Fun times in da city...

I recently went to the JET Re-contracting conference in Tokyo and aside for the blah blah blahs of the workshops, it was quite fun. I got to hang out with Petra, seen here trying to lick a giant ice cream with a couple of random cracked out Japanese girls. We did a fair bit of shopping (mostly of the window variety) and I bought a couple of sensibly priced pieces from American Apparrel (shot out to the MTL) and a Coach purse. WHAAAA? That's right. I got my sweet little number at a MILITARY BASE for a bargain bin price. On top of that, I also got a DVD player for a steal. This mega store is for military personnel and their families, but it definately pays to have connections. Ahhh, the purse is really lovely. Salmon coloured, suede, beautiful and mine. I don't need to purchase anything for a long, long, long time. I am satiated...

While in Tokyo, a bunch of us went out for delicious Indian to properly celebrate the birthdays of Dave and I. It was a good turnout and tons of laughs.


This past Saturday, I went to the "famous" Gifu Ukai. I'm feeling under the weather today and don't really feel like providing a detailed description of the whole affair so check this out: http://www.gifucvb.or.jp/en/kankou/ukai/index.shtml In a huge nutshell, these fisherman train these specific birds to catch sweetfish. Or rather, they train them to be bulimic. See, the fishermen tie a rope around the middle of the bird, preventing them from swallowing the fish.

The fisherman then massages the bird around the neck, forcing it to throw up the fish. Appetizing, no? While we didn't eat any of this sweetfish (I hear the emperor feasts on Gifu's very own on special ocassions), the experience was a feast for the eyes. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a very good shot (I'm having severe pixel envy right now), but I like the one of the 6 boats lining up, their fires guiding their way.





Other than that, it's getting pretty hot here. The rainy season has officially started though it was very beautiful today. July, August and September are shaping up to be very busy and time is just flying. Soon, it will be a year since I arrived...cu-ray-zy...