One word, Hilarious!!!

Here's a funny ass Video of my friends Mo and Adam trying to sing this song at Karaoke

Kyoto a gogo!

Hey boys and girls, so its been awhile and I've been either way too lazy or tired as usual to keep up with this darn blog. I hope everyone is doing good back home in the states.
As you will see from the pics above, I took a little trip to Kyoto two weekends ago!. I have to say Kyoto is a beautiful city, and if your really into old-style japan, so far in my book, Kyoto really takes the cake. and as some of you know, I always though Nagoya (my current city) was chuck-full of foreigners, but holy crap was I wrong, Kyoto is loaded with them. Most of them though are just tourist there for a few days like me lol. (But hey at least I speak the language).
So as I arrived after a 2 1/2 hour and incredibly inexpensive train ride (4,100 yen roundtrip from Nagoya, I.E. $37) the guy who accompanied (whom I'm no longer on speaking terms with) had a friend from his home university who was was studying down at Kyoto. Fortunately and gratefully enough, this guy who goes by the name Pawn (he's Thai) allowed us to stay with him for the weekend. Although we slept on floors (which was still fine cause it was carpeted) I wasn't complaining it was a free logding!. So anyway, the first day not much happened since I was extremely tired and hungry (and you all know how I am when i'm hungry lol) So on the second day, I literally spent the day walking around the city. I didn't go out too far though, but stayed relatively in downtown Kyoto, which was still alot of stuff to take in. I go to walk through the old famous streets of Gion, which is where I had my first realy Geisha sighting!, lovely gals, but I swear they just look like live dolls to play with (for a nominal fee of course (kidding!)) anywho, afterwards, I walked up Higashiyama mountain (eastern mountain literally) and saw the skyline view of the city from it. Wonderful I tell ya!. I saw some more culture spots of the city and was even able to go to a zen temple!. I'm telling you, if anyone has ever listend to the song aquesous transmission from Incubus, while sitting in a Zen Buddhist temple, it iwas by far the most relaxing and enrichening moment in your life!! afterwards I walked around some more, saw some more cool temples and areas, then walked through some of the old streets of Japan; the ones which are kind of on a a little hill but have tons of old-style shops running down it, Beautiful!, I even bought a few things hear and there for my mom.
All and all, it was an amazing trip. At first I had wanted to go back down to Osaka and just spend the weekend partying till the sun came up on sunday lol. But decided to do the cultural thing. Well worth it, and cheap as heck too.

Soooo this coming weekend (from Nov. 1st through Nov. 5) We have our University holiday over here. and Guess where I'm going?.... Tokyo baby!. Train tickets are lined up and hotel is bookes, this is gonna be awsome. For anyone who's been there and who's wondering, I'm staying in the Uber Chique Roppongi Hills district. Talk to you guys later. Thanks for reading about my crazy life.
Doodles
Huges & Kisses sans the love ;-)

BTW, that first pic is of the Japanese food called Okonomiyaki, very famous within the Kyoto/Osaka region, and by far my most favorite Japanese food yet. Its made from a pancake-like batter with cabbage, meat, eggs, flour and water. You can add other veggies to your liking. Good stuff!

Osaka pics

Hello Osaka!, So this was the view out of my small, and super cheap $20 a night hostel I stayed in, in a sketchy part of Osaka. If you ever get a chance to go to the city, try to find hostels/hotels in Dobutsuen-Mae. Its a pretty sckethy part of town with a number of homeless people, but, it also boasts some of cheapest hotels in all of town, and, there was a nice roller coaster that looped around three department stores and gave a view of osaka for $6 across the street! lol



Here's a pic of yours truly at the entrance to the wonderful Osaka historical meuseum. Wait until you see the scenic pics from inside.











Now here's the view that left me speechless. Its from the 9th story of this historical meuseum of the near-by Osaka-jo (Osaka Castle) The area literally takes up the center of Osaka with a huge moat around the whole parameter. When I saw this, I knew I was in Japan...









Here's a pic of this really nifty looking ceremonial statue in the Meuseum
Not to mention a pic of an artificial fish market to simulate life fo Osakan's in the early 20th century. Hell of a town I must say.






















Osaka Castle, the epicenter of Osaka.
The castle originally was built in the 16th century by one of Japanese most prominent and influential leaders, of whose name I can't remember at the moment. But I will tell you, he was man unlike many of his time. Japan at the time was ruled by a very heavy caste system with limited room for mobility, the man who later when on to built this palace was born poor, but worked his way up the ranks with the help of a thief/warlord in Osaka to become ruler of the Osaka area for a veyr long period of time. But unfortunately after his death, and the death of his successing kin, his kingdom slowly became dissolved by the Tokugawa clan. Now the castle it self really isn't real anymore. It was burned down over the years, and then rebuilt and then destroyed again during WWII. But, at least the foundation is real! lol. Yes the huge stones raising the structures area from the water is still there. Inside there really isn't anything orginal to see, but, it does offer a stunning view of Osaka. As you can see down here.

Beauty in'it?













Here's a pic of a little pond area next to the castle.

Over the river and through the woods, to Osaka we go!

Hey Kids, sorry for not posting for sometime (again) but I've been busy, and lazy.

So about 2 weeks ago I had the extreme fortune of going down to Osaka for 3 days. After spending a good month in Nagoya, i got tired of the same crazy partying scene in my hometown so decided to jet down Osaka by train. I tried to get people to go with me but everyone was basically either broke, or just being lazy, so I said screw it and hopped on a train one after to go down to the second largest city in Japan. Now heres some of the reasons why I loved Osaka, first of all, it wasn't until I was in Osaka that for some reason I finally felt like I was in Japan. You'll see why from the pics I'll show you below, but Osaka is a city to be experianced. First of all, people down there are pretty crazy, in a good way though. The way they act out in public, to smoking virtually anywhere they feel like, to even riding in the escalator (in most other japanese cities, everyone stands on the left of the rail while allowing for people wanting to walk up go on the right, its vice-versa in Osaka) is different down in the Big O. So with my trusty tour book in hand, and just my whits and an all subway pass, I tried to take in as much cultural and historical sights of Osaka as possible.
Here are some of the pics from the grand city, and believe me this is only the beginning, I plan on going down to that city at least everymonth until I leave Japan.
Enjoy!

Took forever to get internet!!!

*** This is just a goofy pic of me taken with Miriam the day before departure, Miriam I miss you, you crazy chick!! :-)

-------------------------------------------

Hey Boys and Girls, I am so sorry for taking forever to finally put a post up, but it took forever to get a reliable internet service in my dorm.
That being said, I'm in Japan!, I arrived September 2nd after a long and incredibly tiring flight of 17 some hours from NYC to a fun, quiet, and very kooky city in Japan called Nagoya. My first days were pretty nerve-recking. Here I was literally thrown into this new country not really knowing anyone yet, and to top it off, because I had arrived so early, most of my other dorm mates were not even here yet!he Manga freaks and the social rejects) its a pretty wicked group of people. So far i've managed to see a great deal of the city all the while trying to practice my Japanese whenever I feel like it. Now keep that in mind, its not I force myself to speak Japanese, but of course if Im speaking to a Japanese person, or my friends are carrying a conversation in Japanese, I may feel obliged to speak the Language.
Japan is a beautiful country where Small is the new black, if you get my drift. Everything is miniaturized (however you spell that word) now sometimes its done out of Necessity, but alot of the time, I guess its just done out of the Japanese peoples mind-set on the limitations of available space. That goes for food (Japanese school girls eat Bento (lunch boxes) the size of cigarette packs) or living spaces. So far the country has been great to me, although I desperately miss certain things from America, like a good gourmet burger and a big Burrito,
The students on the program are pretty cool. On the 6th of September we had our orientation, now aside from your usual group of students who take Japanese (i.e. t truth be told most of the time I never really feel like I left the States to begin with. Now, that held true last weekend when I took my first trip of the country and went to Osaka for 3 days.
I'll write about that in the next post.
I plan on taking a ton of trips throughout the year. Right now I'm trying to put all the kinks in order for the 3 week trip Im taking in December to either Thailand or Hong Kong!, good times, good times.
I'll write about Osaka hopefully tomorrow. Till then, enjoy these pics so far from the land of the rising sun :-)
Amadude
***My new home through the windows the plane (long ass flight!!)

Home sweet home!, sorry for the crooked-ness

****Friends of the dorm
This crazy bastard goes by the name Mikael (He's swedish, but raised in England) ***So I joined the school's (Nanzan University) rugby team as well, I gotta start making more practices, such a lazy bastard.