Re: [tlug] Hello

["Josh Glover" <jmglov@example.com>]

On 22/08/07, Jonathan Byrne <jonathan@example.com> wrote:

> I guess it's too late for me to recommend GOL (my former employer) for
> Internet access, since you already signed up with YahooBB <g>

Does GOL do Hikari? I am very interested in switching ISPs, but I
posted on this list about this last week and heard:

し〜

;)

> When I arrived in Japan it was mid-July, probably just about the same
> time you did. '94 was quite a hot summer, and even at nearly midnight
> when I got to where I was going that first night, I must have sweated
> off five pounds hauling my suitcase less than 1/2 km to my girlfriend's
> place.

Ugh. My wife and I moved to Japan two years ago in four suitcases, two
backpacks, and a laptop case. It was 03 September, which as all
Tokyoites know, is still Pretty Fucking Hot. We arrive at Yokohama
Station, lock up the biggest of our suitcases in a coin locker, and
hail a cab. We give him the address, and he asks us how to get there.
Only in Japan do cab drivers not know the city they are driving in!

So we finally home in on our apartment, which is in Kotobuki-cho. As
anyone familiar with the Yakuza will know, Kabuki-cho is one of the
three most famous Yakuza dens in Japan, so there is a very nice
red-light district therein. Our cab driver literally stops in front of
brothel and asks the madam if she knows where our apartment is!
Through some miracle, we finally locate a guy who know the address,
and arrive at the apartment to find... no elevator, and five flights
of stairs! So I lug our suitcases up the five flights, in 30-plus
degree, 90-plus percent humidity weather, *after* a 20-hour journey by
plane and bus from Columbus, OH. And we had forgotten to eat anything,
so I had zero energy left.

We wake up around 04:00 the next morning, thanks to 時差ボケ、and start
unpacking. Around 05:30, both of us realise that we are about to pass
out from exhaustion due to the fact that we have not eaten in about 15
hours. So we walk downstairs and locate a life-giving 自動販売機、from which
I procure an orange juice simply because it is the only 100% fruit
juice drink available. Thank God at that point we see a Lawson sign,
and are saved.

Blergh. Next time I move, I'm just paying a moving company all of my
life's savings just to avoid a similarly hellish situation. :)

> I've been away from Japan for almost five years now and do miss it more
> than a bit. If my employer ever wants to send me over for a tour of
> duty, I won't fight it <g>

I've tried to convince you to apply for a job at Amazon like 100 times
so far! :)

-- 
Cheers,
Josh