response to those wonderful people

you read,
you love,
and you comment, now if only potter could show some love, or anderson, or ez, or bush, or dale, or aj, you are a bunch of lazy rats

Miss Crazy Anna Bah Nah Nah ... na na na naaaaaaaaaahhhh

My camera is (please wait as i find out by going to olympus .com)

whooo, archives can be intense,

Olympus C-7000

and yes i usually do the little buttons myself all those F's and other numbers
GO red sox

status bar saves the day (BRIAN AND BROOKE)

----- (BRIAN AND BROOKE ------

what is your address?
real mail
----------------------------------

once again im at the internet cafe that wont let me see this site in english, but thanks to the status bar, i can see the name of the page in english, so i know where the link can take me, wah hoo.

not much to report, vacation is over, i was at work forever today even though its my day off, had to prepare for Tuesdays classes. And all of the kids lessons are reviews, which means a lot of stuff for each lesson, and a storybook about monster swamp, i think the next post will be a wishlist type thing, you know, things that people could send in case they cant think of something, yeah, thatd be cool.

anyway, another week, another day of being there so late that i dont get to the store before closing, so not much in the way of groceries, luckily i stocked up on the essentials before vacation ended.

plus i dont need to go into work until 1245 tomorow, although ill go in earlier than that.

Oh yeah, this saturday night, anyone who's in the area is invited to
Desparados after final AEON classes, its near the Shinsakae stop, theres a good map in the japanzine

hope to see you there

pretty____

a new post, and more pictures

Jo and I are in a net cafe in Inuyama, my battery is about to die,
then i guess ill just play my DS against people around the world
its rough

lets see, so the newest batch of pictures are from Nagoya, Inuyama (castle pics) and Kanie a bit
I know they arent exactly labeled at all, but thats life,
some of them are from Inuyama castle, and a garden that was used for traditional tea ceremonies
very exciting stuff,
what else, oh yeah, at nagoya port they had this petting zoo, and they had a dog pen where you could rent a dog for a while, take it to a fenced in area and torture it, i mean love it as your own

very interesting

well the battery is about dead,
as of now im debating if i should get internet at my apartment
although i cant do anything till i get my alien registration card

and here is your moment of adorable-ness

blogger japanese

why should it be a surprise that this site is in japanese, oh well.

lets see, been busy for the last 2 weeks, work has been fun, meeting students, teaching, good times overall, im sure there will be rants galore soon enough about the little ones.

so this week has been golden week, which means vacation week,

joanne and i have gone to nagoya port and checked out the park, got an idea of where things are etc, so next time well actually goto the aquarium and the italian village

hmm, we went out with one of her coworkers and a student, we went around nagoya and suburbs, went to a cool little traditional chinese tea house, up the massive tv tower and went out for traditional okinowan food.

where does the time go.

well i guess thats all for now

im at a net cafe so i dont have my pictures to post yet, some good ones

take care

going dark

oh its so scary....

ok, so its not, at all

tomorrow i move into my apartment, well, tomorrow after work.
I dont have my alien registration card yet,
which means, no bank account (but wait) tomorrow is payday, = in cash
no cell phone, no internet

not sure when ill get my card, but it may be a while until the next edition

so, just to ease any fears

im not dead, just out of reach

as one is when they are in japan!

a quick note, the big macs here,
are way better than in the states

i know i know, i was so good about no McDonalds for so long,
but its on the way to and from the trains

anyway, tomorrow is my first week as THE foreign teacher

pretty sweet,

postcards have been delayed due to my dead computer
they will go out
oh yes, they will go out

im out
until next time

HEY YOU dijapan fans

Great! I just installed a stats counter so i can check info about the people who visit me.
which leads me to, WHO ARE YOU??????????

please leave a comment saying who you are where you're from and a message!

tell me what you want to know.
tell me red sox or brewers scores
tell me what you did today
how your div3 is/isnt going
tell me whos working at tic
tell me how life at school is

anything

DO IT NOW

New pics

this pic is from our first night in Nagoya, we went out for yakitori, i think thats a term used for a place where you just order tons of little things on skewers, it was pretty cool.

so, from Left to right - Remi, Xavier, Germaine, Nick, Joanne, Dave

so again you can click my FLickr page on the right, or i think the image itself will get you close

im out

Ketsumeishi

thats right, ke tsu me shi (keh-tsu (like tsunami)-may-she)

for anyone into downloading the tunes, i suggest these guys they're pretty kickin

som songs to highlight: bira no tanima, tuhi, ame, motto, kochi oide

japanese rap hip hop awesomeness, they have some sweet flow

all for now

and heres your moment of zen

maybe not

shout out

just wanted to make a quick note thanking the few people that have left comments!!

knuckles - im posting for you kid

Ed - thanks for the updates, i havent had anytime to check the sox standings

sarah - is awesome

paulette - your postcard will be mailed as soon as i write it! its pretty cool

brian and brooke - the pics of ru are awesome, your post card will be out soonish as well

if i missed you then youll just have to post a comment again!

=============================

on to business,

so, people should follow the gizmo project link over in my links section
download it and call me

voicemail is a pretty cool thing to get

==============================

anyway, i have work to do

oh yeah, you should check out joanne's blog to see photos of the hotel room,
the pics are of hers, but the rooms are identical

hotel pics

its finally over... kinda

so much since the last time i wrote anything up here,
hmm,
so, training, at least 9 hours or listening to god knows what (important info actually)
sample lessons, sometimes for students, sometimes for fellow trainees
long long days,
started to really get thang of things towards the end,
not enough sleep, not eating right and way too much stress

but now its all good!
kids training starts tomorrow and that should be super fun!

last night i went to the goodbye/welcome party for Aeon Kanie,
so i met the guy i am replacing, many of the students at Kanie
and my bosses and coworkers, it was great!

today was a pretty chill day, slept in, well, since work starts at 10, 11 or 12
didnt really sleep in, BUT, no work, so its all good

the jo, xavier and i did some laundry
went back to the hotel and gor Remi
ended up at a coco ichi, japanese curry joint
pretty tasty, this time i got a potato croquette thing over curry and rice
very tasty, so much rice

then we went to tokyu hands
got some markers, some pastcards, thats right you may be getting a postcard soon!
sweet
then we got inkans, basically a stamp that says our name, but in japanese of course
its needed to "sign" special things like for my alien registration card, certain officail forms etc

i should have written it down, but it sounds like dabide i think

check it out

so that's read from top to bottom, ha!

not sure how its pronounced, but

the top character means - younger brother; faithful service to elders
the middle character means - idea; mind; heart; taste; thought; desire; care; liking
the bottom character means - warrior; military; chivalry; arms

and somehow thats me!


time for bed
happy easter

im out

oh yeah, i used a glamour shot of boo (my sisters cat) as a prop in my sample lesson to students on saturday
they loved the game, my lesson and the cat,

boo is now th official co sponsor of my lessons,

of course Ru-dog is the other

day 2

I know that day one and day two arent exactly very catchy headings, but hey, im tired, and its early

the day began around 10/11am ish, we all met, except for Xavier, he caught an early bus to go see some friends,
some of us had eaten breakfast, well, remi and nick had, on the way to the subway we stopped and a place called bakery kiosk, jo and shared some pastries, one had ham in the center, the other tuna, very tasty i think ill be going there for breakfast tomorrow as well!!

then we went down into the Nagoya Subway and took the Saku-dori to the the Meijo Line and then got off at Nagoya Castle



After exploring the grounds, a tower and the caste itself we headed out to find some lunch, but first we got some takoyaki, which are thin dough sacs filled with octopus bits, they were hot, but they were prety tasty

anyway, since it was sunday we wandered around for too long only to realize that most palce weren't open, most places were only open for dinner hours. we eventually went to a curry place, i ordered a spinach in curry, very tasty, then it was off to visit shrines,


i think we succeeded in finding three, although we never found the one we were looking for.

we were all getting tired of walking around and i think the jet lag is settling a bit, we headed back to the hotel and are now waiting till we head out for dinner, im going toformat some pictures and upload them

day one

so the flight was around 13 hours,
highlights include the french couple i sat next to, they seemed to know little to no english
"the ringer" "pride and prejudice" and "mine yours and ours" great films, not really

i arrived into Nagoya around 6PM local time, somehting like 4am for most of you
met up with Andy (Aeon training staff), Xavier, Remi, and Nick (other teachers to be)
hopped a bus for about an hour, got a quick heads up on some good places to eat and where training will be on monday
checked in, showered and then Jo and Germaine (an aussie) got back from being out
we all met in the lobby for dinner around 945, problem is most places were closing at 10
we finally found a place and basically let remi run the show, he speaks Japanese fairly well
so dinner consisted of a little dish of octupus bits and potato balls, then we got edamame (soy bean pods)
some fired chicken parts that were served with a tasty mayo, some skewered chicken parts, gizzard, neck skin and regular parts
had an asahi (beer) and some sake with Remi and Nick, oh and then we got squid which was rather tasty!

after dinner we found a kareoke place got a room and rocked out for a decent amount of time, good times
came back to the hotel and crashed bigtime
go jetlag!

i know all of that was kind of dry and boring but im knackered , and now to contemplate day 2, and maybe do my homework.

better half

if there was ever a question, ha,
joanne is easily my better half, which is why i steal things from her!

Days off
Jan 1 - New Year's Day
2nd Mon in Jan - Coming of Age Day
Feburary 11 - National Foundation Day
March 20 - Vernal Equinox Day
April 29 - Greenery Day
May 3 - Constitution Day
May 4 - National Holiday
May 5 - Children's Day
3rd Mon in July - Marine Day
3rd Mon in Sept - Respect for the Elders Day
Sept 23 - Autumnal Equinox Day
2nd Mon in Oct - Sports Day
November 3 - Culture Day
November 23 - Labour Thanksgiving Day
December 23 - The Emperors Birthday

Holidays
1 week at end of December
April 29th - May 5th
1 week in August

and my address would be

David Thomson
Dai 26 Ocean Bldg. 2F-A
24-3 Aza Chinowari
Ohaza Kanie Honmachi
Kanie-cho, Amagun, Aichi-ken
JAPAN 497-0033

didnt i, didnt i, didnt i see ya cryin!

she worries too much though

call me in japan (for free)

a few posts back i threw some info out regarding gizmo project

so first off, you should download it
mac users rejoice as macs typically have internal microphones
pc users, microphones are abbout $15, but think of how much you'll save on hours of international phone calls!

anyway, it works like most IM programs, and i think iChat works with it...? there is a plugin for adium users

long story short, my gizmo name is "davepthomson"

call me

finally rss made easy

so this is mainly my fault, but i do blame all of you for not telling me!

guess i havent really tested it yet but whatever,

so step one to rocking the [RSS]: download and install firefox or use safari

step two: goto this blog

step three: click the little orange rss thing in the navigation bar (see the picture)


step four: add this to your bookmark folder or bar

enjoy

gizmo project

so ive been looking into voip type thing, it says its compatible with adium, but i havent been able to work it yet, but their software is pretty slick

anyway, check it out gizmo

my account is davepthomson

peace

ninja back

so check us out here:

CLICK ME FOR ALL THE SWEET PICS

just some pics of our time

new adventure

its almot march already, kind of insane
although its about time, still over a month though
not much in the way of new developments, think ill be quitting EXPRESS soon because the weekends in march are filling up fast with life stuff
going to visit my sister and deliver her tubby cat then the next weekend i will be off to keystone CO for some snowboarding and then to NM for some bouldering, pretty awesome really, check out the crazy adventure link for news on the ninja rider expo

out

well well well well

fine story, do tell...

not much to report, Just got my Visa, pretty crazy
In a little over a month ill be in a place so foreign
how will i buy food, how will i travel, how am i going to live

guess, we'll see, need to work on the language
----
trying to work out whether or not it is feasible/logical/semi-intelligent to goto Denver, CO (scary as hell Meow mix song clock)
and chill and ride with my boys for a bunch of days, not sure if my ankle can handle it, not sure if the financial situation can handle it,

well, i guess we'll see

sweet T

thanks to the people that have gotten back to me about the rss, guess it was just an off day when it seemed things were messed,

on an upnote

this is awesome!

http://www.threadless.com/product/324/Of_The_Dead

thanks to juiceBox