even the deer enjoy a good hotspring!

continuing on we saw a deer all ready to go for a nice relaxing soak in an onsen (hotspring). i mean he even had his towel to dry off with.
this totally boggled our minds. how the hell does a deer get a towel? and why didn't it try to get it off? we watched this fellow wander around and not even once did he seem to care having a towel on his back. maybe he was cold. we will never know. no other "wild" animal would tolerate that.

i think my favourite part of this picture is the look on the deer's face. like he is saying, "what, you never seen a freakin' deer with a towel?"

Chompy Chomperson

walking along one of the side streets we came across this little fellow. he was clearly doing something that he shouldn't be doing. and that was eating garbage. and not just the garbage itself, but the paper bag that the garbage was in. as we walked up closer he seemed to become afraid that we might take away his treasured treat. we was all prepared to bolt and make off with his find so i thought it would be better to keep my distance and let him enjoy his bag. he was munching away as if there wasn't anything better in the whole world.
earlier we had seen 2 other deer eating garbage out of the "deer proof" garbage bins. who knew that these animals were like cute goat/pig/jackal hybrids?
oh how we love you Chompy. chomp on my friend, chomp on!

Well, listen up, I ate a baby. Oh, aye, Baby: the other, other white meat. Baby: it's what's for dinner. (I want my baby back baby back ribs)

so further on we came across this horrible scene. apparently a Japanese couple had decided that their lives were more important and they left their child alone to be devoured by the horrible hooved horde. by the time we got there the kid was already gone and the deer had started in on the baby carriage. i mean he was literally eating it!
we tried to shoo him away and instead he turned his hungry gaze towards us. only by throwing some other trash to distract him were we able to escape with all our appendages intact.

death up close

after eating the food the deer then turned their attention on us. i narrowly avoided being eaten alive by throwing a small school girl to the starving antlered jackals.

attack of the killer deer!!

ok, so we went and visited Miyajima island and there are 2 famous things about this island. the first is this giant Tori (spirit gate) that is out in the water. when the tide comes in it looks like it is floating in the water. so that is cool.

the other thing is that the island is overrun by these "wild" deer. they go all over the place and basically do as they please. people come and feed them and pet them and so they have absolutely no fear of humans. this can cause problems. before we got here i filled Marlito with stories of these "wild" deer that will attack you for your food and jump at you and basically eat you whole. i told her to be careful around these "wild" deer. so thinking that they were actually dangerous she was a bit skittish when she tried to feed them. before she knew it she was surrounded by deer all trying to get her delicious goodies (deer food). in the process of being very careful not to get her fingers bitten off by the "wild" deer she kept holding the food up high. this was the wrong idea. it made things worse. the deer just tried harder to get the food. it was a very funny spectacle to witness. these deer entertained us to no end and we found out that they have quite the personalities. they were by far the best part of the island.

nice castle, nicer reflection

here you have a couple nice pics of Hiroshima Castle. i think there is a nice balance between historic old Japan and modern Japan. the weather was perfect and i really liked the pics i could get that morning.

Hiroshima HO!!!!!!!!!!!!

so last week there was a holiday on a thursday! weekday holidays are the best in Japan because not everyone has that same holiday and thus you won't be completely crushed under the weight of a million other tourists. Marlito, Jun Jun and i caught an early morning bus for Hiroshima. we were set on having fun and nothing was going to stop us. nothing i tell you. nothing.

-the next 2 hours were spent unconscious-

yay! we arrived safely and only a little sleepy eyed. first thing, Hiroshima-jo for a wonderful photo op. but first we needed to take a picture to allow people to know where we were. here we have Marlito and Jun-Jun trying to make an H (for Hiroshima of course, not for Happy Days which was a show staring Ron Howard)

who are those giant people?

after walking around the castle we went and caught the train to take us to a ferry to get over to Miyajima island. here we are waiting for the train. and yes, Marlito and i really are that huge. Jun-Jun looked like a child when seen next to us. so we took the train and then the ferry. i had made this same trip about 6 months prior with a larger group of people so i knew what i was getting myself into. Marlito on the other hand was not at all prepared for the craziness that was soon to unfold once we arrived on Miyajima.

ROCK ON!!!

Marlito gave the bowtie a test drive. and things just weren't the same after that.

go, go, gadget bowtie!

this was too much fun

deer in headlights

this was the complete outfit. pink bowtie, reindeer antlers and the jacket thing

Happy Birthday to me!

ok, so yesterday some students of mine took Marlito and i out for a drive. we went to a hotspring and visited this mountain top area with lots of cows. returning to okayama we went out for dinner. and that was when i got my birthday surprise. my student had nicely decided to give me some props to wear during the meal. the red coat thing says "festival".

a little bit older, a little bit wiser...... NOT!

well as some of you might know, today is my birthday. yes, that's right, I have turned 25. a quarter of a century has past since my birth. let's take a look at some of the historical things that have happened while i have been alive. these are in no particular order

- the develepment of the internet and the world wide web (and blogs of course)
- operation desert storm, the war on terror, and all the other wars that happen every day that CNN doesn't think deserve to be covered
- the 80's (now let us forget those years)
- nintendo coming to north america
- the early 90's (let us also forget those years)
- reebok pump shoes, orbitz, skip-it, hyper colour, chip n' pepper and all the other dead products from the past.
- Seinfeld and the subsequent death of comedy television afterwards
- freedom fries, freedom toast and freedom kissing
- ninja turtles and he-man (the toys that made me the man i am today)
- the birth of the Olson twins
- supersize, biggie size, and all the other fast food gimmicks
- pokemon
- pepsi one, C2, clear, gold, COKE (not coca-cola), twist, free, and the list goes on!
- reality television (who could ever forget SURVIVOR?) and the fact that most of it wasn't reality at all.
- the complete mockery of the justice system (Lewinsky, OJ, judge judy etc.)
- CDs, DVDs, MP3s, SUVs, HIV, 9/11, SARS, WOMD, IBM, CSI, ER, 90210, LOL, REM, H5N1, WNBA, MSNBC, LOTR (because most people don't read), .com, genX, ADD, IT, X,
- berlin wall, space shuttles, mission to mars, breakup of the soviet union, rayban sunglasses, and all the other actually important stuff
- ronald reagan, an actor turned president who has opened the doors for other public figures such as arnold swarzenegger and jessie "the body" ventura (and i heard ben affleck is considering)
- dolly the sheep and stem cells
- queer eye for the straight guy
- the home shopping network

I could really go on forever here, but you get the idea. hopefully the next 25 years will be just as exciting!

nikku-man (you better eat your pork)

in Japan i have come across a tasty snack that i wish existed in Canada. it is basically a hot, sweet bun filled with a pork stew like mixture. it is originally from China but the people here have embraced it and adapted it to fit Japanese tastes. you can get all sorts of different flavours and they are available at almost any convenience store (along with everything else you could ever want). but it Kobe, in the chinatown area, there was a whole restaurant specializing in this food. and this was the statue greeting people at the door. a pig that is basically saying, "hey, come on in and eat me! i'm delicious and steaming!"

too cute to live!

kobe had an unending number of photo opportunities and here are two more. the first one is of Marlito and the Kyupi mayonnaise boy. don't they look adorable.
the other one is us and a giant inflateable penguin (in case it wasn't obvious from the picture)

you spin me right round baby, right round

have you ever seen a nicer ferris wheel? by simply adding Marlito to the picture any ferris wheel instantly becomes the best. at least that is my opinion. this one changes colour in a random pattern. that makes it cool!

kobe tower

here we have the crown jewel of kobe harbour, kobe tower. i am sorry to inform you that i have no information about this structure other than it looks cool at night. oh, and that it grows out of the top of my head. i guess that is interesting.

Kobe!

Marlito and i took a trip to kobe last week to see the sights. and did we ever! this first one is of this guy we saw on the street. there were just so many things going on i couldn't help myself, i needed a picture. i mean, the colour scheme, the fabric M on his butt, the fact that he was about 50, and his hair cut. that all spells G-O-L-D.