Erik Mongrain

Stumbled across this guy's music recently while I was doing one of my daily "video reviews". Been watching his videos and listening to his music a lot eversince. He has a very distinct (amazing!) way of playing the guitar. His compositions are equally impressive and unique. I tell you, it's like watching someone play the piano using a guitar.

I've posted below two of his videos that I like most. Just press play and prepare to be amazed...

Sayounara James!

The first one to leave. Pretty soon, no one will be left. But just the same, we'll all have very fond memories to take home with us.

We'll miss you, man. Thanks for all the laughs. We really had a great time.

Don't fret, I promise, we'll do it again soon.

Rassell sends her regards. She'll probably miss you more than I would. Hahaha.

The End

Yesterday was, officially, the last class that we will all ever attend in Kyudai (Kyushu University). Felt genuinely sad; wish we all had a little more time. Honestly, and I know this sounds so cliché, it really doesn't feel like we've been here for almost a year already. Seems only yesterday that we were all just starting out and getting to know each other. Today, we're already getting our return tickets and have started to plan our trips back home. I had such a blast, I barely noticed the year that fleetingly passed.

I'm really bad at saying farewells -- I get too depressed. So, instead, I'd like to say that I hope to see all of you soon in one of our countries. We should all get together again sometime...to remind us of the really fun year that we shared here.

Wish everyone the BEST...we deserve nothing less.

Yamakasa

Woke up really early last Saturday to watch half-naked men running around in Tenjin, Fukuoka, shouting "Oisa! Oisa!" It's sort of a race where men from Hakata Gion's seven districts race through the streets carrying decorative, one-ton floats. Spectators, a lot of them, (also shouting "Oisa! Oisa!") cheer the participants on and splash them with water.

It started at 4:59 a.m. and ended around thirty minutes after.

Don't ask me why they start at such an odd hour. There are a lot of things here in Japan that are done and followed just because... no questions asked.

Anyway, I took several pictures, which despite the limited dawn sunlight, turned out to be quite nice. Enjoy!

Random thoughts...

Haven't posted for a while. No particular reason really. Just didn't feel like it.

I'm trying to do one of my papers now. One of many that I have to submit by the end of this month or early next month.

Lately, the weather has been terribly hot. Everytime I turn on the airconditioner, I feel sleepy. If I turn it off, I feel too uncomfortable to work. Go figure.

Rassell is in the US now. Which means that I pretty much have been spending a lot of time on worthless, idle things and no one to remind me that I have a ton of more important things to do.

Ok, time for me to do something else again. After that, I'll try to do my paper.