..:: kaz's blog ::..: 4月 2004

月曜日, 4月 26, 2004 by kaz

thursday, 04.22: vball

chatted a bit with russ this mornin'. found out that cammie won the 33 player, texas hold 'em tournament this past weekend.

had 3 classes today and they went pretty well. the students are slowly startin' to open up now.

for lunch, headed to sukiya for some ton don. i had the ninniku ton don which was pretty good. got some mad garlic breath now.

i'll be chillin' for the rest of the day since i don't have anymore classes. hopefully i'll play some vball today and maybe get a game or two of ping pong in as well.

durin' an off period, miki san (my travel agent) came to school to help plan the 8th grade field trip. but i don't know what he did, but he got yabuuchi sensei pretty mad. he busted out the kansai ben and even kicked a chair. but after he had his coffee and cigarette, his personality totally changed and he then said ok to go through the plans. kinda strange...never really found out what actually happened.

for the 5th period, the 9th graders played freeze tag throughout the school. it was a pretty phat game. can't believe some students got hurt playin'! they take things so seriously.

i decided to play vball today and i was sure glad that i did. i had a blast. was really impressed with the team and they welcomed me. i got to play with one of the girl's father, who also coaches them. when we finished and as i was walkin' away, all the girls ran towards me, huddled around me and in perfect chorus "domo arigato gozaimashita" it felt really nice to hear that as well as the little chatter of everyone tryin' to figure out how to say "please come back..."

so, i'm my way home from school, i took a new way and as i was goin' downhill, i hear my name called. so i stop and found out it's miyuki and another graduate from nanabayashi. chatted with them and found out that they go to an all girls school in ichikawa. the name of the school kinda sounded familiar, so i called takahashi sensei and asked which school his daughter goes to. found out that they're goin' to the same school as nanako. pretty trippy.

friday, 04.23: pta reception

it was my easy day @ school, only had 2 classes. in class we played this alphabet game, testin' to see how well the students know the order. surprised to see some students havin' some difficulty. i thought they were supposed to learn this in elementary school?

went to play vball and i got to participate with the starters. we did a progressive hittin' drills and toita sensei even demonstrated this one drill where you would have to scan first (the target was this 7th grader) and then hit to where she was standin' (she was constantly movin' back and forth) toita sensei also demonstrated the x cut shot, which totally blew me away. i was like damn!

after the drills we played a match against the team's starters while our team was constantly rotating in players. they had line judges, refs and even a scoreboard. the thing that made it fun (more fun than the boys team @ nanabayashi) was that the girls have these interestin' chants with gestures and everything. i got to play the whole way thru. we almost came back in the first game, but it was no competition for yukino (170cm) to hit over the 8th graders (155cm). she usually always hit around me but i did roof her one time. we ended up losin' both games, but it was fun. since it was almost 1700, had to get ready for the pta reception. yet again, the girls surrounded me and thanked me. i kno i'm gonna be totally sore for the next week. my body isn't used to divin' on da floor.

anyhow, got ready and ended up talkin' to iwasaki sensei (the lunch lady) for sometime about all kinds of stuff. @ around 1730, all the teachers headed down the home ec room where the pta prepared all the food (and drinks). as we entered, all the parents welcomed us with clappin'. i sat next to the principal and vice principal and with the other office ladies. there was so much food! i don't even think i had everything. there were all these little speeches given by the principal, vice principal, pta president, etc.. and then speeches from all the teachers who left last year, who are leavin' this year as well as the new teachers. i gave it all in japanese and got many oohs and ahhs from the pta. then we were given flowers (another present for mama). i tried to get out to pour drinks but the principal never really let me leave. i think between him, the vice principal and i, we killed a tall six pack in less than 15 min.

so i finally get an opportunity to mingle and pour drinks for other teachers and to other pta members. got a good idea of which teachers drink and which didn't. found out that one of the office ladies used to work with takahashi sensei and met another teacher, who taught @ shibayama last year but now teaches @ nanabayashi.

around near 1900, the vice principal pulls me aside and asks me (in japanese, of course) "kevin, are you goin' to come to the after party?" i was like, huh? after party!? (i think i can get to like this school real quick!) he then tells me that we're goin' to karaoke and it's walkin' distance from school. so, i say all my thank you's to all the mothers and then i head out with the principal and vice principal. the thing i didn't realize was that not only the teachers came out, but a lot of the parents came out too. we had about 25-30 heads, all up in one room! got a chance to talk to toita sensei (vball coach) and learned that she played in bolivia for 1.5 years. we talked bout all kinds of stuff. she even sang a song that i requested. she's koo.

talked with kawada sensei who lives in the next town from me. he bikes to school too, so i wanted to ask him which way he goes to get to shibayama. didn't really understand why he goes the way he told me. guess i'll have to try it out to see for myself.

so i guess time was windin' down, then the vice principal pulls me aside again and tells me, "so kevin, are you busy? cuz if you're not, a bunch of us are goin' to stay for after party 3" ok, ok, ok...as much as i like nanabayashi's principal and vice principal, shibayama is gettin' some mad crazy points tonite, boy! the principal and vice principal are hella koo!!! so around this time, there's only about 8 ppl left: principal, vp, godmother of school, 3 mothers, i think a father and me. we order some ice cream and i can't believe these people are still drinkin'! the principal and vice principal start talkin' all serious to each other, so the rest of us started up on own conversation. we kicked it there for a while, maybe til about 0000, then we put the principal into a cab and then the vp. then the mothers start talkin' bout goin' to another place for after party 3!?!? what is goin' on here, i just met these people tonite. however we ended up just goin' to coco's for some food. had some chicken vegetable soup which was pretty good. it was kinda weird to partyin' with parents of the kids that i teach.

anyhow, around 0130ish, we head out. me with: bouquet of flowers and tons of leftovers from the reception and in the current state, it was a little tough to get home. but i did get home, unscathed. phew!

saturday, 04.24: lotr:rotk, shabu shabu, serenade

woke up and was hella sore!!! my legs, back, neck, shoulders, ribs, stomach, etc... were totally weak. it's that good kind of sore...i think. just need 2 weeks to recover.

tried to do some cleanin' up. killed the leftovers for lunch and then stopped by mama's to drop off the flowers

then headed out to makuhari cineplex to finally see lotr:rotk (for those of you abbreviation challenged; lord of the rings: return of the king)

i must say, this was the best one of the three. i now have a renewed faith in the final episode of a trilogy. i just like how things came together and were wrapped up unlike this other final episode of a trilogy from these two bros. that was such a piece of shiet.

the special effects were probably some of the best i've seen. gollum looked too real. i kinda forgot that he was cg. i also liked the fact that they brought in different people, i was kinda sick of seein' just orcs as the bad guys. legolas was dope of course. i also liked how gondor looked. the whole beacon scene was pretty impressive too.

i still wish that arwen would've came back to fight. start chantin' again and kick some @$$ but alas, it didn't happen.

i can see why this movie won some many awards...cuz it was dope!

i give this movie: 9/10

afterwards, headed straight back to kita narashino to have dinner with junko and natsuyo. it was @ the place called onyasai. it's part of the gyukaku restaurants. it was shabu shabu and you could choose which kinds of broth you wanted. we got tonyuu (soy just before the tofu process) and hot chili. had tons of vegetables and seafood. we all had dinner cuz natsuyo is goin' thru some tough times with work and her personal life. i hadn't seen her in a while but was shocked to hear what's been goin' on with her. of course i gave her my 2蔵, which was quite interestin' cuz it's kinda along the lines of what my friend 'dre went thru.

anyhow, got a text from ni-chan, sayin' he's gonna be @ serenade and that ito-chan and mina-chan are goin' to be there too. so i stopped by afterwards, and it was a packed house. there were all these older drunk ladies, whom i've met once before, but this one lady was tryin' to be a comedian. not but 30 seconds after i sit down, she jokingly threatened me that since i'm a teacher, i shouldn't be at this place and that she's gonna call the board of education. i was about to say, oh yeah, is that right? i can call takasaki sensei right now if you like. i have his number in my cell! in the famous words of david chappelle "i'm rick james, biatch!"

anyhow, they left, so i was able to chill with my big bro and my other friends. shimizu san came by (not only did treat us to a bottle of champagne, he bought me another bottle of sho chu) as well as cha cha's mama, as well as a bball coach who knows sasaki sensei and who's wife saw me @ openin' ceremony @ shibayama. kimura san also came thru too. we had the crew there. met some new people, one guy who was singin' like a pro! the magic number for karaoke was 5. so if you got: 65, 75, 85 or 95 ya got 3 free songs. you get 3 songs for free if ya break the 90 mark too. there was so much food, drinks, singin' and dancin'. even mama got a little twisted. she sips sometimes, but when the champagne came out, boy, i never seen her like this.

so when it was closin' time; kimura san, ito-chan, mina-chan and i go to sing karaoke which is kinda near my house. all i know was that it was sunny when we left.

came home and crashed out.

sunday, 04.25: lunch w/ikko family, yu's event

got a wakeup call from mama tellin' me that she's treatin' everyone for lunch @ this new restaurant (where jangara ramen used to be). it's a pretty koo restaurant, kinda like japanese cafeteria style. you get a tray and take what you like from an assortment of foods and then pay @ the cashier. it's hella cheap and pretty good. everyone came out: mama, junko san, sensei, noboru, yoko, takahashi, ken and kumi. we all then headed back to ikko for some more drinks. i only had one cuz i had to be out to yoyogi for yu's event.

headed out there, called mike (who was already there) and he came and got me. @ yoyogi stadium/hall was hamasaki ayumi's last concert on her country tour. so there were all these vans decked out with her pictures and all these places sellin' her photos/mags/etc. i was in contact with yu by mail and i asked him when the event is gonna end and i get a reply "whenever the police stop us" so i was pretty anxious to check it out. met up with a-chan, kazu, hide, ai-chan, makko, chee-chan & ayu. a-chan brought riru,

so i took him for walks around the flea market and stadium cuz he's a total girl magnet. i would say about 80% of all females stare and say to their friends ahh cho kawaii!!!. the event itself was koo. yu got on the mic a lot as well as hide and chee. they were bbq'n jerk chicken which was hella good. there was this old man that came by and was all dancin' in front of the speakers and tryin' to get all the girls up to dance. he even tried to get on da mic!?! there was this father and his kid that came by and the father brought out one of those air horns, so his kid was blowin' that to da beats. pretty cute.

mike and i also walked around the flea market and got some bbq kalbi on a stick which was grubbin'. checked out the flea market and took a look around. mike was checkin' out these adidas but i told him to wait til later. mike had to take off to play bball so i was chillin'. then got a call from b.sato. told me he was in and around harajuku, so i met up with him, q and their friend sachiko. brought them to the place and introduced them to everyone i knew. sachiko was havin' a good 'ol time cuz she bought this hemp pattern drum. the hemp pattern is supposed to be really famous in japan. she was also enjoyin' the music.

it was to catch up with b.sato and q. havin' kicked it with them since october!?! we talked bout the itinerary for when the guys come out on saturday. it's gonna be hectic yo! all of them stayed around til like 1900ish before takin' off. we're all gonna hang out when the guys get in. also found out that sachiko is from funabashi! like 6 stations away from me, kinda trippy.

@ around 1930, things were pretty much wrappin' up, so a-chan and i left. the sucky thing is that we left @ probably the worst time, right as the hamasaki ayumi concert ended!?! it was way konderu (packed), took us days to get back to the station. we finally got into the station, sure enough, these 2 girls came and was checkin' out riru

who was stickin' his head out of the burberry dog transport. then were goin' crazy. a-chan smiles and whispers to me "girl magnet".

a-chan got off @ shibuya and then i was on my way home on the 1st of 3 trains. stopped off to get a mocha @ tsudanuma starbucks and then headed to ikko for some ocha and a snack. ni-chan and his boy scout leaders were there and they gave us some roasted potatoes. mama also made me some nira tama. she treated me. i love her so much!

monday, 04.26: back to school

back to the grind. utsumi sensei was absent so i had 3 classes with sekiguchi sensei. wasn't feelin' to hot and had a headache for most of the day. kyoto sensei (vp) gave me this endurance drink which really helped a lot. just been drinkin' lots of ocha and juice.

on my way back saw another one of my old students. went to the bank then headed to ikko for dinner. afterwards, headed to asano for some katsu don then came home. bouts to crash out now.

kaz out...

| »

月曜日, 4月 12, 2004 by kaz

update
i added the past five days, enjoy!!!

kaz out...

4.12.2004

the past 2 weeks

sorry for the long hiatus, was totally busy with the last days of school as well as havin' my buddies here. i'll try to summarize what i've been doin' for the past 2 weeks.

go grab something to eat and drink cuz you're gonna be readin' for a while...

thur, 03.25: closin' ceremony

today was the last day of school @ nanabayashi. the closing ceremony was interestin' and i found out that kyoto sensei and shiga sensei were not goin' to be @ nanabayashi next year. after the closin' ceremony (which was very serious), there were awards given out to students and then the teachers who were leavin' gave a little speech. kyoto sensei went first and his was very amusin' as well as shiga sensei's. i got some help from nakamura sensei the night before on my speech. i wanted to speak in japanese cuz i wanted to students to be able to totally understand what i felt. after i finished, to my surprise, many of the teachers told me that was a very deep & emotional speech. suzumura sensei even told me that thru all his years of teachin', that was the best farewell speech he has heard from any alt. as all the students began to file out of the gym, many of my favorites wished me good luck and not to forget them. another surprise for me was that abiru sensei had the 2 captains from the bball team come up to me and say thank you very much for all your help, please come back and teach us and play with us more. that, and all the other farewells from students got me a little teary eyed. and of course, the pta moms all had to come talk to me at this time. afterwards, i took my final stroll thru the gym and ran into sasaki sensei, whose first words to me were naku na (don't cry). for the rest of the day, i just walked around the school, takin' pictures and just reminiscing of all the great times i've experienced here. i also went by all the club sports for one last time, savin' bball and the orchestra for last. went to hang out with aki and asuka in the percussion room. later, rie, osawa, koike, natsuki & ha-san came in and then they started to play the piano and sing. i was totally impressed that all these girls can play the piano so well. they don't even play the piano in orchestra. so ha-san and i started talkin' in english and slowly by slowly, more students started to gather around us and as we paused our conversation, they said to please continue talkin' in english. so we did and all of them were goin' "ooohhh", "ahhhh", "sugoi!" @ ha-san's ability to converse so well. afterwards headed to the gym one last time and received a warm "konnichi wa" from the students. i didn't play, but i did help the students with their footwork and other drills. said my goodbyes to abiru and sasaki sensei and then went to walk around again and when i was walkin' by the 3rd year student classrooms, i saw shiga sensei packin' her things. got to have a pretty good conversation with her...probably the longest one i've ever had. i found out where she's goin' next year and i totally feel for her cuz she's been assigned to otaki, one of the most notorious middle schools in funabashi. afterwards came back to the teachers' room and went out to my spot, the balcony, for some time alone to reflect how much this school has impacted my 1st year in japan. i have nothin' but great memories here and have made good relationships that i will forever cherish. 辰存�脱転��ぢ限�ヂ�γβ�｜ｂ�脱�測奪遜��Ｂ�ｂ�達��ｂ��達�達即達��ｂ�達��ｂ�達他達��Ｅ乎ｂ��

packed up my stuff and then headed home. decided to go to ikko for dinner and also buy sensei a bottle of sho chu for his help with my speech. had some grubbin' dinner and then went home to do some laundry and cleanin'...cuz i got guests comin' in less than 24 hours!

fri, 03.26: pick up

pretty much just cleaned and did laundry the whole day.

went to go pick up don and jookie @ narita. was a little late, they went thru customs really quick. came home and met up with my pops @ tsudanuma station. we tried to go to watami, but it was way packed. tried some other places, but they were all packed...so we ended up goin to millers coffee shop. jookie had some curry udon, don had tonkatsu, pops had this korean dish (i think) and i had this chicken dish. pops killed to small bottles of sake and the rest of us had 2 beers. after dinner, sent my pops home (he thinks he's a train expert now cuz he can get from tsudanuma to funabashi) and we then headed out to ikko for some drinks. mama wasn't there cuz it was friday, but i introduced don and jookie to my buddies. i was totally bombarded with questions from everybody. i had to constantly tell everyone that don and jookie can't understand a word of japanese. kobi chan especially, i told him the first time, he then nods and says ok, i understand...then a few seconds later, he's right back talkin' to them! some highlights were: shacho sayin' that jookie was cute, everyone in shock that don was wearin' shorts on a cold day and shacho makin' us drink oolong hi's. we just went home after that drank some more.

sat, 03.27: roppongi hills, muse

headed to roppongi hills to check into the grand hyatt. the room was dope!!! phatty plasma w/dvd player, a 15" lcd in the bathroom, huge tub, dope toilet and remote controlled lights and shades. we ended up takin' a nap for a bit and with the push of the blackout button, it was pitch black in our room @ 1630. met up with: kaoru, ikko, aki and hide. headed to alcatraz for dinner. i was expectin' a better type of place cuz the past themed restaurants we've been to went the whole 9 for everything. this was a little different. other than the fact that we ate in a cell, the place was too small for don and jookie. the best thing i think was how you got the servers' attention. you would bang on the cell with a metal stick. the food wasn't bad.

afterwards, we headed to muse. it's the first time i've been there before 2300. luckily we had an almost even ration, cuz on da weekends, they don't let you in unless you bring girls. when we got in (girls are free, guys pay 1000yen but get a free drink coupon), it was a totally different atmosphere. it was mostly people sittin' @ tables and talkin' softly, much like a lounge. got our drinks and went downstairs, while passin' where the table tennis room, i noticed that they changed it. hide scouted past the downstairs bar and found where they put the tables. i could've swore i saw karaoke in there, so i told kaoru to check it out to make sure. when we go in there, it's all nice plush carpet (you have to take off your shoes to go in), couches and a big projection karaoke. on da weekends, it's free karaoke so ya know my friends were lovin' that. we were the only ones in the room for a bout an hour, until these 4 girls came in. i told don and jookie to give them a mic and book while sayin' something in japanese (hey, i'm just tryin' to help my buddies out) when they start singin', they were really gettin' into it and even had choreographed dance moves. hide and aki try to join the little train thing dance. durin' the practice run, the head girl said mae ni, good; ushiro wa...dame (the front is good whereas the back..hmm...bad) at around this time, and maybe 6-7 long islands later, a big group of business school students from america came in. they all get on the mic and did some weird songs. met this one korean girl from jersey, goes to hobbs business school in chicago. pretty koo girl, even though she was always puttin' down the west side asians by sayin' that we're all soft. u can be sure i represented the west side and by the end of the night, she had a different perspective. after that, all i can remember from that point is: i always had a long island in my hand, don and kaoru were fallin' asleep, hide was singin' all the time, we all danced upstairs, we went to eat ramen (we got to sit inside this time!!!), somehow walked back to the hotel, showed everyone our room, i layin' down, everyone leavin', me gettin' up to take a good-bye pic and then passin' out.

sun, 03.28: hanami @ yoyogi koen

woke up, chotto futsukayoi (a little hung over) then headed out to get some food. ended up eatin' @ wendy's. the spicy chicken was da bomb. went back to the hotel, checked out and stored our bags @ the hotel. then headed to harajuku and met up with marty. chilled outside the station and waited for ko and rieko to come thru. since it was a sunday, the gothic lolitas were in full force. as we made our way to the entrance of yoyogi koen (yoyogi park), these greaser guys were all doin' their hair and dancin' to all these oldies. it was a trip to see. so we finally enter the park, and boy is it packed. we made our way to where all the sakura (cherry blossoms) were and gave bry a call and he guided me to the spot. there was so much food, drink and ppl. i like how jookie broke it down: if this were da usa, there'd be cops on horses, ambulances, etc. the closest thing he could think of that would be comparable is woodstock. got to see all my big brothers, guys from bball and of course girls. wasn't plannin' on drinkin' cuz we were still feelin' the effects from the night/mornin' before but when your big bros give ya a drink, ya can't disrespect them. @ around 1800ish...it was gettin' a little dark and a little cold, so ppl were slowly goin' home. we then headed home which meant goin' back to roppongi and pickin' up our bags, then gettin' on 3 more trains to get home. on days like these, i realize how important a chill weekend in funabashi is. when we got home, we all decided to pack in da mornin' and then crashed out.

mon, 03.29: hiroshima

woke up, packed and then headed to tokyo station. got the jr passes (a must for anybody comin' to visit japan) for don and jookie and we got our tix to hiroshima. with a little layover in shin osaka, the total trip time to hiroshima was about 5 hours. from hiroshima station, we took the street car to our hotel. chilled for a bit and then walked to peace memorial park which was pretty much across the street and over a walkway from our hotel. from there we headed to downtown, chu hi's in hand. saw for the first time a vendin' machine that sells 6-packs and cartons of sake. we posted on this wall for about 30 min, just ppl watchin' and i was tryin' to teach don and jookie how to say "where is the okonomiyaki village?" in japanese. after tryin' to find it for about 20 min, we finally found it...the funny thing being that it was right where were postin' at before. the okonomiyaki village consists of about 30 small restaurants/stands. hiroshima is known for havin' the best okonomiyaki because they make it totally different than anywhere else. started off with some beers and had some kim chee flavored stir fried pork which was off da hook. another thing about the okonomiyaki in hiroshima is that you don't cook it yourself, the chef does for you. so you don't have to worry about messin' it up. so...let me tell ya'll bout hiroshima okonomikyaki; they put noodles and this floury tortilla kind of thing with a fried egg on the bottom. all i gots to say was dat ish was da bomb yo!!!, we probably got a little loud but can ya blame us...the food was delicious and so were the 6 beers we had each. there were these older ladies sittin' with us and when they left, they came up to us and tried to give us these coupons (the same one that ko gave to me) while speakin' in english, which really took me by surprise. after that...i think we stumbled back to the hotel and crashed (not before gettin' another chu hi).

tue, 03.30: miyajima, peace memorial museum, osaka

checked our bags at the hotel and then headed to miyajima by way of street car and ferry. miyajima is a small island right off the coast of hiroshima. known for the big red gate that stands in the water. it was rainin' since da mornin' but we waited til we got to miyajima til we bought some umbrellas. miyajima is also known for havin' wild deer just chillin'. the walk to the shrine was pretty interestin'...all the shops, food and other stuff. we saw this 2 metric ton, wooden shamoji (rice scooper) which was crazy. when we finally got to the shrine, we had to walk a bit more around vaulted wooden walkways and noticed that there was a weddin' ceremony goin' on. it's a shame that the weather was so bad but the mist from all the rain made for an interestin' background. since we still had to go back and go thru the peace memorial museum, and still make it to osaka, we decided that we saw enough and caught the ferry back. not before gettin' some snacks for ai, who was goin' to take us out to eat when we get to osaka.

when we got to the peace memorial, we paid the extra money for a digital translator which you would input a number corresponding to the exhibit and there would be an explanation in english for you. the voice on the recordin' sounded very familiar, don thought the same and said it was probably ming na (wen). the museum itself is something that i suggest everyone who comes to japan as a must see. it was a history & science lesson all rolled up into one. for all you how live and grew up in america, the stuff they taught about doesn't even scratch the surface of what actually happened in hiroshima on aug 5, 1945 @ 0815. i was totally moved from the whole exhibit and some of the pictures are unbelievable. you can't be for nuclear weapons after goin' thru the museum. at times i was just speechless from the things i read and pictures i saw....

after the memorial, we went back to our hotel and caught a taxi to hiroshima station. we also found out that the train we wanted to take was full, so we had to take the next available train which would put us in osaka @ 1930 with no time to check into the hotel. but it worked out just fine cuz it was easier for ai to meet us @ osaka station than our hotel. after findin' lockers to put our stuff into, we headed to the central gate to meet up with her. it's been almost five years since i've last seen her but for some reason i was able to recognize her easily (believe me, you wouldn't forget how she looked) so, she wanted to take us to okonomiyaki, but since we ate it the night before, we ended up goin' to kaiten zushi (conveyor belt sushi). after goin' up like 8 flights of escalators which never seemed to end, we got to the store...i mean restaurant. this place looked like a trendy designer store, from the waitin' room couches to the frosted glass and lighting. had to call jamie to figure out where/when we gonna meet her and burr up tomorrow. after gettin' thru all that, came back to the table and we started gettin' the sushi. oh yeah, this place was called mikuni, just like back home. this place was rather new and had all these special rolls too. but the weird thing was that there were these 2 girls behind the counter makin' the sushi. do ya'll know why it's weird to see that? well...it's said (not sure if there actual scientific proof to back this up) women have a higher body temperature than men, especially in da hands, so...that would mean, in theory, the fish wouldn't be as cold. anyhow, we reminisced from the good 'ol prima days which was kinda koo. since ai doesn't really keep in touch with the people back home, she was surprised to hear that all these people either got married, had a kid or moved, etc... after dinner, we called it a night and went to the hotel to check in. i gave them the tour of downtown osaka cuz our hotel was pretty hard to find. it probably took us 30 min to get there when it really should have only taken 5! from there, just went to the convenience store for some snacks and then went to sleep.

wed, 03.31: osaka, jamie & burr

got a call from jamie sayin' that they made the early train out to osaka.

breakfast

so we all went to the station and waited for them. picked them up and headed back to the hotel. decided to go the pub that was in our hotel. decided to get some fish and chips and all the guys decided on gettin' these 1 liter beers in beaker lookin' things. i'll post the pic so ya'll can see fo yo self. afterwards, we got some chu hi's for the road and walked to nipponbashi (kansai's version of akihabara). i was really lookin' forward to this but i must say, it wasn't even close to bein' like akihabara...not even close!!! by now, we're all pretty jacked up, and i actually started up a conversation with this one girl who was handin' out flyers. somehow we made it back to the hotel, not before stoppin' @ the convenience store for more snacks and chu hi's. @ around 1800, all da guys are passed out!!! 4.5 hours later, we awaken and head down to watami, which is also part of our hotel. we all only order sodas and get some yakitori, edamame and other snacks. we also stop by the convenience store again and then go back to sleep. feel kinda bad cuz we passed out before goin' to dinner and jamie was hungry and she tried to get us up. but to no avail.

thur, 04.01: kyoto

had some more breakfast downstairs. i just love japanese style breakfast. checkout time is 1000, can u believe that? if checkin time is after 1500, do they really need that long? oh well...so we decided to head straight to kyoto by express train and not shinkansen. we had to transfer from kyoto station and take the subway and from the subway station we kinda got a little lost. but in the end, we found the ryokan. we were greeted by a nice, cute girl who let us check our bags in cuz it was still a little early to check in. we then headed over to ginkakuji (silver pavilion). for lunch, we ate some ramen, had some beer and for dessert, soft serve ice cream.

then to kiyomizudera (which i didn't get a chance to cuz this one guy wanted to go shoe shoppin' instead). kiyomizudera was awesome. it overlooked the kyoto and the sakura were in full bloom. since it go cloudy and was lookin' like it was goin to rain, we rushed thru the rest of them temple and headed back to the ryokan. they had us sit in the lounge area and they served us tea and snacks. when our room was ready, we were led by one person, had one person push the elevator button for us, then we were greeted on our floor by another person. for dinner, we had another person who served us the food. the meal was delicious and after another person came to clean up our little tables, they had 2 more guys come in and make our futons. when they were finished, they left some paper cranes on our pillows...

we then bounced out to hit the town. our first stop had a cover charge, strike one!. second place, cover, strike two!. so i decided to go to a place that i know doesn't have a cover and has menus in english. don & burr had a beer, jamie had a martini, jookie had this blue thing...(girl drink) and i had a gin & tonic. from there, i think we just walked back to the ryokan but of course stoppin' @ the convenience store and gettin' some more snacks (I got some soba)

frid, 04.02: nara

i hit up the bath in da mornin' before breakfast. ate breakfast and then we got ready and headed out to nara. stopped off @ kyoto station and bought our shinkansen tix so we wouldn't be delayed like last time. then took off for nara. when we got there, there were so many deer just chillin'...kinda like miyajima, but these deer were more aggressive...goin' after the white guys. we headed to the nandaemon (the south gate) and to todaiji temple. it's one of the oldest, wooden buildings in japan, built in 752 a.d. it also houses the big buddha...this is one of the biggest buddhas i've ever seen, makes the one in kamakura look tiny. inside, for long life, you can crawl thru this hole in one of the pillars. the only person that attempted it was burr...who got stuck halfway, but with a little help from jamie, he was able to squeeze thru, not before hurtin' his ribs. outside the temple there was a smaller statue named pindola, who was one of the sixteen arahats, who were disciples of buddha. pindola is said to have excelled in the mastery of occult powers. it is commonly believed in japan that when a person rubs a part of the image of binzuru and then rubs the corresponding part of his/her own body, his/her ailment there will dissapear. where most of the people slyly touched binzuru's "privates", i went for the left shoulder. i had to climb a bit, but was able to rub it a little bit. we'll see if it works or not when i hit the courts in the near future.

we then headed out while lookin' for food. we walked for days tryin' to find a place to eat. we finally found a place right near the front of nara station. don and jookie fired up and i mean fired up their ramen. we had three dishes of gyoza and the ramen was pretty d@mn good!!! went back to the ryokan and chilled while the sat us down in the lobby and served us tea and sweets. then we headed to our room and chilled for a bit before the came in and served us dinner.

when they brought all the stuff out for sukiyaki, the thing that stood out the most was the plate of beef. omg, with all the vegetables, it was enough to feed 10 people, we killed all but one last pan. did i mention that there was also udon too??? we were in total food comatosis after that. we had so much, that jeff even had a pot belly after dinner! that guy is skinny too. so when they cleaned up our tables, set up our futons, burr noticed someone in our entryway, it was one of the our servers, cleanin' our shoes!?!? jamie hit the futon as soon as they were done and called it a night. so it was guyz night out on the town...so we got a chu hi for the road and then went to the arcade.

they had some crazy games there...but the one i really wanted to play was inu no sanpo (dog walk) were you were on a treadmill with a leash. you had to guide your dog (which you got to choose from all kinds, i chose the shiba) thru the neighborhood, keepin' him happy while avoidin' cars, bikes, etc. i got pretty far but failed to make one the last checkpoints. my impression of the game...it should be called ino no hashiru (dog's run) cuz i was all out runnin' the whole time. don was tryin' this punchin' bag game while jookie played this onimusha motion sensor game. it was a pretty dope game. i played it after him. i got a full body workout from the inu no sanpo (legs) and the samurai game (arms) that i was pretty sore. so the 4 of us try to play this go kart game but you need to have a membership card to compete against each other, so the worker set us up on daytona. i still can't believe we finished the whole race!! it was pretty intense, goin' 40 laps on a $1!! we played another after, a 20 lap race, but didn't get to finish it cuz i couldn't get to the checkpoint in time. we then went to play pool, and got these coupons which i read from it as a free drink but when i told jookie to go get us some beers, he came back with nothin'. so i went to see what's up and found out that if we play for 90 min, we get a free drink. so i asked if we could just order a beer and the guy said ok. after waitin' like 45 min, i went back and the guy forgot our order, wtf!?!? so by the time we got our drink, it was almost 90 min so we stayed for a bit more to get our free drink. we ended up playin' 6 games. afterwards we went back the ryokan and went to bed.

sat, 04.03: kinkakuji, back to funabashi, shibuya, all nighter

woke up for some more breakfast, we had some grilled fish, hmmm ummm good... we then packed up our things and headed to kyoto station and put our things into the baggage storage, then took the train to kinkakuji (gold pavilion). we thru it rather quick and then headed back, but stoppin' off @ mcdonald's and i picked up a korokke. headed back to kyoto station and headed back to tokyo. was constantly emailin' peeps to see if they wanted to hang out in shibuya. got a hold of mike and a-chan, so we decided to go back to my place, drop off all our bags and then head back out to shibuya with plans on goin' to tsukiji in da mornin'. @ tsudanuma, saw pepe-chan and talked to her for a bit. then weez was out, bound for shibuya!!!

met up with mike @ hachiko, but before that, don and jamie wanted to get a hot chocolate and coffee, respectively. so burr and i just posted in hachiko, just watchin' the masses cross the street and come at us. not sure where all these people were comin' from. but it was definitely fun to do. when they got back, we then headed over to this one pub that i always go to. too many gaijin there and the waitress messed up two of our drinks. don ordered a snake bite, but i guess in japan, a snake bite is pear cider and some other thing. so don ordered what was really a snake bite, but it tasted more like a guiness blaster (guiness & red bull). a-chan came by later, hung out for a bit and then we headed to mos burger, just in time to put in our order. they tried to tell us that they could only serve us drinks, even though we've been waitin' before they closed. what kind of crap is that...in the end, we got our meals and chopped them down outside. a-chan then took us to this little bar. we got there and got to sit in this little back room, made us feel like vip's and stuff. a-chan has never sat back there so she was a little happy bout that. we killed 2 bottles of tantakatan but for some reason, the waitress only was able to hear sumimasen when either a-chan, jamie, don or jookie said it. i overdid it one time, practically screamin' it out much to the dismay of a-chan.

@ around 0500ish, said goodbye to a-chan and we were off to tsukiji...however there was a little slight miscommunication i had with bryan...i'd rather forget this...

headed home and pretty much crashed out for most of the day

sun, 04.04: a crazy day indeed

woke up @ ???? and then headd out to harajuku to go shopping. went down takeshita dori and all around harajuku. after this one sportin' good store, stopped off @ nathan's hot dogs for a quick snack. tried to find the oriental bazaar but ended up passin' it cuz it the outside was all closed up because of remodelin'. everyone got some omiyage and then we headed to go get a drink @ shakey's pizza. what started off as only having 2 pitchers, turned into 4 and some food and because we felt bad when we asked for the bill and got another pitcher, so we drank that one too! then we were off to shibuya for fun.

i wanted to show them all the shops but we only got to pronto, in which we had 2 drinks and some soramame (horse bean). was tryin' to see who wanted to kick it that night and got a hold of a-chan again. i was tryin' to get a hold of nao-chan, but found out she was already home, so we planned to have dinner together the followin' week. after pronto, met up a-chan and then we went to go sing karaoke. setocchi met up with us and we had a great time singin'. setocchi did some freestyle as well as burr. burr even did his rendition of "back to da hotel"!? that shiet was hella funny. everyone got a good song in...i even did a japanese one with setocchi and a-chan. jookie, don and i did our boyz 2 men song and on another song, jookie ended every verse with burr. i hope don erases that dv tape of us that night...it's definitely something that shouldn't be seen! as things came to an end, we ended up havin' to run to catch the last train, but luckily we made it. i sat on the ground the whole back and found out that i took all these pictures while seated. unfortunately we missed the last train from shin tsudanuma, so we had to catch a taxi. the taxi ride was interestin', tryin' to speak japanese in the state of mind that i was in, which resulted in us missin' the turn. jamie can recall the ride cuz she was the only one who was sober. but we did get home, safe and sound and crashed out.

mon, 04.05: chill day, movie nite

today was set aside as a recovery day. didn't do much else. decided to have maybe some sushi, but the kaiten sushi place was packed. so we decided to go eat yaki niku, had to wait a bit but it was well worth it. went to jason afterwards for more drinks and snacks. saw nakayama san there. came home and everyone got under the kotatsu to watch equilibrium. we followed that up with better luck tomorrow and then everyone went to bed. this was the only day where no alcohol was consumed...

tue, 04.06

decided to check out yokohama chinatown to see what it was like. got there and walked down the main street. the food looked and smelled great, but the chinatown seemed so fake. maybe it was too clean? i did get some roast pork to snack on which wasn't bad. as we were lookin' for a place to eat, we were all surprised on how much the food was. around $7 for 4 shu mai!?! ya gotta be kiddin' me. anyhow, we ended up goin' to this one place and everyone had to go to the window and pointed to what they wanted. can ya believe some mabo nasu cost me about $18!?! as we headed out, we stopped in some stores and don and jamie got some cookies and charsiu baos. we then went hopped back on the train and went to shibuya and harajuku. went to the oriental bazaar for them to buy some gifts and then headed to asakusa to go to sensoji. most of the stores were closed, so we just walked around temple. since everyone was down for sushi and i had no idea where to go, called up hide and he told us to meet him @ ueno station and he'll take us to his mom's friend's sushi bar. he was just gettin' off from work, so he was in a suit. kinda weird cuz it was the first time i saw him in a suit. we then headed to okachimachi and found the sushi place that i would've never found. we got seated and the sushi chef served us some grubbin' sashimi and sushi. we also had some baby squids and grilled whole squid. we were jokin' around with the owner and chef and we told them about how it was in osaka where the girls were preparin' the sushi. the owner then tells us that there's this place in roppongi where the sushi chefs are all girls....all wearin' bathing suits. everyone got a kick out of that and then the sushi chef tells us that he we don' t have to go all the way there when he can put on a bathin' suit. i also learned about a type of sushi called edo mae which is a local type of sushi style/taste that is the best in tokyo. hide then walked us to the station and we came home and crashed.

wed, 04.07

early in da mornin' @ around 0930, i get a call from ihato sensei. he tells me about what school i'm goin' to next. i didn't get my first choice, but i did get my second choice, shibayama junior high school. and every tuesday, i'm goin' to teach @ takane elementary school. since he wanted me to start on thursday, so this was my last day with da boyz. so i got jookie and don a beer and started da party early. i also said that i can probably only party til about 2200 cuz i have to get up early the next day and i didn't know how to even get to the school. after 2 beers, we all got ready and headed out to akihabara. walked around a bit and i was shocked to find that aso bit city was closin' or movin'. don, jookie and i went thru all da floors and then we all headed to ten ya for some tenpura donburi. which totally hit the spot. shopped around some more and then headed back to funabashi downtown and went to daiso (100yen shop). the guys bought some stuff there and then we went to get some beard papa @ the station and then headed back to my apt. dropped off our stuff, relaxed for a bit and then headed to ikko. all da regulars came thru that night. mama really hooked it up that night. we had some fried sweet potato in a gravy sauce, hyakko, karaage, mama's kumamoto miso on cucumber (it's an 800 year old miso recipe) and she even ordered a whole sushi box from a sushi place (that was courtesy of mama!) and i also got a natto omelette for everyone to share and mama also brought out some fruit. ryuko san remembered jookie's name cuz she thought he was cute from the first time i brought them there. everyone didn't think don and jamie were siblings. we then sang some karaoke and even jamie and don got on da mic. sensei came by and gave us his little spiel of bein' a high school teacher with many gestures and broken english which was more than enough to crack everyone up. when it was closin' time, hashimoto suggested that since it's my friends' last night, we should go to serenade with the proposition that i don't drink any alcohol...just oolong tea. we were greeted well from master and mama, i didn't know that shimizu san got me a bottle of sho chu...it was probably from the time when i brought pops there. we killed that as well as almost another bottle. don, jookie and burr's oolong hi count was probably around the vicinity of 10 by the end of the night. don and jamie sang a tagalog song and got a really high score. some other things: burr explainin' to jookie the only people now that he would pay to see in concert such as beastie boys, roots, hiero, outkast. mama goin' to the store and pickin' up us some beer, drinks, nori to take home and onigiri and sandwiches for breakfast. when jookie and burr wanted to sing beastie boys, that's where me and jamie had to cut them off. jamie, burr, don and jookie treated hashimoto and i for the drinks and we headed home, not before takin' a group pic. man...the walk home was tough. these guys were outta control! it was hella funny...but now i know how jamie felt for the past week, bein' the mom of four drunkards. i had to ask jamie if i get as bad as those guys and she quickly responds that i'm bout the same, sometimes worse!?! ouch...that one hurt, yo! anyhow...we get back to my apt finally (took about 15min!) and these guys are killin' me with what they're sayin' (it's about 0130). so...it's the last night and my "visitor tradition" is in jeopardy but low and behold, jookie and then don, then don again fulfill the prophecy that has been vested unto any of my guests from back home. so i send tri and im and put up the webcam. it was a sight to see. i pretty much stayed up while burr was tryin' to show me all these dave chapelle clips from the web. the most memorable one bein', "i'm rick james, bi@tch!" anyhow...i finally got to bed @ around 0330, havin' to wake up @ 0600 for work...doh!?!?!?!?!?!

thur, 04.08: first day of school

it was rainin' pretty hard, so i decided to take the train instead of my bike. it was a bit expensive, like 320 yen one way...i'll probably on do it on heavy rainy days. feels weird, commutin' with all the business people who are goin to tokyo. i'm totally not used to that.
self introduction went well...except for the fact that the kocho sensei made sure everyone knew that i was 26 yrs old and single, wtf!?!
when i got the school directory, can ya'll guess the first thing i looked for??? if you didn't guess bball, stop readin', delete the link to my blog and never come back again, ok!? (nah...j/k) some other facts about this school in comparison to my old school:
classes:
new - 9
old - 15

clubs:
new - no bball, no orchestra, no kendo but they do have a volleyball team (girls though)
old - had everything

guess i'm gonna have to go back to nanabayashi to play... so the openin' ceremony was pretty koo. i keep forgettin' that it's such a small school. but they sang songs better than my old school and i think i like this school's song better than nanabayashi's. when i got introduced as "sakamoto...kevin...kazuo" i got some weird reactions, just like last year cuz they all thought that i was a teacher or office worker.

as for the teachers, for some strange reason, they seem to talk to the same while givin' the information in the teacher's meeting. for example the head teacher, the nurse, the cafeteria lady, the discipline teacher, etc. it's a total trip. another interestin' thing is that whenever kocho sensei leaves the teachers' room and enters his office (there's a door that leads directly into the principal's office from the teachers' room), he always slams the door. i have no idea why...the only thing i could think of, is that he has his windows open but still...he must notice that he's slammin' the door and and least go a little gently and not always make us jump in the teachers' room. guess i'm gonna have to find out why on my own...give me some time...i'm gonna do research.

another interestin' thing is the school's 3 theme words: faito, mana, chimuwaku (fight, manner, teamwork).

yet another thing that surprised me was the level of english, not of the english teachers but from other disciplines. first i was introduced to utsumi sensei, 3rd grade english teacher, funny guy, soccer coach. he tells me that the only other english teacher is absent today. so...i'm sittin' at my desk and hear this lady behind me introduce herself (hashimoto sensei) in darn good english and i kinda jumped. she tells me that her husband travels around the world for work and that she is currently studyin' english literature such as shakespeare, etc. then another man comes up to me and asks if i brought my lunch and if i didn't, would i like to order. he introduced himself as shoji sensei. so i go to the office to order my lunch, then he tells me oh wait...we're goin' to go out now, would you like to come. so i agree and 6 other teachers go out to eat yaki niku based on this one teacher's recommendation. so, shoji sensei (drives), hashimoto sensei, kawata sensei and me, and we meet up with some other teachers. for 850yen, you get: soup, kim chee, a plate of beef & bimbimpa. man, that was grubbin'!

on da way home, while i was walkin' from the toyokosoku to kita-nara, saw makino. found out that she's goin' to the same high school as pepe chan. she told that it's been really busy @ school and that she's not sure if she's gonna play bball. said good luck to hear and i got on the train. went home, changed, relaxed for a bit, then headed to nanabayashi to drop off some omiyage. met one of the new english teachers, nakamura sensei (young guy, student teacher, english is pretty good). also found out that there are now 6 classes in the first year!?! it was kinda weird not to see kyoto sensei in front and how all the teacher's desks have been moved. printed up some maps of how to get to shibayama from yakuendai station and also directions to takane elementary. sasaki sensei was funny when he saw me by sayin' that basketball practice was over. it was good to go back for a visit cuz it felt like that i never left. went out on the porch to my favorite spots and chatted it up with takeuchi and takahashi sensei. ito sensei joined us and a little bit later, yamasaki sensei came out and i offered him my seat (which i always did, he's my grade level boss) but today he said that i'm a guest now, so you get the seat. shortly after, seri sensei came out to ask for any requests to the school board cuz he's the union representative. so he first asked takahashi sensei, and he said that they need money for something and ended it "by takeuchi" which brought laughs from everybody. then it was ito sensei's turn and he requested that the order for new computers be rushed a little bit and ended it "by takeuchi". then seri sensei asked me and i replied that they need a basketball club @ shibayama..."by takeuchi". it's these times that i'm gonna miss the most. but, i have a lot of hope with my new school...even though it's smaller, i see the potential for makin' good relationships with these teachers and students.

takahashi sensei suggested that we go out to drinks and said ikko, so i said sure! takeuchi sensei couldn't make it cuz one the 9th graders got caught shoplifting. i know this student too, i cleaned the bathroom with him everyday. oh well...

so it was nakamura sensei, takahashi sensei and me that went to ikko. mama was there, sensei came by, kita came too. good times, got to chat with nakamura sensei. koo guy, he's gonna have a good time @ nanabayashi. we had some grubbin' food and nakamura sensei was shocked on how good the natto ten was. takahashi sensei got a little drunk and was bein' his crazy, comedic self, much to the happiness of my buddies. they headed home, or i mean got their designated drivers to take them home @ around 2100. i stayed for a little bit and then went home.

fri, 04.09: school & tokyo

biked to school today and was surprised on how much farther it looks on the map. probably another reason was that it was mostly downhill. got to work early, it seems like these teachers come just in time...lot different than my old school. i brought my pb today but couldn't find an outlet. so i asked shoji sensei and helped me get an extension cord and in a few minutes, i was up and runnin' with power baby! spent most of the day tryin' to remember everything from the past 2 weeks which was quite difficult. ordered katsu kare for lunch and it was good. i'm gonna order some ramen next time! had a nice conversation with hashimoto sensei about social issues of japan. i also got to meet sekiguchi sensei, the other english sensei. she seems like a really nice lady. got a call from jamie and ryoko, the plan is to meet in harajuku @ 1915, cuz ryoko is takin' us to this famous sushi place. it's also a place where her boss' friend is a sushi chef. so when the clock striked 1700, hashimoto sensei told me it's time to go home. so i hopped on my bike and raced home. since i was hyped about tonite...i totally forgot about how hard it's gonna be to go back home, bein' all uphill. i'm gonna have some buff legs by the end of the year. i get home, pack, take care of some last minute stuff and am out of the house by 1730. at yakuendai, i hear my name called and i see mika chan all up in her new high school uniform. found out that she's goin' to school in kashiwa and is playin' for the bball team...i'm so proud of her!

got to tsudanuma and saw pepe again. she didn't notice me til the last second. kinda interestin' seein' my old students at the stations these days. nice to talk to them and see how high school life is treatin' them. the ride from tsudanuma to kinshicho wasn't a problem. even from kinshicho to ochanomizu was koo. but from ochanomizu to shinjuku was a bi@tch!!!, probably one of the worst train experiences of my life. not only did i have a super heavy backpack, there were so many people, it was so frickin' hot and the a/c wasn't on. before we even left the station, i was drownin' in sweat and i still had about 12 min to go. then, tryin' to find the south exit was a bi@tch, then gettin' out of the station was yet another bi@tch, i walked up the wrong stairs, so i go back down, fight my way thru the crowd, go outside, fight my way through the crowd, then up the stairs. durin' this whole time, burr has been callin' me and my signal was pretty bad, due to the concentration of ketai usage in that area. so i finally get to the hotel, however i need to take 2 elevators and i just barely remembered which room they were in. get into the room and just throw my stuff down and take a deep sigh and close my eyes while tryin' to explain the last hour to jamie and burr. but by some miracle, when i opened my eyes, i was greeted with the greatest gift of all......a tall, ice cold, asahi super dry from burr. he even said his ever so great karakuchi (super dry). that was totally what i needed, and it was done in less than 5 min. so then i look out the window, i remember that their room is on the top floor of the century hotel. all the lights of tokyo were so nice from up there. we chilled up there, enjoyin' the site and then headed to the station to go to shibuya. met up with ryoko, toshi & lisa (ryoko and lisa both know jamie from junior high and high school. they also went to the same college in japan together, english is perfect) @ the station and then we headed to the sushi place. it was down like 2 levels and we had to wait a bit to be served by ryoko's boss' friend. 2 seats opened up first, and we gave those to jamie and lisa. the next 2, was for burr and i, then the final 2 were for ryoko and toshi. oh yeah...forgot to tell ya where ryoko works...can you say... playboy japan!?!? so everytime she comes or her boss, they always bring a copy for the workers. it was kinda funny to see all the workers turn their heads in sync with a big smile and yeah!! now that the formality is outta the way, let the eatin' begin.

i'm gonna break it down as best as i could:

appetizer:
- fried anago (sea eel) bones (that were first dried in the sun for one day)
sashimi:
- katsuo (bonito)
- tai (red snapper)
- aji (horse mackeral) w/ginger in nori
nigiri:hmmm...this is kinda tough to remember the order, so i'm just gonna list them off as best i could. oh yeah...this sushi was so good, you don't need any shoyu (how do ya like that)
- chuu toro (fatty, center tuna, that was ever so lightly seared) which was OFF DA HOOK!!! i'm truly very sorry for those of you outside of japan, nothin' and i mean nothin' can come even close to that, don't even try.
- amaebi (x2) these were the biggest, juiciest amaebi i've ever seen. x2 cuz jamie couldn't eat hers.
- ika (squid) this was pretty good too...not chewy/rubbery @ all
- hotate (scallop, slightly grilled with nori) omg, this was da shiet!!!
- awabi (abalone, a smaller version) the chef baked this in some sauce...it tasted like steak!!!!
- uni (sea urchin) ok, ok, ok, i don't normally eat this stuff...no...i do not eat this stuff, but he said that today's uni is really, really good. so what the heck, it looked like crap, but he added a little bit of lemon and some yuzu and baaammm!!!, that was da bomb!!!
- anago (sea eel) this was also so good, not fishy @ all, the meat was so tender, ummm ummm goood!!!
- tamago (egg) he baked this egg where the outside was crispy and inside was soft and it was sweet. good stuff yo!
- tako (octopus) should have been called a tako shot. he put a little lime juice and salt on it and i was almost floored!!!
- (sardine) kinda funny that burr ate this cuz he hates sardines. the chef put this leaf between the rice and fish and wow, i got one word for that...synergy!
- tako (baked octopus) this was from some huge octopus, one suction cup was the size of big shiitake mushroom.
- the next 2 things we ate, i don't remember their names...but i do remember that they were still movin'!!! when we grabbed them.
- insert 2-3 nigiri that i can't remember the names of but can tell ya they were good, there was one where he curled the fish to hold a piece of ginger
next things were not sushi but they were off da hook:
- hotate miso shiryu (scallop miso soup) these scallops had some of the prettiest shells i've seen...so pretty, i thought that they were fake. i tried to tell ryoko to take the smaller one and use to make jewelry (her and her boyfriend design and make jewelry)
- goma gobo (burdock w/sesame seeds) this was a nice little change of pace. never thought something so simple could taste so good.
- for dessert, it was the chefs specialty. hmm...it was shredded katsuo bushi (bonito flakes) mixed with ume (fermented plum) on cucumber. pretty darn good.

not sure if it's possible, but i got drunk off of food. have ya'll ever had that experience? well, ya'll can be sure, whoever comes to visit me, this'll be one of the places we will definitely hit up. who's interested???

so...afterwards, with food coma settlin' in, we somehow walked around shibuya and tried to do some shoppin'?!? don't ask why, i didn't want to go out, drink or anything...just go back to the hotel and enjoy the food i just ate. we all called it a night @ around 2315, can't believe lisa is goin' to snowboardin' tomorrow in gunma. came back to the hotel and was out like a light, dreamin' of fish...

ok...i think i wrote enough for now...i'll add the update tomorrow...i'm tired and it's time to go to bed. til then...late!

kaz out...

sat, 04.10: tokyo

we checked out and lugged all the baggage to the shinagawa prince hotel. the room was arranged a bit differently, the flat screen was on the side and there was only one bed. was hungry so we went downstairs to the food court and decided on....but of course, ramen!!! i had the special ramen which has come huge, fatty pieces of roasted pork. we then headed to harajuku to meet up with ryoko @ condomania. she wanted to take jamie to all these stores while burr and i just followed. we...well the girls went to this student run jewelry store near sophia university (where ryoko went) while burr and i went to get a snack @ freshness burger. jamie bought tons of stuff there and then we headed to downtown shibuya. ryoko took me to this one store that i might me interested in and she even talked to the worker to see if i can get our line in there. it seems like a koo store, gotta pursue this one further. we're a little tired from walkin' around, so we decide to find a place to chill. there was this one pub where the owner even came out and started talkin' to burr and i. he was a canadian guy who was tryin really hard to get us to go in. he ended up goin' back up and comin' back down to give us these fliers and said for us to bring in these fliers and ask for stewart and we'll get a free drink. yet another thing that i'm gonna have to pursue. we finally ended up at this bar, we got a drink and some food while waitin' for lisa to join us. can't believe she's comin' out even though she went snowboardin'. it took her a while to meet us up cuz she stopped to go shoppin' for a bit. we then headed towards the station so that burr and jamie can get these snacks called yoku moku, which are some nice, individually wrapped cookies. on the way out, we met up with ryoko and lisa's friend, chie (who also went to sophia, lived in vancouver for 7 years, english is perfect) while burr stood in line to get another beard papa's cream puff. we decided to go to this place that lisa recommended called jyu, a robata grill. we got our own little private room which was kinda koo. lisa told me that they have good sho chuu (as well as tantakatan) and aomori (okinawan sake). as for the food, for some reason, everyone decided to be on the atikins diet, 90% of our food was just meat!!! however it was so good, i couldn't complain. it was really interestin' hearin' the girls talk to each other. they speak in both japanese and english so sometimes when you're listenin', when they switch, it's takes a while to re-calibrate your hearin' but by the time you do, they've gone back to the other language. for dessert, the kabocha aisu (pumpkin ice cream) was awesome! we decided to call it a night @ around 2245, had to make sure ryoko didn't miss her train. tried to maybe make it to yu's performance but was too tired (and maybe drank too much) to go. oh well, definitely make it out next time.

sun, 04.11: tokyo

met up with maki (works for sce, product manager, lived in cali for 6 years) and we went out to lunch and had some omuraisu (omelette rice). they weren't plannin' on talkin' bout work, but they did. the game they were (well not jamie anymore) workin' on is called siren(sp?), go check it out, the premise of the game sounds really koo. after lunch, met up with lisa @ shinagawa station and then we decided to head to shibuya, but we only got one station down before i thru out the notion of goin' to odaiba. we were supposed to meet up with ryoko and chie and chill with them while they practiced hula @ yoyogi koen but guess plans changed. so we thought that we could just get out and wait for the train that would be goin' the other way, but it never came. it wasn't until maki said that maybe we're on the wrong platform. we were just talkin' there and enjoyin' the beautiful weather. got back on the yamanote and headed to shimbashi then transferred to the yurakome monorail (it's driver-less). we decided on a one day pass that costed 800yen which worked out cuz we went to a couple of places in odaiba. we saw a miniature version of the statue of liberty which was kinda interestin' and just enjoyed the view of the bay and bridges. kinda reminded me of home... since lisa didn't eat lunch, we were goin' to go to kua aina, but it was packed. we ended up at the food court and i got a single scoop of hobson's cookie crumb. man, that was hella good. lisa got some takoyaki (which she said wasn't that good) while maki & jamie got some ice cream that was made from hokkaido milk. burr had some of mine and decided to skip the big mac meal and get the same thing that i did. lisa and i tried jamie's pumpkin ice cream and decided to get some of that hokkaido milk ice cream. we both got strawberry...man, that was da bomb. it's a differen't kind of ice cream taste, yet another thing that makes hokkaido so dope!!! so burr, still a little hungry, decided to get a crepe with cookie crumb from hobsons. i was like damn, slow down bro, but he pretty much devoured it, only givin' jamie a few bites. from there, we tried to see what's up with the ferris wheel, on the way was the toyota car showcase, where they had all kinds of stuff. you can drive a car around the mall goin' in and out of the mall (of course it was on a contained track) and there were also simulators and pretty much all the cars toyota produces. got to the ferris wheel and found out that it's 900yen (roughly $9)/person!?! so we passed and then headed to the mall for some shoppin'. they had this really koo sports store that had everything, even a section for wrestlin' and memorabilia. saw this huge, autographed poster of ichiro, selllin' for about 18k!!!! it was also kinda koo cuz they had different music playin' in each of the sections, correspondin' to the sport. afterwards, maki had to go home, so we decided to go back to the hotel, get my stuff, then head to the top of the shinagawa for a drink. if it were mon-thur, it would've been happy hour and for about 2300yen (around $22), it's all you can drink. but it wasn't, so we paid a pretty penny for a drink. the view was awesome though. you can see for days, the night lights of tokyo are so beautiful. was lookin' at the view and realized that we were supposed to meet ryoko and them @ the restaurant for dinner. so the whole back, lisa made me talk only in japanese to her so that i could practice. we met up with ryoko, chie and naoko (another one of ryoko's friends, works pr for a cosmetics company, lived in Massachusetts for a year) @ the hawaiian themed restaurant. the food there was good. they even had pho! tonite's meal was a lot more balanced the night before, had some grubbin' spicy tuna, spring rolls, tako salad and roast pork. ordered a malibu coke and got a malibu surfboard ketai keychain. toshi came by a bit later all decked out in a suit cuz he came from work. we ordered tons of dessert which was all delicious. time was comin' to a close, and ryoko, toshi, naoko, chie and i had to get back. i barely made last train and had to take a taxi home from tsudanuma. the 16 days of partyin' has finally come to an end...now i only have about 11 days til da boyz come out...

mon, 04.12: school

so back to the grind. school was kinda chill, just made some flash cards and wrote more of this blog. on my way home, saw pepe-chan again and we chatted it up for a bit. headed home, then to the cleaners to get my watch batteries changed (it's gonna be ready on saturday!? wtf, it takes them that long to do? well..shouldn't complain, it's pretty damn cheap!) then to matsukiyo then to ikko for dinner. since i've been gone for so long, i kinda missed the great times there. for some strange reason i was able to understand about 90% of what everyone was sayin'. had some yasai itame, tenpura, natto omuretsu, miso shiru and then went home.

tues, 04.13: takane higashi elementary

first day @ a new school and first time @ a elementary. saw one of my students, iwase kun and asked him for directions, but to no avail, he had no idea where my school was at. it was a bit of a challenge tryin' to find my school, i think i took a wrong turn and had to bike up this steep @$$ incline. finally got to the school and met up with the vice principal then principal, then my 2 advisors. the majority of the faculty are women, pretty much everyone except for the principal, vice principal, head teacher and 2 other teachers. they showed me to where my locker is (i'm only goin' to be there one day a week and i've still don't have a locker @ my junior high school!) and i even get a personal storage locker within the teacher's room, woot!! so i find out that i'm teachi' from the 3rd grade up, so the whole day, i was goin' to each of those classes (10 classes) and givin' my self introduction in 2 class sets. @ the end of the 2nd sets, all the teachers had some students escort me back to the teacher's room. it was kinda nice. they also provided me with kyuushoku!

my impressions of teachin' elementary school...they're not as bad as i thought. there are some very interestin' students who are pretty funny, judgin' by the way they asked me questions. i also met honda sensei's younger sister!? that was kinda crazy. another thing...there are actually some young, cute teachers!!! yyeeahhhh!

went to matsukiyo for groceries and grilled up some salmon, fried up some gyoza, finished up my mountain veggies. what a feast!

| »

about

search

recent posts

recent comments

archives

friends' pgs

links

admin