Quaint.

So as it turns out, I have connections that I did not even know I had. The guy that took me and my roommate out for dinner owns all the seaweed in the world, or something. He was an old friend of another roommate from Tokyo, who decided that he wanted to practice his English with some foreign chicks... so he just took us out to dinner. It was nice because he took us to a very classic Japanese restaurant, which was only about 10 square feet in its entirety. It was a mom and pop kind of place (mom was in the kitchen, and pop waited tables), where they made everything fresh to order, and waited on us hand and foot. It did not occur to me until afterward that maybe we got that kind of treatment because the guy was A BAZILLIONARE, but it was nice anyways. He was a total gentlemen, too, which was nice because I definitely wondered what his true intentions were at first (maybe he wanted more than just English lessons...). I took a couple pictures of the route there, but they didn't turn out very well, since it was night time. They got scrapped.

Oh, and I totally forgot to post the rest of my random pictures from today, so here they are;

This guy is Beat Takeshi, who is a famous actor/director in Japan. He's latched onto a giant ECC campaign, of which he has no actual relevance. There's a lot of that kind of thing here.

Trains! They are all colour-coded in Japan, according to what subway line they are on. That way you know pretty freaking quickly if you're on the wrong platform.

It's hard to see, but there are actually palm trees in Osaka. While I was taking this picture, it rained, snowed, and became sunny again. All in about 2 minutes. And I have no idea what that big dome is in the background. It probably holds rice or something.

An adorable kid! Not that I want one of my own, but Asian children are freaking adorable. They also know it, and take full advantage of it. I would love to just rent one for a couple hours, because they're so cute.

This magnificent specimen is supposed to pass for a toilet. I wouldn't have recognized it as one, if it wasn't for the one-ply toilet paper dispenser next to it. Yeah, I didn't use this thing.

My train ticket to Osaka. A good $150 for 3 hours of standing in a train. Those squiggly lines are supposed to tell you where to go and shit, but it could be an excerpt from the Torrah for all I know. My understanding of Kanji is still not any good.

This is a creepy close-up of my hand. Pretty sure I did not take this picture on purpose. But it gives me a nice segway into the rest of the post. Actually, this picture's a better segway;

Hah! IT'S FUNNY CAUSE IT'S ACTUALLY A SEGWAY!!!!!


Sorry, but it's been a long day. So ECC, in their infinite wisdom, has decided that I will be doing my training in Nagoya, and not Tokyo after all. Something to do with keeping our skin and limbs... I dunno. The company is going to pay for all of my accommodation while I'm in Nagoya. I received an email that actually tells me where to go once I get there, so that I may be given a wad of cash to take care of myself. This was a slightly redeeming quality, in a company of which I am increasingly losing faith. While I was receiving the details of my moving cities, I attempted to dip my toe into into the concept of my job being relocated to a city outside the radiation zone. I think it's a reasonable request, since I left my haz-mat suit in Canada, along with my diamond-encrusted socks and my neon-green hair extensions. I was told that 'we would cross that bridge...' So I am not entirely convinced that I will be working for ECC much longer. However, I will complete training in Nagoya, since they are still paying me for the opportunity.

So tomorrow morning I'm gonna go get in on some castle action, since it's been at least 2 days since I've seen one, and then book it to Nagoya. There is the matter of getting the rest of my crap from Tokyo, but I'll figure that out on Sunday, when I have a day off from training. In the mean time, I'm going to sign off with a picture of one quarter of my face;

Goodnight!