Let Freedom Reign?

The recent temporary insanity demonstrated by my fellow Canadians got me thinking about the west and my country's place in the world. I really cannot see how an educated individual could vote for the party now in power. (Not that the other party leaders are perfect.) Why can't people see past all the bullshit campaign promises and hidden agendas? I guess the same thing happened in the US, but it still makes no sense to me. Harper was recently quoted saying he's ready to "start rebuilding this great country." I didn't think the country was a total disaster, but i guess some did. I was fine with having putting some of the budget surplus back into education and health care and using the rest to pay down the debt. With all he's promising to change where the hell is the money going to come from, especially since he promised to lower the GST. He plans on taking in less money from taxes, but spend way more on things like National Defense. It doesn't add up. Unless, of course, it means we'll soon be in Iraq as well as Afghanistan. I'm guess the $5 billion the US owes us in illegal tariffs on softwood lumber will go unpaid. Harper bitched about how Martin's camp antagonized the US administration over the money owed. They owe us $5 billion! Give us our fucking money! If it was the other way around they would be kicking up a shit-blizzard. I was enjoying seeing a leader show a little backbone for a change. Will Canada ever have a strong leader again? Maybe i'll be back in Korea soon after i leave.

Google's decision to agree to censorship so they can enter the lucrative Chinese market got me thinking some more. On CBC's website they have a look at China called The Revolution and Evolution in Modern China. Since i was only 12 at the time i went back and watched the newscast from the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Where was the US when a million people were screaming and dying for freedom? Do they only pick fights on those smaller than them? What about Rwanda? Even more died there. Where was Canada's voice? The change Canada really needs can only come from within its people, not from a politician or a political party. But that's just my opinion.

-insomniac out.

Another pic from Tokyo since we haven't taken many this month. This blurry-ass pic is Tokyo Tower at night. Our hotel was fairly close to it, but it didn't seem that exciting so we never got around to seeing it. Took this on our walk back to our hotel from the Hard Rock in Ropponggi.

I figured i'd due some blogging tonight instead of the work i have to do for Friday. I'm also drinking Korean beer which might make this post interesting. You can't go wrong at $4 Canadian for a 1.6L bottle. Is drinking alone a sign of alcoholism or a lack of friends? Meh... either way. Maybe i'll start with C's injury a couple weeks ago. The signs of it have almost disappeared from her body.

We went to a basketball game during the week a while ago since we're working days. After enjoying the game we walked into the brisk evening and headed for home. As we approached the steps leaving the arena i noticed a crowd of people on them and said to C, "I think someone fell on the ice. Be careful." Apparently she didn't hear me, because as she hit the second or third step her feet went completely out from under her. I have a tendency to mumble and i think she just ignores me when i speak half the time. As she fell, i was positioned behind her and to her right, i managed to catch her arm (thanks to my cat reflexes) and kept her from hitting her head at least. She still managed to slide down three or four steps on her ass. We got a brief sound of concern from the crowd around us as she popped back up. I wanted to stop and see what she hurt, but she wanted to push on. We took a few steps and she broke out in tears. I thought, "Here we go again." When i asked her what hurt all she said through her tears was, "Everything." I thought when i grabbed her arm i fucked up her back in addition to the damage to her ass and pride. After we got home she didn't seem to bad and the damage done was only to her ass. The next day, a nasty purple bruise that must have been 6"x3" began to form. Luckily that was all the damage.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggghhh... lost what i wrote about our trip to Seoul. Will do another time. Glad i published and only lost a paragraph this time.
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Another pic from Japan to let you know i'm still alive. I love the colours in this shot. I haven't felt like writing lately and we've been pretty busy with work and everything else. I will write about C's last near-hospital experience soon, even though it happened almost two weeks ago. This weekend we stayed in Seoul with a girl we used to work with who arrived a short while ago. That will also have to wait for another day since i work in five hours.
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Random Japan pic #171. I'm guessing they serve fugu here. Will write more someday.
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Yeah that's me chilling near Mount Fuji about two weeks ago now. We stopped for five minutes for a photo-op then it was back on the bus to get to Lake Ashi. The schedule was really tight. One of my favorite parts was hearing the stuck-up European cow married to an American bitch about the squat toilets at a rest stop. My advice: stay at home if you're too good to really experience other cultures. I'll continue Japan highlights sporadically from now on. Continuity is too much for me right now.

Friday we actually had people over to over apartment. Real live people. A few teachers and even our old secretary showed up. She tried calling for directions when no one who spoke was here yet. She made a pretty good effort at trying to understand me, but gave up after a bit and just hung up on me. She expressed embarrassment when she arrived, but there was really no need. I found it amusing, and i'm still embarrassed by my horrible lack of Korean. I should have made more of an effort at learning from the beginning. We had a good time drinking beer and soju. I stuck to beer this time. I shared the little bit of Miller i had, then we drank Korean. I swear the stuff tasted like a skunk smells. Everything went fairly well until the director's kids and another from the hagwon showed up. The mood understandably got a little strange with the kids around. After a bit a few of us headed to another "norae" bang where i got to belt out quite a few this time. C and i did a duet of "We Are the Champions" in honour of C's mom. I got to sing some Nirvana, Offspring, and finished off the night with a decent attempt at Duran Duran's "Hungry Like the Wolf." I'm getting into this singing stuff. It's a lot of fun with some alcohol. I think when i get back to Canada i'll open a PC/DVD/Norae Bang combo. Could be a hit with enough booze. When we finished C and i went out with the secretary for another beer at a bar called MOO. Yeah, like a cow. We worried the lack of a common language would be a problem, but we managed to communicate all right. I think the beer helped. I'm not sure exactly when, but i think we agreed to get together again for a movie sometime after she takes a massage test next week. I think...

C should be happy i managed to make through a post without writing the word fuck. Fuck... i did it again. Meh. I don't get to say it at work.

Note to self: Listening to punk music at three in the morning doesn't help insomnia.

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Sure the pic is blurry, but that happens when you're trying to catch something traveling at damn near 300 kilometers per hour. On our tour to Mount Fuji last Tuesday we paid an extra $30 a piece to take the bullet train back to Tokyo. Just trying to catch the thing in motion with the camera was almost worth the price of admission for me. In this pic i somehow managed to catch the train perfectly in frame. I have the reflexs of some sort of feline, i'm telling you. If i only could have held the camera steady, it would have been perfect. Unfortunately once we were inside the train it was difficult to get any sense of speed because it was already dark. The whizzing past of distant lights outside only gave a small sense of speed.

We had a pretty good day, although everything felt rushed. Our first stop on the tour was the fifth station on the mountain. Only a half hour to snap a few pics into the glaring sun and buy some overpriced souvenirs before we were heading back down to a mediocre lunch. Then it was off to Lake Ashi for a quick cruise to a cable car and another half hour on the mountain for more pics. After that the tour was pretty much over and we headed to the train. Feeling a little meh right now so i'll write more about Japan on the weekend.
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We're back after eight pretty damn good days in Tokyo and need a vacation from our vacation. Sleep the night before we came back (New Year's) was almost nonexistent. On top of that our flight back was delayed over an hour and then the bus to Wonju was 20 minutes late. I was hoping get a little shut eye on the bus but we had the Korean Paul Tracy for a bus driver. I honestly didn't know a bus could maneuver like that at those speeds. Somehow the people around us seemed to sleep even with the rocking from the patented constant on-off-on-off of the gas pedal. I think that's a Korean thing. We also had to begin working days and teach extra classes starting today. I need to sleep tonight so i'll be short.

This shot of Shibuya was from our second full day in Tokyo. We spent the day wandering aimlessly and exploring. The intersection here was something to behold. When the light changed people filled the entire intersection moving in every direction. We spent our week checking out Mount Fuji and riding the bullet train, shopping, and spent two days at Disneyland. We also bought a lot of Merch. We probably came back with almost twice as much stuff as we went with. I think we both had a good time, but i'll have to get into more detail another day.
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