RANDOM NEWS

If there was no internet I would have no news ... but since there is ESPN, Seattletimes, Yahoo, etc. all online its great!

Lets see the latest random news ...

Sonics going or leaving? Schultz is suing to get them back, I hope the Sonics stay
7.9 earthquake in China yesterday
Cyclone in Burma, but government too dumb to let in aid work
gas prices are crazy! Japan reinstated their .25 cent tax, so its like 157yen for one liter!
NBA playoffs, Boston and Cleveland tied at 2-2
Microsoft ditched out on the purchase of Yahoo, good idea i thought
Mariners suck this year, projected first, but really last
Hanshin Tigers baseball team is in 1st and killing everyone with a .710 winning record!
Mmmm... just started watching "Heros" season 1, I think I am a bit behind a couple of years, but hey its really good!!
Conan O Brien taking over for Jay Leno and Jimmy Fallon taking over Conan's spot ... wow saw Jimmy at the UW

RAIN RAIN GO AWAY ...

Today woke up and it was a nice sunny morning, hopped on my bike with my t-shirt and all. Then came the clouds, and more clouds, then came the rain, and it got cold. My t-shirt fashion didn't look so good anymore. It was pouring cats and dogs, next time I will have to remember to bring a raincoat or something. Just chilled around school a bit, saw the baseball kids studying hard for the upcoming mid-term tests. Thought I would poke my head in and bother them a bit, quizzed Mr. Ota and Mr. Shiroi, they got most of the words right, pretty good. Made my rounds and went over to the 3rd grade kids, I don't teach em but they know me and I know them a little. Funny bunch, always talking about muscles, wanna see the muscles. Talked to Mr. All-Star pitcher Sato a bit, nice kid. He is gonna be a future pro pitcher for sure. Coach Hirano was funny as he came around and told me, "He is baka" which translates to "He is stupid", haha. But I know the kids all try their best. After that I just jacked a umbrella from the custodian room, gotta get a good one of course for the ride back home in the rain.

EXPIRED LICENSE

Yesterday took the day off to go to Akashi to renew my license. Seems like the rules in Japan are much different than America. I was under the impression that you could renew your license anytime after it expired. In Japan there are different things you have to do depending on how long your license has been expired. If a person renewed the license before the ending date then it would be as easy as going to the local police station. But if it was after 6 months you would have to take the ridiculous paper test of 100 questions again. Being a foreigner I tried to weasel out of that, luckily the guy at the license office helped me out by telling me to go through the foreigner office, there I could simply resubmit my license. Lucky that, will have to head back next week, let you know how things go.

ITS GOLDEN WEEK

Its Friday! And its the start of the 4 day weekend. Its called Golden Week, but its random days off, but heck I will take any day off. Most of Japan is out and about as its a holiday for everyone, except for the poor kids at school which have tournaments and sports games during the so called holidays. Its the Japanese way, kids don't need holidays. The Tokyo peeps are coming for a visit, Taro, and the newlyweds Masa and Tomo. Then also with a special guest appearance of Hawaii Daniel, WOW! He is back in Japan! Cool, it be cool to see Daniel again. School is going good, no big issues yet, just busy as a bee, one again, a daily daily blog is in the works. Sorry for the super late update.

東洋高校 CHEERING TEAM

@ スシロー

Holy smokes! 100yen sushi!! my favorite cheap place to eat SushiRoll just got better as this week they had a special on "daitoro" or basically big fatty ass tuna. Usually this tuna is pretty bling I would say from 700yen a piece and up, but today it was only 105yen! yeah baby! chomped down on 7 plates. Just checking out the sushi parade as it rooooolllllls by. A limited 10 day special the customers were wall to wall, crazy for sushi.

@ スシロー

sushi parade!!!

@ スシロー

Kayo loves sushi too

@ スシロー

my lovely damage and of course being American I gotta have my Coke

@ スシロー

check out that fine piece of fish on the far right "大とろ" only 105yen !! For only 10 days, better get your eat on!

WHATS NORMAL?

Been in Japan for awhile, even just today Dillon mentioned St. Patricks day is coming up. I don't even remember when St. Patrick's day is, I only know about the Japanese holiday of White Day which lands on the 14th. aka the 2nd Valentine's day where boys give girls chocolate and candy and stuff. Plus one time I was eating broccoli and it sounded usual to add mayonnaise to it. But then I thought is that normal back home? I know we put cheese on it, but mayonnaise? Maybe I been here too long and I don't remember. Heck everything has mayonnaise on it and I think I am getting used to it. Yum, fried chicken and mayonnaise sounds good, but still on pizza its pretty darn gross.

YEN / DOLLAR

Today noticed the yen was down to 100.55yen versus the dollar. Which is the all time low ever since I have been here! What does it mean? It means good news for me, its finally down dollar for dollar, its much better than 120 or 115. Its just like the Canadian loonie, we in business baby!

THE PAST TWO WEEKS

Some random events the past two weeks ...

- Rolled by lil Shu on my bike on my way to school in the morning. He asked if he passed my oral English class. I said probably. He was a bit worried being on the border. Then he went on saying it was kinda easy this time. I said, "yup, lucky!" then lil Shu replied, "thank you!"

- The other week stopped by the gym at school to see the bball boys, then my boy Mr. Nakata came up to me and said one on one. Mmmm .. Nakata is probably the Allen Iverson of our school team, but I said what the heck. Of course he whooped my ass, quick little bastard. Then to try to recover my pride I challenged him to a game of free throws, best to 10. But damn he matched me basket for basket, then came sudden death. Then damn I lost again, ha ha ha. It was fun.

- Its test time, and its been CRAZY! Had to give tests to all the 1st grade students, thats 12 class times 40 or so students, which equates to alot of fuckin tests to correct!!! Lucky there is Teranishi Sensei, my favorite guy at school, he is so nice to always help me out, probably my life saver. Even the other teacher Noma Sensei said oh did you finish correcting all the tests yet after one day? I laughed and so did Teranishi Sensei, who the hell can finish all those tests??? Then I asked him if he could help, of course he bailed and said he had other tests to do, whatever lazy foos.

- Damn I gotta input all those damn grades!!

- For the 2-4 class, luckily Mr. Miyahara Sensei is helping me out there. He is only a part time teacher and only about 70 years old but still genki and active! Plays golf like a young man every week. A good guy retiring this year, got him a nice black Nike Golf jacket for his retirement present. Nice guy, I like him. He even helped out to do all the grading for the 2-4 class. Nice!

- Well its a lot of fucking tests to correct, been trying to pace myself and relax, had a hard week last week preparing for the tests. Once in awhile I still think about Miyamoto Sensei. Even the teachers talk about him to me, slowly the memories come out. Sometimes I get some chest pains like I used to back in the days. I think its probably because of the death of Miyamoto Sensei and all this test stuff, so I have been trying to take it easy lately. Maybe I will check out a doctor over spring break.

- Snows been good this year. Went up 3 times this year. Brought some new rookies to the slope so they could feel the pain. Pretty good job, Dillon and Masa learned pretty fast, I think they can be pro in no time. As for Kayo we got her the finest state of the art snowboarding equipment in addition to the shortest legal board available, sometimes it looks as if she is riding a skateboard. A master of the leaf style. Next stop is the turn.

- Before the 2-4 test I asked the kids if they needed some help, but no one showed up. So I tracked them down. This isn't exactly the most diligent class but they got potential, they just need some help here and there. Tracked down Jimi and made him memorize a bunch of sentences. He did remarkably well, he went from a low score of 28 on the previous test to 49 on this past test. Pretty good I thought! Its a good start, because the average of this last test was 47, so he was a little over the hump. He is a good kid and Mr Miyamoto always looked after him. I will do my best to take care of him, I think he can do it.

- Lastly I was just chatting with the boys and girls bball team members. They are a funny bunch. Imade, Shuhei, Jun, and Saki. I was just clowning with them, teaching them about nicknames for body parts, trying to spice up school life. Then I remember the news that Jun is going to carry the sign for the baseball team at Koshien. So she is going to be on every TV and newspaper in the country. So I was just clowning with her about how the camera paparazzi will be after her and made some funny cameraman gestures, of course the boys were cracking up. Hahahaha. Can't wait til Koshien.

WORKING HARD

Been super, super, super busy lately. Getting off around 7pm ish. Usually I roll in lazily around 835, so that equates to just under 11 hours a day at work. Bummer, I don't want stay at work that long, but just been trying to be a good teacher and get all the classes ready for the Friday test. Sometimes it doesn't feel like work, then again I don't like to be trapped in a cement building all day, I want to go out and play. Oh well its for the kids! Even stayed after a bit today to help out the 2-4 class. They were surprised that they have to write sentences now. So I worked with the four youngins that were still hanging out, Misa, Yuki, Ta, and Jimi. Jimi is a great kid, but damn his English sucks, its the most random stuff you will ever hear, but I give him an "A" for heart and effort. He wants to learn, but just doesn't know a good method for him. Usually Mr Miyamoto always takes care of Jimi, but he isn't around anymore, so I thought I would help out. With some paper and my jumbled Japanese I got Jimi to amazingly put together some sentences. Going with the drill work and having him think of "easy" English he could amazingly do it after some work. He was putting together sentence after sentence just as if a miracle happened. This is the kid who had the lowest score on the previous test. I hope Jimi can buck that negative trend on tomorrows test!

5 HAPPY THINGS TODAY

So the other day I was reading that article about being happy. Honestly I am kinda bummed out today, but I will try my best and write 5 happy things that happened today.

1. Finished making the 2-4 class worksheet. I made a map of Himeji city including the cast members from the Japanese TV show called "Ainori", complete with member pics and convience stores, looked kinda smooth I thought, took a couple hours to make but it was fun, the kids had a good laugh when they saw it, but mmm .. didn't answer the questions. Maybe it was a little too tough, back to the drawing board.

2. Was asking daily questions in 2-4 class and I asked Sonoyama what she had for lunch. She looked toward her classmates for a bit and then said, "I love you", a bit shocked, I gave one of my funny oh my god looks for fun. Her classmates probably got her to say it, but anyways its always nice to have someone say "I love you", ha ha ha.

3. Mmmm ... nothing too major at the number 3 spot, so I decided to choose lunch. There are always two main choices for lunch and I am happy I picked the fried mince meat set, it was pretty darn delicious!

4. Today I taught the 1-12 class, the smart kids, only two more lessons before the test I was in super speed mode because all quarter they were doing speeches. Zoomed through lesson 9, thought I did a pretty good job knowing that usually it takes 3-4 lessons with the other classes. Went pretty smoothly, I was pretty happy with a good class.

5. Mmmm... getting tough at the end ... it was busy at work today, didn't get off til 630pm ish and headed to the supermarket "MaxValue", I knew I only had about 20 bucks and was cutting it close with the groceries, went a bit over my budget and had to get rid of some stuff. Lucky the clerk understood what I was talking about, whew! It's always embarrassing to go over in any country.

Well that was the 5 good things, I would be a liar if I didn't say I was a bit bummed today. Got off work a bit late and didn't finish all my work, desk looks like a war zone, don't think I can go to Japanese class cuz I got too much work to do. Got home and just chilled in front of the comp and read some news, wanted to hit the gym but no time so just pumped iron at home and drank beer. It would be nice to just pick up the phone and talk to one of my friends from back home, Amy, Ark, Ace, Jimmy, Ben ... But the time difference and stuff, and everyones busy. Sometimes you just gotta learn how to take care of yourself. Its tough and even tougher when your teacher and friend passes away. When things aren't always looking up and things come up ... You just have to learn how get through.

DRINKING BEER AND WORKING OUT

Drinking beer and working out at home is a dangerous combo! "We are here to, pump you up!"

IN THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

Sometimes I pop up the Yahoo video and check out some 60 Minutes, I love news programs, I miss watching 20/20 and those other shows from back home, lucky there is the internet even though its a short clip. Here is the latest cool feeds, the decline of tuna and the meaning of happiness, a definite interesting look. I am always chilling but I put in my work when I need to, and hey who doesn't want to be happy? Check out the key to happiness presented by Harvard professor Tal Ben Shahar, the 60 Minute video special or his website.

Six simple steps to be happy in life ... as presented by Tal Ben-Shahar ...

1. Give yourself permission to be human. When we
accept emotions — such as fear, sadness, or anxiety — as natural, we
are more likely to overcome them. Rejecting our emotions, positive or
negative, leads to frustration and unhappiness.

2. Happiness lies at the intersection between
pleasure and meaning. Whether at work or at home, the goal is to engage
in activities that are both personally significant and enjoyable. When
this is not feasible, make sure you have happiness boosters, moments
throughout the week that provide you with both pleasure and meaning.

3. Keep in mind that happiness is mostly
dependent on our state of mind, not on our status or the state of our
bank account. Barring extreme circumstances, our level of well being is
determined by what we choose to focus on (the full or the empty part of
the glass) and by our interpretation of external events. For example,
do we view failure as catastrophic, or do we see it as a learning
opportunity?

4. Simplify! We are, generally, too busy, trying
to squeeze in more and more activities into less and less time.
Quantity influences quality, and we compromise on our happiness by
trying to do too much.

5. Remember the mind-body connection. What we do
— or don't do — with our bodies influences our mind. Regular exercise,
adequate sleep, and healthy eating habits lead to both physical and
mental health.

6. Express gratitude, whenever possible. We too
often take our lives for granted. Learn to appreciate and savor the
wonderful things in life, from people to food, from nature to a smile.

TODAY AT SCHOOL

Classes were alright, winding down the school year, just two more weeks until the final tests, the 1-11 class wrapped up their speeches, most students did pretty good. I think most students never did a speech before in English from memory. A big differance compared to Kobu Jr High where the kids starting in 2nd grade made speeches from memory. Non less very good. Todays homeroom period was dedicated to cheering practice. So all the 1st graders and 2nd graders huddled into the gym to learn how to cheer the baseball team for their big appearance at Koshien next month on the 22nd.

Study kanji a bit on my free time. Chatted a bit with Harada sensei about Miyamoto sensei, still hurts to talk about his death even for the teachers, I feel for the teachers and students. I always glance over at Miyamoto's desk and know he is not with us. Then going to the teachers lounge room is also tough for me, cuz thats where I always used to sit and chat with Miyamoto sensei, that was the last place we met. I always come into the room all empty expecting to meet him, but then I realize he is not there. Its always a sad emptiness to enter that room.

In the late afternoon, I hit the weights in the gym. Its kinda my new routine since I can't make it to the regular gym in Tatsuno, so the machine weights will have to do for now, but they aren't bad. Ran into the karate kids, Ohashi, Kawanishi, and Inoue, nice kids, they were Miyamoto sensei's karate members, feel bad for them, saw how sad they were at the funeral. Just had a little chat with them, always giving shit to Ohashi because he is huge for a high school kid and the only one that beat me at arm wrestling at school, damn gotta work those guns harder.

After pumping iron ran into the soccer kids, crazy bunch. They brought me over and shouted out "KY" which means "kouki yomanai" or you can't read the air or you don't understand what I am saying. So I taught them the what KY means in English. They were like "oooohhhhhh". Then we exchanged more words, learned that "deep kiss, aka french kiss" means "noride" or I hope thats what it means, I will have to double check that. Anyways good day at school.

BEING JAPANESEY

Been talking to Jimmy via email, Jimmy booked his flight and will be in Japan next month, pretty pumped to see my buddy in Nippon.

On the side, just some thoughts about daily life in Japan ... just like Utada Hikaru "Easy Breezy"
.... "You're easy breezy and I'm Japanesey"

- drink green tea everyday at work
- always have two pairs of shoes at work, one to change into before entering the gym, another pair for class
- carry a hand towel in my pocket
- use B5 size paper, not A4 paper
- shop at the 100 yen store
- carry lots of cash (200-500 bucks at a time), no debit card here
- ride a nice grandma bike with a basket in front

MY POLAROID!

Oh no, news reports say that Polaroid is closing their instant camera group, how am I gonna get my Polaroid film? I hope another company buys out their division.