Brian back in J-land biznatches

feelin that aloha!

2011-08-25T21:03:00.002+09:00

Could be from the surfing with my friends and teaching them about the dangers and safety of the waves a couple of weekends ago. I can't believe how much I learn when I'm out in Hawaii that I would never have picked up in this concrete jungle or the other ones stateside.

Kinda jealous my brother is getting to go out there again next week!! I hope he has fun. Honestly I would probably give up the snowboard for a chance to live in Hawaii and as easy as it is to do it's not I think. Out of respect for the people and the paradise that's being crazily over populated at the moment I don't think I'd move there. Although it would be a nice blend of Japanese and American culture that I can easily find a career in, especially with my background in the service industry...let's call it the easy way out for now.

I've had a weird week with a bunch of ups and downs. Just recently sprained my right ring finger indoor snowboarding. Lucky for you all that read this you're too far away to hear me complain and whine, although you may have seen some of my TWEETs! IT HURTS. The whole car ride home I was messing with it too because it felt like I could crack the knuckle but it just needed a little extra umph...you know what I'm talking about!! But iced it down and this morning couldn't even make a fist! Iced it a lot all day though and should be good to go in a week or two.

After work today and prepping for the coming school semester I'm actually getting a little excited, or rather not fearing the fall semester that's coming next week. When it comes down to it my job is actually not that difficult, it's just a bunch of busy work mostly. And now that I've got most of the prep out of the way it should be smooth sailing for a while.

I put a post out on facebook a few weeks ago on an inspirational movie that I should show the kids in high school. Took the pop's advice on THE KARATE KID and since they also need to do a debate essay we're going to take a look at 80's culture(a personal favorite of mine) and cross compare the 80's culture of Japan vs. America. So mom and dad be ready for some photos if you can dig any up. I think it will be great for the kids to interact with their parents as well. It's odd here the relationships of parents and their kids aren't exactly the same as they are back home. But this will be an excuse for communication and for them to learn a little about the 80's!!!! LOL, these kids are so up on mainstream whatever it'll be a good chance to take a step back.

There's another FUJI climb in a couple weeks! And a fire festival tomorrow(8/26) where the city below Mt.Fuji is going to light a bunch of bonfires in hopes to calm the god of Mt.Fuji so the mountain won't erupt this year! Hey,! After climbing that sucker I feel like I should pay my dues. And also right after climbing I think I'm ready to do it again. DID YOU KNOW Mt.Fuji is the most climbed mountain in the world! Some people hate it, and hey! I didn't climb it for two years because I thought it was STUPID, but now it's super fun and it's such a good feeling to get to the top....very cheesy but when I got to the top I felt like I accomplished something! Very hard these days for my lazy self, so might as well do it again!

Hope you dig the jams!

A little time for the blizog!

2011-08-17T15:38:00.007+09:00

Well,

It's been a little while and now in the midst of my summer holiday I've finally stumbled upon my digitally dusty blog and I suppose it's time for an update.

Basically, things are going well, not too badly sunburned with all the outdoor adventures that have been going on. Honestly not doing too much these days. I bought a big TV that I hardly ever watch, a PS3 I really only use to watch movies, and a kettlebell that I LOVE!!!!!

Finished reading a pretty good book, and now I'm going to devote my "book reading time" to study time. I was at dinner the other day after a 3 day, 2 night camping trip on the beach....we were all looking at the menu and I COULDN'T READ IT! Well, I could read quite a bit of it but I was at the table, among a lot of friends with varying levels of Japanese and I was the worst :( So it has motivated me to study just a little more. I might as well as I think I'm going to be here for at least another year.

As I've said before to my fam and friends... I'M NOT LEAVING UNTIL YOU COME AND VISIT ME. So it's up to all ya'll to come and say what's up! Then I'll hightail it back to reality. I can't believe I've been here for this long. Although it's been great, I've made amazing friends and seen a lot of cool stuff...I miss America quite a bit sometimes. But, on the other end I have an amazing life here and I still generally keep in contact with a lot of people back home which is great. Anyways...I know you want to see some pics so let me dig some stuff up.!!

Well there's some stuff from my latest iphone upload. I kinda cracked my phone so I can get free ringtones and a few free apps and what not so I don't upload so many photos these days! Can you believe it...I only got a 16gb one and it's already full!!!! People in the 1980s probably couldn't even comprehend how to do that so quickly!! :P Basically a lot of goodbye parties..that one in particular(2nd photograph) were some really good friends of mine. The first was on a train to go to a wedding. 3rd a little cutie I got to do to dinner with her and her family. Then some summer stuff.

Summer's been good to me so far. Getting a lot done and being pretty healthy. It's hot! But I love the air conditioner and especially the starbucks I have literally across the street that I'm usually at to use their air conditioner :P I'm actually going down to meet a friend who's from Gabon, Africa! Funny funny guy, who's reading Japanese books like nothing. One thing I love here is how international of a life I'm living. lol btw his name's Parfait...which usually gets a little giggle when you first hear it. But! In french it means 'perfect' HOW YOU LIKE THAT!!! Anyways he's alright...horrible at pool though, good at everything else! Gonna meet him in like 5 so I'm out!

Cinco De Mayo!!!

2011-05-05T18:24:00.003+09:00

And my Lakers are losing!!

It feels like the last post was more than a year ago!!! I feel like I haven't snowboarded since last season! Great weather but not in the best of moods. New job going well. Drama on the decline, which is good. Things always looking up. Moving to a new room in the same building this week. I'll fire back with some pictures. Got big plans for my new place. Ready to change up the lifestyle a bit too.

jeez feb's almost out the hizzy!

2011-02-20T23:19:00.006+09:00

I thought not having a job might help with the regularity of this but I guess not....

Jobs are coming through though finally and it looks like in April I should be set. Wohooo more or less. It will be fun to go back to hanging out with kids teaching them English I think...just depends on where that will be. Luckily in the meantime have been doing a lot of free snowboarding...!

And not the free where I poach runs always nervous if the people working are going to ask for a pass I don't have. Lately peeps I know have been hooking things up and the oh so great gf pulled out a couple free passes too. LOL off some guy that was hitting her, and what a great girlfriend she gave them to me! It's nice riding a lot because you make friends with all the people working there. Just like a bartender gives free drinks to regulars sometimes I get a pass and some free food from the peeps on the working @ the slopes.

But after this past weekend going to Nagano, I think, although it's weird to say it...that I've gotten enough snowboarding in this year and I'm happy with my level of progression. Or maybe I just saw people that were so good and I'm just not pushing myself as much as I want. Who knows it could be the other factors in my life too...but I'm good on snowboarding for a bit. Time to count the days!! dun dun dunnnnnn 29 days riding this season...hmmm maybe I counted wrong before but I thought I was doing better than that. No worries though

That's my bud Alex, he actually lives in my old apartment. We hang out quite a bit actually...it's funny hearing English humor all the time(he's from sheffield to the narth of london I think) but he's fun and we always have a good time! Also brought my friend Mana whom I tweet on the regular!! She's probably one of the funniest Japanese girls I've ever met, check her gear!

But yes if it wasn't for those two my trip wouldn't have been as fun. It's funny I go on a trip in Japan, but everyone speaks English and everyone wants to speak English because most of the tourists can't speak Japanese. If it wasn't for talking to Mana I probably wouldn't have spoken any Japanese except when I said "domo" to the lifties! Well, and my buddy Sho was around...JEEZ I forgot to mention he hit a big kicker(jump) last week and really messed his sh*t up..came just to hang out though what a trooper! check it

It didn't turn out to be that bad, but he was wearing sunglasses and after he hit the jump the smashed into his face!! Effed up some ligaments in his knee and his ribs are a little bruised but hey! All in one piece!! :P I felt bad though because a friend hit the jump...then Sho looked at me to go next, and all I did was point to him...then he's upside down in the air and all I could see is my friend who hit the jump first unstrap his bindings and start running(!) over to where Sho was. BUT! that's life.

We'll see what the week has in store...Lots of lifting I think I need to get swolllllllllllllllllll. One last pic..lol at the lodge there was an ant crawling around...thought I'd try and make him famous :P (not really but how else am I going to use this pic!)

And the verdict is..

2011-02-01T19:25:00.002+09:00

I don't know!

LOL Immigration always takes forever...on a good note though all the paperwork went through. Also someone hooked me up with a private lesson once a week come April and I'll probably pick up part time at the vault, which I mentioned before.

Hrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrm we shall see. Today was pretty relaxing. Chess, laundry, coffee and a book, ran into a friend and now I'm tw33ting the sis.

LOL for some reason couldn't fit studying in there. Learning all the time now though, going to start reading a comic to try and work on my kanji practice. Any other ideas for stuff to do..anyone??lol katie ? craft ideas.. Really though I'll probably start kicking up the studying quite a bit here. Gonna call a wine farmer guy I know who wants to go snowboarding..lol he grows grapes, is like 55, and REALLY wants to go snowboard with me. Hey more power to ya, bet he'll blow me away too lol. Just want to meet him to talk about wine. I need to do more stuff like that because it will force me to speak Japanese for a designated period of time, it's so nice with the iphone too if we get stuck on a word BOOM it's right there. Yeah that's what I'll do...this guy will be stoked too I think.

February will definitely be a crucial month!!! Jeez I thought 2011 was going to suck too! :P

Well, January has been interesting to say the least

2011-01-31T16:25:00.005+09:00

Thems the snowboarding days of January...lot of them free which is good and super discounted. Finally I actually decided to document how often I go snowboarding...I go a lot! Lately it has been a little theraputic, not for my finances but jeez immigration stuff has me frazzled.

Went today with the president of a company that wants to hire me and they said NO! I have one more chance, which is tomorrow. The company is going to Tokyo immigration to try again. If they say the same thing they said today I need to be out by 2.6.11! A very interesting thought which I think you would agree with.

At least I got to see chi-chi today! We needed to print up another contract and my girlfriend has a printer and the president of Borderlink(the company) was heading in that direction so after we met with him and signed a new contract Haz went to finish getting ready and ms.chi-chi was around. She definitely recognizes me it's really funny, even to see how she looks at me, I think she's a little mad because life there is good, but at my place it was way better because I'm more fun!!!!!!

hmmmmm...anything else going on??? Snowboarding a lot...getting better every time I go I've never progressed so much in a season in my life!

It was pretty cold last night though. Night riding is pretty but the resort my friend Chris and I went to is really busy in the day time, and it was super packed hard snow at night. After two days of snowboarding prior to last night my knees and body just weren't really feeling it. Thankfully when we got there we asked some people leaving if we could have there passes and they gave them to us for free!!!! Timing is everything!! It also helps to be super nice and know a little J.

I will definitely know how good or bad my timing is for living in Japan come tomorrow....what do you guys think??? Either way it's win win but this tour de Japan things are looking up. I have a lot of really cool job offers. Day jobs and night jobs...and the owner of the Vault mentioned me working there again part time. Although it's not the best there...it's like Japanese class x20. I really can't tell you how beneficial one night is there. It's like 8 hours of speaking japanese because nobody understands you. Speaking more of timing;

5 minute games mind you...I'm PLASTICBEACH

...yes that'd be 48 seconds vs someone who's supposed to be better than me! It felt good to say the least.

Anyways cross your fingers for me tomorrow everyone. THANK YOU!

UGHHHHHH

2011-01-20T19:11:00.004+09:00

I WANT TO COME HOME SO BAD!

But I know I should just try and make it out here! I have had a couple interviews now and it seems like everything for April is locked down...with the combination of both interviews I had it seems like I have my pick of anywhere I want to live in JAPAN! It's too early right now since the school session doesn't start for a little while(April) but it feels good thinking I can pretty much do anything.....if I pull through with a visa.

Anyways I'm broke! My last day was last Monday!!! And I know I shouldn't have but I went on a snowboard trip...it was the best time of my life though....best snowboarding in my life for never really hitting a jump or rail!!!! I'm talking Powder waist deep....I smash through it so fast and steep I can't even see because I'm creating mini avalanches behind me. Then the snow settles and there's powder as far as the eye can see!!!!!!!!!!!!! Started @ 9 and my legs gave out on my by 2 I was charging so hard!

Picture??? OK

Anyways when I came back to reality I got back on it. 17 days until my visa expires!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I should be applying by Monday at the latest, I'm going to go into immigration tomorrow to ask for another extension I think because the last company that I talked to on the phone said they would apply for me in a heartbeat but even if they applied tomorrow they said....the time for processing would take at least 2 weeks :( So I'll start how I finished... UGHHHHH

I hear wedding bells(lol @ mom!) just kidding!!!!!! Anyone want to fly me back to amurica :) :) :) :) :) :)

well well well in a bit of a pickle!

2011-01-12T23:25:00.000+09:00

MY VISA DIDN"T GO THROUGH!

and now my passport looks like this!

lol I actually have a new visa...for one more. It's called designated activities!! Man that sounds really cool and all, it'd be really nice if I had a designated activities visa for like 5 years!! I'd feel way cool :P

So now my current options are!

Move to Gunma(a prefecture close to here) and work possibly
Move back
Secure a job here in the spring and move back in the meantime
Crying and self pity
go to Korea and come back on a tourist visa and work part time jobs
get married

lol those last 3 aren't really in the equation, except one usually sets on right before I go to sleep. This week should prove very interesting...........any thoughts. I'm talking to you Katie my only loyal follower lol

HAPPY 2011

2011-01-02T13:34:00.006+09:00

This past year went by really fast! I can't believe it. It was even surreal working just because even work went by quick! Which makes me think this next year will be flying by as well.

I can't believe this year I'll be 28!!! Never thought I'd be where I am right now when I was in highschool thinking about what I'd like to do with my life, but it's going well so far.

Had a great ski trip to finish off the year in Hakuba with my friends...check out the ride we went it!

It was a very fun trip...although I hate waiting on people sometimes when there's fresh powder and everyone wants to 'stick together'. LOL Ok I"M NOT COMPLAINING!! I'm just sayin! hahaha one of my resolutions was not to complain so much! and tune up my manners!!! I thought of the latter when I asked someone if I could use their wax to wax my board before the powder day...and I didn't even think to wax theirs up to say thanks. SO! I'm going to try and work on that, that's just not ME! :P I'm talkin about this guy josh!(who also was that guy involved with the salt in an earlier post)

The trip was great! I love going to the resort that we go to...the owner and I have become friends, considering last time I went I went down a closed course to destroy the powder and got caught, using his season pass and they resort took it! I felt pretty bad but it was kinda something that made things a little more memorable. It's so funny everytime we come too when I call him to confirm he's like, "Brian I put a room full of 5 beautiful girls right next to yours!" and then he introduces us at dinner it's hillarious!!! He really knows how to take care of his customers. Don't worry you guys I'm not a scumbag(japanese = uwakimono!) I stay faithful to the GF but hanging out with pretty girls is better than hanging out with ugly dudes!!!

I'll be sure and try and snag a picture of Kato next time I head up to Nagano!

Last day was epic(aka 2nd day)I went to sleep at like 9:30 the night before and was able to wake up nice and early and get up to and off the gondola by 9am the next day, ahead of everyone else. Smashed powder solo jamming to my ipod for about an hour and a half until I saw everyone else. Met a cool family on a different gondola and cruised with them for a little while too. People on the resorts here are just so much more friendly than back home sometimes it's amazing.

Going to the local shrine today for new years(shogatsu) pretty popular thing to do for the holidays. I'll take a pic maybe :P those tweetharts will definitely be seeing something!!!

bits of the xmas season!

2010-12-27T15:07:00.009+09:00

Xmas was crappy! but so stoked the next day when I got that package from my pops! lol I mean santa!

on the 24th went into Tokes with the lady, it was alright...went and saw tron which was pretty saweet...this pic was taken in Shibuya...pretty poppin spot in the city I suppose...

Was talking to a customer the other day who was living in Kofu and moved into Tokyo. He said that's where it's all at if I want to start pursuing other interests here in Japan. He does voice overs for radio and TV and said I could easily slip into that line of work, decisions decisions. Here's some other pics!

There we go that gets rid of a lot of typing that's like 5,000 words or something. That was the first game played on the Mario chess set...had to beat him :P(my buddy Sho)

All in all I guess it was not as bad as I thought it was. Next up New Years!! In any other job I would look forward to making at least $500 in tips...shoot at least @ my job I look forward to not drinking and watching everyone slowly(or sometimes quickly) get drunk and do something stupid lol... Saturday was snorting a line of salt, do a shot of tequilla, then squirting lime in their eye. Known as a suicide in England it was friggin stupid! LOL funny to watch people in agony though, hey I warned them!! The two guys doing it actually did it 3 times in a row!!! One of them reads this blog(or read it) lol super funny though. If that's the highlight of the evening I think I need to spice things up around there!

The pic didn't post

2010-12-08T19:57:00.000+09:00

Check it you non tweeters

http://twitpic.com/3e0r8n

Whoazers

2010-12-08T19:33:00.002+09:00

At a train station typing and a high speed train just zipped passed!!! Brrrrrrr

Things are going as well as they can. Kinda hit a rough week though... Lost in fantasy football, catching a bit of a cold, and just got dropped a bomb with my old job's principal saying he won't help me out to try and get a visa. That was earlier this afternoon. Went to the doc so got some mess for the cold I should be over it soon.

Going to immigration no matter what by Friday, more likely I'll drop on tomorrow because I need to get this stuff handled and know what's going on fast so I can act faster! Talked to my friend in mammoth yesterday and he said there's still a job for me if I get out there = snowboarding everyday in one of americas finest resorts(always nice). Everyone here is telling me I should just go to Korea and come back because then I'll have a 3-month temporary visa. That's always a possibility but then I won't exactly be working legitimately in the country until I work score another job in the spring with another school.

Funky stuff either way but any which way immigration handles things will be interesting.

On a good note I got to see my cat today!!! CHICHI!!!!

Well let's hope the pic can make it... Now on the train I was waiting for and I go through a couple long tunnels so we'll see. Can't wait to go snowboarding!!!! I really hope mi madre didn't send my stuff by boat or else I won't get any of my gear till halfway through the snow season and may even be back in amurica by then. But don't worry mom I have a big snowboarding back just incase I do have to go back I'm going to take the most important stuff back with me.

Most likely if worse does come to worse I'll just divide the stuff up between my friends until I come back.

I know a lot of peeps want me to come back which is really tough. Not gonna lie, things aren't as good as I thought they would be over here but I'm doin my best to keep my head up and make things happen which is all I can really do. I am meeting a lot of cool people in the city working where I do which is great... Lots of really cool connections have already been made and I've only been working for two months. My darts game is getting better too, last night alone I got two hat tricks(bulls-eye 3 times in a row) I've only actually done it two other times. The best part about it was my girlfriend had come down to visit me at work and got to see it. Not to brag but one of those times I got two more bulls after that!!!!!! I've realized darts is about 80% mental the rest is form.

Also went underwater in pool!! I guess working where I do sometimes does have it's perks!!

Ok my stations next I'm out!!!!!sorry for any stupid auto correct typing mistakes !!!! No time to check

not a train wreck!!!

2010-11-24T21:00:00.002+09:00

LOL

One of the new songs on the latest Weezer album is called 'trainwrecks' have a listen. A line in the song is, ' we don't update our blogs, we are trainwrecks'. Sarcastic of course but trying to stay on the ball around.

I have finally went from hating my job and feeling unappreciated to dealing with the job and just pretending to be complimented how good I'm doing when I should be! :P It was all actually from the wedding I just went to.
The table I sat at with had a couple foreigners that have lived here for a while and know a little more about Japan and way of life than I because of their experience here. It was a nice coincidence they were all there too because their opinions really helped me out a bit with things around here.

Basically, like most jobs here in Japan you need to put in your time! Japan is super big on seniority and it's kinda the way things are here. Which makes sense, I was kinda jumping the gun on the vault expecting a lot of stuff because I'm a kind of fast acting type of person. Once I stepped back for a second I noticed that I've only worked here for just over a month! It's going to take some time to implement my goals for that place.

It's nice that I have a chance to though, and most of the people that come into the place are excited to see what happens with the place. We had a great show the other night where my friends came in from Tokyo and put on a great live set. VERY FUN.

Finally with some days off I got a little chance to unwind. It's so nice having all day off!!!!

I haven't really had a chance to explain on here...or to any of you that aren't living here how things are and what I've been up to and certain new plans I have. But I will...No really interesting pics to throw up at the moment because they're all still on my phone. Check my facebook for a funny vid of last night at the game center. My friend sho's a riot! Can't believe my best friend here is someone I only speak to in Japanese, pretty tight though. Some of the foreigners here are just too nerdy and anti-social...I can only go so far on the nerdy scale(that's a lie) but also with my schedule it's hard to link up.

Anyhow...later!

LISTEN TO THE NEW KANYE WEST!

quick wedding lovies

2010-11-22T02:27:00.004+09:00

Congrats to my peeps Akina and Laurence

Lol

2010-11-21T05:00:00.002+09:00

As I sit here, at my friends house after the vaults 7th anniversary(that's where I work now btw) boiling water to drink my hot sochuu with my friends who came in from Tokyo to play who are asleep already. I actually appreciate the job I have and realize being from las Vegas can help in some ways. 5:01 says my iPhone(which I'm typing this on) and one quick nightcap to finish off this crazy day. I'll be updating a little more, things have been pretty hectic and I've gathered up a lot of pics and videos on this thing since I've been back in japan. I can't believe it's been 5 weeks already... I also can't believe how well I can type on this little phone.

Went to my first Japanese style wedding today... Everyone would know this if their on twitter( thank goodness a couple people on here are with it)... Super fun but tying in work after was pretty hectic. Waters about to boil!?!???!? Jya ne

Doin work~!

2010-09-27T16:40:00.004+09:00

Hopefully I'll remember to bring my camera tomorrow when we go to Hopi Falls. We go down to set prawn traps using coconut meat and then jump into some waterfalls that are running right from the top of the mountains by our house here. So much fun even can sit under one of the falls if you maneuver yourself just right. They have a water proof camera so I might try and take some snaps for on here.

The waterfall isn't too powerful either. It's a bit of a struggle to swim through it without it taking you under, but safe enough so you can let it take you and have it be fun. The jump into is nice too...about 15-20 feet. Have to rock climb sorta out too, good thing I've done a bit of that too. PICTURES WILL BE EPIC I promise.

First stop of the day @ Kelihiwai beach. The point was breaking hard. Found out Ben Stiller lives @ the top of the cliffs on the right there[NAME DROPPING]. My cousin Donovan said while he was surfing over off that point a shark swam through there!!!! It was packed full of like 40 people. Which is super dangerous, I for sure didn't go out there unfortunately. Just not good enough yet it's...that ain't no vacationer spot that's for sure.

Re-set the traps around the afternoon. And hit up this place called Donkey's afterward. Body surfing and got worked! Super strong waves out I would try and dive under and a couple times the wave almost scooped me up! ALMOST GOT CRUSHED!

BTW THIS THING IS THE BEST EVER!!!

INDOBOARD FTW! I bet OK_TEA will like that.

So fun I hope everyone had a good weekend!

Quick glimpse of around the house in Kauai

2010-09-24T09:03:00.005+09:00

So far this place hasn't ceased to amaze me. The cousins are getting better @ surfing, the avacados taste better! And I'm not as sunburnt as I will be in a couple days lol. The orchard is looking a lot cleaner too!

Lilokoi!

coconut trees(of course!)

Nice vine!

There's a bunch of other stuff but was only in my bare feet so didn't want to get pricked!!! Full moon last night with a little bonfire at the beach was very nice. It was cool going into the orchard @ night too because it was really bright!! Look a rooster!

If you ever come here this is a super common site, went bodyboarding yesterday and while driving through a golf course to get to the spot we saw about 50 lol! Serious!

So stoked!

2010-09-03T16:21:00.004+09:00

That I put out a post and got a response back! hahaha THanks mom! :P But whatevskiz I'm so stoked things are coming together it just want to buy a smart phone and twitter it!!!!!!!

With this Boddingtons, that I orginally bought to replenish the Boddingtons I drank earlier this week. LOL....I am proud to pronounce things are going well and the end of my 26 years of age era is coming to a close rather well. This summer has been quite amazing. Dare I even recap;

Tokyo
London
Bristol/Bath/Wherever we were staying in between those places :P
Paris
Brussels,Belgium
Rome
Nice
Southampton
New York City (METS GAME)
Tampa Back with DAD!
Canada!
Tampa RAYS GAME
LA
LAS VEGAS
Seattle [THATS NOW BTW]
back to Tampa!
Honolulu to heal up!(birfday)

...the back to J-Pizzle to stack cash for career settle down mode to come...and get good @ Japanese. PH ~ LOVE IT!!!! And I can't thank everyone enough! JYEAH 0'10 it's gonna be our year!

WHAT IS EVERYONE GETTING ME FOR MY BIRTHDAY!!!!

...better hurry up and decide (@&!!!!!!!!!!!)))))))

:P

SEPTEMBER!

2010-09-02T15:37:00.004+09:00

I'm stoked! It's even getting a little colder here right on que. Could see my breath when I went for a walk tonight...I can see the Milky Way it's so dark out here at night. The neighbors house behind us has an apple tree in the back and my mom said that she's seen deer eating them!! They just started to fruit so maybe I'll see some deer when I wake up.

Now that it's super foggy in the morning I think I'm going to go trail running when it's like that..I bet it would be a great experience....Maybe I'll bring a camera lol, it'll be like 'YES MAN'...'REDBULLLllll!'

Had so much fun with the kids @ the game and got our bobble head! I want to try and go to another game while I'm here...I feel a foul ball or even a BP homerun would be nice.

And wanted to tweet this sucker right after I took it, but I'm so lazy and really need a smart phone so I can just tweet my little heart out with ease. Everyone should get twitter.

It was funny I was looking at my mom's calendar she has at her shop. Right over the 19th it said 'Brian's 27th birthday'.....gnarly! So stoked I'm going back to Japan in October I didn't really plan anything for my b-day...hopefully I'll just get to see everyone before I go back out there.

I really think a little more time will be good for me out there. All my friends are doing great and I'm not really worried about anyone without me here. Going to miss the family but they'll be ok too. Thinking about possibilities in England for the holiday's too! Rather 'proper' I would think...might have a different feel. Lol it'd sure be a lot nicer than Japan during Christmas.

Things are coming together in J-land happenings. Just got my receipt for my ticket in the mail...it was shocking see actual proof of hopes and aspirations on a piece of paper...ONE MONTH AWAY. Still figuring out where I'm going to live...found a couple apartments to choose from but without really looking at them it's hard to decide. There's plenty of options when it comes to where to stay for a week or so if I decide to peep them out beforehand.

Most important though is picking what mountain I'm going to get my season pass @....

@ Misaka; closest...least amount of park
@ panorama; not as close, little bit of park, biggest resort
@ fuji-ten; best park, farthest, most crowded, maybe smallest resort. but on mt.fuji.

Working a lot on the weekends which is great...on that paper chase!!!!!!

a potential project...

2010-08-18T08:57:00.003+09:00

With all the projects going on around the house I think I may have found one for me.

Found it in the backyard when I visited last Christmas and the tires still had some air in them(a good sign). The chain and gears are a little rusty but I think with a little TLC I can make a decent road bike out of this NISHIKI. The front brakes are pretty cool too.

I think it would be fun to go into Seattle or Bellevue with this sucker and roam around. Since I'm really only driving my moms mini-van(AHHH) right now this could be a cool other means of transportation.

Other than that things are going well. No serious complaints. Managing my moms shop this week it's fun!

Ok quick update.... SUMMER '010

2010-08-06T19:41:00.003+09:00

OK

Getting back on track after a lot of hustle and bustle. SEATTLE is great, but being stuck in traffic isn't and there's a lot of it around here. j33z I don't even know where to begin. BUT a lot of people surprisingly asked me why I didn't keep this up(mainly probably just my sister ROBYN(g-chatting me when i'm just in the other room).

Right now I can't find my pictures :( my old iphone is my main camera but I'm working on upgrades eventually. I figure everyone will facebook me pictures anyways.

This week has been super busy and productive. Exhausted from playing in my first official soccer game since I was 11. So much fun, but working 8 hours @ CABLEPALOOZA(seriously that was the name) throwin crab cakes, vietnamese spring rolls, and 'a sesame crepe with asian duck and a little arugula' at peoples chitter-chattering lovely faces the next day has me aching. Haha but it was pretty fun and working on the water front has it's perks. Also got some cool free swag(MAN v. FOOD cooking aprons!)and touch L.E.D lights(probably perfect for camping!) so it was alright.
HAHAHAHAHA while in traffic today I seriously contemplating driving with a mannequin in the passenger side all dressed up because I was going CRAZY. Found out the air conditioner didn't work but luckily Seattle @4pm with the windows down is 85 but still just sitting in the car changing the radio station and hearing that SAME FRIGGIN EMINEM WHOEVER GIRL SONG was wearing me down. I don't think I was ever happier to get to work and out of the car in a while.

anyhow...

Working weddings all weekend and trying to help my mom out with her shop. To help I have to do the one thing that made me change my major in college and hate business stuff = ACCOUNTING. Going to attempt to help map out the sales of the shop and work on getting some sort of cool graphic exel chart things(SO EASY) just to try and document what really sells and what lags.

Also really trying to get everyone pumped up around here. I used to love DVRing everything but this household take it to the EXTREME. Unfortunately I have taken a turn for the worse also and can't play online chess for maybe about 2 hours a day. I was(am) even contemplating going to the Seattle Chess Club to their once a week 'Meet & Play' every FRIDAY NIGHT @ 7pm. And I think I'll beat like 2 people there!!!!

We'll see how my Friday night will turn out! Much more to say but I want to keep the audience interested (HA). Hmmm let me find a picture I can put up I need something on here!

Quiz time!!!

2010-05-17T21:21:00.005+09:00

Haha this will be funny....

This past week/weekend had a great time. Archery on Sunday and also went to some great restaurants. Thursday went to a sushi bar with a great chef. In Japan a lot of the chef's and people who work at these little sushi places also own it, in Japanese they're called SHOCHYO(I think) but you can also call them just 'master' lol it's pretty fun. Anyways my friends were talking so I started talking to the Master about this and that, then asked if I can take a picture with one of his sushi knives. He loved this then started showing me all of them and the differences. This was funny because every knife he showed me he was like,"Ok, take a picture..."

It turned out to be not only a great way to practice Japanese, but I also learned a lot about different types of knives you use for sushi. NOW, for the quiz...which one of these bad boys is an UNAGI knife(unagi = eel).

Hmmmmmm, GOOD LUCK.

So that was Thursday, Friday went to Yakitori...was very very good! Met another different "Master" because as we got there some good friends were leaving, peeps I went camping with and since it was our first time to this place(and they've been going for a couple years) they brought the master over and basically told him to hook us up :P (just got some fries!) But, quiz question number 2! Anyone care to take a guess at what this delicious thing is :)

Fast forward to Sunday...

And some Karaoke @ night(GAGA!!!)

Very fun.

2 weeks until I need to be out of my apartment!!!

Say it ain't SOoooOOooO

2010-05-11T23:50:00.002+09:00

Just happens to be playing while I'm writing this. But jeez say it ain't so;

1. The oil spill really SUCKS
2. My mom's house caught on fire!!!!(everyone's ok)
3. I'm leaving in about 3 weeks
4. Katie's getting married

SAY IT AIN"T SOOoooOOooOo

and Chi-CHI!!!!!!!!

'TEAR'

She's the friggin coolest cat ever! We'll see what happens with her she's still young. JUST LIKE ME! 27 this year JEEZ. It's been getting better each year though so I'm stoked for 27...moving on..

This past week was rough coming off a great vacation, I was honestly in a bad mood and wanted to be a prick to everyone, except the kiddo's that is. But I didn't and rose above!!! Dropped into Tokyo to drop off a baby present to some good friends of mine. Got them some one-zies! Nice to just dip into Tokyo when I see fit, always refreshing and funky at the same time to change it up a bit. Tokyo always freaks me out with how many people speak English!! And I'm always happy to come back usually which is good. BUT! I really would love to live there for a year or two somehow, the style is insane!!! I think it'd be tough though seeing that many people and really never speaking to anyone...it's funky.

TIME IS COUNTING DOWN. Better start to get on it. Looking forward to this summer and things to come!!! Will do my best to keep everyone updated. Archery again this Sunday! w00t!

My phone broke!

2010-05-05T22:07:00.003+09:00

Hence not so many pictures! I pulled it out of my pocket one day and I dropped it on the edge of my coffee table! It sucks...BUT

CAMPING THIS PAST WEEKEND WAS AWESOME.

I threw the one that's not on FB for a little something different. Perfect weather, and perfect people. I had so much fun it's not even funny. All day and all night for 3 days straight. Shimoda( where we stayed) is beautiful! And the people @ the beach were really nice and we had a small volleyball rivalry with some of the locals and did all right.

Sunrise...

We drove all night to beat all the crazy weekend traffic(it's gnarly out here because the 10 million people living in Tokyo are also off = no fun)

As we first pulled out to get our first view of the ocean, BOOM! Bright red sun. Never figured out why they called it that until Sunday. This was a different pic on a different day but it was BRIGHT RED. Couldn't believe it!

One more month (33 days) until I'm out...gonna be busy!

A nice Sunday...

2010-04-18T17:04:00.005+09:00

...Mock Samurai battle by day(had to be dragged out to this, but was worth it)

And trying my hand at Sangria for the first time...just finished it now time to wait!

Saw some pretty stuff on my walk to the battle on the river....

Not a bad weekend considering I have to work Monday, normally the second day I have off. It even snowed on Saturday! The weather has been really funky but Sunday was nice and warm. Picked up some camping gear for a little camping trip I'm having with some friends at the beginning of May because it's a big holiday over here. Beach camping's the way to go! Haven't done it since I went to Kauai but I'm looking forward to it....probably even going to bring my barbecue!

BEWARE OF THE CHICH!

2010-04-15T02:16:00.000+09:00

Sushi FTW

2010-04-10T00:08:00.003+09:00

So I was at my new branch on Fridays, which is actually a pretty fun day. I only want to murder one kid!! Actually my goal is to break his "I'm all that" attitude and bend him to my will, which will in turn make him a genius at speaking English. Shouldn't be too hard he's only 6 :)

I have a nice little 1 hour 20 minute break in between classes, so I went to the grocery store and just look what they had calling my name. All this for American $5.00 I think there's just about every fish plus some right there...

Ok so since my blogger is funky and I can't see my pic until I upload everything I'll just list off what there was from the top of my head.....

1. tuna
2. octopus
3. squid
4. unagi(eel)
5. shredded tuna
6. baby squid :P(bottom right)
7. sweet egg(egg cooked in sugar rather than salt)(it's good!)
8. shrimp
9. crab
10. some white fish next to that tuna in the top left

I usually save the sweet egg until the end because it's really good! Haha now you know!!!!! So the order basically went start at the top(tuna) then just handle biz until the bottom left. Needless to say it was a good break.

Since this week was a the new school year, I have a mix between good and bad classes. It will be interesting to see my Saturday classes since it's probably my worst scheduled day...7 CLASSES. Yes I know what you're thinking...SO FUN j/k as they say in the internet world FML. If you don't know what that means ask Katie.

Turned in my letter of resignation in today as well. IT"S OFFICIAL. I'll be outta here 6/7/10 JAPAN TO LONDON THAT'S HOW I ROLL. Lets see if I can dig up the eternal words of the RZA, although he had the lyrics backwards :P

AHH what's up with this new stupid youtube layout! Sorry just click the link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2Zimjh0JgM

buzz FTW

2010-04-06T08:07:00.006+09:00

Fresh and ready for this new school year, which starts today actual Brian Sensei back in action...

...and one of the last photos with my dew! The other guy heres name is Katsuo, he's a cop but the police are paying him to move to Tokyo for two years to learn Thai. He speaks a little English but we always saw each other at the gym recently and did a little hanami @ hung out this weekend. Very nice guy.

ARGH why won't it load!

KATIE PICK UP YOUR SKYPE PHONE

2010-04-06T01:03:00.001+09:00

I wanted you to be among the first!!!

and YES...did it. A lot harder than I though.

8 more weekends!

2010-03-31T11:58:00.005+09:00

Until I'm off to England....very crazy when I think about it. Had a good time this past week. Time to throw some pics up!!!

Last day with some funny students!

Curry and Kiwi's!

I need to teach somebody the word moderation....

Snowboarding with my bud Yas!

Chi-chi relaxing

Cherry blossoms on a windy day....

GRRRAAAAAAWWWRRRRRRRRRR

It's been good so far. I've been trying to study a lot! I've found great online study tool and it's been working great. I'll probably be able to almost get down all the information to take a level test in July that will look good on a resume if I ever wanted to do anything with Japanese. Although I'm very far from where I want to be I can't let that gap get me down, and it had been for about the past month.

It's funky, my learning curve really plateaus every couple of months. I probably plateau and speak the same Japanese for about a month...learn a little bit more the next month. Then get super stoked that I'm learning I study like crazy the following month. Then I usually get overwhelmed and hit that plateau again. Repeat.

In the coming month I'm going to start sending stuff back to America!!! Aghhh I think I'm going to start being a very busy bee! Hopefully I'll keep up on the blog! Hope everyone liked the pics...gotta do laundry!

Hakuba this past weekend

2010-03-25T13:34:00.002+09:00

SO NICE

Had a very cool group to ride with too. A buddy's board broke(center(chris)) and he rented a scooter board lol and it was fun watching him goof around on it and have fun.

The weather was perfect!

Couldn't have asked for a better weekend!

Happy St. Patty's day

2010-03-17T09:24:00.006+09:00

It's not really the same over here though, not that many people are into it!!! But whatever I AM and I love making fun of everyone at work for not wearing green and hearing their weak excuses!

Things over on this side of the world are good! Had one of the most beautiful days snowboarding in a long time! Finally pays off, I figure if you go every weekend one of the weekend you'll have to have great weather! Met some friends and had a good time. Even had to teach a little, which sucked but they were getting pretty good by the end of the day!

Anyhow...let's throw some pics up...

Had a pretty big snow last week in my city!

oddly enough the next day I was feeling really 'sick' and couldn't make it into work....

Jeez I had a lot to write about but I'm coming up with nothing! Getting excited after my sister posted her website to the wedding! Talking about England and Europe makes me realize how much of a good summer I have ahead of me. It's funny though everybody keeps telling me how soon I'm leaving. I KNOW! But what's the need for the countdown I friggin know already. Look even the trees are getting ready for April, saw this one yesterday.....

Sakura = cherry blossoms

lol and one of my student and I, this is Yosei he's in my Tuesday classes. He's a maniac. And I'm giving that look because he's digging his chin into my head!

Almost forgot!

2010-03-05T01:15:00.001+09:00

lol Karaoke soon!

I think this is going to be the first Japanese song(and probably last) I'll be singing!!!! lol these guys are from where I go snowboarding( about 40 minutes away) = Misaka.

I love chi-chi!

2010-03-05T00:58:00.007+09:00

So I felt pretty bad today because after work I went to the gym, then to the store where I picked up this for her dinner!

It was late so the sushi was half off...all that Maguro(tuna) was only $1.50. of course I took 2 pieces for myself while I cooked my own later dinner. Wasn't able to finally sit down and eat until 11:30!! But it was an alright day. I love going to the gym after work because the trainer there is so funny and I can really understand him quite well for a language barrier there.

So as I'm watching my usual evening programs....look who decides to curl up right next to me. Icing on my cake of a fairly decent day! And raining nicely too :)

Even as I'm writing this she's still chilling out pretty hard..lol let's get an instant shot because she looks kinda funny...

So talked to the pops today to plan a bit of the Europe trip after Katie's wedding. Destinations are looking like....

Paris
Venice
Rome
Monaco
Barcelona

Not too shabby. Dad wanted to go to Monaco, never even heard of the place. Then! I asked a couple friends at work and they were freaking out about it, saying it's basically the Beverly Hills of Europe and we'll probably see some amazing yachts every time we look out to the ocean. Excited for that. Thinking of maybe doing a wine tour sometime...but other than that don't really know what to do while we're in Europe! First things first though I suppose and we'll have fun @ the wedding and figure out everything afterwards :P

Ok! I forgot I took this picture, this was also today 3/4(Happy Birthday Mom!) but your 3/3. My last class I teach today is a bunch of Junior High School students, 4 girls and one boy, named Ryo. He's a really smart kid but I guess the other girls were giving him a hard time about his love life because when I walked into the classroom I saw this written on the board....!

I started cracking up!!! These kids English is friggin awesome, but some things are just a little off :P Close enough for me though when you're just joking around before class. I was stoked they even wrote it in English :) If you can't read it too well that last word is "human?" lol

A wet weekend

2010-03-02T23:18:00.004+09:00

So I bought a season pass and I'm going even on the worst conditions! Luckily I have some back-ups. Putting on wet gear sucks!

I've also my camera phone can take ok pictures when things are close-up. Other than that it's good for nothing. I went to a friends house, she lives on the top floor of her apartment, and the roof of the other apartment was covered with bonsai's where half of them were blooming. I was pretty upset about the pics, but ohh well I'll be able to take it into the shop asap.

Went snowboarding in the rain on Saturday, about an hour or so into riding I was just about to get on the lift, and all of the sudden I felt a rushing of water into my left boot. It had sprung a leak, or rather the the water must have found a way to seep in and my whole foot was soaked the rest of the night! That sucked! But still trying to make a little progress while riding. It seems no matter what the conditions I'm still having a good time. Funky how that works with this hobby.

On Sunday went shredding with a buddy who only speaks Japanese, and he's talkative. I thought I was getting better but during the whole ride he talked so much it was hard for me to keep up and drive at the same time. But it was good motivation to keep studying.

After two days of being crazy busy my Monday was just chilling hard! Cleaned up the apartment a little bit and went to the gym. Caught a chair thief too!

Doin things on a budget too! I can't believe I'm going to be in the states and outta here very soon! Well, England first then the states! It's going to be a crazy summer by the looks of it. Here's how it's lookin...

June: Leave Japan, Go to England, Go to Europe with mi Padre
July: 7/3 another wedding in Canada! Relax in Florida for a little while.
August: Go up to Seattle and work as much as I can doing what I did 2 summers ago.
End of August: Move to Las Vegas and make cheese($).

Going to be very interesting! Can't wait to see it all unfold. Found a nice song too while watching a snowboarding video!

Feb is flyin by!

2010-02-25T23:40:00.003+09:00

I guess!

I've been trying to save some money finally! As I'm leaving for England 6/4! Can't believe that I'll only be living here for about another 3 months. My part-time job ends 3/3 then it's basically smooth sailing until then try and stack cash. I haven't been updating as much as I've wanted to because my phone camera sucks now! I don't know what happened but something with the focus is all messed up, looks like I may have to pick up a digital. Going to take it to the phone shop and see if they can't fix it. see what I'm talking about....

well that was against the reflection of my car so it's not too bad...but look how this castle turned out :(

Anywho...Been trying to just stay on top of things. Big test week for the students this week and we hit a bit of a heat wave too! The weather has been really nice! Trying to study a little bit and getting a little bit back in shape too...Other than that there's not much time besides the weekend, where I'll usually snowboard two days and be ready for the week all over again!

So there's the announcement, 3 more months out here...anyone coming to visit?!?!?!?

A Thursday Off!

2010-02-11T11:37:00.002+09:00

And it just happens to be Japan's Independence Day!

And it's warm and raining outside when it was supposed to be cold and snowing. Going night riding I hope it doesn't rain on me!

Went to my local bar last night because the owner asked me to draw something up on photoshop. Was about to talk to the bartenders and understand all the customers that I was talking to!!!! It's a very good feeling but there's also a long way away until I'm where I want to be.

For example there's still a lot I can't bring up in conversation, although I want to...I just know to steer clear but my vocabulary isn't too great in that area. Also, half of the time they are correcting my grammer...kind of it's pretty funny how they we understand each other although my J is so butchered.

Anyways I thought I would write it down so I have some motivation to study up!

Been listening to a lot of Drake lately...I think he's getting pretty big stateside, well he's doing a lot of work with Lil Wayne and Kanye West so I'm sure he's blowing up, but I dig it...sometimes a little too much auto-tune though......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ha80ZaecGkQ&feature=fvsr

lol beware!!!

Highlight of my Friday...

2010-02-07T12:03:00.005+09:00

Just so happened to be during my first class.... let's see if i can dig up a peep of these guys...so funny.

So everyone's in class goofing around before class starts...there's 5 kids(one's not in this pic). So two of them come out to my desk where I'm working and say,"Brian, Mei, Risa, and Kiyu aren't in the class it's very strange", in Japanese. So I say well lets go look for them they have to be in there somewhere. Of course, they're hiding pretty well...I walk in and they jump out and try and scare me. Of course I say I was totally surprised :), but then one student, Mei, bottom left on the photo says, "April fools!!!" which is funny by itself, then she thinks for a sec then says, "no,Febuary fools!!"

First, I was cracking up! Friggin cute, and I was also so stoked this girl new the months of the year...it's kinda hard to teach to kids that young.

..It was a very nice start to my Friday.

Look @ Chich...trying to steal some water from my glass, tried to catch her in the act, can still see a little tongue.

Sometimes I forget how easy my job is...

2010-02-05T10:29:00.002+09:00

Getting ready for another day at the office, I basically get to wear anything I want, which I seem to be forgetting how much of a luxury that is!

Work is SO easy. My classes yesterday went really well, I'm somehow getting better at teaching I think. Not necessarily with teaching the content I'm supposed to, but really connecting with the kids and having them try to express themselves and be relaxed. My last class I was pretty much laughing the whole time because my junior high school students are so funny!

This week been in a funky mood. Unfortunately been thinking about leaving a lot, which is where I don't want my mind being, but I guess I can't help it. Was thinking about taking the trans-siberian express to link up with Katie for her wedding but not sure how everything will work financially yet. We shall see....>!

A good Monday!

2010-02-02T00:23:00.003+09:00

haha...

So I had my part-time job today @ my kindergarten. Was going over the weather with my 5 and 6 year olds, at the time it was cloudy. So I decided to ask if they think it was going to rain today, half the class raised their hands. I heard a bunch of mumbling about it snowing, so I asked who thought it was going to snow, the half who thought it was going to rain raised their hands along with the other half. Then I asked who thought it was just going to stay cloudy...just me and the other Japanese teacher raised our hands lol.

About and hour later it started to rain, about two hours after that it started snowing! So much that the trains got shut down and I had to give some friends a lift home because they were stranded at the train station...I thought it was pretty funny a little later about the kindergartners.

A pic of my street after I came back from dropping my peeps off, little dark :(

Doin Work!

2010-01-31T21:53:00.007+09:00

On the slopes!

Saturday was great, had a buddy e-mail me in the morning saying he's coming in from Tokyo to kick it. I was stoked, and he wanted to snowboard...I need more friends like my bud David out here! We had a great time...and he's expecting a kid so grats to him. As you may have noticed yesterday(Saturday) was a full moon. Did you know that that bright star next to it was actually Mars...!

I took this right before we went night riding...the moon was looking big, that's Mar's off to the left. LOVE MY CAMERA PHONE!

We had pleasant evening then got some ramen at the shop right next to my house. Had some drinks with some friends, played a little darts, and even hiked up the castle to check the view at night.

Then today(Sunday) I went to Charteriesse ski resort! It was a jungle out there!

Well that last one's supposed to be a rabbit...I don't think you see too many of those in the jungle! This ski resort is very cool! Pretty close to my house(a little over an hour) and the lifts go VERY fast so I was able to get a lot of runs in. So happy too a lady was nice enough to sell us her passes since we got there around 1pm and she was already headed out! That doesn't happen often in Japan. Smashed with some of the local dudes for a sec too...haha it was pretty funny, I was in the lift line with one of the really good dudes and he waved to me like I was his homie since we were doing some tricks right next to each other.

For most of the day I was the only American there! Which is always a bit of a trip, then I saw some friends when the lights turned on for a night time session. The day went super well and I'm getting very comfortable riding anything, anywhere, any which way on a snowboard!

Hmmm,what other funky pics did I take since my last post...Oh! Grabbed this at a train station...little Hello Kitty snowboard resort guide :P

..ohh and got some snacks for a long Friday at work, is there something odd here?

Back on the wagon..

2010-01-26T11:50:00.002+09:00

Me,

Chiich,

It's pretty nice weather out today. Still a bit chilly but it was nice to relax and do a little studying after breakfast. I'm using my old book I lent to a friend that's coming in pretty handy. I used it in my last Japanese class @ UNLV but it was pretty far outta my league. I'm actually not really sure how I ended up passing that class. Now however after being here a lot of it is familiar to me which is nice.

When I look over the book it's funny what the book say to say, and what I say to people in conversation. It's the same but I realize I just say things very differently...I guess you would say less proper. At least I'm trying to work on it while I'm still here. It's funny how just a little bit of studying comes in very handy. For example, I probably only studied about 30 minutes last week and used what I studied at least 3 or 4 times since then. Someone even asked me a question involving what I had just recently learned!

Anyways really trying to stay productive and on things...including this lovely blog! I really like that before and after pic in the last post! On a budget until payday so we'll see how much snowboarding I'll be able to fit in. Definitely another night session since it's only $25 and hopefully somewhere this coming Sunday as well. Tonight is actually Australia Day! The local bar is serving Kangaroo burgers and Crocodile kabobs! The thing is that whole budget! I based it during the middle of the week which means I only have $10 for tonight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think they'll have some Kangaroo burgers left over so I think I'll just wait it out until Wednesday :P Did it last year it was pretty good!

Time to start the work week! Work has been going really smooth ever since I've been back from a visit to the states...gonna try and keep it going!! It's not hard when all I have to do is talk to kids :)

Ahh the difference 6 months make

2010-01-23T22:45:00.004+09:00

This last pic is super duper fresh! Hours old. It took me a minute to realize the spot I was in as I was a little confused with the whole layout of the place since I haven't been there since the summer.

Right after work loaded the car out and jetted out to Kamui Misaka!!! NIGHT RIDING! And it wasn't too bad@! Only too about 45 minutes to get there, and like 30 to get back! Terrain was alright, but these past two weekends I've been riding in knee to waist deep powder and I realized what's it's like to be spoiled. There was only about a two foot base layer to this stuff and I really noticed the difference in the man made snow. BUT I'M NOT COMPLAINING! Just making observations. I had a great time and there were plenty of things to goof around. A night-only season pass is $180, I think I'm going to swoop one up after my next paycheck! Why not right!

I haven't been on the blog in a while! Ever since I've been back I've been bizzzzzzy. I also switched my phone to Japanese only in hopes to learn a little on accident...I actually started to use my phone less because it was so hard, hence no pictures. I also think I left my charger in America and have been super lazy to buy a charger so I've been borrowing a friends every week, again a reason for no pics! But hey I'm not making excuses :P

Things are going very very well. These past two weekends have been great and I'm so happy I just up and decided to go shreddy shred it up. A very nice Saturday to start. Went to the grocery store to make some din din, I managed to be the last customer before they closed! YES! Everything's comin up BRIAN!

BACK!

2010-01-06T09:40:00.009+09:00

Ok this post is for the madre since she's was getting on my case for an update! :P

Well I'm back! It's funny to be back, I thought my Japanese would be a little lacking but I really haven't noticed too much of a difference, which is great. Funny thing though, when I walked into my apartment I thought the place had shrunk! I think I was just used to my way of living back home. It is a good to be back, although I had a great trip and do miss my life in the US just a little bit.

Currently catching up on laundry debating whether or not to hit the gym, lol it's probably going to be a no on the gym and maybe i'll just cycle around for a bit.

Here's a couple pics!

KENO ROCKS! Hit two of these, unfortunately that took some time :P

My only four-of-a-kind :( Not too much luck with the gambling but I did have fun! I was trying to think if I'm up or down on the trip, and I'd have to say I'm about even. It's really hard to tell because I won a lot, lost a lot, but every time I lost everything I drank and ate at the bar was free...so lets just say I came out even, maybe plus a little!

This is my best friend's brothers son! Mason is a really funny dude! Here's his parents ;)

My friend Adam's parents have funky bamboo on their kitchen table = ambiance :P
And the other side of the table...

The part in Las Vegas was very nice, I saw a lot of my friends and got to chill a lot! Adam's also fixing up an old Volkswagon...got to help out a little and learn a little bit about cars!

Hanging out in Tampa and Seattle was very fun too. Don't have too many pics but had a great time...I think I have one of Katie putting my hair in a pony tail!!!!!! Let me dig it up!

HA! Did it! Although it looks gay, I did it!!!!! :P Here's a pic of all of us on the boat too.

Well...that's a bit of the trip in a nutshell! It was very fun but not back to business, Happy 2010 everyone let's see how it goes! Any good resolutions?!?!?

Friday with the Fam in Seattle

2009-12-20T00:40:00.004+09:00

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..

2009-11-30T20:58:00.003+09:00

...!

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

2009-11-25T00:05:00.014+09:00

...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...

2009-11-17T23:30:00.004+09:00

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.....

2009-11-13T23:20:00.005+09:00

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...

2009-11-07T23:53:00.003+09:00

TODAY IS MY ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY BEING IN JAPAN!

!

2009-11-07T23:30:00.008+09:00

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!

2009-11-01T20:28:00.009+09:00

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!

2009-10-30T21:55:00.004+09:00

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!

2009-10-26T00:53:00.007+09:00

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!

2009-10-23T12:31:00.002+09:00

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?!?!

2009-10-18T17:07:00.017+09:00

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!

Even Chich is getting in the Halloween Spirit

2009-10-15T11:03:00.002+09:00

AHHHH.... I've been working out and excercising a lot, and now I think I may have over done it because I'm beginning to get the feeling that I may be getting sick :( That and a teacher at UNITAS just got swine flu so I'm super paranoid :(

But, I'm pretty sure that's all it is! I'll keep everyone posted!

B

And the winner is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

2009-10-12T21:00:00.009+09:00

Mr. Ride Agenda 08-09

Yay I just wanted to give a big shout out to mom and dad for supporting me so I can achieve this awesome milestone in greatness.

...Runners up(a very close 2nd)

a mr.Nitro 155 lookin pretty(lets call it ms. Nitro) but her flexibility wasn't cuttin it... girl you better start doin yoga YA FEEL ME!!!!

and the "sorry I can't make it rain" 3rd prize goes toooooooo...

I'm sorry but 700 big ones for a snowboard is RIDICULOUS!!! Nobody should ever pay that much for a snowboard....because the only people who really need that quality of a board will get free them by their sponsors. But I was stoked my RIDE AGENDA 156 has just as much flex as that rome "wafair" :P It was a super deal so I'm very happy. Even happier that I'm going snowboarding IN OCTOBER!@!!!!!

I decided on a costume too!!!!

Well...lift tickets are about $20 and costumes everywhere are about $40...so I'm really wasting my time & money finding a banana suit. As neat as that would be I'm actually going to be going as Santa Claus.... haha just because UNITAS(where I work) has a fresh Santa suit on deck, which was last worn by ME during the last Unitas Christmas Party! Also (lol) it's something for sure all the Japanese people will recognize...which is good. Funny enough Harajuku girls just happened to pop on....YES, only two people who read this blog will understand :)

ALL I GOTTA SAY IS WHERE'S A COMMENT FROM BIG NEWS GUY RYAN SIMS :)???????????????
Ryan is currently getting his news caster on via southern WA..... he will most likely be making it rain very soon on CNN, stay tuned :P

OK!

So after buying my snowboard had to castle it up...it was Sunday after all.... my view...one of the last warm weather days like this I think...

WAIT!!!!!

lol before laxin it up at the castle I finally got sushi at one of those places where it's all on a rotating track and what not.... SO FUNNY!!!!!!! Ok so there's the sushi on the rotating cart right...then you can also order fresh sushi and it comes express on a diffrent track!!! So nuts! VERY FUN....

The pics really don't do it justice...when you see your sushi coming and the tray is disguised as a bullet train, HA! why can't Japan get crappier and crappier so I come home faster!!!!! Ay yai yai so funny. Also Hello Kitty juice boxes if you'd like...

one more :)

So yes! Sunday was very good. Even played a game of Monopoly with the rules being "no speaking english" that was way rough but I survived. My friends aren't joking around with the studying anymore so I hope I can step up to the occasion!

Last of the Jalepeno's, so stoked they're bit spicy...fall is here I think they won't last another two weeks ( :( ) but I think i'll try and dry a bunch of seeds out and keep em for next year!!!!!

Alright well I think I'll just keep it to mostly pics this time around... I hope everyone had a good weekend!!!!!! Saw pics of the fam(FL) laxin on the boat...Homesick and not but can't wait to get back home when the time comes. !!!!!!!!!

BIG PLANS!

2009-10-09T23:57:00.003+09:00

this month that is....

I'm refraining from going out tonight(FRI) even though I have an unusual amount of energy and am even a border line hyper. Maybe it's from the cat, whenever I get home she's always pretty energetic.

Work today was great! I have 5 classes and time really flies by!!! I even had to start an hour early kind of because I'm helping an old teacher I used to work with prepare for an English test(CHINAMI IS HALLARIOUS). Handled some bizniss at the gym too!

Maybe I'm just stoked that it was PAYDAY = JYEAH. But jeez I have many plans this month AND I still need to book all my tickets back to amurica :P

Oddly enough...these were some of the only pics I took with my phone this week... I really hate this kid...well sometimes. He's very smart but I've figured homie out so we kind of have this mutual respect for each other. If he does well in class, I give him custom mustaches from the stamps I hand out at the end of class... check it.

Jeez that couch is ugly! Unitas is so ghetto I can't believe it. Everything squeaks when you walk on it in the main office. I bet a minor earthquake will make it crumble... lol the elevators don't work(5 story building) and we just have copy machines in front of them. I don't even think there are 5 chairs of the same make in whole place! I'm in charge of the Haloween shenanigins and can barely get anything for a budget it's ridiculous. But it's also the easiest job I've ever had!!!!!!!!
Yeah, I speak English...that's it! But it's also rough coming up with enough stuff to fill an hour with incredibly dull people at times...or even staying awake. Some days that's a killer, and I'm talking when I'm 4 coffees fresh and my first class has me yawning every time I'm reading!

But inside and outside of work everything's going great. Fall is coming and it's getting pretty chili at night. Talked to the pops the other day on skype...I can't wait to come back for the holidays and chill with the 252(aka Me, my sis, and padre). He brought to my attention that it may be the last Christmas we will all spend together for a long time. And we(the 252) have had some pretty rough ones. This will by far be among the best, except when I got a brand spankin new vw gti!!!! unnnnnnh that car was sweet... let's see if I can pull through the depths of my memory(or computers) and pull up a pic... :) maybe a movie will work...
well hopefully that will load but who knows...in this vid. blake! my best bud.

Anyways next week goin snowboarding! Going shopping for a new board AND a costume this weekend. I will be sure to post some pics of that bizniss as well as possible prospects of a board I will be riding this season( I know you all are on the edge of your seat for those pics!) anyways I'll end on another pic of my awesome cat... I kinda feel like a weird parent, I know I take a lot of pics of this kitty but I just gotta show youz!!!!!!!!!!!!

that phone is ringing in my head again...

2009-10-05T23:32:00.009+09:00

A typhoon is coming!!! and the weather is great, maybe why I liked living in Seattle so much. The weather over the weekend was very nice though and Sunday just did some bike riding around the city, fed some fish, chilled out at the park and ate dried squid! I think I realized I'm pretty acclimated to things around here when I walk into a combini and this is what I set my sights on..

oolong tea is the bizniss around here I probably drink 5 of those bad boys a week!

Anywho things are going pretty good over here. Just found out a ski resort opens 10/17 which is ridiculous!!! What's even better is if you wear a costume you get in free??? Any ideas on what I should be...lol for some reason I was thinking I should be a banana. That would just look pretty amusing coming down the mountain and doing some tricks as a banana :P

Lately I've been speaking a lot of Japanese!!! I'm super motivated because conversation with some of my friends is really funny! Speaking is probably what I like most about living in Japan, and understanding...I was at Denny's today doing a little tutoring and overheard a conversation and understood it. Haha sounds funny writing but I was happy about it. Also today at a different part time gig I though maybe I should be a teacher!!! This was while playing with kids at my kindergarten and a tiny lobster was basically being tortured by three 4 year olds. What a time for an opiphany!!! The poor guy was in a portable tank with like an inch of water, and the kids were moving it around with the handle of a jump rope. Basically it didn't look happy but I was able to tell them to calm it down you wouldn't be so happy if you were him right now :)

But, I want to be a science teacher...teaching English really isn't too fun. English is rough!!!!! So many little things that are funky with this language it's crazy, happy it's my first to say the least. I figure high school science(like biology) would be awesome. Or maybe anatomy. Something fun to talk about you know?!?!?

Aight here's some other pics of the weekend.... Sunday at the castle doin some frisbee action!

also took a pic around sunset of my city!!! HELLO KOFU!

This next one is pretty funny. Lately I've been picking Chi-chi up and using here as a guitar whenever my only Ramones song comes on... Judy is a punk. It's really fun because she lets me...but when I get really into it I use her paws as a microphone. Hey it's better than an air guitar :) I call it... "Guitar Kitty!" very original I know.

As I posted Miss Chi-chi decided to lay down and put her head right on my left forearm...lol now every time I type I feel bad because he head's moving all over the place :(

Anywho... check out what I picked for part of my dinner tonight. And lately, the jalepeners are just a touch spicy.... = NICE. Ohhh, fresh basil with pasta = happiness.

Woohoo!

did a little pasta with scallops, veggies, and vino. Not a bad busy day off. Ohh...check out some of my students... Here's my favorite Friday class!

and Saturday sisters... Kimiho(glasses) and Nichika...they came in early and were cracking up at how I was dipping my bagel in my yogurt(no cream cheese!). Nothing wrong with that!

Alrighty that about sums things up! Hope to hear some costume ideas!!!! Basically I'm talking to you Katie since you're the only one that reads this! Or maybe my good bro Ryan Sims(Holla) but he's busy being a news anchor(really!!!).

ようううううううううっし :)

She likes Colbert!

2009-10-02T22:44:00.001+09:00

goofing around....

2009-09-29T11:40:00.011+09:00

Last week we were goofing around with fireworks and my friends camera. He started the long shots after we ran out of sparklers so last Saturday we goofed around with a pen light on the back of a lighter...pretty interesting stuff!

First the fireworks(Hanabi)

lol this was per the photographer(thanks Aidan)

These were fun, kind of like roman candles but it would launch a little bottle rocket type thing every couple seconds.....

So with that whole idea of capturing between 3 and 20 second exposure's we decided to do this the following weekend!

Here's an attempt at writing my name on the balcony.. remember you have to write things backwards to get it reverse on the camera so apologies, can you see it?????

my peeps were a little better than me! It's hard because you shoot everything in the dark it was funky!!!!

I thought that one was pretty funny... :)

Good weekend!

2009-09-28T16:36:00.004+09:00

Fall is definately coming. Had a great time this weekend shooting archery and hanging out with friends. I've also decided to take the Japanese Proficiency exam so I'll be studying it up a lot!

As always trying to keep things together while being over here. It's rough!!!! Especially with a crazy cat and a weird work schedule(Tuesday-Saturday 1-9 and Monday afternoons). Started a new race with Nike + if anyone's down please get in touch with me and I will send you an invite!!! Spread the word people I want to race against peeps!

This archery stuff is freakin fun! I can't believe how well I did too!!!! Second time's the charm I suppose. One good thing about Japan is that people remember you because you're so uncommon I think. I walked in the lobby to get my gear and the guy who set me up totally remembered me and it was great!

This one was 55 meters and shooting about 30 feet up from where I was....only person on my team to even hit the target!!!!!!

This week I'm not doing too much. Next week going to see Metric in Tokyo that should be really fun! Just trying to go with the flow, keep the house clean and stay in touch with peeps. Haha, in about 20 minutes I'm going to meet up with an old teacher I used to work with...she wants to meet up at Denny's. In her e-mail she said she wanted to go to a cozy place, I love that it's Denny's :P

A glimpse of this week!

2009-09-26T18:51:00.005+09:00

Castle recooping after my birthday!

Hokuto hiking..

...and dinner! (tried to get the gnarliest shot possible) this was before brains were disposed of! mmmmm squid curry!!! :P Archery tomorrow, hope everyone is having a good weekend!

AHHHHH

2009-09-21T19:04:00.002+09:00

I just wrote this huge birthday blog and totally effed it up somehow!!!!!! AHHH I'll re-write it later !

POOP!

i spy with my little eye?????

I love bluetooth!!!!

2009-09-11T06:56:00.008+09:00

Not for those gay headsets! But I was just able to bluetooth all my photos to my laptop! And trust me she's not so cute right now!

Since she woke me up at a lovely 5:30 by running across my bed at full speed to jump and climp the curtains right above me....scared she's going to land on my head, I decided carpe deez it up and start my day. Did a little cleaning and took out the trash! Which I'm a little thankful Chich woke me up for because I had for about it last night! But like I said...she's not that cute anymore!! She's a KILLER!

Ahhh!!! I'm starting to hate her but love the bluetooth for the instant uploads...LOL here you go as she climbed this curtain and is doing a good job at being a pain! I wish I was knew some Koreans right now !!!!!(GET IT)

All in all besides my cat things have been good. I've been studying everyday so far this week and am driven to get better at Japanese. Also, I'm back on listening to Weezer...which always puts me in a good mood! Current song, "butterfly" from the Pinkerton album. Also working out and swam 1k last night! About to go running since it's just past 7am!

The weekend is looking exciting...thinking about going snowboarding Sunday morning...lol I went to check the times on the website and saw something funny...let me know if you can pick up the wonderful japanese english :)

http://misaka.kamuisp.com/summer/spec.shtml

or better yet...

Also got some free tickets to the local city soccer teams last Sunday home game for the same day. Free = good! AND! On Saturday I'm going to a hockey game, they want me to play and it's funny because the foriengers on the team(all two of them) are skeptical of my abilities since I grew up in Las Vegas. This makes me want to play even more because :

A. Because it will be fun to get my bearings and show them up in a short period of time.
B. Hockey is super fun and all you do is hit stuff and people all the time!

Might be some good stress relief from Chi-Chi :) Unfortunately gear is expensive as shit but all this is minor details. Then to top things off football starts this week! One thing that sucks about Japan is the fact that I can't just turn on the TV and watch some but I suppose I'm spending my time more wisely...a season break won't be too bad.

Ohh...Never uploaded the pic of my favorite class.

They're awesome! And thanks to me they know hella slang :P not " hella " but some good stuff! I also like them because for my kid classes, they understand me the best when I speak English, which is really fun. Also, this class usually catches me at my worst because it starts Saturdays @ 10am. So they've also seen me after some rough evenings...sorry guys.

Alright time to handle bizniss...catch ya after the weekend!

ARRRGGHHHH

2009-09-03T14:09:00.006+09:00

Fear not!

My posts will soon be less few and far between because of a new celly I just got! It lets me take pics and immediately put them up on here...as soon as I figure it out.

Been back just a litle over a week from my fabulous vacation in Hawaii, it was everything I could have wanted and more...well maybe if I improved a little more with my surfing. I realized it's not something I can just go out and do which sucks! And nothing like snowboarding, except in deep powder conditions. Anywho...here's some pics of a hike me and my cousin went on of the Na Palli coast!

The hike was great, the highlight of the trip....although hiking in there was a little bit of regret in going :P 11 miles is far! and up and down hills along a coastline was pretty, but it wore on me for a bit. It was all worth it when we were able to plop down on the beach though and relax for two days. We met some great people and had a lot of fun.

I also got to kick it with my brother while I was there, here was one of our last days cruisin around the island....

I think this trip all of the guy cousins had a chance to relax together! I emerged ping-pong champion throughout, as I am the oldest!

And look what I came home to after about two weeks...

Miss Chi-chi is getting pretty big! And being an equally big terror as well...but she's a little kitty cooped up in a tiny apartment so I really shouldn't be too upset. For now I'm off... work calls!

WHoa~

2009-08-03T23:51:00.004+09:00

The time between blogs has been few and far between.... sorry all. Lately I've had my hands full with this new cat of mine :)!!!! chi-chan!

haha great pic right?!? :P

Other than that really trying to enjoy everything out here in Japan. Exercising as much as I can and recently trying to study harder. Made some new goals while I'm out here. I really want to

1. Get great with my acoustic guitar
2. Play Moonlight Sonata on my keyboard
3. Improve my kanji vocabulary

Kanji (Japanese characters that have a million meanings) is what makes learning Japanese a pain in the ass! So many of them...one little thing will throw everything off :( But! I'm here so I might as well learn them. I also have a tentative plan as to how long I'm staying here!! I know you all are on the edge of your seat :)

I'm going to re-contract and stay here until April/May 2010.

!

The sis is tieing the knot as well as a good family friend. I know I can't take all that time off of work so I'm going to kick it and enjoy the summer. WHY IS EVERYONE GETTING MARRIED?!?!?! Not hating and actually looking forward to going to both of them...not everyday a little sis is getting married. HA! But I also have a lot of little sis's(5!) so I suppose there will be more to come!

OHh! Indoor snowboarding...you dig?

So much fun. Progressing is awesome too by the way and it's great that this place is only around an hour away! Up in the mountains here it's fantastic! The funniest part....they had this song on repeat the whole time!! 3 hours, just this one song!

JULY!!!!!

2009-07-08T11:35:00.006+09:00

And I just finally turned on my A/C. I think I was just being lazy and thought I could live with just a fan around here. But hey, the weather is still a little better than Las Vegas!

Lately I've been trying to make the most of my time around here. Over the 4th I went into Tokyo to visit some friends. Unfortunately my battery died and wasn't able to meet up with everyone I wanted too though = :( But! Earlier this week I did learn that at every convenience store(here they call them combini's) they sell battery chargers!!!! Once again....don't lose the lesson!!!! This week I want to try and edit a bunch of videos I have of some of my students and some of the things I've been doing while in Japan. Also, I decided I'm going to swim more rather than weight lift, and cater my weight lifting to make me a better swimmer...went today and it was awesome. The funny thing about going to the gym is having all the Ojii-sans(grandpas) talk to me like I was just another dude at the gym! Luckily my language skills are getting better so small talk is easy. I've also improved on when to say "mmmmmmmm" and "wakariamsu"(I understand) even when I really don't understand lol. So basically these guys think I understand everything they say to me....which makes me want to study more for the next time I see them!!!

here's an update on my plants too!!

Jalepeno's are up top and the tomoatoes are up against the wall. I forgot to take a pic of my cilantro, but the cilantro parts are dying out and very small flowers have sprouted up..I don't know what to take of the situation but I still water them every day. This weekend I'm planning on re-potting the tomatoes and jalepenos! I'm probably only going to keep about 3 plants each and re-transform my balcony into a minature potted garden. Plans to pick up some basil, a small Japanese maple as well as possibly a bell pepper plant too! I have this shelf/ stand thing that can work as a tiered shelf and make my balcony look awesome. In the coming blog I'll have to take some picture of other peoples gardens around here. They're amazing!!!!

Ohhh, and here's some shots of my part-time kindergarten I teach at on Mondays!

These kids are great! I also teach classes a couple years older and a class of 2 and 3 year olds!!!!

This weekend I'm also picking up a kitten!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A friend of mine saved 3 from getting put to sleep(aka KILLED) so I thought I would help him out and also get some company around this place. More pics to come...any idea for names???? It's going to be a girl!

Quick overview of the week~~

2009-06-11T11:30:00.005+09:00

Alright it's been a while...and I'm sorry but I've been busy but I'm gettin on it....here's some pics of my past week in a nutshell!

Haha this one is for AJ because I just recently commented on her blog with this photo!! This was taken this past Sunday on Lake Kawaguchiko... I will be impressed if any of you can pronounce that properly in one try :P We had a blast, the other person on the far left is our friend Juan. He's studying law in Tokyo and we all know each other from living in Las Vegas...which was pretty strange because nobody has friends from home in Japan. BUT WE DO and that's another reason I love it here!!

ok next...

The first pic is one of my students...RYOKI. He's awesome and the class we teach is great...it's funny because I understand everything they say in Japanese, and I can reply to them in English and make them laugh, which says something about their ability you know!!! The other pics is right outside of the branch I teach at on Tuesday...the pic doesn't give the mountains justice unfortunately but it's still an idea of what I do regularly!!!

THESE GIRLS!!!!

Honoka and Yuka don't speak any Japanese ever!!! LOL I actually try to get them to speak Japanese just because I want to hear them talk. They are two very quiet sisters but when they do talk it's awesome and they are very funny too!!! Ok I'm sorry this is so short but the madre wanted a little something something and I know AJ was dying to see that swan pic!!! I'll be on here more regularly so don't worry all!!!

Looks like we made it!!!

2009-05-16T18:12:00.006+09:00

ahhhh Barry Manilow :P

in reference to my babies :)look who came out to say hello!!!

4 days after too!!!

cilantro

and tomatoes!!!!

lol for some reason I'm also listening to Rich boy....back and forth with Barry Manilow I guess I must be in a funky mood huh.. THROW SOME D'S ON THAT BITCH!!!!! Be careful if you say that once you're going to be hooked...!

2-5-2~~!!!!! right katie!?!?!

SUUUUUUCCCCEEEESSSSSS!!!!!

2009-05-13T09:03:00.004+09:00

cilantro....

...tomatoes....

..hurry up jalapenos'!!!!!!!

yesterday there was about one bud in each planter...when i check this morning is was pretty great to see them in action!!! it was a super nice day yesterday( except the fact that with this mop on my head i sweat like a pig :( ) but i guess it did wonders for the plants.. i really hope the jalapenos do something soon. i was worried because when i planted these guys it rained for three days straight and was raelly cold. i hear that's really bad for those suckers...but they're rising above hehe literally and i'll keep everyone posted on how its going :)

B

Among other things...

2009-05-09T21:49:00.003+09:00

...heart shaped ground beef!

...when you eat them you feel loved :P

Just killing time while the rice is cooking. LOL and as I write that I realize how ironic and Japanese of me :) These heart burgers are going to be the cornerstone of my super healthy dinner!!!

brown and white rice
asparagus
spinach
onions
garlic
HEART BEEF!!!!!

...and assorted seasonsings :)

Hope everyone is doing well...playing tennis and golf tomorrow = w00t... take care all!

It's raining!!!

2009-05-06T15:52:00.010+09:00

Luckily my hobbies are piling up lol. Learning more Weezer on my guitar....I have to say I love torrents!! You can just download the whole discography, but shhhh don't tell anyone ok ;)

Also, one of my students gave me this...it's called Jamaica but it's a pretty fun math game...she uses it on her students.

And I was supposed to play tennis today :(

Ok so here's how it works! The two black dice you add up and that's the number you need to reach. You do this by adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing the other numbers to get the total of the black numbers added up. This time it's 26...

Alright so please try and if you're still confused(insert name here) I'll explain :)

This one was easy though...alright so you need to get 26 right. What I did was add the 3 + 2 + 1 = 6...multiply it by 4 = 24, then add 2 = 26. Alright well it may not be the hardest but sometimes it gets a little tricky.

Ok so that's what i'm doing while it's raining.... here's what's been going on while not raining!!!

If you look really hard in that last one you can see a gray and black wild pig!!! And it almost charged on us....Probably the scariest thing yet I've encountered in Japan. On this hike on went on to see those beatiful waterfalls I also a monkey in the trees the size of a 2 year old!

Earlier on in the week I went up to the mountains and shot some arrows and bbqed all day!! Very fun stuff I recommend trying it :) Here's some of our food we grilled up....the first and last photo shot by a friend of mine...Eric, you can probably notice the diff becaus he has a really nice camera!

Anywho that was the past week in a nutshell....BBQed up in the mountains yesterday with some friend while raining..very fun!!!! This week is a holiday week, it's called Golden Week and a very busy time for commuting around japan. So I basically relaxed and did my thing. Caught up on some movies ie...

Royal Tenenbaums - so funny
Me, myself, & Irene (never seen....as a matter of fact it's still buffering)
Goonies(again)
Trainspotting
Shoot em Up!
ohh and finished Chuck season 2

...unfortunately I don't think there is going to be a 3rd season...ohh well. ohh...also finally planted my seeds my mom sent me...we'll be seeing pics of jalapenos sprouting soon and i will have day by day(!) photos hopefully :) I hope everyone had a good cinco de mayo....PEACE

Another Monday down!

2009-04-27T21:55:00.010+09:00

This past week flew by!!!!

Been super busy....picking up and switching shifts with people. Went to Tokyo over the weekend to pay my buddy who sold me the car...he's a snap of him and his gf....i'll just start and the pics are around the table of us and some peeps hanging out on Sunday nigt(4/26/09)

The weekend was actually really great. There's something about Tokyo that gives me energy to just be productive and "sieze the day". It's weird. I stayed the night on Sunday and woke up early....which was crazy I've never been squeezed into a subway like I was this morning!!! I didn't even sleep on my bus back and was full of spunky all day...I even stayed after work a little late because I had to finish up some work for an early morning business class I picked up for a friend...and I NEVER STAY A MINUTE LATER THAN I HAVE TOO :P

ohhh...I also found a pic of my car! Taken via my balcony....

Yes it's really small!!!! But shoot it works and at least I get to park it pretty close to my house. I don't know what it is about Japanese people too but for some reason they always back their cars in everywhere...I think it's just part of their strangely efficient culture you know.

Also this past week I've had a strange appetite...check out this feast I prepared...I think that was on Thursday 4/23!

hmmm....I would ask people try and guess but it's a difficult one... 10 points to the winner with the most correct answers. And hint...there are two types of meat!!! This is the first time points have ever been availiable on the blog so...this is special!!

AND!!! I have pictures of cute Japanese kids I teach.... This girl is Rinna!! She's one of my favorite kids and also the most annoying because she hates doing anything productive but she's a really funny girl!!! She's 4 and has to stop coming to my class!! It sucks but I guess it's difficult for her mom to make it now or something = :(

This next bunch are my first class on Friday's....there alright but the dude thinks he's funny and gets put in his place every five minutes by me, you would think this wears him down but momma didn't raise a quitter with Mr.Shota! They're all drinking water because we were going over emotions, I asked everyone if they were thirsty...it turns out they were! It was pretty funny so I thought I'd take a pic!

Well that's enough for now!!! This week I have Wednesday off and I think I'm going to be doing archery up in the mountains with a bbq so I'll be sure to show everyone what's up with the bows and arrows!!! OHHH!!! GOTTA SHOW LOVE TO MY SIS!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIZNATCH!!!!

also you too Jenny!!!!

I hope everyone's doing well...mom you better get an X5 that's tiiiiiight and then get nanny a new friggin car that heap's about to blow up!!!! TAKE CARE EVERYONE!!!

ohhhh snaps!!!!

2009-04-20T12:06:00.002+09:00

So I went shopping over the weekend and swooped these bad boys up at the local cheap-o shops!

The skateboard went for 2,000 yen, which is about $20 bucks!!! Which any of you who know about longboard skateboards a normal one is usually about $100!

Then I swooped on the guitar for $40 !!! I know it's a weird color blue but for $40 bucks it was awesome. Alright so it looks like I won't be studying as much as before.

Trying to but it's tough! I am getting a chance to practice as well which is great but motivation other than everyday conversation is tough. Especially while trying to make my lesson plans more interesting at work. I also picked up a second job!!!! It'll be teaching two classes at a kindergarten on Mondays. The great thing is this school is about a 5 minute drive from my hosue!

Goin to Fujiyoshida today to kick it with AJ, think I'm going to be making pasta then grab some ice cream @ a place in Kawaguchiko...I'll throw up some pics later on in the week!! I'm finding I don't really have too much to say on these blogs so i'll take request....anything just let me know, picture requests I'll do it!!! shoot even song request on my spankin new acoustic! Catch up later peeps!!!

Ay yai yai

2009-04-08T10:23:00.004+09:00

So....

Apologies to everyone but it's been over a month since I dropped in the blog. A lot has been happening and I've been extremely lazy in writing.

Everything is in bloom aroud here and I'm actually going to a sakura(cherry blossom) festival over the weekend. The weather is perfect here and I'll be on top of the world as soon as I get paid!!!!!!! Work has become incredibly annoying though unfortunately :(

Teaching isn't so bad but it's really the people. My company is horribly run and hearing people complain over and over again and me refraining from telling the to shut the f*ck up so I won't hurt their ohh so sensitive feelings is getting harder every day! But! I am learning a lot more japanese and I have a great time when I'm not in the main branch so I just deal :)

Was getting a little home sick over the past month. It's like....shoot I can stay here, and learn a language I probably won't ever use...or go back to American and pick up the pieces of my life, be with my family, and my friends? Who knows I was in a predicament but the more I talk to people back home I realize I'm going to try and stick it out for a little while longer. Japanese is actually a very fun language to speak(lol being it the only other language I can) and everybody I meet is very interesting.

OHHH!!! I bought a car too!!! Pics are coming soon, I had to park it in Fujiyoshida...where my good friend Amanda lives because I need to buy a parking space and I'm broke until 4/10...so not so bad. It's a little hatchback that will fit right in to everyone else driving around here.

LOL sometimes I have some funny timing with my pics! This was taken a couple weeks ago when my aussie friend Jyoti and I took a little weekend trip up to Nagano...the snow was so slushy I was able to plany my board wherever I wanted and capture this goofy skier too!!!! Alright peeps more to come...any requests on blog topics???

The weeks are flying by!

2009-02-23T21:46:00.005+09:00

This one went by with ease as usual. There's something funky about Japan that's hard to put a finger on, a friend said it well when he said this place was like "neverland". I think it's a great example because things here usually feel pretty surreal. This week went by with the usually cooking every night and morning...unfortunately not too much studying until tonight but that shall change this week!

The weekend consisted of snowboarding!! Nagano on Monday where I met this interesting lady who can't be seperated from her dog...literally :P And mind you this is real although the dog is cute enough to be fake!

Ohh my god I couldn't believe it!!!! The dog looked scared out of his mind too I felt bad for the pootch, all that needed to happen was a sharp turn and he was done for :(

Here's a pic of me and my awesome friend Jonas taking the gondola up Sunday as well......

I like Jonas a lot because he always has a story for everything!!! He is pretty well traveled too!! He spent two years teaching in Thailand, while there he went to India and vacationed in Costa Rica and before that backpacked all over Europe. He is a little picky when it comes to snow conditions and just about everything else, but he blames it on him being so jewish lol.

On Monday(today) I went to Fuji-ten with another friend David. David is also an amazing guy!! Lived in San Fran before he and he plays bass having gig's just about every week. I believe I mentioned both of these kids in previous posts though. We had a lot of fun although it rained on us about the whole time :( He wasn't going to go because of the prices and horrible conditions but as I talked him in to paying as you go(about $4 per lift ride up)...we get all of our gear and two japanese guys say " ticket " lol I was so surprised it was in english!!! It turns out there were leaving and we bought their tickets for $10!!!! it was awesome I was so stoked, it really made my day!!

So we take a couple of runs, go back to his car and drink a little sake and had a good day! LOL and then we saw this sign and started cracking up!!

All in all it was a good weekend and then tonight my friend that does language exchange e-mailed me so I even got a little Japanese talk in there to add a little productive-ness to everything.

This week should go smooth...just the same ol teaching with a little exploring in there. Excited for the weekend, some good friends from Las Vegas are coming out and we're going to meet in Tokyo Sunday and then I should be going to Fujiyoshida to see my peep AJ unless she flakes and she always does(just kidding!!!!). Alright peeps take care i'll leave you with this new Q-Tip music video this guy is amazing!!!

Gettin Up

This weekend was interesting!

2009-02-17T23:49:00.005+09:00

With that said it's hard to really start because for two days I did an incredible amount of stuff!!!

My weekend is Sunday/Monday too fyi. Saturday night chilled and went to a mexican restaurant, which was my first mexican in japan so far besides what I tried to make at my house a few times...it was alright and I really couldn't complain. Drinking a Corona got me a little nostalgic about bar-b-queing with my good friends in Las Vegas, since it was my first Corona out here as well. Sunday I went up to Nagano with some friends for the day to do some spring time condition riding.

There has been a strange warm front here the past couple of weeks...pushing the weather to seriously about 70 to 75 degrees during the day and just a little less at night. The weather was amazing...but it all stopped yesterday really and I was upset it didn't last while I waiting for my train which was delayed 45 minutes and made me miss a class too :(

With my shredding/progressing since last Wednesday(2/11) I have learned and stuck(landed) new tricks consistently enough to casually use them whenever I am riding rails and boxes. WHICH IS AWESOME! At nagano I was nose-pressing rainbow boxes all day( for you non-snowboarders that = balancing on just the front of a board with the rest of the board flexed on a wide rail made of plastic shaped like a rainbow, or as the japanese call it "arc" :P) and also frontside 360ing boxes toooo. All in all it was very fun and I was looking extra fly because my lady sent me some pretty rad gear!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After Nagano I showered and was on bus to Tokyo within 40 minutes of getting home. I wanted to get into Shinjuku around 8:00 so I could kick it with some other friends that were in the city and really enjoy myself. I went into Tokyo because I was actually in a commercial on Monday and needed to get in early because Kofu is friggin far away and the shooting for the commericial started @ 7:30!

So basically I threw a bunch of shit in my backpack and was off. UNfortunately with that stuff and the rush I forgot my camera & i-pod but whatever there's a camera on my phone and I could always listen to the sounds of the city riiight!!! I get in and meet my friend at the station, I told him to follow the sound of the weird Japanese punk band playing and sure enough...5 minutes later he tapped me on the shoulder in front of this weird punk band :p We went to Ginza to meet up with a homie I also got in on the shoot, had some beers said goodbyes and we went off to Chiba where they were going to have the shoot!

My friend David wanted to stay in a hotel with his girlfriend(understandable) so she(her girlfriend is Japanese) hooked me up with a reservation @ a capsule hotel place!!! I've never actually seend one of these places before and was oddly stoked to be staying in one. Partly because the last time I came to Tokyo, honestly everyone asked me if I stayed in one, and I told them to not believe everything they see on fast and furious 3...RIGHT!!!! Anyways here's a couple pics I took on my celly of the capsule I slept in...lol capsule 441~!!!!!!

I honestly could not have had a better time! In the morning I even woke up early to notice they had an onsen(hot spring bath) and steam room too!!! I was stoked!!! Monday I met up with my boy and we took a monorail( which was tight because it's basically a subway with the cable on the roof of the subway instead of the bottom) to Chiba Port Arina where the commercial took place. LOL They specifically told me not to blog about this so i'll respect until the commercial is out but it was for a new beer they're going to release and I got to meet a couple of pro athletes and just sit in a stadium and pretend to look surprised!!! I was actually in the front row so once it's released I'm hella gonna look for me!!! I'll try and get a copy of the vid too for you peeps!!!!

After that just chilled in Tokyo! Went to Rippongi, supposedly a really cool spot but other than sick architecture I think I need to come at night to really appreciate it. Went to Ueno park...which is a really big park in Tokyo. Met up with a friend in Sibuya and had a couple beers before I took off. It was another great weekend and am really looking forward to this week. Going to chill and really work on my Japanese, or so I say every week which amounts to little getting done. Hey!! at least I blogged !! lol I'll try and get some more pics up.

Don't think I'll be snowboarding because that warm front made for crazy springtime conditions and slush so I'm thinking everything right now is an ice cube until we get some fresh snow so I may be rock climbing over the weekend or who the heck knows I NEED TO GET IN SHAPE!!!!! Take it easy all!

I passed the 3 month mark!

2009-02-09T22:35:00.004+09:00

And I'm looking more like a teacher everyday!!! Today I had to sub for a friend of mine who covered for me when I went to Hakuba. The classes were actually really fun and I'm really learning how to get people to take chances and not be afraid to speak English. It's funny though, just about everytime I learn a new word or phrase it gets incorporated into my lessons. I know I shouldn't, but I do use a lot of Japanese to try and teach. It's slightly frowned on by my company because I'm strictly an English speaker but shooooooot! These kids are really struggling and I help them out by explaining things in Japanese..or wheter try and explain it.

I think that's how I get them comfortable however because once I start speaking I obviously butcher just about everything but they know I'm trying to help them out so they kind of put that extra effort which makes things work. This Wednesday is a holiday so I get to go snowboarding!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This weekend I couldn't unfortunately because I'm stupid and spend my money on the wrong things :( BUT! Payday is tomorrow so things will be looking up! But look what I made with about $3 american munz

Ok AJ I know you're going to get a little upset when you read this or even see the pic because that cous cous is one of the boxes that my mom sent for you. So, thanks mom...and thanks AJ I still have another box with your name on it but shooot I was trying to cut corners and I'm broke :) But I promise I'll make it up to you. Anyways I did a little chicken with baby asparagus, carrots, onions, and garlic. The cous cous is indian curry flavored and tastes awesome!!!!!!!!! This coming week I'm going to try my hand at fish!!! Wish me luck everyone!

This coming month should be really exciting. My friend Andy and his girlfriend are coming to Japan @ the beginning of March so it'll be great to jet into Tokyo to meet up with them. LOL it's funny because I've heard of a lot of great mexican restaurants in Tokyo but I'm sure they'll just want Japanese food unfortunately but ohhh well I guess I can just make mexican food!!!!!!!!!!

Today I had my first language exchange. This is when I meet with a friend who wants to practice English, and I try to speak Japanese too...it went really well. I'm learning more and more everyday and some of my sentences are getting longer and sometimes I'm able to make jokes in Japanese! I even had a dream slightly in Japanese the other day too....LOL I was talking to my cousin who lived in Hawaii and he was speaking Japanese for some reason!! I realized it was a dream when later I was talking to my sister and she was in her car...then she drove away but her steering wheel in her civic was on the other side(ie passenger side). I was like damn this is a dream and I've been in Japan for too long :P

This is my latest bike!!! I got it for free too!!! Diggin the rims because all bikes in Japan look exactly the same...except mine!!!! Also with the bike I got a jar of homemade grape jelly!!! It's a bit of a story that I'm really lazy to tell right now but just another reason why Japan is great. OoooooK, basically I told a friend that my bike got stolen, she talked to a relative and told me that he can hook me up with a bike because he owns a bike shop. We go to their house, which is also a grape farm for wine, after he fixes the bike up for me we go in and have tea and as a parting gift the guys wife gives me a jar of grape jelly!! = w00t! People in Japan are soooo nice!!!! Anywho till next time I hope all is well !!!!!

Post Super Bowl

2009-02-03T10:54:00.005+09:00

Ok,

So the Cardinals didn't win but at least nobody spoiled for me as I was the only person at the bar interested in the outcome of the super bowl. Luckily my bartender was awesome and made sure to tell everyone to shut up when they were talking about the game.

OOo....I also got my new bike which is awesome, I forget if I mentioned that in my last post... I'll be sure to put a pick up it's wicked sick. It has Turquoise rims!!! And I got it for free, I overheard that the person who gave me the bike his grandaugter is going to Austrailia in a couple months so I thought it would be nice to give a couple english lessons in exchange for the bike. Afterwards we did some tea and chilled it was actually really fun.

Also here's my latest omlette creation!!!

and finally teaching kids there body parts...this was pretty fun because everyone was afraid to be on the top!!! These are my Wednesday kids....they're actually annoying as f***!!!!

Anywho so this week I'm mostly going to be chilling. I have another language exchange next week, this one I didn't speak too much Japanese. The whole deal is I meet up with someone and we speak English for 30 minutes, then we speak Japanese for the next 30. But, this person asked me to meet them at the vault, which is my local bar while the Supe Bowl was on so I wasn't really in the mood to think :( But now I'm a little more driven and have a lot of time this week because I really shouldn't go out(because i'm broke) and I should really buckle down and start studying more.

Tonight I actually think I'm going to be doing some shrimp tacos with guac though so that should be exciting, don't worry if they're lookin good a pic will be up here shortly. Thanks to myspace I got to watch some of the super bowl commercials too. GI joe looks pretty cool but everything else wasn't too funny but ohh well.

Can't wait to go snowboarding again...I was talking to one of the other people that work at the bar and he said he was doin 540's over 15 meter kickers on Saturday, he said we'd be going next time so i'm pretty stoked to see how good this guy is.... iiiiinnaaaaaaa. LOL I think if we go though I'll work up the guts to try something other than a giant 180 over the kicker...we'll see though. I hope everyone is having a good week back home!!!!!!!! Take care!

Superbowl Monday!!!!

2009-02-02T14:07:00.003+09:00

Well, that's just the way it has to be here. It's around 2 pm Monday afternoon, which means the superbowl is probably over and the winning team is giving speechs and what not. I've made it this far without spoiling the winner but who knows if I can do it the whole day. I'm about to go meet up with another teacher who is getting me the hook up on a bike. I forget if i mentioned this but last Saturday my bike was stolen from a bar. I didn't lock it though, but never have before...but don't worry I learned my lesson. This past weekend was great, went to Nagano again and has an awesome day. The night before it must have snowed about 10 inches so there was some nice powder but you had to go hunt for it. They also had a couple kickers(jumps) one about 30 feet and the other around 15. It was my first chance to hit jumps this big this season!

I was a little nervous at first because I really don't want to mess my shoulder up again but I never fell once the whole day actually ...wait no I did doing something goofy..just a switch 180. It's funny though the line to hit the jump takes forever so I try and kind of cut in, because everyone just friggin looks at the jump and I'm wondering why nobody is going. So the guy in front always lets me go ahead of him and I think I've perfected my bows while going pretty fast to people...it's a funny feeling actually :P Oddly enough it was the same guy a few times who happened to be the best guy in the park that day...he was doing backflip's with 360's at the end. Some of the guys here are nuts!!! Ok then another japanese lesson for the day

いいな = iina = I envy you, or I'm jealous

So quick example...he would do the backflip and I would say, " iiiiiiiiinaaaaaaa" I really like it because even when you say i'm jealous in english it always seems like there's a bit of envy, yet in japanese it's more of a good thing or, " you're lucky,I'm jealous."

Well I'm trying to upload pics of the day but something is acting up for the blog site. soon to come will before my latest cooking feat = pedthai along with some pics of students and what not.... stay tuned

TODAY IS AUZZIE DAY

2009-01-26T15:03:00.004+09:00

Lol like that really means much for the people who read this....

But my local bar is doing a lot because the owner is from Austrailia, I'm going because I want to try a kangaroo burger. Just beforehand I'm going to join a gym, it's about time I get back into shape. If you weren't aware I dislocated my shoulder twice snowboarding last year, once on St.Patty's day and then again two weeks later :( It's a lot better now so I think I can really start to fully exercise again = w00t! I also have some news that will make some of you very happy. Goodbye mustache, I wanted to try and keep it for a month, since I started it on New Years. But it'll be my celebration for Auzzie day. To think it's only been a month is amazing. A lot has happened in 09 already. Had probably one of the best snowboarding trips in my life, my Japanese is getting great and I'm cooking tons! Catching up on my flicks too. Just watched HEAT until the wee hours of Sunday morning...great flick! It makes me miss LA and America a lot. There's many shots of LA and I forgot just how large it is...and that was shot in 1995. It also made me realize how small Kofu is. Although I think it's really big it's not compared to LA, but, it's one of the biggest cities in the US so...yeah! also here's my latest song of the week. It's by Weezer's frontman Rivers Cuomo, he made a couple solo cd's that are very very good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtxnRT0IaXg there's anothe link in case that doesn't work. Been listening to a lot of Weezer actually...it's just really relaxing music I suppose.

Everybody has been saying my Japanese is improving tons which is awesome. This week I learned some very cool and important words....

うざい：uzai : annoying

さいきん: saikin : recently

かんぺき : kanpeki : perfect

なんというの : nan toiu no: how do you say that?

おけいかい : okeikai : check ( as in the bill @ a restaurant)

I also have been getting better at using of でしょう(deshoo) which is probably my favorite type of slang Japanese has. It means...right? you use can use it at almost the end of everything, and as my friends you know when I like something, ie a song I nonstop play it so just imagine how much I use でしょう :P Nah it's not that bad. But it also means , "don't you think so" or "don't you agree with me" or "am i right." It also depends on what you say to make deshoo important. It's very fun!!!!!

I would go on with other slang, but I don't want to bore everyone. Such as ちょう(choo) which means something like "very" or a word that's more than "very." I kinda think of it like super, but you can't use it alone it has to have a noun or something to follow it. Honestly, I think of it as the english equivelent to "fuckin"

like...fuckin awesome! LOL it's true though. So quick lesson! すごい = sugoi = awesome. ちょうすごい = choo sugoi = ....you get it!

Anyone who knows Japanese and is reading please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. But, that's that for now. I hope everyone's doing well!!!! I'll take blogging request's just let me know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hakuba was great!

2009-01-19T18:00:00.006+09:00

Although this pic was taken when my head felt like it was going to explode...I had a great time @ Hakuba. My friends and I left late Friday night and left late Sunday night. Saturday morning I was riding with powder up to my knees!!!!

On about the 3rd run I met a really cool guy coming out of a chute I just tore through...as I was waiting for my friend Jyoti to dig herself out of the powder I decided to chat it up...turns out this guy (Leo) has been traveling around for the past two years and plans to travel for another two!! Sounds like a good idea...right! He was from France too which was interesting. I didn't see him riding with anyone so I told him hey we're exploring the mountain just like you so you're more than welcome to tag along with us, and it was great we had a lot of fun! So it was a really tight trio in the morning and we ended up meeting some great people who was in the group we went up with and had a blast! There was a really fun party on Saturday night and everybody was really happy to meet my UNITAS(where I work) friends and get drunk! The group that went up was giant! About 70 people...we had our own seperate hotel which was great and slightly めどくさい( the japanese word for bothersome or annoying). It turned out great though and is probably the highlight of my stay in Japan so far!

The guy on my left is Fred...you may remember him from my other post the first time I went to Fuji-ten and I believe my first blog ever :P He's the guy that put this all together and a very cool peep might I add. Lol if you look at his hand he messed it up majorly because he works hard....and plays hard too!!! Drunken Fool!!! lol.

Don't worry everyone I plan to break-up with my mustache soon....but it's hard to fight love :) Fred really does rock though for how long I've known him he's always been super cool. It's really how it is with most of the people here...everyone rocks and is always really genuine which is awesome!! I want to put up some videos of me on the gondola and a really funny one of us @ dinner but for some reason this blog uploader sucks, sorry peeps! More pics for now!

These three are probably my closest friend I see on the regular and who are always down to hang out whenever! The guy is james, next Eiko, then Hazuki. All super rad...James busted his kness on the trip. This is the second time I've taken him snowboarding and the second time that he's fucked his knees up :( Like I'm talking very bad...they both swell up with fluid that looks really nasty. But it's funny he's like ok let me heal up then we'll try it again! Great guy...English though so it's really funny we're always busting each others chops because of our different slang. He's even got me saying "bloke" sometimes and I tell him to " bugger off" it's really funny! LOL and he's worried he's going to come back home with an american accent because of how much we kick it.

I wish I would have taken more pics of the snow but I think I was just too excited...Jyoti is going to put up some pics so I'll put more up in a blog later this week.

On a resolution update note...my cooking is already getting better. I'm getting pretty good at pastas and what not... yes I know it's easy but they're tasting good. Tonight it will be pasta with chicken, broccoli, and bell peppers in a tomato basil sauce!! Next week I'm thinking about getting a wok to work on stir fry's and then next is going to be Thai food!!!! Wish me luck...Till nex time everyone hope you enjoyed!

Want to see my Saturday students?!?!

2009-01-11T13:47:00.008+09:00

These kids are great!! And now that I've been teaching for a little while it's great to see their personality a little more because they were so shy at first. I'm teaching the boys how to play uno, which could be a bad idea because when I play uno with my other classes all they want to do now is play uno...but they listen very well so I don't think it will be a problem.

Saturday's are actually my favorite days...although it's a 9-5er as opposed to 1-9 I like it because the kids are friggin smart! Then I go back to the central branch and teach two adults that are really fun. Teaching is weird, and teaching English without that much experience is funny as well because I'm just talking to them...and correcting their sentence structure. Especially without training it's hard to decide what to teach my adult students who don't prefer to follow a textbook because it's too basic, but their English isn't that great either. In the coming weeks I think I'm really going to buckle down and develop my teaching style.

I have noticed that I do get my students to laugh, and laugh often...lol not at me don't worry but with English it's very easy to make jokes I guess although the language barrier is there with the little kids.

All in all Japan rocks!! People are commenting on my Japanese getting better and I notice it too because I'm understanding more of what people say, and just nodding my head pretending I understand to everything else. Which is very hard might I add because I can tell when somebody doesn't catch everything I say when I talk, it's in their eyes you can just see it. So when I pretend to understand I really try to convey it in my eyes but it's hard! Here's a couple more pics from last night (1/10) Me and my friend James and our local bartender Marc/Mac/Mic lol. Despite the scary appearance this guy is great!

I only wish I could grow such a mean mustache!!! I think I'm going to give up on mine in another couple days and try again in a couple years lol. Later this evening I will be snowboarding in Fuji-ten!!! Their park is finally up so I can ride on some jibs, then Monday I'm going to get crackin on my new years rezzzy's and spend some of my hard earned cash vampin out my pad. My rezzy's for this year are!!!!!!

1. Get better at Japanese(I figure I'm in Japanでしょう？)

2. Get an idea of what I want to do with my life(quarter-century old I figure it's a good time:)

3. Become a better cook

There's of course the exercise on the regular but that's a given resolution on everyone's list right. These will be tough, especially #2 because I feel that wherever I'm living I'm visualizing what I will be doing with my life there. So now I don't ever want to leave Japan and I think it's an easy place to make money. That is if you have your own business. Japan is very funky in the tiers of money making, they are very spaced out. I feel the only way to make it here would be to have my own business so I can dictate and have some control over how much money I can make.

Japanese people are crazy about saving!!! Which is great for me because I'm horrible with money. I blame it on the restaurant biz because when you get large amounts of cash every night in lieu of a big paycheck once a month it's easy to spend your money then the last week will just pay for your bills. I have to say if there's one thing I will bring back from Japan I want it to be their saving ethic.

That and all my resolutions :) I'm going to grab a cup of coffee before I go rip so until next time....

09 baby!!!

2009-01-09T11:55:00.004+09:00

Hi all..

Yes I know it's been a little while but I felt as if I didn't have too much to say. The New Year has been interesting so far and today I woke up to it snowing here in Kofu!! Here are some shots as I'm making breakfast :)

lol the one on the left is from my porch as I have my clothes hangin up outside under a little overhang. There's no way I'm going out there to take them down it's freezing. As I'm typing my fingers are freezing :( I'm about to jump in the shower to get ready for work. So stoked it's payday today this month my budget was strecthed and broken...just ate all the food in my house. Well, besides some tortillas and like 6 cans of refried beans :) This weekend should be great!! I'm going to Nagano for the first time with some friends and plan to shred...I think everywhere will have really good snow since it's been snowing here in Kofu!!! We shall see I'll keep you all posted :) PEACE!

IT'S OFFICIAL!!!

2008-12-19T22:40:00.003+09:00

I'm legal!!!!! Here for a year....if I want that is = w00t! This happened earlier this morning then I later went through the work day teaching kids how to sing "Jingle Bells" and do xmas word searches and what not. Tomorrow is the big day of the UNITAS Xmas party...I'm a little nervous because I have to be Santa, which is so funny because I don't fit the character at all...well maybe my rosy cheeks but that's it! Although it's only a 10 minute appearance I hate the whole "all eyes on me" thing but ohh well.

I'm stoked afterwards the staff is going to dinner and they're having this all you can eat & all you can drink party!!! Which is always nice to get a chance to indulgde. Sunday is going to be rock climbing and night riding which should leave me exhausted and doing nothing but chilling for my day off on Monday which follows into another shred session on Tuesday. The 23rd happens to be the emperors birthday so no school!!! YAY!!! lol Although I have to work on the 24th & 25th I will still be able to celebrate with a Xmas potluck and as my true homies know on Christmas Eve...I will be breaking out the Chistian Bro's for you guys! Although you guys are too busy snowboarding in CO to read this blog don't worry I still know what's up!

BTW, I thought I'd attach a pic of those epic boots I bought at that epic price! I sure hope they're comfy and keep me warm during the night ride. I'll throw another post on after the weekend and I hope everyone is having a great week!

HARAJUKU!!!!

2008-12-17T11:47:00.004+09:00

Woohoo!!!

I even think I changed the language around for you peeps!!! On Monday I had to go into Tokyo to get some snowboarding boots. There is a giant Burton store in Harajuku, which I've decided is the most expensive place in the world :) But, I was amazed at how everybody dressed in Shinjuku(where I arrived) and Harajuku. As AJ put it well, it's a mix between 1980's and 2020!!! I felt like I was wearing rags compared to these people. And no wonder the Japanese are constantly working everything is ridiculously expensive....long sleeve shirt = $90!!!!

Boots we also twice as much then compared to US prices but you gotta do what you gotta do = 33,600 yen!!! ahhhhhh it hurts just to look at... I won't even convert that for you people who don't know just to save myself some pain.

But basically I decided Tokyo is probably one of the most happenin spots in the world. I immediately felt as if I was in New York city and when I talk to a colleague at work he says Tokyo reminds him of London, but he's from London. Which is funny because those are supposed to be the top 3 cities of the world and in a way I felt like through talking to him and my realization of the city it's true!

....Just a little view of some of the crazy stuff you see in Shinjuku as I'm trying to find my bus stop. My landmark is actually a KFC which is really funny to me. I can't wait to go back to Tokyo but with the current state of my budget I think i'm going to find something cheaper than ramen to eat :P So with Christmas already being a huge bummer I figure it can't get that much worse right?!

Luckily classes this week are cake. I make stockings with the kids, cut snowflakes, and listen to xmas music while doing word searches and xmas anagrams if there's free time. With the exception of my adult private lessons and planning for our childrens Christmas party this coming Saturday my job this week is brainless(w00t!).

With my crazy weekend I learned a lot in Japanese and has only pushed me more to study harder...hopefully ramen is good brain fuel!!! Now that this blog is up in English I expect to see comments people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FUJITEN

2008-12-14T23:40:00.011+09:00

AHHHHHHH

So I orignally wrote a very nice, long, and detailed blog but my internet explorer crashed on me :(

So today I went to Fujiten!!!!!

The fellow on my right is my friend Fred. Way cool dude from France with an English accent who's pretty damn funny actually. That's his Suby on the left and it is a very very cool car. We drove out to Fujioshida last night and we got there really fast :) because he's a crazy fast driver which is also awesome. I met up with AJ's friend Jyoti, who is a killer cool Aussie chick where we had dinner then met up with AJ at a party. What was great about dinner is the bartender gave us free dessert!!!!! it was like a half tofu half cheese thingy with strawberrys and raspberry sauce.

After this party Jyoti, our friend Ann, and I were heading home. I really wanted a beer nightcap and they mentioned there was a beer vending machine, which I haven't even seen yet! We go and unfortunately couldn't get any beer...as some people were walking up we asked why after staring at the machine and pressing all the buttons and cursing at it like drunk idiots. They said they turn off at a certain time each night(lol) because of underage drinking.

This is when they invited us to drink with them....and they were actually firefighters going to their firehouse to drink! So we ended up chilling at a firehouse eating octupus cracker thingys(which were actually good!) and me laughing histerically just about the whole time!!!! These guys were hallarious and Jyoti and Ann are very good at Japanese so I just did my best to listen and when they asked me questions I would spurt out something that was actually not bad Japanese = w00t I'm learning!

Fujiten the next day(today) was great!

I finally did find a vending machine that worked @ Fujiten~!!! It snowed a couple inches in the morning too which was great. I'm jealous of all my friends in Fujiyoshida because the resort is only a 30 minute drive!!!! But still was very very fun!

They even have places to give your board a bath get all the snow off and a compressed air gun to dry everything off which was pretty cool!!!!!! I had a great time and chllin with Fred and Jyoti was great! No jibs unfortunately but I was still having a lot of fun with all the natural stuff there. I think that's why I like snowboarding so much because it's up to you to figure out how much fun you're going to have!!!

Now that I've generally got all this stuff figured out I will be posting more and more!! I'll fill everyone in with some past stuff too. Tomorrow I'm going to Tokyo so more will be up soon I hope everyone is having a great holiday I keep hearing Wham's "Last Christmas" everywhere here I think it's the most popular xmas song in Japan!!!!!!

December 8th, 2008

2008-12-08T15:10:00.003+09:00

Well it's official!!!

I've been in Japan for a one month and 3 days and i'm having the time of my life. Bare with me in the blog because everything is in Japanese and it may take me some time to get things up and running. Life here has been very good and my budget has been almost exact, with my getting paid on Wendesday (YESSSS) and only barely making ends meet.

This past month has been great, I've met a lot of new friends and started to get into a nice grove at work. My job is great, I work at a place called UNITAS, which is an after school language school. I teach kids ranging from 4 to 70! The kids classes are fun but it's really great to teach adults that really try hard to learn english. It makes me feel a little weird having a lack of Japanese knowledge but it's interesting to discover the words and sayings they don't know that we don't even realize we say all the time.

For example, when I explain "What's up" and "How's it going?" For "How's it going" you can't say "not much" right!? and the opposite goes for "What's up" and when that happens you get those auto responses from "tools." Although I have yet to explain what a tool is little things like this pop up in just about every class and it's very fun and interesting to try and explain how much slang, or idioms we use in our day to day life.

As I said everything is going well and I recently got a bike this past week too, it's great to be able to cruise through Kofu(where I live) on bike because with how much traffic there is and no parking a bike is ideal in a city like this. Thanks to the help of my best friend AJ (formerly known as the person known as Amanda) I have met great people and even a new click to go snowboarding with, which I shall be doing this Sunday (12/14).

Other than that not much has changed i'm still the same Brian you all know, just far away!!!!! Please check back from time to time I will try and update this at least once a week if not more. Even though mostly everyone I will send this to talks to me on Facebook or Myspace I've been saying I was going to make a blog and I am....It gives me a chance to elaborate more on some of the things I don't say in chit chat with all my peeps across the Pacific. I hope everyone's holiday season is going well and you should all drink some egg nog for me because I can't find the stuff around here which = :(