[#55] Counting Down

Last day being free and fabulous. Tomorrow, I'll start being a businessman and be busy and fabulous

Obviously I had 2 much 2 do, but 2 little time 2day!

Spent a whole day outside. Shopping, mostly. First I got the train pass for work, damn expensive! My company will pay of course but didn't know that railway is that pricy until today. Then, because I got the pass, I went straight to the area where my office is...just to make sure I don't make a mistake tomorrow and get panic. First day is pretty important...but there'll be no work for tomorrow anyway, it's a meeting, or say a ceremony.  Then the day after tomorrow is going to be a welcome party -- in the beginning they have to keep you thinking that there is a lota fun working, lol! Then I even went apartment hunting at that area, no ideal ones... After that I traveled all the way to a place that sells cheap T-shirts and ties and all kinds of business stuff. Bought some stuff there and traveled all the way back to Shinjuku for some expensive but gorgeous looking ones. Found those two ties and can't decide which one to pick. You give me some advice? The blue one or the gray? Eeek, H-E-L-P!

Then I paid my rent, sent clothes to the cleaner and did a major shopping for food and when I got home, I was soooo tired.

Never went to bed before 1am but I'll try today...feeling weird though

[#54] Bad News

It was raining all day today and I hate that...

Just heard from my mom that my anuty in Guangzhou, China had a stroke yesterday. It was a cerebral infarction which didn't cause any loss of ability of her legs or arms...but the bleeding in the brain killed her language ability and memories...at least for now. She couldn't remember her son,  my cousin's name when she saw him yesterday and she's in hospital now, can't talk but can understand what people say. It's a sad thing to know, I'm close to her. She's a woman who had survived so many near-death occations in her life (long story to tell) and I hope she'd be well soon this time. Dun want to talk more tonight. G'nite and good health to everyone!

[#53] A Rroller Coaster Week

I just had a 'roller coaster' week for sure. I had gone through graduation, rehearsals, making big decisions on my last relationship and activities with friends...etc. I want to have a few MINI-MEs to be my reprisentatives. Here is an example --

Welcome to read 4 Parts Of E's Last Sunday...As A Student

PART I: HANAMI

Viewing cherry blossoms is such a Japanese thing. In other contries, if you go to watch some flowers, you go stand under a tree and look up, then walk away...In Japan, there's so much more than that. First you have to sit down with a bunch of friends and so that also means a picnic...

...which is sometimes said to be a very gay thing. Coz why do a bunch of straight boys sit down and picinic?

From left: Yuki, Chizu-chan, Masato,  John & Koki. First time two groups of my friends merged and I felt good!

See that rainbow streamer in the middle? I said it's a GAY thing! So many fags, haha! You see gay groups in every direction and you can even recognize someone from the bars you visited last night!

Some fotos from Saturday too.

Some friends I've known forever. From left: Rickard, John, Jason(whom I just met that day) and Hiroo.

PART II: REHEARSAL

Bunches of friends rushed in later and joined the Hanami...they were late! But we didn't have enough time anyway coz we had to leave for the rehearsal.  So John & Koki and I left other friends and jumped on a taxi. It was an absolutely beautiful day! John is the president of T.I.P and Koki, his boy-friend, is a professional singer. It's the first time I see both of them in one show. I'm just helping there, not a cast in the show. I was in London and couldn't even go to audition. I may do sound stuff for this show if Ruedi, our sound-and-light guy, also a friend from long time ago, needs a hand. But it's such lot of fun just to be there at the rehearsal. Here it is:

Song practicing. The place is at St. Albans Church, more like a classroom for kids.

And this show has 50(?) cast members...hard to fit in the whole room, lol.

Koki and Hideki (on the right). Oh BTW, my friend Jack likes cutie Hideki...and it's a big secret.

Umm...can I do that cute dance sometimes too?

'The Papaaaaaaaa, the papa!'

...and some of his seven daughters.

PART III: Visiting Jona.F

After rehearsal, I hurried up to Jona F.'s home...which turned out to be this huge mansion unit at center Tokyo (forgot to take some pics, sorry). Pretty, neat and has two bedroom...that's why everyone was asking him: Do you have a baby? That was a Spring party so Leanne and Jona made some Spring food, yummmm! I was also hungry so I was eating like a vacuum cleaner...ooops!

Then the next event was watching Sex And The City, final episode (part 1&2) -- an important part of the night. It was nice to have 10 people together and laugh and cry together.

Don't you love Samantha's new look!?

Think I like this photo for a reason...

PART IV: CLUBBING

After this Spring Party, I hurried off to meet my 'Gay Town Apprentice' Eric (click to see related entry QueerAsFolk). He needed to go to the party with my company and I went only because of him. I love dancing in clubs, I said ONLY because last night I was really not in the mood.

The final episode of S.A.T.C we watched just now was grrrreat! But a little too heavy for me, especially now is a bad timing. Just went through my own final episode of my relationship and seems that everyone besides me is seeing someone... Apart from that, Tokyo Gay Night -- the name of the event -- seemed to be only for kids, 98% of them were under 18 and some look...11? Last time I went with Eric, I saw some of those 11s taking drugs in the toilet...they didn't even know how to take it and was asking each other for advice! I was not only bored to death but also feeling strange...maybe it's because my ex's obsession with young age? Anyway I wasn't comfortable being there and I've never felt so lonely before...The shoes I put on in a hurry for Hanami was also obviously a wrong choice for dancing. I tried very hard to be as nice and careful with Eric as I could, but still I turned to him and politely asked for his understanding that I would never ever come to this event again.

Denda Milai, who is big in Japan now, was there performing...the only thing that made me feel better  for a while.

Ya, there are blurry...but dun blame me, I had to get them quick coz taking fotos was forbidden Well that's my weekend...how's yours or tell me about your Spring break?

[#51] Graduation Ceremony (25th Mar.)

Haven't updated recently but I had my reason. Have been house hunting and going to rehearsals for Fiddler On The Roof night after night (I'm not in this musical, I just love to go to help or see what I can do), so tired after getting home every day...especially after today's graduation ceremony.

10:00am. Our school has changed a lot last year and this is in front of one of the new buildings: C Square.

Our school is also huge. There is a 8min walk from Foto 1 till you get to...

...the real ceremony hall: the Gymnasium Arena which was packed with people...

...and more people...

...and more! It was a bit rainy this morning but who cares!

Inside of the arena were all these seats for more some 3,000 people who graduated today + their parents...and in the afternoon another 3,000 from different departments to kick off!

There's something about the girls today. It's a special occasion today so most girls were wearing rented Hakama, something so beautiful that you just want to take fotos with them again and again!

And the boys' Hakama is even cuter! Yuichi (middle) is the funniest guy in my seminar, looks so 'bad'

1:00pm. After the ceremony. My favorite foto with my seminar prof...but blury on xanga, brrrr...

A 'spa'? lol!

When the cherry trees blossom every year, the hill behind will be covered with pink, too bad not yet!

2:00pm. Party!

Party Party!!

Party Party Party!!!

6:00pm. Another corner of my school, which has totally changed since last year.

7:00pm. Got out of school finally and gathered at this restaurant for a proper reason: drinking!

9:00pm. I ran into the rain and got on my way to rehearsal. Finished at around 10:30pm and got home later EXHAUSTED. It's been such a long day and I need a nice shower and some sleep! And you? All of you'd be better think about what to do to celebrate my straigh 'A's from last term!

[#50] London Diary  Day 2 (28 Feb, Sat.)

 Weather was not too nice, bit cloudy, little cold. But after all London wasn't as cold as I thought at all! Dirk made breakfast...Geeee! I haven't had breakfast for 100 years, LOL! Went shopping with Dirk soon after breakfast because we needed to get some food for this week and the Safeway was just behind Tower Bridge so I could take a good look at the bridge during day time. I was so glad that we lived so close to it!

Safeway, the super-market was behind this small dock which was surrounded by buildings, so it looked a bit strange. Of course I knew London is super expensive before I went...but in super-markets here I found vegitables and fruits are much cheaper than Japan! In Japan price for those is just insane! After we got enough -- actually that was a lot -- of food, we carried four super heavy home, got some rest. I showed Margaret Cho's DVD to Dirk, he was laughing so hard! But later I found out that actually in England, nobody knows Margaret Cho, I mean, NOBODY! Well it's not strange coz she's Amerian, even she were from Europe, since England is so 'incontinental' so I still  doubt if British people would know her, LOL! Anyway, we didn't have enough time for the DVD so after just a few laughs, we got ready and went out to meet Luke (a.k.a Whonose), whom I finally got hold of through mobile phone after I got to London!

The main line had a problem so we had to take the underground, thus came my perfect chance to observe the 'tube'! Well of course I heard the reason why it is called tube long before I went to England but not until I saw it with my own eyes...from ceiling to train, it was really a shape of a bloody TUBE, LOL!

Anyway, we were late. Right outside the Charing Cross Station stood Luke. Luke was one of those smart ones and was a year ahead in high school. In age of 20 he is already working for the government now. Nice job, well at least it sounds nice. He was really talktive -- just like he 'warned' me before I went and so was I so we were like two chatter boxes...or cashing machine. And he was such a straight boy, supposedly. His first question to me was: 'So are you looking for holiday romance here?' And I was like, did I turn him...gay, ALREADY!? LOL! We took a brief look at Trafalgar Square, very pretty but had no time to stay long: we were all so hungry! (That means I would take another close look at that square some time later, I tell ya.)

Me and Luke, in front of my favorite station: Charing Cross, before the monument.

3 of us all didn't care too much where to eat but since I was from Japan, they decided to bring me to a Japanese restaurant, WAGAMAMA, a very tidy, spacious and bright restaurant, but the food was horrible! The Duck Gyoza was something I never tried before and it was nice...but the Ramen I ordered was not Japanese at all, I whould say it was a Japanese Ramen full of  British accent! Well this happens everywhere doen't it? In Japan I can't really have a Chinese meal in a Chinese restaurant and my Italian friends claimed that they  never touched any pizza that was sold out of Italy coz it just didn't taste pizza! Understandable... So funny that coz we were sharing that long table with other people, the couple sat right beside us was talking in German, and was complaining a lot about they had to share table with other people and as a German, Dirk did a perfect job translating that to us right away! After going through so many topics, we finally nailed down to one: Luke's sexuality. He's straight, as he said before but Surprise! He said he had kissed boys too. And he was from a strict family too, just like me. Good news is, he has a brother (while I am just, THE ONE!) Bad news is, he said if he told his brother that he was g _ _, or at least Bi-sexual, his brother would kill him. What a horrible thing to say, but that made a lot of sense to me. I have seen and went through a lot too myself...(I believe way not enough yet though) and I wonder how many kids in the world are threatened by the same thought.

Anyway, time for some nice stuff? Our dessert was...walking through the China Town and SOHO: the Gay Town, which were side by side! How nice being a Chinese who lives in London, having his own culture on one side while gay culture is within 0 minute walking disdance!? I envy him and him and him, and all the HIMs that live there! Guuurrraaa!

The SOHO area was huge and soooo nice. You see gay couples everywhere. Now we are talking culture! In Japan, Ni-chome, the gay area, is only gay at night! But Soho and Castrol in S.F., two places I have at least visited, were totally different. And I can't deny that I really like it! Looking around there were just tons of gay cafes, gay restaurants, gay bars...but on the other hand they were never gay only, always mixed with straight people, and oh lots of girls too, unlike Japan. I was hanging around with Dirk and Luke, with a huge smile on my face and taking fotos everywhere: I'm such a tourist! The foto says: G-A-Y (sound: [Jee-Ei-Wai], not [Gei]!). Yes, G-A-Y Bar, which became my favorite hanging out place during my rest of days in London. The music videos played inside were just awesome! We went through a few places, hit a few bars and did a little shopping. I boght my first BLUE magazine, before I thot it was only sold in Australia, haha. Coz we had a plan to meet Patrick, a friend of Dirk, so we waited at a bar, a gay one of course (lol), and met some of Patrick's friends there. Later on we knew Patrick already went home so we just decided to meet him later at G-A-Y Club, the same 'franchisee' as G-A-Y Bar, coz Kylie Minogue was gonna perform there that night! Kylie Goes G-A-Y! I was lucky to get Kylie in town...or I brought Kylie to London?... whatever.

See who's standing in front of a role of sexy underwears???

Between this friend Patrick and Dirk, there can be a whole chaper to tell but I'm not gonna teach that in today's class okay kidos? ;-p After shopping and windowshopping, 3 of us went back to Dirk's place. Dirk cooked such a nice pasta but Luke wasn't hungry. My British accented Ramen was way gone hours ago and I cleaned my dish...and half of Luke's in 5 minutes. Then we went out party, just me and Dirk...Luke, who was supposed to look good and feel fresh the next day to help a friend to move, insisted going home and  get some rest.

We first went to Ku: Bar - a bar full of young people - to wait for Patrick coz he said he'd be there. He didn't show up finally...but the bar was nice and huge. The queue in front of G-A-Y Club was insane! It went all the way along the building, two buildings and then whole blocks of streets (the foto shows way not enough)!!! WheneverI see anything like this kind of queue, I lose interest. Even it was Kylie Double-Minogue or Kylie Dominogue performing, sorry I just couldn't get myself as motivated as to stand in the line and wait for hours. And it must be so packed inside. Dirk felt the same way too. He led me all the way walking up-and-down the queue to look for Patrick but couldn't find him, so we ended up going into G-A-Y Bar...

Bars like G-A-Y in London usually close at 11pm at night on week-days. Some have late licences to open till later. But on week-ends, they close down at 11 then re-open it as a club, which is totally different from Tokyo. Then there was a queue in front of the bar too, but it was an exciting experience. First we heard some noise and when we realized, there were some plant pots lying in the middle of the street, obviously thrown down from one of the windows of some building at the other side of the street of G-A-Y. The police was brought in to check inside the buildings, WoW, my first night out and I saw London police already! Then we saw one door-man (I don't know how to call them, the people who have the right to say you can't go in to you in front of a bar, or a club) rejected a group of 3 girls who were queueing right behind me from getting in by saying 'sorry I just made up my mind, you are not getting inside tonight'...while they were still in queue! Well these things do happen sometimes. It was pretty packed inside, much crowded than when we visited in the afternoon. G-A-Y was huge, two floors with another dancing hall (which I still dun know how it looks...untill today!), but was packed with people!Music was still good, most were newest and most popular videos.  Had a wonderful night and got home on the last train.

[#49] I'm Back!  (London Diary: Day1 ~2)

My kidos! Finally, after another 12 + 2  hours flight, yes I'm back! Sooo tired but the reverberations of the trip in my head keep me high! I have so much to tell and so many fotos to share and I can't wait!

Ok, let's cut directly into business, lol! You are soon going to read how E's wild Amerian accent taking over England!!! Haha, just kidding.Well, first things first, I want to put up some fotos I took on the first day before/after I arrived London, coz again, I couldn't upload fotos taken by my digi-cam there. So here we go again...from:

Day 1 (27 Feb, Fri.)

(Below:) A nice view of Mt. Fuji from the plane (of course)

I always love the clouds...especially while looking down at them. How relaxing!

Tower Bridge with the Government building -- according to Dirk: A Big Testicle. Right after I took this foto, a big, tall officer came and told me that I couldn't take fotos of that Gov. building from there coz that's a Gov. building...well Icould take fotos of the building from anywhere else but just not where he was in charge coz he was told to do so. Hoho I got it anyway!

The Big Testicle by itself:

I'm so proud of my camera which works better at night, expecially without flash light...and the foto looks better when it's blurry, right ;-p It's a foto of the opposite side of the Thames River, you can figure out Tower of London in the middle.

Well in the next diary Day 2 (which I have already finished more than half), you will explore London's underground with me and we'll see Luke in LIVE! Or maybe the gay-area or China Town? But good-nite for now and I'll leave you there fatasizing for a while,

[#48] Just a quick note

Sorry Boys and...Birls! It's so inconvenient to use internet here and I can't do my update often as I wanted to...and also it's so not fun to update my trip without fotos! My fone batteries are dead too so can't upload any fotos now. But there are so many things to write about so many things I want to share with you so please wait a little more! More than a half of my trip has passed now and can't believe I'll be back next Monday...which is still about 4-5 days to go.

Good news: I got the news on Friday from friends in Japan that: I JUST GRADUATED FROM UNIVERSITY! Yeah! Well done, innit? And that doubtlessly made the rest of my journey more fun and more relaxing. (If I hadn't graduated, would I still call this trip a 'Graduation Trip'? LOL!) Anyway stay put and wait for me to come back for more. Ciao-ciao!

[#49] Day 1

Stayed up all night so I could hobble away with luggage and get to the airport excatly on time: Never seen so few people at the airport, the immigration gate was not even opened...I was one of the first visitors!

Anyway, Korea airline has HUGE double decked planes and I was sitting on the 'second floor', by the window. *Huge* means the seats and the gap between them, so comfortable for  a economy class! I totally fell asleep unexpectly and after I woke up, it's Korea already! After refreshing myself in the toilet, I started window-shopping before my transfering. Airport at Seoul is just grand and endless. There was even a car exhibition going on inside of the shopping area! Funny things was, the Korean Obasan shop assistants all talked to me in Japanese while they were trying to sell their stuff to me, hehe.

Then I was on plane again. Another 12 hours' flight made it a 15h+ trip...yet the seat was way too small compared to the flight to Korea, but I drank a lot of water to keep myself refreshed. There were a few amazing programs about castles (history, ) all over England shown on the plane and after seeing them I was so ready to go to Scotland or Ireland to check them out! Felt deadly tired so constantly fell in asleep yet was excited whenever I woke up. It was funny seeing the beautiful sunshine above the clouds right before landing but when the plane touches the ground of Great Britan. I started to worry about the weather but it seemed to be nice except being cloudy. Not too cold either. The immigration check just took forever but it was nice to see Dirk greeting me with a smile at the exit...he's been waiting for an hour!

Heathrow airport was huge but we didn't have time to see around. Got on the TUBE, exchanged several times and there was Dirk's place, very close to Tower Bridge. It sits above a small English breakfast cafe, 3 storeys, narrow but very nice, has a share-mate Sarah.

I had my first meal right at the corner of the street where the apartment is, roast lamb, veeeery yummy! (Foto Right: Dirk & Lamb)Then we went to see the Tower Bridge, such a great night view from the banks of the Thames River. It was soooooo nice to have Dirk beside telling me the history around the area. Then went to visit two friends of Dirk's, Filippo and Torrocino (Foto Left), a nice and interesting Italian couple who both are working for Starbucks. They were watching Sex And The City, last season in their apartment when we visited. I haven't watched any of that since Season 4!

When Day 1 finished, I went to bed with a huge smile...still couldn't believe that I'm in London now! Oh, appologies guys, I'm updating so late is because I'm enjoying every minute of staying here these dayz and always only have too little time besides site-seeing every day. Ane the computer here is pretty slow, also it won't allow me to upload the (thousands of) pics taken by my digital camera...so here are only a few from my cell phone...sorry! But wait till more coming up soon...oh! and please MIND THE GAP!

[#47] Shocking Pics of The Year

 

Tower Records is having a book fare of ...

of...

Ok, I can't even read the kanji, too weird!

But this artist's works seem to be all about lesbian love, transsexsual,

...and death. Very dark tho.

Noticed the female angel with a penis in the background?

I just felt that I had to take this pic...power of the mid-earth darkness had me. Too much L.O.T.R?

 

 

''Oh pretty woman, walking on the street. Pretty woman...''

Well this lady has been seen many times walking cross Ni-chome like this even in wintertime like...now!

And this time, captured by my fone-cam. lucky moi!

BTW you can see Hay-chan't right arm in the picture. We were so worried that she was gonna head straight to the station like this...

 

 

 

HAMBURGER, an invention of the Westerns, is now put to damn good practical use by Eastern food culture.

Yes, it's a RADISH in the middle covered with Miso -- soy-bean paste.

Is it delitious? Haven't tried yet.  But since it's so Japanese, it should be called JUMBURGER!

 

 

Yes, he's totally naked.

Stop sqeezing your eyes and staying so close to the screen! I already enlarged it for you!

Well, I totally didn't expect this when it was sent to my fone by this friend.

This was a way of saying 'Happy New Year!' and 'Yoroshiku' (lost in translation, LOL) from him and I liked it...well who doesn't!? 

 

 

A bomb?

No, rice cooker! I found this at a friend's apartment.

Sooo cute!

When it cooks, the lights went up and...

even has a 'tic-tac' sound!

 

 

This was taken by a friend of mine and then sent to my fone.

And I personally have seen him too...walking around forever like this near the station where my parents live close by!!!

Geeeee!!! What will my parents think when they saw them...was what I used to think. Will they warn me Don't Be Gay?

Well anyway, applause to the MAN version of the 'Pretty Woman' mentioned above!

 

He's not dead! Dun worry.

He's just asleep.

Sooo achingly naive, just like an angle...

Yes, like an angle who got himself fucking drunk and sleep soundly on the train floor!

How many 'salary-men' on earth in Japan are working those totally unnecessary extra-hours and yet instead of going home after finished, they go drinking their brains out and then throw up, pee or sleep like him or do anything possible at the stations or on the trains? I dun know...I've seen too many already.

Obviously, nobody in the whole car was looking at him except me being naughty with my fone!

 

---

I just finished packing and am off to London in 2 hours. So now I'm updating this. Just found some pictures I randomly took before and recently and never had a chance to share...perfect chance today, just shot them with one bullet ;-p

Motokid> You are way welcomed to sit on my lap or get into my suitcase if you like. Let's say you are my skeleton-the-suitcase when we pass the customs, okay?

Okai, I'll start picking British accents from nau... I'll try to keep you guys updated in London so you won't feel too lonely without me. LOL! Kiddos, lights out for ya, good nite!

[#46] Prelude Of London Trip

Since I'm going to London, I'm going to give a loud shout to my Xanga mate who lives there, ONLY BECAUSE I'm afraid that he's gonna ill-treat me there if I dun do this 

He is such a funny guy, friendly, keen to make friends, talktive and any good adjective you can fill in here...and he writes the best and longest and largest amount of reviews about Asian films (sometimes western films as well but abviously he is crazily in love with Asia)!  He just can't stop can he!? Or maybe he's just a kid like me who sees too many movies? Well at least I cannot write stuff like that, he's the real pro, he's pro-ed and should be proud. And dammit, think he even reads Chinese characters and plays Kung-fu and kicks ass. Each one of his entries is so long and absolutely not just about only one thing a day. And what made me laugh recently was his Poster Cross-overs (click and scroll down) which you have to check out! Oh, rumor says it that he'll offer a big reward to the first person who finds his secret 'barcode' phrase... think it's about $100,000? By the way, doesn't snoopy have a similar helmet as the one he has from his grandpa? LOL!

He's already talking about offering me a free lunch there so Hi Lunch Daddy! Here I come!

Caution: I only wrote the above to make sure he doesn't put poison in my meal...

Repeat:  I only wrote the above to make sure he doesn't put something in my drink so any mischief will happen...

---

Went house hunting today, walked such a long way and still not satisfied with what I saw. Then, tried another agency and came up to the conclusion that looking for a place in Tokyo is truly, amazingly, doubtlessly a pain in the butt (and it really hurts!). The funny thing is just when I was finishing househunting, my juniour dorm mates called and begged me to stay in the dorm for one more year coz one guy who is supposed to continue to live in the dorm, suddenly decided to leave Tokyo coz he failed his grad-school test...thus my staying can be a little aid to them on the economical side. To me, it's cheap to live in the dorm anyway. But I have been thinking about moving out and grow up for such a long time, now I need to think again...but also they are my buddies and I dun wanna see them being troubled when I can help them. So I'm hesitating again. See, it's me, a hesitating Gemini. Just like returned to the start point now after soooo many expectations of moving out! But what's good about that anyway!? Well, I'll leave the decision to myself 'later' but not 'now'. I'm tired now, have to make up the sleep I lost last night! So g'nite you all, sweet dreams to you even if it's day time!