Snow day!!!

So you wanted more self portraits Brock? Here's one from this morning in our freak snowstorm.

Apparently this is pretty rare around here, and it was just in time for Christmas!


You can't tell from these pictures, but the wind was firing these snowflakes into our eyes at about 80 km an hour so it was a little painful! We were walking Linda to the bus station to catch a bus to the airport.

She's off to Shanghai for the holidays to visit some relatives. I hope she is anyways but the bus driver said it could take up to 6 hours to get to the airport. Just imagine all those Asian drivers in the snow! (haha.. totally kidding) No offense if you're Asian.


I was totally not feeling the Christmas vibe at all, even though it's December 22nd here, but then it snowed and a friend stopped by to cheer me up from my thesis-woes and gave me a Christmas present!
Bring it on Santa!





Ohh actually, I just remembered. The other day I saw a couple of cute Christmas elves running around!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
Love,
Cam
xoxox
(can you tell I'm missing everyone right now?)

Where have I been?

To answer that question in two words: right here.
At my desk.

I'm working on my third night in a row sleeping at work! Don't worry I still shower and change my underwear, but otherwise I sit at my desk for about 17 hours a day.

My results have been causing me some problems, so I've been trying to catch up from all the wasted time running stats that didn't work.

So if you are wondering if I've forgotten about you. I haven't.
If you don't think I love you anymore. You're wrong.

I'm just writing my thesis. I should/have to be done later this week and then Brooke's here!

Can't wait.

It's gonna be great. Just us and a few thousand km's of train tracks (and several million Japanes people during one of the busiest times of the year to travel).

Happy Holidays to everyone out there.

Mine will be a whole lot happier come Friday!

xoxo
Cam

Slow boats and fast flights

Suddenly I feel as though my post-Japan travel plans are once again a blank canvas. Due to the craziness of the holiday season, Brooke (my oneesan) and I have decided to forgo the trip to Hong Kong we had planned for a couple days. Also Christine isn't going to be able to meet me after all. She was awarded a big research scholarship for the spring that she couldn't turn down and in the mean time she busy finishing her own thesis.
So once Brooke and I part ways in Tokyo, she will return to NY and I will go it alone to mainland Asia.
The last few days have been a fury of trying to get organized. I found out Christine wouldn't be coming to see me for sure, I attempted numerous times to find flights out of Japan before my 90 day visitor visa runs out and I'm trying to plan where the hell I'm going to go! (I know I have a tough life: Hmmm... where in Asia should I go today?)
Flight finding has proved to be the biggest pain in the glutes. It seems like everyone in Japan is trying to fly somewhere else on the very day I am and it's a race against the clock to scramble for flights. I was finding airfare to Hong Kong from Tokyo (a 4 hour flight) for more than it would cost to fly from Vancouver. I talked to a travel agent who put me on numerous waiting lists for flights leaving on the day I wanted to, but didn't hear a word for days.
Yesterday I got fed up and started looking at taking a boat to China! It is much cheaper (and slower -around 2 days), but it seems that every ferry leaves Japan on a Friday. With Brooke here until January 3rd (a Tuesday) I don't want to be leaving 4 days before her, and I can't wait until the one after she leaves because my 90 day pass is expired by then.
So I'm back to finding flights...
I found one online at work the other evening to go from Tokyo to Hong Kong after New years and then return from Singapore to Tokyo in a couple months. That night I ended up having to run off to Japanese class before I book it. Then next morning when I searched it again, the best it could find was 150% of the original price (and therefore back in the same range as a flight from Vancouver!).
But today, thanks to some assistance from my lovely oneesan (big sis), I have a flight booked!!!
I cannot describe how great it feels. After weeks of uncertainty with my travel plans, I finally have something stable to hold on to.
I have airfare that will take me to Singapore on January 2nd and will return be to Japan in mid February from Hong Kong.
So basically the only thing left to do is figure out my travel between Singapore and Hong Kong - after my adventures trying to find flights, it feels like that part will be easy!

Japanese Fire Drills

When I got the email announcing the annual ATR Emergency Evacuation Drill, I was certainly not looking forward to it... but it turned out to be one of the most interesting and amusing experiences I've had in Japan.
In Canada, fire drills consist of teachers or co-workers trying desperately to keep order amide chaos as everyone in the building leaves and lines up outside. Usually this is followed by some sort of attendance taking and then everyone gets back to work. So Japan must do something similar right? Nope!! It started out normally enough the supervisor of our department put on his emergency helmet and called for everyone to 'escape! escape'. He looked so goofy, none of us could take him seriously. Once we proceded to the back of the building, we saw that the fire department was there in some sweet jumpsuits. The fire chief guy just loved being in front of everyone and seemed to try and build anticipation for each of the safety procedures he was describing. My favorite part was the smoke tent. They had a big orange tent set up filled with artificial smoke that you had to try and navigate yourself through. Once inside, you really couldn't see a thing and it was a bit of a maze to get through. Everyone came out making some great choking faces!The smoke tent was followed by a fire extinguisher demonstration that included a real fire! They lit up a big gas fire in a metal pan and then let people try putting it out. It was sweet. Except that the croud of a couple hundred people was running all around to try and avoid the smoke and extinguisher dust. The next event was fire hose target practice! They actually got the fire hose going full blast and let people try aiming it. Seriously why don't they let us do this in Canada? All these items are things that are all around us, but it seems that very few people every get to use them until a real emergency. Doesn't it make sense to let people practice? One of my coworkers was telling me that usually they have an earthquake simulation as well. It's a mini house and you have to go through and turn off the gas etc while it's 'quaking'. The whole room tips and shakes all over the place!! I think I need to write some letters to politicians in Canada and get something like this at home. Guaranteed people here are more prepared for a real emergency. Plus it's much more fun.