Return of the Mc: Seoul far, Seoul good

Well, I made my plane at Heathrow (as in I got on it, no polystyrene cement involved) and twelve hours later I'm in Seoul Airport waiting for my connection to Tokyo.
Lucky feller that I am, I got an upgrade to Business Class for the trip, so big seats and posh food for me. Would have got plenty of sleep if it wasn;t for teh round guy behind me who insisted on using my seat as a support whenever he stood up or sat down. I had words with him, but he claimed, in some European accent, to not understand what I was saying. Still, he stopped doing it after that.

I though my lucky streak had ended when I didn;t get an upgrade for the Tokyo flight, but then I went to the terminal. Turns out, the terminal my next plane leaves from is right next to an internet cafe with wifi! So I'm sat like a geek, hunched over my laptop surfing the web until the gate call. To be honest, I almost didn't buy the internet time because the people at the desk were not the most friendly, but I'm glad I did. I've checked up on emails, planned my route to the Soccer Tourney and done a bit of browsing.

Anything interesting on the web? Well, the least geeky are a Big Pink Bunny in Italy and a Giant Squid caught on camera in Japan.

Still no news on the Japan Times about my impending return though.

Return of the Mc: Camden, London

Bit of a lazy day today. Woke at 9ish and lazed around Matt's flat till 11.30; made some tea, watched a bit of British TV and had a shower. When I was dressed I headed out to Camden for a wander round. Apart from the new building in Camden Lock, nothing has changed; Camden is full of weird people and also full of shops which sell sub-culture clothes and poppers.

For lunch I found a little cafe that served all day breakfasts. My first proper breakfast was fantastic; sausage, egg, bacon, black pudding, beans all washed down with sugary tea. The woman running teh cafe was lovely too.

In the afternoon I spent a bit of time online emailing people in Japan to say I'd arrived safely and emailed other poeple to say I was in Japan and if they'd like to meet up. I need to get online later to see if they do. While I was online I chatted to Neil and he revealed that he was going to America tomorrow for a very important reason. So we arranged to meet for a beer.

Turns out, Neil is going to America not just to see Annie, but to get married to her. I almost fell off my seat. I mean, Neil and Annie getting married was pretty much inevitable, but to happen so soon took me by surprise. It means that within the next two weeks three of my bloke mates will be married; Andy, Neil and Matt. It scares me, ooo just a little bit.

For the time being, Im going to enjoy a batchelor night in with matt, some booze and sensi soccer!!

RETURN OF THE Mc: BYE JAPAN!

MADE IT ON MY PLANE! NEXT STOPSEOUL THEN LONDON!

Return of the Mc: Short interlude

The coach got me to Ikebukero bang on 4.30. My next connection is teh Narita Exoress at 6am, so I have an hour and a half to kill.

I dumped my large rucksack and hand luggage into a locker and went off in search of a 24 hour cafe. I stumbled on a Manga-kisa, a 24-hour place were you can sit, read comics and use their PCs. I'm in here now. You pay by the hour and are given your own booth with PC and reclining chair. This booth also has powersockets so I can use my laptop and external harddrive too. It's a geek's paradise!

Just have to make sure I don't get carried away and miss my train.

RETURN OF THE Mc: WE'RE OFF!!

FIRST LEG COMPLETED. MADE IT TO MUIKAMACHI ON TIME TO GET MY COACH TO TOKYO. LOOKS LIKE THE ONLY THING I FORGOT WAS MY JACKET, WHICH IS PRETTY GOOD GOING I RECKON.
ON THE COACH, THE CURTAINS ARE CLOSED AND EVERYONE IS ASLEEP. GUESS I SHOULD FOLLOW THEIR LEAD.
MTN

Only a week to go!! Oh Feck!!!

I've been so focused on other things like the Tokamachi Festoval, start of school, and the Fuji climb that I've been ignoring my visit back to England. And now Fuji is out of the way and my last day at Toka is tomorrow, I've been looking that littl bit further ahead and realised

I ONLY HAVE ONE WEEK LEFT BEFORE MY FLIGHT!!!!

I'm starting to panic. I feel like I haven't got anything ready, but also feel that it's too early to start packing. Maybe it's time to start making lists, even if they only end up showing what didn;t get round to doing.

ELECTRAGLIDE - Dates and line-up released

I had a quick check at the Electraglide website and found that they've published dates and a preliminary lineup:

Tokyo - Fri 25 Nov, Osaka - Sat 26 Nov

Live: Underworld, Coldcut, Autechre, Vitalic
DJ: Carl Cox, Tiga
...and more to come

With Underworld and Colcut in teh lineup, I'm very excited already. Ill probably try book my ticket for Osaka before I leave for England next week. Anyone else up for it?

New form of torture

I'm still at school, gathering pictures off the web for a food activity. My teacher wants pics of British food so I'm sat here sifting thrugh images of pork pie, sausage rolls, full english breakfasts, cornish pasties and fish and chips.

Being hungry doesn't help.

Sun's Up!!

FUJI-SAN: AND WE'RE OFF!

GOT TO STATION 5 TWO HOURS AGO. CHANGED INTO BOOTS, RE-PACKED BAG, BOUGHT WALKING STICK, HAD NAP, TOOK PHOTO AND NOW WE'RE OFF!
がんばりましょう！

FUJI-SAN: KAWAGUCHI SKYLARK

HAVING DINNER BEFORE THE BIG CLIMB, AND BLIMEY IS IT A BIG CLIMB! WE HAD OUR FIRST SIGHT OF FUJI FROM THE EXPRESSWAY AND FECK ME IS IT BIG!! IT TRUELY IS AWESOME, TO THE POINT WHERE THE IDEA OF CLIMBING TO THE TOP IS ABSURD.
BUT WE'RE HERE NOW, AFTER FIVE HOURS OF DRIVING (AND THREE HANDLING SCARES).
WHICH IS MORE FOOLISH; HEADING STRAIGHT BACK OR CLIMBING THIS BIG MOUNTAIN?

FUJI-SAN: ON THE ROAD

TAKING OUR FIRST STOP AT MATSUMOTO. DESPITE MY BEST EFFORTS AT LAST NIGHT'S PARTY, I'M JUST ABOUT IN A FIT STATE TO DRIVE TO FUJI-SAN. WOKE AT 10.30, HAD BREKKIE, PACKED, AND PICKED UP KATE BY 12.30. DEBS HAS PULLED OUT SO I'LL BE DOING ALL THE DRIVING MYSELF. FEEL OK AT THE MOMENT, PERHAPS THE ANTICIPATION TO CLIMB FUJI IS SPURRING ME ON. AND IF I START FLAGGING, I HAVE LIPOVITAN B TO PERK ME UP!