Went to the Sears store at Brampton's Shopper's World mall which was going out of business. While Kate shopped for clothes, I hung out with the naked manakins.
Watched construction workers put the finishing touches on the ROM's new "Crystal" wing.
Celebrated my 32nd birthday.

My last post was a bit on the negative side, so I thought to make up for it I'd share with you some stickers I bought from Daiso while I was still in Japan. If you've ever wondered what cute little animals are thinking, then wonder no more.
To celebrate the Chinese New Year I headed to Chinatown and had some yummy overpriced egg puffs. Kate and I first discovered this tasty reverse waffle at Ocean Park in Hong Kong a few years ago.
I don't want to come off sounding like an old fart, but when I was a kid the Eaton Centre's Santa Castle was truly something to behold. The only thing more impressive than Santa's five story tall home was the mile long line of kids waiting to sit on his knee. As you can see above, these days Santa seems to have fallen on hard times. Santa even lost his big chair and now has to make do with a crappy little white bench. Who can blame kids for ignoring him?
While on the subject of how much better Christmas was when I was young, let's take a look at the display windows outside of the Bay. I still remember when my grandmother would take my brother and I down to Simpsons (now the Bay) this time of year just to look at the cool animatronic Christmas dioramas out front. Some time ago, the store sadly decided to do away with this tradition. Well it appears that this year they are back! Well, sort of. Instead of Santa and Rudolph the displays now feature characters from the pseudo-Christian movie Narnia. Apparently this is actually the second year the Bay has been schilling for Narnia. Bah humbug.
Baby goats and tractors
Remember way back when this used to be one of the first "Video Blogs" on the net? No? Well I guess it has been a while since I uploaded a new video. I really didn't shoot much footage over my last year in Japan that wasn't wrestling related, so making this video was a bit of a challenge. Anyway, for better or for worse, here is my very last video from Japan. Enjoy!
Click here to download this video to your computer (Windows Media)
In addition to the usual Noheji & Hirosaki stuff, this one features footage from my travels to Shanghai China, The Great Wall, Vietnam and Cambodia. I really had the time of my life during my three years in Japan, and if I could have stayed longer I probably would still be there. Alas, my job is done and much like The Littlest Hobo it's time for me to move on to new adventures. Special thanks to Kate for filming much of this footage, and thanks to everyone in Japan past and present for putting up with me for so long. Gokoro sama deshita y'all!
If YouTube is having trouble, or you want to save the movie then try this direct download link (Windows Media)
For our last weekend in Aomori Kate and I decided to check out not one, but two wrestling shows! First we saw an All Japan show in the same Hirosaki gym that we witness the infamous bloodbath between Gosaku and Mr. Pogo some time ago. Then we drove to Daisen City in Akita to say farewell to our friends at Michinoku Pro.
When in Japan, Richard Gere stays at the Dandy House.
I had a couple of days to kill in Tokyo before my flight home, so I did my best to get in as much "wacky Japan" as I could before landing back in "boring Canada".