Read on all ye faithful!!

Yes, to all my faithful readers, all three of you girls, here is a new blog post. Sorry for the lack of updates this week. I have been either busy or had nothing worth writing about. Yes, things are starting to slow down for me here on this little island known as Japan. That's okay though. We'll start with Thursday.

Thursday I taught little, little kids. They were so effin' cute. I think probably 7 or 8 years old. We learned parts of the body. I held up flash cards, sang "Heads Shoulders Knees and Toes" a bazillion times, then had them sit in a circle and play a game. Basically, I would call out a part of the body and then they would have to pass a ball around the circle with that body part to the other person's body part while saying the part out loud. Ie, I would say "HEAD" and hold up the flashcard, then they'd pass the ball from head-to-head while saying "HEAD!" It's a good time for the kids, and let's me just stand there not doing much. Here's a kinda crappy picture of that action.


Again, not the best picture.

Anyways, Friday it rained like I've never seen somewhere rain before (Okay, MAYBE in Mustique). But the rain and wind combination was RIDICULOUS. Of course I had to ride my bike and this is where the weekend started to suck. I finished work at Yon-chu and it was still raining. However, Saturday, Bloc Party tickets were going on sale and I had to make sure I knew how to get them. So I rode all the way to the train station (about 25 minutes in hardcore downpour) and worked the machines at the combini (conveniecne store) then came home. Utterly soaked. I stayed in my apartment the rest of the night.

Saturday I woke up early, headed to the combini to get the tickets. Bloc Party sold out in 5 fucking minutes. I was pissed. Even though I got there early, I couldn't get tickets. I still got Mars Volta tickets, which is good, but still. Goddamit.

Manami came to Tsuchiura and we hung out and cleaned my apartment and stuff. I had a cold and am still kind of sick, most likely from the downpour. Of course, the rain brought sunlight, and we went on a walk. We found this shrine.

One pretty cool thing about my city is that it's on Japan's 2nd largest lake. Because of this, it's a very old and fairly historic town. I ride through neighborhoods of traditional-style Japanese houses all the time. You can see old architecture all over the place (as well as newer buildings downtown and stuff). This shrine is an example of that antiquity.

Sunday, we headed in to Tokyo. First, we went to Harajuku. There was a flea market and I met Manami's friend, Ha-chan (nickname, i can't remember her real name...Did I mention Japanese people LOVE nicknames?). She was fucking hilarious. I wish I had a picture of this girl to show you how she was dressed. She had a huge hat on with red-white-and-blue USAs all over it. Anyways, she was selling stuff at the flea market, and Manami and I walked around. I found a Rush shirt but wasn't interested enough to buy it.

Next, we went to Shibuya to get some food. We hit up an all-you-can-eat Indian restaurant I found when I was here this summer. Indian food in Japan is soooo good in Japan. That reminds me, I didn't realize it until Wade mentioned something in an e-mail. Then, I went over my blog and realized, "Wow, I really am oddly obsessed with food." That's okay though. Anyways, then we walked around, shopped a little, then met up again with Ha-chan at The Hub. It's a total gaijin bar, but it's okay, because it's cheap and the music is good. Here's my one picture I took in Shibuya.

I hope you think this is as funny as I did, because I had to deal with some embarrassment of being a man and taking a picture of this so close.

Anyways, yeah, Monday brought not much excitement. I rode my bike to Tsukuba and ate at a tabehoudai yakiniku place that was okay, but kinda gross. Do you all know what tabehoudai yakiniku means? You should if you keep up with this blog!!! Just kidding, but it means "all-you-can-eat thinly sliced meat that you grill yourself" all in the convenience of 2 words.

Today, I worked an epic day. First yon-chu, then straight to part-time work from 5-9:30. For that second job, I'll be getting paid about the equivalent of $100. NICE! And I got more hours. I'm gonna be banking so hard, at least relatively speaking in terms of jobs I've had before....ahem. The yon-chu work today was great though. In the morning, I taught 4 classes, blah blah, ate lunch. Then for the last 2 periods I chilled with the kids in their cooking class. Some of the kids stuff was pretty decent, but I had to be nice and say the "marble cupcake" and "banana lemon pancake" were good, even though they were dry and pretty tasteless. One kid, who I thought was semi-retarded, made a delicious Okonmiyaki. I was impressed.

Okay, that's about it. Next weekend is the hanabi matsuri (fireworks festival) that was supposed to be this weekend but was delayed because of the rain. It's the largest fireworks display in Japan, and it happens to be in little ol' Tsuchiura, so I will try and take some awesome pictures. Hopefully my cold's all gone by tomorrow. That's it. Peace.

-ryan