Sexy-snow-soldiers.

Any of you who are familiar with Carrie's blog will know just how dedicated a top-seded amateur snowboarder she is. And of you who have been on the receiving end of her sweet, sweet persuasion will have an idea of just how convincing the little snow-fox (her words) can be! And so after much toing and froing I succombed to the sexy-snow-soldier and booked in for 2 days, 1 night in Nagano, where all sexy-snow-soldiers go. Having spent about 8 ridiculous hours on the night bus to get to Nagano in January I was overjoyed at Carrie's organisational skills, scoring us a trip with only a 4 hour bus ride. The place we stayed at was ace, the mountain was ace, everything was ace. Except when I smashed the screen of my digital camera. That was gay. But otherwise everything was awesome, the onsen at the place we stayed was glorious. The beer vending machine was handy. The slopes were deserted. It was fucking great.

Carrie looking like Carrie, and me looking strangely like my brother. Weird.

In the absence of J-boys to ride, pink snowboards fill the void.

Super-Seoul

Following on from my trip home I went to Korea and met up with my mate from work, Simon. Simon would like very much for people to pronounce his name "Sigh-mon". He loves that. Anyways we went to Korea and hung out in Seoul for a few night, checked out the sights and gradually clocked up a list of the reasons Korea is better than Japan. Maybe it was our (my) J-hating ways at that particular point in time, but it seems like I was adding something new to my love-list every 5 minutes. Some that are worth mentioning are:

1. People jumping the train barriers. Never in Japan. Never-ever.
2. People talking on their phones on the train. Never in Japan. Never-ever.
3. Strangers offering you a seat on the train. Never in Japan. Never-ever.
4. Krispy Kreme. Never in Japan. Never-ever.
5. Burger King. Never in Japan. Never-ever.
6. Consistently great coffee made with a real espresso machine by a real person. Never in Japan. Never-ever.
7. Riot police. Never in Japan. Never-ever.

You get the idea. Regardless of how ace Japan is (and I do love it). Moving on, we hit up the DMZ. Word on the street is that this is the De-Militarized Zone. Not to be confused with the Dissa-fucking-pointing Militarized Zone. Having been there I can understand how one might be confused with the other. But we got to pose with Korean soldiers. Love it.

Me and Sigh-mon with Kim Park something and Kim Park something-else.

Wants me.

North Korea. Boring.

Love this place. It's called Propaganda Town apparently and was built by the North Korean government in the DMZ to face the 1 single South Korean town in the DMZ. Turns out the whole place is fake. Noone lives there. Fake towns? Love it.

Keepin' on truckin', K-style.

A big wall and me.

Same big wall. Looked better before.

Eating boiled silk-worms. Manky as fuck. Total absolute dirty filth.

We accidentally ended up at the Olympic stadium. I was totally impressed. Really, truly. Don't know why. It was also manky. But it was and Olympic stadium none the less. Love it.

Love it.

Ridiculous.

Will was in Seoul the same time I was there so we got together and ate Mexican food and drank beer. Obviously.

A big stone thing in a big glass box in a cute little park.

On my last day we headed over to Something street in the city somewhere. Super cool, and really sexy. Also there was a guy there with an Ozzy-kebab store. I'm not even joking. He was seriously selling chicken doner kebabs with your choice of chilli sauce, bbq sauce, garlic sauce, tomato sauce. Someone had been spending way too much time in the bogan suburbs of Sydney and not quite enough time in Lebanon or Turkey or whatever genius country invented kebabs. Whatever, we got one anyway. And they were awesome.

Some cute red glove art.

Home

So home my trip home was tops. I spent the first week with my Mum and Dad and Kelly in Cowra, and catching up with old friends. Ben and his Dad were awesome enough to take us skiing at Wyangala Dam near Cowra. The weather was perfect the whole time I was in Cowra. Mel was there for a couple of days and we did fuck all except go to the dam, go to Bi-Lo, and squirrel around. Got a bit pissed with my Mum in the backyard on red wine in the sun.

Me and Mel loving ourselves sick at Bi-Lo.

Me and Mel loving ourselves sick in the car.

Mel and Ben and Ben's hot Jay-Z video style boat. Ghetto.

When I am in Japan there are always things that I totally miss and feel devastated that I can't have them. Things like baked beans, VB, sausages, steak, coffee that doesn't taste like a hot milkshake. You know the stuff. Funnily enough though when I went home I didn't care about any of that shit except for steak and coffee. I actually think Japanese beer is pretty great substitute for Australian beer. And baked beans and sausages are peasant food. For the past year I have also been selling the shit out of Sydney as a tops place to go on vacation since most Japanese people stick to Cairns and the Gold Coast. Part of Sydney's charm, I say, is how multi-cultural it is, and you don't have to worry about food because Australians love sushi and sushi in Sydney is great! What a lie. Sydney sushi is manky. Totally missed Japanese food when I was home.

The things I thought I was dying without, but now realise I'm not, are: driving (Tokyo trains rule), Oportos, baked beans, sunburn, Sydney trains, Oxford St. Things I didn't miss before but appreciate now are: Sydney taxis (cheap and awesome), muffins, Bondi, pedestrian crossings (and more imporantly the drivers that stop at them), Home and Away (someone tell me what's happened to that blond bitch (Tash?) who was trapped in the shed at the cult-farm!), Australian supermarkets, silence, dirt roads, long long days.

The scenic trip back to Sydney on the Countrylink train.

Dane/Darren loving himself sick at the Newtown/Gaytown hotel.

So anyways after hanging in Cowra for a week I took off to Sydney for the party leg of my trip. Stayed with Kylie and Will in there hot Petersham pad and go busy partying. The result being a throat infection, roadside vomiting, 7am taxi rides, 5pm powernaps, somewhat anti-social behaviour at times, and lots of fun. The best bits: lunch with Tim, playing hockey with Alex after a bottle of wine, partying with Kylie and my gorgeous cousin Carly, lunchtime boozing with Xtina, Gaytown with Darren, Saturday afternoon with Mum, Dad, Chris, Carly and Ash in a beer garden in Bondi. But the highlight was going to the Mardi Gras after party with my brother and having one of the best nights I have had in Sydney. Awesome. 7 days of action and a 9am flight to Seoul. Gross. Didn't want to leave but Korea was pretty inviting!