Friday night. . .

I was off this Friday!

And I am sitting in my apartment :(

I said I was going to continue Golden Week but I will have to put that on hold for now. So I was all set to go to Tokyo this weekend and see my step-sister and my old friends from Yamagata who live there. So I sent my step-sister a text message saying can't wait to see her this weekend. And she responded with, "I am going to be in South Korea this weekend. Remember I told you last Saturday!?!"

I thought to myself what when did this happen!?! So I told her that she must have meant someone else. But then she was reminded me I was drunk last Saturday, and then it all came back to me. "Ohh yea I was drunk last saturday! Good times." So I was bummed since that meant part of my trip to Tokyo had lost it's luster. But then some of my friends from Gunma were going to, so i was like awesome we can get together for nomihodai. So I was still pumped. But then literally the next day my boss was like don't forget you have to work Saturday. And I was once again shocked. Then he was like remember I gave you the schedule for this week on last friday? Then I thought back and I remembered ohh yea I remember leaving work to get drunk so I must have never seen that schedule. So in two swift moves my weekend crumble quicker than wet bread in a lawnmower. So instead of being in Tokyo with my friends I am in my apartment, farting (yes farting, I got nothing else to do).

I spent the majority of today trying to find night clubs and cool night hang outs, I have no idea why though it's not like I will be going to any of them anytime soon. But regardless I hit up some night spots during the day and stood in the parking lots and imagined what the various places would be like during the nights, in particular tonight. I bet right now people are dancing the night away but not me. I will be standing right here waiting for tomorrow to end and then for sunday to end so I can go to the gym. My weekend was so ruined that I don't even care about Saturday night they might as well take that away too. I hope when I go to sleep Saturday night that when I wake up it's Monday. 

Ohh and Thursday night I went to eat sushi, nothing to amazing about that in Japan, but while I was there this guy was staring at me intensely. At first I tried to pay him no heed but then I thought maybe he knows me, so I started to stare back, and then I started to think that maybe I did know this guy. So I tried to think of his name or where we might have meet, but I had nothing. So we just sat there at the sushi counter 2 seats away staring each other down. It turned out that I didn't know him and that he just wanted to stare so I entertained him for a bit and then he left. It was weird as hell I hope I never see that guy again, but if I do I will be like "where did I see that guy before?"

Back to work :(

The face of アンパンマン

My Golden week has come to an end and it was quite eventful! Friday I just went to nomihodai with my friends and got trashed for $15 bucks! Can't beat that. Then we decided to check out a nightclub, so first we went to club Ash which we all thought was actually called club Ass. Apparently Japanese people can't say "ash" it sounds like "ass". Anyway club Ash was closed so we went to club Earth, which was a brazilian club. There were a lot of nice looking ladies in club Earth most of which were either dancing with each other, some steroided up douche bag, or simply in the corner crying. I tried to dane with a girl who was with a group of her friends I got shut down instantly. I think if I go back to club Earth I am going to have to either start hitting the gym again (which I am going to start doing anyway) or covering myself with tears. So we spent the next hour or so just exploring the huge multi-roomed club, before finally leaving. 

The next morning Ivan, Christal, and I went to Ibaraki to hit up the beach. Ibaraki is where the headquarters of my last company is so it was like the first place I stayed in Japan and now I was going back for a visit. I drank during most of the car ride there, which could have made the trip end as badly as when I went to Aomori with Colin. I drank for like 24 hour straight that day and passed out in the street. Luckily that didn't happen this time. But when we got in town we bought more booze and food. I got some cold そば which is like my favorite summer time food, ever. Later on that first night we got some fireworks and shot them off at the beach it was cold but we didn't let that stop us. Then things got interesting when we went back to the hotel Ivan had booked. Only 2 people could stay in the hotel so I volunteered to be the odd man out. So for the next couple of hours I sat on a bench drinking Whiskey, by myself. Till some homeless people came up to me and started asking me if I was "newly homeless",  apparently they hadn't seen me on that bench before. So we talked a bit about homeless life and it's joys and the things we missed about not being homeless. A homeless lady thought my story was inspiring so she gave me one of her beers, which happened to be a のごどし a beer I hate. It is like a Japanese Milwaukee's Best. I didn't drink it because some homeless lady gave it to me and it was a shitty ass beer anyways. So later on Ivan came gave me the keys to his car and a bento and was like here you go. So at this point I looked like a poseur to the homeless people. So I didn't even try to explain why I was homeless a second ago, and now had food and a car. I just got up and left.

I am glad of that experience my small stint of homelessness helped out the experiences of my other friends. I will just leave that at that. But for the next night we got a tent and slept on the beach, and we all got drunk and shot of fireworks yet again! That was amazing nothing like sleeping on the beach and falling asleep to the sounds of waves crashing on shore. The next day me and Ivan went for a walk on the beach where we found some soft rocks and carved our names into them, and admired all the trash on that side of the beach like 2 tires and a gas tank. We were pretty sure if we kept on looking through the trash we would be able to build an entire car. The whole time I was digging through trash I was thinking if only those homeless people could see me know! After trashing diving Ivan and I went bodysurfing in Japan's icy waters. As soon as the water got to about mid thigh I became a 3 year old boy because my shit shrunk up instantly like 2 "Raisin(s) in the sun". The body surfing was pretty fun despite the frigid temperatures of the water, but after awhile I couldn't deal with it anymore and I had to get the hell out of the water. 

The next day I had an あんぱん donut, and this is when I decided to officially hate アンパンマン who is like the mascot for this kind of donut. The donut was filled with bean paste and luke warm whip cream, it pretty much tasted like baby shit. So after biting into that abomination of a donut I cursed アンパンマン 's name vowing to never enjoy the taste of his head again (his head is a giant donut which I now want to punch). Later on we got some ingredients for our Cinco de Mayo party and headed back to Isesaki. And I will continue with the 2nd part of Golden week later on. 

To be continued. . .

Let's Golden Week it's best each other

Shiminnomori Park

Tomorrow is the beginning of Golden Week! It's that week long holiday (for no apparent reason), that we all love. I am not sure what is going to happen this Golden Week. First the things I sort of know about for sure. I know there is going to be a Cinco de Mayo party next Tuesday. And I might possibly go to the beach as well. And apparently me and my friends are going to camp on the beach when we go. I also I am pretty certain I am going to go to MET'S because who can pass up a $15 nomihodai!?!

Now what I don't know. I don't know if my friend Shinya is coming down from Yamagata to take me to a rave. He is always out of it when we talk, I will say it's partly because of the language barrier though. And I am not sure if I am going to be hanging out with Chisato a lot this Golden Week. I meet Chisato at a BBQ this past weekend, the first day I thought she was interesting but there wasn't much physical attraction. But I saw her again like Wednesday, and I think she looked better the 2nd time around since I saw her legs and I thought they were nice. So this time I got her number and e-mail address. So we will see if anything develops or not. She does live in a different city in Gunma though, so that kind of sucks. But the city she lives in is way bigger and there is a lot more to do there. So who knows maybe I can go there to see her on the weekends, and enjoy the big city life!

And I love the fact that since I am a foreigner people think I have Swine Flu. Like I sneezed today and the lady at work next to me screamed like my sneeze had started raping her or something. So she didn't over react at all, she completely handled that situation like a sane person would. Ohh and I can take pictures now on my new Japanese iPhone! So I will try to remember to take some interesting pics during Golden Week. Maybe a picture of someone's vomit and if your really lucky I may even take a picture of my Belly button! I know a lot of you are curious to know what it looks like up close.  Man I am hungry screw this I am leaving.

何！？！

I have no camera so I am just uploading old pictures. . .

There were a few things I wanted to right down on my blog but I think I have forgotten a lot of them. I hope that by writing anyway my memory will spontaneously return. I had a Geji in my apartment on Sunday! When there is a Geji in your room it tends to be the first thing you notice. As soon as I turned on my light in my bedroom my eyes were instantly drawn to the wall. And lo and behold there was a Geji just chilling on my wall taunting me with it's presence. Either this Geji was really cocky or really lazy. All the other Gejis I have seen were running and jumping all over the freaking place but this one just sat there like it was paying part of the rent or something. So in an act of bravery I smacked it with my shoe. That was very uncharacteristic of me. Anyone who has seen me around giant bugs knows that normally I freak out, and run out of the room, and close the door vowing never to return to what ever room such fowl creatures dwell in. But this year has been a year of a change in my character.

I keep telling myself to look forward and not to dwell to much on the past. Problem is now I am completely obsessed with the future, to the point that I will forget something that just had just happened 5 minutes in the past. I need to find a balance in my thoughts somehow. But deep in my subconscious I want to revisit things that occurred in my past. In particular I want to reach out to those people I have shared very intimate moments with. I have meet many people in my life, but I think the people we bare are all too in those fleeting moments of intimacy are people who's thoughts and feelings we tend to care most about. There are certain thoughts and feelings I can discuss with close friends but somethings are best shared with someone who has become more than a friend, a person who blurs the boundaries. They can cross into areas of ones psyche where a friend might not be able to navigate. I hope that this makes some kind of sense it seems clear as day in my mind but trying to transcribe what I am thinking seems very difficult right now. In summation though I want to send a girl from my past an e-mail out of the blue to tell her what our time together meant to me, but I stop myself every time I seriously contemplate doing this. It's not part of the grand scheme of this year. I guess the theme of this year is new beginnings, so I want to stick to that.

I have a beautiful friendship here in Gunma! One of the guys I hang out with on a regular basis is like the brother I never had. He isn't quite my mirror being like Chet was to me in college. But I think it's better this way hopefully we can avoid some of the sticker situations that me and Chet got into in college. . .or not, only time will tell what will happen. Actually this is a friendship triangle since one of the female ALTs is in this as well. This triangle is similar to this video I posted on another blog. I should have posted that video on this blog it seems way more appropriate. Ohh well that is what a post archive is for!

One thing that I am not so thrilled about is that I feel I am losing a bit of my randomness. But this is a double edged sword. On one hand I always have people I know I can hang out with on the weekends so that means I won't have to feel the despair of loneliness that sometimes takes over a lone wolf such as myself. But at the same time I am losing some of the joys of just going out on the weekends with no plans and just letting the night sweep me away. I meet a ton of people and did a lot of stuff last year with people I would meet during the course of a night. I would call those instant friendships. They are like cup noodles except you just add alcohol instead of water, and presto you have a group of friends you can hang out with for a weekend, you may or may not see these people ever again in your life but for those few days it's like you have known each other for your whole lives. Everyone is quite comfortable (mostly because of the alcohol) and there are no worries. I was pretty much a friend for hire, I would stand around somewhere having a few drinks trying to decide on a direction when, a group of established friends would approach me and invite me to tag along, because I looked "interesting". Some of those instant friendships lasted on others are now just people I occasionally see who remember my name and I can only reply "ohh hey" (I don't remember you name) "but it has been awhile!"

So I don't know what to expect this year but so far I am pleased with things. Hopefully this year will continue to be kind to me! Good bye for now.

P.S. I need a phoneeeeeeeeeeee

GUNMA!!

Hello everyone! Hisashiburine? I have been living in my new city, Isesaki-shi, for about a week now, and although it is a bit dirtier than my last city it is also a lot warmer. I don't mind the random garbage as long as it is hot. Nothing like the smell of hot garbage to start the day of on the right foot. It does seriously smell like a zoo here on somedays. I have officially been working at my school for 5 days (1 school week) and I was a bit concerned about if the other teachers would be more conservative than my last school or not. But I am relieved to say they are every bit as relaxed as my old teachers and a good number of them speak english! So I think it is possible my new school might be 10 times better than my old school which I thought was impossible. 

I went to see some of the after school clubs, and I got to practice with the pretty much every club I went too! At my old school I was relegated to just watching the students from the sideline even towards the end of the year I just watched so it wasn't very engaging, but here in Isesaki on day one I was out getting dirty with the kids. Unfortunately I wasn't prepared for any of this so I didn't have any athletic attire, so I was restricted in my movements by my business attire. I felt bad when I had to turn down a 1 on 1 challenge from the captain of the girl's basketball team, because she was so excited to try her skills out on me. Little does she know I am freaking horrible at basketball, I am sure she would run circles around me. I will find out tomorrow though, as I promised we would battle it out on the court tomorrow after school. The students at my new school are pretty enamored with me. While I was talking to a former gradate of my school one of the girls volleyball players hit me in the head with a volleyball and then scolded me, about loving any girls except the ones on the volleyball team. I guess I shouldn't tell her I am smitten by two young ladies who work for the same company as me (not any of the other teachers mind you). Actually I shouldn't say young ladies as they are both a bit older than I am.

One lives in the same city as me except on the other side of town and the other lives a few stops away on the train (perhaps a 20-30 minute train ride). At the same time I am drawn to a possible relationship I am repelled by my own laziness and nonchalance. Like I don't even really care if we are together or not. I have had some prime opportunities to let my feelings be heard but I was more interested in other things. At Hanami I had sometime to talk one on one but instead I decided to be a social butterfly and meet a few of the locals, because let's face it the people I was with at Hanami don't know shit about Isesaki they came to this town the same day I did. If I want to find what is exciting in this town I need to get out there and meet the locals. Knowing local people who have lived in the city for a long time made all the difference in my experience in Yamagata. No offense to any of the other ALTs I came down here with they are both cool people, but I think if I don't step up to the plate no one will. They might be fine hanging out with just our small group (just 3 people) but I am not. So when it comes down to either pursuing a relationship amongst a painfully small group of friends, or getting out there and meeting colorful (and very drunk) locals, I chose the drunks any day. A relationship will get monotonous pretty quickly but a drunk person is always full of surprises!

If my beau from Isesaki is reading this, don't think I am talking down to you at all it's quite the contrary. I am also partially being reserved to see if you are as spontaneous as me, I can't really tell right now. I am not sure what would happen if I was to call you friday afternoon to tell you I was going to a festival that night in another prefecture. These things are important to me at least, extreme flexibility leaves the days open for either the mundane or completely unexpected. Well if you are reading this somehow, don't let me know 0_<. You have the upper hand. This blog means I play this game with my hand exposed. Now should I play the Jack of Hearts or the Ace of Spades?

PARANOID!

Look at that shit

So I just saw my second Geji, and I am about to start crying. The first one I saw was like in a jar so I wasn't too worried about it. But this one is running around somewhere in this apartment with me. It was moving so fast I almost didnt even see it except for the fact that it was. . . MASSIVE!

As if having like a billion legs isn't enough to give me a heart attack, Geji can jump too. Man if that thing jumps on me I think ever organ in my body will fail simultaneously. Ahhh I think I can feel stuff crawling on me I am about to lose it. Someone save me I am too afraid to move. I have this feeling it's just going to fall of the ceiling and latch on to my face and I will run and jump off my friends balcony trying to escape the Geji. I want to find it and kill it, but I don't really want to find it at all. Man I think I am seriously about to start crying. . .

The night before

Looking West. Thinking East.

I haven't written in a long time (I seem to say that a lot). I wonder if my blog might cripple me as much as it might liberate me? Sure I censor some things on here, but still I do say a lot! So even if you aren't getting the whole story of what's going on you are still getting a good deal and you can add in your own wild fantasy of what I might be doing behind the scenes. I leave for the airport in like 3 hours and I haven't really slept all day I have just been up doing various things, trying to make sure I don't forget something. But you never get everything something will always slip through the crack I just hope it isn't something really important.

My mind is blank one second then the next it will be drowning with thoughts of what all I have done while I have been here in America. One thing that just struck me as interesting is when someone blocks you out from one facet of their life, it can be the smallest thing. It's one thing if they have never shared that part of their life with you EVER. But it's different if they let you share that part of their life with them, and then took it away randomly. I am under the assumption that maybe in my case this person just wants me to just forget about them. I am not sure who all reads this, but my blog will always be open to anyone! But about 3 different people can read this and think I am talking about them. But I am only talking about one of the three. I hope all three read this, and they all think it is them I am referring to. I won't dwell on this any longer.

So I have made this year better than previous years by being aggressive and also by having very little tact. I have to work on that last part, I could always use more tact. I mean people have bended to my will like never before, but I can't say I am all powerful controller of minds. The truth is I never really exerted my will I never tried at all! I would always just be in my own world and let things happen around me without me trying to change outside forces in the slightest. I would just go with the flow, so to speak. Now I am not aggressive to the point were I am an asshole but just aggressive enough to persuade you to do something. And if you said "NO" I would drop it for that day at least, and then possibly bring it up a week later. 

So now I am wondering how will my new attitude play out in a foreign country? I can't rely on words in Japan. I have to rely on gestures, and looks (not my physical looks, I am not that vain). I will have to rely on my eyes to determine in which way to proceed, but the eyes are easily tricked. I am guessing I am going to have some interesting times to say the least.

I am so anxious to get back to Japan it's not even funny. I had good times here in America meet some really cool people, but at the end of the day I am just not myself here. I feel like I have to adapt to the status quo somewhat. I still stand out like a sore thumb but I make some effort here, but in Japan I do what I want, when I want. No one criticizes me for how I look or what I like to do, they just step the fuck out of my way and let me be me. I find a lot of people I know in America can be real downers. I have never picked up on all the sarcasm that is going around, some of which is directed solely at me. 

Of course I need some examples of such sarcasm directed at me. I give my friend one of my old hoodies which he broke a few weeks earlier. Upon giving it to him he gives it to his girlfriend who is cold. She implies she wants it. Then the sarcasm ensues: "That is supposed to be a MAN'S hoodie". The implications are quite clear I don't have to really have to explain that one out. Of course there were other occasions of similar sarcasm from various people. Right about now I am feeling like I should have went to sleep hours ago haha. It's too late to sleep now, in fact it's too late for a lot of things like going to the doctor, the dentist, and optometrist. I kind of wish I went to at least the doctors office because I could have any number of parasites, diseases, and viruses. But I feel healthy, and I don't have any visible scars or blisters or anything like that so I will give myself a clean bill of health. 

The entire time I am writing this my mind is drifting towards what I will do in Japan. What adventures await me in my new city, will I meet a nice young lady? Will I go to any cool concerts? Will I discover some interesting new food? What will happen???

Guess I will have to wait and see. . .