Another piece of music.

So it's been hella months since my last post. Why? Because life was kinda hella busy.
Anyways this time I wanna talk about this piece of music. Life's been busy lately with lots of work and music stuff lately. Video gaming is getting quite boring playing the same people all the time at e.spot (local arcade) and I just cannot take online players seriously. I miss being in Japan much!!




While driving home tonight, my ipod was somehow on random play and it was playing random songs from my entire play list (I have a shit ton of music in there, of many languages, and types of music.)
This song came up. I havent heard this song since maybe 10yrs ago when I was still in high school.
I never realized how beautiful this is until now, since back then I used to only like the louder stuff. At the end of the song Gavin Rosdale sings "It's a beautiful rain", thats what the song feels like if you listen closely.
It doesnt have a very outstanding melody, but if you just listen closely it could carry you away. Very awesome shizzle. ;)

If you have any olllld ass music that you used to listen to a long time ago. Try playing it thru some headphones and just listen to it. It's kinda neat how it brings you back to whenever you were addicted to this song, kinda like a mental time travel for a few mins. Hope this shit makes sense to you guys. lol

Anyways, that is all for now.
Cheers

Hi guys, my name is Ears

Jk. Meet Optimus Prime my 4 yr old overweight Corgi. =D

Yellow - Coldplay - PIANO OFFICIAL

I am actually In the progress of writing a post on my recent trip down to Washington state for a tournament. But I had just discovered this great piece of music which I just had to share.

This is a very nice and mellow version of Yellow, done with only a p-no and Chris Martin's vocals. It's awesomes!
Coldplay is definitely one of my all time favorite bands. If they ever come to Vanvouer again iw ould love to watch them live for a 3rd time.

Life in Japan - Part 2

Hokay, so finally I've come along with a little bit of time to finish off part 2!  It's been hella beautiful here in Vancouver so I've just been out and abouts alllll the time enjoying the sun and the great weather.
Anyways so here it goes!

Living like a cheapass.

Mr. Air and I were staying at a guesthouse in Tamaplaza (between Yokohama and Tokyo).  It's a very small town thats away from the big city.  According to Kenny its a town for rich people to live, I did see alot of nice cars and super nice looking houses near the guesthouse.  Our guesthouse, however, is a hella ghetto building. 


The street we lived on. Roughly 10 mins walk to the closest train station.




For those who don't know, a guesthouse is a building where you rent just the room (a tiny ass room at that, if you're coming from N. America), and share everything else.. such as bathrooms... showers... kitchen.. living room.. etc..  Alot of foreigners stay at these places because the rent is reletive cheap for longer stays.

The building that we lived in is called "ElDorado", owned by an old Japanese guy named Joe (who can speak some english).  This is my 2nd time staying here, the first time being 2 years ago when I went to Japan to visit Kenny, that time I stayed for almost 1.5 month I believe, that was training trip 1, and this time is #2.  (yes, I go to Japan just to play street fighter and eat ramen, what? :p)



ElDorado, the front door



I don't remember if I've mentioned this before, but unlike Mr. Sponsored, I had to pay for the whole trip on my own, and having Kenny being the jewbag that he always is.  We were ALWAYS watching our budget.  The flight ticket was retardedly expensive, for it is high season.  But Kenny san has to train up for EVO so I figured "fuck it, I wanna train" and tagged along (I didn't even go to EVO, which I hella regret, I'm so going next year).

So we're staying there for 2 full weeks.  That is 14 days.  We had planned to spend as little as possible each day.  That means sticking to ramen and cheap ricebowls (which are VERY delish btw, and affordable, I love that shiz to death) and staying away from "nice" restaurants. 

We didn't have any shopping to do either, other than some small things Kenny had to pick up for his girlfriend at Harajuku's "Halloween Street" *I don't know what it's really called, but it's a strip with a ton of shops that sells small gifts and such, total tourist area.  We just call it "halloween street" cause of the amount of scary looking mofos that travel back and forth there (pork chops, tatted up and full of piercings shop employees.. etc, weird people :p)*

Traveling cost (within Japan) was high as well but we only make single trips out to the game stations early in the day then ride the last train home everyday, so we kept train rides to a minimum.   Thank god everything in Tamaplaza does not have the tourist markup, especially on food and daily needs and such.  We are able to aquire snacks, cup noodles, and drinks usually at around 100yen (roughly a dollar CAD) a piece. 
I had this most ultimatly badass ice cream waffle I got from a conveinence store there for a dollar, it was SOOO GOOD (Sorry, I devoured it within mins so didn't have a chance to take picture, that's how good it was :p)



100yen gigantic iced tea that usually lasts me from 1am - 4pm the next day when we leave the house.  Cheap FTW!

Of course, being Chinese and all, we did not forget to cheap out on daily supplies.  Shampoos, bodywash, and toothpaste... etc were aquired from various different stores depending on which one had it the cheapest (most asians are born with the ability to do this :p). 
To top it off, if possible, we would buy the "refill" version of the shampoo and bodysoap, which just comes in a non-resealable bag, and then we would just pour dat shiz into empty drink bottles. INSTANT RESEAL CAPABILITY! (genius? I know)




INSTANT RESEAL CAPABILITY!?  Hell yes!!

 Anyways, that's all that I can think of right now to write about on this trip.  I am missing that awesome country a shit load right now, even though I live in one of the most beautiful cities in the world (but its just so god damn boring here).  I am definitely looking to go back again for another training trip hopefully... next year? :)  I truly hope so!

Cheers and thanks for reading gais,
Justin

ONE OK ROCK - Wherever You Are

At this moment, I'm totally loving this song.
"Wherever You Are" by ONE OK ROCK, definitely one of my favotire Japanese Rock Bands
If you don't know them you should check 'em out! Just youtube "one ok rock", just about any one of their songs are good.

Cheers,
SupaDonkie

Life in Japan, Part 1

As I mentioned in my last post, I have just returned from a 14 days trip in Japan.  I'm going to talk about abit more on our daily lives in Japan.  Although the events we participated in arn't all that exciting (SF4, eat, sleep, SF4, repeat), we managed to discover the little things in our daily routine that kept us entertained throughtout the difficult and salty times. 

The Food:

One of these things being obviously the top tier food that can be found almost on any Japan streets.  On the first night of our arrival we immediately went for what we REALLY went to Japan for, RAWWRRMEN!!!!! (ramen).  We went to this ramen shop called "Ichiran", a ramen franchise, one of Japan's best (not including the independent ones). 

The eating stall at "Ichiran"

The restaurant had a unique design where all customers are seated facing the wall, with wooden dividers on the sides so each customer has completely privicy in their own little stalls (of course, you have the option of folding in the divider in cause you're there with your friend or something (pretty cool design, consider the Japs are all rediculiously shy, whoever thought of that is a smrt man).    The order is placed thru this little window/screen in front of you.



If Jesus was a dish.  This would be it.


The ramen there is easily one of the bestEST I've had (I've been to Japan around 6-7 times now, so I've had ALOT of Japanese noodles :p). 
You have to purchase your order at a vending machine out at the front of the store, so you do not have to speak a single word throughout the whole experience.
Brilliant, right? 
You sit down at a stall and then you will see a sheet that you need to fill out.   It's basically a multiple choice sheet of exactly how you want your noodle to be made... how heavy of a soup you want... how thick you want the noodles... how spicy.... etc.




My "extra noodle" meal ticket, given to me in a metal tray. Badass eh?



After the noodle is served the server will close the blind in front of you, leaving you to eat in peace in this tiny square cubicle.  It was kinda weird at first but once you have the first taste of their noodle you will want to be left alone until you finish it.  Yes, it is that good, and I am a picky eater.

Oh, they also have the most badass washroom evar!  It is super spotless clean just like most other Jap washrooms.  When I walked in I was kinda suprised to see about 20-30 toilet paper rolls attached tot he wall, each folded perfectly at the end for you to pull out, of course the usual stand bunghole washing toilet seat which I did not have the chance to use at that time.  Out in the sink area there is this sink where the water tap (the piece where you turn to get water out) is located right at the middle of INSIDE the sink, and the water would come out a couple feet on top of it, having the water run back down to the tap, perfect for those people who get all paranoid about touching the tap after with their clean hands.   Genius design. (I'm easily impressed)



Excuse my non-wide-angle phone camera.  But here is part of the epic TP wall.



 


The Commute:



On our daily travel to and from the game station and home, we would be taking the train.  In such a densly populated country there are always people on the train.  From the first train at 5am to the last one at whenever, these trains are always filled with people.  I like to people watch when I'm not doing anything in public  Since its a very different country where people act so differently, I like to check out random Japanese people and see how they act differently. 



Tamaplaza, our train station.  They have these drummers here to perform everytime we walk by.  Yup, thats how they treat pro gamers. :p



Japanese people are extremely shy creatures most of the time.  They will try and avoid eye contact with others at all cost when waiting for the train, or waiting to reach their destination.  99% of the people will just face the outside of the train with their faces buried into the screen of their cell phones.  We often catch them checking out themselves and other people using the reflection of the big windows on the side of the trains.  Sneaky ninja eyes!

After a while me and Kenny "Air" had came to a conclusion that it is completely untrue when people say that "Japan has so many hot girls".  Not true at all.  In fact, we only have visually encountered very few "1st floor material".  However, we are aware that in certain parts of that country, mostly in tourist areas, are haunted by large sums of pork chops (pronounced "ju-pa" in cantonese, means pork chop.. girls.  You get the idea :p).  They are VERY good at dressing up and doing their makeup though, so when you think you are seeing a hot chick in Japan guys, TAKE A CLOSER LOOK, it could be scary shizzle underneath that makeup!!



The famous "Hachiko" street crossing, outside Shibuya station.  Many movies have scenes filmed here.





On the weekends our last train home were usually guarenteed to be PACKED with people.  Alot of them are trying to get home from partying and drinking or whatever, the train would be completely stuffed with people.  Sometimes it gets so packed in there that it feels like you're in the front rows of a giant rock concert (minus the mosh pit) and you're all up close personal with all these strangers people.  This is where Kenny always tells me he would get molested by an old rich Japanese man who will take him home afterwards. (let the "Air is Gay" rumour spread some more in N. America! Muahahahahaha!)



A fully packed Japanese train



We were so bored on these daily commutes that we eventually discovered a game.  I would pick out a pork chop of random choice, usually a A-Tier or stronger (just to make things interesting), and it would go a little something like this....

Me: Yo, 50,000yen.

Air: Which one?

Me: Behind me, with the pink bag, sitting down.

Air: *peeks over my shoulder and sees this fat chick*..... dude she looks like a gorilla!! 80,000yen!

Me: But you have to hold hands, go on a date with her, take her out to a nice dinner, and the full package afterwards.  A full day event :p

Air: *thinks for about 10 seconds* 100,000yen and I'll do it.

*and then we have a deal*

Now we know in this situation, how much Air can be sold as a manwhore (approx 1,000cad in this case).   I know, we are going to hell for being such assholes.  *troll*
It may sound dumb, but it has caused us alot of joy and random outbursts of positive (for us) energy on these boring and long'ish commutes, also Iphone and Windows Phone games have accompanied us, we do have lives, you know :p.
 




Females only train.  Only from 5am to 9am.



Anyways I will leave it at this for now, since the sun is coming up as I'm finishing this post.  I will continue in the next post with more details on our trip!
Cheers!
- le Supadonkie

First Post

Alright guys, so I have been wanting to start writing a blog in the last few months.  Mainly just for myself to try and solidfy parts of the many thoughts that comes across the mind.  Who knows, it could be interesting. :p

So, I actually got down to it.  I made an account on the same site that my gay buddy Air (not gay with me, just gay) cause I'm too lazy to go online and "search" for other ones.  I figured if his blog looks decent enough, then it's probably alright ;)





Air-San, pushing his highly modified vintage luggage uphill for roughly 15 mins to our guesthouse

Lets discuss about Air-San.  This little mofo is actually a pro-gamer!  He gets paid to play games!  Lucky bastard.. (he's actually not gay, but we discovered during our recent Japan trip that there's a rumor going around amongst the Japanese top StreetFighter4 players that "Air is gay".  For me, this is funny as hell. *Troll* (more troll'ness to come on this sorta topic)

So what else happened on the trip?  Well, for those who dont give a rats ass about SF4, we did absolutely nothing other than take a really long flight to Japan, and play this ONE video game, over and over, over and over, and over again until you pass out and repeat on the next day, and the days after, until we go home. 

*cue dramatic background music* But for us it was 2 weeks of, extremely tough, extremely aweome, extremely... salty "training trip" (for those who dont play: shut up and you can ignore the next chapter :p).  We went thru 12 days of intense anal rapage (@SF no homo), and intense ramen eating marathon, and alot of walking in the super hot weather.

*normal bgm again*

Playing against mostly Japanese top players, what we learned is that THIS GAME IS RETARDED. <- Period

The odds are completely not against you when they tell you that you have a "bad matchup" in this game.  And the brilliant balancing team at Capcom made it so *a round of ap·plause   to these champs please, brainless motherfuckers @salt*

Supersize lemon tea for only 100yen

Hokay, aside from gaming, there were these days where we did a tiny bit of other shizzle aside from gaming.  We managed to meet up with a couple of Kenny's (air, but I call him kenny cause I'm not a gaylord gamer geek all the time :p) buddies.  Shout outs to K I M 1 2 3 4*yen* , HaoFengFu-san, Lai Man Jeh and the other few pieces that I do not remember the names of unfortunately (I am usually a very "face" person, I would remember your face in 10 years if I meet you once, but I will not be able to remember your name the first 5 times you tell me).....

So ya I had a blast hanging out with all those mofos, it was kinda like tiny breaks from getting owned at a video game, which is what we went there to do, our target, our goal (well mine :p, Air was planning on beating them, and that he did, some games :p).  We didn't do anything super special, just meeting up at train stations... then walk around the streets for abit....then grab dinner.....andd walk around abit more then say goodbye (which is kinda sad, they are all very cool people to hang out with, I hope to see them again in the future) :D 




Very epic bathroom wall at Ichiran Ramen

 

Oh aside from the everytime routine we also went and walked to the Yokohama Pier (I don't know the name of the place)..which is apparently a very well known places where couples go and well.... to "spring", and cockblocked 2 or 3 couples from advancing to the next stage, but unfortunately that had came to an end as we have to rush for the last train to go home.  Cause if we miss that train, we're either stuck in that town for the rest of the night till 5am, or we're gonna take a very expensive taxi ride home.  So since Kenny and I were in super cheapass save money mode, we decided to bounce.



United Airline, never riding with these mofos ever again. :D



But ya, I'm back at home now, extremely (3rd) home sick. *1st home = home.  2nd home = espot (local arcade).  3rd home = Japan (it felt like so at this moment. since I just got back) and extremely salty that in vancouver there are no ramen that could even compare with the real jdm ramen. :(

How's that for a first post? :p PURDDDDY LONG RIGHT?! :p  I did all this in 30 mins, I should become a professional writer, maybe ppl will pay me to travel to... write brilliant blogs for them :p

Cheers guys, thank you and goodnight

The Deadliest SupaDonkie on this planet