25th Birthday

1/4 of a century down, 3/4 to go :-)

Some thoughts on Australia, home of Vegemite and Bogans

Greetings all;

I've been back home for a week, and it's been a relaxing change of
pace. Normally when I go on holiday I'm always running off to do
something every single moment of the day. This is the first time I've
been on a holiday where I am just relaxing. Luckily I haven't been
bored to tears :-)

The flight to Perth was okay, although they ran out of Scotch before I
had a chance to ask for it. I finished Harry Potter and The Deathly
Hallows as well as got through half of the fifth volume of Rise and
Fall of the Roman Empire before we landed in Perth. It was a clear day
when I landed, and I was struck by how small everything was compared
to Japan. What I thought was a small freight shed from the air turned
out to be the International Airport. There were four planes at the
terminal, which was less than one of the terminal wings at Central
Air. There was only one store in the departure area, and it was a
small one at that.

My family was waiting for me at the arrivals gate. In the past 10
months, both my little brother and sister have grown straight up. The
term 'little' is now a misnomer, actually. When we got home my dogs
went crazy when they saw me walk through the door. I was afraid that
they would have forgotten about me, but it was like I had only been
gone for a day. That was the night I had the joy of eating my mother's
cooking for the first time in 10 months. I normally don't ask for
seconds, but this time I asked for thirds and then fourths. Then I ate
the welcome cake that my sister baked for me. Afterwards, I lied down
and was unable to move for two hours. But after a 10 month fast, I
think I can be excused for glutzing myself :-)

The next day I went to Fremantle and drank some coffee on the
cappuccino strip (the verdict- 500 times better than Japanese coffee).
That night I went over to Ben's house for a few glasses of wine and
some fine conversation with him and his folks.

Over the course of the next two days I saw a lot of movies- The
Simpsons, Transformers, An American Werewolf in London, Beerfest, Hot
Fuzz and Crank. My favourite of the lot was Hot Fuzz, closely followed
by Werewolf and Transformers.

On Friday night my friend and guildmate Les flew in from Brisbane. He
had come to Perth for business before, but this was his first holiday
over west. That night I took him out on the town. Northbridge has
quietened down a lot since I first started partying there- a lot of
our usual haunts were near deserted. The violence on the streets has
driven a lot of people away to other parts of town, like Fremantle or
Subiaco (its nice to learn these things _after_ you go out). We did
have a lot of fun at the Rise though, which isn't a place I frequented
back when I lived here.

On Saturday morning I went to Margaret River with Ben, Emma and Les.
It had been raining on and off, but for the most part the sun was
shining and everything was really pretty. We stayed at a nice little
apartment/motel complex that Emma booked through her work (I could fit
five Japanese apartments in there!) After settling in to our new
abode, we headed to Xanadu (Winery)! As Emma stayed behind in the
apartment while Ben and Les don't drink, it was up to me to consume as
much as possible. I wound up buying three wines (two reds and a
white), which I'm probably going to send home via Australia Post. That
night we went out to dinner at the Goodfellas Cafe, which ranks as one
of my favourite restaurants in the world. If I lived in Margaret River
I would probably eat there everyday for dinner. After that, we went
back to the apartment and watched Kung Fu Hustle and 28 Days Later.
All in all, it was a good trip

Well, that's all for now. Coming up in the next post- My birthday
party and omiyage splurge!

My no-doubt cliched Thai experience

On my trip back home, I decided to spend a night in Bangkok rather than sleeping in the airport. I never had any intention to go to Thailand, let alone Bangkok. As such, I hadn't done any research about the place, nor had I studied even the basics of the language. Basically, I had no plans apart from getting a good night's sleep.

I got of the plane at Bangkok Airport at 3:30 and was stuck in the airport for two hours looking for my luggage and crawling through customs. I grabbed a taxi to my hotel (luckily I had the address written in Thai). The Asia Bangkok Hotel is a very large, old hotel, but the rooms were nice and big. Plus, there was cable TV! Sleeping there was actually the first time I had slept in a made bed for the past 10 months.

Bangkok is a mix of the well-off and the not-so-well off. There are tin-shed shanties at the base of office buildings and skyscrapers. There are lush gardens, lots of temples but really bad air pollution everywhere. They are fanatically devoted to their King- there are pictures and monuments of him everywhere. I went sight seeing in a district near the hotel, and the number of prostitutes hanging outside bars offering 'massages' and more surprised me (which in retrospect, it really shouldn't have).

As I had to wake up the next day at 4:30 in the morning, I couldn't do a 'night-out' on the town. I'm pretty sure that Bangkok is not the type of place I would _want_ to do an all-nighter. However, my hotel had a pretty famous cabaret show, so I bought tickets for the 8:30 session. There were a lot of people who went and saw the show, and I have to say it was a mixed crowd- Japanese tourists, American families, Chinese businessmen, German couples and well of Thais. To cut a long story short (I will try and put some photos up later), the show was pretty long and worth the money, and the dance routines were very good. The amount of practice and coreography they would have had to do amazed me.

On the way out, I glibbly figured that at least half of them were transexuals (this being Thailand and all). When I got to Australia, I got the Thai “Lonely Planet” out from the library and checked the hotel as well as what it had to say about the cabaret act. As it turns out, I was wrong by 50% on the transexual estimate...

-Blake

I HAVE RETURNED

All of Australia will tremble as they gaze upon my munificence!

Maybe :P

-Blake

Blake and Saki at Tanabata

IMGP1757.JPG
Originally uploaded by OmegaBlake.

I was cruising around town on my bike before work when I ran into one of my students along with her family. They took a photo of us, and I thought it turned out okay

The bag hanging from my handlebars is omiyage

Anjo Tanabata Festival

IMGP1753.JPG
Originally uploaded by OmegaBlake.

For three days out of three hundred and sixty five, my town actually looks like a nice place to live. Here's a photo of the main street, with a deficit of cars and a surplus of people

Summer Vacation

As of now, I'm offically on vacation. Tomorrow night I will be in Bangkok, and the night after that I will be back home in Australia

More to follow!

You are (not) alone

IMGP1744.JPG
Originally uploaded by OmegaBlake.

The poster for the new Evangelion movie. This was the best shot my camera could get of it, although in retrospect I should have just leached it from the official website

Evangelion Rebuild

There are times when there are benifits to living in this crazy place. For example, a new Evangelion movie is coming out in Septmber.

And I'm going to be able to see it on opening day!

I have not been keeping up with developments in the anime scene since coming to this country, so to say I was startled when I came across a poster for ther new movie when I went to see Ratoullie is an understatement. I'm intending to

There seem to be a few changes in the plot in this reboot of the series. The most interesting for me is that Kaworu will be introduced much, much earlier than he was in the TV series. How this will affect the cast dynamics is open to debate, but I for one can't wait. The RTouji/kaworu sexual tension should be palatable :P

It is also interesting to note that they are keeping Asuka in reserve for the second movie. While my hatred for the whiny bitch is a matter or public record, she is a fan favourite. It will be interesting to see how the fanbase reacts as well as if the movie will rise above being a simple rehash of what has come before it

-Blake