I'm back. The trip cannot be described in a single blog entry so I'm not even going to bother. Instead I'll soon make a mini-site called "Slim's guide to Tokyo for car/manga/toy/record lovers", so watch out for it! For now I'm back in my home sweet home, just winding down. In a word, tho, Tokyo was simply SUGOOOOOOOOIIIIIIII!!!!!!

Thank you so much for all the hospitality everyone!! Shikiko, Masa, Sunny, and Satoshi, it was great to see you again after such a long long time! Taeko, Haruna, Ryoji, Ryoji's fiance, Madoka, it was really nice to meet you all! Taku, you get my sincere special thanks for letting me stay at your place and showing me around!! Somebody find this cute and nice guy an equally cute and nice girl!! :) I hope I'm not forgetting anyone!

I really had a wonderful time. :) Arigatou Gozaimashita!! Thanks to everyone my nihongo tangou listo has increased as well with words such as "mune", "gyunyu" and "isakaya". pu heh heh!

Awwwww... The images of R34s and S15s still linger around my head.... And that dark blue RX-7 that "blue" by our Civic ek VTi on the shutoko highway.... crazyyyyy!!! Mark my words... I'll be back Tokyo!! :)

Again, thank you everybody!!! You're the best!!

I won't even attempt to seriously blog while I'm travelling, but just wanted to let everyone know that I am alive! I don't know where I can find internet cafes around here, and finally having experienced the exorbitent cost associated with just about everything around here I doubt I'm gonna spend money checking e-mail. Right now I'm at Omotesando and happened to be checking out the Avex building and guess what? They have free internet! I probably won't be back here until Sunday so if I find more free internet access elsewhere I'll update y'all again. So far I'm loving the live atmosphere and I can't shake the striking resemblance to Seoul... rather uncanny if you ask me... If I ignored the abundant Skyline GT-R's on the street I can easily pretend that I'm back home... Anyway, gotta get going. Next stop, "Killer Street"! Jia ne!

As you can see in my previous post shining in its oh-so-sappy-glory, this season called "Christmas" always gets to me. I'm sitting here spending time alone... away from everything and everyone. Just me and the anticipation of leaving the comfort of my home sweet home and venturing into a foreign country I have never really been to. I can track back at a post I made around this time last year and relate straight back to the emotions felt then. I guess I always ask myself this question and can never really answer it with any authority. "Seung Chan, why are you here? You know you could be with your friends back home. You could be with your family having a cozy get-together and a nice warm dinner cooked by chef-mom the almighty. Why did you have to choose to leave your country, leave your family and put yourself out on a foreign land so far far away from them?" The not-so-authoritative answer is always "I think in order for me to satisfy one of the three elements of happiness as defined by myself I need to be in an environment where I can fully realize my potential and utlize all the skills I have down to the last drop, and as of this moment U.S. and the job I have is what I believe to be that environment." Why is it not so authoritative? Cuz I can't help but wonder why I've been getting this feeling of emptiness for the past couple of years right around this time. Is it a hint that I'm really sacrificing the wrong things for the sake of gaining an insiginificant reward or am I just being mislead by the holidays into this weird emotional state? Or is it something else entirely? Whatever the reason maybe, I just want to take this time and once again say to all my beloved friends and family how much I miss them and that my unconditional love for them will never die out.

I think when people are leading the so-called "busy" life running and running towards a goal, we can forget to stop once in a while and look back at the path we've taken and also look around to make sure we're still on the same track we were in when we started. Pause is good, and today I got that pause... for that I am very grateful. As I always say... Life is always wonderful, you just need to open your eyes a little wider on certain days. Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Awwww... Just finished watching "Love Actually". Such a sweet sweet movie... Unless you're the type who likes analyzing movies how can you possibly not like this movie???? It just ooooozes of holiday loving.... Just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Just a very very happy feeling. ^^. Sure some people say the story is just a mish mash of various other stories told before in different contexts. Who cares? It's a movie for god's sake. Just watch it feel what you feel then move on~ :P Feeling might giddy just about now.... ha ha ha! :D

Man, I'm so ready for Japan... I get excited just thinking about it. I've made a few posts on the Japan today forum and sent messages to random Japanese residents on Friendster to seek out advice from them to fill me in with the details of how I'm going to achieve all the things I'd like to achieve while I'm there.

Here's my laundry list of things to do.

• Go shopping for some funky clothes, Initial D manga, and WRX rally Smokescreen or the Dodge Viper SRT-10 Lambor. Got advice?
• Get around as cheaply as possible. I'm a starving scientist, you see. Got advice?
• Experience the club/music scene for the finest in Hip Hop and Trip Hop. Got advice?
• Spectate a mountain/hill car racing scene and check out some tuner shops. Got advice?
• Go crate diggin at Wax Rows. Got advice?

Now, the dillema is whether I should go snowboarding this weekend or not... *smirk*

Wow... insane amounts of snow... I guess I got my wish. About time, tho... sheesh. :P Went to see DS and caught the last showing of the Last Samurai with Caro. Good one. It reminded me of the Dances with wolves (another movie I enjoyed very much). It's supposed to be inspired by a true story, but very much of it is Hollywood. I definitely thought the ending reaked a liiiiiittle too much of Hollywood, but I enjoyed the movie very much overall. With my impression of the film aside, I'm pretty sure this will somehow trigger an outrage in the Asian community about how Hollywood is stereotyping Japanese women... -.-; *puts flame suit on*

The movie reminds me of the story of Heungsun Daewongun who had adamantly opposed the western culture and refused to do commerce with them back during the late 19th century. Many argue that if it weren't for him we (that would be the Coreans) would have become "modernized" before the Japanese did and the rest would be a newly written history. I guess we're mostly bitter cuz the period eventually lead to the Japanese occupation. I don't believe it's at all worth arguing whether it was "right" or "wrong" to have accepted the western culture for the sake of becoming modernized. I don't believe that's the point of the story. The point is merely to reiterate the idea that even as we stand in this so-called modern world, we need to remind ourselves to look back at our roots and learn to appreciate what our ancestors had done for us in order to get us where we are now. This reminds me that I should get back to my history readings. I always tell myself I need to know more about my own country than any non-Korean person does, but I always manage to come up with some lame excuse revolving around this guy from the "Lim" family and his lack of spare time. I'll have to whoop my ass to read at least one history book on the way to and from Japan this winter. *Hmph*

Got a letter from Jisun who's doing her thang in motherland Corea. It wasn't a typical letter I might add. It was an invitation to her wedding! Dang, all my girl friends are getting hitched! Crazy! o_O; May you live happily ever after, girl! Oh, and Jiwon gave birth to her first baby daughter. That's her on the left. Her name is Min-Suh. Isn't she adorable??? ^^ Stay healthy, girl!! Miss you all very much!