DePimped iN tHe NinTorIuM

Hey

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 21:11:16 GMT

Anyone have a Windows Copy of Adobe Premiere? I've been looking to do some editing again and well, I can't seem to find my old copy. Lemme know if this is a can do.

BTW sorry for the long interlude of non-post-dom. Not too much going on as of late.

Edit:

Anyone down for this?

EVANGELION 1.0

September 18-24

Village East Cinema
181 - 189 2nd Ave, NYC

Ticket:$9-$12.50
Theater: www.villageeastcinema.com
official web: www.funimation.com/Evangelion/
Phone:212-529-6799

PS3

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 21:35:33 GMT

PS3 ID : RickDoggTime

Finally, a PS3.

Bring it mofos. Anyway you can.

So now that I have this system, what do I play on it?

This is really just for Brad

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 16:32:34 GMT

Enjoy Brad.

http://dinosaursfuckingrobots.com/

Of JCVD and WTF?

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 21:59:22 GMT

So yesterday I had the pleasure of watching "The Kick Boxer" again after years of well, not watching it. It was pretty cool because now that I've been to Thailand I recognized some stuff and could "culturally place" some of the scenes. I love re-examining old films that deal with asia now, because I get a lot of more out of them. I'll catch stupid little things that someone put in them. Hell, I watched "Martian Succesor Nadesico: The Dark Prince" movie on joost last night, and even though I thought I knew a lot about Japan, I noticed a whole lot more this time around. But with Jean Claude Van Dames old movie 'The Kick Boxer" I realized the lesson that was to be learned; "Any small victory is consitered a huge, movie ending win."

Let us quickly examine the plot- JCVD's brother is paralysed by giant evil mean Thaiboxer. JCVD trains to get revenge on him. In the process he drunkenly dances and hit's on the enemy team's girlfriends, then goes on to kick the shit out of them. As the plot progresses, JCVD gets better at Muoy Thai via multiple montoges. This of course is not good because he is scheduled to fight the greatest Muoy Thai boxer known to man. Because you know, any white guy who moves to Thailand and trains for a couple weeks can become world champion. Apparently if his brother had trained just a week longer, he'd stil be walking. But let's not quibble over the details.

So anyways, the "bad guys" use some rich dude's money to bet huge on the "Evil Boxer." But then they want to make sure they win now, so they go about a series of activities.

1. Shoot JCVD's dog.
2. Trash his training place.
3. Kidnap his handicapped brother
4. Rape his girlfriend.

Okay, so that all happens in one really crazy montage. The "bad team" then threatens to kill the kidnapped brother if JC wins. Well, as is predictable, the fight starts, and JC lets himself get his ass kicked. We then find out that JC's master covertly sneaks into the "Bad Guy" compound and kicks the shit out of everyone, even jamming a meat hook up some guy's ass for good measure. Meanwhile back at the fight, JC is getting the living shit kicked out of him for multiple rounds. In what one must assume is the last round, The master arrives with his can't-use-the-legs brother and announces that he can go all out. So he does a series of cool kicks, knocks the bad guy out of the ring, kicks him some more, then, as he gets knocked out, kicks the "bad master" in the face. Then everyone involved jumps up and cheers, and the movie ends right there.

Now this is what I would like to examine. let us look at this "win" condition. You are in an underground Muoy Thai ring surrounded by a few hundred people who probably lost lots of money betting against you. They are angry and you are celebrating. You knocked out the "evil boxer" but the mother fucker will wake up eventually, get better, not be paralysed, and may in fact try yet again try to rape your already raped girlfriend. The "bad master" other than getting a kick in the face, is never seen dealing with the consequences of lossing this rich guy's money. Maybe we assume he is in trouble, but we never know. Did we forget to mention your dog is shot and your brother is still paralysed, and someone needs to rebuild the shitty dojo? And okay, you won the tournoment. Great. You're Rich. Oh wait no, you're in Thailand, the grand prize might be enough for a flight home in coach.

All and all the only real lesson that can be extrapolated from this paralysing rape fest is that if you manage to make some guy who fucked up your life pass out for a couple seconds, then you my friend, have succeeded wildly. Is that what success was back in the 80's / 90's? I mean, has the bar now been set that much higher? Am I crazy, living with my parents, without a job and have way too much time on my hands?

Now for something slightly different..

I have a hanten. It's awesome. It's sort of like an indoor/outdoor light jacket they wear in Japan. It's warm, fun looking, and just plain cool. I've pretty much worn it most of this winter indoors. Hell my mom steals it from me when she can. To be honest it was a kick ass gift from College girl/Ms. Love from Japan. It was arguably her best present.

Now I may have not used this space to complain about this girl previously, but after arriving back in America, there were some light headaches. Before coming home, about a month before, her mother passed away. It was pretty tragic stuff, and it drew us really close together towards the end. When I came back to America, I actually thought about her a good bit. But within that first week home she was already dating some dude from England who was there on holiday. For the most part I was totally cool with this overall, except for one thing: When her mother passed, I gave her a gift, a sock monkey. It was a limited run sock money from her favorite store. It didn't cost that much, nor was it a big deal, but it was a sentamental gift. After knowing this English guy for about 2 weeks she gave it to him because he "thought it looked cool." This sort of infuriated me, and her rational for doing it was even more annoying. Something along the lines of "It is mind now, and I can do what I want with it, and eventually I have to forget about the memories attached to it." A little pyscho, am I wrong?

Whatever. Months pass, and I forget it. Water under the bridge. Who cares, right?

Well, her long distance boyfriend visited her in Japan recently. Cool beans, whatever. But I suppose he recently left, and she uploaded a bunch of pictures of his time there. Now I know, I should just leave it alone, but like any curious jackass, I looked at some of them. Then I saw something that made me go WTF? As I enlarged one of the pictures, (actually it was in 3) I realized that this guy was wearing my hanten. Like, the exact same hanten I was wearing as I was looking at the picture. The same exact colors with the same exact pattern. Now I am sorry, but if you are a girl, trying to forget some dude and give his shit away, why would you buy your boyfriend the same exact hanten, the same one, and then post pictures of it on the internet?

Now, am I crazy, or is that just weird? I'm trying to extrapolate that. I mean, if I bought a girl a handbag, we split up, then I got with another girl, I would not buy her the same exact handbag. I would not buy her the same necklace. I would not buy her the same anything, because that's just fucking weird. Now I think initially I was a little annoyed, a little mad, but it has since been downgraded to "weirded out." So I ask you team of teams; Am I justified in saying WTF? Or am I just reading too much into a previous relationship?

of Games and Cars

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:47:14 GMT

First up: Do WANT!

http://www.amazon.com/Street-Fighter-FightStick-Tournament-Playstation-3/dp/B001M25AY6/ref=pd_sim_vg_2

I don't know, is it just me, or is anyone else feeling this Street Fighter 4 Fever? I mean okay, maybe, just MAYBE I'm a little prone to it. I love everything that comes out of Capcom first off. Some of my fondest lazy memories from college was playing SF with Brick, Tom, Bob, yes even Carlo. Also I doubt I have to remind you that I played SF4 before it was even officially out in Japan. But for some reason, other than just liking it, I'm in love with it. I WANT this joystick. Maybe because it will remind me of the Plus 1 Paddock I used to play at in Sanwa. Maybe because it will remind me humrously of my worse car crash ever while leaving the arcade, only to give the car to my succesor. (I'm not a nice guy)

For whatever reason, I looked at the "SF4 Collectors Edition + Special Edition Tourny Joystick" and had to sort of stop myself from buying it. I mean, I don't even own a PS3 yet. But I am just so jonesing for this game it's pretty silly. Does anyone else intend on picking this up? Or am I in my own little youth nostalgia, dorked out, mk overhead, hp, hp shoryuken cancel into Shoyureppa universe? What I really want to know is, who is going to be playing with me?

Also, cars. I'm a fan. Not an overt, in your face, gearhead, but I certainly like them. Recently I've been reading up on a few, and looking at some Top 10 of 2008 lists, and I've seen some cars this year that really impress me and get me craving to be rich just to play with them. I'm pretty sure you'll notice that my taste is more Japanese than anything, but overall the "progress" I see in cars in terms of performance, effiecency, design, etc. has been getting better and better all the time. Some of my "wish list" from this year and coming is....

1. Nissan GTR. I don't think I need to talk to much about this. It's the fucking Batmobile. I would give a lot of internal organs to have one of these monsters. What killed me was some late night walks in Roppongi with Ex-cult girl, and we would pass driveways, and casually parked in some rich guy's houses was this thing. It's like they spent 2 hours just parking it right, casually, like how I get with my hair; excessive effort to seem effortless. This is the kind of car I'd NOT pick up girls with, simply because I wouldn't want to hear them talk while I drive, since it would interrupt the conversation I'd be having with the engine. I mean, Hideki Anno could want to talk to me about a part in the live action Eva movie and I'd tell him to hush up. You know I've hit the lottery when you see me pulling up in this thing.

2. Subaru WRX STI. Duh. I'm a fanboy of this for reasons we all know. What is crazy though is that the new hatchback is starting to grow on me. It's also been improved over the old version in pretty much every way. Not enourmously, but the brakes are supposed to be better, etc. It's a progression of a car that I love to watch. Do want as well. Look for me in this if I land a big paying job that I need a car for.

3. Honda Fit. I first saw this on the road in Okinawa, and was devistated that we could not rent one. Still, the redesign kicks ass. It looks like a fun car, gets great mileage, has a suprising amount of room, and well, it's known for it's ability to last. I was reading not too long ago about parts of the engine build up of this thing, and the care they take to make sure things last long is impressive. This is certanly a cool car that I saw a lot of in Japan, but suprisingly not so much on the American road, which is weird since I hear they are selling like crazy. Maybe I'm not driving at the right times. This is a realistic possibility for yours truly, watch for me in this if well, I need a car soon.

4. Lotus Exige S 240 (Or any of them for that matter). I've always liked Lotus. The cars are always unabashedly "themselves." They sort of say, "Yes I look cool, and driving me feels fantastic, but I'm not going to make this easy or comfortable for you, and if you don't like it, fuck you." They are really just performance track cars you can take on the road, but super cheap compared to their competitors. This is because well, they are light, barebones, and just focus on performance and fun-to-drive factor. I sort of like that dedication though. I feel like this is a car my cousin would hate but I could love. He needs something big and wide, with a nice sound system and cup holders. I think the only cup holder this thing comes with is your thighs. Obviously not an everyday commuter car and still quite expensive, look for this in my driveway once I am mega rich, like own my own company with lots of employees rich, parked next to my other cars. I'd use it to get milk and rent videos.

Anyways, anyone else see any hallmark games/cars this year?

Of Digital Color Pixels and the emotions they produce

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 06:52:48 GMT

My nose stopped bleeding, finally.

I think admittedly I somehow hit an "I miss Japan" funk today. I suppose the seeds were planted yesterday when I saw pictures uploaded onto facebook of Roppongi girl, her sister and friends going to the beach, partying, whatever. I felt a pang of, I don't know exactly, I suppose I just missed it, the freedom, the nutty-ness of it. Not to say I'm not free now and not having a good time. Tomorrow I'm hitting up PS1, the modern art child of MoMa, and after that I may get a chance to see Mike and the guys for a night out. The next day I have a wedding I'm going to with Sherley.

Things in general are good. I will porbably have some writing published in the California Magazine "Sake and Sushi" come December, which is kinda cool. I got a lot of yeard work done today. The weekend is coming, and I'm feeling gradually more confident about my resume.

But still, recently something has been nipping at me.

Maybe it's the pictures. I went through some just before. I suppose when I first got my new camera in Japan I took hundreds and just uploaded them and forgot them, but some are just too cute, too funny that I can't believe I never remebered them. One was of a school girl from Ni-ko wearing my pleather jacket and giving the peace sign. Another was Crazy Mary (who e-mailed me last week, btw) with my Transformers Helmet on, playing the drums with a scarf on under it. It's all these funny things stringed together that I laugh out loud seeing but in truth it makes my heart ache a little. I know it wasn't all that long ago, but I really miss that kind of stuff. I mean, obviously I'm having and have been having fun home, but it certainly does feel.... different. I can't describe it much more than that. I suppose as I alluded to before, there was a care-free nature to my time in Japan; money was no problem, I had my own place, work was easy and actually fun (abbed pretty boring at ties though) and it seemed like I was in a constant state of party. As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm currently in the midst of this "transtion" phase, and I think right now I really don't need to do looking back. I think once I am settled and doing something, it's safe to do so, but while I am here in the middle, it just makes things awkward.

Still, I really have no right wining. Which I think is what annoys me most. That I am feeling all "woe-is-me" at times when I really don't have any right. I know it's part of the process, and it happens to a lot of people who have done the same thing, but it still gets to me a bit. I suppose I get to me, if that makes any sense. I wish I could just confidently and unabashedly go right into the next thing and just love the hell out of what I do next, but I suppose I'm worried about it. I mean truthfully, here I am making my resume and I really have no idea what the hell I want to do next. Some people tell me I need to target it more to the sector/field I want to get into, which is very true, if only I knew what that was. I think that's what is really scaring me, the fact that there is no immediate goal staring me in the face, other than "get a job." I wish I just KNEW what it was that I want to do next, I just sorta wish I was like "oh man, I really want to be process analyst at such and such a company." But I'm not there and instead I see like, ten or twelve ideas that each sound cool and I am affraid I won't pick the right one. Which deep down I know is dumb, because I can always change my job, and I know in the longer haul I want do to grad school and etc. etc... But yeah, there is the fact that I am dealing with the now and I have to make these decisions now, and I mean, it's cool to get to decide, and I'm lucky that I realize this as an opportunity, I just wish I knew what the hell I wanted. Haha.

Anyways, those were some great pictures. I'll have to post them on Flickr or something one of these days, a sort of "best of Japan" set.

Sorry for bitching. I suppose this is one of those moments when I am using LJ as a journal more so than a communication device.

Of Homecoming

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 20:12:48 GMT

So it's been about a month now since I've been home, give or take some time zones and days. Last time I really wrote anything down here I was in the thick of it, raging and dodging through my last weeks of Japan and trying to juggle it all. Now I'm home and trying to get a firm grip on everything, and it seems I'm just full of time.
All and all it's been an okay transition, all things consitered. It's been a little weird at times though. I'm glad to be back, and it's nice to see everyone; family, friends, etc. When I talk to people back in Japan, it's pretty much just what I expected; my ex-co-workers say it's not the same with everyone gone, and the new group is nice but they feel disjointed. The people I came to know outside of work are fine that I have left and are moving along without issue. My successor seems to be doing well. All these things make me feel content. I suppose if there is a twitch of regret it's that I was unable to help out Ai more. For those who didn't know, her mother committeed suicide about a month before I left. Ai is one of the people I grew closest to in Japan, and it was tough leaving her in the midst of all that was going on in her life. I mean, there was no way me staying longer could have "fixed" anything of her, but I felt bad that so many people were leaving her at a single point in her life. I suppose part of it is that I use her as a focal point; I think my emotions, my feelings toward Japan, if I were to funnel them, go to Ai. So when I think of her, I miss Japan, and when I think of Japan in congress, I think of Ai. At least I think that's how it goes for me.

Right now though, I'm sort of floating in a lot of ways, which I think is well, good and bad.  I'm getting my resume fixed up and next week I intend to start going on the agressive in terms of job hunting. I'd love to be in NYC or San Fran when it comes to a job, and I feel that once I land one I'll feel a lot more "normal" and "transitioned." I suppose the real issue is "what do I want to do?" since I have sort of opened myself up to other things outside of tech. I mean I can always go back to it, but I really wanted to try something else. The question is what do I have the skills for? I feel I have a sort of varied bunch of things and I wonder how to really use them all to find a job. Good IT skills. Conversational Japanese. Public speaking and teaching skills. Cross Cultrual communication and understanding skills. writing ability. I don't really know how to tackle that all and say "okay, with all this, let's get an awesome job." It sort of feels like the end of College again, where I can do anything, and all the options are sort of staggering. This time I don't want to sit with a thumb up my ass though, I want to get a job that is enjoyable and that I feel like I am contributing to something.

Anyways, that's the "career" end of things. Emotionally I suppose the limbo has made me feel a little odd. I feel stuck between two worlds still, or I should say, new to my own. I've mentioned it before but, I spend 2 years building a life in Japan; friends, work, social stuff, side projects, and I feel that in a day it all sort of disappeared. That of course is false; those people I can still e-mail, and a lot of people I will see again, but in terms of the day to day, a good 90% has been shelved to Memories. It's an odd feeling. I mean, coming back I regained a great social circle, and it's great seeing everyone again; Mike, Ryan, Tom, Bob, other people who don't and do read this blog, etc. In a lot of ways I feel like I'm right back in the thick of it with them all, like nothing changed, but occationally I feel a little disconnected. I don't think that's a problem, in fact at meetings talking about "Post-Japan" they say it's pretty normal. The concerns and day to day of people here and those back in Japan are different, hence there will be some disconnect. So that is something I am going through, but really only to a small degree.

On the positive this "in-between" has given me a good chance to look at what I want to do with my life, even if I don't always want to think about it. It's easy not to take a look at the big picture when your running to work everyday or juggling weekend plans, but when you are free at home just mowning the lawn and you have to think about your next job, and then subsequently life, and then WTF are you doing with it, it gets a little dauntiing. Still, I like that I get a chance to re-evaluate. I tend to think of Craig who was working a job he hated, and then after that took the time to figure out what was next, got a job he liked, and now when I see him he's really confident, happy in his world, and I'm proud of him. I suppose that's what I would like, to have that sort of confidence and self-assuredness he found in the 2 years I was gone. I think in some ways I have picked up that, but how do I say it, more on my terms?   Only thing is I feel my situation is sort of reverse from him. I am coming from what was really my dream. I had always wanted to do what I did, and I did it. That delivers a satisfaction I think few can claim in their lives, and I am proud of it, I'm proud and thankful I had a chance to do what I did. I suppose my issue is finding that next dream, finding what to do now. Man I really feel like I could write a book or make a movie about the last two/two and a half years, and it could be some really great post-college/young adult story. Except you know, the epilogue would be me doing something really cool now. Which I haven't figured out yet. So I suppose the book deal will have to wait.
Things at home have been pretty good. My parents have been cool in terms of their balance between motivating me and giving me space. My mom tends to check me in terms of resume and what I am trying to do career wise, while my dad let's be. Which is pretty good since my mom is a lot better and subtle at telling me to get a job. They've been cool with letting me take the car to visit people and letting me do my thing. I mean obviously I'm 26 and lived on my own for two years, but it's still nice of them to let me crash and steal the car. Dinner is nice too. I even got to see my sister a bit before she went back to college, which was nice. She can be annoying at home, pretending to be mom #2 and trying to tell me what to do, but I suppose that's just her. Besides, she's back up at college now, and will be for a while. I think with her I just need to wait longer before she is "cool." I tend to think brothers get along a lot better with an age gap. I tend to think of the Marino boys when I think of other's facing the 5 year age gap but are same sex. I think they get along pretty well, and can talk like normal humans about stuff, whereas my sister and I aren't there yet. I suppose I had assumed my sister would have developed the "semi-jaded, pop-music sucks, TV offers me nothing, let's go to a cool dive bar" mentality I had when I was a senior in college. I'll give it a couple more years.

So I suppose things are going well. I'm actually really glad I didn't go to Europe right when I got home. Being able to take my time, see people in Brooklyn, seeing Craig in Conneticut, get some running in and solid family time has been worth it. I'm still in transition, and in a way I think part of me always will. I think a good way to look at it is that Japan was really the social experiance for me that college was for most people. I suppose not just social, but in terms of personal growth too. I just have to keep a mantra going in my head to keep going forward, to keep learning, to keep eating right and working out, to keep up with my friends and remember that nothing is too hard if I want it bad enough. It worked in the past, and I think it can still work now.

So yeah, if you are reading this, thanks. Thanks for listening and well, I can only assume you are part of this transition with me in some shape or form. Thanks for dealing with my crap and hearing me out, thanks for not smacking me on the 500th time I've said "well you know in Japan..... blah balh." Thanks for letting me crash at your place. Thanks for being a role model or letting me try to be one to you. Thanks for motivating me and thanks for doing pushups with me. However and whoever you are in my life, even if your in Japan and can't even read English, thanks for everything.

Hey ... everyone... hehe

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 18:22:30 GMT

So hey, how are you all? Yeah so me.... and not posting in forever... sorry about that.

As I am sure you can imagine, I have a lot I should go into, but the most important thing I will throw out there is this...

I'll be home on August 4th.

I am not sure if I will do some traveling after that week (from August 11th into September) but I will be in the NY and NYC area for at least that week, and then, depending on things, will be back for good in September.

Again, sorry I haven't posted. There are too many epic half finished posts in my Gmail Documents folder, which is bad. There are also way too many nutty weekend I did not document, which is the worst. Recent highlight is the least I can give you.

Imagine if you will, you are an ex-Hostess girl in Roppongi. You are celebrating your 23rd birthday at your older sister's apartment with some friends, wine, and cake. Oh and you are also smoking hot.

Then from your left the unimaginable; A man, greased up in baby oil and wearing a thong comes charging at you, cake in hand, aimed for your hair. This becomes an all out cake fighting party involving you and all your ex-hostess ex-stripper and bar tender friends against a man-man smeared in cake and oil. What was once just some man-meat pole dancing entertainment has become an unstoppable, drunken, cake smearing machine. Why did your sister invite this asshole? As you contemplate this, he lands some icing and cake directly into your hair. You retort by slapping cake on his exposed butt check. He turns, laughs maniacly and says "It's a portable model Mary-Kate, I'm gonna live forever!"

Now I can't specify who is what or even who I am in this situation, because I want to be president some day, but let me give you a hit; It wasn't my 23rd birthday last weekend.

More of this sort of thing when I see you guys with a beer in my hand.

Of Spring and Arrows.

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 02:33:03 GMT

You give me all this,
and ask so little in return....

I wasn't lost but wandering outside the back of Sanwa for something to do. I had in my pocket a warm Royal Milk Tea from the machine in front, and the sun begged me to stroll towards the back of the school towards the tennis courts.

My meandering found me between the court entrance and the kyudo range. A delighted squeel of "LICKU!" signalled to me that my destination would be the kyudo range behind me.

I removed my shoes and was met by three shy boys and 5 excited girls, all in varying degrees of kyudo wear. One boy was in full regalia, with Hakama, breast plate and an artful, long kyudo bow in hand. Many of the girls only wore the breastplate and gloves. All were still in the process of warming up and chatting, and my presance had sent them afflutter. It's always a nice feeling.

We chatted a bit about movies, music and video games, standard fair when connecting with boys and girls in High School. We all laughed at each other's mispronouciantions of our corrospondingly foreign languages.

I sat on the make-shift rug placed inside the range and opened up my milk-tea, to the utter torture of the students, who told me it was "unfair" to drink it in front of them. I made sure to sip loudly and satisfactoraly. They all enjoyed it.

I remember Brad spending a signifigant amount of time here when he visited last year, and I could see why. There was an element to this place... Maybe how the traditional hardwood floors give way to a grassy expance, or how an artful expression is made from a form of aerial harm... or maybe it was just the sun ushering past sakura blossoms in the distance where the rugby team ran manuvers. Somehow, it was delightful.

I took another sip of the warm Milk tea. Soon they would replace the warm ones with cold, as the changing of seasons demands it. I delighted in warm milk tea in winter, and now being the Spring they would be ushered out until the chilly Fall. It felt like a brick being dropped into a placid river when I thought it; "This would be my last one." I could be wrong of course but that wasn't the point. I shook it off quickly though, as a question about Spider Man movies and X-men comics diverted my attention.

Shortly after the entire team played a group game of Rock-Paper-Scissors. This was not for fun but to decide who would do what for the remainder of the practice. I took it as a queue to make my exit so they could practice without interferance. They all smiled and waved goodbye, and then upon my exit I pretended to make the voice of Minney Mouse, who was adorn on one shy girl's socks. She smiled and ran off into the room, and I fell into the sunny expance past the door.

It was like floating in my pool when I was 11... That's the best way to explain the lap of the school I took back to the teacher's room. It was a path full of dirty concrete and old pipes, parts of a school jury-rigged amidst farmland and high tension powerlines that astutly lined up into the horizon, disappearing to where I assumed the earth curved.

I stared for a moment past the gates, over the hills and into the mountains miles away. I don't think I had a thought in my head. I think I was just watching the moving painting as my feet closed the distance between my body and the door. After that I stepped inside. Or something like that.

It's been a day,,,

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 06:18:03 GMT

It's been a day, and I realized you all might have forgotten that I played Street Fighter 4... Well I just wanted to make sure you guys didn't forget so I took care of this....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxjFzngmrYY

Your welcome.

BTW, I get my ass kicked by this dude.

Big Dork Cred

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 15:54:24 GMT

I bet your wondering who played Street Fighter 4 today before it even came out officially in Japan. I'm sure you're curious who played as Ken and did the meanest huricane kick into Shoryuken combo the world has ever seen. I'm sure you wonder who did that in Akihabara on a location test night that only lasted this weekend.

Well let me set your curiosity at ease. For friends, I am that man.

Enter Kev and Mary (pt.1)

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 06:14:32 GMT

Well, as sometimes happens, I had what I think was a cool moment here. About two months back I was asked if I could help out wit what is called the "Yosenkai" a sort of farewell party for the seniors. I said of course, because it was for Koga 2nd, one of my favorite schools, and because well, I like stuff like that.

What I was not expecting was to be asked to sing two rock songs in front of the entire school. Yeah.  One was called "Moon on the River" and played a prominent roll in an anime called "Beck", so I sort of knew it, so it was going to be no problem. The other was "Space Sonic" by Elle Garden. Full of Engrish, but whatever. I would have to study it for a while to pick it up and not correct the English.

So I had to do this with the school's rock band, a rag-tag set of kids who were a to-themselves cool set. Which is well, I have to say, it's always been a little wish of mine to see these kids. While running around with the track kids year round, I would always here the tuning of a guitar from across the field, eminating from the club rooms. Part of me always wanted to plow up the stairs and grab the microphone. Apprently now was my chance.

I walked into the club room one day after practice and met the students;  two seniors and one junior, along with one guy who graduated and comes and volunteers to help them. Two other guys came occasionally as well. Here is a little secret; I am horrible at remembering Japanese names. So since I needed to refer to them, I told them from the outset that they would be given new "Rock" names. First there was the couple; the female drummer and lead guitarist male. The girl was well, for all intesensive purposes cute and a little wacky. I dubbed her "Crazy Mary." Her boyfriend was a bit more reserved, but quite cool, seemed to know his place in life at the age of 17. His name was Kevin Drew. The junior bass guitarist I would later find out loves motorcycles and speaks of little else. He was called Bill. The alumni, being older and sort of that guy who could not let high school go, was called Red. The other guy who visited every so often was Alan Greenspan.

Together we were going to Rock all of Koga 2nd with our sound. Except you know, we just had to find it first. This is not easy since I see them once a week and oh yeah, we speak entirely different languages. This was evident as we started. They kept trying to tell me when to sing and when not to sing, were to come in on notes, and what they editted in and out for time. But you know, we sort of had to do it in sign language since my Japanese really covers teaching, not so much the finer points of musical composition. Their English was good for high school kids, but again that means they can order french fries with mild difficulty.

So as the first practice started I belted out "Moon on the River" thinking that I would obviously impress them a bit, since you know, I had heard the song before. We did it twice, and then I asked them, "how was it?" I did a thumbs up, and, being that I live in Japan, I was expecting them to shower me with praise and tell me I was amazing. Crazy Mary and Kevin Drew looked at one another, then at me, and gave me a silent side-ways thumb. As in, "pretty shitty, but not totally shitty." This was well, both depressing and cool at the same time. Depressing since I apparently sucked, but cool since I had never been told by Japanese people before that I sucked at something. This was actually a good thing; it let me realize that this was important to them, it was their goodbye to their school, and I mediocre attempt on my part would not be accepted.

Crazy Mary handed me a MiniDisc (yea Brad!) player with the songs I was to sing. She wanted me to practice them in my spare time. They then told me they had other music to practice, and that they would see me next week. I smiled and thanked them. We shared a few laughs and I made a little progress, but there was still a lot to go.

-Next time on "Behind the Music"- Rick attends more practices, track and music clubs colliade, and friends are made.....

American Express

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 16:42:00 GMT

Sushi Dinner.... 40 dollars.

Coffee at a local Coffee House.... 10 dollars.

Two Hours of Karaoke... 28 dollars.

Being fed an awkward rejection for the second time in a row in your parking lot at 2 in the morning? PRICELESS.

The American Express Card can take you around the world.... but it's up to you to get blown off.

Video Question

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 08:07:09 GMT

Okay I suppose I could go online and search for a while and figure this out, but I realize that a bunch of you know a shit ton more about this than most, and so I figure I might as well go to the source.

I want to start doing some more blogging via my blogger account, but I would much rather do it with video. Now I figure the best way (correct me if I am wrong) is to upload the videos to youtube and simply link to them in Blogger. Here is the issue though; my videos from my camera are tremendous, we are talking like, 125 megs for a little over a minute.

So I ask aloud, what programs can I use to make this smaller? If Youtube is not the best way to do this, what do you suggest? Other than Premiere, what can I edit the videos in? Is there anything that is small and simple to do easy cuts/etc.?

Basically I'm just curious what technical things you guys would do if you were doing a video blog, how would you streamline the process, etc.

Any help would be cool.

Thanks guys.

-R

Where art thou?

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 01:46:39 GMT

So I've been not posting a while, which is bad, because well, I enjoy posting. I don't even remember the last time I posted on my "public" blog. I mean I bought a new camera and everything and I intended to start doing all these updates annnndd... nada..   WTF? Anyways, things I should be telling you about;

Nagana-uh-oh- My trip to Nagano that was well... up and down... and down... and...well... Let's say it ended with me being sore and cold.  I want to run more with this.

Taipei-Hong Kong recap- This never happened. It should have but of coruse I was overrun by whatever.  I suck, and I needto collect all the pictures off of everyone elses flickr from it. Still, good times.

Class Party- This I can talk about quickly. My 3-6/7 class from Koga 1st threw me a party in our last class with the third years. Here in Japan the seniors basically leave school a few months early, then show up again for graduation. So for our last class we ate cake and chatted. it was nice and I have some pics that need posting once I figure out how to do so with pics that are like, seriously, 5 megs in size. The downside of an awesome camera is you need an awesome computer and hardrive, which I am currently lacking.   Still, really nice, and it reminded me that I have 7 months here, which scares the shit otu of me.

I was going to sell THQI yesterday. I basically jsut held on when the market dove 3 months ago; I thought about selling but my shit was pretty well diversified so I was not angry. So finally most of the banks are cool now after all the bs so I was going to invest in one or two of those. I was going to do this with funds from THQI, which you know is a video game company that for the most part I lost profit with, but not much. I was ready to sell, hell, I even created the sell bid, and then looked at the price. It was at 25.10 before the market opened. Then I looked at the "opening" price.  I also read the news. Turned out that the day before I decided to sell the stock, it announced it was cutting earnings, pulling projects, and closing studios. Pretty much worst case scenrio. They dropped to 16 something, and came back oh so slightly. This happened pretty much the instant I tried to sell it. So yes, that blew giant beluga balls. I will still probably sell it, along with another holding, and then buy the banks next week. Next time I am in a mall, I am buying the first THQI game I see (Probably a shitty Pixar game that wasn't developed enough), going to the top of a building, and chucking it out into the distance, with the hope that it kills a puppy in it's downward arch towards teh pavement, not unlike the downward arch my portfolio took, and in this case the metaphorical puppy it hit was my positve feelings towards teh stock market in general.

So this weekend I am going to see sumo, which should be cool. I'm pretty excited about it. Afterwards will be the usual drunken revealry I have not partaken in in a while. Dan will be there with a friend from home. All sorts of people. I have a feeling I may let my self go a bit Sat. night. If I wake up in Yokohama naked and bleeding with no idea what hapened, I will consiter it a success. It's pretty much "ramp up to serious/get the next year figured out/start shipping shit home" time soon, so this weekend will be one of my last big weekends out before the end.

So yes, hopefully this weekend will bring stories to this lj that I direly need to write.

Sorry again for the long and eratic pause. You guys deserve to hear so much more of the random bs that goes on here, and I don't get around to giving you guys enough.

p.s. My last day here at DateKo, and yeah... no classes... and I leave early to do some voice recording stuff...   so lackluster that I don't get to say goodbye to any of the kids. Which sucks. At least I got to say goodbye to the Judo team last week. These people have to hate me though, because I park in the Vice-Principles parkign spot everyday. Whatever, I am a very important person.

There and Back again, the Rick Story

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 03:42:09 GMT

SO yeah, that happened. As in I was home again. It's such a hard thing to describe to people and they always ask what it's like and hte closest I get is telling them that I feel like Stalone in Demolition Man. It's like I woke up in the future, (okay, not like, 40 years in the future, but like, 1) and some stuff has changed, but I really haven't, just oh so slightly, like I had skills for Japanese imbedded in my brain or something. Other than that it's the same. The scary thing is it isn't really wierd. I suppose the internet and email will do that. Hell, this LJ as well.

I can't tell you how nice it was sometimes though, to fall into the old beat with everyone. Granted I was half asleep the whole time, but it was good stuff.  Eating Ribs with Bunny, playing Mario Galaxy with everyone at Tom's house, Grabbin a beer with everyone at Croxley's and seeing Nelium and Secret Character Bryan show up. Playing shitty pool on a slanted table in Brooklyn with Corbo and Way. Drinking with my sister and her friends. Meeting Craig's girl friend, meeting Mike's. Seeing Mike Murnan go from under my wing to watching out for me.

And let us not even go into the New Years thing yet. Epic.

It was all and all just nice to be home. The flight insanity was worth it. Even on the way back, in the middle seat between two sleeping Japanese women who I felt guilty to wake up when I had to pee (I waited like 3 hours at one point, then I had to literally "tap out" of the seat and go pee) and the shitty movies and mediocre food. I did fart a lot though, so I suppose in the end I got my justice. MUHAHAHA

But seriously good to be home. I attacked some good food too. I hit up all my "needed to eat" food. I feel I may have paid the price for it though, as I feel a little extra around the waist. I know I know I am skinny, but that's why I notice it even more. I don't care if I break my legs, I'm running at least a half hour today and doing 200 or 300 situps. I figure it's time to get back into the swing of things. I've been kinda coasting along too easily with that as of late, using my injury as a reason to do almost nothing physical. I'm at that point in my life where the metabolic rate is going to just crash, so I have to actually start watching my diet and not excersizing for just fun, but doing it to maintain. I mean I am pretty good on this stuff for the most part, I just have to get a little better.

I tell you what though, I need to take with me a pen and paper around more often. I get super inspired to write, but it always happens when I am at a dinner table, or on a train, or in the stupidest of places, and then I try to channel it again later and i get diddily squat. Oh well.

So I am sorta over the hump here too, 2/3rds of this bad boy are done, and this is the home stretch here in Japan. I need to get a lot done in not a lot of time. I need to get resumes to people back in the states, and still possibly get something out to Europe, though that to me feels now like both a. a long shot and b. another attempt at me to avoid reality. I need to figure out West Coast or East coast, but I tend to think I'm east side all the way, unless of course I land something with Pixar or Google. (I suppose they could use a janitor or something.) I have to get some more writing done here, and I need to take a lot of pictures. I have 14 days left of vacation this year and I need to maximize those, turn them into epic trips in South Asia. I need to start studying for the GMAT, I need to get into a study rythme for it, so that way I am not shocked when I am back in the states are realize I need to take the test in a couple months.

Anywho, enough of that crap. I bought a pimp ass camera yesterday, the Canon G9 which I have been sweatin for a while now, so I am glad i got it, and for basically a hundred bucks less than I could have in the states. So good things. I filled that bad boy with a 4 gig card and I am ready to rip now man. I took about 100 pointless pictures today, and I barely know how to use the thing. Granted it has the "point and shoot" thing down, but it has a lot of other options that I want to learn about. I suppose I really need a basic photo class. But I will read through the guide over the next few days and eventually figure it all out, and take space age ninja pics of excess. I may even upload more stuff to the video blog, which is sort of a big goal.

Oh and I haven' t even mentioned New Years. Insane my friends. I now understand why Way is so laid back and DPRS. I mean, after that kinda stuff, the volume just gets turned way down on everything else. (To sorta paraphrase something from Fight Club) I'll post a NSFW link later showing me and Ryan pimpin it. If you want to look at hte other pics, do so at your own lesuire and well, danger or something. It wasa good time, it was sort of fun being all out crazy Rick-Dogg, and still not holding a candle to these people who are just exuding crazy in buckets. Don't get me wrong, people were also exuding poser in buckets too, but I don't think I have any real place saying that too much, being maybe the only dude there without a crazy ass piercing or tatoo. Whatever, good times.

Anyways, time for me to go for a run. I'll catch you all later.

PS., Can't get this damn song out of my head. I first heard it driving around yesterday when I finally got to the later tracks of this CD, and it just grabbed me, because well, I suppose I can relate a lot to going off and doing things, and wondering about home. Maybe not just one girl in particular like the song sings, but everyone, everyone I care about. Also, the album iteself is damn good.

Quickening of this weekend:

friday I hit tokyo up in terms of Shibuya and Ueno with some JET people (Leigh and her buddy Gordon) from Kyoto area, crashed in the worst ryokan imaginable, then sat. morning bought a new digi camera, then BSed around Ueno Park and that area, came home, and since i got only 4 hours sleep the night before, crashed on Sat. day into early sunday morning. Woke up, then went to Harajuku with Teacher to eat lunch at comme sa (sa ca whatever, I can't pronounce it at all) then to the Meji shrine for the first visit to the temple thing they do here, then walked to Shibuya, shopping all the way sorta, and then back to Koga.

Then came home.

Weekend in Review

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 07:49:36 GMT

So so so, fun times here in th3 Japan.

Friday - Other than creating my playlist for the Shower of Music, nothing. Just chilled out. I didn't really feel like going nuts.

Sat- Woke up nice and late, which I had not done in a while. Burned the CDs, ate at Mosburger. Apparently there was a new employee there, and you guessed it, she was my student. I literally walked to the counter, and the other girls (also my students) introduced me to her as the new employee. The girl then rang up what I wanted, without me even saying anything. She just knew what I was getting. It's funny how I have become a sort of casual fixture there. But seriously, those are some good hamburgers.

Evening pushed on and I headed down to Magokoro Cafe to help setup. I was late though, so it was already setup and the other DJs were testing out some new ideas/etc. 4 of them wore Daft Punk t-shirts since they all went to the concert last week. I was going to go but I opted to take a CPR couse the next day instead. I have to say, these guys have gotten good. Me? I pretty much forgot how to do my thing. I figured it out again though with some quick pointers from Saru again.

The night was then off and running, and a lot of people showed up; Rachel and 2 of her buddies (one New Zealander who looked a little like Cameron Diaz) and this other guy... who was from Australia who had longer hair than me when I had long hair.  Matt and CJ showed up, Julian too. The usual host of Kaori and some of her friends came, but also two new girls I had not met before. One was named Kazumi. We'll get back to her. There were a ton of random people there, other cute girls, some weird Japanese guy with bad English who went around hugging people...   Even Koyo showed up at the end after my set, which was cool. He awlays dresses retro, it's hysterical. Not 80's retro, like, 20's retro. Fedora, suit, etc.  Even his car is the oldest thing I have ever seen.

So I had a beer or two. To be real honest I didn't wanna drink too much early on for two reasons; I didn't want to be drunk for my set and I also had a bitching headache for God only knows what reason. After some nice headache pills from Rachel though, life was good.

So eventually I get on and do my thing. My set was exactly how I had stated it from the last e-mail. After listening to it more and thinking of the transitions in my head, I felt a lot more confident with my choices and went with it. It started slightly fast, but they grooved right on into relaxed. Of course, as it needs to happen though, I did fuck up this time.

CJ loves to just talk, and when you put a beer in his hands, even more so. Well, here I am DJing, and he is giving me the DL on his lady situation, you know, while I am trying to switch crap. Oh course, I get caught up with him, and when I think I am stopping the player that is not on the speakers, I end up cutting the one that was on. So basically, Justin Timberlake just stopped singing. Luckily it was a slow song, and the stupid stop happened right on a mostly silent part of the song with just some drums, so when I just hit FF and play, the next song came in not so bad. I think part of JT started to play up again, which threw people, but then Death Cab started up and it was no problem. Pretty much no one but the DJ people noticed, but of course it was totally embaressing. Oh well. Takeshi laughed and said it was no big deal, and that he liked my set so, I suppose all was well. Still, nightmare situation realized.

So after this I decide I need beer, which I got. I proceed to drink. Cute Yuki was there, but once again acting sorta snotty. Quick conversation, run away talking to random J dudes.   I was pretty tired of it so I gave up even trying to talk to her. I instead just sat down with either the foreigner contingency in the front or some of the DJs and Kaori's friends in the back.

I talked a lot with Kazumi and her friend. To be honest I was getting checked out (spot checked, watched, whatever your venacular is) a lot by Kazumi, and I suppose I am guilty of the same if I caught her doing it. She was quite cute, straight teeth (something one must watch for in Japan) and wore some high stockings with a short skirt. Hot stuff if I may say so. Now let us roll out the negative bandwagon. She has no powers over the English Language. We talked for a long time in Japanese, and never once in English, which obviously limits the conversation to my Japanese skill-set, which is well, bad. She also smokes, which kinda sucks. But whatever, we chatted a bit, exchanged e-mails and it was nice. I think people started getting the wrong idea though, because we just sat in the back talking, and over time everyone left, to the point where it was just us in the back, with only candle-light, so it looked sorta well, I suppose romantic in a way, but I don't think one could really call it that.

In either event I texted her a little bit, and what I wrote in English was pretty much ignored, so I suppose texting with her over the phone is a Japanese-only affair as well, which is terrible. My speaking is bad, but my Japanese-texting ability is worlds worse, since I don't study Kanji and spelling. So yeah, there is that little bump too. I have no idea how to communicate with this girl if it is not in person. I suppose this is negative Karma hitting me for not studying Japanese enough. Seriously, as I write this she just texted me, again in all Japanese, and it took me a full 11 minutes to write her back two sentances. Ug. You all know the debate that now finds itself in the lofty chambers of my mind. "Is it worth the trouble?" My mind continually re-runs her thighs and straight teeth in it's little I-MAX theater and a small boy in a military uniform that looks like a cartoon version of me at 8 years old sits at a big table weighing the pros and cons on a small sheet.   He is dumbfounded and wants to play Nintendo. I let him do so and decide to think about this one later.

So that happened. (Another Text message, 10 minutes) The night slowed down, and eventually people cleared out, and I helped a little to break stuff down, but for the most part I was just getting in the way. When Japanese people clean up, you sort of just get out of the way. They are fast and efficent, and for the most part you can only fuck it up. Matt came in and saved me by offering a ride home, which I took. I ended up in bed, sans-shower, at around 3. The next day, Sunday, would be super amazing date day/night. Which it ended up being.  (I know, I am a horrid person for talking about one girl, then describing a date with another in the same post, but I am already on empty here with my karma in Japan, so I figure, even though I've got nothing in the tank, might as well rev it anways.)

Teacher wanted to go on a nice date before I went home as sort of a Chirstmas thing. I thought it would be nice too, and I had overheard something cool the week before that I thought would be a good date. I'm sure most of you are familiar with the Park Hyatt in Shinjuku, or at least familiar with the film Lost in Translation, which filmed most of the movie at the aformentioned hotel.   They have a sort of afternoon tea service in their "Peak Lounge" from 2:30-5:30. The room affords a pimp view of all of Tokyo from it's 41st floor, and though slightly expensive (3200yen a head) you get unlimited tea and a very nice selection of cakes, scones and finger sandwiches. The thing is though, it's all top tier stuff, done in a very nice setting, with impeccable staff, in a very nice location. In the end you get a lot for what you pay.  Teacher is also a dessert fiend, and they had a dessert course that could take on some of the most scrutenious foodies. Champaign sorbet, rasberry jellies, cheesecakes, pasteries, macha cakes. They even came around and offered you other dishes as well. Pimp stuff.

So after a nice lunch in a shopping district near Shinjuku station we went and did the Dessert thing, and it worked out great. To be honest the hotel is hard to find, even in it's own damn building believe it or not. We apparently came in the back entrance, which means you have to go into a nice deli, then up stairs in the back of the deli, up an elevator and THEN you're in the hotel. This of course could have easily been solved if Teacher, the person who actually knows Japanese, asked the information booth girls where the hotel is. But NOOOOO she wanted me to do it because well, who the hell knows. Embarresment, torture, who knows. I go and ask these girls in English, who give me the half baked English response which is "Back, to the right, second floor." Not, "Hey I know this isn't obvious but you need to go into that deli on the right, not the doors right next to it which will get you lost for 20 minutes, definitly go into the deli and then up the hard to see wood stairs in the back, that will get you to the hotel."

So yeah, we jackassed around for 20 freaking minutes until Teacher finally decided that she should ask the information girls. At this point I was lightly furious, and I started to understand my father a bit more. Here we were on a nice day, on a nice date with a nice night ahead of us but I wanted to KILL Teacher. KILL KILL KILL. "I wonder why we haven't found it yet?" I dunno, maybe because I got directions for a girl who stopped speaking English the day her boyfriend knocked her up in the 10th grade and she no longer needed it to take shitily designed profiecency tests and instead gets paid 3 dollars an hour to tell people that the hotel is vaguely to the right?! "I think it's this way." No, no no, that is a sign for the mall we just walked through, we already went that way, oh fuck it you know what, lets go that way, it might magically appear this time and we'll ride magical unicorns to the top of the tower, fuck elevators. "Think I should ask the information booth?" No no, don't do that, I'm having tons of fun walking around like a jackass, why would I want to cut this short with the consuption of delicious cakes and tea? Like I said, I never could understand what I had consitered my father's irrational anger in my childhood until then. I realize now my father probably wanted to throw me under the merry-go-round instead of wait online for it. I now respect his restraint.

So all of my frustration melts away when we get to the top of this place, and we are literally in a lounge at the apex of the second tower. It's real nice, with huge windows. We end up getting seated right near a window, with a great view of the Government Building and northern Tokyo. Really enjoyable. The food, as I had mentioned before, was examplary. Service was bi-lingual and polite. Even the china and silverware were of high calaber.

So we enjoyed that until sunset, and then headed into Kabuki-cho, where we caught the film, "I am Legend." I talked a little bit about it in kusoyaros post, but I did like the movie a lot. There was a particular scene that was very emotional for me actually, though I feel kinda silly mentioning it...

Cut for a kinda big spoiler....

Mid-way through the movie Will Smith's character's dog is bitten and contracts the virus, and he does what he can in an attempt to save it, but is unable to, and it begins to turn. As this happens he strangles it and in the next frame, drops his dead dog's body next to him. With the injecting and holding down of the dog, it really brought back the sad memory of when my dog died, which also involved needles and holding him (though not strangling him) until he passed. I know it sounds stupid, but I sorta channeled that into the rest of the movie, feeling a lot more for his character and the ass-kicking he serves up later.

But yeah, anyways, I enjoyed it.

After this we headed to Tokyu Hands, an everything department store, and I bought some notecards and what not as presents for back home. I then went to DonQuiotes where I got a gag gift that will involve Craig and embaressing his girlfriend when I see him next. After that we rounded out the evening by going to Arabian Rock, a themed Izakiya. I enjoyed it. The service for some reason was slow that night, but good. It took them a freakind Arabian night to get to the table, but when they did they service was good.

After this we took the train back to Kurihashi, where Teacher parked her car. She dropped me off at my place at around 12, which did not bode well for being awake at work today (I only slept 1 hour in the rest area, and only had one class, so no biggie) and that was the day. I have to say it was a pretty good date all things consitered. Except that it ended so late with work the next day. Oh well.

Anyways, off to get a haircut. I better see if I can get a picture of Milo printed up before i have to go. Later everyone.

In 22 hours I am thinking of playing this.. gimme thoughts!!!

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 16:00:43 GMT

So yes, I procrastinated like a bitch and now tomorrow night I have to spin, dj or whatever the venacular it is for me making noises at the coffee shop in Koga tomorrow night with CDs. Anywho, this is my proposed list. If you think it sucks, please say so. If it's strong somewhere, let me know so I don't fuck it up later. If you have suggestions, of course please make with them. As always, you guys know better than I.

So yes, I want this to have a laid back, sorta lounge-y, dare I say sexy at some points (the end really) flare to it, with a slightly light poppy-ness intersperced. It's not loud dance stuff this time around either, so I tried to avoid anything.

So yes, ideas on songs, order, whatever let me know. I am starting from a faster paced set, so I started fast, get slower then variate...

Hospital Beds -Coldwar kids
TBtF -Kevin Drew
Endlessly -Muse
Perfect - Smashing Pumpkins
With You - Stars of Track and Field
Syncope - Sparta
Infinifold - !!!
Neon Bible -Arcade Fire
Passanger Seat - Death Cab for Cutie
(Another Song) All over again - Justin Timberlake
Divine Intervention -Taking Back Sunday
Trial of teh Century - The French Kicks
Westminster - Kevin Drew
Hotel - Broken Social Scene

that comes to about 53 minutes, but seeing out ends get cut out it should be fine. I know I know, a lot of this I think needs help in the ordering, and I feel like I may be missing entire bands that are good for this while relying to heavily on our friendly Canadian Army of a band. I just know that I like a lot of this music, and I think other people would too.

Okay, let the attacks begin, and if I am not a dick I will try to re-post with what I will eventually play.

A pre-emptive thanks team.

Fuga Slick and 22 pounds

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 01:30:26 GMT

Well it's Friday, and all is well. One week till I find myself back in the ol USA, pretty excited about it. Gotta buy some cheesy stuff for people or something. I dunno, I'll see if I can do that tomorrow. Tomorrow night is that DJ gig, and ofcourse I have yet to post my propsed playlist because I have been well, busy. I'll obviously have to get it done tonight, so if you guys can, please watch for it and let me know ASAP what sucks. Sorry for the overt lateness.

Rocked out with some indoor rock climbing last night, and I haveto say it's slightly addicting. Just as excersize it's nice, but the cost of shoe rental, usage of the wall and a harness when you need one quickly adds up, making it a little tough to rationalize more than once a week. Still, it is just fun when you are doing some fo this stuff.

So two random funny things, one from two days ago, one this morning. This morning I sort of came to like the guy in Shimodate Technical I call "Fuga Sensei." Why? Well, for starts the name. I always wondered who rolled in the pimp ass Fuga that I park nextto in the mornings, and it turned out to be this guy. I mean he is obviously in his 50's but this guy has rims and shit on this car, it looks like he is ready to roll to some Japanese rap premiere, but no, he's going to teach at a tech school.   Also his hair is amazing, it's got the greased back thing going. Thats shit SHINES. It's amazing. With his larger than life glasses he sorta comes out as a comic book character. He does the morning anouncements, and of course his hair is blinding, and he stands in front of the main door. Now unerstand, in a tech school, the kids can kinda be a little excitable and literally just run into the teacher's room without fore-thought. This often happens in the morning. What will happen sometimes is that kids will walk in during the morning meeting, and Fuga sensei, without even turning around, hears the door opening, and while stil talking, reaches behind myself, still facing forward, and slams teh door in their faces. The man does not even miss a beat with his speech, and the face of the kids as the door shuts on them is pretty priceless. So yeah, Fuga sensei, very funny dude.

Then there is my other one. I often lift weights at Sanwa, it's just really convenient to do so. I always usethe real nice bench that is there, because well, it's the nice bench. I usually throw on 20k on each side, and for the most part all bars are 10k, so I assume 50k and just go to town, then add weight from there. I would often get to 60K (135 pounds ish?) and I would start to have a tough time, maybe getting only 5 or 6 out. This would frustrate me because when I did my quick conversion I realized I was a total bitch. This was annoying. Still, I kept going at it here and there, doing less weight (50 or so, sometimes 55) and did a lot of reps. I never go for "max" since I do this un-assisted for the most part. I assume though, that if I had someone spoting me I could probably do 70k, maybe slightly more.

o anyways I go to workout and for the first time in a while kids are in there with me, and they are doing some chest stuff. They eventually get to the bench and I hear them talking and what not. I watch one kid go for the weight I can do (60k) and he can't get it up. The next kid can't either. I, beign an asshole, then go and do five. Tehy all get excited and start saying "nana-juu kilo, sugoi!" Which, when you translate it, is "70 kilos, awesome!" I sorta laugh a bit and being to correct them, telling them that it's 60. They then laugh back. I am confused.

As it would turn out, was the idiot. The bar was not 10k, it was 20k. So basically I had been lifting 10k, or 22 pounds more every lift under the assumption I was well, lifting less. So it turns out I was doing reps of 70k (156 pounds) multiple times, which now makes a lot more sense and makes me feel well, a lot cooler.  So I now can assume my max is a full 22 pounds heavier.

So there it is. I am an idiot. I hope you all have a nice day.

Copying Everyone else....

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 14:51:55 GMT

Stolen from Hsien....

"Go to the Wikipedia home page and click Random article. That is your band's name. Click Random article again. That is your album name. Click Random article 15 more times. Those are the tracks on your album."

Band: Abdelkrim El Hadrioui (Arabic: عبد الكريم الحضريوي)
Debut album: The PhD Project

1. Minerva, New York
2. Shirley Escalante
3. Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk
4. Mount Menzies
5. Eastern Sierra Regional Airpot
6. Hoshiful
7. Tapanuli ogong
8. Grey-winged Trumpeter
9. Bob Shaw
10. Shimose powder
11. Bookbinding
12. Paranoid Android (Seriously, Didn't make that up)
13. Scott Moore
14. Earlington, Kentucky
15. Hot Buttered Soul

I am happy with that.

Passing time and gas at Koga 2nd

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 05:27:33 GMT

It's scary how cold it is here in the morning. I wear my pea coat like a life jacket, and other teacher's occasionaly comment on it, saying how nice it looks, when in reality are probably just jealous of it's seeming warmth. They literally have furnaces in the rooms to keep it warm in here, and teachers huddle around the boiling pots like bums to flaming garbage can in a backstreet. It's better now though, the air is thick with heat since I sit closest to the contraption, possibly the greatest single advantage to this seat, aside from the fact it is across from the uniform check station, which in it's own perverse way has it's kicks.

I'm hungry, but in 35 minutes I'll walk downstairs and the "bread ladies" will be here hawking all sorts of confections. I personally always get curry rice from one woman, then I meander over to the lady on the right and purchase a potato croquet and if I am lucky, a pumpkin pastery. They are limited and rare though, so I make sure to savor them. The drink man generally looks on with a mild scowl hidden behind a bored look. I never purchase his drinks so I suppose his scowl could root from that.

Twice today I have been approached by students who have seen me with a a certain girl outside of school, which is always interesting. It's annoying when cute teachers are around when this happens,  I would wish for them to imagine me as a singular, strong entity, braving the composite Japanese micro-verse, not as some lecherous asian girl crazed foreigner here only to get his kicks. I suppose I'm a bit of the former and guilty of some of the later. But no one is a Form, no one is an ideal, so I suppose I should just shove the facade and laugh about it, which I try to.

I really need to have some fancy occasions to go to after work. I don't of course, so many of my ties are in disuse. It's funny, before I go to bed I have in my head an idea of what I will wear the next morning; maybe the orange tie with the dark slacks, white shirt or blue? But without fail I awake and it is cold and I am tired and I'm running late and oh look the cordoroys still have the belt in them that would go okay with a sweater not enough time to get a button down on under it so no tie just sweater okay lets do it. Oh how the fashionably foward mighty have fallen.

I also don't understand the obsession with lab-coats here. As I turn my head I note three teachers that have them on, none of them educators of the sciences. Apparently it's status quo for a majority of teachers to wear a lab coat if they are so inclined. And they are inclined. I find this to be a wanton misuse of lab-coats; it really distingushed those of the scientific profession. I remember thinking when I first arrived in Japan, "Damn, there are a lot of science teachers." I was wrong of course.

I am in particularly stunned with the female students here and how their lower extremities brave the cold. Maybe it's just my imagination, but it almost feels as if the skirts get shorter in winter. I think I havea real answer though. They SEEM shorter because they never changed the length of the skirt, but instead opt to wear layer upon layer on their upper body. A common dressing I have seen is as follows; school shirt, sweater, cardigan, school jacket, short skirt, socks, end. The female youth of Japan seems utterly determined to show off their thighs, temprate zone be damned. And it's not just this school, it is all schools. I crap you not, there are commericalized aspects to this scenerio. You see, while in the halls, it's more short skirts than RIAA lawsuits, but in the class girls usually throw a blanket over their legs to keep warm. that's right, rolling the skirt down is too much trouble, so a small blanket takes it's temporary place. And these are not haphzardly found blankets. They have snap buttons so that the girls can in fact wear them around their waist, unemcumbered and warrm when they walk around the classroom. They are of course adorn with Disney parafemelia ad nausium. So you heard that right, Disney (or perhaps those with licensing agreements with them in Japan) make mini-blankets for schoolgirls with the specific purpose of using said blanket as a temporary longer skirt. I suppose one could call that a niche market. Or just another amazing way in which Japan boggles my mind. Still, on this particular point I reserve the right NOT to complain. Something other than Disney would be nice, though.

Tonight I'll probably go indoor rock climbing again, or at least hope to. It's a little expensive at 1500 yen a pop, but it's challenging and allows me access to a social network of fun Japanese people. So I figure it's a worthy investment of time and money. More-so than say playing Magna Carta: Tears of Blood which I am sure one day I will use as a target while I skeet shoot.   I haven't played that game in months and the shear thought of it disturbs me. I realize it's a Korean game and that sort of makes shit clear. I mean I could imagine Kim Jong Ill making demands on how the game should be, and then the final scatitized product found it's way into my Playstation, and it's subverted context and plotholes were all a part of some great plan of the Imperial Leader to frustrate and unfocus American minds. Mission accomplish I suppose. Anyways Rock climbing, can't wait to do that again. Something that is both humbling and builds self esteem.  My body loves it.

Speaking of my body I think I need a facial. I know I know, I just opened myself up to a whole new operand of jokes and accusations but hold back the star fleet of amusement for just a moment and hear me out.  I have these odd white thingies under my eyelids that I hate. I wonder if they could take care of that? Also, I dunno, that's about it. I never thought about one before, but after reading about Bateman getting one in American Psycho it's been on my list of things to get done. Yet another step into metrosexuality. Oh well. I doubt I will even have the time for this though, because I would only really get it done state-side, since I want to understand what they hell they are doing.

Reminds me, when I get home, the very next day I have to go to the dentist. Which sucks, because I know for a fact they need to take apart a cavity in my back molar. Which sucks, because I wanted nothing more than to eat up the foods I could not sample here in Japan; Smokin Al's BBQ, Pita House Gyros, Salsa Salsa buritos, Good Steer Cheese Dreams... the list goes on.   I know it sounds silly, but the whole Pavlov response is what gets me. I mean my mom used to buy these kick ass stuffed pork chops. Amazing stuff. Just juicy, tasty, perfect. Of course the last cavity I got like, 5 years ago, was the same night my mom prepared those bad boys. I remember relentlessly chowing down on them, even though the pain was acute. To this day now, whenever I think of those porkchops, however delicious they may have been, I get a dull pain in the back of my mouth. I now fear this will be the case with all my favorite foods. Curse you cavities.

Well I really have gone on at length, and I should prep for the next class. I'm sure I'll talk to you all later. And no, I am too lazy to spell check, sorry about that.

The Life Updater (Verbos Happenstance)

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 01:12:14 GMT

Hi, bet your all wondering who I am. The name is Rick, I'm actually one of your friends from long ago who disappeared a few months back. Well here I am posting again. Sorry about that.

So what is up? Lots I guess, which is why i haven't been posting. You know, busy.

EVERYONE: Yeah, busy getting it on with Japanese chicks, partying in Tokyo, and going to Festivals where people hit each other with giant lanterns.

Me: Well, yes actually, that's about right.

EVERYONE: Did we mention that we in congress hold a deep, open hatred for you?

Me: Yes, you've mentioned this multiple times, on various occasions.

EVERYONE: Very well, proceed.

So yeah, things are in general "th3 goodn355." School is invariably a joke recently, as I literally for the last two days in a row have done nothing due to Mid-terms. I sit here and try to amuse myself with the internet. On the plus side I have found some funny stuff like Im in Ur Manger , which I have now watched ad-nausium. Also, thanks to Brad, I have listened to Murmaider to excess, and have played it now to others, who worry over my mental stability because of it.

What else? I'm going to do the DJ thing again before I come back home, on the 15th of December. This time I have 50 minutes and it has to sort of be less dancy and more laid back loungy rock. I'll get into it more in another post, but as always you are all my ins to this stuff and I want to bring the thunder, even if this time it's not so much thunder but more akin to sensual jams. Actually that might be what I call it. "Rick's sensual Jams." There is wordplay, inside jokes and my name in that, which means it's a good working title. The goal is.... oh hell I'll talk about it in another post.

On the good and band front, I ran a half marathon about 3 weeks back now, and well, that was cool. It sucks though, because I am sort of training to run the Tokyo Marathon, but I am pretty sure I fucked up something in my left leg from the half marathon. The tendons behind my knee give way to pain when I run more than 15 minutes. I don't know if i should train through it or take time off, but in either event it does not bode well for a good Marathon time. Suckage. Oh well. We shall see. I just feel bad because Kirk laid out a sexy marathon plan for me, and I fear now that I will not be able to do it the way I want to. Th3 suck.

Also of note is I visited Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Kick ass time indeed, and I finally threw the pics up on Flickr, along with all my back logged pics, including the trip everyone took here to Japan. (Yes, that's how long I had not updated for. Yes, they are mostly pictures of myself with Nick's glasses on) There are varying opinions by different people in JET, but personally I felt Hong Kong was the coolest, whereas Macau and Taipei were sort of up-and-coming but not there yet. Well okay, Macau is sort of like the Vegas of Hong Kong, so it's there, but Taipei sorta needs some help before I consiter it totally metropolitan. Anyways, I am actually working on an update for that, as well as a curtailed one for Thailand, so I will eventually post on these things. As I see it, if Mike has not finished his posts from his time in Japan, I can still lag on my posts of everything there-after.

EVERYONE: Terrible Excuse. Shit, when is Mike gonna update again? That shiz is funny.

Me: I agree.

(Note my ability to deflect expectations upon Mike. Sorry bro.) So yeah, I also took like, 4 very stupid videos that I will post to Youtube soon, but have not had the chance to. But when I do, prepare for marginally forced chuckles and over-all dumb-assedness of yours truly.

Once again for those who didn't know, from December 21st to January 2nd I am home. People have been saying, "Let me know when your free! We should hang out!" Well as of now I am free. No one has really given me solid dates to do stuff, so if you wanna chill let me know when works for you so we can schedule something. I'd like to hit up NYC at least one of the days/nights and if I can do it on a day/night that works for more people I'd love to schedule that. Same goes for night(s) when I head out to Ocean Side. I want to maximize my see-peoples-ness. So help me to help you Barbie, Help me to Help you.

Which reminds me, has anyone notices that Scurbs has taken a turn into serious land? I mean, I don't even know if anyone still watches it, but really, what are they doing? I feel the whole "JD growning up/everyone growning up" Arch/concept/plot/story/thang is getting a little forced. On another point Avatar the Airbender is awesome. I have been waiting and searching for Episode 12 for the last week and feel dorker everytime I do it. I watch Heroes, abed grudgingly. As Hsien knows, I only watch it now for the hair. MILO FAN CLUB 4 LIFE YO!

Most anime/manga is junk recently save two things; The Naruto Manga is finally approaching topics/battles that I actually want to see, but even then it could be just another tease and these characters will disappear/avoid fighting one another and it will go on again for another 50 chapters. Oh well. Here is to hoping on that one. Gundam 00 is actually kinda fun, in terms of how it takes the usual, well abused Gundam theme of Warring states and sorta added some interesting, relivant elements to it. Terrorist attacks are now a promonent concern in the show, which I find to be (granted, a milking of contemporary paranoia to engadge the audiance but still) a nice way to mix issues of reality with that of an anime. Though the question in the show that sort of begs to be answered is that in this iteration, is it not the Gundams that are themselves terrorists too? I feel that if the Gundams in this show were to take action in the manner that they do in today's world (maybe not as Gundams in today's world, but as say super advanced planes/tanks), they would be labelled Terrorists before they would be consitered heroes. An interesting concept and it's pretty much the reason I am watching it now. How old am I getting, huh? I used to watch anime because Giant Robots were Fucking Cool, now I watch because I am concered how a piece of Japanese media will portray armed intervention of globalized political conflict.

Oh and I mean, not a big deal but I turned 26 last week, which was cool. Sort of. Driving home last night from a movie (Beowulf, kinda enjoyed it) with Teacher I felt slightly older. A hard moment to explain really. It was night, we were driving and as she does, Teacher was listening to bad grundge rock from back when I was in High School. Save for the Japanese signs though, it was sort of a flashback and I felt like I was driving along on a rainy night back home. I then realized I'd be home soon. I then realized that it was of course not going to be the same as when I was home last time. That both excited me and saddened me a little. An interesting thing. I suppose it's *GASP!* Growing up.

As mentioned, the weekend was cool. The lantern festival of doom happened again, and so hundreds of sweaty dudes did battle in some pit with giant lanterns. It was cool. I did not jump in this year though. In the streets I ran into enough students of mine to hold about 4 classes. Half of them were smoking like little stupid derelicts. Afterwards I was brought to Takeshi's girlfriend's family's house, where me and my guest Carla (she was crashing so she could take atest in Oyama the next day) were fed beer, sushi and Kobe beef. It was pretty rad. After this I hit up Ocha Nova for a second and then chilled at Magokoro Coffee/Cafe/whatever and just missed a jazz show that was being put on by one of my co-workers. There was light drama regarding one of the other westerners here and his friend, and his sister, who are all my friends, so that was interesting. Basically one bud wants to date another bud's sister, and he thinks the one bud won't mind, but the other bud, in fact, minds that his bud (who he's seen hit on/talk about/get with other girls) wants to date his sister. Very funny. Well, funny because I'm not directly involved and I am a malicious observing asshole when I see people walking into a shitstorm of their creation. I'm sure everything will be okay though. That or someone will get stabbed. In either event I'll be okay and entertained.

So yeah, thats about it. Such is my life. I'll get more on here soon hopefully. For now, later.

Monster Hospital

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 01:34:47 GMT

So Monday was interesting, but to really start this I need to go back to last week. The weather is changing a whole lot recently; it's hot, it's cold, back and forth. Me, being a genius, sleep with my hair wet which I assume helped me get sick. It pretty much went straight to my lungs, and filled them to the brim with icky stuff. This made me pretty short on breathe and it was difficult to sleep. It sucked.

I suffered through it for a couple days hoping that it would see itself off, but it was no use. I think one of the funnier moments was Saturday. Since I was sick I figured I would just get some dinner and then you know, call it a night, rest up. So I call Matt and we decide to go to some Indian Restaurant that's local and sorta new. I think to myself, "Self, you don't care what you look like, so let's go in our comfy camo shorts, and forget about doing the hair, just let it poof out. Also, It's cold, let's wear that doofie purple jacket you got recently from Sanwa, even though it doesn't match. It's okay, your sick, no biggie."

And it was no biggie, even when I saw some friends at the restaurant. It was CJ and Fredric. I knew CJ pretty well, but I did not know Fred all that much, we just ran into one another before at Magokoro coffee. It also seemed that CJ's new gf was one of my adult English students, which was pretty coincidental. In either event we all ate and bsed, and then Fred mentions something is going down at Ocha Nova, my favorite coffee house, tonight. I did not know this. I figured it was open late and hey, maybe they'd be showing some art or something, I figured it would be low key and not that crowded. I figure why not? Matt feels the same. So Matt, Fred, CJ and I head over. (Cj's lady bounces) We get to Ocha Nova and it turns out this is no small thing. The place is full of young cool people. "Shit," I think, "I'm wearing camo shorts and a purple fucking warm-up jacket. I have my glasses on, I am coughing up a lung, my hair is not unlike Donald Trump's and to top it off these flip flops have no traction. Still, I powered on. I mean what were the chances that any girls I knew or had a small thing for would be there?

Turns out the chances were pretty high.

Let's cut to the chase. You know that girl Yuki I went on about from the Night I DJed? Yeah, she was there, in a similar (maybe the same) hot skirt and form fitting sweater. I am standing there with 4 dudes and I decide I am going to talk to this girl. I must have been out of my mind.

At first she is excited to see me, and introduces me to her friend, Friend. Okay so I forgot her name, whatever. There I am, weezing like an asthmatic and trying to not think about not being able to breathe with all the smoke and focus on trying to speak Japanese, and it's not working. Note I also look like a clown. Even due to this we still chat it up a bit, but then she sort of just walks off in what I feel was mid-conversation. I suppose this should not have surprised me, but it sorta did.

I went back to the dudes and chilled a bit, still feeling like crap. Fred was talking up some girls to our left. Yuki went to the stage where music was being played. This impromptu "stage" was just some risen flooring 10 feet to my right. About 20 minutes go by of me just BSing and I decide why not try talking to her again? I go up to the stage, check the band a bit, and start some more small talk. After about 3 exchanges, she and her friend just walk away and go outside. No goodbye, nothing. My ego and appearance are at an all time low for Japan.

Here I am coughing and rejected. I have no idea how I decided to stay around. After a little while some girl singing Jazz jumps onto the stage and goes at it. Near the end Fred, CJ, Matt and I head outside and just BS outside of the coffee house. I suppose it looked sorta bad, but whatever. Fred started drinking beers he brought, and then Leo "aka The Hunk" shows up.

I met him once a while back, the same night I met Fred. This guy Leo was made for Japan. He is from either Brazil or Columbia, but has some Japanese blood. He is a handsome dude, with a predominantly Asian face. He is very low key, does not say much. He speaks Japanese fluently. The man just knows how to kick J game. I can't really explain it in words; he just knows what to say and how to say it, in Japanese. Once he talks to a girl, it's game over. He is the Hunk. I met his girlfriend once, and she was absurdly beautiful. The guys joke around about it, because when I first met her I had no idea that Leo was her BF. So I of course hit on her a bit, and eventually Leo introduces himself as her BF and I was like ..."oh...haha...er... nice to... meet..... ...please don't kill me!"

In either event Leo and his brother show up and we just chill outside. Once again, in America this would not seem odd at all, but in Japan, having a group of 6 foreigners looks a little well.... I suppose dangerous? Shall I say that? Maybe suspicious? In either event it was just us chillin but people walking by would look a little nervous. funny stuff. The girl who works at Ocha Nova, Reiko, tried to ask us politely to leave, but then Leo turned his super powers on her, and she was charmed senseless. She ends up running him out a beer. For free. To quote Wayne's World.. "This guy is good...... This guy is real good." Fun times.

At one point Yuki comes out and starts talking with the group, since she knows Fred and Leo as well. Once again, she sort of darts away pretty quick though, which was a relief since I felt it was not just me then. Still, she was chatting it up inside with some pretty loserish dudes. Then again anyone but me and my crew is automatically loserish, so there you have that. Eventually the place starts thinning out, and Yuki and her friend leave being chased by some cowboy wanna be dude. He eventually walks back in despair. Muahaha. We all then decide to part ways. Matt drives me home, and I all at once fall apart coughing and weezing. I hit the hay, but it was not easy, it was actually sort of hard to breathe.

In the morning I text Teacher Girl and see if she would maybe like to take me to the doctors, since I was literally having trouble sleeping. She said sure, let me know when. I then fell back asleep. I ended up getting another 4 hours in and as I woke up, I felt pretty good. Because of this I told Teacher that we should hold off. She said fine, but that she was going to come to my house today and make me dinner anyways. Yes you heard that right, make me dinner. I have no qualms about this. As the day goes on though, I begin to feel sicker again, which was annoying, since I knew then that I would definitely have to go to the doctors eventually. I decided I would give it a try tomorrow after my classes.

So later on that day Teacher comes over with two bags; one with food and one with cooking stuffs. She was going to make Udon, cut pears and even brought some of her mother's er.. I forget what it's called but it's got meat, potatoes, carrots and other things with this sweet soy sauce on it. She would not allow me to help, and instead told me to go relax and watch Episode 1 of Star Wars, which I was checking out since I remember it being a long time since I saw it.

I then feasted upon udon and savory meats. Delicious. After that I fell on the bed and tried to rest. Teacher cleaned up and watched some of Ep. 1. Fun times. It was real nice of her to come over and do that. She got major points. It also made me feel a bit better.

The next day was Monday so I headed to school. Turns out the schedule got flipped around for some reason, so I had no real classes. One teacher, Arai, noticed this and scheduled two classes together with me. She came over to talk about it and she sort of looked me over. She asked if I was okay and told her that I was a little sick. I told her that I would be glad to do the classes, and then head to the doctors. She then went to "check on something." I sort of knew what this meant. It meant she would talk to my supervisor and the Vice Principal and they would tell me to go to the doctors, which is exactly what happened.

Yuko comes up to me and tells me she made an appointment for me at a new hospital that is on the way home for me. I'd always seen it looming in the distance but never thought to go. I was honestly more comfortable with the smaller HMOs or like, the small family offices, but she had already made the appointment so I figured you know, let's do it. So I told them that I would use a sick day and they said that was fine and I left.

So I approach the large building to the left of route 125 and manage to get a kick ass parking spot. Bonus number one. I walk into this huge, modern building and am pretty impressed. It was buzzing with activity. The layout was actually relaxing, almost like a hotel lobby, and by no means felt like the sterile environment I was expecting. There was this wall in front of me with a bajillion signs pointing this way and that. Luckily, behind that I saw a small office that hada lot of kanji, and below it said in English, "Reception Entrance" or something like that. I figured I'd give it a shot.

I walk into a room full of small desks. I walk to the closest one, sit down and smile at the women behind the counter. She then fires off stuff in rapid Japanese. When I come back at her with my slow, retarded Japanese ("I am Rick Ambrosio. Me, doctor.. sick... job is teacher.. school, before... called..") she got that "oh crap" look. She then came from behind her desk and led me to, oddly enough, another desk outside.

This is a nice long, curving wooden counter and behind it are a bunch of women running around doing who knows what. Turns out it was the insurance checking/sign in station. They all wore odd uniforms, like all Japanese office women do. They actually whipped out a book on English phrases for doctors and were going through it, pointing at questions and pointing to lines. Very funny stuff, but it worked. I was a little annoyed though, because if they didn't use like, super complex keigo speech with me and just spoke plain Japanese, I would understand them. Oh well. I sat at a desk, and one nice girl came and helped me fill out the forms. She then lead me to what I'd like to call the "docking area."

Actually there are no good words for it. It was just this seating area, full of people staring at 10 doors, each with a giant "1", "2" etc. on them. The door opens, and boom, the doctor is there, and you walk in, and it slides shut. It's a lot like a row of garages, it's kind of funny. I half expect one to open and para-military personnel jump out. No such luck.

But here is one interesting thing. I mean, we all know Japan's population is aging; everyone is old or getting older. In day to day life though, you don't really see it, you just hear about it, teachers talk about it, and on occasion you see an old person. But you have to wonder, "Where are all the old people?" Turns out the answer is, "At the hospital."

In the docking area were about 60 or so seats, filled to the freaking brim with aged, old, barely movable people. I mean damn, these people were old. When I walked over, all 59 of them simultaneously bend their heads and stared at me, 118 eyes trying to focus on the white blur in front of them. I think I heard a simultaneous "creeeek" when they turned. It was awkward.

So it was here I expected to wait for a while, since there were well, 59 other people there before me. Turns out I was wrong. The girl who sat me down said eventually they would call my name. I sat for maybe 2 or 3 minutes when all of a sudden door 10 opened, and a short, middle aged nurse poked her head out. We are talking stereotypical nurse duds; odd little white hat, clean pressed white dress, and athletic sneakers to boot. She walked straight towards me at great speed, with her giant glasses making her eyes look larger than they were. She murdered my name, then looked at my inquisitively. I'm pretty sure someone told her, "look outside, find the only non-old person, that's him. Oh, he's also giant and white." So I suppose it was easy for her. She then signaled for me to follow her into room 10, while talking. I had no idea what she was saying, but I was about to hop into the number 10 hangar, and I was doing so before pretty much everyone in the room. Kinda felt a little bad. Kinda felt awesome.

So I walk into the room and on my immediate right is s small bed. To my left is the doctor sitting at a cool looking pc, and in the back sitting on a stool is doctor in training boy, who for the entire time never did anything but sit and stare awkwardly. It was a small room, but it's Japan so I sort of expected that. The nurse immediately takes to sticking a thermometer up into my armpit, because that's what they do here in Japan, the thermometer goes under your arm pit. I suppose it could be worse. While this thing is jammed up my arm, the doctor starts asking me in broken English/half Japanese what is wrong. I use my trusty JET manual to tell him what is up. Again an awkward process, but what I saw him writing on his pc seemed to add up. Eventually he started telling me what he would do in terms of medicine. He prescribed me stuff for the cough, antibiotics, some sort of inhalant thing I had to do at the hospital, and an IV. I pretty much told him I was not about the IV, and he was cool about it, though he was sort of annoyed I didn't want it. I saw it as him just tacking shit on to the bill. I had been sick many times before and never required an IV. (In hindsight, I suppose it would not have been a bad idea though; here I am a week and two days later finishing this writeup, (Okay, or a month later) and I am done with all the medicine but still feel as if my lungs are not 100%. I will probably go back to the hospital to see what is up.)

So I finish talking to him, and we decide I will now undergo my inhalant treatment. I begin to follow the nurse from before into the hallway. This woman pretty much comes up to the bottom of my chest, but for some reason could walk faster than I could jog. It was amazing. So she drops me off in this room where there are a bunch of nurses behind a counter, it almost looked like a bar merged with an ATM; little windows and behind each one a woman doing random things. Actually I should not say random things; all they did was draw blood. More and more blood all the time, vials of the shit. But let me back track a bit.

I had no idea what they were going to do to me. I said no to the IV, but did they really understand me? There was a lot of IVing going on in this room. Another random nurse walks over to me, and starts connecting tubes to this machine next to me. She then pours some liquid into some glass tubular thing, I suppose it looked like a mix between a tea kettle and bong, and hooks it to the machine, which she turns on. She then sort of mimes to me that I am to suck on the one end, inhale it, and then breathe out. Simple. I begin doing so. That's when shit gets weird.

Now I am sure that there were no real drugs in that thing, I am sure it was just some sort of expectorant made to get the shit out of my lungs, but you could have easily fooled me due to circumstance. The second I placed my lips on that thing weird shit started happening. People old and middle aged came in and were getting blood taken, one after another at rapid pace, which freaked me out. Then they role in this person, I don't know, midget, something. It was half a person, half the size of a normal human, a demi human, strapped into a chair and it is there, two feet from me fidgeting this way and that making odd noises. I suck harder on the tube.

Next a boy, maybe 5 or 7 or something comes in with his youngish looking father. The boy is bald, and oddly tan for a Japanese boy. He is wailing something incredible. He seems to look at me and wail even louder. They drag him, screaming towards one of the booths, and hold down his arm and begin draining blood from his spazzing body. I suck harder on the tube.

An old women, unbelievably old is being pushed in a wheel chair by another old woman, maybe slightly less old, followed in tow by a younger girl, maybe 12 or so. They wheel the super old woman to the counter, and she supplicates her withered wrist to the nurse, who fills 4 vials of blood to the brim. I suck harder on the tube.

At some point this all ends, and more people begin to ebb and flow from the room, but my machine is turned off and the nurses look confused. They make a phone call, staring at me. Moments later the small speedy nurse returns, bidding me follow her. I give a friendly wave to the women in the room, shrug and say, "Zen Zen Wakanai" (I have no idea). They laugh. I try to keep pace with the speeding nurse.

She once again seats me next to the hangar door of the doctor and tells me they will call my name. She walks away and all of 30 seconds goes by and my name is called. The hangar door opens and once again I am face to face with the two doctors from before. They check em out again and from what I can tell, tease me a little. Very confusing. The doctor is still disappointed I didn't take the IV. Oh well fuck him. He then rattles off to me while the other younger doctor just sits there rocking back and forth. Finally he starts writing out prescriptions, which is what I really wanted. He hands them to me and I follow Middle aged speed Nurse out of the hanger bay. I wave to the doctors as I leave.

Speed Nurse then leads me to the front desk, where I am greeted by some younger, cute women behind a counter. I am bowed to countless times by both the women at the desk and Middle Aged Nurse simultaneously. I hand what looks like the bill to one of hte women and give my stupid ass smile, which works. They ask me to sit as they giggle a bit and do my bill up. I sit my ass down for about 20 seconds, then have to stand again to pay. I am then led out of the Hospital by some dude, and I ask him where I get the medicine, to which be points across the street to three pharmacies. I ask him which is the best, and he points to one, and I go there. I walk in the door, give my prescriptions to the girl behind a desk, and she runs them through a bar code scanner. I sit down for them to get the stuff in some waiting area, and am served tea. Moments later I am handing money to some dude who tries to explain the medicine to me and then takes my money. I walk back to the Hospital parking lot and got the hell out of Dodge. Actually, I ate Mc Donalds, then went home. Took meds. Slept.

Epilogue. I feel fine now, about a month later, but Japanese Medicine is shit; it takes like 2 weeks to feel better, whereas with American Meds you feel like you can do cartwheels two days later. Weird shit. Anyways, all better now. Sorry this update took like a month to put out, as with everyone else I am damn busy, but Mike's Japan update inspired me to get off my ass and finish this. Sorry if it's rushed at the end, but I think you get the idea. Now I need to get the last 3 weekends out and onto the blog for memorial.

I swear

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 14:43:30 GMT

If another nice, smokin hot girl I know from College/High School contacts me via some social networking sight looking even hotter than she used to saying hi and then reveals to me she is dating some dude who looks like Paul from the Wonder Years, I will kill myself.

A Favor if you can...

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 11:46:27 GMT

Okay, does anyone have pictures of sushi made in America? More specifically, sushi that is more or less "American?" I am talking about things like the Edo Roll from Edos, or like, a California Roll, Dragon Roll, etc? If you do, can you send them my way? If not, make it an excuse to go out and have some sushi and take some pics of it. Hell, make a crazy ass face to scare my students if you can too.

I know this is an odd one, and I know you guys don't have time really, but it would be cool. I'd need it before the end of the month, in like 2 weeks.

Let me know.

Sorry about the lack of posting, I'll get on it.