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MABU (located in Toyokawa, Aichi, Japan) is the name of the bar for which I’m designing a site. The address will be http://www.bar-mabu.com and the finished site should be in about 5 days. I’ve been taking full advantage of the free food and booze I’ve been offered for my services so the last week has been a combination of work and play all smashed into one.

We also spent the last weekend in Nagoya and had a great time. We went to a few more gaijin (foreigner) bars and I spent Sunday roaming around downtown Nagoya, taking some more tourist sights. And we are gearing up for a celebration on Friday, my last stationary night in Japan, then I’m off to tour Japan starting Saturday!

So I’m back in Japan, specifically hanging out in Toyokawa. I purchased a 2 week unlimited Japan Rail Pass when in Hong Kong and will put that to use in a week or so. Until then I’ll be relaxing and recharging the batteries. Also I’ve made a few contacts here, one of which has employed me to built their website. The place is called Mabu, it is a billiards and darts bar. They are paying for my services in the currency of alcohol and food. So I’ll be working on that site for the next week.

Other than that, I’m enjoying amazing Japanese cuisine once again, eating everything from sushi and sashimi to traditional Japanese meals to Indian food, oishii (delicious)! Nori also took me to the Japanese boat races, called Kyotei. It’s like horse races, but instead on laps on a dirt track they do laps on a giant man made lake and race in boats which are about the size of two surf boards side by side, with a haul that is maybe 1 or 2 feet deep, and travel about 50 mph. It was a good time! I added some photos of the races.

So it’s been another crazy couple of days. Two nights ago I went out with some friends from the hostel to an area in Hong Kong called Lan Kwai Fong?. I would say it is about 3 x 3 city blocks and absolutely jammed packed with restaurants, bars, clubs, and a couple of 7-11s. Drinking on the streets of Hong Kong is legal so a lot of people just buy beers and such at 7-11 (much cheaper than buying at a bar) and hang out on the streets, which are wall to wall with people. A fellow hostler had a friend connection in Hong Kong so we had a tour guide for the area, cluing us in on a few good places to go. We sampled a little bit of everything, a drink at an Irish Pub, a few in the streets and then a couple at a club. The night was a whirlwind which ended in me discovering that I had either lost or had my iPhone stolen, sad face.

The next day began with a late-morning fruitless hungover search for the iPhone, then a quick acceptance that there was no chance to find it. I’d perhaps care more, but I simply had too much fun during my week in Hong Kong to cry about a phone. Although the week wasn’t quite over so I headed to Macau for round 2 yesterday evening. I was hoping to get some awesome night shots of the tower but a heavy fog rolled in so that was a no go. Instead roamed around a couple areas in Macau, Senado Square and the Ruins of St. Paul, and enjoyed some choice beverages during the stroll. Macau has an interesting mix of Portuguese and Asian culture which makes for some beautiful sights, so beautiful I stayed the night.

This morning I caught a ferry back to Hong Kong and made my way to the hostel to grab my things and head to the airport. Although midday there is construction in progress on the mountain road that leads to the hostel, foot traffic only, so I was lucky enough to get to hike up the mountain to get my stuff, check out, then hike back down and scramble to catch a bus to make it to the airport in time. All went well and at the moment I’m enjoying a row of seats to myself on a rather empty flight to Nagoya. After a couple days of rest I’m back at it, touring around the entirety of Japan for two weeks, hoping also to catch a ferry to South Korea during that time. Until next time!

The last couple of days have been a bit of a whirlwind. I’ve spent most of my time in the heart of the city, roaming around and taking in the sites. Hong Kong is beautiful at night. I met up with a couple Swiss guys and an Aussie girl traveling in Hong Kong and the 4 of us took the tram up to Mount Victoria. The views of Hong Kong from there are amazing, so amazing that we decided to go back up again at night which was well worth it. I’ve also spent the last 3 nights out in the city, sampling a bit from more local places as well as more mainstream places aimed at tourist. Drinks can be cheap but they can also be really really expensive. This German guy I met at the hostel and myself learned that lesson last night after trying one place which happened to have $30 drinks, oops. I’m not sure what the plan is for last full day in Hong Kong, perhaps heading back to Macau, I’ll keep you posted!

Well it’s not exactly day 132 yet, just past midnight of day 131, but I thought I’d fill you in on the rest of the day. I caught a ferry to Macau and then took a taxi to the Macau Tower where I did the World’s Tallest Bungy, 233 meters. It was awesome! After my adrenaline was up I thought I’d cool down and grab a nice bite to eat and a beer at a restaurant in the tower, even sampled some dessert, then rushed back to Hong Kong to pickup my Japan Rail Pass from the travel agency before they closed. As the ferry was pulling away from Macau I realized somewhere between the restaurant and where I was at the moment I lost my camera, along with it all the great pictures I took in Macau. Plus it was already a bit of a pricey day between the ferry, the bungy and buying an external DVD/CD drive to copy the bungy video and photos to the laptop, so adding the cost of a camera is something I didn’t want to think about. I called the restaurant to see if I left the camera there, but had no luck. Tomorrow I’ll try calling the taxi company to see if I dropped it in the cab, although it’s a long shot. Anyways, I topped the night off with a beer at a highly recommended Irish bar which helped soothe the pain. And I just managed to get the video of the bungy edited and uploaded, enjoy!

I arrived in Hong Kong around 2 PM and took a bus to one of the major stops on Hong Kong Island. From there the hostel has a shuttle which does pick-ups and drop-offs. I had a couple hours to kill so I roamed around that area of Hong Kong and stumbled across a travel agency which just so happened to sell Japan Rail Passes, so I bought one and got that out of the way. Now when I got back to Japan that pass will give me 2 weeks of unlimited use on the JR lines throughout Japan, including the Shinkansen (bullet train), so I’ll be able to tour the entirety of the country without going broke. I ended up taking a taxi to the hostel, as I couldn’t find the shuttle pickup location. The hostel sits atop Mount Davis on Hong Kong Island and the road leading up is winding and one lane, so it made for some funny moments. Anyways I arrived at the hostel which I would describe as a charming Alcatraz, but the views are amazing. I took the shuttle back into the heart of things in the evening to buy a power adapter for the outlets here and that was it for the evening. The plan is to head to Macau today.

So after a few days at Shanti Lodge, located in the Tewet area of Bangkok, I switched to a hotel in the Sathorn area (mostly a business district). I figured I’d take advantage of the cheap prices in Bangkok, as well as a birthday gift to myself, and stay at a nice hotel. The price per night at the place I stayed was marginally more than hostel prices in Australia or Japan, only $45 USD, yet if it were located in the States I’d expect to pay around $200 a night. Other than that I didn’t do much besides enjoy the privacy, peace, quiet, cool and free breakfast. And it was nice to watch some TV in English again! I was also nursing some bad mosquito bites I got while staying at Shanti Lodge, as that place was an open air environment and I was lacking bug spray. My feet basically got massacred and it was pretty painful to walk around with shoes on as well as expose them to open air with flip flops on. Well I’m better now and heading to Hong Kong in the morning. See you then!