Oh my god, I live in Japan

Now that I live in Long Beach, California...

2008-11-15T17:05:00.011+09:00

Long time! Here's a couple pictures to sum up the last 2.5 months in Southern California.

Hope you enjoyed the pics from my phone.

My new toy...

2008-06-09T21:48:00.003+09:00

Just a quick update. I'm back in Japan working as an assistant for the same summer abroad program I did two years ago. So once again I am getting the great opportunity of meeting 40+ wide-eyed Japan-loving foreigners. They're very cool but it's a bit different now that I'm older, wiser, and not still in university. Doesn't mean I can't blow way too much money on limited edition toys as seen above.

Pretty tired right now but i'll try and update again soon.

SE Asia

2008-04-25T19:33:00.007+09:00

*Okay, so I've decided to post this blog because a) i've finished my trip in SE Asia and b) I got a job for the summer in Tokyo, so I won't be able to upload pictures until at least the end of July. For that reason, I give you my SE Asia blog sans pictures. I'll try and get them on here to fill in all the blanks as soon as I get home. Hope you like the post as much as I enjoyed living it.*

Hopped on a plane to Tokyo and sat there for 12 hours. Luckily, they've upgraded the little TV screens and now everyone (not just business class) can choose what they want to watch and when. You can also play a bunch of games. I also had the entire row except for the seat farthest from me. This all made for a comfortable flight that was one of the easier of the now 14 times I've done the flight. But unlike the previous times, I didn't go through customs and instead boarded a 7 hour flight to Singapore on JAL. JAL is nice. GREAT food, way nicer japanese girl flight attendants, and clean, comfortable everything. Ended up getting to my hostel at about 2 in the morning.

When I got into my room with a total of 6 beds, there was only one other guy in there, a French bloke named Nicolas. We immediately became friends and I spent the rest of my pre-tour time in Singapore hanging out with the mofo.

My whole time in Singapore was absolutely amazing. I love that country/island/city quite a bit and could imagine living there for sure. Absolutely wonderful people, all of whom can speak English with a funny Indian/Chinese accent, cheap and delicious food at the hawker stands like Newton Circus, outstanding architecture, and of course tons of shopping. It's also spotless, as littering can land you a $500 fine. Another nice thing is that almost the entire place is walkable, so I really felt like I got the complete picture of what Singapore is about. That's a nice feeling to have when traveling, I think.

My first day, we went around Orchard Road, the esteemed shopping mecca of Singapore. I scoped out the store that sold Original Fake. They had all the good stuff that sold out too fast in Japan, but it was too expensive, so I passed on that grass. We then walked around the river area taking in the sights and having a ridiculously expensive Singapore Sling at the Raffles Long Bar where the drink was invented. At least there were free peanuts with shells you could throw on the ground, a la old school Lone Star. Honestly, I'm starting this blog a little too late (8 days into my trip) to recount every last detail so let's skip to my first night.

Nicolas and I went bar-hopping to several places around Singapore, which isn't cheap given that a beer costs at least $10-12, but it definitely is fun. After a couple drinks and a hookah bar, we went to Ministry of Sound, a club that I think is from London but expanded around the world. The main floor was playing hip-hop, which wasn't that cool, but upstairs...oh man. There was a disco room complete with saturday night fever dance floor, countless disco balls, and a DJ taking requests. He even played "Last Train To London" by ELO per my request. I also somehow got in with a guy who had a club security guard. He liked me and wanted to get me drunk, but it wasn't gay, don't worry. After giving me his card, I learned he was an oil broker and probably totally loaded. Needless to say, this night was great, drunk, and at least half-memorable.

It's too bad I didn't start this earlier, because I don't really remember what we did during the second day. I know we went to the world's largest fountain, which wasn't nearly as cool as it sounds. Really it was the fountain run-off area that was large. We walked around Arab Village and Little India and got food and stuff. Singapore is great because it's like your at DisneyLand. There's a happening area around a bay, Chinatown, and the aforementioned two areas. It's great because you really feel like you entered India or Arabia or whatever, because all of a sudden everything is totally different, from the people to the restaurnts. But a modern hyper-city is always just a few kilometers away.

Anyways, we got a cheap Chinese foot massage at night which felt amazing, just like Bourdain did when he went to Singapore. The people next to us happened to be foreign too, so we made friends and got a few drinks together.

The next day my buddy left, I shopped a little more, then met my tour group. Right now it's 7 other people. 2 sets of 2 sisters, one pair are cool and one never hang out and are weird, one couple including the guy who is the main character in Soulwax's "E Talking Video" and super cool, and one single girl who's nice but quiet. I guess in bangkok the weirdos leave, 4 guys and 1 girl join, so that'll be exciting. So our first night together we got dinner and went to Zouk, the other club "institution" in singapore. A fashion show, dancing, and binge drinking followed.

The next morning we left for Malaysia. The first town was Malacca. It's a nice city, I guess you could say quaint, that was conquered by Portuguese who left a lot of footprints behind. An old church, boats, buildings, etc. It's interesting at first, but I found myself heading to the malls the second day out of boredom. I saw a movie called Escape from Hueng Shi. It was good, if not a little marred by cheesy dialogue and poor acting. But a fascinating true story. I then indulged in fucking KENNY ROGERS ROASTERS. Yes, my favorite childhood/teenage restaurant is still alive and kicking hard in Malaysia. Yum. Oh yeah, I also ate birds nest.

Yeah, so I didn't like Malacca all that much because it was too small and kinda boring. But the next stop was KL baby, Kuala Lumpur. I had read that KL (and Malaysia) was a big mix of ethnicities, but never realized how truly mixed it is. LOTS of head-wrapped Muslims everywhere, Indians, Chinese, and others all together speaking each others languages and english. I swear EVERYONE is bilingual. It's cool.

Highlights from KL: Going to a fish spa. Basically you sit on a bench and put your feet in a pond. Then hundreds of these black little "doctor fish" swarm to your feet and start eating the dead skin off your feet. It was a little crazy, totally tickled, and made my feet feel so awesome afterwards. They're still so smooth and beautiful right now.
The Petronas towers at night. Unbelievably beautiful, epic, awe-inspiring buildings. Probably the coolest buildings I've ever seen really. Going up in the bridge was cool too, but you're only half-way up so that kinda blows.
Planet Hollywood and some other club on the 2nd night. More drinking, bonding with the group, and various debauchery. Only one of the sisters, Naomi, and myself went to the other club and immediately met some KL-ites who had the biggest bottle of Johnny Walker I've ever seen. Upon filling my glass with straight whisky they said "Welcome to Malaysia," and welcome I was. Another guy was hitting on Naomi hard, and offered her a 24 karat gold bracelet he was wearing. Nice people in KL.

To be honest though, KL is not as nice of a city as I was expecting. Some say it just retains it's old charm, but I'd say it's still just a bit run down and they need to put in a lot more money and effort into KL if the Malaysian government hopes it to be the capitol city of a country aiming to be a major world power by 2020.

Then we left for the Cameron Highlands, another very small area but beautiful and much cooler in temperature. This was a welcome relief. I'm wearing jeans right now and NOT sweating my balls away. We got dinner last night at a place that serves "Steamboat," which is almost the exact same idea as shabu shabu, but with thom yum soup. Included in the feast last night was JELLY FISH. Interesting texture, but not much taste. We then went to a little bar where you can sit around a campfire. There was a local named Gil there who was awesome. We chatted about quite a bit because his wife is Japanese and he's been there a bunch. He also entertained with some good jokes and guitar playing.

Today was ridiculously action-packed. Woke up at 8 and headed on a hiking trip in the forest. One word: muddy. Glad I bought a cheap pair of Converse All-star rip-offs beforehand. Then we went to a tea plantation and drank really good tea, ate scones and some indian food (random). Then we were off to an insect farm where I met The Scorpions. I was asking for "Winds of Change," but I guess they weren't taking requests. Then we went to a bee farm which was lame, then a strawberry farm where I had a delicious strawberry milkshake, then an aboriginal "village" consisting of a couple small huts on the side of the road. I blew a blowdart and saw an amazing waterfall.

5/01/08- Okay so after the Highlands, we went to Penang for two days. It's an island that is part of Malaysia. We took a boat over to the quaint little city that I actually enjoyed quite a lot. After landing, we took a walking tour and saw most of the historic sites in the city. It was cool seeing the temples and stuff, but got a little tedious. That night, chloe, naome, tour leader Suze and I went out drinking. The Soho bar was fun. We also walked down to the clubbing area but didn't go in to any because it was too expensive. Then walking around we met an Indian guy who said he'd take us to a great bar. He took us to Soho. This time, though we went upstairs. Decent night, nothing crazy. I did have an amazing hamburger at about 2:30 in the morning, egg and all.

Next day in Penang I saw some temples, a massive reclining buddha, and went to the "world's largest toy museum." I was hoping for PEZ, but they didn't have any. They did have a whole effin' lot of cool toys though. At night, we went to a karaoke bar full of people singing sappy songs in Chinese. Pretty lame, though when the mic came to me, I blew everyone away and all my group was going crazy about it. Yeah I said it, not gonna be modest when it comes to my karaoke skills. I let the girls pick what they wanted me to sing. They chose "Let It Be," and I couldn't believe how absolutely unfamiliar I was/am with that song.

Then we hopped in a bus and crossed the border into Thailand. We were supposed to take a train, but for some magical reason, it was cancelled. So we had about an 8 hour road trip to Surat Thani, a small city where people stay just to get to the boats to the small islands the next day. Nothing too exciting, but good bonding time with the group. One funny story though. I headed out to grab a beer to have at the hotel. Probably about an 8 minute walk. In that 8 minutes, I walked past a "massage parlor" where a woman yelled "Good evening! Want some pussaaay??" Then I saw two stray dogs shitting on the sidewalk, and a massive rat run right in front of me. I thought "Welcome to Thailand" indeed.

And I made up a motto. Your land, my land, Thailand. Catchy as fuck right?

Yesterday, we got to Koh Samui at about 11:30 and to the hotel at about 12:30. This island is gorgeous. It's totally touristy and there's lots of fast food restaurants and cheesy souvenir shops, but it doesn't matter. The beaches are great, and what's wrong with having a brazillian barbeque dinner on a Thai island? Nothing if you ask me.

So that day we all grabbed lunch together. I had an amazing yellow curry with spring rolls and a banana flambe with ice cream. Set lunch- $8. Nice. We then spent the whole day on the beach. The water was warm and amazing. Next, we wanted to decide what to do the next day, so we all grabbed drinks at a little outdoor bar for happy hour. I started a trend by ordering a Long Island Iced Tea, (which I prefer to order as "strong island iced tea") as everyone else followed suit. We got two of them, went home to shower, went back to the bar and had another strong island, then hit the effing town. Went to a random bar in the whore-bar area and played pool with "Jennifer," a stunning man-lady of a person. Then we got into a taxi and went to the clubbing area and I shared a bucket of long island iced tea, yes a bucket, with Naomi. Drunker...drunker. Then we went to a club kinda place and danced our little faces off. I requested some Daft Punk and they played the "Around The World/Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" mix. It was the ultimate jam. Then Chloe threw up everywhere and we had to carry her home.

We stayed out till at least 3 and were all pretty wasted. Then, feeling like 10 minuets later, I hear knocks on my door. Constant, mind-numbing knocks. I realize it's time to wake up and go island hopping and snorkeling- the plan we made around drinks last night. It's 7 in the morning and I still feel totally wasted, but I had to do it, right? So we had a small breakfast (read- toast and jam) and then hopped on a speed boat for an hour or so, to Koh Tao. Did some snorkeling but then I thought I was gonna puke right into my snorkle, so I got out. Got on the boat again, had a delicious lunch that included fried chicken and thai delights like sauteed vegees and a lemon grass chicken soup. I was feeling better, and the 2nd island we went to was just absolutely breath-taking. The snorkeling was much better here. Saw a lot of cool fish and shit. Stubbed the hell outta my toe on coral though, the bastard.

Had brazillian dinner with CJ and Sophie. Good meal, marked the first time I'd tried shark, but not as good as Barbacoa in Tokyo. Yum. It was cheap though, like $30. Then we hit a beach party, complete with a guy dancing with fire and pretty decent funky house music. I hate to admit it, but i'm totally into that Rihanna song "Please don't stop the music." So we drank some more, sat on these cool tables that were like beach chairs that formed a big square with nice pillows and a table in the middle. Comfy stuff. End of the night, CJ, Naomi and I went to a karaoke joint near the hotel. I tried to do "final countdown" by europe, but they put in the wrong song. Some German song called "Rose Rose I Love You" that CJ, having no clue what it was, tried to sing. Hilarious, I tells ya. Then we went to bed.

05/07/08- Coming from Phnom Penh, Cambodia
So the last day in Koh Samui, Chloe, Naomi and I went to check out the waterfall and the "grandmother and grandfather" rocks. Why the people chose this name for these two rocks, I dont know. Let me explain. These two rocks look identical to a massively hard cock and a vagina (which i've discovered some british people call a "foof"...love that). Couldn't they name the rocks something like "The casual acquainances" or "Friends with benefits?" Anyways, pictures.

We then went on a ridiculously long night-time train ride to Bangkok. The train car had these crappy little bunk bed things that lined the walls. I stayed up late enough the night before or something, though, cuz I actually slept really well. Even with the 5 AM vendors coming into the train yelling at every stop.

Arrived at the hotel in the afternoon, got some lunch with the group and then went to some temples, including the royal palace and the world's largest reclining buddha. Pics.

Took a boat ride, went shopping for electronics, hit the night market and then headed to SUPER PUSSY!!!

The following may be a little vulgar, but would you want a paragraph about my night in Bangkok any other way? So we all headed to Patpong, the shady red-light, sex-pat district of Bangkok as a happy little tour group. We found a bar called Super Pussy, thanks to a guy on the street. He took us in and there we were in a bar with 7 pretty nasty, overweight, bored Thai chicks not really dancing on stage, but more like bobbing back and forth on each leg. But every couple of minutes one girl would come in front of the rest, wearing a bikini top, but gracefully letting her vagina hang in the air. Nice look. Then came the tricks. First, a girl smoked a cigarette with her VaJayJay. Next, a girl reclined on her back and shot darts at balloons on the ceiling with an accuracy rate of at least 75%. Then, a girl pulled a string of flowers at least 20 feet long from her foof.

The last trick gets its own paragraph. There's two coke bottles on stage, one has water in it and one is empty. The girl grabs the bottle, leans back, and "drinks" the water with her well-trained you-know-what. She dances a little bit and then squats over the empty coke bottle, only to excrete COLA! Yeah, you though Jesus turning water into wine was cool? Try turning water into cola using only your vagina!

Anyways, the next day in Bangkok was hot, so I went to some shopping malls and ate good Thai food. I also indulged in a kick-ass thai oil massage. Let me lay any rumor to rest right now. There was no happy ending. I swear to god. It did feel great, though. And please don't worry, there are still plenty of opportunites for happy endings in Vietnam, I hear.

That night we went drinking, nothing to exciting, until I get back to my room at 4 AM. Not exciting, but gross. This was the first day I met the 4 new guys in our gruops, and they turned out to be 4 big Australian dudes who are all best bros from way back, wear only tank tops and cargo shorts, have big tattoos, love hardcore music, drugs, and nasty girls. Well I walk in and one of the dudes is in my bed. He's like "Sorry man, didn't know you were coming back tonight and those beds are kinda messy" pointing to the other 2 beds in the room. Well it turns out there was a massive 4 by 4 orgy and I look aruond and there's about 9 used condoms on the floor, broken glass, towels all over the place, and what appears to be shit stains on the bed (this was later confirmed by one of the dudes). Fucking nasty. Luckily, I only had to sleep there for one hour as we were leaving early for Cambodia.

Siem Reap, Cambodia
Let me just say right now, that I am absolutely loving every second of my time here in Cambodia. Some of the others in the group have complained that it smells or is dirty or they beg too much, but I am totally charmed by the whole place. Despite being poor and just years out of a horribly blood-thirsty dictatorship, the people are so welcoming, friendly, and sweet. Honestly, Cambodians might be the nicest people I've encountered ever.

Angkor Wat was stunning. We had a guided tour and the guide was a really nice guy. He seemed to take a liking to me, as he'd keep walking with me and talking without the rest of the group. Near the end of the tour, we had a nice talk about Cambodian politicians, the cambodian outlook on Americans, and about Khmer Rouge. It was fascinating, and sad. He told me his father and lots of his family were killed by the Rouge and that he had to hide deep in the country side, away from everything he knew, so that the regime wouldn't find him. Thank god this country has something like Angkor Wat to attract tourists and bring some kind of money to these people who deserve it far more than most. Hopefully something good comes out of the tourist boom. I should also add that the kids trying to sell you stuff around the temples are great. Totally clever, good English ability, adorable, I actually had some pretty good conversations with them. Good times.

And then came my meaningless second day in Siem Reap. Why? Because for lunch I had a "happy pizza" as can be found on one of the main strips in SR. These pizzas, as you can imagine, are spiced with "special herbs," and after eating 3 slices, I was feeling "happy" for around 8 hours. And by happy, I mean I felt like such a brain-dead burnout retard, that I had to tell my friends that I was going home to take a nap. Man, it was crazy though. Then we had dinner at the Red Piano. Pics. Yum.

And finally, we arrived today in Phnom Penh, a much bigger city than SR. Still, the people are just as nice. Walked around the river front area, and had a nice Khmer dinner. Pics. Took it easy tonight, and that's why I could update this blog. Tomorrow, however, we are going to the killing fields. Should be a sobering day, but I'm looking forward to it thoroughly. Over and out.

05/16/08- Coming from Hoi An, Vietnam.
Yeah the killing fields were absolutely crazy, as there were still bones around your feet and the mass grave holes were left untouched. There was also a stupah (?) filled with the anonymous bones and skulls from said graves. Pretty intense. The high school that was turned into a prison of torture was pretty crazy too. There were still blood stains in certain areas and the beds on which the last 14 people died were left as is. There was even a picture of the corpse found on the beds. Pretty fucked up, but definitely worth learning about.

What better way to wash down the sorrows of Cambodia's unfortunate history than with alcohol? That night we hit a club called Heart of Darkness and had probably the strongest strong island iced teas the whole trip. Did I mention that i've gotten everyone in the group ordering long island iced teas? Yeah, I just tend to start some awesome trends. Anyways, that club kicked ass. Great DJ playing electro and disco and some hip-hop and we all got thoroughly wasted.

The next day we crossed the border into Vietnam and headed to Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City. Awesome place with tons of restaurants and shopping and all that. And just like in Cambodia, some of the nicest people i've ever met. It's amazing in these countries because even though there's beggars everywhere, they're the most pleasant beggars you'll ever encounter. I'd even say it's pleasant when the beggars come up to you, because you can have funny conversations with them.

Anyways the first day we just walked around the markets and ate some pho, which is like Vietnam's take on ramen. It's made with rice noodles and usually beef and served as a soup. Delicious and, like ramen, great for hangovers. No one wanted to go out, so I walked around by myself for a bit, got "happy" with a local dude who kinda turned into an asshole and wanted more money from me, and then went to bed.

The next day I went to the Cu Chi tunnels. Cool place, lame tour guide. He fought in the war (on the American side) and thought himself to be better than everyone else because of it. He never stopped talking on the bus ride there and instead opted to promote his boat tour on the way home. He really sucked, but the tunnels were crazy. You get on your knees and crawl down where Viet Cong soldiers lived for like 10 months underground. The tunnels are so small and hot and it's unbelievable these soldiers could do such a thing. I couldn't make it past the first exit, which was maybe like 20 meters. I was sweating my balls off and totally out of breath.

After that the bus dropped us at the war museum, where you can see horrifying pictures of soldiers holding half blown up corpses, real fetii (plural of fetus) that were affected by agent orange, and all sorts of other terrible things. And to think all that kind of shit is going on right now. I guess people just don't want to learn.

Then we got drunk.

Yeah, the group went to a bar called Go Go, which was touristy and lame. I kinda get annoyed with that aspect of the tour. That is, that the group always wants to drink where all the other tourists drink. I'd much rather hang out with the sweet locals. It's not so bad though, because usually the second place we go has more locals. So two Vietnamese girls started hanging with our group and then took us to Apocolypse Now, the club in Saigon with the oh-so-appropriate name. It was again really fun, and I danced my little ass off.

Next day, I woke up exhausted and hopped on the bus towards the glorious Mekong Delta. We hopped on a boat and met our tour guide for the next day and a half. She took us to a little village where we saw how they make hand-made cement tiles, met a 72 year old blacksmith who was making some sharp ass knives, got followed around by little children yelling "hello!!" and giving us flowers, and even saw where they make coffins. Then we had a kick ass lunch on another little island. It consisted of a crazy looking fish called "Elephant Ear Fish" that you roll up into little spring roll kinda things. Yum! We also saw where they make clay pottery that's shipped all over the world.

Then we got to our "homestay" where we all were sleeping for the night. It was like an old french colonial style house where there really wasn't much else to do except eat dinner and get wasted. We all sat around a table playing a game where you spin a chop-stick and then have to answer a question, usually personal and sexual. Like a spin the bottle truth or dare thing. I passed out after that, only to awaken to stories of how no one could go to sleep because there were bats flying around everywhere. Good thing i missed that.

Next day we went and saw how you make the edible rice paper for spring rolls, as well as some deicious chewy coconut candy. Then we headed back to HCMC and had another night out at Apocolypse Now. Decent night, but the first one was better.

Next morning, woke up about 10 and went to one of the craziest water parks I've ever been to. I guess these slides must have been made for tiny, light-weight vietnamese because they were throwing us all around and just going fast as all hell. Everyone there stared at us like aliens and loved to yell "hello!" and things to us. I enjoyed the attention. I'm gonna say people here are FAR less accustomed to foreigners than Japanese, despite what lots of people seem to think.

That night we hopped on a night train to Nha Trang, and thanks to some chemicals that the Australian guys had, I slept like an absolute baby!!! Woke up in a kick-ass city with a decent beach, lots of nice restaurants, and did i mention ridiculously nice and beautiful vietnamese people??

So we got in about 5 am, I got some pho with the Aussies for breakfast, tried to sleep but didn't, then we all hopped on a boat which turned out to be a booze cruise!! What a day. Cracked the first beer at about 10, docked at some island and then we could jump off the roof of the ship into the water. I made an ass of myself when I tried to do a flip off the top and only ended up hurting my back. That, however, did not stop me from doing my best Anchorman impression where he does a canonball at the party. Then we drank, went to other islands, docked there, instead of getting off just drank more. Then there was "Happy Hour" when they gave everyone a life-preserver and made a floating bar in the water where a guy dished out little cups of vodka and pineapple to our heart's content, and maybe our liver's discontent. More sailing around, more drinking. There was a girl from Hokkaido named Satoko who teached Japan in Singapore, so we were listening to Shina Ringo on my iPod and she knew all the words. Manami, don't worry, she was totally ugly, I promise.

As if that wasn't enough, I got home and took a two hour nap, woke up and had some delicious dinner. I think I had mashed potatos and a burger with an egg on it. Then we went to the main club in Nha Trang, called the Sailors Club or something where I danced my ass off, one of the Aussie's named Joel got naked and ran around in the water, and all sorts of other crazy mayhem. That night was probably the drunkest everyone in the whole group has been together. I'm sure there's plenty of pictures of me licking people's faces. Woops.

Next day, I was sick and hungover as hell, but I did not throw up. Had a nice breakfasat at the same place we had dinner, which was called "SAME SAME BUT DIFFERENT" and hit the beach hard. The water was greenish, but it still felt great, and one of the restuarants on a beach had a pool. So like the little thieves that we are, CJ and I used the pool and didn't even buy anything from the restaurant!! Oh man, can't believe I just put that in my blog!!

And finally, we hopped on another night train which sucked a lot more than the last one. Really bumpy, no valium (oops), even hotter, and the sheets were used this time. But we made it through and are now in Hoi An. Got in again about 5 AM, ate breakfast, and then hit the tailors. I got a custom made brown suit and a black pair of denims. Hopefully they're cool, as the suit especially was not as cheap as I thought it would be.

That's all for now.

05/23/08- Hanoi, Vietnam
And then the worst happened. Right after updating from Hoi An, we were all planning on going to the beach on motor bikes we rented. I of course, being an idiot with machinery, had no idea how to drive mine. Right off the bat, I lost control of the bike and fell off of it, i think the bike landed on me, and I have never felt anything more painful in my entire life. God it sucked. All the pain was in my back, and it's still there, though not nearly as bad. Luckily, the staff at the hotel was ridiculously nice and iced my back, gave me a massage, and when I was hungry but couldn't sit up without supporting myself using both arms, they even fed me pho. Spent the rest of the day bed-ridden. Good lord that day sucked.

The next day I could get up and walk around for at least short periods of time and managed to go get my suit and jeans, both of which fit incredibly well. I also got some loud, funky "Nikes" made for $15 which are pretty cool. Had dinner with the group, got some desert at a bar, and made it an early night.

In the morning, we hopped on a 4 hour bus ride to Hue, a town with some pretty good sight-seeing that nobody in the group went to go see. I guess we were all kinda burned out of temples and the like. My back was feeling good enough to go to the beach, where I was buried in the sand. Some little kids came over to help bury me and seemed to like giving me even bigger boobies than I already have. They were cute and wanted to play games with us and stuff. All the while, some drunk locals kept giving me free beer and talking to me as if I understood Vietnamese.

And yes, just two nights after my bad accident, I managed to get completely wasted, hit the dance floor, and party it up until 4 in the morning. Decent night, but nothing really compared to previous nights on the tour. Actually there hasn't been a completely epic night, in my opinion, since before the fall of Ryan.

The next day we were scheduled to get on a night-train to Hanoi. I had my valiums ready and everything, but then Ockie decided she wanted to fly to Hanoi instead of doing the train. I thought it was a great idea, and so did CJ, so we bought some tickets. Instead of sitting on a train, I spent my afternoon at a 4-star hotel across the street hopping back and forth between a hot and cold jacuuzi, a sauna, and a steam bath. It was an absolute delight! Had some pho on the street, left for the airport, and got on what was probably the shortest flight I've ever been on. Just as I was nodding off, I heard "Flight attendants prepare for landing." That was nice.

Got into Hanoi exhausted and went to bed. Woke up and headed out on my own. Saw the prison where John McCain and many other American soldiers were held captive and tortured. Interesting how most of the pictures there relating to Americans show them smiling and looking like they're having a great time being held captive by non-english speaking soldiers. I'm sure it really was delightful. Then I went to an art museum to se a Japanese photography exhibition that was okay. There was also a buddha exhibit with statues dating back to the 7th century. That was cool.

Then I was walking back to the hotel when a guy stopped me on the street. I assumed him to be just another beggar (which are everywhere here, but I find them kinda charming), but decided to listen to what he had to say. He seemed to be a serious English student and wanted me to teach him some words. So we went to the library, he bought me a drink, and I taught him some vocab from his book which he didn't understand. He then took me around on his bike (yes, I got on a bike again...sorry dad) and showed me a lake where they downed a B-52 bomber and left it as is, and brought me to a museum with some other remnants from the war. I ended up giving him money anyways, but it was a nice little way to spend a couple hours. He also gave me a book.

That night the group had dinner together, went to a bar that was kinda dull, and then went to probably the weirdest club I've ever been to. It was all a bunch of really rich vietnamese men showing off how many bottles of whiskey they could buy, while the only women were the waitresses who danced at said men's tables.

I should mention that we also decided to have a hat party that night. We drew names the day before and had to give a hat to whoever we picked. I had Suze, the tour leader, and opted to buy her a pair of men's "tommy hilfiger" briefs. Chloe had me and gave me a little baby cap complete with a bottle from which I drank my beer. Anyways, by the time we got to the club we had all switched hats around, and drunken Chloe put the briefs on me, over my pants. So I was running around, wasted, at this totally fucked up club with underwear on over my pants. I'm pretty sure that's the fastest way to find any gay men at a club while scaring away the few girls that are there at the same time. Ah, good times. I guess...got me a lot of free whiskey anyways.

The next day we headed to the stunningly beautiful Ha Long Bay. We boarded a junk that had cabins for all of us and were provided with lunch, dinner, breakfast, and lunch as we took in the epic scenery. I looked around me and all I could think of were Roger Dean's album covers from the 70s (more specifically Yes and Uriah Heap albums). We climbed a big hill, went kayaking under a rock and into a cool bay, and went into the huge caves where there's an illuminated red rock that looks exactly like a cock and ball satchel. Naomi, Lynette, and Kirsty made a little awards show. Though I got runner up for best quotes (I should have won), I took home the award for funniest moment of the tour...for falling of my bike. Bastards. If only they knew how much it hurt. It was all in good fun, though.

Returned to Hanoi yesterday, had an AMAZING gourmet dinner. I had hummus for a starter, roasted pork served over beets, mashed sweet potato and veggies for my main and shared probably the best lemon meringue pie i've ever had with Suze. Oh it was good. We then tried to make a night out with some karaoke, but it wasn't nearly as fun as a karaoke night in Japan is. Then we all said our goodbyes.

Woke up this morning and, at mom's suggestion, had the breakfast buffet at the Metropole, which is one of the worlds 500 best hotels apparently. It was DIVINE!!!

And that's it. 5 weeks in Southeast Asia have come and gone. Much like when I studied abroad in Tokyo, this has been one of the best experiences in my life that I know I will never forget. Also like my first summer in Tokyo, it's a little bitter-sweet because I know that even if I do come back here, it will never be the same, as I won't be with the same wonderful group of people who shaped so many of my good memories. I really do hope to return sooner than later though, especially to the beautiful people of Cambodia and Vietnam. It was a great trip, filled with good food, good times, and great people, even with the pain i've had to put up with this last week. Who knows, maybe I'll come back here and teach English or something. Either way, I'll never forget this beautiful place.

After I killed Bill, I sold my Seoul (Warning: tons of pictures)

2008-04-08T00:39:00.003+09:00

Hi everyone. I'm back in America now, and it's great to be home with the family and friends. Still, before coming home I did some interesting things that I want to include on this blog for my self-indulgent pleasure and out of concern that you have nothing better to do while at work.

The last week in Japan, Manami and I went to dinner at Gonpachi. If you've seen the first Kill Bill, please take a moment to remember the part where Uma Thurman's character slices and dices what seems like hundreds of suited ninja types inside of a restaurant, severed body parts flying into the fountains and all that good stuff. Well Gonpachi is the restaurant who's interior design influenced the set design for that scene, arguably the coolest one in the 3+ hour epic. So here's some pics from that. There aren't any pics of the food, because the food was fairly standard- reasonably-priced, decently-portioned, albeit "safe" Japanese food. Good for foreigners who don't want to try anything too slimy.

After that little experience, I had a half-week of work and said goodbye to my teachers. By saying goodbye, I mean we all got
wasted together. Also, the adult students that I taught for part-time work took me out for dinner and drinks at a SE Asian restaurant. They said it was to prepare me for my trip. It was an extremely thoughtful gesture, and I had a great time with all of them. Here we are as seen through one of my student's cell-phone cameras. I forgot mine, unfortunately.

Then it was time to go to Korea. Manami and I spent 4 days and 3 nights in Seoul, marking the first time I'd ever funded a vacation on my own. If you like spicy food or are having problems with bowel movements, I suggest a trip to Seoul, because the food there will satiate both your cravings. We arrived at about 2 and immediately began a search for a good Korean lunch. Here's what we found.

Here we see the free appetizers consisting of kimchi cabbage and daikon, garlic mushrooms, some fish, and greens. You are served this kind of food at any Korean restaurant regardless of whether or not you want it, and it's always free. Pretty awesome.

In Japanese, this is called chige. It might be called something different in Korean, but I can't read that shit. It's basically a really hot bowl of spicy soup with a lot of tofu in it. This one also had some shrimp and clams in it. Delicious.

Bibinba (also Japanized Korean), this is a pretty common Korean food dish consisting of rice, various vegetables, and eggs that you stir around and push against the side until it gets perfectly burned. The stone bowl keeps it hot for what feels like hours.

Rounding off the meal with chijimi (no idea about that spelling), this is kind of the korean take on okonomiyaki or pizza if you will. We were scolded a little bit for pouring the sauce all over the dish instead of dipping it. Still, they brought us more when we asked for it.

All of the above food ran us about $20, including tax, and there's no tipping in Korea. So good, so cheap.

There was a free Nike Dunk exhibit just around the corner from the restaurant, so we stopped in there. It was small, but there was a cool part where you could design your own virtual dunk and print it out in sticker form. Here's the design I whipped up.

I'd sport em.

Just outside of our hotel was a restaurant that had this in the window.

Nothing more appetizing then fried chicken that looks like it's been sitting out for a few days. We decided to use the "pass" option on this restaurant, but given a little more time, we probably would have eaten there too. Apparently, fried chicken is pretty popular in Korea. We saw a few of these kinds of displays.

I thought Japanese people loved food, but I think the Koreans might have em beat. Everywhere you look are stalls selling food. Here's an example of one selling what looks like anything it could scrounge from the water.

And for the less daring, one selling chicken. I use the term "less daring" lightly, because this chicken was some of the spiciest I've ever eaten in my fucking life. And we got what the vendor labeled "kinda spicy chicken."

Our first ride on the Korean metro trains, which aren't nearly as clean and tranquil as their Japanese counterpart. They are, however, based on a much simpler layout than in Japan.

You also get a lot of the beggars on these trains, which you absolutely never see in Japan. Think blind men playing sad songs on harmonicas and other depressing shit like that.

We went to a place called Hongdae, which is a university area that had a ridiculous amount of bars, nightclubs, restaurants, shopping, etc.

Engrish exists outside of Japan, too!!

And just around the corner,

This area was pretty awesome because of the following-

That's 2 tequila shots that cost a total of $3.80, and no you don't tip in bars either. I guess this area is known for cheap tequila shots, and we took em up on that. You even get little snacks to accompany your shots.

What's great is unlike in Japan, these "complementary" snacks don't find their way onto your bill without you realizing it. There is no "Seating charge" either, so you can walk in, take a shot, eat a little snack, walk out, and no questions are asked.

The next day we decided to get a little culture and visit a couple temples. This sightseeing time was strictly limited due to Manami's unending desire to go shopping. But that's okay, I'm more into shopping and eating anyways.

This is one of the buddies I made while I was over there. He was a good guy. Didn't say much though.

Speaking of shopping, you can shop EVERYWHERE. On the streets, in the subway, even on the shitter. Okay, that's not true, but just about everywhere you look is someone selling something. There's tons of fake stuff everywhere too, from Bape to True Religion to the ubiquitous Louis Vuitton. If you want fake goods, Seoul has it. I used "ubiquitous" because mom asked me if I knew what that word meant.

And if you're looking for some treats to bring your blood sugar back up after all that shopping, check these out. (And sorry about that lame transition to get back to talking about food).
This was for sale in our nearest subway station. A waffle. $1. One topping was always apple jam, then you had your choice of whipped cream, chocolate, or strawberry. It was delicious. So cheap.

Then there were these things:

Made by these guys:

Dudes were totally funny. They had a whole routine where they explained what they were doing, interspersing both English and Japanese into their explanation. It was funny, and they had a good crowd going. They actually use honey and flower and then spin it around and it creates something like 16,000 really thin strands of the white stuff. This is then wrapped around various types of nuts. The ones we got (seen above) were filled with finely chopped peanuts. Pretty good stuff.

Pics of our Korean BBQ dinner. Good, but a little pricey.

Our third day there, it was rainy, so we went to Lotte World, a pretty massive 4-floor indoor theme park. The rides were fun, but the roller coaster rocked my head and made Manami and I both pretty dizzy. In line, we met some teenagers who offered Manami a little makeover. Here's the results.

Pretty cute, eh?

We headed back to our area of Myungdong and got dinner at a Korean sushi place. This was my favorite roll, featuring fried chicken and honey mustard sauce. It was like a Wendy's Chicken Sandwich in "sushi" form.

On our last day, we took a walk along a man-made river. Here's a crazy piece of art.

For our last meal, we had a pizza at a Korean place (Ok, so we were a little tired of having our tongues burned off by all the red stuff). It was awesome though. The place advertised it as a full-course meal, as the crust had potato-breaded shrimp for the appetizer, the pizza as the main course, and the crust was filled with a sweet potato mouse accompanied by apple jam. It was awesome.

Manami enjoying it.

And a final stop at "Cafe Baskin Robbins" where they had Ice cream fondue.

They also had their own take on the Cold Stone stuff. So good.

Okay, so I promise we did other stuff than eat....kinda. Well we shopped a lot, including a visit to the CoEX mall, the largest underground shopping center in Asia. We also went to a casino where I lost about $50 playing blackjack. Manami, however, couldn't be stopped on the roulette table and won like $70, more than doubling her money. She bought me a donut, but opted to spend the rest of her money on a fake Chloe purse. I don't really blame her.

Alright, so that's all for now. I'm going around SE Asia in a week, so don't give up on this blog just yet!!!
-ryan

Close to the end.....

2008-03-20T21:30:00.004+09:00

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!

Doing the impossible.

2008-02-20T22:19:00.003+09:00

Look at that consistency. It's like back in 2006 when I updated this thing all the time. Today will be short though.

Yesterday/today I officially did something I didn't think I'd do in Japan. As I mentioned, I was on the guestlist for both Minus the Bear and Motion City Soundtrack concerts, two bands hip with young people and oddly enough, directly across the street from each other. So one guest pass on each leg, i went back and forth between the two concerts and had a good time. Then I met up with ol' boy Brian Diaz who invited me to grab "a drink" with him at Minus The Bear. He took off about 15 minutes after sitting down to eat with the Motion City guys, but I stayed with Minus The Bear and watched the minutes on my watch ticking past last train. I said "fuck it" and decided I would stay out all night. MTB went home at about 1:30, then me and two groupie chicks met up with Brian and MCS again. There were a lot more people at their party and we drank a retarded amount of both hot and cold sake. 2:30 rolled around and it was time to go. Of course, that meant time to go nowhere, cuz I was stuck in Shibuya, and I'm not a hot groupie chick so I wasn't gonna ask for space in their hotel bed. So I went to a Internet Cafe and slept on a reclining chair for about an hour and a half until the trains started running. Well, then I got off too early in Shinjuku only to find that the next train wouldn't come for 20 minutes. That's a long time when you've been out all night. Then some douchebag asshole depressed douche jumped in front of a train and killed himself, so my train was delayed an hour and a half. FUCK. I ended up getting to my station at 7 AM and saw some of my students walking to school while I was still in my street clothes. That was weird. I went home and said "eff it" and slept till 9:45 and showed up to school late, but they were cool with it because I said I was sick and didn't miss any actual class time. Smooth operator.

In addition to teaching 3 classes with around 3 hours of sleep behind me, I worked part-time today in Kawagoe for a single 2 hour class. It seemed really long, and I think I might have started speaking gibberish, but I got my 7000 yen out of it and that's all that matters.

And for some reason I'm still awake and blogging.

Finally, here's a picture of me and some ADORABLE 4th graders at one of my elementary schools. Enjoy.

The past two weekends.

2008-02-18T20:24:00.007+09:00

HI!!!!! It's updatin' time! Here in Japan, lots of people are into the US elections, a rarity for a people who seem to not really care about politics. But even a few of my students have asked me if I'm rooting for Obama or Clinton. Let me tell you something though. As if having an educated political discussion in English wasn't difficult enough (okay, I guess it's not that difficult, but for the sake of dramatic writing), try having a discussion in Japanese. FUCK! I did learn how to say "Republican" (kyouwato) and "Democrat" (minshutou) today, so I guess that's a good place to start. Really though, it's a lot of smiling, semi-understanding, nodding, and retorting with my opinion which I'm not quite positive is related to what the other person just said.

Though this can be the standard for lots of my conversations here.....even in English.

Anyways, last last weekend was a three-day weekend that was totally fun, totally kick ass, and also relaxing. It snowed a couple times this month, which never happened last year. Still, that didn't stop Manami and me from making the trek to Odaiba, enjoying a cheap brazillian all-you-can-eat bbq lunch, shopping, and going to Oedo Onsen Monogatari!!! YAY!!!!

Here's me in front of the place, which is an indoor hot springs bath and kinda "theme park."

So basically, you go in and they give you a hakata (like a summer robe) to wear. They also give you a locker key attached to a barcode, which you use as money in case you want to buy anything like food, drinks, toys, candy, and whatever else there is between the hot spring baths. You then pay at the end. It's a really cool system and seeing all the little Japanese kids running around in their traditional clothes is one of the cutest things ever.

Here's our digs-

Manami said she loves this picture because of how Japanese she looks.

When you're ready to go in the baths, your party separates into gender, gets totally butt-ass-naked and walks around in front of lots of other men totally naked. It's pretty weird at first, but after a little while, I was walking with my hands in the air and my dong freely flapping in the wind for all to see and adore. This was a holiday Saturday evening, and let me tell you something, I saw a lot of dick. I couldn't help it. Just turning your head and you were guaranteed to see tiny Japanese cock in all areas of your vision. Oh well.

There was an outdoor mixed foot stream which was nice, but it was snowing outside and really cold. Here, you can see me donning my outer wear.

This is Manami making fun of the thing I do when I scratch my ear and make that annoying sound in the back of my throat. Feels so good though.

Finally, between bathing we hit up the ganbanyoku, which is one of those kinda new age things where you lie on really really hot rocks and sweat your balls off while they play music you would hear at Natural Wonders if that store was still around. It was pretty nice, I'd do it again. Recommended for anyone who wants to lose weight but is too lazy to actually exercise.

Finishing off, this picture is from before the hot springs, but look. It's a vending machine of Cup O' Noodles (which are called simply Cup Noodle here), serving em up hot and ready to eat.

The next day we went to Kichijoji, an area in Tokyo I'd wanted to visit for a while. Lots of really cool restaurants, shops, and a big park. Here's a picture of my favorite part. Lots of really tiny, claustrophobic, often standing-only restaurants and bars.

This weekend was valentine's day weekend. In Japan, the man gets gifts on Valentine's day, while the woman gets treated in March for "White Day." I don't know why, that's just the way it is. Deal with it. I decided that for my nice meal I wanted to go to another Iron Chef restaurant, so we made it #3. This time, it was Iron Chef Italian, Masahiko Kobe. His appearances on the show were a little more rare, but he wore the silver outfit and was holding a tomato when it was time to choose the iron chef to battle. We went for lunch instead of dinner, and it was pretty damn good, though I have to admit, I enjoyed Morimoto and Sakai's restaurants more. This place, however, was very unpretentious, cozy, cheaper, and a fine dining experience. Here we go.

First, look at how good we looked.

Little bread crackers that were placed before we were seated:

I ordered up two massive oysters to start the lunch off with a slimy bang.

Next, the first part of the course menu, was the various fish/salad plates. Though they asked if there was anything we can't or don't want to eat, we forgot to mention fois gras. Needless to say, I tried it. Though I don't agree with how it's made and I won't go out of my way to eat it again, it was on my plate and I wasn't gonna just leave it there. It kinda tasted like cheese.

Next, was my first pasta dish. A cream-based pasta with spinach and muscles. The noodles were almost as thick as udon. Very good.

Manami's first pasta was a squid pasta with a sauce made of olive oil, garlic, and butter (I think). Also quite delicious.

My second pasta, the highlight of the course for sure, was a pumpkin gnocchi with Japanese beef ragut (is that the word? I dunno, just chopped up, kinda minced beef) with vegetables and mushrooms. This one right here is worth going again for.

Manami's second pasta was this one, a pesto-based sauce, an interestingly-shaped pasta and scallops. Delicious, though my gnocchi was better.

Finally, the main was this beautifully presented, light, but somewhat surprising meat dish consisting of young beef throat. I wasn't really expecting throat, as I couldn't read the kanji, though Manami knew. Had I known, I probably would have opted for the fish main. Still, it was good and now I can say I've eaten throat prepared in a really gourmet way.

The deserts were a little bit on the safe side, but that's not to say they weren't good. Here is my creme brulee accompanied by fruit and an AMAZING cassis sorbet (maybe a gelato). Sweet and delicious.

Manami had an AWESOME tiramisu with fruit and a green tea ice cream. Yum.

Another great thing about this restaurant is Masahiko Kobe is usually cooking himself. As opposed to my past Iron Chef dining experiences, the chef was present and was more than willing to take a picture with us. Here we are. My face looks huge!

Alright, that's all for now. Tomorrow, I'm on the guestlist for not one, but TWO rock concerts in Shibuya (Motion City Soundtrack and Minus The Bear). I'll be seeing my buddy Brian Diaz who stayed at my house in his band The Reunion Show. I haven't seen him in a good 5 years, so it should be fun. Peace out.

Hi!

2008-01-26T17:55:00.000+09:00

Two days ago, my kyushoku (school lunch) was absolutely deicious. As controversial of a food as it is, some 475 students and 30 or so faculty were served up a big ol' heapin' pile of WHALE! Actually, it tastes a lot like tuna. It's pretty good. Not all that crazy.

Following my consumption of the giant sea mammal, I saw Justice. Compared to Daft Punk, they were boring. Sorry to say it, but it's true. I'll take a Hey Champ DJ show any day.

Yesterday, some friends, Manami and I found a cool little bar in Urawa (part of Saitama City where I live) and in it, I had a tequila sunrise that was better than the one served at the Cottonhouse Bar thing near the beach.

I saw Sweenie Todd in the theaters, as it just came out here. Going into it, I didn't realize it was a musical. Should I be considered stupid for that? I thought it was a good movie, Depp has a cool sounding voice. Ultimately, though I found it lacking in any dept/character development, resulting in not really caring who lived or died. I really wanna see Juno.

No pictures for you today. Not even food. I'm sorry.

Finally, the new Hot Chip album, "Made in the Dark," is really really really good.

Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu!

2008-01-15T21:35:00.000+09:00

...or "Happy New Year!" if you will. May your 2008 wishes come true. God knows I didn't make a resolution, but I'm already wishing I had. As I sit here writing this in nothing but my boxer briefs, my gut is almost managing to block my view of the computer monitor. Gotta get running again. Luckily, I exaggerated on that last sentence.

Tonight, Manami and I made a big purchase. Oh yes, at the end of March we will be spending 4 days and 3 nights in (hopefully) beautiful Seoul, Korea. I'm pretty excited. You should be too, cuz you know I'll take pictures and post them on this here cyber-blog.

Let's talk about Mustique 07/08. It was great. Lots of amazing food, parties, awkward conversations, and sex. None of which I took part in except for the first three. I did, however, get to make out with Hugh Grant. Wait, that wasn't me, was it. God, I wish it was me though. Here's just a few select pictures from Mustique, because as I've said before, this is a Japan blog after all. Let's start with food.

The almighty pilau which can not and will not be stopped.

This was lunch on our first day, if I remember correctly. Spinach wraps with chicken, black bean puree and assorted vegetables. Amazing. Look at that effing color.

Stuffed chicken and mashed pertaters. Comfort food, Carribbean style baby! Cheryl rules. Sorry If i spelled your name wrong, Cheryl.

Here's a picture of me sealing the deal with my dance moves. Sometimes, I just get on a roll. What can I say. Jonathan and I got to pick much of the music played at Tatiana's party this year, so you know the beat wasn't stopping. Neither were my feet baby!

If that's not hot enough, how about a picture of me with my oversized muscles, a half-full beard and a pink t-shirt. Sealed, signed, and delivered.

The fam sans the father figure on New Years Eve.

Courtney on the night Jonathan and I had to carry her to her bed. Jonathan had her shoulders and I had her feet.

Sorry about that Courtney. I had to.

And one of our last few moments of our last night in Mustique. Party people all around.

Ah, they were good times indeed. While it was great to come back to Japan, I can't say I'm not tired of teaching English. Looking for a new job. Any connections out there anyone? If there are any connections out there, don't let them read this next part.

This past weekend was a glorious three-day weekend in Japan. The holiday was Monday and it's called seijin no hi. "Seijin" means "adult" and "no hi" means like "...'s day," so this is the day when you see people who are 20 this year celebrating that fact. Twenty is the age when you are officially an adult and can legally start drinking. It's cool because you walk around and everywhere you look are girls all done up and walking around in kimonos. It's pretty awesome. Oh, and the guys look pretty cool in their samurai-sorta wear too. But let's just say I was looking at the kimonos.

So Sunday I went to my buddy Mamoru's apartment and got really, really, really drunk. Like waking up with a massive hangover and puking twice kinda drunk. That part sucked. But the events leading up to it were great! Here we are in all our raging glory.

We're all from different countries!! Isn't that amazing? Christiana is Chinese from Canada, Mamoru is half-swedish and half-japanese (but 100% awesome, yes he is 200% of a human being), and Dave is British. How epic is that? We all know how to drink pretty well, too.
We went to a katsudon restaurant at around 2 in the morning. I saw this guy eating by himself and kinda felt bad for him, so I went over and had someone take a picture of us. I TOTALLY remember this.

Whatever, all that matters is how cool my sweatshirt is.

And while C-bomb was going at her katsudon and Mamoru was contemplating the meaning of life, Dave was in the bathroom throwing up.

I'm gonna end this with something that, given how much I talk about in real life, I don't really touch upon in blog form: MUSIC! I'd like to take the time to introduce you to the best music that Japan has given me so far in my 16 months of living on this fantastic island-nation. Her name is Shina Ringo (or Shiina or Shena) and she is so awesome. If you're bored right now (which you must be, given you've made it this far in the post), go here. It's a live video of one of my favorite songs of hers. Often compared to Bjork, she's not afraid to mix rock, electronic, jazz, or punk elements on the same CD or track for that matter. If you watch the video above, you'll see that she has a knack for dramatic ballads, too. Anyways, I highly recommend her so long as the foreign language barrier thing doesn't deter you.

That's all for now. XOXOXOXO!!!

Last post before Mustique: Daft Punk and Iron Chef Morimoto's XEX

2007-12-17T18:24:00.000+09:00

Word of warning: This post will make you hungry. Anyone on any last-minute Mustique dieters might want to skip this one.

First, two weekends ago, Manami and I saw the tour of the millenium that is Daft Punk Alive. This might have been better than the Red Rocks show I saw last summer. Maybe because the sound was better, or maybe it was just cool seeing Daft Punk in Japan. Great show, but I'm just gonna put one pic up, because there's millions of DP pictures on the internet that look the same as any I took. Still, the best concert I've ever been to.

Moving on, this last weekend Manami and I took on our second Iron Chef. This time it was the renowned Iron Chef Japanese Morimoto (the only Iron Chef to be on both the original Japanese show and the American one). I hate to say it mom, dad, and jonathan, but this MIGHT have been better than La Rochelle (Iron Chef French). In addition, this was our first time eating at a restaurant that is in a Michelin guide book (One star). Here we go. Don't say I didn't warn you.

First is the interior. You'll notice it's a teppan restaurant, like JMK or Benhiana. Nice lighting.

We'll do my meal first, cuz it was more expensive. What a dick. Ringing it at 13500 yen (about $120), it's by far the most i've ever spent on a meal for myself, but probably the best one too.

Starting off the meal was this, one of the most amazing things I've ever seen.

It's five different kind of sashimi (raw sushi-grade fish). From right to left- toro (fatty tuna) with a bit of caviar, uni (sea urchin), ika (squid), ikura (salmon eggs, or caviar if you wanna be classy about it), crunchy bread kinda things, and one other sashimi but i can't remember what it is. Then we have wasabi, sour cream and avocado. You use the little paddle spoon and dip it in the special soy sauce in the top. This was absolutely amazing. What a way to start the meal.

Next appetizer- grilled leek with iberico pork. Delicious, juicy, melted in my mouth, etc.

Item 3. Lobster. The sauce had salmon eggs in it and a whole bunch of other stuff. Delicious. Look at that presentay.

Some apple/mint sorbet to rinse the pallet for the main.

Steak sauces and delicious, delicious salt on the right.

The main. Japanese beef with huge chunks of garlic and mushroom. There was also some greens, but I guess I took this picture too early. It did "beef up" the presentation though.

Side dish- wasabi flavored mashed potato.

Garlic rice:

After dinner tea, seaweed miso soup and tsukemono (pickled vegetables):

And finally, the most amazing desert I've ever had in my life. It's supposed to look like tofu with soy sauce, like in Kyoto. This, however, is the most perfectly prepared, light, creamy cheesecake with lemon syrup. Unbelievable.

Next is Manami's meal. Coming in at 10000 yen (about $89), cheaper but very impressive nonetheless.

Appetizer one- buffalo mozzarella with tomato and some kind of fish.

Sashimi in the same style as mine, but with only toro.

Kamakura vegetables with ham-

Pre-main meat dish, sashimi chicken and a green salsa.

Her main was great. Think of like a Japanese tartare but almost like meatloaf. The green thing is made from asparagus and filled with creamy egg yolk. Mix it all together with the garlic and greens for the fanciest kind of comfort food I've ever had-

And that's it for today. A most memorable concert and meal to round off my blog for 2007. Hope you all enjoyed it. And may you all have a very merry christmas and a happy new years wherever you are! Love you all so much.
-ryan

Beyond late, w/Family Adventures in Japan

2007-12-03T17:52:00.000+09:00

OK, so before I get into apologizing for how ridiculously late this update is, I gotta start with a story that just happened. This guy knocks on my door, a rare enough occurrence for a foreigner who doesn't live anywhere near his friends or acquaintance, and after a minute I comprehend that he's the owner of my apartment building. Slowly but surely (because he knows no English, of course), it gets across that he's asking me to subscribe to the Yomiuri Shinbun, one of the major Japanese newspapers. I tell him that I can't really read Japanese well enough to understand a newspaper so I don't want to pay for it. He says he understands but wants me to subscribe to it anyways. I guess he must get some kind of nice kick-back for his tenants reading the newspaper, cuz he then busts out his wallet and gives me the money I need to pay for the subscription. He also tells me to definitely keep it a secret that he paid for it (which, from this public blog on the internet, you can see I'm very good at doing). I say fair enough, but the best part is, he says "You drink beer, right?" A quick "yes" and he says he'll be right back with "sabisu" (that's "service," Japanized English for "free.") And returns with a fucking 24 pack of beer. That's like a $35 - $40 value, as beer is expensive in Japan and it's a pretty decent brew. SCORE!

So even though it's now December 3rd, I must talk about Nov. 14 - 21, when mom, dad, and Jonathan were here. Mom and J got here the night of the 14th, and we went up to the 35th floor of the Shinjuku Hilton and had drinks and fantastic food, including Wagyu beef. Then Manami joined us as we headed to the Hub. Then the ladies left, and Jonathan and I did an hour of karaoke with all-you-can-drink and got drunk. Highlights? Every song we sang and getting the guy that worked there to chug one of the beers.

Beginning of the night-

Wednesday, 15th, Jonathan, mom and I tore up Harajuku, Aoyama, and Shibuya using only our feet. After careful consideration, Jonathan picked up the Batman Bapes, his first pair, and I felt so proud. My brother is all grown up. Then dad came in around 6 and we went back up to the lounge. Sadly, I don't have any pictures from the hotel and it's amazing view, but I think Manami might.

Thursday, I had work and the fam came and watched me teach my 2nd graders. The class went pretty smoothly, and I think the kids were pretty amazed with the size of Jonathan's arms. For real though, I think the kids and teachers alike were really happy to meet them and had only nice things to say about them in the following days.

I then took them on a tour of my crib, which probably took 20 - 30 seconds, because it's small. Then we went back to Shinjuku and got ready to eat at Iron Chef Hiroyuki Sakai's French restaurant. We all know what Iron Chef is right? The show on Food Network that was originally Japanese before it was Iron Chef USA featuring 1 of 3 Iron Chefs facing off against esteemed challengers from all over the globe. Here we are all set to go.

And here was the meal. I'll let the pictures do the talking, mainly because I don't remember the gourmet details of each course. The restaurant was amazing though, perched on the 32nd floor of the Cross Tower in Shibuya. I'll chalk it up as possibly the best meal of my life, surpassing that value meal from Taco Bell that one time I was really, really high.

Amuse Bouche:

Cold Appetizer:

Hot appetizer:

Jonathan's choice because the previous had veal:

Mom's soup, featuring fois gras ravioli. Notice the edible gold that increased mom's net worth instantly upon consumption:

The rest of us got this soup- sweet potato soup

The main:

Main without flash:

Desert:

The full gang:

The amazing bar at the restaurant:

Mom and our waiter. You might not realize it from this picture, but we were all thoroughly entertained by this fine Iranian waiter who spoke great English, was funny as hell, and could talk around politics. Good times.

Friday, I had a half day of work and we hit the shinkansen (bullet train) to Hiroshima. I think she's faking it-

The next series of photos (2 of em), I'd call "Looking really good on the shinkansen:"

We arrived in Hiroshima around 8 or so and hit Okonomimura. This means Okonomiyaki Village and was a 3 story building of little tiny teppan-tables lined up one after the other with maybe a tiny wall to separate each "restaurant." It was really cool and definitely an "only in Japan" kind of place. One restaurant was this big:

Hiroshima okonomiyaki (or Hiroshimayaki) is known for having udon or soba noodles on the inside, and FUCK is it good. Here we are enjoying it.

At night, we walked around a bit, drinking and sampling convenience store food that only lucky people with guides like me get to try, as well as spending too much money on winning several Marimokkori.

And even mom and dad were feeling Japanasized as they got into the video game me and Jonathan were playing:

Believe it or not, out of the 3 songs, I beat Jonathan once on this game. Granted he didn't know the song, I did, and I just barely beat him, I still beat that son of a bitch:

The next day we hopped on the train and a boat for Miyajima, one of the proclaimed top 3 most beautiful places in Japan. One of the 2 UNESCO World Heritage Sites we saw on the trip (along with the A-Bomb Dome in Hiroshima). Here we go.

On the boat there-

View from the boat-

No joke, these deer will eat your maps, your clothing, your paper, and anything you drop on the floor:

Classic Japan:

Cute:

Gay:

On our last day in Hiroshima, we saw the tragic remains of the dubbed A-Bomb Dome apparently just about right where the bomb landed. We put our sad faces on:

The memorial which frames the dome:

Hard to believe we did it twice.

Back in Tokyo, Monday, we hit up Odaiba. I don't have any pictures from that event, but we did have an AMAZING feast of Japanese beef yakiniku. Goddamn, seriously it was good.

On our final night together, we went to Shamaim, the Israeli restaurant I so dearly love. Mainly because I feel I can truly express my Jewish faith and convictions there. The food is pretty good too. Here's the gang. We were celebrating Manami's birthday.

Next is post-family Japan life
On Thanksgiving, Manami's actual birthday, we had Thanksgiving food at a place called the Pink Cow. Buffet style and authentic, as you can see I was pretty excited about it:

Detail:

Next day, we decided to head to Tokyo Station, as there's been lots of promotion around for the area around the station as being fun with lots to do. I always thought there was nothing worth going to Tokyo Station for, but man was I wrong. Tons of restaurants and the Imperial Palace just minutes away. Before we left though, we got this snack. This snack is new. This snack is spicy. This snack features the Guinness Book of World Record's spiciest powder in the world. It doesn't seem that spicy at first, but it stays in your mouth for a good 20 minutes or so after eating just one.

She tries it:

She doesn't think it's that bad.....
but......
then......

DUN DUN DUUUUUUN! Spicy.

Had a great lunch way above the station at a place called Xex. Yum. I think mom and dad being in Japan spoiled me and made me want to eat at only the classier establishments around town. As you can see, the food was nice.

Outside of the Imperial Palace. A beautiful beautiful place. If this isn't a Christmas card-type picture for the ages, I don't know what is.

And we rounded it all off with a night of drinking and ALL NIGHT karaoke with the buddies.

Good times. This weekend I relaxed at Manami's house. It was nice. That's all. Whew, my fingers are tired of talking.

Relieve the tension.

2007-11-07T10:18:00.001+09:00

Hey sorry to leave the blog on such a sad note for the past 3 weeks or whatever. I'll try and change that with a new post soon. Mom, dad and Jonathan are here in a week. Boo yah!

Disney, Kawagoe, and RIP Lucky Dube.

2007-10-21T21:36:00.000+09:00

Hi, everyone!! I hope you are all feeling well and having a great day. Here is an update for you.

Last weekend, we went to Tokyo Disneyland. I've now been to both Tokyo Disney theme parks. That's how cool I am! Here's some pictures.

Our best impression of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse.

Posing in front of the Halloween decorations.

At the end of the night, there was a parade of all the Disney characters made out of electric lights. It was pretty cool, and I don't think they do this in America. If they do, then we missed it when Amy, Nikki, Jonathan, the girls and I went there. This picture came out pretty radically.

This is Manami as seen through a...well, you decide.

This picture is from a few weeks back when Manami and I spent the day in Shimokitazawa, a college student area of Tokyo. It made me realize just how freaking cute westies are and how much I want when I can handle my own dog.

Oh yeah, then my Swedish friend Johan met up with us and we went to a cheap-ass nomihoudai (all you can drink), then got the last train to Shibuya and drank more. Including this- KARAOKE!

We did karaoke till 5 in the morning when the trains started running again. Needless to say the next morning, my throat hurt and I threw up twice with a terrible hangover. Oops. Oh, and the dude singing is Evan. Cool dude, he's a model in Japan. Is it just me or does he look like Makris? Makris, I think you could make money and get lots of dudes if you came to Japan. You are into dudes right?

Yesterday, we went to Kawagoe, a city about 20 minutes from where I live and also where I work part-time sometimes. There was a reportedly one of the top-three biggest matsuri (festivals) in the Kanto area of Japan. You know what that means. Or well, you probably don't. But what that means is yatai. And yatai are food-stands (like at On The Waterfront) that serve some of the best food in Japan, including jagabata-

Oh god that shit is good. It's a heart-beat and blood pressure-threatening concoction of steamed potato, heaps and heaps of butter (the bata in jagabata is the japanese pronunciation of "butter), mayonnaise, salt, corn and miso paste. God it's so good and it's reason enough to make the trek to any matsuri.

Some festival pictures.

This is the famous bell-tower in Kawagoe originally built over 400 years ago, this construction was from around the late 1890s. And for a fairly interesting, but short, story about the significance of Kawagoe, click here

Manami hugging the sweet potato samurai man.

One of the stalls was completely devoted to marimokkori (you can find out why he's funny on the entry below). Here's manami pointing that out to you.

And here's me pulling on marimokkori's penis, causing him to convulse and giggle in a really high-pitch. I shit you not, they have this on full display, and the elementary school students walking by and yelling "MARIMOKKORI!" obviously love it.

Let me end this blog on a fairly somber note and perhaps introspective note. The following does not have to do with Japan, might get rambly, and if you don't want to read it, it's understandable. However, it's important to me and I feel it's worth mentioning.

I was watching my ABC news video podcast I usually watch every day to catch up on the latest in American news, and at the end of each episode they have a little feature on google searches that have been popular for that day. Well, when they stated "Lucky Dube" was on the list of rising searches, I had no idea what was going on and was fairly shocked just to hear his name on the news. What followed shocked and saddened me more than anything has in a while. Lucky Dube, who in the past year has become hands-down my favorite reggae artist, was carjacked randomly in his hometown in South Africa, shot and murdered in front of two of his teenage children. He tried to escape the scene, but presumably died soon after and finally crashed into a tree.

Granted I haven't listened to his music for that long, considering his career spans two decades, but his smooth and somewhat angelic voice quickly became one of my favorite things to listen to when I wanted to relax. In Mustique last year, Jonathan and I would joke about how his songs sound like "glorious reggae" and we had good laughs about it. Listening now, it's only more heart-breaking. His beautiful voice and songs about love, freedom, racial equality, and spreading knowledge to those younger than us were seeped in positivity, while never giving into the reggae stereotypes of praising marijuana and the like. Now that voice has been silenced by the horrific and random acts committed by a couple of men, who I have now found out have been arrested, in South Africa. So for now, I wonder, as Dube says in "Put a Little Love," "Why do bad things happen to good people?" It's times like these that I feel lucky to have such great family and friends, and also to be able to live in a place as safe as Japan and Illinois.

I had a dream last night that I was in Mustique, and dad and I broke the news to Tyrone, the butler at Tetta Rosso and also a huge fan of Lucky Dube. Actually, Tyrone is the reason I became familiar with Lucky's music. Anyways, when we told the news to Tyrone, his eyes filled with tears and I think my dad and I were crying. It's weird because usually I don't have dreams that correlate so directly with what's going on in the real world. Obviously, his death made an impact, and my heart goes out to his children that watched the horrendous act going on. I'll end this now with a beautiful quote I found on an African news source.

"Fare thee well Dube. You gave it all and the world paid you in shame. But for those who valued your contribution, we know your song; Remember me. So, wherever we are, we shall remember you, in whatever you do, we love you."

-Ryan

The past few weeks: A long awaited update

2007-09-29T12:35:00.000+09:00

Hi everybody! It's been a while, huh? Why don't we catch up? I've found a much better way to organize/upload pictures to my blog, so expect more pictures. This one's got a lot.

So, near the beginning of the month, Manami and I celebrated our one-year anniversary. This was a first one-year anniversary for both of us, isn't that cute? To celebrate, we went to an all-you-can-eat brazillian-style barbecue place. How romantic is that? Didn't take any pictures of the food, but I did take some pictures while we walked around Asakusa, the area of Tokyo where the restaurant was. We'll start off with this whiskey advertisement.

Wait, what's that say? Yeah I've never really understood why this whiskey is called Nikka, but to make matters worse (or funnier depending on your personality and sense of humor), the bottles of whiskey usually have the word "Black" preceding "Nikka." Hmm...

Here was my attempt at being artsy and cultured. I thought this little street split quite nicely into "new Japan" and "old Japan." Dunno if I really captured it though.

Manami's a sick accordionist.

I don't really remember the sequential order of the next couple of pictures but whatever.

I spend much of my free time at work looking up restaurants I want to eat at in Tokyo. I found a great-sounding Israeli place near Ikebukuro so Manami and I decidede to try it. And holy fuck was it good. Possibly the best falafel i've ever had. If you come visit me, I'm taking you here for sure. About $20 for all you can eat and so worth it. I mean look at Manami's face!

One weekend, we went drinkin. Big surprise. This is Manami, French Francois (the small one), Swedish Johan (the big one), and me (the cute one) at the Lock Up. It's an izakaya where they try and scare you and shit, and the drinks look like science experiements. Kitschy but fun every once and a while.

Here's a pretty funny Engrish sign that was at the entrance to an apartment building. I guess only animals and robots can live there.

My sick new shoes.

Two weekends ago, Manami and I made a little day trip to Kamakura, which is sometimes referred to as Kanto's Kyoto (Kanto = the area made up of Tokyo and surrounding prefecture). Lots of temples and a big buddha. It was pretty fun, but Kamakura is actually very close to Yokohama, one of my favorite cities ever. So after sightseeing we went to Yokohama and ate at Hard Rock Cafe (That's 4 i've been to in japan now). Here's some pics.

Scenic coastal shot of Kamakura-

The speciality treat of Kamakura is ice cream. More specifically, sweet potato ice cream. Weird in theory, delicious in reality.

Many small, creepy buddhas.

Manami being Japanese and praying to said buddhas.

Me and the big man.

Manami and her new friend.

Yokohama night shot.

Mashed potatoes and more at Hard Rock.

Didn't eat this, but was very tempted. Pizza in a cone!

Finally, last weekend we went to Tokyo Dome City, home of the Tokyo Dome where the Tokyo Giants play baseball, roller coasters, restaurants, shopping, and the world's first center-less ferris wheel. More pictures!

The roller coaster goes through the ferris wheel!! Even though the coaster cost 1000 yen, it was totally badass!

Just being cute as usual.

I won this from a UFO catcher (what japanese call the crane game things) at an arcade.

His name is Marimokkori, which is a sweet play on words. Marimo is a green moss kinda ball thing that only grows in 3 places in the world, one being Hokkaido (the northernmost island in Japan). Mokkori is onomonopaea (that's a hard word to spell) for the sound of someone getting a boner. So, you can see he's got the bulge of an 80s rocker in leather pants. I now wear it on my cell phone and have gotten a lot of attention for it.

Some classic Engrish. I like shutting up beef too.

Saw the Tokyo Giants play Yokohama. Tokyo won, it was a great game. Actually no runs till the 8th inning, when Yokohama got 2 home runs in a row. Then Tokyo was up and got 3 runs at the bottom of the 8th to win the game. Good shite.

Pretty excited about the Giants winning....

And finally, what I ate...Sumo wrestler food called Chanko Nabe. FUCKING YUM!!

It's these moments when I don't like typhoons.

2007-09-06T21:41:00.000+09:00

So, I dunno if this is making news or what not, but there's a pretty big effin' typhoon making it's course through Japan right now. Japan sucks when it comes to natural disasters, because it gets just about every one of them. Well, right now there are the strongest rains i've probably ever seen in my life. It looks like a movie when there's way too much rain falling on the characters that it looks fake. You know? But it's real here. And crazy winds. I just saw lots of people with broken umbrellas.

I think Dave England, Dave Canada and myself will forever be known as "those foreigners that still go drinking when there's a typhoon."

I only had one drink, a delicious long island iced tea. Usually they run about $10 at the bar we like to go to, but at happy hour, they're only about $6.50. Nice. The key is getting there right at the end of happy hour, and nursing your drink till company shows up. But I guess company doesn't show up when there's a fucking typhoon!

Here's an awesome part of Japan that I don't think i've written about before. At the grocery stores that are not 24 hours, they mark down the fresh food that will go bad after a while. So, I live next to a place that closes at 9. So, if a strapping young 23 year-old bachelor like myself should need some dinner around 8:30 or so, said young lad could get an awesome meal for less than $4. I just had two yakitori (big chicken skewers with many things, but mine had garlic and onions between the chicken), several large pieces of boiled pumpkin (which I've grown seriously fond for this past year in Japan) and something called okara. Okara is minced up tofu with maybe a little bit of carrot or things like that mixed in. Good shit, and it's all so healthy. It cost me 332 yen, which is like $3.15. I mean does that kick ass or what?

At work during my free time, I've been reading Papa's "Threads of Destiny." Papa, if you're reading this, I had no idea you could write (and remember details) so well. Now I know where I get my unbelievable blogging skills.

That's all for now. No pictures. I'll do my best to survive the bike ride to school tomorrow in these ridiculous squalls and downpours.

Update to the update.

2007-08-31T08:53:00.000+09:00

Oooh, I forgot about Monday. I went to Tobu Dobutsu Koen with Manami. This was a water park, amusement park, and zoo all in one. Yes, i've gone to three amusement parks this week. Here's some pictures.

Actually this first one is from Tsukiji again. In case you didn't understand the sheer size of a fresh tuna fish, here are some decapitated ones.

Manami welcomes you to Tobu Dobutsu Koen-

Saw some big ol' camels.

And some big ol' camel poop.

Here's a sign for one of the park restaurants. It features my favorite food. ITARIAN!

Then we left and walked around a city called Kasukabe for a while. We found a teppanyaki place where you can make your own takoyaki (doughy balls with octopus inside). We stepped up to the challenge, and here you can see I look pretty happy about it. Also modeling the new haircut.

Here's what takoyaki should look like.

Here's what ours looked like-

I think I'll stick with the itarian food.

Back for the attack!

2007-08-30T15:04:00.000+09:00

So, just got back from a month home. It was a great month home. Saw the friends, the family, the Leo dog, did a road trip to Kansas/Denver/Chicago, saw Daft Punk and Crowded House, celebrated mom's 60th, did the things that I can't do in Japan (namely marijuana and eating bread, butter, and potatos). All in all a great time, but as I've said before, this is a Japan blog, not an American one. Thus, my trip home will be limited to the following pictures.

Gerry and Daisy- (congrats on making the blog G brah. Your commenting, both quality and quantity, has paid off)

Daft Punk tearing it up-

Manami and the nieces-

The night I got back, I ate kaitenzushi (conveyor-belt sushi), one of the things I missed most while I was home. It was delicious. Then I went to bed, and Manami and I took advantage of our jetlag and did something I wanted to do since I started reading about things to do in Japan. I went to Tsukiji Fish Market. This is the seafood wholesaler for Japan as well as much as the world. The thing is, if you get there after like 7 AM, you miss anything worth seeing. So I naturally woke up at 4AM and we went. Here's some shots.

Manami posing in front of the warehouse area-

Here's a tuna "factory" doing the deed- slicing, dicing, wrapping, shipping.

Talking Heads? More like tuna heads!

Some kind of shellfish that was still squirming-

Next comes the best part of going to Tsukiji....eating the sushi that was just brought in for breakfast!!! Here's the line to daiedo sushi. I think that's what the place was called. Manami? Am I right?

And here it is- quite possibly the freshest, most delicious sushi in the entire world. It does come with a fairly hefty price of around $30, but it's worth the experience.

That evening, we fell asleep at 6 in the freaking evening. I thought it would just be a nap, but I woke up at 6 the following morning. Never done that before. I am now getting over jetlag though, as it's 9:30 PM and i'm still awake.

Anyways, the next day (sunday) we hit up Omotesando/Harajuku, my favorite shopping area in Tokyo, because, well...i'm addicted to that shit. I didn't buy anything, but I did find this unbeliveable creation at the nearby McDonald's.

What's that you say? Yeah that's a strawberry fucking shortcake McFlurry. Why oh WHY doesn't america get this kind of good stuff that the Mcdonald's here get? They also just released a 100 yen McPork and a tandori Chicken sandwich.

Monday, I went drinking with Swedish friend Johan. No pictures or good stories from that.

Tuesday, I went with fellow Saitama english teachers Dave and Blair to a wonderful world called Tokyo Summerland. This amazing adventure featured a huge indoor water park, a water park outside, a terrible rollercoaster, and an awesome ride called the free fall. Here are some pictures.

We also went to a kind of amusement park yesterday. An indoor place in Odaiba called "Sega Joypolis." Pretty cool place, probably the best movie-screen cart-ride things i've ever been on. No pictures though. Solly.

Today, I relaxed and worked a new part-time job teaching people at a company English. I was nervous, but everyone was nice and it was pretty easy. And I picked up 5000 yen for an hour and a half. B-B-B-BOOYAH!!!

I'll try and get into some crazy antics this weekend to have posted on here ASAP. Welcome back to my blog. Keep commenting.

-ryan

Umare no hi.

2007-07-17T15:50:00.000+09:00

Friday the 13th was the real celebration day of my birthday, even though my birthday was sunday. So, here's the rundown with pictures. First, I went with Manami, Seth, and Johann to an izakaya for two hours of all-you-can-drink, pretty good food, and acting gay. Here's some pictures to illustrate.

I guess maybe I should correct that, because after looking at these pictures, looks like I was the only one acting gay. I swear that's not how I remember it though.

Next we met up with some more friends, including my good, somewhat tiny French buddy Francois and his girlfriend Wakana (I'm pretty sure thats her name). We went to everyone's favorite standing-room-only-bar Tasu Ichi. Not many pictures from that excursion, but here's Manami and I being cute as usual.

Then we went to Sakura house, the gaijin house where Seth and Francois live, and where Johan used to live. Someone there, can't remember who, busted out god knows what alcohol. It was black and tasted like what I would imagine a mummy's butthole would taste like. Here's a couple reaction shots of Johan and myself following that disaster of a mistake.

Honestly, I dont know what the deal is right now, but my armpits smell like the Barbados airport. No joke.

Anyways, here's a group shot from the Sakura house.

Here's a picture from Womb, the club. You can't really tell, but one of the two DJs who totally kicked ass that night (Dex Pistols) is holding up a Daft Punk shirt out of respect and because they were playing the DP. It ruled. I danced my sexy ass off till around 4:30 or so.

Word, so Saturday the 14th it rained all day. ALL freaking day thanks to a passing typhoon, which is a Japanese word, but they don't say the "n" at the end. I don't know why it got tacked on in becoming an english word really. Anyways, Manami and I decided to order some pizza because the local place near me had a half-off (hanbaku) discount day. This pizza was awesome. So awesome that here's a picture. And the fries were free.

LOOK AT ALL THOSE TOPPINGS! That one in the back has squid, octopus, shrimp and other sea goodies on it! YUM!
Yeah, did I mention it rained all day? So we slept most of the day.

Sunday, my actual birthday it rained more, but eventually let up a little bit. Manami and I went shopping in Omiya (the biggest area in my city) and had a little snack. Here's why Japanese fast food restaurants kick ass.

What's that? It's from a restaurant called Lotteria, a fast food chain here, and this is a tandori chicken sandwich. How awesome is that? The bread is nan!! Like Indian bread Nan, ya dig?

Then we went to yakiniku dinner with her family, but she had work Monday so I went to Tokyo and met up with Seth. We drank till about 2, thereby missing the last train, and I fell asleep until about 5 at his place. Woke up, went home, fell asleep around 7 and then was awoken by the crazy earthquake. Friday was crazy, but my actual birthday was pretty chilled out.

Finally, I just went to the post office and had an "only in Japan" moment. Basically, I don't know the ATM number to my new bank account, which is actually run through the post office. I went about 2 weeks ago to get my new number, they said they'd mail it to me, I got a phone call because there was a problem last week, so I went in today. I know it's confusing, but basically I had a whole lot of runaround. I think the post office lady could see I was a little frustrated, so what did she do to reciprocate? She gave me a hand-towel!! Does that happen in America? I don't think so, anyways.

See you in 6 days give or take.

After the earthquake...

2007-07-16T21:18:00.000+09:00

Hey this is just a quick update to let everyone know that everything is fine where I am. I felt the earthquake, the most intense one i've felt since i've been here. I've felt a lot of small ones, but with this one things in my room were shaking around a bit. It was a very slow kind of "chugging" feeling all around and it made me dizzy. Not to mention I stayed up all night drinking with some buddies in Tokyo.

No problems here though.

Full update soon.

and I'm 23 now.

Press Release

2007-07-11T16:21:00.001+09:00

Dated July 11, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

This notification is to confirm that, as of 7 PM on the tenth day of the seventh month of the year 2007, one Little Miss Manami bought a plane ticket to O'Hare International Airport. She will be with us August 13 through August 21, and therefore will be accounted for at one Miss Mom's 60th birthday extravagana*. Let's all be excited and looking forward to this monumental event.

*Please note, it's not really an extravaganza, but more of a family affair. This footnote provided in the event of any Mustique readers wondering if it's a huge party they weren't invited to. I assure you, it's not.

In other news (and in a less fabricated format), I have pictures from last weekend. So let's see em shall we?

Alright, Friday was my Saitama buddy Blair's birthday. Blair never drinks, EVER, he's never been drunk. Power to him. The reason I mention this is because, well, we didn't get drunk for his birthday. We went ramen eating and bowling!!

This was some of the best ramen I've had in Japan, seriously. It's ridiculous how good ramen is in japan, while in america, if an average person thinks of ramen, they think Cup O' Noodle (which, by the way is just called "Cup Noodle" in japan and has a ton more flavors, like curry). There's gotta be some money to be made in America with that, eh?

Okay, I lied, we drank a little bit. But check out the spectrum of Asahi you can buy. From small to big.

Then we did the bowling thing. But who wants to see pictures of that? NOT ME! Instead, look at how cool the bowling shoes in Japan are!

Of course, those are Manami's legs on the right, mine on the LEFT.

Here are my two buddies. Their names are dave and dave. Dave is from Canada and Dave is from England. You try and figure out which one is which. You'll notice that Dave is also modeling a small Asahi, in addition to the wonderfully named "Hope" cigarettes. Because we all know, tobacco and its associated poisons give everyone hope!

Fairly early night, next day came around, went shopping, spent too much money on two badASS t-shirts. Then Manami went off to a wedding party and I met up with my Shibuya friends Seth and Johann. Seth is a buddy from studying abroad last summer, while Johann is a Swedish lad who used to live at the same gaijin house as Seth when Seth came back this winter. Confusing? GOOD! We walked around a bit then Manami met up with us and we flew to America...see? look in the picture?

GOT YOU FUCKERS! They have wendey's in Japan too!

Then we went out. In Japan they have things called "tatsunomiya" which means "standing drinking places." They're bars with no seats. Everybody stands and they usually get crowded. The one we went to in particular is a gaijin-friendly standing bar. Do they have standing bars in America?? Can anyone help me out here?

Met some nice dudes from Zambia who were studying in Tokyo. English is their native language, and they were happy to communicate with other English speakers. They were big fans of Lucky Dube and Third World, so we had a little bit of a singing session. Good times.

Here's some Japanese dudes, me, Seth, and Johann. No story here really.

Here's Seth and Johann again with adorable, cute, drunk little Manami. How cute is that!?

And finally, a kick ass store I found recently has tons of t-shirts by the artist who does all the Ed Banger Records artwork, a man named So Me. In this store they have these awesome Daft Punk dolls. The guys who work there are really nice to talk to and were totally cool with my taking pictures.

That's all. See many of you 12 days!! Amy and Nikki, PLEASE BRING THE Nintendo Wii!!!!

Slackin' off.

2007-07-05T21:33:00.000+09:00

No pictures again. Been SERIOUSLY slacking in that department.

Can anyone tell me how old Billy's Boot Camp is? Random question right? Well, I ask because it is absolutely sweeping the nation of Japan right now. Manami has it, all my students joke about it, housewives talk about it like they're having an affair with the big beautiful black man. It's crazy. At least 3 years old right? It's kind of amazing though, because all they did was throw some Japanese subtitles on the pre-existing videos and the man has made millions more (i'm assuming) off the same core product. Makes me wish I could do something like that, but I'd rather not exert any energy into anything ever...though I do want to get me one of them Billy Bands to work my guns.

In other non-Japanese-but-in-Japan news, after years and years of wondering what those glorious restaurants seen in the ads of in-flight airplane magazines where beautiful Brazillian men bring huge slabs of meat on sticks to your table were like, I ate at one in Tokyo. Manami and I kinda splurged and hit Barbacoa Churrascuro (is that right?) in Aoyama, right off Omotesando which is like the um Champ-Elysses or Rodeo Drive or Michigan Ave or what have you of Tokyo. It was delicious. Seriously, it lived up to all my expectations and wasn't even that expensive. 4200 yen (about $40) for all-you-can-eat of various meats and a massive salad bar. Let's just say I took a huge poop a couple hours after that one. And again in the morning.

I'm leaving the country for a month in 17 days. Even though I was home in March, I'm soooo excited to see everyone and Leo...and Daft Punk....and Crowded House! And I'll be 23 by then. Fuck that, but what can you do?

See ya'll soon. Sorry this update sucked.

Cucumber cola.

2007-06-19T15:46:00.001+09:00

I decided that in this post, I'm not gonna tell you what I did the past fews days. Instead, I'm gonna tell you what I DIDNT do. And that's enjoy this:

Can you read that label? Yes, it says "Ice Cucumber Pepsi." The genius who thought this idea up had to be, well, probably Japanese. I can't imagine this will ever be released anywhere outside of Japan.

But perhaps I'm being too harsh on the drink. Yes, it's true that if you look in my refrigerator, you will find over half the bottle has been drunk. Well, that's because I woke up with a hangover on Sunday after a night of drinking with Manami, Seth, Johan from Sweden, and Hacchan at an all-you-can-drink izakaya. There was nothing else to drink in my refrigerator. I swear to god. And actually, the taste isn't as bad as you might think. However, what is bad is the aftertaste. One friend described it as "that vomit aftertaste." So, you get the idea, I think.

Still, I've had cucumber pepsi and you haven't.

Why it's labeled "Pepsi" is beyond me. I can't find much in common with it's cola forefather besides carbonation. In a way, it kinda tastes like melon, too. I don't know, I think the drink left me more confused than anything.

Jesus, I almost posted this blog without mentioning something. It came to my attention late last night that Manami and I were indeed both featured on Japanese television. Yes, I spoke Japanese on TV. Kinda crazy shit right? Sadly, neither of us were aware we were gonna be on tv and we both missed it. Apparently, a lot of people didn't miss it though, as many of Manami's friends told her about it and a bunch of my students and teachers saw it too. I think it was a big surprise for everyone. We are gonna try and get our hands on a tape of it, but right now the TV station hasn't responded to emails. Derp.

And finally, a little story. I started working part-time in my new city yesterday. I got around $45 for talking to a man about chicago and my life (in english) for an hour and then helping a woman use her computer. Pretty awesome, but that's not my story. This is about my language ability. So before starting my lessons, I met with my boss and her friend happened to be there. We chatted for a while (almost completely in Japanese), blah blah blah. Now some foreigners measure their Japanese ability by test-taking levels or amount of kanji they can read or whatever. I don't do this, cuz it's not that important (Ahem, I can read around 200 kanji on a good day). Anyways, I was able to explain that mom came to Japan and enjoyed the heated toilet seats so much that she bought one for our house in America when she got back. I thought it was cool that I could explain that. And that's my lame story.

Sorry.

Time flies after a 12 hour airplane....

2007-06-10T21:36:00.000+09:00

One year ago today, I landed in Japan knowing a very little amount of Japanese but knowing enough about the culture to annoy my friends with constant chatter about the place I wanted to visit so badly. A year later, I'm still here, but my Japanese still isn't all that good. Damn ridiculously difficult language.

I can't officially call this my one year anniversary though, because I was home from July 23 to August 30th. Still, I've spent the better part of the last year in this country, and had plenty of good times.

As some kind of celebration, I enjoyed my favorite meal this country has to offer- shabu-shabu. All-you-can-eat. It was good.

Nothing that noteworthy happened this weekend, save for the consumption of an excessive amount of alcohol and a bad hangover in front of 7 year-old children. Those are always the best kind. Oh yeah, and I saw "The Prestige." I had never heard of this movie before, but maybe that's because, well, I've been here for almost a year. It just came here, so we went and saw it, making it the first movie I've seen in a Japanese movie theater. The theater was very comfortable, by the way. Apparently, Japanese people sit in the theaters until the credits end, too. Culture shock, man.

Anyone see this movie? It's really good, I highly reccomend it. I thought it was a little weird that it opened with a director's note saying, "Please don't tell the ending of this movie to anyone." Just kinda weird, I think.

After a 6 year absence from the Japanese market, Burger King made its triumphant return to Japan this weekend. I wasn't in Shinjuku, where it opened on Friday, to eat it, but I will make a stop there as soon as possible. I'll probably take pictures, too. The burger on Japanese lips is the teriyaki whopper. I kinda wanna try it.

That's all for now. Sorry for the lack of pictures. It's your fault though for not commenting recently ;)

Fuji me??? FUJI Q!

2007-06-04T15:43:00.000+09:00

A mere weeks after one unfortunate woman in Osaka got her head severed as a result of a malfunctioning roller coaster, Manami and I decided it would be a kick ass idea to go to Fuji Q Highland, a theme park just minutes from the ever-glorious Mount Fuji. And it was good. This day, no one died. At least not at the theme park.

I'll start off by saying I rode what was probably the coolest roller coaster I've ever been on. It's called "Ee Ja Nai Ka," which I guess you can translate to "It's okay, isn't it?" or some people think more along the lines of "Ain't It Great?" Well whatever, either way this ride was nuts. The seats you sit in flip 360 degrees forward and backwards. So, for example, on the very first drop (which is almost completely straight down) you're at the top of the summit facing the sky, then you start going down the drop, your seat flips and you're staring straight down at the ground. Then take these same mechanics and imagine cork screws and loop-de-loops. It's pretty insane, intense, and I won't lie, it left me feeling dizzy. But it still kicked ass.

Marvel at the beast-

The glorious Mount Fuji-San-

Lunch at Japanese amusement parks? Either ramen or indian food. Manami stole my nan!

In Japan, you get a raincoat before going on water rides. Doesn't really make sense to me, because isn't the point of these rides to get wet? Well, whatever.

And of course, you can't visit a theme park without taking these kind of pictures. Here we established a pattern:
Manami being cute-

Ryan being gay-

Manami being cute-

Ryan being gay-

There were also other roller coasters like Dodonpa, which begins by propelling you at like 172 km/hour. Can anyone do the math into miles? Either way it's fast. Then there was Fujiyama, which I think until a couple years ago held the record for highest drop and fastest roller coaster.

We were walking around with a little extra time when some guy approached Manami and asked if she knew how to cook. We knew what that meant, because there was a little booth set up for shooting a TV show where a girl cooks and the people she's with taste the food and comment. After much convincing, Manami took the challenge and made some food that if I describe here, probably wont make sense. But it was black seaweed, konnyaku, and carrots....see? told you it wouldn't make sense. Then they asked me what I thought, I said it was okay. Cuz it was only okay :-P ...There's a chance we will be on TV in Japan, which would kick ass. Afterwards, I went to the bathroom and apparently some guy came up to Manami and said "you were just cooking right? you're boyfriend is soooo cool." I guess he's right, though.

Manami doing her best for the cameras-

Good times at FujiQ Highland, but to be honest, DisneySea was more fun. Got a couple more theme parks in Japan I want to visit.

Sunday, Manami, my buddy Dave, his girlfriend Maki, and I decided to have a picnic in Yono park, which is near my house. It was a good time, we had a ton of food, including sandwiches, karage (fried chicken, J style), sushi handrolls, a melon that wasn't ripe enough yet, and shoe cream (which is what the japanese call cream puffs). Sweet picnic food, and plenty, plenty of ants. After we ate, we played some Uno, threw a football, and then saw some high school kids having a water balloon fight. They let Dave and I join, and the wetness began. It was fun, man. I forgot how fun water balloon fights were, and it gave Manami and I an idea to arrange a big water balloon fight with our friends at Yoyogi Koen. We'll see if it happens. It's in the planning stages, so be excited for that one, blog friends. Picture time!

I've talked about how people love their dogs in Japan, right? Here's a couple feeding their dog water from what looks like a baby bottle-

Home for a month in 45 days. Cheers to that.

Ryan being gay-

I miss Jordy...

2007-05-30T18:55:00.000+09:00

He was a great dog, wasn't he? Can I get a witness.

Yesterday, I headed to Ikebukuro (29 minutes by train, the closest of the "central" Tokyo areas for me) to meet up with Manami, when it turned into a much bigger afair. Something like a reunion from studying abroad this summer, though not really. Specifically, it was myself, manami, suzuki (red-haired half-japanese kid), his girlfriend erika, paul, will who i hadn't seen since last summer, will's dad and will's dad's friend. Wow!

I played host, if you will, and decided we'd go eat all-you-can-eat yakiniku. Remember what yakiniku is? Maybe I should give a test and see how all my sweet readers' Japanese is coming. If you don't remember, yakiniku literally means "cooked meat" and you sit at the table with a grill in the middle of you and grill up raw meat and maybe some veggies. The fun part is guessing exactly what part of the cow/chicken/pig you're eating.

I don't have any pictures, but someone took some. So I'll steal them from them whenever I get my greasy niku fingers on them.

I spent too much money the other day on a new t-shirt and some board shorts. Ran me around $150. I'm pretty ridiculous aren't I?

This weekend I'm going to FujiQ Highland, a big yuuenchi (amusement park) with lots of roller coaster and the like. Expect pictures. Here's something funny. They don't call roller coasters "roller coasters" in japan, I think because that would just be way to hard for their tongues to pronounce. Instead they're called "jetto kosutas" or, if you will, jet coasters. Fair enough.

That's all folks. See, I'm trying to update more...Isn't that sweet of me?? This blog contained two "if you will"s.

I call this post: Crowds.

2007-05-24T08:14:00.000+09:00

As for the artsy title, you'll see in a minute. As for never updating this blog, I'm sorry! Is it just me or has half of this blog turned into me apologizing for slow updates?? I'm sorry! You see, people, I like to give you quality photographs in these blogs and not just text updates. At the same time, the process of getting the pictures from my camera to this blog takes a long effing time, and I have not such patience. Anyhoo, I'll quit with the excuses and get on with an update of my so called Japan life.

So, it's thursday. Not much has happened since last weekend, so I'll write about that. Last weekend was pretty fun, from what I remember. Friday, I met up with my buddy Paul. He's a guy that I met last summer. Good guy, knows as much about music as let's say...me. He's here on an internship and I met some of his buddies. Manami, Hacchan, and I got together with them, got some dinner, and proceeded to get piss ass drunk at some random karaoke joint. 1000 yen for an hour of karaoke and all-you-can-drink. That is an amazing, amazing deal for Tokyo (again 1000 yen is just under $10).

I'll be honest, I did most of the singing. Or should I say, "singing" cuz my voice sucks. The list that I remember is as follows:

Technologic- Daft Punk
Digital Love- Daft Punk
Surrender- Cheap Trick (gotta represent the hometown)
More Than a Feeling- Boston
Cherry- Yui (had to do at least one Japanese song, ya know)
One Way Ticket to Hell and Back- The Darkness
Roundabout- Yes (let's say about 6 of the 9 full minutes)
True Faith- New Order
Sweet Child O' Mine- Guns N Roses

Trying to remember the rest of the songs hurts my head, so I'm gonna stop there. That's a pretty sweet karaoke setlist though, right? Here's some pictures of that fateful night.

Most of the group:

In the next picture, I'd like to draw your attention to two things- 1) My kick ass shirt. 2) Hacchan's face. This is how red a Japanese person's face gets after 3, maybe 4 drinks. (Okay, not all Japanese people, but she's MAYBE 4"10' tall. Hilarious). Finally, I'd like to draw your attention AWAY FROM- my face. I'm not sure what the hell i'm doing.

Okay, now I'm gonna get all Quentin Tarantino on your ass and jump around in time. Taking you back to THURSDAY. So, I met up with Manami, Erisa, their gaijin friend Sarah, her boyfriend who was very quiet and weird, and more importantly, John Suzuki, my red-haired half-japanese half-irish friend I met last summer, and his girl Erika (also half Japanese...so if they had a kid, the child would STILL be half-japanese...weird right?). Anyhoo, we all met up in Shinjuku and went to a sweet looking place called the Christon Cafe. This is essentially a blasphemous-as-hell izakaya (we all remember what that is right? essentially a dining bar that reinforces the "in-group" society that is Japan) with awesome decorations including a replica of the Sisteen Chapel (weird I think that's the second reference to Michaelangelo since my last post).

That description was long-winded and wandering as hell. Anyways, this was a cool place and the food was really good, albeit small and a little pricey. Here's pictures, including one where I look weird again.

And now, we're gonna hop on over to Saturday. See? Today's entry is nothing short of Pulp Fiction in blog form. Is anyone getting the reference?

Saturday was the 2nd of 3 days of the Sanja Matsuri, one of the three biggest celebrations in Tokyo since Tokyo was founded as the Capitol of Japan. Needless to say, it was PACKED. Packed packed packed. Two million people or so packed. Not that much to say about the festival, but it was fun, and Manami and I ate a helluva lot of food. Or at least I did.

The following picture shows you something called yatai. These are food (and game) stands set up for festivals and other various types of celebrations. I guess many of them are connected to yakuza and run by sketchy sketchy looking people, but the food they serve is honestly some of my favorite in Japan. Jagabata (mentioned a long time ago, this is really soft potatoes with a mountain of butter, plus your choice of things like miso paste, pickled vegetables, corn, etc). Honestly, one of the best foods you can eat in Japan. And my students always get a kick when I tell them it's one of my favorite foods.

After that, we met up with my buddy Shaun. He's pretty cool, but wear's some of the tightest clothes I've ever seen and LOVES talking about himself. We went to the Jamaica festival in Yoyogi park, which I thought would be really cool, but turned out to be sorta lame. There weren't any reggae bands as I expected, and the DJs spinning music thought reggae meant shit that was closer to hip-hop (read: Ne-Yo and shit like that). Regardless, the 500 yen jerk chicken was pretty good.

Obligatory picture-

Finally, on the way home, we hit the most crowded train I think i've been on the whole time i've been in Japan. Now, I know Japan has a reputation for having a ridiculously crowded transportation system. But honestly, it's not that bad so long as you don't have to ride during morning and after-work rush hours. However, if trains are delayed for reasons like someone committing suicide or malfunction, be prepared for a ridiculously hot, sweaty, and dare i say sexy ride home. I'm not sure why my train was delayed this time, but it was packed. So, here's some shots of that.

Boarding the train-

Inside-

This picture came out really cool I think, and I think gives the kinda cramped feeling of what it was like to be inside the train. Sorry to get all artsy on you.

That's all. Hope it was worth the wait. As usualy, I will TRY TRY TRY to post more often. Love you all. Can't wait to see you, the majority of the people who read this blog, at home in July and August!!!

-ryan

Kansai shiet.

2007-05-08T17:40:00.000+09:00

So last week was Golden Week, a string of holidays that allows for Japanese people to take some time away from their never-ending working schedule. Manami and I seized the opportunity to visit Kyoto and at the last minute, decided to spend a day in Osaka. SAWEEET. Kyoto = historical Japan, Osaka = loud, food and beer-loving, neon, crazy clothed Japan. I'm not sure which I like more. Maybe a combination of both.

Kyoto is a kick ass city and here's why. Throughout the town are some of the oldest remaining places you'll find in Japan. Like over 1000 years old. That's cool right there. Then the downtown area is absolutely beautiful. There's tons of bars and restaurants, and there's a big river that slices right through the middle of the city. All the young people sit along the water, talking, drinking, enjoying outside, and everyone knows how to play guitar and sing in perfect harmony.

I'll let the pictures do the talking. Captions for pictures that need em.

First stop was kinkakuji, a temple that is coated in real gold.

Probably my favorite place- the second place we went to. It had a zen garden, a huge japanese garden, and temples.

Blurry picture, because you're not actually allowed to take pictures. But, this is a dragon on the ceiling. This guy outdid Michaelangelo by several hundred years. The dragon is the guardian of Buddhism. Buddha hates me for taking this one.

Speaking of buddha, this ain't no regular buddha. This be brotha buddha. Word!

This is the house of 1001 awesome Buddha statues and 28 buddha god statues. This place was awesome, I wish I could show you the inside, but I can't. Seriously badass though.

A famous place on the water to hang out in the day. Can't remember the name.

Kyoto by night.

Manami and one of her Kyoto friends outside Kyoto's HUB

Okay, quick filler here. The deal with The Hub is this. They are English style pubs spread out all over Japan, but highly concentrated in Kanto (the area where I live). I've made it a mission to visit as many of these bars as I can, because pub-style bars are RARE in Japan. Most people prefer to drink in izakaya, which sucks, because izakaya are antisocial if you're not already in a group. So, I like this place. Even though it's kinda costly.

A cigarette-smoking samurai and myself.

Goji, the tallest pagoda in Japan.

Which way?!?!

Osaka by day and night.

Sweet English.

Hub Osaka.

Finally, ALMOST everything we ate.

This is domestic-raised, wagyu beef carpaccio. DELICIOUS.

And finally, just giving the little guy some help.

I have a lot more pictures from the trip, but these were some of my favorites. Hope you enjoyed.

Random things.

2007-04-26T21:01:00.000+09:00

I fell of my bike yesterday. Got some bruises, but nothing too bad. It was more embarrassing than anything, because I stopped traffic and I had garbage in my basket thing that I had to pick up. Stupid rain.

People sometimes ask me for certain cultural differences that I notice in Japanese society. These kinds of questions always get me thinking too hard, and usually I respond with a "I dunno, give me another drink" or something to that effect. I mean I think a lot of the differences are obvious. Like most people already know that Japanese people often take food to an art form, or mix their "l" and "r" sounds up a lot. And most people know that's really funny. But i'm always thinking to myself, what ARE some interesting cultural differences?

Well, here's one I like a lot. Whenever Japanese people bend over to pick something up, or sit down heavily to relax, or do another motion that in American (and perhaps Western) society would otherwise warrant a heavy sigh or a slight noise from the back of the throat, Japanese people actually say something. They make a completely audible utterance. It's kinda hard to type, but it's something like "ee-show" (or "ee-shou," long 'o' sound). It's actually pretty funny to hear, and I like to do it now, too. It's more fun than just sighing. EESHOOO!!

How's that for a difference?

Last weekend, I found the king of all kaiten-zushi places. These are the restaurants where sushi comes out on a conveyor belt. It's about a 20 minute bike ride from my house, but it's so worth it. They have a norway roll, which is like salmon-wrapped california roll, for 250 yen. Cheap cheap. They even have fried fugu, the poisonous blowfish that I still haven't grown the balls to try.

Yesterday, I ate at Hard Rock Cafe. Manami, Erisa, and I celebrated Erisa's birthday and indulged in American food. This was the 3rd Hard Rock that I've been to in Japan. Kinda sad right? No, it's not. Fuck you.

My new job is pretty sweet. I do one week in Junior High, then one week Elementary. Back and forth, back and forth. It's nice, cuz i'm never in the same place too long, but I still have the chance to get to know the kids. What else is different, though, is that in JHS, i'm much more of a real teacher than last year. I have my own class, I am the teacher. I have an assisstant to help translate necessary things in Japanese (I'm allowed to use *NO* Japanese in class, but can talk to the kids outside of class in whatever language I want. Make sense?), but other than that, I am the teacher. In Elementary, however, I'm the assisstant, and do far less teaching than I did last year. It's weird, but I think I like the system more. And every other Wednesday, I can sleep in. Boh!

I'm going to Kyoto next week for Golden Week. Golden Week is a string of holidays where everyone in Japan gets off. Ooh that sounds nastay! I meant gets off work. So, Kyoto will probably be packed, but I should have some sweet sweet pictures. For those unfamiliar, Kyoto was the old capitol of Japan before Tokyo. It wasn't damaged in any wars (as was much of the area I am in), and it's also not seismically active (no earthquakes), so there are a lot of old shrines that date back to like year 1000 and stuff like that. Maybe older. Should be awesome. That, and we made a reservation for a wagyuu tabehoudai shabu-shabu place (that means all-you-can-eat, awesome domestic kobe-beef-like shabu shabu restaurant). It's totally gonna kick ass. Splurging time.

Another cultural difference? They appreciate toilets that squirt water up your butt. This might be common knowledge, let me know.

Lates!

AAAAAND I'm back!

2007-04-16T17:56:00.000+09:00

Okay! Here it is people. The first real blog update in just under a month. Holy crap!

Well, first of all, I went home for a week and had an absolute blast. Manami came with me, and I would say, save for a couple of hangovers, we really made the most out of the short time we had there. We hit up Chicago for 3 days and 2 nights, sang Karaoke twice, and ate Japanese food THREE TIMES! Oh, the irony. Here are some Rockford/Chicago shots, kept to a minimum, because this is a Japan blog after all.

First off, Manami after her first night out in Rockford. Lookin' good girl!!

Just in case anyone was worried, you can stop now. Daisy is still as cute as ever.

The difference between karaoke at 2:45 in the afternoon....

and 2:45 in the AM....

No idea who that guy is.

Got to catch the re-vamped HEY CHAMP at the empty bottle in chicago. Good show jonathan, saam. Aaron and Tim came all the way to Madison, too, which was a welcome surprise. So welcome that I spilled my whiskey everywhere whilst hugging them.

Just three guys enjoying their Tapioca Milk Tea. Is there anything wrong with that? Chris obviously doesn't think so!

And finally, an adorable picture of some of the family, some of the almost-family, and the Leo baby is in there too.

Time at home came to an end much too soon, but made me all the more happy to have something to look forward to returning to during summer break. Back in Japan, as if it wasn't enough seeing Tim in Chicago, he came to Japan!! He actually got there a day or two before me, that crazy bastard. But we met up as soon as possible and painted the town of Tokyo (and Kashiwa) red...and yellowish/brown or whatever you call the color of beer.

Really though, his timing couldn't have been more perfect, because I had a week with nothing to do and it was the glorious week of hanami. Hanami literally means flower view/watch/see, and is basically an excuse for Japanese people to sit outside under the beautiful sakura trees (cherry blossoms) and GET WASTED! Though I had some meetings and stuff to prepare for my new job, Tim and I raged pretty fairly hard. Here we are starting the night off right. At 5 in the afternoon at Yoyogi park. Aren't we cute?

I dunno, the time we spent together in Tokyo is a bit of a blur so I don't think I can do these pictures in chronological order. But we made friends wherever we went. One day, we went to Ueno, home of the massive and sprawling Ueno Koen (park), a key spot for hanami. But first, we had to eat TGI Fridays. We couldn't decide on anything else to eat so we decided to give it a try. Our waitress, who's name we found out was Azuki, was really nice and spoke pretty good English. We made great friends and took a picture with her. Look at all that flare! She definitely did not have a case of the Mondays (name the reference).

Then we hit up the park. With drinks. We met some people who were doing the ol' hanami. A big group of hotel employees, so they could all speak a little English. They fed us wine, and tried to give us sake, but as soon as the guy stood up, he dropped the unopened bottle, broke it, sent glass and sake everywhere, and proceeded to yell "JAPAN!! JAPAN!!" Good people though!

Of all the people we met that day, this guy had to have been the coolest, nicest, most down-to-earth person ever.

One day, I dragged Tim to Kashiwa because I didn't really feel like making the trek to tokyo. Sorry Tim. You're a better man for it though. We got sushi and ate whale. It was the first time I ate whale. It was okay, kinda just tasted like tuna, though, except with a little more controversy. Then we pounded whiskey, went to Hub (a chain of gaijin-friendly English-style pub bars all over Tokyo) and met these guys.

Then we ran into some poor bastard who was running for some sort of government position. Tim and I figured we'd play the stupid foreigners and ask to take a picture with him. He obliged, but I think he regretted it. Now, I don't really remember whether I did or not, but if you look closely at this picture, I'm pretty sure my tongue is making contact with his ear. Yum. Mom's gonna yell at me for this one. Sorry mom!!

On Tim's last night, we decided to hit up Shibuya. Manami invited her friends Hacchan and Erisa. Hacchan is all of 4 and a half feet tall and just absolutely adorable. We ate dinner at Kushiage Monogatari, the restaurant where you maybe remember (but probably dont) me writing about grease flying in my face and burning my skin. So why not go there again? Regardless, the place was delicious and the times were good.

After that we went to a Hub, then a club with my buddy Shawn. He's kinda emo but a cool guy. Then the night turned into a mess. Tim and I totally lost each other, no idae where he ended up. I had to stay up to catch the first train home at 530 AM to Manami's blah blah blah. Still it was fun. I think Tim is still recovering.

That brings us to last Sunday. Manami and I decided to go do a hanami on our own and eat all the delicious food Japan has to offer during the season. Jagabata, kushiniku, takoyaki, etc, etc. Yum it's so good! Here's an adorable, framable picture of us under the sakura. Followed by just me. KING OF SAKURA!

Then work started, but I still didn't have a home!! I crashed at Manami's until Thursday, when I could move into my new apartment. Commuting in Japan sucks and I'm glad I don't have to do it anymore. The trains were freaking packed those mornings. Still, Manami's parents kick fucking ass for letting me stay there that long. And her mom makes good food, too.

I now live in Saitama City, Saitama, which is a "sleeper community" sort of. That means in its city limits resides many many people who commute to Tokyo for work everyday and night. It's only about 30 minutes from Ikebukuro, the northern part of Tokyo, which is very convenient for everyone. I live near Saitama University so there are all sorts of young hipsters on bikes around my apartment. It's nice to see some life around me all the time. My apartment is pretty much exactly the same, if not a little smaller, than last year's apartment, because it's owned by the same company. My location is great though, like 5 minutes on bike to the station and lots of restaurants around. It should be a good year.

Additionally, my new schools seem great. I only go to 1 junior high and 2 elementary schools this year, so hopefully I'll get to know my kids much better than last year. This year is different though, and a bit more nerve-wracking, because I will be teaching by myself. I am like another teacher at the JHS. It's an "eikaiwa" or English Conversation class. Luckily, I have a book that outlines the whole curriculum in lesson plan format, but still, it might be a bit more difficult than last year. Ganbatte ryan!

I can't really think of what else I have to say, but I know there's other stuff. Um, I'm still spending too much money on shoes and clothes, but it's okay, cuz I make my own money now :-D

Yep, that's all for now. Leave me comments bietches. Miss you all, much love.
-ryan

Do you still read this??

2007-04-12T21:24:00.002+09:00

I hope you do, because I PROOOMISE I will give you a nice sexy update soon with lots of pictures.

I've been homeless since I got back to Japan, I'm serious, but I just moved into my new place in SAITAMA. Please stick it out a day or two more and I'll hook you up like a drug dealer.

Love love love,
-me

What's with the Mustique crowd being on facebook? You guyz is crazy, and I love it.

Tears, Buddhas, and International Mayhem.

2007-03-20T21:40:00.000+09:00

(Note: Because there's a lot of pictures, and they're big files, I compressed them to a small size. So if you're interested in the details, click the pictures to enlarge them. Nerd nerd nerd nerd!)

Welcome to what I'm thinking will be the last blog of my life in Tsuchiura, Ibaraki. It's been a good time, but it's time to move on to bigger cities, closer to Tokyo, and more money. By that I mean Saitama. But first, I'll be coming home for a week to see all of you!

So, last week was graduation for the 3rd graders (as in the 15 year olds moving on to high school). The shotsugyoushiki (or in english- graduation ceremony) was one of the most moving things I've ever seen. See, in Japan, it's much more socially "acceptable" for boys to cry. Needless to say, everyone, teachers, parents, students, graduating and younger alike, boys and girls, were crying. It was so sad and nice at the same time. The 2nd graders sang a kind of goodbye song to the 3rd graders and this was when the heart strings really felt the tugging. It was a beautiful experience though, and I don't think i'll ever forget it. Unless I start taking some crazy drugs. Here's some pictures. Very formal, right? The women teachers of the graduating students wore kimonos too, which was kinda cool.

Receiving the diploma-thingy.

After the ceremony, everyone goes outside to say goodbye to the students, but the mood was much happier and light-hearted. I was pretty popular out here, and took a picture with a bunch of the kids. Here's me with some of my favorite students, especially the punk-rock-loving boy to my right, and the two girls to my left. Funny girls that I passed a lot of time with during the cleaning time when students and english teacher alike didn't want to clean.

Then the weekend came. And it came hard. All over the place. After work, Friday, I headed into Tokyo for the international lineup of a lifetime. There was me, Hoko and Ayumi of Japan, Andrea and Tatiana of Switzerland, and Suzuki and Erika of half-Japanese half-other decent. We hit up MoMo Paradise first, for some always excited all-you-can-eat shabu-shabu accompanied by all-you-can-drink. Let the fun begin.

It was at the end of the meal when Tatiana pulled out something magical from her purse. For 500 yen, she found portable iPod speakers, and my night was officially made. Here's a picture of a few of us in the subway heading to Roppongi for some partying. I'm holding the speakers and jamming to Daft Punk or Justice. Pretty sure I was rocking it on the train and maybe annoying a couple salarymen here or there. It's okay though, Friday night in Tokyo and that can be tolerated from badass foreigners like myself.

Some other people have better pictures documenting this part of the night. But let's just say, things went downhill fast.

Tatiana and Andrea were kick-ass enough to let me sleep at their hotel in Shinjuku, so we went back and I crashed hard. Then I had to wake up early as balls to make it to Manami's graduation. I'm a sweet boyfriend aren't I? Even though I was hungover as all hell, it was cool being a foreigner in the midst of an almost entirely female student body, all wearing kimonos, and many of which were English majors. Heh heh heh heh. Her school is near Tokyo University, the best school in all of Asia, so we went and checked it out. Here's the famous red gates marking the entrance to campus.

Looked like a nice school.

To end the weekend, Manami and I did something that was on my list of things I must do before leaving Tsuchiura. Good timing. Ya see, just 2 train stops away from me is THE WORLD'S BIGGEST STATUE IN THE WORLD ON THE EARTH. It's a free-standing Buddha that I can see from my school, but had never seen up close. This thing is MASSIVE and towers over everything. It's 2.5 times as big as the Statue of Liberty and I think 3 times the volume. It's actually kind of haunting. Not to mention the statue is standing over a sprawling Buddhist cemetary. Here's some pictures, including Manami and my best impressions of the Enlightened One. Are we gonna go to hell for that one?

And finally, the last poker night in Tsuchiura. I only lost 80 yen. Not bad. I'm gonna miss the weekly poker games for sure.

SEE YOU SOON EVERYONE!!

Better late than never.

2007-03-08T20:36:00.000+09:00

So this past week, one of my fondest memories from the first time I came to Japan was relived. Yes, McDonalds brought back the teritama sandwich. What's that you ask? It's a teriyaki-battered burger with a fried egg mcmuffin-style egg on it. Fuck it's good. I took a picture of it, but the picture didn't do it justice, so I feel I shouldn't put it here.

This past weekend kicked ass. Why? One word, or name actually. TATS!

Yes, Tatiana (of Mustique fame) is in Tokyo, so we hung out all night Friday. All freakin' night. We hit da clubbbbz. Club Yellow to be exact. Here's some pictures!

What can I say...I show up to the club, the ladies flock to me. Here's Manami, Erisa, and Tat's friends. I can't remember their names though....I wonder why....(Hint- alcohol.)

Word.

Ended up getting home at 7:30 or so in the morning. Here's the aftermath of clubbing in Tokyo. Thank Manami for this one. This was on the train home.

Saturday- sleep and dinner at Aoi, the awesome teppanyaki place near my house.
Sunday- BLOC PARTY! Yes, Bloc Party was in Tokyo and they totally kicked ass. Before heading to the show, Manami and I hit up Shibuya and Daikanyama (a hipster shopping area with like 4 Evisu stores and lots of European-style cafes and roads). Here's a shot from the main intersection of Shibuya. Cute right?

Bloc Party doing what they do, sold out in Tokyo.

11 days already?? my bad.

2007-02-26T18:29:00.000+09:00

After a busy effing week going to Tokyo for interviews, including one day with two freaking interviews in one night, I had a relaxing and totally kick ass weekend. Here we go.

Friday, I was thinking about going clubbing in Tokyo but then started getting a little sick and the weather sucked, so I decided to take it easy with Manami. Met up with her in Kashiwa, where we ate at the always-delicious 500 yen pasta place. Then we went to her house in Umesato.

Woke up early and headed to Yokohama, the second biggest city in Japan. I went to Yokohama last summer but only during the night when it was really crowded for fireworks. It was cool spending the day there. First, we hit up Chugakugai or "China Town." It's famous for being Japan's biggest China Town as well as one of the biggest CTs in the world. Here's a picture of Manami in front of one of the gates, that I guess was built in the early 1800s.

Here's a picture of the building we ate in. It's called a "Food Amusement Park," but really is just a food court specializing in Chinese food. You could eat things like scorpions and drink lizard alcohol, but we decided to stick with fairly normal food.

Lunch.

While it was a cool change eating something different and being touristy with Japanese tourists, i'm gonna say I like japanese food way more than chinese.

While we were in China Town, we had a little plastic surgery done. Here's what Manami and I look like now.

It was a cold and really windy day in Yokohama, but we made the trek to Minato Mirai, which means "port of the future." Yokohama was one of the first ports open to foreign trade, which is one of the reasons the city is so big. Minato Mirai has the country's largest building, a massive ferris wheel, and lots of shopping. Here's a city scape.

We shopped pretty hard. Here's the Modern Amusement shirt I bought.

Isn't that a nice shirt????

Next, we rode the huge ferris wheel, which apparently doubles as the largest clock in the world. That is to say, there's 60 cars on the ferris wheel, each one representing the second hand on a clock, so, it's a huge clock.

Here's the largest building in Japan as seen from the ferris wheel. I can't say I wasn't kiiinda scared on the wheel. It was windy as fuck.

Aren't we cute?

Next, we found another huge shopping mall and got dinner. We found a kick-ass restaurant called "American House" and proceeded to pig out like Americans. Here's the pizza we ordered. BBQ Chicken and hands down the best pizza I've had in Japan.

Besides that, we had calimari (any help spelling that), gumbo appetizer, and chicken fajitas. Seriously kick ass food.

With that, we called it a night and went back to Manami's house. Sunday night, we relaxed, walked the dogs (Manami got a new chihuahua, and though i've never found these dogs that cute, hers is very nice and cute), and then went to the renowned "White Gyoza." It was fun. This place is like an In N Out Burger in Japan. That is to say, the only food menu on the item is white gyoza. Shit's good though, and was delicious with beer. Here's a picture.

Yeah, I ate a shitload this weekend, and my gut proves it. But that's okay. I hope you all still love me. And with that, I'm out.

Oh yeah- Courtney, good to hear you'll be home. Let's party!

Rx Bandits at Bonaroo...Makes me wonder what I'm doing in Japan.

2007-02-15T15:26:00.000+09:00

The other day I had dinner at Manami's aunt and uncle's place in Tokyo. We ate delicious yakiniku and nikujaga. I love that Japanese people love feeding foreigners till they're about to burst. Score one for being foreign. Anyways, her uncle and I once shared a connection over classic rock, so he had 80s pop playing on iTunes radio. We're sitting there enjoying our dinner when what comes on? "Turning Japanese." The irony was thick and I savored the moment, but no one at the table had ever heard the song. Weird, right? The night finished as many nights in Japan end- with the family all busting out their Nintendo DS Lites and challenging each other.

On a related note, "Mr. Roboto," which in case you don't know, prominently features the lyric "domo arigato," is as unknown to Japanese as enka is to Americans.

Enka sucks, by the way. I've met a couple Japapnese people not too much older than me at bars who tell me they are into enka. It's at this point I either a) make fun of them or b) walk away. Enka is kinda like older-people pop music. Heavily influenced from Japanese traditional folk music, it was the country's pop music before the mid 80s or so, when J-Pop started taking over. Anytime there's an instrumental break in enka songs, everyone claps. It's ridiculous I TELLZ YA!

Today, I worked elementary school. It was easy. The first period the kids asked me questions for literall 35 of the 45 minutes. Some funnier questions that I've never been asked before like "what's your favorite dinosaur" (but dammit, I forget how to say dinosaur now) and "why is your favorite color green." It was also the first time someone guessed my age correctly on the first try. It's not unusual for the kids to guess i'm in my late 30s or early 40s.

I will be home in Rockford from March 23 until March 30th. Manami's coming with me. We bought the tickets today. Arrange your flights to Rockford now.

Ketchup.

2007-02-08T16:50:00.000+09:00

Okay so there's not that much to report but a funny thing happened today at school. A little warning- this post is about to get dirty.

6th period I had extra-curricular English, which is when the good kids study and ask me questions about English, and the bad kids slack off, talk, and ask me questions about...well English. Except a different kind of English.

So today, there's this South Park loving group of about 4 or 5 3rd grade kids that i'm talking to...whatever. Then somehow the conversation turns into them asking me how to say "manko" in English. "Manko" is basically like the worst word you can say for "vagina," so even though I can think of worse, I tell them "pussy." Flash forward about 10 minutes later, and there are literally around 10 kids running up to me saying "OPEN THE PUSSY!!! OPEN THE PUSSY!!"

That's my story. One day I might get in trouble. But fear not, anyone who's worried about me keeping my job. Japanese people are much more open to that kind of talk in a public school than their American counterpart.

Other than that, this weekend I raged in Tsukuba with Nam and Mike, two JETs in the area. And man did we rage. I got some good drunken Japanese practice in there, and that was fun. Saturday I was exhausted, but managed to make the poker game, and WIN IT! Boo-yah!

Now it's Thursday, pretty standard week. Manami gets back from America tomorrow so that kicks ass. Had an interview in Tokyo that I think went fairly well. A couple more interviews coming up.

That's all for now. And i'm out. Sorry about slacking on the pictures front, as usual.

The weekend and then some.

2007-01-29T22:32:00.000+09:00

Let's start from Thursday.

I had an interview with a company who's name I forget, just because I want to keep my options open as far as living in Japan and such. Needless to say, the interview went really well (knock on wood) and one of the two woman who interviewed me kept talking to her friend about how cute I was. She was in her mid 50s probably, nice lady, and I don't think she realized I could understand her Japanese. But I could....bitch.

After the interview, I was in a happy mood. I then met up with Hoko who I hadn't seen since like November or something. We went to Ikebukuro (again) and ate dinner at MoMo Paradise (again...all-you-can-eat sukiyaki or shabu shabu...we shabu shabuded). This time, though, we also opted for the all-you-can-drink. Well let's just say I drank-all-I-could! AND HERE'S PROOF!

I think we all know what happens when I drink- I TRY AND TAKE PICTURES WITH PEOPLE I DON'T KNOW! It's the same deal in Japan!!

And here was my failed attempt to get a picture with some J punk girls on the train. Also in this picture, you can notice how terrible I am at tying my tie. I have 20 years of mom and dad tying my tie to thank for that one :-P

After some running around Ikebukuro, I went home. It was a fun night, until I woke up still drunk and had to be at work. Poor Japanese students of mine.

Anyhoo! After work Friday, Manami came to town and we ate at the always delicious Aoi (teppanyaki). We've eaten there so much that the next time we go, we get 1000 yen off. Solid!

Saturday, Manami was working, so I hooked up with a gaijin buddy of mine I met a couple weeks ago. He is exactly like Paul Bouegois, in case anyone who is reading this knows who that is. So somehow, the guy knew about a punk/hardcore show going on in Ushiku, so I thought I'd check it out with him. It was fun, small little "raibu hausu" (live house) with like 6 bands, cheap beer, and I had my first green experience whilst in Japan. I'm talking about these crazy green limes I ate....yeah, that's it!

Cause Punk Revolution!

Sunday I headed to Chiba to hang out at Manami's house because it was her last day in the country for about two weeks. She's in LA now, which kinda sucks, but is okay so long as she's safe and having fun.

And finally- a picture of a giant stick of pocky. It's hard to tell the size of it, but the box they come in is the size of a ceral box. Woah.

Oh, and for dear, sweet, delicious Venetia- Here is everything you could possibly need to know about the past, present, and future of the derrogatory term that is "Kurisumasu keeki." (Click that)

Cool shogakko

2007-01-23T15:29:00.000+09:00

Today, I had elementary school (shogakko). It was a school I'd never been to and it was totally cool. Not only was it a fun lesson to teach, but the school had several kids who were from different countries. For lunch, I happened to be sitting with a boy who was half Brazilian, half Japanese and he could barely understand/speak Japanese. That was a trip. In addition, I was sitting with a girl who was half Japanese, a quarter Filipino, and a quarter Spanish. She could speak Japanese, Spanish, English, and Tagalog. It was the first time I had a conversation that I could really call "interesting" at an elementary school.

On top of that, the one class I had after lunch had a girl who was from the English speaking part of the Phillipines. She was fluent in both English and Japanese. I said "Sorry, this lesson must be pretty easy right," and she was all "Yeah, but that's okay." Cool shit though, first time that's happened.

And that's it. Back to watching stump porn....I mean, I'm going for a run, because I'm trying to get back into a running routine.

If you don't get the stump porn joke....don't ask....or maybe you should....

A little bit of dat action...

2007-01-22T17:38:00.000+09:00

Okay, before an update...let me just say WOOOOFUCKINGHOOO!!! Why? Courtney, Gerry, Wade, Amy, listen up- CROWDED HOUSE IS REFORMING!!!!! It's possible i'm a little more excited about this than you guys, but still, FUCK YEAH!! Apparently they've got a new drummer (their original, who was pretty damn good, hung himself in 2005, RIP), and their first show is at Coachella this year (a huge, ecclectic festival in California every year)...followed by a new album and world tour. Cream dream supreme!

Anyways, here I am with my second update post-Mustique. A disclaimer right now- i've been slacking on the picture front, but will do my best to find cool things to take pictures of as soon as possible. Alas, no pictures in this update.

To be honest, there isn't all that much to write about. I went to Tokyo last week and hit the club scene hard again with the same dudes as last weekend. My friend Seth left Japan to go back to school, but his friends who are Swedish, French, and American gave me their contacts cuz they want to rage Tokyo some more with my sweet ass. Not to mention I always have the cute Japanese girls with me :-P

Saturday I had an epic dinner courtesy of Manami's mom featuring nikujyaga (meat and potato a la Japan), some fish, some soup, mochi, and rice. It was delicious, but don't worry mom, I miss your crawfish etouffe like no other. Mrs. Sawada also cut my hair. It's short but not too short. She's a beautician so she did a pretty good job, even though my hair is very non-Japanese.

All's well at san-chu, my school, too. I had a meeting today with Heart (my company that places me in the school) because of my low evaluation score from last semester. The nice people at Heart, having just come from yon-chu, were shocked by Tachihara-sensei's evaluation of me and pretty much told me to ignore any kind of feedback she gave me. The people at san-chu had nothing but good things to say about me, which reinforces my opinion that Tachihara-sensei is the biggest bitch of a whore in this country. Actually, the guy from Heart rationalized that she is going through her "big change" that happens in middle age. Hmm, possibly. She's still a bitch.

Oh yeah, this weekend I received my January paycheck which was accompanied by a PHAT tax refund. Needless to say, I blew much of it on a way overpriced, but totally kick-ass Evisu 3/4 shirt and alcohol. That's how I roll.

What else can I mention...Umm, toilets in Japan have a "big flush" and a "small flush." I'm sure you can figure out why. Somewhat related, the toilet in the teacher's bathroom at san-chu BLOWS. At yon-chu they had one of the nice heated toilets where water squirts up your anus hole, but at san-chu, the toilet seat doesn't even stay on. It's dangerous I tellz ya.

That's all for now. Miss you all very much and much love.

Oh Mustique...and more.

2007-01-14T15:12:00.000+09:00

This blog should have been posted days ago, but blogger.com wasn't working with me...so here it is.

I'm writing this entry at school right now. I decided to bring my laptop to school so I could stay connected ALWAYS. Unfortunately, I can only do chat; browsing the internet doesn't work. So, I'm writing this in a word processor, and will upload it when I get home.

Enough nerd talk. What's up, mother fuckers! I'm back from Mustique, after what was probably the most kick ass year in Mustique (except the lack of Lucy Fenn), albeit my shortest one. Measuring in at 13 days, I managed to party hard every night but one or two (blame that on the jetlag) until about 4:30 in the AM AT LEAST! I love Japan, but i'd be a lying sack of shit if I said I don't miss Mustique.

But alas, I'm back in Japan and I started work at san-chu (that means 3rd Junior High School, because public high schools are numbered). As opposed to yon-chu (4th JHS), every teacher is really nice and I don't have to deal with the stupid bitch of a head English teacher that was Tachihara-sensei. In fact, everyone here is ridiculously nice and I absolutely love it here. The kids are awesome, too. I was talking to the 3rd grade english teacher in class while the students were doing work, and he said he'd been to the town next to Chicago. I said "What town" and he says "Rockford." I about shit myself. Again, I realized how small of a freakin' world this is. Not only did I meet a girl who is from Rockford about a month ago, but now I meet a teacher who visited Kennedy High School and somewhere else. Blew my mind.

Last night was poker night with some of the other gaijin in Tsuchiura. It was only 500 yen buy-in, so I didn't play very well and focused more on consuming whiskey and having a good time. It was a blast. Nothing beats playfully hitting on waitresses dressed in maid outfits while butchering their language at the same time. After the game was over, we went outside to the kebab stand and got some chicken pita sandwiches. I didn't though, because i'm watching my weight, baby. Still, there were 3 youngish japanese dudes who walked up, and being drunk, I launched into conversation. I asked what they were doing and, being in Sakura Machi (the sex-club infested area of Tsuchiura), I knew their answer. He gave a back and forth motion with his hand, which prompted me to use my Japanese slang on him. That cracked him and his friends up, and we had a good time. Then it got weird when the guy and his friend started mimicking buttsex on each other, but I guess that's Japan for you. Our conversation ended with the guy proclaiming his love for me. It was pretty sweet, and I impressed the other gaijin with my Japanese ability. God, I am the shit.

That's all for now. I got a new camera (Thanks mom and dad! much love) and will take pictures in Japan soon, but for now, here's some of my favorite Mustique pics. Much love to you all, and here's to hoping my jetlag is almost gone.

I'll start with Halle and Spencer, cuz they're cuter than anyone else in the rest of the pictures-

And for a stark contrast...a mustached Jonathan pooping.

One day, the brothers Marks had nothing to do (or is that all days on Mustique), so we drove around and had a photo session.

Possibly my favorite picture of them all- the first sunrise of 2007...I took one picture of it and it happened to turn out amazingly well.

If we started a band, it'd be called Peterbuilt, and this would be our promo picture.

I call this one "Gouginstock" because it's from the Gougin House and looks like Woodstock, even though we weren't even that effed up at this point... an hour later would be a whole different story

Macaroni after a phat 5:30 AM drunken skinny dipping session...except the only people who went skinny dippinger were jonathan and me...dammit.

Low-res picture of Jonathan jamming with the original bassist from Blue Oyster Cult and Andy Hilfigger-

Just enjoying a martini consisting of vodka and sake...classy.

Chilling at Tetto Rosso on one of my earlier days of the vacation-

Spencer smiling at the Xmas picnic.

Venetia pimping on Bumper-

And would it be my blog without some food? Here's some of my favorite meals from the trip-

Okay, from this point down is a "new blog." It's newer material that I hadn't planned to put in the same post. But here we go anyways:

This weekend was pretty kick ass. One of my friends from IES Summer in Tokyo was in Japan this weekend, so we met up and hit the town. Actually, first, Manami and I found some dinner in Shibuya at this little izakaya place that served pretty good food (I got a tonkatsu shabushabu, or shabu shabu with a pork-bone based broth), made weird, possibly Hawaiin style cocktails, and blasted old school reggae music. Pretty cool place with a private feel to it. Then I met up with Seth and his buddy from France, as well as Manami's adorable tiny friend Hacchan, and we went to Tasu Ichi, a Tatsunomiya (literally standing-drinking store). This is a place where there are no seats, everyone stands, and then gets drunk. It's cheap with 200 yen Asahi, but I think because of that, it's packed with foreigners. I'd seen the place before and had always been turned away from it, but this time it was actually kinda cool because it's a really international environment. I met people from all over the world, and easily impressed any Japanese person there because I could talk to them (at least a little).

After Tasu Ichi got too crowded, we moved next door to the beat cafe. I think I posted about this bar when I hung out with John, one of my other buddies from IES. It's small, very small, on the 3rd floor, totally random, but plays awesome music. Well this time, it was still small, but there was a different guy working there. I started talking to him (in english, his english was great) only to realize that he knew everything about most any music. Apparently, he's a promoter and has put out a lot of records for American bands. He even knew what The Empty Bottle in Chicago was. We talked for probably a good hour or so, and he told me that after the Mars Volta played here (which I saw), he took them to a karaoke place and got wasted with them. Lucky bastard. Here's a picture of the bathroom wall of The Beat Cafe, signed by Omar from Mars Volta and The International Noise Conspiracy. Following that is a shot of the bar.

The guy in the striped sweater is the dude who knows what's up.

Here's a picture at Tasu Ichi. R-L- Seth, my friend's friend, from Switzerland I think, me, Seth, some Japanese ho.

Oh and the night didn't end there. We hit up a club called Womb. Pretty sweet place, I'd been there over the summer to see Roni Size, a drum-n-bass DJ. It was fun, but the main DJ was kinda whack, spinning trance techno, so we hit the lounge in the basement. The atmosphere was much more chill, not as crowded, and the DJ was spinning house. Actaully I walked in and he was mixing Bloc Party to house music. I was a happy boy. Then I requested some Daft Punk and he did it for me. I just yelled to him "Dafto Punku!" and he understood. Fast forward to 4 AM and I passed out on Seth's floor.

Woke up in the beating heart of Shibuya, grabbed a Freshness Burger to nurse my hangover with Seth, and met up with Manami. It was time to go shopping! Everything in Tokyo is on sale right now in honor of the New Year, so we hit up the stores hard- Paul Smith, BAPE, Energie/Miss Sixty, and all the random skater shops and such along the way. I bought a kick ass jacket featuring Jesus wearing sunglasses.

On the way back from Harajuku to Shibuya, we happened upon a man in bright yellow and rainbow clothing singing a song. It went something like "MOUNTAIN SONG MOUNTAIN SONG" over and over, and it's hard to describe so here's a picture.

I think he liked that gaijin were watching, so he let me take a picture with him. Before we could strike this pose though, he made me stand with arms straight up in the air and then yell "Itsumo kokoro ni...." then strike the following pose and yell "MOUNTAIN!"

That translates to something like "Always in my heart- MOUNTAIN!"

I don't know, it was fucking funny though.

And this epic blog post is OVER. Happy new year everyone.

Look what I missed!

2006-12-23T11:24:00.000+09:00

So, this is kind of an illegit post because I'm not actually in Japan. I'm en route to Mustique, BOOYAH. So I'm in New York. I ate buffet dinner at the hotel and then headed to the fitness room, because I did some pre-flying research on beating jetlag, and they suggested eating a good dinner and working out. So I did that.

Onto my point, holy crap, when did I miss all these Deal or No Deal premiers? Bob Sagat hosts a show now? Identity? What the hell?!?! Did someone say reverse culture shock? Not to mention being surrounded by fat, loud Americans again!

I'm digging this "1 Vs 100" show, but Identity was pretty lame.

What do you think?

Either way, it beats TV I can barely understand featuring people with green hair talking about the latest fad in ramen.....or does it????

Last blog of 2006.

2006-12-21T21:55:00.000+09:00

So here we are at the end of the Japanese semester, and I'm leaving tomorrow for Mustique. As excited as I am, I just got home, and must say I'm actually a little sad to leave Japan, even though it's only for 2 weeks. It makes me wonder if I'll ever be able to leave Japan (at least anytime soon) for an extended period of time. It's just too awesome here. Still, I miss home, the family, the ol' friends, and of course, Leo (my dog). God, I miss Leo.

Anyways! It's been a while since my last update. Last weekend was pretty relaxing, but Manami and I made sure to eat a special dinner. We decided on a kobe beef joint in Kashiwa, Chiba. Here's a couple pictures...food, what a surprise right?

This ain't no Nippon's. This is the real deal.

Yum. The filet was especially tender and awesome.

Good dinner. Manami got me some kick ass kicks for Christmas. They're Nike Court Force Low Premiums featuring a purple/blue/light blue colorway and two different colored nike swoosh logos on each shoe. Pretty loud and badass. I would upload a picture, but they're already in my suitcase.

The next day we went to Shinjuku, one of the more lively areas in Tokyo. We just kinda walked around all day, shopped for Xmas gifts, and I ate one of the better pizzas i've had in Japan. It had salmon and salmon eggs. Salmon eggs are called "ikura" in Japanese. Additionally, "ikura" means "how much" (as in "how much does this cost"). So there's a japanese joke- "Ikura wa ikura da" (how much do the salmon eggs cost). HOW FUNNY IS THAT?? Right, uh yeah...anyways...My students taught me a bunch of other similar "jokes" like that. They're fun to use and impress Japanese people thoroughly.

This week, I had a pretty relaxing week of classes that required little to no work. Tomorrow is the end of the semester ceremony, and I think I'm going to have to give a goodbye speech in Japanese. That should be totally awesome, as I enjoy butchering the Japanese language whenever possible. The last two nights I hung out with Nam, the JET in Tsuchiura. Tonight we went to four, count em, four arcades. Took some pictures and shite. Maybe I'll upload them here in 2007. Oh yeah, we also ate pretty decent mexican food, thereby popping my "Mexican food in Japan" cherry. Good stuff. Also, I ended my night with my first Japanese microwbrew. I think it was called "Heart" or something like that. It was actually really good, and i'm slightly buzzing. It was a big bottle.

I hope you all have a very awesome Christmas and New Years. That's all for now.

If my plane goes down, play "Don't Dream It's Over" at my funeral. Thanks and I love all of you!!!

-ryan

Just a quickie.

2006-12-13T21:56:00.000+09:00

Here's a quick blog update to hold you over.

Monday a funny thing happened. I went to VIP for the weekly game of gaijin poker and lost my 1000 yen (around $10) in about 10 minutes. That's not funny, so stop laughing. Anyways, there were a few new people there this week and I shake one dude's hand, named Calvin, and he tells me something like "Oh yeah, I know you." I'm like "Eh? What?" and he's like "Yeah, I read your blog once." Heh, trippy bro. He stumbled upon in coincidentally. Small town, I suppose. Good guy though. You reading this Calvin? What's your freakin' email address?

Anyhoo, I learned recently that in Japan, the ABC song is different than ours. It goes like this "a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k" but instead of the "lmnop" combo, they just keep at the same pace, with a "l m n" and continue on in the same melody with "o, p, q..." I'm assuming this is because the sounds made with "lmnop" and the many sounds not ending in vowel sounds are difficult for Japanese. Now sing that to yourself. Doesn't it sound funny? I cracked up the first couple of times I heard this version. Not to mention, when you reach z, it sounds like a terribly abrupt ending. And they don't say "double-you" either, just "double." I don't know, it's funny, though.

And as for the comments- Ryanami. I like it. Clever. Surprised I didn't think of it, because I'm that frickin' clever. I'll take it, though.

Anytime I meet new Australians here, I ask if they like Crowded House (who are from New Zealand). Most people give them the respect they deserve, and i've even met some Split Enz fans. Gerry (or anyone)- do you know Split Enz? I guess their hit song was "I Got You" and went something like, "I don't know why sometimes I get friiightened." It's pretty good, but way cheesy new wave sounds. Any takers?

That's all.

Disney Sea Pics.

2006-12-11T18:27:00.000+09:00

Better late than never right? Here are some of my favorites from Disney Sea.

This is right when we got there. DisneySea is LOADED with "picture opportunity" places, guaranteed to sucker any Japanese person into taking a picture (and yes, them Japanese take just as many pictures at Tokyo Disney as they do anywhere in America...believe the stereotype). I'll spare you the many that I was forced to take with Manami, but here's one. The mountain/volcano in the background is a kick ass rollercoaster ride, complete with real fire.

This is me in sheer amazement that somebody created strawberry-flavored popcorn. It's delicious. And notice that girl (I think it's a girl) in the left corner of the picture, looking at me like i'm a crazy foreigner. Well, hey lady, do you see me wearing pink fuckin' bunny ears?

I got some action at DisneySea, too. It ruled.

Don't worry, though, Manami wasn't left out.

Here's us being smiley and cute.

If I had a solo career, I'd use this picture as an album cover, because I think it is so cool. Like how some things are blurry and some aren't, and how I'm the only person with brown hair in the picture. Cooooool. This was taking at the all-you-can-eat place. Delicious.

DisneySea is actually very pretty. Here's a shot that tries to capture that.

That's all. Christmas is huge in Japan, even though only a VERY small population of Japanese people are Christian. Still, they love it, and they love any song that has the word "Christmas" in it. Seriously, if I hear Mariah Carey's "All I want for Christmas is You," I might shove a chopstick up someone's asshole. That said, Wham!'s album with "Last Christmas," I would assume, is selling like freakin' hotcakes right now.

Oh and unless you're one of a VERY select few people, don't expect shit from me for Christmas. Bah Humbug!

I'm just kidding, well I'm not, but I mean, I love you and all, I'm just a super cheap bastard!

That said, I'm having a kobe steak dinner this Friday. Muahahah!

Epic brah!

2006-12-04T20:22:00.000+09:00

Another great weekend has come and gone. Let's get right into it, shall we?

I went to Tokyo DisneySea on Saturday. It was so much fun. Actually more fun than I expected. I'm sure you can guess who I went with. She has a ton of pictures on her camera and will be sending them to me, but right now I don't have any pictures. But, DisneySea is a pretty ridiculously awesome and very original amusement park. It doesn't even really feel like a "Disney" park, because that's more of what Tokyo DisneyLand is for. All the rides were different than the ones in Florida's DisneyWorld and they have crazy food at the stands, like strawberry popcorn (so good), shrimp kinda roll bagel things, gyoza, and stuff. Actually, I was surprised by how good the food was, in speaking of both quality and nutrition. We hit up the buffet restaurant and stuffed our faces with shephard's pie (oh so good), karaage (japanese fried chicken), tons of deserts, and other shit. It's funny, because in America, I wouldn't dare step into a buffet restaurant, but in Japan, I am all about them.

What a surprise, my tale of DisneySea turns into talking about food. Well, about the rides. We started with StormRider because it had no line, and it was like a interactive movie theater ride where you're caught in the middle of a raging hurricane. Oh yeah, there was one ride the same as Florida, my favorite ride of them all- Tower of Terror. Except in Japan it's "Towa ah-bu Tellah" and they removed the "Twilight Zone" theme. I guess that wasn't a famous show in Japan or something. There was a couple sweet roller coasters and an Indiana Jones ride, and suprisingly, not a lot of slimy gaijin. It was also hilarious, frustrating, and interesting watching the Aladdin and Little Mermaid shows in Japanese. Especially the latter, because the songs like "Under the Sea" were sung in English, but all the spoken dialogue was in Japanese. This is one confused country, and I love it!

Pictures coming soon.

Last night was my buddy Nam's birthday. We went to an okonomiyaki restaurant and cooked the food ourselves. It was fun and I met some other JETs and some Japanese girls and various other people. Good times. After the restaurant we all headed to VIP (the bar where we play poker) for some more drinks. One of the girls from the birthday party brought the two japanese people who own the store where I bought some old Pez a looong time ago, like when I first got to Tsuchiura. Somehow the girl remembered me and said "Petzu no hito!!" (Petzu is "pez," and that literally means "Pez person!") They were really cool and we talked about classic rock and movies until about 1 in the morning.

I was a little tired at "work" today, but it was okay, because something totally random was in store. There was a rock concert in the morning brought to us by a famous Japanese surf-rock guitarist who apparently was huge in the 1960s. Funny thing was, he was only on stage for about 30% of the show. It was pretty funny though. Here we are in the school gym, 680 students and the teachers, watching some ancient surf-rock band in their matching white suits. Still, the bass player was really good and the drummer had an epic drumset complete with two bass drums and a massive gong behind him. Totally...fucking...random.

And here's a random piece of Japan trivia for you. Did you know that in the winter time, all the subway seats are heated? I didn't, but I really enjoy it! Heated toilets, heated subway seats, happy bum.

Oh! I almost forgot to mention. Last night, I'm sitting and talking with a girl and she asks me where I'm from. Naturally, I say "Chicago" because usually people don't know what Rockford is. I reciprocate, asking where she's from, and she very matter-of-factly says "Rockford." I about shit myself right then and there. This world is much, much too small.

That's all for now. And i'm out.

Having a good week!

2006-11-30T22:08:00.000+09:00

Okay, so last week, things were starting to slow down, I was getting a liiiittle bit homesick and had been happier in my day. But this week is totally kicking ass. I made some new friends on Tuesday. We met up and played poker at a bar called VIP in Sakura Machi. Sakura Machi is a little area right outside of the train station that is filled to the brim with slezy bars, "pink" salons, hostess clubs, and all the rest of the kind of places that leave little to the imagination. Understandable, as "sakura" means cherry blossoms, which are pink and often have sexual connotations, and "machi" means "town" or "city." BUT, this place was different! I PROMISE! VIP doesn't charge you $30 an hour just for sitting in their bar. But, the girls do dress up in skimpy french maid outfits, which, i'm not gonna lie, is pretty awesome.

But alas, I dwell. There were 7 of us playing poker and I came in 2nd place and won 1000 yen. NICE. But I ended up spending said money on beer that night, so really I just had a free night of entertainment. It was actually my first time going out to bars in Tsuchiura and it was pretty fun. I got a little too drunk, stayed out a little too late, and was hungover and absolutely exhausted at work. But work is easy, so who cares.

Today, I hung out with the dude who took first place in Poker, named Nam, and his friend Yu. We went to Tsukuba (Nam has a car...solid) and ate delicious DELICIOUS Korean food. Korean food is fuckin' good. I had a spicy noodle bowl with good meat and some carrots, daikon, kimchi. I didn't take a picture though.

But, we went to an arcade and I did take a picture of this:

It's probably a little hard to tell, but it's one of those catching machines that grabs things like stuffed animals. Except instead of stuffed animals, this prize was a double-headed shot dispenser. I thought that was pretty awesome, funny, and picture worthy.

Then we went bowling. I got a 95. Not bad for being shitty at bowling.

That's it. I smell like Korea, thanks to poor ventilation in the restaurant. BYE!

Concerts, food and other shite.

2006-11-27T19:39:00.000+09:00

Long time without an update. My bad! I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving. Send me your leftovers. Actually, don't. That'd be gross.

Okay, catching up where I left off. Two weekends ago was fun, but nothing special. I don't really remember what happened, but Manami's mom wanted me to come to their house to eat nabe with them. Nabe means something like "one-pot" and is basically any food served as such. Very family-oriented and Japanese. You sit around the thing and eat. Here's a picture of me looking cute in front of the nabe.

Flash forward to Wednesday. I headed to one of my top 3 favorite areas in Tokyo- Odaiba. It was time to see Mars Volta, and they blew me away. Actually, they blew my senses away, because the next two mornings I woke up with vertigo. I hope that's the reason I had vertigo anyways. All good now. Yeah, I went with one of the other English teachers in town. In the extremely rare event that you're interested in reading a review of the show that I wrote, go here.

Odaiba has one of my favorite views of Tokyo. It's actually a man-made island that was originally created to fend off Commodore Matthew Perry, the American who forced Japan to open it's doors to international trade in the 1800s. And yes, he had the same name as the Friends star. So, it's kind of like you're on the opposite side of Tokyo and can see the city in all it's glory. Here's a bad picture I took with Christmas spirit in the foreground. The blurry, thin red/white thing on the right of the tree is Tokyo Tower, a tourist-trap Eiffel Tower ripoff that is still kind of cool, and the huge bridge is Rainbow Bridge.

Wednesday was also Manami's birthday, but we celebrated over the weekend. I got her a scarf and some chocolate and a body shop gift box thing. When I gave her her presents, she cried. She was really, really, really disappointed...Just kidding, they were tears of joy. How cute is that?

We went to Tokyo to celebrate her birthday and I treated her to dinner at a nice restaurant called Fujimamas in Omotesando. The food was delicious. We started with a calimari appetizer and I got steak and mashed potatos but forgot to take a picture of the latter. Here's the former.

Refined, right? Yum.

Here's a picture from the same area where we had dinner. These dogs were just chilling there, having no qualms about wearing glasses.

A new mall opened near Manami's house, so we went there on Sunday. It was probably about as big as Woodfield, but filled with 80% more junk that you would never need- a cafe' for dogs being a good example. Additionally, it has a grocery store inside of it. Here's a scene you wouldn't see in most American groceries.

That's a man slicing a massive tuna fish into small pieces. He then took each piece of meat, packaged it, and put it into people's hands for buying. Pretty nasty looking, but I don't think you can get much fresher.

Here's another cool thing.

What the hell's that, you say? I don't blame you, I said the same thing. Basically, you put an apple in there, close the lid, then I don't know, maybe it sends an X-ray or something. Whatever it does, when it's finished with the process, it tells you the percentage of sugar in the apple as well as various other information that I couldn't read. I thought it was pretty awesome.

Finally, it's now monday and a new ramen shop opened up right by my apartment, so I tried it. It was pretty good, but was much different than the other types of ramen I've had. You'll notice the broth is a light brown, and I'm not sure but I think it's some kind of tonkotsu ramen. That means the broth is made with crushed pork bones. It was pretty good, but I think I prefer the ol'-fashioned soy sauce based shoyu ramen. Here's a picture.

That's about it for now. I might go to Tokyo Disney this weekend. If I do, I'll be sure to take pictures. Miss you all. See the mustiquers in 25 days...nice.

A post before the week-end.

2006-11-16T21:49:00.000+09:00

Just to space things out more, I thought I'd update about my day yesterday, since it was a special one. Warning- I'm exhausted, so if this post lacks any of my clever and awesome sense-of-humor, forgive me.

Last night was wednesday, and I had heard about a cool event going on in Roppongi (foreigner-central) in Tokyo. Keep in mind, I usually hate when there's other gaijin (foreigners) around, it's a weird sort of self-loathing reverse-racism thing that I can't explain, but most gaijin in Japan feel the same way. Don't ask me why. Still, for the most part of last night, I felt like I stepped out of Japan and was back in America or maybe somewhere in Europe.

Anyways, after teaching SIX GODDAMNED CLASSES to elementary school students (my longest day ever), I booked it to the train station. Arrived in Roppongi around 5:30 and met with Manami. We had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. I thought it looked cool, and I think the last time I'd been to an HR Cafe was 5 years ago in Fukuoka with mom, dad, and Jonathan. After living in a country who's main source of nutrition is based on soy sauce, rice, and small portions, can you blame me for wanting a massive, American-style meal? Didn't think so. And let me tell you, Hard Rock Cafe is damn good at satisfying that crave.

Here's what I ate. Yes, my first mashed potato experience of Japan (besides the mashed potatoes they fry and serve as croquettes, which don't count, I tellz ya). Oh, and sorry about the next few pictures Venetia ;)

Manami got a pulled-pork sandwich, and beieve me, I took bites. She dispised her baked beans, which I thought was funny, and very "not American" of her. We then split a massive hot fudge brownie sundae. It was DANK. Oh yeah, but Japanese cherries are kind of sour and have big seeds. Not cool.

Here were my two favorite pieces of memorabilia:

Fuck yeah, one of Ian Anderson's (of Jethro Tull) flutes. So badass.

And some Skid Row memoriabilia. Damn, them boyz some youth gone wild!

After Hard Rock, we headed to a little place called Super Deluxe for a film screening by Donald Richie. For those who don't know (I'm assuming that's everyone), Donald Richie is THE film critic when it comes to Japanese Film. He's lived here for like 60 years, is fluent in Japanese, and has written some awesome stuff on the history of Japanese movies. This was the last of a 6 part event of avant-garde, artsy Japanese cinema, and he actually showed 5 movies that he made himself (in Japan). Very pretentious and artsy stuff, but I kind of expected that. Not to mention the club was playing jazz with uncountable time signatures and all I heard were foreigners talking about shit they thought they pretended to know all about, but really just sounded like assholes. Still, it was fun, and one of the movies featured a family eating one of their members at a picnic.

Yeah, so it was a good night.

Completely unrelated, I don't know if I've mentioned this, but Japanese people love random old music. For example, there are many MANY students at yon-chu who will tell you they love The Carpenters and Abba. Additionally, you'd think Queen was a new, living band in Japan. There's this one Queen song, I'm assuming it's called "I was Born to Take Care of You." Does anyone know the song I'm talking about? The people here love that song, it's on TV and all this shit. Second graders at school were singing along to it while doing their English exercises. I don't know. It's crazy!! The song is pretty good, but it's like "why?" Also, picturing Freddie Mercury writing lyrics like "I was born to take care of you" makes me laugh. I mean how GAY can you be? No offense Amy, Nikki.....Gerry.

Tomorrow, I have a very short day- only two classes. I will be teaching 4 and 5 year olds. Yep, kindergarten. Additionally, all the moms are going to be there, and I here they will have cameras and all this type of shit. Yay....

Finally, here's a picture of some place in Roppongi that was closed, but still amused me. Manami found nothing perverted about this estabishment, but I did.

Bedtime.

Starting to get a little chilly in Japan.

2006-11-13T21:14:00.000+09:00

Today the high was 62, and for the first time, it felt a little chilly in Japan. Still, tomorrow the high is 69, so it's all good.

Had a three day weekend this weekend, which was nice. I learned that there's a word for such weekends. They are called renkyuu. I wish all weekends were renkyuu weekends. So, Friday, I was thinking about going to Tokyo and hanging out, but decided to be cheap and stay in Tsuchiura. Manami came in to town (surprise surprise, right?) and I told her I wanted to go to a restaurant that I'd be too intimidated to go into by myself. She was cool with this idea, so we found a place pretty near my house and it has now become one of my all-time favorite restaurants in Japan.

Basically, this place was a teppanyaki restaurant. But when in Japan, "teppanyaki" doesn't imply a benihana- or JMK Nippon-style restaurant. Instead, these are places where you sit and there's a grill on your table and you do the work yourself. This restaurant, called Aoi ("blue" or "green"), was delicious, cheap, and offered HUGE portions. We actually ended up going there 2 nights in a row, because it's close to my house and it rained all day Saturday. It was cool too, very "Japanese" feeling, as you have to take off your shoes before sitting at the table, and your feet hang down into a pit. Check out the pictures.

The daily special was a garlic okonomiyaki. Could this have been more perfect? So they bring you a bowl that you mix and then pour out like so: (by the way- all pictures on this blog are clickable and enlargeable)

Then, you let it simmer, add bacon (yum) and fry up an egg. Then you flip it, and it looks like this:

Manami insisted on being in a picture, and this one shows how the grill is right at your table:

The massive okonomiyaki concoction costed all of $6.50 or so. We also ordered some other stuff, including scallops and butter.

Yum, delicious, so good. I could go on about this place, but I think we all get the point.

Sunday, I took it easy. I was actually a little bored. However, on Friday, Maatsura-sensei said I could take the isshobin of sake that had been sitting in the teacher's office. What's an isshobin you say? It's a bottle that equals around 1.8 Liters. So, I took a hot bath and drank hot sake, then passed out. It was nice.

I couldn't even dent the sumabitch.

Today, I went to Tokyo, met up with Manami, and we ate at MoMo Paradise (the all-you-can-eat sukiyaki/shabu-shabu place). I got fat. Then we walked around for a while. Now i'm tired.

That's all folks!!

Mars Volta in 9 days. Mustique in 39.

I am listening to Jethro Tull.

2006-11-09T21:20:00.000+09:00

Today was a unique and fun day. Instead of going to yon-chu, I was picked up by Zach, one of the other ALTs (Assisstant Language Teachers). We drove to meet up with all the other ALTs at the community center kinda place where you can go camping and stuff. Kids from a different school were staying there, so all of us gaijin went to play games and make curry and stuff. It was fun. The first half of the day, we chopped potatoes, carrots, and onions and made Japanese style curry. It actually turned out delicious, and I got exposed to a sweet culture point at the same time. I had never seen this done before, but we took hollow bamboo that were filled with rice, added water, and placed tin foil under them and on a little hole in the top. After letting the bamboo roast over a fire, we took them off and sliced the bamboo open horizontally. Once opened, you had a little bamboo boat of cooked rice. Plus, the rice had a really good smokey, stickey, bamboo kinda flavor. It was awesome. I wish I had a picture to show of this, but I forgot my camera.

However, Justin, a good man and one of the ALTs, brought his camera and took some pictures. They are from the 2nd half of the day when we went to the gym and played games with the kids. Without further ado:

Here's a shot of me and some of the other ALTs not working.

Shot of some of the kids:

Me doing something stupid to make the kids laugh and point.

After the workin' day was done, it was photo-op time. Here's all the Tsuchiura ALTs and some extras (the three guys on the very right and left and the two women work somewhere else):

That's all.

Thank you mom for the cereal. I indulged in my first bowl today and it was oh so delicious.

This weekend, I gotz another 3 day weekend, so I might go into Tokyo. You know I'll keep your sweet ass updated. LATES.

And you thought only The Grateful Dead could steal your face...

2006-11-04T22:26:00.000+09:00

Before getting into my new blog post, I'd like to say Gerry- It's good to see you are fully recovered and back to posting comments. Cheers, brah.

So I decided to call it a weekend a little early this weekend, because even though it's Saturday night, I am damn tired. Also, it was a three-day weekend, so it started on Thursday. Work on Thursday was excruciatingly easy and boring at the same time. I sat on the computer in the teacher's office literally all day. But, I'm getting paid so I can't complain too much. The kids had exams to determine what high school they'd be getting into. The school system in Japan is very stressing on the students and ridiculously competitive. I feel bad for the kids sometimes. Like I ask them "Kono shumatsu wa nani o shiteru no?" or something along those lines, like "What are you doing this weekend?" To this, they almost always answer, "Studying." Poor bastards.

Anyways, after work I headed to Manami's. Her mom made a delicious dinner called Nikujyaga which means, almost literally, "meat and potatoes." Of course, cooked Japanese stylee it's pretty different than what one might be used to in America. It was really good though. We also had miso soup, pickled cucumbers, rice with stuff in it that tasted good, some fish, and mushrooms. It was good.

Oh yeah, then after that, her parents took me to a yakitori-ya (chicken-on-a-stick-shop). It was awesome. Totally a place that I would NEVER go into by myself because it's SO Japanese looking and no one knows any English, the menus are all kanji, etc. So it was cool, we ate a little more, drank shochu (a Japanese liquor, it's good and strong) for a while, and then they busted out the karaoke. Shochu and karaoke, you know what that means. I hit the mic hard. I started with Cheap Trick, "I Want You to Want Me" to represent the hometown. I think one or two (of the fifteen or so) people there knew the song. Then a couple other people sang, then it came back to me and I sang "Daite Seniorita" the best I could. Manami's dad helped out on the kanji I couldn't read, but I pulled it off and well, impressed the fuck out of the Japanese people there. You heard me, no being humble about that one!

I meant to take a picture of the place, but forgot.

Friday, Manami and I went to Roppongi. She had an interview and got the job, because her English is so good (Roppongi has the heaviest concentration of foreigners in Tokyo). We then met up with my friend John Suzuki (the only red-haired Asian kid i've ever met, he's half-Japanese and half-Irish), who is from Chicago and was studying abroad here in the summer with me, but lives in Nagoya. We walked around a little then went to Shibuya to meet up with Hoko and her friend who is also from Chicago but is here with the US Marines. He was okay, nothing to write home about. Or more specifically, nothing to write in your blog about. Here's my attempt to be artsy and capture a Roppongi skyline. Tons of cool architecture in that area of Tokyo.

Still, we had a good night. The 5 of us headed to a restaurant I found online called Kushiage Monogatari. This translates to "The Tale of Fried Food on Skeweres." It was awesome. All-you-can-eat for 2 hours. All the food is stuck onto sticks, then you bring it back to your table, dip it in batter, breading and fry it right there. There's everything from mussels to bacon to broccoli (yes, deep-fried broccoli...it's a gastronomical oxymoron). It's so dangerous, but so delicious. There's also like 10 different sauces, most of which were delicious. This is a kind of restaurant that would NEVER fly in America. Not only are you handling raw meats, but you have a deep-frier in the middle of your table. Like so-

Speaking about the danger aspect, on more than one occasion, grease "popped" out of the frier. I was handling a little desert rice ball and accidentally dropped it in the frier. We all forgot about it, then like 15 minutes later it exploded and grease went everywhere. I got hit the worst, as about 3 big drops of grease landed on my face. Now, there's little areas of skin missing on my face. Hopefully it won't scar. Yes, this restaurant will quite literally rock your face off.
Don't worry, though, it's nothing too bad.

John, Manami, and I then found a small small little bar to chill at called the Beat Cafe, I think. It held maybe 10 people and played all punk, ska, indie rock, and 80s britpop and stuff. It was very, very cool. I want to go back. The bartender said he'd met Bloc Party like 3 times.

Crashed at Manami's house because mine was too far. Woke up, went to Kashiwa, and ended the weekend on a high-note. This CD store had a MASSIVE section in the center of the store labelled "Progressive Rock." I about shat myself right then and there. They had a ton of Yes bootlegs, and I found one from 1971, when they were just finding themselves as a band, and now i'm listening to the double-disc from 1977. TOTALLY BADASS.

Here's a picture of the reversible coat thing I got last weekend. Pimp right?

Finally, ANA has just started flying direct Chicago to Narita, and there's commercials on it for TV. I think you can get some really good rates, so come visit me. Oh yeah, and I fully encourage communication in the forms of my blog comments. Keep it up family and friends. Peace.

A weird thought...

2006-10-31T22:24:00.000+09:00

So, a song by Skid Row happened to pop into my head today. It's called "Wasted Time" and it's a totally kick ass power ballad. So I decided to download it, and I've rocked it three or four times tonight already. I also realized that "Slave To The Grind" was released in 1991. I got it when it first came out, so that means I was 7 years old and listening to songs with titles like "Get The Fuck Out." Man, what a badass I must have been.

This had nothing to do with Japan.

Attention: Secret Santa

2006-10-29T20:51:00.000+09:00

Are we doing secret santas this year??

If we are, I desperately, desperately NEED this!

Farewell To The World

A new-found sense of Pride

2006-10-29T18:15:00.000+09:00

This weekend ROCKED!!!

Friday, I got off of work, came home to shower and change, then headed off to Noda, Chiba (where Manami lives). We met up in Kashiwa and walked around a little bit. Very very unfortunately, the Jethro Tull shirt I found but didn't want to buy cuz I hadn't been paid yet has been sold. Sucks, it was an amazing shirt, and it was yellow. Still, I got over it fast and we headed to Manami's house for dinner. Her mom cooked a delicious kind of white creamy soup with potatoes and carrots and the like, and also sticky rice with oysters, shrimp, and squid in it. It was really good. I brought them a bottle of shochu as an omiyage (gift), so we drank it with dinner and I got a nice little buzz before bedtime. Her parents are cool, even if I BARELY understand them.

Saturday, we visited a shrine because Manami needed to pray for a job. Fairly amusing. It was fun though, and it's 3-5-7 season, so there were a lot of people there and adorable little kids in kimonos. 3-5-7 is a time of the year when kids aged 3, 5, and 7 celebrate and go to shrines and stuff like that. They get presents from their family and go out to eat and stuff. These three numbers are considered lucky numbers in Japan. They also had yatai set up (food stands), which I absolutely love. I ate a obonyaki, which is a cream-filled kinda pancake thing. So good. Here's a picture of the shrine.

After that, we went hunting for work clothes for Manami. I found a kick ass reversible sweater-jacket thing that was really cheap. I left it at Manami's house though, so you all will have to wait for a picture of it. It's SO BADASS though.

Went back to Manami's house, chilled for a while, and headed to Tsuchiura. There was a Halloween party at my part-time, so we went. I was Ryan Hime (Princess Ryan), because I was too lazy to look for a costume and Manami had a crown at her house. It was fun, here's some pictures.

L to R- Richie, one of the ALTs. I think he's from California, nice dude. Me, I hear he's cool. Tomoyuki, the manager at my part-time and the bass player in the band I saw a few weeks back. Cool dude, amazing English skills. Mei, one of the students at TIA. She's cute.

Manami, myself, and some random guy. No idea who he is or who he's supposed to be.

General shot of the party scene with Manami doing an interesting pose in the foreground.

Awww cute.

Manami, some of the other English teachers, and myself topped the night off by hitting up a club in Tsuchiura called Pride. There was a reggae show, so we went. It was pretty sweet, and kinda made me respect Tsuchiura a little more for having such a sweet show in town. I danced, got way too drunk, had fun. Some Japanese girl tried picking me up, which I think made Manami angry, but it wasn't my fault goddamit. I'm just too cute, I guess.

Anyways, I guess I had a little too much fun because I woke up with an absolutely brutal hangover. Puking and everything. Sorry mom and dad, it happens sometimes though. Actually, this is the first time I've had a puking hangover in a long time. Oh god, it sucked. But i'm better now, if not a little tired. For dinner, I had a tonkatsu and soba set. It was delicious.

I had an idea for a book. Basically, I would take pictures of everything I eat in Japan for maybe a year or so, and have a little write-up on each thing. Like what's in it and stuff. It would be like a coffee-table book. Anyone think publishers would go for that? Easy money would be my main intention here, of course.

Staying on the subject, let's finish this blog with a picture of a meal I had last week. It's from a fast-food joint called Hokka Hokka Tei. It's ridiculously cheap and ridiculously delicious. I think I will revisit it this week. Here you are folks.

2006-10-24T22:02:00.000+09:00

Today started as what I thought would have been the worst day in my Japanese life, but now it's the end, and it really hasn't been all that bad.

Today was one of those days that makes me bitch my one complaint I have about Japan- it rains way too fucking much. Sorry granny and poppa about dropping the f bomb. Anyways, I woke up to a downpour and massive wind. I had to pedal hard going DOWNHILL. That's how windy it was. Oh god, and I was teaching at a school farther away than usual. So, here I am soaking wet, making a turn onto the street near the school, when a van starts turning and doesn't stop. I didn't have time to stop, but I was so blatantly there, I couldn't believe he didn't notice me. So we collided. Basically, I just hit the side of his car and side mirror very hard. I knew on my way there that if there was a day to get "hit" by a car, it would have been today. Then, litereally 50 meters ahead (yes, i'm used to the metric system now), another van comes sooo close to hitting me, I turn hard, and fall off my bike. Sometimes Japanese drivers can be so fucking stupid. Okay, two complaints about Japan.

So, I arrived to elementary school where I had to teach 3rd graders (9 year olds) and this is where the day started getting better. As most Japanese people are, the teachers were so nice to me, gave me a towel to dry myself off, and took my cotton jacket thing and actually put it in the drier for me. They then hung it up so it would completely dry. They also brought me lots of snacks, coffee, milk tea, and green tea. And of course, when face-to-face to 30 something 9 year old Japanese kids, it's pretty much impossible not to be in a good mood, regardless of how dripping wet I was in front of them. Each class ended with me signing autographs with them, and letting them touch me. Uhh, I just mean on the hands and stuff. It's amazing how crazy they get about an American in their school.

Then I came back here to dry off and relax for a couple hours. My next mission was my part-time job. I taught Fumiko, who I taught last week. She's a totally sweet, maybe 35 year-old woman who's going to see Foo Fighters next month and shit. It's an interesting class because I'm teaching her how to give better speeches. It's not really "English class." Unfortunately, TIA hired a full-time employee and he will be teaching her from now on. That bastard. After that, I had a man I taught before. Can't remember his name but he's like 60 and speaks absolutely horrid English. It's actually very interesting teaching him, though.

Besides that, I had two nikuman for dinner. Nikuman are these circular bread-type things stuffed with meat and various sauces based on your choosing. You can get them at any conbini (7-11, sunks, family mart, lawson, etc) and they're only 100 yen ($1). Score. I think I've lost some weight in Japan, which is nice.

So a bad day got better, and that's all I've got to say for now.

I promise I'm gonna try and keep updating as much as possible. Sorry to anyone who stopped reading for my lack of updates, but it's not like you're reading this right now, so kiss my ass!!! (Just kidding, of course...I mean, unless you really want to kiss my ass, that's fine).

-ryan

Weak End.

2006-10-22T17:13:00.000+09:00

Nothing much too exciting happened this weekend.

I want to start this blog off by asking anyone in Rockford an urgent question. It has come to my attention that Leonardi's Steakhouse is no longer Leonardi's Steakhouse, but has become some kind of "Bar & Grill" (as if there aren't enough of those in Rockford already). While the fate of Leonardi's always seemed sealed in my opinion, due to the lack of customers there all the time, tell me it isn't so. Can someone confirm if they are still serving delicious, garlic-infested skirt steak with heaps of mashed potatoes? If they dropped this from the menu, consider my returning to Rockford an impossibility.

That's a joke of course.

Anyways, Friday, little ol' Manami came to Tsuchiura, we hit up a brand new izakaya and ate some standard izakaya fare like okonmiyaki with cheese and mochi (yum), some yakiniku, fried chicken bones, tako wasabi (slimy, raw, spicy, and so delicious), a potato augratin thing, and maybe a couple other items. All this accompanied with two massive beers and I was a happy camper. It's cool when new places open in Japan because they place beautiful flowers all over the business, and it smells good everywhere and is nice to look at.

Saturday, we ate at a Kyushu ramen restaurant that was good and about 5 minutes walk from my house. Kyushu is the region with cities such as Fukuoka, and the ramen is prepared in a different way. I think it's more miso-based and a bit more oily. It was pretty good, but nothing on my sweet genkotsu ninniku ramen. We then walked god knows how long to find a park in Tsuchiura I had never been to before. It's on Lake Kasumigaura, the 2nd biggest lake in Japan, and features a massive windmill. It was nice. The weather has been beautiful here all weekend.

I watched Suicide Club last night for the first time since I came to Japan this summer. I was dumbfounded at how much I understood without having to read the subtitles compared to the last time I watched it. It was a satisfying feeling, biatch.

Today, beautiful day, so I rode my bike to Tsukuba and ate sukiyaki. It was good, the beef was a fine quality. Now I'm gonna study some more.

So is anyone sending me cereal? Let me know, because I will gratefully receive.

Don't you feel better about yourself after reading this whole blog that was fairly pointless and talked almost completely about food?

Sorry, next weekend should be more exciting. It's a 3 day weekend, and I plan on raging Shinjuku hard. Peace.

Okama, oppai, onabe, sharapoa.

2006-10-18T19:55:00.000+09:00

What do all of the words above have in common? They're all slang used to describe either gay people or breasts. In addition, they are all words I would never have known if it wasn't for my sweet yon-chu students.

Anyways, holy god, the last update was 8 days ago already? Sorry about that. Let's try and get all you crazy bastards up to speed.

So Wednesday, I kinda had the day off. Actually, I headed to Mito, the capitol of Ibaraki (the prefecture where I live) to get my Visa. I can officially stay in Japan for a year without having to worry about immigiration crap. Solid. Mito's a pretty nice city. I'd probably rather live there, except for the fact that it's much farther from Tokyo.

Thursday, I taught at an elementary school. I've taught so many random elementary schools now, that I get them mixed up. I can't remember anything special that happened there. Well, the teachers loved me because of my passion for Japanese food. Go figure.

Friday, back to yon-chu. I taught 3rd graders. They rule. Then what the hell'd I do. Hmm. I don't know. Saturday was the Hanabi (fireworks) festival. It was pretty cool. I didn't realize it at first, but it was half-show and half-competition. So they announced fireworks one-by-one and it was cool, some of the fireworks actually made flowers in the sky ("hana" means flower and "bi" means fire, so in Japanese, they are called "fireflowers"). Like, the firework would shoot up, then explode to the left, then to the right, left, right, making a stem and then the big circle was like the actual flower. Here's some pictures that don't portray that, but I think are cool anyways.

As it turns out, I ended up getting pretty drunk and taking great interest in the yatai (food stands) they had set up. I ate delicious beef on a stick, fried chicken (called "karaage" in japanese, served with mayo and very delicious), obonyaki which is like a batter-based kinda pancakey sandwich filled with custard cream, and my favorite thing- jyagabata (that last part is the japanese pronunciation of "butter"). What these are are steamed potatoes with a massive slab of butter thrown on top. You can also put miso on it (not the soup, but the actual base of miso soup...it's an orange/brown color), giving it a salty kick. Let me tell you, it's fucking good. Here's a picture of it in Manami's sweet ass hand.

Here's an okay picture of the crowd and a small portion of the food stands. There must have been several hundred food stands, but they all served the same stuff.

Anyways, Sunday, the kinda manager guy at my part time job, named Tomoyuki, had a rock show with his band in Tsukuba. So I went. There were 8 bands. His band was pretty good, they were kinda funny. I was blown away, though, by the band that came after them. They were like Japanese prog and reminded me of Dream Theater and Mars Volta. Amazing drummer and a hot little keyboard player too. I bought their demo from their guitarist, and he seemed pretty psyched that a gaijin (foreigner) was buying their cd. He shook my hand vigorously and did a thumb-to-thumb handshake thing with a big smile on his face. It was cool. It was also kinda funny watching the band, because they were shredding their instruments and all rocking out and stuff, then between songs, the singer would talk and sound like a polite little japanese guy. It was funny. Here's a picture of Tomoyuki's band.

Monday, I headed to Kashiwa in Chiba prefecture to meet up with Manami and have a little goodbye party for her friend who is going abroad to Australia. We hit up a buffet restaurant called PARTY PARTY that was delicious and cheap, then went to The Hub and had a drink. Then I went home.

Tuesday, I headed to Shinjuku (in Tokyo) for the almighty Cheap Trick. Manami came with me, and Rick was nice enough to hook us up with all access passes. Cheap Trick was really good, actually, probably better than when I came here with them 5 years ago. Anyways, we headed backstage and hung out with Karen, Aaron, and Rick for a little bit, hada couple beers. Rick was funny...he kept saying little comments about how cute Manami was and stuff. She didn't realize it though, because he was using roundabout-ish English, until I explained it to her after we left. Good times indeed. Here's a shot of CT from above.

Next we walked around Shinjuku for a while. They call walking around with nothing to do "bura bura." Anyways, here's a shot.

I didn't have much of a chance to see Shinjuku when I was here before, and now I realize how awesome it is. There are shabu-shabu restaurants everywhere and bars that play 70s music and stuff. I will be returning soon.

Monday at school, I was hanging out with some 3rd graders during cleaning time/recess. 2 girls came up and started talking about "okama" (gay men) and stuff. They asked how to say it in English and I said "gay." They started giggling and then walked away. As they were walking up the steps, I hear them asking each other and other students "Are you gay? Are you gay?" Good ol' international communication.

I have a new favorite little food here in Japan. I don't know what they're called, but they look like this.

It's mochi (pounded rice that's very soft and chewy) stuffed with anko (red bean paste, not to be confused with "unko" which is a slang and vulgar term for "poop" or "shit"). Delicious, naturally sweet, and actually healthy.

To end this blog, here's a picture of a place in Shinjuku. I never realized that a man could have a hot box, but apparently anything is possible in Japan.

Read on all ye faithful!!

2006-10-10T22:37:00.001+09:00

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

Good times.

2006-10-03T19:09:00.000+09:00

Today was a nice, relaxing day at yon-chu. It was art day, so the kids painted pictures all day. The first- and second-graders went to various parks to do their work, while the third graders went around the school and drew. It was great, because I got to know the 3rd graders a lot better. Unfortunately, I teach 3rd graders with the teacher who is a bitch, so I dont really have the opportunity to feel comfortable and mess around with the 3rd graders in class like I do with the other kids. So, this was a good day. I started trying to draw a picture myself, but it sucked, so I gave up and walked around to see what everyone was drawing. Some of the kids were really good.

For the most part, I chilled in a classroom with four girls who are very cool. They always test me to remember their names, so I actually remember them- Risa, Mizuki, Yuka, and Eri. Now, Japanese people have a tendency to shorten words or names as much as possible. For example, Brad Pitt is often referred to as "Brappy," a cool band called Beat Crusaders are often called "Be-Cru" and things like that. So, we were talking about restaurants in Japan, when I mentioned First Kitchen, a delicious japanese fast food chain. Well, apparently they shorten this to "Fir-keen." Now, with a Japanese accent, this sounds EXACTLY like "fucking." Man, when I heard Yuka say that I burst out laughing and she had no idea why. I explained that this is "Eigo no waruguchi" (English badmouth) and they laughed a lot too. Good times!

The following picture is from a 2nd grade picture. I had been waiting for a time when there would be no one in the classroom so I could get this picture. I think it summarizes all that is funny about Engrish.

Need I explain anymore?

In all honesty, the whole L-to-R confusion with Japanese people makes a lot of sense when you've studied the language, but who cares. This is too funny. Especially since it's plastered in the center of a public junior high school's classroom.

Here's a picture of Manami and me. It's actually from a couple weeks ago. Aren't we cute?

Oh, and I shouldn't forget to mention. Today was my first time being hungover at work. Oh god, the morning sucked. I thought a puking session was imminent. Last night, I got waasted at an izakaya with the other Tsuchiura ALTs (assisstant language teachers) and also one of the vice principals at a different school. He was cool and apparently liked my drinking ability, because he wanted my number and email. Sweet, I have a 50-year old Japanese friend. That's all.

Weekend Roundup with this badass.

2006-10-01T19:48:00.000+09:00

Good weekend. Friday I taught four 5th grade classes at a different school (Shimokatsu or something) and it was fun The kids were cool, maybe not as cool as the last elementary school, but cool. Still, if I had to sing "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" one more time that day, I probably would have done something terrible, like urinated on one of the kids or something. It was fun anyways.

I got out of work early, which was great, because I had time to go to City Hall and get my gaijin card. Yes, I am officially a gaijin! Basically, this is an ID card that says I'm allowed to stay in Japan as a resident teaching english. Gaijin is kind of a slang term for "foreigner," and actually often has negative connotations. The correct word is "gaikokujin" which literally means "outside country person." I enjoy being an outside country person.

After that, I went to the bank to get an account set up, but they needed a goddamned hanko. A hanko is a little stamp that all Japanese people have. The stamp contains the kanji for their names. I figured since I was an official gaijin, I wouldn't need a hanko, because it's impossible for kanji to represent my name. Still, they said I can get a katakana hanko, so I had to go to the store for that. It won't be ready till monday, so no bank account yet, but my hanko is on the way.

Next, I headed to Manami's house in Noda, Chiba. We went to the grocery store with her mom and then Manami made Japanese-style curry. It was delicious. Her mom also bought a couple sanma (i think that's what it's called), which is an autumnal fish. It was good. We ate it straight up, whole fish is on your plate and you slice right in and pull the bones out and all that. Tasty.

Saturday morning, we were watching TV and eating breakfast, when randomly on a TV show, they started playing "Surrender" by Cheap Trick in the background. I explained that this was the band I came here with during my first stay in Japan. Cool. Next, Manami had a sayonara party for one of her colleagues, so I headed to Harajuku and shopped a bit by myself. And by "shopped a bit," I mean I got the coolest shoes I have ever had. Check these out.

Sorry Jonathan, but these put Dunks to shame. I'm just saying!

A word about these shoes for anyone interested. The company is called BAPE, short for A Bathing Ape. It's a Japanese clothing company that has made it's mark on Japanese culture by selling everything in limited edition quantities. While that means fairly exorbitant prcies for some things, I got these shoes at a decent price (read- not even a dent in my mofo paycheck! BOOYAH!). Excuse me. Anyways, yeah, BAPE stuff rules.

After my shopping extravaganza, Manami met with me at Harajuku and we ate at the legendary Jyungara Ramen. It's famous, it's all over the internet. It was delicious. I wanted to take a picture, but it was really crowded and I didn't want to look like a lame tourist.

Today, I spent all day cleaning my room and doing the laundry. I tried a new shrimp burger from McDonald's and it was deicious. For dinner, I had TakaraJima (yakiniku, thin meat you grill yourself, blah blah). It was good. Now I'm gonna study and go to bed. LATES!

Takai yasai.

2006-09-27T17:51:00.000+09:00

It rhymes. It means "expensive vegetables." It doesn't rhyme in English. In an attempt to vary my diet and boost my immune system, I decided to buy some fruits and veggies today. I spent about the equivalent of $20 for the following: a 250 g bag of frozen strawberries, a 250 g bag of frozen blueberries, 4 apples, 3 carrots, 5 bananas, and 5 oranges. Takai, ne? (Expensive, huh?)

I'll stop bitching, because in actuality, most food in Japan is nearly the same price as its American counterpart.

Anyways, today I taught an elementary school, as opposed to the usual yon-chu junior high. It was a lot of fun! My first two classes were 5th grade students (probably 11 or 12, a year younger than the youngest at my junior high). These classes were alright. We played "Verb Bingo" and I used some flashcards I made to teach them "run, walk, eat, drink" etc. The other 3 classes were 3rd graders (8-9). These kids were all totally awesome. Cute and funny, and actually, I think if I taught these kids regularly, my Japanese would be improving much more rapidly. See, these kids know little to no english, so no matter how many "wakaranai"s (i don't understand) that I gave them, theye kept talking to in Japanese. For the most part, I communicated with them pretty alright. It was fun. These kids learned the body parts and we did "head, shoulders, knees, and toes" and played a game where you pass a ball around with the body parts I yelled out. It was a good time. The last class even gave me tsuru (cranes, like the birds) oragami and one girl gave me a sunflower seed with red ink on it neatly wrapped in a little piece of paper. Cute but random! Also, after every class all the kids wanted my autograph. It was hilarious. I mean every kid in 5 classes of 30 kids each. I felt like a freakin' celebrity, and I really wowed them when I showed them I could write my name in katakana (the alphabet used for foreign words, company names, etc).

I ate lunch with the last class I taught, the third graders. What's great about Japanese schools is they always play music during lunch time. It's just cool. Today, they played this song that is a super hit in Japan (hell, I even have it on my computer and most anyone outside of Japan would probably make fun of me if I showed it to them). It's called "Daite Seniorita" which translates to something like "Make love to me, seniorita." In other words, perfectly okay for 8 and 9 year olds to be listening to during lunch.

Might I add that the school randomly had two live goats at the entrance of the school grounds. I have absolutely no idea why. They had massively sagging bladder areas, too. Weird.

Now I'm just sitting around, probably gonna go find some dinner soon. I'm almost done with "Flowers for Algernon," making it the fastest 300 pages I've actually been interested in reading.

Finally, thanks to everyone leaving comments. I love them as much as (apparently) you all love reading this blog. I must give delayed birthday props to my brother Wade and the wonderful Lucy. Happy belated birthday you crazy bitches. To the IES kids, hurry up and graduate and get your asses back to Japan. Gerry- hilarious as usual. Nicky and Amy, I'm working on making sure I have the right address before I give it to you for the cereal. But some American cereal would be totally epic. Thanks and much love to everyone!! Just to make it apparent- anyone can leave comments on here, you don't have to register. Okay.

Sorry about no pictures yet again. I really wanted to take a picture of the goats, but forgot my camera today.

Random shots.

2006-09-24T20:26:00.000+09:00

Today, I woke up and got lunch at Skylark Gusto, a family restaurant. Family restaurants are pretty much the same as family restaurants in America, but the food is weird and random, but cheap. Skylark just started serving a kind of sukiyaki dish so I tried it and it was really good!

It was a beautiful day today. I've learned that after typhoons pass, you can expect great weather. Today was no exception. So, I headed to Tsukuba on my bike. Good exercise. I took some pictures.

There was a big science expo in Tsukuba in 1986 or something, and they have a really nice expo center in the middle of the park. In the center there's a life-size rocket. Random, but cool.

On the street between Tsuchiura and Tsukuba, there's a gas station. Here's the sign. Also random and oddly disturbing (and might i add...mildly arousing!)

And finally, a classic "Engrish" sign.

The librarian at yon-chu was excited to show me their selection of english books, and had me check out a book called "Flowers for Avergnon." While the title seemed vaguely familiar, I had no idea what it was about. I did brief internet research and it sounded cool, so tonight I started reading it. Anyone out there read this book? It's really cool so far. I'm about 65 pages in. I reccomend it so far.

Lates.

Yopparatta!

2006-09-24T00:14:00.001+09:00

It might be early in the morning your time, but it's well into the AM over here, and "Yopparatta" means "I am drunk!" YES! Weekend 4 is in the books. I have pictures! I have bad news too. As I took my camera out to take the following picture, I dropped it, and now my camera is pretty much fucked up and broken. I can still manage...but Christmas wishes are just around the corner. Get it? Ehhhh??

Jonathan. I took this picture just for you, and as I just mentioned, broke my camera because of it. So check these badass kicks out.

Badass, right? While we're on it, I went to a Nike Outlet store today...Unlike that one we went to in Florida, they had Dunks all over the place on outlet prices. I didn't get any, but plan on returning soon.

Anyhoo, Friday night, Manami came to Tsuchiura and we took the bus to Tsukuba (where I took the above picture). We found a delicious restaurant on the top floor of the mall. Our dinner looked as such:
Yum, dude!

Today, we went to the Tokyo Game Show. The biggest video game convention IN THE WORLD!! YEAAAH! There were lots of foreigners (yuck), and lots of games to play, and it was way too crowded. Pictures!

After said events, we went to Subway to get a snack. Subways here kick ass! They havea avocado shrimp sandwiches and wasabi dressing and oh my god it's good. Next, we got on a train for about 30 minutes then hit an izakaya in Kashiwa (for the new readers here, an izakaya is a traditional bar/restaurant where you go and eat food. These places are laid out like mazes and just finding the bathroom takes patience and perseverence. It's like eating where a samurai might have eaten in the 1600s). Luckily, Manami's friend worked there, so we got drinks for free and tons of good food at a good price. Food included yakitori (chicken bone and god knows what else on a stick), raw octopus and wasabi which was delicious, blood orange sherbert, crepes, shrimp salad, other stuff that alcohol won't let me remember. It was good.

Then I got on a train by my lonesome back to Tsuchiura, hit the bike, and now i'm here. Might I mention that Sally Struthers has nothing with her buns of steel, because after all my bike riding, I have buns of platinum and they are absolutely divine!

Oh yeah, cute story. When I was on the train from the game show back to Kashiwa, there was this mom and her two girls on the train. They were probably 4 and 6. The 6 year old made eye contact with me and I smiled at her, then she said "Hello." It was adorable, then as they were getting off she said "Goodbye!" She must be a pretty smart little girl.

I think I got my pop culture references right. And I'm OUT!

I came all the way from America...I had a blind date with destiny.

2006-09-20T21:18:00.000+09:00

Another night of eating too much goddamned food.

Today I taught first graders, who are quickly becoming my favorite over the second graders. It's amazing how much more talkative these kids are than the third graders. I don't get it, really. I taught a new first grade class today and they were hilarious. For some reason, a few of them like to yell to me "PEANUTS HONEY!!" And if I say it back, they laugh. So, I said in my self-introduction that I love eating peanuts and honey, and the class liked it. (On a side note, I've heard some other crazy English phrases and I have no reason why the kids are saying them. One that comes to mind is "Fire baby! Fire baby!") The lesson plan today was acting like you were ordering from a hamburger restaurant. It was fun and cute.

Lunch was good and I got okawari, a word that Okechan taught me and means "second helping," because Nagazawa-sensei was gone again. It sucks because he's the cool 24 year-old teacher, and apparently he quit, and some people about the teacher's office are upset about it, myself included.

Anyhoo, I got off of work, came home, dicked around a little bit, then headed to the almight Genkotsu Ramen. It was great. Then I was riding my bike home, and I had noticed that a restaurant that has been under construction looked like it might be open. I was taking a picture of the sign with my phone (more on that in a second), when the owner or manager or something came out and said a bunch of japanese shite. I understood "sushi o tabetai" (do you want to eat sushi) and he was doing the japanese hand motion for "come here," so I went in. So I had dinner number 2, and the sushi was absolutely delicious. It wasn't until I was leaving that I realized it was FREE!! I guess they were doing training and stuff. Seriously, I will be returning. It's a nice restaurant too, good atmosphere.

So about this taking a picture with my phone, eh? I found this badass feature on my cellphone where you can take a picture of any kanji or series of kanji, then the phone reads the kanji, and you can look up the meaning in the dictionary. So badass. This whole country is now my textbook! Kanji are the symbols that actually have a meaning (day, sun, water, up, etc), they're not just a phonetic library. Needless to say, this is very helpful. Phones here are so cool. If you travel around or eat at restaurants, you'll often see these kinda weird looking barcodes. What you do is take a picture of the barcode with your phone, your phone reads it, and then you can get special coupons or promotions based on the bar code you photographed. It is so cool.

This weekend is one of the biggest video game shows in the world- Tokyo Game Show 2006. It's cheap for the public, and I am very excited. Also, I just found out that Mars Volta will be here in November. NICE NICE NICE.

Later.

Seriously, I am the working man.

2006-09-19T22:34:00.000+09:00

Today, I had a long fucking day.

Woke up at 7:15, cashed what was probably my 10th box of frosted flakes (it's the only decent cereal they have here), and headed to school. I taught the 3rd graders (14-15) today for the first time. Good, because I met the rest of the kids, bad because I was co-teaching with my boss, who for some reason just is not nice to me. Or she just doesn't seem to like me. It's weird, too, because the 3rd graders were far more reluctant to speak english than the 2nd graders (or even the 1st graders), which kinda made me wonder. But I guess that's just a shy age to be, or something like that.

Anyhoo, I made 4 or so self-introductions, which gets old fast, but it's okay. Got done with work and then headed to my part-time job. Much more relaxed setting. I was a little nervous, but it was really easy. I taught a class of 4 students and then another one of 6. Their english is much better than the yon-chu kids. At the end of class, i distributed lyrics for "Owner of a Lonely Heart" and we listened to it. Some people remembered it, some chuckled, some bobbed their heads. It was fun. One lady said it reminded her of the 80s and "Video Killed The Radio Star." I said "Does it bring back memories" and she said "Yes!" and everyone laughed. Anyways, I got paid 8000 yen in cold cold hard cash. NICE.

Anyways, after that I headed home. It's 10:30, the latest i've been awake on a weekday so far (i think). I just ate 2 onigiri from sunkus (pronounced 'Sunks,' it's a conbini or "convenience store). Onigiri is rice shaped in a triangle, wrapped in seaweed, and stuffed with a variety of things. I had diced chicken and mayonnaise. It's really good.

Lately I've been jamming "True Faith" by New Order so hard. I don't know why. In fact, I - guess - there's - just - no - way - of - knowing.

Long weekend.

2006-09-18T19:27:00.000+09:00

Tsukareta! (I'm tired). Today I had a 3 day weekend, which was great. Friday night, I met up with Hoko and Manami in one of my favorite areas of Tokyo- Ikebukuro. It's kind of a small area, but there are a ton of things going on there. Our mission was to eat at Mo Mo Paradise, my favorite restaurant in Japan. If you come visit me, I will guarantee you that we will eat here ;) Bascially, it's all-you-can-eat for 90 minutes of shabu shabu or sukiyaki. We chose shabu shabu. Here's what the spread looks like.

Here's how it works. They bring you all the meat and vegetables your stomach can handle. So the thin red meat is beef, and the pink meet is pork. Then you throw it in the boiling water/broth that's in the middle, and dip into either of the two sauces you see near the center of the picture. These aren't yummy-yummy, yucky-yucky sauces though, they're ponzu and a sesame-based dressing. Both are delicious. I gained weight. Also, Manami found a coupon on her cell-phone (yes, that's Japan for you) so we all got a free drink. I had whiskey and water. Yum. Okay, enough about momo. Oh one more thing, momo is supposedly the sound a cow makes in Japan (not moo-moo), thus the fairly cruel name, Mo Mo Paradise.

Ikebukuro at night-

Anyhoo, after that, we headed to an izakaya, but had to catch the last train fairly early (like 1130) so i'd be able to make it home. Came home, slept, woke up, had a fairly uneventful Saturday. Ate some good food at the train station though. Can't really remember much else.

Fun at the Izakaya- A very candid Hoko and Manami + a seductive me.

Sunday, I headed to Kashiwa to meet up again with manami. Kashiwa is a cool kind of "mini-tokyo" about 35 minutes away by train. Tons of badass used clothing stores, restaurants, etc. I found this amazing yello jethro tull 1978 tour t-shirt that i'm still considering buying, but it's a fairly hefty price. But it's SOOO badass. We went into this one store where there was this techno song playing and the lyrics were "Sit on my face. Sit sit sit on my face." It was hilarious, especially becasue I dont think any of the employees or customers had any idea what they were saying. In case you're wondering- in Japanese it's "Watashi no kao no ue ni suwatte kudasai."

Then I went to Manami's house for sukiyaki dinner. Nice. It was pretty funny, because i could barely communicate with her relatives. Her cousin, aunt, and uncle came over just to see my face. Right when the uncle walked in and saw me, he said nothing, he just started cracking up. It was funny. As the night went on, we discovered our mutual love for classic rock. His favorite band was fucking Toto, for christ's sake. Totally awesome.

Here's a picture of her house.

Quaint, eh? (I dont know why this picture won't rotate. Deal, I guess.)

So, we left her house and went back to Kashiwa. Looked around and some different shops, ate some delicious ramen (her choice, not mine, i swear), and then I headed home. Upon returning to Tsuchiura, the sky looked crazy, so I decided to take some pictures. These are from downtown Tsuchiura near the train station.

COOL! That's all for now. Love you all.

Hello, girls!!

2006-09-14T19:47:00.000+09:00

Because today was another great day, I figured i'd let everyone see more of my world and post some pictures ;)

First, stories of today. Okay, so I woke up and put on my nice polo dress shirt that's 80% linen and 20% silk. I got it at Marshall Field's. It was marked down from $85 to $22. Not bad right?

Well, that's all. Later.

Okay, just kidding. Anyhoo, I headed to school and thought I had to teach 5 classes today, as that's what my schedule said. Of course, nothing's ever right on my schedule, and I only had to teach 4 classes, for one of which Nakazawa-sensei had a meeting. So there's my foreign ass standing in front of 33 Japanese kids who barely understand any English and I'm trying to run a class. We were supposed to play bingo, and we kinda did, but mostly the kids just asked me if I knew about various manga, j-pop singers, video games, and stuff like that. One kid asked me if I knew Michael Jackson, and i said "okashii" (weird, strange, etc) and everyone laughed. For some reason, if I don't understand the kids, and i say "huh??" everyone cracks up for a long time. Maybe my facial expression or my furry eyebrows or something. I don't know. Might I add that school lunch was delicious today. I ate with the 2-1 class (13-14 year olds) and it consisted of a mashed potato croquette, tomato-based veggie soup, a little salad, and some bread w/strawberry jam (again, for some reason i dont understand, the kids thought it was funny to give me their jam...whatever, i used that shit!), and then a pudding custard thing. Pretty good stuff.

Uh, lets see, so after lunch, I sat on the computer waiting for 4 o clock to come around, because I didn't have anymore classes. I looked at things like urbanoutfitters.com, cnn.com, and maybe some other stuff. Then I got done with work and headed home, put a suit on, then went to an interview for some extra part-time money. I got hired to teach Tuesday for 2 hours and 40 minutes, and they will pay me the equivalent of $80. NICE! If I do well, they'll give me more hours, too. The demand for english teachers here is so ridiculous and awesome.

On my way home, I had Genkotsu ramen in mind, but then passed Ringer Hut, a restaurant I was interested in. I rode passed it, but then turned around to check it out. To my delight it was yasukute oishii (cheap and delicious). Picture time, bitches!!

Here's what I ate tonight...it looks like ramen, but it's called "Champion set" (with a Japanese accent of course). It was great, and according to the menu, only has 800 kCal (they're not calories in japan...they're kCal- more specific i guess).

After I got home, I was on the computer, then wanted to get in the bath. As i turned around to go to the bathroom, I saw this crawling on my dress shirt (that I wasn't wearing at the time)

Yeah, then I killed that sumabitch,

The following are some pictures I took at the sports festival last weekend.

This is "Esasa," which i described somewhere below, and is also the charade that I did in front of all the colleagues.

This is just a general shot of the crowd, students, etc at the sports festival

And here's another event. It's like capture-the-flag-that's-on-top-of-the-bamboo. The kids climbed them, knocked em down, and grabbed the flag. It was fun to watch.

These are the three colleagues that i'm the best friends with, Maatsura, Nagasawa, and Okesha. They rule. This was before I was on stage with them. Note Nagasawa (in black) is chugging the entire beer. I love Japanese people and their love of alcohol.

Finally, because I know some of you may be wondering how i'm doing, and because i haven't put a picture of my sweet-ass self on this blog. Here's how I'm looking these days. That's Manami, too.

Alright, I'm off to Tokyo after work tomorrow. Updates and pictures to ensue. (Also, Courtney- you'd be surprised. I actually like the milk here more than American milk. It's sweeter or something. Their cheese is not bad either, but most Japanese people hate cheese anyways. For a vast amount of other food-related things, though, American's do it better.)

My bowels are well-lubed for your pleasure.

2006-09-12T21:19:00.000+09:00

Sorry about that. It's just my way of saying I ate way too much greasy food tonight.

Today, I woke up at 7:15, ate Japanese-brand Frosted Flakes, then headed to school. Today was my first day of actually teaching at yon-chu, finally. I taught three 2nd grade class (2nd grade of junior high, so about 13-14 year olds) with Nakazawa-sensei. She's a cute little lady of about 25 or 26 and she's very nice. Today, she had some kickin' BO though. I didn't tell her.

The classes were great, though. Basically, I did a self-introduction and let kids ask questions about me. They all seemed interested in if I had a girlfriend. The last class spent about 15 minutes asking if I knew the video games they liked. Anytime I did, they all cracked up. One kid asked me to be his valentine, so I said "Okay! Ai shitteru yo." This means "I love you," but Japanese people really don't say it to each other. Needless to say, the class geeked out for literally 3 minutes. So after the self-introductions, the kids played bingo (i read words in english) and then they talked about TV they watched. It was fucking easy work. But it was fun!

After work, I came home and talked to some people online, lied down to watch some Japanese MTV, and then went to eat Ramen at my favorite joint- ninniku genkotsu ramen. That place rules. Then I got some more gyunyu (milk) at the grocery and came home. It was then that Nagasawa (not to be confused with Nakazawa, which believe me, I am) called me for yakiniku. So I met up with him, Matsuura, Okechan, and the other young male teacher Nakahata or something. We ate yakiniku and I had a massive beer. It was great and i'm, as mom might say, a little tipsy. Now I'm home and getting ready for bed.

My sincerest apologies about not posting many pictures here. To be honest, I haven't been taking as many pictures as I should be. Like last night, in Tsukuba, I saw a gas station sign of a cartoon little boy peeing, and a hotel called "Hotel California." I should be carrying my camera around more, I know.

That's all for now. Lates.

Woo Nelly.

2006-09-11T19:51:00.000+09:00

Today, I must have ridden at least 20 miles on my bike. Call my knees a gang-banger in the ghetto, cuz they are shot!

I woke up and went to the city hall to get my gaijin card- a necessary identification card for any foreigner staying in Japan for more than 90 days. Actually, I registered for it and will get it in about 2 weeks. After that, I tried the ramen at the 180 yen ramen shop. 180 yen is like $1.50, otherwise known as ridiculously cheap for a bowl of ramen. The quality reflected the price, but it was still alright, and now I'll know where to go in the event that i'm feeling a crunch between paychecks.

After that I hit up the supa (supermarket) for some cereal and what i thought was laundry soap. I was talking to Manami online, sent her a picture of it to make sure it was soap, and sure enough it turned out to be fabric softener. Goddamit. My clothes are still relatively clean. Then I studied for a bit, then went to kaiten sushi. The highlight was a avocado-shrimp topped with onion and mayonnaise sushi. Not maki (rolls) but sushi (meat over rice). It was awesome.

Then, it was about 4 PM an dI had nothing to do, so I decided to ride my bike to Tsukuba. It was a good idea, because Tsukuba is a damn cool city. It was a bad idea, because Tsukuba is way cooler than Tsuchiura. There's lots of shopping, a TON of restuarants, and gaijin bars for foreigners feeling homesick. It's about a 20 minute bike ride away, but still it'd probably be cooler if I actually lived there. Not a big deal though.

That was my day. Now i'm listening to a podcast I found of Japanese vocabulary set to beats. The idea is to listen to it on repeat and let it sink into your brain. We'll see if it works.

I'm tired.

2006-09-10T16:46:00.000+09:00

Hi. This weekend has been pretty righteous. Friday morning, I taught two kindergarten classes. The kids were so effin' adorable, and the work was easy, though I was a little nervous at first. I just said my name and where i'm from, then we went over fruits and colors, then sang "Heads, shoulders, knees, and toes." The kids loved when the song got really fast and they had to keep up. It was cute.

Then I went back to yon-chuu for more sports festival practice. We had a pretty good lunch consisiting of tuna and some other stuff. I helped Nagazawa and Matsuura cut down bamboo, which was kind of a cool experience. We went to these woods where tons and tons of bamboo trees were growing, then we chopped em down with huge knives. There were lots of mosquitos, which sucked, but it was fun.

After school, I headed to the station because Manami came into town. We walked back and ate at Takara Jime (Treasure Island) which is a yakiniku place. It was fucking good. Yakiniku means "thin meat" and you go to these restaurants and grill the meat on open-flame grills that are in the middle of your table. There's sauces and garlic and all that, and it is so good. It was my first time eating cow tongue, and it was actually really really good.

Saturday was the sports festival (finally), and it was pretty long and pretty boring to watch again. That's okay, though, because I'm getting paid. After the festival, I took a shower, then went to a nice hotel convention room for a pretty good dinner and lots of beer. I was pretty wasted. The three cool teachers all put on power rangers costumes and performed a little bit for all of us. Then they did a tumbling routine, based off of what the boys had to do at the sports festival (see below). They called a bunch of teachers up, including myself, and we did some tumbling things, like made a human pyramid and stuff. Of course the Japanese people got a kick out of seeing me up there. Then we all did "Esasa," which is where you take off your shirt and strike this pose then kinda run in place, sort of. Hard to explain, but it's a respected "sports" event that the boys at the school also did. So there was my drunk ass, shirt off, in front of all my colleagues and other PTA members I had never even seen before, doing some old Japanese traditional sport/dance thing. It was fun.

After that, we headed to an izakaya and got drunker and ate sashimi and edeamame. I sat by Okechan and talked to him most of the time, then we made the long walk back to yon-chuu, and I headed home. It was a good night, but a little too expensive. I woke up hungover, then went back to sleep, then headed out on my bike. I went on a route I had never been on, then ended up reaching the train station, so I ate at the Indian buffet again. It was delicious. I'm still full and i'm still tired. I should study Japanese now. That's all!

Good day.

2006-09-07T20:58:00.000+09:00

It's about 9 PM, I'm jamming some Crowded House/Finn Brothers on shuffle on my computer, and I just got back from my 3rd night in a row of having ramen for dinner. That shit is just too good. Today, I had miso ramen at the chinese restaurant near my apartment/school. I met up with three teachers there- Nagazawa-sensei, Matsuura-sensei, and Oke-chan (can't remember his full last name, but he told me to call him 'oke-chan' because we are 'mabudachi' or best friends, cute right?). They're 24, 24, and 26 respectively and our mutual abilities (or lack thereof) of each other's native languages are enough to get by and have a good time. Before that, I rode my back all around Tsuchiura, just to see what I could find, and I THINK I found a sukiyaki joint. Not sure, but they had pictures of thinly-sliced meat and an area in the center of the tables for a hot-pot. I will have to investigate furthur, for shizzle.

Tomorrow, I teach two kindergarten classes. It sould be fun and really cute. Then I head back to yon-chu for more sports festival practice. After the festival, Saturday night, the plan is to go out with all the colleagues, eat really good food, and get totally wasted, so i'm looking forward to that.

My only complaint right now is that I wish my japanese was better. A lot better. Imma study hard. Ooh, "Fall at your Feet" just came on- nice.

-ryan

Phone number and address

2006-09-06T16:39:00.000+09:00

If anyone wants to know, here's my phone number- 09058281849 ...i cant remember what japans country code is...maybe 81
my address is:

ryan marks
352-1 leopalace soreu 106
Ibaraki-ken, Tsuchiura-shi, Nagakuni
300-0817

i give you this information just in case you feel like sending me an ipod (mine broke on the plane), mario hoops for the nintendo ds, or dragon quest heroes, also for the ds....thanks in advance :-P

today i had my first class...not really, though...i distributed a math test (dont ask me, i just do what i'm told) and sat there until the kids were done...then it was back to sports festival practice! whatever, though, i'm gettin' paid! I also ate lunch with the kids today for the second time (as opposed to eating in the teacher's office). It's a good time, they just basically yell whatever english they know at me, and i respond, and they all giggle. Interesting little culture thing though- at the schools here (at least the public ones), the kids all eat lunch in their own homerooms and the food is served by their classmates (who wear face masks and white cafeteria coat things). Everyone waits until everyone has their food, and then they say "Itadakimasu!" and then everyone starts eating ("Itadakimasu" is a phrase everyone says before they start eating anywhere, and roughly means "I will receive"). It's kinda nice. Japanese kids are so freakin' patient.

last night i ate dinner at an awesome ramen shop, that i guess is a pretty well-known chain in japan...it's called ninniku kagetsu ramen, which means "garlic ___ ramen" ...don't know what kagetsu means, but they load up on the ninniku, i love it, and it's literally like 3 minutes away...i might go there for dinner, or i might try a new place...we'll just have to see!!

this weekend should be fun...the sports festival is saturday (i have to "work," but that means i get monday off) and after the festival, the colleagues and teachers invited me to get wasted with them in downtown tsuchiura...manami might come with to help with hongaku (translating) for me...should be a good time!

oh and if you feel like sending me the new strike anywhere and mars volta cds, i'll listen to them ;)

and i'm out.

Picture time.

2006-09-05T17:12:00.000+09:00

I now have internet at my apartment, so without furthur ado, here are some pictures i've taken thus far.

These first two are just a couple of pictures I took during a sunset. It's my city, Tsuchiura, as seen from one of its many bridges.

These are some of the boys from my school, yon-chu junior high school, practicing for the 'sports festival.' By sports, though, they don't mean tennis or soccer or something. They're these kind of weird, or different, exercise routines and marches and stuff like that. This is called "tumbling" and requires a lot of strength and patience. I learned a new phrase, "gaban suru" while watching these kids. It basically means "endure without saying anything about pain" or something like that. Might I add that it's hot as shit over here. The sun is relentless, and I have a tan that would make any porn star jealous. Just to add to the endurance these kids have- pretty impressive shit.

The rest of these are from my apartment. This is my main room. Where I sleep (on the floor), watch tv, listen to music from my computer, eat cereal, get dressed, etc.

Here's the kitchen/washing machine which leads to....

the shower/bath room

this is the toilet room...separate from the shower and bathing room, because that would be unclean.

view from the front door

my apartment from the outside looks like a meat locker

and finally...the epic view from my backyard.

So there you have it...my home for the next 7 months...hope you like the tour...on a side note, i love getting comments, so please leave theme...i just changed my blog settings so anyone can leave comments, just let me know who you are in the post...word...later
-ryan

RIP Jordy...you'll be missed.

2006-09-05T10:30:00.000+09:00

My parents called me at about 130 AM Japan Time and informed me that my first dog, Jordy, had passed away. Apparently, it was a peaceful death in the comfort of our house, so that's relieving. Still, it's a sad day for me. I'll always love you Jordy, you were a good dog.