LAST CLASS

最後クラス

ONE LAST CLASS PICTURE

GRADUATION DAY 卒業式

one last song 最後歌

GOODBYE

さよなら

COLLAGE

A farewell collage I made for Kobu Jr High School. Worked their for the past 6 months in Nishinomiya. Went to all their events ranging from sports day, super sports day, karuta, speech contest, teacher softball game, music concert, etc. Printed out about 200 photos, cut and used about 100, took about 2 days, and slapped them in a frame until 4am in the morning. But it was fun! Gave it to the school president Nishiuchi as a graduation present, I would say she was pretty happy.

DAMPLINGS FOR YOU

Went to eat at one of my favorite ramen shops in Osaka and got the English menu this time. Didn't notice how poetic their menu was, makes all the ladies wanna go and eat there! ...
"These Hakata bite-size DAMPLINGS were made so that women would not have to open their mouths wide to eat them. Try these piping hot, juicy damplings fried to a crisp ..."
funny shit, but still some good ass ramen.

THE ROCKY BALBOA GYM

Mr. Sakamoto, mystery guy, and Ken at the World Training Center gym in Nishinomiya. Really nice guys, be sad to miss em all. Everyone at the gym was very friendly and nice. At the beginning I compared the bling bling Konami Center gym ($120 month) to this gym ($60 month). Cheaper it was, so I opted for the down and dirty Rocky Balboa style gym. Literally the carpet was coming up, with floor boards showing through, there were huge holes in the seats as if Wolverine came by, the weights were brown and rusty. But hey I liked it, just gotta push iron no matter what it looks like. And the dudes there were huge! "gotsui" ごっつい they say in Japanese. It was fun times.

PINK?

Just some random apartments I found around Nishinomiya. Love them pink and green. Don't you want to live in a pink one?

MANHOLE

Every city has a different design for their manhole covers. Tatsuno is the dragonfly and for Nishinomiya is Koshein Stadium. Guess they love their Hanshin Tigers!

ME AND THE FROG

Was walking around and got intercepeted by some group telling me that Japanese work too hard. I told them I didnt speak Japanese so I could try to escape, but they were nice and tried to speak to me in English. Found out they were part of the communist political group, and one of their agendas was work. Personally I dont like communism, but then again I dont like over working. So it was interesting to talk to them. Even asked the frog guy for a pic too.

TATSUNO 龍野

Back in Tatsuno, my old town before. The short 6 months stint in Nishinomiya was short but good. Nice to be back in the country to just sit back and relax and be a bum for a month til the next job in Himeji starts. ++ pic of scooter license plate, the hiragana reads Tatsuno city

HANSHIN TIGERS 阪神タイガース

Baseball season is just around the corner. Go Hanshin Tigers!!! The Tigers are the Cubs of Japanese baseball, great history, great fans, great stadium, and always losing. Anyways hope they do great this year. If you are a Hanshin Tiger fan, you are called a "tora kichi" in Japanese. Tiger fans are great! Pretty much all home games at Koshien stadium are sold out. Fans come decked out in all sorts of Tiger wear, I would say that about 80% of the fans have some sort of Tiger clothing on. Much different than in America when you roll in with anything. And even with the team losing the fans are still cheering loudly, never a boo, and the sounds of drums, trumpets, any music instrument you name it, can be heard. A definite must see if you live in Japan.

MEGA MAC ATTACK

Being American I just had to try the MEGA MAC. Was it Mega? Sure was, a full 4 patties. Was it good? Mmmm ... maybe a bit too much meat. Just was a super Big Mac. In the end it was more of a Mega hurt to the stomach. Time for the gym!

MEGA MAC

A special in Japan a month back or so. So popular that it often sold out by dinner time at many of the McDonalds. If ya missed out, you could get a coupon for a discounted Mega Mac.

HERE COMES

Here comes spring! Cherry blossom viewing is around the corner!
もうすぐ春に来ます。花見を見たい!

TRAIN SUNSET

A sunset of train wires on the Hankyu line.

RUNNING SMALL

Sometimes it amazes me in Japan how things are sometimes. In the big city kids who wouldn't even come up to my waist are taking the train with their friends. No parents, no supervision, just the little group of them, I would guess they are maybe 1st graders or 2nd graders. In America that wouldn't happen, of course the first question to them would be "Where is your parent?","Oh, my parent is out playing pachinko". But the kids are so cute riding on the train. Here is a photo of them weaving through grownup traffic after getting off the train.

FERRIS BASKETBALL CHAMPS AGAIN

** Photo from Seattle Times
Earlier in the week I noticed that my high school, Ferris was back in the 4A Washington state tourney. Then checked again, low and behold another state trophy for the school, better luck next time you Franklin Quakers!! ha ha ha.

I remember back in the days going to watch the bball games, going to state every year. Watching coach Gillman work his magic, it surely was inspirational especially when I taught my junior high kids here in Japan. Jeez, they just get bigger every year, this year team had a student, Casto who was 6-8 and he is only a junior! Also on the team is the nephew of John Stockton, Shawn. Props out to the players. Ah and last props to the Lewis and Clark Tigers girls team, school rival, but winner of this year state girls 4A bracket. A double sweep for the eastside! Go country teams! Seattle Times article <-- click here for article