Guess Who's Back, Back Again

Guess who's back, guess who.....

Okay, enough with the Slim Shady metaphor. However, unlike Mr. Mathers I made a comeback, but to Japan of course and not to the world of white rappers. Though, when I think about it, is rap still alive? Rap seems to have turned more towards hip hop these days. Give me old school Dr. Dre or Snoop Dog any day.

Music aside, I am indeed back after my extended tour in the United States. For those of you keeping up with the blog I returned stateside early March. I extended my stay two weeks over so I could spend a little extra time with family and friends.

As far as what I did stateside I can't really say much. Mainly I spent time (yes I'll say it again) family and friends. I cooked a few meals for my fam which they seemed to enjoy, or were lying through their teeth. Most of my time was spent playing Resident Evil 5 which came out about a month ago, and has sold nearly 1.5 million copies to date. Tyler (one of my closest buds) and I spent quite some time playing through the game and getting all the achievements. Yes I bought it for Xbox and not my PS3, the NPD also backed up my thoughts the 360 would indeed be the better seller by outselling the PS3 version by 350,000 copies.

Aside from Resident Evil I didn't do much else. This was a nice break though. My life in Japan is usually a little busier and time off was definitely needed/wanted. I'm back now though and I had to hit the road running. I was a few days late for the prelim on signing up for classes. So, this past Monday I met with my adviser, Morita (森田)-sensei, in order to figure out what classes I'm going to take this semester. To my dismay last semester we found they would not have the next Japanese language class for me to take. So I skipped ahead and am still taking three language classes. One is designed for reading, another is for grammar and speech, and lastly there's a supplemental class I'm taking for review (extra study time). This of course left me with three more classes I needed to take. The teachers I have suggest that it's better to take art or sports classes due to the fact that you don't necessarily need to know what's being said in order to participate in the class. So I took said advice (since I might as well have fun with these classes seeing as I have a college degree already) and took some artsy fartsy classes. So my schedule is as follows (because I know you all are aching to get a hold of me so here's my timetable):

Monday: Drawing (where you...well...draw things, mainly pencil and charcoal)

Tuesday: Painting (where you...ok I'm not gonna use the same joke twice, but you paint things. First still life then we can do our own thing)

Wednesday: I did have a class but it got changed to Friday, which is awesome because now I have Wednesday off for now. For now meaning my supplement class begins next month.

Thursday: HELL (no this isn't a class but that's what this day feels like to me). First, I have Japanese in the morning. After lunch I have a class Morita-sensei helped me pick out. It's a class on Ernest Hemingway, for those uncivilized folks reading this he was an American writer/journalist. I've not read any of his works but the timing of this class couldn't have been more impeccable seeing as I've dove head first back into literature. This class is also great because we read, well in English! However, I'm sure I'll be acting as more of a tutor seeing as I'm the only English speaker in the class. Lastly, I have calligraphy! I said in a previous post we did a special class on this last semester, but that was just one class. Now I take the class every week. This should hopefully help me learn more kanji and have a better understanding of what/where the symbols are derived from.

Friday: I did have a clay sculpting class, but as I said I needed only 7 classes, this would have made 8 so I decided to drop it seeing as I don't really need any more undergraduate credits. So the Japanese class I should have had on Wednesday is now on Friday.

So far classes have been really cool. After being polluted by the horrible asshole filled American mindset I'd forgotten how nice people and helpful people are in this country. I made a new friend, Akimoto, who is Lydia's (from the UK) tutor. He helped me sign up for most of these classes. Signing up for classes isn't as easy as EKU or other US universities where you can just sign up online after having some sort of guidance or receiving a RAC number. In Japan you have to actually meet with the teacher and discuss with them about the class and get their stamp. *CULTURAL NOTE* For those who don't understand Japan does not use signatures, they use a "hanko" which is a specially made stamp that takes the place of a signature. Although, one would think it would be easier to forge a stamp rather than one's John Hancock.

My language class went from four people to a massive 18 people. As far as people I knew going into the class there were about four, Harrison (UK), Lydia, Stephan (Germany), and Rinsan who was in my class last semester. The other fourteen can easily be split down the middle seven people from Malaysia and the other seven from China. A lot of the girls from Malaysia all watch anime and every time one of them would bring a show up they liked Okumura-sensei (my teacher from last semester) would turn to me to ask me if I knew said series. Of course, sadly enough, I knew them all.

I've also failed to mention the fact that we did get new students this semester. The old Aussie's left and new ones came in. All of them seem very cool (3 girls and 2 guys). The women are über cute but being on the downward slope to 30 (albeit a few years away still yet) I feel much older than these kids seeing as well...they look like kids (save for one).

So needless to say I should have a very interesting time before I come back stateside for good. Yes, if I've not mentioned it yet I've decided to make my living in the USA rather than staying here for more than the original year. I love Japan, and I'll always have the opportunity to come back now. However, I really need to get my hands back on cameras, it's what I want to do and love to do and the more I delay that the likelihood of my chances of making something of myself in the "biz" fades away.

Now, for the part of my blog that discusses books! I recently finished Invisible Monsters by Palahniuk. I really hand it to him and his twist endings. It's possible to guess some of the ending but never all of it. Now I've moved on to a book I ordered off of Amazon (Japanese Amazon that is) called "House of Leaves". I've not read too far into it but it's already very interesting and is sucking me in. This is mainly due to the fact that the book is written in an very interesting way. I'm not a literature analyst nor do I critique it all too often, so I suggest if you're interested in it then look it up on the ole Wikipedia.

Can't say much for movies this time around seeing as I saw "Watchmen" in theaters the first weekend I was in and was utterly disappointed. If you liked this movie, then you're either an idiot or you didn't read the graphic novel. Or, I guess it could be both. Pop, pop, fizz, fizz, what a wonder feeling it is. This is how I'd describe the visuals, I'd get more feeling off an antacid. I can only fear movies will be pretty shitastic this year as they were last (Slumdog was not that good people) seeing as less projects are being green lit due to the stagnant economy.

Lastly, I would like to take time and say that although I don't really understand the need for religion I do indeed have enough respect for those who practice religion to not criticize. Unfortunately, my tolerance is wavering. For the last week I've been woken up as early as 4:30 AM by my Malaysian neighbour who finds the need to pray so loudly I can hear him through the wall. I don't have anything against the praying itself, but when it keeps me up that's another story. This person is also in one of my classes so it makes it hard to say anything to him as I will have to deal with him more than just living next to him. I've tried blasting music from my laptop at him through the wall but he did not falter, I guess I have to give him props for being able to pray through the rather unbearable Street Fighter IV opening "Indestructible".

P.S. Sorry there aren't any pics, haven't really gone anywhere or done anything to warrant me taking out my camera. Although I have to say when I re-entered Japan I was treated to some rather beautiful cherry blossom trees. It was like it was snowing pink petals, quite the site.

It's the FINAL COUNTDOWN

Yes just like the Europe song....but perhaps not as awesome as a Swedish 80s rock band. The title of the blog is of course due to the fact I'll be departing from Narita in less than seven days now.Anyway...I've been down with school for a about a week now and I'm all rested up so I thought this an opportune time to write in the good ole blog.

I know I already talked about my certificate and my presentation but here are a few pics that my teacher sent to me over the weekend.

Top row left to right: Esaki-sensei, Okumra-sensei
Itou-sensei, and another teacher I don't know/didn't have
Middle row left to right: Harrison (UK), Stephan (Germany), Pat (USA)
Bottom row: Martin (Germany), ME (USA!), Rinsan (China), Lydia (UK)

Okumura handing me my certificate.

My best cheese face.

I didn't do much Tuesday-Thursday except for doing a little bit of grocery shopping and figuring out what I need to do before coming back for my stateside visit. Come to find out it's not a lot, just fill out a paper telling my dorm mother where I'm going and then go to the government building in Kofu and get a re-entry visa which will cost me about 35 bucks. Later this week I will also go ahead and by my bus ticket ahead of time to go to Narita next Monday. One of my suitcases broke on the way over but Pat is going to be nice enough to lend me one of his bags since he isn't going to visit stateside for the break.

I also want to thank everyone who helped support my family through a rough time, such as Duke and my friend Tyler. For those of you that haven't heard my father was diagnosed with colon cancer not too long ago. He had surgery last week and was recently let out of the hospital. He's doing great and the situation couldn't have turned out better! So thanks to Duke for helping out with my lil babies (cats) at home, and Tyler for picking me up at the airport come next week while my mother helps my father recover. For those of you who I didn't talk to thank you for your support and I'm glad your thoughts were with us.

Come Thursday, we left for Nagano around 6 or so. The trip was long and the only thing I did was read "Survivor" most of the way. We didn't see snow for the longest time and even when we did it didn't seem like much. Well...needless to say as we started our climb of the mountain that changed quite drastically. The accumulation was already 4.5 ft when we got there. Out hotel room was for 7 people: Ho-san (Taiwanese), Emi (Japanese), Mio (JPN), Martin, Stephan, Pat, and myself. It was a traditional style Japanese room with tatami mats and futons. Here are a few pics:

So like I said there was plenty of snow. By the time we arrived at the hotel it was 9 PM and we were all starving. The two Japanese girls wanted to go to the onsen and the rest of us decided to go to find something to eat atop this chilly mountain of Madarao. We walked about four hundred yards from the hotel to find a very small restaurant where I had huge tasty plate of spaghetti. We went back to the hotel and we all pretty much went to sleep fairly quickly.

The next morning I got griped at because I snored most of the night. Hey, I couldn't help it I had a cold. Patrick was the one that griped the most, but come to find out he snored as much as me if not more, which I found very funny. After having a nice buffet breakfast, which for me mainly consisted of bread and ham, we all went to rent ski clothes and snowboards.

I had to try on a million pairs of pants until they finally found the largest pair that fit me. Gear and all it cost about $77 for both days of playing in the snow. However, after getting on the slopes I found that my gloves weren't that great and I could probably use some goggles as well. I figure it was worth buying all of this seeing as I'd really like to do it again sometime in the near future. However, when I went to buy these things I found the most awesome toboggan of all...it was like a head of white hair with black died tips. Needless to say I was the goofiest looking fool on the mountain that day. I don't' have any pics of the actual snowboarding because we were all doing it and no one wanted to risk bringing along their camera and breaking it, myself included. And to answer your question....no I'm not good at snowboarding. It's strange because I seem to be opposite most people, I can go fast, stay on the board...but going slow or stopping are another story all together. So needless to stay I fell, or rather had to fall, quite a few times and I'm still feeling that pain. Here are a few pics of the view and some things around the hotel:






So after about 5 hours of boarding I headed back to the room on my own. I fell asleep waiting on the others to come back. I was so tired I just laid there as everyone played cards and waited on dinner time to roll around. Finally dinner did roll around it was pretty tasty. It was kinda sad because I ate from the "Kid's Corner" but it had some tasty tempura (fried shrimp), and karage (chicken nuggets). The best part was desert where we were treated to a tasty chocolate fondue fountain :D

The next morning we woke up later than the day before and headed down to the dining hall for the same breakfast we had the day before. However, before doing so we all had to stare in amazement at our window. I have to explain the situating of the room and this hotel for you to understand these pictures. We're on the second floor, and outside our window is an overhang that is on the front of the hotel. As I said there was plenty of snow and the pics above with the nice mountain views were taken from that window. Well...check this out, this was what happened after one night:


I couldn't believe my eyes, and if I ever stay in Kentucky at any point in the future I'll never complain about snow (which I never really have unless it closes stores I want to visit).

After yet another painful day of falling we all went to the onsen at different points in the day and kind of relaxed till we departed at about 5 PM. We took our time going down the mountain as we didn't have chains or snow tires. Unfortunately, right after reaching the base of the mountain one of the girls tells us she forgot her wallet. We were all kind of mad but it's an honest mistake, so we wasted an hour going back up and coming back down the mountain. We stopped at good ole McDonald's where we had some nice greasy food to hold us over until Kofu. The ride back seemed faster for some reason. Probably because I was in so much pain.

I've not really done a ton of stuff since being back from Nagano. I did finish "Survivor" finally, I kept saying I was close to finishing it to people but I had only read one hundred or so pages. I ended up reading the remaining two hundred within the first day of being at Nagano. I also picked up Neil Gaiman's "Coraline" over the weekend because I want to see the movie while I'm back in the states. It's basically a kid's book (although an interesting one) and I breezed through it in a day. Now I'm reading Palahniuk's "Lullaby" and I'm enjoying it. I've kind of put Sawtelle on hold but I'm definitely going to finish it soon. "2666" is way back there on the burner seeing as it's going to take me some time to read, so I may as well save it for the other part of my stay in Japan. I've been looking into purchasing a Kindle because I've gotten so much back into reading, it's pricey but seems quite convenient. The biggest downfall is that the books for it aren't very cheap. However, much like an iPod you're paying for the convenience of being able to carry around so much media rather than having to tout around a brick ton of books. This is especially nice because the Kindle 2 is as thin (maybe thinner) than a pencil. So all you good friends and family out there that love me, BUY ME THIS! Just kidding....maybe....

As I said before I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone since it's been pretty much half a year already, although to me it doesn't feel like it. I'm ready to get my Street Fighter 4 on with all my peepz!

First off, it's been quite a few weeks since I've posted anything. To be honest not a lot has been going on of late. Starting from where I left off the only really cool thing I got to see was a end of the season festival known as "Setsubun" (節分) which means seasonal division. They are on an older calender here and spring officially starts quite early. Although, you can tell from the weather that it's really still winter here....albeit we did have a few really nice days here that were like "t-shirt weather".


Anywho, this particular Sestubun theme is letting the bad spirits out of the house and let the good luck flow in. To celebrate kids usually throw nuts at men dressed in Oni (demon) outfits whilst saying "Oni out, happiness in". I tried to take a few pics with my cellphone but unfortunately none of them turned out. The best part were the really small children getting pictures with the Oni, it's like they were making the child cry on purpose. It really look detrimental to the kid's health, but hey it's their culture.

Other than that I've not really gone out and done anything that warrants pics or awesomeness. As a nice present for our Japanese class coming to an end our teacher, Okumura-sensei, was nice enough to drive us and pay for our meal at Red Lobster!

One thing I did really enjoy was that we were given a special caligraphy class one day where we were taught how to paint different kanji via brush and ink. I really enjoyed it and it's great kanji practice. Here are a few pics of the work I did during the class (I'll probably be taking the actual class next semester):

This is the kanji "Ryu" for Dragon that I asked
the teacher to do for me.

I've been doing a lot of prep for a presentation for my class that we all have to do at the end of the semester. I ended up doing mine on Akira Kurosawa, who I believe was and still is one of the most influential directors of film. It went rather well and afterwards I recieved a certificate of completion in front of everyone, which was a good feeling.





As far as filling my time I usually just come back to the dorm and chill out of late because of all the test prep as well as my speech prep. Though, school is over now and I hope to be able to get out and do a lot before the break is over. Although, besides playing too much DOTA (a mod to Warcraft 3 for PC), I've been reading a lot and piling up books to read after I finish the ones that I'm already reading.

As I said before I'm reading "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle" which is progressing rather slowly. I truly enjoy the book but for some reason it's taking me a while to wade through. Another book I picked up shortly after getting the aforementioned book was "2666" by Roberto Balano. Tis a weighty read of nearly 1000 pages >.< I've not read too much into it so I can't really reveal anything about it. Since I thoroughly enjoyed "Knockemstiff" by Donald Ray Pollock, I decided to pick up it up because author Chuck Palahniuk thought really good of it. However, then I recently started thinking while I loved the movie Fight Club, and enjoyed the recent Choke, I'd never read any of his books.




So I decided to start off with "Survivor", needless to say I was blown away, with fiction like this I find it very hard to put down. So I caught the Palahniuk bug and ended up purchasing all of his fiction works except for "Snuff" which I cannot currently find in Japan.

While the lack of "Snuff" does make me sad, I'll be able to buy it soon because I'm going to be on a plane back to the states in less than two weeks. I'll fly from Narita at about 5 PM on March 2nd here, then travel back in time and arrive in Louisville at 8 PM March 2nd. Not a bad three hour flight if I do say so myself....I wish....my trip will actually be like this: 3.5 hr bus ride to Narita, 2 hr wait before flight, 13 hr flight to Houston, 3.5 hr layover, and then about a 2hr flight to Louisville...jet lag cometh.

Needless to say I'm glad I get to come back and see my family. Next on the list will be my friends :D But then of course there's my prized possessions....MY KITTIES!
It's going to be a well deserved break and I'm really looking forward to everyone, so if you're reading this blog and wanna get up with me when I get back either dial my old digits after March 2nd or send me an email!

Tokyo, Disney Sea, and Kyoto PART 2 of 2!

Well here we are again. Yeah, yeah...I know it's been like a freaking month but I've been a busy guy here of late. Class has gotten a little bit harder so I'm trying to keep up. I've also been looking for all kinds of English teaching jobs (part-time and full-time alike) as well as searching for a school to possibly go to for a my master's here. However, still about six full months here so just kind of have to wait and see what happens. Even if I can't end up staying in Japan it will still have been worth it all.

Before getting full force into the rest of my journeys I would like to talk a little bit about film. Sorry, but this is what I do. So please bear with me on this one. For those of you who don't keep up with me all too well it's more or less my dream to make an awesome film. Mainly I would love to make an awesome realistic drama. Some examples of something I would like to make possibly could resemble Ikiru (Akira Kurosawa) or Let There Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson). Basically the study of the man, human emotions, or just plainly put, the human mind/heart. I watch at least one film a day no matter how good or bad it might be. The more I cram into my brain maybe I can have the ability to portray the thoughts and feelings I want to through picture and sound.

Last week before going to Kyoto I watched almost three films a day. A few that really stood out to me were "Slumdog Millionaire" which is directed by Danny Boyle of "28 Days Later" and last years "Sunshine". This film isn't the best thing ever but the story is quite interesting and the setup is very good. The only bad points I can call out are a slow final act as well as some chase scenes coupled with odd music making it feel like more something that would be playing on MTV.

Next up is "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". SEE IT. Yes it's very long and yes some of the shots are a tad too soft a times, especially composite shots. However, I think this small draw back only leads to adding more of a storybook feeling to the film. It's a very sad, yet heartwarming story about a man who ages backwards. Brad Pitt plays said man and does a great job doing so. Kate Blanchett does a wonderful job as does the remainder of the cast. The film runs nearly three hours credits and all, so if you decide to go to the theater for this one prepare yourself for a long one...

Next is "7 lbs" starring Will Smith. First, I would just like to say...I don't like Big Willie. Ever since Fresh Prince I've just never liked him. However, he tends to do well in dramatic roles. The film is unfortunately a tad too predictable which made it hard to get through. It's more or less a film to watch if you've got some extra time on your hands.

Next, is "Che Part One". Unfortunately, I have not seen the second part as of now but hopefully soon I will be able to view it. This movie, as the title should more or less indicate, is about Ernesto Che Guevara. I'm sure at one time or another you have seen a picture of him seeing as it was actually named one of the most famous photographs in the world. For those of you who don't know Che was a famous Argentine Marxist, revolutionary, author, physician, and guerrilla leader. Che was among the revolutionaries lead by Fidel Castro whose intention was to overthrow the USA-backed Cuba by Fulgencio Batista. I even read his book entitled "Guerrilla Warfare" a few years back. Needless to say even long after his death more than forty years ago he become an enigmatic figure for countercultures. The film stars Benicio Del Toro (Traffic, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Sin City, and upcoming remake of The Wolfman) who of course plays Che. It starts out by taking you in and out and of interviews and events that happened (or rather may have happened) during a short trip to the USA using black and white, whereas the color portions of the story take place when he decides to join the revolution and that's the jumping point of the main story taking place. I'm truly interested in this person so maybe without such an interest it could drag out in another's eyes. Including the second portion this film will be close to four hours long in all. I guess that's possibly why the split it into two parts. If you like history or a good examination of it then you should check it out, it comes to limited theaters in the USA very soon.


Now with this last film I hope not to offend some of the readers on this blog. "Religulous", which takes a look at modern society coupled with the complexities of religion and the type of thoughts that it can spread. Bill Maher takes you through a journey talking to various people of all walks of religion from all around the word. I myself am not too much of a religious man. Would I like to believe there is something more after this life, yes who doesn't. However, my scientific mindset always leads me to believe otherwise. Bill never tries to sway any one's beliefs, but only points out things about religion that just doubt add up. As I said this movie wasn't made to sway beliefs or offend, only to raise questions instead of blindly believing in something without being able to question it. If you're an open minded person, religious or not I think this is worth watching as some very valid questions are raised, as well as religious thinking being compared to what we believe is a very logically thinking world today.

Now back to Disney Sea, last time I left off around the point where we had just gone on an Indiana Jones ride in jungle portion of the park. We made our way back to the center of the park to view the one show I wanted to see "BraviSeaMo". The videos (as always loud) won't explain that much but basically it's a story of a god of water and a god of fire who share some sort of passion for each other. While the story isn't too clear the effects and music really made this show worth watching.

Afterwards, we had some time before we could use our "Fast Pass" tickets (mentioned these in the last post) for Tower of Terror. So we decided to walk around for a bit and we ended up at a castle built on the outside of the volcano in the center of the park. There was an attraction there but it closes after dark. It's some sort of walk through attraction where you solve puzzles to get out. Seemed really cool but the line was always really long and there was no fast pass for it. So we toured the castle itself which had all kinds of neat things to see like a pendulum moving back and forth hitting small chess pieces down, optical illusions, and a small pond where (if you pay 100 yen) you can guide a boat around the world while trying to avoid other boats and sea monsters. Here are a few pics from that area.

Forgot to mention I went on the
20,000 Leauges Under the Sea ride...

After this, Ho and I refilled our popcorn and headed to find some place for dinner. We ended up at an Italian restaurant where I had pizza and she got some sort of pasta. During this time the final show of the night was going on and we could watch some of it from where we were sitting. As we finished eating we got to go outside and see the final fireworks go off and this is about the time most people began to leave the park.

Then...it was time. Time for the Tower of Terror. I'm not scared of rides like this, but maybe I should after all the bad stuff that's happened stateside (such as the loss of a head as well as some legs). Ho-san cannot stand rides the least bit. So knowing how bad this one was going to be it took me nearly half an hour or more to convince her to come on the ride with me. She even wanted to leave the park with me there and have me find my own way back to the hotel. The whole time before the ride she was breathing really hard and just gripping on to me. I actually thought the ride would be worse but it's really easy on you for a free fall type of ride. However, it was still enough to scare the living piss out of Ho-san. I wanted to buy another picture (like I did from the Indian Jones ride) but she wouldn't allow me to and rushed us out. We then made our way to the exit, shot a couple of pics and left.





We got back to the hotel and we pretty much hit the bed. I hadn't done that much walking in quite some time and was a little sore. Ho-san then thought it would be a good idea to put two heating pads on each leg. I was soon falling asleep when about 15 minutes later I woke up and my legs felt like they were burning off! Little did I know these pads were medicated. I tore them off but the burning stayed there for a while, Ho-san helped me wash my legs off with a wet cloth and there was so much of the medication on my legs that her hands started burning too!!!!
Needless to say I will never use those things again, or at least not that many. We were going to do some more things but the next day one of my problems, out of the myriad ones that I have, kicked it and would have made it difficult to walk around as much as a had on the previous day. I still wanted to go to FujiTV and such but Ho-san thought it best to just head back to Kofu early and get some rest. Before going I had to get me some Krispy Kreme donuts and I spent a whopping $20 for dozen of those delicious bitches. The wait was about 45 minutes, but the upside to this is that they serve you free donuts in line :D


After getting back from Tokyo I pretty much sat around and played Xbox (beat Prince of Persia and Gears of War 2), watched a bunch of movies (most of which I mentioned), and read a little bit. A few days later Pat came back from America and we sat around playing some Xbox. Shortly after I left for Kyoto with my buddy Bob.

Kyoto is a pretty awesome place to see Japanese history. I saw all kinds of Temples. I took nearly 300 pictures whilst there. Some places you couldn't take pictures so it was kind of disappointing. One of my favorite places called "Sanjyuusangendou" (三十三間堂) housed a huge amount of Japanese national treasures. Most of these treasures are statues that represent Buddhist deities. One of which is Kanon, and they had hundreds of this one statue. It was just amazing too see that many artifacts in one location. I also visited some more popular temples such as Kinkakuji and Ginkakuji. However, my favorite of all of them were temples containing "chi-tenjou" which translates to "blood ceiling". A lot of my teachers didn't even know what this was and Bob told me it wasn't too popular with the Japanese people. However, I found it very interesting. During the time of Tokugawa, he left his castle and it was attacked and held under siege for nearly two weeks. After they knew of their immanent defeat, as honorable bushi (samurai) would do, they killed themselves. About 300 to 400 killed themselves that is. Since the lord was away for so long when he came back to the castle the blood and oils of the dead bodies had stained the floors. Due to some circumstances, those of which I did not understand, they could not be given proper burials. So as a monument they put the floor of the castle into various buildings and temples throughout the area. This happened about four or five hundred years ago. I saw two locations with this and in one you could even clearly make out a bloody hand print. Maybe some people think it's morbid, but it's history and that's why it interests me.
Here are pics of a lot of the temples I went to with Bob.

This is actually a man made sand structure.
I can't imagine the patience it took to make this.

Lil Buddha is cold

Evil bunny.....

Make a wish....

As you can see in this picture as well as previous
ones there is like a carpet of moss in the garden.
Needless to say it was pretty awesome looking.

Panoramic of Sanjyuusangendou (三十三間堂)

Busy street in Kyoto

Some Japanese history about the blood ceilings

Old Japanese outhouse >_<

My green tea and me. The other thing is mochi,
it's a candy type thing made of rice, it's not too good
in my opinion anyway. By the way, this is green tea
people not the crap you buy at Kroger, that is
not in any way green tea.....
This tree is like 750 years old or something.
Reminds me of the Mana tree from SNES's
Secret of Mana.....

BLOOD CEILING! Why someone hasn't made
a heavy metal song about this, I do not know...

Random palm tree in the mountains, even
Bob got a good laugh out of this one. I wonder
what it's doing so far away from the coast ><

This sign looked funny to me....

Kyoto Tower obervatory level

After sightseeing for a full day we checked into our hotel in Osaka. After taking a refreshing shower we met with Bob's old college buddies as well as one of this professors for a sort of party to bring in the new year. I threw back a couple of beers, had some sashimi (raw fish), and lots of other cool things to eat. My palette has certainly widened since coming to Japan as I only ate chicken, beef, bread, and cheese before leaving the states. Maybe I can finally get a little healthier now.

After having fun with Bob's group of people we walked down to what Bob called the "dirty minded" place. There's a red light district in Osaka where old ladies sit near the street where young (well sometimes a little older) girls sit behind them. They invite you to come and talk wit them and basically arrange an agreement on how much you will pay for this girl's services. I've seen prostitution in America but never on such an open level such as they had there. Sorry ladies, but there were a few girls there whose beauty was so unattainable that I'd have to pay for something like that. Not that I did tho, I still hadn't received my loan money at that time, but I might have been tempted had I already had the money. Guess there are larger forces at work keeping me from doing bad things. Oh, and sorry, you can't take pictures because there are patrolmen walking the streets. I was the only foreigner in sight as well....

We left the red light district and went back to the hotel and crashed for the night. We woke up the next morning and went back to Kyoto to check out a few more temples and such and topped the night off with Kyoto Tower (I'm beginning to think that Japan has a tower in every city because they have a short person complex). We then started our hellish journey back to Kofu by bus. I didn't mention but I took an overnight bus there and back from Kofu. It was pretty much pure hell. The seat reclines nicely but for a gaijin there's just not too much space to relax. However, coming back was much better as I was very tired and managed to get a few hours of sleep.

A week or so after that Ho and I went over to Isawa to check out the "ashi onsen" (leg hot springs). I assumed it was some sort of onsen like any other where you pay to go in but these are actually around the station and bus stops of Isawa, they also had onsen for your hands.

My Kappa (legendary humanoid turtle being
in Japanese lore) friends and me chilling out.

A leg onsen near a bus stop.

Look at them hairy legs, Ho-san told me she
doesn't have to shave her legs....somehow I
have a hard time believing that....

Contemplating life while soaking the feet.

Just me and a funny hat....

Since these trips not a lot has happened. I went for an interview at a local language school to get a part time job. They called me in but then told me they were fully staffed. How strange is that. They did add that things are always changing because of students coming and going so I might be teaching again very soon. My Xbox also broke down whilst in the care of Patty. I don't think it was his fault but he was nice enough to help me pay for shipping it back to the states. Microsoft is going to fix it for free thankfully, but now I must devise a way to get it back to me seeing as Street Fighter IV and Resident Evil 5 come out somewhat soon!

I also managed to hack my PSP with the help of a Pandora battery and probably have near 100 games on my external. The great thing about hacking a PSP is not only the custom firmware and all the things you can tool around with, but you can take PS1 ISOs and convert them to a format that the PSP can play. So I'm about 35 hours in Xenogears again (probably my third play through of this lengthy, yet awesome game).

I also started using Amazon in Japan to order things for a generally cheap price and only about $4 for same day shipping! Gotta love being in a small country. I ordered a new book to read since I've been looking for some good fiction of late. I sold out and went with what most critics thought was one of the better fiction works of last year, David Wroblewski's first novel "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle". Wroblewski's attention to detail and the way he constructs the story is quite enthralling. It's very Hamlet-esque in many aspects, and you gotta love ole Bill and his greats. I find it quite hard to put it down at night when I start reading. For those of you who like works of literature and fiction you should check this one out, and as sad and lowly as it is...this is my first book in which was chosen as part of Oprah's book club...at least she has good taste in books I guess. Another book that I bought on release last year that I think is worth checking out is Donald Ray Pollock's "Knockemstiff" which is a story about all sort of backwater hillbillies and deviants in an imaginary town with the same name as the title.

Well I'm sure there's enough to digest here so hope you enjoyed it, and hopefully next time I'll change the music around. The semester break is a mere three weeks away and I'll have about six weeks off to do some more exploring. Hopefully, if things work out I'll be going to Nagano to ski the weekend after we get out of school. I can't wait!