It has been 3 weeks in Japan, and I am now in the airport leaving to Singapore. As usual Japan was interesting. I had my first week in a town called ?????. It is about a 2 hours train ride from Tokyo. The train ride was interesting in that it averaged 200 km/hr. Not bad for Canadian standards, but a few passengers were complaining how slow this train was. Apparently there was another train that travels much faster, but they missed it.

I was in ?????? for a Level 2 training course at a Nuclear Power Facility. Yes, it was through a translator. The pace drives me a little crazy, I can do my email during the translation portion. Of course I would not, because that would be rude, and I could not get the internet anyway. And, why is that? Why can I not get internet access easily in a country as sophisticated and advanced as Japan? For 3 weeks I have to struggle and be very innovative to find internet access in Japan.

In one place I walked and walked around until I finally found an Internet and Comic Café. This is where people come to hook up on the internet, mostly kids for gaming, and to read comic books. Interesting huh? It was down a dingy street, I could not hook my computer up, but I was so happy to have internet access, I did not care at this point. Here is the picture of the front of the place:

When I was there a fellow came to take my drink order and once I figured out what he wanted, I ordered a drink. I didn’t really know what I ordered, but when it came, the picture was a little funny, and with some inquiry, I found out I was drinking Hornet Juice, yep, that is what I said, Hornet Juice. It is the juice from the larvae from hornets. Now if that doesn’t make you wanna run for the toilet…But, it was quite good. And, why is it that everything healthy disgusting? I am going to find something some day that will be the next wonder food, and it is going to taste good, and be from something quite normal and easy to digest mentally as well as physically. I will keep you posted on this!

With a little research I found that athletes and fitness freaks in Japan are increasingly looking for the next generation of performance-enhancing drinks. There are so many on the shelf of the 7 Eleven. I wanted an energy drink to stave off a little jet lag and got this shelf that was full from floor to ceiling! I stuck with vitamin C and Ginseng combo. The latest one seems to be this Hornet Juice. Since I am in the Internet Café, my curiosity got the better of me and I had to do a little investigation! This drink is infused with a substance found in Hornet larvae. In nature the worker hornets extract a substance from the saliva of their un-hatched larva. The properties of this miracle goop have long been known to give the hornets the insect world equivalent of superhuman powers. And since some types of hornets can easily haul many times their own weight and fly up to speeds of up to 100km/h, Japanese scientists wondered if humans could gain an edge by swilling the slobber of these hornets. And, apparently they can, or at least until the athletic committees around the world ban it as a performance enhancing demon! And now pro athletes and weekend warriors around the world are drooling the prospects of this hornet saliva. Go spit!

Hey Caleb, you need a job lets start to import this stuff to Canada. It’s gonna be big! Let me know if interested. Kamloops can become the Hornet Spit capitol of Canada!

Back to the little nuclear town, I was talking about. I have a nice small properly appointed hotel room, as most are in Japan. I banged my head so many times walking through the bathroom door, I finally had to tie some string the top of the door. The room overlooked the ocean and I experienced the most amazing sun rises every morning. I know now why the call Japan, the land of the rising sun.

This was the highlight of my stay. I did get out for one evening. Apparently the little lady at the Karaoke place remembered me from 2 years ago. So the one guy wanted to take me there again. I was shocked she could remember. I actually thought it was someone else, not me. The last time I was there I could not believe that this lady could make a living from this little old place. Maybe it gets busy on the weekends? So we went, and sure enough she remembered who I was. I guess they don’t get many Westerners there? I asked my translator to ask her how she could remember me from one visit so long ago. She looked back and forth between my translator and me, hesitated and then said, because you are so tall…(ahh, so nice I thought!)…and sing so bad! But, she did tell me I have improved, ya right!