McMuffin Tops

Health is one of those things you don't really give a crap about until some BS "influenza" comes along and kicks your health in the groin. And when it happens once or twice a month for 6 months, often lasting 2 or 3 weeks, you start to count the days you are actually healthy, as opposed to the days you are sick.

Not that I have it hard... of course in all of life's complaints there is always someone who has a harder life than you. Pop singers are constantly reminding us of how hard their lives are, even if we think otherwise (perhaps if they sang more about the injustice in the world and humanitarian issues instead of self-involved BS the world might be inspired to care more about the lives of those we overlook everyday as opposed to the lives of the rich, beautiful and self obsessed... wishful thinking).

Back to my self-involved tale of woe. So due to my ill health (occupational hazard... teaching ankle biters with all the diseases under the sun) and a comment from Shigehiko about needing to lose weight (It was my fault... never ask a non-native speaker a loaded question, subtlety in language around this area is something that even native speaking men don't have a grasp of) I decided to return to my Fuji glory days (only 6 months prior actually). I re-joined the gym (and for 100 bucks a month I'm going to get my moneys worth), am on a diet (low sugar, fat, carbs, dairy), I quit smoking (or at least the random few I would bum off others while intoxicated), and I just finished one month of not drinking (which ended in a hearty steak and xxxx at Outback Steakhouse with the boy). Don't eat cookies, candy, soda, fried food, fast food, fun food. Even knocked back free donuts at work. Had to give away the candy my Act Red class gave me every week. Everyday consists of granola, yogurt, fruit, salad, sandwiches, soup and the occasional low fat noodles (soba or udon). Generally, I try to go to the gym 4 times a week, swimming, jogging, cross training, yoga, pilates.

Like most girls, I have a "goal weight" that I've been trying lazily to attain for almost 7 years. At my heaviest I was 66kg, goal weight being 55kg. Society in Australia tells us its ok to be comfortable with your body and weight. And while I agreed with that for a while, it took a simple side comment from my boyfriend about needing to lose weight that kicked me off my arse and sent me on a real attempt to lose the weight I never needed in the first place. I'm speaking to you fatty. Fatty fat fat muffin tops. Ms "KFC gave me great tits" (but a horrid ass). Mr "she likes it because it makes me cuddly". Get off your arse. Turn off the TV. Go outside. You may not be fat, but you certainly don't NEED those love handles. There is nothing sexy about muffin tops. And if you're not going to lose the rolls, at least cover them up and wear clothes that fit you.

I reckon the reason why people can't lose weight is because it requires a full lifestyle change as opposed to just some minor adjustments. And the human race is as lazy as buggery (come to think of it, buggery as such isn't really a lazy activity... it requires perseverance, stamina and endurance). So I had no choice but to make that lifestyle change... I didn't want to spend my life being one of those sickly people (you know the ones).

However, humans are inherently lazy, so give it 2 weeks, I'll get off my high horse and start shovelling Krispy Kreme doughnuts in my face once again.

Bimyo

I'm reading this book... well... TRYING to read this book. But it's crap. It's worse than crap. It makes me want to punch the author for even thinking about trying to publish such crap. In fact, the author even had to create his own publishing company to have it published. However it was a present from a good friend and I can never leave a book unfinished so I must continue to read on to the bitter bloody end. Actually, one thing that does benefit from the book is my confidence. If a douchebag with crappy poetry can have his book published, I can at least write one (I mean, for frig sake my sucky high school poetry was better than that bollarks). Anyway, some Japanese douchebag (that was insanely wet behind the ears) quit his job and went travelling for about 2 years with his newlywed wife. Not uncommon for us westerners, however apparently this was an amazing and praise worthy feat for our author friend (as his poetry would have you think). And apparently this experience gave our friend some deftly profound thoughts about life... which I would usually agree with in the case of travelling... except that this authors thought were deftly unprofound and just downright average... but written with the confidence that says "I'm the first person to have these thoughts... and in other parts of the world, junior high school students are writing similar poetry.

Crunching and Vrooming

Every couple has a "thing". It's not something you decide on, unless you feel you're in some sort of "cuteness" competition with another couple... and if that's the case then it's not so much a "thing" as an passive obsession with being something you're not.

Mine and Shigehiko's "thing" is driving around Japan eating Senbei. Not for the purpose of eating senbei as that can clearly be done in any location, but the two done together, at the same time, simultaneously. Eating senbei and driving. Crunch and Vroom. Together. Senbei is a Japanese rice cracker, but not those bogus mini rice crackers you get in supermarkets in flavours like "seaweed" so you can pretend you're eating asian food without actually eating it. (actually I don't mind the SA-KA-TA seaweed variety, as it's a low fat alternative to the beloved Jatz or Ritz or Shapes (baked not fried but still packed with fat and preservatives). Right... senbei. Is a rice cracker about the size of your palm (or your head, depending on the location in which you purchase said senbei). Usually soy sauce flavour, and baked over hot coals. Yum. Crunch. Loud. Not to be eaten in the 映画館 (cinema).

Driving and eating senbei, eating senbei and driving. All around Honshu. In summer we sometimes switched the car for Shigehiko's Ducati and the senbei for... well, nothing. Have you ever tried eating on a motorbike? Not a snappy idea.

There was senbei from Narita, Kyoto, Nara, Matsumoto, Hidatakayama... and it all started with Izu. The trip that started all the crunching and vrooming. And on that said trip, there was a lot of vrooming to be had. About 14 hours of vrooming in total. Bad traffic made for slow vrooming. And much crunching.

So that was our thing. And do it we did. We covered a lot of k's, stayed in many a ryokan and spend many a shiny yen, however oddly enough didn't really vary much from the shoyu flavour. I figure when you're on a good thing, stick to it. Hence why i've been eating the same breakfast for the better half of 2 years.

Shigehiko on the other hand is "challenger" of the worlds various culinary atrocities. "Soft cream" aka "soft serve" aka fat, craploads of sugar and a smidge of cream frozen in a steel vat and squeezed out in a form that looks remarkably like faeces. Shigehiko tried several varieties of this particular abomination, the most unusual of which was the "wasabi ice" (I am to this day still searching of Jeff's rumored "fish ice cream"). "Wasabi ice" is an incident that I will never speak of again (on the contrary, Shigehiko will freely and openly discuss this "delicious variety". (actually, it wasn't that bad aside from the bizarre aftertaste... but if I had said "I had wasabi ice. It was ok." then it wouldn't have made for a particularly interesting tale.

Fujisan

Let me start with this: I ran down fuji!
Gotta say one of my best achievements ever. Usually takes about 4 hours. I ran down in 1hr 40min. Yeah.
After 3 years of wanting to climb, I finally climbed the monster. Double the size of the highest mountain in Australia.

We started with 8 and came back with 3. One ended up in Shizuoka. One we haven't heard from. Three took a nap in the huts for 3 hours and got back much later.

The crater was an amazing site. One of those things you just have to see for yourself. And the view from 3776m, was truely breathtaking. I was pretty lucky not to get altitude sickness, since most of the people we climbed with got it.



We didn't make it to the top by sunrise, but we did manage to pull of to the side so we weren't waiting in lines when the sun came up. It was kinda frustrating with so many lines because I couldn't go at my own pace.



Now i'm all pumped for the next big challenge... gotta do a mountain at least 4000m now. Then 5000m. I'd like to go to the base camp of everest. I'd never go to the top, but being at the base camp would be pretty damn cool.

FujiQ

Let me explain last years fiasco...

Me, Anthony, Jeff and Don waited for 3 1/2 hours to ride eejanaika. It rained. The ride closed. We wept.

HOWEVER!

This year we rode the bastard. And boy did it scare the sweet Jesus out of my nostrils. Holy crap that was an awesome ride. In fact, BEST. RIDE. EVER. Or at least so far.




Me, Jeff, Don and Eiko (sorry Ant, wish you could have been there), waited only 2 1/2 hours for eejanaika this time... making a grand total of 6 hours wait. It was worth it.



We also rode Fujiyama, twice. Some crazy clock ride, some crazy horror show, of course the teacups, PizzaLa (which is now called tondemina), And some crazy UFO thing. Much fun. Much, much fun.

Fukushima

Truely. Amazing. Day.

Started at 6am, quick shower and brekkie, then meet the crew by 7am. Headed out at 7:30ish, all 6 of us in a family-style minivan. Took a fantastic hidden mountain road, filled with crazy car-attacking horseflies, a shrine to the snake God, a cute little waterfall and a few rice paddies.



Got to the starting point of Bandai-san at 9:30am, and hiked to the top by 11:30am. Not too hot, not too humid, tough in parts but easy in others. The view was absolutely amazing... volcanos made great hiking points. Passed an old run down onsen that stank of sulfur. Yummy. Eggy.



On the peak we saw a million and one insects... hundred of dragonflies (tombo) and mega dragonflies (oniyama). A huge cicada landed on Gavin and deafened up with its song. A few of us cought the tombo in the ends of our fingers.





Coming down took an hours, then we drove through to one of the lakes and had a quick splash (and a quick perv on the yummy tanned boys). Then back to the service station to change a tire (and get some ice creams), and back up the mountain to British Hills.



Fan-FREAKIN-tastic day. One of the best I've had in a long time.

Nikko

2nd time to Nikko... much better than the first.
Saw Monkeys.
Didn't see the waterfall because of the mist... but the mist was pretty damn special anyway.
Sleeping cat made me wanna cry... totally bollocks.
Ate entirely too much yuba.
Teased Carla about the yuba.
Got naked in the onsen.
Stayed in a quaint little ryokan.
Laughed and cried because of the j-girls and their heels.
Screwed up the trains (but it worked out for the better).

Typhoon

...and this is why I hate Japanese weather...



It's summer in Japan. It should be all about the beach and the sunshine and the glint in little childrens eyes.

...instead, Japan's summer is all about the rainy season, the stinky hot humid season, followed by the typhoon season. Evern Brisbane's winter looks better than Japan's summer.

New Job

I got a job!!!!!
It's awesome!!!!
I will be teaching kids, using the drama method... so it ties in well with my degree. AND I get to do performances with the little munchkins and be a director!!!
I'm so stoked. I went into Yoyogi for a second round interview today where I presented some flashcards, did a song and read a book.
Downside is, it's in Tokyo, so it'll be minimum 40 mins travel time. On the plus, then contract is 6 months, so in March 08 there may be positions available in Chiba.
It's soooo cool! I absolutely smashed the interview. It was the first time that I walked into an interview and went, 'yep, this is mine as long as I don't screw up'.
Salary is less than now, but the hours are only 30 teaching hours whereas now i'm doing almost 40. And they pay travel money, so it'll work out.

News

Daily Yomiuri...

"Mom jumps under train holding 2 kids; all killed"

Kids were 1 and 3 years old.

Ahh, Japan. Somethings gotta give.