Hey everyone, I’m looking to do some sound design or soundtrack work. I want to expand my portfolio and modernize it a bit. So if you’re an animator, a game developer, or have a short film/video you need scored, I would love to partner with you on your project. If you aren’t either of those but know of a project that might need someone like me, I’d appreciate the reference too! You can contact me in the comments or hit me up by email which is listed on the home page at the top right (I’m not going to list it here so bots don’t scrape it). Let me know a little about your project, what you plan to do with it, and a little bit about stuff you’ve done before. Thanks!

If you’re interested, here’s the first ever DJ set I recorded and probably the 10th time I ever tried DJing. It’s an hour long set and is downloadable.

Ok, I know I haven’t been very good at updating as my trip goes. After the aquarium post, it became apparent that Rita and I were editing the same pictures, therefore duplicating the work. I decided to just let her do them because she’s better than I am at it.

Here are links to her four blog posts, including a couple days I already posted. You’ll notice that the pictures look almost the same as mine. That’s due to our similar editing tastes.

Days 1 and 2
Day 3
Day 4
Days 5 -7

Here’s a video I took of a street band called Chouan Dog. They’re apparently quite well known and busk for some hardcore fans that follow them around city to city.

We had planned to hit the aquarium another day but since we had so much time, and we had come all the way out already, we decided to visit it after Suntory. The star attractions of the Kaiyukan Aquarium are a pair of whale sharks I gotta say, even though they were small examples, they were still huge. They were probably 25 feet long. The aquarium is sort of built like a donut with a huge 4 story tank in the centre of the building. It houses the whale sharks, a manta ray, and several other fish.

And now for the pictures (scroll over the pics for captions)!

After sleeping almost 11 hours, Rita and I set off to explore the neighbourhood. As it was only 8am, there weren’t many places open so we decided to hit the local “Friendly”, a restaurant similar to Denny’s. Our first encounter at a restaurant in Japan wasn’t as traumatic as I thought and we were able to order a basic meal. Interestingly, we were the only ones eating a Japanese style breakfast. Everyone else was eating the breakfast all-you-can-eat buffet. I guess you don’t go to an American style restaurant to eat Japanese food.

We spent the next 4 hours walking around our neighbourhood, visiting shops and checking out whatever caught our fancy. Since we’re in the business district, there aren’t many touristy places here. Damn, it’s hot here…we basically baked after the first hour out. Exhausted from walking so much (we aren’t huge walkers), and the heat, we headed back to the apartment where our host was sleeping. He had stayed out all night at his gigs and had come home in the mid-morning to sleep it off.

Rita had a bit of a nap while I worked on my various websites. When she woke up, our friend made us lasagna. A tasty homemade meal is always good in my books! I asked him about electronics in Japan. Contrary to what many of us in North America think, electronics are NOT cheap here. They are simply ahead. Unfortunately, they do not discount what’s older stock, or if they do it’s not much.

I had purposely held off buying a little HD camcorder like the Flip Mino HD because I figured Japan would have crazy advanced stuff for way cheaper. Turns out that they’re not so interested in that type of camcorder since no one really sells that stuff here. I did find a camera that I think I’m going to buy online that’s a little bit cheaper than in North America. It’s a point and shoot digital camera that also happens to take HD video. We’ll see how that turns out.

We headed out to Yodobashi Camera, which is essentially a huge building owned by the electronics store Yodobashi Camera which actually sells all sorts of electronics and appliances. After the first few floors, the upper half is broken up into a mini mall of other retailers. Mostly it’s clothing and food. It’s here that we visited one of the bigger Uniqlo’s. For those of you who don’t know, Uniqlo is basically like the Gap if the Gap also sold funky bright clothing, and was about half the price. It’s basically the best clothing store you could imagine. You can get a full suit including 3 pairs of pants for about 200 dollars US, alongside a 20 dollar neon pink men’s windbreaker. Awesome.

Even though we had only spent about an hour and a half in Yodobashi Camera, we were spent from the rest of the day’s activities so we headed back home for some much needed sleep. Here are some pictures of the day:

After a 20 hour travel day, we finally arrived at our friend’s apartment here in Osaka. We are situated near Shin-Osaka which means literally “New Osaka”. It is the heart of the business district and, interestingly, our friend’s apartment was created from an old office buildling.

I personally find the apartment to be cozy but I’ve been told that this is quite large. To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, imagine a large bathtub. This is how large the entire washroom is, including the sink, toilet, and shower.

The flight itself was rather uneventful except for some extreme turbulence in the last half hour. The Kansai Airport where we arrived was, as one might imagine, very large and quite modern.

Clearing immigration was pretty smooth, except for an officer who kept looking at my 4 year old passport picture (where I was an additional 20 pounds heavier) and back at me and back at the picture, and then through customs, which was very quick.

Because the Kansai Airport is actually quite a distance from Shin-Osaka, we needed to take a train into town. We took an express train which was quite expensive. For the two of us it was almost 60 dollars to get there, although a taxi ride would have no doubt taken us much longer as the train ride was a good half an hour at blistering speeds.

We arrived at the Shin-Osaka station to torrential rains. Did I mention that I had packed my jacket at the bottom of my suitcase and therefore was unwilling to open it up in the middle of rush hour foot traffic? Not only that, the exit my friend had told us to use was almost a kilometre walk underground with large staircases in our way, and about 150 pounds of luggage.

Many friendly locals, sensing no doubt that we were lost tourists, attempted to help us but we eventually found an exit that was serviceable. Unfortunately it meant that we had to walk through the rain quite a distance. After about 45 minutes of searching (in what would have taken 5 minutes had we known where we were going) we found our friend’s apartment.

Coincidentally, he was coming out of the elevator as we were going in. He had been unable to meet us at the airport because he was performing at a local club but had come home during a short break to see if were there. He was on his way out of the building and in a hurry, so we went up to his apartment on the 10th floor.

Extremely tired, we both took turns showering in the tiny washroom and hit the hay. Our friend generously provided us his bedroom for the trip which we declined but later accepted for at least the first week while we acclimatize to the jetlag. Washed up and to bed by 6PM…what are we, 80?!

I woke up at 5am today. 11 hours in bed, not too bad. Today, we need to pick up some supplies like flip flops for inside the house, a small wallet for Japanese currency, and various knick knacks. We’ll probably try and go to Daiso today; yes they have that here too!

Yesterday I was interviewed for something I never thought I’d be interviewed for: being Chinese. I had applied to host a documentary on Canada’s Chinatowns but, by the time I applied, the host had already been cast. So instead, I got to be interviewed for it. We filmed in the park across from Tinseltown, and they asked a lot of tough questions. Some about being Chinese, some about Chinatown, some about my family history (of which I admit I know very little). Kerri, the interviewer and one of the bigwigs at Image Pacific Communications, and Brian, the videographer, were very nice and made me feel comfortable. I don’t know when or where it will be available, but I hope I didn’t make an ass of myself!

On a different topic, it looks like I won’t be in town for the Mighty Asian Film Festival this year, so I’m not part of the production team that entered last year. Somewhat bittersweet since I don’t get to be all crazy like last year, but the reason is that I’ll be in Osaka living it up. I might even miss VAFF this year. I hope not, that was fun too!

Rita and I were both in the bridal party for our best friends Meli and Chris. Pretty crazy event. Started at around 11am when Jono and I picked up the Subarus that had been kindly donated for the day by the local Subaru dealership that Chris and Meli’s families had bought a half a dozen cars from. Jono got to drive a Forester (non-turbo), and I got to drive a super loaded Tribeca. It was huge, and I towered over even other SUV’s. Coming from a sports car background, it was a little disconcerting to be lumbering over everyone. But it had a back up camera embedded in the rear tailgate, something that I’m now obsessed with and want in any new car that I buy. Considering you can get a kit at Costco for $70 bucks, it’s not that pricey.

We then headed over to Chris’ to get changed while the girls prepped at Meli’s house. We trucked over (in the Forester since it had a rubber mat in the trunk) a whole crispy pig for the tea ceremony. The girls weren’t ready (when are girls ever ready?!) so we had to drive around for 20 minutes to kill time. We were finally allowed to arrive, and we set about bringing the pig in and getting the mini-tea ceremony underway. Meli’s family had never been part of a tea ceremony so we just ripped through it. We cut them some of the pig, and then hurried back to Chris’ for the main tea ceremony.

Since I had the most luxurious of the two wedding cars, I drove the bride and groom along with Rita. We got to Chris’ and brought the pig back into their house for the tea ceremony. We were all starving as we hadn’t had breakfast so after we got through the tea ceremony (of Chris’ dozens of relatives), we chowed down on some Vietnamese subs that Chris’ mom had bought us. I also managed to eat about a quarter of the pig. At this time, Angela Hubbard, Chris and Meli’s fantastic wedding photographer joined the festivities. Oh, I forgot to mention that Rita and I were in charge of getting shots up to that point. Rita took our Nikon D40, while I used Chris’ Canon 20D. I wanted to use his prime lenses since that’s more my style, but Chris wanted me to use one of his nicer zoom lenses. Since we were in such close quarters, the zoom didn’t help me at all, but I must admit, the lens was a nice piece of glass. Rita and I have yet to post-process the pics yet, but we have to get it done this week because we have our San Francisco photographer friends coming up this weekend for another of our friend’s weddings and I’m sure we’ll have an even bigger workload. Last time they were up, there were twice as many cameras as people. Seriously. But mostly the fault of one dude who brought 6 cameras himself. On top of that, Rita and I have 2 other weddings in the same weekend. One is her cousin’s, and another I’m once again a groomsman. Le sigh.

Anyways, back on topic. After a 10 second lunch, we drove with Angela and her assistant to different locations for photos. The first place we hit was 7-11 since it was close, there were free slurpees on the wedding date since it was July 11th (7-11), and also since their wedding was 7-11 themed. 7-11 themed? Yes, I’ll get to that a little later on. After 7-11 we headed over to waterfront to get some nice photos under a bridge, and on the beach itself. People stared, but they all seemed to be enthused about the goings-ons. A couple groups of people clapped, and a lot of people commented on the groomsmen’s shoes, which were chosen by Chris himself. They were Air Force One lows, with a lime green Nike logo to match our green ties and vests. Super proper.

After that, we headed over to Tinseltown where the wedding planners had gotten the go ahead from the theatre to allow us to take pictures in an actual movie room. Fun times…and lots of popcorn throwing. I’m sure those pictures will turn out awesome. I even got up to do a monkey dance, as per my usual custom. What am I, a damn clown people?! We then convoyed over to the venue which was above the gelato place near Science World. We got some free ice cream (mmm…raspberry), and did the obligatory ice cream parlour group shot. It was then off to the actual ceremony upstairs.

I won’t bore you with details, but there was crying and sniffling. I’d be crying too if all my legal rights as an autonomous person were being neutered. Just kidding! We then started letting people in to have the awesome appetizers. Everything was gone in seconds. I never even got to see it. Apparently there will mini portabello mushroom burgers, sushi and there was a nacho fountain that broke because someone shoved a fork into it. Classy. Awesome wedding guests…simply awesome.

Rita and I were MC’s for the night, so we got to control when people got to eat. Hurray for power. There were speeches (of which I delivered a scathing one), dinner, dessert and dancing. Oh, back on that 7-11 theme I alluded to before. There were slurpee machines that the bartenders were mixing with Vodka. There was also a candy table with various gummy treats. All very yummy. Of course, being over the gelato place, there was also a gelato bar with a couple dozen flavours. It was a very nice wedding, and was super fun. We danced into the wee hours of the morning, tiring ourselves out. Eventually Rita and I chauffeured Meli and Chris to their baller suite at the Pan Pacific. I’ll post pictures of the suite later.

In the meantime, here is a link for Angela Hubbard’s photo teaser. Great shots! Rita and I will get our shots up hopefully in the next week or so.

Hey everyone. The time has come for me to sell my MR2 Spyder. My job situation is pretty unstable right now, so I need to get rid of my debt. Consequently, I’m selling my 2000 Toyota MR2 Spyder. Yes, the MR2 Spyder…the one I had wanted ever since it was still in concept car stage, and the same one that we could never buy in Canada…that is until last June when the import laws allowed fans such as myself to bring them over the border.

I combed Craigslist and finally found this one in San Jose, California. I flew down there myself and, upon the greenlight from a Toyota inspection, bought it and drove it up back to Vancouver. It has no accidents (I carfaxed it) and it has been a California car its whole life. Actually, when I arrived back in Vancouver to rain, it was likely the first time the car had every experienced rain at all. Of course, the car had never touched snow either.

It currently has just over 200 thousand kilometres (works out to under 25 thousand kilometres a year), and the car has gone through its 190,000 kilometre check up with all necessary parts replaced. I also replaced my rear brakepads and rotor with OEM Toyota parts a month ago, along with a fresh oil change.

As you can see in the pictures, it’s a black exterior with a yellow fabric interior (yes, it came yellow from the factory). If you don’t like the yellow, I’m also including a brand new leather interior kit that replaces all yellow fabric with black leather. The kit is made by Katzkin and retails for a thousand dollars, and has been discontinued so it’s difficult to find. It’s a manual 5 spd transmission and, for those of you who don’t know, it is mid-engined, rear wheel drive. There aren’t any other cars with that drive train until you get to 5 times my asking price for a Lotus Elise. The next “cheapest” MR cars are Lamborghinis and Ferraris.

That being said, the car isn’t Ferrari fast, but it’s decently quick. It has a 140HP engine out of the Toyota Celica GT (which also makes it easy to get parts), but only weighs about 2100 pounds. This makes it one of the lightest cars available, so the engine is more than adequate. I’ve embarrassed BMW Z4′s before. Also, being mid-engined, it has excellent handling. I have taken turns in it faster than in my AE86 and that car has a race-spec suspension and LSD. That’s pretty ridiculous for a stock car. It also gets excellent fuel economy. I get over 400 kilometres to a tank of gas, and the tank is only 40 litres. On my trip home from San Francisco, I averaged 700 kilometres to a tank of gas, and that included going up and down mountains.

Ok, now for the price. I’m selling the car for $13,900. This price will include brand new uninstalled extras such as: the Katzkin leather interior, Espilir Super Down springs, and a race header. Oh, I should explain the header a bit. The MR2 has 3 catalytic convertors so that it could reach ultra-low emissions vehicle status. Some MR2′s have problems where the two catalytic converters attached to the stock header, disintegrate and go into the engine causing damage. My MR2 isn’t one of these problem cars, but removing those two extra catalytic converters gains the car an extra 12-15 horsepower. In fact, I have a friend who has the same car, and bought the same header and dynoed the car before and after. He actually got an 18 horsepower difference which is higher than advertised. I don’t guarantee this number, but you’ll definitely feel the power difference. Even with the race header, there will still be one catalytic convertor left which should pass aircare.

So the car is selling for $13,900 which is a couple grand less than what others are asking. I’m also including 1500 in brand new parts. That’s like getting the car for just over $12,000 and you don’t have to pay the import taxes and duties that I did. It’s all fully registered and insured. Any other questions?

If interested, please email mr2s4sale@gmail.com

On the website side, I totally missed the 200th post milestone for Key of Grey. Oh well, I think I’ll post something special for the year anniversary of the site. I hope all of you are doing well. Drive safe!