Been meaning to post

So I have been meaning to post, but keep forgetting.
This past week a bunch of things have happened. First I was informed that one of the English teachers has to return to Canada for something and Bryan and I will be covering his last three class of the semester. While we really are not doing much, it will be nice to be in the classroom again. Secondly we had the graduation ceremony for the international students and currently the americans and one canadian are in Kyoto and will return later this week. Today (Sunday) I woke up and took the two Malaysian students to the airport. What was supposed to be an easy day, but I spent a few hours trying to get things figured out, as their flight was canceled. They are currently at a Holiday Inn by the airport.
This week or next Bryan and I will be moving in to the old house down the road from the dorm. It is pretty big so it should be nice, even though it doesn't have much for heating.

Currently my biggest debate is what to over my break this winter. My last day of work before the break is the 25th and I return to work on the 7th. I have looked at flying to Okinawa for about 3 days. My biggest part of this debate is that I am wondering if I would rather use the money to take some metals classes while I am here. I am thinking though that after the first I will go to visit the Benedictine Monastery up in Nagano, that I visited two years ago. I have also been invited to spend the new years celebration with president Shimadas family, going to the shrine at midnight and then for soba afterwords.

I also have decided that I will not be applying to grad school this year, instead I am going to apply to go back and get a second bachelors. Most of the grad schools require a bachelors of fine arts and if you dont have one you have to apply as undecided and have a years probation before being able to apply to a major. I figure it will be cheaper to just spend the year getting my bfa.

So that is all for now.

I am going to try and get better at this.

Golden Birthday

So I was recently told that this is my golden birthday, ya I dont know what makes it so special either. But here is how I spent the weekend.

Friday:

Some of the students wanted to go to the Tokyo Park Hyatt New York Bar. It is the bar that was made famous by the movie Lost in Translation. They have some great jazz starting after 8pm. So we sat talked, listened to jazz and had a few drinks and some fries. The fries mind you are fried in duck fat and served with a very good homemade ketchup.

Saturday:
I worked the morning. Then around 5pm I went with two of my friends to a a bar named Popeyes. They have 40 Japanese microbrews on tap and more in bottles. We did a sampler first, since my companions have really only drunken standard japanese beer, which is like coors or pbr. As for the full sized beers I had an espresso stout and a gravity fed cast ale, which was almost no bubbles but very good. After wards we went and had some ramen and one of my friends had to head out to meet someone else. I took my other friend to a local bar that I go to ever so often. It is owned by a japanese woman and her okinawan husband. My friend is okinawan and when I told her about it, she wanted to go and have a glass of okinawan sake, awamori. It was the bars 25th anniversary so everything was 25% off. I also recieved a free drink, a large brandy, on the house for my birthday and another free drink, a 2005 german red wine, from a customer who brought the bottle for a gift to the bar owners. I spent the night talking with a sushi chef and a sword polisher, which was very educational and looking through old photo albums from when they first opened the bar, the fashion and hair was very humorous.

Sunday:

I helped a student go return some very over priced pants and then met with a friend for coffee and a cheap dinner.

Monday (my actual birthday):

I woke up extra early and went to go meet my friend mike who was in town for the weekend from Tsu city. We had a breakfast buffet and caught up. Then around 11 I went to help my ikebana sensei with her boy scout group (they were cub scout age). They were having like a little fair/flea market. I ran a little pin ball kind of game that cost 1oyen per play and you were guaranteed a prize. The thing I forgot is that in Japan Boy Scouts are co-ed. I still find it interesting. I was done around 2:30 pm. The only other thing I did is that night I went to a local bar, had a Manhattan (which they know how i like it and make it perfect every time, 3 olives on the rocks) and edited essays.

Ahh Sunday

So today is sunday. So far it has been pretty productive. Granted this weekend I have spent too much money, today was great. I woke up and did laundry, ate some oatmeal, hung my laundry. Then around 11:15 head out for church. The church I have been attending is St.Anselms in Meguro, about 30min and 320yen away from the dorm. There is another Catholic Church closer with an English mass too, but I like the Meguro Church because it was built by the Monks of St.Johns and has teh same feel to it as the Abbey in Collegeville ( Oh how I miss thee). The one thing that doesnt have the feel of St.Johns is the speed at which they pray. I have never heard the Hail Mary prayed so fast. I think next week I will check out the closer Yotsuya Church to see if I can get the nice slow paced praying that I learned to love behind the pine curtain.

After mass I walked to a Ikebana (Japanese Flower arrangement) show close by that the leader of the trip had an extra ticket, so i got in free. Earlier in the week when I first found out about the show I mentioned it to my boss and she made a point to say that the guy who is doing it is a modern Ikebana artist and is gay. the whole gay thing to me was like ok whats the point. After the show I can say that I dont think I would ever have used glitter or bedazzeled a flower. I stood in line for about 30min waiting to get in. The facility where it was held is defiantly used mainly for weddings and big get togethers I believe as they had bridal salons and what not all over and a kimono rental shop in house. The area where the show was is like an old japanese temple/house/something. I think they brought in all of the walls and ceilings from an outside source as they looked very old. The ceilings and walls were covered with beautiful paintings, almost making it hard to pay attention to the flowers. The displays varied from very modern to more traditional including everything from Blue, Yellow, and Red painted 1x2's to more varieties of orchids then I have ever seen in my life.

I believe the major difference between western and japanese flower arrangements is not the simplicity that most people think, but the treatment of the whole plant as beautiful. In arrangments you will see everything from un-blossomed buds to dead flowers, pods and sticks. In the art they treat all parts of nature as it is beautiful and not just the flower. I mean to be honest some of the orchids are not really that pretty, some are kind of scary looking.

After the show I had a nice late lunch and then came home to put away my dried laundry and now I am about to start on some work.

I hope in the next week to have my website up. I have been paying more attention to my diet as of late as I am beginning to see the negative affect of having a 7-11 a block away.

Also in my next post I will show my adventures with Kit Kats.

Sorry

Sorry for no info for a while. I have been busy.

So with design festa I learned that I need to keep pieces around or below 20 dollars on hand for events like that.

I am currently working on my website and hope to launch it in the next week or so.

I have been debating on applying to grad school and am trying to narrow down the colleges.

Finally I had a pretty crappy day at work today. For some reason, i am pretty sure, my boss doesnt like me. She will wait till my co-worker bryan gets back to the office and asks him to edit and email for her. She has not asked me since the second week. When giving us and assignment she will talk directly to bryan and not me. Its annoying. To add to this I am pretty sure bryan dislikes me. i know he did two years ago when we studied here, but I figure it would change. When I walk in to our room he will leave and go to the lounge and visa versa at the dorm. I have no idea how this will work when we move in to a tiny dorm room together.

So having a crappy day I went out to dinner and I was not thinking and went to a sushi restaurant that one of the guys I know from a local bar owns, or so I thought he owned it. Turns out he has just been working there for 30 years (it has been open for 60) his boss owns it and got it from his mother. basically I spent more than I wanted, but it was about what I would spend on sushi in America. It was amazing sushi. The fish was much better than the kaiten (sushi go round 105yen) sushi. I also had the pleasure of trying real wasabi, not powder and all I can say is WOW. The color and look is like of finelly grated ginger. The taste is completely different from the powder. It starts out almost sweet for a second, then it feels like it is melting in your mouth or spreading, and then you get the heat, but it is not as strong or in your nose as powdered. I also had the pleasure of eating two different kinds of abalone, both very good. He even has his own sake for he restaurant (over 17 kinds made by him), I did not try this sadly.


Oh ya and this past monday I went to go meet with a store about selling my jewelry there. I now have 11 pieces at a store here in tokyo. Instead of charging rent for the space like many stores the owner just takes 35% of the sale, which is very reasonable, since most galleries in America take 50-60% of the sale. Hopefully this works out well for myself. I am also learning that the japanese like to hear a story behind something. I learned this with the jewelry and saw it again today at the sushi resturant.

Ok time for bed. Till later. bye

Here are the photos from design festa, more of a post later i am tired. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2088409&id=93401081&l=42057efb25

Well I just got back from the second day of Design Festa. I didnt make what I spent when you look at the booth costs, but it was an experience. I will post more and photos later.

Two days till the HUGE two day show that is costing me a little too much money to show at and I am sick. Two days ago I started feeling sick, yesterday was the worst so far so hopefully if the trend continues by friday I will be perfectly healthy, or I might have the flu, not sure.

Sorry for not posting for a few weeks, if anyone is reading.

Well the past few weeks have been busy. Today was fun. I started the day by tripping up the stair and running in to the wall and taking a chunk out of my knuckle with my k9. Then after lunch I was in B's Cafe and right as I was purchasing my sweet roll I got stung by a bee for the first time in my life. Right on the side of my neck. I have to admit it hurts. I killed the bee the second I felt the sting. My friend took me to the school nurse as I was just hoping that she could remove the stinger from my neck as I could not see it. Well she told me I had to go to the hospital and as I walked back to my office she called my boss. So when I arrived my boss was already calling the local doctor to get me in. I told her it hurts but I would be fine if I just could remove the stinger. So I had a 4000yen doctors visit to remove the stinger and have some ointment applied and then had another 1000yen bill for an rx my boss had me fill for my own ointment. Now I will submit this all to insurance and we will see what they cover.

The next few weeks are going to be insane. This weekend we have the school festival. School festivals are something the students have starting all the way in kindergarten and continue in to college. I will be selling my jewelry on Saturday and working Sunday. The next week will be spent prepping for the big art show that my friend Masaaki and I will be taking part in next weekend. It is called Design Festa ( www.designfesta.com ) and the hope is that we both sell enough stuff to at least break even. That weekend we also are having a Johnnie Alum get together so I hope to make it too that as well.

Well i was going to post a picture of the bee sting but it basically now just looks like an ingrown hair so instead you get a picture of me bored at work.


This is really the only picture I have taken while in Japan. I am very bad at taking pictures but expect some from the festival and from Design Festa.

Tune in next time for an up date same bat time same bat channel.

This past weekend and last minuet changes

So this weekend started out with a baseball game Friday night. It was a great baseball game. It was the Tokyo Giants vs. The Hiroshima Carp. The Carp should have won but there was some horrible defensive plays and also one atrocious reffing. I found it interesting how at the baseball game there were three different beer companies, with a total of 5 beers to choose from, also lemon sours and whiskeys. All of this was in the stands vending. The beer girls (all women) carry on their backs a mini keg and run up and down the stairs. It is crazy. After that we got some drinks with some friends and about a few drinks in I had to try and explain the history of the Christian church and the reason for the split. Ya that was interesting.

Saturday was spent hiking up in the mountains. I was supposed to meet a large group of friends, but they all canceled and I did not have a cell phone to find out, but at least two of them still showed up. The mountain was pretty touristy, but once I found a good trail we could at least walk on dirt instead of pavement. After a extremely long day hiking we had dinner at the beer garden on the top of the mountain.

Sunday started with gong to church. I went to the Catholic church in Menguro that St.Johns built, but latter they gave it to the dioceses and moved to the mountains. The church is defiantly a catholic (universal) church, there were people from Africa, Korea, China, England, Philippines and more. The priest was one of the youngest I have seen, I would say late 20's. After mass I went and purchased a cell phone, which has already helped a lot.

Today was the interesting day. I showed up to work, just in time to have one of my co-workers wave me to her phone and tell me the head of the English department was on the phone. Sandra informed me that Bryan and I would be teaching two classes this week, Monday and Thursday as they had not been able to find a new English teacher. Bryan and I thought we had to make a lesson plan so we thought that we would just ask the students about their summer vacations and what not. We also assigned some homework. They have to read 10 poems and for each poem write one sentence explaining the purpose and then two sentences of reaction. We figure this will be hard but they should be up to the challenge.

What I did what I did

So this past weekend was Silver Week. It is basically a goverment holiday Monday-Wednesday. After trying to plan a few things out and the costs not working out, I finally said forget about it and did nothing this weekend and it was beautiful. I watched about two seasons of The West Wing and caught up on all of the american tv shows that have recently started back up. I also finally got the 10 necklaces untangled. That took about 5 hours with a sharp dental tool while watching tv. I also finished a necklace that need the bezel reduced and the stones set. I am still looking for a place to have some pieces cast. I how to have this accomplished before the show in late October.

Yesterday Bryan and I had a meeting with Sandra (an English professor). Sandra asked our help in ordering sample books from publishers and reviewing them to figure out which would best suit the first year students. This is in an effort to unify the curiulum to help students. As of right now each English class they take as a different set of vocab and style of learning. While in America this would be a norm, the issue is that students do not have the chance to re use the vocab and commit it to memory. From talking with her, it seems that some profs are against this and others are for it. Also I learned a little more about the Japanese education system while talking with her. First off it is encouraged that you child be in a school or at least private lesson by the age of 3. Second it is encouraged by the teachers in elementry through high school that your child attened after school private lessons. I already knew about the cram schools and the after school programs. What surprised me this time around is that the teachers are the ones saying that the parents should do this. Now I know at least one mother in America that would take issue with this and ask the question : So why are you not doing your job and teaching them?　 This is all in hopes of them doing well on the entrance exams for elementry school to get in to a good elementry school, which will get you in to a good junior high, which will lead to a good high school, which of course will lead to going to Todai (Tokyo University). Now the way this affect the students at the Univsity that I work at is the interesting part.

The students at my university are not the top level students. The univeristy I work at is just your middle of the road school. Now at least in the English major there are tests to graduate. A student has to score at least a 500 on the national English apptitude test. Now accomidations on any tests are made for people that have issues taking tests. Most of the majors do not take an english class after thier second year as they have other requirements and they have to start job hunting. The professors almost never fail students, instead they feel bad for the students and make the work easier. A good example of this is how they now offer two other tests that a student can take to graduate, one of which is much easier than the standard one. For most students college is the first time when they can get a part time job and most of them would rather focus on that then study. Also many of them consider having the book open while playing video games or watching TV studying. They want to make money to buy things or travel, and some acctually need the money to go to school. They just need the college degree to get a job, if not they are basically going to be working at a McDonalds or 7-11.

The other major issue is that most companies only want fresh just graduated students to hire, so there is no oppertunity to voulnteer or take a break, as this is seen as a poor quality in an employee. This is all based on the old system where once you started with a company, you would be there for the rest of your life and they would take care of you. Sadly this is no longer true, but yet many of the comapnies still act like it is. So for example a student graduated and started working at a company. Two months in the company folds and he is out of work, but he cant get another job as he is no longer that fresh shiny graduate. His only real option is grad school or 7-11.

Of course I had a whole debate in my head with in the time span of ten minuets going from being angery about how the students are being wronged as they dont work for thier degree and there is nothign really to be proud of when graduating ( heck most students miss the first day of class because they would rather work). To thining that damn it there needs to be reform. a revolution
. This sytem is not helping anyone. But then it came to me that it would have to come from the students and that wasnt about to happen. And finally I came to the conclusion I always come to when debating issues in Japan. To them I am just a forigner and what the hell do I know. They have been doing it this way for the longest time and it is tradition and since they have been doing it, it must be right. Now obviously with this thinking we would still have slaves, women would not be able to vote, and catholics and irish would still be opressed.

Most japanese people look at america and ask why are there so many issues and why are so many people racist. What they fail to see, is that the Japanese are just as racist, but to them there is Japanese and everyone else and if you are not Japanese then that is that.

Ok back on track.
Today school started, so there is noise and high pitched screaming as friends see each other once again after a long break. I will have a staff meeting tongiht to introduce myself to the faculty, so they know who to come to for help with things. I then am going to a baseball game with the international students, Giants vs. the Carp. And next week I will start working in the chat lounge.

Next issues to figure out:
How to transfer money to my bank in America
Is there a lacrosse team I can join
Find a hockey game to go to.

What to do what to do

So this past weekend was interesting, fun and relaxing. The students were on their home stays so the dorm as nice and quite. I spent Saturday meeting up with some old friends and catching up over lunch and dinner, as well as a little bowling (I won the first game by 1 point and broke 100, but lost the second game). I am now trying to figure out what to do this weekend. next Monday-Wednesday is what is called silver week. It is three holidays in a row, and I can make it four if I take a day off that I have waiting for me from overtime. The big issue is I have no idea what to do. Most japanese people, most of my friends are traveling. I am thinking about just packing a small backpack with some socks and underwear and starting to walk in a direction and see where I end up two days later then turn around and come back.

This past weekend was nice, we left saturday for Karuizawa, which is a mountain resort town where the school has a seminar house. They have real beds so that was nice, as was having a single room with my own bathroom. The students seemed to have a good time and I also got to catch up with some old friends that were on the trip as well. Sunday was nice as we visited an onsen (hot spring that is segregated by sex and nude) so that was nice and relaxing.

Having arrived back in Tokyo late Monday afternoon, today (Tuesday) was my first day at the office this week. I spent the day reading the works that I will be giving the students tomorrow and working on my lesson plan till noon, at which time Bryan was done teaching for the day and we took lunch and headed off to the immigrations office. We spent about an hour waiting in basically a DMV and finally received our visa's. Tomorrow after teaching we will go down to the Ward office and apply for Alien registration.


Bed time.

Well this week was mostly spent on not falling a sleep in the office. Although I did find out that Bryan and I will be tag teaming a class next week. There are three students that are going to Boston to study for 4 months and we are giving them a crash course on American culture. We will be teaching them for four days and two hours a day, so I will take two days and he will take two. I am working on Etequette, food, holidays, and something else I have written down. I am going to give them three short stories to read: The Legend of Sleep Hollow, Gift of the Magi, and Two Thanksgiving Gentlemen. I think they are simple stories that deal with three holidays they will have to deal with. This weekend we are taking a large group of all the exchange students and 17 Bunkyo students to the seminar house in Karuizawa. It should be fun. Although the group of students seems to be shy I was surprised how many men signed up to wear a japanese loin cloth for the shrine carrying next week. My year had the record at 8 I think, but it looks like they might beat it.

I also found out today that the gallery I was planning on renting does not have any sort for insurance and claims no responsibility for peoples work, so I would have to be there the whole time. Time to figure out a plan B.

End of the first week

So after my first week of work I think this job will challenge and bore me at times. All but four of the students are out climbing Mt.Fuji right now. They seem like a good group of kids and if all the paper work comes in it looks like all but maybe 3 will be getting a JASSO scholarship, which is $800 relocation money, plus $800 a month, I was surprised that they go paid all 800 for the month of Aug. On my side of life, my CoE came in this week and I will have to go to the visa office and pay for a change of status, which should be re-reimbursed. With the charge for the change of status I will bee needing to work some magic to survive till pay day, Sep.25...

I am meeting for lunch tomorrow with one of my friends and her mother. They are both interested in buying a necklace, and her mother insists on paying for lunch as I helped Atsuko around in America, but I feel awkward having they pay for lunch as well as buy jewelry from me.

Both me and my co-worker were going to ask for an advance on our pay check, but his dad (who works a lot in asian countries, currently in Hong Kong) advised against it as it would be seen as very rude and insulting.

I am still getting a gauge on the leaders and those in the office. I also and learning about why the Japanese work so many hours. I think it is because of all the formalities. When I recommend something it takes about 10 min for them to say no. Because they are very polite and talk for a while about entertaining the idea, but then end with, maybe we wont do it that way. It would be much more efficient if they just said no and moved on.

I am working on trying to get my webpage up, hopefully before October, as I am hoping to take place in a huge art show here in tokyo, that is if there are spots still open after sep.25th

Well i am hungery, so time for some tofu and rice.

Stuff

So last night I met up with two of my good friends and we went out to a restaurant and talked and had some food and they were kind enough to pay and I told them that I would get the next one when I get paid. Besides that I spend most of the day sitting in the office doing nothing and then randomly I am asked to work on a document, which takes all of two minuets to do and for some reason they think I am really fast when in reality I type pretty slow. Tomorrow we will pick up the students from the airport. Things are going well, but I am trying to figure out how to sell my jewelry, it seems that unless you are a major name brand they expect it to be cheap and my friends where saying that even my prices if kept the same as in the US are too expensive. They want me to basically give them away. I am not sure how I will solve this problem. The only other problem I have is how to show the students around town and places to go with out spending any money...

So I have made the decision that the posts from now on will have no real time order to them. I will do my best to include a date with each post, but most likely it will be completely random.

First Few Days in Japan

So I have been with out internet for the past three days, so the next few posts will be about those days.

So today was the big travel day and man was it messed up. The first leg was fine, I even got out of San Diego an hour early. At LAX I first had trouble finding the gate, and then I remembered that I left my pillow on the last plane and on my way back to the gate there was some security thing where they had all of us stop moving for about five minuets. I finally retrieved my pillow from the old plane after it took a little to long and then found out that to get to my departure gate I had to leave the terminal, catch a bus to a different terminal and then go back through security. I was a little upset about this but it wasn’t that big of a deal, then when I went to check in, they kept telling me that I would have to gate check my guitar case as the closets are for business class and up. It eventually worked out so I didn’t have to check the guitar case. On my way to the gate, the broken latch on the guitar case tore my shorts (I don’t think I will be able to repair them by hand, granted they were free). I finally board and the flight was over all good.
The pluses of flying ANA were: movies on demand( I watched: Four Weddings and Funeral, Aliens and Monsters, Duplicity, 17 Again( hoping to sleep), and I Love You, Man) I spent the first hour or so trying to get a bunch of necklaces untangled, never succeeded and then just watched movies and played some PSP. The negatives of flying ANA: Sticklers for the rules and the seats are very very very narrow. Upon arriving at Narita, everything was fine. I made it though customs and immigration fine, granted I was a bit tired and hungry, as I did not sleep on the flight. The day started to take a turn for the negative when I went to get my bags.
I packed my clothes in two cardboard boxes, figuring they are light and durable (granted I forgot that the bag people have fun seeing who can shot put the bag the farthest). It took me forever to find someone that could give me a customer service number in case anything was broken (still haven’t checked). With my tattered boxes I continued on my way and met my friend Haruka, who I will be spending 3 days with at her house before I can move in to the dorm. She informed me that Bryan’s (my co-worker) flight was delayed and would not be getting in till 9pm (it was currently 5:45), so she gave me directions and had me purchase a ticket to go meet her father at one of the train stations. THIS is when the day went to crap.
First the train ticket cost way more than I thought it was going too, then upon boarding the train the dolly I was using to transport the cardboard boxes broke, the plastic snapped. Once I slowed down on the train and started thinking, I figured out that I have some packing tape and I could use that like rope to fix it (WRONG). When disembarking from the train the dolly basically went flying out from under the boxes and was in three pieces. Having for seen this happening I quickly moved to a new solution, while Haruka’s dad was standing there thinking what the heck is this foreigner doing. I removed the plastic bags from the boxes and took the two heaviest and taped the ends together (the ends had already been twirled and taped together) so to create a handle. Great idea, except it lasted for about 100 feet before the tape slide off the bag (its packing tape not duct tape). Haruka’s father directs me to a taxi, which we take to his home, I offer to pay (I know in the culture it is rude but I had too) and he shot me down. In the cab there was the awkward talking, where he really doesn’t know English and I really don’t know Japanese (I have forgotten almost all of what I once knew). During the cab though I do find out he has a motorcycle (BMW, also a Honda scooter and an Italian speed bike). He shows me around the house and then we sit and have some water and he asks if I am hungry and what I want. I reply I am ok with anything, so he takes me to a steak house.
On the way he showed me his work, in the basement of the house we are staying in and his main house next door. He has six workers running six CNC machines. The fact that he had six shocked me as at Pelsue we only have one. Haruka’s father produces plastic, acrylic, fiberglass, and bake-light parts (nipples, end caps and so on). At the steak house I have him order mainly because I don’t want to order something too cheap or expensive. He orders us each a steak with corn and rice on the side, as well as beer and a side salad for me. The steak arrives on a piping hot cast iron skillet, but was still medium rare through out most, very good food. I struggled to finish it all as I did not want to be rude and not finish. When we return to the house I met his wife and Haruka’s younger brother, and they gave me a cell phone to use for the next three days while I am staying with them, so I can get a hold of anyone. Now I sit in my room sweating with the AC on, the humidity is killer.

So in short:
Plane: eel on rice, cold soba, vegi’s, free all you can eat soyjoy and other snacks, mushroom and ham with rice, fresh(ish) fruit and other oddities(I passed on the Haugen Daiz ice cream)
Tokyo: Steak medium rare, corn, salad, beer, and rice.



Day 2(22nd):
Went to Meji shrine with Haruka's father and brother. We also had brunch with them. I had Alaskan king crab on pasta with a tomato sauce and a plate of fried taco (octopus) with tomato and jalapeno puree. In the evening Haruka invited some of our friends for a little party, they had pizza and I had some yakisoba that Haruka's mother made. It was fun. Oh, Haruka's father also gave me three duffles to pack my clothes in, he says he no longer uses them, but I still feel guilty for getting them.

Day 3(23rd):

We went to Asakusa and I got a coin purse and then we went to Akiba to look at cell phones. I think I might get a pre paid phone but I am still a little confused by the plans. I also looked for a camera charger and they run about 60 dollars, so I will keep looking for mine although I did not find it when I unpacked today(24th). That evening we all went out to dinner (Haruka, her father, mother and brother, Bryan and I) to a japanese restaurant. It was a lot of fun. We had: Sashimi, Whale, Wagyuu beef, Udon, tempura, beer, and syocho(japanese alcohol). I made the mistake of trying to go toe to toe with her father, but soon realized I was out matched. On the way home, his one request to pay him back for the bags and everything was that he wanted a piggy back ride, as no one in his family could give him one. I was down with it.

Day4 (24th)

Today we moved in to the dorm and learned that our CoE would not be available for at least another week or two. Now just settling in before the professor arrives tonight.






So in short:
Plane: eel on rice, cold soba, vegi’s, free all you can eat soyjoy and other snacks, mushroom and ham with rice, fresh(ish) fruit and other oddities(I passed on the Haugen Daiz ice cream)
Tokyo: Steak medium rare, corn, salad, beer, and rice. King crab pasta, fried octopus with jalapeno puree, Yaki soba. Sashimi (Tuna, Salmon, octopus, and others unknown), Whale, Wagyuu beef, Tempura shrimp and vegi's, Udon, and osake.

So its 6am Cali time, I have about an hour till we leave for the airport where I will fl to LA at 9:25, arrive at 10:30 and then fly to Tokyo at 12:55. I just need to weight my boxes, tape them up, load them, and get some food in me, but I have no idea what to eat right now. I forgot to grab a towel this morning so I used an under shirt to dry myself and now I have to wait for that in the dryer. Well time to get moving.

Lets try this again

So I have tried blogging in the past and well it really didnt work out well, so lets try it again.

I am currently sitting outside in, well not so, sunny San Diego. I leave in two days to go to Japan. It was quite the ordeal to (not) get my paperwork in order. I am hoping to have my website up soon and I will let you know when it is up.

Let see what else is new...
I had a wisdom tooth taken out last Wednesday evening, I am pretty sure it is infected now since I have had a very odd taste in my mouth for the last few days.
I convinced Apple to give me a new laptop battery.
The mesquitos in San Diego are really freaking slow, although big. Unlike their Minnesotan cousins who are quick as hell and larger than a horse.
About 10 necklaces got tangled up in my carry on so I am having a lot of fun untangling them.
I was finally able to get connected to the servers at work.
I feel like an albino here in California.
Robin Williams was right, God would look down on California and go I didnt make those.
And finally I am realizing that I have no idea how to use dreamweaver.