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Banana Hut: 12.2006
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Journeys and rambles in Japan. I'm up way earlier than I should be. Gorram jetlag. I hope your day is filled with family and friends, and best wishes for this year and the next. Posted by Matt @ 9:27 PM. Home for a rest. I got back to Toronto last night. Spent about 28 hours airborne, and made a bad show of it the whole way. It is nice to be home though. My family is nice people. It's already Christmas in Japan. We've still got 12 hours to go in this time zone though. Posted by Matt @ 1:04 AM. Weird thin...
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Banana Hut: 10.2006
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Journeys and rambles in Japan. There were fireworks last night. I don't really know why, and neither does my homestay brother Kenta. Have I mentioned Kenta? He's a wonderful guy, very Canadian in a lot of ways he spends a lot of time swearing in English though. I guess that's a natural tendency for somebody learning a new language. I think its main source of infamy is the Gaijin Osaka Loop-line Halloween Party, which has happened every year since the turn of the millenium. Apparently the revelers shu...
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Banana Hut: 09.2006
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Journeys and rambles in Japan. Two Evening Tableaus of Enlightenment. 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. I started in Toronto a...
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Banana Hut: 03.2007
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Journeys and rambles in Japan. Photo Dump: Eiga Mura. I went to Eiga Mura a couple weeks ago with a family that's friends (related? I'm embarassingly unclear on this point) with my homestay family. Eiga Mura is a sort of theme park that doubles as an Edo-period set for the historical dramas that are always playing on Japanese TV. Fighting, oh, some evil dude. We saw a ton of incongruous cosplaying teenagers. Posted by Matt @ 2:54 PM. A petition worth signing. (maybe). The offer centres on an Arab peace p...
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Banana Hut: 04.2007
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Journeys and rambles in Japan. Anyway, my arguments were as such. 1 There are no good reasons for Japan to maintain its nuclear allergy . There are, however, some minor benefits to be gained by obtaining it. 2 Arguing that Japan should have the bomb is not a right-wing argument. See Goyaboy quote. 4 Arguing that nobody should have the bomb is not relevant to a conversation about, given a certain political climate, whether or not Japan should have the bomb. 1 If Japan goes nuclear, it will help rebalance ...
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Banana Hut: 06.2007
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Journeys and rambles in Japan. School's been cancelled for two weeks due to an outbreak of measles. Not even allowed on campus, much less the gym. I think I'm going to have to make a habit of biking up Mount Kabutoyama behind the school. Worser still, we're not allowed to travel? Posted by Matt @ 2:11 PM. Chinese Yuan in CDN. Chinese Yuan in USD. Japanese Yen in CDN. Japanese Yen in USD. Kanji of the Week. Phrase of the Day. Photo Dump: Religions Field Trip. Some things Ive done and some things Ive dont.
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Banana Hut: 02.2007
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Journeys and rambles in Japan. Come on in. Grab a seat. Let's talk politics. Me and politics haven't been to close recently, we've been in a test seperation period, seeing other anthropomorphic theoretical paradigms, super-intelligent shades of the colour blue, whatever. But this morning I got to thinking about the old ball and chain again. And here's why. It's another piece of the puzzle," said Jorge Godinho, an anti-money. Laundering expert at University of Macau. A year until December. ( Reuters.
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Banana Hut: 11.2006
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Journeys and rambles in Japan. This posted rated H (for Hentai). So, if you know a bit about Japanese culture you may have run into the words Shonen and/or Jump. Shonen Jump is a weekly comic compilation for teen boys that's pretty famous. A lot of anime have gotten their start as serial manga in Shonen Jump. Naruto, for instance, and currently Gantz is running. Anyway, last Friday Max and Seiji (pictured below) both recommended Shonen as reading practice. So Saturday I went out and bought. In Japanese) ...
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Banana Hut: 05.2007
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Journeys and rambles in Japan. Photo Dump: Religions Field Trip. That's Eric and I in front of the unused site at Ise, where the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu no mikoto oomikami, is housed. The shrine alternates between two neighbouring plots of land, and is relocated from one to the other every twenty years so as to avoid the pollution that comes with habitation. You're not allowed to take pictures of the actual shrine. Professor Hermansen translated for our Japanese guide (on the left). At the moment, he'...
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Banana Hut: 01.2007
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Journeys and rambles in Japan. The Return of 15 Things. (or, Hell-ish). There's a bunch of stuff on our list though. We want to see the commercial nightmare of modern Japanese urban life: Harajuku and Shinjuku are big items for fashion and people-watching, so is Roppongi; Akihabara is the major electronics district. Just south of there is the emperor's palace, to which only the gardens are open; just south of. Just hell-ish, mind you. I'm not. 15 More Odd Small Things. 3 CocaCola makes Royal Milk Tea.
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