Turning Japanese?

A few months ago, a friend of mine took a trip to Japan and came back with this photo taken from a hotel in Osaka. A long debate ensued over the usage of the word ”criticize”. In case of emergency, do we take the staircase to the first floor, look each other from head to toe and start making brash comments about how the other person looks? Or do we go to the first floor (still with the staircase…it better be one of those portable ones or this would be one strenuous operation) and start complaining about how the wallpaper mismatches the overall design of the room?

Let’s face it, Filipinos don’t always write in the best of English. The grammar is sometimes off. I’ve seen essays with a syntactical war raging between subjects and verbs. Melanie Marquez? Come out, come out, wherever you are! But do we randomly pluck words from the dictionary for use in a completely unrelated context? In hotel signage no less?

Here’s another interesting anecdote about Japan. Did you know that their train stations have sanitation crews specialized in clearing out suicides from the tracks? And they have a time limit as well. Thirty minutes and there should be no trace of human remains anywhere (This is just a good a time as any to stop whining about our jobs). I’ve always been aware of their suicidal culture, what with Harakiri and Kamikaze alone. But this I didn’t see coming.

Has anybody seen the new M. Night Shyamalan movie, The Happening? I wonder if the pandemic would be handled more efficiently had it happened in Japan as opposed to the US East Coast.

 

Post Vacation Residue

Spent the better part of last week working on a 2400-word write-up of my recent trip that placed my existing range of adjectives under a rather harsh perspective. It involved countless hours staring at a wall trying to think of creative ways to describe the Baclayon church without forcing my readers into a coma. Or into projectile vomiting depending on how bad the writing gets. After five days I succeeded, somewhat. I think at some point all writers and self-proclaimed writers (the latter being the demographic I fall under) get the feeling their work could never use enough editing. Anyway, for those of you still looking for the full account, Clare got dibs. And I’m all worded out. If you’re wondering who Clare is, she’s my highschool friend who gave me the anthurium that was castigated by an ant colony (previously mentioned in “Straight from the Horses **bleep**” back in February. After 12 years I’m still dumbfounded, really).

Anyway, her NGO Youthtrip (if you’re looking to explore more of Pinas, these folks can help you out) will be launching their website come Independence day and they’re including my article. That is assuming Clare won’t be mutinied into excluding it all together. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that way I can simply link up and I’m done! Haha!

That’s the downside to going on an out-of-town trip. On top of having to reprogram your system back to the fast-forwarded pace of urban life (which gives you that hideous aftertaste of being cheated out of the lifestyle you ought’ve gotten had that long lost, filthy rich, ready-to-die uncle collapsed at your doorstep with a will), you also get blitzkrieged by a colossal amount of material. Mounds and mounds of joy.

So if you’re wondering what this is, let’s call it a two-part preview. Both on my monstrosity of a write-up and Youthtrip’s website which I will link as soon as I get the go signal from the upstairs barroom.

By the way, I posted all the pictures in my multiply site http://eilishmoon.multiply.com. Kudos to those guys for the idiot-proof photo uploader.

Post post script: I have a new theory. I am convinced that George Lucas modelled Yoda after the tarsier. Plausible? Win the staring contest I shall!

 

Flying on a Budget

I booked the plane tickets for the recent Bohol trip in January. Being that it was a first for me, I earned a few nuggets of wisdom in this toe-stubbing process:

a) A credit card can work to your advantage as long as it is kept on a very tight leash. For years I adamantly refused to get one but I now concede to its utility in one  respect: online booking. This does not change the fact that they are insidious tools used by banking institutions to lure people into the swirling abyss that is financial debt. The trick is to get one with the lowest credit limit, just enough to book domestic flights. It will save you energy while safely avoiding accumulated debt monstrosities, the kind capable of swallowing poor defenseless paychecks in one bite. Plus you can take advantage of those P1.00 flight promos.
  
b) Online booking saves you the long wait at a travel agency and paying extra fees. I am now a PhD holder in maneuvering the websites of PAL and Cebu Pacific. You get an email confirmation within seconds, all you need to do is print it out and you have a ticket. Very snazzy. Remember to take note of PAL’s policy on E-tickets though: you have to present the credit card used for purchase at the check-in counter. I don’t understand the logic behind it seeing as the tickets have been bought and paid for but what can we do?

c) Paranoid early booking does not equate to cheap air fare. Airlines have an arbitrary pricing system that can turn a P288 flight to P2688 and vice versa within hours. And I’m talking about the exact same destination and the exact same flight schedule. It pays to keep an eye out for a while before making a purchase. 

 

The Trip

I’m back from the longest out-of-town vacation I’ve had since college. I’ve forgotten how it felt like to be “away”. Even my own bathroom feels strange. Do you ever get that namamahay feeling in your own house?  Anyway, I am up to my neck with material, I don’t know where to start. 

Here’s a quick preview. In the past few days, the things I’ve encountered are as follows: long airport waiting, heavy luggage, loud Korean neighbors, more seafood than one should be allowed to consume, churches, hills, forests, sun, sea, dolphins, islands, bridges, an insanely large snake, a transvestite lipsynching to karaoke songs next to the aforementioned reptile, tarsiers, rivers, waterfalls, watchtowers, the “drop-off”, fish, caves, birds, flying lemurs, and bright red sun-kissed skin. Wait….Make that sun-slapped. Fifty times over. I’m all sunned out.

I’m thinking about doing a blow-by-blow write-up of the trip.

Let me start with the most important tip I can give anyone with an epidermis: Do not be coy with the sunblock. When snorkeling, I suggest you dedicate a generous palm-full to the back of your legs. I’m not of the high maintenance, get-up-at-dawn-to-put-on-myself variety but the sensation of being burned is enough to compel me to shove this unsolicited advice down everyones throat.

In the meantime, I’m going to take a few days to heave.

 

On Hiatus

 

I’m off to Bohol for the weekend. Will be back with more stories.