Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Heaven & Hell

Less than 24 hours after returning from Hokkaido & Aomori, the mental and physical top of the world, I've descended into one of Dante's icy hells.

My first night back in town I was driving in the rain to a friend's house for dinner. On the way, a Toyota Crown stopped suddenly in front of me; I hit the brakes, and skid into it.

The driver jumped out of the bruised car, stormed up to my door, and proceeded to yell at me in incomprehensible Japanese as I asked him if everybody was all right. The only bright side of the situation was the shock on his face when he realized I was a foreigner; then he started yelling again.

To complicate matters worse, there's been a miscommunication with my insurance company. Evidentially, they still have me insured for a car I threw away over eight months ago. Because of this conundrum, they're telling me I can't use my insurance policy.

Now, I have an irate Japanese redneck pretending he hurt his hip in the accident calling me several times a day demanding he get compensated for his car and hospital bills and a Japanese auto insurance company who I've been paying money to for three years telling me they're not gonna cover me.

If that's not enough, I had to teach twenty-eight English lessons last week as my penance for taking time off to go to Hokkaido and Aomori.

Dear God... have mercy on a poor soul that just got back from vacation and looked down for a split second to turn the Stones up on his car stereo.

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Powdertopia 2006



I meant to get this post up about my snowboarding trip to Hokkaido and Aomori much sooner, but last week was really busy.

Powdertopia is an annual snowboard/ski trip organized by JET teachers. This year my friend Tyler organized everything and invited me to come along. It was an offer I could not refuse.

I took a slow ferry up to Hokkaido and met everyone at the lodge. We had four tremendous days in Hirafu Village. Unfortunately, I accidentally deleted some of the best pictures of the trip, but some managed to survive.

Check out the photo gallery here: Powdertopia 2006 Pt. 1: Niseko, Hokkaido

The second part of Powdertopia took place in Aomori Prefecture at Mt. Hakkoda. Our group members changed around a little bit, but it was just a continuation of the same kind of fun. We had three days on Mt. Hakkoda and stayed in a great lodge called Sansou.

Check out the photos from Aomori here: Powdertopia 2006 Pt. 2: Mt. Hakkoda

Monday, February 06, 2006

Heiwa English School: ABC's




All of my classes at Heiwa English School are named after fish. I dubbed this group of 1st Grade girls my Jellyfish Class.

They've been studying with me every Thursday afternoon since June, and they recently finished learning all the letters of the alphabet.

To commemorate the occasion, they decided they wanted to spell the entire alphabet on the floor of my school using only their bodies.

I had nothing to do with this. They orchestrated it completely by themselves, and my only role was to document it with photographs.

Please check out this adorable gallery here: Body Alphabet Gallery

It's precious.

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Apple Sued Over Potential Hearing Loss - Yahoo! News

Apple Sued Over Potential Hearing Loss - Yahoo! News

Suzume


Last weekend was relaxing and fulfilling.

Check out the photo gallery here: Good Eats

Saturday was one of those days when everything just worked out perfectly. My buddy Ethan and his friend Takeshi came to my house just before 10am. We had a cup of coffee and then drove down to Seibu Elementary School for a mochi festival.

I used to work in Seibu Elementary School last year, but it'd been a while since I was there. The kids were happy to see us and we got pound rice into malleable putty… then eat it.

On our way back to my house, we stopped off at my friend Fumio's place to pick up a small gas range stove. He served us a nice ramen lunch; we grabbed the stove and were on our way.

Next, we stopped at the grocery store to pick up some fixin's for a Japanese Nabe. We bumped into my elder purple haired neighbor named Kato-san who walked us through the store and instructed us on the best ingredients to buy. She even advised us not to buy certain veggies because she had them growing in her garden patch next to my house.

After buying some beer, we got back to my house and Kato-san was waiting for us. She took us into her garden and started unearthing a bunch of daikon, carrots, & green onions.

That night a few more friends showed up and we cooked a tasty vegetable soup flavored with Korean kimchi, drank a bottle of Imo-shochu, listened to records, played cards, & tried to watch Blade Runner before passing out.

Sunday, my buddy Jason showed up and we went into Nagoya for a night of food and fun. We had dinner at a dirty yakitori-ya named Kadoya where my other friend Toku ordered every part of the chicken most Americans never eat. Liver, ligaments, intestines… hell, he even ordered suzume which is a small Japanese sparrow served on a skewer with it’s head still attached.

Last, but not least, we saw an insane Japanese band called Turtle Island. Their name sounds like some relaxing beach resort, but their music was quite the opposite. It was part jam part punk part p-funk and all aggressive! The band consisted of about 14 members (mostly drummers) while the crowd was full of black leather jackets, mohawks, and crowd surfers.

Check out the video: Turtle Island



Absolutely nutz.