Japan day 6

This was my last day and I was all skiied (I still don't know how to spell that word!) out. Just like your ordinary cocaine addict, I've had my fix of the white stuff and now I'm ready to be a productive member of society again. We were lucky with our timing because the visibility on the last day was just awful - easily the worst yet. I decided it would be a waste of time to take a photo of it when I could just as easily screenshot an empty Microsoft word document and show you that instead.

We spent the majority of the day hitting different bars around Hirafu drinking different cocktails and good Japanese beer. I've decided I'm a huge fan of dark rum and coke (Myers Rum & Coke) and Sapporo beer - which is surprising because I hate the smell of dark rum and usually hate the watered down taste most Asian beer has.

We then had our last dinner in a fancy Japanese restaurant which served amazing Japanese food. Sadly I don't know the names of any of the types of dishes they served us except for "Plain Rice" which was awesome.

Well that was the end of my Japan trip. I made a very lengthy and emotional farewell to my automatic toilet and started packing up my bags for an early departure tomorrow morning.

Japan day 5

Niseko, Japan has been completely white washed so it's very challenging to find anything particularly cultural here. Most businesses here are run by Australian entrepreneurs and most Japanese restaurants often feature a cheeseburger on the menu. I can understand why this change has happened due to such a strong Australian tourist industry, but it's still a little disappointing to see a lack of real culture. That being said, there are still some parts of Japanese tradition/ culture which stream out through the cracks of this white washed town. You still meet a lot of Japanese on the ski lift - and their friendliness kind nature is pretty representative of the entire country. It's tough to describe in words; but the facial expressions and directness is really fascinating feature of all the Japanese people I've met so far.

I changed back to my skis and it's been a pretty good switch. I definitely don't ache as much I used to. The weather was ideal too. Still not perfect enough to ski the top of the mountain comfortably, but good enough to go see a snowboarder stack an easy green from about 300m away while you're going up a chairlift. My mum fell over too and hurt her knee. She thinks that she'll need some type of reconstruction surgery - I think she needs an ice pack.

I left the snow early so I could spend the afternoon walking around Hirafu and in some deep snow beside the hotel. There wasn't much in Hirafu since it was mostly filled with accommodation, bars and ski rental places. However, the walk around the hotel was really rewarding because you got to see completely untouched snow that had been building up since the start of winter. I'd say it got to at least 1 meter deep easily. As an Engineer I had to use my head to test whether the snow was really that deep, so I decided to face plant into the snow directly.

Japan day 4

The worst part about falling over is the searing pain. The second worst part about falling over is the mild aching which comes after. Ive been walking around the city like a zombie with one of its legs injured. I started snowboarding this morning but changed out my board for my old skis again before midday. This change over was pretty convenient timing because it gave me an hour to stroll around Hirafu (the city area). I couldnt find much though because the snow prevented me from getting too far. None the less it was still pretty awesome walking around aimlessly while getting slowly blanketed in snow. While I was walking around I found a small little Kebab shop on the side of the road called 'elvis kebab shop' playing reggae music which was located right next to a few pubs - I guess its good to know that having Kebabs while drunk is now an international standard.

At 1pm I had all you can eat Sushi. I can only describe the place as a Sushi go round except without the Sushi train.

We then enjoyed a few drinks at a few different pubs before we went out for a Tapas type Japanese meal. Ive decided that Im going to exploit duty free as much as possible on my return to Australia by convincing (forcing?) my family to buy 2 bottles of spirits each for me so I can set up my own cocktail bar in the animal house. At the moment Im thinking: Vokda, Jager, Gin, Spiced rum, Kahlua and sambuca.

Japan day 3

I was in line for the first Gondola heading up the mountain. This was a good day to start early because the visibility was much better than the previous 2 days. I went to the very top of the mountain with my dad and ski'ed (am I spelling that right? IDK) to the very bottom in one go. I decided to film about 3 minutes worth of skiing which I might put up on facebook when I'm back in Australia. I've found out that my skiing level is quite unfortunate because the double black runs are quite easy for me, but the trick park is too hard for me. So when I had the chance I decided to trade in my skis for one day for a snowboard. I've never snowboarded before so this would definitely be a challenge for me. This turned out to be a good idea in the end because I could progress through the mountain with my family. Sadly, my Dad had the foresight to film me learning which means he's got a few clips of me stacking which I think are good material for a cheesy TV show.

It turns out that you only realize how hurt you are when you have a shower and find all the bruises and cuts on your body. I fell over a lot. A lot. and even my triple layering wasn't enough to protect me from the falls. It also didn't help that I made the habit of adding a bit of unnecessary momentum in every fall so that the people watching me stack it would think I'm hardcore. You could tell by their indifferent posture and lack of eye contact that everyone thought I was badass. I've also got a small bruise on my nose because I made the mistake of thinking that a beautiful clump of white snow was in fact just white snow. For fun I dived face first onto the clump expecting the clump to flatten out like a pancake and soften my fall - instead the bulge was made out of 95% ice with only a small layering of white snow on top. Ouch.

When I got back and showered up I turned on the TV and discovered one of the best shows of all time. It's a commercial for the hotel that lasts about 15 seconds with the most repetitive but catchy song in the background (Almorox by the Twister Guys). The commercial is put on repeat so it drives you into a happy kind of crazy.

In other news, my brother and I went to an all you can eat Japanese Buffet. The theme of the night was Italian so we went nuts on the pasta. To make it easier to shove food on my plate, I managed to find a children's section of the buffet which had slightly larger plates with grooves in it for separating food. The plate also had a few pictures of Popeye to keep me entertained. It worked well.

Japan day 2

I awoke to the annoying sound of that repetitive simple machine lying near the side of my bed. It was my brother saying innocently "hey, weren't we meant to be meeting mum and dad soon?"

After a small delay, we met ma and pa for breakfast in the buffet. There wasn't much time, so we decided to part ways. I was to go town to find a ski rental place which sold twin tip skis while the rest of the family would start their adventure on the mountain. I found my new skis and was ready to roll. My brother also bought his 'go pro' camera with him on the slopes, so he filmed me out performing him in every way. The visibility was still pretty bad near the top of the mountain so I spent the majority of my time skiing the bottom half while testing myself with some challenging double black runs. I found a few runs which had been undiscovered by anyone the entire day because they were so well hidden. The powder had built up and there was no sign of any previous skiers or snowboarders. I stopped every 15 minutes to gaze up at the beautiful mountain for a couple of seconds. I think I've discovered that terrain skiing (involving going over moguls and dodging trees) is now my favorite type of skiing. Jumps and spins are now second place.

When I got back I decided not to go to the penis pool. It just didn't seem that appealing. Instead I had an hour long bath and found a spot with free wi fi to finish compiling my half completed blog posts.

I think i'm going to have dinner with the family later and then head out to the town in search for a pub. Sounds like a good plan.

Japan day 1

SKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING

Skiing is kinda the best thing ever. We woke up at 7:30am to get ready to rent our stuff. This was a tough challenge for the family, but not for me. I was far too excited to let a little sleep get in my way. After a sluggish start we went to the hotels free (FREE) buffet on level two of our hotel. Tom and I both knew that my parents were paying a lot to let us stay in the hotel, so my brother and I decided it would only be polite if we made as much out of the buffet as possible to make it cost efficient. 21 plates and 6 bowels later, we were in the line to get our ski equipment rented. This is when a few things didn't quite go to plan:

Totally unbadass thing number 1: They didn't have twin tip skis for rent. Instead I had to get the normal skis for normal people. I insisted that I wasn't normal and that I was an Engineer, but the service chick couldn't understand any of the words coming out of my mouth (including Engineer, strangely).

Totally unbadass thing number 2: The gondola that was located right by the hotel was closed temporarily due to high winds

Totally unbadass thing number 3: Bad weather! Visibility wasn't awesome sauce. And as a result, I ended up stacking it once because I couldn't see the terrain in front of me.

BUT NONE OF THAT MATTERED BECAUSE SKIING IS STILL AWESOME! A few of the small lifts were still operational so we went down them to begin with - this also gave me the time I needed to practice my backward skiing (badass, right?) Nisaka is known for having the most amount of snow in the world and you can easily tell this is true. You could literally swim in the stuff if you wanted to. At one point I encouraged my brother to follow me down a black (which I convinced him was an easy red). He wasn't too happy after that and has been following mum and dad ever since. There's also a nice restaurant called the "lookout cafe" which serves an interesting mix of Japanese and Western meals. You can tell that the manager of the place tries to make the restaurant more comfortable to isolated Australians since the music played at the Cafe is also unpleasantly western - they played 50 cent for waaaay too long.

After a long days skiing I went to the Onsen in our hotel. I try to maintain some type of cultural understanding and respect in these blogs, but what I saw in the Onsen can't be forgiven. I think it can be best described as a pedophile paradise. There were naked men everywhere. I avoided sausages in the buffet the following day because I am still scared. The general procedure is to get unchanged in a very small and overcrowded changing room and place your belongings in one of several baskets. Then you take a tiny towel (about 10cm x 10cm) out with you to wash yourself off and step into the giant bathtub. I couldn't help but be reminded of a scene from "Enemy At The Gates" when the main character is armed with nothing more than a few bullets and proceeds to charge at the enemy. The funniest thing I noticed though was that all the Japanese men used their tiny towels by wetting them and then placing them on their head as they walked around naked in pure confidence. When I exited the Onsen, I noticed that there was a female employee standing near the entrance/exit fixing something! WTF Japan?

To recover from the psychological trauma, our parents took Tom and I out to dinner where we enjoyed an all you can eat buffet... So. Much. Food.

Japan day 0

I'm heading to Japan for a 1 week ski holiday! Sadly though, I attended James's funeral the day before my departure and now my head is swirling with a mixture of sympathy and excitement. I'm on the plane to Japan at the moment though, so I think every 5km of distance I travel sways my brain a little closer to the excitement side. My air journey has 2 parts; the first involved a 10 hour flight to Seoul Korea and the other involves a 2 hour flight to Japan. While on my Korean flight I decided to watch "Pacific Rim" which seemed like a good choice since we were crossing the pacific. I'd been warned that the movie had the same action to intelligence ratio as "the Avengers", so I decided to watch the entire movie in Korean so I could avoid noticing the shitty plot line. But even with no language I could still tell the movie was shit - why would they only start using a sword at the end? WTF, Earth? Anywho, silly movies aside, I've decided that my goal for this trip isn't to improve myself in any meaningful way. Instead the goal for this skiing trip is just to be a total badass. To start, I intentionally left my seat belt unbuckled even after the seat belt light started flashing! I also purchased a $2 bandanna which just emits an aura of awesomeness whenever I wear it.

Oh and before I forget, I should also mention that my brief stop over in the Korean airport allowed me to experience wonderful beauty of the Hello Kitty Cafe. I don't really know how the subtle movements of a cat arm can be associated with a an extra hot latte, but I guess I just have to accept there are some forces in my life larger than me that I will never truly understand.

When we arrived in Japan it was past midnight, so we just got our things and crashed in our own rooms. I promised myself to do something culturally awesome before I went to bed, so I found one of those automatic Japanese toilets in our bathroom. OMG HOW DO WE NOT HAVE THESE IN AUSTRALIA!? They automatically warm the seat and clean your ass! How badass is that!? (pun intended). Instead, I have to deal with the magical beauty of the half flush option in Australia. Not cool Tony Abbott, not cool.

Oh yeah, my first picture of Japan was of a Japanese McDonald's. I wonder if they eat a cheeseburger with chopsticks? Probably not, but it'll be cooler if they did.

big changes in life

Just before Christmas James, my roommate, got hit by a car. After about two weeks of being in the ICU he died. He was a funny and inspiring man and I'm really glad I got to know him for a semester. I plan to attend his funeral which should be soon (hopefully before I go to Japan). In the meantime I plan to preserve the bottle cap art in the lounge room that spells his name - it's the closest thing I can do to paying my respects to his parents since I don't know them well enough to send them a personal message. RIP James.

It feels like all the news I have to deliver you about my life is pretty shadowed by James's death, but I'm going to give it a shot anyway.

I started full time work on the 7th and it hasn't been easy. The 9 - 5 lifestyle is very foreign to me - my brain just doesn't work that way. My mind is kinda like an iPod in the sense that it can only work for about 15 minutes without running out of battery and it's best utilized by working at different locations. None the less, I think I'm slowly adjusting to it because my posture has worsened to an ideal cubical employee slump. I'm working on two projects at the moment - one is a Naval Engineering project and one is a Civil Engineering project. Although I am a Mech Eng graduate, I quite like the idea of being challenged to learn new things to do your job - this is fueling a lot of my motivation at the moment. It's also really nice to know that at 5:00pm, you don't have any assignments or exams coming up. It's very freeing.

This lifestyle coupled with my lack of a social life has given me the opportunity I need to watch some TV shows I've never had the chance to watch. I recently downloaded the new season of 'The Legend of Kora' which was something I've wanted to watch for a while. I celebrated last weekend by binge eating, binge drinking and binge watching TV all at the same time... EXTREME! In this process I discovered a great tip I can give to all those TV lovers out there. When watching a show you like a lot, make sure you're really drunk first - that way you manage to enjoy the show twice.

In my spare time I managed to contact a company which is part of USyd called 'spoonfeedme'. It's a company that gets students to make videos of them teaching certain concepts. I'm a huge fan of this idea, as you probably would have guessed and I sent them an email to ask if I could get in on it. The called me back and they were very keen to get me on board. Sadly however, there are two main things preventing me from working this job in my spare time. 1) they are concerned that my Thesis videos might not be my own IP (even though I'm certain it is) so they fear a conflict of interest between universities. 2) On a moral basis I really want to make sure the videos I make for them or provide them must be free for students to watch. This is something the company is reluctant to do because, you know, companies like money. Maybe I can solve problem 1) by showing them my IP forms which are being prepared by UNSW and maybe I can solve problem 2) by ensuring I keep my IP for the videos I make with Usyd so I can upload them to YouTube for free anyway.

In other news, I've applied for leave and I'm going to Japan in about a week! This highly anticipated vacation is making me drool all over my computer. Put it this way, I love skiing about as much as North Korea loves Kim Jong Un or about as much as South Korea loves that Gangnam style guy.