valentine's day

well, today is valentine's day. however in japan, it's a little different than back home. girls give guys chocolate/candy. then on march 14th, called "white day", guys give girls white chocolate/candy.

crazy stuff at school today...can't really go into everything, but it was fun to see for the first time, a girl who came to school with highlighted hair, get the black spray treatment.

watched another episode of lost and the story is slowly startin' to develop and twist.

aite then, not really much of an update but here's some interestin' links

kaz out...


in da news...

- full screen video ipod patent...
we'll see what comes of this

- yet another memory stick format from sony!!
somethings sony does great, some really terrible. screw sony digicams and their ever changing memory stick formats. in the future: upgrade to non-sony phone and pda.

- a dope zippo trick video
one day...

- noticed the other day on my avantgo sporting news page, that sac state's bball recap was the first article. wtf!?!

jeanette's bday

after a long, long fri nite, just chilled at home, did tons of laundry and finished watchin' disc 1 of lost. headed over to makuhari for jeanette's bday @ sho & ami's. ami prepares & cooks food in hyper speed.


jeanette & me


group shot -sho


group shot: ami, me, jeanette, sho & haru


out like a light...

she also got some 宇都宮餃子(utsunomiya is known as the gyoza town) from a friend however she didn't really prepare it correctly.







1st time snowboardin'

went on another world famous torigoe tour. this one was a 1-day snowboarding/onsen trip to 神立 in 新潟. since it was my first time snowboardin' in japan, it's been quite a long time since i've gone...over 3 years...

took the 新幹線 from 東京駅 to 越後湯沢駅. being only about 90 min from tokyo, it was a nice and easy ride. for more information bout echigoyuzawa, click here.

to pass the time, busted out some riddles for them and was surprised that kyoko was able to answer most of them.

it was koo to finally see the sidewalk sprinklers in action. when i went to 當山 3 years ago, i saw them but it was summer time.

caught the shuttle to the pine ridge kandatsu ski resort.
and went to rent our gear. as bryan explained to me, ski resorts in japan are pretty much the same as back home but with all japanese ppl and ramen & curry. some little things that impressed me was that on the lift, the ppl would brush off the snow before you got on. one of the million little things the japanese think of. it was kinda strange to hear jpop on the way up on the lift. later on in the day however, they started playin' offspring...

the snow was coming down pretty good and the slopes were awesome. the powder was so fresh, that there was barely a sound made when you carved. had some pretty good food for lunch however i was so into tryin' junji's oyako don (oyako = parent and child; the typical oyako don is chicken and egg but this one was salmon & ikura) that i spilled it and almost all of the ikura fell on the table!?! since it was snowin' like crazy on the top of the mountain, havin' only a beanie and hood isn't enough to stay warm cuz the snow hits your face hard. so, i decided to get a neck/face warmer. that made a world of a difference. it was kinda weird to purchase this from the same person who took my food order.

after lunch, went back up for a couple more runs and then came back and went to the onsen. the 露天風呂 was awesome. seein' the mountain and the fallin' snow after a long day on da slopes in a hot spring was the best.

caught the shuttle back to the 越後湯沢駅 to go eat some へぎそば, which is an 越後(the old name for 新潟) specialty. tho we had to wait out in the snow for quite a long time, it was good to finally be inside a warm/cozy place. had some grubbin' 舞茸天ぷら and some へぎそば. had a bottle of 熱燗 which warmed us up rather nicely.

after gettin' some お土産, we rushed to try to get on the train that was leavin'. since we didn't have reserved tix, we ended up standin' in the hallways/stairways with all the other ppl who didn't have tix too. luckily it wasn't that long of a ride. b, as always, keeps it interestin' with his stories which made the time go by.


our departure info


our departure info for those can't read japanese


b and his '98 winter olympic jacket he got when worked @ the nagano olympics


on the train chillin'


arrival


snow!!!


more snow!!!


even more snow!!!


on the shuttle to the mt.


thought it was kinda weird to see a godzilla right outside the lodge




junji (hands up), b, kyoko (goin' toe-side)


action shot


after lunch. if you look close enough to the near tray, you can see the remnants of the food i spilled


hegi soba w/nori


close-up of the soba

TGIF!!!

well it's finally friday and i'm sure glad it is. it's been a rather long week and i still can't seem to shake this cough. finally got my cv done and sent out. was stressin' a bit now that the time is just around the corner. however, not as stressin' for my 9th graders. today is 特色化選抜発表, when high school entrance results are posted. it's about a 30% success rate but the 70% still have another chance to take a test at the end of this month. however, if they fail that one too, then they have to resort to the next school.

had my mid-season redraft last weekend. didn't do too well. sakurai was 2 picks ahead of me and took 3-4 guys that i wanted. not as many ppl in-person this time but it was fun nonetheless. however, i feel bad for mm and pelt; they weren't: in-person nor online, AND they didn't even send in a list. so...they got screwed. they have their keepers but after that, they can draft whatever was leftover. keep in mind, each team consists of 15 players AND we have 20 teams in this league. so do the math and try figure out what kind of players are left...
my team:
ak47, j.magloire, j.terry, l.ridnour, m.blount, j.rose, m.peterson, e.jones, a.daniels, n.mohammed, s.swift, q.ross, j.jeffries, j.graham, t.allen.


変な天気

it's been almost 3 years now in the motherland and i must say that i will probably never get fully accustomed to the weather here. but i guess ya gotta weigh the pros & cons of the whole thing. pros: japan claims to boast 4 beautiful/distinct seasons, however i would say that there are 5 seasons (typhoon season), havin' snow is kinda koo too. cons: the summers sucks (way too humid), the winters are freezin', nice/comfortable weather is about 2 months total for the whole year. the other day, mother nature teased all of us with some awesome spring-like weather. however the following day was cold.


stuff i've been watchin':

watched into the blue last week. i must say, it exceeded my expectations. the times when j.alba wasn't in the shots actually kept my interest. it was interestin' to see paul from 24: season 4 in it. but i guess the real reason to watch this movie was for j.alba, and after watchin' it, she is unaminously the #1 on da list.

started watchin' lost: season 1. just finished the 2 pilot episodes. pretty interestin' story.

on tap for this weekend is: jeanette's bday party on sat., then snowboarding in niigata on sunday. it'll be my first time snowboardin' in japan, so i know i'm gonna be rusty (not that i was any good before) and sore as a mutha on monday. aite ya'll, have a good weekend.

kaz out...


links:

- a dope touch screen

- nba.com's dunk mixer!