Friday with the Fam in Seattle

Thought I'd get some shots of the tree as we've just finished decorated it last night. Now that I've been back for a day or so it's nice to appreciate little things about America. Although oddly enough I really miss being in Japan already!!!

Sometimes things here just don't compare at all to Japan.

The day after I got here though I had to give a presentation in my sisters Japanese class about Japan. JEEEEEZ it started early, and I had to speak in all 5 classes. By the end though I was happy I came, it was really interesting talking to high school kids in America and what they thought about Japan and questions they had. I thought it was really funny in one class, they asked me how much I made so I told them, and he said, "So you're poor!" half jokingly.
I found this really interesting because in Japan I make a lot of money, and people I talk to can't believe we make so much for doing so little. Personally I think if I were to be more careful with my money I'd have a lot...but I found the students reaction very interesting.

All in all they asked very good questions and I think I did alright for giving my first presentation and speech in front of students that actually understand everything I say, except when I would subconsciously speak Japanese to the Japanese teacher. I loved that though because the simplest of things I can now say without hesitation and it feels pretty good.

Anywho, check out Mandy Pachinkins in her new Santa outfit I picked up for here in Japan.

It was so good to see Mandy Pachinkins again! And jeez I love dogs...and she remembered me, which felt good...we chilled together most of the afternoon as I lazily watched sportscenter and comedy central soaking up the boob tube since I haven't had a chance to do that in a while.

And then here we are...Saturday morning and I woke up at 5:30 and couldn't really sleep so well. Jet lag or whatever it was funky having the sun not come out till about 7:30, but that's Washington.

Might do some snowboarding today with Mark...He was the dude with his arm stretched in the first pic. The night riding at Steven's Pass looks pretty good...about 5 lifts open which is very good. Want to get in the family time though it's funny kicking it with the kids. It's only been a year but some of them have grown almost half a foot I couldn't believe it!!!

One of my favorite things about this house in Duvall is waking up and looking out the windows to have everything outside be super foggy! We live on river basically and the haziness will stay here until the sun blasts things out around 10 or 11. It's a very nice way to wake up in the morning unlike the desert sun blasting you through the windows.

Off to Florida tomorrow and very excited to hang out with the pops. It's going to be different going out and doing stuff all day and probably going to exercise all the time with the pops when I've just been sitting around here eating pizza and about 20 Christmas cookies a day, but hey I'm on vacation!!! I'll be sure to update the blog when I can(ie when I'm awake at the wrong times!!!).

I hope everyone's having a good holiday!

Gettin pumped to come back..

...!

But first...does your ski resort have a disco ball!!



ha! Japan never ceases to amaze....



...Very fun, although the park was closed, and then after an hour it started raining! Snowed on the way back home though.

Jeez I love Karin...so funny when she's dancing with the headphones on too.

Uploading some pics

...Trying to blog while the weekend is still pretty fresh in my head. Unfortunately this weekend I only had one day off because I worked for a friend on Monday. I'm pissed too because there was a big festival in Kofu, it was funny it was a hip-hop festival with people spray painting and dj's playing some pretty good hip-hop! It's funny listening to hip-hop here when nobody really knows the words, and seeing the crowd who's listening. LOL Yesterday the dj was playing Notorious BIG while people were pushing around their parents in wheel chairs while Mr. Notorious was talking about doing drugs, killing people, and living in the ghetto(this of course is very nicely put by me, not him though :P)

Here was one of the artists, had a friend painting right next to him!



I was bummed to go to work, but my buddy worked for me when I went snowboarding last month so the trade off was worth it. The day before though I really seized the day off and went to Tokyo, stopped in Harajuku to go to the H & M then off to Yokohama. Just so everyone knows, Yokohama is kind of outside the Tokyo area, but a very cool place. Lots of cafe's & cool streets, it's more of a younger crowd too, a very fun place. But Sunday was all business, snowboard expo sale. Lots of cool gear, took the train in!

Right to Left




Thought this picture of Hazuki is pretty funny, she was cold so she word my gloves. Taking the high speed train into Tokyo is so fun! Second stop...Yokohama...

By Day!(Yes another xmas tree!)



By Night!

Funky picture of the Ferris Wheel by the pier, it's a lot bigger than it looks!

We later went to meet a good friend of mine, DAVID! He lives in Kamata(South Tokyo) just a few stops away from Yokohama.


Haha he didn't realize I was taking a pic of him, we were goofing off at a bar before we found this jazz spot!



They weren't bad, it's funny just about every live jazz band here always plays the girl from impanena. Good thing I love that song because it's huuuuge out here...

...the smoking section



and the beer section!



We were able to catch a couple sets until we had to book it to catch our train into Shinjuku Station(basically the center of Tokyo) Here's a couple snaps I took as Haz and I were waiting for the last train back to Kofu!




So that was basically my really quick weekend. Still fighting a sore throat...I think I've been sick the whole month of November, I HATE IT! I'm trying everything to get better, this morning I bought a whole bunch of parsimmons I think I'm going to eat a bunch tomorrow. I also bought some vitamins so hopefully I'll kick this thing. I don't even feel up to go to the gym! Eff this hopefully I'll bounce back this week. Just was checking the calendar, 3 weeks till I go back to see fam for the holidays! Stoked. Hope everyone enjoyed the pics, sorry none in the snowboarding place having too much fun!!

Whoa I'm a horrible speller...

I meant to say no time to be wasting time but totally butchered that line....


I'M SICK AGAIN!!!!!! This time though it's a little more serious, goin to the doctor tomorrow...YUCK I FEEL LIKE...well I don't feel good. Anyways, I said in a comment that there's a lot of Hello Kitty around, I meant a lot!



and it's strawberry scented too!!


Went to a winery over the weekend, pretty fun...was walking to the vineyard and saw this house hanging parsimmons. In Japan there are two types, these you have to hang so all the bitterness falls to the bottom or something. There were about 10 houses doing this but only took a snap of one.

No to to be wasting time.....

on blogs...or basically i'm addicted to playing scrabble on facebook so everything else is being put on the backburner!!!!

here's a quick picture reference of what I've been doing...I think one of them needed explaining...ohh!!! Might as well put it first...


Getting ready to clean the litter box, chi-chi takes no prisoners!

Forgot to Mention...

TODAY IS MY ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY BEING IN JAPAN!

!

Well I thought I would put up a post really quick before I bombarded this page with Disneyland shenanagins! OUCH! It's 11:30 here and I have to meet up to jump on a bus @ 6:45!!!


AHHHHHHH

Just finished a mean game of scrabble though and came out on top 275 to 245....gotta love playing SUAVE between given and pipes = w00t!!!!



Don't hate on my takin a picture of my Saturday night activities either! haha like I said I'm going to Disneyland tomorrow so I need to rest up. :)

Ok, so for those of you who wonder how many koi fish there are around here...I decided I would take a picture when riding home from work today going across a bridge... and here you are....



Yes koi(aka carp!) are everywhere here....just about under every bridge and also every mellow spot in rivers I see some pretty big ones. It's really great riding my bike to my branch though and throwing some food out and feeding them though, a small highlight of the day...besides riding my bike to work which is also very fun. I always see something interesting or almost get run over, but Japanese people are such curtious drivers I can basically ride in the middle of a lane and they will wait for me(patiently of course) until they have enough room to curtiously pass me by.

On Friday's and Saturday I ride to work, It only takes me about 20 minutes to get there, and 10 - 15 back because it's downhill. It's a nice bike ride, just enough you know! A couple songs to listen to and not really too much strain or exercise...love it actually. For some reason took a pic of lunch on Friday...funny huh :)



Yes that's salmon sushi. In America I really didn't care for salmon raw so much, but here it tatses diffrent! Better I think, I really like it a lot. Also some dried mangos, which are becoming very common with me...I love them! I think the fam in Kauai should start drying the thousands of mangos they harvest and send them to me(HINT!), btw mangos are crazy expensive here, one mango... 8 bucks! but dried aren't so bad. Somtimes prices in Japan blow my mind, grapes...5 bucks! WHHHAT....a coffee at Starbucks here, tall, $2.00~

Anyways peep my cat! She's been very annoying this week....she's getting super huge though I think she wants to get outside. I feel bad everytime I leave work because I leave my balcony open and I see her head peeking out watching me leave...hmm, maybe next time I'll take a pic of that for some proof!





Haha it was so funny when she jumped up into the freezer, I tried to shut her in but she wasn't having it...I've managed to shut her in the fridge once I thought it was very funny! Don't worry no animal cruelty going on cat's are just annoyingly curious...never really understood the whole saying until I got one....it's annoying but really funny sometimes.

Anyways it's time to say goodbye....to my Jalepenos. Winter is almost officialy here in Japan and my babies that I raised to fruitition are dying out. last night I harvested the last of them, which are incredibly spicy by the way(YES) and put them in some pasta I cooked with some scallops w00t! Also in the pic is the last of the basil...you did good minature farm on my balcony, have a good winter and hopefully see you in the spring...for just a little while :)



Anyhow that just about does it for the past couple of days. Disneyland should be interesting, hey at least I get to go for free!!! And be with kids while at Disneyland, I really wouldn't care to go there by myself...I hear Disney Sea here is pretty rad, I'll try and peep it out while I'm there. Who knows! HAHAhA Starbucks has already started playing Christmas songs here...really funny in Japan...amercia tooooooo?????

YAY November!

After doing a week of Halloween parties with little kids I am happy to see the holiday go! Here's a shot goofing around with the eyeball race eyeballs before class started :P



My Dame Ningen costume was a hit though. For some reason I even was top five in the costume contest at the bar I went to....which was really funny. Michael Jackson won though, lol I wish I would have taken a photo it was really funny. He was the "Thriller" Michael Jackson with the red jacket...pretty cool!

Here's some shots of kids on Saturday! I really like this one for some reason...maybe the lighting or something



These boys are always hallarious!!! Playing games with this class was very fun!





Getting very anxious to come back home! Also finally over a little sore throat so I can enjoy some hiking and being active again. All the trees are starting to change colors here, very pretty stuff...ohh, I even think I have a pic of that outside a combini!



This was last week so they're a little more red now...very pretty riding my bike down the main drag in town when the wind blows. Here's another pic on my way to a branch I work at...see the big koi???



Buying my ticket this week to go home w00t! Also figuring a way to re-arrange my room to make part of my bedroom a little living room! After payday gonna drop some money on a couch! Stoked!

Next weekend probably going to Tokyo, itching to get into the city for some reason and just kick it! Tokyo is insane and just being in the city is a really good feeling. Anyways...THE NEW WEEZER ALBUM COMES OUT 11/3 or !!># as I wrote it the first time :P If anyone wants it hit me up on SKYPE !It's gonna be good....might as well link a youtube video

DAME NINGEN!

Or sucessfully translated as loser! Lol luckily one of my teachers got this tie for me which you'll see in the next picture...as a kids here automatically think scary. I asked a students what I was, they had no clue, on kid even guessed dracula!







This was by far my favorite group! We had a skeleton scavenger hunt, just imagine all these kids running around in the dark with flashlights looking for skeletons with creepy music blasting and it being pitch black. The other teacher I work with had two costumes, and kept switching in order to scare them...couldn't stop laughing!

Anyways I can't wait for Halloween week to be OVER!!!! As easy as it is it's rough controlling kids who are hyper as f*** because they're having so much fun. One more day!!!!

Busy weekend!

Who's that handsome fellow with a mustache in the local mag???



wait...lets take a closer look on a different page :P



discovered this today (Sunday)while waiting for my driving lesson. My teacher happened to be an hour late. HEY BUD! WTF, don't make a lesson Sunday morning @ 8am and forget about it DICK! This Japanese drivers license is definatley going to be a hassle to get :( I love the procedure for getting out of the car....

1. Unbuckle your seat belt.
2. Look for cars coming...wait
3. Open the door 15 cm and look again
4. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

But! You can't look, turn off the car, open the door 15cm and then get out...the dude got pissed when I did that! Eff you dude get here on time if I'm paying you $60 an hour!!!!

Anyways on a lighter note....peep out the End of craft week!!!







I really like this one by Hikari...this girl rocks! The little chica throwin up the peace sign in the other photo..


Anyways I need to handle bizniss around here. Would love to put up some funny pics of the rest of my Sunday but that will wait till later. Gotta take out the trash and rest up for another busy day off!! ARRRRRGHHHH!!!!

A quick glimpse of my week!

It's going by pretty smoothly. CRAFT week is awesome, next week party week...my job is so easy :)

And...the cat has been way cool lately, raising her right :)




...killin time while trying to get my japanese license(it's going to take forever)



..it's funny when people ask me to clock them out, lol takes me a minute


This is Karin, she is hallarious, always has like 5 bags with her. We pick her up from the elementary school across the street before she comes to our school. Basically she talks to me in Japanese and I respond in English and she understands...cool chica



Diggin the soccer ball!!!



Finally kicked that bug I had too! w00t! Did a little hike this week, hopefully I'll have my license by next weekend granted I don't fail my test, cross your fingers. The weekend is looking pretty chill, might peep a hockey game on Saturday. Driving lessons(!) Sunday morning and might do a hike in the afternoon. Zombie movies in the evening...for some reason I've been playing a lot of chess too....bring it on Bobby Fischer!

Why am can't I stop playing John Legend?!?!

Haha this is all besides the point!

Yesterday was probably one of the funniest days of snowboarding ever! It was the season opening of Yeti resort, it's on the other side of Mt.Fuji that I'm able to see. Being in the Halloween spirit as I mentioned in earlier posts if you wear a costume you get in for free...and people wore some costumes! Also, snowboarding with a beard is harder than you think!!!! Very intesting to see people snowboaring in costume too! I highly recommend it!

Hmmm should I show my favorite first??? Nah, here was my get up...



It was pretty good for being free. Lol there was actually another Santa on the slopes but it was all good...really funny day. Here's some of the Shenannagins(sp?):P








I thought this was an interesting couple, French Maid and weird guy with a suit on one side and all funky on the other :P Anyone know who he is???





Ok and this guy needs some explaining!!!



Unfortunately I didn't get any shots of him snowboarding down hill with that table eating those mikan's! He had two boards connected to the bottom of the table(kotatsu) and a pillow taped to his ass....mind you he was only wearing underwear!!!!! Doing all this while trying to ride down... Luckily he had a buddy with him who was trying to ride down on a surfboard!! Hopefully you can see him in this pic...



...It took him a long time to get down :P Lol I was really surprised to see this when I was in the lift line...



Haha lined up right next to a golf course...It was interesting to see people lining up for puts while I finished just my run, Japan is an interesting place huh!?

Ok and for my costume winner!!!THIS GUY!



I could not stop laughing after I took this pic!! AY YAI YAI this country blows me away sometimes this was hallarious! Nothing really to say that pics can explain...here's some other snaps of the day, Enjoy!