PLUM BLOSSOMS

Usually its the cherry blossoms that get all the hype, but recently i discovered how beautiful the plum blossoms are too. The plums bloom a bit earlier than the cherry trees and are almost as nice. So i took the time to venture out to Mitsu where they have the famous, (well i didnt know about it till this year) world plum tree park. Always find something new every year. The park is on top of a nice mountain overlooking the ocean and the neighboring cities of Taishi and Himeji. A pretty cool site from above, and also a nice place to take some pics and relax.

UPDATES ARE COMING ...

what we got on the chopping block ... graduation , sumo , and a bunch of other random things .. stay tuned ... its spring break and i got time !

FINALLY A THIN PHONE

Japan is the leader of phone technology, i will give it to them for that. But for small portable phones forget it. Phones in Japan have everything from video, camera, internet, mail, video games, mp3 players, etc. built in them. A good ploy by the companies to get those extra dollars or yen. So every phone has to be somewhat big in size to do all these functions. There isnt really a phone that is just a phone, its gotta be a utility weapon able to do everything. So over the years i have been missing the slim and small portable phones from back home. A phone where you can put it in your pocket and it wont bother you. But here phones are so big and bulky that sometimes i feel like someone is going to ask me, "is that a banana in your pocket?, no sorry its just a cell phone". So as of yesterday, I have been waiting for 3 years for a thin phone, and just the other day it finally came. So i had to grab one! So gathered up my electronic dictionary and my guts as my japanese still sucks and headed to the Vodafone store in town. I was determined to get this new Samsung phone which pretty much looks like the Motorola Razor, a bad ass machine. Its the gadgets i cant refuse em. Well anyways about 90 or so minutes later and a lot of guessing i finally came out a new owner of a pimpin new orange phone. aka ketai


fits in the palm of your hand and also in the pocket too


side by side, new orange phone and old ghetto blue phone

RUMBLE RUMBLE

Today there was a slight rumble rumble, with a earthquake rolling through, always a bit scary, but luckily this was just a little one. Or maybe it was the aftershock of the Huskies falling out of the NCAA tourney in overtime to UConn. Damn, the zags and now the huskies. Reminds me, i gotta make a earthquake kit, even though its um like 3 years late.

SUNNY DAY

The last day of school for the school year, which in Japan ends in March and starts again in April. Oh but what a nice sunny day it was! Until i watched the final score of the NCAA tourney, UCLA Gonzaga game. Damn lost it in the final minute. Better luck next year, bummer.

COMPLAINT GONE

Asked the teachers again about taking pics with the kids, and they said it was OK. Yipee! So sunday gotta take pics with the kids. Yeah, i guessed the teachers were just busy getting the kids in order for graduation. Asked Ueo sensei how it was going, and she said they couldnt sing, they were too quiet. Guess its singing practice. Ueo sensei was even nice enough to help translate my speech i had to do at the Kamae Center today. It was closing ceremony for the little ones. So yeah amazing, i think i only got about 5 months left, wow! And the questions are pouring in, "when you leaving?, can you stay longer? are you going to return back to America? do you like Japan? what are you going to do?" ... yeah time flies!! Just the other day i got here, and that was about 3 years ago, wow ... and in another 5 months i will be done ... its kinda like college, your a freshman, everything is new, and by the time you know it you are a senior and your graduating and your moving onto another stage of your life ... so whats that next stage? mmm .. not sure yet, will see whats out there ...

MINOR COMPLAINT

Sometimes teachers gotta loosen up, they are pretty cool most of the times, then sometimes they gotta be stiff. Asked my teachers if i could get a pic with their homeroom before they graduate next monday. And the magic answer??? No, they are too busy, ... geezzz .. OMG ... it only takes like 5 minutes. I am sure they will change their mind later, but it seems such a quick and simple thing, all they are doing all week is learning how to march into the gym and sit down and stand up. Kids dont need all week to practice how to sit down and stand up ... geezzzz, give me my 5 minute pic, how lame and this is my last year

FLYING A KITE

A couple weeks back was cruising around town with the neighbors and stumbled upon this little shop which turned out to be a mini fleamarket in a big old warehouse. Inside found this really cool kite shop. After living here all these years never even knew it was here. In Japan you can walk by something a million times and never even realize its there. There is always something new to see everyday, even in the old neighborhood. Enjoy the kites, this guy was awesome, some of these kites i would guess be from 5 to 7 feet tall, props to the artist ...

REALLY OLD SKOOL

Just was cruising the internet and saw this article on "a brief history of handheld video games" by engadget ... and i was like "hey!!" i used to play that game! i wonder if i still have it ... mmmm ... damn i was good at that football game - engadget.com

ITS HAMMER TIME!!

Eventually it had to happen, Hammer's back, and he's online! and he's bloggin! mchammer.blogspot.com

RAIN RAIN GO AWAY COME AGAIN SOME OTHER DAY

Damn, it rained all day, non-stop which isnt too usual, but just made things for a bummer day. Lucky the happy kids at Issai Nishi Elementary school brightened things up. Mmmm .. so whats better than rain? Snow of course! How about some pics from a freak snowstorm about a month ago, that is much cooler than rain pics, look at how handy those umbrellas come in use... どうぞ

FINALLY BACK ONLINE

Well i guess thats what happens when you dont pay your YahooBB bill for a couple months, ha ha ha. So it was no internet for a couple days, but it sure was more relaxing and even got more studying done, now back to internet nerd world.

THINGS TO DO

Got a whole list of things that need finishing up, finding a job, resume, printing pics, planning lessons, etc, but damn, think the lazy bug has struck again.....

ITS NOT CHRISTMAS

But who cares! I was gonna treat the kids for all their hard work. Today was a day of relaxing for the 11 or so English high school course wannabe students. Yesterday, for Valentine's day my kids wrapped up their english interviews and paper tests at Aioi and Taishi high school. What a bummer to take a test on V day. The past two weeks me and the English teachers were busy prepping them up to pass the test. Everyone had some basic interview questions asked them such as, "What's the name of your school? What's your favorite food? What time do you wake up? How do you come to school?" and so on. Talking to the kids after the test today the Aioi kids said the teachers interviewing them were rapid fire, just shooting out high speed questions, a bit difficult. This into contrast where the Taishi kids said that they got super easy questions. This could also be the space in the course, Taishi had 40/47 and Aioi had a whopping 40/61. For Aioi bout a 66% chance to get in, bummer. Then the 2nd part of the interview varied, for Aioi the kids had to read a story passage then answers questions. Before they had pictures, but not this year, so the kids said it was hard, geeez i hope they passed. The Taishi kids had a picture of a anime character such as "chibi maruko chan" and pop singers "SMAP" and had to make a one minute speech.




Damn its hard enough in your own language non less in another language. Worked really hard in prepping them in this one, as the other teachers didnt really know how to tackle this one. So made a series of hints, such as intro, description, color, clothes, where from, make a story, i want, i think, when i was young, what, when, where, who, ... etc. At first it was really tough because they were just reading stories but couldnt put anything together, but later got them to 30 seconds, then 40 seconds, and then finally over a minute. Yippee! Some were super awesome! Ayaka, Noriko, and sometimes the others had great speeches. Pretty cool to see them all do well, i hope they passed!!!!

Anyways so there was no snow and it wasn't Christmas, but it was time for the famous "White Elephant" game. The other day went and scooped up the kids favorites, elmo, cookie monster, sponge bob, bracelets, and other goodies. Overall it was a fun day with the kids! GOOD LUCK TO YOU ALL!

from back row ... kinue (habatan), mao, aki, ayaka, chika, aki, misaki, noriko, misato, ?, kenshi, hisonori, ogawa sensei, me

NEW HAIR CUT?

The other day a bunch of kids were asking "new cuto?, wax? new hair?, etc", basically if i got a new hair cut. But nah i didnt, didnt have one for awhile, just put my hair down instead of spiking it up. Just kinda interesting how kids notice things.

SCHOOL MEETINGS

Once in awhile we have some special school meetings with all the students, some of the unique ones this year have been ... students riding their bikes recklessly, where one of the jr high students was riding their bike and playing on their cell phone and ran into a group 1st grade elementary students, boy did they all get a bitching ... then there was the other time when one of the students mother who was accused of murder and it was all over the local paper and maybe on tv i think, poor student, so it was nice of the principal to go out and tell the students to leave the student alone and dont talk about the incident ... dang that really sucks to have your mom on the front page for whacking someone to death with a golf club ... mmm

MAID SERVICE IN JAPAN?

Well its interesting how CNN and all the news picks up things about Japan, but its pretty much just stuff coming out of Tokyo. So the article went on about how the nerd world up in Tokyo has gotten new ideas, and shops such as coffee joints, hair salons, etc have been popping up where the workers dress up as maids to give the "i serve you master feel" to the nerds and other people who come in. So the maids go out of their way by bowing, grooming, and even spoon feeding among other things, geeezzz. I dont see any maid service around these neck of the woods, well not the boonies, but i mean in the bigger cities of Kobe, Osaka, and Kyoto. Its one of those only in Tokyo. Anyways thought it was a interesting read, check it out, might even be funny to check out one of these places for reals.

SUPER BLOW

Dang, endured the whole day trying to not know the outcome. Even got the mini super bowl party going on with Shu san coming over to chomp down some tight Chicago pizza. If ordering the pizza wasnt hard enough, it was harder to watch the seahawks miss field goals, get shitty calls, and fuck up the clock. Damn better luck next year boys! It was a nice run. Guess i knew it was bad when i was at school and all of a sudden one of my teachers shouted out to me, "super bowl, finished! Steelers!" as i quickly closed my ears and told him i didnt want to hear it, because i had to watch it tonite. Oh well! In compensation of the loss though, i found this really cool football game, where no man cries, and everyone is a winner, check it out! the Lingerie Bowl

GO HAWKS!!

Soon SUPER BOWL XL will play, Seahawks vs Steelers. But damn! Once again the only time they make it is when i am in Japan, and to make things worse time zones!! Damn kickoff time is at 830am over here on a monday. Yeah and i start work at 830 and have full classes all day! Was thinking to call in sick, but nah, i be good and just go to work. Luckily there is replay of it at 730pm. So will not try to check any internet or talk to anyone, i dont want to know the score, just gonna watch it on the tube. So neighbor Shu is gonna come over and we gonna make a good ole boys Japan style Super Bowl style party. Pizza and beer is the treat of the day. GO HAWKS!!!

JOB HUNTING

Yup, looking for a new job, almost after 3 years its almost time to move on. How sad to leave such a cool job. How could you not like long vacations every 3 months or so. I dont know of any other job like that. Anyways at the Kobe conference they mentioned it was only about 6 months to go until July, and i never thought of it that way til now. Damn how time flies, time to get together that resume soon. Looked at jobs online but no go there yet, there are tons of jobs out there as the school year starts in april/march here. But damn on the JET program its July for us, so its kinda screwy cuz it doesnt really match up. MMmmm what to do. Hopefully later on some more jobs will pop up for a August start or something. Crossing those fingers, otherwise gonna chill and take it easy and enjoy my last couple months in Tatsuno. Its a nice little city with nice people, when i get the chance gonna take a walk around and do a nice photo shoot, nice and peaceful and relaxing.