new photo albums! which i'll update later...

Just a quick post to say I've now got photo albums up on my blog - I'm looking to add more photos, but have to find a way to work around the 250mb limit at the moment...

I've got to do this quickly because once I've done that, I can go back to preparing for my JET interview next week - I'm kinda freaked, because I heard that a majority of it will be in Japanese... hopefully, they won't be expecting too much (they are looking for someone to speak Japanese who hasn't lived in Japan for longer than a couple years) so all I'm doing (in theory) is translating my statement of purpose to Japanese, and trying to work out possible questions they'll ask me and answers. Problem for me is just a minor problem - my endless need to procrastinate has prevented me from actually getting around to actually doing much study - I was going to write a blog about my superhuman procrastination ability actually, but

back in melbourne... and bored as hell...

I felt the need to blog since I haven't done any blogging since I came back - probably because there's not much to update really - been back for like a couple weeks now and my body clock still feels out of whack - Not as bad as before though, since I think I just got sick from jet lag/exhaustion the week I came back, so was coughing and all gross, but I'm pretty much over that now.

But haven't really being doing much since - except for watching TV, and downloading episodes of all the shows I missed, and the shows I got hooked on that haven't been aired yet here in Australia - yay Heroes, The Office, & Veronica Mars! Also, Ugly Betty isn't too bad either - I ended up watching a few (by few I mean 8) episodes to see what the hype is all about - I can kinda see why people are watching. On a related note, yay peekvid.com - It's like youtube for TV shows, so more watching and less downloading time as well - so bookmarking it for every time I've missed an episode of Survivor.

Anyway, it still feels weird not being overseas - I've got a theory that the amount of time it will take before you settle back in is like around about half the time you spent overseas - so, some time this week I'll be more into the whole swing of things. It just feels strange going from chillaxing and not having to worry about anything to worrying about finding a job and an interview and stuff. I think I've spent like most of these two weeks finishing picking out the photos I like and making DVDs and stuff...

By the way, I'll probably make one of those online album things of my trip, so I'll put up a link once I'm done with that...

my humps... in thai

I've finally gotten around to posting this clip, of My Humps in Thai... We were kinda freaked out to hear this while at Starbucks.Nope, it's not even a song that sounds coincidentally similar,
it's just a straight rip off. Kudos Thailand, for bringing us inferior pirated DVDs, electronics, clothes, and now music!

My Humps

it's the end of an era... wait, how long's an era?

Wow. It's already been five weeks, and my Amazing Race-style holiday (though remarkably less amazing and not really a race) has pretty much come to an end. I've just finished packing my suitcase and what have I got to show for my holiday?

• Extra clothes I bought when they lost our bags (but now don't really need at all). I hope I can get reimbursed for these since it took a chunk out of my spending money...
• A cool blue Nintendo DS I had originally planned on purchasing in Japan to entertain me for the whole trip; little did I realise they sold out almost completely in Tokyo (or the places I went) so only managed to buy it a couple days ago here in Thailand. I also didn't realise that they don't have many DS games at all, and the ones they do have are imported from the US and not Japan, so are actually more expensive than Australia. So now I have a DS to play for the last day of my holiday, but without any games.
  
• A bunch of postcards that I accumulated over the five weeks, but forgot to actually send to people
• Monopoly: Roppongi Hills Edition - I remember why I don't play this game often - I really suck at it. If I buy up all the stores I land on, then I have no money to build stuff, and the fact that the Dark Blue Park Lane/Mayfair set is the bane of my existence.... It's so much harder to dislike this Monopoly though cos it's set in Japan and has all these anime characters on it! Plus, when the currency is flowers, how can you stay mad for long?
• 4.1 GB of photos on my MacBook - That's 1927 photos and 61 movies, which means hours of fun slideshows to inflict on everyone when I get back!
  
• at least $100 worth of tiny crap I thought would make cool souvenirs but looking back don't know why I bought them. Case in point: I have at least three or four mini plastic toilets that shoot mini plastic turds when you open the toilet. I know. It seemed cool when I was standing in the store in Japan with aisles upon aisles of those little toy dispenser things. Um.... do you want a mini plastic toilet????

Still, it seems like I could've done more on the trip - like spending more money or something - I guess I can just justify it when I get home by using up the rest of the money I allocated for this trip anyways.

Also, I'm kinda bummed I won't be here in Thailand to celebrate Australia Day - I know it sounds weird, namely actually celebrating Australia Day, and doing it in a place other than Australia, but they have a special buffet here on the day - By reading the ad, it seems like a shame to miss...


See? I love lamp.

chillaxing...

I finally got my suitcases back! It only took a week, an endless amount of time spent on the phone following it up and complaining, a few days buying clothes that I don't need anymore, but huzzah! Even though I've got new T-shirts, and boardshorts and stuff, I now have to make an effort to wear the ones I brought so it doesn't seem like a big waste of time and effort packing all that stuff.

Nothing much has happened in the past few days really though - mainly playing Pacman, lounging by the pool, and eating excessive amounts of food. I've also been shopping a fair bit to buy stuff, and hoarding the receipts in hopes of getting reimbursed by the airline. I'm pretty familiar with the local shopping centre now - to the point where I know what the next song will be that is blaring out of the loudspeakers - judging from the dido, savage garden, and that song by kylie that you apparently can't get out of your head, an Australian tourist gave them a CD six years ago that they haven't got around to updating yet.

I got freaked out though while I was there since I heard a Thai song that sounded strangely familiar... I'll youtube the song once I get around to uploading it from my camera.

baggage claim: the movie

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to fruitlessly wait for your bags at baggage claim, but were put off by the thought of having to go through customs at the airport? Now
you too, can experience all the fun and enjoyment of waiting for a bag, in the convenience of your own home!



All this, thanks to my brother's unparallelled photographic ability, and two hours to kill at the Bangkok Airport!

things i've learnt on this holiday:

1. Japan really does rock. I was a little freaked out that I had really high expectations of it and that I'd be disappointed when I got there. Fortunately, this was one of the cases where I wasn't.
2. The Algorithm March thing. Me & my brother have watched it so many times now that we probably know all the moves. Well, I think it's a cool dance anyway...
3. Mr Pink from Reservoir Dogs has a fair point about tipping. In NEw York, most of the waiters were shitty, never smiled, and would just dump food in front of you. One place we went to, the greeter/door bitch greeted us with her friendly frown and took us to our seats. When we asked to be seated next to the window (in a fairly empty restaurant, and within sight of an empty table) She just said "nope" and walked away. Why pay a service fee for no service?
4. To find a good restaurant in Rome, simply find a place to eat. Then, once you're full and you've eaten a fairly overpriced mediocre meal, leave the restaurant, walk 20 metres, and then you'll find a place with not-lukewarm pizza.
   
5. The reason I love Thailand is probably because I've already exhausted every facet of the Thai tourism industry. Since i've already seen every major touristy destination, it just leaves more time for bumming, eating and shopping.
6. I'm Narin, and I'm a Guitar Hero-holic. I really, really really want to play. Guitar Hero songs now form an integral part of my iPod playlist, and when I listen to some of the songs, I remember what buttons to press and manage to air Guitar Hero. It's gotten so bad that everytime I hear a song, I think a) whether or not it's a Guitar Hero-worthy song, and b) what buttons you might have to press if it was in the game. Is that sad? Wait, don't answer that.
   

happy new year!

well, I certainly had an unconventional new years. It was spent watching Anchorman and The Office when the clock struck 12. We wanted to see the fireworks and stuff, but because of the bombs in Bangkok, New Years Celebrations were cancelled, which sucks, because our hotel room windows look right on the main street where the fireworks would've been.

It wasn't too bad, though. I've decided Anchorman just gets better everytime you see it. I'm not saying it's Zoolander or Dodgeball quality, but it may get there...

minor update...

just heard there's been some bombings here in Bangkok - I was wondering why they had to scan all our baggage at the hotel... The bombs were a little while away, but also heard there might be an attack near the major new years celebrations and stuff though, which is kinda near us... Anyway, just letting you know we're okay, and leaving Bangkok for Hua Hin in a couple days anyway...

new years celebrations and excessive gelati

This has to be the weirdest New Years yet – I left Italy at around 6:10 on New Years Eve eve, and around 14 hours later, I arrived in Bangkok in the afternoon. In between that, our planes got delayed, and all our bags got lost in between Rome and Bangkok. Haven’t had the best luck with our planes – I think every flight we’ve caught has been delayed – some for a couple hours, and this time they lost our bags…

Anyway, it’s been a while since my last blog - Our hotel in Italy didn’t have internet (well, they did, but at €17 a day, so like 34 bucks) so I’ve been waiting for a good time to blog. Not much has really happened, except that I’ve been killing time playing monopoly. Not just any Monopoly though. Monopoly: Roppongi Hills Edition! Roppongi’s this high-tech residential/business/entertainment district in Japan, which has its own logo and mascots and everything. So, this Monopoly has different place names, currency, and player tokens. I think the cool thing about it though is that instead of buying houses and hotels, you buy kiosks and megastores. I don’t normally enjoy playing Monopoly that much, but maybe because it’s in Japanese, and I can’t understand all of it that makes it more fun.

Italy’s been pretty cool – I’ve struggled to find good pizza and pasta here, but the gelati’s been good. I guess it’s kinda hard to screw up ice cream. So the gelati’s been a little too good. I’m kinda glad I’m leaving Italy because I’ve pretty much OD’ed on gelati. Favourite flavours: Chocolate mousse, Panna Cotta, Cream Caramel, Mango, Lemon & Chocolate truffle. It’s been pretty much a requirement after every meal –including breakfast- one gelati hunt ended with two cones of gelati after we discovered an even better gelateria right behind our first one. I think I’m one more serve of gelati away from diabetes. Maybe I shouldn’t have had that fourth one of the day yesterday…

can't talk... in italy

HEEEYY!!!

super fun happy slide!

Q: What do you call a sheep with no legs?
A: A cloud.

I know jokes in those Christmas bon-bon things are usually lame, but that has to be the worst joke ever. I don't even know why it's supposed to be funny! And yet every year, millions of people spend money on these glorified wrapped up toilet paper rolls (yeah, I saw Play School, I know how they make it!) all for crappy paper hats, lame jokes, and nail clippers!

But yeah, I haven't posted for a while - been busying eating, charading, wrapping, crapping (craps the gambling game, not the other one) darting, and verbifying everything. Plus the whole christmas thing, but that excuse is like 2000 years old anyway. Anywhoo, I'm staying at my Aunt's place in Romsey, which is like an hour out of London - we were kinda even lucky to be here, since there were a number of ridiculous delays here, and some planes got stuck at Heathrow airport because of the fog. So since we've been so far away from London, unfortunately we haven't been able to do any celebrity spotting, so alas, nothing to top the Donald and Sean Penn in New York. We did manage to go to London for a day, which is a pretty crazy idea around this time of the year, since it was pretty busy. We didn't do the touristy stuff though since we did it last time, so it was mainly for my brother to check out some of the art and design museums.

Sounds meh, right? Well, that's what I was thinking, until I saw the Super fun happy slide(s) in the Tate Modern Museum! They were huge - the longest one was like 58 metres and starts on the 5th level of the building all the way to the first floor.To play use the slide though, you have to get tickets to use it. I tried to get tickets to the biggest slide, but the earliest tickets I could get for a chance on that slide was like four hours later. I didn't think I could really find a way to entertain myself in an art museum for four hours and sacrifice a day in London to justify going on a big slide. Fortunately, when we were heading off to see some art stuff, a guy offered me his tickets for one of the slides, since he couldn't be bothered waiting.



Despite the coolness of slides, in particular super fun happy ones, I'm kinda glad they're not a standard means of transport around buildings. I don't think I'm ready to be regularly seen giggling giddily like a little girl in public.

“I’m fighting for something real for the first time in my life”

Move over Raise Your Voice. I think I’ve found an even more clichéd movie – It’s pretty much Raise Your Voice 2 since it’s also based at a school of arts. So, if you love clichéd teen movies (you know who you are), you have to watch Step Up. During my long, delayed flight to London, I decided to watch it, since I figured if I fell asleep at any time in the movie, when I woke up, I would still know what was going on, and what was going to happen. Boy, was I not disappointed.

There are so many clichés in the movie, I don’t even know where to begin. Well, the two protagonists are from two totally different worlds: The guy comes from the wrong side of the tracks (which, as we see in the movie, is the result of coming from a broken home with the standard alcoholic/negligent foster dad) who at first hates the rich girl. Little does he know how much they have in common.

Despite the rich girl seemingly having everything – she attends the prestigious arts school, has good ethnically-diverse friends, and also the prick of a boyfriend – her mother doesn’t believe in her dream of becoming a dancer, but we find out in the end that she does in fact, truly care, but is just being overprotective and only wants the best for her daughter.

A million clichés later, including the guy finding something he truly believes in, a comic-relief sidekick, tragedy, and everything going smoothly until exactly two-thirds of the way through the movie when it all appears to fall apart. What's going to happen in the end? Will she be offered her dream job of being in a theatre company? Will he, guy-from-the-wrong-side-of-the-tracks, learn the error of his ways, and find the one way to escape his movie-rate thug life? Who knows? It's not like it's an overclichéd teen-dancing movie!


...Oh wait...

food!

I can't be bothered writing anything that blogworthy, yet I feel obliged to post a blog since it may be the last time for a while I'll be able to blog - I'm in the JFK airport in New York, waiting for our flight to at 7:30 to London. Fortunately, almost everywhere here has WiFi, (I think it's pronounced why-fy, not "whiffy") so I'm on my MacBook trying to use this unlimited internet before boarding and going to London, where I've heard I won't be able to access the internet as much. So anyway, I've just decided to post pictures and captions to one of my hobbies- food!


I found this everywhere in Tokyo - It's apparently beauty tea supposedly making you, well, um, more beautiful I guess...



Yay Mos Burger! I don't know if it was the perfectly-stacked, round burgers, or the amount of effort to find one of these places, but it was pretty good...


The vending-type machine in the Ramen noodle place - In an effort to rid the restaurants of waitresses, you purchase tickets for your food through this machine... and then give the tickets to the waitress...


... and moments later, steaming hotRamen!


We went to this robatayaki place, which is pretty much just cooking things over hot rocks or embers or something. kinda like a Korean BBQ, only in this photo, less ribs and beef, and more tentacles.


A huge day for me - my goal was to eat as much stereotypically-American food - so ate this pretzel, which really did make me thirsty! Later that day I also had a hot dog and a chilli dog, and a huge-arse steak, though wasn't able to finish it as well as my brother...

I even ate at a diner, with booths! Though oddly, I felt the need to order cereal during the afternoon, talk about nothing, and ask what was the deal with a number of things while I was there.

Next goal on my list of stereotypically American food-related goals: become obese!

tv & celebrities in new york

Boy, it's only been a couple of days since my last blog, but boy, the stories I could tell...



...Well, I guess I should tell you what's happened then. We've been doing the standard sightseeing thing lately of popular attractions and all the like. Today we we walked down Fifth Avenue, which is pretty much the rich street here with all the fancy shops and stuff, and apparently costs a fortune to get a shop on the street - apparently, there are quite a few stores that lose a lot of money since they don't attract enough customers to the store, but keep their shop anyway for the prestige associated with being on Fifth Avenue. What's really weird is that there are a bunch of Target ads all in Times Square, and there isn't even a Target in Manhattan!

Anyway, the highlight of the day shopping-wise probably would have been the NBC store, since it had souvenir stuff from The Office, Scrubs & Friends. After wondering why I loved the store so much I came to the realisation that two major facets of my life are watching TV and shopping, and this just combined the two. I was a little sad, but consoled myself with buying some stuff in the store. I was so close to actually buying actual Scrubs-Scrubs, but decided against it, considering I probably wouldn't wear them and that I'm too lanky to wear them anyway. Plus, I'm going to the CBS store tomorrow, so hopefully I can pick up some Amazing Race stuff.

Also went to the NBA store as well - two levels of unbelievable basketball merchandise, with jerseys, bobbleheads, a lego Lebron James, action figures, clothing, and Basketball Baboushka dolls. It was every basketball-lover's dream... too bad it was wasted on me. So after perusing (which is another facet of my life, mainly because then I can say it more) for 20 minutes , I ended up just sitting in the store for another 40 minutes twiddling my thumbs and wishing I enjoyed organised-competitive-physical group-activities, or "sports", if you will.

I wonder if video games will ever be considered a sport? I watched this documentary on the plane to the US about a guy who was a professional video game player, and has a contract and is a millionaire already. Apparently in South Korea it's also pretty huge, with people going to stadiums to watch other people play. I remember seeing it being covered on TV in Korea. I can't wait till that trend hits Australia. I'd love it if I could be paid to play Guitar Hero - then I could be a professional rocker without even knowing how to play an instrument.

Probably the coolest & noteworthy thing in New York though is celebrity spotting that's happened so far. It's way cooler than Australia since you see people other than Toadie from Neighbours. But anywhoo, while we were eating a restaurant near the hotel, Sean Penn came in to the restaurant and sat a couple tables away from us. I tried to do the keep-cool-and-pretend-it's-nothing thing, which pretty much means I tried not to stare too blatantly, and glanced repeatedly instead. Was also too afraid to ask for an autograph or take a picture since he seems like a kinda edgy guy anyways.

Also, after while visiting Trump Tower to getApprentice-related photos, I got to see the biggest celebrity there - you guessed it, Trump's hair! And also the guy attached to it! The acting cool thing didn't work this time- mainly because everyone else was staring and taking photos, so me and my brother decided to join in on the fun:

live, from new york, it's saturday night!

Man, it's been a long couple of days. Actually, more like one really long day and one shorter one. We left Tokyo on Friday around 7:00, and arrived in New York at midnight on Friday. Doesn't sound like much of along day, but we went over the international time line, so in between those seemingly short 5 hours was 10 hours on a plane to Dallas, 2 hours in the airport, 2 hours to New York, a fat guy sitting next to me taking up all of my armrest and intermittently leaning on my light button on the plane, and a number of plane/landing delays in between. It does feel weird to not be in Japan anymore, so I'm trying to look on the bright side. Not so much the bright side, but focusing on the sucky things on Japan so I don't feel as bad...

1. Couldn't find a Nintendo DS anywhere in Japan! apparently they're sold out in the country! I doubt there are shortages overseas, in fact, in Australia, they seem to be everywhere! Why didn't they spend that manufacturing time making Nintendo DSes for Japan, in particular the light blue one that you can supposedly only find in Japan? Shame, Nintendo, shame.

2. For a place notorious for it's crazy TV, I didn't really find that much crazy TV. Well, there was that show that involved two people trying to set the record for eating as much sushi humanly possible, and eating around about 100 plates of sushi at a sushi train restaurant, but still, not that zany, and only shown during the afternoon/night!

3. Banana Fanta. Eeew...

Anyway, New York's been pretty cool so far. I did enjoy some New York pizza, so I just have to eat a pretzel, and a hot dog from a questionable street vendor, and I'll be able to check everything off my New York list. I think I should have put an extra check box for watching Saturday Night Live live from New York as well. It's not the best show, but I think it sounds cool to have done it anyway.

also, my phone's working now, so I should be able to get any messages, should anyone wish to tell me how they're going in Guitar Hero, Starcraft, or anything else noteworthy. I've heard that international roaming doesn't accept SMSPup messages, or anything involving Gilmore Girls, so if you do message me, you might have to just use your own phone and avoid any Lorelai references...

By the way if there's anything you might want from New York, let me know -I expect to be receiving requests anytime now...

towel origami

What does patience, persistance, and a chillaxing (I don't care, I'm going to keep using that word until it catches on) night in a Tokyo result in?



(by the way, it's supposed to be a chicken...)

why i won't be on australia's funniest home videos

Today we returned to Tokyo after spending a couple days in Kyoto - Kyoto was pretty cool, got to see the Gold Temple, which was surprisingly all covered in gold, and the deceptively-named Silver Temple, which isn't silver at all.. Unfortunately, we tried Geisha-hunting with little success, but on the plus side got to try some quality tempura and teppanyaki.

We got back to Tokyo at around 1:00, and tried to find Mos burger - think of a classier McDonalds, but with good burgers, and that's Mos Burger - they cook your burgers to order, and they are made so meticulously and everything! Anyway, for the second largest burger chain in Japan, it was surprisingly hard to find ,but we managed to come across a small one, which was cool but didn't have the full menu. I just wanted to see if they had their Takumi Burger, which is a 10-level burger with like imported Australian beef, avacado, and other stuff as well.

The rest of the day I spent having flashbacks of Big, and tried to remember all the notes to chopsticks, thanks to the funky stairs in the Sony building!

In the end, I decided against trying to play a song, out of fear that I'd trip and break my neck on the stairs. Then it'd be REALLY akward, since the stairs would make the beepy noises as I fell, kinda like the sound effects you hear when people get hit in the balls on Australia's Funniest Home videos. Awkward.

yay japanese tv!

i feel violated... and not in a good way...

I thought I'd be nice and share what I wrote this on the bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto...

I feel so violated. And not in a good way. i thought today was going to be just an ordinary day, holiday-wise. The plan was to check out of our hotel, catch the bullet train to Kyoto, and depending on what time we get there, some sightseeing. Seems like a typical holiday-day, right?

That is until we stop at the Shizuoka station, and the guy to my right hops off. Here I am, listening to my iPod, until someone says "excuse me" in Japanese and sits next to me. He takes his jacket partially off, and puts it on back to front, so his hands are going through the sleeves and so the back of the jacket is covering his lap. Sounds a little weird, right? But nothing too out of the ordinary. Until he pulls out his magazine to read... or ogle.

It's a porno - from the quick awkward glances I had (I felt uncomfortable just asking him if I could also have a proper look, or share the experience) It's nothing too hardcore - it had no bukkake or anything - but still... AWKWARD. Doesn't seem like appropriate bullet train reading material if you ask me.

His hands are now officially under his jacket, so I'm fully conscious of him trying to jack off when I'm right next to him... I'm too afraid of even looking in his direction, even to look through the window to look out for Mt. Fuji.

Well, in the end, I'd just like to say that I still haven't seen Mt. Fuji, but maybe on the way back by bullet train I'll keep an eye out...