yay for trips

Well, alot has happened recently, where to start... Ok, well i'll start with work. So, Nova imploded, declared a type of bankrupcy that protects them from creditors and lets them search for a sponsor to help them rehabilitate. If no sponsor is found, the company will be liquidated and cease to exist. Today they were supposed to announce which was going to happen... and so far i'v heard that they've found a sponsor, and are going to announce who it will be in 3 days. The down shot of it, is it looks like we will all get laid off and possibly rehired, so the company doesnt have to pay our unpaid salary. So... it looks like we will have to go through the whole system of trying to claim our salary from the government, which will give us 80% it looks like, surely after a long, drawn-out beurocratic procedure of some sort. That being said, i'v been looking for a new job... and i interviewed for something that possibly starts in January, so we'll see how that goes. Onward to cooler things.

So a few weeks ago, Azu, Eric and I went to South Korea. That was good fun. It is pretty different from Japan, but similar in some ways too. It sorta reminded me of America and Japan, but had its own unique Korean style as well. The people acted very differently. Not shy and all, and alot more... pushy i guess i would say, in the physical sense. School boys on the train in Seoul seemed to be locked in eternal combat with one another. Girls at the palace we visited pretty much swarmed me and started asking questions in English, and shouting at me that i was handsome, lol... Japanese school girls will sometimes look at me and giggle, but they would definately never talk to me, heh. On the escalator, people would just push right by you, taxis would drive away if they didnt like where you wanted to go... many big differences. We saw alot of Seoul, and ate alot of good spicy korean food/barbecue. Eric and i also watched some sweet Starcraft matches on TV. They have a channel sorta like G4, but mostly dedicated to starcraft and some warcraft3 matches, it rocked. I imagine thats how normal dudes feel when they watch sports. We also went to the National Museum of Korea where my friend Sook works, which is a pretty huge museum, and saw alot of cool history stuff. After that we got boozed up and tried to get into a night club by ourselves, with 0% Korean.... that didnt go so well, so after that we got boozed up back at our guest house with some sweedish girls who were also staying there, and we passed out watching starcraft. The guest house was great by the way, really cheap... like 30 bones a night, and we had our own rooms, nice bathroom, a kitchen, a computer with internet, and could even do laundry if we wanted. Prices in general were cool, a 20 minute taxi ride was like 4 bucks, i was floored. Food was the only thing that was about normal price. Clothes were somewhat normally priced as well, a little on the cheaper side. But admission to all the places we went was really cheap compared to similar places in Japan. It was a good trip, and Sook made most of it possible.

I also went to Saga, in Japan a few days ago. Saga is on the island of Kyushu, which is the southwestern island out of the 4 biggest islands. Since its more south, which is usually warmer in Japan, i expected it to be just that, but because Saga is on the west coast of Kyushu, it was actually colder, because the west coast faces the Japan sea, which gets its coldness from Russia and the like... so it was a little colder actually. We saw a cool festival, and a castle in the area. We stayed and Azu's friend Juri's house, which is sorta in the countryside one night, and a ryoukan the next night. A ryoukan is a japanese style lodging place. They usually outfit you with a nice yukata to wear, and a nice open room where everyone sleeps on Tatami mats and futons, and you shower in the public bath or hotspring. It was really nice, we had our own hotspring outside our room, and the big public one as well. They served a pretty fantastic breakfast of fresh cut fruit, Sandwiches, bread, milk, coffee, etc. We saw alot of the countryside, various islands, and lookout points, it was very pretty.

Oh, also..... we ate live squid. Yep, it was nuts. We went to this restaurant on the ocean, with tanks as you walk in with all the live animals that will soon be on your plate. Its famous for squid... so we got 4 squids, one for Azu, Juri, Azu's mom, and Juri's mom. I ordered tempura.... So, the squids came.. and there they were, they had their backs sliced up so you could pull the meat off them, so they werent exactly.... lively, but they were alive allright. when you poked em or took some meat, their teantacles would move! I had a few pieces, it was pretty good. Eventually Juri's mom chopped the tentacles, and i had one of those too, lol... it sucked to my plate! i had to pull it off forcefully. the tentacle was pretty chewy, and the suckers were sorta... crunchy. Not as good as the "meat" on the back. Anyway... squid doesnt get any more fresh than that. I took a video, so if ya wanna see, email me, and i'll send it to you. After that we stayed at the Ryoukan and went to Fukuoka the next day, before we caught a plane back home to Kanagawa. A good trip!

Well, I'll try to post again a little earlier about developments with the work situation. Happy Birthday Eric!

Peace.

How's the sky Chicken Little? "It's FALLING MAN!"

If any of you had been wondering what a massive corporate collapse is like, well just send me an email and i'll give you all the details, because i am sorta in the middle of one right now. Thats right, i may be jobless in a month... or even 15 days for that matter, depending on the situation. We might recover and i might be ok also... but signs are pointing to the less cheery outcome these days. So, basically, the governmet slapped my company with a ban on signing new students to lucrative contracts for 6 months, starting in June. This is because my company was involved in some false advertising, which led some students to get mad and demand refunds, which my company refused to pay. Well, uncle sam decided to stick up for the little guys and forced them to give the refunds, and imposed the above mentioned ban. Now, this would normally be ok, but the company is sorta in a rough patch because the execs are too stubborn to close a few schools that have been losing money, simply because they dont want to give up market share. For the last 2 years they've been running them at a loss just to hurt competition. Well, its come back and kicked them in the nuts, because the combined choke hold on cash inflow, with the refunds having to be paid, with the loss of money on unprofitable schools has led to one minor problem: they cant pay us. So... on the 15th... payday, only maybe 80% of us were paid. They didnt pay the higher promoted teachers at each branch, basically cause they couldnt, and they were the only ones that would be less likely to revolt. Well, they were wrong, after repeated lies about when they would be paid, revolt they did, and all hell is breaking loose. They have only JUST managed to pay them today, which at this point noone saw coming. The thing is, now noone thinks they are getting paid next month, and all kinds of crazy rumors are going around. Anyway... on Oct. 15th if the teachers dont get paid again, all hell is going to break loose. They might get some money to tide them over till the ban lifts in december though, so we'll see. All i can say is its getting a little crazy, and noone is taking their job seriously now.

Anyway... enough about that, i'll cross that bridge when and if i get to it. So, i went to the Tokyo Game Show with Jon. Eric was a pansy and didnt call in, so he didnt go, but we had fun! It was basically like E3, in japanese, with more people in costumes. Anyway, we had a good time, saw some cool games, and the cool thing is it was only like 10 bucks to get in, pretty killer.

In about 2 weeks or less, Eric, Azu and I are going to South Korea to hang out for 3 days. We are meeting a friend of ours named Sook, from UNR who graduated and moved back to Korea, and she is going to show us around Seoul. We're pretty stoked about it. She set us up in a guest house somewhere downtown. Also in early November i am going to Saga, which is in Kyushu (southern island of Japan) for a couple days to hang out in Azu's friend Juri's hometown. There is some kind of festival that time of year, so that should be a good time as well. Mike is also probably coming over in early November too, so that should be a rockin good time. Azu is working night shifts these days, which she hates, but i sorta like actually, haha. She has to work these long 24 hour stretches, and while i dont see her then, she usually gets more time off inbetween, and we can actually do things. We went snorkeling in Manazuru last week and met some girls from sweden. There were alot of fish surprisingly, despite the visibility not being the greatest.

Oh, there was a typhoon that plowed right into us earlier this month too. It was pretty crazy, the ocean waves were NUTS. They were coming all the way up the beach, and over this giant 20 foot cement wall at times. They also knocked out a section of the freeway that is right on the ocean. Anyway, me and azu were going down to check them out before the Typhhon fully arrived, and i stepped over this barrier the city put up to detract people from dieing in the giant waves (it was only like 2 feet high, lol). Anyway, before i could do something stupid, some old japanese dude came running out of his house yelling "what the hell are you idiots doing, you're gonna get swept away!!, dont you know what this means!? get back over here!!" and the like... so he probably saved my life, cause not more than maybe 2 minutes later a giant wave washed past where i was standing. I probably woulda been ok though :P. Anyway, me and Azu were on TV because a camera crew came down to film the giant waves when we were watching them, and as they interviewed us, a big wave came and soaked all of us. It was pretty funny. But yeah, a few students recognized me on TV. So that night it came in full force... scary, crazy rain and wind. The house was shaking and all.

Anyway, thats all for now, enjoy the picture of a few crazy FF10 cosplayers there. I'll let you all know how the ol' company fares here in the next few weeks. Peace!

Alot of Stuff

Well, i just typed up a long post, and hit a wrong button which decided to terminate all of it, so now i'm pissed off and you'll have to live with the summarized version.
Anyway, i was pretty busy in August with alot of swaps and junk. I didnt do much, other than make it up to Saitama to visit Emily before she goes back to America. Anyway, Mt. Fuji was pretty cool, aside from whole mountain cabin part. There are 10 levels, or stages on Fuji, and you start at level 5 usually, to which you can take a car or bus. We hiked to 8.5ish to sleep, and woke up to climb for the sunrise. In the cabin, we got a dinner, and got to sleep like sardines, or not sleep at all rather, for 6 hours, then get up at midnight and resume climbing in the miserable high elevation cold of Mt. Fuji's peak. There was also a traffic jam of people on the narrow path, because we all woke up at the same time... so you couldnt even move to stay warm. I paid 5 bones for some hot tea that is normally worth 1 bone at the top, because my hands were about to freeze off. We went from miserable summer, to winter in less than a day. Anyway, the sunrise was magnificent, and i am glad i climbed. It cleared up for the sunrise and we got to see a nice one, it was strange being so high. I would not do the whole sleeping in the cabin thing again.. if i ever do climb it again, it would be up and down in one day. By the way, going down is worse than going up. There is a japanese saying that goes something like "Everyone should climb Mt. Fuji once, but only crazy people do it twice". Its about right.

We went to Saitama for a yukata party with the gang up there as well. That was pretty fun. We drank alot, emily drank even more than alot and was a bit... well sickly the next day. It was a good time.

Also, there was a night me, Azu and Juri did some partying where i work, Hiratsuka, and basically stayed up all night and caught the first train home. Only.... we sorta fell asleep on the train. So the next thing i know, a train guy is waking me up. I think to myself (still drunk) "how nice of him to wake us up at our stop" so we stumble down the platform, me thinking "thats odd, i dont remember an exit there in Kozu... oh well, thats useful" Juri then says "thats the shinkansen entrance!" So i think "hrm... dont remember a shinkansen (bullet train) entrance in Kozu... thats really useful too!" Then as we continue down the platform, one of us finally reads a sign and we realize..... we're not in Kozu at all, we're in Atami. Atami happened to be the final stop on that train.... which is about an hour south west of Kozu... soooo we got back on and rode home, this time a little later, and managed to get off the train this time, barely. Juri somehow woke up and got me and Azu up. Then we got to walk home in the blazing morning sun, passing people going to work. Awesome!
Anyway, Azu eric and I are planning a South Korea trip this month, so i'll keep you posted! Peace!

Typhooooon! Just kidding.

As the title indicates, i almost got to see a raging typhoon last weekend, but.... didnt. My little sister in okinawa got to see one up close and personal though. After boning Okinawa, that same typhoon went for Japan proper, and did some typhooning in southwest Japan. It was SUPPOSED to come up to where i was as well.... but it decided to turn away. This is good news for everyone... but i wanted to see a badass typhoon, so i was sad. It did make for an easy day at work though, because the bulk of the students cancelled that sunday. An earthquake also hit recently as many of you may have seen on the news. I felt it, but it wasnt so strong where i am. It was an odd feeling. I was teaching a lesson and all of the students are like " Earthquake!" and i say "what? who? where?..... i dont feel any - ah, yep, sure enough". The building sorta started to sway back and forth, it was dizzying. Azu's hotel is like 30 or so floors up in a building, so she felt the swaying pretty strongly i guess, and the elevators stopped and all the guests paniced. Anyway, it did alot of damage in Niigata where it originated, mostly to old buildings.

Well, enough about Japan's many natural disasters. Last night Azu and i partied in Shinjuku with some of her old friends. All of them went to college in the U.S., so they could speak english really well... but they mostly all spoke japanese the whole night, haha. Only if they wanted to say something important to me in particular did they speak english. We ended up doing some cosmic bowling and then setting up some teams and betting for drinks at the end of the night. You may not know this, but i am a TERRIBLE bowler. It is not uncommon for me to gutterball numerous times in a row. However... for the first time in my life, i managed to pull my dismal score up from the depts with a few lucky spares and a strike, and get over 100 to save my team and win the game! For the first time ever i scored over 100... so i was happy. All the girls outbowled me and Azu's other male friend Yu, so we couldnt do girls vs. boys. It was a sad night for us.

In about a week and a half Ronn, Azu, Tawnya, and I are going to climb Mt. Fuji. We'v already reserved the cottage, so its happening! We are planning to start on the 29th, then sleep for a few hours in a cottage near the top, then wake up at 2 am, and finish the climb to see the sunrise from the top. Im told climbing Mt. Fuji is nothing short of miserable, so... hopefully the view will pay off.

Happy Birthday to AdriAnne!

Festivalicious

So, alot happened last week. To start, there was the whole television extra job. I worked as an extra on a Japanese television movie. It turns out, the story is actually pretty famous. They are doing a remake of some old japanese World War 2 story, its going to be a 2 hour television movie. The title translates into something like "I want to be a shell" or shellfish. All of my older students know of the original movie. The younger students just look at me puzzled when i tell them the name. One class, haha... there was one old dude with 3 other younger students. He was the only one who knew of the story, and was very surprised and sad that the other people had never seen or heard of it. I guess it involved some kind of Japanese officer that was wrongly accused of some war crimes, and the title has something to do with wanting to clam up, like a shellfish or something... i dunno. Its going to be on TV here on August 24th i heard. Interestingly, i also heard that Hollywood is currently working on a version of the story. Anyway, i got to work with a couple famous people. For anyone who has seen Jet Li's newest movie, Fearless, you will know one of them. The final japanese fighter that Jet Li fights at the end was the main character in this movie. His name is Shido Nakamura. The other guy is an american dude, who is famous only in Japan. I'v seen him on TV a few times, his name is Patrick, or Patkun as they say here. Anyway, as far as my part went, i was in about 3 scenes. One scene where an officer comes into our prison and demands to see one of the american prisoners. Another scene where the main guy is talking to all the prisoners and telling us we'll be working in a coal mine, and later at the end, when the war is over, and all of us prisoners get to happily leave the prison. I'll let you guys know if i see myself on TV, haha. It was an interesting experience... involved alot of waiting, and doing the same thing over and over again until the director was satisfied. But, i was paid pretty well for my time, and it was more like an adventure than work. I got to stay in a pretty nice traditional japanese Hotel for a night, talk to alot of other random foreigners who were also prisoners, and I also got to travel to a rural town in the mountains, and see a new place. The other foreigners were from all over, some from brazil, sweden, australia, argentina, canada, africa. Basically it was anyone who appeared to be american with the exclusion of anyone asian looking. One of the brazilian guys only knew japanese and portuguese, so i had to speak to him in japanese when i spoke with him, haha. I was actually supposed to do another scene today, but they called back and told me that the scene was removed. Also, i was asked to do another event.... like some kind of staff job at a justin timberlake concert? i dunno, but i was working that day, so i told them i couldnt. I guess they'll be calling me for anything these different companies get asked to find people for.

Anyway, this week was also Tanabata, which is a star festival of sorts. Has something to do with some prince and princess of the stars, who were too happy together, and only wanted to lay around and be in eachothers company when together, so the gods separated them, and said they can only meet one day a year. That day is the Tanabata festival! It just so happened, that the biggest, or second biggest Tanabata festival location is Hiratsuka, where i work now. The festival lasted for 4 days, and for the 2 days that i participated, involved me being wasted until last train, and having a hang over the next day. It also involved about 5 zillion people walking all over Hiratsuka, and alot of awesome, artery clogging festival food, like battered deep fried potatoes covered in butter, and meat on a stick. It was pretty fun, until the next morning, when i wanted to hurl on a student.

Azu and i also went to Odaiba. We saw some cool movies in the Sony science center, but didnt have enough time to see as much as we wanted, because i had to catch a bus to Ibaraki for the extra thing.

Well, thats about all for now. Me, Ronn, Azu, and Tawnya were going to meet for another 21 dollar burger this week... but Ronn and Tawnya forgot to save enough money to ride the train to the restaurant, so plans were cancelled. Jon also had to call off the Kawagoe festival gathering planned tomorrow. He gave a long, thorough list of reasons, and i couldnt really dispute any of them, so that was that! I got a hold of my sister Brittany in okinawa, and was informed that she's getting..... married! Yeah, planned for next summer i guess. Crazy. Anyway, i am going to try to visit her this fall sometime if i can, so that should be fun. Thats all for now. If you find yourself hating summer, just think of me sitting in 80% humidity right now, it may cheer you up!

Talk to my agent

Kidding, i dont really have an agent. However, i AM going to be an extra in a japanese TV drama! So, a few days ago a got an email from a coworker at my old school that was about some company looking for models or extras or some such. The days they needed people just happened to be on my days off, so i decided to give it a whirl. It said they needed white dudes with short hair, that were in their 20s, and looked like it. I seemed to fit the bill, so i took a picture of myself, and emailed it to them from my phone. they got back to me, and said they wanted me to do whatever it was they were doing, haha. So, today they gave me the details. Tomorrow i will be meeting one of their people in Shinjuku at 6:30 pm. From there we're going to Ibaraki, which is in another prefecture to the north or some such. They are going to put me in a hotel for the night at their expense, and the next day we will be "shooting" haha. They are making a japanese WW2 TV drama, and i am going to be a captured american soldier, lol. Azu said it was perfect since she thinks i look like a skinny prisoner of war anyway, hah. So... thats the news for this week! I'll let you all know how it goes on my next post.

So, last week Ronn and i went with a coworker to a restaurant in Harajuku that serves Kobe beef burgers. I was told they were fantastical, so we decided to go, despite the steep price. For those unfamiliar with kobe beef, its a very delicious, high quality kind of japanese beef that is really expensive. The burger started at about $21, and for anything extra, it was $2 (cheese, bacon, avacado, etc). It came with tomato, lettuce, onion, and what not. Anyway, i got some cheese and avacado on mine, so the burger ran me 25 bones. Combine that with a $9 beer (one that dwarfed Ronn's meager $5 beer and made him feel like less of a man i might add), and you have yourself a $34 meal, and you dont even get fries! Now, i dont want to hype anything up, so i wont go into details. I will say, however, that Ronn and i will both be returning to get another in the future, and i feel the burger price was pretty fair. I dunno if i will go for another $9 beer... but the burger is a definite yes. On a side note, you dont really need fries, because it was a very large burger, and i was full and happy after just eating that.

After that the 3 of us (me, Ronn and my coworker Raphael from Florida) went and got some bubble tea in Shinjuku, and stumbled into a really expensive furniture store. Ronn was scared of the bubble tea, so it was just me and Raph with the tea. Anyway, it was pretty hilarious, because me and Raph walk into this swank store sipping bubble tea and Ronn is in flip flops, haha. So at first a rather snooty looking store lady told us to get the F out with our tea, hah. After chugging some tea at the entrance, we go back in, and were about to sit down when we realized that the couch we were about to sit on was a third of our annual salary. So from there, we started a sort of scavenger hunt through this large, 8 story furniture store to find the most expensive thing in the store. Well, there were some pretty sweet couches, tables and chairs and what not. At first we thought we werent going to get higher than the 22 thousand dollar pimp couch on the 4th floor. However, we found the floor with traditional japanese furniture, and found a table that ran 40 grand, and a cabinet that was about 53 grand. We also saw a really crappy looking shelf of some sort, that i swear to you, i could have fuggin made in wood shop, for 58 THOUSAND dollars. It must have been made from wood that was stained in the blood of virgins or something. Anyway.... on the top floor, way in the back, in a room you had to remove your shoes in, we found an armoir (sp? you know, that crappy french word) that won the competition. Yep... a 68 thousand dollar armoir (see above pic). I couldnt even tell why either, was the stupid thing. It was lame. There were some tables made of really rare and intersting wood that seemed to deserve a price that high... but alas, who knows. Maybe all the metal is platinum.

Well, Azu and i are going to Odaiba tomorrow, for real this time. I'll write about my acting adventure, and maybe a soccer game i am planning to go to in the future. If i can get eric to leave his hermitage in Saitama.

Peace!

Rockin and rollin

Hello again from Japan everyone. Well, atleast to the people that read this. i have no idea how many people do really... only mike and lark ever comment, but anyway! So its been a pretty long time since i posted. Laziness is the reason, sadly. Work has been going pretty well. Recently my company has been in the news a bit for some mishaps with promising students things they couldnt fulfill... which landed them with some restrictions on student contract durations. Anyway, last week was payday, and i was planning to buy a new TV... a 32' flat panel LCD to be exact. At the same time this contract restriction business was in the news, that payday there was some kind of holdups with banks, and our paycheck deposits were late everywhere. So that morning, the TV guys called to confirm the delivery (i was paying upon delivery). i confirmed it, and went to the ATM to get my cash..... only there was no cash. So.... long story short, the delivery guys came with my TV, and i couldnt buy it.... so they took it back, and i got no TV because their lateness boned me! I was also a little worried... comapany in the news... no pay... started to wonder if i still had a job. But anyway, it wasnt a big deal, and i got payed, not soon enough to save my TV, alas, but everything was fine.

I was also informed that my little sister brittany is in Okinawa now! I havent heard from her yet, but i hope to soon, so i can go visit her down there. Maybe she can visit me too, who knows. The marines decided to send her to paradise instead of hell, so that worked out well for her. I havent done much new lately. Eric, Jon, and Emily are all back in America right now on vacations, and Ronn is working overtime like a sucker, so iv had my days off to myself. Last week Azu and i went to the DaVinci museum exhibit thing they have had in Ueno, and we got to see an original piece of his work there, being borrowed from Italy i guess. Its the one with the arcangel Gabriel and the pregnant virgin mary and stuff.... i forget the name and i am too lazy to go look it up. I also read a book! You should all be proud, it doesnt happen often. I read Kafka on the Shore, by Haruki Murakami. It was good. He is a pretty popular japanese novelist, and many, if not all of his books get translated into english. if any of you are readers you have undoubtedly heard of him. Next month, azu and i are hopefully going to climb mount Fuji, if we can get the days off coordinated and all that. Ronn and Tawnya might do it with us as well. Eric and Emily expressed interest also. I'll let you guys know! I am told its a hellish experience, but worth doing.

So, a few days ago i left my cellphone on a train. It couldnt have been worse timing. i was going to meet Azu and Tawnya in Yokohama, we were gonna go have some fun.... anyway, it fell outta my stupid dress pants pocket, and the train sped away before i realized it. So... i didnt know azus number, or ANYONEs number for that matter... so i had no way of getting a hold of them. And despite azu saying we would meet at the train station, without my confirmation neither her or Tawnya ever came to check. So... i ended up waiting 2 hours in a train station, sweating, instead of going and having fun. 2 hours later, i talked to a guy at the station, who told me it had been found, and was in lost and found in Hachioji....... which was about an hour in some random direction i'v never been. SO, i went there, and got it... killed another 2 hours, and then met azu back in yokohama around 7:30 for dinner, instead of 3:00.... then went home. Moral of the story: dress pants are fin lame.

Oh, if you havent already, go look at the sick origami video on mikes blog.

Peace! Daniel