Boxing Day Bonanza Post

Ok, I just wrote a really long account of Thrusday, Friday and Saturday and then somehow deleted it all, so I'm getting tired and am just going to rush my way through it.

Sorry it's taken so long for this update. I know you've all been sitting on the edge of your seats waiting for the past six days, but get used to it. I figure I've spent over $100 on night-time internet over the past week, mostly catching up with people, sending some Christmas e-mails, etc. But January is going to see a frugal version of me of the likes that none of you have ever seen. I'm just telling you, be ready for it.

So Thursday morning I woke up and checked outside to see how cold it was. It was pretty cold, sub-zero. Peeking over the ledge, I saw that someone had strewn white paint across the the thin strip of grass behind my apartment. Wait, the stuff was all over the place... across the railroad tracks. I remember thinking how disappointed I was in Japan that an efficient group of workers hadn't been by yet to clean it up, but that's when I realized... SNOW!!!

It was already December 22nd and I thought I wouldn't see it before Christmas, but there it was. There wasn't much of it, mind you, but still, it was there. I yelled out "Snow!!!" and rushed back into the apartment and out onto the front balcony. Some kids below were playing, struggling to make little snowballs from some snow that had collected in a potted plant. It was both a sad (in the pathetic sense) and happy sight at the same time.

On my way to work, I had the pleasure of witnessing a great Japanese snow-removal technique. You see, in Canada, the fools we are, we use salt and sand to keep snow away in sub-zero temperatures. The Japanese have found a more immediate solution to the problem, though: water. They were just out there, pouring it on the street and sidewalk in front of their businesses, it was pretty funny. I guess it doesn't get cold enough here usually for them to know any better.

Actually, before I'd come to Osaka I was told that it might snow here once in the course of the year, and that that would probably be in February, the coldest month. But people are saying that this is the coldest winter in decades (Ooh, Global Warming!!, you all whine, just like whenever anyone mentions anything mildly unusual about the weather). Anyway, it has felt kind of cold, but nothing like back home. But this is just the beginning of the winter, I don't really know what I have in store. Probably not much, though.

Thursday night I played poker at Justin's place with him, his Scottish roommate, Keith, and his roommate's friend, Andrew, who is apparently visiting for 6 weeks. There were also another five or so people there, their little group of friends, though they were all just drinking on the nearby floor. Justin had been talking himself up for days, saying that he was about as close to being a poker professional as he could be without actually being one, and the others there seemed to agree. Apparently, they'd played a number of times and every time Justin had left as the big winner.

I gave a long account of what happened in my post that was deleted, but it's probably better that I don't bore you with that and just give you the details. I cleaned everyone out. Both Justin and Andrew bought back in again, but by the end of the night I'd collected the entire 5,000 yen that they had been willing to contribute. Justin made excuses about getting bad cards and me getting good cards (I don't think that happened, but agreed with everything he said), but people making up excuses always leads to a more satisfying win than if they congratulate you and be sportsman-like about it. The others were happy too since they had been unable to beat him and really dug into his wounded ego. Actually, these people were a lot of fun, I hope they invite me to play again.

I told some people about my poker game and others have expressed an interest in me hosting a game at my place sometime soon. I don't have a poker set, but my roommates both want to play as well as a guy from work, so I'll probably try to organize that in January when I'm running low on money again.

I had stayed out all night playing poker and hanging around with those people since the trains don't start running until after 5am. They invited me out to Namba but I had to get home to bed, I was working at 5pm, or so I thought.

I got home around 6:30am and realized that it was the 23rd. I had that date flagged in my mind for some reason. I checked the schedule on my phone and it was flagged there too. I checked why, and it read "Work: 10am." Wow, great. My first *shift slide* (as Nova calls it when they shove a paper in front of you and make you sign it, saying they're changing one of your shifts) and here I am three hours before, not having slept yet and still wearing off an alcohol buzz. So I got ready for bed, set my alarm for 7:30am, and laid there for about 16 minutes until it went off.

I made it into work for 9:30am, pretty proud that I wasn't yet feeling like I was going to collapse. Kimiko and Janette seemed to just be opening the place up. Janette asked me why I had come so early, I told her that I was working at 10am. She said no I wasn't. I went to check the day's schedule, and apparently they had given me another *shift slide* a couple of days ago and I'd somehow forgotten to change the time in my phone. So I was now working at 3pm and had wasted a good four hours of sleep time. So I hurried home.

Saturday I spent most of the day walking around. It was Christmas Eve, though it didn't really feel like it. I visited Amerika Mura, which I love. Amerika Mura, if you can't remember, is the area of Shinsaibashi where the youth attempt to imitate American culture. There are tons of little clothing shops selling used and new stylish American clothing and other goods, often from the early nineties, that paints a really nice picture of American culture. After visiting this area I really don't think anyone can make the claim of America being "cultureless". The shops everywhere are blasting great music, there are kids doing skateboarding tricks on a little triangle in the centre of the area, breakdancers around the big metal ball in the south, and Japanese rastafarians wearing t-shirts that give reference to their roots in "Mother Africa". There's a Statue of Liberty on one of the nearby buildings and a big Hollywood-themed restaurant which sells autographs of celebrities, but the whole area seems really uncontrived and unplanned, it's really great.

That night, I wasn't sure what to do. I ended up, at the last minute, agreeing to go to a club called Underlounge with Davide, his Italian friend Gianpaulo and a couple of their Japanese friends and it was a pretty fun night. I've never been out on Christmas Eve, but people are in a really festive mood and some groups of Japanese people come in costume (??). We stayed until closing at 5am and headed out to get something to eat.

After getting home Christmas morning, showering and putting some clothes in the laundry, it was already noon and I was just going to bed. My parents called me around 12:30pm to wish me a Merry Christmas. I was really tired and probably very rude, so big apologies to Mom, Dad, Sean, and whoever else may have been offended by that phone call.

Anyway, I slept the rest of Christmas day. That evening I woke up to go to dinner with Justin, Jacquie and their group. We met in Shinsaibashi around 10pm and had a nice Mexican dinner at El Pancho. I met Jacquie's roommate, a girl who's name has slipped my mind, and at first I thought she had a British accent so I didn't bother talking to her, but she was sitting next to me at dinner and it turned out that the accent I was hearing was actually Nova Scotian and that she's from New Glasgow. Wow, and it's not even the girl that I had heard about who is also from Nova Scotia!

Furthermore, I went to the travel agency today to ask about last-minute New Year's trips (they were all WAY too expensive) and they had a world map and we were supposed to stick a pin in our hometown and... Halifax was already taken. My people have really made our mark on this city.

So, I just found out today that Tuesday is my last day of work before New Year's vacation. Well it's not much of a vacation, they're not paying for it and I'd rather work. But I get a week off and this will be my last official time off until I'm eligible for my 2-weeks paid vacation in May. So I feel like I should really do something with this and am thinking of going to Tokyo. Actually, I'm going to book myself into a hostel there now just in case since things are quickly filling up. I'll talk to you soon,

Ryan