BBC NEWS | Americas | Simpsons 'trump' First AmendmentAmericans know more about The Simpsons TV show than the US Constitution's First Amendment, an opinion poll says.
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
BBC NEWS | Americas | Simpsons 'trump' First Amendment
BBC NEWS | Americas | Simpsons 'trump' First AmendmentAmericans know more about The Simpsons TV show than the US Constitution's First Amendment, an opinion poll says.
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.
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
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.
Monday, January 30, 2006
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Photocast
This is my new photocast: heyhey's photocast
It's a new concept to me, so I'm not exactly sure how it's gonna work, but supposedly anyone that has an RSS reader can subscribe to this photo stream and view my pictures whenever I update them.
For Mac users, my photos should appear in your iPhoto Library.
For Windows users, an RSS reader is required. Bloglines seems to be a quick and easy way to subscribe to RSS feeds.
If anyone gets this working or has some problems with it, please let me hear from you. Like I said, this is new to me, but it's got great potential for sharing photos with family and friends.
It's a new concept to me, so I'm not exactly sure how it's gonna work, but supposedly anyone that has an RSS reader can subscribe to this photo stream and view my pictures whenever I update them.
For Mac users, my photos should appear in your iPhoto Library.
For Windows users, an RSS reader is required. Bloglines seems to be a quick and easy way to subscribe to RSS feeds.
If anyone gets this working or has some problems with it, please let me hear from you. Like I said, this is new to me, but it's got great potential for sharing photos with family and friends.
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Recent Viewing
I recently saw a couple really interesting documentaries that I believe are worth checking out.
The first, Why We Fight, came to my attention after seeing it mentioned on the Daily Show. The Internet Movie Database describes it as so:
In President Dwight D. Eisenhower's farewell address in 1961 he said: "In the councils of government we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist." Director Eugene Jarecki's documentary, Why We Fight, examines America's relationship with the privatized military corporations of today and how they influence American foreign and domestic policy. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at last year's Sundance Film Festival Why We Fight includes interviews with John McCain, Richard Perle, Bill Kristol, and Gore Vidal.
The second, The Future of Food, was recommended by my friend Daniel in a very funny email message. Evidently, he made contact with the writer/director Deborah Koons Garcia who was once married to Jerry Garcia.
The IMDB describes this one as:
An in-depth investigation into the disturbing truth behind the unlabeled, patented, genetically engineered foods that have quietly filled grocery store shelves for the past decade.
Both these movies will incite debate into the current state of affairs inside the USA and hopefully get people thinking.
Friday, January 20, 2006
Friday, January 13, 2006
Sayonara Parties
These are pictures are from the last couple days of my brother Darrell, his girlfriend Stephanie, and my cousin Stuart's trip to Japan.
Check out the photo album here:
http://homepage.mac.com/heyheygig/PhotoAlbum22.html
It was great having them here, and I hope they had as much fun as I did.
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Bradley's Message in a Bottle
This is a short video clip of my good Aussie friend Bradley doing his best Sting impersonation in a Hirafu izakaya after a long day snowboarding and a few drinks.
To watch this video click here:
http://www.archive.org/download/Bradleys_Message_in_a_Bottle/BradleysSting.mov
Enjoy.
Stuart Skiing Powder
This is a short video clip of my cousin Stuart skiing deep powder in Niseko, Hirafu during our recent trip to Hokkaido.
Click here to watch this video:
http://www.archive.org/download/Stuart_Skiing_Powder_in_Niseko/StuartSkiing.mov
Winter Wonderland.
Sunday, January 08, 2006
Saturday, January 07, 2006
Niseko, Hokkaido
Still got family here and little time to tell all the stories from our trip to Hokkaido, but my cousin Stu is doing a great job getting some pics up on the internet.
Check out some photos from our ski trip here:
http://homepage.mac.com/heyheygig/PhotoAlbum21.html
Family time is now running short, so I gotta give them a big send off!
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
NYE
A lot is happening right now with my cousin Stuart, my brother Darrell, & his girlfriend Stephanie visiting Japan.
No time to write it all up now, but Stu has published some photos on my .mac account for all to see.
Check out photos from their arrival and our day trip to Nara here:
http://homepage.mac.com/heyheygig/PhotoAlbum19.html
Check out our NYE party with Big Frog here:
http://homepage.mac.com/heyheygig/PhotoAlbum20.html
I'll do my best to get some pictures from our ski trip to Hokkaido up as soon as possible.
Happy New Year!!
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