A new era is born. Say hello to the Canon EOS 10D Digital SLR. It may be 3 years old now but its still a kick ass camera. And thanks to the Japanese fondness for newer models and the marvel that is Yahoo auction I managed to aquire this beauty for a mere 44'000 yen! which is cheaper than my old camera. I will still use my old Canon s2is, I mean its been with me through jungles, waterfalls, river rapids, rock concerts and many a drunkeen night out so I can't just abandon it. But the 10D quote '' is a 6.3 million pixel digital SLR with a seven-point autofocus system and 3 fps burst rate—all contained within an ergonomic magnesium alloy body shell.'' Which means even a muppet drunk in a chicken coop can take awesome pictures! I dont have a CF card yet so I'll have to wait till friday before I can pop its cherry. And yes I know I do sound like a geek or as we say in Japan Otaku.

Every year in a conference
centre in Japan there is a
gathering.





Tokyo Game Show 2006. Wow I can't believe its been 2 years since I last came to the game show! Well I missed it last year so I sure as hell were'nt gonna miss it this year. I dragged my new flatmate Cameron Tan along (he'd only been in the country for two days!) I figured it would be a good insight into Japanese culture. I had allready taken him to a bar called free culture on his first night in Japan. Its a quiet place in fujisawa where alot of teacher go on a wednesday night. Apparently its THE place to be but I would'nt know cos its not my scene. Actually I was supposed to get two new flatmates but a certain Denis Bolton from England decided on the 11th hour not to come to Japan. Denis if your reading this hello mate! Anyway we had to go to the game show on friday cos I could'nt take the weekend off.

This meant we had to blag our way in cos friday was for Business and industry only. So we took a couple of old business cards and somehow managed to speeched our way in, I suppose it's quite easy in Japan cos as the people are so trusting. Once we were in we got to play Playstation 3 and a few other new games. We also got to test out a few new concept machines but Tokyo game show aint really about the games. Its about the sub culture, Its about meeting fellow gamers and experiencing their passion for the gaming world. Its about showing our dedication and support to the game designers who give us unfound levels of escapism. Its about showing loyalty to the characters we gave our misspent youths to. It has nothing to do with the cute Japanese girls dressed in cos play.

Let the muppet be!!!


It's time to bid farewell to yet another flatmate. Mr Bobby Popadopalous Tatas, A.K.A Bobby Black Sausage. A Matsuya guzzling Greek who's gone home to the land of OZ for a wedding and will then embark on a 3 week (max!) voyage to China. Your
blue undies will be missed! The depressing sound of "Toto -Africa" blaring every morning however will not. Your carefree laid back style rivals that of my own and you're the only person I've met who's spend the night in a chicken coop! I congratulate you on your adeptness at finger pointing in restaurants and your mastery of Japanese grunts, clicks and moans. So its killer respect to a guy who after 18 months in Japan managed to learn barely more than five Japanese words, three of which were food items. A guy who's cultural immersion involved a diet of microwave dinners, drinking lipton ice tea and evenings spent watching "Japanese programmes" such as Boy meets world and MacGuyver.





Until we meet again remember you will always be an akibakei!!!

P.S. The blue undies in the previous post belong to my Greek soon to be ex roomate!

Operation clean-up. Im losing another flatmate this week but before he leaves we're gonna have to do a mission impossible. We havent recieved any formal warnings but I reckon we got a week max to sort out our apartment. We have shit loads of cardboard boxes, magazines, clothes e,t,c to get rid of as well as the biological weapons of mass descruction brewing in the bathroom! the last time we cleaned the balcony was, well never. Still, I believe it can be done and the good news is if either one of my new flatmates are from the land of hamburgers and CNN then i'm outa there too.