The Highlights

Well, I thought about waiting a few more months and making my posts an annual thing, but I had some extra time.  Plus I'm forgetting my experiences from Japan on a daily basis.  Anyway, I've been back in the US since late January.  Presently I'm bumming in Virginia and catching up with my mom.  I think I'll be heading back to Swepote next week...probably. 

As for highlights from Japan, while I can still remember:

The beef bowl from Yoshinoya

Living on my own

Staying up late with my British roommate, talking about Star Wars or whatever else. 

The cheese croquets from the 280Y bar

Going to the onsen and bathing with like 50 naked dudes (the first 30 seconds were the hardest).

The hamburger meal from First Kitchen.  It was a double bacon cheeseburger with a fried egg and potato salad on it.  Plus they had barbeque seasoned fries. 

Having a social life that rivaled the one I had in college, namely my friendship with Kiku, Dan and Rebecca.

Walking on the beach at Amano Hashidate on my birthday.

Going to Hiroshima with Kiku and learning a bit more about that occurence.

Hanging out with Aki in the little neighborhood pub.

Not vomiting all over my friends while eating raw shrimp, squid and boiled octopus.

Singing karaoke with back-up dancers on each side Christmas Eve night, and yelling "meddy kudissmasu!" at japanese people.  They'd say it back too.  That was pretty sweet. 

I should have a few more pics up in the coming weeks if you look on my myspace page.  I'll probably think of some more stuff right after I post this up. peace yo

Long time, yet again.  I can't really remember what I used to write about in this blog.  And I had a little trouble remembering my login and ID, but I made it through.  Just for an update, the 9 month mark is only days away.  I had my birthday last week, and I must say, had a great one.  A bunch of us got together and went out to eat at my favorite place.  It's the best Indian food I've ever had.  After that I went on a bit of a hike with my friend Megumi and we watched a waterfall for a while.  The next day I took a trip on my own to go check out Amano Hashidate, "one of Japan's 3 most scenic sites."  It was a great trip, only 2 days and one night.  I spent most of the time strolling along the beach.  The weather was basically perfect and it was nice to get out of the city for some nature type scenery. 

I'm doing my best to cross my goals off the list, but I've got a long way to go.  Hopefully I can knock out the big ones in 3 months' time.  Just for some cultural experiences I've had recently...I was at a restaurant with my friends one day when they asked me, "do you need rice?" as in, do you need to eat rice along with what you ordered.  This is one of the oddest things I've been asked since I've got over here, besides "massagie?"  The word for rice is gohon, the same word for "meal".  It also happens to be the name of Goku's son haha. 

One morning I was talking to a student who was sick with a sore throat.  She was drinking green tea, so I told her that maybe it wasn't good for her, since it has a lot of caffeine in it, and would dry her throat out.  She promptly told me that it kills bacteria, and although it may have caffeine in it, it wouldn't dry her throat out like...other types of caffeine.  Because it's Japanese apparently.  When the emperor's new grandbaby was about to be born, everybody got pretty exicted because it was pretty much the last chance for them to have a male heir.  Some people were hoping for a boy, to carry on the line and the "purity" but some were hoping for a girl, which would hopefully bring about some changes in thinking.  It ended up being a boy.  My friend explained to me that it was important for the emperor to be a boy because the Y chromosome was the only way for them to know that the baby had the emperial line's blood, and not his mother's.  Because she obviously sucks.  It's amazing that they would take science, twist it around a bit, and then use it to justify a completely outmoded tradition.  The emperor should have been hanged for war crimes anyway. 

To update my list of weird things eaten...I ate shellfish or clams...I don't know which.  I didn't like it though.  When I went for the hike and the waterfall, Megumi bought some battered and deep fried maple leaves.  Yes, real maple leaves that had been fried.  They were crunchy from the fried batter, but also a little bit sweet.  Pretty good really. 

One last thing, I've got new pics up on my Myspace account.  If you don't have myspace...well, I guess you don't get to see them.  peace yo

Yeah yeah.  Long time, no post.  So I've been in Japan for almost 7 months.  My friend tells me that everyone gets homesick at the 6 month mark, and that would be true for me also.  I'm looking forward to going home...alot.  As soon as I get home I can start wondering what's next in life and get busy doing nothing with no direction.  Fantastic.  Anyway, I've been stuck in this monstrous city for quite a while, and after much of that you start to miss trees and other various greenery.  So I took my first real overnight (2 nights) trip to Tokushima on Shikoku Island.  We went to a dance festival with some pretty kickin music and then went driving through some insane mountains.  They reminded me of the ones in VA but they were a lot steeper.  So steep, in fact, that the roads winding through them are one lane and 1.5 lanes wide.  You have to do a lot of backing up to let other cars pass at certain wide points.  I also went to my first onsen, a hot spring bath.  It was pretty nice.

I also tried the infamous nato, which is fermented beans, and I ate a bunch of sashimi which included:

raw fish, which I've had before, raw squid, raw shrimp, and a big old boiled octopus tentacle.  Uhh...I still wince sometimes when I think about it.  I could feel the suction cups on my tongue. 

Besides all of that, I just got trained for chibiko, which is 2-4 year old kids, and that means more singing and dancing, but to a soundtrack.  I'm starting to honestly hate my job.  I shouldn't feel like that because it's pretty easy and it's way better than working at the car factory and the casino.  But the students can be pretty petty.  I got complaints about yawning in class and not looking excited enough.  These were 2 official complaints for which I will have to speak to one of my managers.  It pisses me off a lot.  I really don't have any prospects for when I go home though, so I guess I should just swallow the stress for now and try to enjoy it. 

So I went looking around yesterday with a friend and we wandered into a figurine shop.  That:s right, they specialize.  You have the Gundam Wing area and the Dragon Ball area and what not.  Well I just so happened to look on a certain shelf on a certain case and you:ll never guess...

On the shelf was a collection of about 5 figurines depicting, I would guess, 5 year old girls, some with their panties still on and some not.  They were all in pretty comprising positions.  So yeah...this is where I live.  An honorable people indeed