first day in Korea.

We're in KOREA!!!! WEEEEEeeeeeee!!!!

...that is all.

(Actually i'll say this: the guesthouse we are staying in has internet, we've had a
great day and now it's quite late, and Ellen (Ulala's friend)and her friends are delightful! Tomorrow we're off to do some more sightseeing and then heading out to Ellen's family's place in Daekwangri.)

Once again Happy New Year, Everyone! or in Korean: Saehaebong Mani Paduseyo!!
(thank you , Lonely Planet Phrasebook!)

Kankoku-GO!

Well, i was hoping to get some more blogging done before New Years but, alas, time slips away from me again. So much so that i`ve been multi-tasking all week. Not something i`m particularly good at, unfortunately.

Tomorrow morning Ulala and i are off bright and early (SIX IN THE FREAKING MORNING!!) to the airport where one of those big metal bird thingies will carry us up and over the sea to Korea, the Land of Morning Calm (who names these places?).

So until January 3rd we`ll be busy with much meeting of people, seeing of sights, writing of postcards, and eating of kimchi. mmmm....kimchi.

Have a wonderful and fun New Year, everybody!!

p.s. the title of the post means "Korean" in Japanese and is a bit of a pun. A multilingual pun. yummy.

Isn`t it ironic...dontcha think?

Here are some words of inspiration that i read recently in regards to the situation in Iraq. The quotation is taken from a letter addressing the Iraqi people: "I call on you not to hate because hate does not leave space for a person to be fair and it makes you blind and closes all doors of thinking," The letter goes on to say: "Remember that God has enabled you to become an example of love, forgiveness and brotherly coexistence." So who uttered these fine and elegant words calling for love, forgiveness and "brotherly existence"? well..... let me tell you: Saddam Hussein. Yup. Mister "I-get-off-on-gassing-dogs-and-civilians" himself. He`s due to be executed by hanging within the next 30 days.

Mull that over for a bit.

I`M BACK, BABY!!!!

Well, the Net is back in our tiny corner of the universe. WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so prepare for a surge of blogs over the next week or so as i try (most likely in vain) to catch up with photos and thoughts from a rather busy last two weeks beofre we head off to Korea for a few days to ring in the New Year. but not now cuz i`m tired and want to go to bed. mmmmm....bed.

Oh Web, Where Art Thou?

I`ve been cut off! well... our internet has been, at least. so i am writing this from the smelly, dark, cave-like internet cafe near my house. i quite like this cafe for everything EXCEPT the Internet. they have a tanning booth, a full menu, free drink bar, DVD library, low prices, free manga comics, and a shower. they even have a foot bath/massager thingy. but the actual internet booth area is dark and smokey and gross. weird.

SOOOOO, i have little to no access to the great and glorious Web for the next week or so (which is roughly when the Net should be back up and running again in our apartment. i will try and check my e-mail a few times between now and then but will likely not reply to anything until after Christmas. therefore: MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!! may you all have wonderful holiday seasons, whatever your faith or creed. and remember when you go wishing for World Peace that Peace comes from communication, patience, understanding and tolerance.

"But, Ian," you may be asking. "WHY did they cut off your internet? Too much porn? Too much illegal downloading? You hacked through China`s censorship defences?" Nope. None of the above. SOMEone (not me) simply forgot to pay our internet bill... FOR 90 WHOLE DAYS. ...what was that about patience and understanding again?

Meh.

See you in a week. (i hope)

stupid winter...

well it happened. my first cold of the season. back in October i had a throat infection, but that doesn`t count since 1) it wasn`t a cold, and 2) it only made me cough and lose my voice for two days (much to Ulala`s joy). but this is a Cold. just a regular, run-of-the-mill, make-you-feel-miserable-but-not-miserable-enough-to-stay-home Cold. but Ian, you say, you`ll infect all your students if you go into work. GOOD! they`re the bastards who gave it to me!! i cannot even count the number of times a student has sat down in my lesson room and when i ask "How are you?" they look at me and say "Not so good. I am catch a cold." or some variation thereof. and then i think "Great! now i have to spend forty minutes in this tiny liuttle cubicle, breathing in the same diseased air as you!" a few times students have even said that they took the day off from work because they were sick BUT THEY CAME TO THEIR ENGLISH LESSON!!! so yeah, i`m going into work. today, tomorrow and even saturday. HA! *sniffle*

The Rise of Symian

(The Fall still in pre-production...)

So, i played again at Zerro for a little of the ol` practice at the wheels o` steel and Lo! (no beholding) but i have been offered a gig! nay, TWO gigs!! Both at Zerro. one on the 2nd of December (i am very much looking forward to this since it will be a Saturday and i have the next day off so i can play whenever and for however long! and the next is on Decemeber 8th, which is, alas, a Friday. This means that i will have to play fairly early, not drink, and go home in time to get rest before my Saturday morning double shot of Cafe-Mocha-Grande-Kinder-Kids-Classes. Nothing like an ADHD four-year-old screaming at you in a foreign language to get you going in the AM. oy.

in case you were curious about the title of the post: my new DJ name is "Symian". *lick!* I CALLED DIBS! but yeah, "The Pants" was outdated and had weird associations for my listeners (most of whom do not know where the name came from) soooo... changed it. i owe the final decision making to Matt Anaka, breakbeat hero that he is. i`m still working on my first mix to post on the net. just when i thought i had the proramming figured out i decided to switch some of the tracks. but soon. maybe. i hope.

and yes, Mom, i know i mis-spelled simian as "Symian". it`s deliberate. =)

and since i feel weird posting with no picture here is a picture i took recently in downtown Osaka just for fun:

Kurama and Kibune

as i mentionned in my last post, Ulala and i went for a short hike near Kyoto last weekend. we started at Kurama and the temple there, took a very short cable car ride up the mountain a ways, and then hiked over to Kibune and Kibune Shrine. it`s not too far and it was a nice walk through the forest. the sun went down when we were almost at Kibune so when we got there we were delighted to find long lines of beautiful lanterns and open fires at the shrine. we also got our omikuji (paper fortune) at the shrine. the omikuji at Kibune-jinja are somewhat unique in that the fortune is invisble on the paper until you dip the paper in the water from the natural mountain spring in front of the shrine.

the weather was good, too. sunny and cool but not too cold. this week has been getting colder everyday. i`m not complaining at all though. we had a long summer and the changing leaves are quite late this year. now if only i can convince Ulala to call and get our heater fixed....

here are a few of the pictures from our hike:

Tuesday`s Child

i played another good set tonight at Zerro. after the usual rocky start as i re-learned the mixer yet again (every time i go in there the channels and switches are set up differently!) i played some good, fun and funky breaks for about two hours, averaging around 128 to 136 bpm the whole time. i had planned to throw in some slower interludes but meh. and i almost have recording figured out so there WILL be a mix on the net soon (he said wistfully more than determinedly...).

and on Monday Ulala and i went hiking in Kurama and Kibune (near Kyoto) and had a great time, so there should be some pics from that up when i sort through them this week.

here are a couple pics from tonight:

All good things...

come to think of it ALL things...



And so ends the era of the Pants. after slowly becoming frayed and worn, it has come time to retire my final pair of phat-pants. i may once again own a pair of big ol` phatties (in fact i intend to since i recently found a small community of ravers here in Osaka - it`s like a tiny socio-historic time capsule: they still listen to HHC!!!) but these beige Lithiums were close to my heart... and far from my leg hair. this by no means marks the end of my dancing days. certainly not! but dancing quick-step, kick-step, or liquid does look a whole lot better in phats. meh.



thank you to Mel in Toronto, from whose site i "borrowed" this comic. =)

Monday Monday

can`t trust that day...

i can`t believe it`s Monday again already!! where does the time go?! what happennnnnnnnned these past two weeks? hhmmm.... let`s see...


Curse of the Tech begone! i played Tuesday before last at Zerro again and it was awesome! there weren`t many people in the bar, but that`s why i practice on Tuesdays. and i played for three and a half hours! i just kept putting on another record and didn`t stop until i`d played everything in the bag. lots of fun! and thanks to Anthony and Kousuke for being suportive (and for a couple beer and a pizza!).

Wednesday i was finally able to say with certainty that i was over my throat cold or whatever the heck it was that made me lose my voice last week. it was a long time in leaving. one of the disadvantages to working in a little room with near strangers...

Thursday went out for drinks with Tony and had a good time at Captain Kangaroo. after a short inner debate i caught the last train home, which was definitely the "smart choice." didn`t want to piss of the missus or get myself sick again.

Friday was a chill day at work and an early night (after watching Lost, of course).

Saturday morning my problem child Taiga (the ADHD kid i teach every Saturday morning) was kind enough to remind the other students and i that bathing is important... by showering us in his spit. lovely. just how i want my day to start. but Saturday night was good. since Hallowe`en is on a Tuesday, all the clubs and bars had their Hallowe`en parties on the 28th. good times. we went to Club Opium, which i`d never been to before, for the SWASS party. lots of costumes and good music and dancing. Ulala and i wore the same costumes as last year sincc they were expensive and we really liked them. Ulala was super-cute in her bright orange pumpkin-Go-Go-girl outfit and i got lots of compliments on my back-less suit and "yakuza shirt". enjoy the pictures!

Saturday was also my three-year anniversary in Japan. yup. three years. wow. more on that later... maybe.

Sunday was chill. so chill that i don`t remember it.

Monday i had an eye doctor appointment (6000yen so the nurse can do 10 minutes of "testing" and tell me my eyes are the same as they were six months ago!! argh!) and then went to CostCo with Tony. sweet sweet CostCo, where everything is HUGE! i bought a massive jar of peanut butter, a case of Heineken, a case of Shark energy drink, and a printer. yes, you read that last one correctly. i bought a printer. a Hewlett-Packard scanner/printer/copier all-in-one. and it cost less than a hundred Canadian dollars!! how did i get all this home? through the magic of 500yen delivery! sweet sweet CostCo...

And Happy (belated) Halloween!! on the 31st i went to lunch with a good friend who has recently undergone somewhat of a romantic trauma. i`ll spare you the details (though i know you want them) and say simply that he is an impressive man for being able to handle it as well as he has.

then the rest of the week flew past in a blur of work and... work. come weekend time and another fun Saturday out and Sunday chilling. finally watched The 40 Year Old Virgin and found it to be much funnier than i had expected. and it`s good to see Canadian Seth Rogen doing well.

and tomorrow its back to work. i`m sure i`ll blink and it will be the weekend again. i can`t believe how fast time seems to be going. i say that a lot but its because its true. it continues to amaze me!

Pics from the 28th:

Carnivale!

Saturday was good and crazy. Happy Birthday to TripleByPass and Liz! the party was great! Jardin is an awesome club. very posh. VERY posh... maybe i`ll have my birthday party there... in June...

my set was less than spectacular, though. i`m starting to think that i`m cursed. the Curse of the Tech. everytime i play something doesn`t work. last time at Zerro it was one of the turntables. this time it was the mixer. i never thought i would see the day i would curse a Pioneer 600 but, alas, it happened. so about ten minutes into what was supposed to be my set i took a quick cab ride home to grab my mixer. so i started playing maybe 50 minutes late and was so stressed that i kept it short and sweet and played some of my favorite "mellower" tunes (i was playing the chillout room), and then turned over the decks to Danyk and started in on the tequila. BUT i did have a lot of fun and would do it again in a heartbeat. i also hope that Matt`s mixer isn`t totally dead. those things are expensive! AND, later in the night, one of my needles got busted. good thing i have a backup. but those aren`t cheap either! stupid crazy jumping-around drum`n`bass DJs....rrrrrrr.....

ANYway, thanks to those of you who came out and also to those of you who couldn`t make it but wished me luck. your support is greatly appreciated! =) here are some pictures of me spinning. they were taken by Ulala, who took TONS of pictures. thank you!

Saturday Night!

...is alright for fighting...

the pants thing will have to wait until the next post. in the meantime feast your pretty litlle oggle-orbs on this fine piece:



it`s my next gig, this weekend!! can you find my picture on the flyer? Where`s Ian?

i think one of the crowning little touches on this event is that it`s sponsored by Red Bull.

and here is the web advert:
Carnivale

Wish me luck!!!

(i plan on opening with that funky classic "No Parking On The Dance Floor" but we`ll see what happens...)

crazy weekend

So as i mentionned, it was a pretty crazy weekend. But it sure didn`t start out that way. This weekend is big in Japan as the Harvest Moon full moon weekend. Monday is a national holiday (though unrelated to the moon) and there were lots of things going on. But Ulala and i spent Friday night sitting around the house watching old sitcoms and reading bafore going to bed at a very normal hour. Then the fun started on Saturday when we went down to Osaka Castle to help set up a small rave that would be there that night. there was a chance that i was going to get to DJ but it didn`t pan out. Ah well, maybe next time. I`m playing at Zerro again this Tuesday, so there`s still lots to look forward to.



Before the party started we had the chance to check out another small concert that was happening in the park. A group of Japanese musicians and singers were performing what i can only describe as Native American Fusion. It was pretty surreal (and pretty hippie-ish) but it was beautiful music and the clouds parted to reveal the full Harvest Moon mid way through one of the songs. Aside from everone trying to take pictures of the moon with their cell-phone cameras, it was a rather spiritual experience. Then we got some food and went back over to the rave.



The rave was in memory of a friend of the organizer, who passed away a year ago, so it was very small and intimate (though still outside in front of the castle). And apparently they were playing music that she used to enjoy, like Rotterdam, and Hardcore, and UK Hardcore. For those of you who don`t know (or who havce maybe blocked the memories from your mind) Hardcore in rave lingo means 180 BPM and heart burtsing frenzied dancing. It was a shocking reminder of my age when i had to stop after a few minutes, panting and wheezing and try to remember how i danced to this stuff all night. I guess that was at least 5 or 6 years ago. Wow. But we had a lot of fun and went home around 2am.





I woke up pretty early the next day and made a nice big breakfast. Sunday was going to be busy. We started out with the Midosuji Parade at 2pm. After a slow start the parade really picked up and there were lots of good international floats and many many marching bands. There was even a float from teh Dry Cleaners Union of Japan. This country can be pretty random sometimes...












After the Parade we headed over to the Umeda Sky Building for the International Beer Festival. Things get a little blurry from there but i added lots of cool beer labels to my collection. And with the labels i couldn`t peel off i just put the empty bottle in my bag to steam off at home later. Brilliant. Now you have me in giant pants (which i haven`t worn in months - but i`ll save that for the next post), a beer in each hand (the lines at the booths were kind of long) walking around making glass clinking noises with every step. And it`s a little windy and cool in the October evening so i start hopping to keep warm, which makes the clinking noises. And who should i run into but someone from my first year university!! Sara looked me up and down and i could just see the "Nothing much has changed hunh?" forming in her mind. Good times. Good times. But she seemed well and she`s living in Nara teaching apparently, so hopefully i`ll see her again sometime soon.






After the beer fest we went back over to Osaka Castle Park where tehre was another DJ event happening at teh same place we were the night before, This time it was an advertised event and the were a LOT more people. So we stayed and danced for a bit and had some tequila and i ran into the owner of Zerro and i had a chance to thank him for letting me play at his club. I also saw Owen and his friend who run a dive-shop together so we made tentative plans to go diving again sometime soon. I`m excited to go diving in Japan. Apparently there isn`t a lot to see but it`s still really good diving (?).

Then we got i cab and headed back down to Namba to go to Traingle and see one of the current world leaders in Drum and Bass music, DJ Marky. But i`ve already posted about that...

Now my legs hurt from all the dancing and walking, but i feel mighty satisfied. =)
craaaaaaaaaazy weekend.

DJ Marky

Well, it was one craaaaaaazy weekend and to cap it off, Drum and Bass sensation and world class club-rocker from Brazil, DJ Marky, was in town last night at club Triangle in Osaka. What a phenomenal set!! Backed up by Stamina MC, together they blew the roof off the place! I`ve seen a lot of top shelf DnB DJs in my day and this was one helluva show! After his set i had a chance to meet Marky briefly. We shook hands and he seemed friendly. And i got to play the adoring fan, thanking him for coming to Osaka. He and Stamina both said that they loved Osaka and the energy of the Japanese Drum and Bass fans. woop woop! Triangle is an awesome club too (though somewhat small), so most of these pictures are taken from the wrap-around balcony of the second floor that overlooks the stage and main dance floor.






And i don`t know why but i thought this shirt was particularly inspired:

Koh Samui (Part 3 - The Croccodile Farm)

On our last day we ventured out to the Samui Croccodile Farm (and mini zoo), saw lots of animals, watched a guy pick up a croccodile, sit on a croccodile, and put his head in a croccodile`s mouth!! It was less kinky than it sounds...










SNAKE ON MY SHOULDER!!