This is possibly the most insane, and thus coolest, thing I have ever seen. It’s like a dream.

If you’ve come to Hungary as a traveler or as an expatriate, you could probably chalk up some of your impetus to “wanting to see the world.” Meeting the local peoples, sampling local cuisine – these are the things that we revel in. The jet-set hops from place to place by plane, students take the slow route by train, poets hop freights or hitchhike, and those on a mission might ride in a plastic car.

Keiichi Iwasaki, however, is doing something else entirely. He’s going around the world – by bicycle. Currently 6 years and more than 30,000km into an estimated 10-year trek, this air conditioning repairman left his native Gunma-ken, Japanin 2001 with 160 yen (USD 1.25 / HUF 235) in his pocket and a vague notion to yes, see the world. Since then he’s traveled through more than 25 countries and reached unimaginable highs and lows.

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It’s not often that the average person gets a glimpse of an alternate reality, one in which up is clearly down and war is clearly peace. This story is just such a glimpse, one in which a journalist for the Independent goes on a cruise with neo-cons, courtesy of the National Review. I highly recommend it, if simply for the laugh-out-loud bizarreness.

A sample:

“The civilised countries should invade all the oil-owning places in the Middle East and run them properly. We won’t take the money ourselves, but we’ll manage it so the money isn’t going to terrorists.”

via BoingBoing

Oh yes they did. The American Air Force is the most advanced in the world. To reflect this, they’ve changed their well-known slogan of “Bomb ‘em back to the stone age” with something a little more 21st-century:

“Bomb ‘em into stoned gays.”

What’s next, a rainbow-colored arms race?

So, it’s been a week and no word from BBJ. I’m not too surprised, but I’ve been too busy to notice. It turns out that the interpreting gig that I blogged about NOT getting here fell into my lap. Here’s the story from start to finish:

So Andi, of E’s Kellner Scholarship brethren, works for a Hungarian film production company called Pioneer. They landed a deal with giant Japanese advertising conglomerate Dentsu to shoot a commercial for a shoe called the Midori HiGRIP. Being their first experience with a Japanese firm, they tried to play it safe by hiring a “professional” interpreter from an agency here in Budapest. Andi contacted me as well as a backup, and that was the source of the previous disappointment. Luck changed places, however, as the Hungarian director of the shoot took a dislike to the original interpreter, and pretty soon she got the boot, and I got the shoehorn.

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