BACK IN KAN"FUCKING"SAI

Well, I finally returned a week ago from the frozen wastelands of Canada. I was in New Brunswick for 2 weeks, then in Vancouver for 2 weeks. All in all, it was a good trip. Other than being sick almost the entire time, I had a blast.

The day I flew from Kansai airport to Vancouver airport, I must've got that damn bird flu from someone at the airport or someone on the plane. On the flight from Vancouver to Toronto, I was really nauseous, had the shits and had the sweats something awful. When I finally got to Fredericton Airport, I had had enough of airplanes. I never slept at all that night at the hotel. I had the sweats, the shits and puked a few times.

The next morning driving home, I picked up some diarrhea/vomit medicine, then we headed home. On the way there, my my mom about 15 million stops, I just wanted to go home and lay down at that point. Then she decides to go through the car wash in Woodstock. Right before we went through, I had to chuck my cookies again, half of which I spewed all over the window and the seat before I even got the door open. The people behind us must've thought I was enjoying some Christmas cheer a little early.

Anyway, for the next 4 or 5 days, I had the shits and I couldn't stop farting. Not just farts either, they reeked something mighty. It was so bad that I had to frequently go upstairs when guests came over to visit just to hide my embarrassment and shame.

Anyway, by Christmas day I was finally over that madness. Had a pleasant Christmas day, didn't overstuff myself. Hung out with my grandfather that afternoon, went back home, and relaxed and got drunk with the old man.

Then 3 or 4 days later, I started getting a cough, mostly coughing up a bunch of green shit in the morning. As the holidays passed on, it got progressively worse and I still have it. Now the cough has subsided a little, but now it's in my sinuses, I can barely breathe through my nose. I've had this damn cold for over a month and it's not over yet.

The weather was pretty cold in New Brunswick, nothing record breaking, the coldest day we had was probably about -10 during the day, -18 at night. We had barely any snow, which was pretty unusual, considering the days when I was growing up, we'd get fucking 6 to 7 foot drifts of the shit. You'd spend half the fucking winter cleaning the shit out of the driveway.

Anyway, didn't do much else in New Brunswick, saw a few people, mostly just bummed around the house relaxing or walking outside.

On January 4th, I went to Vancouver and stayed with my friend, Ben Wilson for most of the trip. That's when my cough started getting much worse. We had intended to work on CCBE, but we only got as far as editing some of the drum tracks that Mike from Goatsblood did.

Met with Olaf and David from Hyphen, and I met with a few other companies while I was there just to check out the job prospects. Looks like there's lots of work there, but it'll probably be difficult to land work until I'm actually there.

The weather was absolute shit in Vancouver pretty much the whole time. The first day I was there, it snowed and then rained the night before, so I was trudging through half a foot of slush. I think I had one sunny day while I was there. It was cold almost every day, which I didn't mind, but the roads and sidewalks were treacherous for a few days. Vancouver is not set up to handle crazy weather conditions, so the roads didn't get salted or ploughed really except for the main roads. In the 5 years living there before, I had never experienced that kind of shitty weather in the winter.

I never did walk to Stanley Park to see the destruction that the November storm of last year caused, but I did see a lot on the news when I was there.

Anyway, it was a good trip but I am glad to be back in my own bed. I think this was a necessary trip to kind of discover some things and it's made me think Japan is not so bad after all. I just need a long break from Japan from time to time. I still haven't really changed my mind about Japan, I still know that it's not where I want to settle down, but I think I still have some thinking to do about a good many things like where I want to be and what I want to do ultimately.

I have hopes that this will be a good New Year for myself. I hope it is for everyone else too. Thanks Ben and Chris for letting me crash at your places. You're welcome to stay with us anytime.