Blog about Yoo, but me

A good week I must say.

I’ve been going to the gym almost everyday. Working out as much as I can. It’s one thing that keeps me sane.

Thursday, I was going to go to Japanese class with Junior. But his leg is messed up. So instead he said he’d go to a Bible study. I haven’t had Bible study in a long time so I decided to join him. It was refreshing. I met some new people. An Australian couple that have been here for a few months  and Ineko-san and her kids. I had a good time playing with the kids. Anyways, we talked about the story of Lazarus. Where Jesus’ wept. It really shows how Jesus was a human too. I won’t go into much detail. So ya.

Friday, we played some volleyball after work. It was a lot of fun. We had enough people for 2 courts. It was good times. Saturday, played futsal again. Good times again. After futsal, I went to Kamada-san’s place to go over the last details for the Hokkaido trip. We played some Mario Kart Wii. That was fun.

Today, I went to this Udon Soba place somewhere in the mountains. It’s about a 40min drive from Kagoshima City. And it was Ryu-san’s first time driving a distance. He just got his license so we decided to go there. The restaurant is quite famous. The food is the real stuff. And the place is like an old Japanese style place. With sliding doors and tatami mats. It was an awesome. The food was awesome too. There’s nothing like real Japanese Udon. After we went to the batting cages. And later headed home.

I recently ran out of food. I mean the food I brought from Korea. My aunt made all this spicy pork for me. But I finished it all. So now I have to start cooking again. Bah! Sall good, I don’t mind.

Hokkaido Thursday!!!

Updating for the sake of updating…

Last week was another week. Yesterday was another day. So not really much has changed. Well, Friday went to Seika gym. I worked out my legs. But later Ryu-san, HwaJin Noona, and I decided to join a class. It was a body combat class. So lots of kicking and punching. Reminded me of Taekwondo. So It was fun. Saturday, played some futsal! Fun it was too. I watched too many movies on the weekend.

Bah, this post is boring. Whatever! At least I’m looking forward to Hokkaido!! Niseko!!!! The land of powder!! Ya baby!

Anyways, been doing more thinking about life after this. I know the potential. The possibilities. But I’m worried. I’m worried about the choice that I could make. It may be a foolish. I’m still wondering and day dreaming. And that’s all I’m doing. Thinking without actions. I will admit that I am scared. I have many obligations or even personal plans. Is it a good idea to drop all that? I mean what if I never get back on my feet. The next 5-10 years are important. I can’t be stupid. Anyways, for now I’ll let it be. You probably have no idea what I’m talking about. And that’s the point. You’ll never know. lol

Last week I started up my workouts because I rested all week last week. My legs felt good and I was ready to get back in shape. I also was looking for different exercises. I’ve done the P90x before and I still incorporate many of the exercises in my routine. I also found about Shaun T’s Insanity. I haven’t watched the videos yet. But I heard it’s pretty crazy. For now, I’ll be doing random exercises to get my body going again.

I went to Japanese lessons on Thursday. I met up with Junior at Temonkan. We walked over to the international centre. The class was a lot smaller then before. And only 5 lessons. Before we had 2 seperate classes, beginner and advanced, and had 15 lessons. I guess there aren’t as many students so they combined the class. It was more of a discussion with everyone. I miss the first lesson last week so everyone already introduced themselves. We also talked about the earthquake in Haiti. They call it jishin. Anyways, they were saying how Japan gets earthquakes all the time. I experienced my first one a couple of months ago. But today, I felt another earthquake. They were two seperate ones and lasted for a few seconds. This was when I was working. So it was quite scary. Anyways, we also wrote our own haiku’s. The teacher actually specializes and teaches haiku’s at a school. So he taught us the rules and what not. I’ve done them before back when I was a kid. But never in Japanese. This is how it goes.

ともだちや
たくさんのゆき
コートきる

Which says,

Friend
Lots of snow
Wear a coat

Well, I hope you enjoyed that. Some of the other foreigners had some deep haiku’s. Even the teachers thought was very deep in thought.

Friday, we had a farewell party for Yamanaka-san. We went to some restaurant after work. The food was okay. At least the drinks were free. Well I had one beer. That’s all I needed. We later went to a second bar with half the people. We talked, laughed, and took pictures. It was good times. It was getting late and I decided to head home. Some of the other guys were onto their 3rd stop. Probably a fourth too. Anyways, I called it a night. I still had fun.

The weekend was okay. I worked out, watched a good amount of movies, and went to church. We had curry at church and it was goood. But I found out I have to read a bible passage in front of the congregation next month. It’s Romans 10:8-13. I’m a bit nervous but at least I have some time to practice. I borrowed one of the Japanese bibles and everything is written up to down and right to left. lol. I’m not used to that.

Well for now, back to listening to more Regina Spektor and Adele.

Today I thought I would write about something different. Taking a break from writing about Japan.

Well sometimes I think to myself what it would be like 10 years from now. But let me tell you what it was like 10 years ago.

I am in highschool then. I’m beginning to settle with the new friends I’ve made. My marks are slowly dropping as all you want to do is have fun. In my last year of high school, things are good. You have your friends established. Everyone knows you. Life is good. But you realize you have to focus on your marks for university. Well for me, I still half-assed it. I still got above average marks in most of my classes. However, due to my laziness, all I wanted to do was finish school and start working. So I decided to go to college despite getting accepted to most of the universities I applied to. All I wanted to do is make money so I could buy myself a motorcycle. lol.

Well I’m in college now. Most of my friends are in university. At first, I didn’t care. All I was thinking about was the $$ I would be making after I graduate. College felt like high school again. And what made things worse was the lack of girls. “Whatever!” I thought.

So after graduating, I had trouble finding a decent job. I had a good GPA but had little to no experience. I eventually got a job. A below average paying job. Thinking, “Wow! What a waste of time and money going to college to get such a sh!tty job. However, I was still happy that I got my first real job.

I finally bought the motorcycle I always wanted. Most of my friends are still in university while I’m working. So I was having fun with the motorcycle. But at the same time, I was still lonely. We moved to Burlington to make things worse. I was far from all my friends.

I eventually got layed off after working 6 months. Life got pretty stale from then on. I was living off EI and basically took a good 3/4 months off. Well it wasn’t so bad. I was getting paid to do nothing. lol. At that point, I told myself I was going to go back to school. I applied but found out I was too late in registration. And I couldn’t start school in January. I had to wait till next September if I got in. I wish I had a applied earlier. I applied anyways.

At that point, I wasn’t sure if I would get accepted or not. So I decided I would find another job. I still didn’t have much experience but I found one company that would take me. It was very low paying job. I didn’t care. I just wanted to work. I had to travel around Ontario. Like Toronto, Niagara Falls, Barrie, Belleville, etc. I really enjoyed it. It really put me of my comfort zone. I had always talk with people. So it was an awesome experience.

During that time, I also got an early acceptance to the University of Toronto for Computer Science. I was super excited. As crazy as it may sound, I was looking forward to going back to school.

School was soon to start so I had to quit my job. Unfortunately, I had to sell to sell the motorcycle. It was sad moment. But hopefully, I’ll buy another. It was first year and I was older than everyone. It felt awkward at first but I fit in just fine. I met new people from my classes and also at KCF. It was a good year. Everything was new. Things were starting to pick up again. Why didn’t I go to university first? I ask myself this all the time.

2nd year was a breeze. Well not really. Failed my first course in my entire educational life. It was a depressing moment. However, I moved on. That wasn’t going to stop me from moving forward. 3rd year was better. I was enjoying a lot of the classes I was taking. They were difficult but I enjoyed the challenge. I also had PEY applications, resumes, interviews also to worry about. I was keen on going to Japan to work. I wanted a challenge and prayed really hard for this job. Well, thankfully, I got the job. I was not expecting it at all. I guess the college and the work experience paid off in the end.

So here I am in Japan. Doing an internship with Epson. I’m half way done and it feels unreal at times. I know I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t go through all of what I went through. It was long journey thus far. I look back and I have no regrets. Well maybe a few but I’m thankful for where I am.

The next 10 years of my life will be exciting. I know it. I look forward to so many things. I’ll be finishing up school, starting up my career, buying another motorcycle, and of course finding a girlfriend. lol. It will be exciting times. Not only for me but for all my friends too. I’ll probably be going to a lot of weddings and seeing a lot babies. It’s a new chapter in life and I am excited. Are you?

The past few days the weather has been amazing. We have been getting +10 degree weather. We hit about 17 degrees today. It was so nice. I’m already ready for the summer. But not until I go to Hokkaido.

This past week, I’ve been resting up after the marathon. It took about 3-4 days to full recover . I thought it would be a lot worse. I also went to the Seiko sports gym a couple of times to stretch and go on the massage chair. Feels great. I was talking to one of the employees that ran the marathon as well. She asked me the time I finished. I told her my time. I asked what she did. She finished in 4 hrs 20 mins. WOW. I was very impressed. My time felt embarrassing. After that moment, I thought to myself I should run again and try to get the 4-5 hr mark. I know I should be able to with some training. I won’t be doing another marathon anytime soon but I plan to do another. The next one will be a half-marathon. Hopefully. Right Yury? Well the next 2-3 months I’m going to be working out again. And after that, I’ll be training on my running again. It’s going to be a tiring next few months.

On Saturday, we had a futsal (indoor soccer) tournament. The bad thing was it started at 9am. BAH! So early. Whatever, I woke up in time and Wada-san picked me and Urishibata -san up. We headed over to the dome and warmed up. Our first game was against the past tournament winners. It was a good game. Because we WON! I wasn’t surprised. We had a good team and we were a lot more organized. Our next game, we also won! Yaaa!! We were #1 in our division. Well only 3 teams in our division. Our next game was the semi’s. So if we win this, we would go to the finals. Right at the last second of the first half, the other team scores. The next half, we tie it up!! I was so happy. I sat off because one of our star players was sitting out. So I substituted for him. With 10 seconds remaining, all we had to do is keep it out of our net. But that didn’t happen. They score at the last second. AGAIN! We lost. It was heart breaking. We played for the 3rd place spot. We won! Ya, it wasn’t first place. It was 3rd. Whatever. We grabbed some Ramen and headed home. It was my brother’s birthday yesterday. Well today on his time. So I talked to him on MSN. He seems happy and he says he feels no different at the age of 30. Dang he’s 30. I’ll be there soon.

On Sunday, I went to church. It’s been a while. I haven’t seen the church members in a long time. Well, Ishiguro-san being the nice person she is, helped me with the Japanese sermon. After, I gave gifts to the church. It was seaweed. Japanese love their seaweed. I had to go. Noriko wanted to meet up with Janet and his brother. She picked me up and we picked up Janet’s brother, Junior. Big guy. He’s from Australia. But doesn’t really look Australian. He’s a cool guy. He’s here for 3 months on vacation. Her sister Janet was still asleep so we just left. We also picked up Noriko’s friend Yuka. She had a night shift so she was super tired and out of it the whole time. It was quite amusing. We grabbed some lunch at an Indian restaurant. Good stuff. Then we headed over to Starbucks and just chilled and talked. It was good talking to them. Junior is learning some Japanese. So we decided to go to Japanese class this Thursday. That’ll be interesting.

Well this week is back to work. Work is work. But I’m looking forward to the Hokkaido trip. That’s all I’m really thinking about. Well I was talking to my mom the other day and she mentioned living in Korea. I thought about it. I would consider it. I’m not sure long term. But maybe short term. Like a few years. But ya, living in Japan has made me realize that it’s possible to live anywhere. I’m sure it would be a lot easier living in Korea or anywhere other than Toronto. Preferably, somewhere where English is the first language. But Korea would work too. So, at least I can do it if I had to.

Anyways, this Friday there is a farewell party for Yamanaka-san. He’s been at Epson for 10 years. I guess his contract is over and he’s moving on to another company. So I’ll be enjoying a night of good food and drunken coworkers. That’s going to leave a dent in my wallet.

Well back to life in Japan…

PS. I’m loving Regina Spektor. She has beautiful music. So different and unique. My type of my music.

Wow what a weekend. Long and painful, it was.

It first started with working on Saturday. Instead we get Monday off. It worked out better in the end. This was because the marathon on Sunday. Monday would be perfect to rest. Well after work, we headed to my coworker’s, Nakata-san, place in Ibusuki. Wow, he has a really nice place. A little house with 2 floors. But the awesome thing about this place is that they have their own private onsen. The hotspring water comes naturally to all the houses in the area. So it’s pretty sweet. Well we had a long day ahead of us so we decided to sleep early. Well the sleeping part didn’t take part for me and Wada-san. Ohira-san was snoring all night. Even with kicking and throwing stuff at him didn’t stop his snoring. I’m sure I got 1 hour sleep that night.

Well we got ready the next morning. Dressed, ate breakfast, and took our morning poo’s. lol. Nakata-san’s place was close to the marathon place. So we just walked over. Took about 15 minutes. Wow, there were a lot of people. We headed into this gym to get our registration numbers and free t-shirt. I’m glad I went to the washroom before I got here. There were huge line ups. Anyways, we had to go line up at the starting line. Everyone got split up. I saw it coming. There were over 20,000 people participating in the race.
The gun went off. The race had started. But no one was moving. LOL. There were too many of us. Finally, it got moving. But very slow. Like walking speed. Wow it was crowded. Slowly but surely the speed started to pick up. It was amazing view though. Just watching all the people behind and in front of me. It was crazy! Also it amusing to watch people in costumes. Like people dressed up in Spiderman, batman, Superman, maids, dancers, bees, etc. It always gave me a smile watching them. Also, people would run off course to have their pee breaks. It was funny a bunch of guys lined up taking a piss. LOL. Anyways, the first 5km’s was quite relaxing. Well, it was hard to go fast. TOO many people, like I said. We had our first h20 break around the 5km mark too. They were giving away water, sports drink, banana’s, and sweet potato. I grabbed some water and kept going. Avoiding the crowd as much as I can. Well, the course itself was amazing. The view was awesome! Mountains, lake, seas, flowers, etc. It was beautiful. The weather was amazing too. Not cold or hot. At around the 10km mark, Nakata-san caught up to me. We eventually lost each other. At the 15km mark, there was a h20 station that was giving Udon!!!! UDON!! lol. I didn’t grab any. Too many people, once again. At around 18km mark, I had my first gel pack. Me legs were kinda tightening up. I had to stretch before I continued. Oh, I should mention, I didn’t have a watch or there weren’t many signs that had that amount km’s left. At around 25km though, was very depressing. Well not depressing but sad. Meaning that we just passed the half way mark. At that point my legs were hurting. I wasn’t tired at all. Just my legs were hurting. The only thing that could keep me motivated was this girl. She was cute. So I followed her. She had a good pace going. So I made sure I stayed behind her. lol. No I wasn’t stalking her. Well I lost her after 30 km’s. Around then there was this one station that was giving red bean soup. It was so good. And old guys roasting rice cakes with soy sauce. So good! Anyways, I had to keep going. I took another gel pack around the 32 km mark. It gave me a boost of energy. Well that didn’t last long. At the 35km, my legs and my feet were hurting. And to add to that, there was a huge hill that we had to conquer. One of my coworkers told me that he saw me on the news. It had to be that moment. lol. At least I was on tv. Finally, defeating the hill, I thought we were almost there. NOT!!! Still had like 5 km to. Man the last 5km’s felt like eternity. I was in pain! I couldn’t run at all. However, the last 500m I limped my way to the finish line. I made it into the stadium and people cheering us on. It was such an amazing feeling to cross that finish line. I FINISHED A MARATHON!!!! Well it took me 5 hrs 59 mins (gun time). I’m sure I could have done better. But the less than 1 month training didn’t help. I got my free towel and a print out of my time. From there, I could finally relax! But I couldn’t. The pain!! haha
We all found each other some how. We headed back and took the taxi instead of walking. It was well worth it. We went back to Nakata-san’s place. And we relaxed in pain. lol… we washed up, took a nap, and ate dinner.

I had pain in my knees, thighs, feet, and forearm. I was a bit surprised my forearms would hurt. After 2 days, my thighs still hurt. Going down stairs hurts.

Without the support of the people on the streets, yelling Ganbatte (Do your best) and the cute girls running, I wouldn’t have been able to finish. lol.. But overall, it was a wonderful but painful experience. I probably won’t be doing another marathon again after that. I would be much more comfortable doing a half marathon the next time around. Plus the training part would have helped.

Today, it snowed in Kagoshima! And that’s very rare! I mean the snow stayed on the ground. It was very wet snow but still. Everyone was surprised. I loved it. I don’t think anyone else did. My first snow in Japan. Awesome!

Well…I’m back from Korea. I had an awesome time. I’ll split it up into “Story” and “Thoughts”. Because the “Story” part is quite long and just explains what I did.

And this is how it goes…

<Story>

I left on the 23rd of December. It was a Wednesday. It’s a holiday in Japan so it works out perfectly. My flight was at 12 so I left the house around 9am. Got to the airport. Ate some Udon before getting on the plane. There weren’t many people on this flight. It was really empty. Kinda sucked I paid a bit more for this flight. I’m sure I could have gotten it a lot cheaper. Whatever, that wasn’t really on my mind at the time. I finally finished the Friends series. 10 series altogether. And I finished it on the plane. Ah, things were going as planned. I landed and hopped on the limousine bus to Seoul, where my uncle picked me up. It was good seeing my aunt and uncle again. We arrived at my aunt’s place and I chilled at their house. I didn’t mind. All I wanted to do was relax. I really needed it. Nothings wrong with Japan, it’s just that I can relax, be comfortable, and be lazy. hehe… I talked to my one of cousin’s, Ashley, on video internet chat. She’s in Germany. So we talked a bit. My other cousin came home, Katie. We caught up and just chilled. It was a day to just relax at home. Well the things is, Katie started working. So she comes home late all the time. And generally, just really busy with work. I’m sure most people know how it is in Korea.

Next day, Christmas Eve!! I went to go eat out for lunch with my aunt’s. We went to this E-mart. My aunt’s love it there. It has just about everything you need. Groceries, clothing, food court, theatre, etc. They go there regularly. Anyways, I decided to eat Jajjangmuhn. Haven’t had it in a while. Boy was it good to eat Korea food again. We later had coffee and talked. I had to meet up with my mom’s side aunt. I had to meet her at Jamsil by Lotte World. There, my aunt bought me snowboard jacket/pants and a dress suit. She spent so much money on me. I felt bad. But she kept on insisting. I couldn’t resist. haha… I was very thankful though. I later had to meet up with my cousin Katie. We were heading over to her church. The church is actually outside of Seoul. It’s quite far. Almost a 2 hour bus ride. We got there, ate a Lotte burger. And headed over to the church. The church was in the middle of no where. In like a mountain’ish area. We couldn’t see anything b/c it was all dark. Thankfully, we had a flash light. We got to the church building. I met some of the church people there. They were practicing a performance for tomorrow’s service. It was actually really good. I didn’t really know anyone but everyone was really friendly. My Korean being limited and their English being limited as well made it tricky. hehe.. But there was one girl, Regina, that spoke a bit of English. So we talked a bit. And later another guy showed up, Richard, that came back from studying in the US. They finished practicing so we headed down to where we were going to sleep. We washed up and some of the younger ones played. I talked with some of the older guys. There was one funny moment. They asked me, “Do you like sports? (in Korean)” and before I tell you what I said, I must remind you that I haven’t spoken a decent amount of Korea in a while. So my reply was “I am good at everything (in Korean)”. LOL… What I meant to say was, “I like everything”. hahaha that was jokes. We had a good laugh.

Next morning, we woke up, washed up, ate shin lamuhn for breakfast and headed to the chapel. There was a sermon and after performances by different age groups. Somehow, I got stuck taking pictures. lol… Well there was no one else b/c they were all performing. It was cool. Later, I saw Sookyung and HyunJun!! I was so happy. They are cutie pies. When we headed back home I went in the same car with them. Me and Sookyung talked in English. It was so funny because she never speaks English to the other aunts or uncles. I had presents for them. They seemed to like them. Later, they had to leave to visit other relatives. Katie and two other church girls came over. I took a nap before heading out. We went to E-mart again to get some wine and snacks. We planned to have a wine party later tonight so we bought a few bottles. We also ate some gimdak. Sooo goood. We had to go. sWe got picked up by my distant cousin, ChungYong or Mr. Seoul (b/c he goes to Seoul Univ). We headed to this house. It’s one of the moksanim’s house. They lent us the house for the night. But the house and land was huge. It was very nice. It’s actually American land that was claimed long time ago. But otherwise, it was a nice piece of land in Seoul. That night we had a wine party. A bunch of people brought wine. Altogether, 11 bottles! We had 11 people. So a bottle for each person. lol. But it was good getting to know some of the people. It was Christmas Day. It was snowing. It was some good times even with new faces. We later played some games. We had two teams where the losing team had to clean up the next morning. We played a bunch of similar games you see on Korean tv shoes. It was good times. Later, we chilled and talked more. I slept around 3 am that night. Tired was I.

Next morning, we had our lamuhn again. lol. We cleaned up a bit. I headed out early because Sookyung’s family was leaving and I wanted to eat lunch with them before they left. So I met them at this bookstore and we headed back home. We ate samkyupsal. Sooo gooood. I later played with Sookyung and HyunJun. They eventually had to go. So I said my byes before leaving. I was sad. Probably won’t see them again for a long time. Later, I met up with Katie and the two girls again. We headed to Dongdaemoon. We ate. I had bibimbap. Good stuff. But the funny thing was, I ordered it and the person taking my order knew I wasn’t from Korea. I guess it’s my 2nd gen Korean accent. lol. Later, we shopped around Doota tower, had some waffle dessert, and headed home. I was actually glad to be home. I was exhausted from the lack of sleep the past few days.

I don’t know how I woke up the next day. I was knocked out cold. But we had to head to church early. Got there. Played some pingpong and later headed to the chapel. Had service. Met with some of the other church people. It was good. I was meeting a lot of new people. Later, we had lunch and I talked with Regina and Richard. Eventually, had to say our byes. Probably, won’t be seeing them again. I got one of their emails. So I hope to keep in contact with her. I later played some more pingpong with Jae Hyung. He beat me again. Bah. I’m so rusty. It was all good. We had to go. It was snowing hard in Seoul. They say it hasn’t this badly in a very long time. But we got home safely. Later, we decided to go watch a movie. Avatar! Not 3D though. It was good and long. I enjoyed it. Later we ate some dakkalbi. Good stuff. We were going to head to NamSan. But the weather was terrible and the bus was taking forever. Instead, we went to go Karoke. One of the dongseungs, Chris or Tail, was an amazing singer. The other two girls were fun too, Rebecca and Sally. haha. I gave them all English names so i wouldn’t forget. Later, called it a night and headed home.

It was Monday. The plan was to go snowboarding today. But we had to cancel b/c of all the snow. Sall good. That day, I didn’t do anything. I decided to relax for a day. So not much to write here. Ohh…I went to eat jimdak again at E-mart with my aunt’s and uncle. Other than that, nothing else exciting this day.

Next day, I went to go meet up with Amy. Katie’s friend. She came to Canada a few years ago. So, I met her at a Seumsung?! We ate some joulmuhn. Good stuff. We later walked around talked. It was good catching up with her. I had to go meet my mom’s side aunt again. I had to glasses. Got them. Awkward they are. Picked up one of the dress suit b/c it was getting resized. And later headed to get something to eat. We had some shabashaba. So good. Something happened later. I don’t want to write it but everything was fine. I headed home. It was snowing a bit as I headed home. I almost got lost. But found it.

Now it’s Wed. I headed to Seoul Station to meet up with YoonJin and her sister. We had some jajjangmuhn and tansuyuk. Ah sooo gooood. It was good seeing them again. I haven’t seen her sister especially, in a long time. We chatted and caught up. We headed over to the electronic town. I had to get a case thingy for my iPhone. We found it. I totally forgot to ask for a discount. YoonJin tried but it was too late. lol. W/e. We later said our byes and I headed home.

Next day, I was invited to go snowboarding for 2 nights with Mr. Seoul’s family and SeungSu. But before that I had lunch with my aunt’s. I had soondoobu chigae. It was good. So around 3pm SeungSu and I headed over to Mr. Seoul’s place. We had to drive to Pheonix park. It was a long drive and plus the traffic didn’t help. We eventually got there. There were so many rental shops. I guess a lot of people rented. We ate samgyupsal. Yaaa. I love samgyupsal! It was New Years Eve and the resort had count down party. It was pretty good. They had some skiers come down the hill with torches in their hands. They spelt out 2010. We all had mini fireworks. Shot them off. Wow! It was a different sight. A dangerous one too. lol. This rock band played some songs and we headed in. It was freezing that night. Overall, it was a good and different New Years experience.

We woke up early and ate some buffet breakfast. It was hard to believe that I was spending the first day of the New Year snowboarding. =P We had to get our boards from the rental shop. Well they delivered it to this area. But they took forever. Finally got our gear and we headed to the hills. I didn’t expect the hills to be that good. But boy was I wrong. They were decent. A bit icy. But the hills were a decent amount length. Not that many hills to choose from though. The hills near the bottom were overly crowded though. I mean so many people that you had to avoid. Not only that, the lines were massive. Ahhh!! I guess this is why snowboarding in Korea is not enjoyable. lol. It had a good time. It was good snowboarding again. The snowboard was long and heavy though. Whatever, this was my warmup before I go to Hokkaido. We snowboarded until 4:30. It got really cold near the end and my knees were aching. So we headed in. We went to the sauna. Similar to Japan. Relaxed in the hot tub and headed up to our room for dinner. The plan was to sleep the night and head back early in the morning. But watching the news, there was suppose to be a snow storm in the morning. So we headed back early. I’m kinda glad b/c I didn’t want to wake up really early. We got home and saw Katie. It’s funny b/c I haven’t seen her since Tuesday.

I slept in. Woke up at like 11. It was my last day in Korea. We were going to go out eat at a buffet but b/c of all the snow we ate in. We ordered all this food from Dominoes pizza and chicken wings from BBQ’s. We had  a lot of food. It felt like a buffet. I was stuffed. We chatted and ate and ate. Good times. I had to go out later to meet up with Ellice at Hongdae. I met up with her. Walked around a bit and grabbed some coffee. She had already ate and I was going to eat later with my cousins so we just had coffee. We chatted about life in Korea and Japan. It was good seeing someone from back in Canada. We said our byes and I headed to Jamsil to meet my cousin, HyunJung. I was surprised b/c my aunt came and my noona MinJung. I haven’t seen her in like 8 years. I was so happy to see her. She took us to eat at this restaurant that had grilled eel. Good good. Later we drove around to find a 2nd place to eat. Eventually, we found a place that had jimdak. I know AGAIN! haha I love it. We caught up. I was so happy and sad  at that moment. They drove me home with a bunch of Kimchee, Kim, and Gogee. Love my aunt. haha… I packed up. Talked with Katie a bit and called it a night.

I couldn’t sleep at all that night. I was thinking about my time in Korea. Woke up early. Finished up my packing. My aunt drove me to the bus stop. Katie came with me. How nice of her. I guess b/c I was so nice to her when she was in Canada. haha. We ate before I had to board and said our byes. I headed on the plane back to Japan.

<Thoughts>

Well…after going to Korea, I feel that I want to go back. I met a lot of old faces and more new ones. I want to see them again before I go home to Canada. At first, my plan was to do a bit of traveling in Japan before I go home. But that may have to change. Well I’ll go to Tokyo first to see some people then head to Korea. Then go home from there. I would like to more traveling. But I wouldn’t mind traveling within Korea. I can always do an Asia trip another time. Plus, I would rather travel with a friend. I feel that after living in Japan alone, it can really take a toll on your body; physically, emotionally, and spiritually. In the meantime, I’m in Japan. I want to make it the most out of it. I came to Japan first and there’s still more to experience. So, I’ll be focusing on that before time runs out.

It’s hard to believe I only have 5 months left though. I can say that I have experienced a lot so far. 2009 has been a good year. It really showed me that God has really answered my prayers. I know Japan was all because of Him. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t ask. I’m so thankful. This year was about challenge. I really wanted it. And I got it. But it’s not over yet. I think first, He showed me that the challenge is there. Now it’s up to me. This year is about me taking that challenge and overcoming it. Here I come 2010. Are you ready for me?

<Side note>

I’ve been listening to a lot of Korean music lately. Ahhh…like Girls Generation =P

Well tomorrow I’m off to Korea. I’m quite excited, indeed. I’m all packed now. Got all my gifts (might be missing one. hmmmm…). But looking forward to seeing family and some friends in Korea. I really need a break from Japan. Not that I don’t like Japan but I just needed a break from it. Just to relax and not have any language barriers…well sorta.

Last week someone in our office on the 5th floor caught the flu. And almost everyone on that floor caught it. I also caught a cold. Indirectly or directly from them but thankfully it is just a cold. The weather has been getting colder. The weather keeps changing. So I guess my body was acting up. The floor I work on, 6th floor, some people have colds as well. Man, seems like everyone is sick. So I’ve been constantly having fluids and NeoCitron that I brought from back home.

Last Saturday, I went to Urishibata’s place and booked everything for the Hokkaido trip. The hotel through the travel agent was all booked. So we just decided to do everything on our own. It worked out to be more or less the same price. I guess it’s just the added convenience that we would have had if it were through the travel agent.

I also went to Ryu-san’s place that night. It was our Seika Sports Club Bonenkai (year end party). It was good times.

Sunday, went to church and there were more people then usual. I guess because it’s Christmas soon. After church, Ishiguro-san and I went to this concert. It was performance of old traditional songs and dancing. It was quite enjoyable. I guess the highlight was that Ishiguro-san was recognized guest to the event. This is because her mother created this Kagoshima folk song that is sung at schools. The honoured her by singing that song. It was very traditional. I wished I could have video’ed it but that was not allowed. Overall, the event was good. Later, Ishiguro-san took me to dinner and said our byes, as I’m off to Korea for the holidays.

Other than work and finding presents, it has been pretty hectic. I was trying to send postcards back home. I tried to print some off at the store but I had to print a minimum of 10. And a bit expensive. I kinda gave up after an hour. So I just found a cheap Christmas postcard for my family. (Sorry friends, but I don’t remember/have your addresses. So I couldn’t mail you anything.) Well at least I know how to do it now.

Well I should rest up gotta leave the house by 9. I likely won’t be posting anything while I’m in Korea.

So MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEARS.

Wow. We already half way through December. It’s hard to believe. That means this year is almost over. Wow this year has come and gone. I won’t be writing about what my year has been like but just thought I would mention that the year is almost over.

Well last week I’ve been running a lot. I reached 15km. It was not easy. My shoes are definitely cheap. I ended up with some blisters. I also ended losing some weight. 2kg’s to be exact. So I’ve been eating up. I also bought shoes today. I headed to Seika only to find out that it was closed. So gotta test them out tomorrow.

The office had an year end party on Friday. We headed over to Sakurajima. We got there and we went to an onsen first. A real onsen. It was really hot. I only lasted for 2 minutes in there. But it was still refreshing. We had dinner. Wow! The restaurant dining area was nice. Really Japanese style (whatever that means). But the food was awesome. And of course there were a lot of drinks. The Japanese love their alcohol. We also played bingo. Hanedo-san, got bingo first. And he won a iPod Touch!! Wow!! The second winner got an iPod Shuffle!! Awesome prizes I must say. The other prizes were just meh. I actually won too! Well I won one of those plane pillows. It was aight. It has built-in speakers. =P Well at least I won. Later we had more fun. But we had to head back before the last ferry left. Good times though.

Saturday, we played some indoor soccer. It was fun. It was the Network and UI team vs the Image processing team. Then the youngins vs the oldies. lol That was fun.

Not much else this weekend. Just mainly resting and shopping. The mall was very busy. I really don’t like shopping. I’m always overwhelmed on what to buy. And I never know what to buy. So I usually don’t buy anything. lol. Well at least I bought some shoes. I still need to get gifts for my relatives in Korea. Bah!

Got a week and a half then off to Korea. YAaaa!

I want to change the mood of this blog for this post. I know you want to hear what’s going on in Japan. But honestly, nothing worth mentioning. Or I’ll write it at the end.

I have been doing a lot of thinking about life these past few days. No I lie. These past few minutes.  I’m not sure why these thoughts came to my head. Well I have been reading other blogs before that. But honestly, I feel that I am in Japan and I am wasting my time here so far. I’m not really experiencing it how I wanted to. Sure, I got to visit Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, and more later. But I would rather experience it. Like really experience it! Well in some ways I am. I am living here alone. I am living in a foreign country. I am being challenged with Language barriers. What more can you ask Mike? I don’t know. I really don’t know. I guess I was expecting my life to drastically changed when I got here. But seriously, I don’t feel any different. I don’t feel I will go back being able to speak decent Japanese. Am I really learning anything? Am I really doing what I came here for? I ask myself this everyday. Lost I am. Forgive me God for forgetting you in this whole situation.

Anyways, I’ll update on what’s going on Japan. Been running a lot lately. Well I usually don’t run long distances. I never was good at it. But I’m training for this Marathon. I know it’s crazy! I only have a month to train. So I went to Seika and ran on the treadmill. My daily schedule has looked like this so far. 7km, 2km, 5km, rest, 7km, 10km, rest, and today 13km. Tomorrow I plan to do 5km and 15 after that. I gotta reach 25km before I go to Korea. I need new shoes too. Inside of the shoe keeps bothering me. Something is sticking out that rubs against my foot. I got a mini blister.

I didn’t end up going to that party last week, instead going to the company’s year-end party at some hotel at Sakurajima on Friday. We’ll see how that goes.

I’ve been trying to look for presents for my relatives. Bah it’s hard. Well I’ve been looking for things myself. Like I bought this Uniqlo heattech shirt. It’s very thin and it’s suppose to keep you really warm. I’m thinking of getting for some of my cousins. Hmm… I also was looking for a sport blazer type jacket. I saw one at the Gap. But none in my size. I also saw on at Uniqlo. But it looks cheap. I think I’ll keep looking for a better quality one. I also saw a nice winter jacket. It’s a bit expensive. I’m still thinking if I should wait till I go to Korea. Hmmmm…

Nothing else, a bit of a boring post.