Naruhodo.... O_O;

The Big Easy

2007-12-09T04:27:00.000+09:00

Well, Miami, my job and life in general has been keeping me very busy lately. In turn, I have been keeping my liver very busy lately too. >.< Anyhow, on with the good stuff: travel photos!

As promised AGES ago, here are my pictures from New Orleans! Back in October, I flew over for a weekend. Forgive the crap quality of these shots. It was a fast, sleep depraved trip. I was out until 5am every night and up again pretty early. Most of these were taken while riding in a car, walking drunk outta my mind or slightly hung over. ;)

Well, here we go!

Downtown New Orleans. Defiantly a different character to the buildings compared to Miami where they're all highliter colors. ;)

Superdome! ... chilling

Being below sea level as it is, you cant bury people under the ground. So they bury them above the ground. Creepy. Here are some above ground graves.

Some old church thing.

A river boat

Bourbon Street. Its like one giant college kegger party... always. >.< Streets filled with LSU fans... enough to make a Gator wanna gag. ;) haha

Drunk bastardos bursting from every seam!

Cant go to New Orleans without checking out a blues gig! That was one awesome thing about Bourbon street, all kinds of live bands in most of the bars all night into the wee hours. :)

But the novelty wore off pretty quick. Maybe I'm getting too old to see the fun in getting sticky sweet drinks spilled on my feet while watching the underagers vomit all over themselves. We went wandering off the beaten path.

No trip to Louisiana is complete without a visit to some swamps! :) mmm.. swamps. ... with GIANT BUGS! Dude, thats the biggest cricket I've ever seen! The water bottle is there for a bit of perspective on his size.

Swamp!

All in all, it was a great trip. New Orleans is definaly still in bad shape in some places. The roads are horrendous and some neighborhoods are still deserted. But, I've never been there pre-Katrina so I dont have much of a frame of reference outside of what my friend who was guiding me had to say. Fun trip! Good food! Nice people! Thanks a lot, Brad! =D

The days since ...

2007-10-22T11:06:00.000+09:00

Heres some pics from the days since I returned from Japan. Some of the many good times I had in Orlando. Unemployed for 2 months was awsome!

Ami and I at the Morikamo Museum in Delray beach. I had a great time and learned of a new job opportunity that later became my current bread winning job. WOO! Thanks Ami for all the great times! Heres to more!

Blaze and Eric thumb wrestling at City Walk in Orlando. Fun times! ;)

Me, Takashi and crew at the first 5k run I've ever done. I got 3rd in my age class! WOO! Who knew this boxer could run!? hahaha!

Still to come... Pics of Miami! The town that keeps on giving! ;)

The last days ...

2007-10-22T10:48:00.000+09:00

Life has begun for me once again here in the US. I'm in Miami and getting used to it little by little. But my traveling and adventures haven't ended yet! So I will continue this blog. Before I can go into all the cool stuff thats happened since going home, I should take one last look at the month before I left Japan. Days that now seem so far away even though they were so recent. The people and places that are now inaccessible for the time being and or might never see again. ;_; Some of the best times of my life were spent with these people and in these places and so I know no matter how far, they will always and forever be in my heart.

Lets take a look.

Kobe Harborland

Tomo and I make a visit to Harborland in Kobe on a gorgeous and flawless day.

Sayonara Beer Garden in Kobe at SOGO

Hyogo JETs unite for one last time to say goodbye to the good times. We had an awsome time! I'm gonna miss everyone. (In this pic from left to right, Josh, me, Amanda, Nikki, Matt and Luke is out front.)

4th of July in Sanda!

A repeat of last years bash, we pull it off again in true Sanda style, complete with a visit and write up by the local police. >.< Yikes! Good times though! Heres Jamie playing with fire.

the whole lot of us

Matt looking a bit burnt from the stunts. I too looked alot like that and sadly, burned a hole in my favorite shirt! >.< The pink mad-cow one with the cow on it saying, "I'm not mad". I'm sad. Death to a great t-shirt.

Tokyo! ... one last time.

I went to Tokyo and partied hardy with Kevin one last time. I'm gonna miss the hell outta that cheeky bugger. We had quite the adventure that night complete with extreme drunkeness, a yakuza bar, ass cheeks/ball sacks/purple helmets/needles/wax/etc (the Japanese are strange), and chatting up random Tokyoites on the last train home. Good times I'll never forget... no matter how hard I try. hahaha ;)

The next day I caught up with Jen. We had a nice time too complete with a sighting of the 'megane rapper'!

This is the megane rapper. Hes a dude rapping and advertising about glasses. hahaha! It was just the most randome yet effective piece of street advertising I've ever seen. haha

Around Sanda

Tomo trying his damndest to convince me natto is delicious. (Natto=smelly old fermented soybeans that are sticky and all around nasty. ... but good for you supposedly.)

Me trying to avoid getting sicker. My first time with a mask, pimping it Shredder style! ("GRAARR!! I'll get you ninja turtles!"). Tomo bought it for me and it worked great and helped me get better in no time!

At my school, I snuck a picture of my two favorite staff members, Maki-sensei and Nagayoshi-sensei. Maki is the coolest old woman you will ever meet! Shes got a heart of gold, a perverse sence of humor and a good strong head on her shoulders. Shes a kid at heart and truely an inspiration to me. She reminds me so much of my father and is someone I will never forget and hope to see again many times int he future. Nagayoshi is a cool social studies teacher. We are always chatting it up and shooting the breeze. I'll miss them both very VERY much.

Kirin Beer Brewery Tour!

Time to tour the Kirin factory in our very own town, Sanda! Matt, Amanda and I got to FINALLY ride that beer can bus we kept seeing all this time.

The beer panda bites my bum. ;)

That night, we hit the town in Osaka for an all night reggae dance party ... during a typhoon! hahaha! The strong winds took Shellie's umbrella clean apart.

Before the club we hit a bar where a few other friends were drinking too. Kashi was one of them... what a great guy!

I met these two Japanese guys there. The one on the left was so much fun to talk with and crazy funny. The pig is talking on his cell phone in this pic. It seems that in the weeks before I left, I kept making so many new friends and meeting so many cool people it was crazy! Why couldn't I meet these people before! I only made me that much sadder to leave.

Farewell Arima Senior High School ;_;

As I said my farewell speech to those 900 some odd students that I spent the last 2 years with, I asked them if I could take a picture to remember them by. Great times and hard time were had this those kids. Its been truly an amazing 2 years.

A few of my farewell flowers, certificates and gifts. Thank you to everyone at Arima. I wish you all the best!

The next day, I stayed at Maki-sensei's house and had dinner with her, her husband and Nagayoshi-sensei. Then I flew back the the US; to where I am today. Till we all meet again, let the good times roll! =D

Jana's wedding

2007-10-02T12:53:00.000+09:00

On July 21st, 2007 Jana and Chris made it official and tied the knot. Congratulations to them both! I wish them a long life of happiness. I was happy to be there to witness my sisters wedding, even if I was jet lagged from having flown in a little over a day prior. Here are some of the pics I took of that joyous day. =D Enjoy.

The blushing bride.

Mom and I waiting in her room to help with the dressing and preps.

Chris, outside the alter waiting for the ceremony to begin. He must be nervous.

Finally it begins.

...And it soon ends triumphantly! HAHA!

... now, on to the open bar! HAHA! Mama Lita and Uncle Gil getting things started right. How many people can say their grandma takes tequila shots! O.O; Dude, shes harder than me.

Not to say I didnt get drunk myself. However my poison of choice was delicious wine! For better or worse, sisters till the end and beyond.

Winter has grown into a respectful young lady since I got back. I'm happy to see shes got more manners so I gladly spent alot of time with her. Shes a doll.

My cousin Paul and Jana. Our old carefree childhood days of playing "GTS"(inside joke) and fire-department are long gone arent they. I miss those days.

But today was a beautiful day and tomorrow will be too. Heres to tomorrow with a great family and new extensions to it. It was a lovely wedding, great reception and warm environment. Heres to many more family get togethers with the Jones and the Rodriguezs.

Best wishes to you, Jana and Chris, always and forever. =D

and so begins ... life >.<

2007-10-02T08:59:00.000+09:00

Its been a long time since I've done any updates at all. It's been a fun few months back in the US so far but from time to time, I miss Japan. I enjoyed 2 months of being unemployed before I finally got a job here in Miami, Florida. ... This means I moved away from Orlando. I miss Orlando and well, Miami has to grow on me I suppose. Its nice though. Not knowing anyone is kinda rough though. >.< Heres to the sink or swim life of the real adult world. Heres to surviving in a town where you 'gotta know somebody' to get through the line and in the door. Heres to starting from scratch. Wish me luck ... I need it.

Anyhow, there is one thing that will never falter... (I hope) my new beloved... my one and only... my new car!

I have many pictures to post and will do it in the next day or so... or maybe even today. My sister's wedding, some stuff from Orlando and most exciting of all my recent trip to New Orleans! Yep! Just because I'm not overseas anymore doesnt mean I'm going to hang my frequent flyer cards to dry. The US is a big place and I gotta check it out bro! =D Take care and enjoy the lovey autumn weather!

"Round Wheels" road trip!

2007-06-19T18:00:00.000+09:00

Its been a VERY long time since I've updated on here. Call it laziness, call it being busy out the anus, call it not having anything interesting to post. >.< I'm getting ready to come home for a new life and the packing, preparations, etc... are quite demanding. Not to mention, the TON of traveling and partying, some trips that didnt even make it on here, meant I didnt save very much money. So these past 2 months I've been keeping myself on a tight spending leash. That doesnt stop me from having short, inexpensive adventures though!

Well, on with the interesting stuff... the photos. This time I went up to Tottori, a prefecture on the sea of Japan. I had been wanting to make this trip since this time last year but it never worked out. I'm glad it did in the end and honestly, in far better style than it could have before. I present to you... Nikki, Amanda, Amy and Julie's "round wheels" road trip to Tottori! Personally, the car with the 'square' tires looked WAY cooler.

Why is the theme of our tour so lame? Heres your story:
"Ok. So a car's tires, they're ROUND. ..." He paused to wait for me to confirm that I understood this most nebulous of things. I reply with a dumbounded look... "of course they are...". This and 45 minutes of the most mind-numbing, 'I think you're an idiot' lectures from the car rental guy. All in the most condescending Japanese his fake smile can spat out. He wouldn't let us go!!! "Ok, so these are you're door locks. When they are DOWN its locked. Be careful! Because when its like this you CANT open the door. But remember, if you want to open the door, pull them UP." The glare I was giving him could have cut glass I'm sure. Nikki later suggested I should have played along and asked stupider questions. ... 'So what do I do if I want to stop?' 'I'm sorry, can I have a car with square tires?' Anyhow. All that retardations aside... on to the trip.

We left after school on Friday, June 15th and drove up that night. Staying in a nice little Japanese style in with the SWEETEST old lady who ran it. We were the only ones there so we got to use the nicer men's bath... mm.. I'm going to miss Japanese hot-spring baths when I go. Soooo soothing. :)

The next morning we headed up to Mt. Mitoku. A short, but STEEP mountain with some famous temples that were somehow built into the side of cliffs and under precipices in the the most impossible fashions. It was a challanging CLIMB (not hike... literal climb over tree roots, rocks, boulders etc...) and a challange for me seeing as how I have a mild fear of hights. >.< Thats why I do it though! Would it be any fun if it was too easy? ;)

Amanda, Amy and Nikki ready for the show! The cloth around their neck is what we got from the monk at check in. We write out name and time and get a cloth. If we dont make it back (translate: die on the mountain) then they know how many bodies to pick up by the people who dont return them and check out.

And yes, there is the possibility of death as many have died climbing this mountain. Its perilous and slippery and steep in many places. We were told that the last week, due to the rains making things extra slippery, a few had lost their lives and to be careful. Of course, I knew this before the climb through my research, but I didnt tell the girls, since it wasnt necessary to worry them. We were told by a fellow climber about the recent deaths as we were about to descend the slippery rock face paths. Brilliant. Above, Amy being cavalier and tacking the boulder! I was far more terrified in my climb, but made it up it too. :)

To this, the most gorgeous view ever! So peaceful. :)

From this, the most terrifying ledge on a temple that is literally clinging to that same boulder and mountain side by many log legs. Still, it was a GREAT spot. :)

Another such temple. Amazing.

Ringy ringy! We're almost to the top where we see the mysteriously build Nageire-do!

There she is. This photo doesnt do justice. Its honestly a huge temple somehow built into a cave (carved? or natural?) on the side of a very verticle cliff! Of course, there was no getting in there. But if this was built thousands of years ago.... how'd they do it? We had a hard time getting up the damn mountain as it was but to build this must have been quite the feat. As the monk at the gate told me, the biggest mystery is how they got the 2 ton bell up there!? It was a gorgeous day climb and I'm so glad I could do it. I couldn't imagine a better crew to go with either. They were very kind to my cowardice. ;) Fear of heights man... hahaha

On to Misasa onsen(hotsprings)! A famous hotspring town boasting high levels of certain elements in the water that are said to be curative. Cancer levels in the surrounding area ARE noticeably lower than average. This is our room in the tradition Japanese inn we stayed at.

We wandered bathed, soaked and even bathed naked outside in the open air hotspring beside a riverbank amongst old men, (cant post that picture) and chilled with our box of Francia wine and some good chats in our room until sundown. It was relaxing. :)

Then we hit the town in our yukata (Japanese style robes) and geta (those wooden clogs). (I am noticibly wearing it all wrong, but it was a bit warm out so I made some adjustments. ;))

Strike a pose! ... Yeah, no way I'm naked under that. You're supposed to be but thats not my style.

Peaceful onsen town straddling a river.

Other yukata clad Japanese wandering the quaint traditional quiet streets.

Quiet that is, until you reach the part with the nudie bars and the old-school pachinko machines for the old men to enjoy. >.<

That was the end of Saturday in Misasa. On to Sunday on the road!

First stop, Tottori city's famous sand-dunes! Yes, natural sand dunes inthe middle of lush Japan. How, .... i dont know.

They roll right into the sea.

Partners in crime.

Last stop before we tackle the long drive through country roads home, the beautiful san-in ccoast line! :) Surfers abound here. Blue crisp waters, a stark contrast to the oily murkey polluted stuff you get on the pacific side near Osaka. >.<

And that does it! It was short but fun and the weather couldnt be beat! Tottori, you were all I wanted and more. Thanks. ;)

Mama MIE! ^^

2007-05-13T11:29:00.000+09:00

This year, for Golden Week, Tomoyoshi and I went to Mie Prefecture to get away from it all. And get away we did... to the deadly INAKA (country-side). Where restaurants and shops close at 5pm!? Yikes! It was beautiful though... and a refreshing departure from the insanity that is, Osaka.

Welcome to the country-side of Japan

One of the objectives of this trip was to eat as much of the local specialties as I could. Lets enjoying food! Lets gaining weight! :) Look at this beautiful Japanese feast. This is a 'lunch set' believe it or not. wow. :)

As for sight seeing, we started our trip with a visit to Ise-Jingu. One of the most famous shrines. Its the shrine dedicated to Amaterasu Omikami, the sun Goddess, the big main god in Shinto.

This is the actual shrine. I was not allowed closer for a photo.

When Tomo and I had walked up to say our prayer, we went to toss in our typical 5 yen coins and looked down to see some people had thrown bills. ... not just 1,000 yen bills, but someone had thrown in a WAD of 10,000 yen bills! That's equivalent to a wad of $100 dollar bills! WOW! Someones been naughty. ;)

The trees, serenity and peaceful tranquility of the shrine grounds were engulfing and pacifying. Honestly, a beautifully simple shrine filled with nature and old towering trees. Not like any other shrine I've ever been to.

A few more shots from within the shrine grounds.

When we left we thought, lets get dinner in an hour or so. It was only 7pm afterall and we just finished gorging on a late lunch (see the set above). 'So lets kill time walking down the traditional street of shops and restaurants for a bit,' but we were met with a ghost town. The country-side keeps early hours. >.<

We found a place open and got a meal while we could seeing as how it was now or never.

We dined on a local specialty... Tekone Sushi. It was OMG good! I would pay big bucks to have that again. Its seasoned raw katsuo (bonito in english?) over a bed of seasoned sushi rice. UH!!! I drool thinking of it.

Its a good thing we decided to eat too. Once we got back into the 'city', the streets were deserted.

The next day we went out to Futami to see the coupled rocks in the sea. Yet another beautiful cconcrete covered shoreline in Japan. >.<

There was a park along the shore with a beautiful tangle of pines.

Wash your hands before going to talk with god. This wash basin was very frog themed. Hell, the whole shrine was. I was delighted. =D

I mustered the balls and did the faux pas thing of taking a picture of god's stuff. I didnt see a buddha so I thought, what the heck. Could it be god discrimination? Do I take buddha more seriously than these shinto shrines? Is this even a shinto shrine? geeze... its all a blur and they're all blending in my head now.

Lets get to he point, the married rocks. OOOooo!! Actually, a bit anti-climactic. I expected them to be much bigger and and a bit farther out in the sea. Oh well. ;)

We wandered the small town streets near the station passing the time slowly until our train... ONE PER HOUR! A big departure from Osaka where the longest you wait is 10 minutes max. for the next packed train of commuters. It was constitution day so everywhere we went we saw Japanese flags hanging out front. Even though its Japan, Japanese flags are rarely hung out or seen in such numbers. Tomo was a bit squeemish at the sight, as was I. I wonder why... ?

We ate some Ise udon (no pic) and akafuku mochi. This stuff. Chewy rice balls covered in sweet red bean paste.

We got on our train and headed farther out to see a lighthouse to catch some beautiful sights of the sea.

Some country living.

The day's catch sitting out to dry in the sun.

One of the finished products... and the one we decided to try. Sun-dried squid.

So hard it made our jaws numb. Say mmmm. ;) hahaha

The second objective of my trip was to move up in hiking challanges! So you've heard me talk of Hieizan, just over a mere 800 meters (half mile high). This is Mt. Gozaisho!

The highest peak in the Suzuka range.

1,212 meters ( .75 mile high) and a very FUN climb.

It was always different and challanging and fun. Scramble over the rocks, boulders, tree roots, wooden ladders, etc!

I was pumped up with "オロノミン C" (Oronomin C, an energy/caffine drink that makes me climb mountains at lightening speed!) so we made it to the top in aout 2 hours! Whats normally a 3 hour+ hike! Tomo did good keeping up. A bit exausted though as I was too. In the background you can see the red cable car taking lazy bugggers up the same mountain in 12 minutes. haha. ;)

they're not having as much fun as we are though. Or seeing this beautiful nature!

Unlike Hieizan which is a straight hike, this was very challanging and life threatening. In some places it was a proper CLIMB! I was sweating bullets while watching this granny make her way over that craggy boulder without slipping. Should she have slipped either way, it was nothing but straight down a steep slope of boulders lodged in coarse graval... ie, death.

This group of young men make use of the chain put in place to help people climb.

From this point on, the mountain got way more dangerous and way more crowded so I did not have chances to pull out my big camera. Maybe next time I'll take my tiny digital one. Since it was Golden week, lots of tourists were out. Not many people climbed the mountain, but they all thought it would be fun to go down. So as we were approaching the top, the bit with the most perilous climbs aided by chains and ropes and a few tight-walks along thin cliff-side footpaths aided by chains, the long lines of people trying to go the other way was getting dangerous. We cant share ropes and we cant share a ledge thats a half foot wide, so squeezing past and waiting to get past got VERY dangrous as people were slipping too, heaven forbid you get taken down. Luckily I saw no injury and neither did my partner.

The view from the top was inspiring! Especially because we worked hard for it.

TRIUMPH!

We avoided the popular route for our trip down and had a VERY hard time. It was steep and gravely so we slipped alot. It was very hard on my knees and slow going. I like climbing but hate going down.

This is a waterfall we passed.

As you can tell, I slipped inthe mud onthe way down. heh heh. ;)

And thats it! We returned to our hotel, exausted. Showered and went out to eat at a DELICIOUS sumo nabe restaurant. It was SOOOO good. OMG good! a bit pricey but a delicious ending to a relaxing and yet adventure filled trip to Mie.

ROCK ROCK!

2007-04-22T17:18:00.000+09:00

OMG! Amanda, Nikki, Matt and I went to Rock Rock, an AWSOME little bar with an AWSOME all request rock night and AWSOME strong drinks! WOO! I havent gotten that trashed, had that much fun, heard that much great music, danced that much and gotten the attention of the hottest piece of tail in the place in SOOO long! ... wait a minute... looking back at that combination, I'll have to change the to EVER! haha. It was a great time! I cant wait to do more dance nights in Osaka/Kobe before heading home. Here are some pics of the insanity!

PARTY ON!!!

Hot piece of...

Tail!

On our way home we were exausted. Amanda taking a nap.

There was a death on the tracks that blocked the train line. We were left waiting for an hour and a half on a cold train platform halfway home. When the trains were FINALLY running again, Amanda made her frustration know with a generous middle-fingering to the approaching train. hahaha

Que verguenza! >.<

2007-04-14T12:43:00.000+09:00

So I had the farewell enkai for all the leaving teachers at my school last night. SO many of my favorite teachers were leaving and it was sad to see them go but we had a good last party together.

I also learned something valuable about myself... drunk Julie is an outta control drunk dialer. Its such a shameful thing. I just wanted to stab my face off in shame the next morning when I woke up. >.<

Anyhow, lets look at the progression of this fated night. Not only was it one fun enkai, but it was my last big enkai so I brought my camera to preserve the memory of the best people I could ever imagine sharing my 2 years in Japan with. I'm really lucky to have gotten such a cool school with such cool teachers. There is a legacy of past drunk Julies to be told aswell. I'll tell the stories as the photos that bring up memories.

From left to right, Mr. Shinmen (SUCH a cool guy, we used to call him 'The Don' or Shinmen-dono because he was that kind of awsome) me, Mrs. Aoki (a nice lady who has helped me with studying for my job interviews) and Mrs. Fuji (a kind and fun teacher and boss). All of them are leaving to teach at different schools now. :( I'm really sad to see them go.

Principal Yamauchi and all the leaving teachers lined up in the background. Mr. Yamauchi is leaving to a new school too. I'm sad to see him go too since he was fun to be around at enkais. I remember at past enkai, Kevin (my former co-worker) and I went with the Principal and Vice-Principals and some other old men to an afterparty. There we drank more and when it was time for me to leave, Mr. Yamauchi was pretty drunk. He held my hand in a handshake and looked deep into my eyes and said he wanted me to teach him english. To be his private teacher... He was leaning in a half bow a bit too close. It was awkward. I was confused. In the west we'd give the person a hug or kiss on the cheek, but this is Japan! This is my Principal! This is not their culture! ACK! No kiss & no hugs guys. But it was just one of those past drunken enkai stories I had to tell. Hes a cool guy.

This is one 2 Vice=Principals at my school (my school is very big), Mr. Tamaki. Hes a funny guy and always so nice. He always greets everyone with a big smile and well wishes. A while back, he went with the interntional department to Australia and Singapore and when they got back, he had a gift for me. A laminated hand-drawn poster of Bruce Lee! He said he knew I liked him and thought of me. WOW... as opposed to getting some random stuff he really put thought into it. His english is addorable too. For my birthday, he got me a present and had a note attached that said "Hapy Basuday¡"

Mr. Ashida is also going to a new school this year. He is honestly younger than young! He got hired to work at Arima right after he graduated! I rememeber when he came, Kevin and I would tease him. At 22yrs old, he still smelt of his mother! Funny guy though. Apparently some kind of Karate master so at the last enkai, Kevin asked him to let us punch him in the stomach as hard as possible. He stood up well to it.

This is one of my nea teachers. A young lady named Ms. Miyashita. Shes cool so far. I'm excited to teach with her. The drunken insanity is getting more out of hand by this point as you can see by the giant beer bottle shes carrying to re-fill me with.

Ms. Yagura, Mrs. Aoki and Mr. Ueshiba. All still surprisingly sober looking where as I am closer to trashed at this point.

BATMAN! and Mr. Doyama. To be honest, I dont know the guy on the left's name but Kevin and I used to call him 'Batman' ... he just looks like a Japanese batman. I think its he eyebrows, very Michael Keeton-esqe. Last enkai, I got drunk and walked up to him and told him about how this past year or so I've never known his real name, bt Kevin and I used to call him batman and that he had nice eyebrows. I'm crazy? ... Yes, but it went over well. ;) Mr.Doyama is another of my cool english teachers whos leaving. I wonder what this new year will be like. >.<

Mr. Uegaki! I have SO much respect for this old man. Hes SO quirky! I mean really... look at his hair! Its increadible! Hes the head history teacher at the school and a sweetheart. When I first got here, Kevin was telling me ghost stories about how the school is built where an old castle used to be and how its haunted. Whats more he said the bamboo patch near my old house is where the gallos were. >.< So I asked Mr. Uegaki. He laughed to himself and told me to meet him at the school gate in the afternoon. I did and he had organized a historical tour of the school. He always walks around mumbling to himself and has a calm air of quirkyness about him that makes him just a cool guy. :)

"Will someone PLEASE take care of this drunk girl!!" ... is probably what the men in this picture thought at one point in time or another. This photo brings back memories to a few past enkais. The guy next to me is Mr. Maenaka, an agriculture teacher who, like me, likes to drink at enkais. The guy sitting in the background on the right is Mr. Hatano, a P.E. teacher who is leaving this year. Lets start with Mr. Hatano and flash back to my first enkai ever. I have a few pictures too! ;)

So the first end of year enkai (bonenkai) I went to, I got utterly wasted. The food was no good so i didnt eat much, the beer was never ending and Kevin was my bad influence. By halfway through the night I wanted to take tequilla shots but they had no tequilla, just whiskey. Whiskey shots hurt so I just asked the bar keep to fill the glass up with whiskey and put in some ice. He asks me if Id like it with water... I give him a look that says 'foolish man' and asked for it straight. The rest of the night I was double fisting with a glass of straight whiskey on the rocks and beer. Couple that with my empty stomach and we have terror on the horizon. This is a picture of Yumi, me, Mrs. Nakayama and Kevin.

Me and Mrs. Nakayama. I'm the really drunk one.

Usually after enkais, Kevin convinces a bunch of drunks to go to karaoke. But this time, we needed a few sober parties who were willing to drive the drunks. Kevin and I hunted sober people and pestered them to take us. Finally, I approached Mr. Hatano and he said he had planned on going to karaoke and that he would give Kevin and I a ride. It was an insane ride. Kevin and I were in the backseat with drunken antics. He had the radio blaring 80's cock-rock, the B'z and we all sung along. We left out cakes, gifts and prizes in his trunk when we got to karaoke... never to see them again. This is us at karaoke. Mr. Hatano is next to me and I'm flicking Kevin off for something. haha.

I was trashed and insisted that everyone sing my favorite B'z songs and enka. I put in a bunch of tunes and went off to the bathroom real quick. Kevin had to go too and on our way to the bathroom we got lost. How, I dont know but we stumbled into someone else's karaoke room. There we found the most INSANE thing ever! A room full of NAKED japanese men! WHA? Kevin and I were amazed and barged in on the naked party. In this cell phone picture Kevin took, you can see me as the dark figure on the right who is waving her arms out in shock at the sight of naked men! I swear, this sort of stuff never happens when youre sober. Makes you wonder if you imagined it, but no... we have pictures. They didnt like us in there taking pictures so we eventually left and proceeded to the toilet.

And when I say "naked" I mean COMPLETELY NAKED! Kevin took pictures. They had their cocks tucked between their legs though so we couldnt see them but MAN... how random is that! A room full of naked men with a few clothed woman. yikes!

It was in the toilet I started to feel ill. But I ignored it... I still wanted to party! In comes my drunk dialing habit. After washing my hands, I looked inthe mirror and thought, I wanna score! So I rang up my boyfriend at the time, Abel. "ABEL! Come to Sanda! I'm drunk! Lets have lots of crazy sex!! .... oh... wait, I feel sick... Hold on..." I proceed to vomit into the toilet. (Im a sexy gf arent I >.<) Abel resonded that I sound sick and should go home and rest. Its too late and the trains arent running so he cant make it. I press the issue more. "I love you!! -=BARF=- Lets have sex! -=BARF=- come over! -=barf=-" Hes a doll for putting up with me. ;) I got bored with that talk but was still too ill to go back to karaoke. Kevin found me in the toilet and said Yumi came to drive me home. They whisked me away to home where kevin and I disturbed the peace of the neighborhood with a funny drunken antics before we retired.

Needless to say, I didnt return to karaoke but everyone asked me the next day, 'Julie, where did you go? You disapeared and everyone else had to sing the music you put in the machine." oh the shame. I got weird chuckled grins in the staff room for months after that. Mr. Hatano, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with Kevin and I and when we asked him about the stufff we lefft in his car he said nothing exists. hmm... jerk. we were only having fun. ;) hahaa

Anyhow, back to this enkai...

Its starting to get messy. Mr. Tanigawa is getting roudy as usualy and Vice-Principal Tamaki is getting red-raced drunk.

This is Ms. Taji, another of the young new english teachers I will work with. Shes a nice lady. I'm starting to get pretty hammered by this point too.

Vice-principal Tamaki chugging warm, chinese sake straight from the bottle! HAHAH! ACK! After this party, he kept inviting me to the afterparty. But I had plans in Osaka so I couldnt go. Most likely he was going to take everyone to the same hostess bar he took us to last time. ... One with a transvestite hostess. ACK! I remember sitting shocked and sobering up at the sight of the she-male and asked the teacher next to me... "is that a man...?" to which he replied in the same shocked face, "... I dont know... But i think it is." hahaha. Not this time though, no overprices tranny bars for me. Mr. Tamaki can have them all. ;)

Mr. Tanigawa going on about something!

Mr. Doyama, Mrs.Fuji and unknown but cool guy.

This is Mr. Teranishi making a face. Hes obviously pretty drunk now. After the last enkai he was very drunk and went with me, Vice-Principal Tamaki and a few other teachers to Tamaki's favorite hostess bar (the one with the transvestite). Mr. Teranishi was dancing seductivly with the he-she... most likely not realizing it was a he-she. We teased him at work the days after the incident. haha. I wonder if he want back to the bar this year... ?

Mr. Tanigawa, Mr. Maenaka and Mr. Matsuda. Which reminds me, I never told the story of how Mr. Maenaka had to take care of me once. It was at the last enkai. We all left the OVERPRICED tranny bar together (I payed $50 for half an hour and all I had was one drink and sang one song on karaoke. Man, its expensive to be blessed with the company of a transexual hostess in Japan. >.<) But the last trains had already finished for the night so we took a taxi... a TAXI on what would normally be a 1hr train-ride through the mountains. Needless to say it was EXPENSIVE and long. Mr.Maenaka made sure the taxi dropped me off in the right place and I payed my arm&leg for the ride with him. At this enkai, my seat happened to be right next to him. He turned to me at the beginnging and said, 'Julie can drink alot cant she. ;) cheers!' and we started our night of much drinking. ;) Nice guy.

This guy is a new teacher and I dont know his name, but I do remember being able to see him from across the room halfway through the enkai because his face was SO RED! He got utterly trashed and at the end of the night felt the urge to grab the mic and start talking about something. HAHAHA! So drunk. So yummy too. Hes the new rugby coach. mmm... ;)

I have alot of respect for him though. It was his first enkai with us and he got SO trashed... sound alot like me at my first enkai with Arima. ... looks alot like it too.

Me at my first enkai giving everyone a speech about how mugi shochu on the rocks is the best drink ever! (japanese style barley sake that tastes like and is about the same strength as straight whiskey). It couldnt be helped! How was I suposed to know they were gonna ask me to do a speech mid-way through my binge drinking. I had nothing prepared and that was all that came to mind.

Whatever I said went over great though because after I finished, Principal Yamauchi stood to applaud me and shouted, "And shes recontracting to stay another year!", at which point everyone broke out into applause and cheers. I won their hearts by proving that I truely am an old Japanese man trapped in a young lady's body. Honestly... Shochu rocks is the drink of old men. ;) hahaha

A video of the fun times. :)

THE END! Thanks for bearing with me. It was a long post but so full of memories. I'm going to miss these people very much when I leave.

BABY!

2007-04-08T21:12:00.000+09:00

Congratulations to my friend Jamie and his wife Kaz who had their first kid. A healthy and handsome little boy named Riley. Today was the first time he's been able to show him off so we all got together to visit the happy family. At 3 weeks little Riley is SOO tiny and cute!

And since we're on the topic of babies, heres a pic of my one and only beloved before I gave him a bath. =D

If only he knew his impending wet doom. ;)

This is for you mom. You always make fun of me and my "stinky guinea" so here we are... being stinky together.

See the resemblance? hahaha. j/k See, hes not as big as you always seem to think he is. He's totally carry on luggage size. Get ready because that guinea pig is going to become an American Citizen, and you're baby to smell too. hahaha ;)

Lets duncing!

2007-04-06T16:23:00.000+09:00

(Friday March 31st) "Duncing!" ... its what the flyer said! I think its Japanese for dancing. We went duncing...

but there was no duncing to be had... so we left.

Next we walked in the streets drinking canned chuhai and my friends partook of a free, hot, outdoor foot bath.

We went to another bar. I was pretty lit by now.

A little too close to Amanda and shes feeling suspicious. ;)

I tried a chugging contest... but alas, the battel ws lost before it even begun. Yummy drink though. Its called a "Dr. Pepper". beer with a spritz of coke in it. Then drop in a shot of Amaretto and drink it. It tastes just like a Dr. Pepper! :)

Good times. I was toasted for the first time in a long time. ... Well, more like since a week ago. >.< haha

Sunny OKINAWA!

2007-03-31T18:47:00.000+09:00

Okinawa... It was an AWSOME time. We went from March 21st till the 25th. 5 days of sun bathing, fishy watching, DRIVING! and ocean bathing goodness. Boozing it up is a give-in. ;) I brought my one and only love with me... my camera. Hes an expensive, precious baby to take along. Always gotta be clean, dry and fussy about his Compact Flash card! >.< Actually, it was the card that was faulty. It decided to bite it 20 pictures into my trip. Better early than later though. Sadly, that means the I lost those shots. Sadly, those were the ones from the airplane. Honestly, it was too good to be true. The one day Kansai was blessed with clear sunny skies and I had a PERFECT window seat is the day my disk eats it. >.< I shed tears over the lost pics of Okinawa on our approach too. Ok... I'm done venting. But not done sulking in silence. ;_; ... Anyhow, $90 and a new memory card later, we continued our adventures.

ON TO THE PICTURES! Lots of them, sorry. I hope you enjoy them and the running comentary. I give you... our time in Okinawa.

So, our first night is spent at a resort north of the main city of Naha. It is maybe halfway up the island and deserted! Beautiful, silent country-side and a deserted beach. (We came just before the busy season which begun as we were leaving.)

This is the beach.

Matt, Nikki and Jamie out on our balcony.

Only in Japan can the ocean be "Closed" until April 1st as the front desk told us. "There are many jelly fish and dangerous animals that can kill you so we dont take responsibility." Just like how you cant swim after a certain DAY in August in other parts of the country because apparently ALL the jellies in the ocean have that day marked on their calanders as the day they RAID the Japanese coast and stay till the next year. Bollocks! (granted, they mentioned something about putting out a 'net' on the 1st. hmm... heh heh... >.< )

Anyhow, Nikki was the bravest of us all and I was the biggest puswa. We waded carefully in.

CHEESE!

It was cold and I had my fill very soon. I have had a jelly fish attack previously on a beach near me and the memory brings out the chicken in me. I get out and since Jamie didnt have swim trunks, I lent him my board skirt, which is held in place by nothing but 2 pieces of velcro. He changed into it right then and there and accidently flashed a poor man behind us, hence the look of shcking embarrassment. ;)

In the end, he decided to wear boxers and the skirt for added coverage and swam with the others.

Hermit crab! :)

After the beach, we went for lunch and the aquarium! On to lunch!

OSTRICH LAND!

... and the attached restaurant. Yes... it will be a feast of ostrich meat! ... surprisingly, just like red-meat.

The plater was closest to me so I was designated cook. I was fine with it... :)

... until it BURST into FLAMES!

Cant cower, gotta get the job done. ... However, I have NO idea why I'm grabbing my boob. O_O;;

I was the ass of a few jokes after that errotic dining experience. hahaha Anyhow, the meat was DELICIOUS! Dude, I would totally eat ostrich again in a heart-beat. ... Ostrich, the other red-meat. =D

On to the aquarium! FISHIES!

This guys so pretty...

... and popular with the ladies.

The ugliest fish ever. ... Cuttlefish I think.

Lovely to think of them under your feet while in the ocean. >.<;

Whale shark(?) cafe!

Whale shark (?) theater!

Getting eaten .... not really. That was a lame coment.

The aquarium was BEAUTIFUL and so nicely done. I was impressed. We left and just outside was the turtle tank. CUTE!

... followed by the most depressing and heart breaking sight ever. Especially for a Floridian. The Manatee tank. ... or shall I say, rusty, barren, scummy, concrete pool. For crying outloud! Thats bloody INHUMANE!

Outside the tank they had info on them and such. Apparently they've had manatees for like 10 yrs or so and they have bred them a few times but the babies keep dying. hmm... I F*%KIN wonder WHY?!?!?! >.< What a shame. I felt so bad for them.

After that heart breaking sight we watched a dolphin show and walked around a bit more outside. The weather was gorgeous. I found a stone lion thingy givin me 'eyes' so I shagged him dirty.

He was a cheating 2 timing whore though cuz Nikki and Jamie shagged him dirty afterwards too. hahaha. ;)

We do the tourist thing. ... get attacked by and attack a plastic whale shark(?).

While a giant octopus tries to eat Jamie.

Yeah... so I had alot of fun taking pictures at the aquarium. *^_^* thanks for taking the time to look at them.

Of th other things we did, we blew our own glass cups (left my camera behind ;_;) and went to another beach.

We then went to our 2ed hotel for the last night.

There we sunbathed and made some sand castles and ended the night at a really cool and yummy restaurant. The next day the weather turned to crap and we flew out just as all the Japanese tourists were comming to start their holiday ... on a rainy day. heh heh. suckers. j/k

And thats all she wrote. ;)

Special delivery!

2007-03-10T15:22:00.000+09:00

The doorbell rang, I just got out of the shower wondering if its the F**kin Jehovas Witnesses again and debating whether I should anwer. I look, I see a blue suit... I'm not expecting a package... or am I?? I open the door, it dawns on me, he places the sacred envelope in my hand. I sign for it... the transaction is 100% complete! Made, signed, sealed, delivered... I'M GOING TO OKINAWA IN A WEEK AND A HALF! YEESSS!!! OKINAWA! (for those who dont know, they are the tiny islands far south of Japan but still part of Japan. The former Ryuukyuu Kingdom before the Js went up in their shit and made that theirs. But thats ancient history.)

Yeah, so its only Okinawa, the closest to tropical paradise and beaches you'll find in Japan. But I couldn't afford the Phillipines, Bali or Vietnam this time around. I'll have to save them for next time. For now, my skin quivers with the excitement of being kissed by the sun till golden and burned by silky sands. MMM... not to menion, the deadly jelly fish. JOY! =D

Now my dilema, ... should I buy a new lense?? Underwater camera kit?? New lense!?!? ;_; ... If I do, the lense will cost more than the damn trip itself... can I afford this investment?! Should I just get dressed and head off to poker night? Yeah maybe. I'll clean up at Texas hold 'em tonight and buy that lense and be happy. :) だったらいいけどね〜。。。　>.<

HOKKAIDO!

2007-03-04T21:46:00.000+09:00

Welcome to the winter wonderland of Hokkaido, Japan! More specifically, the Sapporo area during their yearly Snow Festival! 9 of us flew up for a 4 day whirlwind adventure in the snow. Here are the pics from one of the BEST weekends, if not THE best, I've had in Japan.

We got there and headed straight to the festival. Ice and snow sculptures abound!

After a short sight seeing stint we head to the Sapporo beer garden to enjoy all you can eat&drink fresh lamb bbq! OMG! Oral sensory overload! We got there late so we only had 60, as opposed to 90, minutes to stuff and incapacitate ourselves.

Josh and Matt getting it started right.

Double fisting and loving it. :) (not what you think you dirty minded people)

As the booze flowed, so did people's inhibitions... on to the the freak show! j/k

Abel biting the head off a shrimp. eeewww.... I only told him to eat an eye-ball! haha

Kenny sucking some imaginary cock. HAHAHA! I was laughin so hard I was crying.

After many chuging contests and stocking up after last call, Josh is starting to feel the burn while Brett just chuckles at him.

The lot of us!

After that was over, we spilled into the street, drunk as hell and giddy with snow-ball fighting joy. I couldnt quite get the hang of running on ice while blitzed so I just fell over alot making me the easiest target... i get the feeling I was being picked on too. ;) After I had been thrown head first into enough snow drifts I just got angry and attacked with ice and hair pulling vengance! Thats all I got... the fear I can instil.

The next day Abel, Brett, Josh, Matt and I headed out to Rusutsu for adventures on the slopes. Awsome fun, beautiful snowcovered wonderland.

YAA!!

Sodomy on the slopes... ?_? hahaha

Look mom! Its a pick of me boading! Thats my big toe, all strapped in. hahaha. The view was gorgeous, the runs were wide and not crowded, the snow was soft and perfectly groomed.

That night we checked out more of the snow festival in Sapporo... To the ICE BARS! The best part of it by far was the hot Baileys cocoa to be had. The other warm booze delights just didnt make that par, but still good.

The next morning the same crew plus Jamie made it out to Niseko Hirafu... AKA Powder Heaven and Hell. By now I'm linking turns and really getting into my boarding as I'm comfortable with my skills and the snow is SOO soft and powderific that falling is a joy. (and I did stack it many times.) It was snowing really hard so I didnt take my camera as much of the time it was near white out. After lunch, I was confident and somewhow got convinced into going to the top of the mountain. WORSE IDEA EVER! "yeah, its an intermediate run" is what Abel and the boys said... NO! NO IT WASNT! It was near blizzard conditions at the top so you couldnt see more than a meter infront of you. To make the white out worse, my cheap goggles had fogged up and the fog turned to ice so I may aswell have been wearing a bloody blindfold. The snow was DEEP powder and with the zero visibility and the strong winds I couldnt judge speed, direction, angle, twatnot and stacked it over and over. Now, this would normally not be problem, just get up and go right? WRONG! Not when your sitting on many meters deep soft powder. The harder I tried to stand, the deeper I sunk in. It felt like I was never getting out. I was SOO frustrated! As soon as I did manage to stand I'd lose balance and fall again. I was drowning in the snow I was in and the snow that was falling and I lost sight of everyone. White all around and no other fools on this course I had no idea if I'd make a wrong turn and go off into the trees (they were all buried by snow but knowing my luck, I'd go over them, hit a hallowspot and fall in. FUCK! I was terrified. For the first time in forever I was terrified. If my tear ducts hadnt been near frozen shut, I woulda cried much more than I had. Many shouted 4 letter words, prayers and tears later I FINALLY managed to stand and get going slowly down. I found Jamie and Amy waiting at a mild clearing near a hut. We went in and I cleared my goggles and regained my composure. "where are we?" we grab the map. What we had just gone down was nothing less than a BLACK (ADVANCED) UNGROOMED RUN! FUCK ME! I was trembling at how stupid I had been for taking the pro twats Abel and co.'s word for it. For you floridians who dont know what that means, ungroomed means its never been preped for actual usage. Its a bit where daring mofos can go and risk getting caught in meters deep powder that is not packed for regular boarding/skiing. I swore to never do that again. We made ourway to the normal runs and had a good time the rest of the day, I gave the boys a pearcing stare when I saw them later, but they all laughed it off. hahaha. At least I'm alive.

The last night we went out in Sapporo and had the BEST sushi... absolutley to die for (expensive as hell too) Oh God... I would give a chunk of my wallet away again to feel perfect raw salmon melt on my tounge like that again. Afterward, we went to a bar and all picked up on the locals. I had a dish of a hot j-guys attention and later, phone info, while my buds brought 3 chicks back to the hotel for fun times. I enjoyed watching them do the walk of shame the next morning. hahaha.

Heres a cool pic of Brett infront of a very interesting advertisement. ;)

There you have it! Hokkaido adventures in the snow!

Ah, Sapporo! You stole my heart and my pride. I'm seriously considering living up there for a bit if I can pull it.

full moon or fool moon?

2007-03-04T20:42:00.000+09:00

This is a post unlike any other in that its got no photos! WHAT? Yes, I'm here to bore you while I entertain myself while waiting for my Yuki Matsuri (Snow Festival) pictures to upload so I can post them already. ;)

It was a full moon weekend (and as mum just told me now, apparently there was an eclipse of the moon on this side?? damn i missed it) and I had crazy fun for the first time in ... well, I was gonna say a long time but I realize its only been 3 weeks. heh heh... yikes. I need to stop drinking. Anyhow, I had fun, foolishness, wholesomeness, dead-to-the-world sleepfullness and stinky guinea pig cage cleaning-ness. Best of all, I've made a few new friends and aquaintances. Always a good thing. A well rounded weekend however awkward at times if I say so myself. Now where did I leave those brain cells.... >.<;

Speaking of brain cells, I DO have a photo from my old Univeristy days. An ode to the brain-cells I euthanized back then too. (mum, skip this picture)

Guess how many influences I'm under and you win a prize!

The weather is warming up and so are my muscles as I wake from my winter hybernation. I cant wait to start hiking season! YAA! Got Hieizan on the list for a 4th time and possibly a 56km hike along the Rokko mountain range. I need to train for that one. I made it out to catch the view over Kobe and Osaka from Rokko yesterday but forgot my camera. Sorry guys. I'll get nice shots next time.

Lasty but by far not least, to my lovely sister... I'm a douche bag for not sending your b-day present yet and to the family, non of the gifts I've been accumulating over the past year. Believe it or not, I have a box now! I'm filling it! My goal, is to mail it off tomorrow. Promise. I love you all and miss you SOOO much. Just cuz I am lazy in regards to the post office, it doesnt mean you dont cross my mind all the time.

Much love, my pics have uploaded. Time to stop the jibba-jabba and get to the juicy bits, debaucherous photos from Hokkaido! =D

Kyushu trip

2007-02-15T16:59:00.000+09:00

During the Thanksgiving Day holidays in the end of November, my friend Matt and I went on a fast-paced trek across Kyushu, the southernmost of the 4 main islands of Japan. We visited Nagasaki, Kumamoto, Mt. Aso and Beppu. The weather was utter crap, but the prostitutes were always dolled up. Heres the pics of Kyushu… an odd bit of Japan.

(November 23)

Day one of the Kyushu Bananza! Nagasaki… pissing down rain! >.<

Cranes left as a memorial to the lost.

Statues that survived the bomb

A tori gate that only half survived the bomb.

The epicenter marked by the large black pole in the middle

On to the Glover gardens

other parts of the city…
a giant shrine with Kannon standing on a giant turtle.

Shrine for the 26 myarters.

I found, what appeard to be, angel trumpets!(?) Tea anyone? haha ;)

So ended day one: Nagasaki… oh I hate the rain. haha. >.<

The next day we spent in Kumamoto. We stayed with my friend Anthony who also was our very informed tourguide for the day.

He took us to a famous park… cant remember the name right now.

On to Kumamoto Castle
The not-so-graceful shrine maiden.

an original building that we went into.

the inside…

That night we went up to a nice mountain look out.

So ended day two.

On to day 3: Mt. Aso! The active volcano and surrounding colcanic craters in the middle of Kyushu.

The weather cleared up in Kumamoto before we headed out but when we got to the top of Aso, …

… it was all dense fog. We could hardly see the person in front of us! It was so funny, that we had to take a memorable picture. ;)

Sulfer anyone? mmm… that's JUST what I always wanted to buy… a lump of poisonous sulfer.

Even the Japanese people there were tickled that they made the trek to see nothing. This guy is skipping past one of the erruption shelters.

This is the 'please dont errupt and kill us all' shrine to the volcano. As you can see, the volcano prefers black coffee and cheap ozeki one-cup sake. This volcano is starting to seem alot like an old Japanese salaryman.

This is a map of what we would have seen around us had the fig lifted.

So since it was all foggy and crappy and COLD we left early to walk to the base... halfway down the fog lifted... could it be our chance? We rushed back up to the sumit and caught the 30 minute window of clearity to see the beauty of the crystal blue volcanic lake on the inside of the active crater.

The rest of the dead craters around it look like a wasteland... eerie.

The last day was spent in Beppu… sleezy sleezy road-side attraction filled Beppu. Welcome to “hell” .. or “jikoku” in Japanese, which is what the town is famous for. So this place is sitting on volcanic activity and hot spots out the ass. Steam can be seen rolling up from everywhere and the smell of volcanic sulfer farts out of the earth to make you wanna gag from the stench. We only went to 4 of the 12 jikokus (hells) because they were all over-priced roadside attractions. Here are the pics from them.

we found GIANT 500ml Mt Dews here too (rare to find a Mt.Dew at all in Japan)

we ended our time by visiting the sex museum (another roadside attraction but worth the money. They had porn on the big screen, old Japanese woodblock print porn, a display case full of life sized models of animals penises (I feel sorry for anyone who gets raped by a blue whale! YIKES!) and a moving display of snow white getting eaten out by a dwarf while the rest jerk themselves off. hmmm… A wholesome family museum.

X-mas in Sanda

2007-02-04T11:21:00.000+09:00

Japan doesnt quite celebrate Christmas like we do in the states. In spite of that, I wanted to do a bit of celebrating all the same so I made dinner at my place for a few friends who were in town for the holidays too. We went though 2 bottles of wine and 2 bottles of Champagne between (technically) the 4 of us but really, Amanda and I were the only two drinking hard core so... hmm.. yeah, we were blitzed!

Amanda, getting the party started right.

The Christmas Cake we ordered. (In Japan, X-mas cake is the only real tradition they have. This is out first ever, X-mas cake.)

Dinner's over and its time for the desert. So they cake comes with candles... but its not a b-day... or is it? Jeff, Shellie, Amanda and I sang 'Happy B-day' to Jesus. Its the only thing we could think of. ;)

25th B-DAY!

2007-02-04T11:20:00.000+09:00

So... another birthday in Japan, another year older away from home. But, I had a hella great time and one of the luckiest days ever! Here are the drunken, debaucherous photos from the night at the bar.

Matt and Shellie

+ Amanda

+ Yours truely

+ Josh

CHEERS! To a great night and a quarter of a century of AWSOME memories! Heres to more!

2007-02-04T10:18:00.000+09:00

SNL - Digital Short - A Special Christmas Box *Uncensored Ve

Too funny. Take a look.

Agricultural festival

2006-12-04T18:45:00.000+09:00

So my school is the lowest level school in the city... academically. We DO have a really awsome agricultural program though. These kids work year round growing fruits, vegitables, flowers, rice, etc... They sell all the goodness to the teachers at very low prices since its not for profit, rather the fruits of students classwork. :) I love when the grape crops ripen. Oooohhhhh man. SOoooo good. But once a year they have an agricultural festival in which they sell their goods, show off their work and run little food stalls for the public to come and enjoy. This year it was November 11th and I went to join in the fun. It was a yummy and fun time. :) Here are pics of the event. These kids may not be the best at english, but they are my favorite kids to teach. Such great attitudes and fun atmospheres in their classrooms. They have good hearts. :) Its days like this that make me glad I do the work I do and I am here to enjoy it all.

These are my kids.

(The kid in the middle, Sato, reminds me alot of Paul when we were kids)

These is one of the main greenhouses in the school. Its a troplical climate one which costs about $100,000US a year to keep warm in the winter. YIKES! Breathtaking though.

And lastly, heres a vidoe (taken sideways, sorry) of the students pounding homegrown rice-cake-rice into rice cakes. (mochi) So yummy...

A night out in my town

2006-12-04T18:42:00.000+09:00

Now, I may not live IN Osaka or Kobe, but that doesnt mean that my little mountain city doesnt have all I could ever want and more. On the street my little flat is on, I have many drinking options within walkign distance. One such local haunt is quickly becoming out favorite! On this night we encountered a REALLY drunk Japanese guy. He was hillarious and so so fun. He made the night eventful, and it was our goal to become as drunk as he was... and that we did. Here are a few pics of the drunken good times.

Obaasan day out! j/k

2006-12-04T18:31:00.000+09:00

November 3rd. We got a Wednesday off from school so my favoirite troupe of young lady english teachers invited me out on an "Obaasan" (old lady) outting in Kyoto to view an art exhibition, eat expensive traditional Japanese cuisine and visit the Emperial Palace (open only a handfull of days a year!)

Here they are... window shopping.

Here we are, eating.

The first course. Looks filling. hahaha

Heres the crowded as hell imperial palace.

painted sliding doors.

A famous covered market in Kyoto.

What a yummy (gag) selection! haha j/k

Mt. Shosha and the last samurai!

2006-12-04T17:49:00.000+09:00

Back on October 22ed, my friend Tom and I climed Mt. Shosha in Himeji. Mt. Shosha is where some of the movie, "The Last Samurai" was filmed. Being Tom's favorite movie, he was thrilled and we took photos at the spots that were used for the movie. Here WE are... the other two last samurai. hahaha

Tom frolocking through a field. hahaha

One of MANY little statues that lined the path up to the Engyoji temple complex.

A big temple thingy.

I am, Tom Cruise contemplating .... stuff. I am ... the last latino samurai. haha

mmm... Japanese temple. All this stuff was cleared out for some scenes in the movie.

There was Noh on this stage when Ninja attacked... so it was in the movie.

Samurai fights!

These samurai cant decide to fight or shrug. hahaha

Somber tranquility of a grave yard.

A samurai potty emergency! hahaha

The Tomb of the Hondas! This was filled with cherry blossoms in the movie. Tom Cruise was getting wisdom from Ken Watanabe.

Another scene spot.

Samurai gripped in epic battle. hahaha

Samurai contemplate.

Weep for the lost children.

The last mantis samurai. hahaha

Arima Fuji

2006-12-04T17:46:00.000+09:00

So, it was a LONG time ago, but back on October 9th, on fair day with fine weather, I went to climb Arima Fuji, a small mountain shapped like Mt. Fuji in my city.

The view over my city.

The sun setting.

Its rare to get a beautiful sky for sunset here. For once it was clear enough for the sky to turn brillian colors. :)

Halloween day 2

2006-12-04T17:38:00.000+09:00

Yes... I do suck at updating my blog. Over a month later, here is day 2 of Halloween. It was Saturday the 28th. We went to Osaka to do a conbini crawl from Umeda (Osaka station) to Shinsaibashi buying a drink at every convinience store we passed. I debuted my Michael Jackson costume!

I made a small doll of a boy, dressed him in little boy knickers and shirt and socks, drew a shocking face on him and velcroed him to my pelvis. He bounced as I walked and his head whiplashed as I gyrated my sodomizing MJ hips. hahaha.

Here are a few more pics of all the fun.

The gang

Amanda directing traffic in her construction worker costume

When we made it to Shinsaibashi.

This is HALLOWEEN!

2006-10-28T12:21:00.000+09:00

So, I know I'm going out of order by posting this now, but fear not, the adventures of my mountain hiking will be posted later. I first bring you this: Its my favorite time of year again... HALLOWEEN! :) So this year we have 2 nights of partying! Last night was at Pub Quiz in Kobe. Tonite is the main event, bar/club hopping till the break of dawn in Osaka! (no loop line party this year sadly... the cops are scheduled to break it up if people try.)

This is Halloween!

My costume for last night was: heroin addicted nurse! Belive it or not, I got those syringe looking things from the Japanese equivalent of a dollar store! With a little creativity and costume make-up, I had them permanently stuck in my arm all night. sweet!

All of us, on our way to the pub.

Me, Ange and Djana.

Amanda and Matt ...rather... Huge Mungus, his porn star name for the night. Amandas expression say... 'i wonder if hes diseased...' at least thats what it looks like shes thinking to me. hahaha! I'd be thinking the same anyway.

good times.

Twas a great night! Now I'm just preping for tonites costume... I bet you cant wait to see. I know I cant wait to do it! YEAH!

Nagoya: My Land of Dreams...

2006-10-21T13:36:00.000+09:00

On the 3 day weekend of Sept. 16-18th I FINALLY took the trip to Nagoya that I had been planing on doing since my study abroad days. Nagoya: Penis shrines, baseball and cars. What more could a girl possibly want?!?! Couple that with copious amounts of beer drinking every night and meeting up with my old friend Yuko and you've got a recipie for one happy Julie. ;)

I proudly present to you... NAGOYA!

This is the view from the TV tower at night. Nagoya is the 4th largest city in Japan. Clean yet seedy urban sprawl like only the Japanse can do.

We started our trip by visiting the famous Tagata Shrine, one of 2 fertility shrines in the area. Tagata is the male shrine... hence, its a penis shrine. But you prolly guessed that from the phalic rock in the picture.

Phalic rocks, sculptures, carvings abound here.

These wooden cards are a common sight at shrines all over Japan. People buy them blank and then write their wishes or hopes on it and hang it at the shrine for it to come true. This is one of many stands FULL of wishes. WOW... the penis God has his work cut out for him. O_O;

I couldnt resist.

Lastly, dont forget that no penis shrine is complete without a penis BATTERING RAM! YIKES! Ouchy. >.<;; hahaha

Penises? Check! On to day two of my trip. BASEBALL! Welcome to Nagoya Dome!

We had to buy scalped tickets to this game as it was sold out... worth every yen! Its the Chinuchi Dragons (Nagoya) vs. the Hanshin Tigers! (Kansai/Osaka) GO TIGERS! The Tigers are the team of my area and I'm all set and decked out to cheer on my boys!

A little pregame pep rally by our Tigers Fans.

A little baseball. Yaa... We won the game today! I couldnt have been happier... well, maybe if Toritani Backed up that giant j-tail into my lap for some pinch and grab I COULDA been happier... but I'm good with a win and some beer. hahaha Baseball? Check!

Lastly but by FAR not least... CARS! Just outside Nagoya is a small, humble, grassroots kind manufacturing town called... TOYOTA! In the great city of Toyota there are many beautiful wombs that lovingly bring thousands of cars to life a day. Welcome to Toyota.

Goin my way baby?

On to the best part, the factory tour! Words cant descibe the pure joy my heart felt. I was moved nearly to tears the whole time. I cant speak. Here are some pics for you to enjoy aswell.

That was the best!

And there you have it... NAGOYA! My land of dreams.

Australia and Hong Kong

2006-10-15T20:26:00.000+09:00

FINALLY I've gotten around to posting these pics. I took this trip back in August this year. It was increadibly fun! I have posted many pictures so I will explain them as I go. More importantly is that you enjoy the pictures. Australia was absolutely beautiful while Hong Kong was fun and unique. :)

Me hugging a Koala. It was the best! He was SOO cudly and SOO soft and SOO sweet.

Feeding kangaroos

Lying with kangaroos. They're lazy buggers. I suppose thats where Australians get their crazy laid back nature from, ... their wildlife.

I got to see some sand dunes...

and GIANT trees. I'm the tiny pink blurb hugging the bottom right side of the tree. These were the biggest trees I had ever seen in my life.

Here I am demonstrating the shere size again. Its almost the size of my bloody Japanese apartment! hahaha

Inspite of my fear of hights, I climbed a rebar ladder at my own risk (with no safety net or safety features) 60 METERS (197 feet) to the top! The view was spectacular!

Heres a sunny day in Perth with an odd car parade about to get started.

Even the Aussies are cheeky with their flag. ... can you see whats wrong with the pic? Hint: I'm pointing at it.

Perth at night... Beautiful. More beautiful that a Japanese city thats for sure.

Gum trees lit up at night at Kings Park.

Kings Park in the daytime. Its not all dessert here.

On the last day, before I flew out, we went to check out the beach at 6am. It was beautiful.

But being winter in Oz, it was cold!

But australian old men are insane and lack any nerves in their body. It was crazy how many old men (and women!) were out joggin or swiming in tiny speedos or bathing suits. INSANE!

That was it for australia. Now for Hong Kong!

The night view of the light show on the harbor.

The Bruce Lee statue out there.

Me with my hands on Jack Chan's hand print on their own hollywood like star walk.

The view of Hong Kong from the The Peak.

The wax museum! So much fun. Ok, so first, this is me with Bruce Lee... I had my hand on his butt. tee hee.

Me with Einstine

Me kicking that fag Yon Sama in the nuts. what a fag. haha

The ex-president and I, getting a little personal. hahaha! Clinton is the best president of our age I think. He deserves it. haha

Abel and that GIANT chinese basketball player... is it Yao?

Me and Mohamad Ali having a bit of a spar.

Now this is for you Janna... Me and Benny Hill. This one made me SO happy. memoriiiiieees. :)

Here are some city pics of Hong Kong. It was a nice city. Not like other asian citys as it had a british touch to it.

So one day I decided to escape the hustle and bustle of the crowded comercial Hong Kong Island and take a day trip to one of the outlying islands to experience a little laid back, south chinese island culture.

Laid back market street

Beaches... beware the sharks! EEK!

The intricacies of a temple.

By this point, a nice young man and I realized we were walking the same route around the island. We spoke to eachother and decided to walk together the rest of the way. He was a native Hong Kong resident who was born on this island. Today was his birthday! :) He showed me around and we had a lovely talk. Here some of what he showed me.

A temple

A beautiful view from the far end of the island

etc... we had tea and rode the boat back that night. it was great to make a new friend

lastly, on the last night there we saw a protest. This is an odd scene indeed. They were demostrating (protesting) how the Chinese gov. is harvesting organs from LIVE prisoners at labor camps on mainland China. It has been confirmed that lately China has had a great organ transplanting business going on lately. Could this be the gruesome way their getting them? I cant imagine being harvested while still ALIVE! ACK! >.<

So ended my trip to Hong Kong and Australia. It was a great time. I hope you enjoyed the pictures. Thanks for your time.

canyoning and rafting in Shikoku

2006-09-11T16:49:00.000+09:00

So, I've just gotten back from my holiday in Australia and Hong Kong. I will post those pictures for you soon, promise. ;) Today the first smells of Autumn could be felt in the air... I love that smell. It fills my mind and heart with the memories and emotions from past autumns and I'm taken away. Thinking back to around this time last year I remembered this trip that I never posted pics for. We took a short weekend trip out to Shikoku to go canyoning and rafting in the Ooboke gorge/canyon. It was awsome fun! I was especially proud of myself for spending a whole 2 days doing extreme water activities inspite of my weak swiming skills and mild fear of drowning. Yaa... what good are fears if you cant feel them grip your body as you push through it and survive to that feeling of relief and triumph. mmm... fears. hahaha.

Without further ado, here is our trip.

Day one: Canyoning. For those of you who have never heard of 'canyoning' before (i hadnt either) its fun as hell. I'll explain through pictures.

First you gear up in a wet suit, helmet, under-the-butt-straps (dunno the name for it) wetboots etc...
I'm ready for business. Ready but still wondering what posessed me to embark on this insane journey. haha

Dave is just pumped and excited!

We're all geared up and ready! Wide eyed and bushy tailed and about to do more with these waterfalls than the average tourist photo clicking... We're gonna play in them!

It starts out easy and I'm confident.

Then it quickly got pulse pounding. This is Nikki before taking a plunge down a steep natural rock waterslide. Better than a waterpark and 10 times more terrifying and invigorating.

There were a few more smaller ones to go down too. Take this fun cookie.

We got to go across a DEEP gorge on a flying fox.

Now, you'd think my fear of heights would help me keep a better grip...
... but to the contrary, I'm the only one who stacked it. HAHAHA! they didnt forget to take that picture. Thank god for those under-the-butt-straps. ;)

Some more fun stuff as we decend. Heights arent so bad when you're secured in there by trained professionals with big muscles.

Finally we all made it in one piece to the bottom of the mountain... the fun way! We were spent and waterlogged, but it was worth it. If you get an opportunity to try canyoning out, I recomend it. There were heaps of other fun things we did in caves and other waterfalls that I didnt post. Good stuff.

That night we celebrated. :)
There was much drinking, eating and onsening to be had.

By the end, Kenny was well done and out like a light. We had a bit of fun on him. Sorry Kenny. ;)

Now, its not over yet. This was a 2 day journey. First day was canyoning, which you saw, the 2ed was white water rafting down the canyon. This one there arent pictures of but the one from lunch break. It was an awsome adventure through the rapids and after falling in under the boat once and making it out, I wasnt so scared at all. It wasnt until after lunch when my exaustion and hangover from the night before caught up to me and I was too tired to be loose for it all. The last bit where we all went down some rapids on our bums by forming a train and holding onto the guy behind us's feet was the deal breaker for a return trip for me. As soon as someone went down they pulled some else down. I got turned around somehow and was going face forward as opposed to on my back and got heaps of water up the nose as I gasped for air between waves and dunks deperatly trying to get my bearing so I could fultily swim out of the bottom suck of the rapid faster. Well... all that aside, look at this.
The breathtaking river we got to raft down.

and finally this...
... the hot j-guy(shirtless on right) who was our raft tour guide. Save me any day baby. hahaha.

The end.

Climbing Hieizan!

2006-09-04T15:23:00.000+09:00

I absolutley LOVE this mountain. I have no idea, but me and the mountain, yeah we got something special going on. (I got to use my wide angle lense again... YAA!)

This is the 3rd time I've climbed it and it never gets old. Its a refreshing 2 hour trek to the top. (Refreshing because theres something invigorating about getting hot, sweaty, muddy and exausted.) This time around, we made it up in 1.5hrs! I guess that energy drink I had before the climb was the real deal.

Heres a view from near the top. Its just breathtaking. I love being able to escape the urban sprawl from time to time to take in the mountainous beauty of Japan.

One of the other fine points of this mountain is that it gives you something to work for and rest time before the hike down. At the top is a large complex of budhist temples called Enryakuji. This used to be THE center for budhisim in Japan ages ago.

This temple house is where some important shifts in the kind of budhism practiced was decided.

These are some of the other lovely temple buildings to be found and explored in this peaceful mountain-top complex.

So there you have it, Mt. Hiei. More fun than you can shake a jizu at.

Updates

2006-08-20T22:45:00.000+09:00

Hey. So I finally posted some pics of stuff I've done in the past few months. Pics of the guineas and I, Himeji, and moving out. I've still got pictures of my local shrine's festival and my day on Hieizan. I will post these when I get back from Australia/Hong Kong, as well as pics of that trip. I'm SO excited! I cant wait to go from winter in the laid-back culture of the outback to the swelthering heat of summer in the fast-paced vibrant city of Hong Kong! I leave in 3 days! YAA! Wish you could be there.

Finally moved out

2006-08-20T22:43:00.000+09:00

So I've moved from my old drafty Japanese style house to a new, modern, and SMALL one room apartment. I love it. Heres the before and after of the old place. It had a nice feel to it, but I'm ready for temperature control and less bugs. :)

Himeji Castle

2006-08-20T22:06:00.000+09:00

So on July 8th, I dropped $700 on a sweet wide angle lense for my camera and went off to Himeji Castle to give it a go. I'm very impressed and love my new lense. YAA!

This is me in front of the famous, Himeji Castle.

Can we get a back-side photo? Yes! Thank you, love, you're a lovely castle.

Its one of the few castles you can actually go inside and check out. Its been rebuilt/refurbished recently so its totally safe and so so cool and facinating. This is the view from the top of the caslte.

Lastly, at Himeji castle has a well that is said to be the location of one of Japan's famous old ghost stories, the story of Okiku. Here's one of the many versions of this story.

Okiku is a maid at Himeji Castle for the Japanese samurai Tessan Aoyama. Aoyama was a retainer, who planned a plot against his lord. Okiku overheard the plot and reported it to her lover, a loyal warrior. The plot was averted. When Aoyama found out that Okiku had been the cause for his failure, he decided to kill her. Aoyama used a trick. He hides one of ten valuable Dutch plates and accused her of having stolen it. She was tortured to death and thrown into the well.

Okiku's ghost comes out every night, counting from one to nine and then breaks out into a terrible howling and sobbing. Finally Aoyama goes insane by the daily apparitions at night.

This is the fabled well.

Me and my guineas

2006-08-20T22:04:00.000+09:00

This is for you mom. You always wanted to see a pic of my guinea pigs. Now here you have them. Little Rokko (right) and Azza (left). Arent they adorable. :)

Goldenweek!

2006-07-10T14:01:00.000+09:00

It has been ages since I last posted pictures or anything for that matter. I will try my best to keep up with this better and post pics or at least a small blurb of how I’m doing on here more often.

Lately I have been hit by homesickness from time to time. I cant belive it has been almost a whole year that I have been away. I cant belive it even more, that it will be a whole year more before I go home again, even for a visit! I miss everyone back in the states and Florida. I miss all my old friends and my family. It has been ages since I’ve corresponded with most of my friends and I wonder what you guys are all up to. Now that we are all involved in our adult lives, catching up with old school mates crosses our minds less and less these days. I hope to see or hear from you all again sometime. Until then, live it up! You’re only as young as you feel. Take care and I hope all is well. Drop me a line sometime.

Although I miss home and although I am on the otherside of the world, I havent forgotten anyone or my american ways. :) I had a great 4th of July here! Complete with copious amounts of beer, and two burns! (hand and foot) hahaha! As far as my plans from here on out, they include travel, fighting off boredom and SAVING! If I’m successful at all 3 I wont kill myself, hahaha. If i’m successful at the later 2 I will be leaving this place next year for bigger and better things... or just more globe trotting. I havent decided yet so I wont spill my planning beans just yet. Maybe one day I’ll grow up and settle into an adult life, but I’m having too much fun as it is to slow down yet.

Short term plans, and things to watch out for here later, is my upcomming trip to Australia and Hong Kong! CROIKY! I’m excited! and hopefully, in not extreme danga! hahaha

Without further ado, here are the pics from my vacation to the country-side of Japan next to the beautiful Japan Sea! (Luckily I wasnt abducted by ole’ Kimmy Jong feelin-Ill. hahaha) I also ate the best crab I’ve had EVER!... but then again, it was the FIRST crab I’ve had, ever.

Its Golden Week in Japan, a week of national holidays, so traveleres abound and JR puts extra trains on to handle the load... including this lovely prewar? machine I rode into Osaka on! There were people at every station along the way taking pictures of it! Its as if they knew it was comming.

Billy, Amanda and I make the 3 hour trek out to the middle of... nowhere! Its so refreshing to escape the crowds.

A short walk from the desolate train station leads us to... the breathtaking sea of Japan.

It doesnt even look like Japan anymore. It feels like a tropical island... :)

... until you find all the trash and your reminded that, without a doubt, you are in Japan.

This sleepy town had nothing in it except for traditional Japanese inns and one tiny grocery store. We decided to check in and feast on our cup noodle and soak in the hot spring bath at our inn. So relaxing.

The next morning we headed out to Kinosaki. A town famous for its hot spings.

People enjoying a complimentary foot bath at one of the hot spring bath houses.

A traditional wedding procession... boat procession. Question, where’s the groom? Either way, that woman must be DIEING in all that heavy kimono and a headdress like that can give anyone a crick in the neck for days I can imagine.

Ah, ... the beauty and tranquility of silence and nature. We strolled around town and partook of 2 of the many hotspring bathhouses in town. They were lovely. Nothing like getting buck naked and washing yourself with complete strangers. Its all worth it for the best part, soaking in the giant pools of hotspring water.

On the last day we went out to Amanohashidate, a mysteriously formed, pinefilled land-bridge.
OOO... pretty. ... And thats all there was... like I said, COUNTRY-SIDE of Japan.

... a scene that makes me long for Florida. ;_;

Thats all there was! thanks for taking the time to look. I’ll do my best to post more often.

South and North Korea!

2006-04-17T12:49:00.000+09:00

April 6th-9th, me and 3 other friends, Kevin, Djana and Scott, went to Seuol, South Korea for some spontaneous adventuring. :) The trip was very last minute. One morning at school, we decided we wanted to go to Korea and that afternoon we had tickets to fly out in a week. So here is is, Seoul and North Korea.

Seoul is a big city, like any other big city. Alot like a Japanese city too, so there wasnt much new apart from the fact that the random stranger on the street spoke FAR more english than they do in Japan. ... That and there are TONS of food stalls on the sidewalks.

Heres some city pics
The guards at a palace gate... one of MANY palaces in Seoul.

A temple/palace much like what you see in Japan, but with a more colorful flare to it.
The thrown of the King from VERY long time ago.

I thought this was cute. Ya know how we have advertising trucks that drive around? Yeah, these are advertising bicycles. hahaha

On to my tour of the North Korean boarder!
Thats the boader behind me. The blue buildings are the UN conference rooms that straddle the boarder. The tall grey building behind it is a North Korean building for army, boarder patrol, etc...
There is an observation post keeping an eye on us. Can you see the North Korean solder peeking through the window?
EEP! I did! >.< He's right behind me!
Here's a clear view of the boader. I'm on the South Korean side looking toward the North. The solders in green closest to me are the UN/South Korean solders. The ones in the brown uniforms across the way are the solders for the north. Between them, you can see a low concrete line, that is the physical boarder. The UN guys in green stand in the same spot and dont move for hours on end. They hide half their body behind a building so they are not as easy to shoot. They also stand at an intimidating stance, wearing dark sunglasses the whole time while on post.
These are North Korean Solders. I am taking this picture from INSIDE North Korea! Granted I'm only in the NK side of the UN conference room that stradles the boarder... but still! IN NORTH KOREA!
This is a picture of "Propoganda Village" a NK ghost town near the boarder. No-one lives there at all. It was built by NK to make people think that they have modern cities and plenty of comfortable living for their people. The NK flag flies high in the sky and propoganda is usually blasted through speakers so loud it can be heard across the boarder... I could not hear any today, but so the tale is told.
This is "the Bridge of no return" where POWs and captive citizens etc... were returned to their homeland after the end of the Korean War. Once you crossed this bridge into the democratic south or communist north, you could never return... hence the name.

Well, that about does it for my trip! It was a short 3 day adventure but it was very interesting! YAA! My next trip will be at the begining of May. I will visit the 'Japan Sea' side of Japan and soak in famous hot springs, eat some of the best seafood in the country and take in the traditional relaxing atmosphere of old Japan. YAA!

Just an update...

2006-03-31T16:11:00.000+09:00

So... I just got back from a busy but restful time in Florida. Since Florida is my home, I didnt take too many pics but i do have some I can post later. As for the guinea pigs... they arent photogenic... well, maybe they would be if i tried to take more than cell phone pics of them. I will get to that soon too. 'Why not do it now?' you're thinking... Well, because I want to eat a quick light late lunch so I can nap before tonight. I'm going out with some friends in Osaka. Also... I guess the big sponteaneous new is... I'm going to KOREA! (South Korea to be exact) It was a very last minute kind of plan. 3 friends and I just decided we'd like to go and booked the next cheap ticket we could find. We leave Thursday the 6th of April... NEXT WEEK! I'll take plenty of pics and post them with cool stories. I have 3 main objectives in S. Korea:

#1. Eat dog.

#2. Visit the demilitarized zone and peak over the boarder to the north.

#3. Eat more dog.

hahaha! i'll tell you how it goes.

later
-Julie

NAKED MAN FESTIVAL! O_O

2006-03-03T19:10:00.000+09:00

...do I have your attention yet? Do I need to say it again? NAKED MAN FESTIVAL! ACK! So its an anual event on the 3rd Saturday in Feburary in Okayama Prefecture. Tons of men run around on, what's supposed to be, the coldest day of the year in nothing more than a "fundoshi" ... that white diaper looking cloth thingy. mmm.... wedgies as far as the eye can see.

The day starts out with a 3hr. train ride out. We take in the sites of Okayama...

The castle...

Me scaling the castle... ATTACK!

We leave Okayama and catch the train out to Saidaiji, where all the madness will be happening. On the train we befriend some 14yr old boys who later help us to the festival site. Interesting lads. :)

Ok, so before I proceed, some explaination is in order. So they all start at 10pmish when groups of naked men run around the city, through the temple, through a sacred pond (pictured below)

Then they run around the temple and out of it and do it all over again... a dozen times or so. Then, around 11:30 they all assemble in a big hot, sweaty heap on the temple grounds and at midnight the monks through out a few sacred sticks worth about $5,000US. They all fight and stuff... the end. Anyhow... ON WITH THE NAKEDNESS!

the first guy out running... yummy from the front...

yummmy from the back! :D

The gathering of naked's

The midnight battle for the sticks!

Afterward, we caught the last train back to Okayama and ate, and sat in a coffie shop till 6am when the first trains home started running. In my exausted stupor I decided to skip the potentially 6hr trip home taking LOCAL trains... and jumped up to the fasted bullet train too much money could by...

... the NOZOMI shinkansen (bullet train)! YAA!! Okayama to Kobe in 37 minutes! YAA!! Everyone else just followed Amanda and I in our Shinkansen love fest and broke down and bought the expensive tickets too. :)

Amanda and I riding in style! YAA SHINKANSEN! :)

YAAA! tons of fun. ... actually, it's been a really hard winter for me. the blues hit me hard and still are. When I get time I'll post some more of the stuff I have DONE... I havent really been doing much new lately. Keep an eye out for: Canyoning and Rafting in Shikoku, my new guinea pig pets :), and the snowboarding trip I'm going on sunday... and much much more... when I get time. hahaha. Cant wait to go back to Florida for a visit!

LET'S SNOWBOARDING!

2006-02-04T12:37:00.000+09:00

... an example of the bad english i deal with everyday... ANYHOW, this is a small photo chronical of 3 days of snowboarding and more pain then you can shake a ski pole at. heh heh.

It all started on Sat, Jan 21st. We caught the 1:15AM night bus out of Sannomiya, Kobe to a ski logde called, Sky Valley in northern Hyogo. It was nice... steep and well... ooohh. the pain. This will be my first time snowboarding... EVER!
Jen and I unwittingly happy about out impending doom... er, pain. hahaha

So, after getting out boards we went outside to the bottom of the lift and Abel taught us how to strap in. Then he says, "Lets Go!" and motions to the lift. ... you gotta be kidding me. I begged for an inpromptu lesson on a baby hill, he said not to worry and that he'll explain everything when we get up there. Seeing as how we have to GLIDE off the lift when it reaches the top, Jen and I slipped and crashed on our a$$es. hahaha... we did EVERY time we got off the lift that day.

The ski lift that made me kinda nervous... follow the cars up... dont you feel like you're climbing a roller coaster! EEKK!!!
Jen in the position she and I were in most of the time there. I should speak for myself. she took to it faster than I did.
Abel boarding circles around us.
To his credit, he was VERY patient with us and slowly coached us on how to do it. Heres a pic of him walking Jen through it on a steep slope.

After 3 long and painful trips down the slope we all went to lunch. After an exausting morning and a warm lunch, Abel jumped to his feet, bright eyed and bushy tailed and declaired he was going back out and we should come. Jen and I encouraged him to go to the tougher slopes and leave us there... we didnt want to get in the way of his fun and challenge afterall. We promissed to go out in a sec. We agreed to meet back at the cafe at 3pm. Jen and I chatted for a few minutes and put our heads down with the conviction that we WOULD get up in 10 minutes and go out... Actually, I think I had made up my mind not to when my head hit the tabel. Either way, 3 hours later... I woke with that odd red line down my face. In front of me, Jen sat, same line, same hazzy look. I looked at my watch, ... it was 5 to 3. We laughed. What a great nap! HAHAHA! The trip down was tough. I hurt myself bad. I landed on hard ice with my knee. (after lunch the snow was hard and icey and difficult to board on... not that I was any good anyhow) We made it to the bottom in one piece though and had a great time! Rubbing my aching muscles I was excited about next week when I could go again.

Trip #2. Weekend of January 28th and 29th, a whole bunch of us got on a bus to Tsugaiken Kogen in Nagano ... the land of the Japanese alps.
All the first timers getting strapped in... deja vu.
I'm excited to give it another go!
Amanda is ready to ROCK!

I did surprisingly well this time! The snow was power-ific and the slopes were wide and tame, unlike Sky Valley's. I had a great time and hardly fell over at all! It was my turn to help the newbee's the best I could. Jaimie, Nikkie and Amanda did well. Amanda especially! She rocked out by the end of the weekend. Jen took the job of teaching Dave and he too was a natural like her.

The next morning, I was excited to go again! I sprang out of bed and inhaled my breaksfast! I was excited. They would have groomed the slopes over night i thought... the snow will be great!

... and indeed it was. Nice and combed. YAA!!
So I was doing good enough to take a bit of a challenge... the top of the mountain. I had a nice easy track down the mountain all planned out... little did I know what I was truely in for. I ascended ski lift after lift
... we were getting higher... I was getting more nervous... but a lovely view! :)
Me. Before plumiting down that edge behind me. Ironically, my fear of that slope was not aided by seeing a bright orange body bag flaot by me before decending. Apparently, if you get hurt on the mountain, they zip you up, to cover you from sun and snow and cold I guess, in this bright orange body bag thing and 2 red cross guys ski you down slowly... heh heh. I was thinking, bad omen, that's how I'M prolly gonna make it to the bottom.
SO! Apparently the easy path I had planned to take that weaved slowly though the trees was non other than... FLAT! ... it was obviously meant for skiers with poles... and the snow told the story. Hard as Ice, with ski tracks carved in it and little divots the whole way. Not only could I not gain speed enough to manuver, but my board constantly got caught in the ski tracks and would throw me off balance and send me crashing to the hard ground. My tail bone ached and soon I had my first head bump. I landed hard and for the first and only time since I started boarding, my head slamed down and tears shot out. the pain and blured vision... I hated the path I choose. It was a LOOONNNGG way down the mountain too. Finally we reached a sharp edge on the side of the track I was on. My choice... go staight down onto the advanced slope screaming down the mountain or continue on the flat weaving track from hell. After some whining I was convinced to go the quick way. I slowly made my way down the advanced slope riding on my bum and riding the board slowly horizontally down the mountain. It felt like ages and my legs were KILLING me by the time I reached the bottom. But I had succeeded and felt good... however, my legs were done for the day and they refused to board anymore. The above pic is from halfway down that advanced slope. On the right side of the lift, if you look up in the distance, that's where I came from. YIKES!

I cant wait till we go again next week! I recomend boarding to you guys. Its not hard to get the hang of. But then again, I'm still no good by any means... its still hella fun! :)

Winter holidays in TAILAND!

2006-01-25T20:33:00.000+09:00

Alright now... sorry for taking so long to post anything new. I've been lazy. I went snow boarding this past weekend for the first time... oh the pain. I'm going again this weekend, hopefully i get better and fall over less. Anyhow, those pics to come later. BUT! Without further ado, here are some of my pictures from my winter holidays in TAILAND! We left on Dec 23rd and returned on Jan 2ed. Spent 9 beautiful days and nights on the beach... not counting transit time which wasnt as dazzling. First 5 nights were on Koh Samui and the last 3 were on Koh Tao, AKA 'paradise'. Enjoy :)

The beach just before the afternoon storms. (Koh Samui) Like florida, they have afternoon showers too... tropical climate thing i guess.

The beach while the sun was shining and the skies were blue. Koh Samui

A big buddha temple. Koh Samui

Louging on the beach. Koh Samui

A big waterfall! (Koh Samui) We rode an elephant halfway there and climbed the rest and had a dip in the top pool. Was nice. :)

A phalic rock and a clever angled picture. hee hee Koh Samui

Me, giving scooter riding a go. heh heh. f^_^;

Lounging on the boat on our way to Koh Tao.

Tugboats in Koh Tao.

The coast as we were arriving at Koh Tao. This island was not NEARLY as commercial as Koh Samui. You could still see the average fisherman doing his thing and we could relax without so much crap bombarding us. Beautful. Koh Tao

Kevin my co-worker and Nao while eating at a lovely mexican restaurant. Koh Tao.

The sunset as seen from our pool. ..., Koh Tao.

Same sunset, a bit later... still from the pool. Just breathtaking. :)

People putting together their mini hotair balloons that we let off at midnight on the beach in front of our resort for New Years. Koh Tao.

Definalty a new experience for me. After a night full of wine drinking, I played witha bit of fire like everyone else. Koh Tao

I cant think of a better way to bring in the New Year... well, I guess if my family and friends were there to share the joy with me too it woulda been better. but still, this was a new years i'll never forget. :)

The night view from our balcony... ... just paradise. :) Koh Tao

HALLOWEEN!!!

2006-01-12T19:59:00.000+09:00

School today went well. We have 13 Australian students and 5 teachers visiting our school so I’ve had to work with me teachers to plan special lessons and fun activities for them. Class yesterday was GREAT! Today I took them on a tour of the school and explained the history of it. ooo... ghost stories.

ANYHOW... that’s boring. Let me flash back to October 29th, 2005. All I wrote in my calendar about that day is, “Words cant describe... the shere pandamonium and fun!” But I will try to give you an idea of what Halloween in Osaka was like.
Amanda and I slutting it up for Halloween

The main attraction, 3 words... Loop Line Party! OMG! I will definatly do this again next year. Apparently, it’s an unspoken tradition of the foreign community in Kansai to gather on the Saturday before Halloween and ride the Osaka Loop Line train full circle while drinking, partying, and running amuck! JR train authorities know of this tradition and for the safety of their Japanese customers and us, have tons of extra train personel present at every station on the loop and on the train itself. They designate a few cars for just us too! So we’re not harming or inconvieniencing the Japanese commuters. This year, some 400 odd people showed up! The platform was a HUGE mass of people and a party all around. Japanese and foreigners both participated in it with great costumes and bags full of booze.
The gathering on the platform

So there we were, waiting for JR officials to let us on the train. They werent letting us on for a while and the party got pushed back from it’s original 9pm start time to 9:30ish. I was worrying they were gonna just not let us ride all together... but you cant say no to a massive drunken mob of people in costumes.

Nori and Kevin

Before getting on the train

HAHAHA! They let us on... 400 people... CRAMMED into 3 train cars. When i first got in i swore i would get crushed and die. We were all pressed in so tight i could hardly breath. The smell of beer breath and sweat was on my mind and I imagined, “Someone is gonna puke and cause a puke chain reaction... someone’s gonna puke on me!!”
A packed train

But it turned out alright. At every station the train stopped at, the doors opened and we all spilled out of the train and ran amuck on the platform in 20 seconds and ran back into the train... PRESSED in again. This continued until we reached the halfway point, Tenoji station. Here the train stopped on an empty platform and there was like 20-30 minutes of free time to pee, get air, get booze, and talk before the train ventured onto the second half of the trip.
at Tenoji station

JR train guys also had the task or cleaning up a bit of our mess... how embarraing.

I spoke with a few of the guys who were guarding the tracks and asked them what they thought of all this... I asked him if he thought it weird, since Halloween is not a Japanese tradition they’re not used to seeing this kind of maddness. He said it was weird but interesting to see every year. Then I say to him... it’s fun isnt it? ... He pauses and looks at me for a second and a smile cracks on his face, “yeah, it is fun.” (convo was in Japanese) I did the same to another guy and he had much the same to say. Even the guy in charge of all them, My drunken ass barged in a asked him and he had the same reaction but he added, “it is dangerous though and we have to make sure no-one gets hurt”. Inspite of those concrete faces of seriousness, they admitted to enjoying it.

Some cute Japanese kids get in on the action

ANYHOW! Train departs and to my delight, i’m not as PRESSED in... JR added an extra car to our party to alliviate the pressure. What nice guys. We ended the party back in Umeda and everyone went their separate ways. My friends and I met up with Yuka and her friend Nao and we all went to a bar where, first thing I do is sit down... at a table with 2 other young j-guys. HAHAHA! We get to talking and the guy I met and I exchange cell phone info. YES! I love the sport of gyaku-nan (guy picking up).

We moved on to an all night party at a “PURE” night club and it was great, but crowded and well... cover at the door was 4000 yen ($40) for men and 3000 yen ($30) for ladies... WAAAAYYYY too expensive. I was enjoying myself a bit and only got one drink before i decided to go to the dancefloor.

There a girl I had just met, a friend of a friend of a friend, decided it a great idea to pour her drink on my leg. I looked at her in shock while she was doing it, she attempted to seem hide that she was doing it since it ws so crowded. I yelled over the music and told her, ‘excuse me! that’s my leg! why are you pouring your drink on my leg!’ To which she retrned a dumbfounded look and said, ‘No No! It wasnt me! I dont know what your talking about!’ and shrugged at me. I left the floor, VERY pissed. Amanda came and found me and told me that the bi*%h who poured her drink on me said she was REALLY sorry and didnt mean to. WHAT THE?? then why did she respond to me like I was an idiot. Insane. I left after that and went out to get a bit to eat since I was drunk as hell and HUNGRY!

so... ended my halloween in Osaka. I cant wait for next year!!! WOOO!!!

From the start...

2006-01-09T13:53:00.000+09:00

SOOO... here I am, in Japan. This is trivial info so lets get down to the nitty gritty. I decided to start this blog to keep my friends and family up on what I've been up to, so here goes. I'm living in Hyogo prefecture, west of Osaka in Kansai. Loving it here too! Got a great circle of friends in the area and meeting more people every day. The school I work at is the lowest (academic) level school in the area, but the kids are nice, and the teachers are mostly young and fun! I also have the priviledge of working with a cheeky british guy who really helps the time pass and saves me from mind numing bordom so powerful it could make you wanna stab your face off. HAHAHA! its not THAT bad. I keep myself busy by studying Japanese and listening to my Ipod. mmm... best purchase ever. Up there with the 4 liters of kerosene i got the other day to keep myself from freezing inmy 20degree house. EEK!

So... enough about the job, it's not what I'm all about after all. Ya know what they say, all work and no play, ... yada yada yada. So I've been taking this opportunity to do some traveling and sight seeing and pink thingy chasing... dont ask me what that thing is I'm standing with in the picture is... ?_? I have many stories to catch you up on and pictures to show. Little by little I'll get there. Halloween in Osaka and Christmas in Tailand. Two biggies to look out for. Along with other stories of randomness and such. ANYHOW! Take care all of you! I'm off to jog in 0 degrees C (32 F) weather to the video store to rent some CD's for my listening pleasure.

The first time!

2006-01-07T12:10:00.000+09:00

This is the first post... I've never blogged before so... here goes nothing. gonna fool around with this a bit. :)

-Julie