Scot is now in Japan.

I just received some news of the Tokyo International Film Festival, TIFF. It's going to open with Ashura no Gotoko (Just like Ashura), the one Japanese film that I didn't catch at the Montreal International Film Festival this summer. How perfect.

The festival runs Nov. 1-9, so I'll certainly be settled and ready to take advantage of it by then. I know I'm a bit of a dork, but 2 of the 4 films I managed to see at the Montreal Festival were Japanese. I wonder if I'm going to face a bit of repetition here? Not likely. I'm sure they will have a new batch of Japanese films for me.

One of those films still sticks out in my mind. It was called Joze to Tora to Sakanatachi (Joze and the tiger and the fish). It was excellent. I need say nothing else about it. Great dialogue.

I have finally received my air ticket to Japan. I'm flying through San Francisco to Narita. There are plenty of direct flights from Seattle, but when the Japanese government buys you a ticket, they want the business to go to Japan Airlines, I suppose. I haven't flown JAL since the last time the Japanese government bought me a ticket in 1996, for the JET program. Unfortunately, this time it's not business class. I still wonder longingly about the first class experience on JAL, where all of the stewardesses apparently wear kimono...

We're packing today and moving tomorrow. Alli will be in a smaller one-bedroom apartment for the year while I am gone. I hate moving. Rather, I should say, I hate packing before a move. I know that all of my stuff would rather be in one place. CDs and books don't feel like moving. I'm equally certain that plates and bowls, if asked, would also rather not leave the kitchen of the apartment they are accustomed to.

I am in bliss with this machine. A new Fry's opened in Seattle, and it just seemed like the right time.

I want to find hotspots, I want to warchalk, I want to make self-indulgent blog posts. The geekness is strong with this one.

Glee!

I am leaving for Tokyo in two weeks, but I now have an idea of where I will be staying. I apparently have a room at the Komaba International Student House, only 8 minutes' walk from the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST), where I will probably spend most of my time. The closest train station is Komaba Todai-mae on the Inokashira line. It looks like I will have a phone line, too.

From Komaba Todai-mae it is only a short hop to Shibuya, where I at least know I can shop and see live music if I have money or time.

Meanwhile, there was a kidnapping incident in Nagoya that ended in an explosion. A few people died. I'm curious to hear peoples' reactions when I get to Japan.

Back from Montreal. Haven't been able to access internet from home for weeks. Bought a laptop today. Welchia worm, Blaster, Sobig...Stop the madness!

Blogging again. Things might just get on track for a moment, but then we move at the end of the month and I'm off to Japan on Oct. 2nd. Well, at least I have a date now...

Montreal was fantastic. The restaurants are very good and very reasonable, the people are kind, and the women on the street are absolutely gorgeous. They are a bit more stylish than American women, but not so haute as French women. That makes for a fine balance, really.

I was probably most impressed with the overall feeling of the city. Montreal is filled with beautiful architectural facades, mostly walk-up apartments with grand, exterior staircases that each have a character all their own. There are tons of parks, as well. The city on the whole is not so brightly lit, so every neighborhood feels comfortable and mysterious in a charming way. I realized how much I was bothered by garishly overlit cities. You may be walking along a dim, but not entirely dark street, looking at the front of each building as you go, then, suddenly a park lies at the end of the street beyond the darkness, and there are people drinking wine and playing guitar there, and you don't feel threatened, you just feel...charmed. That's Montreal.

I began to wonder if the move to provide bright lighting at night to combat crime was something that was only necessary in the US. How fortunate to be Canadian, then. How fortunate to be a Montrealite, actually. I'm not sure that the aesthetic preference for dark streets would have occurred to most Anglo-Canadians, to be honest.