In this Episode:Nothing burns like Blue Coal OR I smoke camels for my T-zone, thats T for taste and T for throat

Well after a month-ish delay I finally got my internet situation taken care of. I better write stuff now before it stops working again. So many things, both interesting and un, have occurred since we last met our hero. lets see...

First, I'll discuss thanksgiving. It was really good as last time in Japan I didn't have a "traditional", or "tradish" as we say in the biz, meal up in Hokkaido. Not that it wasn't fun because it was actually really cool having a pot luck with like 27 people, only 5 of which were U.S. citizens. This time though it was a little more traditional. This time I went to Colin's apartment, the guy from Texas who lives below me. It was pretty interesting because he invited some other Americans (and one traitorous Canadian) to the meal. They had actually found a turkey in Osaka. Potatoes were mashed, pies were baked, cranberries were... freed from their can. All in all a decent Thanksgiving. Except for this one kid. Please say I wasn't like this poor bastard when I was in high school.

Now for some reason, I've noticed that people who study Japanese absolutely hate when some other foreigner speaks better Japanese than them. Little do they realize that there is always a foreigner who speaks better than them. Maybe you've heard of them, they're called Chinese people. This is a high school kid who is studying abroad here and home staying with a Japanese teacher at a school where Colin's fiancee works. Now he's sitting there with his electronic dictionary looking at some book. One of the guys there from South Carolina or North Carolina, I don't know, one of the colonies asks the kid, though in a condescending attitude, if he "understands Japanese". Now the kid is in high school here at a home stay so obviously he can speak some level. This kid though answers in one of those cocky "I'm planning to go to MIT" type voices as he lifts his book and says "Well(emphasis on the W), I actually translate classical Japanese literature for fun." I mean really. Maybe I'm was just annoyed because I saw his appearance, which multiplied the sheer undeserved cockiness he exuded from his Dr. Who watching pores(this coming from a guy who played magic.) Thats like if I get a black belt in Judo and someone asks me if I'm any good, so I throw him over my shoulder and lift my shirt revealing the black belt I never take off.

We also had a little shindig up at Gabe's who lives off the Kawake station. Gabe's house is the absolute biggest things I've seen in Japan. It's like 7 times the size of my apartment... on the first floor. His school actually blocked off some of the second story rooms though we know not why. He has a urinal in a separate bathroom. I mean this place is crazy. The only problem is that I don't even own enough things to fill even half the rooms on the first floor. I told him to buy some beds and start making profit. Start renting some of those rooms out to travelers. This upcoming weekend there is Christmas styled dinner there. Its a "bring a dish to pass" type thing. I have know idea what to make.

So I was doing judo with Myles two extra days a week and I noticed my shins started to hurt. When people were going for sweeps they were missing and straight out kicking me in the shins. I didn't stop though, and then one Friday I had to sit out towards the end of practice because it was so tender and starting to bulge. I gave it week (due to an end of the year party from one of my schools) and came back on a Monday. My shin still has a lump, but now it is this hardened calcified type bump that makes one leg uglier than the other. Still a little tender though. Exciting huh!!??

So lately I have been listening to a podcast by Jimmy Pardo which is absolutely hilarious, as well as some NPR shows, and other political type shows. Then, just by chance I was looking through some directories when I came across a reading of a book. It wasn't a good book but I liked the idea of listening to stories. Then I noticed they had a Sherlock Holmes reading. I said "hey that sounds interesting" to which no one replied because I live alone, so I down loaded it. It was pretty good. Then at the bottom of the list was a link to a radio show. I clicked on it, and it sent me to a listing of old time radio mysteries. After I awoke from my backseat childhood vacation flashback I started downloaded some good shows. Then I found a link to the comedy section where I found some Abbot and Costello(even the one with Peter Lorre where Costello gets sick...CLASSIC!) and The Great Gildersleeve. So now my iTunes is loaded with doctors telling me to smoke and Johnston floor wax advertisements. Better there than not I guess. Thats all for today as I have to go to bed now. What will that Fibber Mcgee do next?!

Also Happy Birthday to my wonderful and beautiful mother who I hoped had a terrific day. Love you.

End of a Relaxing Few Days

Well, Its Sunday night here and a pretty relaxing weekend is coming to a close. As stated earlier, last weekend was one for the recordbooks, and as such, I decided to take it easy this weekend. Shree called me on Friday night, but I was kind of sick so I decided not to go out. Then she mentioned that she and a bunch of people were going to do an all-nighter in Osaka on Saturday, and she really wanted me to go. See, this dutch guy ruined a weekend that she had planned with him so she decided that she was still going to have a good time even though he ditched her. I told her I would go, but the next day I was still kind of out off it and knew I couldn't do an all-nighter this weekend. She understood, and we will probably do dinner with some people latter this week.

So I woke up Saturday and wanted to do just a little workout since I wasn't feeling all super duper. I went to go do some judo at the city gym in the afternoon for a little while. The city gym is this place thats right by my house thats sweet because it has a (crappy) weight room and tatami that I can use for only a buck. I go to meet Myles at the gym, and there are two Japanese guys training when I get there. Myles introduces them to me. One was a bigger guy with a neck the size of a tree that was a wrestler, the other is in MMA that just took fourth in an all Asia tournament. So basically they beat my ass and then I went home with a sore body.

That night, since I couldn't do the all nighter, I ended up going to Yokkaichi, I believe its called, for a little guitar show. My buddy from down in Otsu, Mike Bass, was playing a set. Mike, who is from Okemos, Michigan, gave me his cd, so I have been listening to it for a little over a month or so. He has a webpage at the aptly named www.mikebassmusic.com. Scott and I decided to go to the show. At first we were the Only ones there, but then Kiera(I think thats how you spell her name) from Ireland, who lives in Yokkaichi showed up. First it was mike, who played by himself. He was really good. His CD is also good. You can by it in Lansing.

After him were two girls from Kyoto. They... well, they were interesting. One of them played the guitar while the other kind of just shook around and banged on a drum or a tamborine. They weren't bad at all and even did a Japanese pronounciation rendition of "Blowin' in the wind". If you want, you can check out Chiemi and Emiko at www.omoware.com. Take a look, granted, its all in Japanese, but hey, at least Kurt can check them out.

Next up was the reason mike had the gig in the first place. His name is Yousuke Tago. His father is the music teacher at Mike's school. He is an amazing guitar player. His dream is to go to Ireland and lay there. If you can find any of his stuff on the net then I highly recomend it because its really good. www.geocities.jp/mankitideca/. After that, Mike and he played together. They did a couple of songs like "black bird" and "fire and rain". It was fun.













The last band was i believe called kanade. They were this crazy band that all had on wigs in honor of Mike's being foreign. They had like seven people, sing alongs, and baloons. All in all a nice little evening.
Today was pretty nice as well. The weather was absolutely gorgeous. I woke up and took the silver fox over to CoCo's curry-ricefor a lunch type thing. Curry is damn good. It is definately one of the most scrumtrulecent meals on the face of the earth and the U.S. would do good to open up numerous chains that serve it. After I got back to my appartment it was like 11:30, and the weather was so nice that I just opened all the windows, made a pot of Sunday coffee and laid on my couch. I figured out how to use my iTunes to get pod casts of NPR, so I listened to a couple episodes of "wait wait don't tell me" and drank my coffee. They don't have "Prairie home companion" or free "Car Talk", so I make do but it would be nice for some Lake Wobagegon news. Around 3, the cleaning began. I am proud to say that three of my four rooms are now clean as is my laundry. I then sat down to eat dinner while seeing what the bi-lingual movie was this Sunday. Well, the jerks at the Japan TV place decided not to play one tonight. Luckily I had rented a flick just in case. I rented "Kiss kiss bang bang", and since its coming to a close, I am ready to go to bed. Good night.

Taking it easy

Due to the rough weekend I had last week, I'm pretty much just staying in. Today I rented some movies and cooked up some chicken and laid on my couch. I stopped into the Heiwado(the local supermarket, like a Kroger) and went to get some vegetables. I generally don't miss the U.S. What I miss are my family and friends and some conveniences that the U.S. has in it. Today though, I did miss something that I generally don't really think about.
I miss spending ten dollars on fruits and vegetables and ending up with a mini garden in my shopping cart. Today I went and spent 1000 yen on some fruits and vegetables and all I ended up with was a small fruit tray and a tiny salad. I haven't had a green pepper in months. Depressing. So thats it, nothing exciting going on.