fri: back to school, vball & es nomikai

man, all these little holidays have really messed up my schedule. my body can't really figure out what's goin' on. a normal day @ school. the lunch was pretty good, we had some sweet & sour pork. for lunch recess, played knockout with da 9th grade boys. this time, i didn't lose @ all. think there was more pressure for me to do well cuz noguchi-chan was there ;b

ran vball practice cuz toita sensei had a meetin'. i was bringin' it tough to the 8th graders and since yukino-chan was there, i was givin' her some of my best stuff and she was diggin' it up. afterwards we had hittin' drills and i did some hittin'. tweeked chinami-chan and manami-chan's settin' form and i think it helped them...well i hope it did. i even filled in to set some. when yukino-chan stepped in to set, i had her try to set me some a's...but we never connected. even the heeko's were bad...oh well...she's not a setter anywayz...can't really expect her to be able to do it.

headed out @ around 1730ish, went home, showered and then headed out to kita nara to join my elementary school's nomikai. tabata sensei, as usual was off da hook. also, a common thing that happens at these school events, the principal and vice principal seem to leave suddenly w/o sayin' goodbye. some interestin' new things: goto-kun is havin' a kid in january! sugimizu sensei likes to sing the theme from alladin (which she made me sing with her...) tsutsui sensei is a comedian. uchiyama sensei can drink. headed to chacha to chill with mama and then went home.


kohara sensei and tabata sensei


kodama sensei, uchiyama sensei and yours truly


kyoto sensei, tabata sensei and kanezuka sensei


goto sensei and tsutsui sensei



sat: lack of sleep, house party, bday party

woke up way too early and couln't go back to sleep. decided to put some time into marketin' the ba brand. must've been be addin' foos for like 2 hrs straight. cooked some lunch and after that, played the demo of doom3. man, that shiet is scary! also d/l'd david chappelle's showtime special @ da fillmore in sf. only got to see the first 15 min, but that ish was funny!

anyhow...headed out to 'pongi to meet up with b. went to eat some chinese food. we then headed to this vietnamese cafe for some coffee. after that, we went to meet up with jt & crew and then headed to the house party @ nick's pad. man, his pad was dope! can you say 3 stories, 50"+ plasma and b&o audio. was talkin' to jt and he figured this place's rent is at least 50,000yen (approx $4,500)/month!!! for some reason the tequila shots came out and my big bros made me do it and can you guess what kind of tequila it was??? man, it was fffnnn cuervo, wtf!?!? i was kinda expectin' patron silver, but hey, beggars can't be choosy, yah?

after like an hour or so, me and b headed out to shibuya to go to timo's party. it was a small place, but it was koo to kick it with the younger guys we play ball with. kicked it there for a bit and then headed out. it was good timin' too cuz the place pretty much cleared out. me and b then went to eat some ramen. decided to call it a night. crashed @ b's.


sun: tgs & dinner w/da makuhari fam

in da mornin', checked out b's notebook (inspiron 3800) and man, this guy has tons and tons of adware! and for the 4 yrs he has had the notebook, he hasn't ever scanned disk or defragged!?! time was runnin' a bit giriri, so we decided to put it off til later. before i headed home, i called up eugene to see if he was still goin' to go to the tokyo game show. he said that he couldn't make it anymore, so i just went by myself cuz it was kinda short notice to ask anybody else.

before i got in, called up ami to see what she was doin'. the fam was free so they invited me to dinner @ mom & pop's. i'm also finally gonna meet derek, their exchange student.

got to tgs and man, it was crazy there! unlike e3, where the only people that dress up are the ones hired by the companies, normal guests came dressed up in costumes!! as for size, it's a lot smaller than e3, only 2 halls. there was this area between the 2 halls where you can take pics of all the peeps that came in costume.

the main attractions of the show:

1. the sony psp
2. mgs 3
3. the xbox booth

got to play the psp and i must say, it was pretty dope. they must've had at least 40 of them on "display". the funny thing bout the display was that sony had most of their booth girls fitted with this utility belt of some sort and connected to them by lock and power cord. so the times when you get really "caught up" in the game, you can sometimes find yourself pullin' the girl closer to you ;b

the sony psp



everytime i walked past this booth, they kept tryin' to make me sign up for this star wars credit card.


the xbox booth was the best of show


why?

cuz of this


and this


since i was comparin' and contrastin' tgs and e3, the main thing i noticed was actually near the end of the show. each of the main booths rewarded their fans by bringin' out all of their booth girls for pictures.

the capcom booth


the tecmo booth


car @ the ea booth


for all you star wars fans




after the show, got picked up by ami and sho and headed back to their place and met derek. he's a pretty stalky guy from ny. ami kept on sayin' that i'm really good english, cuz this is like the first time she has heard me speak my normal english. it's always refreshin' to have somebody from back home to talk to. derek is a koo guy, his japanese is pretty good and he's a rugby player. unfortunately, there's this one problem...he's allergic to alcohol!?!

we headed to mom & pop's for dinner. hide was there chillin' on da couch as usual. mama hooked up a phatty feast: maguro and chicken nabe! pops brought out some of this rich sho chu from kumamoto which was off da hook. on tv, they were showin' 8-legged freaks or "spider panic" as it's called in japan. i always wonder where they get all these names for movies.

all in all, it was great to see the makuhari fam again cuz it's been a while.

came home and finished watchin' the chappell special. ya'll gotta check it out.


mon

tokyo friend park ii had a special 2 hr program. since the team consisted of 6 people, they brought out some crazy new events.

hey hey hey is havin' their 10 year special edition program. they showed some pretty natsukashii stuff. i think i've seen all the good ones from '95-2000. opinions: don't know why hamasaki ayumi is so popular...she can't sing and her fake nose is really prominent now. amuro namie, k i got mad love for her, but the tatoos...even tho i'm down tats, when you get your son's name in that crazy mexican letterin' on your skinny arm, that's where i draw the line & i wonder how she was feellin' w/her baby's daddy bein' there too...


tues: elementary school

the weather was nice this mornin' so my ride to school wasn't as bad as yesterday's. taught the 5th & 6th graders today and tried out some new games and the student's loved them. played soccer @ lunch with the 3rd graders and damn, some of them were pretty good. they play on club teams already!?! it was good to just get out there and play cuz i had the nice cool weather to thank for that. played a little bit of bball with the girls' team, but it was kinda wack in the sense that they play on a mini hoop. i was able to double tap and dip, so it was koo in dat aspect ;)

so i'm tryin' out the new my yahoo beta right now and so far it seems pretty koo.

i'm in first place now in my fantasy football league. thanks to a great weekend from dante, t.jones, r.wayne and d.akers.

wellz...

sorry it's been a while since da last update. be prepared for a long read...

sat, 09.11.04: taiikusai (sports day)

the weather the past couple of days has been kinda crazy. luckily the weather on saturday was great! not too hot, nice little breeze.



when i got to school, mishima san tells me that we're runnin' in a relay race with utsumi sensei and saito sensei. i was like ok...whatever...

the taiikusai openin' ceremony went well. the kids did a good job. i was surprised to see many parents and other people that came. even saw miyamoto-san who only had 3 hours of sleep after workin' 12 hours. i was surprised to see him fumblin' with this ketai in his hand. it turns out that he finaly got a new cell phone!!!

startin' off the day was the 100m for the girls and the 200m for the boys. next was the kyari kyari race, which was kinda strange. each time, a group of 6 (2 from each team) would run up and pick up this card, and on this card would be instructions. first would be to get an item that's somewhere on the school grounds, sometimes it meant gettin' a certain student or even a teacher. probably the funniest items were a wheelbarrow and teapot. then they would have to bring that item to the second station and carry out the next set of instructions which was: do the baseball bat spinnin' thing and then run, run backwards, skip or jump rope to the finish line.

just a random pic of 9th grade boys


the next good event was the boys tug-of-war. our team went undefeated! the other teams had no chance!!

next up was the relay for each class and then we broke for lunch. i was so happy to find out that the bento we ordered came from miyagokoro! since i was gonna run in the first event after lunch, i scarfed down my food and then began to warm up. i couldn't look like a foo out there, ya know?

luckily for me, i found out that the first event consisted of 2 parts. it was the club sports performance/speed relay. representatives from each club team dressed up in their uniforms. the performance part of the event was so funny. first off was the guys club team performance, the baseball team pair were had their legs tied together, ie. both right feet together and both left together with about 1m between them and had to

the soccer club pair had to juggle the ball the whole way, the team was lucky cuz they didn't have to pair up, but for some reason, they had to push a weight bar on the ground the whole lap, then they had to curl dumbells on the next. but the funniest was the table tennis team, a 9th grader had a paddle and ball and had to keep volleyin' it as he ran around (w/some strong winds), but here's the catch, he had to piggy back the smallest 7th grader!!! man, it was comedy!

next up, was the girls club team performance event. the vball girls pair did a 3-legged run but with duck beaks that quack when you blow thru them. they also had to carry a ball with them. the other sports teams also had to do the 3-legged race. the soft tennis girls pair had to volley a ball while the track team girls pair had to jump rope. man, that must've been tough!

after that, was the guys speed relay. the soccer team easily beat the track team. the baseball team had a tough time cuz they were in their uniforms but it was funny to see as the anchor for the baseball team approached the final 20m, the whole team slid ran with him and they all slid thru the finish line together! also, they had 4 dads also run in this race. one dad was hella fast! however, there was one dad who ate it hard!!!

so...the time we've all been waitin' for has come. the girls club speed relay. utsumi sensei started it off for us, then mishima-san ran the second leg, then saito-sensei the third and me the anchor. i was surprised to see that miyamoto-san was the anchoor for the dad's 2nd relay team. anyhow, at the start of the race, utsumi sensei had the lead. we kinda lost a little ground when mishima-san ran, but she tried her best which i totally respect. then saito sensei picks up the slack a lot. we had a good handoff and @ that time we were third and about maybe 30m from the lead. i moved into second and gained a lot of ground but couldn't overtake the track team girls' anchor. she had to big of a lead...and all my energy was depleted by the time i hit the final 30m or so. i'm totally not conditioned for these long sprints. since i don't play bball that much anymore and vball is more like short, quick movements, my stamina for long races is just not there. it was kinda nice to hear from all the teachers and students, "kebin, sugoku hayakatta!" (kevin, you're hella fast!)

the event that all the teams have been practicin' so hard was the mukade (centipede) race. our team won the 7th grade race, got second in the 8th grade and came in last in the 9th grade. the 9th grade race was kinda crazy. the girls started off and not even 30m, they all fall. i would say that 90% of the time, when teams fall, it's like a domino effect. but this was the first time i'd ever seen a dogpile. this was a real football dogpile!! think 15 girls, all piled up! crazy!!! i felt bad for yukino, cuz she was the first person (the most dangerous spot for mukade) and everyone piled on top of her. after all the girls finally got up, i would say that 80% had some sort of ailment. but they finished and passed to the guys. the guys fell almostly instantly. they just couldn't get the rhythm. plus it didn't help that the other teams already finished. the thing that surprised me was that the other teams, after finishin', came up next to our team and ran & cheered them all the way to the finish line. it was very touchin' moment.

the 7th grade mukade race


the final girls' team event was the tug-of-war. what was nice was that everyone got first place.



the final team event was the boys' horse battle which we won!




the final event was the best of the best relay race between the three teams. we got 2nd place, but it wasn't enough for us to get out of the bottom. :(


the 7th grade yellow team


the 9th grade white team


the 9th grade blue team


the 9th grade yellow team





i couldn't believe toita sensei made the girls have a short practice after sports day. it was only serve practice but still. i joined them for a bit to practice my serve. everytime we practice our serves, we set up 3 chairs in: deep right, deep left and deep middle. i wasn't leavin' til i hit one and the girls kept on shaggin' my serves and were instantly there to give me another ball.

around 1800ish, the sensei nomikai started at this place near kita narashino. had some grubbin' food and it was good to see the teachers get a little twisted. i was surprised to see kuwada sensei (music teacher) get drunk. like nio sensei from my last year's school, when they get drunk, for some reason, they can speak english. so kuwada sensei was just crackin' me up the whole night. oshino san tried to get into our conversation about the prefectures in kyushuu but what she said wasn't even a prefecture. so we kept callin' her strange which she took both jokingly as well as a little serious. all of the teachers' speeches were funny. they were some comedians. somehow blood type came into the conversation and it was interestin' to see who was what. there was a good balance between a's, b's and o's with only 1 ab. after we finished up there, about 10 of us went to the nijikai. had a few drinks and some snacks. then toita sensei offers to us about the sanjikai where there's some mita jhs teachers. kawada sensei goes (he taught there last year) and i go. got there, met the principal of the mita jhs and a young english teacher. the principal was some character. was constantly crackin' me up the whole time. the english teacher too was fun to talk too. had some good food there too. the ochazuke was especially good. afterwards, we headed to another place! it was really dark there, so i was startin' to doze off a bit. it was kinda blurry from that point on. not sure how i got home but i did.


sunday

slept in for a long time. headed out to akihabara, to meet up with tamawa to check out dvd players. saw some koo new stuff out there. there were a bunch of dvd players, but we're tryin' to find a portable, region free which is kinda hard. saw the new mgs trailer playin'. man, it looks dope! hangin' from trees and takin' out foos. headed out to omotesando for dinner. went to this hong kong style restaurant which was surprisingly pretty good. since it was a nice cool day, we walked all around urahara and stopped over at this little lounge to have some wine and chat. caught my train home and stopped over @ chacha to kick it with mama. saw mi-chan there and somehow the conversation turned into talkin' bout personalities, blood types and relationships. mi-chan and i differ on a lot of things but mama always seems to know where i'm comin' from. we talked til almost 0400...


monday

aww...it was nice havin' another monday off. stayed home and chilled for most of the day. did tons of laundry and prepared my lesson plan for the next day. was supposed to go to kaoru's bday, but was way too tired to party again, especially when i have elementary school the next day. so i just had some food @ ikko, came home and was out by 2300.


tuesday

it was probably a good idea not to go out last night. cuz i got all my lesson plan done and got lots of sleep. the day went by so fast. my lesson rocked! the kids had a great time. i think it's also because this week was week b which means 5th & 6th graders.

came home and decided to make an italian dinner. it was vegetables & pollo in a butter, herb and olive oil sauce. it was grubbin'. then watched my tv programs and talked to my 'big sis'.


wednesday

another day at school.
had 4 classes and 3 of those were 8th graders. every wednesday is listenin' practice with t/f or q/a. i spoke about how the japanese school year and the american school year are different. most of the students were shocked that we didn't have any homework over the summer.

today was also chukyokyo, so classes were short. i didn't go to the meetin' cuz i had to much work to do...kinda sorta, but i'm not a big fan of the chukyokyo anyways...but i did have lots of work. finally finished the diaries for 2-2. i still have 2 more classes to grade...

came home and cut my hair. decided to not touch the top this time and also do more of a lower fade. turned out better than i thought it would.

after that, headed to ikko for dinner. mama hooked up some grubbin' nasu miso and yakisoba. chatted with sensei for a bit. only 10 more days til he meets the girl that mama is hookin' him up with. he's so happy...


thursday

i guess utsumi sensei learned something @ the chukyokyo cuz he wanted me to be the main teacher and him be the assistant. i was like ok...luckily it was for the 9th graders whose english is the best.

toita sensei asked me to help out at the practice, so i did that for like 45 min. my hittin' has digressed so much since i haven't been practicin' that much lately. i was really surprised of how the level of the 7th graders have improved so much. as for the 8th graders, chinami-chan and mami-chan were diggin' up some of my best stuff, so of course i continued to bring it and they continued to surprise me.

since lark is in tokyo now, we decided to go out for dinner in shinjuku. as always, whenever i go to shinjuku station and have to meet somebody outside...it always turns out bad. i'm fine with shibuya, roppongi, ueno and even azabu. but shinjuku...no way!

anyhow, finally met up with lark @ her hotel and then we went to the watami for drinks and dinner. it's kinda hard to eat with her cuz she's a vegetarian. luckily the food in japan is by nature, kinda catered to vegetarians. bry met up with us later and we all chatted til about 2300ish cuz i had to catch the last train home.


friday

man, it was a tough mornin'. got to school on time and after drinkin' a coffee, i was koo. fortunately i had only 2 classes today. the principal came up to talk to me on the balcony today. it's very rare that he does that. tho he was kinda hard to understand, i got the gist of what he was sayin'. i also finally got connected to the school lan. it was just plug in and surf away. i love my mac!

miura sensei and i went to the supermarket across the street to get a bento for lunch, but we got there 5 min before they opened, so we had to wait a bit. when they opened, they didn't have any bentos ready!? luckily i had some food i picked up in da mornin' from 7-11 that tided me over.

had vball practice and did the normal drill with the girls. me spikin' @ them and then toita sensei came and they did hittin' drills, a's (quick sets from toita sensei) and outside sets from various girls takin' turns. i officially feel that i hit quick sets, whether they're 1's, huts or reds. when the set was good, i was consistently poundin' inside 3m. since i haven't hit in about a month, after about 30 or so hits, my legs began to cramp up.

went to ikko for dinner and then came home to relax for a bit. then i headed out to meet up with b, jt and lark.

met up with b @ the gate, then jt and junji came thru. junji gave us our passes and headed out while we waited for lark. lark was a little late, cuz she kinda took the wrong train, but all good, cuz she got there in one piece. we all headed off to ageha. chilled outside for a bit before goin' in. we lined up for the wrong line at first but was quickly directed to the mtv guest list line. got inside, met some of b's ex-coworkers and got some drinks. since this event was also sponsered by bmw mini, all the bartenders were wearin' black shirts with the words mini in white on them. everytime i looked at them, i would just see the nine in nails logo instead... they didn't have the gyros roach coach like last time so i was a little disappointed. anyhow, wasn't feelin' da music at all...since it was house/trance. i thought after a few drinks, i would start to feel da music, but it didn't happen. we decided to take the shuttle bus (it was one of the best buses i've been on) back to shibuya and head to b's friend's party @ nutz. way too many dudes there, wasn't feelin' da music and i was gettin' pretty tired. we bounced outta there and went to eat @ duffy duck. had some indonesian dish that was grubbin' and had some of jon's pasta which was pretty good too. went back to shinjuku with lark and what was funny was that we ended up @ her exit! that's a first!!! anyhow, said goodbye and i headed home. on my way from shin-tsudanuma from jr tsudanuma, as i was walkin' down the steps, i noticed these 2 hs girls, walkin' up the steps, tiltin' their heads and as we approach each other, i hear "kebin!". i was in no mood to talk to them so i just said "ohayo" and walked away...

lark and me



saturday

recoverin' from a long night/mornin' of partyin'. my body is achin' also from playin' vball yesterday. made some somen for lunch and headed out to ebisu for shintaro's bday. met up with eugene and jt there. it was kinda weird to be around nothin' but college girls so i kno the other guys were feelin' even more out of place. b and steve swung threw later. we had some good food, drinks were ok. i headed home on the last train.


sunday

talked with the guys back home thru yim webcam and skype. saw some pics from eric's bday and even got a video of ben serenadin' the sink.

headed out to yoyogi park to yu's event. there was this big concert goin', so it was pretty packed in that area. as for yu's event, it was koo. just chilled, listened to reggae, had some drinks, some bbq chicken and finally yu performed right near the end. after that, headed to eifukucho to kick it with b. rick even came thru after comin' back from hakone. we chilled and then i headed home on last train.

yu on da mic


monday

thank god i had the day off. 2 mondays in a row. went shoppin' and finally picked up a wi-fi router and some other stuff that i've been puttin' off for some time now. met up with tomo for dinner and we went to ikko. mama made some natto gyoza which was off da hook!!! after walkin' tomo home, came home and crashed out.


tuesday

back to work. teachin' the 3rd and 4th graders were tough, as usual. came home, cooked dinner and watched this one tv show that was really interestin'. it was a quiz type show where they would show a short video and the detective would figure out the case in a matter of seconds. then the entertainers tried to figure out the solution and then go into a makeshift phonebooth and call the host with the answer. i think it was a special show, so it won't be on next week.


wednesday

back to jhs. a busy day with 4 classes. it was really fun to mess with the 9th graders with my tricky questions. had to seek shelter in the office cuz it was just way too humid in the teachers' room. got a lot of work done and it actually got a bit cold in there.

headed out @ 1700, to go home and then meet up with takeuchi and takahashi sensei @ nanabayashi. before even gettin' to school, i was constantly stopped by "kebin da!" s. it was nice to see my old students and chat with them a bit. my, some of them have grown quite a bit. got to see some of the teachers which was nice. after chillin' there for a bit, we headed to kita narashino for dinner and drinks. takeuchi sensei insisted that we go this one way, but i knew for a fact that it was a longer way and there was hella slopes. even the students said that my way was better...but oh well. so we finally get to the restaurant and guess what....it was closed!! so we just went to watami. it was good to hang out with all of them again. we talked bout all kinds of stuff. found out that one of my old students will be in the latest san nen, b gumi drama. cgrats natsumi-chan! after dinner, walked takahashi sensei back to nanabayashi. then i headed to serenade for a bit and then to chacha. came home and went to sleep.


thursday

it's another holiday!!! still recoverin' from a long night.


news & links

- 8bit d&d, same dialog as the old starship troopers version but this one is all in 8bit. quite funny...

- apple's profit for the 3rd quarter

- ghost in the shell 2: innocence, an anime for deep thinkers...

- researchers find that humans produce their own morphine.

- oakley comes out with the thump. kinda brings new meanin' to high tech sunglasses...

- the new, redesigned ps2.

wed

was visited by migo san and kinoshita. we talked for a bit in the office. they invited me out to eat, so we headed out to this one restaurant near my elementary school. had some good food and we talked about all kinds of stuff.

thurs

we had sports day practice today so there wasn't any classes. tho it was only practice, our team didn't do that great. there was this one event that they did that my last year's school didn't have. it's kinda like a scavenger hunt/race. it was funny to see the students looking for a garbage can or a wheelbarrel.

for vball practice, i taught the 8th graders how to hit a-quick sets. see, it would be so hard for me to be play as a setter in japan cuz the terminology of sets are totally different. risa was puttin' some hits down, as well mami and natsumi. kinda had to do a massive rehaul of their whole approach and arm swing, but after seein' better results from it, i think they actually understood and respected me more for it. cuz i can see how maybe they might be reluctant to learn a quick set from a guy who is shorter than them. heck, i would be a little reluctant.

after school, headed out to iidabashi to have dinner w/emi, akiko and ms. shii. i haven't seen ms. shii since my sister's wedding seven years ago. we went to this little italian restaurant that was pretty good. ms. shii displayed what she learned in grad school in cali about environmental policy. i learned some interestin' things. anyhow, akiko and i barely made the last train back to funabashi.

fri

a lax day @ school. lunch was grubbin'. had katsu donhad 2 classes and at the end of the day, we all did setup for tomorrow's big day: rakin'/levelin' the track, puttin' chalk lines down, settin' up all the tents, and just overall cleanin' up of the school.

actually had a conversation with kocho sensei (principal). besides the fact that he thought my last name was tanaka, he's a really koo guy, when i can understand whatever he's sayin'.

after the teachers' meetin', was talkin' w/fujimori sensei about the other teachers' blood types. there were some that were easy to guess, but some were totally off on what i thought. couldn't believe fujimori sensei to be b. we have the same blood lines. her father is o (same as mine), her mother is ab (same) & her older sibling is b (same again).

when i came home, got online for a bit, but then decided to take a little power nap cuz this past week totally drained me. it turned out to be a good 3 hour nap!

wellz...i'm gonna call it a night, got a big day tomorrow! go team blue!!!

kaz out...


interestin' links

- here's a vid that tri sent me a while back. it's a vid by cibbo matto, a japanese duet. the vid is kinda trippy, check it out here

- man, (literally) serena williams got jacked on a call.

wed

was visited by migo san and kinoshita. we talked for a bit in the office. they invited me out to eat, so we headed out to this one restaurant near my elementary school. had some good food and we talked about all kinds of stuff.

thurs

we had sports day practice today so there wasn't any classes. tho it was only practice, our team didn't do that great. there was this one event that they did that my last year's school didn't have. it's kinda like a scavenger hunt/race. it was funny to see the students looking for a garbage can or a wheelbarrel.

for vball practice, i taught the 8th graders how to hit a-quick sets. see, it would be so hard for me to be play as a setter in japan cuz the terminology of sets are totally different. risa was puttin' some hits down, as well mami and natsumi. kinda had to do a massive rehaul of their whole approach and arm swing, but after seein' better results from it, i think they actually understood and respected me more for it. cuz i can see how maybe they might be reluctant to learn a quick set from a guy who is shorter than them. heck, i would be a little reluctant.

after school, headed out to iidabashi to have dinner w/emi, akiko and ms. shii. i haven't seen ms. shii since my sister's wedding seven years ago. we went to this little italian restaurant that was pretty good. ms. shii displayed what she learned in grad school in cali about environmental policy. i learned some interestin' things. anyhow, akiko and i barely made the last train back to funabashi.

fri

a lax day @ school. had 2 classes and at the end of the day, we all did setup for tomorrow's big day: rakin'/levelin' the track, puttin' chalk lines down, settin' up all the tents, and just overall cleanin' up of the school.

actually had a conversation with kocho sensei (principal). besides the fact that he thought my last name was tanaka, he's a really koo guy, when i can understand whatever he's sayin'.

after the teachers' meetin', was talkin' w/fujimori sensei about the other teachers' blood types. there were some that were easy to guess, but some were totally off on what i thought. couldn't believe fujimori sensei to be b. we have the same blood lines. her father is o (same as mine), her mother is ab (same) & her older sibling is b (same again).

when i came home, got online for a bit, but then decided to take a little power nap cuz this past week totally drained me. it turned out to be a good 3 hour nap!

wellz...i'm gonna call it a night, got a big day tomorrow! go team blue!!!

kaz out...

typhoon #18 is ravengin' thru japan and wreakin' havoc to anything that stands in its way with wind speeds of more than 60 m/s!!! 12m waves, cars got tipped over, trees uprooted and the shrine @ miyajima is got flooded!

in other news...

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update

not sure how the heck i forgot to add this link before! yuta tabuse signs with the suns.
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logitech comes out with its new laser mouse

the bible in legos!

the internet2 record was broken again. 859gb in 17min omg!?!?


had elementary school today and boy was it tough! havin' 5 classes and tryin' to control 170 kids takes a lot out of ya!!

on a side note, in okayama, a 9-year-old girl was murdered in her home after school. this kinda hit me a little hard today, seein' all my elementary school students. i couldn't imagine if something like that were to happen to them...

aite then, i'm off to bed.

kaz out...

happy birthday mom (09.06)
happy birthday brandon (09.05)



da weekend

even tho the first 3 days of school wasn't that busy, wakin' up @ 0600 didn't agree with my body. playin' vball 3 days in a row after not playin' for about a month was quite taxin' on the body as well. after dinner @ ikko, went to cha cha for a drink, then went home and crashed out. woke up @ around 0800ish, went on da computer for a little bit, then went back to sleep. woke up around 1400ish, cooked lunch, then went back to sleep. finally got up around 2000, got ready and then headed out to roppongi. man, it was mad pourin' when i left. got a call from b, seein' if him and kyoko can come along tonite. we decided to meet up @ almond (the typical meetin' place in roppongi; it's the same as meetin' up @ hachiko in 'buya). i was surprised to hear that kyoko was in town. too bad the weather was terrible for the 2 weekends that she was here. finally met up with megu and then we headed to this italian place near b's old job. had some pizza, pasta and gnocchi. after that, we headed to the club where hiyori and her crew are performin'. we got there around 0000ish and since the performance doesn't start til 0130, we just chilled and got some drinks. after a while; kuri, takako & rei came thru. also met 2 more of hiyori's friends; eri and matsuko. i noticed that they had tantakatan, so i ordered it on the rocks, then they tell me that they don't have anymore. so i tell kyoko, um...i see the brand new bottle on the bar and they're tellin' me they don't got none....wtf!? so kyoko steps up and tells the bartender, um, you guys got some right here. had b try some and he liked it. sometime after that, we all did a tequila shot. the drinks there weren't that great. pretty weak and expensive at that! anyhow, the first act, an mc, was aite. even my japanese friends couldn't understand what he was sayin'. then it was hiyori's crew up. surprised to see that it was only 3 ppl. usually it's 5. anyhow, their beats were really good. a nice mix of new and old stuff. one girl in her group wasn't really into it. kinda just goin' thru the motions. as always, hiyori stood out. the next group was a 2-girl dance team. me and b agreed that these girls had slammin' bodies, like one girl had a straightup washboard, however, it would have been nice to at least see them smile a little. the next group, another 2-girl dance squad, had a nice routine. b liked them the best cuz they had a lot of "missy" flava to them. after that, there was about an hour break before the next group of performers, so the dj just spun stuff til then. b and kyoko left after that. after they left, somehow i became hiyori's cameraman. see, the thing is i don't mind takin' the pics, but at least have a digicam that shines a little red light or something when it's hella dark, ya know!? i had to take these pics from pure judgement. you get pretty good @ shootin' in complete darkness when you take like 30 pics!!! it was pretty warm in that place. like if ya danced for like 5 min, you couldn't dance anymore cuz it was way too hot. the next group that performed was a mc duo. really couldn't understand anything they were sayin'. then there was a reggae/hip hop girl/guy duo. they were pretty good. me, bein' the observant one, i predicted what happened next. 1. girl in 4" heels; 2. slippery floor; 3. she dropped one of her metal bracelets. so, takin' all these into consideration, it was only about 10 sec later that she would slip on her bracelet and almost bite it hard. luckily she recovered quite well and made most of us forgot that happened by the next set of dance moves.... for the final act, the dj made everyone in front of the dj, move to the stage. where i ended bein' situated was right in front of the next act. it was a 5-girl squad that were pretty good. sure they were scantily clad, had mad body, gyrated like crazy, they were in sync rather well. pretty much just chilled for the rest of the night. hiyori introduced me to the organizer and he ended up buyin' us a bottle of wine. as the night came to an end, rei started to bust out some cheerleadin' stuff. she was a cheerleadin' coach in canada. then all of the girls start doin' it. then all of start doin' these other gestures that i have no clue about. we finally got out of the club and decided to get some food. we tried this one udon place, but it was packed. we ended up at this soba place. got some sansai soba and hiyori ordered this inari soba. it was the first time i've seen this. it's inari, ya know the "footballs" with rice in them? well...instead of rice, they had soba noodles up in them with various other toppings such as ebi & wakame. it was kinda weird to cut the inari in half and see the noodles just fall out. kinda like in kill bill when gogo slashes that guy's stomach and all his guts come out. anyhow, after we ate, everyone went home except for rei, cuz she had to go this cheerleadin' competition in yoyogi. that's hardcore. i finally got home @ around 0800ish and crashed out.

slept til like 1500, made some lunch and then headed out to hamamatsucho to meet up with the sachiko and nobu for ryoko's bday party. while waitin' for nobu, was surprised to see lisa and ken. we then went to the other exit and met up with nori, yoshi, masa, daiki, yosuke and others. as we walked to takeshiba, the group got larger and larger. by the time we were in line, our group was around 30-35 heads!?! ken and lisa decided to grab some wendy's just before the line started to move. we had to call to tell them to hurry up. when they finally got back to the line, lisa was still chewin' her food! this ended up bein' the same boat that we had aki's bday party last summer but this time it was a lot better because there were more younger peeps and of course tons of girls wearin' yukatas. also, it was free beer!!! they even had these girls with kegs on their backs, refillin' everyone's cups! it was awesome. found out that it wasn't just ryoko's bday, but like 4 other girls'!! i swear, we must've kampai'd like every 2 min! another interestin' thing bout these peeps was that more than half the peeps all lived in australia. it started to drizzle a bit but by the time we got all of our stuff, it stopped. so of course nobu decided to have a toast for that. when we finally docked back @ da pier and started to make our way out, i ran into megu. she was there with her friends too. kind of a trip. well...we all walked back towards the station and this is where the crazy stuff starts happenin'. nobu and masa take off their shirts so in honor of q not bein' there, i had to yell at those guys, "put da bird away!" then yosuke decides to drop his pants and unfortunately it was @ the same time i was lookin' back. so after seein' that, masa decides to out do yosuke and decides to try to take off his own pants. man...these guys are crazy, yo! when we finally get to the station, ken and lisa decided to go home as well as a few other peeps. sachi then looks at me and i say, well...we can go to the nijikai for like an hour. so at this isakaya (i don't remember the name) we had about 30 (drunk) peeps. it kinda felt weird being the nosiest peeps there cuz it's usually the other way around. i'm always like, damn, these people are hella loud and obnoxious. felt kinda bad that we were so loud and all but hey, it's all good. there weren't that many people there anyways. anyhow, nobu and nori take over and get everything started. for some reason, they wanted me to say something. when i began talkin', they all stopped me and said, "no!!! eigo de!!" i was like damn! ok... as always, there were all the oohs and ahhs about how well my english is and shiet... from that point on, it starts to get a little blurry. somehow i remember tippin' over sachi's beer and while pourin' other peeps drinks, kinda was a little to da side. the food there wasn't bad. grubbed on some potato furai, daikon sarada, tamago yaki & karaage. kinda remember nori, gettin' me to come to this open table and askin' these 2 girls to come join us. at first, i was like, ummm...nori, i don't think this is gonna work...but when i sat down, it must've been like 3 seconds after nori asked them, the girls got their drinks and even brought a pitcher with them! i was like damn! that was too easy!! we chilled for a while and time was gettin' a little giri giri, so we all headed to the station together. ended up bein' on the same train as the other chiba peeps. finally got home around 0045 and crashed out shortly thereafter. it was a great time, met a lot of new peeps, drank a little too much and paid for it this mornin'.


group shot




group shot 2




3 alts and a japanese guy




hey nori, what are ya doin'!?




ryoko, azusa, nobu




masa da enlightened one




lisa & ken




another group shot




funny shot




funny shot 2




nori can never be straight in a pic!




da bday girl and me





came into work today and noticed that for 1st and 2nd period, the 8th graders have sports day practice = no 1st period class! then i see that durin' 3rd and 4th period, the 7th graders have practice = no 3rd & 4th period class!! however, my no class day turned into havin' one class with the 8th graders durin' 3rd period. but for half the time, they were takin' a test. went to eat lunch early with miura sensei. today i chose b lunch. it was a cheese filled chicken katsu sandwich and clam chowder. that ish was slammin'! i never get to go to lunch early cuz i always have class durin' 4th period. but it's totally different eatin' in the cafeteria with 10 ppl, compared to havin' the school inside there. i mean, it's like a difference of like 5C. sesaki sensei had his class to this one exercise outside that was really interestin'. it was like a trust exercise where the students would pair up, one blindfolded while the other led them, runnin' around the track. after that, he had all the girls except for two, and all the boys except for one, blindfolded and the non-blindfolded students would have to lead the whole team and follow sesaki sensei around the school grounds. he made them walk up slopes and thru tight places.

went grocery shoppin' then came home. watchin' my dorama right now and it's gettin' good...

kaz out...

yesterday, had dinner with mikie and went to watch riddick. tho the story was kinda stupid, the fx were pretty dope! the sound fx were pretty good too. and havin' thandie newton didn't hurt either.

a hot but relaxed day @ school. since the 9th graders had tests, i didn't have class. i only taught one class today!

it was the start of kyuushoku (school lunch) today and it was pretty good. had some dry curry, chinese chicken salad and baked potato with bacon.

the new computer in the teachers' room is up and runnin' and boy does it scream!! well...anything would scream compared to that p100 runnin' win '95!

had vball practice today and it was hella hot! all i did for the practice was hit @ yukino and various 8th graders who took turns bein' part of the pair. one of the girl's parents brought ice cream for us which we enjoyed after practice.

went to ikko to have a nice peaceful dinner. but when the whole crew showed up, started to drink and sing a lot, there were some words that shouldn't have been said. there must've been like 5 arguments. man, all i wanted was a quiet dinner...but turned out to a shoutin' match! that's why i left early. the vibe did a total 180!

well...one more day left in da week. only 2 classes tomorrow but have to prepare for my elementary school.

aite then,

kaz out...

so the new harry potter book came out today in japan. and sure enough, there were peeps waitin' from 2100 yesterday. they even had the matsuoka, who translated the book into japanese all dressed up and doin' book signings and stuff.

well...back to school today. it was good to see all of the teachers and students again. but i wasn't really feelin' the no a/c teachers' room or the classrooms. so i took shelter a lot in the office and chatted it up with the ladies. ishiguro san went to borneo and got me this koo bookmark. she also brought back some chocolate (which i had to translate for them cuz they couldn't read english) as well as some snacks from okinawa. okamoto sensei gave me some super spicy noodles from singapore too.

ran the whole vball practice today. it's a lot different w/o da 9th graders. but i see a lot of improvement in the 7th graders. durin' the end meetin', i explained to them some ideas (in japanese, english and a lot of gestures) and then made them explain it back to me in japanese so i know that they understood what i said. tho it was nice and cool outside, inside the gym was a furnace! probably at least 36C.

anyhow...i'm off to go eat and watch riddick. it's the first of da month and that means it's eiga no hi (movie day) which means that everyone is only 1000yen (about $8.50).

kaz out...