Japan

It's been awhile since I've written a decent update, demo gambarimasu ( but I'll try my best).The past couple of nights I've been staying in because of a sore throat from attempting to sing in a karaoke place with a few co-workers. It was a fun night, with great food, and me trying keep up with EminEm and the "real slim shady". I ended up walking home about 45 minutes to Nishijin but I had some friends with me so it wasn't too bad.

With my career as one of the most horrible karaoke singers in Japan thriving, I've also decided to pursue my goal to be a low level Japanese speaker. The past couple of weeks, I've been trying to learn how to write katakana and hiragana, and attend a Japanese class. There are plenty of signs for me to practice with whenever I step outside, but I definately struggle with the Kanji. I've also managed to get myself a Japanese exchange partner named Hitoshi Nakamura. My past discussion partner had an autonomic imbalance and has to settle her problems first, so in the meantime, I've been trying to meet other people. Hitoshi is a cool guy, about 31 years old (although he looks like he's 25), but he still goes out and drinks like he's a young dude. The last time we went out, he introduced me to octopus wasabe which is really good! And like I said before in a previous update, the food here is great! I've been eating yakiniku (korean barbecue), yakitori (any kind of food on a stick such as beef, chicken, pork, potatoes, etc), sushi, tempura, and other foods which I don't know the names of yet. I have yet to try raw horse but that's my goal the next time I go out to eat.

There was also a festival two weeks ago near my work. It was one of the 3 large festivals in Fukuoka and focused on the appreciation of nature, and animals, and trying to give back what nature has provided us. The ironic part about it was that fish, and baby chickens were given away in games that children played, and probably died later due to neglect by the kids who had won them. But anyway, the food was amazing, and I'll try to have pictures of that posted soon (well within the next month). I've already put up some pictures of the area I'm living in, but I have a lot of other pictures as well! Oh yeah, for some reason, the name Big Wang was bestowed upon me at work by my Assistant Trainer and I've kept that name on my Mobile. Yes, I finally have a mobile phone, but only because it's a necesity in Japan. It's actually quite fun though, and I may try to get one when I get back to the states in a year. If you guys ever want to email my phone then you can reach me at big-wang@jp-q.ne.jp

ALSO TRY TO CHECK OUT MY CO-WORKER'S (JON'S) WEBSITE WWW.BUCKNATURAL.COM
HE'S STARTING UP A BAND IN FUKUOKA, AND THEY ROCK!

Ok dat's all da sduff fo nowz, Take care all!

I had a day of kids training this past week and taught my first kids class on Wednesday. For the most part the kids are really cool, a lot of fun and way smarter than I thought they'd be. On the downside, they have a short attention span, run around the room A LOT, and can be uncontrollable at times. There are 3 levels of NOVA kids which goes as follows:
1)Kinder ( 4-6 yrs old)
2)Junior (7-9yrs old)
3)Senior (10-12 yrs old)
Today I had a kinder class with 6 kids. Five of the kids were really funny, and enjoyable to teach. The SIXTH one didn't try in class, kept calling me names in Japanese (such as old man, stupid), punched me, climbed on my back, told me to shut up. He ULTIMATELY showed his insolence to me by pulling down his pants and briefly waving his nakedness for everyone to see. It's definately the weirdest freaking thing that's happened too me so far.

Ok, but besides the kid's thing, I went out to eat some really good sushi at a fish market a couple of weeks ago. It was the first time I had TORO, fatty tuna, which can go for about $70/lb in some places. I don't know the names of the other fish, but they were good too.Experiences like that have made my trip to Japan so enjoyable!

As of today, I have a few more pictures up but I still have so many more to go<sigh>. Take care everyone and again, try to check back periodically for stuff.

PS... I'd like to send a shout out to my co-worker Jon and his wife Emi, who gave birth to their healthy baby son "Kai Wilks" today at 4pm Japan time. CONGRATS MAN!!

***Also take a look at the links page because I've added a couple of new ones.