THE KIDS

The kids at school are always interesting, here is a summary of some of the things going on.

layers - The kids gotta wear their uniforms, no extra jackets or anything over their uniforms, i thought damn u guys gotta be freezing (classes have no heater) so i decided to ask how many layers u got under there? So i asked mr. yuya and ayaka. Yuya reported 5 layers and Ayaka with 6 , damn, thats alot of layers. Maybe they are alright.

speaking - I help teach a special education class, and in there is a girl named Saki. She is the quietest thing and somedays doesnt even say a word. But like a miracle over the new year she began smiling and talking with a big loud voice!! I was like wow!! Something must have happened over the new year, mmm, but i am happy for it.

1st grade kids - Fresh out of elementary school, i was doing a photo slide about my singapore trip last year and showed em my two cars, yeah my ferrari and lamborghini. Told the kids that it was mine, and they were like "oh really??", then they would ask questions like "where is it now?" .. still in singapore i would say .. "who is driving it?" .. my friend ... "how much is it?" ... its a secret ... "can i drive it?" ... sorry you cant drive, you arent old enough ... ha ha ha .. funny kids, so now i have a band of them following me around the halls saying "ferrari, ferrari"

SUN AND SNOW

A perfect mix for a great day on the slopes at hachi kogen.

LISTENING TO THE RADIO

Then i heard the "nutcracker" song, geez usually its a christmas song, and its not christmas, its january 30th, go figure. Well i guess thats not so suprising since they play the "ole new year" song at every store during closing time.

WAN WAN

That's bow wow in japanese, happy chinese new year everyone! Its the year of the dog, "wan wan". The japanese know about the year of the dog, but dont really do the new year thing on the lunar calendar, they pretty much just do their thing on the 1st of january. Don't even see a hint of it even at the stores or anywhere. Anyways happy new year to u all.

SUPER BOWL BABY!

Holy smokes, i never thought the hawks could make it, it took 30 years, and a 34-14 win over the Carolina Panthers, but they are going to Detroit to face Pitt for Super Bowl XL ... the xtra large of super bowls. Damn and now i am in japan, guess i can root for them from here too, GO HAWKS!

ONCE AGAIN...

Up late, trying to put together a damn lesson for "blue monday" the fuckin monday where i got 5 classes and no breaks, what a shit on. They gonna have to change that for next year. This shit stresses me out, i hate mondays, then i gotta skip the kids basketball to get a sanity check, then have my adult classes on monday night, and people say i dont do anything.

damn shopping impulse

I AM LOVIN IT

Well i love mc donalds, and i even love a great deal even more. I always miss those great xmas sales from back home, the gap, banana, jcrew, jeeezz ... always like 30-70% off! In japan, there arent that many great sales like that, well u gotta find em. So the great shopping memories came to reality where the GAP had a super sale and i couldnt resist and scooped up 2 jackets, one was even about 75% off .. then rolled down to Uniqlo and got another jacket there for 10 bucks, what a deal! Ahhh .. horrible consumerism, 2 days, 4 jackets ... mmm ... but damn its warm!

BACK FROM THE CONFERENCE

Thursday and Friday we had our mid year conference, usually we have it around november, but this year it was in january. Usually its pretty boring, but honestly it was a bit better this year, the guest speaker Nakai sensei from Nara Ten.. university was pretty amusing, he did a great job as first of all he had to speak all in english, he was good , then also he had to talk for 90 minutes, that is quite a task for anyone here in japan or even back home. But it was nice to hear him, brought back memories of college and my favorite prof and their lectures. Always interesting to hear funny lectures. Makes me want to go to university and teach there. Anyways at the conf. it was the usual round abouts of all the jets from hyogo ken, also partnered with the japanese english teacher. Got to get some ideas together from other teachers and let my teachers kinda know what ideas other Alts have to. Overall it was alright, nice break from just teaching at school.

a quick stop in the philippines

me and uncle oud in front of my grandpa's old dentist clinic

my grandpas old dental chair

uncle oud taking up the dental business

temple "wat" is just across the street

the workspace

here is my uncle oud and his daughter, i forgot her name, but i just call her "chubbs" she is a cutie

chilling in the patient waiting room

always riding the bike in the house

YOU LEARN SOMETHING NEW EVERYDAY

Yeah thats why i like living in japan, its always new everyday. I was walking in the halls with my hands in my pockets, because i usually always do it, i am a hand pocket man and plus my hands were cold, but then my teacher went by me and said that its not good? I said "really? why?" Then he told me that it gives a bad impression to do that. Mmm .. i guess so, never heard of it before, but i can understand, maybe its like the young cool punks or the old geezers that do it. Guess i wont be doing that at school anymore, but i cant resist to do it out in public, i am a pocket person.

Then i was talking to my principal and vice principal at elementary school, they are funny guys, somehow the topic got onto gay guys, and vp used elton john as a example. He said in japanese they call it "homo tomodachi ホモ友達" or in other words, homo friend. Very interesting put, then i was like he i took pictures from my thailand trip, and i forgot that the she/man pics were on there. At first they were like oh baby, then i told them they are guys, and they were like whao! I was like homo tomodachi, but they said oh no, its like "new man" .. ha ha ha .. then they saw my pics with the dancers, and i think they thought i swung the other way .. ha ha ha .. how embarassing, even the girl teacher said they were very cute, oh my!

SEAHAWKS WIN!

Finally! Won a playoff game! beat those damn redskins, even after alexander got knocked out, one more then after that its the super bowl baby! pumped up now, go hawks!

HELLO 2006!

Well almost as soon as i get over this nasty japanese cold i got right when i got back to japan. Damn, got rid of the dizzness, headaches, backaches, sweating, and other shit, but always the damn nasty dry cough is last to go ... anyways the brain is clearing so i will be back to post up more details of the trip! In the meanwhile enjoy the drinks and the univ girls.

even thailand has caught japan fever much like many of the other asian countries, seems to be everywhere i go its all about japan, and even more so this year in thailand as i spotted tons of green tea drinks from where else but japan

for those kitty chan lovers, thailand's got your drink too

representing the homeland with some fresh brewery called Beer Lao, actually doesnt taste too bad either!

for my elements buddy, just representing!

ok for all you boys bothering me about not taking thai girl pics, and taking more of the more manly girl pics, here is one of the few, sorry and its not the best, but these are university students who looked like they were hungry for a little rotiboy bread, as you can see they gotta wear nice little tight black mini skirt uniforms and nice little white shirts, how boo hoo ...

YOU LIKE CALYPSO ?

Here are some pics from a Calypso show i went to in Bangkok, pretty cool! ( photos from calypso on flickr )

OH SHIT!

Just got back to japan, and i think i caught another cold, fuck. Coughing, headache, achy back, just great!

SOME THAILAND PICS

Here are some pics from thailand , i will post more directly on blogger later, but now, i am kinda lazy .. so check out these first .. ( photos from thailand on flickr )

BACK IN JAPAN!

Late plane, late train, oh well as long as i make it home. Welcome back to cold ass japan, going from 80 degrees to 30-40 degrees! But also going from smoggy ass polluted brown air, to nice fresh clean air in japan. I would say i prefer coming back to japan, i would like to breathe every now and then, plus snowboard! Much updating to do, but in the meanwhile you can check out some pics from Laos i have posted on my Flickr site. ( photos from Laos )

TODAY'S HO HO HO COUNT

Counted 15 couples. Nasty! All in different sizes, large, fat, ugly, nasty... make me wanna barf!

HO HO HO

And it aint santa claus who is doing the ho ... ing ... will write more soon ...

I AM THAI!

Well guess the japanese phase is over, or maybe i have changed my shopping areas to more of the thai areas than the tourist traps. People talking to me in Thai thinking that i am thai. They are doing it to Susanne too. Guess i like it because i feel like blending in is much better, and stealthy.

TUK TUK

What is a tuk tuk? Its a transportation special in countries like Thailand and Laos. Imagine half motorcycle and two wheels in the back with a seat. Heck, just like a big ass tricycle that can fit people in the back. Anyways these marvels of transport can easily wisp you in and out of traffic, and also as quickly wisp your nerves and ur money, here are the good and the bad ...

GOOD
- EXCITMENT it provides as you whizz in and out of traffic, as you tightly grasp the handles and pray, things get tight as you can pretty much touch the car or bus next to you
- FAST you get there really fast because they will sacrifice you by driving down the street in the opposite direction or even turning in front of big buses and cars
- NEED SOMETHING? one day i was walking by one by myself and usually they ask if u want a ride, but he said something different ... "hey, you want some happy? you know marijuana? or you want some "don" "don"? I thought to myself what is "don"? Then he started gesturing with his fingers going into a hole and said girls ... ewww .. no thank you i said .. so i guess you can get more than just a ride down the street

BAD
- EXPENSIVE they know you are a tourist, and heck even the locals, they love to rip you off, charge you up to 4x the price of a taxi
- WHERE AM I? ah yeah they can take you to the wrong place, waste your time, and even just ditch you
- ASSHOLE sometimes they are just jerks

RECOMMENDATION
Just take a taxi and tell em to turn on the meter, but then again thats not totally safe either, but then again thats another story from bangkok

HELLA COMMERCIALS, BOWING, THEN MOVIE

Decided to hit the theatre today, hell yeah i gonna watch a movie on vacation, sure beats paying almost $20 a person in Japan, heck in Thailand it was a whopping 240 baht for two people, or $6 usa, what a deal. Decided to watch "Narina" recommended by Ben. Asian style of course, got to pick the seats! Theatre was huge, very cool and seats were like airplane lounge chairs, very cool, u could almost sleep in em. Didnt even bother the people in the back. Then there was the begining, a long ass one it was, about 30 minutes! and i thought 10 minutes back home was long, in that time i could have watched another movie. Then the kicker, at the end of the long ass commercials the screen popped up with the Thai king on it, and a message read please stand up to pay respects to the king. So everyone in the theatre stood up for about a minute as beautiful thai music played and pics of the king from boy to manhood flashed across the screen. Quite interesting then quite again, bit monarchy, but anyways whatever floats your boat, i heard about this type of tribute, but guess i got to experience it first hand. Ah and for the movie, it was awesome! Probably one of the few movies i watch on the big screen, if u havent seen it , go and watch it. Plus yeah, it was cheap!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Alright, bit late, but just wanted to wish everyone a happy new year! in Thai ... "Sawade be mai" ... in Japanese ... "Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu" have a good one everyone, miss ya all ...