First School Trip :p

Im off to Nikko tomorrow, still carrying this big lump inside of my nose which i hope to god isnt anything serious. It hurts a lot less today and seems slightly smaller but im not sure if thats just my imgaintion though i really do wish it would go away, it made my face really hurt last night due to the pressure :(
Anyway yeah, overnight stay in Nikko!!! :D

And the villain for Spiderman 4 is.........

THE LIZARD!!!!

Latino Review reports from a very reliable source that there will be only one villain this time around and that villain is Dr Curt Connors, The lizard. Im soooo happy with this because he is clearly my favourite Spiderman villain.

Ouch

I have a big lump on the upper, inside of my nose that really hurts and doesnt seem to wanna go away :(

Lookalikes: Apparently, Jason Mraz

Was told last night that i looked like the singer Jason Mraz. I had no idea what he looked like so today, i googled him and found that yeah, actually he does look a bit like me. Hes not particularly handsome but then neither am i really and he even has my awkward smile too:


Previous celebrities that i have been told i resemble:

• Jason Statham (probably cause i had a shaved head once)
• Vin Diesel (again, probably because of the shaved head and big nose)
• Hugh Grant ( i seriously WTF`d when i heard this one)

Japanese Only

Had my first "Japanese Only" experience last night. The worst part about it though is that it was at our regular karaoke place :s. We were told this by some Japanese heavy that had been deployed with a bunch of other goons outside the building. At the time we thought nothing of it because usually we just see the guy in the skinny jeans & crazy hair and he just directs us up stairs but tonight he was nowhere to be seen.

Bearing in mind that we usually go to karaoke on a weekday, Heres the theory.........

Because most Japanese cant party until the weekend, karaoke places have a lot of empty rooms during the week. So when the Japanese can finally have their fun on a Saturday night, they would rather that us gaijin are not taking up any of the room.

Racist? i have no idea. But its no big deal, we went and found another karaoke place which had just as many songs but way more cockroaches lol

LeesSang & Hyori Lee - The Girl Who Can't Break Up, The Boy Who Can't Leave

The video is nothing to get excited about but i love this track. Havent heard much to rave about over the past month or so in the K-pop industry, until this came along. If you cant enjoy the song maybe you can just enjoy it for Hyori Lee anyway :p

The "60 quid a month" dorm....

Hope this is useful for those of you who are thinking of coming here next year ;D

....is actually not the bad. I dont think the pics will really do it justice and i guess it depends on how spoiled you are your standards. I love lists and i prefer to sum things up some times because you really dont want to hear me waffle on about stuff. so here are some facts:

1. Four Walls
2. Bed, Desk, Wardrobe,
3. Washroom w/ toilet and sink (no hot water)
4. No Air con
5. No heating
6. No internet (internet must be arranged individually but its not much of a bother)
7. Showers are 100 yen for 10 minutes (its all you need and no queues)
8. Gas stove (10 yen for 5 mins)
9. 5 mins walk from class

The walls are quite dirty. I mean, its the first thing you notice is actually how dirty they are and the fact that despite being covered in black marks and stuff, you are not allowed to hang anything on them. Even though all of us that live here complain about the dorm, its really not even that bad. I can honestly say i like living here and when you consider how much it costs, it's more than a bargain.

Slap-Happy Salarymen

Just to explain a little further, a story i hinted at on facebook recently....

After nailing some of the finest songs from Stevie Wonder and R. Kelly`s discography at a drunken Karaoke night, i hit the streets. Overflowing with liquid courage, i decided to try out my Japanese on the people of Yokohama complete with yakuza pronunciation and glaring. Things i remember from that night:

1. Some guy appearing from the back of a vending machine
2. Telling the woman at McDonalds that she was sexy
3. Pointing at Salarymen and saying in Japanese "Oi! Are you (omae) a Salaryman?" "Go home to your wife!"
4. Getting slapped by a salaryman who was then reprimanded by an even bigger slap to the back of his head by his boss who was in attendance.
5. A girl that i met accused me of trying to pick her up five years ago (wtf?)
6. Trying to refuse to pay for the extra crap/service charge at a resteraunt
7. Having my most fluent conversation ever with the taxi driver on the way home.
   

I never thought i would say this but Karaoke was awesome and cant wait to do it again :D

Johnaldo McDonaldo

Something that happens occasionally in conversation with new people here is the humorous reaction that the Japanese people seem to get from my name. They first get the "John", which is funny because:

1. John is a dogs name in Japan
   
2. John is one of THE most popular names for dogs in Japan

The next part is the "McDonough". Which of course, i have to say less often but is more likely to raise a few "へー”`s (read: "eeehhhh?!"). It seems that before i can finish my surname they immediately think my surname is "McDonalds" due to the similar pronunciation and spelling. Though honestly, it doesnt bother me very much and usually means that conversations get off to a good start after i tell them that "no, ronald mcdonald is not my dad"

Heeeeeerreee`s Jonny!

Lots of crap happened while i was AWOL from the internet but ill start posting some of the things that i can actually remember......

I Has Internetz!.......Sort Of

Have to wait about another week for my internet to be installed as i was a lil late in calling up the internet company. As you can see by the dodgy positioning of the laptop, i wont really be adding anything to the blog until my internet is secured rather than have my laptop tip the fuck over and smash into bits on my balcony. Im not kidding either, this is the only area of my room where i could "borrow" some internet. Placing my computer in any other position or space within the room or balcony results in no internet.

Coming Soon:

Korean God Squad
Japanese Peanut Butter
Typhoons
Being Offered Jobs By Random Old Ladies In Combinis
& more.......

Engrish: In Japan, you dont eat at restaraunt. restaraunt eats YOU!

Theres a lot of bad english around Japan, its good if you remember to get a photo of it though

National Science Museum, Ueno, Tokyo

I dont really need to make any posts about arriving in Japan do i? its not such an exciting ordeal to get here. In fact, quite the opposite considering that i didnt get any sleep throught the flight. A word of advice for anyone travelling on a long haul flight in the future. Dont go to the cinema within 6 months before your flight because you will have seen all the movies shown on the flight already :s

National Science Museum

Lucy makes a new friend

Rocket Launcher?!? :O

it aint no WMD thats for sure

Bear!

For 600 yen we spent about 2 hours going round playing with hands-on science games looking at rocks, hairy women and stuffed animals. Its actually a lot more fun than it sounds but by the end of it we were pretty fed up. However, we did attract some attention from the Japanese school children visiting on that day who pointed at us and repeated key gaijin phrases to us such as "how do you do?" and "yes we can!".