2 words ON SEN

some of you may not know about the world of Japanese

ONSEN!

and its too bad. at the most basic level its like a bath house
but so much more.

On the last Saturday of each month some friends of ours who own a
Chinese restaurant throw a party and its always a great time.

At some point, i think around midnight the idea of going to an onsen
came up, and we piled into the car and off we went
it was great.

first i went into the sauna area that was furnishes with plush soft
carpet rugs and a massive plasma screen tv, i watched soccer, then i
went outside into the open air pools, there were hot, around 40c/100f

then i got up and went back inside and took a refreshing sit down in the
26c/78f pool before trying the 16c/60f and who could forget the room where i
almost passed out and took a nap. it was dark, nice traditional japanese music
a flat rock bed with a lump for your kneck that had warm water running under you
from head to toe
wow
after that i sat down at one of the washing stations and then headed out
where Satoshi and i got a beer from the vending machine and waited for everyone else to get out.

the onsen would have cost 750yen/$6.30 but one of the other guys bought us all tickets.
a great way to spend an evening

toyota

work to do, halloween costumes to get ready,

so heres a quicklink to some of the photos from the visit to Toyota City

Toyota Pics

spoonman or crazy men with nukes

one of those days really, i'm sick, busy, behind on all that i should be caught up with
have done a complete lack of a scrap of work tonight after work,
just dont want to give in to letting it rule my waking hours again.

the news isnt really comforting, North Korea is equipped to a certian exent and
will retaliate, how did they put it, with merciless blows. and since Japan just happens to
be one of the countries that is A) really close, B) imposing additional sanctions to that of
the UN. Just lets me sleep a little better i guess.

i'm sure itll all work out for the best and worst case, well not really worst case
becuase enough pop-culture knowledge mixed with science has led me to not
really look to the actual worst case. well a flight from NGO to chicago is only 2.5 grand

doubt itll come to that.

guess this is part of the fun, if the us would for some reason decide that it wasnt safe for americans here
then id most likely be the hell out, but i dont know if the irish would do similiar things, this is really just a
rant of the late night exhaustion.

in brighter news, tomorrow ill start my language partner exhange thing,
basically ill help someone with english and theyll help me with japanese
which should be good, im nervous because her English is well above that of my japanese
she's at the level where she can talk about most anything
whereas im limited to hobbies likes and oh wait i cant remember because i forgot everything i
might have learned so far!
hah!

good morning

sickness

so the cold/allergies are still being obnoxious
but seem to be fading a bit

life her is the same old story for the most part,
starting next week weds ill be spending time after work
to work on my japanese in a language partner type thing
i help with english they help with japanese, should be fun, but im nervous because
i cant speak much japanese, especially conversationally
i can answer some choice questions, but not much for coffee talk etc

so that should be fun, there should be some pics coming up, one of students
is taking jo and i to Toyota city to the Toyota motor company factory where
we get to see where the magic happens, also get to see their robots and future
concepts, should be a good time

until then i urge evyone to go here and watch the videos

Wii videos

who's excited I am
who missed the first wave of pre-orders? i did

oh well, life goes on!

here's the deal

renewal has come and gone,

the verdict

four, more, months

and then i guess we'll see,

July it is.

lemme know what you think