finally finished the post that is my Tokushima blog. man, i wrote a chapter of a book for that one. go writer lebda go!

this weekend, i'm going to nikko! it's my first time and i hope i get to enjoy it before it's too cold to do anything else but hibernate in my apartment for the winter. 

why have i never been introduced to the awesomeness that is toaru majutsu no index?! i watched the first episode of toaru majutsu no railgun and have no idea that it was a spin off! 

i am ALL about a marathon man 

as we all know, the 711 on the first floor of my building is basically my kitchen. i'm down there more times then not and i think all the staff shifts know my face. they also notice other things about me, like when i got my haircut and the manager made notice to it and the next day one of the older women that works there asked me about it too. the older woman and i sometimes have polite conversation over the register. like: its hot today, or other such comments about the weather and the seasons. she really is nice and doesn't treat me as strangely as she could.

as usual, i was getting lunch there today and bought a bigger lunch than usual. i went up to the register to pay and since i spent so much there, i got to pull a card out of a box and hopefully win something for free. i pulled my card, which was a "too bad" card, and laughed it off with a, "zannen, ne?" to the older woman. then out of nowhere, she whispers for me to wait a moment and then comes back with a bottle of tea and just sticks in my bag, pulls out a "winner" card and scans it and then thanks me for coming and goes to the next customer.

she totally cheated the game for me. i laughed the whole way up the 8 floors to my place in disbelief over what had happened. when i leave sendai, i will make sure that i give her something for always being so sweet.

was on this ghibli orchestra dvd. i have been "playing" it as often as i can since i bought it and DAMN if it isn't the most beautiful thing i have ever heard. never mind the fact that i am extremely biased when it comes to ghibli movies and their music.

never mind that at all!!


now my only issue is finding it in mp3 format so that i can put it on my ipod and listen to the vocal versions when i'm out.

so, my 2 week vacation has come really well and i had a lot of fun.....until this afternoon.

i went out on a little hike today. a small one, like 2 hours, to this mountain with a more shaministic worshipers. i thought it would be interesting and something nice to end my vacation. as i was walking, i saw a guy make a prayer sign at me. since i didn't want to offend, i did it back and waited for him to go up further until i came after him. i didn't see him again for a while. i passed a bunch of school kids when i saw him again. but this time he was COMPLETELY NAKED. i was just going to pass him when he started making a big deal and trying to tell me, in english, that some people were up ahead and that they were also praying, naked, and that they would get angry if they saw him. since i had no reasn to doubt him, when he told me to hide, i did. i moved off the trail a little ways when i looked back, he was following me. still naked and then he started conversation with me! i thought it was so funny, but i kept that hidden. i wasn't really uncomfortable until he started making a prayer gesture at me and then would squat down and pray at me.

i thought, ok, almost finished and then i'll just walk away and we will be fine. we sat there for almost 15 minutes. he kept getting up and moving around and i kept moving my head to keep from looking at him. he got a phone call, started getting dressed and then 2 others come up to him, but they didn't really seem to be together. he seemed to be stalling and then another guy came past us, he told me the way down and then when i made a move to leave he grabed my arm and wanted a hug. i figured, one hug can't hurt. but then he started putting his face in my neck and i'm pretty sure he wanted to kiss me. at tht moment, i started pulling away and he kept talking and i jsut 'ok' and kept moving. i heard him say "i love you" and then i just completely walked away.

when i rounded the corner, i saw nothing special happeneing, there were men and ladies there, none of them were naked or anything. thats when i started to think that this guy was waiting for me or something. anyway, it put a huge damper on my day and i came straight back to the hostel and i don't really feel like leaving for the rest of the day. talk about a bad way to end a vacation!

so my vacation has been going really well!! first half is complete and i'm off to korea tomorrow afternoon. amy and ridwan were awesome to see and i'll be seeing them again when i blow through next sunday. i got laundry drying on the roof of my hostel and i'm going to leave it there till tomorrow morning. i figure it'll be dry by then and i'll have a bit of time to get everything packed and organized tomorrow before i have to catch my train to narita.

i'm so excited about this trip! i'm planning on taking it easy and relax for the last 5 days of my vacation. thats what i really want and need right now.

espically when it's a 13 day vacation! this is the longest vacation since college ended! hooray for long vacations!!


i have to say, that I LOVE KANAZAWA!

this place has everything! old samurai houses, a castle, a famous garden, a geisha district, temple district (with a ninja temple), crazy shopping area and lots of people. it's like osaka and kyoto in one much smaller city. the hotel i'm staying at is wonderful! it's in an old samurai house in the samurai district. no english, but wonderful futons and it's really convenient to the rest of the tourist areas. it's also really easy to walk around and to get a bus to where you want to go. the only real problem is finding internet. i had a bit of an adventure trying to find a place that i could get to pretty quickly and was relatively close to my hotel.

next stop is a day trip to inuyama and then on to takayama for a couple days. i've been keeping up the swine flu updates and i'm pretty sure i'll be find when i go to korea, but i'll take precautions and make sure that i'm alright. so nobody worry about me! i'll be safe!

so, golden week is coming up soon, as in a week and a half. i have had plans for golden week for almost 2 months now. i'm going to chubu and i'm going to relax and enjoy some traditional japan and finally, FINALLY, go to Takayama. i've been wanting to go there since i was at gaidai.

here is the twist. my school is getting re-done, and the 3 days after golden week, thursday to saturday, we aren't having any classes. we are allowed to take time off after a holiday because there will be nothing for us to do while they renovate and make amity pretty......so i took those 3 days off and ........


I'M GOING BACK TO SOUTH KOREA!

i found a good deal on tickets and i'm going to have a hang out day in tokyo, for those of you who live there, before my flight leaves from narita on tuesday, may 5. i wish i had known sooner because i totally would have planned a bigger trip to australia or new zealand or something, but oh well. i'm caving new zealing till obon and, hopefully, amy will come with me.

i feel strangely introspective as of late. i'm not sure why either.

must be one of my passing moods.

my weekend was awesome.

ridwan, amy and i had a blast.

raven and i had a ridiculous amount of fun at the ghibli museum.

it was awesome.

( movies movies )
sweet, i have a life!

so, i had been planning on just renewing my contract for 6 months after september.....but i've decided that i'm going to renew for another year instead.

i know this might not actually be shocking for everybody, but i wanted to put it out there as official now.

you know, i really love my job, i love where i'm living, and i love my job security. i really have no real reason to leave right now. i don't have to start grad school for a little while now.....why fix what ain't broken??

i should not have liked this show as much as i did. i LOVED it! even the ending was good! O.o that almost never happens!

i'm sad that it's over ;_; COME BACK!

weekend routine is as follows:

10:30am-wake up, get shower

10:50am-711 for breakfast

11am-2pm-with computer for quality technology time

2pm-5pm-errands which consist of: international center to return library books, go to tsutaya to look for music, eat lunch, go to maruzen for more book shopping, walk through arcade, go to HMV for more music, walk home.

5pm-1am-eat dinner, watch videos, rip new music (3 cds), send music to friends, read, fall asleep.

i have gotten more new music in this last month then any other time. even when i was ripping streamed radio on the internet. it's a dangerous habit, but now that i have a new iPod (120G) I have more than enough space for it all.

it's all shinny and new! 

about 2 years ago, i spent my spring break doing mission work in washington DC with a group from college. we spent the week living in the basement of a church and working in soup kitchens and helping out in retirement homes. one of the places we went to was DC Central Kitchen.

it's part soup kitchen part training program to help people who are down and out in their lives. maybe they just got out of prison or their homeless and in need of skills that could get them hired ad working again. i got taught how to use a knife while i was there. later that week we were working in another soup kitchen when we started using food that we had prepared at DC Central.

 there is only 1 US TV show that i download and it's Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations. It's a food and travel show and they were in DC this weekend. They did a rather nice chunk of the show about DC Central and with one of the workers there. 

i don't know what emotion i'm feeling right now, but it's a really good one.

MALAYSIA!

i am already starting a plan for a trip that is no where NEAR getting off the ground. i checked out the LP from the international center and now all i can think about is where i wanna go and looking into the train schedule and bus routes.

soberirishlass you have actually been there. talk to me!! 

i finally read the last harry potter book.

i know i'm late to the party but......

( OMG )