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

New pics

new pictures from himeji

herecomesthefun

so,my_keyboard_is_broken,well_more_
specifically_the_space_bar,did_you_notice?
it's_a_huge_pain,obnoxious_hope_to_head_
to_the_applestore_in_Nagoya_this_week
and_see_what_my_options_are,not_cool.

on_an_up_note,went.to.Himeji,and.Kobe..today.Went>to.himeji>
Castle,the..onecastle,you,should..see.if.you.cometo.japan
apparently,don't,,worry,family,inuyama,is,a,national,
treause,and,,so,you..werent.cheated,,,toomuchcc
hahaha if i press really hard i get spaces,sweet

anyway,ill beworkingongettingthepictures up, guess its stilla little tricky.


moresoon,

did imention the Wii will launch with wii sports for $249.99, brilliant!

out of touch

so it's been a while, not much has been going on here though

apparently the typhoons have killed a handful of people down south
our weather here in the Nagoya area has been pretty mild

Jo and i have booked the first portion of our christmas vacation to Okinawa

Sony has messed up their production schedule on the ps3

Nintendo is still on track for the awesomeness that will be the Wii
oddly enough being released stateside weeks before in Japan
serves em right!

be sure to check out this article if you are interested, even you arent interested
Wii article
and also be sure to get teh skinny from Nintendo at Wii

this things is going to be cool.

aw heck, while im on the rant, other cool nintedo things

DS games not for the typical gamer:


Trauma Center
Cooking Mama
Brain Age
japanes English phrasebook

pretty cool really

anyway the point of this post was to say that i got a renewal offer today
so ther'll be some negotiating to see if the wedding plans fit, and then there'll be a decision
by Oct 3rd.

out of touch

so it's been a while, not much has been going on here though

apparently the typhoons have killed a handful of people down south
our weather here in the Nagoya area has been pretty mild

Jo and i have booked the first portion of our christmas vacation to Okinawa

Sony has messed up their production schedule on the ps3

Nintendo is still on track for the awesomeness that will be the Wii
oddly enough being released stateside weeks before in Japan
serves em right!

be sure to check out this article if you are interested, even you arent interested
Wii article
and also be sure to get teh skinny from Nintendo at Wii

this things is going to be cool.

aw heck, while im on the rant, other cool nintedo things

DS games not for the typical gamer:


Trauma Center
Cooking Mama
Brain Age
japanes English phrasebook

pretty cool really

anyway the point of this post was to say that i got a renewal offer today
so ther'll be some negotiating to see if the wedding plans fit, and then there'll be a decision
by Oct 3rd.

renewal

quick note to all you junkies readin at odd hours,

I got a contract renewal offer today...

one more year...?

burrito

chilpotle, moes, bueno eat your heart out
i have black beans and cayenne peper
and i have tasty

to be honest, all of the above taste much better than mine right now,
but i dont care much about that

jo and i have booked the first part of our Dec/ jan trip, form Nagoya to Okinawa
should be fun once we get the rest of it taken care of

right now the plan is to fly into Naha kick it in okinawa city for a day and then head south ish to the smaller islands
see some jungle, some coolness and relax
maybe hole up in a beach hut and hopefully sip some form of fruity tropical alcohol

who knows.

in other news, renewal is coming up, and the closer it gets
the less i get more sure about a plan either way

@ work things are good, bar some issues that will go unmentioned here so i dont get canned
what else

i guess football is starting soonish

oh yeah, i found ultimate in the nagoya area i think, the website is old
and japanese juts for kicks

but ive emialed a few people about it

i found out by going to an Aeon bbq with jo,
i pulled out a disc to throw
and one of the students comes and asks me if i play ultimate

halelula lalalalala!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

cool guy, hes a deep
we threw it was quite refreshing

just like riding a bike, throwing is

good deal nonetheless

well its on to a night of video games another burrito and some japanese study

"whoeveryouare" san, tanjobi wa itsu deska

peace

jet li

just finished watching a movie, so what you say

well it was in Chinese with only japanese subtitles as an option
no use

so it was fearless/ spirit

pretty cool, the only time i understood much was when the japanese guy was speaking japanese

fun time, its worth watching, once it comes out in the states

out

nifty radio thing

http://www.pandora.com/

tell it one song and it makes a playlist/radio station based on attributes from the song, pretty cool


here's some photos from the famikly visit as well
click me now

who hates the Yankees?

i do

not much to add

as i stated before Joanne has done a wonderful job of running down the events of the Bon
i think its safe to say that my family enjoyed themselves, as did Jo and I

every vacation has its moments of fatigue crank and apathy
and this one was no different, that said

i wouldnt have rather spent my vacation in any other way

which leads me to my next question

who's next?

im near Nagoya click the link to the right that says Map of japan to see my proximity to Tokyo
its about 2 hr on the shinkansen, and if you want to visit check the Japan rail pass and save money
if you plan to travel

I'm here till April 07 at least, i dont have anymore real vacation time, there is a chunk in DEC/JAN but
Jo and I our making our plans, but hey, my place is still open to friends, its a good base.

Japan rocks

come get some

jo goes again

so the thomson's came, saw and are now on their way back to the states,
hope all goes well on the crazy skies.

for a grea review of the times, please go here

CLICK ME, I'm COOL

i know. ill get to my own original posting

but now im beat, and its bed time

peace out

weekend of the BON

actually i'm not so sure that's correct, but whatever.
after another wonderful saturday kickin it eigo no sensei style
i waited for jo to head over to the kanie west (actually east but oh well)
and then our good friend Mieko came to collect us and brought us to her house
for those of you who dont know, Mieko and Satoshi are a wonderful couple who
run a chugoku no restauran ( chinese restaurant) great food and great people

anyway, saturday night was a festivil in town, about 2 min from their house in fact,
so we spent a little time at the house and then were guuided down to the festival area where this giant boat equipped with a huge mast that supported a dome of 365 lanterns as well as tall ladder type that sported 12 of these lanterns, all glowing in the darkness. when it arrived the crowds were showered with candy and small lanterns

after the boat left we headed into the carnival style area where we got to catch the end of a drum show Taiko i think it may be called, and it was very very cool

after the festival we returned to the masters (satoshi) house and proceeded to eat drink and be merry, we had great english/japanese conversations with a couple of guys who work together,

one of which lived in LA for a number of months so he acted as the translator, poor fellow,

absolutely great people, great fun, got to eat some delicious noodles, clementines, prawns, and mollusks? not sure really, i just yanked em out of their shell and tried them, rather tasty actually

then there was tonight, which is still early, but jo and i went to the Inuyama festival

lot of food stalls, all of which smelled oishi (delicious) but we are doing tacos tonight!

it was kinda like a huge dance show with some really crazy acts, ranging from teeny girl pop routines to three drummers who were realy cool, two had these huge drums that they held onto as well as used a shoulder strap, they did all sorts of cool jumps and spins and got the crowd into it, and then the guys who fought with sticks came out and fought to the beat of the drummers' then the guy spun a basketball blindfolded and dribbled between his legs while sitting down and then they drummed some more and all these people came out and were dancing and it was fun!

wow

and now jo is out trying to rent V for Vendetta (i highly reccomend it) and we bought this massive can of beer,1520ml so about alitre and a half, but the cool thing is it has a little CO2 cartridge like the little ones you use in a paintball gun, so im guessing when whe open it we get to infuse it with the CO2, kinda like a guiness widget

damn this is long,

today is sunday, tomorrow is monday, and tuesday night, the fmaily will be in Nagoya

whoah.

time to start the tacos

jo should have some pictures up soon, so be sure to check her blog out
you should anyway, its far more collected and logical than mine

peace

http://jogoestojapan.blogspot.com/

hachi gatsu

August already,

time goes fast, sou desne(doesn't it)? I've learned some nihongo(Japanese), but it seems like not much
life moves on, shogunai(it can't be helped).

So this weekends outings included visiting the orchid garden in Nagoya,
I didnt have the old ka ma ra (camera) but luckily jo did



so look at the pretty pictures by clicking here

other than that things are the usuall, i got a library card, read The girl who loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King
not bad
not exceptional, little girl's story of survival after getting lost on the AT in Maine

ok i think the rice is ready

peace

Ise Jingu

the short story is walled off temple and shrine buildings that you try to see through trees and over fences, unless you happen to be part of the imperial family, or a priest, or a small group of those holy types. needless to say, we looked in from afar



the highlights were the lack of crowds and cool refuge from the hot sun, oh and the wildlife



for anymore information please click here

http://jogoestojapan.blogspot.com/

and just to prove i was there

so it's 0:13 monday morning, tomorrow Jo and I will be heading to Ise to visit the very popular Ise-jingu and the neighboring small town, maybe have some lobster and maybe have some beef, Ise beef is the second best in Japan, so take that to the bank.

a spoon full of sugar

helps the absynthe go down! Step one, pour your absynthe, step two put sugar on a spoon and heat it till it melts, then dump stir and enjoy.

Oh, did i mention i had some of this too



that's right! there's a snake in that jar o whiskey. Also a ginger root and some seeds. HIs mouth has been pried open so the venom would get into the mix. Tasted like a strong almond whiskey.

Lets just say the night included drinking, fireworks and an 8am bedtime.
A local bar was closing so it was the closing festivities.

rainy days

It's Friday today, and I'm pretty sure its been raining since Saturday. On the up side, its been nice and cool.  Forecast looks like more rain at least through tuesday, and  I thought the rainy season was over, oh well.  I was supposed to get up early and go hand out pamphlets at a local high school, but thanks to the rain no dice. So i've just been relaxing in bed, looking at the news and staring into space. Jo and I are trying t othink of somewhere to go for the weekend.  If I didnt have class on Sunday we'd probably go to Hiroshima, but it's a 2hr trek on the shinkansen, which kills a large chunk of time and there are closer options, just have to figure them out.  At some point i hope we'll get out to do a hike near kyoto, its a 5 to 7 hour hike over rivers, past 8 waterfalls and through some rocky terrain, it sounds pretty fun. well, i guess i should get up and head into work, its my day to do the cleaning.  Somehow i've managed to get ahead with my prepwork for Tomorrow and tuesday, so im not feeling too rushed, maybe ill go in and clean then come back home for a while.  anyway, have a good day

days off

So Jo and I got our days in december approved. That means we'll have a good chunk of time off, i think its from the 24th to the 4th of jan, which means we will most likely be travelling. So far there are a couple of places on the table, Hokkaido, Okinawa, Thailand, Korea maybe China. Who knows. And its almost August, which means the family is getting ready to head out.

time to iron and goto work.

Knuckles?

Did liz nichols post a comment?

Did she pass her Div3?
Was she holed up for the past 8 months catching up on the past four years of slacking?

What is she doing now?