japan

temples temples temples... kyoto is full of them. kate and i climbed mt. hiei the other day, its 800m or so. sitting on top is a massive shrine/temple complex that is a world heritage site. it was originally built in 964 or something, then burned down, then rebuilt. i rang a very large bell. one of the shrines here is were monks officially become monks. this was also where the japanese form of buddism started. buddist disneyland, as kate called it.

kate participates in an english speaking group thingy, which, really is just people sitting around a dinner table speaking english (or attempting). it was really fun, ate japanese curry and talked about random things.

im more or less over seeing temples, because thats most of what i've done so far. getting around kyoto is really easy, and no japanese skills are needed. the city is more or less a grid with mountains all around to orient yourself in the orient easily. theres lots of good food, and biking on cheap bikes is simple.

most of japanese foods is not sushi, but they do eat a lot of fish. we did go to a conveyor belt sushi place last night and had amazing cuts of fish, many of which i'd never seen. we went to a different japanese restuarant the other day where kate knows the chef. he made us a plate of sashimi to start which had squid that melted in your mouth. animal fat is butter goodness

dog poo vs. customs

no matter how much you train a drug dog, a dog loves the smell of dog poo.

while in seattle for 36 hours, i managed to step on some dog poo prior to flying to japan. japan has harsh drug laws. in customs at kansai airport in osaka, while waiting for your checked bags, there is a repeated message in english that says "drugs are not allowed into the country. we have dog detectors for smelling drugs" or something close to that. (it sorta sounds like they say dog addicts...). on my way through, a drug dog took a sniff of my shoe and must have given the "that mans got drugs in his baggage" sign or some shit because at quarintine they asked to search my bags. first, they pulled out some laminated pieces of paper with pictures of a variety of drugs and asked if i had any of them. as opposed to the normal quarrantine search, where they empty your bags at the customs desk in the open, friendlyish environment that is customs at any airport, they took me to a room that was down a long hallway across from a bunch of sinks. this room was occupied with sterile stainless steel benches, curtains, and a few other customs officers wearing white gloves. they spoke english, slighly.

after emptying my pockets completely and removing my shoes, the customs officer frisked me with no shame. they then emptied my bags and found sand and lint in the pockets, which they got excited about and put the "samples" onto a tray. they asked me what it was, and i told them it was probably sand because it looked mostly like sand. they also found a old gum wrapper with a brown stain on it. brown is, as i saw from the pictures of heroin, a common color for heroin. they asked me what it was, i told them it looked like a coffee stain (to which, after translating, laughed and tossed it aside). they then found an empty plastic bag that had white powder in it. i could not for the life of me remember what this bag previously contained (i haven't cleaned my backpack out in a while). they always asked to search and open new things, which is very polite, but in all reality probably just a ploy to see how i react because you don't have any rights in customs. you are in national purgatory. they did like my gameboy color though.

in came another few officers with white gloves, vials of liquids, more laminated paper and some trays. a female officer took one of the laminated pages, which had multiple colors and the opposite of english, and told me in a very happy and cheery voice (very counter to the situation) that if the test on the sand turned either of the colors on the page that the substance was marijuana. nothing happened because, well, it very clearly was not marijuana. (keep in mind, these tests take some time and, just like when cops drive behind you on the highway, even if you know you're innocent you still feel guiltier than shit). the second test was on the unknown white substance. the officer showed me a larger laminated page with about 50 colors laid out in a tree diagram, saying that if it turns any of these colors the substance is illegal. i then realized what the bag had held. i've had many prescriptions for painkillers throughout my life thanks to surgeries, injuries, etc... this bag had previously held some vicodin. the particular vidodin was 500mg acetometaphine and 5mg hydrocodone. hydrocodone is an opiate, a synthetic opium-like substance, or, much closer in chemical structure to heroin without being heroin than just about any other unknown white substance could be. i'm already a cracker, but im pretty sure i was as white as the powder they were checking. luckily it came up false. either they don't check for hydrocodone, or it was in a small enough quantity given that hydrocodone is at most 1% of the powder, but probably less due to inactive fillers used on pills.

while packing up my belongings, one of the officers asked if i had a dog at home, i said yes, and he laughed. they then told me to enjoy my stay in japan.

AHAHAHA

blar, ive been slacking on putting words online for people to read. recap of the last few weeks: went to melbourne and stayed with the family of a friend of a friend who i did not know and they showed me around and gave me a key to their house, wandered seattle for a few days and dranks beers with people, flew to london but got bumped in chicago in exchange for $600 but as a result our bags took an extra 2 days to show up, wandered london saw things like the stolen parethenon and the war bunker thing where winston churchill played conductor and some plays and ate food and kew gardens and etc, left london via bus and saw the queens uselessly large castle and stonehenge which was amazing except for the highway that is immediately next to it, ended up in bath for a few days staying at a hotel on the side of a cliffish thing, wandered around there (bath is beautiful), rented a car and drove north staying in ambelside in the lake district which is really really beautiful and would be fun to hike around in then drove further north stopping at another circle of rocks that is even older than stonehenge but ended up in stirling in scotland and along the way became proficient with manual transmissions and small tight winding roads while driving on the left side, in stirling we met up with some of my moms friends who showed us around including foggy waterfalls and clear skies through glencoe and parts of the highlands and a bit of the coast (very very beautiful) and have now ended up in edinburgh. obviously i did not leave out any details what so ever.

byebye pampam

we had named our van pampam, i have absolutely no idea why. we dropped her off this afternoon. the fellowship is almost broken up. i should probably quickly talk about that whole cop thing, then ill complain about airports or something. the other day in te aneu we had parked the car and locked it then walked off. when we returned, the van was missing. sooo... i asked someone nearby if they saw anything, they didn't but offered to drive me to the police station. so i went. the cop was driving off, and he told me to just get in the car. 2 minutes later dan was running down the street waving us down because they were just pullin a prank but didn't think to say "hey, don't go to the police station, we were just joking". the cop was laughing. we started to steal dans wallet after this. he's slowly going insane because he keeps "loosing" his wallet. we take it and then put it somewhere else. he legitamently thinks he's going insane. the second encounter with the cops was in invercargel. we had parked the car in a lot to sleep in over night, they knocked on the window around 930am. they told us that they'd probably do the same thing if they had a van, shot the shit with us for a bit then drove off. that was that... no drivers license asked for, no passport, no ticket, nothing. they didn't even say to not do it again.

on to airports. for some reason, the airport closes in christchurch. according to the info booth, ill be kicked out if i stay over night in the airport while waiting to catch my 6am flight. by kicked out, she means completely off the property. i couldn't even stay outside at the arrival/departure area. how stupid is that? soo... ive got to fork over some cash to catch a shuttle at 3am or something and be a "guest" at the hostel dan/jes/alex are stayin at. lame lame lame. i just assumed i could catch the last public bus, get there at midnight and lounge for a few hours, but nono, thats not the case. apparently they close the airport is brisbane too, both dan and alex had to sleep outside

the cops in new zealand are very polite

unfortunately im to limited on internet time to discuss this further, but, still haven't been arrested :)

blah blah blah blah

i really dont have anything all that exciting to say i just kinda wanted to write something so im writing something and whoever is reading this will just have to deal with that. im attempting to upload pictures to picasa but its sucking and not working, so i may have to get pictures up laters. there are some new ones on the book of faces however. they sell meat pies everywhere here. i wish they did in the states, i bought 2 last night on the walk back from the bars and they were quite tasty.

at this point, dan alex and jes are pretty much new family and we've only know each other for some small number of days. pretty sweet deals

queenztown

i wish i could still snowboard...

queenstown is beautiful. water, snowcapped peaks, you name it. i think we're heres for a few days. going to hitup milford sound. maybe bungee jump. maybe get piercings. who knows, still no real plan. we need to be in christchurch on the 9th though to turn the car in. my flight out is at 6am on the 1oth. time is runnin outs

south islands

i met some kids last week, we've now rented a car together for both a mode of transportation and a place to sleep. currently sitting in a hostel to pick up a friend in greymouth new zealands, on werds to the fox glacier i believe. internet times are short, so i can't write much

left is the new right

i just rented muh first carz ever. 5 of us are headin out to marahua, pickin up kayaks, headin up the coast of abel tasman, campin, headin up further, gettin picked up then drivin back. cars with a few people is cheaper than the buses. w00p mutha fuckin w00p

b00t suicide

shoe man said my boot was designed to fail, so, it is literally committing suicide. not sure how well ducttape will work either, its eating its soul. which is lames. currently in nelson with 4 other kids. we more or less got kicked out of the last hostel we were in, which, was a freakin good time. but, in was fate. there were 7 of us, a fridged pool, a hottub and lots of beer. im not sure why they have the pool open during the winter because they don't heat it at all. controlling your breathing while swimming in ice cubes (not really) is freakin difficult. we're sorting out our ventures to able tasman today i think, and also going to go eat things from the beach

wellingtons

sooooo, wellington is sweeeet. its on the water, nice harbor, houses and things on hills and good weather. if this is winter, than thats a freakin joke. its nice to be out of the center of the north island. spent a few nights in random towns on the interior and it pretty much sucked.

the hostel ive just been as was awesome. there were a lot of people, everyone was really friendly, and they were all motivated to hang out together. so, saturday night, i put on a tie (over regular clothes), put on some facepaint (why not?) and went out to the bars. i then got kicked out of the first bar ive ever been kicked out of by a very large and scary maori guy. im almost positive i got kicked out simply by association, i was not that drunk and calm (ive verified this for the sake of sanity). a few of the other kids were a bit insane and i think the bouncer just saw face paint and wanted those of us painted individuals to leaves.

fat cat

i really really really really just wanted to put this picture up. i got a new camera that i dont like and will sell as soon as possible when i get back to the states

camera suicide

i hitchhiked from whitianga to thames a few days ago, it was about 80km but took only 3 rides in total and made it fairly fast. it was nasty weather out. i met a kid at the hostel who was on his way out that day, but we got to talking and subsequently to drinking whiskey and further subsequently to getting up at 630am and hitchhiking on a sunday down to whangamata. my camera committed suicide somewhere in that process, it slightly works. very slightly. i might have to buy another one. whangamata is a pretty town on the coast. two people hitchhiking on a sunday usually would take a while, but we got picked up by a priest who tried to convince us to go to his sermon. we said no. we then got picked up by a maori pig hunter with scary prison tattoos. he was nice and drove us to town. the total distance was around 100km i imagine. sam, while hitchhiking previously, was picked up by a 70yearold woman and she invited him to stay at her house in whangamata for 5 days. we met up with her yesterday, halarious old woman. she showed me around and gave us a place to camp, which is a weird situation. we're staying at her friends house in the backyard without permission but its "okay". heather called her friend and left a message. so we drank whiskey last night in a random persons backyard that we've never met and ate curry rice made from my camp stove.

hot water beaches

sooo... last night we went to hot water beach and made hot tubs. the process is simple, first, freeze on the beach as it is winter currently and the south pacific is very cold. next, grab a shovel and dig. then, attempt to not burn your feet while building a wall of sand sufficient to keep out the cold demons of the ocean waves. finally, you can relax in a hot tub built for as many people helped on this adventure, on the beach, in the cold, with boiling water seeping out from the sands. good times :)

currently it is raining approximately horizontally. i just finished a game of monopoly with a few kids from the hostel, we shall be drinking wine shortly and perhaps eating crepes. im hoping to leave town tomorrow for a new one. whitianga is beautiful and fun, but there are to many other places to go. i was going to leave this morning, but the prospect of hitchhiking in hellish conditions didn't seem quite as enjoyable as reading a book on a comforatable couch

i would put up some pictures but im on a crappy expensive internetz connectionz at the moments, so no, that will not happen. but, went internet is cheap/free again, there will be more of pictures

i ate a kiwi this morning

it was a golden kiwi, i didn't know they existeds. it tasted like a cross between your typical green on the inside type kiwi, but with a pearish initial taste and skinz like a pear.

was in sydney for a few days a few days ago. it was fun, but don't feel much of a need to go back except for the food, which was very good. bit much of a city for vacation. i stayed in kings cross and got offered sex by strangers on the street many times and had drunken/druggeded people throwing their shit all over my shit every night. perhaps it was just the location of the hostel

im currently at the lantana hostel in auckland. auckland is awesome. ive been more or less aimlessly wanderingz around and having an actual vacation: eat, sleep, walk, read. besides attempting to get lost while walking, i haven't done much else other than hang out with the kids at the hostel. tomorrow morning i head off to coromandel penisula, which should provide much easier access to hikes/trails. i wanted to get out to rangitoto island, but its closed until the middle of augusts.

i hiked to the top of mt eden yesterday, its an old dormant volcano within auckland. the lightz made it difficult to get a good picture of the crater + the city, but heres a picture aimed a bit west of downtown:

packing CONTiNUES to suck

I have purchased a few nites at a hostel in sydney so far. and have currencies foreign. but i have still not figured out how to put my life into my backpack completely. the ups man brought my new eee pc though. it shall be a sweet hax0r *nix box. it does not have a name as of yet. i would inquire bout suggestions, but i dont htink i have readers yet (or ever).

on a note related to the title of this blogg thing, today my boss needed someone to poop into a box and over night it to the east coast. he offered to buy someone a burrito in return. liz and rob then proceeded to discuss the efficacy of coffee on the intestines. im going to miss work. we blend frozen rats, play with very expensive computers and talk about poop regularly

PaCKiNG sucks

i have a backpack that can hold multiple midgets (dwarfs?) or something. i'm pretty sure i could smuggle one of the smaller pyramids somewhere. this is that "hey this is a first blog post entry" entry. it is in no way at all related to the first paragraph of a book. regardless of the quality of this posting, i guarentee that this blog will suck (and yes, i miss spelled gurantee in protest of things not fixign my typing automatically). look at this picture of suck (grrrrrrrr):


if lincoln could grrr, that'd be weird.