The Ranting Jamaican in Yokohama (Japan)

May 23rd, 2009

Luckily for you guys I actually do have internet access! But I must also relay some very bad news. So far it seems as though Japan also has a complete and total lack of Red Vines. Both Japan and Taiwan both have neither the black Red Vines nor the Red Red Vines. I had hoped being three hours closer to the United States would make it more likely that Japan would have Red Vines but no! No Red Vines =(. Anyways! On to more important things!

So as you know I am in Japan. Today we went to Yokohama we saw places like the Landmark Tower which looks like this!

DSCI2118

Sorry the picture sucks but I have this fixed focal length lens on my SLR camera so I could only get the whole tower in with my crappy Polaroid point and shoot. Just so you know, as point and shoot cameras go Polaroids suck, but it was really cheap on www.woot.com so there you have it!

But anywho, the tower was cool when I went in I thought that I was in America. If I couldn’t hear, couldn’t read lips, and didn’t notice that everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, was Japanese I would have thought that I was in some new super duper mega mall in the US. This was the craziest mall I have ever been in in my entire life (crazy as in really really nice the Taipei 101 mall included). It was like four buildings interconnected and each building was a mall. Architecturally speaking it was amazing, but all of the stores were the super expensive brands that nobody can afford.

Here is another picture for your consumption.

mIMG_5380

That is some other building in Yokohama and guess what! It has a mall under it to! How unpredictable.

But one thing about Japan that is really different from Taiwan is that in Japan most people do not understand English. In Taiwan I can go into any restaurant and speak English and they will somewhat understand. In Japan no such luck. But I guess that is to be expected in a foreign country but Taipei is nicer in that respect.

The other things about Japan so far is that everything is SO EXPENSIVE compared to Taipei. I paid 10 bucks for this tiny bit of pasta. The pasta didn’t even have sauce in it! It was spaghetti with fish, basically this was fish flavored pasta and it was 10 dollars! Oh well things can’t be all cheapy cheap everywhere.

Other than things being amazingly expensive and American like, one great thing about Japan are the public toilets. oh my lord look at this.

Toilet stitch Small

To the left you can see the Bidet controls. Yes that’s right! a Bidet in a public restroom! jeez louise that is nice. that toilet is amazing. I could not get it in the picture but behind me and to the left is a little chingaderra that you can fold out and then…put your baby in it. That’s right! When you need to take a dump and you have your baby with you, you can bring him or her into the stall. But maybe I misunderstood the Japanese characters but there was a picture of a baby and space for legs. So that was weird but the toilets are amazing!

Yokohama is much more of a tourist location than Taipei and it really shows. Overall Yokohama is amazing but I think I like Taipei better. We’ll see what I think of Tokyo when I get a chance to go there during the week hehe. Ok guys I am going to go to sleep or something it’s late as all hell here. Peace out ya’ll!

The Ranting Jamaican is off to Japan

May 21st, 2009

Hello my friends and family. I will be off to Japan for 11 days I am not sure if I will have access to the internets while there. If I do not have internet access then you will hear from me when I get back. I’ll have lots of pictures and what not so later dudes!

The Taipei Zoo and What Not

May 20th, 2009

The Ranting Jamaican is now pissed that there are no Red Vines AND no Good & Plenty or any other kind of black licorice on this island called Taiwan (formerly Formosa). But You know what? I just spent $30 bucks for three one pound bags of Red Vines so in 10-14 business days I will have an ample supply which will probably last about a week. I am SO EXCITED for the terminator movie and I will be chomping down on these Red Vines while I watch it, if they ever get here. Anyways that is unimportant! The subject at hand is the Taipei Zoo!

Oh my lord the Taipei Zoo was amazing they had all kinds of monkeys, chimpanzees, flamingos, Lions, Tigers, Ligers (haha just kidding no Ligers), Emus, Arowanas (That’s A fish), Owls, Zebras, and random other animals. The one animal I left out was the GORILLAs!!!!! they deserve separate mention because they are friggin amazing and I want to be the 800lb Gorilla in the room when I grow up!

Anyways the animals were great and majestic and whatever but the best part of this zoo is what is the best part of Taiwan in general. When you go to the zoo everything is interspersed with the Taiwanese Jungle. It’s not like the LA zoo where it looks all fake and crappy and there are a bunch of freeways and smog all around it. You actually feel like you are in the jungle as the picture below illustrates.

This Orangutan looks like he is in the jungle but he isnt!

Taipei is really built up so you can’t see the large tropical looking trees in the city except in a few parks but in the outskirts of the city and especially in places like Keelung you can really see how much wild terrain is left here. but yes back to the zoo!

I was pretty much dissappointed by the Panda’s they were REALLY boring here is what they were doing!

Rivetting!

I was very dissappointed in these panda’s. They really really let me down. but after the boring boring panda’s the fun started with the nocturnal animals. It sucked though because it was too dark to take pictures. But I have never let something like a lack of light stop me! here is a picture from the nocturnal animals exhibit.

It took about 10 shots on manual focus to get one good one haha

The zoo was great and as I said the best part were the gorilla’s! and I got a picture of them too (although it is a crappy one)

Look at him...he loves it!

But yes the Taipei Zoo (which is actually outside of Taipei) is a very nice zoo indeed. Hopefully I will get a chance to compare it to the San Diego Zoo some time (if Swine Flu allows haha). oh! one last picture!

haha. this was one of the nocturnal animals. You gotta love that one.
haha. this was one of the nocturnal animals. You gotta love that one.

In Summary, I loved that zoo, I am still pissed that there are no Red Vines in Taiwan, and I want my next pet to be a Formosa Weasel. Peace out Ya’ll.

oh and check out this link it is amazing! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MorR04iLtMw. This man is my new role model. Except I am probably the only Jamaican over 18 years old that will never smoke weed.

zip it up and zip it out!