A year in the Land of the Rising Sun

To the 27th of March, it has been exactly a year since I first stepped on this strange land. I was thinking of an adjective to put in front of land, the only one I could come up with was strange and honestly I think it is also the right one.

Let me take you back to the 27th of March, 2008. After an eleven-hour long, mostly sleepless and restless flight, eight dead tired souls full of hopes stepped onto the Narita airport thinking that a temperature of 12C was too damn cold. A year on, things have changed so much that 12C is seen as pleasant as it can get. That's just one of the many things that has changed in this year, and one of the less important ones too.

A year ago, I stepped on this land as pretty much a nobody. A year on, my perceived value has changed. From within I'm still who I was, the same fun loving guy who people saw as an arrogant, selfish jerk who didn't give a damn about others, but who is in fact a sentimental soul who always put others before himself. But my market value has changed a lot. A visit to the Paradise Island proved that without a doubt. The same guy who was despised by many was treated with smiles and love. I can only silently laugh inside. Money, a strange thing I tell you.

A year ago, I stepped on this land with a broken heart which I thought that would never heal. And I was even more sure of that when that 'wasn't-to-be-mine' soul mate left not just me, but the whole world - forever. You have to experience that to know what it is like. But, an year later here I am putting all that behind. That took some effort though, but I just did it.

A year ago, I stepped on this land leaving behind a GREAT bunch of friends knowing perfectly well that I'm gonna be missing them like hell. And I did. But never I thought I'd make even a better friend. Someone who simply defines the meaning of a true friend. And I'm ever so glad for it, for it could be the best thing happened to me in my life. Sometimes life is so good!

A year ago, I stepped on this land thinking doing everything for your 'supposed' friends is nothing to think twice about. How wrong was I? I learned it the hard way, but at least I did learn it and I'm glad I did sooner rather than later. You just sometimes have to let things go. You should never expect things in return. And above all, it is not OK to hate, and it doesn't do any good to you. As Buddha put it, "You're not punished for your anger, you're punished by your anger". Wisdom at it's best!

A year ago, I stepped on this strange land not knowing what to expect, and saw a lot of unexpected things you I thought I never would. For one, I got to know how it feels to be a minority. You could see the racists behind the a bit too much polite Japs. Yet you could not stop being impressed by their discipline and work ethics. They are certainly not the laid back good-natured Paradise Islanders, but we do have a thing or two to learn from them. And during this year, I traveled to so many places and did so many things that I would never have done in that beautiful Island. I have Bungee jumped. Been to the top of Mt. Fuji. To Hokkaido full of shining snow. To the beautiful mountains of Nagano. Saw the wonderful colours of Autumn, and the lovely Sakura flowers in Spring. I'm glad for all that.

To put it simply, in a year I have lost some things that I wished I didn't, but gained some that I wish I will never loose. There are some things that money can't buy, so loosing them is not an option! But all in all, I'm a happy soul that the one stepped on this Land of the Rising Sun a year ago. But above all, I have realized how much I love, and how much I miss that Land Like No Other!

Who wants to be a billionaire?

Joy Brown just offered me 70 BILLION US dollars.
HOLY!
I don't even know what that is in Sri Lankan Rupees. Err... like 7000 BILLION Rupees?
My my. Recession will be vanished in a second. Whoooosh..............!!! Just like that.

The good thing is he assures me that this is not just another scam mail.

"First of all I want you to know that this is not a scam mail. Because based on what is going on all over the internet world people find it very difficult to believe thing like this anymore. If you can guarantee me from your side your trust and honesty I will be able to work with you. I will appreciate if you can come down your self and see thing for your self before."

So that should settle it then. This cannot be a scam. They say it.
All they need is,

1. Your Full Name
2. Your current Mobile telephone and fax numbers
3. Your age
4. Occupation
5. Your Current address.

How generous people are! I'm going to be rich baby!
If you need any money, especially in these difficult times, please do let me know. I'm generous you see. Giving you a couple of hundred dollars shouldn't be a problem anymore. Only thing is, I can't think of what I would do to the rest of the money.
Meh.


Second Post.
I just saw RD has posted a cool list. Can't be bothered to do another post, so adding that to this.

Here are some of the things that I enjoy:

1. Just being in Paradise. How much I miss it.

1. Sri Lankan food. Oh baby, don't get me started.

1. Sleep. Oh the heavenly sleep.

1. Long walks on pristine beaches in Paradise Island. Are there too many adjectives in that sentence?

1. A good game of Test cricket, or a good game or rugby. Specially if it's the All Blacks or KSC.

1. Wasting time with my real friends who make me feel so happy.

1. A game of Pool.

1. Books. 'Nuff said.

1. Blogging.

1. Making some people in internet forums who can't tolerate a different opinion, pissed off. Oh that's fun!

1. Feeding Pigeons in front of my apartment.

1. Spring!

I can go on forever, but there is some work to do as well.
So I pass the baton to LD, Cerendib and NB.

Have a nice weekend fellas!

Machan : The REAL Videos

I guess that by now almost all of you have watched that awesome movie Machan. Also I'm pretty sure you all know that it is based on a true story as well. But do you know that there are videos of the REAL team that went there? Some videos of them playing? OK so in case you didn't, here they are!

Thanks C for letting me know about them.

It's FUNTIME!!!

Sadly, I can't be there...



Yeah, it's the Big Match and I'm missing it for the first time since god knows when... Wish so much that I could be there. Big Match was always something special for us boys. And it was never really about cricket though, it was all about catching up with old mates, getting drunk and much more. Wish the lucky bastards who are there will have a good time, and that the ANTONIANS will WIN!



WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH, ANTONIANS KEEP GOING!!!

Help The Man Who Saved Our Lives!

Well not exactly our lives, but what is life without cricket anyway?

Remember that brave dude who saved all our cricketers from those retarded terrorists? Yes? OK so Damith at FlySlip is going to pay him our gratitude, and he tells it best here. So please do go there and make a contribution if possible.

Thank you fellas!
Cheers!

P.S.
<<<<<<<
You can make the contribution from here as well, if you're too lazy for an extra click of course! :D
<<<<<<<

Thirteen Years Ago...

... on this day, we were having the party of our lives, weren't we?







A sweet memory if there ever was one!

A Well Earned Bottle of Wine...

The weekend was fun. We had a party, a gathering of all the Sri Lankans who work in our company here, and not a single Jap which is always a plus. In a sea of white, or rather yellow faces it is so good to be around so many brown faces at the same time. Also, though we work in the same company the work places are scattered so we don't always meet everyone, hence a nice time to meet them all after some time. And Sri Lankan food. 'Nuff said.

The fun begun when the musical chairs started. There were like twenty people, most of them girls. There weren't more than seven or eight guys. And the ladies were taking advantage of their ladiness, because, you know... if a guy and a girl ended up fighting for a chair, the guy would give up and give her his seat right. You see, we men are so honorable creatures. Sometimes. So when the number was reduced to seven, apart from me and another guy everyone else were girls. And when the music stopped next time, he was out too! This was the second time in a week I was left all to myself in the middle of a bunch of ladies, but at least the first time I didn't know any of them. This was worse.

Everything was at stake. The pride of us men, and a bottle of Wine.

Maybe if only the first was at stake, we wouldn't have bothered. But when the latter is added to the mix, we men are left with no choice I'm sure you'll understand. So we decided to play dirty. Solomon, the guy who was in control of music, well he was a guy. From then on, mysteriously the music would stop only when I was positioned such that I could easily secure my seat. Of course he was not supposed to look at us, but hell, people need to act accordingly in dire circumstances.

Need I say that I won we won that bottle of Wine and our pride wasn't shattered? Sometimes life is so good.

That's a Century boy!

I just realized that my previous post was my 100th!

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Five months, 100 posts, a few readers, some friends and a lot of joy.
That's what the SL Blogsphere has given me, and I'm ever so glad for it all!

The standard question, why do you blog?
For me, it's NOT because I can, but because it makes me happy!

Cheers fellas!


Edit:
It so happens that today is also that old drummer fella's 3rd blogging b'day!
Lucky that it wasn't his real b'day cos in case Indi decided to organize a party we would have run out of candles. Really.
Happy Bloggerversary Mate!

Dear God II

Makuluwo, not the real ones but the blogger made me crack this morning with this post. If it were real Makuluwo then they would prolly have made me not crack but smack on their heads, but that would make me not any better than Makuluwo (the blogger, again) in God's eye. Do I make any sense? Yes? OK good. I thought I wasn't.

So... anyway, that post reminded me of some funny shit I read a while back. Browsed through my mails and found it for you guys.

Little Bobby came into the kitchen where his mother was making dinner. His birthday was coming up and he thought this was a good time to tell his mother what he wanted.
"Mom, I want a bike for my birthday."

Little Bobby was a bit of a troublemaker. He had gotten into trouble at school and at home. Bobby's mother asked him if he thought he deserved to get a bike for his birthday. Little Bobby, of course, thought he did. Bobby's mother wanted him to reflect on his behavior over the last year.

"Go to your room, Bobby, and think about how you have behaved this year.Then write a letter to God and tell him why you deserve a bike for your birthday."

Little Bobby stomped up the steps to his room and sat down to write God a letter.

Letter 1
Dear God,
I have been a very good boy this year and I would like a bike for my birthday. I'd like a red one.
Your friend,
Bobby

Bobby knew that this wasn't true. He had not been a very good boy this year, so he tore up the letter and started over.

Letter 2
Dear God,
This is your friend Bobby. I have been a good boy this year and I would like a red bike for my birthday. Thank you.
Your friend,
Bobby

Bobby knew that this wasn't true either. So, he tore up the letter and started again.

Letter 3
Dear God,
I have been an OK boy this year. I still would really like a bike for my birthday.
Bobby

Bobby knew he could not send this letter to God either. So, Bobby wrote a fourth letter.

Letter 4
God,
I know I haven't been a good boy this year. I am very sorry. I will be a good boy if you just send me a bike for my birthday.
Please! Thank you,
Bobby

Bobby knew, even if it was true, this letter was not going to get him a bike. Now, Bobby was very upset. He went downstairs and told his mom that he wanted to go to church. Bobby's mother thought her plan had worked, as Bobby looked very sad.
"Just be home in time for dinner", Bobby's mother told him.

Bobby walked down the street to the church on the corner. Little Bobby went into the church and up to the altar. He looked around to see if anyone was there, bent down and picked up a statue of the Mary. He slipped the statue under his shirt and ran out of the church, down the street, into the house, and up to his room. He shut the door to his room and sat down with a piece of paper and a pen.
Bobby began to write his letter to God.

Letter 5
God,
I'VE GOT YOUR MAMA. IF YOU WANT TO SEE HER AGAIN, SEND ME THE BIKE!!!!!!

I couldn't really stop laughing...
:)

Good day all!

God's Prank on Me!

I was on my way to work this morning, just like any other weekday. Except for one thing, it was a perfectly normal morning in winter. Cold, rainy, gloomy and predictably I was sleepy. Only difference was, I was not late today. That's a big difference, believe me, and I very nearly paid the price for this mistake today. I promise you people, I will never be early to work again. Never.

So, this is what happened.

My workplace is very near to Tokyo and I take a train from Shinjuku every morning. This Shinjuku is the busiest train station in the world, so, obviously it is very crowded everyday. Since I was not late today, I was casually walking down the platform towards the last cabin of the train. If it was a normal day for me I would have been running and would have gotten in the cabin nearest to me, but oh lord, I was not late. Why I was walking towards the last cabin, because usually it is a bit less crowded, probably for the exact reason why I wouldn't have gotten in it on a normal day.

So I got in, settled into a corner - however less crowded they are, you would rarely find a seat - and the train started moving. Then the things started to become interesting. The lady next to me was giving me a very odd and disgusted look. But then again it is not really a rare thing, for in their eyes we are in fact a rare breed. So I just turned away a bit, but strangely the lady next to her too was having the same expression. Now it was my time to get pissed off. "OK your highness, maybe I am not as white (or is it yellow?) as you are, but at least I do have normal eyes". I returned the same look, maybe adding a bit more flavor, and turned to the screen.

Oh yeah, there are electronic screens inside most of the trains here, which displays many information and commercials. The screen changes from time to time, displaying things like the next station, the train route, time and commercials in between. So it was doing this, but then suddenly the screen turned all bright pink, flowers started to fly over it - well not really over it, but on screen you know - and some words flashed in beautifully curved italic letters:

* * * Women Only * * *

Excellent, was my first thought, but that was not before I went dumbstruck for a moment. Carefully, I looked around again. Jeez, the person next to the two ladies was also a she. And the next one. And the next one, and everyone else too. To make things worse, they were all looking at me, wearing all kinds of different expressions. If you were a good photographer, this was your once chance of becoming world famous, because there were so many priceless photo opportunities though I highly doubt you would have stood a chance taking a photograph inside that cabin unless you were a woman. Then again, if you were, there would not have been any photo opportunities, so it's a no-go situation anyway. Besides, I didn't have a camera, instead I had other matters to worry about. Very pressing matters.

I started to sweat, honestly, even thought it was freaking cold outside. And that followed by a train of crazy thoughts without giving me a break. Some of which, that I can remember now went like this.

"Oh my god, what am I gonna do. Jeez, will they complain? I mean, in the next station will they call the authorities? Hold on idiot, anyone can see it's a mistake - all they got to do is just take a look at your face. Not a chance son, you're not a Jap, for god's sake. You'll surely be caught your pants down. Pants down? OK not really, but you are in trouble baby. But it was a mistake. Oh smartypants, try telling that to them. Yeah fair point, besides with my Japanese knowledge, it would be next to impossible to explain myself. Put the jokes aside idiot, what if they really complain or something? Imagine, if they contact your company people? What a shame! And imagine if your campus friends got to know! (I got a bunch of great uni friends, who would certainly sympathise with me for my mistake) Ha, that takes the cake!"

On top of that, I was listening to my iPod, and the goddamn thing was playing No Woman No Cry!

So I did the only sensible thing a man would do in a critical situation like this. I just looked down and started observing the very interesting floor tile design, until we arrived at the next station. And when it did reach the next station, I got out of the cabin at a speed which would put Usain Bolt into shame, and got into another one which was as far away from that cabin as possible. This time, of course making sure that it didn't flash pink messages with flowers.

Honestly, I never knew that there were such cabins in trains here in Japan. But it seems that I still have a lot to learn, and I learned that the hard way. The irony of it is, only last night I was complaining to one of my best friends about not having any interesting things happening to me lately to blog about. Who knows maybe the God was in fact listening to our conversation and thought, "Huh, so you want interesting things happened to you? Fine, I'll make things interesting"

So he - umm, come to think of it, God might as well be a she. In fact, God must be a she. Think it through guys, however evil God could get, he (if God is a he) wouldn't play such a prank on a guy. I mean let's face it. Being guys, we know how dangerous it could be to be isolated in a cabin full of chicks. Jeez... it still gives me the shivers. So yes, God IS a she! And boy, didn't she make my day dangerously interesting!

Our guys were shot at, but cricket was fucked...

Now that almost everything needs to be have been said, like how lucky our guys were, how shitty the security was and how brave the driver was, I won't be saying the same again. Let's just assume that I said all that.

So... the guys are out of danger, everyone's relieved and they will be back on the field again in no time.

Or will they?

That's the big question. In my mind, cricket is truly fucked by a few shameless retarded terrorists. And the implications will be a lot larger than they appear to be at the moment. I truly feel for the cricket loving general public of Pakistan. Many people, mainly the Western world seems to think that the words Muslim and Terrorist go together. It is not, and the majority of the Pakistan regret this attack even more than us Sri Lankans do, I'm sure of it. Generalizing is a bad thing. Not to mention dangerous. Generalizing the whole of Pakistan into terrorists is no better than generalizing all the Tamils in Sri Lanka - or worse, all the people in Sri Lanka - as terrorists. We do understand this, most of the Sri Lankans do, for we have first hand experience of what terrorism is. But not everyone else...

And this affects the thinking of them. Already, some cricketing nations have expressed their concerns about playing the 2011 WC in the subcontinent. And no one can blame them anymore. When they refused to tour Pakistan earlier, we all - well, at least me and some others - branded them as pussies and cowards. But now the pussies have been proven right and I have been proven wrong. Never I thought that I'd live to see the day a cricket team being targeted by a bunch of fuckwit terrorists. Times have changed. Perhaps we were too naive, as Sanga put it.

I wouldn't blame if cricketers refuse to tour the subcontinent anymore, not just Pakistan. After all, life is worth more than a lot of things, and who are we to ask cricketer to put their ass on the line? We didn't think this would happen in Pakistan, but it did. How can we guarantee that it wouldn't happen in India or Sri Lanka. One thing we Sri Lankans have learn from our thirty odd years of experience of terrorism is that, no matter how much security you have, there is a possibility that a terrorists can always be successful. Specially if the fucktard is willing to give his life for it. Now that we are close to wipe out the cancer that had previously taken one third of our land, they are desperate. And when people are desperate - even the terrorists are people - they tend to do anything as a last measure...

So, if the WC is moved, I will most certainly be sad along with many others, but it is time we accept the truth. Things have changed, they are not the same.

In fact, things will never be the same again...

Sri Lanka Team Attacked!

HOLY SHIT!!!

Just heard some news that SL team in Pakistan have been targeted by the terrorists. And it is said that six players are injured including Mahela and Sanga. Not getting any confirmed news at the moment about who's injured or the conditions.

Just hope they are OK...

Lie To Me

Is the newest TV drama series that's being aired in US, but I'm NOT campaigning for here on my blog. Now of course that could be a lie, or it could be the truth, but there's no way you can say for sure since you can't see my face while I'm typing this. Well if you could, would you be able to detect a lie on my face?

Apparently, this guy can.



As I said before, it's the newest TV series in US. Storyline is that this scientist guy has studied the body language of people, facial expressions in particular so that now he can tell by looking at people whether they are lying or telling the truth. So he runs his own company which helps the likes of FBI, DOD etc on numerous cases.

And it's pretty funny too. A good way to spend forty minutes, I tell you. Only four episodes have been aired so far, so go catch it up!