Good News, and Bad News

The bad news is that I didn't get accepted into med school at Ottawa.

The good news is that I didn't get flat-out rejected either. I'm on the waiting list. More waiting: hooray!

Apparently, I have to wait until one of two things happens:
1) They fill up all the spots, and send me a "sorry about your luck" message, or
2) My name gets to the top of the list, and then someone backs out, at which point they'll offer me a spot. Unfortunately, I have no idea where I am on the list, or how long the list is (and they made it clear they weren't about to tell me).

I could be waiting until September for either of these things to happen. Hopefully I find out before that.

Anyhow, that's all the news for now. Check below for recent updates; I'll probably update about my weekend at some point this week too.

Sakura

Sakura is the Japanese word for Cherry blossom. Every April, the sakura blossom for a very brief period of time (one week to about 10 days), and everyone in Japan goes bananas over it (think of how people comment that the leaves turn neat colours in the fall, then multiply that by 100 times, and imagine it only lasts for a week). They really are quite spectacular, and the pictures below don't do them justice. The flowers are white, and light pink in colour, and are very delicate-looking. Eventually, the wind blows them away, and you're left with just a regular-looking tree.

So far as I can tell, there are a few reasons why Japanese people particularly like the sakura season (these all come from multiple Japanese sources that all confirm the same thing):

-the light pink colour is very modest (much like the Japanese demeanor); Japanese people don't like very bright/dark colours as much, because that would be like appreciating loudmouth plants.

-the sakura season occurs in April, which is when many people change jobs (if you work for a big company, for the government, or in many other jobs, people get shuffled around at this time), and the school season starts (unlike our school season, which starts in the fall when everything is dying).

-the sakura are only around for a brief period, then disappear into nothingness. This is symbolic of both life itself, and the old Japanese ways (bushido, samurai, etc) that were around for a while then just suddenly vanished.

So, way back in April, me and some friends went to Kyoto (apparently the best place in this area for checking out the sakura) on the best weekend for viewing them. Surprisingly, we were not the only ones to have this idea. This meant huge line-ups everywhere, and the population of Kyoto seeming to be double what it should in every other respect. Most buses we saw were jammed full of people, and wouldn't bother to stop unless they were letting people off. Needless to say, we spent a lot of time walking.

I'll start to update stuff from a while ago as I have more free time. Maybe eventually I'll get around to posting pictures from my trip to Thailand.

Lisa dressed like a maiko (kind of like a geisha).

Much better than the regular train.

Oh my god!!! How is that fork staying in the air?!?

Lisa modelling the best cheese bun I've eaten while in Japan. In Japan, especially for vegetarians, it is often difficult to find food that really appeals to the Western palate. This cheese bun did that and more.

Famous bridge leading to a famous mountain (it has lots of sakura trees growing on it, so people think it's real pretty).

Took way too many night shots, none of which turned out particularly well. They light the temples at night, and the sakura trees look really pretty all lit up. Unfortunately this was also the most crowed place we went through. I felt like cattle by the end of the night.

The gang.

Traditional house within the garden. Those are actually plum blossoms close-by, though (plum blossoms are a deeper shade of purple).

Sakura tree in the garden.

Shot of a tree from inside the garden. The picture doesn't really do it justice. Although it was packed with people, it was still very beautiful.

Sakura trees lining either side of a moat, as seen from a bridge.

Tokyo!!!

Guess where I went recently.

Give up? The answer is "Tokyo" (which means "eastern capital").

Anyhow, I went to Tokyo, and took the pictures below. I stayed in a capsule hotel which was an interesting experience. The trip itself overall was sub-par, and over-expensive. It has also made me realize that somewhere along the way I stopped appreciating travelling, and that I need to take a break from it for a while. Either that, or I'm having a bad day today (probably the latter).

For those of you who haven't visited my blog in a while, I've posted lots of stuff recently (all of which is more fun than this post, I promise).

The busiest pedestrian intersection in the world. People line up along all corners waiting for the lights to change. This picture is while a lonely car speeds through the red light...

...and later while people are crossing. When the lights stop the cars, people cross the street (really a bunch of streets) in every conceiveable direction. The crossing extends significantly to the right and left of the picture.

Capsule hotel where I stayed while in Tokyo. Each opening is a separate "room", each about (one) arm's length wide and high, and my body length (barely) long. Workaholics and cheap people stay here (guess which I am). Each capsule comes equipped with a television (8 channels including a porn one), radio, night light, pillow, blanket, and that's it. You have to pay extra for robes, and towels (for the communal showers).

Another random shrine we visited. I'm sure there's a unique history to this one and everything, but after a while they all start to blend in together.

Big Buddha. You can pay to go inside him (he's hollow). The inside is not as impressive as the outside.

Buddha statues at a Buddhist shrine. They often dress them up in the winter so they won't get cold (at least I think that's why they do it). Notice the Winnie the Pooh bear "hugging" the front middle statue. There were literally tens of thousands of these statues throughout the shrine.

The Yakusuni shrine. Japanese war dead (including war criminals) are buried here, so it upsets other nations that were occupied by Japan when the Japanese PM visits this every year [imagine how some people would feel if the German Chancellor paid his respects to Hitler every year]. The Japanese claim that the shrine is dedicated to peace. It's a little more complicated than that on both sides, but not really...

Japanese garden-y-ness

The kabuki theater that we didn't end up going into. Kabuki is an ancient form of Japanese drama that I probably wouldn't have understood anyways, so not such a big deal that we didn't get tickets.

The famous electronics district in Tokyo. This was one of the reasons I was excited to go to Tokyo, yet I left this area disappointed, not having bought anything. On a side note, in this area, I found that "computer game" is a code word for "porn".

Neat looking building on the edge of the moat before the Imperial Palace. The moat is very wide.

Famous temple in Tokyo. The street leading up to it has little shops on either side, and is litterally crammed full of people. This was the "less busy" section, where I could actually get a picture. The smoke from the middle is incense burning, which people rub into their bodies for good luck.

The "golden turd" on top of the Asahi beer factory. I read a few conflicting descriptions of what it's supposed to be, leading me to believe that no one really knows.

A shot from the imperial gardens. Basically it's a really nice garden right in downtown Tokyo.

More reasons why I should be fired:

I had nothing to do at work today, so I compiled (most of the funniest) pictures of signs I have taken since coming to Japan.

Yesterday I stayed home all day (except for 15 minutes when I went to the board of education), and no one noticed.

I also got paid today.

Leave comments people, it gives me something to do other than decide what random thing to look up on Google and read about. The other day I spent 2 hours reading about pirates, just for something to do.

I would have bought this shirt, except that it cost over $60.

I don't think the concept of something being "cheesy" exists in Japan. One of the teachers I worked with would start every lesson by saying "Let's enjoy English!" in a really excited voice.

Caption at the top reads "Don't take up too much room with your newspaper!"
I think they went with the Semase Street motif because children are the #1 newspaper-non-folding culprits.

I wish I hade a magic marker, so I could have included "annoying children that cry throughout the tour" in between "feed" and "to".

This was the best of 5 pictures that I took. The sign (with no changes by me) reads: "The Inside of Store goods are below the half Price,lowering price!(yen symbol)1,050anything"

This was a sign from outside the capsule hotel where I stayed. No people with tatoos or drunken stumbling business men allowed.

PHEW. I was worried for a minute there that I was going THAT way.

Incomprehensible sign fine: $0

This is a place to put your shoes before you go in the temple. This was the closest one to the actual temple. When I put my shoes here the security guy asked me to move them to the other shoe rack area in the back. Maybe foreigners have smelly shoes that are offensive to Buddha.

Well, at least they're honest about the fact that the locals get different treatment.

Welcome to Okinawa! Enjoy the beautiful beaches, but no matter what you do, don't go in the water because these 11 animals will kill you.

Yes, that's right, they labelled an arrow mark with "Arrow Mark".

I think this is my favorite. The wording would definately hold up in a court of law.

Yes, that includes microbial life (and you can hardly avoid touching that, now, can you?), so why don't you just keep your hands to yourself?

...maybe I'm just being picky...

Astro Boy ROCKS!!!

Well, I was going to steal the umbrella, but since you asked so nicely...

...or they will poo in your hands.

The downside of having a repressed society is that 1) it can come out in unhealthy ways (ie men groping women on the trains), and 2) women are to reserved/shocked/shy to do anything about it.

This and the one below came off the same machine.

Signs like this pervade Japan.

Japan has the most vending machines per captia in the world. This is one of the many vending machines that sells cigarettes. Note the sticker in the bottom right, which is how Japan enforces the age restriction on smoking.

The Japanese government owns majority share in the largest tobacco manufacturing company in Japan (ie the more people smoke, the more money they make). Their advertisements aim to educate people about smoking manners, rather than about how "science has shown that smoking too much might be bad for you, so try not to smoke too much".

I've always wanted to try spicy big boos salad.

Bangkok, Khoa San Road.