Back in Osaka!

Well, sorry it`s been two weeks since the last post, and that "flood" of old posts is still gathering digital dust. BUT it has been rather a busy time! Ulala and traveled back to Osaka, where will be for the next year and a half or so until our wedding and then afterwards indefinitely (most likely at least three years but honestly, who can plan that far ahead?). So here we are back in good old Kansai. We arrived last wednesday evening and Ulala`s parents met us at the airport and took us to dinner at a nice little curry udon place in Tsuruhashi (right near where we live) and then dropped us and our bags off at our apartment. Well, almost all our bags. One of mine was MIA and the very nice ladies at the lost luggage counter in Kansai International Airport assured me it would be found within the week and NorthWest would pay to have it delivered to my house. I wasn`t at all stressed, though. Not like last time in June when China Air lost ALL our bags between Beijing and Vancouver. THAT was stressful. This time i was just happy to be back in Osaka and know that i had enough clean underwear to last me. My bag arrived via courier on Friday morning, not even two full days late. Turns out it had nothing to do with NorthWest either. US Customs had snagged it when we passed through Detroit for their "random inspection" and so it had missed the connection. And yet NorthWest had to pay for the courier to deliver it to my house from the airport. That hardly seems fair, does it?

Then on Friday evening we had dinner with Peter and some of the old Amagasaki Nova students. It was great to see all of them again! Peter will be opening his own English school in Amagasaki to try and pick up some of the customers left in the ruins of the whole Nova Crash last year. Hopefully when things get up and running i`ll be able to work their one or two days a week, so i won`t lose touch with those students. The Amagasaki students were among my favorites in my four years teaching here.

On Saturday Ulala and i joined the Osaka 101 Bar Tour to help reintroduce ourselves to the Osaka nightlife. We had fun but Ulala went home early and i stayed out with Tony and others until far too late. We also went to Oasis Lounge`s last party before they shut their doors. Glad i could be back in Japan just in time for one last dance there. Thank you to Dan for almost four years of great beats, drinks and parties! Always a good time with the best local DJ talent in Kansai. Hopefully his new location will be open before too long. Speaking of DJing, i have my first gig since returning this coming Friday (Feb. 1st). Soon! Setting up my decks again was one of the first things i did when i got back and i`ve been practicing everyday! I haven`t touched decks in six months so i`m more than a little nervous about playing in public again, but whatever. It`s all just for fun, otherwise why do it?

Also since returning i have been diligently job-hunting. I`ve applied to a few jobs on-line and received a couple of responses. I have two interviews on Friday. Fingers crossed. The one job i really want and think i would be really good at i haven`t heard back from yet. A lot of people applied for it so i think it might be a while before i hear anything, if i do. Scratch that - WHEN i do. Gotta stay positive. =)

And with that i need to stop hogging the internet. We still don`t have a connection in our house yet due to the slow hook up process and some miscommunication about paying our bill while we were out of the country for six months. SO it might be up to two weeks before we have our own line again. Meh. Until next time...

Oh how i missed Japanese food!

January 14th 2009

The posts that are about present happenings shall be labeled with the date, methinks. Simple that way - since there are other past posts coming intermittently. =) There are two exclamations of note today:

1. SNOW!!!
We awoke to a soft white blanket over everything this morning. Then Ulala and i set to shoveling out the driveway and sidewalk. Ah, Canadian winter...

One of our trees, laced with snow

Our snowy, sleepy street

Rabbit tracks in the snow in our yard



2. PUPPY!!!
Guinness came home today around noon and we played with him and took him out often and took lots of pictures. He seems to love his first toy and he definitely loves the snow outside. He is very laid back and not nervous to be in a new house away from his litter mates at all. He ate straight away when given food and already seems to be adjusted to his new home. This is extremely encouraging since it can be a rough change for puppies to go form Mom and siblings to a new place with strangers. But not Guinness! He seems right at home. There are lots of pictures since everything he does is implicitly cute and thus photo worthy. Even sleeping. Especially sleeping. =)






In other totally unrelated news, it looks like we got out of Buenos Aires just in time. Air Canada apparently had to strand a bunch of passengers in Ezeiza airport when a near-riot broke out in the airport due to Aerolineas Argentina (the Argentine domestic airline) canceling many of its flights as a result of labour disputes. To read more click here. I am beginning to wonder if i`ll ever be able to say the word "labour" without "dispute" somewhere close behind it...

January 13th 2008

Back to the present for a moment. We had two days of visiting with some of my family here in Ontario. We got to see my grandmother at `The Meadows` yesterday and she looked well for her 84 years. Then today Aunt Ina and her two boys Riley and Arlan came over for dinner. We almost had Will (one of our other cousins) over too but it was too far and too late for him to make it. We had stew for dinner and played a few rounds of Dog-opoly, which is a version of Monopoly with dog names and terms. How weird is that? Well, actually i guess it isn`t all that weird since there is Simpsons Monopoly and in Japan Ulala and i own a Japanese version where all the names have been changed to places in Tokyo and area. Oh well, beats reality TV anyway.
Ulala, Grandma, me.

Playing Dog-opoly.



Earlier in the day, before our guests arrived, Mom, Ulala, and i went around and checked out a few possible locations for the wedding. It was pretty cold but we saw some potential places. We have to look at a couple places in Toronto next weekend when we are in the city too. It`s hard to decide wether to have it in the city where it is convenient for guests (many of whom are coming from out of town) or to have it outside the city where there are nicer outdoor locations and it will be cheaper but less convenient. *sigh* So much planning. And we will be in Japan for most of the planning time! While we were scouting locations we saw lots of geese who seem to be running late in their Southern journey due to the warm week we`ve been having here.



And tomorrow we bring home the new puppy!!! His name is Guinness (David named him) and we`re all very excited, including Ulala, who has never really played with or cared for a puppy before so she has been diligently reading her puppy-training book. I`ll be sure to post more pictures of the little guy`s first day home tomorrow. This picture is from when Mom and David went to pick him out a couple weeks ago:

The Back-Log of Blog

Since i have been piling up memories and experiences and more or less ignoring the blog, the time has finally come to post all those accumulated photos and stories from the rest of our trip to Buenos Aires. Please bear with me since most of them will be terribly out of order (i will try to give some context to the photos). So here comes the flood of backed-up posts that have been sitting on my computer, half-written and unborn. =)

Let us travel back, way back to the night of December 20th, when our good friends Ben and Tomoko had us over for a lovely sushi dinner at their house. Tomoko is an excellent sushi `chef` and even once plied her trade as a caterer so she prepared a feast of raw fish for Ulala and i and another friend of theirs Robert (i have mentioned his informative and well-written Buenos Aires blog in previous posts). The food was fantastic, the beer cold, and the conversation interesting. Thank you to Ben and Tomoko for a lovely time. Here are some pictures from the evening:

So much Sushi!

from left: Ben, Ulala, Tomoko, and Robert.

Ulala and Tomoko chowing down.

Choco the mischievous cat.

Morriston

I am currently sitting in an old stone house in Morriston, Ontario, Canada. It is cold. Not as cold as it often is this time of year but still COLD. Ulala is napping in front of the fireplace and i am a few feet away at the computer awaiting the call to dinner. Tonight we are having pork roast courtesy of mom. This is not our house but it should give you an idea of the weather and area we are in now:


Earlier today Mom, Ulala, and i went to the Wings of Paradise Butterfly Conservatory. Mostly we went for something to do and i didn`t expect anyone else to be there what with it being cold and wet and a grey January day in Ontario. But there were other visitors (not many) and the butterflies were less active than summertime but still fluttering around in their greenhouse. We saw some of the butterflies (imported from Costa Rica and Malaysia while in chrysalis form) being born as butterflies, which was neat.





I love being home with family but i already miss the sunny streets of Buenos Aires and the architecture and the cafes and the music and our friends there. And i miss being warm. =)
Tomorrow we are getting up early to go to a bridal/wedding show to get ideas for our wedding, which isn`t until next year but we will be in Japan until then so it will be hard to plan the Canadian portion. Wish me luck!

On The Road Again

Well, now that Sneaker Idol season 1 has wrapped up (and to think, i owe nothing to the WGA!) i can move on to posting pics and thoughts from the last few weeks here in Buenos Aires. Tomorrow we check out of our temporary apartment, return our rented cell phones, and head (with all our stuff) out to Ezeiza International Airport to fly back to Toronto. We`ll be in Ontario fro about two weeks (some of that time in Toronto, some in Morriston - near Guelph). Then we fly once again back to Osaka, Japan to find work and start saving like crazy for our next big adventure - the wedding!


Obelisk as seen from the back window of a taxi.

Sneaker Idol Results Show

Let`s cut to the chase, shall we? No hour-long build-up or recap, no highlights. So the winners: The DCs!!! It`s just as well that the Quicksilvers didn`t win since when i got to the shop they were gone. And i got the last pair of DCs so i got a fifty peso discount!! Nice!! The DCs won with 8 votes and the Quicksilvers and Spirals tied for second with four votes each. Thank you to everyone who participated. This was a fun (albeit odd) little experiment. =) Maybe next time i`ll need a jacket or some such thing, eh? Or a car! ...one day...

The kickin` new kicks.


New and Old. As you can see, i was in need.