Ninja Bloopers and Wise Man Tales
I guess I should explain some of the photos, but before I do anything I want to say that what Uncle Rick posted in the comment section the other day was one of the funniest things I have ever read in my life. He hit every stereotypical southern error that I could think of. I was in the computer room laughing uncontrolable. Incase you don’t read other peoples comments I will post it below because I think it is hilarious. Also, I wanted to say congrats to Uncle Rick. He and his wife are going to have a baby. When I am back in Texas on a visit I will definitely stop by. Anyway, here is the exert from the comments
“Rick said...
So all this talk about Texas,...are your friends impressed? Well, they aught to be. You know, for some reason this is the only way i can communicate with you. I have tried several times via E-Mail.Always to no avail.I'm open to suggestions. I wrote you an e-mail the other day concerning my disapointment in the paragraph you had written in your previous blog note (if you will).You had said "please excuse my spelling, i'm from Texas".........WELL BLOW ME DOWN!!! I would like to go on record as to say that weez peepel hear in Texas not only kno how to spel, butt weez no howta tipe.Not alla us gradgeated,sum of us quitcheeated.Heck, sum peeple eeven kum to me for ad-vise.Jez da udder day joe-bob jr.,bubba-jr., and junior-jr.came to me wif a problum dat wudda stumpped eny ordnayry man.Ya see, jr. wuz tryn ta figer out how tall da telyfone pole wuz. I jest happned by wen i seedum wida tape mezerer mezerin da udder pole dat wuz layin on da grown.I says boys how dum canya be?Ya gotta stand it up ta figer out how tall it iz. Boy, iz thay luky ta hav me around.? So ya cee boys,...not everone in Texas is illidderit. For real though, i guess you didn't get my last message,so i will fill you in.I am gonna be a daddy again.God not only blessed me with a wonderful wife,now he is blessing me with a child.I must be the luckiest man in the world. Still waiting on that picture of you doing something like......Flying your underwear from the school's main flagpole.And don't try to B.S. it and get someone else to do it.I'm talkin frame by frame photos. Well good luck with that.Remember, don't get arrested. And with that,i leave you.With another Rickism of course. (this ties in with the last sentance.) REMEMBER,...NOTHING IS AGAINST THE LAW IF YOU DON'T GET CAUGHT!!!! Well dip me in axle grease and call me slick, i'm gone”
Maybe one does not understand this exert if they are not from the states (or maybe even the south). And of course my friends are impressed, Texas is famous even here. I see cowboy boots, pictures of cowboys on signs, native american paintings (that is not just Texas of course), Tex-Mex food on some menus (written as Tex-Mex), Seven Eleven convenience stores (which are from Texas ofcourse), and a lot of other things that I can't remember at the moment because I did not write them down. I put a picture of a 2 floor MacD's in the postings, but unfortunately I couldn't find one in Japanese style.
Anyways, because this is going to turn into a long article with a lot of photos to explain, I better get started (Uncle Rick, I will send you an E-mail from a different e-mail account. Please try and reply to it. If that does not work, we will figure out something else.)
The lone picture on this page (all of the others that I posted are in the two other posts below-which only have pictures) is me standing in the middle of the road waiting for a car so that I can crane kick it.
NOW, pictures and explanations. I call this article Ninja Bloopers and Wise Man Tales for soon to be explained reasons. The Ninja Blooper title is obvious, so no explanation is necessary, but Wise Man Tales???
Okay, the story goes like this. In ancient Japan an old wise man climbed a mountain and when he came down he was wiser. When people asked the old wise man, “Why did you climb the mountain?” The old wise man responded, “To pray.” Then they asked the wise man “For what?” And he said, “If you climb the mountain you will know.” So, the people did not understand. So next they asked the old wise man “What is up there?” thinking that their must be something up on the mountain that made the old wise man wise beyond his many years. So, the old wise man told them “Truth.” “Truth?” the people asked, “What Truth?” “Climb the mountain and you will know,” the old wise man said. Well, if you look at some of the picture that I have posted, you will see that I climbed the mountain. You will see the stares that never end. Once, I thought I saw the end so my friend an I started running to the top (or so we thought), but it was just a turn in the stares where you couldn’t see that it was actually just a path to more stares. After racing to what we thought was the top (at that time), we decided it was rather foolish to run like that up all those stares after eating. Ofcourse, it was only the half way point. Now, you may be wondering what it was that the old wise man had learned and why he went up the mountain to pray. Well, since I climbed the mountain I know what the old wise man was talking about (you can see the mountain that I climbed in some pictures). Here is what the wise man would not explain: If you climb up a mountain, the truth that one learns is that you will have to pray to make it down alive, because you will have no energy and the slightest mistake and you could fall down the thousands of steps that one just climbed. That is why the wise man prayed when he reached the top of the mountain I think and that is the truth.
There were no Ninja’s at the Ninja House. It was actually just a house that Ninja’s use to live at more than 200 years ago (with a lot of tricks and traps). I saw on the history or travel channel that some old clans of Ninja’s still exist in Japan deep in the woods/mountains. But, I did not get to see any real ninja’s, so SORRY uncle Rick, no picture of me sneaking up on a real ninja. But I tried to compensate for it with a lot of pictures.
There are way too many pictures to explain. I posted them in separate articles because each article can only hold so many pictures. I also, cut the size down, but that doesn’t really matter, just click on one to enlarge it.
So we went to a Ninja House, Some old town with a lot of Temples and Climbed a mountain to some sacred shrine (you can see me doing some things I probably shouldn’t-such as hanging from one of the gates). My shirt was probably inappropriate as well-it is best if you don't read it. I actually bought the shirt at a store that sells $1000 business suites. Some German girl asked me if I went to Utah University (see the shirt and you will understand, but it is best not to understand in this case. It won't happen again. I didn't think about it when I left that morning, I just though-good, a blue shirt-and put it on). There is a picture of the meal that we ate for lunch, pictures of the never ending stares, pictures of statues and small shrines along the path of the never ending stares, and finally pictures of friends and myself at the top of the never ending stares (there are other pictures of the shrine that I did not mention as well). In a previous article I posted a picture of me playing the Karate kid vs. my friend from Brazil. So, now I have made it one of my themes. Unfortunately I didn’t try it at the Mexican food place with the staff. I could have done a before and after picture. Before-> me in the crane kick position. After-> me against the hood of the police car being beaten for attempting to crane kick some innocent waitress. “It was a joke,” may not go over very well with the police. So, there are various pictures of me with my new theme. I want to explain the ninja photos, but there are a lot of them. My favorite is the one where we are posing as the Ninja Turtles. You can see the one where my Brazilian friend is falling through the door in the ground, some ninja weapons, me meditating (but I couldn’t keep a straight face for the photo unfortunately), and of course I took a photo of the ninja house itself among others that I haven’t mentioned. Okay, you will see a picture somewhere of my friend Paul (from Equador) strangling one of the ninja’s as he (my friend) wears a strange smile. When you strangle someone and smile at the same time, you must be one bad guy. You will see me about to crane kick a ninja, then my friend Marni giving the same ninja the peace sign. There are more of course, but I don’t have time to explain them all. At the town with all the temples and the carp that swam in the aquariums that aligned the street, I only want to talk about 2 of the photos. One where me and Paul are inside (I’m doing my crane kick and he is in a fighting stance-I never noticed that I was that much taller than him). The other is the one where Paul and I are standing in front of the temple while I pretend to talk on my cell phone. I think this one looks cool because it is a temple that is hundreds of years old, with me on my cell phone in front of it (old-new).
Now on to the Mexican restaurant. There are some pictures of it and other pictures that I took while walking around Sakae (a place to go if you want something fun to do-like downtown). It wasn’t that great. I ordered Texas Nachos and Fajitas, but they weren’t really Texas Nacho’s nor were they really Fajitas. The shop was said to be owned and operated by Mexicans, but It wasn’t anything like a real Mexican restaurant from Texas. When I order chicken fajitas, I expect at least 7 large strips of chicken, not a few thinly sliced pieces that wouldn’t equal the size of 1 strip of grilled chicken. I was disappointed. The Texas nachos were small without much meat. So, we went to another Mexican restaurant after that. I had tacos, but they weren’t any better. It’s difficult to get the real taste here I guess, but that is understandable. There is one more Mexican restaurant that I plan on trying before I give up. And could somebody please send me some mustard from America. All the mustard that I find here has wasabi and sesame seeds in it. I wish I had known.
Anyways, I had a good time (even if I am a little tired). I am going to leave the lab a little early today so I can go home and read some article about Solid State Physics and Metal Gates (deals with semiconductors). So peace, I be out.
Of Course I Cannot Forget About The Quote Of The Day… No, forget that, The Quote Of The Week. It is by the great, the famous, the most Texan of Texans---Uncle Rick.
He’s so famous, we now call quotes from Uncle Rick, Rickdoms.
So, the Rickdom of the week is:
“ REMEMBER,…NOTHING IS AGAINST THE LAW IF YOU DON’T GET CAUGHT.”
Heck, bein the Texan I am, I aught ta put too Rickdoms up todays. Soz, hear ya iz, Rickdom numba 2:
“Well dip me in axle grease and call me slick, i'm gone”
I almost forgot, if you want to see other photos of my trip, you can check out both of the following web pages:
http://kikuko.web.infoseek.co.jp/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thiagoleon/sets/72157594176949639/
If you go to kikuko, you will see photos with me, but the quality is not that great.
If you go to flickr, you will probably not see me in a photo directly, but there are more photos and the quality is better.
Well, I can say no more.
See you Later.
posted by Ben at 3:03 AM
1 comments
