Well, hello there! Thanks for stopping by! Surprised to see something new up here after no updates for seven weeks? I know I am!

My apologies for the very long silence. Contrary to speculation, I am in fact still alive (thankfully, the reverse culture shock I’ve experienced thus far has been of the non-fatal variety) and I certainly did have the intention to resume blogging again once I had had a chance to settle in a bit in my new country of residence.

To be honest, though, I haven’t exactly been up to all that much over the past month and a half. However, for the sake of trying to put some new content up on this website, here’s a brief rundown of what’s been going on since I last posted:

I left Japan!
Well, duh. Although we had always planned to return to North America, it was definitely hard for Judy and I to say goodbye to our home for the past five years. Sure, I took the piss and ranted and raved on this website, but I really did enjoying living there and will always cherish the memories I made and the experiences I had. I definitely miss the place and look forward to the next opportunity to go back. Now, ceasing with the retch-inspiring sentimentalism. . .

I went to New York!
Arranged at the very-last minute after a tentatively-planned business trip was canceled, I ended up making a short visit to the Big Apple to attend my aunt & uncle’s 20th wedding anniversary party. I hadn’t been out there since May 2001, so it was great catching up with relatives and seeing a bit of the city as well. I also had the additional pleasure of serving as tour guide and interpreter (half-assedly so in both regards) for a family friend and his niece who also traveled in from Japan for the festivities. Sadly, Judy was not able to come along. Speaking of my beautiful bride of nine months. . .

My wife and I are separated!
Geographically speaking, that is. Following our departure from Japan, Judy returned to Vancouver to spend some time with her family and to get some much-needed time away from me (I kid, I kid. . . I think). Naturally, I miss her terribly, but she has informed me that for various reasons, she will remain up there until I find gainful employment (or until another man steals her heart, whichever happens first). Speaking of my inability to find work. . .

I’m still unemployed!
Gosh, no one wants to hire a shiftless layabout with the social skills of a drunken baboon and the bodily reek of the same — who’da thunk it?? Despite my lack of immediate success, though, my search for employment continues on and I am optimistic that I will find a job some day soon (hopefully before my wife leaves me and my parents kick me out of the house). In the meantime, I have decided to embrace my lack of occupation and have cultivated a healthy growth of stubble in order to complete the ‘unemployed’ look, as nothing says ‘malingerer’ quite like a face several days unshaven. I have, however, been bathing somewhat regularly in a feeble attempt to preserve a modicum of self-respect, although the ever-present stench seems to indicate that my efforts thus far have been somewhat less than sufficient. I do fortunately still have some income coming in, but unfortunately it’s not enough to enable me to get my own place or to entice my wife to come back to me. Now, one might think that being unburdened by the obligations and constraints of regular employment would give me plenty of time to maintain a blog, however. . .

My computer broke!
Well, the hard drive failed, to be specific. And it happened on a Friday night while I was taking a break from job-hunting to watch the movie Ju-on: The Grudge of all things, causing the computer to freeze during one especially creepy-ass scene [the faint-of-heart might not want to click that]. After replacing my soiled underpants, I set about trying to diagnose the problem and whether I would need a specialist (or perhaps even an exorcist) to rectify the situation. Sure enough, I sadly ended up eventually having to rely on the services of a professional, something that hurt my pride as well as my wallet. Fortunately, I’ve got my computer back with a working hard drive and am ready to start blogging again (assuming that I can come up with something to write about).

So that pretty much brings us up to today. Barring any further computer problems or the arrival of an actual job offer (I can only wish), I’ll try to keep up with posting whatever I can manage to pull out of my behind, although I’m still not certain what that might turn out to be (An Analysis of Color Variation in Excremental Material, anyone?). Until the next post, I leave you with some crappy photos™ from my recent travels to New York and San Francisco. Toodeloo!

After our somewhat less-than-enjoyable red-eye flight from Tokyo to Honolulu, Judy and I managed to move our connecting flight to Kauai up a few a few hours (with the guy at the check-in counter stating no less than three times, “I’m supposed to charge you to change it, but I’ll wave it for you.”) and finally arrived at the Kauai Marriott Resort in the city of Lihue at around 10:00a.m.

We had requested early check-in since we knew that we would be arriving in the morning, however we were disappointed to learn that there were no rooms available when we got there. Having some time to kill, we headed down to the poolside restaurant for breakfast, but we hardly had an appetite in our state of exhaustion. We also looked quite ridiculous sitting at a poolside cafe in Hawaii wearing long pants and sweaters, with winter coats resting over our seatbacks. Eventually the desire to sleep became too strong, so we ended up spending the next few hours dozing off at various locations around the hotel, including on the beach, in the garden and on a couch behind the big Christmas tree in the lobby (where at one point we awoke to the sound of a little boy asking, “Mommy, why are those people sleeping over there?”). Finally, a room became available and we were at long last able to take a shower, take a nap and begin our vacation.

Looking back, our four days in Kauai are a bit of a blur. The majority of our time was spent finalizing everything for the wedding: meeting with the wedding coordinator, getting our marriage license, preparing decorations and gifts, ironing all of the last-minute details, etc., etc., etc. However, despite all of the running around, we did manage to enjoy ourselves quite a bit. We were able to spend time with the various family and friends who made the trip out to join us, we took a dip in the ocean, played volleyball (albeit horribly), relaxed on the beach. . . and, oh yeah, and we also got married!

More to come soon! For now, here are a few photos!

So here I was, innocently believing that nothing stranger had happened in Hawaii than my being recognized in the Honolulu Airport. . .

Then I saw this comment left by someone calling himself “hawaii guy” with a link to this photo.

*Cue me soiling myself in shock*

Seeing that photo literally left Judy and I speechless. . . I mean, what kind of world are we living in where some pencil-necked schmuck with absolutely zero claim to fame is somehow recognized by a complete stranger thousands of miles away from home, for the mere reason that he spends too much time sitting behind a computer? It’s madness.

The photo itself reminded me of that feature in Us Magazine that shows photographs of various celebrities going about their daily business along with silly captions pointing out how, despite all of their fame and riches, deep down, movie stars really are “just like us” (e.g., “They take out the trash!”, “They get speeding tickets!”, “They throw extravagant drug-fueled orgies at million-dollar mansions with women more beautiful than you could even imagine!”, and so on). Yet somehow, I just can’t see that voyeuristic fascination extending to the world of blogging.

Click to see larger size

Obviously, there will never come a time when bloggers will hold any near a prominent position in the eyes of the world. Despite however much some of the people out there pounding on their keyboards may wish it so, the reality is that the general public wants absolutely nothing to do with us (heck, even I don’t want anything to do with us most of the time). That said, it is rather amusing when the little internet world spills over into real life.

Seeing as it’s already been over a month and a half since Judy and I returned from Hawaii (and in light of the outright demands kind requests I’ve received of late), I figure that it’s about time I actually mentioned something about the trip here on this site. The truth is that I’m still exceptionally busy these days with work, looking for a job, filling out immigration paperwork and so on, so I haven’t had the time to post anything other than mindless fluff in a desperate bid to keep people coming back to this site in order to provide some sort of pathetic validation to my otherwise fragile ego.

Okay, frivolous run-on sentence out of the way, let’s carry on.

Our trip to Hawaii began with a six-hour overnight flight plagued not only by an exceptionally dire selection on in-flight entertainment, but also EXTREME TURBULENCE FOR NEARLY THE ENTIRE DURATION OF THE FLIGHT. The meal service was stopped, flight attendants were running down the aisles, and the plane shuddered and swayed much like I do on the toilet after an evening overindulging in the dangerous combination of alcohol and sashimi (huh?).

After managing to survive our version of Nightmare at 20,000 Feet (minus the hairy creature on the wing, which surely would have been flung off during this flight), we finally made it to solid ground at the Honolulu airport. Whilst retrieving our baggage in a sleep deprivation-induced haze, I was startled by the sudden sound of a voice behind me that said, “I like your blog.” I turned to identify the source of this strange statement and came face to face with a pretty woman with short hair who appeared to be facing my direction. Now, despite my natural eloquence (ha) and charm (double ha), I only managed to confusedly stammer out a feeble, “Who me?” before the woman disappeared into the crowd.* Needless to say, I was quite surprised to discover that an actual human being reads this website, let alone one of the female variety. Who knew?

“Stewardess, it’s that guy from conbinibento.com!”

Anyhow, despite our (literally) shaky start, the remainder of the trip turned out to be a complete blast. We visited the islands of Kauai, Oahu and Maui (in that order), each of which provided its own unique sights and experiences. Furthermore, the gods were certainly smiling down upon us, as we fortunate to enjoy nothing but sunshine and warm weather for the entire duration of our time on the islands. It was almost enough for me to put aside my inherent aversion to clichés and be tempted to use the word “paradise” to describe them (although I have thus far refrained from doing so).

Well, I think I’m going to stick in a “To be continued” right here with a promise for an update along with some photos in the very near future (cue someone asking where the rest of the Korea photos are…). Stay tuned!

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*The woman in question has since identified herself and is well on her way to recovering from the close-range exposure to the overwhelming stench of my body odor.

Well, Judy and I are back in Tokyo after our short excursion to Korea. Overall, it was a very nice trip — we saw some sights, enjoyed some of the local cuisine, learned a bit of the history and culture — and the very minor challenges that we did encounter were so insignificant as to be a source of amusement more than anything else.

Rather than give a play-by-play overview of our trip (since I sincerely doubt that would be of interest to anyone), I thought I’d try to keep my usual verbosity to a minimum and just mention a few points about our time there.

The Package Tour
After looking around at different airfare options to Seoul, we eventually decided to go with a package tour offered by a travel agency that included the airfare plus accommodation due to the low price. The only catch was that while we could select our days of travel, we had no choice with regard to the flight times, nor could we choose the hotel. Thus, our fate rested in the hands of the knavish rapscallions at the travel agency.

A week after making our reservations, we were informed of our flight schedules and the name of our hotel. On the appointed day, we made our way to the airport and departed on an evening flight, arriving in Seoul shortly after 10:30PM, where we and the other members of the tour were met by a member of the local branch of the travel agency.

Now might be a good time to point out that the primary reasons for which most Japanese people visit Korea are as follows:

1. To buy foreign brand-name luxury items that are only slightly less expensive than those sold in Japan;
2. To eat Korean food that is exceptionally more spicy than that found in Japan; and
3. To indulge in wholly unnatural and unhealthy obsessions derived from watching way too many insipid, melodramatic Korean television dramas.

Thus, the 45-minute high-speed bus ride from the airport to our hotel was spent being verbally assaulted by the travel agency rep, who gave a non-stop recitation about where to buy this-and-that and where to eat this-and-that and so on, all the while I was secretly hoping that our vehicle would hit a pothole and send the rep and her stupid microphone through the front windshield.

As we hadn’t signed up for any of the tour-related activities (being taken to buy overpriced brand-name goods, being taken to eat overpriced Korean food, etc.), our relations with the travel agency and fellow passengers ended upon our arrival at our hotel. That is, however, until we were picked up on our day of departure to be transported to the airport. On the way there, the bus made a detour and all passengers were taken into a shopping complex staffed with middle-aged Japanese-speaking Korean women who proceeded to feed us sample after sample of different kinds of kimchi, after which they looked us in the eye and motioned to their wares, essentially saying, “Okay then, which will you be buying?” Now, seeing as most Japanese people have an innate aversion turning down others outright and the resulting loss of face, the only recourse our fellow passengers had to appease the vendors and extricate themselves from the predicament was naturally to purchase something. Strangely enough, while I considered the entire ordeal to be akin to a subtly-performed shakedown, most of our travel companions seemed to revel in the opportunity to have one last chance to shop before reaching the airport (where they would no doubt go on to shop at the numerous duty-free shops as well as on the plane back to Japan itself).

The bottom line: I am never taking a Japanese package tour like that ever again.

The Hotel
As I mentioned previously, we were given no choice in the selection of our hotel and thus all we could do was cross our fingers and hope for the best. As a result, we found ourselves staying at a place called the Poong Jun Hotel, which is depicted in the image at right. Unfortunately, the person responsible for the creation of that image took some rather blatant artistic liberties, as the hotel looking absolutely nothing like that (hint: replacing those pretty trees with shitty, run-down concrete buildings might provide a more accurate representation).

To our surprise, the hotel room itself was actually quite large (at least compared to what we’re used to on our ghetto budget), but it was also quite old as well. The walls and carpet were stained, the bathroom was moldy, the bedding showed considerable wear and the decrepit hair dryer was just laughable. However, what is most worthy of mention about the Poong Jun Hotel is that, despite having striven for the past 35 years to be “the leader in the frontline of Korea’s tourism industry,” they apparently missed the memo about English having become one of the most widely-used languages in international tourism, and thus none, yes none, of their staff could actually speak it. Unfortunately, we didn’t come to realize this until about halfway through our stay, when it became quite obvious that no one was actually understanding anything we were saying. For example, when I kindly inquired whether it would be possible to borrow a functional portable hair dryer to use during our stay in lieu of the antique monstrosity on the bathroom wall, the woman at the front desk responded by telling Judy and I that there were taxis queuing outside. After about five seconds of the two of us staring at each other in confounded silence, it finally dawned on us that the clerk had apparently misunderstood “dryer” to be “driver.” The worst instance, however, was when regular visitor to this site and all-around good guy, Marco, telephoned the hotel in attempt to reach me in order to make plans to meet up for drinks, but was hung up on not once, but twice by the front desk staff because they couldn’t understand him. Finally, they acquiesced to take a message, however they wrote down the wrong phone number, and as a result, my tentative plans to hang out with Marco (or “Mark,” according to the message from the front desk) were not realized.

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Well, I’ve clearly failed in my attempt to avoid my typical circumlocution, so I think it’ll be best for me to split this entry into to parts, as my eyelids are growing increasingly heavy as I write this. I’ll try to get part two of this uninteresting adventure up within the next couple of days, but in the meantime, here are a few preliminary photos from our trip:

Well, I’m back.

After a hectic couple of days running last-minute errands and saying goodbyes to family and friends, it was time for me to catch my plane back to Japan. Despite the delays, it seemed that the 11-hour flight was going to be relatively smooth as usual. That is, until the plane took off and I got acquainted with the man seated beside me.

His name was Phil and he was a tugboat sailor in the US Navy on his way to Thailand to assist with the tsunami relief effort. He seemed like a nice guy at first, but after downing seven or eight consecutive complementary cocktails he became increasingly belligerent and decided that he wanted to talk to me — very loudly — for the entire duration of the flight. Cue a succession of one-way conversations about highly inappropriate and offensive subject matter, such as the fact that the woman two rows ahead of us wasn’t wearing a bra and “forgot to turn off her headlights,” the joys of “bumpin’ uglies” with curvaceous South American women and utterly insipid (yet extremely detailed) tales of drunken sailor revelry. The glares from the other passengers around the cabin had no effect on him, nor did my feigning sleep every time he got up to go to “take a piss” (as he loudly proclaimed each time). Thanks for reinforcing all of my stereotypes about people in the military, Phil!

Judy and I met up in the Narita airport (as she had arrived back from Vancouver about an hour before I got in) and we made the journey back to our apartment. We had a great time catching up, sharing stories from our respective holidays and making plans for what we want to do in 2005. However, by dusk the following evening we were both coming down with a cold. Damn that recycled cabin air!

So now it’s back to the daily grind. Every day since I got back to Japan has been a cacophony of new year’s greetings, as it is the custom in these parts to exchange an “akemashite omedetou gozaimasu” with everyone you know when seeing them for the first time in the new year. It’s fun with the first five people or so (well, not really), but eventually a mumbled “ak’shtebuhb’busssss” is all one can muster.

As always, my time in California went by way too quickly; I wasn’t able to see everyone I wanted to see, to do everything I wanted to do nor eat everything I wanted to eat. But, nonetheless, I had a wonderful time. I’m not one for sappy reminiscences, so instead here’s a boring photo of my hometown of Cupertino (well, part of it) and the surrounding Santa Clara Valley:

I’m not sure yet when I’ll have a chance to go back, but hopefully this post-vacation glow will stay with me for another few days before it’s sucked out of me by the oppressive drudgery of my day-to-day life.

It’s hard to believe, but I’ve been back in California for a week already. During the past seven days, I’ve had some time to reflect upon things here a bit. Here are a random assortment of thoughts:

• Jet lag — I still have it. I’m sleepy all day long, but when I lie down in my bed at night I can’t fall asleep. It’s frustrating and I really need to hurry up and adjust my sleep schedule already.
• Brrr — It’s so frickin’ cold. For some reason, my parent’s home in California is colder than my apartment in Tokyo. I’m freezing all the time here and my mom keeps telling me to put on a sweater.
• Vroom — Driving is fun. I hadn’t driven for the past nine months, so it’s exciting (but at the same time, I feel lazy for driving everywhere).
• Make the voices stop! — It’s weird being able to overhear other people’s conversations. In Japan, I usually have to make an effort to keep up with what people are saying in Japanese, so it’s easy to block out conversations taking place around me. Here, I don’t have the luxury of doing that and have realized that people are having pretty banal conversations out there.
• Wide load — Americans are kinda big, eh? I don’t just mean the seriously obese ones either; everyone seems to have a bit more pudge than I’m used to. Or maybe I’m just a skinny, pencil neck loser. Anyhow, when did wearing low-rise jeans with shirts that barely reach past the navel come into style? That roll-of-fat-hanging-over-the-pants look certainly isn’t very flattering.
• White sneaks — Have middle-aged white guys always worn white running shoes with jeans? Am I some day going to wake up with an overwhelming desire to buy all-white Reebok shoes to wear with some Levi 501’s? My God, I hope not.
• “Do you have this in medium?” — It’s great being able to talk to salespeople in English. Back in Tokyo I can make simple inquiries in Japanese, but anything more than that requires more effort than it’s worth. That said, however. . .
• “What do you want?” — Many salesclerks here are impolite. I haven’t seen too many that are overtly rude, but the disinterested attitude and the lack of eye contact leave much to be desired. I hate to break it to you, but working at the mall doesn’t make you cool.
• Supermarket — Holy crap, supermarkets here have everything! A trip to Safeway is like a visit to an amusement park. I must look like an idiot wandering through the aisles with a slack-jawed expression of wonder on my face.
• VH1 — Wow, when did VH1 start showing entertaining programming? The last time I watched it, it was like the Michael Bolton and Celine Dion channel. Do they even show music videos anymore?

Anyway, as you can see, my time here hasn’t exactly been put to use in a very productive way, but hey, what do you expect? I’m on vacation.

Well, I made it back to California safe and sound. After a hectic morning of packing and tying up all of the loose ends, I bid a sad farewell to Judy and headed to the airport. Like many people, traveling always puts me in a foul mood. The urgency and expected delays aside, there’s just something about being in such close proximity to masses of people that really rubs ones face in the true pathetic nature of human beings.

Maybe it’s because I’m in a state of complete exhaustion and barely awake, but I just have to get a few things off my chest about people’s annoying behavior when traveling (please bear with me):

• When boarding a plane, the idea is to get everyone inside as quickly as possible. Therefore, you need to stow your carry-on baggage as fast as you can and get the fuck of the aisle so others can pass. I don’t care if you absolutely need to get your neck pillow, your bottle of water and your favorite paperback out of your bag before you can sit down; the reason that the people standing behind you waiting to get to their seats are giving you looks that suggest that they hate you is because they do.
• Despite the fact that you get to stay up late and watch movies, an overnight flight is not a sleepover party. There’s no excuse for grown adults to go about in public in pajamas and stocking feet.
• If you need to get up to go the lavatory right before the meal service begins, don’t come back and force the flight attendants to move their cart 10 feet back so you can get to your seat and then demand your meal. It’s not their fault that the aisles are so narrow; maybe if your ass wasn’t so damn fat, you might be able to squeeze past them.
• Don’t be the asshat who opens his window shade in the middle of the flight while everyone else in the darkened cabin is trying to sleep. I don’t care how pretty the cloud are, if you do it again, you will get hurt.
• To the people who jump up out of their seats the moment the plane touches down on the tarmac, I have one question: What the fuck is your hurry? You know damn well that it’s going to be at least another 15 minutes before they even open the doors, and besides, us poor folks in the back aren’t going anywhere for a long time.

Okay. . . now that I’ve got that out of my system, I’m pleased to say that it’s good to be back home. Today I was able to chat with my parents for a bit and catch up, drive a car for the first time in nine months and even eat some yummy Butter Rum Lifesavers. Life is good. It was hard saying goodbye to Judy, but in a way it’s fun to talk on the phone again like the old days.

All right, methinks it’s time for me to go back to sleep. It’s a quarter past seven in the morning and I’ve been up since 3:30. Jet lag sucks balls.

Why is it that the time leading up to a vacation is so incredibly stressful?

I leave for California tomorrow, yet my bags have not been packed, my nengajo have not been written and I haven’t even told a few of my friends over there yet that I’m going back.

Tomorrow is probably going to be one incredibly hectic morning and afternoon, only to be followed by nine hours of sitting deathly still inside of a cramped airplane cabin. Although I’m seriously tempted to heavily overindulge in complimentary cocktails, I’m not even sure whether the cocktails are complimentary anymore. I guess I’ll just have to get loaded before the flight.

Okay, off to start packing. . . .

So we’re back from Okinawa. The trip was a lot of fun, but by an unfortunate and rather astonishing twist of fate, the meteorologists actually managed to predict the weather accurately, and it rained. Well, perhaps “rain” isn’t the right word . . . during our visit, the Okinawan archipelago was subject to a fierce anal reaming courtesy of Typhoon Megi (or Typhoon #15 as it was called by the imaginative Japanese). Seriously, it must have been some sort of karmic payback for all of the times that I pissed on the seat as a kid or something.

However, as a sign that the universe may not entirely have it in for me, for some reason or another our room was upgraded to a top-floor suite with a great view of the ocean, and, on the morning of our last day there, the sun even made a surprise appearance for about an hour and half (although immediately thereafter we were caught in a sudden downpour and ended up having to change our clothes in the bathroom of the lobby because we had already checked out).

Nonetheless, despite the horrible weather, we had a great time. Now it’s back to workin’ for the man, tryin’ to make a dollar outta 15 cents and all that jazz. Here are a few photos:

Well, it looks like everything is set for our trip to Okinawa. We leave bright and early tomorrow morning — actually, it will more likely be dark and early, since we have to be at the airport by 6 a.m.

We were able to get a pretty decent deal by going with a combination airfare/hotel package, but the only catch was that we weren’t able to choose what time our flights would be. We figured that with the money we’d save, it would be worth the risk, and as it turns out, it looks like we’ll be getting our money’s worth: we’re on the earliest flight down there and the latest flight back up. It’s a nice arrangement, except for having to wake up at 4:00 tomorrow morning and then come back at to Tokyo at about midnight Thursday night, especially since I’ve got work on Friday. But oh well, it should be fun.

I just checked the weather report and apparently thunderstorms are expected in Okinawa during the next three days. Great. However, since Japanese meteorologists are notorious for being exceptionally inaccurate, hopefully we’ll still be able to relax in the sun as planned. My fingers are crossed.

I’ve just put up the last of the photos from my trip to Taiwan. Took me long enough, eh? Now I can finally start putting up more photos I’ve taken in Japan.

Next week is the Obon holiday so I’ll be off from work. So far it looks like I’ll be staying around Tokyo, but the following week Judy and I will be going down to Okinawa for a few days. I’m definitely looking forward to kicking back on the beach. Maybe I’ll even be able to turn myself a shade or two less pale, too.

These last photos are just a hodgepodge of random things, but here you go:

On our third day in Taiwan, we stopped by Hsimenting, a hip shopping/hang out area packed with droves of young people. I was pretty surprised to see the considerable influence of Japanese pop culture on Taiwanese youth — it almost seemed as if we were walking through Harajuku (minus the goths and the rockabillies) or Shibuya (minus the kogal and the drug dealers).

Later in the day we took the train up to Danshui, but because it was overcast we weren’t able to witness the sunset for which the area is well-known. It was still a nice time though: we walked along the wharf, visited a night market and stuffed ourselves silly with scrumptious Taiwanese specialities (unintentional alliteration, I swear).

I’m not a very big fan of posed photos (especially when I am the one doing the posing), but these ones actually didn’t turn out all that bad (except for the stupid grin on my face). Anyway, here you go:

On Saturday, my friend Zach and I headed down to Kamakura in Kanagawa prefecture, where we spent the day wandering through the many temples and shrines, snapping way too many photos and getting horribly sunburned in the process.

I’ll try to put some photos up this week or the next if I can find the time. I’ve still got a few more Taiwan photos to put up as well.

As you may have noticed, I have a bit of a problem in that I tend not to take very many photos of people. My grandma used to say that if a picture didn’t have a person in it, it was a waste of film; but seeing as Judy doesn’t like to pose for photos and I don’t need to see my ugly mug more than I already do, it’s just easier to take photos of scenery and architecture and the like.

However, most people tend to find those sort of photos a tad dull. Therefore, today’s photos all contain people, some of whom are even LOOKING AT THE CAMERA!

After visiting the National Palace Museum (as mentioned yesterday), Judy and I returned to the city and Josh and Wei Wei took us out to dinner to meet some of their friends. They definitely were a nice bunch of people, but that wasn’t surprising since Josh is an amiable guy and makes great friends wherever he goes (the affable bastard). After dinner, we went a club called Roxy 99, where we proceeded to get quite inebriated, in which state the photos below were taken.

On our second day in Taiwan, Judy and I ventured out to the National Palace Museum, which is considered to be the world’s largest repository of Chinese artifacts. The collection, some 700,000 pieces spanning about 5,000 years, was once housed in Beijing’s Forbidden City before a series of political upheavals eventually led to its arrival in Taiwan. Apparently when the Nationalists fled to Taiwan they brought China’s greatest historical treasures with them. Lucky for us, eh?

Today’s photos are from the Chih-Shan Garden, a reproduction of an 11th century Sung dynasty garden, which is located on the museum grounds.

It’s Friday evening and I am beat. I’ve been sitting here for ten minutes trying to write something, but my brain has decided to turn in early for the night and so I can’t even manage to construct a coherent sentence. So please forgive me if this entry makes less sense than my usual nonsense.

Judy and I went to Taiwan at the end of April of this year to visit my good friend Josh and do a bit of sightseeing. The trip was a blast — we visited some interesting places, met some cool people and sampled tons of delicious Taiwanese food. I even learned how to say “toilet” in Mandarin.

Anyway, I’ve been wanting to put some photos up from the trip for months, but I’ve found it difficult to find the time to do so (OK, OK, I’m a lazy bastard, I know). Therefore, I’ve decided that instead of trying to put them all up at once, I’ll just put a few up whenever I get a chance.

Today’s photos are from the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial, which was the first place we visited on the trip. Impressive, ain’t it?