MICK FANNING WORLD CHAMP!!

I'm watching the surfing World Championship Tour event in Brasil and Mick Fanning has just claimed the world title.

Great stuff Mick! Congrats!!

The title goes back to Oz!


In other News- Apparently NOVA has found a sponsor.There should be an announcement soon...

1 year ago...

On another note, today is exactly one year since i left Japan on my last visit. I had just had an awesome trip to Kyoto and when my plane was taking off the ground in Tokyo, headed back to Australia, i swore i would return to live here... and here i am!!

I know what our thinking. Geez he must be bored if he's putting out random stats like that...

Also, the typhoon has passed. My area didn't suffer any major damage, but areas further north apparently sustained suibstantial damage (according to my housemate who just arrived home from work about three minutes ago).

The plan is to go surfing tomorrow afternoon with my Israeli mate Gus. I think we might stay down there sunday night and also surf Monday morning. Fingers crossed we get some nice glassy swell.

Tokyo by car

Tokyo Tower by night

So i've been working lots of overtime still so next paycheck should be good... If we get paid, because there is lots of concern over NOVA's financial situation. There are rumours of a takeover.

I've been dining at izakaya and going out to bars for casual beers but havn't had a big night since Shibuya a few weeks ago. That's about to change... tomorrow me and some of the lads are meeting up with some locals who are going to take us to some clubs in Shibuya that don't let gaijin in (Can you imagine a club in Australia that refuses entry to Asian people... There would be lawsuits galore... thats Japan for you). Apparently the one way to enter these clubs is to go with Japanese girls.

Last night i met with a friend called Reiko. She has a car and took me for a drive through Tokyo. It was awesome to see Shibuya, Roppongi etc. from a car. Quite surreal really. As the passenger, you can relax and take it all in... different to walking or riding the train.

Next week i have a three day weekend so i'm deciding whether to climb Mt Fuji. The climbing season ends soon so ut may be my last chance. Typhoon number 9 is also approaching Japan, so we may get some big surf next week. If thats the case, i will probably give Fuji San a miss and go surfing instead...

Horse sashimi

Nothing worthy of a mention has been happening of late really. I went to the beach last weekend (again). This time it was a beach south of Tokyo (Enoshima) but this beach was pretty dirty and not as nice as the beaches in Chiba (and much less nicer than home). Having said that, we still had fun swimming and drinking beers on the beach.

Last night i went to an Izakaya after work and sampled horse sashimi (raw horse meat). It was more tender than i expected and actually wasn't too bad... Neighhhhhh

Also, i have started listening to a new band. They are called Enter Shikari and are kind of a mix of punk/emo/metal and trance. They have punk singing, metal breakdowns and trance synth. It's pretty cool so check it out... Fairly original i guess.

J-Bay update

It's 6:30 i the morning. Just got back from clubbing in Tokyo. Went to a club called Muse in Roppongi. I'm still kinda drunk and can't sleep so i'm surfing the net. Just found out that Taj beat Slater so that is awesome news. Mick Fanning is still number one in the world and Taj is now number two!!

You beaut

Go Aussie!

Damn, i really hope i go surfing soon. I heard therte may be another typhoon on the way so fingers crossed...

J-Bay

This has nothing to do with Japan, but i've been watching the WCT (World Championship Tour) surfing event at Jeffreys Bay, South Africa.

There was an awesome semi-final between Mick Fanning and Taj Burrow. Unfortunately Mick lost (my favourite surfer). Kelly Slater just beat Dean Morrison, So it's Taj and Kelly in the final.

Hopefully Taj gets it. It sucks the way now that when Kelly loses he complains about the judging. Fire up Taj!!

The final is about to start

Cya

P.S. Japan just beat Australia in the Asia Cup soccer. They won 4-3 in a penalty shot out. I didn't get to watch the game cause i was wroking bloody overtime...

Attempted surfing @ Ohara

Looks like those Akihabara videos arn't working dammit. Ah well, maybe i will leave them here for a while and hope they magically start working...

I had been told by a guy who surfs that a break called Ohara was usually ok and that the train station wasn't too far from the beach...

I got up at 6am yesterday, grabbed my board and wetsuit and still half asleep, plodded off to the train station. It's a two hour train journey, with three train changes, so i didn't get to Ohara till about 8:30. When i emerged from the station, the rain was pissing down and a thick fog was restricting visibility. I knew which direction the ocean was, but that was about it... I didn't know how far, or where the actual surf break was. So i bought a cheap unbrella and headed off.

An hour later i struck water. However, it was an old fishing port. No sign of any surf breaks, just breakwalls and fishing boats. I walked along the coast for another half an hour but nothing but more breakwalls and cliffs. The fog was still bad so i knew my chances of finding the surfing beach wern't great.


This is me after walking an hour and a half in fog and rain... At this point i am completely lost and wondering wha the f%#k i'm doing here without a map or any basic directions to the surf break


So i turned around and headed back to the station. I walked past a group of old women who were seated eunder a verandah, weaving fishing nets. They had seen me pass by about and hour before. They gave me a smile and a slightly amused look, and returned their work (probably thinking to themselves... What the hell is this guy doing?? Lol).

I had almost reached the staion when i saw a car with surfboards pull into a ramen store (like a fast food noodle shop). I treked up to them an asked if they spoke English. They said 'a little' and i said i speak a little Japanese... Anyways, to cut a long story short, they turned out to be Brasilian and invited me to eat with them. Afterwards, then let me jump in their car and took me surfing. Turns out Ohara is usually small and crappy (thanks to the guy who gave me that avice) and is too far to walk from the station. They showed me a break called Hebara (had WCT event there in 2005) and we surfed at another place called Onjuku. It was small and crowded but still fun (better than walking around lost in Ohara).

So, what started as a f%*ked day turned out awesome. They go surfing most weekends and said next time they will pick me up from the train station and i can surf with them... They are really good blokes, and although communication was a problem (talked to them through a combination of English and Japanese... I only know about four Portuguese words), they were fun to hang out with.


Dan and Fa, two of the 'top boke' Brasilians. The other guy 'Lala' is asleep in the car.


P.S. I had my first Japanese lesson last friday. They are free at my local community centre so will be talking the local lingo in no time... hopefully.

I'm off to do some food shopping

Peace

Vending machines in my neck of the woods

According to the ever reliable Wikipedia, "Japan has the highest number of vending machines per capita, with about one machine for every 23 people".

Walking back to my apartment from the train station today, i decided to count vending machines. There were 15 vending machines on the side of the street i was walking (it's divided by a traffic island so difficult to count both sides at the same time). This walk is about half a kilometre and takes me about 7 minutes. If we assume that the other side of the street has a similar number of vending machines, we get 30 machines on a single street, within a 500m stretch...

or 1 machine roughly every 16m...

Change...

Obviously change, coupled with a keen interest in Japan, is my main motivaion for embarking on this trip. However, i hope i dont get too restless being couped up in an aprtment in a big city!

My living conditions are going from this...


to this...

And my working conditions, from this...

to this...

Hmm, interesting...

4 days to go!!

Parting is such sweet sorrow

The registration on my 1982 Toyoto Celica expired today. This car has been very good to me- i bought it after returning from the USA in January 2006, for a measly $600 (which included 3 months rego). It has survived one and a half years of neglect, barring a three month hiatus last year when i treked around Europe. I thought the liklihood of my beloved, now unregistered, car being towed was high if it remained in the exact same position for one year, so i took it up to the family vineyard where it can take a well earned rest and 'be at one with nature'- my humble steed awaits my return...

Well, i now have my VISA

I received my VISA today!! I look like a criminal, but at least i have it...

I have had a pretty bad case of the flu so have been couped up inside, keeping warm next to the fire, for the past week. I dont want to jinx myself but i think i might have finally beaten it... I feel much better today.

9 days to go!!

It's a not a so bad...

Well, at first i was abit dissapointed that the provided housing isn't going to be south of Tokyo, because there are many traditional areas and temples and gardens in South Tokyo (Kamakura is one such area). However, chin up...

I made some posts on a website for foreigner surfers living in Japan, and one guy wrote back saying he lives in Ichikawa and has a car. He told me to message him when i get to Japan and he is keen to hook up for a surf. Apparently there are surfing beaches a little over an hour away. So sounds great if its works out, would be sweet to have someone show me the local breaks... Some of the posts also said that Ichikawa is a pretty nice place to live, which is good to hear, because i was expecting it to just be a mass residential area.

I am even more excited now, cant wait to go surfing in Japan!!

11 days to go!!