HAPPY HALLOWEEN !

from Japan ...

JUST SOME RANDOM PICTURES

VISITING AKO

Stopped by Ako to say goodbye to Nick and Kanako as they plan to head back to Perth in a week or so. Thinking about who arrived at the same time with me at the same time in Japan, one person was Nick, great guy, and it was always funny that we were roommates in Yashiro and Kobe. Then for the others who all left, Nancy, Zainabu, Susanne, Yuri, big Nick, Aaron and Kristine (my drunk karaoke partners) and others, its funny for me to think that me and Daniel are the only old foggies left (and Andrea too!), I would never have imagined that. Funny how life takes you. Well still in Japan for a little bit longer, so it was good to catch up with some good ole friends and some new ones at Minato's. Then later couldnt pass up the opportunity to eat some of Minato's fine cooking! I still think he cooks up the best okonomiyaki, even had to order my "mondaiyaki", my special problem order. It was also nice to get some of those old skool Asahi posters that I have been wanting for the longest time from Minato, Minato you are my hero!

HOLY SMOKES!

Back and connected to the rest of the world! Yes, I am still alive and got a new apartment too. Got my internet today, courtesy of the slow ass NTT and YahooBB service. Will have to mark this day in infamy. Signed up almost a month ago, the NTT guys came in looked at the phone jack for 2 minutes, said it was blah blah type, then in the afternoon the YahooBB modem arrived, jeeeez! Took long enough! Anyways enough rant, its finally here and I am able to check my mail, chat with my friends, call home, and play wow. Now I will be distracted by the evil internet. Anyways its great to be back online!

WHATS BEEN GOING ON?

Been super MIA, missing in action, but hey I will get back into the routine of things soon. Guess I have to do updates back from summer. Well anyways here is the quick wrap up. At the end of the school year it was sad to see the kids and teachers for one last time. It was a super great 3 years on the JET program, would definetly recommend it to anyone. Also it was good times with friends in Tatsuno, everyone here has been so nice. Moved back to the summer, chilled at Ace's, nothing like living by Greenlake and eating good food. Caught up with alot of good friends over drinks, or foods, and still missed some other friends, but don't worry I will be back so we can hang out again. Stopped by cali to visit Seila and hook up with my old seattle buddys. Nice house Edgar! Also had our JET reunion with Kristine, Aaron, and Tina. Nothing like reliving sushi and karaoke. Saw the folks in Spokane, nice to see the roots and hang out with them, even though they nag ya, you still have to love them. Found out alot more about my dad, its always nice to sit down and talk with them. Lost some stuff at the SF airport, luckily it popped back up. Caught up with the old roomies Ark and Thao, amazing what cold turkey can do for ya, good job boys. Headed back to Japan, through Tokyo, came back and thought it wasn't the same. Maybe it was being homeless, maybe I missed Tatsuno and not Japan, but luckily I had alot of good friends to help me along the way. Ayame and Mike being folks housed me so I wouldnt have to live on the streets. New school started in Nishinomiya, called Kobu Junior High School. Everyones super nice, great kids, nice teachers, and the school has AC throughout the school! super rare! Survived a 2 hour commute in the morning and another 2 hour commute back, so 4 fucking hours! Just got the new home finally, happy to moving near my school and just relaxing. Because I got no money, there will be alot of relaxing going on. 20 minutes to Kobe or 20 minutes to Umeda, Osaka, the location is great to get to the city. Also it was nice to catch up with the Japanese moms that I have, Noriko san and Ogawa sensei, they are always so nice to help me out. Slowly things are getting better in Japan. Hopefully when my internet gets up at my new pad, things will be good to go. Peace out until then!

FOOD AND BASEBALL

Yesterday I was pretty much eating non stop. Started with a snack at home, then went out with Ark and grabbed some Thai food, then right after that met up with my uncle and brother and proceeded to eat wonton noodle soup. I was stuffed eating everything within 5 hours. But hey, it was the last chance attitude I was going with. When is the next time I am going to eat good ass wonton soup.

Afterwards got my yearly fill of baseball. My uncle scored some nice seats for the Mariners vs Yankees game! Always a great game and in section 125, row 20, that makes it even better. Even though the Mariners suck this year, it was good to see Ichiro and the gang pull out a win over the Yanks, go M's! Then the clincher was when Ichiro in centerfield ran down a fly ball at full speed backhanded while crashing into the wall. Wow!

WHAT ALARM CLOCK?

It's tough being on vacation, go to sleep around 2am or 3am, wake up whenever without an alarm clock around 930am or 1100am. Then chill, eat something or just take a walk around the lake. Today hanged out with Ark to get some soup and sandwiches then some fat ice cream and then took some pics of squirrels running around. Tough vacation but I like it.

HEMPFEST

Saturday started out a bit slow, stopped by the Japanese Consulate's home for a BBQ with the PNW Jet Alum. Didn't really know anyone there, but thought it would be interesting. Good food, good weather, met a couple nice people.

Then proceeded to make my time in Seattle worthwhile. I was feeling lazy and was gonna head home with my Ayumi and Puffy poster, but why not check out Hempfest. I knew for sure it was going to be interesting. So I made the hike from Queen Anne (near Racha) all the way down to the Spaghetti Factory basically where the event entrance was. Usually I wouln't have walked all the way down there, but hey it was a nice day, I had alot of time, walking far in Japan is normal, and well I didn't have a car. So about 30 minutes later I arrived at the mad scene of Hempfest.

Not sure what Hempfest is? Here is a short summary off their website;

"The nation's leading cannabis policy reform event turns fifteen years old this year. Since 1991 Seattle Hempfest has been bringing you the nation's leading experts, activists, and advocates for industrial hemp and marijuana law reform, amid multiple stages of music and hundreds of food, crafts and information vendors. Hempfest is a work-party, so come prepared to learn while you celebrate." http://www.hempfest.org/

Met up with Duc and we headed in. Or at least we tried, there was a super bottle neck at the entrance, so everyone was stuck, people coming in, people going out, it was bad. But it was fun to listen to all the comments such as, "I am with the guy in the staff shirt!", "is the park really closed? you are shittin me!", "Who parked this fuckin car here, great!", "Oh, I can smell that, bring some over here." ... sure was nice to be back in America.

It was the same Hempfest as I went to last year, full of food, shops that sold cool shirts, pipes, and other cool things, 3 stages that had rock, reggae, and also random DJ booths that spitted out techno and DnB. But the best thing I liked about it was people watching. Even though Americans are pretty straight forward and in your face everyone got along at this event. Everyone was out to have a good time, probably one of the safest events you could go to. People who where gangsters, hippies, goth, heavy metal, skaters, everyone was friends. The whole place had a good vibe. It was a nice day at the park.

MORNING CHILL

Woke up this morning and it was nice and chilly and cloudy. The cloudy weather kinda makes me sleepy. Its about 58 degrees F or 14 C, but I sure prefer it being cooler than sweaty hot. I just put on the sweatshirt and so I am all good.

AIN'T EVEN BREAKING A SWEAT

Just realized how nice it was to run and not really break a sweat! Ran a little bit around Greenlake on a nice sunny 85 degree day, and no ooooodles of sweat dripping down. Not even a drop, it was great! Even had a chance to sit down in some nice shade under a tree on grass. Because I know when I go back to Japan, if I even walked fast sweat would be pouring down, and there would be no nice grass to sit on. Oh my.

FINGER LICKING GOOD

It's sure nice to return to a meal of nice greasy KFC chicken. Nothing like biscuits, chicken, cole slaw, and mashed potatoes. No mashed potatoes and gravy in Japan, what a tragedy, oh well better eat all I can before then.

A BUNCH OF POSTS ...

Coming right up! ....... lets see, finished my 3rd and final year on the JET Programme, and just flew back home to Seattle!

AROUND TOWN

BACK TO GREEN!!!

GREEN!!!

Time is winding down. Just a couple more days and I am out of Tatsuno. In a mad dash I was looking for a job somewhere! Almost anywhere in Japan! So went out to Osaka for some interviews. I have been to Osaka alot of times, but I guess I start to notice more things when I have lived here awhile.

1. First of all its crazy! Compared to the laid back life of the "inaka" or country side, everyone in Osaka is running around. Running for the train, running in the halls, running through the streets. Why everyone gotta be all stressed and rushed? Makes me feel stressed, I don't remember anyone in Seattle running around all crazy.
2. Running errands takes alot of time! Bigger city, more places, but then everything is far away. Gotta take the train here for the interview, then gotta go back here for the hotel, then gotta go here for immigration. I spent like half the day on the train. Sucks! Back in the "inaka", tax office next door, city hall down the street, gym a 5 minute bike ride, school and food a stone throw away. More time to relax and play video games, thats how life should be. You don't want to spend your life on a stupid train.
3. Green. The reason why I like Seattle is because it's green. It's a city but it's nice, green, got mountains, lakes, ocean, you name it its got it. Then there was the day in Osaka. Osaka got lots of people, running people. Its got alot of concrete and it's flat with no mountains, and most of all there is not a shred of green. It's the classic concrete jungle they all talk about. There is no green and thats not cool. Take note, not to live there.

Anyways life is a bit crazy, Monday figure out the final decision of the VISA thing. Visa kinda expired today, but luckily got it worked out, so I got an extension.... to be continued ...

SOME APT PICS

Some last scenes from my apartment. It's in the cleaning stages, but it will be ready when you move in Laurence.hallway
tatami room
washing machine and bathroom
kitchen
bedroom

BUSY BUSY BUSY

Been super busy lately with everything, moving, end of school, speeches, meeting people, cleaning, organizing, this is the same feeling I had when I was leaving Seattle, but now it's Japan ... updates coming soon ... in the meanwhile it's "raining cats and dogs", "どしゃぶり, doshaburi", rainiest month I have ever seen, looks like a Seattle winter!

SAUNA ANYTIME

Just wanted to bitch about the weather again today, well it was sunny, but damn when the air is hot and thick thats not cool. Well is my cool pacific northwest breeze. Here was the weather report from today. I also kindly commented on some key points.

Mostly Cloudy
Feels Like:
106° <-- anything over 3 digits is bad news!!
Barometer:
29.83 in and steady <-- I still don't know what barometer is
Humidity:
59% <-- I think their meter is broken, because after 1 minute you gotta take a shower
Wind:
WSW 8 mph <-- It should read HOT wind blowing at 8 mph
Sunrise:
4:59 am <-- That's right 5am baby, wake up yo early ass
Sunset:
7:15 pm <-- Due to lack of daylight savings, um none ... you can't hang out til 9:30pm, bummer

IT'S OFFICIALLY HOT!!!

Came home, my thermometer read 32 celsius, which is like 92 degrees F inside my apartment!!! Then at school I made the mistake of wearing one grey shirt. Before I knew it, it was a sweaty mess front and back. Damn why don't they have fans in the classroom! Lucky I had a spare shirt for the next class. Yes, it's officially hot and sweaty weather time. Think I burned off another 2 pounds today at basketball.

BAILAR

The other day two of the Peruvian/Japanese students asked me to come to their dance on Saturday. Come and watch "bailar" they said. Oh, how cute! Thought it was nice of them to ask me of all people, who doesn't understand much Japanese nor Spanish. Hahaha.