rant

so, it's been a pretty long week, especially today. usually when i have classes all day, the day goes by really quick. but boy was i wrong.

have also been given an assignment by my boss to check and correct all these city school documents which were translated into english. i've gotten about 6 of the 45 done.

started up kotor2 (knights of the old republic 2, for ya video inclined peeps) but on the second stage, there's this glitch that doesn't allow me to continue the game! wtf!?! i did look online for some info, found out that there are quite a lot of glitches in this game. found my glitch, the fix, executed to da 't', however it didn't work. wtf!?!

seems like my gas service/heater is actin' up again. didn't mind it too much in da summer cuz i didn't hot water as much, but now that the weather has gotten pretty chilly, there's a slight chance that my shower's hot water will run out while i'm takin' a shower.

totally fed up with my yahoo! broadband service. gonna figure out how to cancel my ish. i think on average, i can a steady connection at most for like 5 min. however that happens about once a week. thank god for the not so computer savy neighbors of mine.

/rant

today's links:

- subway/train/metro maps for your ipod

- tweekah's blog

well, i got the junior high school 駅伝 tomorrow morning, then there's the funabashi international festival and i have bball in shibuya @ 1500. next day, gots my girls and boys tournament and then a farewell dinner for the furutas @ kula in komazawa.

aite ya'll, have a good weekend.

kaz out...

in da news...

- dell releases it's "lexus" line of computers

- google updates it's video service

- motorola ceo says, "screw the nano!"

- palm comes out with a windows treo!?!

- if ya'll are sick and tired of gettin' all that junk mail, here's something ya'll should give a try.

- if ya'll like spiders, check this out!


so the weather has sure cooled down a lot lately. it went from super muggy to dry, crisp, cool air.

watched be cool last nite and i must say, it was a pretty good movie. c.milian has sure grown up when she first came out. nice to see the pulp fiction reenactment to a bep song. definitely a must see.

kaz out...

havin' only a 3 day week was nice.

on tuesday, had to city hall to get some work done and talk to some peeps. had dinner with mikie and junko. it's still hard to fanthom that junko is married now.

short day at school but a meetin' @ city hall. got to talk with suga a bit and then went with miyazaki back to his place. man, his mansion is pretty dope. he gotz da whole top floor, decked out. even has a frickin' conservatory!? after that, we headed over to ikko for dinner.

next day @ school was hella busy makin' the listenin' part of the midterm for the 8th & 9th graders. was @ school pretty late.

got a lot of cleanin' and laundry done and then headed over to b's. played madden (he beat finally beat me after losin' the last 18 games or so), went to his office cuz he had to finish something up and then ate @ the grubbin' yakitori place. ate waaaayyyy too much. chilled pretty much the next day cuz it was rainin'. it was nice to see kyoko cuz i haven't seen her since before i went back home. barely made last train home.

went to serenade and saw some peeps i haven't seen in a while. chacha mama came thru too. we all had a good time and i never saw mama that drunk before. afterwards, headed to the late nite sushi joint and grubbed hard. eiko chan and ishihara came thru after closin'.

well back to the grind tomorrow. aite, off to go have dinner with miyamoto.

-kev

体育祭, kaoru & yoshi's bday, a night out on da town, entourage, showin' peeps around, yokohama

hmmm...it's been a long, long 2 weeks.



had my 3rd sports day on sat.



it was pretty koo cuz i saw some new events.

















here's the crazy event that i've never seen before




i also didn't lose this time when i ran.


had kaoru & yoshi's bday shin dig in ueno. met up with: aki, hide, hiyan and the birthday girls. ikko even came thru for a tad bit. the 二次会 only consisted of the bday girls, aki and myself cuz hide and hiyan had to other plans.






we went to play darts. the bday girls brought their own darts which got me a little scared @ first.



after darts, aki went home and then we all went to sing karaoke to pass the time. was out til 0630.

slept all day, had dinner @ ikko, chilled @ cha cha. yoshi and mashima came thru, and shizu came thru a bit later. she brought some お土産 (some chicken wings). headed out to sing some more karaoke til 0530.

slept in all day (again) and then headed out to shinjuku to meet up with lark & nikki. chilled and then got some yakitori and wondered the streets of shinjuku. lost to nikki not once, but twice in darts. i was pissed!

next day @ school was tough. 1. the 3 days of partyin' caught up to me. 2. it was hot and humid. 3. 4 classes straight with my 8th graders. the lesson of the day was the future tense usin' "will...." & "going to....." the students all had to ask me a question usin' this form. most interestin' one was from one of the girls on da vball team, "will you go to the park with me next sunday?"

got some mos burger for dinner and started to watch season 1 of entourage. it's a pretty dope show. lots of cameos and even had jaymee ong!!!

went to this club in shibuya called dna. wasn't all that but tried to have a good time. next day, was the black eye peas concert @ ageha. the rocked it, hard! probably one of the best performances i've ever seen. thx junji for the tix!

finally got to see b's office. pretty nice place, koo peeps. also got a sneak preview of what he's been workin' on. pretty dope. comes out today, so check it out here

met up with b and chilled. ended up goin' to one of his old coworker's house party. man, that place was hella nice! met up with junji, jt and his 2 buddies from back home. it's always koo to be able to chop it up with peeps from da bay.

went to yokohama and had lunch with the tashiros and furutas. marvin is so big now, as is ryan.

ryan


scotty & marvin


closeup of marvin


we went to this pretty popular pancake joint in yokohama, right near chinatown. i got this corn beef crispy pancake sandwich. it was grubbin'. afterwards, just chilled at the house with marvin while yas and scotty had class. got to chat with yoyo for a bit too. ended up stayin' there for dinner. pops kept offerin' me: shochu, beer, nihon shuu and even whisky. got a home pretty late but slept well cuz i moved my futon to the livin' room and turned on the ac.

got this book a few weeks ago from susie. just started it, but so far, it's pretty interestin'. it's called, blink

back at school, it's a short week, only 3 days. gotta head to city hall today and tomorrow. then it's another 3 day weekend!!!

still in search of a 4gb black nano...

kaz out...

back to reality, best yakitori, movies, mos burger, tiger & nano

as i check my tracker for this blog, i've noticed that i've gotten more hits durin' the time i was back home then after i did my trip entry. one would think that it would be the opposite but who knows. i saw a lot weird search entries that linked to my site. some stuff even goin' back to over a year!

so, been back in school for about a week now. kids haven't changed one bit. the 8th and 9th grade classes are still wack as before. the 7th grade classes were fun tho. this saturday is the school's sports day, so the kids have been practicin' like crazy this past week. unfortunately, since typhoon #14 came hit japan pretty hard, there hasn't been a lot of practice. today however the weather was pretty nice, so they did a "dress rehearsal". i stayed inside all day cuz it was way too hot to be outside for 3 hrs.

like every school before, the teachers all go out for drinkin' after sports day. however, this year (like my first year), かおる is havin' her bday party. i don't really mind as much not bein' able to go cuz the teachers at my new school are koo and all, but, we ain't as tight as my teachers from my previous schools. in japanese, we say しようがない = can't be helped.

after partyin' til 0900, crashed @ b's and went to eat some grubbin' yakitori.


手羽先唐揚げ中辛




since comin' back with over 30 movies, i decided to watch a few these past couple days. first movie i watched was elektra, starrin' jennifer garner. the movie had no weight to it. the story was unfinished and the dialogue kinda sucked. however, the fx were pretty good and havin' jennifer garner helps a lot. ratin' = 4/10.

next movie was the girl next door. starrin' a bunch of no names except for elisha cuthbert from 24. she really stole the show and gained a lot of pts.. in my book. this was a light hearted comedy that a little bit of everything. well paced & very funny. it was also a total bonus havin' sung hi lee in it. ratin' = 9/10.

another movie that i watched was team america. it was made by the creators of southpark. i thought it was a pretty funny movie, seein' as tho it was done with all puppets. i was sorta amazed of how they were able to move the puppets in ways that showed a lot of emotion. after hoolie let me listen to the soundtrack (which was hilarious) when i was back in sac, i was wonderin' when these songs would pop up in da movie. overall, a typical stone & parker comedy. ratin' = 7/10.

when i went to the grocery store the other day, i noticed that mos burger was under construction. i was shocked! couldn't believe they were closin!?! but, when i examined further, they weren't closin', they were remodelin'!!! it's gonna be a high end mos burger now and that means they're gonna have better stuff and more variety!!!

so, i finally broke down and installed osx 10.4, otherwise known as tiger. i must say, i do like the slightly new look and things seem to be runnin' a little bit faster. still importin' all my music/photos/files/etc... but i'm gonna try to keep it much more clean and organized. still need to fiddle with a lot of things and i'm pretty upset that my weather widget doesn't work.
::UPDATE:: got my weather widget fixed!




if ya'll haven't seen the new ipod nano, boy is it dope! i'm totally thinkin' about buyin' one now. when i went to the apple store in ginza yesterday, peeps were buyin' not 1, but like 2-4 of them!?! maybe this was a blessin' in disguise, but they sold out on the 4gb ones. guess i'm gonna have to wait, huh?

had dinner with lisa at this yakitori place in shinjuku. it was pretty good but not as good as da place near b's.

well, football season is right around the corner and that means fantasy football baby!!! should be really fun this year (our 3rd annual prima league that i organize) cuz we got some new blood to talk shiet to.

aite ya'll, have a good week.

kaz out...

first off, just want to wish my mom a happy birthday (sept. 6th)

as well as sept. 5th babies: brandon & lark

da trip home

words can't even come close to describin' the time i had back home. it was a super crazy and busy time, from chillin' in da bay, headin' to sac, back to da bay, then down to LA, then back up to da bay. it was good to see da fam, da homies as well as meetin' some new peeps along da way.

here's da summary...

da bay, pt.1

tho da plane was delayed 1.5 hrs @ da gate, it was cool chattin' it up with this girl who sat next to me. it was weird seein' the plane goin' from darkness and catchin' up to daylight.





parents picked me up @ sfo and then we headed home. uncle ron took chris (he was in town still from ben's bday), ben and me out for some pho. then went to go see bryson for the first time.



jet lag kicked in and i passed out there. russ' parents and my parents ended up comin' there for dinner.



kicked it @ cal's afterwards and went to get some jack in da box. ultimate breakfast sandwich baby!!!

next day, had lunch with grandma.



then went to the cemetary to pay respects. after that, met up with tri and headed to thallassa.



came back home and had dinner with: uncle david, aunty nancy, uncle cal, aunty nat, russ, arlene, bryson, brandon and brian. since my mom won $500 on da radio and uncle cal was the one who contacted her, she treated to this phat chinese dinner.


peking duck was grubbin'.



after dinner, headed over to tony's. finally got to check out tony's new pad. pretty dope ass 62" hdtv.



had some snacks and drank.


next day, took mika (rick's wife) and yoko (one of mika's bridesmaids) on the sf tour.





started off @ pier 39,



then took the cable car to the cable car museum (first time for me),



walked back to pier 39 for lunch (crab cakes and clam chowder in bread bowl).



then drove down lombard st.





then palace of fine arts (first time for me),









over the golden gate to vista point.



then took the san rafael bridge back over and met up with mika's friends at this korean restaurant.



after that, headed over to dave & busters to meet up with leslie and brian, her fiancee. it was good catchin' up with her and finally meetin' brian.



i really wanted to go to the weddin', which is this labor weekend, but my work schedule sucks this year! aaarrggghh!!!!!


sac

the next day, headed out to sac. it was nice to make that drive up. must've made that drive over 200 times while i was livin' there.



went to da old office and was shocked to see how much junk there is. watched don and jook play some bf2. don's new laptop is pretty dope.




donato & jookie

went to olive garden with don and was quite surprised to see how nice it became.





we killed a bottle of penfolds shiraz and had tons of leftovers.




headed over to jookie's afterwards and got to see how big is daughter hannah got.



jook also had this pretty nice plasma on da wall.



chilled there for a while and kinda passed out for a little bit. only to be awakend by 4, lickin' my face.



since don and damien had a hockey game, i just chilled with hoolie and his friends and played some hold 'em. when don got home, we started digitally archivin' some of dvds on 3 machines from his massive collection of 1800+ dvds.



here's just a small sample of what he has...


next day, continued to archive stuff while hoolie try to sell me on wow (world of warcraft). met up with all da guys (jim, paul, damien, hoolie, jookie, don, fernando) for lunch @ aldaberto's and got the infamous california burrito.



headed back to da house to finish archivin'. took a little nap and then met up with some more guys from prima past and present (bt showed up too) at what used to be river rock.


l-r: donato, bt, jookie, jim


hoolie

it some new high end type of pub now. i was pleasantly surprised to see this one hostess that greeted us. made me realize some stuff u just don't see in japan. chilled there for a bit and then headed across the street to chili's.


hmmm...what should i get??? i wonder what don wants?

chelle and jookie's cousin came thru as well. got the full rack of ribs.



jookie got this


to pass the time, started to flip the coasters. i was able to about 25 or so. not sure what jookie is excited about, i'm only on 2 here


then most of us headed downtown to the limelight, a place i went to quite a few times when i was in school.


damien






jager shot with jager shirt



it was good to see jon and carla. kenji even came thru for a minute. somehow we all started to play this dice game called "7, 14, 21".


the young bucks


the bearded posse


me, kenji & don



the rules: with 5 dice, only counting 1's, each person rolls and you count by ones all the way around. when you roll @ 7 or over, you get to choose the drink. then you continue the count. @ 14, that person has to pay for the drink. @ 21, that person has to drink the drink. first game, don had to not only pay for the drink but drink it as well.

his reaction to this


bt as usual, starts gettin' these weird shots for me.




jon is a master of the self photo


long islands and washington apples


after the washington apples; it wasn't that bad, jook!


the losers from round 3 & 4 of 7, 14, 21


the amazin' power of shots


not sure what fernando & damien are doin'


it's ok don, what jon doesn't know what hurt him...


hey don, what are ya doin' with my wife???


..........




gettin' ready for hold 'em


hooli checkin' his auctions on world of warcraft

it was koo just to hangout with everyone and catch up. we all went back to don/hoolie/damien's house and played some more hold 'em. for some reason the southern comfort came out.














hoolie made these chocolate cake shots


at first it tasted like shiet, but the aftertaste did taste like a chocolate cake






after that, it gets really fuzzy. that's what great about havin' a digicam, you can go back and what you did.


da bay, pt.2



don and i both drove back home and met up with tri @ hooters in dublin. grubbin' wings, garlic fries and shrimp. it was koo to be able to watch some preseason football and drink with the fellas.



came back home and then got ready to go out to body rock @ soluna lounge.



we help promote da event so we got in fo free. it was a nice little bar/lounge. saw reuben there and met up with lark and one of her friends, yugo, who's japanese.







we chilled there til closin' and then got some mexican food.


this is what yugo got

the hot sauce there was hella hot!





the burrito was grubbin' and after that went home and crashed out.





the next day, met up with mike and his girl in oakland chinatown for some dim sum.



we ended up goin' to this place that wasn't there when i was here last. it's a pretty big place. we had to wait a bit but when we got seated it was on. mike's friend's family is the owner of the place, so she hooked us up with some stuff.





afterwards, headed out to berkeley to have another drink with tri. we played some pool and just kicked it. from there, went straight to castro valley to have dinner with mom and pops @ sazio.


had some grubbin' veal picatta and sauteed shrimp. topped it off with some tiramisu and coffee.


minestrone soup


can't have italian w/o some chianti


pops had this


this is what i had

headed over to the fongs afterwards cuz dana was in town.


i don't think she can ever take a straight pic

she just ran a sprint triathalon that day. we then headed over to tony's so that dana could check out his place. the fellas were all there. ben and tony were playin' with their new treos. the screen on those are pretty dope.











the next day, had to wake up pretty early to go out to san ramon to meet up with mitch (buddy from back in da day and former bball coach) and his family for breakfast. finally was able to meet his two kids. it was kinda nice to practice my japanese with his wife and son. we went to ihop for breakfast and got this grubbin' veggie omelette. came back to da house and just chilled and caught up.




rikiya




momoka



met up with ray @ stoneridge and finally got to see "nina". it's his '92 supercharged nsx w/lamborghini doors. 2 screens, dope ass system, dvd changer, etc... he had to get back to work so i went shoppin'. picked up some t-shirts @ champs (6 for $20). other than that, really didn't buy too much.

after that, went to ray & setsu's to drop off some gifts and say hi. their grandsons were there and boy, have they grown! they're taller than me now but i'm always gonna be big kevin and the grandson little kevin. dan came by (brandon & kevin's dad) and we drank and chatted. stephanie (dan's wife) came thru too. ended up stayin' there for some ribs and salad. i still couldn't believe that brandon got his wisdom teeth pulled that day and wasn't swollen at all. i was shocked of his tech knowledge. felt kinda weird to be talk with him about that kind of stuff. these kids are sure growin' up fast.






brandon, big kevin, little kevin


then headed over to tony's house. had tri pick up 3 zachary's pizzas. we were just playin' halo 2 and fight night. those games are pretty dope. especially playin' them on tony's tv.


some grubbin' zachary's


nina with her doors open


not sure how i could play with my eyes closed...


LA



the next mornin' @ frickin' 0500, we headed down to LA. i was up pretty late that night so i don't really remember the trip down. after pickin' up one of my mom's friends and droppin' her off in LA, we arrived @ my sis' @ around 1300. right before that, we picked up some in n out for lunch. never had animal style fries before. i finally got to see and hold my niece, maile. she has these huge cheeks which makes it look she doesn't have a neck. but she's so cute tho!








maile and grandpa


maile and grandma

for dinner that night, we headed to this hawaiian restaurant. my sis' hawaiian friends have given it a thumbs up, so you know that it's grubbin'. had some spam musubi, chicken wings and i ordered this macadamia nut crusted mahi mahi. my sis ordered michiko (sweet rice flour) fried chicken. the somen salad was grubbin' too. came back and just chilled.


mom got this


michelle got this


i got this

the next day, we all went to long beach to eat at the crab pot. if ya'll love seafood, this is one place you should go. i've even been to the one in seattle! for all ya'll that don't know, you order these sets of seafood and they bring it to you in a big bowl and then dump it on the table and you go to town. you have melted butter, mallet and cracker to work your way thru the 3 kinds of crab and even lobster. there's sausage, potatoes and corn in there as well.





















afterwards we went to frys to check out their computers. later that evenin', dana came over after work and we all ate leftovers for dinner.


















next day, chilled and went shoppin'. did some major damage @ old navy. also picked up some stuff for my friends back in japan. that night, ross got my dad and i tix to go see amateur boxin' @ the irvine marriott. since ross was goin' straight there from work, i drove the supra out there. man, that car was pretty clean. good power (turbo) and nice stereo. however, it made me appreciate my car a little bit cuz it didn't have a short shift. it really does make a big difference. it was my first time @ a boxin' event. ross got us these phat seats, second row. you can see the sweat splatter when the boxers got hit. the seats also were in prime location of when the ring card girls came. it was koo to see: aaron, eric and louis and meet ken and jason. pops and grubbed on some tacos and washed it down with a mountain dew.





















the next day, went to buy the computer @ costco for my sis & ross. it was a nice little compaq: amd64 ahtlon 3400, 1gb ram, 200 gb hd, dvd± dl 16x, 9-1media card reader, & 17" lcd all for $899. came home to set that up. uncle fred and aunty jeanne came by to see the baby.



they went to the casino while we headed to this italian restaurant for dinner. had this tasty seafood pasta that i couldn't even eat half of. i was too stuffed from the fried calamari and bread.



after dinner, went to see weddin' crashers with ross and aaron. man, that movie was hilarious. all the reviews from friends couldn't overhype it. it's that funny.

the next day, finished gettin' the computer set up and then headed out to irvine to me up with bill, pimpa, jeff & christy at this sports bar called the corner office. pimpa was hella hungry so she ordered all these appetizers and bill and i split this turkey avocado sandwich. washed it all down with a nice cold guiness.





headed back to my sis' and then went with my parents to my uncle & aunty's house in LA.







got to the house and went straight to da pool. did a few laps then just chilled. my uncle finally made the move to dvds from vhs a few years ago. he also got a brand new 50something inch tv. pops started to drink and moms was organizin' all the dvds. my aunty came home and then we started to drink wine. austin and his whole family came thru too. finally got to meet jade and lola. mei and nat are so big now. they've become young ladies now. d is 10 now and is talkin' up a storm. my cousin austin hasn't changed a bit. he's still the joker that i grew up with. my sis, ross and da baby came for dinner too. aunt minnie, glen and john dropped by to say hi but didn't stay long. can't believe lauren is gonna skip high school and go straight to college.

we all ate dinner outside overlookin' the city landscape. uncle lyle lit up all the tiki torches and played hawaiian music. while the kids did karaoke, the adults were just chillin' outside and enjoyin' some nice cubans. was supposed to meet up with jamie but she never got back to me '_' it kinda worked out for the best cuz i got to spend more time with my cousins.























the next mornin', got to drive the h2. well...more like back it up so that i could take a pic with it.



we dropped aunt minnie's to say hi. got to talk to glen a bit bout IT stuff. with the way things are lookin' now, might actually have to use it. after that, we went to go pick up my mom's friend and then we drove home. had lunch just after the grapevine @ ihop and got home @ around 1800.

da bay, pt.3

since cal and brandon had to go to vegas for a shoe convention, this was the last night to kick with them. so we gathered up da troops, even brian (and his new '05 TL) and russ came out and we headed to thallassa again for some drinks. somehow shots started to appear and things got a little fuzzy once again. but it was koo havin' all da homies there. we headed over to top dog and i got a hot link and chicken anduille. headed to cal and brandon's store. still under construction but it was nice to finally get a hands on visual. as were walkin' back, ray decided to get another hot link. couldn't believe it!?!






brian's navi





























the next day, went to get some vietnamese sandwiches @ ba le with brian, ben and thuy. came back to brian's and chilled. played some pool with ben. he beat me the first 2 games but when i used the light saber cue, i went on a phat winnin' streak. beat him 2x, scratched out the next game against russ but then won 3 in a row. the cue really makes a difference.











after that, we all went out to eat @ the b st. restaurant. every dish was $5 and we got tons of food. it was a nice final farewell dinner with the homies and parents.













headed over to eric's afterwards. he's got a nice house in this new little development. chilled there for a bit and then went over to tony's. tri came thru with beers and we played xbox and kicked it til like 0330.



came back home and started to pack. put on the star wars montage video. pretty much packed all the gifts into my suitcase and clothes into a duffle bag. woke up, packed the car and then headed to the airport but right as we were about to get onto da 101, i didn't have my cell phone with me, so we had to go all da way back home to get it. still got to the airport with plenty of time.



just want to thank all da fam and friends that took the time to kick it. not sure when i'm gonna be back next...


aite then,

kaz out...