Last words of the year

I am in Osaka now. We have spent the last few days between the glowing glory of the brightly lit shopping streets and the grim but suspiciously cozy labyrinthine pathways of the lower class neighborhoods. It has been amazing to see such contrast in a land like Japan, but nowhere else it can be seen in such a clear and pristine way. Even the homeless have a dignified way of living, they neatly arrange their cardboard beds and go to the public bath to groom themselves in order to face the day with a well shaved chin. I did not see defeat in their eyes, I saw the will to live and the ability to do so in a proper way. 
Japan is an amazing place to be if you choose to do so. The way of doing things and thinking are so strikingly different from what I'm used to, and so difficult to put in words you cannot explain it by simply saying "thats just the Japanese way"  but as of now I have not come across better words to describe this country's people and their actions. Maybe at a later point in time I will be able to verbalize it better. 
As the clock ticks away the time and the new year creeps nearer I was thinking of writing a bit about what this journey has brought me up to this point. I can say Japan has changed me and is still changing me in many ways. What changes these are and how they took place I rather not write over the internet, if any of you want to know the details, just ask me in real life. 
But I can give you some general pointers. I think one of the main changes I am experiencing is an eagerness to communicate my thoughts, over this blog you have before you and verbally to those around me. I have always had a hard time expressing myself clearly, most of you have asked me for a second go at explaining what I just said in a conversation, so I kept my thoughts to myself. But this action has numbed my tongue over the years, and this should not be a lingering condition, so I will be trying to speak more often than not. 
I wish you all an amazing run into the new year and a happy start at whatever you chose as a new years resolution. 
Raising a glass in your memory, 


your truly, 


Pachi

Sorry for the delay

One month since my last Post. I am very sorry about leaving you hanging. I still have problems with my Flickr account, so there will be no high resolution pictures in a foreseeable future. Please be patient, as soon as everything runs as it was there will be a massive Post. I havent stopped taking pictures, so theres a month worth of photographic material to be shown !

I have been practicing kendo for about two months now. It is japanese sword fighting.  Today I got my do, the breastplate. I have been trying so hard to do everything my kendo teachers tell me to do, and they demand perfection. It has been a great challenge up to now, and I hope I can live up to it. Nonetheless, it makes me happy to be able of facing a challenge like this, on my own and without help, and succeed.

Asian Cosplay Idol Fukuoka !!!

On Saturday I bought a new zoom optic for my Pentax, pretty cheap and of good quality. These are some of the first results of it. 

And on Sunday we went to a Cosplay event in downtown Fukuoka. There was much to see.

First and third place in the singing contest

she got second place

Halloween!!

Of course I know that it was two weeks ago, and didn't post something then because of the massive hangover I had. And last weekend I was pretty much booked up. So here we go, a pictorical chronicle of legendary proportions and awesome rabbit pinkness!!!

The Mad Golfer and Rabitoman ready to do battle against the forces of Boredom !!

Shaking me, tooooo muchhh ssssugarrrr !!!