Ok, so if you didn’t read my last post, do so now.

Ok, read it? So this should make sense… Here’s the answer: Whichever side Japan is on!

“…What?”

Yeah, so, I’ve kind of run into a fork in the road, a pivotal moment in my life, a crossroads – a big decision needed to be made.  And I’ve made it: I’m returning to Japan.

“What were the other options? What were you deciding? Why?”

I understand this all isn’t very clear.  But this is intentional because it brings me to my second point:

Which way does it fall?

“HA! Trick question, roosters can’t lay eggs”

Bah, ok, wait. Let’s assume this rooster is some kind of freak re-incarnation of Arnold Schwarzenegger in the movie Junior: This rooster IS pregnant, and WILL lay an egg.  On a slanted roof nonetheless. Because it’s a bad parent. More specifically, it’s a bad mother.

Which way does the egg fall? Find out in my next post

Ciao for Now!

About this time last year I took part in a 48 Hour Game Making Challenge here in Brisbane. Basically a bunch of indie game developer teams as well as a few Pro teams get together and make a game in 48 hours and a winner is chosen at the end. The catch is that we are given 3 key words at the beginning, and our games must utilize these words!

Amongst indie teams this competition is very important.  Breaking into the Games industry is incredibly hard, and this competition is well recognized around Brisbane. Industry professionals were there, we had to impress.

However, last years effort was pretty poor, we didn’t really even finish the game we made which was a bit disappointing – but fun nonetheless!

This year things took a slightly different turn.

In the final semester last year I worked with a bunch of guys called “Rockin’ Moses” on a university project called Cloud 9 with a bit of success, winning a QUT showcase award.  This year we brought back Rockin’ Moses for the 48 hour game comp.

This year’s 3 words were:

• Badger
• Key
• Suit

So I’ve just been told about a website called “ifttt.com” (ifttt = “if this, then that”) and this post is basically a test post to see if my “recipe” worked.  But hey, I might as well fill you guys in.

ifttt utilizes a very basic logical process in order to make the internet work for you.

If THIS happens, then do THAT.

A couple examples of “recipes”:

• If I post a photo to facebook, I would like that photo uploaded to Picasa.
• If I make a blog post here at road2japan.com, I would like a link to my blog post to appear on my facebook wall.
• If it will rain tomorrow, I want to receive an email reminding my to get my umbrella ready.

New post at Road 2 Japan! Check it out: {{PostTitle}}

Where {{PostTitle}} will be swapped out with the title of my post.  {{PostTitle}} is an “Addin”.  The addins you have available to you are accessible on the right hand side so you can see what you have to work with.  I’m also asked to supply a link URL (to this post), so instead of writing “http://www.road2japan.com… etc.”, I’ll just use the Addin “{{PostUrl}}”.

And that’s that. Set up some tasks, check out other peoples recipes, and let the internet do the work for you. If all goes well, I’ll have a post on facebook and twitter telling my friends about this blog post.

3 and a half months since I started this blog post. Only to delete it all today and start afresh, as Japan means something completely different to me now than it did back then.

I think about Japan a lot these days.  Every now and then a vivid memory flashes past my eyes of me riding my bike to Makino. Or of a park. Or of Kansai Gaidai. Or of the Cherry blossoms. Or of watching the sun set from the roof of the Osaka Sky building in Umeda. Or to the people I miss so dearly. And every time I do it makes me smile. For that split second I relive those feelings, those moments, and the wind physically gets knocked out of me but I know they’ll never happen again. These memories aren’t reminding me of what I’ve lost, they remind me of all those special moments that I never had to experience – but life gave them to me anyway and so I should never be ungrateful for them.

As I said in my last post, my trip to Japan was amazing, yes. Amazing. UHHMAZING! But when I got back and tried to write this blog post I felt myself speechless. The words I wrote were words that littered the page but didn’t give me the satisfaction I needed to click that publish button. Satisfying whatever it is that compels me to write these posts is usually easy but for this one… not so much… for the life of me I couldn’t do it.

First of all I have a blog post about my recent trip to Japan.  Here’s a sneak preview:

“JAPAN WAS AMAZING!”

k, that’s all.  Settle children.

Anyway, I received an email from Haizum asking about what I wrote in my JASSO Scholarship Essay.  I figured this information could be helpful to others so, with permission, I am reposting it here.  Thanks Haizum!

Haizum wrote:

Hi,

I’m Haizum from Malaysia. i read your blog just now. actually i’m applying for the student exchange program in Japan this coming fall. and also applying for JASSO scholarship. i noticed that you are also sponsored by JASSO… i would really appreciate if you can help me. i would like to know what you wrote in your essay that impressed them so that they gave you the grant.

My reply:

So this is it, the time has come again for me to depart from the Gold Coast here in Australia and make headway towards Osaka.  Again.  It’s happening again.  I mean, i never doubted that it would, but there’s always something surreal about something this grand – in my experience anyway.

It’s actually kinda scary.  I don’t know what I’ll think of Japan when I get there.  I loved that place more than anything in the world, but i’m a different person to who I was when I was in Japan – i’ve come a long way.  Will i still love it? Will it still appeal to me?  Maybe.  But the scary part is what if it doesn’t? What then? I guess i’ll find out soon enough!

It’s also very exciting.  Just now, at the airport, I gave our hostel a quick ring to confirm our booking.  Now, i’m out of practice with my Japanese – slowly getting into the swing of things due to my studies this semester – but out of practice none the less.  But, i managed to check our booking with ease – all systems go.  This was actually the wake-up call (quite literally a wake-up call).  It really drove home that i’m going back to Japan, it also boosted my confidence.

I’m sad.

I’m crying.

Not on the outside, because that would be embarassing and very un-manly of me.  But I am crying.  On the inside.

Tomorrow I leave for Japan.