Comments on: Skimboarding 2008 Session #08 – Farewell Chigasaki, Japan!

By: MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO [1988] review : Jacked-in || “The City’s just a better built cell block”

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 16:00:41 +0000

[…] was only one movie I could watch after my final skimboarding session in Japan, and that was MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO. It’s the only movie pure enough to accompany […]

By: billywest

billywest — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:30:22 +0000

Nobody knows what the future holds (tomorrow can see anyone’s life change dramatically if the “right” chain of events unfolds), but I can’t imagine all of the final times I’ll participate in treasured activities here.

Sounds like you’re pretty excited to go back, though. Hope all of your preparations go smoothly until the final day.

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 13:42:29 +0000

Hmm, San Jose is a city with a population of almost a million by itself butted up again other large population cities like Sunnyvale, Campbell, Milpitas, etc. and in close proximity to other places like San Francisco.

Going from that to Sacramento, less people more fields, was a bit of a change. And now I am living in a city that has less than 100,000 people total after combing three other cities into itself. There’s only one other long term foreign resident here and I find that to be lucky!

If/when we move to Tokyo, I think it will only be another stopping point along the way back home. Despite all the things I like here, I don’t think I could stand to live here past another 3-5 years with the kids.

By: Jason Collin

Jason Collin — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 06:58:19 +0000

Hi Ben,

For me, I don’t feel Japan is so beautiful, or at least it’s not so beautiful in comparison to other places. Some places in Japan may have a serene nature feeling, but I wouldn’t say anywhere I’ve been in Japan is one of the most beautiful places I’ve seen (with regard to mountains, forests, beaches, etc.)

Moving to Tokyo would be a move to make only if you really, really want to feel city life, and all the stress that comes with it. When I moved here from Korea, I was in the countryside in Korea, so I was totally up for some real city life. Now though I’m just sick of the grind of living in a metropolis.

I’m thinking of moving to Santa Barbara maybe. I briefly lived in Claremont, about 30 minutes east of Pasadena.

Video settings were: ISO 50, WB sun, NR on, and then exported from iMovie to Vimeo at 9,000kb/s encoding.