BANANA DIET

Its all the rage in Japan, the banana diet. Damn TV show tells everyone and before you know it all the supermarkets are out of bananas, I ain't on no banana diet, I just like eating bananas, where are my bananas!!

NEW FRIEND

Mr. Rilakuma found a new home. Took a bit of work to get the big fellow, the UFO Catcher game isn't exactly the easiest thing, mmm .. think I spent like $30 bucks, damn those games, sucker me in!

WHITE PEPSI?

Was cruising through 7-11 the other day and low and behold a new drink! I can't resist the new drinks, gotta try em all, even if they are a bit wierd like this oh so yummy yogurt flavor Pepsi drink. Well it wasn't too bad, but don't I will buy it again.

TODAY AT SCHOOL

Work been busy, making lessons everyday, seems like it never ends, its always in the back of my mind. So ya don't got much to talk about except school. But school is fun so its all good. Was tired last night so made lessons in the morning for 3rd period, lucky I got the textbook from last year. Too bad they didnt use last years ORAL communication book would have been a hell lot easier, because I gotta make everything from scratch this year. Anyways got through class today. Lunch time ran into Aki and some of the other 2nd grade girls. They said I looked slimmer than last year. Mmmm .. I don't think I got thinner, I think I am the same weight. The 3-4 kids were watching the Cultural Festival in the computer room, so I stopped by. I was playing on the chair when Yamashita threw me into a tornado, I fell of and landed on my hip, damn that hurt, I don't think I am as young as I used to be, gotta workout more. Speaking of working out, haven't been to the school gym or any gym for a long time, gotta hit the weights, I am losing my muscle! Taught the 3-4 class some slang, it was hard because it was like another foreign, foreign language, but I think it will be good as soon as they learn it, its very useful for their university test and whatever. Lastly Mr Munakata is a great guy, nice guy, always helping me, had to check out if the Michael Jackson Thriller bootleg was gonna work in class, so he helped me with the audio visual stuff. It was kinda dark, but it worked, mmm ... its great to have a guy like Mr. Munakata.

ANOTHER DAY

Classes are getting a bit better, getting back into the swing of things. Been pumping some iron and playing with the bball kids, nice to get a little sweat going. When you are working not much time to be young and play anymore. Nice to escape the teachers room and hang out with the kids. Even taught the kids, "hang out" hope they use it. Anyways nothing beats a 5 minute commute on your bike to school. Take that carbon footprint. Living near work is one of the best things. Heck I live so close and I am still late to school, hahaha.

LONG TIME NO SEE

Its been a long time since I blogged. Blogging is hard, cuz you gotta do it everyday, anyways. Today is a GREAT day!! Because its not HUMID and HOT. Yes, it was finally cool for once without sweating like a dog, mark this day in history, September 4th, I just hope it continues.

School was good had a fun time with the sports class as Mr. Harada stopped into to cover for Masuda sensei. Kids were attentive to Mr. Harada's baseball stories, but best of all they asked some funny questions in English. One of the students asked "Do you love your wife?", that alone was probably the best question yet, because it was more than one word.

Chatted with Tanaka, I thought her teacher gave her the paper for the makeup final, but um he didn't so luckily I talked to her myself. Either she memorizes the paragraph to pass class or she doesn't, I hope she can do it.

Kids are moody, I hate that, one of the nicest girls last girl sunddenly became a big bitch this year and won't even talk to me, dunno whats up with her, did I give her a bad grade or something? Maybe its a vengence against all teachers, anyways, whatever. Kids are wierd.

Then there is Youtube, currently watching "I Survived A Japanese Game Show". I am not sure what to say, maybe its um really really dumb, maybe this reality TV thing has gone a bit too far. Its just idiots moving to another country and filming it there. Oh my, maybe its because I live in Japan and I know the audience is not really like that, its like the audience is on crack or something, kinda leaves like a misleading cultural impression of what Japan is really like. And I watch Japanese TV everyday, I have never seen shows like this, if I do its rarely, its not a common thing. Oh well you know its where they can make money, dumb or not.

411 WEATHER REPORT FROM JAPAN

Um, its FUCKIN HOT!!! Nice to come home and your apartment is 37 degrees C , translation 98.6 F!!! HOT!!! Then the nice days are filled with 32 C aka 89.6 F, with a full 100 percent humidity! Try working while sweat drips down your head, its great! Anyways can't wait to go back to Seattle next week! Yipee! no more sweating!!

危ないよ！

looks like danger

火事！！

ブリタとレンジ＝火事と煙 When the Brita meets the stove.

花火

HAPPY 4th OF JULY!!!!

I miss the fireworks on Lake Union. Haven't seen fireworks in Seattle for 5 or 6 years!! Japan has fireworks but its not the same. It's not a loud boom 15-20 minute free for all like in America, but the benefits of a Japanese firework show is that it usually lasts from 40minutes to one hour. A whole day of festivities including a lot of drinking and eating. It's pretty cool and unique at the same time, plus there is a firework show every weekend throughout the summer. Not just one day, but day after day of fireworks so you have time to visit them all if you really wanted.

ファンキーモンキーベイビース

Get your towels! Definetly a CRAZY good concert!! Funky Monkey Babys was the main act followed up by Thelma Aoyama and Satomi and Meg. Satomi was alright, hip hop and dancing but regular. Meg was some crazy J-pop techno chick with two big ass mascots hanging on her left and right. Thelma Aoyama was amazing, great voice live, funny and pretty cool. Then the final was the Funky Monkey Babys who rocked the house! Most of the people in the crowd came for the FMB and now I know why after attending my first concert with them. Funny performers who know how to rock the crowd, a little hip hop, a little rock, a little everything. They were rocking out on stage throwing towels and water bottles into the crowd. We kinda got the tickets late so we were up on the second floor, but it was pretty chill as we got seats, kinda felt like VIP. But down on the first floor was standing room only and it was packed with jumping and waving fans. Interesting in Japan how everyone waves left or right, or claps their hands above their hands in unison, you would never see that in America. But then in America fans are always hooting and hollering, but at the concert it was pretty tame with a hoot and a holler here and there. Overall a great show with the FMB and Thelma, I would for sure go again!

BILL's LAST DAY AT MICROSOFT

photo from engadget.com

One of my personal heros. Bill Gates. Down to life guy, (heck the richest man in the world doing an 60 Minutes interview at Dick's Burgers) if that isn't down to life then I don't know what is. A guy that had dreams and made them happen, didn't let people put him down, followed his own course, resurrect Apple, and could be the future philanthropy. People who say he is rich and stingy are full of bullshit and trying to put people down. This guy is out there helping people and best of all he is empowering others to join his cause in helping people around the world. There is more than Windows and Microsoft when you talk about Bill. He is the man!

FIGHTING, TEASING, AND SCHOOL

Well the busy Thursday turned into the interesting Thursday. The morning smart class turned into a boxing match when one of the kids was mmm ... teasing the other kid a little too much, so a little brawl erupted. It was like having K-1 in the class. The teacher held the kids back and escorted them out, for me? It was back to the work after the kids chattered a bit. Bit different taking care of the class by myself but hey it was no problem, feel like a veteran now.

YUMMY STUFF FROM VANCOUVER

Got some dried fruit from Mr Mori. Yum! I love dried fruit and they are all the way from Vancouver. Before the English class departed for Canada I asked who was nervous, and Mr. Mori and one other student was the only one to raise their hands. So I lent Mr. Mori my About Japan book, hoping he could strike up a conversation with his host family, because its hard to just chill and not speak English for a 4 days. So Mr. Mori popped in and gave me back my book and some goodies, he smiled and said thank you, and mentioned he had a good trip. That was great news to me because I wanted the kids to have a good experience in Vancouver. Sometimes I dont know about that class, during class time they never say a word and just sit there orderly, no talking, no laughter, its like a mystery, but outside of class they are pretty cool. Just gotta keep trying and figure something out. Takeda sensei mentioned the other day, heck its a class he isn't too fond of which I was surprised to hear, but I can understand and relate to but hey yah gotta keep on trying. Its like a mystery that I need to solve, what makes students tick ... mmmm ... just one student at a time ..

TRAITORS

Yeah thats the name of me and Dillon's Japanese basketball team, the "Traitors", funny name, maybe because its obvious the captain broke off and made his own team. Fun morning game to get in some exercise. We played a bunch of high school kids and whopped them in the end luckily. I danced around and got a point or two. Gotta work harder, been playing too much of that WOW.

IKEA IN JAPAN

I waited forever for IKEA to come to Japan. The Kobe store opened up in April, so me and Kayo and Daniel decided to check it out. Brought the wheels so we could stock up with some goods, because damn its hard to carry Ikea stuff on the train. So we followed the signs and ran into some traffic. Then more and more traffic. All the cars were going to IKEA, crazy! With two lanes of traffic we waited an hour just to get into the fuckin IKEA parking!!! Crazy Japan!! Then after parking just to get in, what do ya know, there was another line to just get in the store. The country of long lines I tell ya. All the floors were packed with people just trying to get in. We decided to go to the 5th floor to try the shorter line, and after another 30 minutes just standing outside we finally reached our destination inside IKEA! Of course it was just as crazy inside, looked like something like opening day, but it wasn't, opening day was 3 months ago, this was just a normal day. Looked like the IKEA back home, but everyone was Japanese, and there was an added bling bling cafeteria, guess to cater to the posh people and downstairs was the cheap eats including yummy hot dogs and ice cream. After wandering through the crowds finally settled on some new lamps, cookies, candles, and some other random goodies. At the end it was about 9:30pm, a long time after our 3:00 start time. Well you gotta do what you gotta do to get your IKEA goods.

IT WAS SO HUMID TODAY

that I was walking outside of class holding my notes, and they became damp instantly after I got out of the teachers room ... oh damn I can feel the humidity coming ... right on schedule, June 20th, and what you know, its raining cats and dogs this week, so the h u m i d i t y is building up, oh no!!

BUSY AS A BEE

The other week I finished up the mini books I made for the 2-4 English class. They were off to Vancouver for a one week trip and um, they really can't speak much English. I know how tough it is to speak a foreign language, heck I do it everyday in Japan. So I slaved hours and got the book done just in the nick of time, one day before their departure, working from 830 to 10pm is not fun, but it was nice to hang out with the guard man. Hope they are using the book in Vancouver.

TODAY IN SPORTS

NBA Champs! The Boston Celthics big 3, Pierce, Allen, and Garnett beat up Kobe and the Laker gang to win the Finals.
Mariners - GM Bavasi is fired! Finally, he sucks, ever since he got on board 4 years he got a bunch of crap players, and look at the mess now, worst in the league its good he goes.
Tiger Woods - US Open champ again, even on a busted knee, how do you stop this guy?
Supersonics - now at court, damn those Okl city bastards! to be continued ...
Hanshin TIgers - baseball in Japan, the team is hot what can I say, they can't lose

HANGING OUT AT THE SCHOOL VENDING MACHINE

Today at school it was busy non-stop. I was busy preparing the 2-4 class for their homestay trip to Vancouver this Friday. Have to put together a class, some homework assignment consisting of a diary and an interview. Hey you have to give the kids something to do. Then lastly trying to put together a little homestay guidebook together for the students. They don't have anything to take with them, so they are pretty much shit out of luck chillin with the host family for a couple of days without nothing to say or do, so I hope the book helps them out.

Taking a break from the crazy work I decided to grab some ice cream and a drink from the vending machine. Thats what I love about high school, you can get goodies such as ice cream or onigiri or fried chicken at anytime, yum! Deciding what to drink was tough work, so many drinks to choose from and today was a bit toasty as I could feel the humidity coming. Was saying hi to a bunch of kids, amazing how many names and faces you can meet in a year. Then came the 1st grade girls, it was .. mmm .. I forgot her name. Heck I always forget kids names, there are so many of them. So I asked her name, but she kinda got angry that I forgot, then I asked her friend what her name was, but then her friend was a bit resistant, then as time passed by more and more kids flocked toward the vending machine like a moth to a flame. I said "HI" to a bunch of 2nd and 3rd grade kids, Sugiyama, Aeri, Misia, Kiyama, and many more. Then the girl with the name I forgot asked why I knew all the other kids names but not hers. Then I laughed, um they are 2nd and 3rd grade kids, you are new. After awhile her friend finally gave in and told me her friends name was Morisawa and her name was Moriga. Of course I wouldn't let her friend get off so easy, so I butchered it of course, thats my favorite. So I asked is your name Mori? Morimoto? Morikawa? Morimori? ... after a brutal name beating I finally said her real name in relief. I just love teasing kids, of course I told them I would probably forget their name tomorrow! They ran away and laughed, but a couple hours later in the hallway I heard them complaining to Iseda sensei about how I didn't remember their names. I didn't want to miss an opportunity so I ran out and called her, "Morimori", genki morimori!!