Close to the end.....

So here I am, updating this thing exactly one month later. Sorry for the big gap but I've been trying to live it up while I'm still here. I have 4 days left of work, and a mere 8 days left in Japan. Between now and leaving Japan, however, I'm going to Korea for 4 days and 3 nights. I'm pretty excited about that. Expect some internationalization with lots of pictures of spicy, diarrhea-inducing Korean food! Alright so what follows is a fairly scatter-brained assortment of pictures to indulge both myself and you, my beautiful, faithful, ego-inflating reader.

Going back a good 3 and a half weeks ago, Manami and I went to see Blue Man Group at Invoice Theater in Roppongi. They were awesome, and though a lot of the stuff was the same as the Chicago show, they did at least one act and several jokes that were for Japan audiences only, so that was kinda cool. Also, the theater was built specifically for the Blue Men and all the seats were great. Ours, however, were really great, as we were only 2 rows behind the "Poncho" seats and we didn't have to pay the premium "Poncho" price. Boo-yah.

So here we are with the Blue Man band. They were good. And look at that- Japanese!! The Blue Men, however, were not japanese. Manami's rockin' out.


I coordinated my shoes with the band's outfits on purpose.

The following weekend we had a nabe party at Manami's friend Clayton's house. Nabe is basically a big clay pot that everyone sits around and from which everyone eats meat and vegetables. It was fun, and I got to play Wii Fit for the first time, which is amazing, by the way.
Manami and Miki-


Clayton, myself, and Erisa


This here is an "unagi pie."


Do you know what unagi is? Maybe from the sushi restaurant? Well if not, I'll tell your ass. It's eel. Somehow, they made eel into a sweet, flaky pastry kinda thing. It was actually pretty good and check out that sweet Engrish motto! "A snack for nights."

Now, some people ask me "What's the strangest food you've ever eaten in Japan?" But really, I think Japan has a bad rap, because besides things like fried chicken cartilage or anything you can scrounge from the sea, Japanese people don't really eat THAT weird of stuff. Granted I just finished ranting about an unagi pie, I still think it's more countries like China and some of the SE Asian countries that eat the weird stuff. However, while grocery shopping for the nabe party, I saw this and was pretty disgusted.

Yeah, that's a whole pig's head. He look so peaceful, doesn't he? Um...moving on.

My third grade Junior High School students graduated last week. Unfortunately, I only got to catch the beginning, very boring part, because I had classes at elementary school to teach. Boo to that. Last year I got some great pictures with my graduating kids, but this year nothing. Here's a shot from the gym. Boring picture, sorry.

If you're curious, the stained glass at the top, which was made by the under-classmen, says "Mirai e habatake" ("ke" not pictured), which means "Fly to the future."

After that I went to the HUB and got drunk. Here's a group picture. Not sure if Manami likes this one due to my tongue's proximity to charlotte, but it's cool, I was drunk. This picture contains people representing Japan, China, Canada, France, Australia, and Ireland. How cool is that? I'm the only American.


Same seat, different week, different clothes, some different people. And Manami's cool with this one, cuz she's in it.


So this was basically my "going away" celebration, and man were people happy! Just kidding. Well I mean everyone was happy, but not specifically because I was leaving. And my friends were kind enough to throw together a pool of money and buy me what amounted to a pool of shots. Actually there were 4 (in order of my drinking them)- Jager, Sambuca (ew), Whisky, and Tequila. Here I am, Dave doesn't know what to think.


I drank them one-after-the-other. Aren't I SO COOL? Let me tell you, they didn't go down easy. And here's proof.


Even though it was the second shot I took, I couldn't get the sambuca taste out of my mouth for the life of me. Thanks to Manami for being the sweetheart that she is and preparing water for me right after I took the shots.

Finally, what could be my last big purchase in Japan (at least for now). New Bapes. BOO-YAH!


PIMP!! Alright, that's it. The next one will probably be after Korea. See you soon family, friends, and Leo!