Insert witty title.

It's been a long time, my friends. I've been quite well and quite busy. I know I promised to update this thing more often, but I can't bring myself to sit in front of a computer for more than 30 minutes writing about what I did when I could be out having more adventures.

See, the finality of my whole excursion has more then set in. As we speak, I have less than half of my trip left, and honestly it feels like I have about 2 weeks. When school starts up again, I know this will definitely be the case.

So what have I been up to?

Well, several weeks ago, I went skiing in Hiroshima-ken for the first time. Skiing is surprisingly harder then it looks. Michael, Sean, and I rented a car and skiied for the whole day or that was the plan at least. I had to cut the day short due to crashing into a fence, getting whiplash, and bruising the whole right side of my body. What do they always say? No internal bleeding, no gain? Just kidding, I got better a few days afterwards. Moving on..

The upcoming weeks were fun as well but not quite as dangerous. I had two of my good friends7 (both Candians) birthday parties which were a lot of fun, full of tomfoolery and what not and my Kyoto/Osaka trip.

The Kyoto/Osaka trip was great, but traveling can really put a toll on your body and mind. It wasn't until I came back to the uni that I felt at home again. Now, don't get me wrong I love traveling and the such, but those cities are just too big (especially Osaka). Anyway in Osaka, Sean and I went to the aquarium and to the Umeda Sky tower which were quite amazing (pictures are up on Flickr) along with going to see Bloc Party (one of my favorite bands from the UK) who put on one hell of a show. It was kind of cool to see many different cultures unite in one room, with one purpose: to rock the fuck out. Good times.

After a few tiring days in Osaka, we head off to Kyoto which is conviently located 40 minutes away by train. I liked Kyoto the better of the two, because it reminded me of Yamaguchi. After all, Yamaguchi is called "Kyoto of the West". In Kyoto, we did a lot of sightseeing and walking around due to the 500 yen bus passes which allow for anyone with a pass to get anywhere in the city by bus. Quite nice I must say. Some of the stops we saw while using this pass, where Kinkakuji, Ginkakuji, and Nijo Castle. The first two being buddist temples highly regarded in Kyoto and the last, well, the last is self-explanatory.

When we got back from Kyoto, we unpacked and pretty much passed out. Nine and a half hours on a train is not exactly my idea of a good time.

* For a better description of the events that have transpired, please refer to Sean's blog. The link is conviently located at the right-hand side of the page.

matane.