HAPPY BIRTHDAY POPS!!!
japan olympic update
kin = 15
gin = 10
do = 11
so...it's been a chill week. got my speech done for the international relations association.
on friday, went to shibuya to meet up with bsato, to give him some stuff before he took off back to cali. found out he's gonna be in nippon for another week. supposed to go to some party next week. while we were chillin' @ hachiko, one of his friends came by, so we chatted for a bit then i headed back home. so when it comes down to it, i pretty much went all the way to tokyo for nothin'...oh well...
shoganai.
pretty much all that's on tv now is the olympics and the high school baseball national championships. today was the championship game. the team from hokkaido won it all. the first ever for a school from hokkaido.
played bball for da first time in like 4 months w/da guyz. man, i'm rusty. missed way too many layups. but da dimes were there, as always. went to azabu juban matsuri yesterday. went there last year with tri and aki to meet up with yu. but last year, we were off to da side. didn't dare go into the main street. but this year we did...and boy, it was the most crowded place i've ever been to. but we got to eat what we came for: roasted corn, buttered potato and grilled steak. we then headed over to see b's friend sing and then met up with cyndi and then headed to tamawa's friend's chinese restaurant for some drinks and some more food. after that, b and cyndi went home so tamawa and i headed over to this english pub for a drink. man, that place had way too many
gaijins, felt like i was in london or something. the whole place was like 98%
gaijin. even the bartenders. we just got a pint of guiness and chatted on the balcony til it was time for me to catch my train. on the way home, i was fortunate to get a seat. i woke up halfway home and noticed that all these people that were standin' up in front of me were gone. i looked around and saw the reason why. man, somebody threw up on the floor about 3m away from me. yuck!?! stopped off @ chacha to chat with mama there. had a little bit to drink and some spicy food she fried up. we tried to find this one song that i heard when i first came to japan 12 years ago by this popular band but we couldn't find it.
had speech practice on monday and was surprised on how well takaoka chan's pronunciation was. for some reason, sekiguchi sensei had her pronouncin' "dreamed" as "
dreh-med". i think takaoka chan has a good chance in gettin' top 3.
played vbal for the first time this month. we had a joint practice with minato jhs. we did drills for the whole 4 hours. practiced usin' a high school (regulation) ball with rie and yukino.
had my speech for the funabashi international relations association. saw some of the past exchange students that came to hayward: nao, emi, akiko and masako as well as the 2 students goin' next month. also saw pretty much all of my father's friends there. the first speech was given by this one lady from the tokyo american center. she did a presentation about american holidays and their origins. next up was me and then we had a california style lunch headed by atsuko san. noticed that mikie came, along with several of her english club peeps. durin' lunch break, i saw the principal from my jhs. i also noticed there were a lot of 20-30's people outside. i then saw 2 teachers from my elementary school. they were pretty shocked to see me there. they were there for trainin'. after lunch, masako did her presentation with a lot of photos that she has taken, many of some famous entertainers. i couldn't really remember masako, who was an exchange student almost 10 years ago. all i gotta say was wow! she's really pretty!! after that, we had a guy who went to csuh and is an alt now. then we had this symposium which i had no idea that i'd be a part of. probably the 2nd person from the floor that posed a question was none other than my father's friend tajima. he asked about what the motivation for kids these days to learn english and he brought up his first experience of english way back durin' the occupation when he asked the soldiers, "give me chocolate!" after that was over, we hung around a bit and talked then some of us went to have some snacks and drinks at this coffee shop across the street from bunka hall. found out that emi lives in hatagaya, which is where i play bball. her place is only about a 5 min walk away from there. on my way home, got a call from cha cha mama, and she asked i wanted to go to torikatsu, where her son works to have drinks and some food. she said that mi-chan is goin' to, so i couldn't turn it down. it's always a good time to drink and chat it up with her. i met some of mama's friends there and one of them was a movie aficionado. we chopped it up about all kinds of genres and everything. this guy knew his stuff. anyhow...afterwards, we went next door for some karaoke and things start to get a little fuzzy from that point on...
had the final speech practice before the contest. got to hear the 7th graders as well as the other 9th grader. got to talk with miura sensei a bit and i also noticed that we got this new computer and color copier! man, the new desktop is dope! dvd-rw and everything!!
so i'm watchin' the rhythmic gymnastics and i now know where the street ballers get some of their moves from. some of the girls have mad handles yo!!!
da speech contest went ok. none of my students won this year. however one of my old students got third place. had lunch with nakamura sensei, found out that he got married last week. after the contest, takahashi sensei and i went to get a drink afterwards. it was good to catch up. seemed like old times...
went out to daijingushita, to meet up with b & q @ nobu's place. went there, met some new peeps, ate some grubbin' food and got a little tipsy. nori & yoshi came thru as well as sachiko. b was sellin' his kicks @ liquidated prices, so i came up on some iverson's for about $9!!!
just lounged the next day and made a phatty lunch for myself. homemade
gyoza,
nira tamago sandwich,
natto & tomato salad. grubbin'!!! then headed out to roppongi hills to meet up with tamawa to go watch fahrenheit 9/11. i really don't think the japanese can fully understand this movie. @ most of the jokes, there were only about 10 ppl in the theater that laughed and they were all foreigners. not much of a popcorn fan, but roppongi hills cinemas have some off da hook popcorn. afterwards, headed to eat mexican food...yes mexican food. i was a little skeptical @ first, but since tamawa lived in la for 7 years, she knows what good mexican food should taste like, so i trusted her. man, all i gotta say was that the chimichanga was off da heezy!!!
after walkin' her home, headed to shibuya to meet up with b. it's his last night to party in tokyo before headin' back home after 4 long years in japan. his buddies from london were here on tour dj'in drum & bass, but i wasn't really feelin' the music nor the scened that much. so after b took off, q and i headed to harlem courtey of yuko. unfortunately, as we got to the vip area, she and her friend were leavin', sayin' that we took too long. wtf!? but all in all, it was good to relax and listen to some descent music. listenin' to drum and bass for 2 hours is kinda wack, imho. after comin' up on some umbrellas, we headed home. but @ shibuya station, q was gettin' hella mad cuz all deez peeps were hittin' his umbrella. guess ya'll had to be there to truly appreciate that scene.
came home (took about 1 1/2 hours) and crashed out!
so...i only have 3 more days left of my summer vacation. there wasn't anything fun and excitin' that i did, for example travel, but in other aspects, the summer has treated me very, very well...
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