by foot?

im watching back-to-back episodes of the office on a slingbox so if this doesn't make sense, sucks. i'm going to taiwan tomorrow with akiko and jason (her husband) which should be fun. many would say taipei is a good place to look for and pur-chase sneakers. many nikes, for example, are manufactured in taiwan. as for things to do in taipei, im a little foggy. i do however speak their language, so that should make things easier. by speak their language, i mean ive been studying it for some months, so i really should be able to communicate. i guess we'll see how that part goes. if you read this and you've been to taiwan, find me and tell me where to go. i'm down for whatever.

in recent news, im now friends with the staff of the hong kong nike sportswear location in causeway bay. i have been making cd's for the shop to blast off for the past few months. they have a serious sound system that blows away my ihome so we go for it. i'll try to post some of those playlists on here some time.

since we're now homies, i played basketball with a bunch of the guys monday morning at 10am. pretty early. take a note: trainer dunks are not great to play basketball in. this is what im talking about......



i embarassingly wore these while all these other nike employees were wearing sick kobe's, jordan's, and lebron's. if you know anything about me, you'd understand how painfully ashamed i was of myself. if you are willing to believe me, the only reason i wore these was because i don't have basketball sneakers here in hong kong. there, i said it. i guess i have to go buy some kobe's or something because i can't continue to play this game with people who know sneakers like i do. shit. im hoping taipei is the spot to cure this problem of mine. as far as the basketball went, it was fun. we drew a small crowd like last time and broke a good sweat. afterwards, the guys went to go get a shower at this ymca type place. i elected to go home. im not totally sure what the deal with that was.

i went to the consulate to get pages added to my passport yesterday. this required making an appointment before-hand which wasn't a problem. i went at 11am, figuring it couldn't take more than 3 hours before my class would start. getting there was easy, took an above-ground train, walked it out, no problem. getting into this place was slightly more challenging. the best part was when they asked me if i had a cell phone and if i'd turn it off. no problem. then came the metal detector walk-through like an airport. the next man asked if i had a cell phone, went through the shpiegl, blah blah blah ok check my bag. he asked me if i had a cell phone in my bag and i said no. he asked if i was sure and i said i think so. he asked again if i had a cell phone in the bag. i was like fuck man im pretty sure there isnt a cell phone in the bag. he then pulled a cell phone out of my bag. oh shit! that's right. akiko gave me a cell phone to use in japan (she lived there before hk and had it around.) her nice gesture towards me almost got me arrested. or maybe it was the drinking i did the night before which caused me to forget about the phone that almost got me arrested. one of those. it reminded me of the time i was driving eddie's car in LA and a cop asked me why i had rope in the trunk. i denied vehemently having any rope in the trunk. he opened the trunk and there was the rope. for future reference, its not always good to deny having rope outside lax - or any airport - and then having rope. anyway, i did make my way to the add-pages-to-your-passport desk and did eventually get the pages. they add a page for every letter of the alphabet. my passport expires almost 2.5 years from now. should be a good challenge.

now you must be asking yourself - how did this jackass run out of pages in his passport and how did he know to get more pages? first answer - fuck you. second answer is better. during my flight back from Japan, ANA decided to give economy class unlimited booze. so i got wasted. i had exit row to myself and went to town on a combination of champagne and various other cocktails. it was enjoyable. when we were getting close to landing, the wonderful flight attendant brought me a bottle of water. i didn't ask for water. i must have been giving out some kind of drunk signal. i'm surprised i didn't say "ni gei wo ni de dianhua haoma, hao ma?" (can i have your phone number?) but anyway, i was hammered and needed to get through immigration and customs. so i went to the mens room in the airport and washed my face and tried to gargle some water. i got to the immigration area, went to the man and he asked me how i was going to enter hong kong. i answered "by foot?" he was like no idiot, you have no pages in your passport. fuck. im drunk, and not being appreciated. finally he let me go but told me i couldnt leave hong kong until i added pages to my passport. and there is the answer to question number 2. thats how i knew i needed more pages. i guess i'm good for 4 stamps this weekend. if you can't figure out where they come from, read a book.

again if you have any suggestions on things to do in taiwan, let me know. i think we may take a train to kaohsiung and spend a night there so any info on that southern city would also be appreciated. great super thanks.