Five-hundred Word Challenge 45: Looking for Somewhere to Eat

Posted on September 5, 2015 by Stupidity Hole

So I wasn’t planning on writing about being in Japan until I was home again, but I felt this story was a little too good to pass up the opportunity to tell it.

The brother I’m here with and i haven’t had Japanese food as of yet.

It’s not necessarily due to us not wanting to, as we do.
It’s due to not quite working out where to eat, therefore leading us to resort to an easier option.

Last night we headed out for dinner in the area we are staying (Taito).
There was a place i wanted to check out. It was cheap and it looked good.
My brother (whom I shall refer to as Gabe) thought it looked a bit dodgy, so we kept looking for somewhere to eat.

I kept suggesting the place I wanted to check out and Gabe kept knocking it back.
He ended up giving up and buying Pringles.

I decided to go to the place.

I entered and was given a menu, saw that it was a Chinese food and then realised I was in a Chinese restaurant (I think it was a restaurant; it was very small), picked what I wanted and waited.

It was tofu in a chili sauce and it was worth more than what I paid.
The flavours were not overwhelming and had a good blend to them.

The drink I had was Korean. I don’t know what it was, but I do know it had “Jinroh” written on it. It wasn’t quite my thing but it was still nice.

After I finished and headed back to where Gabe and I are staying, I told him about how he missed out and how good the food was.

I think part of the reason as to why he thought it was dodgy is that there seems to be a brothel right next to / above it and that may have been a detractor for him.

There could indeed be a brothel there, but I don’t care. What I ate was good.

We’re heading out of Tokyo today and coming back for the last few days of our trip. I might try and come back to eat there again.

With that all being said, it is unfortunate that we haven’t had Japanese food yet.
Maybe I did last night and the listing of the food being Chinese was a mistake.
However, I don’t think it quite counts yet.

I hope to soon, as I don’t want to remain in a familiar zone all the time.

Part of the fun is to enjoy the food of another country whilst you’re visiting it.

Anyway, today we’re heading off to some place near Fuji.

We’ve got a lot of ground to cover. That should be fairly exciting.

I’m going to head back to my room now and finish packing for this leg of the journey.

We still have to get breakfast this morning as well.

Who knows what it will be?

I hope it’s delicious.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 15:59:16
Written at the Juyoh Hotel.
Much slower than I expected.
I had to use a keyboard I’m quite unfamiliar with (due to its layout), so It’s most likely the reason why.

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A Brief Storm

Posted on September 4, 2015 by Stupidity Hole

Recently a storm passed over my place.

It wasn’t too long.

I decided the best thing to do was pull my camera out and get snap happy.

It was hailing hard during the storm.

It could be heard quite loudly downstairs.
It was much louder upstairs.

At one point I found myself worried that hail was going to put a hole in the roof.

Thankfully that did not happen.

It was an amazing storm to watch.

The last photo was an attempt at getting a photo whilst lightning had lit up the sky.

It didn’t quite work, but I like how the photo turned out.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy.

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A Glowing Sun Above Melbourne and the Branches That Reach for the Sky

Posted on September 1, 2015 by Stupidity Hole

This is going to be my last post for today as I’m going to be flying to Japan in a few hours.

Being in Melbourne simce Sunday has been a fairly relaxing time.

I’ve gained much more sleep than I usually would, so I’m feeling quite well-rested.

Anyway, here are some pictures I took with my phone today.

I have been taking pictures with my camera and I’ll start showing them when I return to Sydney.

For now, these will have to suffice.

Once again, these were taken whilst I played around with effects on my phone.

The first was not something I was expecting. I had to head out briefly this afternoon. Whilst I was out, I looked to the sky, saw the sun and how it looked with the clouds abd thought I’d take pictures from the backyard of the house my brothers live in.

By the time I got back, the clouds had moved but it led to these photos.

The ones of the trees were taken as I had the opportunity to take them.

They ended up being uploaded as they reminded me of an abandoned idea I had for a post I was going to make a while ago.

I have a photo of a branch looking as though it is trying to reach for the sky.

I didn’t post it as I wasn’t happy with the photo.

Anyway, I like how all of these turned out.

To me, the first two have an atmospheric feel to them.

They seem to show a heart in the sky.

The last three look like the branches are reaching for the sky as much as they can.

I also like how there are different hues of blue throughout each photo.

I hope you enjoy.

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Engulfing

Posted on September 1, 2015 by Stupidity Hole

Here is one of the pictures I took yesterday of the fountain at Caulfield Park pond.

Although, when I look at it, I don’t think it is a fountain.

Maybe it’s the foundation for one.

Maybe it’s a spout of sorts.

Anyway, I took this picture using the same super-secret method I used for the pictures in “Bursts of Light“.

I really like how this one looks.

I really got lucky with getting it to look as though everything was being consumed by… nothingness?

Anyway, I hope you enjoy.

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Five-hundred Word Challenge 44: Heading Home From Katoomba

Posted on September 1, 2015 by Stupidity Hole

I feel quite cold right now.

Actually, I felt quite cold.
Right now I feel… not warm, but not cold either.

I feel okay, temperature-wise, right now.

I forgot how much a cold winter day can bite at times.

With that being said, I know it’s not anywhere near as bad as it can be in other parts of the world, but this is still something I forgot to expect.
I’ve got a warm jacket but I’ve still been cold.

Anyway…

Ewe and I had to leave Katoomba early as there was track work.

It added about an hour to our travel time home which was far from ideal.

We had to start by catching a bus from Katoomba to Springwood.

The road winded and went up and down and then disappeared as the bus went underground and tunnelled its way through years of compressed dirt, rock, ancient lost cities and various things I am unable to describe.

Eventually it resurfaced and launched into the sky, grew wings and glided smoothly to Springwood.

It landed with much grace at Springwood Station, where we got off and waited for the train.

We waited a long, long time. We grew old and our facial hair became long and unkempt.

eventually the train did arrive. We hobbled onto the train and allowed it to carry us to our destination.

I stared out the window as it travelled across oceans of water and time.
I watched as whales surfaced for air and manta rays jumped out of the water.

I saw empires be built and fall to the war machine as the war machine itself became obsolete and crumbled into nothing more than a museum piece.

Eventually I fell asleep four about twenty or thirty minutes.

I woke up and saw Ewe reading. Then we talked for a while about things that I cannot quite remember.

I saw the moon attempt to eat Saturn and, upon failure, return to its place in the sky, being a guiding beacon of hope in the most hopeless hour of the dark.

Steadily the train chugged along at a pace not unexpected of a train travelling to Central Station.

Ewe and I talked some more.

As we were talking, I saw him reach out the window, grab a fox that had been chasing after the train and staring at him and then pull it back in.

He then climbed to the roof of the train, said “Be free, my snouted friend” and let it float off into the sky where it then headed into an unknown direction.

When he came back in, we had a warm tea and then awaited our approaching destination.

Once the train arrived, we hopped off and walked with determination to our next destination: the light rail.

It was imperative for us to catch it, for it would ferry us far closer to our doorsteps than had we caught the bus.

So yeah.

The trip from Katoomba to home was fairly straightforward and uneventful.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 11:31:74
Written in the bedroom of one of my brothers.
A bit faster than expected.
I think it might have to do with feeling somewhat relaxed right now.

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Urban Construction

Posted on September 1, 2015 by Stupidity Hole

Here is a photo I took recently.

These cranes are also working on the same precinct being built at Darling Harbour as the last ones I uploaded.

I believe these ones are building the new convention centre at Darling Harbour, but I could be wrong.

To me, it seems as though they are building a great throne.

I like how angular they are in this photo, as well as how close and far they feel at the same time.

I’ve used it as my twenty-fourth entry into Leanne Cole‘s “Monochrome Madness“.
This week is a themed week, with the theme being “Urban”.

I hope you enjoy.

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Regurgitator: Live at Manning Bar 29/08/2015

Posted on September 1, 2015 by Stupidity Hole

First act of the night was Polish Club.
As performers, they were good.
However, I felt their songs were weak and underdeveloped, sounding more like a shadow of Motown artists and doo-woop  music than something influenced by those.

The second act, Godswounds, were amazing.
A fun blend of different genres, their show was an excellent delivery of songs that got the attention of the crowd fast.
All instruments worked well together and vocals made sense, whether it was singing or screaming.
They were a bit too loud at times (this probably has to do with the mixing), but they still did well.

Regurgitator came on soon after and started working their magic.
They kept the mood-light-hearted. Despite one moment where Ben Ely told someone to stop fighting during a song, it was fun throughout the whole performance.

They sounded crisp and clear and performed solidly.
If they made a mistake, no one noticed.

Both Quan Yeomans and Ben Ely were very strong vocally.
IT seems that they only improve with age.

They also performed with a lot of energy which the crowd fed off nicely.

Overall, it was a good performance.

It felt a bit short, but it was good.

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Ducks

Posted on August 31, 2015 by Stupidity Hole

I was at Caulfield Park this afternoon, relaxing at the pond as I didn’t have anything to do at that point and I hadn’t been there for a while.

Whilst I was there, I decided to take pictures The Daily Post‘s photo challenge this week.

As the theme is “From Every Angle“, I originally decided to get pictures of a statue.

Then I changed my mind and wanted to get pictures of the pond.

Whilst I was there, I changed my mind again and wanted to get pictures of ducks.

I was lucky enough to have a few near me at one point, so I took advantage of the situation.

However, only one was interested in being stationary (most of the time).

Unfortunately these are more photos taken with my phone.

At least I could play around with the effects it allows.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy.

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Five-hundred Word Challenge 43: Where I Wrote the Fastest

Posted on August 29, 2015 by Stupidity Hole

So I decided to look at the times of the last fifteen challenges and work out, on average, which was the location I could write faster in.

Eyeballing it would point to my desk at work.
It turns out that work was definitely where I was fastest.

For work, the average time was 10:30.06.
For my desk at home, the average time was 13:18.39.
For bed, the average time was 16:37.74.

I think it’s interesting that the average times are quite close to each other.
I also find it quite unsurprising.

However, looking at these makes me think about what lurking variables could have altered the times, as I was only looking at location for writing speed.
How tired I was, the time of day, whether I was relaxed or not, whether I felt like writing or not, and whether I had any ideas or not all could have affected the results.

It’s quite probable that there are other lurking variables that I can’t think of right now that could have altered the data.

When I was at work, I was writing a lot faster. There was at least one I did right near the end of my work day and that would have been enough to make me write a lot faster, despite the possibility of making what I wrote less coherent.

In bed I was generally more relaxed than I would usually be and despite my attempts to write faster, I would slow down.

Furthermore, I was able to be in a more comfortable position at my desk at work than I was at my desk at home or in bed.

I wasn’t uncomfortable in any of the locations, but I was certainly more comfortable, posture-wise, at work than I was at home at my desk or in bed.

Looking at the times, I think it also shows that I need to work on my writing speed.
Although I can write fast at times, I think that there is still room for improvement, at least based on when I’m trying to think and write as quickly as possible.

I think I’ll be able to consistently be under ten minutes soon enough.
It’s something I need to keep making sure I do though.

Sometimes it isn’t the easiest or most desirable thing in my life, but so long as I keep trying, I’ll keep on improving.

Now, with that being said, I have about one-hundred more words to churn out, so I think I shall write total gibberish and see if I can get away with it, although I’m not really sure if people wouldn’t notice.

Of course, if they did, I would be chased to the ends of the earth for my heinous transgressions and that’s not something I would look forward to.

So now I have an important decision to make.

Do I fill this with total gibberish or do I write something so insightful, it brings harmony and understanding to the universe?

To be honest, I don’t know.

Damn.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 13:02:87.
Written in bed.
Faster than expected, to be honest.

Hooray.

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Sunset at Parramatta Station

Posted on August 28, 2015 by Stupidity Hole

I’m currently heading to Katoomba to help Ewe run a garage sale for his mum.

I had to catch a train to Parramatta and then change trains.

It was easy enough as there was a five minute wait between trains.

On the way to Parramatta station, I could see the sunset making everything appear bright and hard.

There was also cloud cover. It added a highly grand feel.

I wanted to somehow get off the train, stand on the train tracks, and start taking photos as it was wonderful.

I had to wait until I reached Parramatta station.

Sadly I missed the moment and wasn’t able to get photos of what I wanted.

I was still able to get these photos though and I think they turned out okay.

I took them with my phone whilst (aside from the first one) using effects and playing around with the aperture.

I hope you enjoy.

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