Sometime this weekend is the beginning of the Korean New Year. I’m not sure exactly when it is because everyone seems to be saying it at different times. However, I don’t have to work tomorrow and this is about all the explanation that I require.

I was tired after last week. Things were starting to get to me. Work was fine, but when I came home it was back to a smelly little apartment and that was depressing. It is only a short-term place and it doesn’t smell on my account, it just smells despite all the chemicals I throw around the place. If one peruses this blog, they’ll see how nice an apartment I used to stay in. I miss it so. In fact, the general quality of my life reflects my apartment or vice versa. At any rate, my short-term stay has extended itself and it will be time soon to make my move. I must find my own place soon. And by that I mean really soon.

Last night we went out for a friend’s birthday. In the process of chatting with a friend about her job, I came to reflect on ambition and dreams. We pursue our ideal careers and lifestyles, thinking that just achieving them will be an end and it will be all downhill from there. But what if the things we wanted weren’t really what we had imagined they were? Where do you go when the dream you held so long has been shattered?

I think that in reality there are very few dreams which are realized just as we had imagined them. We can’t survive very long through life if we can’t adapt. Our impression of life has always changed, since we were young. A goal is what motivates us to do something, but we must adjust our goals after we learn more, setting them higher or heading in a different direction.

You have to head in one direction before you can realize if that direction is good for you. It’s not enough to just cast a cursory glance around your life and decide what you’ll be doing for the rest of it. In pursuit of a goal we learn new things, about the world and about ourselves. It’s the only way.

Whatever path you’re on right now, even if it’s not your dream come true, it’s giving you the perspective you need to discover your real dreams. Keep trying to find it and never give up, for the world is wide open with possibility.

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Outlining once again his company’s vision for the future, Bill Gates announced on January 4th that “he dreamed of a day when people could watch the news before it had in fact taken place.” His announcement was made when he took the stage at the Consumer Electronics Show in front of a packed house. He went on to unveil the Microsoft Three Stage process to develop their new software, entitled Microsoft Mindsuck.

“Technology has developed so fast in the past,” Gates said as he addressed the crowd of mostly Microsoft employees. “But even now that news feeds update our view of the world faster than ever, it is still just not fast enough to allow a suitable reaction time to those events. Today I will unveil the next generation of news.” The founder of the Microsoft empire went on to say that there was only one direction the company could go and that was to extract the knowledge motives and intentions of the human population before they had made news. Analysis of this data would yield “reliable and rich information, coded as Microthoughts”. “For the good of mankind, give us your minds” he asked to a standing ovation.

The new technology will allow Microsoft and their subscribed users to access formatted thoughts from their wireless devices as well as from their desktops, in addition to getting updates on new thoughts making news.

Some industry watchdogs have raised their ears at this latest announcement, saying that they had concerns over the privacy issues involved in Microsoft sucking out people’s thoughts directly from their heads. Gates had an answer to these critics “We know this is a radical new vision and it’s a difficult adjustment to make. We’re not asking you to change your minds straight away. Just give us your minds and let us change them for you.”

It is not the first time Gates has used this venue as an announcement of big things to come. Last year, he stood on the same stage and unveiled the revolutionary idea of a version of Windows which was secure and bug-free. This year though the announcement has the added attraction of possibly succeeding. Experts have been unanimous in agreeing that mind reading technology is not so futuristic any more.

Michael Martin, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Colorado commented on the announcement, saying it was “an inevitable step in the technological journey that we are all taking together”. Professor Martin added “at first I was unsure, but after we helped Microsoft with some early beta-trials, suddenly I was very sure.”

“We must not run from this brave new world and we must not fight it,” Gates concluded. “Mindsuck and the patented Microthought technology will secure a wonderful information rich future for Microsoft and thus the world.” He stressed that just because Microsoft would control all thoughts had by human beings all over the world, they would all be freely accessible through the company website for a nominal fee.

News about the announcement has generated a surge of activity in the technology sector, spawning new companies seeking to use Microthoughts in their applications. Gary Scholts, founder and director of HeadSpace.com has intentioned his desire to allow for a search cabability, whereby users can search their own heads to find forgotten thoughts or thoughts they may have in the future. Microsoft have not yet commented on their intention to share their technology. “We are still at the early stages” Gates advised. “For now we are just thinking of your thoughts, and that they may be our thoughts too.”

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This will be my last blog from Osaka for a while. I’m sitting in the airport now, sipping on some coffee trying hard to stay awake long enough to board my plane. There was no real point in sleeping last night, so I have been awake longer than my body cares to support me through. I’m giving it coffee now to let it know that I’m calling the shots around here and I’m staying awake for now.

Last night, as did also occur the previous night I had people asking me about the differences between Japan and Korea. Having only spent a few days here I’m not really in the best position to summarize an entire country. Then someone said to me “I heard that Korean women are difficult”. It was an interesting statement. In my mind the person who assumes that there are women around who are not difficult is committing a grave error in judgement.

The funny thing about women (and partly the men too) is their hair. If you can imagine hair that’s really dry, colored a vibrant shade of vomit and is messed up like she hasn’t brushed it in a week AND had a particularly long night of restless slumber, then you might begin to see just how strange it looks when everyone has that hairstyle. Guys too, although they tend toward the sheek styles, ie. just a perm and five or six colors, blow waved into something resembling a lion’s mane. And I’m not talking about the strange people with extreme tastes. Without hesitation, everyone and I mean everyone has colored hair. No joke. And don’t even get me started on the amount of make-up. Let’s just say that essential bathroom cabinet items in a Japanese girl’s house would have to include paint stripper.

As for being difficult, well we’ll just take that as given.

I am disappointed that I didn’t wake up in time to go to Kyoto or somewhere out of Osaka. I have only been here a short while, but apart from the food, I don’t feel I really got a good taste of life here. Cities on the whole resemble each other too much. It’s in the life outside the city gates where you start to see the old culture at work. Next time, whenever that may be.

Today I did indeed have a session at a Karaoke place and I got a CD to prove it. 10 songs that I belted out are timeless classics, or possibly evidence against my ever going back there again. Whichever way you look at it, it’s something.

The CD made from Karaoke magic
Why am I saying ‘today’? It’s actually yesterday now. I did mention I hadn’t slept right? Anyway before I go let me tell you about this airport. It’s pretty cool. It is a huge dome-shaped building set about in three layers. It is bright and airy without being cold. There… oh it’s too hard to explain but it’s a masterpiece of structure and other stuff. A picture can tell a thousand or at least a couple of hundred words about it, cos I’m too tired to.

A bright, well-lit airport to blog in. What more could a tired traveler ask for?
There is another side to the terminal too, I went there before but it turned out to be a waste. The trouble with going places is that you have to go there to find out that it’s not worth going to. There were only a few shops and a lonely internet terminal with a couple of people who looked as though all life had been sucked out of them. The atmosphere was lightened by the duty-free shop girls spraying perfume about and looking busy as they opened their shop. A waft hit me squarely as I passed by a busy mixture of flowers and alcohol. Could it be classed as chemical warfare? Stun and serve, forcing an unwilling victim to shop til they drop. Or something. I don’t know I haven’t slept much.

I ate sushi today, I mean yesterday. It was extremely delicious. I ordered Salmon, Tuna and a white one. I wasn’t exactly sure what it was, but it looked nice. Turned out to be octopus and chewing it was the most work my mouth has done in a long long time. After I was almost frothing at the mouth and trying hard gargle it in my sake in order to break down the proteins, I just decided to swallow it and let my stomach figure it out. And there it rests contentedly. How anyone can consider eating this stuff while it’s still alive is beyond me. Oh yes, in some places you can have your octopus still alive, wriggling around and sucking on your tongue. But probably the same people enjoy a nice bit of puffer fish, where in Japan the consumption of which causes around 60 deaths a year. Seems a bit risky for some ugly fish. But don’t ask me, I’ve just been here a couple of days and besides, I’m really quite tired.

And they’re calling my name now. Sayonara Osaka.

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Japan is great. It’s a very stylish place. If I have discovered anything about Japanese life, the motto is “have a style” whatever that style may be. That represents the difference between Japan and Korea. Korea tends to be more conservative where the motto goes something like “have a style which has been approved by the majority” but here, everything is kind of unique, but at the same time well refined.

Yesterday, I visited the Osaka castle and had a wander around taking pictures. It was mainly for the sake that I did something cultural, if taking photos of an old building can be called cultural. It was a huge structure, atop a hill, surrounded by an intimidating moat and wall.

Some of the stones in this wall weighed over 80 tons. They were huge and they surrounded the castle area completely.

After the castle, I wandered back into the center of town and had dinner at one of the little restaurants along one of the main boulevards. I was about to enter when the man at the door advised me to buy my dinner ticket before entering. I purchased it from the machine and then gave it to the lady inside. 5 minutes later my meal arrived. I love eating here. The food is delicious and healthy, plus the restaurants often have a dark brown wood finish and little bits of ornamentation here and there. Also, even in contrast to Korea, everything is scaled down. Most things here are petite, even the trains. It makes everything cute. But back to my dinner. This was like a broth, with I’m guessing a few slivers of roast pork. It was very fatty, and I had a similar thing again today. It tasted great. Today I stopped in a little restaurant near my hotel and had a rice dish with seaweed and bits of chicken or pork or something. Again, very delicious. I really really dig the food here.

Here’s me digging the food
Now, after dinner last night, I saw a big chain of Karaoke places and felt that I needed to try it out, to see the difference between the NoRaeBangs of Korea and the home of singing rooms, Japan. I was blown away. It was cheaper, cleaner, more advanced and it had a ton of English songs, more than I’ve ever seen before. There were so many songs that I wanted to sing, I ran out of time. I’m considering going back there again today. No, not considering, I have every intention of running there as soon as I get done typing.

After that I went to a bar which I’d seen recommended off the internet. It was cool, I had some drinks and talked to some Japanese, a British guy and some French guys. They gave me the scoop on different aspects of Japan which was good. Then a Japanese girl took me to a nearby club. It was in the basement and it was built like a cave. I paid the equivalent of $30 to get in, and after that the drinks ran free flow. This was not necessarily a good thing. The dancefloor was plain enough, but all over the place there were subterranean dugouts with a table and seats. Again, every place has its own style. I soon met a bunch of different people, who seemed to come and go according to a schedule. I’d be standing around, then a Canadian guy would come up, talk about something, depart, only to be followed by the Japanese girl who took me there, who said she had to check something at another bar, followed by another Japanese girl who said she was scared of the black guy trying to dance with her. It was all very interesting. And inevitably, what with the nice atmosphere, cave-style dug outs and a free flowing bar, I became steadily intoxicated.

It’s one thing to go to a bar and have someone buy you drinks. You know that it ends when they run out of money. There are limits. But with a bar where all the drinks you want were covered by your entrance fee, there really is no limit. Eventually I just had to insist on the strongest water they had in the place. I watched the time pass from a dug out and waited until my body had dealt with all the mud slides, tequila poppers and god knows what else everyone thrust at me. Luckily I’m quite a trooper and I was good to go in oh two hours. But it wasn’t the best move on my part being so drunk my first night in a strange city.

Having regained control of my faculties, I waited another hour or so until the subway opened again. I remember telling everyone who would listen that it was the drunkest I had been in a long time. To which their reply was, you don’t look drunk at all. I remember being so tired I wished that I could curl up on the subway as I was riding it home. I remember falling onto the bed and I don’t remember a lot after that.

Today there are a few things that I could do, but they are only touristy things. Had I more time, it would have been nice to catch a train to Kyoto which I understand is quite close to here. There is some nice scenery there or something. But now that it’s heading into my last night in town, I guess I’ll just try to explore the Japanese nightlife again. Oh it’s a dreadful boring task I know, but someone has to do it. I must learn from these Japanese, who just have the can-do spirit. Here are some examples:

The nay-sayers said it couldn’t be done, they said it was impossible. But damn it, they built a giant crab and stuck it on their restaurant.

Women-only subway cars were created to give women a chance to be free from men rubbing themselves up against them as they travel home. But this man wasn’t going to let a little sign stop him from his favorite non-karaoke past-time.

People love dogs. People love coffee. Some bright Japanese entrepreneur made everyone’s dreams come true as he brought mankind’s two loves together for the first time. Dog cafe. This idea didn’t take so well in Korea, as customers kept sitting down and saying “I’ll have a mocha latte and that little brown dog over there.”

And if the famous running man doesn’t inspire you to get up and make the most of life, then I don’t know what will.

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After getting off the plane at around 9pm, there wasn’t a lot of time to explore the city. I grabbed a subway map from the airport and then a bus outside the station. The idea was to get into the city and then commute on the subway from there. This plan worked, although the subway is more expensive here than in Korea. A simple journey for a couple of stations will cost $2. Of course, we’re quite used to this price in Melbourne, it’s just that I’ve been spoiled by Korean prices.

Anyway I made it back, but in doing so realized a few things about the subways here. First, they are owned by a few different companies and tickets are required for each one. Changing lines incurs more cost. Also, there aren’t always Romanized maps. That is why getting the English map from the airport was important. Mostly you buy the ticket from a machine, also written in Kanji script. After a few minutes of staring at it I just threw my money in the hole and pushed the button with 270 yen on it. A few seconds later my ticket popped out.

My hotel was further away from the action than I had first thought. I went off an internet review that said it was in a shopping district, but I would’ve chosen differently had I more time. It was my fault for not doing my research on the various districts. It was a small room and not exactly new, but the toilet had a bidet. I may not be close to the action, but at least I’ll be hygienic in all the right places.

Too early to sleep, too late to go out, I went out anyway. I wandered around Shinsaibashi which was 4 or 5 subway stops away and which I heard was a happening part of town. I guess nothing really happens on Thursdays, because all I found was streets of Japanese signs and people walking somewhere. I did find a Starbucks and what I later learned to be an area called Dotombori. I’ll go there later to check out the clubs.

If you’re wondering why I’m writing a blog while I have a city to explore, well I can explain. I didn’t fancy a day of walking around aimlessly so I was doing research on where to go. In this regard, Virtual Tourist has been an excellent resource. I am now heading to Osaka Castle to get my dose of culture, but not before I check out the huge electronics store above me, just to see if things are cheaper here.

I must also remember to take photos, and in that spirit I’ll take one right now. There, I did it. After I did, a Japanese man came over and told me that the taking of photos inside the cafe was prohibited. Wow, and I thought that the Japanese would understand.

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I’m here in Incheon Airport again waiting for a flight. This time I’m going to Japan. It was around the same time two years ago that I went there, last time to Fukuoka. I remember it being a clean, neat well organized place with cute little houses and an atmosphere of culture. This time I’m going to Osaka, a bigger city and it will be nice to stay for a few days instead of just an afternoon as I did in ‘04.

As fun as international travel is, I hate doing it for little stop-overs. I can’t find myself completely excited about going somewhere briefly. I like living in Korea you see, however being just a tourist means that I have to go somewhere every three months and then come back to renew my visa. I don’t feel I have particularly deserved a holiday, seeing as I just had one back in November when I went to the Philippines. When I go somewhere I like it to be a real tour, not just a few days here and there, but it seems like all my tours recently have been just that. Next time I swear to go and stay somewhere for a month or two to really explore.

In fact, I had always planned to go to Japan and not Korea originally. I had always had a fascination with Japanese culture and planned to go there and stay for a year or two. But then when it came time to choose a place to teach English, the schools in Korea wooed me with their offers of free air tickets and apartments, plus the possibility of saving more money, so I went. Then I started to like living here and that was that.

So here I sit, an hour before my flight wondering if I’m going to go there and realize that I made some horrible mistake 2 years ago by choosing Korea over Japan. Or maybe I’ll find that Japan, while bigger and more cosmipolitan, just doesn’t have that down-to-earthiness that I love about Korea.

I guess I’m about to find out.

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