all right, if you think you're ready for it

so, in response to certain criticisms of my last post, here is my ass in full technicolour glory, as circulating amongst the korean community mentioned in last post...


THIS IMAGE REMOVED TO PROTECT THE INNOCENT

my ass

korea

ok - so although my plane sat on the snowy runway for almost an hour, we eventually flew, and now i'm in ...KOREA! land of eating way too much meat and drinking far, far too much.

one thing i've found out since i got here, apparently my naked photo is circulating on the korean internet...

well, at least there's a picture of my bare-ass naked butt taken when i was on the beach in oz on several of my friends' websites...

i'm a korean porn star!

complete lack of respect for ramen

ok...so as a ramen appreciateur, i suck.

went to ラーメン共和国 (Republic of Ramen)...but all the places had long queues. the swamp does not queue. not for the post office, not for the bank, and not for ramen. i think they make the queues longer on purpose to make their place look popular - each place had at least two empty tables, even though there were 20 people waiting to get in...

but, i did eat ramen. in another perfect example of why i will never be a ramen appreciatuer, i had no camera. fancy eating ramen and not taking a picture of it!

the place was a well-spoken of local near my japanese family's house called 道 (mitchi). it has a good rep for using no artificial flavouring. being in hokkaido, i decided to go for the miso... the soup was so thick it was like they'd dumped my ramen in a miso-flavoured potage soup. the noodles were so-so. the chashew was good, though, a single chunky slice.

so, giving up on the idea of being a freelance roving ramen-reporter under contract to the only man worth the name "ramen lover" - shoe; and going back to my real love - hot springs!

off to an onsen this afternoon - looking to find one with a view out over the snow and the ocean.

snow

there be alot of snow in sapporo...

it be cold - the tips of my fingers were freezing with my weak little finger-less gloves i bought for the warm-cold of england... it's probably -6 outside here, where it never got much below 0 while we were in the u.k. for new year...

i saw a sign at sapporo station for the ラーメン共和国 - the "Republic of Ramen"...looks like there are about 10 ramen shops in one floor of the station building - made me think of mr. tanpopo himself, the shoe... if i had have been him, i would have leapt straight into noodle-slurping action... but i didn't, and i am ashamed at my amateurism...

ramen report will have to wait.

for now, i'm enjoying what is best in a cold place, sitting inside, in front of the heater, watching the snow fall outside! yay...

ramen

...tonight, at half-past-midnight, i'm off to sapporo.

just goin' to do a yearly greeting to the rellies, and grab me some hokkaido powder (snow - not coke)

now, as you may know, sapporo is a bit of a holy land for ramen...

so, as a tribute to the shoe, who inspired me to create this blog, i intend to photograph and report on some 'guest ramen' during my travels...

i only hope my humble attempts at ramen appreciation do not offend the master...

Snow

i got my "cold fix" at new year in the uk.

but cold wasn't as tough as i remembered it. it isn't that nice, and i wouldn't like to go back to living with it everyday for half a year, but it is definitely deal-with-able.

that said, the uk cold was pretty p*ss-ass weak cold - not like -30 in Chicago or anything.

So, at the end of this week, i'm off to sapporo for a coupla days to have some real cold. if that's not cold enough, gonna go over to seoul for a coupla days after that.

then, when i come back to thailand, i'm gonna go to a tropical island...

what else would you do?

elephants crossing

...somehow, you know you're in thailand when you see roadsigns like this...

post tsunami phuket

when you were a kid, did you think "phuket" was pronounced "fuck et"?

i did. and i wanted a t-shirt...

now, of course, being world-wise and all, i know better.

went to phuket on the weekend. seems to be rebuilding itself - although saw some massive devastation too... must have been really, really scary


also saw some wicked sunsets tho'...island life - unless ur being swamped by a 10 meter wave, u can't beat it!

sweet f/a

so, what's been going on in the swamp?
sweet f/a, that's what.

haven't been posting, 'cos it's hard to make insightful comments about life in bkk when i haven't been going anywhere or observing anything.

the week so far has been:
monday - thai class in the morning, long nap in the arvo
tuesday - stayed home and read a novel start to finish ("zodiac") didn't leave the flat
wednesday - thai class in the morning, stayed home and read in the arvo ("the gunslinger")
thursday - thai class in the morning, grocery shopping in the arvo
today - watched crap john travolta movie on hbo

from the subsite - u'll know that the swamp is going smoke-free - that has precluded going out to any beer gardens or anything, i just couldn't take it yet...

tell u what tho' - lung power has been returning - walked up the stairs to our 34th floor flat three times in the last four days...starting to enjoy it...

off to phuket this weekend tho' - gonna go and see what it looks like after the tsunami and see it with almost no people...

will report later

...aint doin' nuthin'

i aint been doing nuthin recently...

go to thai school three times a week - learning a bit.

reading a bit

sleeping

swimming and working out

the weather has finished the thai "winter" where it gets down to 20 degrees at night, and now its geting hot again - like a lovely mid summer day every day...

ahhh...