January 9, 2008

• Happy Holidays, You Bastard!

  (Just kidding. I hope your holidays sucked. Just kidding.)

  Yes. I actually hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year and
  that it was predominantly bastard-free. ‘Kay. It’s been over a month
  since I updated. Shocking. My updates have become more monthly than 2
  week affairs since I got here. Something to do with the stable, albeit
  predictable, nature of the working, “grown up” life. Still if I can say
  1 undisputed thing about the Christmas holidays it’s that they were
  definitely unstable and unpredictable. I know. That was 2 things.

  Calex, who was due to arrive in Niigata early on the morning of
  Christmas Eve, was forced to redirect his trip by way of Kyoto. Various
  plans rose and fell but in the end I found myself at the stroke of
  midnight welcoming in Christmas Day in front of Kyoto Station, Green
  Day’s “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)” somewhat fittingly playing on
  my i-pod. Within minutes Calex appeared at the wickets and we headed
  out into Kyoto, literally telling the taxi driver “take us downtown!”
  With no hotels available we opted for the next best thing (which I
  actually preferred to the hotel idea); All Night Karaoke! The 2 of us
  roared our throats raw until day break and then headed for Nagoya to
  resume the original plan; stay with Matt. Being pretty tired an’ all,
  we got ourselves a hotel in Kanayama (the same place my family stayed
  on their visit during NUFS) and slept for a good few hours before
  meeting up with Matt and Dani in the afternoon. The following day we
  checked out and headed for Toki where we spent the next week, to be
  joined eventually by Balex and Dani’s friend, Richard. The logistics of
  holding 6 people in a small apartment certainly presented a challenge.
  Emotions ran high and tempers were frayed at times, not to mention
  Calex and Dani’s health, though that seems to be related to Taiwanese
  restaurants more than anything. Nevertheless we had a largely enjoyable
  week of present-buying and exchanging, watching stuff, playing stuff,
  more all-night karaoke, a New Year’s climb onto the apartment
  building’s roof followed by us venturing into Toki to follow the light
  of a huge bonfire which seems to be the thing to do on New Year’s in
  Japan. Of course, a NUFS trip, Calex and Balex’s 1st since returning,
  was in order where we also met up briefly with Chika in Fujigaoka.

  

  

  More photos in the photoblog, though you be better off checking Matt’s
  as they’re mostly his! Calex and Richard both celebrated their 26th and
  21st birthday’s respectively during this week so “Happy Birthday” to
  both. Infact an all-purpose “Happy Birthday” to the half a billion
  people I seem to know who have late December or January birthdays.
  Lesse, there’s Calex, Richard, Nathan, Holly, my aunt, my Grandma and 3
  Lotts! Ah yes, and Lord Voldemort, who shares Calex’s birthday. But
  he’s dead now, plus evil, so nevermind him. Congrats all (except
  Voldemort!) OK. I digress. On the 2nd Calex and I took our leave of the
  Lotts and joined Balex in heading for Yokohama. We stayed with him that
  night, met Jeremy the next day and spent the next night with him and
  his girlfriend, Masami, in their pretty-bloody sweet apartment, mostly
  playing Wii. We were also introduced to the full-on cockpit Gundam
  arcade which were definitely of the coolness. Also, after failing to
  pick up the presents I had hoped to for Matt, Dani and Calex, I at
  least managed to find and purchase Matt’s intended gift out and about
  in Akihabara!

  Lessons learned? 6 people cannot coexist peacefully in an apartment barely big enough for 2. We really were the
  coolest and most influential group of NUFS Kids (see photoblog.) Any
  competitive games involving Mario make me violently sarcastic and
  hostile. Alcohol still affects me badly. Taiwanese food makes Calex
  sick. Calex makes Dani sick. Sleeping in a cupboard can be surprisingly
  comfortable. Falling down the stairs is a lame excuse. There are plenty
  more but we’ll keep those to ourselves. And that, as they say, is that!

  Happy New Year everyone. I hope it’s everything you want it to be and more. “It’s something unpredictable… but in the end it’s right. I hope you had the time of your life…!”

  • 5:16 am
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