Train Blunders

More than two months now in Japan but it was only tonight that I had my fist AND second blunders in riding the very complex Japanese train system. I normally ride the Tokaido Line from Shimbashi to Kawasaki because it's so much faster than the Keihin Tohoku (7 stops vs. 2 stops). Tokaido is the (Rapid Express or Toukyu, that train whixh skips 'minor' stations) in the Tokyo area of the two lines. What I didn't realize is that there is such a thing as a 'commuter express'. The train made a stop in Shinagawa as a Toukyu would normally do but then when I heard the driver the next stop was already Ofuna!!! The damn train skipped the cities of Kawasaki and Yokohama!!! When I arrived in Ofuna, I immediately transferred to the Tokaido train in the adjacent track thinking that it will go to the opposite direction but then the train turned out to be a local train to the direction of the one I just rode on! I ended up in Fujisawa then caught a train back to Kawasaki there. I traveled a total of 80 kilometers or more than an hour inside the train! Just imagine going to and from Calamba, Laguna in one night. It's good the Tokaido line is fast though. Man I like it when it sings for speed!

Beck: Reliving My Rock Star Dream

This should be my favorite anime ever. Alvin had told me about this 26-episode series about the beginnings on what will become Japan's next big rock band almost two years ago now. The best thing I liked about it is that it is fictional but it has so many references to rock stars and rock bands. It also has lots of parodies of places in Japan that the characters almost seem to have lived in the same streets that I stroll along here. No stupid fantasy stuff...just good characters, guitars and music. It's really a great relief as I was already bored with Bounto episodes of Bleach.

I really did appreciate the series very well because I used to have rock star dreams which I believed could be started by mastering the guitar. At one point when I was 14 or 15, also the age when the main character Koyuki starts playing, I'd strum my uncle's Yamaha folk guitar in our terrace which overlooks nothing but greens of mostly sugarcanes. I don't even remember making school homeworks way back then but I remember mastering chords and breaking them. Like Koyuki, I played rhythm guitars and vocals way back. I guess this was a result of idolizing Ely Buendia. And so way back I wanted a Fender Telecaster badly...perhaps as badly as Koyuki had worked to earn enough money to buy his yellow Telecaster.

Now I have my Telecaster, Castro, but my rock star dreams have already faded. This doesn't stop me, however, into going into the next stage, as in this anime, in learning the guitar: is scaling. I don't know if I would ever be able to write songs but maybe if I'd renew my love affair with Castro then it might just work. I'll try scales a little bit and learn the blues like the band's lead guitarist Ryusuke. His story with the blues in the series is one good sub-plot. Ryuusuke is the romantic when it comes to music, he's very skilled in guitar but he considers technicality as only secondary to the aim of music which is to express feelings. As Dying Breed's Eddy Lee (a fictional band in the series) puts it, "A guitar is the human soul, speaking with just six strings."

I don't know if this series can be appreciated by someone who can't empathize with the youthful romance with rock music, playing in a band and dreaming to become a rock star but if you did or thought you did at one point in your life, this series is a mandatory watch. I'm now spending more time with Castro and I intend to be with him more often because of Beck. When the theme, Moon On the Water, was first aired, I grabbed Castro and slept with him trying to learn the chords by ear. I'm still with my old methods of learning songs but that night I realized that Youtube is the new Song Hits. This video below is the one I liked most. I loved this song the first time I heard it. The lyrics and melody kills me:

Full moon sways…
Gently in the night for one fine day
On my way
Looking for a moment with my dear
Full moon waves…
Slowly on the surface of that lake
You were there smiling in my arms for all those years
What a fool…
I don’t know about tomorrow
(what is like to be?)
I was sure
I couldn’t let myself to go even thought i fell… the end
Old love affair
Floating like a bird resting her wings
You were there smiling in my arms for all those years…

Sleeping Pills Needed!

It's already almost 4 AM yet still I couldn't sleep. My bio-clock has been severely affected by sleeping really late the past two weeks. I have to revert to my old sleeping cycle back...my next project is already pretty serious and I'll be starting out next week in another office.:( I have so many things I'd like to especially for self-growth while I'm here in Japan but I haven't started anything for them yet. Discipline, Eric...you're losing it.

Sayonara Summer, Take Two!

I had dinner at KFC along Mizonokuchi highway tonight. The ten-minute walk to and from the place was already a bit chilling. My aircon has suddenly become useless because the air in the corridor is almost as cold as the 24 degrees I set in my room. It seems that summer has gone all of a sudden a lo here's autumn! I'm actually more happy than sad that summer is over; to be walking a total of an hour to and from the station is not the nicest thing in the world when it's so hot and humid at the same time. If there's one thing I'll miss during the hotter seasons here, it will probably be playing tennis. However, I'm also looking forward to wearing at work the suits that almost made me broke before going to Japan as the 'coolbiz' (read: dress down to polo/long-sleevs season) season is now over. I'd probably look nicer but the dry clean charges here are pretty high so I'm pretty torn between budget and vanity now. Moreover, I have to buy a new pair of nice leather shoes because the one I have now couldn't seem to stand against the torture of walking an hour a day...the cut of my pants also seems to look better when my shoes are a bit slimmer-looking and shiny!;)

I let the pictures speak as I bade 'Philippine summer' goodbye last time. I'm doing the same thing here. It's already been two months since I arrived here and I can say that it has been so much fun so far because all of these parties.


Celebrated Khen's 27th birthday with my former colleagues in Astra. We dined in a traditional Japanese diner and had met up with more people in Khen's apartment.

(Taken by Alvin) My first taste of night life in Japan with Astralites in Club Pure, Shibuya. I was cheated 2000 yen because ladies were charged 1500 but men were charged 3500. It was drink all you can so I had to try all of their liquor mixes. Of the 13, I tried 10 because I was too busy impressing the ladies, especially the Japs and lots of caucasians with my dance moves. Five people hit on me that night: one Australian, one British and three Japanese. Too bad they were men.:(( I also experienced my very first 'first train' ride via the Tokyu Toyoko line. I never realized that Shibuya is just a mere 190 yen from my place. I should go here more often. Being in Shibuya though is pretty dangerous to my budget as there are lots of stores for shoes. For example, I bought a Nike Zoom trainer shoes on impulse while strolling along some duty free shops. Visa and Shibuya don't go so well for my budget.

After a five hour rest, I had to go straight to Yotsuka in Yokohama as one of our managers in Weserv, Ms Nila, hosted a party at her house. Her mongo (this one I personally requested), beef caldereta, chicken wings and spaghetti is the best! Doumo arigatou mam! And as if I haven't had enough alcohol, we had sake and jinro (it's some brand of a Korean alcohol). I could only take a glass of each though, drinking them pure isn't to my taste. After arriving at the dorm at 11 pm, I washed away all hard liquors I drank that day and the night before with 2 cans of Kirin original brew!

Notice the contrast between my former and present company.I was one of the seniors back then and now I'm one of the youngest. It's pretty weird how 'young' I am treated in my current company when basically I have already been through, or even more, what seniors do in the past. I just realized that it's already September and I just turned five years in this industry.

Too Much Drama Can Kill You

I'm still recovering from lack of sleep. I have been sleeping just five hours maximum because I had an eating and drinking spree last Fri PM to Sat AM(with Sabistas) and Sat PM-Sun AM(with Astralites in Khen's birthday). Sunday night was alcohol-free but I gave in to 'puyat' because of this nice Japanese drama series I copied from Khejuts (KJ), the very first I have ever watched for the sake of ear training in Nihonggo. Bjuts says that I'm even worse than the some of our female ex-officemates. Thanks to my very low EQ, I watched all of the 11 episodes in one sitting! I started watching at around Sunday 9 pm and finished it around 6 am the next day. Syet, that's jdrama baptismal by jetlag!

The series is called 'Proposal Daisakusen'....I looked up what 'daisakusen' means and it translates to 'tactics' or 'strategy'. And this is what it was all about...about a loser guy (Ken-zou) who never told his beloved childhood best friend (the heart-melting Rei) that he loved her all along in the 14 years that they were friends and he had just lost her to her college teacher. A short story, it got its twist when during the slide show of the wedding ceremony, he sees the photographs of their young friendship and regrets not having made her happier in the pictures and that during all those years he never confessed his love. Then a fairy suddenly appears and offers Ken to do a time-flip to the time each of the slide pictures was taken. An episode was devoted per slide and each was filled with funny moments and, especially, hamida wo nagashisou (lit. seems like tear is flowing if my grammar is right) ones (drama nga pala itoh!) as Ken attempts to change the past and finally tell Rei of his love. The loser never got to directly confess but at least he made Rei look happier in each of the slide except the last. I spent each episode trying to cheer (using my mental powers) the loser guy into finally confessing,

"Tangna kung ganun pa ba naman kaganda ang gelbespren mo e matotorpe ka pa...Sabihan mo na ayan na pagkakataon..ayan...sige na...naknang...me istorbo na naman tuloy...Para lang magsabi e...ayan naunahan ka na...haaayyy...ururu (ulol in Japanese) ka kasi e!"

It was like this per episode and after five episodes, again thanks to my low EQ, it already got a bit boring. What really kept me going was seeing Rei's beauty (Nagasawa masami) as a high school girl, a kolehiyala and a career woman. To exaggerate, I could have have watched this even without the subtitles or even in mute as long as Rei is in the scene! Rei in Yukata made me, qutoing the subtitle, "lost my mind for a moment." God, she's just gorgeous!

I won't spoil by giving away the ending but the series almost didn't give an ending too...a realistic one much less. But then it's already too late for realism considering that it's about time-flips and a profoundly-speaking male fairy. The series was all about cheesy things like 'fate' and 'destiny' and not about building chances or graceful exits after a failure.

I completely agree with Rei's grandpa when he said that there shouldn't be waiting for the next day to tell you love someone. This completely supports that one line repeatedly mentioned towards the end of the movie about taking the risk of telling you love somebody no matter the odds, "Everyone expects you to fail but if you succeed, you really are a man", or something like that. I'm not sure of manhood but I guess if it's the risk you are taking is not having a happy marriage for the rest of your life then there is no reason not to seize every chance you have. It is only when taking, or even making, these chances that you will know the full extent of what 'fate' or 'destiny' can offer. And only after knowing this offer, whether favorable or not, will we have the luxury to not regret and move on.

The loser exits the wedding ceremony after his speech, cries his heart out, takes a taxi and wakes up the next day with no regrets but only the happy memories of his pursuit of Rei who is now happily married. A bittersweet ending could have been nice too.

Pahabol:

Don't get me wrong, 'Proposal Daisakusen' is my first and seemingly last jdrama (Well, maybe for the next few weeks at least...hehehe) . It's so good (the cinematography, acting and all) I couldn't stand watching another series with a production that is at par or without a looker like Rei. I wonder when will another Nagasawa Masami series will come out?

To my surprise, it wasn't only me who watched this last weekend. My body builder colleague watched it too:

Colleague (in a really deep voice with all his muscles bulging out of his fitting sando): Uy pare nanonood ka rin pala ng drama na nyan?
Moi: Ah, nahiram ko lang dun sa mga barkada ko...pang Nihonggo...nakakaiyak nga e...pinanood ko nga ng 9 na oras e...mag-isa ako umiiyak dito sa kwarto... hehehehe...
Colleague: Oo nga...ganda 'no...ganda nung chick jan!(kunwari pa, naiyak ka rin e?!)
Moi: Oo nga...sya nga lang pinapanood ko e...ang ganda kasi ng ngiti...panalo!
Colleague: Meron na akong mga naka-bikini na picture nyan!
Moi: A talaga?! Nasan?! Nasan?!

The moral: Kahit drama sa bikini pa rin pupunta. Hehehehehe.

'Ironing Room' Shocker

I still don't have my internet connection but it's good that the 'ironing room' of my dorm has a stray wi-fi signal. I have been pirating wi-fi signals for 6 weeks now and they are more than enough to check my email at the least. In fact, the one I'm using now is even 6 times the speed of the ADSL I have back home and it's free! I was supposed to iron some of my long sleeves but I got stuck into surfing the net with nothing in particular to browse except to upload some flickr photos and read some group posts. Anyway, I visited Minato Mirai in Yokohama last weekend and here's the set of that shoot. The picture above is my favorite and perhaps I can use it to skin this blog once I can manage to. I curved this a bit in Photoshop to exaggerate colors and especially to emphasize the contrast between the water and the boy's skin.

Hhhhmmmmm....I'm not even supposed to blog tonight. I brought my notebook to this room so that I thought I could listen to NU over eradioportal while I iron my clothes. I've been missing the Philippine alternative scene...Sandwich has new single in the stairway to Heaven countdown and I'm dying to listen to it. Apparently, you can only listen to NU if you are in the Philippines and if you are a subscriber of any of philippine ISPs. This portal is almost...err..pointless.

I'm all alone now and all I can hear is the sound of air from the aircon. I browse some friend profiles in friendster and....Yael's (of Spongecola) voice fills the room...WTF! Nagulat ako dun a! this is why I hate browsing friendster....I closed mozilla right away...I never got to see whose profile was it...

(My Lagalag Story) Mt. Fuji: Beyond the Camera Could See

My fifty-thousand-peso camera failed me.

I almost didn't push through this feat because thick clouds had already covered Kawasaki City when I woke up.According to the net, Mt. Fuji would be cloudy in the afternoon with scattered rains in the evening but would then clear up when morning comes. The plan was to start late in the afternoon, climb leisurely through the night then reach the summit before the sun rises.

And true enough, it rained while we were half-way through. The timing, however, couldn't have been better as we were having a rest in front of a lodge in Station Seven. Had it been different, we would have faced the needles of the cold rain drops and our hyaku-en(hundred yen)-furnished rain coats would have risked us into hypothermia at the higher levels where temperatures are nearing zero degrees. The rain we overcame was the peak of the danger of our climb and from there my worries went downhill. Whether I would make it to the summit or not was just a matter of beating some tough night-time-hold-for-your-dear-life rock climbing and an attack of sinusitis.

The rain turned out to be a blessing. It cleared the sky so that I could catch that spectacular sunrise Mt. Fuji climbing is famous for. There was this scenery, however, that was as captivating as the sunrise that I never had a shot of. During our rests along the rocky trail, I'd turn off my flashlight and the most beautiful night scenery I have ever seen in my life reveals:

The stars seem to have been gathered in one silver screen. I can vividly see the Big Dipper to my left and the Orion above to the right. I have seen these constellations countless times before but I get thrilled like I did when I was nine when I first traced them in the night sky with my fore-finger. The city lights 3000 meters to the sea level backlight the thick rain clouds below us and outline an image like that of the Horse nebula. The army of climbers swarm in blue and yellow light along the Kawaguchiko trail as if they are Chirstmas lights zig-zagging and entangling Mt. Fuji.

There's no hobby camera to my knowledge powerful and portable enough to capture this scenery. Perhaps there are subjects in photography that can't be caught simply because they are reserved for one's life 'prints' - experience. And there is no battery good enough to power our 'bodies' than the will of the spirit to persist beyond where the legs and the lungs start giving up so that we can take a click and run away with awesome memories. With a stroke of luck (an arguably big aspect in photography) in our gamble against the rain, I had a very beautiful shot after all.



Special thanks to my climbing partners, Jess, Ms. Nila and Joane. Dedicated to all Filipino overseas who have their own mountains to contain. Some of you I spent my first journeys with: Rolland, Jericho, Adonis, Mark and Joed.

About the author

The "Viajero" is a very bored IT professional. He almost lost his mind to boredom last year that he went to the brink of stop showing up in the office. He then drew interest into making interesting photos from the everyday things he encountered and so was born the "Viajero Series" set. This dextrosed him from losing his mind and eventually he was able to accept the reality of his job and gained his sanity back. He's with a seeemingly more boring assignment in Japan now but he but the yen he receives motivates him to survive ...or enjoy his stay more. He can now buy more camera stuff to play with, go to more places Japan's trains can take him to and make pictures he'd like to believe worth sharing to flickr. He is looking forward to that 'viaje' where he can be with his "dinengdeng"-eating Ilocano family he misses a lot and make pictures (AND BABIES!) with Gladys (Twistedhalo in flickr) again. He has his journey in cruise control mode by the IT industry which is heavily involved in outsourcing and staff augmentation. He hopes he would be as lucky as his Mt. Fuji climb in this resolve....that eventhough he doesn't know what the future holds for him in his, hopefully, just a few years stay in a foreign land, he would eventually be able to turn off that cruise control and drive to his dream of raising a Filipino family in the Philippines and be active in the IT innovation sector. He hails from Pangasinan and is a town mate of "America is in the Heart" author Carlos Bulosan.