Burento in Japan

April 25th to May 6th I’ll be hitchhiking around Kyushu in a charity hitchhike challenge.  So far I’ve got about $300 in sponsorships, so that’s pretty cool.  There are 7 prefectures and 3 challenges for each, as well as food challenges and other random ones like, make out with a driver, get a driver to buy you dinner, etc.  Should be wicked.  I don’t know if we’ll take the whole thing, but Team: V-V-V-Vinnie and the Brent! (Elton John, Benny and the Jets, get it?).  I’m bringing, 1 pair of jean, 1 pair of comfy hiking pants, 1 pair of short, 4 t-shirts, 4 pairs of socks and 4 pairs of boxers…for 12 days.  Should be dirty and amazing.  The plan is to go counter clockwise from Fukuoka around the island.  So, rough guide…for those who will actually look at a map…

Fukuoka, Karatsu, Nagasaki, Shimabara (where we will take a speed boat to) Kumamoto, Kagoshima, Miyazaki, Mt. Aso (the largest crater in the world), Beppu and back to Fukuoka.  Hopefully.  We’ll see how it goes seeing as the island is 350km north to south and 250km wide.  I hope I don’t die!!

Bye for now,

Brent

I’ll explain the title in a bit, but I’m going to write all of this in chronological order from what I’ve done since the last blog.  So deal with it.

 

Alright, so since February, I actually haven’t done much.  Or at least it seems that way.  I remember when I first got here and I wrote in one of my first blogs about the train ride to Nihonmatsu (where one of my visit schools is) and how the people on the train seemed to take the amazing view for granted.  I am now that person.  Yes, I still revel in the majestic mountains (yes, I wrote majestic mountains) around
Fukushima and everyday I still think, wow, amazing.  But it just seems that life here has become, well, less noteworthy.  Not to say that I’m not having fun or anything, cuz I am.  It just seems like everything is less “shiny and new.”  I no longer feel the need to articulate every moment of everything I do cuz it just seems so normal.  As well, talking about things in my life requires a context to it, and as I haven’t really kept a running commentary on the daily happenings of things here, I really can’t just bust into stories about what happened at work or why this or that is amazing/dramatic/crazy/etc.  I think it wouldn’t really be that interesting, but then again maybe it would be. 

 

I’m definitely feeling like my run with Japan is kinda over.  It just feels like regular life.  I always wondered, why no one from home ever posted pics or vids or anything about what they’re doing on facebook and I realize it’s cuz it’s normal.  Take Drew’s facebook page, he’s got nothing on there.  Like 2 photo albums and that’s about it and I get it now, it’s cuz it’s just regular life.  Two weekends ago, I was in Tokyo, I was in Shinjuku (biggest/busiest train station in the world), Shibuya (busiest intersection in the world), Akihabara (the geek capital of the world), Ueno park (huge and awesome) and the Imperial Palace.  I had my camera for all of it…I took 2 pictures. 

 

I’m not trying to say that the amount of pictures is directly proportional to the amount of fun I had or anything along those lines.  Just trying to show that, you know, I just don’t think it’s noteworthy anymore.  K, I feel like I’m rambling.  Hopefully you get my point.

 

I will try to throw down more “real stuff” here, as in, stuff that is actually happening in my life opposed to soley talking about places I’ve gone or things that I’ve done.

 

First, I am gonna start with…the Viv (1993 Subaru Vivio), pictured here beside a regular car.  Just to show how immensely small it is. 

 

 

I feel like it’s dying on me, which is scary cuz I am totally not buying another car.  I took it in about a month ago and had it looked at, which is a trip in itself just with the Japanese alone.  I had them change the transmission fluid along with a few other things.  The dude then came in and told me about the other problems.  He was actually really really nice.  Japanese Gas Station attendants/mechanics I think are the nicest people in Japan.  They always try to use English and when this guy was using Japanese, he even stopped himself when he said more difficult words and tried to simplify it!  That never happens, as a heads up.  I didn’t want to spend a bajillion yen fixing everything.  So, I asked him to write out all the problems so I could have them translated later.  He said ok, and then disappeared into the back.  Twenty minutes later…he’s back.  With a FULL PAGE of stuff.  Tire rotation, something about putting more water/fluid in the radiator…all sorts of stuff.  SWEET.  So, I’ll tackle those issues slowly.  Since then I’ve driven the Viv about, oh you know, 2500km.  In a month and a half.

 

February was um, horrible as far as snowboarding goes.  We go to ALTs Bandai (a resort) every weekend and 3 weeks in a row it was crap.  Either there was no snow so they decided to close pretty much every lift…OR…there was tons of snow but the winds were too high and they shut down pretty much all the lifts, stupid either way.  So, instead, we partied.  Here are a few pics of me…clean shaven, oooo, at a Shine Party in Aizu Wakamatsu

 

 

 

How I even made my face do that I’m not sure…meet Vicky, Gemma and Heather

 

I also went to a hardcore metal show in Koriyama, you know where they scream into the mic like crazy people.  It’s not that I’m really into that stuff, it was more cuz I just wanted to see what a “hardcore show” in Japan would be like.  It was fun and far less scary in the mosh pit than one of those shows would be back home.  There was a really famous aussie band there and we actually hung out with them before and after the show which was kinda cool. 

 

The beginning of March, was Graduation time.  March 1^st, a Sunday this year, was the Graduation ceremony.  Which means, I had to work a Sunday, ha jeez.  Why not just make Graduation the 1^st weekday in March or something.  Like, c’mon now.  Anyway, all of the Senior High School ALTs had to work, so he’s a picture of us, outside a curry place where we had lunch…well, just the Fukusima city SHS ALTs.

 

 

Japanese Style - Vinnie, Mo, Me, Jay, Christian

 

Normal Style

 

 

After the Graduation weekends, I had set up a Ski Day in Inawashiro.   I was supposed to have at least 50 people attending for sure and another 70 were registered as maybes…I even scored us a deal with the resort and everything.  Then what happens on the Saturday that everything is supposed to go down…it rains…A LOT.  Typhoon style rain, all Friday night and Saturday morning, so in total there were only 25 of us.  The rain turned to heavy snow around 11am though, so it ended up being an ok day.   A few people dressed up and obviously, we kept tradition alive doing the boxer run.  It was A LOT colder this year than it was last year. 

 

At the end of the Boxer Run

 

Here’s my costume…a monkey…and the idiot to my right is Mickey Mouse (Christian)

 

Here’s the album of the day, although, I don’t remember taking many pictures, I mostly took video, which I am still adding into my snowboarding video…that could be awhile.

 

Ski Day Album

 

 

In between there was my birthday, but I decided to take it easy this year and not do anything major.  So, that’s what I did.  I also got myself a nice little gift…an X-Box 360 and after that, I bought a brand new Burton Custom 162 Wide ICS Snowboard with Burton C02 EST Bindings.  Retails for 130,000 yen, and I got it for 85,000, so that’s a sweet deal.  Although, I only got to ride it 3 times before the season ended.  Still totally worth it, for next year.

 

The weekend of March 21^st was a long weekend and I drove something like 500km in the Viv as well as taking the bullet train to and from Tokyo.  Jen (Barton) came into Tokyo on the Friday which was a holiday so I went down and picked her up.  She got a job in Koriyama working at a pre-school.  So, I grabbed her, showed her around Tokyo, took 2 pictures…see what I mean about things not being noteworthy…and then brought her to Koriyama.  That night I drove the 200 km from Koriyama to Tadami and then boarded all day Saturday.  We got rained out on the Sunday, which I’m kinda used to after this past season.  But it was totally worth it anyway.  Nango (the ski place) is pretty much all park.  They have 4 half pipes, huge jumps, tiny jumps, rails boxes, EVERYTHING!  It’s amazing.  So just getting to go once was awesome.  We don’t go that often because Minami Aizu is the middle of nowhere and in the winter the snow down there is NUTS, and I don’t necessarily want to drive down there in the death trap I call a car.   

 

There were about 8 enkais (work drinking parties) after that week until now.  I exaggerate, probably 4.  So I’ve been busy doing that lately.  Uh, oh and this past weekend we went down to Tokyo to see…PUNKSPRING.  It was wicked.  We spent Saturday looking at the blooming cherry blossom trees, the act is called 花見 (Hanami), in Ueno Park, at the Yasukuni Shrine and around the Imperial Palace.  There were a billion people EVERYWHERE!

 Sunday, we rocked out to Punkspring.  A ton of awesome bands were there, it was a wicked day, other than taking the last bullet train back from Tokyo and having to miss the last bit of NOFX.  Here’s the album of the whole weekend.

 

Punkspring Album

 

The rest of this week has been..um…boring as hell.  Today is the opening ceremony/entrance ceremony for the new students.  Wow, who loves sitting through speech after speech in a foreign language…I do, I do.

 

As for the Teacher Who Has Yet To Be Named…my school woes continue.  If it wasn’t for my visit schools I’d go completely insane.  April is the beginning of the school year and all the teachers get shifted around.  Just at whim.  Sometimes they can teach at a school for 10, 12, 15 years, and sometimes each year, they get moved.  Anywhere in the prefecture!!!  So, 14 teachers left Higashi (my base school) this year.  I did lose a few teachers that were friends and even one that everyone called my little brother.  The English teachers that left I’m really not too broken up about or anything….but the ones that have replaced them…are….wow, um, horrible.  First, we have…Red Eye sensei.  He came from Mo’s base school.  I’m calling him Red Eye, cuz he does Judo and when he first came, I guess someone had poked him in the eye in Judo and it was ALL red.  And a nickname is born.  Uh, apparently he’s failed his teacher’s license test 7 times.  And he couldn’t ask me how I come to school in English.  He has also pointed to his elbow and called it his knee.  Awesome, I shudder when I think that he is instructing students in English.  Oh, did I mention that he now sits beside me as well….YES!!  Next, we have another English teacher, I have yet to meet him, he came from one of Mo’s visit schools and is old.  That is all I know.  Last, but not least, we have, The Teacher Who Has Yet To Be Named.   He comes from one of my visit schools.  That is pretty much all I can tell you about the guy, cuz I’ve NEVER EVER had a class with him…EVER.  He actually asked my supervisor at that specific school to NOT schedule me for classes with him.  When we did have classes on my schedule, he just NEVER SHOWED, EVER.  In 2 and a half years, I have never said a word to him.  Well, now, he’s at Higashi, and guess who my new supervisor is….ya, that’s right…this guy.  When am I gonna catch a break here.  Jesus.  So, I have yet to create a nickname for him, but one is coming soon.  I just don’t know what it’ll be.  I foresee a very boring year at Higashi.  I guess that’s all for now, teachers are starting to file out, and I guess that means that the next ceremony is starting.

 

As usual, a bit late on this, but better late that never.  So, 3 weeks in glorious
Australia, before the fires and the floods.  How weird is it that one end of the country was engulfed in flames while the other was under water.  Weird!

 

Anyway, the 3 weeks were great.  I’ve put together video of the first 2 weeks (the Gold Coast and Melbourne) but have yet to muster up the energy to tackle Sydney. 

 

So, where to start.  I guess at the beginning.  The Gold Coast, it was awesome.  Moody’s parents had just moved into their house, the weekend before I got there and let me tell you.  It was fricken awesome.  Moody picked me up from the Gold Coast airport at 7am and we went to their place.  It was awesome.  The Moody’s live right on a canal that links up with the ocean and a bunch of other channels and bays.  So, we pretty much immediately were straight out on the boat.  His parents were awesome.  Moody was worried that I would be too much for them or that they would be too conservative for me, but he was totally full of shit.  He was busting stuff out that I would never ever say with parental units around.  Anyway, they took me out in the boat immediately and we did a little tour of the area.  I obviously declined sunscreen cuz I’m stupid like that and became very very very burnt very very quickly.  It took the next 2 weeks for my body to recover and my skin to stop peeling off.  Bec (Moody’s girlfriend) was also there for the first few days, so it wasn’t a full on Moody jamboree right away. 

 

The whole Gold Coast experience was pretty chilled out.  We went out on the jet ski on the 2^nd day. 
Moody is a mad man, so that was a bit nutty.  My hands were killing me by the end after trying to hold on to him while we went out through “The Spit.”  The Spit is an opening to the ocean but it’s lined on either side with rocks so it makes for crazy huge waves, my ass was a bit sore by the end as well. 

 

We did a bit of driving around as well, went to a few beaches around the area that were absolutely amazing. 

It was like, Canada goes tropical or something.  Everyone was nice and the whole country totally had the western feel to it, but there were amazing beaches everywhere.  Christmas was spent with a few of Moody’s parent’s friends and was really chilled out as well.  BBQ!!  Bec had left by Christmas day and I was then totally immersed in Moody-paloosa.  It felt weird to live with a family again.  Especially the Moody’s who were everything I expected them to be, after knowing Moody for so long.  Everyone up at 8am out doing stuff, no sleeping in or anything.  Very healthy eating.  So, clearly you can see why it was weird for me. 

We went to a beach side bar at one point and what do we see just hoping around…BAM, a Wallaby!  Crazy eh.
 

Boxing day, we drove north up the coast to Noosa with um, I can’t remember her name but she was SOOO ANNOYING and perhaps the stupidest human being I have ever met in my entire LIFE!!  Wow did she suck.  Moody, her and myself driving for 2 hours, OMG, both of us died a little on the inside after having to listen to her for that long.

 

So, pretty much after that, we went out once in the Gold Coast and then we headed off to Melbourne. 
Here are the Gold Coast pictures.

And here is the Gold Coast video.  Clearly I shot the whole thing with a Wizard of Oz theme.

Melbourne was definitely my favourite city of the trip.  The whole city had a sweet bohemian feel to it and there was graffiti everywhere!  But not like, little ugly things on walls, BIG HUGE art instalments.  It was awesome.  So, we did a bunch of stuff in Melbourne, I’m just going to run through them quick and you can check out the link to the album and I’ll upload the video to youtube tonight hopefully.
Things we did.  First day, cricket, the most boring sport on the face of the earth. We also drove out to the 12 Apostles.  They’re some huge rock sticking out of the ocean.  Here’s a pic.

Katie and I had been told by our local friends (to the left above) that this drive would only be 2 and a half hours….um, 4 and a half hours later.  Here we are.

Here are a few other cool pics from Melbourne, we did a lot of wandering there as well as New Year’s Eve, which I only took about 3 pictures of, but I got alot of video. 

So there are a few pics.  I’ll throw up the Melbourne vid later on tonight and here is a link to ALL of the Melbourne pics.  That way I don’t have to write anything else.  Please note the sweet cowboy hat that I bought though.

And here’s a link to the Melbourne Graffiti.  Please note the “Drew Funk” picture.

Melbourne Videos
Part 1

Part 2

As for Sydney, we went everywhere.  We stayed in Bondi (said Bondai) which is one of the most popular beaches in Australia.  The sand was like nothing I’ve ever felt before. We walked a 5 km trail from Bondi through 4 other beaches, we hit the zoo, the opera house, king’s cross, darlinghurst, darling harbour, glebe, newtown, etc etc etc.  We did everything and went everywhere.  Katie and I, after Bryn went back to Melbourne walked from one side of the city to the other.  Then got really really drunk.  You’ll see on the video. 
Here’s the Sydney Album.  And two pics from Sydney just cuz.

Gotta love the jump shots!  Check out the initials for this beer store:

Not only are my initials Bull Shit, they are also Beer Wine Spirits, good work parental units!  Just kidding.

Sydney Vids:

Part 1:

Part 2:

I’ll edit in the videos after I’ve uploaded them.  Since I’ve been back, all I’ve been doing is snowboarding, but I haven’t uploaded any pictures or made any videos of it yet cuz i’m just gonna wait till the end of the season.  I did however go to Mt. Shinobu in the middle of Fukushima this past weekend cuz the weather for boarding was so bad.  And it was beautiful outside, like 10 degrees in the middle of February.  Here’s the link to the album and check out this wicked Kung Fu pic.  Mo and I took a bunch of noobies that hadn’t been there before.  I’ll add the videos in as soon as their up…and if they’re all there, then just disregard this sentence.  KUNG FU PICS!

And here’s the obligatory couple shot from the top of the mountain that I can’t help but screw up everytime.  It’s just funnier that way.

k, I hope that was enough of an update, seeing as it has been a few months.  I have another vid in the works and I’ll have snowboard pictures up as soon as they actually go on the internet.  That’s pretty much what I do EVERY weekend, so, until the snow goes, not much the report.   Hope everyone is good.

B

Added bonus: Bonenkai Video.  This is the end of the year party where everyone goes a bit nuts.

so, I wrote this like 2 weeks ago, but I haven’t uploaded it…Australia tomorrow!

Yikes, last blog was awhile ago I think.  Well at least one of substance.  But today I’m at a visit school without internet so instead of actually, planning for lessons next week, I’m just going to sit and write a lengthy blog about what I’ve been doing, which is pretty much nothing.  Um, in the last blog I said I’d be going to
Tokyo, which didn’t happen, cuz I didn’t have the cash.  I did go to the Global Citizen’s Festival.  Here are the pics. Click here. I pretty much did nothing the whole day other than walk around and mess with kids and I was a lone dancer for an all girl Japanese punk band at one point, but none of the kids would dance with me.  LOL.

 

And here are the pics from the Nagano soccer tournament, the video was in the last blog….face it I’m getting good a videos.

 Above is the akabeko (link to what an akabeko is) the Fukushima team name. Aizu is an area of Fukushima prefecture.

  

And after that I went to Grant and Junko’s Wedding.  Here’s the video, 2 parts.

 

The wedding was interesting to say the least.  Seeing as everyone on the groom’s side had no idea what was going on, including the groom.  Stand up, sit down, grant stands, junko stands, a bow here, a bow there.  The video is long cause a lot of people didn’t end up going and I wanted to keep as much of the ceremony as possible in it.  But man, it was hard/weird to try and record without looking like an ass.  I think I got enough of it.  But the whole room was SOO silent the whole time.  Mo wouldn’t even turn on her camera because of the noise it made when it turned on.  And because it wasn’t like a church style and more like…well, small stadium seating, junko’s family could shoot us dirty looks whenever we did something that you know, wasn’t correct.  It was funny to watch an entire side of foreigners having no idea what was going on and trying to capture all of it while having some semblance of respect for the ceremony.  To be fair, Grant had no idea what was going on either.  Junko had to stand him up, sit him down and they had to tell him to drink the sake 3 times, as is custom, not just once.  After the actual wedding was done with it was simple enough for us to follow along, cuz it turns out, Japanese wedding, totally different, Japanese reception…pretty much the same, but still a bit off.  We all sat at really nice tables, the whole thing was really well done.  BUT, the bride and groom make separate entrances…3 of them!  First in their traditional kimono, grant’s alone was worth a million yen, about $10,000.  Then people speak a bit and then we eat a bit.  Then at some point they snuck out and BAM, another entrance, in western garb this time.  It was weird that they had a spotlight on them the whole time as well as, you guessed it, a smoke machine at the door.  Like a cross between a David Copperfield show and a wedding.  Then at one point, they went around to each table and lit the candles on it.  The significance of this?  I have no idea, but then they lit a huge candle at the front which seemed to be a big deal…why?  Once again, I don’t know.  But, after the reception, at the 2^nd party, where people who weren’t invited to the wedding proper were allowed to come along and join, we, the foreigners, knew what was going on.  There was karaoke and drinking…that was easy.  Although, I did make an ass of myself, by giving a terrible speech.  Grant had told me that during the first reception I was to give a speech, so when his friends from back home started giving speeches I began to prepare by ordering a bottle of sake and drinking all of it, quickly.  After which, I wasn’t even called on to give a speech.  After that I thought I was in clear, but I was obviously a little bit too drunk.  And in the 2^nd party, I was asked to give a speech.  A little too intoxicated at this point, I agreed and I remember it starting something like, “Grant is not a handsome man, Grant is not generally a smart man.  Junko is awesome…best decision ever Grant….”

 

YIKES.  At least everyone else at this point was hammered so it didn’t go over that badly.  The bouquet toss was thrown…to the men…and then we headed out to the 3^rd party at a piano bar, which was a lot of fun.  And obviously there was a 4^th party at a bar we frequent when in Koriyama.  I got back to where we were all crashing around 4:30 or 5am.

 

Other than that, I went to the fire festival…for the 3^rd time. 

 

 

In total senpai (senior) fashion.  Didn’t take the train with anyone else, drove down, stayed for like 2 hours, then drove home.  Didn’t go out and party with everyone else, didn’t even drink a drop.  Here are the pics, I think I took a total of like 14, if u want to see more, then go back through the pictures.    Since I’ve been back I’ve been out drinking a total of like 4 times!  How adult of me!   Um, so that was in the beginning of November and since then, I really haven’t been up to much, trying to save for my Australia Trip.

 

I’m leaving on December 20^th, flying to the Gold Coast, then staying there with Moody’s family until the 27^th.  Then we’re going to fly to Melbourne and I’ll be there till January 3^rd and then I’m going to Sydney with Bryn, another JET friend who lives in Melbourne.  I come back on January 9^th (the Friday) just in time to snowboard for the long weekend, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. 

 

Speaking of snowboarding, I’ve already been 3 times this season and I’m going again this weekend and next weekend.  AWESOME!!  Other than that, I got nothing going on. 

 

There is a bonenkai (end of the year party) tonight for Higashi, which I’m attending and probably getting quite intoxicated at and maybe I’ll make a video of it cuz they always do the most ridiculous stuff.  The other day, a JTE asked to borrow a pair of my sunglasses cuz some teacher is dressing up like Jacku Bawau from twenty foouuur.  So that should be um…interesting.  Well, that’s it for now and I feel like I’ve at least written something substantial for once.  This is the first one I’ve written that’s you know, got stuff in it since April…YAY ME!

Well, I’ve been back two weeks now.  Everything’s good.  Just wanted to post vids.  The first is my Canada video and the 2nd is the Nagano soccer trip that I just got back from, enjoy.

Canada

Nagano

That’s all for now, upcoming, Global Citizen’s festival this weekend, bachelor party in Tokyo next weekend and then Grant’s wedding on Oct 25th.

Oh ya, here are pics for
Canada
Nagano

So, it’s the end of the month, school is back in and that means, brief blog time.  I took a total of 18 pictures this month.  LOL.  So, not much media coming your way.  The first weekend of August was spent taking out the Group A first years and the 2^nd weekend was spent doing the same thing over again.  We got a great group of newbs, which is awesome cuz they’re all pumped to be in Japan, makes me sad to leave…at the end of next year.  I’ve pretty much spent everyday I possibly could at the beach, while school was on “vacation.”  I still had to come into school everyday but I left around 10am and hit the beach most days.  I’ve been to a few parties, one hosted by a newb in Bandai (where we snowboard).  It’s been good stuff but lots of driving.  This past weekend, for the 3^rd year I went to the
Iwaki Beach bomb, it seems like it’s getting smaller and smaller every year because the weather each year has been worse and worse.  But, we still went, we still swam, I got sick.

Beach Bomb (click for pics) 

 

Started going back to boxing last week and that’s pretty much all I’m going to do for the next 17 DAYS until I go home.  No going out, no parties, no nothing.  I’m trying to come back with as much money as possible but even at this rate, don’t know how much that’ll be, buying a car and then doing all the leaving parties as well as all the welcome parties on one month’s salary was a bad call.  The Fukushima Orientation (mid-month) went over well, and the party was pretty rockin’.  I really don’t have that much more to say.  My Iwaki beach bomb pictures are posted below.  Once again, may I say…17 days!!!

 

Oh, and I just want to say that I don’t know why the right hand side of all of my blogs is cut off.  I’ve had other people look at it and they say they are, so it’s not just my comp.  Hopefully, I’ll have it sorted out by the time I’ve posted this.  

About the margins - I’ve messed around for about 2 hours now, new skins, borders, padding, whatever that is and can’t get my posts so that they’re not cut off.  If viewed with Firefox, everything is fine.  IE on the other hand messes it up royally.  I don’t really know what to do.  I don’t even know why those lines in the top paragraph don’t have space between them.  It just kind of posted that way.  If you use the link on the left hand side and hit August 2008, just my latest post will come up and the margins look alright then.  So, from now on that’ll probably be the best way to do it.  Just click the month of my latest post and BAM it’ll come up with the full line intact.  Sorry that’s the best I can do for now.

 

Brent

Here I am for a monthly check in.  I’ve spent the last month running around, trying to spend “quality time” with everyone before they leave, because literally everyone I know is leaving.  Save 2 or 3 people, all my friends are out and it’s totally weird to watch because, it’s not like at home where you know that eventually you’ll run into that person again.  These people are going to places like New Zealand, Australia, England, etc etc.  Apart from a 3 week vacation or something, when am I ever going to be there?  It’s currently 5:51am, Monday morning, I said goodbye to Shaun Moody last night and can’t seem to sleep now.  But, I did not cry….no no, we quickly embraced and walked away from each other so as that wouldn’t happen and we would save face.  Anyway, a quick break down of the weekends in July, cuz nothing happens on weekdays

Camping in Minami Aizu
Great time, in the middle of nowhere.  July 5th weekend

Leavers Party Weekend
So, Shaun and I set up the last party we’ll have to run, the 2007-2008 Leavers Party.  I know that you’re going to open the link to the pics and think…aw, there are only 8 pics of an entire weekend.  The reason?

I made a video of it!  Pretty average weekend, well, other than the huge blow out party on the Friday night, but those occur bi-monthly at least.   But this is probably my best video to date.  Barely any talking, all music, good stuff I think.  July 11th weekend.

Higashi Sports Festival
Every year, all the classes compete against each other in a bunch of different sports.  I have a bunch of video of this as well, but haven’t put it together.  There is a video from last year in Sept I think.  Here are the pictures for now.  These kids pick some weird stuff to put on their shirts and apparently anything goes.
Oh and here’s part 2, I seriously hope you’re reading at least the little blurbs before clicking on the pictures.

Marine Day Weekend 1
Marine Day Weekend 2
Next up, the July 19th weekend, also known as Marine Day Long Weekend.  Yes, the holiday is called Marine Day.  We went down to Tokyo on the Friday night and went to Lock Up, a theme izakaya.  It was pretty awesome until we ordered these pills filled with straight alcohol, then it was down hill from there.  Some friends have posted some, um, not too flattering pictures of me that include me begging the taxi driver to take me in a not so sober state.  After that we headed down to Kawaguchiko (river entrance lake), a tourist town at the base of Mt Fuji.  It was an absolutely beautiful little town, but I’d probably give it a miss if I was going to do it again.  Spent Saturday, Sunday and a bit of Monday there.  Great times.  My favourite pic from the weekend was probably this little bit of romance right here.

Other than that, check out the Canadian Geese pictures.  Yes, Canadian Geese in Japan?  How does that happen…Mo and I were having a little freak out, while everyone else just looked at us, like…who cares?

This past weekend I didn’t take any pictures, but obviously it was alot of drinking and alot of goodbyes.  Everyone came up to Fukushima (city) and we all went out Friday night.  I got home at around 6am.  Then Saturday night was just the Fukushima city people.  Katie, Alex, Shaun, Mo, Steve and myself.  A good way to end it all I guess.  Drunk at a nomi-houdai followed by 2 hours of Karaoke.  The 6 of us had dinner last night together.  Shaun leaves Thursday and Kate and Alex are gone on Tuesday.  Then all the new people get here, well, today actually.  So weird to say goodbye and then have to meet a whole slew of new people.  I’m the Fukushima Area Support Leader this year, so there will once again be welcome parties, run by me…a little scary now that my Japanese crutches of Shaun, Alex and Kate are gone.  One of these newbies better have decent Japanese or we’re all going down. 

Um, other than that…I think that’s about it.  I’ve scored a ton of stuff from people that are leaving which is cool.  My car is making some really strange noises, but we’re buying Kate’s so we’ll soon have 2.  I joined a boxing gym and I’m going 2 or 3 times a week with a buddy who lives outside of Nihonmatsu (Grant).  It’s good Japanese practice.  That’s it for now, be back in another month or so.

First and foremost…..i shaved my head.

Next, I am sad to announce that there will be no china blog.  I am just too lazy to write it.  Just the first day took me 3 pages and I just can’t do that.  So, the videos/pictures will be the only things that will ever exist from my China on the intrawebs….I guess i’ll have the memories in my head, but they don’t really count unless they’re shared with others right?  Anyway, it’s been about 2 months I guess since I last wrote anything.  So, I figured today I’d come home early and sit in my boxers and just write up a little something.  Um, 2 weeks after China (around May 15th) I headed down to Tokyo for my good friend Matt Harris’ birthday, we hit the biggest club in Asia, Ageha and then went to a festival in Asakusa.  I just have pictures from the festival.  It’s called the Sanja Matsuri (3 something festival).  Basically it’s based on 2 fisherman who found a kannon buddha in their fishing nets and a rich business man.  After finding the kannon buddha all 3 of these guys became monks and dedicated their lives to buddhism.  I think that rich businessman was so amazed by the fishermans’ story that he joined them and donated all his money to a temple.  Today, it’s basically a bunch of dudes walk around with Omikoshi (the portable shrines) and pants are optional…apparently. 

Now, the big draw of this festival was that it was supposed to be the one day where the Yakuza (japanese mafia) are allowed to display their full body tatoos in public.  Normally there is a ban on this, by the Yakuza itself and the cops….not that the latter really matters.  But we went and were totally stoked…except I didn’t see one THE ENTIRE TIME!!!  A few friends had one guy take of his shirt and show them, but obviously I was getting shaved ice so I missed it.  Anyway, the pics are here.

Sanja Matsuri

Uh, after that, I really didn’t do much until one weekend where Mo and I decided to use MY free night at the hyatt regency hotel.  If you’re wondering, what free night?  Go down to the dancing video or the post titled beers, birthdays, and boarding or something like that.  Anyway, we used our night at the hyatt, but had to use it on a friday night because apparently my coupon didn’t allow for us to book on a saturday night.  LAME!!!  So on June 5th, we left work as early as we could and headed down to Tokyo.  The Hyatt was amazing (please note that I said, the Hyatt Regency, not the Park Hyatt which is the building made famous by the Lost in Translation movie). 

We were gonna try to have a swanky dinner there, but obviously I didn’t bring a suit JACKET, which was a requirement of their swanky french restaurant so we were turned away.  We hit up another place in Shinjuku instead and then went back to the Hyatt for drinks in a bar that was “reminiscent of a private club.”  It was sweet!! Or I guess I should say, really posh.  I had a few crown royals and mo had a glass of champagne and the bill was about 100 bucks, so much for a “free night.”  The next day we headed to Yokohama.  There we went up the highest building in Japan, on the fastest elevator in the world.  All the stats are in the captions to the pictures.  After that we went on the tallest Ferris Wheel in the world, according to Lonely Planet.  I’m a bit skeptical about this because Drew and Nathan while in Osaka apparently saw the “tallest Ferris Wheel in Japan” and then in Fukuoka saw the “tallest Ferris Wheel in Asia.”  I dunno, you try to figure it out.  Anyway, we hit a rollercoaster and kinda hung out in Yokohama.  After that we went to Chinatown (still in Yokohama).  It was pretty awesome, just like China, except cleaner…with more japanese people…more japanese…and with japanese prices.  We tried to get Peking duck, cuz Mo’s never had it before.  Just a sidebar: for 3 of us in China for a whole duck and drinks it cost a total of about 21 dollars, that’s 7 dollars each.  For a whole duck in Chinatown in Japan, oh ya, 150 dollars!!  Needless to say, we did not have duck.  We had dinner and then headed back to our hostel. 
Night at the Hyatt/Yokohama

On the sunday we went to Akihabara, and I don’t know if you heard about this, but we left Akihabara 10 minutes before some psycho in a van, came in, hit some people with his van then got out and started stabbing people at random.  He killed 7 people.  Here’s a link to the article.  Freaky.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20080608×1.html

Um, what else has gone down?  Oh, the biggest earthquake that I have ever felt happened.  It has apparently killed 12 people.  The epicenter was in Miyagi, the prefecture north of Fukushima, about a 20 min drive to the border from Fukushima city, so that we pretty freaky.  Everything in the apartment shook pretty hardcore, I thought that the book shelf was going to topple over.  Here’s the article for that.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4141402.ece

I just realized that I’ve written about two freaky things that have happened in a row as if to say I live in a danger zone or something.  LOL.

Last but not least.  This past Tuesday, a bunch of us went to a Japan Baseball League Game.  The Yomiura Giants, based out of Tokyo (Japan’s equivalent of the Yankees, except everyone loves them) vs. The Orix Buffaloes (no clue where they’re from).  We attended this in Fukushima of all places.  We were going to try to get tickets to a game in Tokyo but they’re sold out for the season.  We then found out that they play one game a year in Fukushima because one of the players is from Fukushima or something like that.  So we scored tickets and strangely enough, it didn’t even sell out?  It’s like the Toronto Maple Leafs coming to Hamilton and the game not selling out?  WHAT?  Weird eh?  Anyway, it was a total blast especially cheering for the Buffaloes when EVERYONE in the crowd was wearing Giants gear.  The Giants ended up winning in the bottom of the 9th which was upsetting but awesome night anyway. 
Giants Vs. Buffaloes

Uh, since then, nothing really big has happened.  Had some good nights out this last weekend.  Had a bit of a boys night Friday night and then Saturday we all went out, ended up in Karaoke for 2 hours at the end of the night.  Home by 4:30am…that clearly means it was a good night. 

School’s been busy lately.  After having a bit of a go at the kids for not writing creatively on their exams (that I got to mark).  The JTE’s for the entire second (read: eleventh) grade have brought in journals for kids to write creatively and try out difficult sentences so that they aren’t continually writing.  I like baseball.  Baseball is fun.  I play baseball everyday.

I have some stellar examples for you to check out.  Some are good, some are funny and some have clearly been put into an online translator and make no sense at all.  The only problem with all of this is that I have to mark 300 journals a week.  That’s making corrections, writing comments and grades.  I’m only at Higashi 3 days a week!!!  Good thing my supervisor doesn’t know i’m alive or I might actually have classes and have to mark these things.  I’m liking it, but it is definitely messing with my English speaking and writing ability to be reading this stuff day in and day out.

Check it out.  Keep in mind they’re supposed to be creative and interesting.  I don’t grade them on grammar but I obviouly make all the corrections that need to be made.  Oh and they’re supposed to be AT LEAST 100 WORDS.  This is after 5 years of studying English.

#1)