SURU SURU

That is the funny sound that my 3rd grade girls make. Miki, Tomoyo, and their crew always go "suru suru" motioning a razor upon their arms and mine. They always touch my arm and ask if i shave, um because i dont have any hair on my arm. Of course i dont, and just say its "natural", i think they a bit jealous, ha ha ha ... Miki complains that she has to "suru suru mainichi" , shave everyday ...funny girls

FLEA MARKET

Today stopped by Ako's social welfare university for a flea market and fair event. Kinda cool, never knew there was a university in Ako city. So chilled with the peeps in trying to unload extra goods. Things for sale ranged from clothing to posters and even woody from toy story. Interestingly the best selling stuff was Minato's dishes and cups. Even got rid of my snowboard, for a super low price of 1800yen. Bought it for near 20000yen, but hey got good use out of it. The day was fun with college kids running around selling foods for their sports clubs. It was my first time at a japanese university. Pretty cool. I liked it. Fun day bargaining here and there.

kazu demonstrating the quality of the guitar

the shop is open and ready for business

doods bought woody

oh yeah sportin my new snowboardin hat

proud new owners of me old K2 board, damn bargain 1800yen

oh look a suprised shopper! mr nick!

BBALL BASICS

Friday ran a scrimage between the boys and girls team. Luckily my boys won because the girls team are pretty good. Anyways i was refeeing it pretty lightly, so when i didnt call some fouls the 1st grade girls let me have it, calling me "meganeru" which i pretty much think "get some glasses" ... ha ha .. funny girls, then the 2nd grade girls who played were chanting "one more, one more" competitive folks they are, so i said next week!

Saturday had another bball game, another game close up to the half. Then of course the wheels fell off. Other team shifted to full court press. So that means my boys freak out and start, yeah passing it to the other team, so about 20 turnovers later, we got crushed in the end. Oh well back to the drawing board, more bball basics. More dribbling and passing you bizaches!

WED NITE BBALL

Finally got to play some regular hoops, once a week, but its better than nothing, so wed met up with Shin and some of his other buddies, Mr. Hurley (t-shirt), Yamamoto (no ho ga), Taka (tall guy), .... shit and of course i forgot the rest of the names, shit gotta write down the names...

A NEW NAME

Went to the gym the other day and say Ken and his friend. Met his friend for the first time, Mr. Matsumoto, then i said my name is "markane" but he said how about, "ma-chan". That sounds cool, new nickname for myself, "ma-chan" kinda like that.

BOBBY VALENTINE

Yeah i remember him, the coach for the NY Mets way back when. But damn he just coached his team to be the All Japan Baseaball Champions! Nice work Bobby, and only after two years. Its a big deal anywhere you go to win. In Japan, if your team wins big, you win even bigger, because every damn store got some mega sale just for winning, its funny but true. Baseball here is like a cult following, crazy fans i tell ya, makes american fans look a nursery school, japan baseball is way more cooler with the crazy costumes, big ass drums, flags, ballons, and even full on band. But anyways yeah damn Bobby, his team beat the Hanshin Tigers, this areas team and oh were people sad, hella people crying on tv, and people getting mad because they didnt get their shopping sale. But yeah for consolation they got a thank you sale from the stores, anyways better luck next year tigers!

VISITORS

One week i am talking to Elaine on IM about her going to Taiwan, then the next day she says she is coming over to Japan with Eva and Cheryl. You funny girls, take ya two years to come over, but be happy to see ya when you get here. Then if that wasn't enough seems like the whole poker crew is going to Taiwan all in the month of November. Whats going on? Is there a poker tournament there and you guys didnt tell me .. ha ha

FULL SPEED AHEAD

Oh wow! Reading the news today and read that yeah my favorite Star Trek pilot, Mr. Sulu, yeah the only asian guy on tv back in the days is yeah, gay. Got no problem with that, i like gay people, just never thought he was, but its all good, just have to rethink when he says, "ok" when captain Kirk says "full speed ahead!" ... or when Scotty says "beam me up" ...

luke gets a free ride

no they aint lovers, they were just soccer kids in training

oh those cute 1st graders!

gotta love those costumes!

ANY COMMENTS WELCOMED

To all my buddies, feel free to leave any comments, ha ha .. i like to read em, you can leave some naughty messages and some nice ones too! i will read them all ... ah and if u havent signed my guestbook feel free to take a peak on the right hand side ... take care!

TO THE LOCAL SHRINE

There are alot of shrines and ceremonies in these areas, but after two years never really got to go to one. But tonite Mike's VP (pretty cool guy) invited a couple of us JETs out to check it out. It was pretty cool, saw a cool ceremony, with alot of chanting, clapping, and bowing to get the god out of his home into the portable shrine, from there the god was taken down the road to later inspect his surroundings, aka the rice paddies. Anyways the best part was the cool lanterns everyone was carrying. Each resembled a local village near by. Something made them look so cool, guess i was like a moth attracted to the flame. Anyways here are some pics to follow ...