We’ve hit two years – Happy Birthday On Deadline!

On Deadline celebrates its 2nd birthday today.

Two years and almost 200 posts later and we are still kicking.

This blog started on a whim two years ago today and was strictly meant to give me an “online presence”… little did I know it would become not just an obsession some days but also something I hate on others.

The push and pull of creating not just anything for the blog but something of quality has been an interesting exercise. I never wanted it to be an asinine collection of links and videos nor just a place where I rant. My ultimate goal from post to post is to give a reader some sober second thought on a subject or get them motivated to make a positive change. Sometimes I succeeded, sometimes I failed but the posts, readers and views kept coming.

Over the last year The Good Revolution found us worthy enough to be contributors to them  and the fundraising efforts we supported, from Two Write Love On Her Arms to the World Food Programme, proved to me the quality of you, the On Deadline readers. You are all worth whatever menial struggle I have to overcome to click away at the keyboard.

My thanks to you for ensuring this blog and my efforts are worthwhile.

On Deadline readers you simply rock.

Vince Versace

• MOST POPULAR POSTS OVER THE LAST YEAR:

1. My blog post about the frustrations in trying to find the Terry Fox Memorial in St. John’s, NFLD and my eventual disappointment in what I found was the most popular over the last year here at On Deadline. Though it was penned this past October it has screamed up to the top on the most viewed and referral charts. Feels good to know that a personal hero of mine is so popular and that others found the memorial not worthy of this amazing Canadian.

2. Sex does sell and it does equal visits to your blog. My sexy Canadian politicians post from last year still brings eye balls trolling for sexy pictures of sexy politicians. What disappointment these folks must have felt when they found G-rated photos of some attractive Canadian politicians and then nothing else.

MY FAVOURITE POSTS OF THE YEAR:

This year I introduced a category called Writer Talk where I looked at the craft of writing, the joys of reading and all the frustrations that came with them. My post called Pushing an Elephant Up A Mountain was my favourite. Judging by the discussions, responses and messages from other fellow writers, hacks and wordsmiths, it struck a chord. My other two favourites were about my last, late night walk in Tokyo and Amanda Lindhout being freed.

• TOP SEARCH ENGINE TERMS:

These following three terms brought the most people to On Deadline: terry fox, ruby dhalla, voodoo.

Thanks again and on to Year Three!

 

Last walk in Tokyo

2:20 a.m., can’t sleep, I’m always restless the night before a flight and it is my last night in Tokyo.

Get up, get dressed and start to roam the streets around my downtown Tokyo hotel. The lights are all out on the nearby World Trade Centre Building, the only businesses open are late night hole-in-the-wall eateries, a bar, nearby massage parlours and a strip club.

Only signs of humanity are the a handful of straggling and stumbling black-suited salarymen of Tokyo, disheveled and drunk. One sits on a low concrete pillar. Collar open, tie twisted to the side, he sits, eyes closed, brief case in on hand. Just five hours before, both sides of the streets were bursting and teeming with the hard-working, black-suited salarymen and women of nearby Tokyo offices.  Laughing, smiling, they were releasing stresses and energy from a day of hard work. Away from their families and friends, they cavort, laugh and talk loudly freely on the sidewalks and patios.

Now, only five of them are left, another eats late night McDonald’s, briefcase between his legs as he sits on a step. Another, at a nearby outdoor counter, drinks a canned beer he scored for 300 Yen from a nearby vending machine.

I walk. Take in the colourful signs and written words I cannot read. Each word looks like a piece of art and is a mystery. This city and country are still a mystery even after two weeks of travel within it. We may have pulled back the veil a bit, and had a taste and peek at this wonderful society and its people but we are far from truly understanding it.

Cabs zoom by as I turn to head back. I walk by a taxi stand, the three cab drivers are standing outside of their vehicles, in the nearby designated smoking area. Even at this hour, when municipal bylaw officials have long retired for the night, the three drivers still stand in the six by 10 foot area people are allowed to smoke in on this block in public.

I walk back to the hotel and look down the street, the ancient massive gate of the Zojoji Temple sits at its end, stalwart, imposing and strong. The usually bright and  tacky Tokyo Tower that screams up to the sky behind it, now sits dark too. Only a red light at its tip now glows.

It is lights out Tokyo and lights out on this trip too.

Hiroshima we are here

Never thought my stay in Hiroshima would start this way but it has. We just enjoyed the afternoon on the rooftop terrace of our hotel, in a blazing sun without a cloud in the sky, whoever thought I would be working on my tan in Hiroshima.

 After a smokey train ride from Kyoto (we ended up seated in a smoking car to get here) we made it to our home away from home here. A city with some sad serious and depressing history with so much to offer we hear. We have been warned that it will likely be a depressing experience but instead, we have hit the most laid back of Japanese cities thus far.

We have not done any sight seeing yet, instead, we are going to enjoy the city’s night life and live music scene tonight which should be interesting. Tomorrow, we hit the A- Bomb Dome and, the memorial park and then to the war musuem.

Talk to you later. Take care.

Overload Tokyo

Sensory overload.

Day two in Tokyo revealed some of the many faces of this truly cosmopolitan city. The sprawling green and pristine Imperial Palace lawn concourse cascades down to the city’s financial district-a district similar to so many around the world. The black business suit for both men and women are as equally pristine here.

The more you walk around Tokyo you realize how clean this city is. Thanks to a sense of order and discipline threaded in this historic culture, a westerner quickly realizes what slobs and inconsiderate people most of us are. The modern Tokyo benefits from this and you hope they do not adopt all our self righteous and narrow minded ways-they do not need to. Safe and clean,things toronto espouses to be but fails in fulfilling when compared to this city with a greater metropolitan population of all of Canada.

The Ginza District was a massive celebration of all that is trendy and fashionable here – the beautiful people come here to be seen and with the credit limit you could have a field day here.

Then off to the Akihibara we went to bathe in the glow of Electric Town and its loud and overpowering lights and sounds. The shades of the city’s underbelly, naughtiness and raw appeal hit you as you walk down side streets. Whatever your fetish from electronics to manga to anime and maid cafes, it is all here to indulge in .

The night ends in a sushi hole-in-the-wallish type diner that can be easily missed among the blazing lights. The décor and sushi carousel are as raw as the food itself. The real Tokyo comes here to eat, from business man to construction worker with four Canadian visitors along for the delicious chow.

Day two ends with a quiet walk down the dimly lit side streets of backwater tokyo. Nothing stirs but a few alley cats and we are home.

Air Canada once again succeeds in disappointing

So, we have arrived but my love for Air Canada has only diminished even more, but yes, Tokyo here we are.

Was great waking up here in Tokyo  but we arrived in the dead of night,  using the subway was fun and precusor to the fun challenges ahead but back to Air Canada…

It seemed like this dream trip was never going to happen, here is what unfolded to make us think this trip was just going to have to wait:

– a medical emergency on the plane as we backed away from the gate

– separate to the above, we then had to wait for a replacement pilot

– we finally take off, about 40 minutes late

– approximately 25 minutes into our flight, pilot informs us that he has to dump fuel and circle back to Toronto, the plane has flap problems, funny thing is, he proceeds to tell us the weather in Toronto…which we had just left

– SIX HOURS later they horde us back on a plane, smaller in size than the one we left on. The prepaid seat selection did not matter and we were scattered to the winds. When i mentioned the prepaid. i was told “It is not like we are leaving you behind sir” –

– end up in a seat with LESS leg room than i wanted or a 12.5 hour flight, with someone reclining their chair in my lap half the way and a screaming baby seated to my right

Needless to say, we are happy to be here and begin exploring. Today it is The Festival of the Wind at Yoyogi Park and the assorted craziness around that area.

Great to be here, write soon.

Off to Japan!

Hello On Deadline readers, critics, fans and friends.

The day is finally here, I am off to Japan today, a dream adventure and trip about to be realized, I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve when Christmas was still an exciting mystery.

I am headed to Tokyo on a direct flight from Toronto with a few of my closest friends as we tack on thousands of more kilometres on our already well-travelled friendships . This trip has been in the making for at least 18 years and now it is only hours away from its start. It takes us remembering our dreams and hopes sometimes, let alone chasing them, to help make you feel alive.

This trip also has some added intrigue thanks to North Korea and its plans to launch, what they claim is a satellite, that will fly over Japan. They plan to fire sometime between April 4 and 8. We land in Tokyo on April 4 to begin our two week trek. Why does it seem news seems to find me even when I am trying to get away from it?

When these feet hit Japanese ground and I begin to hear Japanese all around me, a language I have been trying to learn for three months now, it will be sensory overload…and I’m ready for my circuits to be humming and burning up as I try and soak up ever moment. I will blog when I can and share what I taste, hear and see, whether through photos or words.

Eighteen years in the making, a few hours until it begins… then a lifetime of memories begin to unfold.