Chris’s Blog

Free wireless. Yay Wellington! Only an hour to go until I’m on my way back to Japan. To get there I have to head to Brisbane, jump on a plane which stops over in Cairns, then finally on to Narita. Haven’t had any sleep yet, hopefully I will be able to sleep on the plane to Narita. I am feeling sick, and probably have bronchitis again. Stiff neck, brutal cough and phlegm (such a weird word that) that stinks worse than a monkey’s ass. Stink for me.

I would upload a photo of me, but Microsoft didn’t want to make getting photos from the webcam easy. For the life of me, I cant find how to capture still shots from the webcam. Boo Vista!

Update: I used HP’s software instead.

Today is the last day I have in New Zealand before heading back home to Japan. I have received my new laptop, and all is well except the integrated microphones. I have seen many people have similar problems with HP laptops and the high definition audio. HP support wasn’t any help, they suggested that they send round a technician to look at the problem. Thing is, if its a driver issue I don’t mind as that can usually be fixed eventually. If it is a hardware issue, thats another story. So when I get back to Japan, I’m going to get another hard drive and install another operating system to see if the issue is still there. Hopefully it isn’t and its just a problem with vista or the drivers.

Went to Harajuku last weekend to hang out with a mate from NZ. It sucks ass. Unless you are into clothing and fashion, you should never step foot in Harajuku. Its crammed tighter than a can of sardines with a fat man on top.

There was one place I found that was to my liking, but I cant remember the name. It apparently has Tokyo’s largest hamburger. Bit pricey – 1800yen, but it was pretty big. Wasn’t very nice, but certainly filled me up. Also made me crap bricks for a few days.

Also went to visit Tokyo Mid Town, somewhere in Tokyo. There were a few nice buildings, expensive shopping malls, TV broadcasting building (asahi) and a Kiwi Bar / Cafe. The last place matters most, I managed to get some of my favorite beef jerky, with some NZ beer (Tui) and listen to some Nz music. Beer was a bit expensive – Tui the cheapest at 650 yen – ouch!

I Love my country, even though I’m not living in it. I think New Zealander’s are great people, innovate, smart, cunning – so on and so forth. Many great things have come from New Zealand the movies are excellent, we had/have a few great scientists, we were the first to climb Everest, had the fastest land speed record on a motorbike – Indian (not sure if it still holds). New Zealand’s environment is wonderful, health care is fine, no dangerous bugs or animals, cities and towns are generally safe. It’s almost everything you want from a country, almost.

To put it frankly, I think New Zealand would be the perfect place to retire. That’s it. I don’t want to work there because over qualified people are under appreciated and underpaid. I’m not being a sourpuss, but take for example the I.T industry. I have found that companies hiring are usually looking for people with minimum two years experience – for help desk positions. Newcomers to the industry are starting on as little as 25k a year.

This is insane. I am working in Japan, teaching English at junior high school – something I really don’t need any qualifications for and I’m getting paid almost double. So, my perspective on things is this: bring up your family in New Zealand, study in New Zealand, retire in New Zealand, but don’t work in New Zealand.

These aren’t the only reasons I choose to live in Japan. Tax is less over here, Alcohol is cheaper (Not beer), I love technology (And live less than an hour away from Akihabara) , my girlfriend is Japanese and I like big cities. But I think I would be more likely to return to work in N.Z if people got paid what they are worth.