Malaysia: Chicken Rice

During my time here in Malaysia, I've grown quite fond of this dish, chicken rice. The best chicken rice that I've had thus far was at a Chinese restaurant near Hiro's place here in Mont Kiara. This whole meal was a bit on the expensive side -- 15RM/person (roughly $4 US); 3 times what I would normally pay for a plate of chicken rice from street vendors -- but boy was it worth it.

close up shot of the of the chicken

That I can have the nerve to even begin to complain about paying $4 US for a meal tells you just how incredibly cheap food seems to folks from Japan or the West. Despite my inclination to introduce myself as a poor wandering bum, by local standards, I'm pretty loaded.

The wild thing is that CDs, DVDs, designer clothing, alcohol and other imported items cost the same as they would in the US. In the US, a CD would cost me about as much as a good meal or maybe two value meals at Micky D's; here, a legit CD is the same as 2 or 3 good meals or 6 very average ones. Don't get me wrong; piracy is not a good thing. But straight up, I certainly don't blame people for buying bootleg items at one of the seemingly countless pirate shops dotting the landscape here. In my book, ain't no CD worth 6 plates of chicken rice.

So after dinner, Hiro and I drove downtown to check out the nightlife and hang out at his favorite chill-out-spot, a little cafe called Ole. The place was nice, with sofas to sprawl out on, a guitar that Hiro had permission to play freely, a free internet computer terminal and nice laid back atmosphere. We sat around chatting, reading, making friends with various other patrons and generally just slothing out.


It was two in the morning by the time we left the cafe...and I was starving. Thank goodness for the street hawkers out there selling grub all through the night. And of course, with all the various foods out there for sale, what do I buy? 5RM of chicken rice heaven. Awwwwwww yeah.

Malaysia: Petronas Towers - Been There, Done That, Check.

Standing in a park in downtown KL with the Petronas Towers rising in the background

View of the Petronas Towers from outside of the KLCC

Malaysia: Shah Alam and the Blue Mosque

With minarets stretching up 142.3m high (the tallest in the world) the Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah Mosque (or as it is more commonly referred to, "The Blue Mosque") is Malaysia's largest mosque and fourth largest mosque in the world.

Up until now, everytime Hiro has brought a guest to see the mosque, for some reason or another, he and the guest(s) were never allowed to enter. Today, we got lucky and were allowed to head upstairs to the main prayer hall...on the condition that we did not enter the hall itself or take pictures. Thus, unfortunately, all of my pictures are from outside of the mosque.

I say unfortunately because as breathtaking as the mosque was from the outside, peering into vastness of the dome enclosed prayer hall, bathed in cool blue light from the stained glass windows, was something altogether different, dark, immense, mysterious, sacred.

Bak Ku Teh

After visiting Hiro's office during the morning, Hiro took me with him over to the main office to introduce me around. His co-workers were extremely friendly and immediately proposed we go out to eat Bak Ku Teh.

Malaysia: Somebody's Gotta Do the Work

Hiro hard at work during the day while I'm wandering around the city or lounging by the pool at his condo.

Malaysia: Morning in KL

The morning view of the KL skyline from my bedroom window here in Mont Kiara

Malaysia: On the Way to Penang

Buying fruits at rest-stop on the highway heading up to Penang. So much variety, so many colors...and for a guy used to paying close to couple of bucks for an apple in Japan, mind-blowingly cheap.

I found the rest-area to be quite interesting. Aside from the various fruitstands, restrooms, and fast food restaurants at this highway rest area was a place for washing up and doing ones daily prayers. As Malaysia is an Islamic country, all highway rest-stops are equipped with such facilities.


Hiro posing heroically before the entrance to a Buddhist temple carved out of the face of a mountain in Ipoh . At the back of the temple was the entrance to a complex of caves which we spent the afternoon exploring (for a small fee of course). Since nobody else was there, we were free to throw off our (admittedly thin) facades of being grown men and run around the caves like little boys pretending to be great adventurers.

MALAYSIA (KL): Touchdown

I got into Kuala Lumpur safely last night. My friend Hiro had a driver from his company come out to pick me up at the airport. We had a bit of trouble finding each other because the driver had nothing but my name to go by and therefore was apparently looking for an older (white hair) Japanese businessman in a sports coat; NOT a young (well, relatively) Blackanese kid with an afro-poof toting a big giant backpack.

While Raj (the driver) went to bring the car around to pick me up, I stood out on in the passenger loading zone trying to get a feel for my new surroundings. With all the Indians, Chinese and Malays wandering around me speaking English, Tamil, Chinese and Malay, I had an overwhelmingly odd feeling that I was actually in a slightly more humid version of San Francisco...minus the white people

Raj brought the car around, loaded me up and then took me to Pizza Hut for dinner before driving me in to KL to drop me off at Hiro's posh condomimium. After Pizza Hut, everything is hazy. I was so exhausted from the trip and not sleeping the night before (last minute packing, of course) that I just remember seeing some spectacularly huge buildings and then changing cars at one point.

It's morning now and Hiro is on his way back from work. He plans to take me out to see Penang this afternoon.

Japan (Kobe): My final night in Japan with the Hanshin Tigers

Despite not having all of my packing done, I spent my evening attending my first baseball (or yakyu as it is called here) game in Japan. Nearly 7 years here and I can't believe I waited until my final night here to discover how incredibly fun it is to watch a ballgame here in Japan...especially if you go to see a Hanshin Tigers game in Japan's most famous ballpark, Koshien Stadium.

The Tigers are the scrappy team of the working class, down to earth, good folks of Kansai (Wessside). I would liken them to my beloved Athletics back home in Oakland.

Watching a Tigers game in Koshien is unlike anything I've ever experienced in my long years of being an avid fan of the sport. Hanshin fans are HARD. CORE.

You enter the stadium and it's almost like entering a big festival. Almost everybody is decked out in Tigers paraphenelia and most have a "clapper" (a pair of plastic batons in the colors of the team festooned with the marks of the team) which they use to beat out the various accompaniments to all of the various cheer songs and chats of the night. The right outfield seats are where all of the super hardcore fans sit (Prof. W. managed to land us left outfield tickets which, though not as in the thick of it as the right, was plenty lively) . Trumpeters and bass drum players are scattered strategically throughout the outfield seats to provide accompaniment for the cheers...which are nearly constant and fairly well-organized. I was reminded of all the school fight songs and cheers we used to do for basketball games back in my Garfield High days. Not only is there a Hanshin Tigers fight song, there are songs for each of the individual players.

Cheering and shouting, throwing back a couple of beers and chowing down on some good ole ballpark eats (oden, sushi, dried squid, yakitori, etc.) ... and having cute girls who were sitting next to us strike up conversation with us...who could ask for more?

If you are in Japan or plan to visit and have not yet seen the Tigers, GO.

Japan: Nippon - The Remix

Ananda just sent me a link to this lil' gem of a music video (or as we call them here "puromoshon bideo") that shows some of the highlights of living in da 'pon as seen through the eyes of us here fouruhners.

Japan (Kobe): 3 days left and counting

No more goofing around. Been spending the past few days tying up the loose ends I've left hanging around all this time. Spent this morning tweaking the LAFTI blog page and uploading pictures to the site to make it a bit easier on the eyes but still have a lot of work that is left to be done on it. I suppose I'll have to take care of some of it once I'm on the road...but boy oh boy do I wish I had taken the time to learn some decent coding skills. I have no idea what I am doing.

On a positive note, last night managed to do a bit more consolidating of my junk and now have one less box to store away.

Aside from that, nothing much exciting to report for today.

Japan (Kobe): Samba and Getting the Show on the Road

So, yes, Monkey has not been very good about keeping the blog updated over these past few weeks. He's been rather busy hopping around from here to there and everywhere on his SAYONARA JAPAN VICTORY TOUR 2005 and partying even more after returning here to Kobe. Highlights from the past few weeks include a triumphant return to Tokyo; a visit to my friend who lives at the base of Mt. Fuji (if you follow the link, scroll down to the entries for May 2nd and 3rd); after a great deal of research and shopping around, securing MY NEW BACKPACK (and yes, I'll admit that the fact that it morphs like something out of Transformers was no small factor in my decision); getting ditched by my bus at a random highway rest area somewhere in Nagano in the middle of the night (mental note: when the driver says be back at the bus by 2:35am, he means it); stopping off for a crazy free jazz festival in Takatsuki; and then, of course, my long-awaited return to the salsa dance floors of Osaka.

See, I've been meaning to sit down and write about these adventures and much much more, but I've been too busy...(also, please see earlier entry The Art of Procrastinating)

Ah well. I'll probably never get around to it so for now, I've posted random new pictures on the blog for your viewing pleasure, including a few pictures from today when I went downtown today to pick up my plane tickets and ended up stumbling upon the Kobe Matsuri complete with samba dancers shaking down the street, yosakoi dancers backflipping everywhere, international food stalls everywhere, free live jazz and families milling about enjoying the beautiful weather. Such a big city, but with such a quaint smalltown feel. I've gotta come back here.

Ah, and yes, that's right. I'm finally blasting off from here to my first destination outside of Japan. That's right, ladies and gentleman, at last...South East Asia.

First stop: MALAYSIA

Japan (Kobe): Shake what yo' Mama gave yaaaa

Mmmmmm...random samba dancer during the Kobe Festival. Because I was the only one smiling and dancing along to the music in the crowd around me, she rewarded me by coming up and dancing special, just for me...complete with turnin' around and giving me the old bootie shake shake shake shake move. Yes folks, it pays to be an appreciative audience member.



Mmmmm, samba dancing...fruit baskets? Uh... not quite sure that my boat was getting floated by this. Notice, however, the legions of creepy dudes in front of me (and stretching in both directions as far as the eye could see) doing their best to get some photos.

Life as a teacher in Japan

A good friend just sent me the link to this hilarious site (click title above) maintained by a brutha' teaching English over in Kyoto. If you find yourself curious at all about some of what I experienced during my 6 and half of years of working in the public school system here in Japan, do check this site out.

Pee-your-pants-rating: 4 stars

Admittedly, there are some entries that disturb the overly-serious-straight-laced-stick-up-the-bum teacher part of me, but certainly, interesting reading.


...and for those of you who have attended/taught in a school in Japan, you might appreciate this here t-shirt.

http://red-bazooka.com/bazooka/t/kancho/kancho.html

Takatsuki Jazz Festival

After arriving in Osaka, I hopped on the train up to Takatsuki to visit my friend Lisa and her husband. After spending the day out at a nearby park enjoying the sun and beautiful lush greens of the grass and the trees, we headed downtown to check out the second night of the free jazz festival occuring throughout the area. Countless acts, amateurs and professionals all mingling together and wandering the streets along with the crowds. It was a great scene. The best part was all of the spontaneous jam sessions that happened all over the place in front of various eateries and bars int he area. Here is a picture of one such session outside of an open air oden eatery and bar. For some reason, jazz goes really good with things Japanese...

Japan (Yamanashi): Mt. Fuji

A shot of Mt. Fuji from the bus-stop on my way back from Fujiyoshida