Uni Field Trip

My easter holiday has been cut in half. For the next two weeks, I am off on a trip to Tenerife. Yippee should be my reaction but...it's not. For starters, I have to somehow make my way to the airport. That is going to be a pain in the ass. Then I spend a week in a hotel by a beach. Yay? I'm going to be spending the majority of the day designing a satellite with the rest of my group. Nevertheless I reckon the 'generous lunch break' and evenings should be enjoyable, hanging around with friends. Drinking. The highlight that I do look forward to is going up to the mountains (hopefully inactive volcanoes...) and using the professional telescopes.

In the end I will probably enjoy it immensely, but for the moment I'm just being pessimistic. I yearn for backpacking East Asia again. I worry that everywhere will eventually turn into the equivalent of South Thailand (Ko Samui, Phuket etc) and I really want to walk off the beaten track of the typical backpacker. There are several different types of backpackers; you have the beach hunting, party going backpacker; the outdoor, trekking backpacker; the cultural backpacker and so on. I'm pretty much the cultural backpacker. I love sitting down, relaxing and just watching people. Culture unites those people and tourism gnaws away it. So my dislike for tourism is pretty strong. When I enter the 'holiday resort' in Tenerife, my face will be a mixture of excitement and disdain.

I have also been thinking of the possibility of living in Japan for at least a few months after I leave university. It is quite feasible as I can see myself training in Shorinji Kempo for a large portion of my time there.

Ranma 1/2 Architecture

I was browsing google for a picture of Shampoo when I suddenly came across an interesting blog on Ranma 1/2 and more specifically, a map to the Tendo Household.

Cursed Pools of Jusenkyo
Tendo Household Map

The 'map' displays blueprints of most of the rooms in the house and an aerial view of the entire house as shown below. In all honesty, I would absolutely go wild with happiness if I were to become a living occupant of a house like that. Wow.


I'd be the happiest man on the planet.

Anyway back to finding a good picture of Shampoo. I want to make a group on MyAnimeList.

Ranma 1/2

Absolutely loved the first two seasons of the series of Ranma 1/2 but never got around to getting the rest; namely the third season, the movies and the OVA. I heard the forth season, fifth season etc went pretty downhill hence why I omitted them. Too expensive for a student like me. But before I get round to buying the rest, I've discovered the Ranma 1/2 manga which is 38 volumes long. Again not too good for a student in financial terms, however there's a twist; I read it on my computer.

I found a couple of excellent sites, one which allows you to read it directly online and another which allows you to download all the pages of a volume at once. Though one should at least buy a few of the volumes if possible. Especially if one lives in North America - no excuse. Links below:

RanmaHentai
Manga Temple (bulk)

It just so happens that one site offering the manga is also quite a fan of Ranma 1/2 hentai hence the name. Not my personal choice of fan art especially for a series like Ranma 1/2...

The series is immensely funny and I have to praise Rumiko Takahashi for such brilliant characters. And Ranma and Akane are one of the best pairings I have ever seen.