WHoa~

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!!!!!

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~~

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!!!

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!!!!!

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...

...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!!!

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