{"id":33,"date":"2010-11-28T23:50:00","date_gmt":"2010-11-28T23:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grungi.gsmproductions.com\/?p=33"},"modified":"2010-11-28T23:50:00","modified_gmt":"2010-11-28T23:50:00","slug":"what-is-he-doing-all-the-way-over-there-05","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/grungi.gsmproductions.com\/?p=33","title":{"rendered":"What is he doing all the way over there ? [05]"},"content":{"rendered":"
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And here comes the next batch of words mostly about a guy in a far-off country (well far-off, depends on where you are while reading this). Anyway ! Let’s skip a pictureless day and go straight to…<\/span><\/div>\n

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Day 9 [07\/05] : Saltwater<\/span><\/b><\/span>

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Another day at the beach !<\/span>

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This pretty much looks like the quintessential summer vacation picture from Japan in my mind. Maybe I’m weird, but it’s like that.<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
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We went to a nice small beach together with Takahiro and Pascale to enjoy the sunny weather. Nice and relaxed, even if uneventful for the most part (of course, I can’t mention having to stay longer than expected because Takahiro managed to get water on his pants in a rather suspicious place… wouldn’t be nice).<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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The beach in question. Beautiful AND without anyone else. <\/i><\/span><\/div>\n


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\u00a0We spent the second half of the afternoon doing some shopping and other mundane stuff, though we catched a glimpse of something unusual…<\/span><\/div>\n


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A belgian beer store ! <\/i><\/span><\/div>\n


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And, as the evening drew closer and my stomach started growling, Pascale’s friends from the International House took me to out to eat yakiniku. Don’t know what that is ? There you go :<\/span><\/div>\n


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So. Good. Also, so. much.<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n


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The picture doesn’t convey the main characteristic of this meal : during something like 2 hours, you’re free to order as much meat (and drinks) as you want. And this meat being of the extremely tasty kind, you order a LOT, and end up completely full. For a meat-lover like myself, this was a real treat. Also, being in excellent company did help too !<\/span><\/div>\n

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Guess who’s who : Alex, Toby, Bakari, Shin, Takahiro, Pascale, Robin, Claire, Manu, Sam, and yours truly. Thanks for the awesome evening, guys !<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n


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(Don’t miss the second serving after the break !)<\/span><\/a>
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Day 10 [08\/05] : Times like these<\/span><\/b><\/span>

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Sports. Those sneaky Japanese made me do SPORTS. Jokes aside, they had, under the leadership of Aiko, decided to organize something else to do with me. And that was going to “Round 1”, a strange complex offering you various spaces to practice many sports, a huge video game arcade, and many other stuff. And of course, this being Japan, it’s open 24 hours a day…<\/span><\/div>\n


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Aiko recording her friend’s performance. <\/i><\/span><\/div>\n


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We started off by a bit of archery (and thanks to my year or so spent practicing, I could show off a bit, which would not be the case for most of the other activities…), then quickly moved on to batting practice. <\/span><\/div>\n


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Believe it or not, I hit almost every ball ! <\/i><\/span><\/div>\n


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Yeah, yeah ok, it was the “easy” level, that I suppose is meant for kids or something. Next to me there was Aiko’s boyfriend who sounded like he was firing a gun each time he hit the ball. Kinda scary. Then, let me glance over how I did poorly at basketball and soccer, and skip something more into my comfort zone : <\/span><\/div>\n


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Well, not racers, but videogames… <\/i><\/span><\/div>\n


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Being told I could play anything in that huge room without having to pay anything (well, I had paid a fee at the entrance, but I didn’t have to put coins in the machines) was just… awesome… Taiko drums, Mario Kart, Guitar Freaks… They were all there, and more. But above all else, I did something that made me so proud of myself. Namely, challenging Kenta at Dance Dance Revolution, and WIN. I felt like something was finally complete in me. Probably just the fact that I finally got to play DDR on a real arcade machine in Japan, though.<\/span><\/div>\n


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And to close another great day, we went to Tenjin for supper. I was hoping for something kinda… light, seeing how heavy the previous night’s meal had been for my little stomach. But do you know where they took me ? That’s right, another yakiniku. Oh boy, oh boy.<\/span><\/div>\n


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The architects of another unforgettable day ! (And thanks to Ria too, who had to leave a bit early…) <\/i><\/span><\/div>\n


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\u00a0But my fears were soon dispelled by those amazing tastes. I ended up really, REALLY full, but so glad…\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Day 11 [09\/05] & Day 12 [10\/05]<\/b> :Nothing to see, move along !<\/span>

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Day 13 [11\/05] : In this serenity<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n

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Day 13 was the day I visited, again with Pascae and Takahiro, a town called Yanagawa, where apparently they love eating eels.<\/span><\/div>\n


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Or maybe eels like the town ? I’m not sure anymore ? <\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

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\u00a0This town gave out a really relaxed vibe, so you know what ? This time I’m going to let the pictures do the talking… Appreciate the greenery \ud83d\ude42<\/span><\/div>\n


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\u00a0This town reminds me a bit of Persona 4.<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

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Mysterious boats inviting you to somewhere… <\/i><\/span><\/div>\n


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Yes, boatS<\/b>. <\/i><\/span><\/div>\n


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Persona 4, then Project Zero… <\/i><\/span><\/div>\n


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There was a park, we took a stroll in it. <\/i><\/span><\/div>\n


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Isn’t this town peaceful ? <\/i><\/span><\/div>\n


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What a menacing turtle ! <\/i><\/span><\/div>\n


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…that is, if it wasn’t 3 cm long…<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n


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\u00a0[And that’s it for tonight. But don’t worry, there is plenty more where those came from. Also, Tokyo is approaching…]<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And here comes the next batch of words mostly about a guy in a far-off country (well far-off, depends on where you are while reading this). Anyway ! Let’s skip a pictureless day and go straight to… Day 9 [07\/05] : SaltwaterAnother day at the beach ! This pretty much looks like the quintessential summer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,16],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/grungi.gsmproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/grungi.gsmproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/grungi.gsmproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grungi.gsmproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grungi.gsmproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/grungi.gsmproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/grungi.gsmproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grungi.gsmproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grungi.gsmproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}