Lost-in-Transition: April 2007

Moving on...again

moving to scotland tomorrow. going to aberdeen for a months training for my new job. no idea what that entails, but would rather not be moving on again so soon to be honest, never actually unpacked from japan...im sure itll be ok once im there

Finale

was supposed to be kissing the shirt...looks more like im eating it! well, crap birthday weekend turned out to be one of the best ever, not quite scuba diving in the perhentians...but in a totally different way, completely brilliant

Get in!

was really strange, every united game i saw with tam, we always won, without fail...after a drab 40 mins, she texted to ask how we were doin, i told her we were crap we were, she replied saying that she felt we would score now...literally, and i kid you not...literally 5 seconds later, we scored! we won 1-0, and now have a great chance of staying up...honeslty, 5 seconds after she texted, we scored...unbelievable

Bramall Lane

warm sunny day, blue skies, packed 30,000+ stadium, at the game with my bro...perfect

Sunday

sunday i went with neil to se my beloved sheffield united. they are the football team ive supported all my life (there are 2 teams in sheffield) we are currently in the top premier league, playing alongside the chelseas, manchester uniteds and liverpools of the world, we are a small team, and are struggling to stay in the division, and we needed to win to have a chance of staying in the premier league next season....as you can see, it was a beautiful day in sheffield. this was outside the pub before the game. i realised that me and my bro have been going to see sheffield united

(the blades) for 25 years now!!!! 25 years!!! jesus. first went with my dad when i was 7 ( i actually used to play for them up until i was 16, but thats another story).
apart from family, they have been the only love in my life for the past 25 years, cant describe how much they mean to me, and hadnt been to a game in nearly 3 years due to being away from the uk since 2004....was so so so so excited!

Twins

jesus, our parents used to dress us identically when we were really young....it has to stop now

By now im drunk

oh my buddies are so funny. jody, gav and lauren

Quite possbily the greatest moment of my life...

i love this photo...seriously, my favourite photo of all time ever...ever...ever, and quite possibly the best moment of my life. when i die, put this photo on my grave

now, to most this will mean bugger all, but ive idolised this guy and his music for most of my life...and i get to meet him on my birthday!!

i promise ill stop now...

Glen & Miles Hunt

see...i even made him laugh!!

my new buddy

actually, despite his past reputation as being an arse, hes such a lovely bloke...ok ok ill stop gushing now

ahem..me and miles hunt

Miles Hunt

Me 'n' my big bro

was hilarious, havent seen neil since christmas,

met him in town, BOTH of us were wearing trainers, green combat trousers and a retro adidas tracksuit top....looked like twins

ps neil, as i said, only one of us is young enough to get away with adidas you know

neil is 2 years 2 months and 2 days older than me

Birthday evening

was so excited by the gig..now imagine your favourite rock/music hero of all time, to nirvana fans, this was my kurt cobain, to greenday fans, this was my billy jo, to u2 fans, this is my bono, to bon jovi fans....no...sorry...sod off and stop reading this if youre a bon jovi fan, anyway, miles hunt is playing an acoustic gig on my birthday, theres a couple of hundred people here (ive seen him play in front of 90,000 people before)..and im stood on the front row, absolutely dumbstruck...was nice as just me and my big bro saw the gig together, as he got me into them years and years ago, which was cool.long story short, its a superb superb gig. afterwards, he decides to sign a few new cds...so i queue up, unable to speak, i get to the front, and we actually have a chat...IM CHATTING WITH MILES HUNT!!! we talk about my favourite wonderstuff song, (he goes on to explain what its all about )we discuss my birthday!!! and loads of stuff..we're chatting for a good few minutes, w have our picture taken together, and signs my cd 'Glen! happy birthday miles hunt 27.4.07'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i left grinning so much, was physically shaking, i kid you not, i was checking the pics my bro took and had to hold the camera with both hands i was shaking so much. sounds trite now, but honestly, was one of the best moments of my life i swear to god...totally made my birthday! i get goosebumps now just thinking about it....

...after that i got completely drunk with loads of mates. great grea birthday

ps, oh yeah, ryan also rang from oz which was totally cool (see, youre on the blog twice now)

Birthday

was my 27th birthday on friday...(27ish)...oh ok, was my 32nd birthday last friday. woke up completely miserable. waking up on your own on your birthday sucks! the house was empty, everyone was either away or at work, no one to play with, was totally fed up, not so much about being 32, just the fact of being alone with nothing to do. before i came back id not planned anything to do on my birthday, and was considering a party, but loads of my mates were away, so would have been quite an embarrassment, and unless id organised it to be in a phonebox, any room would have looed a bit barren. anyway, a few days before my birthday, i saw a poster for a gig by miles hunt. miles hunt used to be/is the lead singer in my all time favourite band 'the wonder stuff', ive loved them since i can remember (late 80's), and absolutely idolise miles hunt. he was playing an acoustic gig in nottingham ON MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!! cant tell you how ecstatic i was. bought a few tickets and was soo looking forward to it. anyway, presents a bit scarce as everyone was away, but tam bought me tickets to see muse in concert, and a band called cake that i love. went for lunch at a good friends uber cool cafe that she owns.and was mildly cheered up. went to the cinema on my own in the afternoon (how sad is that??) and saw the new shane meadows film, which is filmed in nottingham, its called 'this is england' and is totally great, and a few mates of mine were in the credits...so birthday day sucked a little...then came the evening...

London

spent a day with tam in london where she now lives. such a lovely day, chilled out in hyde park, went to the natural history museum, and just generally caught up, great to see her, shes just returned from a week snowboarding in austria..soooo jealous..missing the snow already. we saw a roller blading beginners class in the park...and as justine would say, 'it was freakin hilarious'. ps..its sooo warm and sunny in the uk right now!!

G'day/goodbye

this is me best mucka ryan. he and his lovely girlfriend lucy live in my house (model tenants), and went to australia for a month the day after i arrived...sorry to see them go, but means i do get my own house all to my self for the next week! i decided to see them off at the bus station to make sure they actually left (they later caught an aeroplane...the bus all the way would have taken ages)

ps, ryan doesnt read the blog as 'im never in it'...well, there you go buddy...read away

Hanami...Sneinton style

this is the church around the corner from my house in nottingham, funny, as id seen the cherry blossom every where id been in japan on the trip...and as i get back, it blooms here too. (for those curious people, this is the church where they guy who discovered static electricity is buried...how interesting is that??? not very? well, what you got??)

Its not over until the Fat Lady Singhs

back in the uk...just got back to nottingham, dumped my bags and literally went straight out again. my best mates, and other mates play in a wicked band called Fat Lady Singh (my other band that i used to play in before i left)...which was such a great way to catch up with old friends...loads of mates came down and i can say that i got well and truly hammered, such a great great night

My last night in Japan

a photo from a thousand years ago (last week). i guess i had all of these romantic notions of what my last night in japan/tokyo should be...mentally i had big plans to get closure on my time here. in the end i was shattered from packing up all my life in boxes, and from my china trip and the japan roadtrip. when i got to the hotel, it was chucking down with rain, and it was such i lovely 5* hotel... in the end, i simply couldn be bothered to leave my hotel. i realised that i didnt need a significant swansong of a final night...the past 9 months was what it was all about, not the last night. my good friend tomomi was in town as she had been to a wedding the day before, so we had a quiet dinner on the top floor of the tokyo dome hotel. this was the view. to be honest also, id said my goodbyes at my leaving party, and by now i was just in 'going home' mode,and had kinda switched off my leaving emotions. kat rang me on the way to the airport which kinda brought it all back to me (leaving), which made me sad. the airport was funny. my company always fly people business class, so you get 32kg of luggage allowance...i had no idea how much baggage i had (physical, not the emotional kind)...i dont know why, but i gingerly placed my bags on the scales...as if placing them gingerly is going to reduce the weight???!! anyway, it came to 50kg (including snowboard)...ouch...that was about a 300 pounds fine..eek eek and thrice eek...so the woman on the desk goes away..for a full 10 minutes...she fills in a form...which im looking to see the fine on, she looks up, and says 'thats fine sir, have a nice flight'....PHEW! nil fine..thank you mr branson

tomomi met me at the airport to say goodbye (by this point i was sick and tired of saying goodbye to good friends), anyway, im sure she wont mind me saying that she cried, and im so grateful that she was there to say goodbye.

at the immigration, i gave back my residents card and had to reply 'no' when the immigration officer asked me if i was planning to return to japan...at least not as a resident. fingers crossed ill be back one day...

sayonara japan

Birthday

well, i know ive still got to update the blog, and will finish japan and hello uk soon, but today is my 32nd birthday...unfortunately, these pictures were taken exactly a year ago today for my 31st...in my favourite place on earth, perhentian island in malaysia, did my first scuba dive. today ive got no real plans...although tonight, my all time favourite rock star hero god (miles hunt, ex wonderstuff) is playing an acoustic gig just down the road from my house in nottingham, so am going with my big bro and a few mates...v.v.v.v. excited about this gig, and tomorrow going to see my beloved sheffield united for the first time in nearly 3 years, and if we win, we are almost guaranteed to stay in the premier league. v.v.v.v.v.v.v.v excited about this

Leaving Party

so it was my leaving party last night, starting with food and beers in northern lights, then on to hotspot.

was a really really great night, a lot of people have been away recently, papua new guinea, south east asia, japan etc... but everyone had recently just got back...justine arrived back from a 3 week trip around south east asia about 1 hour before the party started...hardcore anbeek!

anyway, was the first time in ages everyone had been out together, and was lovely. ive met some truly amazing people here, and hopefully many will remain friends forever. my experience of japan would have been completely different if i hadnt have met these people. ive had some wonderful, lifechanging and unforgetable times, and will miss my friends in japan dearly...anyway...ill end this now for fear of sounding like a gwyneth paltrow oscar speech...

...except to say sincerely thank you to all my friends here, you are all truly wonderful people, and its been a pleasure and an honour knowing you.

hopefully this isnt goodbye, just a see you soon, somewhere else, some other time...

here's to all of you...

x

Leaving Party

Road Trip!

ill keep it brief as the photos tell most of the story. but in a mad panic of 'oh my god im leaving japan' i decided to embark on a trip of the places that id like to see as a minimum, with a few others added in. i set off with my best mates gareth and tomomi, and spent most of the trip with just tomomi as gareth had to go back to work on the monday. we initially drove to osaka, then we got everywhere on trains, boats, buses and feet. it was a really tight schedule, 9 cities/towns in 7 days, with countless things to do in each. was exhausting at times, but was such good fun. the weather was glorious, and the blossom was out everywhere we went. i could go on forever about the trip, but needless to say, it was an experience ill never forget, and i feel a little more comfortable about leaving now ive done it. many many thanks as always to gareth and tomomi, great travelling buddies, especially tomomi for putting up with my sometimes grumpiness, oh and i did eventually make her laugh with a joke...another box (albeit a new one) ticked.

we worked out the following statistics on the way back:
we had travelled 3000km's
we had been on 28 trains, 4 boats, 3 buses, and one car

i took over 700 photos

...not bad for 7 days

Day 7 - Home

one last train ride

Day 7 (pm) - Tokyo to Niigata

gone were the blue skies and sunshine

Yoyogi Park

this is a cafe in yoyogi park. the sign behind says 'paakusu' which is coincidentally how you spell my name in japanese

my actual name here is pronounced Guren Paakusu

Day 7 (am) - Tokyo Yoyogi Park)

i love this place, right in the heart of tokyo, such a beautiful place

Love Hotels

well....these are abundant in japan, hotels (most with themed rooms), where you can pay by the hour (called 'rest') or by the night (called 'stay). infidelity amongst japanese men is apparently quite high, and allegedly mostly accepted by society

Capsule Hotel!

another box of mine to tick. saw these on a travel programme in the uk when i was a kid, and think theyre great! this was my first experience. they are designed for 'salary men', japanese businessmen who work away from home, it costs around 20 pounds, and you get a capsule, an onsen, free razors and toothpaste and a locker and towel...not bad for 20 pounds in the centre of tokyo. was such a great experience, loved it!

you even get your own tv in them! this place had literally hundred of capsules, there was 7 full floors of them!