Bobblog: 2010

Random Shizzle!

The most depressing room on earth

Flight of the Japanese Navigator

Leisure Cup - Let's Drinking!

This is a re-enactment of how I received my McDonalds Quarter Pounder - I'm getting more and more Japanese, altough I don't bow on the phone.... yet!

Yay!

Erm...

Hmmm, it tastes like....

Obviously ran out of names and grabbed an English Dictionary.

Leafy Pie anyone, Hmmm, how many calories in Leafy Pie? Hmmm, Anyone....? Leafy Pie....

Aina and Chum on my last Day :(

Bobb and Chris’s Magical Adventure in Kita-Ku

Speak No Evil - Hear No Evil - Throat No Evil

No Cartoon Dinosaurs here

Erm... turn back!

The "Judderman" my love, when the Moon is FAT!

Last Saturday Chris and I decided to take a walk down to the KaitenZushi place. That’s a conveyor belt Sushi place. It’s called Sushiro “スシロ”. It’s probably my favourite place to eat as it’s cheap, relaxed, healthy (kinda) and Mecha Oishii desu nee! (Really delicious!). It’s only a 15 minute walk or one stop on the Shintetsu train (for which I have a monthly pass) and as such I’ve probably been about 15 or 20 times in the 8 months I’ve been here. I usually eat about 8 plates of sushi; salmon, tuna, prawn and avocado (firm favourite), tai fish, tuna mayo gunboats, mackrel, raw prawn – I tried. It’s usually two pieces per plate – like GoSushi and I often have some tempura prawns and pumpkin, but it costs no more that 1000en (about £6) and the green tea is free.

Anyway, as we were walking down we met these two kids and they seemed like they wanted to chat so we stopped and had a wee chat, it turns out they were 8 and 9 and they wanted to tell us their names and throw dirt around and ask us our names and what we did. Then they wanted to show us their school which was just behind an adjacent building so we went along as we were in no rush and they were from our neighbourhood so we thought we’d explore and mingle with the locals etc.

They showed us the School building then were like, “this is our house, this is our apartment number on our pigeon hole – come on!” I told them they needed to learn something about personal safety and talking to strangers but they didn’t understand. They wanted to show us their apartment and beckoned us into the lift but Chris and I were like – “Nah, it’s not a good idea” and then this wee kid (obviously the leader of the two said) “It’s OK there’s no-one home” ha ha – anyway we declined but he went up to get his ball as he wanted to play football with us. We told him we’d wait and he instructed the other wee boy to wait with us (basically guard duty!). Anyway we played some weird game that was a cross between footie and volley ball and Chris’s kid turned out to be a wee dictator, changing the rules so he beat his buddy. It was pretty funny but after a 10-8 defeat we made our excuses and left. Here’s a pic of them – I dunno why my kid looked so unhappy, he was laughing his head off the whole game. Maybe he’s camera shy, although he seemed to smile with Chris!?!

After that we ate Sushi – were locals there now and they know us well so it’s always fun.

On the way home we grabbed beers and Sakura Chuhais as it was Saturday afternoon and we had no plans and were a bit bored. On the way home we passed this river bed so we decided to explore. Basically we hiked up the river trail through disused areas in a bad state of disrepair and ended up halfway up Mount Rokko, it was an adventure and at some points we were nearly on hands and knees trying to get through overgrown paths. Eventually we arrived at some rice paddys and then further on a motorway. We got home after about 2 hours, here is some of the photo evidence…

In my favourite Kaiten Zushi

Happy with Chris

Sad with Bobb...

Oh come on dude, he was running around happy a minute ago.... honest! (I didn't touch him!)

Chris having rules explained to him through the medium of drawing in the gravel.... (a method the Soccer teacher at my school uses - is it a Japanese thing they learn at a tender age?)

Phoenix

Went to see Phoenix in Osaka – Amazing night. They are sooooo good and the drummer (who is a session musician) is totally SUBARASHII!! Mt some peeps at the gig and went for food and drinks with them after. Pics and video – but the videos sound is lost as it was too loud for the mic on my iPhone.

One of my friends Natsumi had a dancing contest I went to with Daniel and Martin after the Phoenix Concert.

Daniel and Natsumi

Me and Alex happy as Larry after the gig

Met some Japanese Garu's! (Girls)

PHOENIX! Amazing gig!!!

Hokkaido (Niseko and Sapporo)

I took a trip with 14 other JET’s from Kobe to Hokkaido (the North Island of Japan). It’s almost on the same latitude as parts of Russia and as such it’s freezing in Winter -10C to -20C is common.The flight was about an hour from Kobe airport… I think. I didn’t sleep the night before, I stayed awake drinking all night and all morning so once on the plane I slept like a baby!

When we arrived we took a bus to Niseko which is a mountain resort and I snowboarded that night from 6pm – 9pm on floodlit pists with the most amazing powder! It was great and the off piste was even better. Unfortunatly I was pretty "Piste" myself and kept on wiping out everywhere…

apparently!

I have no recollection!

The next two days were spent hardcore boarding before we took a coach back into Sapporo and stayed in an amazing hotel while we checked out Sapporo and the building of Ice and Snow sculptures for the imminent Snow Festival. Here’s the pics… and a well funny video of me wiping out while trying to film and board on the second day.

Photo's are in reverse order...

Snow Festival in Sapporo - truly amazing detail

My favourite sculpture

Ice sculpture road

Hiro Kobayashi - Legend. Asked him in the street for directions to a bar and ended up drinking with him till 3 or 4am! He had to work at a mobile phone shop at 6am!

(L) Reni (Leni) - cute girl with her mates we met in Sapporo and again here... She lives in Osaka, Andy thought they were Hostesses from their confidence and they way they dressed.... we'll see....