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Just another idiot on a bike

January 17, 2008 at 12:15 AM 1 comment

Hello Blog, I’ll bet you thought I forgot about you. Well actually I did, but only because I’ve been doing a lot of stuff in the past week since returning to Japan. Let’s look at a quick summary of that stuff in a nice bulleted list:

  • remembered how to speak Japanese (harder than it sounds)
  • played a lot of DS
  • slept a lot
  • organized a 新年会 (New Years Party) at Lockup, almost killed half the people there with the Electric Shock drink
  • finished reading Beach Road. Ending was disappointing.
  • found the joy and convenience of delivery curry from Coco Ichi’s
  • re-watched the entire run of the highly under-appreciated Judd Apatow series Undeclared
  • dropped a valuable thing of deodorant into the toilet. Don’t worry, I threw it away… reluctantly*.

Of course that’s not a complete list, but I’d say it covers the highlights. I also managed to teach some people English somewhere in there so that I can afford to enjoy the things in the bulleted list. But the greatest discovery I made during the past week was, wait for it, the library. That’s right, shut up now, the freaking library. I had never been to the Chiba Chuo Library before, but one of my students recommended it over the weekend so I went to check it out. The library is right next to Chiba Park, which I had also never been to. Both places are huge and a lot nicer than what I would have expected. The park has a lot of walkways, baseball fields, playgrounds, and a huge lake. The library has, of course an impressive selection of books, magazines, maps, and those little golf pencils, but most importantly for me, they have a passable section of English books and magazines. I’m almost done with Dave Barry in Cyberspace. I think I found a new hobby. Oh, and the best part is that it’s free. Now I’m starting to sound like one of those hokey PSAs they’d show on PBS.

I guess that’s the biggest update. For two days in a row I rode my bike about 7 miles exploring Chiba, mainly going to Chiba Park and stuff. I’ve lived here for a while but am still exploring and figuring out how all the roads and stuff fit together. Good times.

*Hey, Old Spice Pacific Surge deodorant doesn’t grow on trees here in Japanland.

American Airlines is always overbooked

January 5, 2008 at 3:43 PM 2 comments

I think American always overbooks their flights in hopes of people not showing up. Of course this and last time when I saw it happen, they have to offer someone $300 in travel vouchers to wait for the next flight. I decided not to volunteer since I’m planning on hanging out with people in LA tonight.

The last blog entry was written almost completely as a mind barf.

Whoa; I just saw a guard in the airport ride by in a Segway!

Anyway, when I blog direct from my brain to the keys, the posts end up really long. I suppose I should work on making things more concise. But hey, like I always say, this blog is more for myself than for others.

Hello 2008

January 5, 2008 at 3:31 PM No comments

I’m waiting at St. Louis Lambert Airport right now, on my way to LA for a few days before heading back to Japan. This has been a great trip back home. It seems like it was much longer than the October visit. It was longer, by a few days, but that’s not what I mean. Saw a pretty good number of people, ate lots of good food, and most of all relaxed. Even on days when I do absolutely nothing back in Japan, it feels like I’m always worrying or thinking about something – getting a job, making more money, scheming some new plan, etc. I should still be worrying about those, but I think sitting around at my parents house made it actually feel like it was a vacation rather than just being jobless for the day.

Visited Bloomington on Wednesday and Thursday. It was the first time I’d been back since visiting in August of 06, and for the most part things haven’t changed. But in a good way. There are of course some things that were different or new: the old Ashton building where IUSTV used to be is now a grass field. The new science building, Simon Hall, is done and it matches almost perfectly with the neighboring limestone buildings. The construction next to the Auditorium was finally finished. I saw IUSTV’s new office layout and was very impressed – the exec cubicles and editing stations were swapped and re-done into a new configuration that was much cleaner than what I had put together.

I saw a few people in town, mainly Frank and Nick who came to hang out. Also made some visits to other people and university staff. But without all the friends and stuff in town like “back in the day,” Bloomington was very different. I don’t even know how to explain it, but while on the surface things seemed the same, of course the rest was really different. But anyway, it was a fun trip and a nostalgic visit, so although driving 4 hours each way was a pain, it was worth it. I’ll post pictures and stuff when I get back to Japan in a few days.

07 Final Vent

December 31, 2007 at 11:38 PM No comments
Master of Rats

Ah, New Years Eve. I’ve got about 20 minutes here in St. Louis until the new year strikes, and I’m having the most leisurely evening possible. I didn’t really have much desire to go out and do anything tonight, especially all night partying. Am I getting that lame? Almost all through high school I spent New Year’s Eve working at Caleco’s, did parties and stuff when I was in college, and spent last year in pain after eating shabu-shabu viking while watching Kouhaku in a business hotel. I think this is a nice change.Here’s hoping for a new job in 08, and oh yeah I guess happiness and all that. Fine, for everyone. Happy New Years everyone. See you next year.

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Putting the WINTER in winter break

December 31, 2007 at 12:14 AM No comments

Last night, Saturday, I went to a party hosted by a friend from high school. Of course, there were tons of other people I graduated from high school with there too. It was pretty fun seeing everyone – it was also strange in a way because a lot of the evening seemed like it could have happened 6 or 7 years ago. No one seemed to have changed a whole lot. I guess that’s good…right? I mean, once we all got through the “what are you doing these days” talk, it was just like old times. A lot of those guys still hang out with each other – I wonder what my life would have been like if I would have stayed in St. Louis. Not just Japan, but going to school in Indiana separated me a bit. No regrets, just a though. Time warp experiences will do that to you.

I also figured out it’s a lot easier to introduce my job as “teaching English to a bunch of old businessmen in Japan” than just saying “teacher,” to prevent people picturing me as a high school teacher and having to re-explain later.

It was a pain getting to the party, though. I was all set to go thanks to Google Maps, but then I found out that a major bridge along my path was out. Apparently the bridge has been out for like a year, but of course I didn’t know that. So I ended up taking a different way that was only slightly different. I’m in the general area, looking for the right street. It was like Winter Garden Avenue or something, off of Winter View. I made 3 wrong turns that night, onto streets like Winter Valley, Winter Grove, and Winter River. That’s right. Every street in the area started with Winter! Talk about terrible city planning. I found out later that it’s because there is a huge park in the area named Winter Park, but still, come on!

I’ve noticed it’s a lot harder for me to blog while at home (my parents house), even though I’ve got more free time than ever and spend a lot of days sitting around and watching TV. I think with so many people around all the time, I can’t collect my thoughts as much as usual. No absolute self-reflection time to compile the rambling dribble I usually come up with. In other updates, pizza is awesome and I wish Japan had Cecil Whitaker’s or even Uno’s.

Tomorrow is New Years Eve and I don’t feel like going out at all. Does that mean I’m getting too old? I guess last year I stayed in too, but that was in Osaka after eating an illegal amount of food at the shabu-shabu place.

Costco Strikes Back

December 27, 2007 at 12:06 AM 2 comments

Remember the slam dunk I scored on Costco getting the new iPod for –$50? Well, Costco got me back pretty good on Christmas. I kind of forgot until just a few days before about my birthday. I mentioned it, and my family, who apparently also forgot, figured we would get a birthday cake for the big family gathering/dinner. It would just be another dessert on top of the ridiculous pile of Christmas cookies and cakes we already had begun accumulating. We were going to get a Costco cake, so I told my parents to just get something funny, like a clown or Ninja Turtles cake or something.

So Christmas dinner comes and ends, and the cake comes out. I haven’t seen it yet, but I got a good surprise when this gets put in front of me:

big rainbow cake; thanks a lot Costco and Mom and Dad

So there you have it, my gayest birthday cake ever, and that includes the Sesame Street cake I had when I turned 4.

Apparently when I said “get something funny” they figured a rainbow would be good. I think my mom didn’t realize that a rainbow could have some other meaning. My dad was either being a jerk or didn’t realize it either. Well, it was funny, but in a different way. Haha. My cousins and everyone got a good laugh out of it. I kind of wish that they would have chosen the “umbrella” or “cross*” that were some of the other options on the order form.

Also, I don’t know if you can tell, but the part of the cake with the lettering was also drooping. So Costco must have been still bitter about giving me the new iPod, and retaliated by giving me a lopsided gay cake. I guess it tasted good though. So take that Costco!

*My brother said that if we had the cross cake, we could have drawn me hanging on the cross. Real P.C., hahaha.

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