, and still insist on making an embarrassing scene by photographing all of the food we come into contact with.

Exhibit A: the lemon poppy seed bread from Starbucks. We have the same stuff in Japan, but here the stuff is blown up to monstrous proportions. The piece is something like 5cm thick!!! This has all lead me to a brain wave, which of course came to me at about ten after four in the morning yesterday as I sat in the dark: I'm really going to have to make a page doing comparisons of things in Canada with things in Japan. I've already got a list going of things that are pretty different, and this poppy seed bread sure makes the list. The exact same thing in Japan (for a little more money) is only about one centimeter thick....and not quite as big. We're pretty freaked out about the whole food thing in general, as it seems like it must be almost impossible to have a healthy diet here (unless you only order half-sizes!).

The one thing that I was very pleased to see in its original, large size was a proper pint of beer...oh how I've longed for thee! We met up with Jamie, Andrew, Kate and Ian yesterday for a few pints in downtown Ottawa. I asked what they had on tap, and the waitress sighed before beginning to rhyme off a list of about 15 beers...I swear to God, tears were welling up in my eyes as she spoke. A pint of Hoegaarden and a pint of Guinness later, and I was a happy boy.

July 12, 2003

Yesterday was a real whirlwind...I woke up at four in the morning and decided we should hit the road. We had already driven over 500 kilometers before ten in the morning!

Culture shock has been setting in pretty hard, and it's pretty hard to know what to make of it all. For now we're just going to keep on keepin' on, but most of all it's fun to get pictures of all the stuff we find most shocking....

On that note, just a reminder that I'm doing an actual 'Canada page' to keep a few notes on the trip and to put up a few pictures, so feel free to check that out.

July 10, 4:35 (Osaka time!?): So here I am, heartburn and all, back in North America. I'm stuck in the Detroit airport for a three-hour layover, and I find myself huddled in a corner near a power outlet, pounding away on the laptop and trying desperately to recover from my first encounter with Western cuisine.

My first meal in the USA? A "Blue Cheese and Chipotle Bacon Burger" from Chili's that I split with Laura....and couldn't finish. Man...we were both completely blown away by the sheer size of all the food, forcing us to sit giggling in our booth snapping pictures of the plate and posing with various parts of our meal. Our waitress thought we were a little spaced out...especially when we forgot how to tip. But really; the quantity of food, especially the fries....did they think we were expecting company?

Everything has been so strange and so overwhelming so far that I decided this whole experience deserves a page of its own. There are few things more bizarre than feeling like a stranger, a tourist, in your own culture.

4:53 am (still haven't changed the clock): Someone's cellphone just went off across from me, and that reminds me of the other thing...cellphones here stink. Compared with the video-phones and colour displays and widgets that the Japanese have, these things here seem downright primitive. Where's all the fun technology for us?

As I work a little more fixing up the pictures I took on the plane, I realize that I have another great one to put up here. We got a little sneak peak at Alaska, and even from 37,000 feet the mountain still seemed like they went on forever. I don't know if I've ever seen a stretch of country that was at once so beautiful and so inhospitable. It was easy to imagine (though I'm sure not true) that this was land where no one had ever stepped. Even though Alaska is a part of the States, seeing that view made me realize how much I would like to see more of Canada.

July 10, 2003

We're somewhere over Alaska right about now, cruising home at about 29,000 feet...and what a strange trip it's been so far. We haven't even set foot in North America yet, and I can already feel the culture shock setting in.

One thing that I noticed immediately was, well, quite simply that I could suddenly understand all of the chatter going on around me in a crowd. What hit me after the realizing that I could understand everything (which, you have to understand, is a novelty) was that I really didn't want to.

NorthWest Airlines being what it is, there was a lot of chaos with check-in, and people couldn't all get to the flight in time. The lines were long and so was the wait....but at this point that's what you expect with air travel. What I couldn't get used to was the constant complaining. Here I've been living in a country where people will happily wait for 45 minutes just to use a bank machine without an ill-word spoken, when all of a sudden I find myself surrounded by people cursing a blue streak for the delay.

The next thing I noticed was the difference in manners between what I'm used to and what we've experienced so far with NorthWest. I honestly can't remember if this is how people really interact with eachother, or if the employees of this company are just exceptionally rude, but after being addressed as "honoured customer" for the past year this has been quite a shock. It makes me anxious to get home and hear again what 'real English' is like, and to see if I can take it!

What Laura and I both realized as we sat on the train headed for the airport was that we're not really finished with Japan just yet. Nancy's friend Konrad arrived last night with his partner Patricia to use our apartment while we're gone, and in talking to them we realized how much we had yet to do ourselves in Kyoto. It's not without some hint of sadness that I'm missing the Gion Festival this year (it's next week), and there are many places in Kansai that I've yet to explore.

That being said, going so long without seeing family and friends really has been difficult, and there can't really be any better time than summer to visit Canada.

Check out the latest on this trip on the Canada Page...a work in progress.

July 6, 2003

Only two more work days until we fly out of here...very exciting indeed. We'll be leaving rainy season behind and coming back here for summer. The one sad thing is that we'll be missing the Gion Festival, but such is life.

Mike's latest review has been put up on the music page, so please check it out. For those of you who didn't notice the first time around, there's actually a music sample to go with the first review, and I'll be putting one up soon to go with the latest one.

July 5, 2003

I was very happy to hear that Toronto is now off the World Health Organization's warning list...that's pretty great news.

July 2, 2003

The big news now is that as of yesterday, the first chapter of my book (tentatively called The Republic) has been completed. Just shy of 10,000 words, I've got a pretty well-polished first draft that I will be bringing home with me this month. I'm pretty excited about it, despite the fact that it is only the first of thirteen chapters. Even though I've had the outline done for some time now, having an actual chapter finished definitely makes it feel more real.