=faramir

Well it's certainly been a while, and I apologise! But no laptop in Japan meant very view chances to email everyone and update my DA journal.

So what did I do? Well being the nutter I am, I spent a ski season in Japan (Nozawa Onsen in Nagano) and managed to learn some Jap, and learn to snowboarding stuff along the way! I also drew a teeny bit when work got dull so I'll post them up at some point.

I also went to Tokyo and popped into Akihabara and didn't enjoy it one bit. Horrendous I know but I found it a bit too much for my liking. Don't get me wrong, I still like anime but that place made my eyes bleed (an 8 storey hentai store will do that to most people -_-). Nonetheless I enjoyed my time there a lot and hope to go back next year!

In the meantime I've been getting my anime fix now that I'm back in OZ and 2 rather old series I've just finished watching are 2 of the best I've ever come across.

The first is Berserk which I'm sure most of you have heard of or seen. What an epic story. I won't say much in case you haven't seen it, but suffice to say it's gory, epic combats got me hooked and the story is just incredible! Shame they ran out of money...

The second is Gundam 0083: Stardust Memories. This is even older (circa 1990) but is the best Gundam I've seen to date. The fact it was only 13 episodes may have helped, but nonetheless the story was great, the mecha were all gorgeous and the animation was very very crisp. The characters were actually designed by my fave anime artist too, Toshihiro Kawamoto. Anyways I'm going to get back to looking for a job!

Good to be back on DA

Hey everyone, this is the unadultered email I sent to everyone a week ago and now I'll pop it up here for those who didn't get it. I'm fine now so don't stress when you read about the injuries I suffered....

Hello everyone,
Sorry for the somewhat late email, but I’ve been awfully busy with various activities ranging from work to boarding to housekeeping and back to work again so I forgot to send an email last week! Suffice to say this email will hopefully make up for it. Currently I’m sitting in the bar we mainly go to a bar called Foot which is a lot of fun, but too many foreigners hang out there so we’ve started frequenting local bars and speaking only Japanese. But I’ll start from the beginning so you all know what’s been happening!
I arrived in Osaka at 8.30pm and went straight to the hotel. I then quickly set about finding out where Aaron was. All I can say is thank god for email! I then went back to the airport and picked him up from Domestic on the last flight of the night. We then went back to the hotel, smashed some instant Ramen from the Convenience store in the hotel and then proceeded to get a good night’s rest.
In the morning we picked our way back to the airport and met up with the Boobooski representative. We met the other Aussie staying with us in Nozawa, Matt, and another Aussie, Alice, who is working a Shiga Kogen Ski resort. We then drove straight to Nozawa Onsen from there! To be honest I can’t remember how long the drive was, but we didn’t arrive in Iiyama City until about 4pm or so. We then bought essential items like gumboots, glasses, slippers for the others (thanks Dad!!). I don’t know how I found a pair of gumboots that fit, but to be honest they’re a size too small and were the only pair in the store! I also bought a BB gun being the child that I am as I never got to play with one when I was a kid. Suffice to say it’s not going back to Australia with me.
We arrived in Nozawa Onsen at around 6.00pm or so and met one of our bosses from the head office. Afterwards the three of us, being Matt, Aaron and myself, were taken to Penshon (a guesthouse) for the night and we were then left to our own devices for the night. The dormitory was apparently not ready the first night, but we didn’t mind as the Penshon was paid for. Pretty quickly we set about getting some food from various places in town and ended up with fresh Sashimi, Ramen, and various snacks provided by the host to fill our bellies. The whole time it was snowing like crazy with big chunky snowflakes cascading down from a chilly black sky. With our bellies full, the three of us decided to do what everyone seems to do in Nozawa, and we went to an Onsen. Stripping down in front of everyone wasn’t anywhere near as daunting as I thought it would be as after all, you just get in and do it! The onsen however was wonderful and is definitely worth a shot if you’re in Japan. Nothing has been that relaxing in a long time after a LONG day. Afterwards we wandered down to another convenience store and got some batteries so I could play with my new toy. On the way back we inadvertently stumbled across the local Snowboard shop with some of the nicest people I’ve ever met. I also inadvertently met my supervisor and my Japanese was AWFUL! Admittedly though we had been going all day so I was quite knackered already. After a nice chat and introductions all around we all headed back to the Penshon and had a good night’s rest.
The next day was spent waking up late and going to our dormitory in some confusion. I was still reeling from slight culture shock and also wondering how I’d ever learnt Japanese at University as it was shocking for the first week or so! Nevertheless I had Aaron and Matt who both speak good Japanese and can easily understand most conversations with relative ease. We moved into our rooms, Aaron and myself in one and Matt the lucky bugger has a whole room to himself. We then mucked around for the rest of the day walking around and having a bit of fun here and there. We headed up to the office and picked up our uniforms and then headed back to the dormitory for a meal and a chat with everyone. Thursday was spent getting our Gaijin (foreigner) card applications processed. We had spent most of the day walking around lost until we found out that the Office was only 100m from our dorms. We had walked probably 6kms throughout the day through the snow filled streets. Nonetheless we got the applications through and will be picking up our cards on the 8th of January.
Friday was the first day at work which started off with orientation in the morning. Aaron and I misheard what was said and didn’t go to our proper areas so we were escorted personally by the office staff to our areas! Luckily it wasn’t much of a problem and our supervisors were happy to help us out while making us feel welcome. My workplace is at a self service snackfood area at the highest point that the Gondola goes to and is called Yamabiko. I work with two other Japanese girls called Miki (my supervisor) and Mariya who are both very helpful and patient with my poor Japanese. Already I’ve learnt so much and relearnt even more, making me very happy I brought my workbooks with me. That night after work I went back to the snowboard shop with one of my new friends, Yoshi, and went and bought a brand new snowboard, new bindings, a helmet (thank god I got that!) and a beanie and camelback because they will save me a lot of hassles when I’m up there. All up it was about 2/3 of the price it would be in Australia thanks to the Aussie dollar and more availability over here. I also got a mid-wide board for my ridiculously big feet with ease! Unfortunately there is pretty much a non-existent second hand market for things like snowboards where we are so I had to fork out the money, but it was well worth it.
Work is good fun, and because I talk to customers all the time I pick up and use a lot of Japanese very quickly without even realising it. Very quickly you learn and re-use words that I otherwise wouldn’t have picked up, as well as better ways of saying things and being able to switch between polite form and plain form at the drop of a hat. There’s still a long way to go though, but if I can maintain or even increase the rate I’m learning at the trip will have been well worth it. The Saturday and Sunday were fairly busy, but the Monday (Christmas Eve) was very quiet, with only dorm mats coming up to say hi. Apparently someone mentioned I like drawing a little bit so I spent most of the day drawing funny pictures of various things with constant remarks of how good I was (it’s a lie I tell you!) and then writing vocabulary down the whole time to bolster my speaking ability.
The day after was Christmas day and through a bit of luck I managed to get it off so my first day boarding in two years, a white Christmas, brand new gear just WOW. Awesome snow as well so it was the best I could hope for. I also thanked my lucky stars I bought the helmet. My first run down was quite embarrassing, due to the fact I hadn’t boarded for so long, but not long after I was cruising down nicely and decided to do a few jumps. Thank god for that helmet!!! After a few stacks I could land small jumps so decided to give the terrain park a go. For some unknown reason my first jump was pretty big and I landed it!! After that though it was stack central. Still what an awesome day!
The next day at work I found out I had another day off on the 28th. Unfortunately the snow was really bad and at the very end of my first run I slipper on the box in the terrain park and split my shin open. Luckily I checked too as it didn’t hurt at all thanks to the cold. Suffice to say I went straight to the hospital and kissed my money goodbye as I received 7 stitches and a hefty bill. Luckily I can get some of it back at the end of the trip. The next day I had to have off as well and spent the day sleeping but trying to stay upbeat as I’ll be fine in 2 weeks from now.
New Year’s ever was absolutely amazing as there was night-skiing until 11.30pm and then afterwards there were amazing fireworks that were set off only 50m away. I managed some somewhat dodgy photos of them too. We then managed to squeeze in about 4 hours sleep before work the next day. Since then it’s been hum-drum day by day progress for me and my split shin, but it’s healing well and the doctor was quite surprised. In fact I got the stitches out yesterday, so I’m pretty happy about that! Suffice to say I’m itching for another board, but in the meantime email me back with details of what you’ve been up to! Following is a selection of the photos I’ve taken so far. A belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Japan and I’d love to hear from you all soon!!
Ed XOXO

100 Picture Challenge: 1 (still ) Although Zombies could be on the way!! (who knows really!)

Well That thing I told everyone to look out for has gone through now.

I'm officially going to Japan to work at a Ski resort for 4 months in Nagano (Nozawa to be precise).

So I'll be buggering off to Japan, buying Copics I hope and generally having an awesome time So if anyone wants me to pick up a book or something while I'm there (no guarantees but I can try) then please just note me. Btw, I have to know you on DA at least

I'll be leaving on the 17th of December I think, so it'll be interesting to see what happens!

In the meantime I have exams so toodles

100 Picture Challenge: 1 (still ) Although Zombies could be on the way!! (who knows really!)

Well as promised I've got some more pictures up so yay for that!

Yes they're very rough and very sketchy, but as mentioned previously they were done on the train and rather quickly at that ^_^

Also there may be some rather interesting news from me coming soon so keep your eyes on my journal space... I may be leaving the country for a while but no definites yet!

100 Picture Challenge: 1 (still )

Well after a rather small pool of respondees to my poll (2 actually ) I've been advised it's good to get stuff in your gallery no matter what it is so I'll be posting some stuff in the next week. Nothing fancy really, just some sketches done on the train.

I'll also be heading into exams soon so I'm sure instead of studying I'll be procrastinating and drawing like always