| Travel Site |
[Sep. 11th, 2007|07:53 pm] |
Hey all. Since livejournal is a bit tedious to add lots of photos to I've made an alternate blog for my trip which can be seen here: Travel Blog.
That's where all the updates have been going. (well there and facebook) Anyway, head that direction for visual and report from the Great Train Escape. Cha cha cha. |
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| The Great Railway Adventure! |
[Jul. 26th, 2007|02:21 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  lazy | ] |
It's official folks! The great journey is at hand in less than 10 days. My time in Japan has been sweet but it is at an end. The next jaunt has me traveling the tran-siberian railway followed by a tour of Europe and finally back to New York. Here's the route:
It will be a very old school trip. No planes or Shinks, only trains and ferries (and the occasional camel). With luck I'll survive it and meet some really weird people going across Siberia. I probably won't be posting here about my experiences, but I intend to set up a travel blog on a different site where I'll be uploading pictures and moaning about my vodka hangover. Be prepared! |
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| Evil |
[Jun. 25th, 2007|12:51 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  amused | ] |
Got it two years running baby! Aren`t you proud Mom?
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| Oops. |
[Jun. 17th, 2007|06:28 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  tired | ] |
Haven't updated this in a while so here's the promised past:
To see the Borneo Adventure in it's near entirety go here: Borneo Holiday
I had to make a flickr account because there were just too many pictures.
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| Hanami! |
[Apr. 9th, 2007|06:12 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | amused | ] |
| [ | music |
| | La bamba! | ] |
I'm so relieved I got to do hanami this year! Last year I was in Thailand, which was great, but I do love this kind of Japanese thing. Plus, this year I got to play host to my Aunt and Uncle as they're visiting Japan for the first time. (well, Marie anyway).
So, here's hanami in Iwakuni, which is gorgeous right now. This day, Marie, Tim, Jeff and I had our bento picnic, admired kintaikyo bridge, ate some strange icecream, took the best iwakuni had to offer for an onsen then played scrabble. It was a very nice day. ^_^
   
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| Happy Cock and Cock Fighting |
[Apr. 5th, 2007|04:23 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  energetic | ] |
| [ | music |
| | One OK Rock | ] |
Last weekend was practically a no-sleeper. Normally that makes me bitchy as hell, but for some reason I had a pretty good time.
Met up with Steph, Tammy and Jessica and checked out Steph's new city pad. (I had to do bloody homestay when I was taking my japanese course, she just rents an apartment...nice!) Had a very cathartic day of walking/browsing and one of the top five meals of my time here in Japan at a tiny restaurant/bar that Steph is friends with. Roast chicken, namahamu salad, and a cassius orange... I haven't felt so satisfied in a long time.
Naturally though, things took their usual crazy turn as everyone beelined for the Happy Cock. Now, I've been here maybe 3 times before this night and each time I swear it's my last. I'm really not a fan of the nomihodai and paying 2000yen to sip cranberry juice while 40-yr old, pony-tailed geezers hit on you is not my idea of fun. That and herding drunk friends around like cattle. *sigh* But, at least this time the 6:30 am return of Steph and Danny was more funny than annoying. A few pics are below, though I omitted the ones where Saranne and Paul were respledent with bananas, condoms, and tea cozies.
PHOTO EVIDENCE: A bit of Thai nomihodai and dancing at the Happy Cock. How embarrassing. (but not as embarrassing as Paul with a kettle on his ass and Saranne with a banana...)
    
Onto Steph's before and after...
  
And then to Nagasaki for K-1!
K-1! I missed sumo when it was in Fukuoka before, but my more pressing dream has been to see K-1 live. Thanks to Tammy and her friend Erin (girlfriend of Nick, below) Anita, Keith, Danny, and myself were close enough see the teeth loosen in the fighter's mouths. It was a grand time cheering on Yuya (another friend and new fighter) as he won his second bout, watch one fighter german suplex the other to near neck-snapping results, and finally Nick defend his title beautifully.
I would love to do K-1 if they had a weight class for me. But, after seeing that thai fighter on tv whip a tiny japanese girl I think they just might! Next after JET? ^_^
First: Nick, the main event and still reigning champ.
    
Misc. fights: Boxing, grappling, kickboxing, muay thai, and german suplexes:
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| Lazy |
[Mar. 29th, 2007|10:00 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | tired | ] |
| [ | music |
| | wamono! | ] |
Frankly lots of things have been going on, down and all around Iwakuni, but I'm too lazy to post about it right now so I'm just going to put up the pics I got and do an itemized list. Easier for all parties involved, i.e. me.
First: Paintings!
Sakai-sensei just sent me these. If you don't recall who that is, he is an art teacher from a school I work at. He's drawn/pasteled me before and these are the fruits of the second sitting. I guess he really liked the blue dress. (but my goodness, what a booty I seem to have in that first one!)
 
Second: Paintball!
Other people have posted the pics that my sister sent around, but I just need to add how fun, and painful, it was. Really good time until I got my finger shot and had one of those shock attacks. Seriously, I think I could lose an arm and be like, meh, but a pinky? That calls for blackouts. Sheesh.
Third: Jenn and Sam and the great Kyoto adventure part. 2
Obviously there are mountains of pics and stuff that happened but that's for another time. (sorry Jenn!)
Fourth:
This video! Brilliant! So Japan! So...on crack...
Da da! |
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| Spring has come! |
[Feb. 25th, 2007|06:03 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  geeky | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Fall Out Boy | ] |
Things tend to sashay between ugh and sunny delight in Japan quite easily. Unlike the last post though, this one reflects one of those more bearable weeks, bordering on quite fun even.
Lately I have: (this is mostly for posterity and my own dwindling memory)
Played soccer in Shimane and then had guests over for Mexican. (some of which disappeared after going bar-hopping...) O_o
Participated in several games of 'Mafia' with fellow drunken JETs over nabe.
-seriously, my reputation for evil is VERY exaggerated. Not only was I the first person accused, then killed during that game but nobody would believe me afterward that I was also the 'policeman' at the time! Sheesh.
I, once again, was a contender in my base school's monthly bowling tournament. I topped out at 82 pts. My highest score ever.... (why must it be bowling?! why?!!!!!!!!!!!!)
Made the trek to Tokuyama to play poker and was fleeced of nearly all my money by card sharks. I did not go out first however! ....I went out third. (but not before knocking Daniel out! YES!)
Woke up in Ashley's apartment to a full can of beer, which I tentatively sipped, much like one who expects to be poisoned. (as apparently I had opened it the night before and completely forgotten it.) (don't look at me like that! I dumped the rest down the sink!)
Anyway, all that jazz isn't even the great kicker. Truth is, I got the nenkyu (vacation time) I requested. You know what that means?
Orangutans baby! Little orange hairy hobbits of sweet-temper! And head-hunters. Can't forget about them. ^_^
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| Little things |
[Feb. 9th, 2007|10:53 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  contemplative | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Sam's Town | ] |
I was going to post a kind of reflective, depressing sort of entry, because I've been having a pretty bad week and no one to talk to, but then I got something at school today which will be much easier on the senses. It made my day clear a bit anyhow.
Typed on a printout from 3-3's homeroom teacher, I got a few snippets from entries in their diaries. They read as follows:
*Today ALT came to our class. It was enjoyable.
*Jessica taught us English today. I enjoyed it. She painted on my friend's faces. I was anxious whether she painted on me or not. But I was safe!
*Today Jessica came to my class. Because I really hate to be painted, I was excited. Finally I could escape. Bravo! I love English class.
*Jessica painted on my face! I felt shy, but it was a very happy English time.
Thank you Mr. Yoshida. You've probably saved my motivation for this job. And sentenced the little children to more 'paintings'...bwahahahaha.... |
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| Oh the holidays... |
[Jan. 13th, 2007|02:47 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  groggy | ] |
On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
...a beer in a bow, under the tree
On the second day of Christmas I gave to my Mom...
...two mutts, 1 narcoleptic, the other with a death wish
On the third day of Christmas I went to the Bubble Lounge with some friends...
...Angela! Paul! Jo! Elissa!
On the fourth day of Christmas I bought and devoured four VERY trashy modern wizard books...
...(soon to be airing in a new TV series on the SciFi channel. *snort*)
On the fifth day of Christmas I didn't bother to dress, shower, or move from the couch as I played Suikoden 5!
...and I'm still playing now...
On the sixth day of Christmas we went out to Nobu and then paid for it out of our asses...all $602 of it...*sob* (Angela plays banker with the bill)
On the seventh day of Christmas I finished...PAYING OFF ALL MY LOANS!!! And, now that I'm out of debt, I'm broke. O_o
On the eighth day of Christmas I celebrated New Years (technically not, but humor me with this cheesy Christmas song gimic)...and got locked outside for a long time in the rain, while Lauren attacked the fridge with her head (fridge won), and forgot to make any resolutions, as usual.
On the ninth day of Christmas my Mom drove me back and forth between New York, Connecticut and the package store about 30 times in the space of a 3 week holiday. Poor thing!
On the tenth day of Christmas I crashed an old high school enemy's wedding and ate all the salmon dip. (Congratulations Mariessa! I still don't forgive you the transgression of eating the whip cream off my jello back in 96' when such offenses were personal!)
On the eleventh day of Christmas I saw a friend the day before she left for an internship in the Hague. Scary how we end up. Who would have thought all my old friends would become lawyers while I'm still playing videogames in the land of anime? (to be fair probably everyone thought this is how it would end up. *shrug*)
On the twelfth day of Christmas...I never did make that train from the previous post. In fact I completely missed my connecting flight from Narita to Fukuoka because of a 3 hour delay in leaving from New York. I did have a lovely time at the nice hotel with free breakfast and dinner that they put us up in though. ^_^ (gomen Katayama-san! Watashi no se ja nai!)
All in all it wasn't exactly a refreshing/relaxing vacation, but it was a relief to go home and get things done that had to be. Thanks to Marie and Tim for putting me up, graci to mi hermana who never makes me feel guilty about doing nothing (^_-) and until next time to Angela, Lauren, Portia, Jo, Derek, Erin, Mariessa and everyone stateside. Happy New Year. |
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| Bad odds |
[Jan. 8th, 2007|12:58 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | New York | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  anxious | ] |
Today is my last day in America. Specifically it's my last day among bookstores, coffee shops, ethnic food, and people of the extreme variety. While all this makes me sigh wistfully none of it seems very real against the vibrating background of, Oh shit...
Oh shit. While not part of my declared regiment of routine swearing while here it's what I've been saying for the past hour since I re-read my plane schedule. It's not really worthy of a heartfelt FUCK but I'm bit by bit tearing off the little white nubs of my nails.
The problem: Arrival, Fukuoka 20:10
Shinks available? 1
When? 21:46
At first glance this seems doable. I'll even admit that I'm cautiously optimistic that I may somehow land on time, get my baggage, clear immigration, catch the local to Hakata, then breeze aboard the train in question, but...who am I kidding? It's going to take a greased public works system to deliver me to Iwakuni before the 10th (a work day...hahahaha....ha). Chances are I will be forking out to sleep badly at a business hotel, taking a 6am train (this is the earliest?!), then arriving 10 minutes in my town before school starts, all to blow into my base school looking like death and hiiiiiiiiiiiigh on coffee. And not in a happy way.
The only good point of all this is that I've already resigned myself to the worst and so won't snap and inadvertently hurt the little children in my care. Oh dear little children....
Wish me luck! Good weather! An upgrade! No suicides in front of the train I want!
I think I've already cracked to be honest. O_o |
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| Landed and landlocked |
[Dec. 21st, 2006|02:28 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | in my head | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  discontent | ] |
Common sense tells us that when on vacation you should distance yourself from the things that cause them the most stress. Things like cell phones, internet, tv (mostly undisguised disgust rather than stress there), technology in general. Common sense would lead you to believe that thinking less about the place you're escaping, drinking less caffeine and getting outside will improve the mental landscape. It should. It probably does. But can you listen?
I'm sitting in front of a gafted laptop, cold coffee to my left and 3 hours of sleep under my belt so obviously I'm not taking heed.
I've been here for a few days now and I'm having the hardest time accepting oblivion. I feel disturbed and cut off, groundless with nothing familiar to lock onto. I remember the things that gave me peace before and I can't seem to recreate them despite having all the same tools as before.
Solution therefore?
1) Haircut. If I want to exorcise Japan I need to start with the mullet.
2) Swearing. At least once every hour I shall let loose with a FUCK! Cunt. and/or youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu bastard! It's just so different to say these things in a place where people can understand, appreciate, and get really offended by them. ^_^
3) Book orgy. (Not really as exciting as it sounds, but...) Buying oodles of trashy novels for a tenth of what it costs in Japan and then wantonly tearing through them in an ever growing pile of shameless catchpenny, upon which I shall lay, is surely sordid on some level?
4) Denny's or some other diner-esque breakfast place. Once a week if my arteries can take it, I shall eat french toast, bacon, and pancakes with chocolate chip eyes and whip cream smiles.
5) Pet Stores. I've never managed to actually to work up the courage to ask but I MUST, just once, march into a pet store under the pretense of buying something and demand to be allowed to play in the pen with something. ANYTHING. I'm so desperate for animal love that I'd hug a chinchilla.
Others...? All you vacationing people advise me! |
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| Leave a message at the...BEEP! |
[Dec. 14th, 2006|08:46 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | anxious | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Utada Hikaru | ] |
The 15th is upon me! I am to New York where I will recover English and alleviate my Vietnamese food deprivation. I return come January. Until then, leave a message at the beep at enjoy some likeart.
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| The I to the C to the O |
[Dec. 11th, 2006|10:01 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | energetic | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Lonely at the Top, The Ordinary Boys | ] |
Winter's come again and somewhere between getting radiation burns from my space heater and sniffing markers that I steal from school, I've been playing (er, re-playing) Ico. Ico was was thee first game I got for the PS2. It's fairly original in terms of horned boys, a huge puzzle castle to solve, smoke ghouls and stunning graphics (for its time anyway). It's just the thing for the cold, even when your only ally in the game is a princess who does nothing but come when you call. Like a dog might... Except a dog would be more useful. Penny Arcade explains: HERE. I'm lapping it up nonetheless.
And then there's Shadow of the Colossus. Lent to me by Brett (who surely knows he's further fucked my sleep pattern by doing this) and created by those clever people who did Ico, it's another problem solving RPG? to make my toes curl in delight. This time around I have a horse (far more useful ((and intelligent)) than the princess) and I do nothing but ride around looking for giant deities to climb all over and stick with my sword. While I do love zombies and characters that speak English, I'm having a lot of fun stabbing things in the foot then running away. It's cathartic in it's own way. (and amusing) See HERE.
I've also been shopping for Christmas presents. Fear you not friends from home, I spared no expense at Daiso. Everyone will get one of these... and one of these... |
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| We are the champions...of 2nd place! |
[Dec. 11th, 2006|09:58 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  satisfied | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Starry Eyed Surprise | ] |
Oh Awaji, how far, how expensive, and how ultimately rewarding in so many ways.
Awajishima, the fabled soccer tourney that takes place twice a year between competing factions of punks on a lark. (i.e. JETs, for family members who don't speak the lingo) It's a full weekend of pulled groin muscles, inter-ken exchange and beer. This year, or rather this latter half of the year cup, was moved from previous year's October and November, to December... I'd like to say that the weather was pleasant and mild as an island stadium should be, but it wasn't. By any stretch of imagination. (I'll get into that in a sec)
Yamaguchi is a tiny ken. To find 6 girls that play soccer, or hell, can even make it to the 4th floor without the aid of an elevator, is pretty hard. It was especially discouraging because we lost Crystal, Megan, and several of our emergency ration supporters. We did manage to scrounge 6 players, then promptly lost one to kidney stones. (that's what you get for drinking the water in my former town of Ube) The 5 remaining were Claire, Anita, Steph, Jessica Eridon (a new 1st year) (thank god at least one came out) and myself. We were prepared to give up our usual top 3 finish but the magic was still there.
Through hail, sleet, icy wind and an injured keeper we still clawed our way to a repeat of 2nd place in all of Western Japan. We ran a lot, drank a bit, and borrowed lustily from other teams both days to fill our gaps. We took only the best of ringers and wink-nudged our way back in. ^_-
HUZZAH for Yamaguchi! HURRAY for Shima-guchi! And BOOYAH for the case of Asahi we got instead of that shit blue happshou!
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| Isogashi |
[Nov. 26th, 2006|02:52 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | Stomachs full... | ] |
| [ | music |
| | My Stupid Mouth | ] |
The last four days have been more busy than most of my JET social scene for 2006.
On Thursday I went hiking in Chomonkyo with Marko, Brett, Ken, Louise, Sally, and Emily. We tromped our way damply through gorges and treated ourselves to an onsen afterward. I recommend it to anyone suffering from on-coming winter blues. And bring Ken along. He's fun to abuse.
On Fri Tammy, Jeff, a very large man named Josh, and a diminutive Guatemalan named Anna went karaokeing, drinking and 'clubbing' through Iwakuni till 4am. At the end of it we ended up at a ramen stand watching Anna scream obscenities at Josh while trying to twist his nipples. The American military at it's finest.
Saturday saw yet more drinking in Tokuyama (though in reality I had 1 and 1/2 drinks only) and Marko showing his true colors as a chicken on a stick conservationist. Such an Oxford man. I also modeled for an art teacher (Osamu Sakai) from one of my schools for a few hours. He did several sketches then did a pastel canvas. I got to keep this one as a souvenir.
I look like a little boy...awwww
Today (Sunday as it were) is being spent indoors amusing myself on YouTube. I do so love Garth Marenghi's Darkplace. *snicker* You'll see what I mean if you click below... ^_^
Garth Marenghi's Darkplace
I've also fallen prey to the song association game where you think everything in your recent life resembles the lyrics of a song. I'm indulging in it today because it's rainy outside and the house plant that I used to tell my problems to expired.
John Mayer's "Stupid Mouth" says it all today. |
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| Odds and Ends |
[Nov. 20th, 2006|11:03 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  sleepy | ] |
| [ | music |
| | La Camisa | ] |
I'm not sure why but I'm avoiding sleep even though the coffee mug to the foreground keeps blurring into triplets. It must be that journalistic need in me to post about the significant occurrences occurring here in the Guch. Or maybe I'm just masochistic. (and stupid)
At any rate I'd like to share with you all a textbook day of teaching English, quite literally meant as I was allotted a 10 minute window to play a game and then progressed without really knowing what was up to pg. 67 of New Horizon...
My JTE of the day, let's call him Manukemono Sensei, views my presence as one of wilted relief. If I am there he is free to rest his chin on the front desk of the room while I make an ape out of myself doing my game and trying to figure out exactly what else it is we're supposed to be doing. As I'm such a minor player in the Japanese world of teaching I get little more than a page number and encouraging eyebrow wags when my activity ends. Kindly directed with a grunted "page 67" I'm left to fend for myself in front of 32 sannenseis who look too abused by what I'm sure have been previous thrilling experiences with the text to put up much of a fight as I begin to lead them in a chorus of "Hello. I'm Mike."
I can hardly take it when one-on-one practicing with me as "Mike" and a pear-shaped boy as "Judy" leads to fits of explosive inner laughter as "Judy" sounds incredibly like Mike Tyson on quaaludes. Surviving role playing in these classes is always hardest for me. I'm just not a serious person. I'm hardly teacher material as I'm far less mature than these kids. But, they sense it, and I can't really keep it in as tears are leaking down my face (which is purposefully hidden behind my copy of the book). We just end up doing weird voices and ad-libbing in my classes. A teacher of English? Not in my future I'm afraid.
And,
As promised, more pirated photos from various blogs of the Kokura Charity Event---->Flyer(.pdf file yo)
(*see Daniel, Laura, and Becky for more)
    
    
And the strip show... I got to do the pants!
    
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