FUK.U.OK.(A)

Hmmm...

2007-03-10T16:47:00.000+09:00

Im thinking about buying a karaoke machine for next year. Any thoughts? Go for it? No?

Long time no see

2007-03-07T14:00:00.000+09:00

Well, on the request from my good friend Pham, I've decided that I should probably update this. I figured that everyone had stopped reading it a long time ago, but I guess I was wrong?

I've been pretty busy over the past month or so with finals and other stuff like that. Almost every class had a paper due in the same week, and then we all had the Independent Study Project presentation to worry about, so pretty much all of February was spent doing work...and partying a lot. Funny how those two go hand in hand sometimes?

So, after the presentations, I had about 4 days to unwind, and then my parents came for about a week. We started out by hanging out in Fukuoka; we went to Dazaifu, the Mongol Wall, and some other stuff around where I live. Then, we took a day trip to Nagasaki and wandered around there for the day. We saw the memorial that marks where 26 Christians were crucified, went to a few temples, and then took the cablecar up one of the mountains to an observation point. Got some cool pictures from there.

Then, we went to Beppu, which is famous for its hot springs. We wandered around there and then the next day took a trip to a city called Usuki, which has a series of Buddhas carved into the stone wall from around 1200 or so. That was pretty cool and peaceful, cause no one else was really there.

After that, we took the train back to the Beppu area and went to this park on a mountain that has hordes of semi-wild monkeys that they feed every day so that they stay. It was pretty crazy seeing hundreds and hundreds of monkeys just mulling around and ignoring all the people snapping pictures of them. They had a funny sign that warned you not to look at the monkeys in the eye "because they will attack you and others around you". Pretty scary warning.

But yeah, I have about 100 pictures of really cute monkeys and a lot of monkey babies fighting each other on a slide and playing leap frog, so if you ever want some, just let me know. I also got a good picture of me looking giddy next to a big one eating something.

Then we went to Mt. Aso, climbed it (3rd time for me) and looked into the active volcano. From there we came back to Fukuoka. After that, I took my parents to Jusco, walked along the beach and went to the 100Y shop. All in all I had a really good time with them, but it got frustrating at times since they dont speak any Japanese. It was a little like being with a 4 year old, having to explain menus, relay questions such as "do you want rice with that?" between them and the server. But it was a good time. I think they had a good one too.

Dragostea Din Tei

2007-02-04T20:37:00.000+09:00

So the reason why that song "Dragostea Din Tei" is still super popular over here in Japan was finally explained to me while dancing to it last weekend. In the song when they say "numa, numa yay" it sounds to Japanese people a little like "noma, noma yay" which means something close to a really shortened form of "let's drink, let's drink yay".

Now it all makes sense...

Also, it snowed here on Friday...it's weird to see palm trees and snow.

Cafe Pube

2007-01-16T23:40:00.000+09:00

On Saturday Emilie, Chris, Elizabeth, Matilda and I tried to go see what the hell they serve over at this place a 20 minute bike ride away called "Cafe Pube", but of course it was closed. So I took a picture to document the failure before we went to a ramen place across the street. Strange how the sign has bottles and then a strange hair-esque shape. Maybe they really do know what a pube is?

Then we went bowling, were I managed a 160 on the second game and was pretty shocked at how fucking awesome I am, but I mean what else should I expect?

Then we went back to Emilie's room to play euchre, but that then broke into about a dozen rounds of Ride the Bus before everyone had rode the bus. This later just turned into drinking and more drinking, thus culminating in a weird five person dance party at about 2 in the morning to rap and that "everytime we touch i feel the static" techno song. I dont remember when I stopped dancing, but then all of a sudden I woke up on the floor about an hour later. It was pretty weird, and apparently I spooned with Matilda on the floor for that time, but I can't really remember much of that? So here's a picture of me recoiling from the flash during the dance party. Enjoy.

ひさしぶり, OH SNAP!

2007-01-12T15:25:00.000+09:00

So yeah, its been a long time since I last posted. A lot of it is cause I went back to the US and didnt really have that much to say there.

Being back was great. I got to see a lot of people, but then there were a few people that I didnt end up seeing, mostly because I fucked up the time management aspect of the trip, so I guess Ill have to hang out when I get back for good.

Switching countries wasnt all that weird, but its strange the stuff that I picked up in Japan. Here there doesnt really seem to be a taboo against talking with your mouth full, because people just cover their mouths with their hand and talk at the same time. I realized I was doing this at some point...cant remember when. Probably Georgios or something. Also, when you pay for stuff in Japan you dont hand the money to the cashier, you put it in a little tray and then they take it from there. I got so used to it that when I went to go buy pizza at Georgios I put my money down on the counter and then thought about it for a while and realized I didnt have to do that. Sort of a weird habit.

Last night we went to the bar, ended up getting mildly belligerent, came back to the Kaikan, drank the giant 2L can of beer Emilie got me for Christmas and attempted to play Zelda (I sucked at it drunk), but then opted to sit around yelling at each other and trying to get other people to come hang out with us. End of the story: now I have a head ache...pictures to come.

Sick and Sicker

2006-12-15T19:25:00.000+09:00

It was probably a bad idea to go out and do all-night all-you-can-drink karaoke on Friday after I realized I felt like I was catching a cold...but then I did anyway...and chain smoked or something. So, by Saturday I was feeling really shitty. By Sunday night had a really high fever, had my heater turned up to like 84F, was under a blanket and shivering for a couple hours until the tylenol took it down a little bit. So, pretty much since Sunday I've been sick, but now it's turned into a cold that makes me cough so much I have to leave classes so I dont end up stopping the class. I havent had an appetite in about a week, and I havent been able to sleep through a whole night. It really sucks.

So, in my last post I was complaining about so much free time, so you can guess what it was like sitting around sick for a long time. Since Sunday Ive finished three books and beaten Mario Kart way too many times.

I just heard about my host family, and on the sheet they filled out when they signed up, it asked if they have pets, and they wrote that they have two dogs and then went on to say which kinds. Im so excited to get to play with dogs now! Oh yeah, they also have three kids of varying ages and sexes, but they invited me to a party on the 23rd, and I cant go, because Ill be coming home. So I have to wait to meet them until later.

Since my computer's broken, and this computer wont let me post pictures on here for some reason, you're not gonna get any...sorry.

Cant wait to see everyone when I get back for sure.

Too Much Free Time

2006-12-05T18:28:00.000+09:00

So, with a broken computer theres not a lot to do throughout the day. I only have so much homework and can only venture out into the unknown of Japan so many times each day without going bankrupt, so Ive been reading a lot. I used to sit and watch movies when I ate dinner, but now Ive gotten used to holding a book in one hand and using chopsticks to eat at the same time. Its a pretty weird skill, as I dont know when Im gonna have to do it again...

So, in the past week, Ive read a book and a half and slept an unreasonable amount. Its weird...but the books are good.

On Saturday it was Chris`s 21st birthday, so we went to the club and got drunk to celebrate Chris turning 21...even though the drinking age is 20 here...sort of weird. I vaguely remember coming back to the Kaikan, but dont really remember paying for the taxi, except I remember how much it was exactly...weird how those things work.

So, Im gonna be in Michigan and Chicago for a while over Christmas and NYE, but Im not quite sure the exact dates, but heres my guess:

23-26 Beaver Island
26-28 EL
28-3 Chicago
3-7 EL/AA

I think thats what it is, but I dunno...so lemme know if you wanna hang out/have a place for me to sleep? You will be rewarded greatly...probably.

Broken Comp

2006-12-01T16:01:00.000+09:00

So, sometime over the past week my computer broke down in a really weird way. It only works if I hold it so that the keyboard is vertical, then it works, but as soon as it sits normal it sort of freezes until you put it vertical again. So, thats partly why I havent updated in a while, but also Ive just been busy a lot of the time/tired a lot.

Today I kept complaining about how effing cold it is here, as Im wearing a sweatshirt and my winter coat and still think that its cold. Well, I just checked the weather here and it says that its 57...which I dont know if I believe it, but regardless, Im gonna be fucked when I go back to Michigan in a few weeks...

Sumo For Real

2006-11-21T14:54:00.000+09:00

So the title of my last entry included fatties, because we went and visited a sumo-training ground, only to find out that they had all gone to Fukuoka for the big national tournament, so there were none there really to talk with us. So partly because of this some of us went to the final day of the Fukuoka sumo tournament, one of the four (?) national tournaments in Japan. So we got to see lots of overweight guys in thongs tossing salt around a ring and then battle it out for a few seconds.

The whole process of sumo is a really ritualized affair because its so intertwined with Shinto and spirituality in Japan. I cant really explain it, cause I dont really understand it, but before every match the sumo come out and toss salt around the ring to purify it (as per Shinto beliefs) and then they squat a little bit, show boat around, and then wrassle. Who ever gets knocked out of the ring first or has any part of their body other than their feet touch the ground loses. So we were there for the final match, where the Yokozuna (the winner of the Tokyo tournament this year) battled some white guy, who lost. So he remains Yokozuna...for a while.

Throughout the match there was a lot of talk about the thongs, salt, and fatties. At one point, a really overweight kid walked past us, prompting my friend, Taka, to say ``Oh, I may have found the next Yokozuna``, which he said was all right to say, cause it was in English and no one else would have understood anyway.

Ill post pictures later, but I dont have them with me now...so wait for it?

Marifana, Fatties and Praying for Grades

2006-11-14T22:22:00.001+09:00

On Tuesday I met my conversation partner. His name is Takuya and he's an agriculture student. We were talking at our intial awkward-as-hell meeting, and he asked me some pretty funny questions right off the bat. After "Nice to meet you, my name is Steve" and so forth, he asked me if I drank alcohol. I said yeah, and then he asked if I smoked, and I told him only when I drink. He laughed at this and told his friend, who was sitting behind us, and another conversation partner. So we talked a little bit more, he invited me to a bar on Thursday, and then we went to lunch. I was sitting with him and his two friends, Ryota and someone whose name I always forget..., and then he asks me "marifana wo suu?" which means "do you smoke weed?". So, as weed is really fucking illegal and impossible to find anyway, I was really taken aback and confused, so I asked him if he had. It turns out that he had gone to Amsterdam with Ryota and they'd smoked up there a bunch. So he was curious if I had too. So I told him yeah, and said "natsukashii naa..." which comes out to "I miss it..." and a sigh, which made them all laugh a lot.

So we went to the bar on Thursday, which serves 100 yen beer (90 cents) for an hour on Thursday night. So Chris and I met Takuya, Ryota and some other people I didn't know there. We saw a poster saying that Coolio is coming to the bar on Dec. 30, so I'm sort of sad that I have to miss that cause I'll be in Michigan, but now that I think about it, as fun as it would be to revel in Coolio's washed-upness, I'd much rather see my friends and family...and eat a shitload of pizza and burritos. Fuck yeah....

NPB vs. MLB

2006-11-14T21:56:00.000+09:00

So last Wednesday I went to the final game of the MLB vs. Nippon Professional Baseball league All-Star series at the Yahoo! Fukuoka Dome with Daisuke, Ryuji and Chris. It was pretty damn cool, because the American team had some good American players, along with Johjima and Iguchi, who both played for the Fukuoka baseball team (Softbank Hawks) before they came over to the US. So it was a homecoming for them, and the Japanese were torn between cheering for the all Japanese team, or the team with their hometown MLB favorites.

When you go into the stadium they give you a set of those thunderstick things, so everyone has a set of the and everyone bangs them together throughout the whole game, so there was a lot of that. This is the second time I've done something "American" since I've been to Japan (the first being seeing "The Flags of our Fathers") and felt really awkward about being one of the few who understands what's going on. Like when they played "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" in English and no one sings along or has any clue what is going on. There was an American announcer singing it and sounding really awkward about it, because no one was following along. Then they kept playing the "Peanut Butter Jelly Time" song between innings, so I asked Daisuke if he understood what was being said. His English is really good, but even he had no clue, so I explained it to him and I think it just confused him a lot more.

So, the MLB team had won the previous 4 games pretty easily, so this was the big closer. It was tied at 3-3 at the end of the 9th, so it went into an extra inning, in which Jose Reyes hit a homerun and finished it out. It was pretty damn cool to see the best game of the series.

Nothing Much

2006-11-06T12:24:00.000+09:00

So, it has been a long time since I've posted for a couple of reasons. One is that I still don't have the Internet in my room, so it takes me a long time to get to a computer, and the second reason is that I haven't really done much in the past week or two. I haven't really taken any adventures or done much besides study and drink until this past weekend, when I didn't study, but drank and explored.

So on Thursday we went to a bar called Happy Cock, and did their all-you-can-drink special and I got shitfaced. I blacked out when I got back my room and found a half-eaten peice of bread in my fridge that I have no recollection of eating at all. Friday just sort of passed with me curled up in my bed listening to music and trying to sleep as much as possible. But the bar was fun; they played some rap, and some weird J-pop, but they also played Kevin Lyttle (JEAN). The bartender was from Michigan and went to State, so we talked about Georgio's and she gave me a free tequila shot, which only added to my shitfaced-ness. So we left the bar, took a taxi back to the Kaikan and I just closed my eyes and waited until the car stopped, because I felt awwwwful.

So then yesterday, we took the train/subway south to a nice beach/place where they have part of the wall built to defend against the Mongol invasion in 1280. It was a pretty cool trip and we just ended up sitting on some rocks at the beach and hanging out for a while, talking about the creepy trilobyte things crawling around us and stuff. Then we came back and played euchre. Oh yes, euchre is catching on here, bwhahaha...

Harroween

2006-10-23T23:44:00.000+09:00

Hey, so I'm drawing a blank for what I should be for Halloween...so I'm asking for some help. Anyone got any suggestions? Keep in mind that I'm in Japan and that stuff is either hard to find (cause I have the Japanese ability of 4 year old) and/or insanely expensive. The party is this Saturday, and I can't get into it without a costume, so gimme some good ideas, yo. Lemme know.

KARAOKE ATTACK 2!!!, Rice, Whale and KARAOKE ATTACK 3!!!?

2006-10-22T19:47:00.000+09:00

So the past few days have been pretty crazy. Classes went all week, which was the first time I've had classes in almost half a year. It's hard to go back. So this Friday a lot of us went to karaoke again, but this time we did it right. We went from 1am to 5am and did the all-you-can-drink option, so a lot of craziness ensued. At first, on the way there I thought we'd never get there because Jeff kept jumping into the bushes on the way to the karaoke place. So we had a hard time getting pictures of him doing this, so we ended up just asking him to do it, so he did, and we got a pretty good picture out of it.

So we get the place and all pack into the room and order 12 beers right off the bat. I think we started with Obla-di, Obla-da, which no one but me seemed to know. Eventually over the next few hours we ended up doing Bon Jovi, the Neon Genesis Evangelion song, H.O.T songs, some BoA, the Time Warp, Mambo No. 5, and that O-zone song that got popular for some reason. Everyone knew it, which was sort of weird...

So here's a picture from some point in the evening. That's Myrtille, Elizabeth, and Tatti dancing on the left, and me and David on the right. By that time everyone was pretty trashed, I guess. On the way out, I was trying to tell the guy working that the people still singing were going to pay for everyone, but I ended up saying "hataraiteimasu" instead of "haraimasu", which meant that I instead said "they're working". That made the karaoke guy a little confused, but then I figured out what I had said...

On Saturday I slept in until 2, got up, ate a sandwich, went back to bed until 6, and then didn't really leave my bed until 9. I ended up just doing homework with Emilie and then coming back to my room at like 1. About five minutes or so after I got back I hear someone trying to get into my room. The door was locked, so I was just confused, because I had just had a conversation with Emilie about how some drunk guy was trying to get into her neighbor's room the night before. So I was looking through the peep hole and see the guy disappear below my vision. I guess he was lying on the ground, because after 5 minutes he got back up and tried to get into my room again. After a minute of this he went and leaned out the window and then just stood there for a while before he left. It's weird, because I'm on the 5th floor of the building and there's no elevator. Why someone would come up 5 flights of stairs trashed off their ass, I have no clue, but he was definitely fucked up.

This morning we went into the mountains to go harvest rice, which was pretty cool. I got some nice pictures. We were way up on a mountain on terraces using sickles to harvest rice and stuff. We then had a big barbecue with the farmers, which was really good. On the way back, we stopped at a store that sold whale meat, so I took a picture of the sign; it says "Minke whale specialty shop this way"...I don't know why the whales look so happy, as I'd imagine they probably aren't happy to be carved up.

So now, I'm trying to figure out whether or not I want to do karaoke again tonight. It's so tempting...and so fun...and with that, I leave you with a picture of me actin' a fool in the karaoke box...I don't remember when it was, or why I rolled up my pants, but damn it's fun...If anyone decides to come and visit me, rest assured that you will have a great, great time singing bad 80s pop songs all night long in an all-you-can-drink setting. So, you should all come!

Epic Giant Roach Battle

2006-10-18T15:29:00.000+09:00

So, as you may or may not know, Japan is one hell of a place to live. I have no clue why people ever decided that it would be a good place to live. When it's hot, it's really hot; when it's cold, it's freezing; the whole chain is made up of giant volcanoes; tsunamis; earthquakes; and last but not least, the fact that the insects here are about the size of small children.

The first night I got into the Kaikan, I went into the kitchen, turned on the light and I saw a huge-ass roach crawl underneath the counter. Since then, I hadn't seen anymore in my kitchen atleast. I had seen them in other people's, but since mine is on the 5th floor, I figured it might be too high for them to climb or that they'd get as tired as I do going up the stairs all the goddamn time. The first morning I was here I walked to the beach and saw the biggest spider I have ever seen just hanging out on a sign post next to a busy street. Its body was seriously the size of one of those 50 cent JFK coins.

So, last night I was in the kitchen with Dietmar and Ali for a good 30 minutes cooking instant ramen and just hanging out. So they both left and I was left to clean up my stuff. I touched the sponge that was sitting above the sink and a effin' huge-ass roach falls off from the underside and ends up caught in the sink. So I whipped out my keitai and took a picture of it. It's not a great picture, but it was pretty shocking. It might look small in the picture, but you have to keep in mind that honestly it was a good 2.5 in long and fast as hell. It kept crawling around, and I convinced that it was the same one I saw the first day here I grabbed this spoon that has been sitting in the same spot for the past 2 weeks and beat the crap out of it. Then, I wasn't able to pick it up (as I was reluctant to use my chopsticks...) and move it into the trash, so I had to wash it down the drain...it was pretty fucked up.
Needless to say, right after dinner I went across the street to JUSCO and bought some roach traps for my room...as a preemptive strike...

So, here's the picture that I took of the worst I've come to encounter in Japan. I'm still working on getting a picture of the coolest bug I've seen so far; it acts and looks like a hummingbird, but it's really a moth. It flies as fast as they do and can hover, but it has antennae and 6 legs...it's pretty crazy to see. Sure fooled me...

Karaoke ATTACK!!!

2006-10-16T16:25:00.000+09:00

So the past week has been pretty weird. We just started classes here, and so far it doesn't seem like too much of a surprise. I have been out of classes for nearly 6 months at this point, so it's a little shaky going back, but it should be all right. Japanese class is gonna kick my ass, I can tell. I placed into the J4 {whatever that really means...} section. From the syllabus, it seems like a lot of the grammar is gonna be review, but almost all of the vocab is new. We're gonna be doing a lot of speaking practice and writing, which is good, because that's where I'm not that great.

So, in addition to that pretty much everyone got their cell phones. It's pretty damn cool. It's a little bit bigger than a RAZR back home, but it still kicks the ass of American phones. It has full e-mail capabilities, internet browsing, and a pretty good camera that includes a flash. Typing out e-mails takes forever, but its still cool to be able to people so easily. For those of you who are wondering, my e-mail address on my phone is stplast@ezweb.ne.jp , and you should e-mail me if you wanna say hi...but also remember that the time difference is almost completely opposite, so if you e-mail me at 4PM for you, it's 5AM for me...so yeah...

Also, on Saturday we went to do karaoke pretty close to the Kaikan. We ended up doing the deal that was just for 2 hours and was nomi-hodai {all you can drink}, so our session lasted form 1:30 until 3:30. There was a deal that went from 1 to 5, but we didn't think that we could stay up that long...but by the end of our session we all wanted to stay the full time. Next week we're gonna have to do it. So here's a picture from the crazy night of karaoke, that ended with everyone being too drunk to sing "Hot in Herre" because it was way too fast. Chris is singing some song (I forget...too drunk...) and Emilie is watching, as you can probably tell.

Back on Mac

2006-10-11T10:03:00.000+09:00

So I finally got my Mac hooked up to the school's network, so I can atleast use my own computer to go online when I'm on campus...or atleast at this one computer's spot. So, that's nice; I don't have to use the computers with Windows 2000 anymore. They also don't display the UM mail login right because the internet explorer is too old. You think that Japan is a high tech future-world? Not at all. The computers are old and don't work, ATMs aren't 24/7 and actually close at around 5pm and aren't always open on the weekends, and generally things are odd.

Today is the first day of class, but it has yet to start, so I dont really know how that's gonna go. Here's a picture of the river/bridge that I cross everyday when I ride my bike to campus, and also a picture of the beach that's across the street from the Kaikan. It has palm trees and looks all nice, but really it smells pretty bad and has algae and scum everywhere...but still, the palm trees are nice...

Polisci honors

2006-10-09T12:25:00.000+09:00

So, I finally got a response back from the people at the polisci department telling me that I should apply to honors this semester, even thought I am going to be abroad for the rest of the year. That means that I have to reapply when I get back in my senior year. It still doesn`t really make sense to me, but I`d rather not fuck it up.

Yesterday I caved and bought a bike. I tried to steal one with Whitney, by lifting one of the abandoned ones over a fence, ripping off all the ID info and pumping up the tires, but the back tire is messed up. So I went and shelled out around 7000￥ for a brand new one. It only has one gear, but everything is so flat that it works out fine.

Last night we went to the beach via bike, drank a lot of beer and the rode back across the street to the Kaikan. I think later today we`re gonna go explore the coast/roller coasters that we can see off in the distance...

Moon cake party?

2006-10-08T11:03:00.000+09:00

So yesterday Chris (from UM), John (from Belgium) and I all tried to find a sports bar in the downtown Tenjin area where we could watch the UM game, even though it would have been on at like 5:30AM, but we had no luck. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe and asked them where a sports bar was, and they pointed us a few miles away to a vague area that he circled on a map. We went there, and tried to stop at the US Consulate on the way so that we could ask them where we could watch football, but it was closed. So we finally found a sports bar in the circle area, but it was closed for a private party (although as far as we could tell by looking in, the private party was someone sleeping a chair in a room the size of an EQ single room). So we ended up eating at Wendy`s, which was all right.

So then we came back to the Kaikan (foreigner dorm) and I ended up stumbling upon a ton of people in one of the kitchens having a `Moon Cake Party`, which was sort of confusing. We ended up drinking tea, eating Chinese cakes that had whole fermented egg yolks in them (they only told us it was fermented after we had eaten it...) and then played a hand clapping game like the one on X-Men where the Korean celebrities get hit in the back of the head with frying pan, except our penalty was you had eat more of the cake and tea leaves.

So I`ll leave it at that, but I`ll try to post a picture of the rolling hills near an active volcano, but it`s also in a 60k wide caldera that was created by a huge supervolcano that exploded into itself thousands of years ago...

What a Weird Place...

2006-10-03T19:51:00.000+09:00

So, I got to Japan, but almost ended up leaving my bags in Tokyo, which would have caused a lot of trouble, but it all worked out. Uh, I have some pictures of my room, but i left the files on my usb thing at the dorm. ill post them tomorrow if i have a chance. so, also i wont have the internet in my room for 2 to 4 weeks, so i wont be able to be online a lot until then. and even then it might be really slow...so yeah. also, the internet at the dorms office place has been down for the past week and isnt open on the weekends or at night. i mean, what the hell, this is japan, shouldn]t they have the internet? so i had to ride the bus for 20 minutes to campus to use a computer.

so far weve gone to a couple places on the island for our orientation and actually ended up in the onsen (hot spring), where they had a crazy bath that glowed under a black light and looked radioactive. also, we stayed in little pods that were located near an active volcano. it was some weird shit.

uh...its really hard to type on a japanese keyboard, because i keep hitting the button that　switches it to japanese and then i have to hit the button thats where the esc button should be to switch it back.

im sort of incoherent right now, because it has been a long day and its hard to sum up the past week, so ill try and do that later at some point.

Leaving Tomorrow

2006-09-28T11:13:00.000+09:00

So, I'm in a hotel in Traverse City right now, and I have to wake up tomorrow morning to catch a plane to Detroit, and then catch another one to Tokyo. I'm starting to freak out a little bit, but it's too late to do anything about it, so...uh...okay?

Here's a picture from the Island of the sunset a few nights ago...just making sure that it's all working and stuff:

2006-09-23T12:33:00.000+09:00

Today I got my early Christmas present (a sweet camera), but didn't really take any good pictures yet. I'll post one probably tomorrow if there's a cool sunset over the lake or something.

I just got an e-mail from my JTW student friend-type person (his name is Daisuke) telling me that he's not gonna be able to meet me at the airport when I get there, but that we can hang out the next day. This leaves me wondering if anyone is gonna meet me at the airport at all or if I'm gonna have to find my way to the dorms alone, even though they haven't given me an address for it yet...hmmm...

Also, I got a backup pair of glasses and the first thing my mom said upon seeing them was "are you sure those aren't women's?", and the sad thing is that now I'm not...fuck.

Needles/Drugs

2006-09-19T12:51:00.000+09:00

So today I had accupuncture in Petoskey. It was pretty weird. My dad does it for his blood sugar so I went along. I had like 4 needles in my stomach, two in the arms, 4 on my feet two on my knees and one inbetween my eyebrows. When he put the one into my forehead he said "does your nose feel better?" and instantly my sinuses cleared up. It was pretty crazy.

Also, he burned this insense over my stomach for some reason and it totally smelled like weed. He said people always think that he's stoned because he smells like it all the time.

Drugs

2006-09-13T09:39:00.000+09:00

So today I worked my magic and got the pharmacy to give me all of my refills on a prescription at the same time so that I don't have to fill it again in Japan. Atleast that's what I told them. I'm really planning on selling it on the streets, so I guess they messed up.

Intro

2006-09-12T02:55:00.000+09:00

Well, I'm not quite in Japan yet, as I'm still sitting on Jane and Elektra's couch/my bed, but it's getting closer and closer. I leave Ann Arbor on Friday the 15th and then go up to the Island until I leave for good on the 28th. So, for now it's just a time of weird limbo where I work a few hours, bother people that have homework to do, and just sit around.