Saturday, November 25, 2006

Three Days in Kansai

Here's what I did over Thanksgiving.

Monday, November 20, 2006

Random photos that document my life

Here are a few random pictures from my keitai (cell phone). I think they serve to give ya’ll an idea of my life these days. WOOT!


First up, a screaming cat. This is a Japan’s version of the magazine “Cat Fancy”…maybe, I didn’t actually look at the magazine…I just liked the cover.



Mothercoat! This is the shirt I bought at the Mothercoat concert last Saturday. The band was AWESOME…and totally weirdo Japanese.


Tiny beer cans. Finally, the perfect size beer for little Yuki’s lunch box. (a big thanks to Lisa for modeling the tiny beer…I’ve been using her face a lot in lessons…the kids respond well to her face...but I've never paired her face with beer in class)


My new image. A lot of my students are into hip hop, so I decided to totally revamp my image and become more gangsta. (just kidding…this was for Rhoda’s crazy bday party)


Exploded tired! I had my first Japanese blowout not too long ago on the expressway. Thankfully a very polite and courteous Japanese family came and saved me.


And finally, cheese ramen. Overall, cheese is hard to find in Japan and I rarely eat it, but recently I’ve been getting cravings for it and have started partaking in the bizarre Japanese dishes that include cheese. When I first arrived, I wouldn’t go near cheese ramen or cheese curry…but now, I think it’s kind of tasty.

Hai, ja ne!

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Rubik’s Cube Party (Happy Birthday, Phil!)


Saturday night marked another awesome party at my middle-of-nowhere apartment (where we can be as loud as we want!). The theme was “Rubik’s Cube” and required everyone to come dressed in the 6 different colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and white) of a Rubik’s Cube. Then over the course of the evening the goal was to trade items with other people in order to become all one color (thus the human cube is solved). Not everyone fully understood this method, but enough people come in good spirits to promote a night of random tacky outfits that shifted and changed to result in a group of unichrome superhero-like costumes.


Here’s me and Lisa at the beginning of the night.


And here we are again at the end. I went the yellow route and Lisa became a complete different person!

Okay, just kidding, that isn’t Lisa…that’s Tamara. But I bet I made you do a double take.

The party had a rowdy, but intimate feel and approximately 75 drinks were spilled inside my house. Phil, the birthday boy, managed to spill about 95% of those (the number of paper towels we went through is unimaginable). Nonetheless, I love having folks visit me in Ajimu and I’m already brainstorming for the next shindig. Para la ventana!

Friday, November 03, 2006

Dragon Boating in Kagoshima



Where: Kagoshima Prefecture waaaay down south (see map)

When: Last weekend (Halloween weekend)

How: By car, express train, shinkansen (bullet train), rental car, and ferry

Why: For DRAGON BOATING!


When the call for volunteers for dragon boating went out months ago, I signed up without really thinking about what I was agreeing to do. I knew the basic premise: join a team of Oita-ken folks and race a dragon-like boat against others from all over Japan and the world. What I didn’t know was that the journey to get to the race would be so epic and how (thanks to Lisa's organizational skills) the trip would be so fun.



Sakurajima, one of the most active volcanoes in Japan (and pit stop on the way to the race). We went by ferry from Kagoshima City to the fire mountain and spent some time driving around going, “Oooohhh, wow.”


Me looking awesome at a volcanic rock viewing park (and that's Randy on the left).


This is the Oita-ken team practicing 10 minutes before our race. None of us had ever seen a dragon boat up close until the day of the race and it was only right before we loaded up and competed that we decided our placements and how best to row. The Japanese people enjoyed watching us practice.


The Oita-ken team in all our glory. We came in 5th (out of eight) in our race and felt proud to have managed to stay afloat and finish the race.