Back in black (and white, too!).

The summers coming; my chinese friends are leaving! And last night, to celebrate it, we had a party! A party fuelled by Chinese dumplings, wine, beer and garlic! Good fun :)

Today I did fuck-all. Well I went to a music shop 10 miles away with my drummer, only to find it was shut.. so we returned home and in a rage of red-neck idiocy discovered what foods we could and could not deep-fry. since then I did fuck all.. well actually, we found a black-and-white setting on my camera so decided to piss around with that.. fun fun fun indeed, following which, I really did do fuck-all.

None of the pics were any good, really, but this one made me laugh:


it's titled "Startled cretin".

...*silence*

British Beef

Hey! I had a BBQ today! And on such a delightful day too: The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and the beer was flowing ^^,

As ever, I adopted role of maternal father and ultimately head chef:



which reminds me of a question my chinese friend asked me last week: "my friend says that to be a good father a british man must be a good bbq chef... Is that true?"

"hell yeah!" I replied...not that I'm getting broody, of course!

The bbq rocked; we all had great fun!

Afterwards I went to a friends house, armed with 'Kung Fu Hustle' (thanks Tom!). On the way I heard some idiot shouting 'konnichiwa!' and turned around to see my mate who I havn't seen in months (as he's been at uni). The following scene as we rejoiced in happiness, running to greet one another must have been like a beachless, babeless baywatch intro. It was good. Trust me.

Yeah a cool day ^^, again ;)

Double Dutch

while I was in Japan I got talking to this Dutch guy:

"it's strange, you know, I'm visiting all these beautiful temples here yet back home I just walk straight by our Churches..Maybe I'll check them out when I get back?"

..and that made me think: Yeah Japan rocks, it's beautiful. But how about England? How about North Yorkshire? There's gotta be some cool stuff here. There just *has* to be! So, armed with my camera I grabbed my bike and headed out into the (relatively) unknown...

After not so long of cycling down deserted country paths I spotted vast blankets of green feilds: usually ignorable, but after just 3 weeks in the concrete jungle it's pretty striking.

(excuse the image quality, my resizing skills are shit).



Shortly after this I spotted an interesting looking sign:


That's right, a public footpath! I decided to haul my bike over the fence and go investigate...there were lots of nettles and stinging plants, which aren't any problem unless you're wearing shorts, which sadly, I was. Regardless! I pressed on and eventually found a forest clearing that looked pretty rad in itself:



This place is pretty cool: it looks great, smells great and just has a really chilled out feel to it! I used to go here with friends when we were younger - just to hang out and such really. Good times indeed ^^,

So I guess there are decent things in this area. And what's more, it's not a case of "if you look hard enough" :)

Anyway, that's today's reflection on hunmnaby, n.yorks! I hope it touched your hearts in a way you never thought feilds, signposts and bushes could.

And on that note, I'm off to jam out at some bloody heavy metal with my band |,,|/ ^^,

Honey, I'm home ;)

Greetings! I'm back in the UK! Well actually, I was back since 11pm on thursday but.. ha

I'm still a little jet-lagged, infact I only got about 3 hours sleep last night. I've been feeling pretty shite too, sort of sad to be back into the routine of nothingness that I held before leaving for Japan. Oh dear ><, Anyway! In a rather camp attempt to try and distract my homesick-mind from my beloved Japan, I decided to cook. For some reason I made a bunch of brownies: they taste great! However! The mind was not quenched; the beast still festered! So I went for the jugular and whacked out a recipe for okonomiyaki that a Japanese friend recently gave me.

Okonomiyaki is like a pancake with stuff in, I had one in Osaka with friends so it would kick-arse to re-visit that legendary dish.

Dead easy to make and pretty rad tasting! You'll need

• an Egg
• Flour (1 cup)
• Water (1 cup)
• Cabbage (shred finely)
• Onion (shred finely, use cabbage:onion ratio of about 4:1)
• Bacon (1 rasher, cut it up)
• Worcester Sauce (spices things up. Warns off the undead, and pinkeye)
• Mayonaise (pah nah mah nee nee nee, mayo!)
• A pan
• A spatula

Ready to rock? Let's cook, biotch!

1. Prepare the batter by combining the egg, flour and water: mix it to a fairly runny consistancy, similar to pancakes!
2. Heat the pan and pour in a tiny bit of cooking oil
3. Pour in some batter: just enough to form a circular base (about 10-15cm diameter).
4. Sprinkle a load of the shredded cabbage/onion on top of the disc of batter.
5. Place the chopped bacon on top of the cabbage/onion.
6. Pour some more batter over the cabbage/onion/bacon.
7. Allow to cook for a few mins.
8. Flip it over
9. Repeat steps 7+8 until it's done
10. Rescue from the pan and deliver to the safety of a near by plate.
11. Apply ones desired sauce: Worcester and mayonaise rock.
12. Enjoy!

Note: this recipe is a loose guide! use whatever fillings you wish

Yeah, give it a go and see what you think!

Sayonara

Oh my, my last night in Japan..this kinda sucks to tell you the truth :'( Nothing much is going on tonight, and I've not enough Yen to venture out to Shibuya (Tokyo) for one last party.. plus I gotta pack stuff. I guess the epic night out on saturday will have to suffice as the fairwell do (I say that so unenthusiastically, though I really mean it!).

Anyway! I reckon I should make some kind of a conclusion to the beast of an expodition that was Japan '05: may 25th-June 15th.

hmm, where to start?! I've had such an amazing time. Everything has rocked; nothing has sucked. I've done so many things, seen so many sights, ate so many foods, drank so many drinks, met so many people...oh the list goes..yet the list will never feel complete! I feel as though I've missed so much, though clearly that's a good thing as it means a return to Japan is vital! Vital to what?! Who knows, who cares, just so long as I'll be back here sometime sooner or later!

Argh, I'm really gonna miss this place and its people - both the natives and the travellers ><, anyway, I should keep this post short... Thanks a lot to everyone who's made the trip all the more enjoyable by sharing your company with me, it's been immensely cool :) I just wish I could say "bye" to each and every one of you in person before getting on the plane to England ><,

thanks again, and keep in touch,
-Ben

Gone Fishin'

Wow, had a cool day today! Got woke up by a dutch guy at 5.30am asking if I wanted to head out to the Tsukiji fish market: the worlds largest fish market, I believe! I aggreed and hastily got showered and dressed before going to the station to meet two other guys.

We arrived at Tokyo station (near the market) about 40 mins after and grabbed a bus bound for the market itself.

Upon arrival we were greeted by an immensely hectic network of transporters and people dashing around to collect/deliver fish and various other sea-dwelling creatures.

The variety of creatures on sale was vast: fish, octopus, squid, sea urchins, shellfish: basically, if it's from the sea, it was there! And the amount of activity was going on was equally vast: I even got splashed by a drip of fish blood as the guy next to me carved up a fish of some sort.

The four of us happened to bump into a Japanese stall-owner (selling raw tuna) who could speak some English: he called us over to chat about England and such, Anyway, after not so long he was showing us his collection of money and articles from around the world so I gave him a UK penny that I happened to have on me. He was extatic and ran to the back of his shop, picked up a bloody huge sword/knife and charged back at us. Panic kicked in. Well I lie, in his other hand he had a huge chunk of dead tuna which he slapped down and began to disect into small cubes: the dude was indeed prapring us some fresh tuna sashimi (raw fish)! He then grabbed a pot of sauce and insited we ate some. IT was pretty good actually! Shortly after he whipped out some ocha (green tea) that he'd just brewed. Ah, such an unusual breakfast!

Afterwards we went to the imperial palace (again), followed by a trip to the Sony building in 'Ginza'. Pretty interesting stuff there ;)

Anyway, I'm off to meet some friends for one last drink or something - tonight's my last night in Japan ><, tomorow night I'll be in the airport waiting for my early morning plain. Argh, so sad..

quick update!

oh busy week indeed! Just realised I hadn't fed the blog for some time, so decided to log in and update! I'll try and keep it brief!

monday: checked out a few more temples in kyoto, including the very impressive kiyomizu-dera temple: a huge temple set in the steep hillsides of kyoto, featuring an impressive balcony that overlooks the enitre city (pretty much!). The night was spent in the communal living area, aided by various japanese snack-foods and cheap japanese beer. Good fun!

tuesday: bummed about most of the day as it was extremly hot (32 degrees C plus), and we were due to take an overnight bus back to tokyo. We decided to check out a few more temples though..so many temples indeed!

wednesday: a warm yet early welcome to the energetic metropolis that is tokyo. Later on we met up with some 'old' friends that we'd met in tokyo, and decided to head out to a local raamen bar (like noodle soup, very tastey!). It was a good laugh, and excellent to meet up with 'old friends' again!

thursday: hung out with the canadians as it was their final day of Japanese life: we bid them fairwell with an outing to a local burger shop. Pretty fun actually!

friday: By now most of the friends I'd made had fled Japan, and a lot of the new arrivals seemed a bit geeky (including a mass of american anime geeks who dont take kindly to pokemon jokes..). It was pissing it down with rain too, so I wasn't too chirpy. Fortunately I remembered about a map some guy had made me a few weeks back: a map to 'ochanomizu', a district of tokyo packed with music shops. So, with map in pocket I hit the rain filled streets in search of some jamming. And jamming I found!

Saturday: Hung out with a group of strange finnish guys - great fun! On the night 8 or 10 of us decided to head out and party and the infamous 'Roppongi' seemed to be the favoured destination...initally I wanted to bail, but decided it could be fun..good call! The brief night out quickly evolved into a 6am train home, featuring numerous bars, plenty of alcohol, lots of people, strange japanese guys, assertive japanese girls, a massage parlour...oh the list goes on! Probably stories best told in person ;)

Sunday: along with a fellow Brit I'd just met, 4 finnish guys and 2 Americans, I headed out to the district of 'Harajuku' to spot the goths, lolitas and other strange creatures that systematically emerge every sunday. It was an impressive sight actually, and cool in its own way to see everyone having a laugh in their bizzarre clothing and make up. Afterwards we visited a park which again was populated by goths but also some live bands - an excellent atmopshere, reminded me a lot of my fun time in osaka! There was also a large group of teddy boys which was hilarious!

Shortly after enjoying the numerous bands we spotted a bunch of university basketball teams preparing for a match: a match that would kick off in 30 minutes, so we grabbed tickets and ran into the impressively scaled stadium. Ah, my first basketball game, and in Japan of all places! The game was great, and the crwod were strange: supporting their teams in a polite and ordely manner..a total contradiction to the 2 Americans sat with me: "woo! You suck" ..and so forth, haha.

Today: not done a lot really..moved to a new hotel, and it seems pretty decent here actually! Due to meet up with some friends for more raamen in a bit!

Woo, another cool weekend in Japan!

Saturday was a really enjoyable day - to start it off 5 of us headed an hours train journey away from kyoto to the city of Nara which is renowned for its temples and shrines. And its deers too!

The temples were beautiful (as ever) and were cloaked in lush blankets of forest and numerous water features, all sprinkled by the golen light that managed to distill its way through the thick canopy above. Ive been taking pictures and will upload them when i get back to the uk!

On saturday night we decided to grab some beers and jam at cards in the communal area. After not so long the plan evolved and we were soon on our way, in a drunken fashion, to the distant district of Gion to find some bars and such. Oh yeah, we bought some fireworks on the way too.
Anyway, once at gion, the bars seemed to lack somewhat, and instead we spotted masses of teenagers hanging out on the riverbank and pissing around with fireworks and alcohol themselves - it was the perfect unspoken invite!

We had a great time overall. My friend lost his shoe in the river, and then, in what i can only label as an act of hugely admirable stupidity (sort of), unclothed himself and swam in after it. He entered as a drunken fool, and emerged a dripping hero. haha

Didnt get back until about 5.30 am. the next morning was hell - myself and my mate were due to meet two japanese girls in the distant city of Osaka. However, he was too ill after beer and, erm, swimming, to go, so I headed out into the unknown alone..... eep!

Needless to say, I got lost at the station where we were supposed to meet. Very lost indeed ><,

once we finally met, though, it was time to visit a japanese restaurant for some okonomiyaki - sort of an omlette, only much nicer! After this we decided to visit Osaka castle, though by the time we arrived the main bit was due to close - no worries though, the courtyard and surrounding grounds were so calming that we were happy to just chill out there!

There were a bucnh of awesome bands playing live on the streetside too, really, really cool!

By this time it was getting late and my train home was due shortly, so we went to (another) restaurant, this time for some spaghetti style food, which too was excellent! The conversation and general atmosphere was great, I really enjoyed the company! But alas, the clock was ticking and I had to get home ><,

Anyway, im off to a few temples in kyoto today, was just waiting for my mate but hes here now, so bye for now :)

Girls (and guys), just wanna have fun!

After an uneventful day yesterday, my friend and I finally left the hostel at 3.30 into the pouring rain of kyoto to meet our friends from tokyo at 4pm. However, we got lost on the way and ended up arriving 30 mins late - thank god they were patient!

after meeting, we wandered the streets for a place to snack: we were going to meet two japanese friends at about 8pm and figured itd be good to all eat together.

8pm came around pretty quickly, and after 20 mins waiting at the station we finally hooked up with Tomoko and Mai, our two japanese friends. It didnt take long to realise that everyone was hungry and a trip to a restaurnt would be needed, so we followed the canadian to a 'near by' spot he allegedly knew - it turned out to be 30 minutes walk away. The meal rocked and was of the style of an all you can eat buffet. Very nice.

the restaurant atmosphere was great too and it was excellent to socialise within a large group of such diverse people. I made a horrendous cultural mistake though when Oz, the canadian guy, passed me some food with his chopsticks: i accepted them with mine, something thats associated with funerials i believe and is a huge, huge taboo. I had no idea until the japanese girls jaws dropped (and i thought they were impressed at my chopstick skills). Shan't be doing that again in a hurry..


next up was karaoke! My first time in japan, or on earth, for that matter! Karaoke really did rock, we had so much fun. We opened up with girls just wanna have fun: a long, long story why involving a german guy and a buddist temple.....another time, right?

Todays been cool too - we checked out a few temples in kyoto and i decided that my memory alone was not a suffiecnt tool for recording such beatuy, so we went to a huge electronic department store. In the end i picked up a pretty rad camera for the equivalant of about 150 quid - 5megapixels, lots of other things i dont understand, a case, a 256 memory card..and more stuff :P

anyway, theres a few of us gathering in the hostels communial area - were cooking a stew, so id best go help out! After wards we're heading out to a japanese reggae bar. haha, itll be reet fun mon!

Kyoto

Boarding a bus bound for Kyoto, we left Tokyo last night at about 9pm. We arrived at about 5am, so it was a pretty hefty journy to say the least! There wasn't much to see along the way, though Tokyo offered a pretty impressive sight with it's irridescent neon lightscape (did I make any of those words up?).

It was rather sad to leave tokyo as we'd formed a strong bond with 3 other Europeans: Yoshi: a swiss-japanese guy; Christian: a german; and John: a brit halfway between oz and the uk: Team Euro indeed.

our last day was spent trekking the imperial palace in tokyo: jesus, such a bloody impressive place! Absolutley picturesque in every aspect, I really enjoyed it there! I guess it's impossible to scale its beauty in words or even to pick out certain areas, Though the koy-populated streams and ponds had to be the highlight. Well worth seeing if you're ever in the neighbourhood ;)

My friend and I were set to leave at about 7.30, so the 5 of us (team Euro) headed to a store for some noodles and beer which would ultimately form our fairwell meal: the last supper, if you like!

Anyway, just a short blog here to track my geographical status in a sense! we're hooking up with the afore-mentioned Canadians in a few hours, havn't seen 'em since Tokyo a few days back, so it'll be fun!