Entries this day: State_of_My_Life_Address chillin_with_Shoko_and_Jen fun_fun_fun_fun_fun hitomi

State of My Life Address

10:23am JST Wednesday 4 August 2004

State of My Life Address

1. I live in Millenium House in Kizuki-gion cho, near Motosumiyoshi station.

2. Shoko is sleeping on my bed because she wasn't able to sleep last night after having guy problems.

3. Construction guys are digging holes to pour the foundation for a five story building across the street.

4. I have confirmed that I'll be able to work for Ian next month. Awesome blossom.

5. My roller coaster book hasn't done anything interesting lately. As in I haven't done anything interesting toward writing the book. I wonder if it will ever be developed.

6. I work at Gaba near full-time, and have a few private students, and a couple students through Gateway 21.

7. There is a wooden table and chair, and short glass table in my room. And the folding futon thing that I bought with Yuuko's car-help when I moved in.

8. My computer is still my Powerbook G4 667 with 512Megs ram and 30 gig hard drive.

9. It's still under warranty, so I'm not likely to get a new one (until the warranty runs out in June 2005, and the computer breaks again.

10. I'm back to a stage of not hating Japan. I seem to have reached a crossroads of sorts: My life will change in September. Then it might change bigtime in October.

    1. I will begin working for Ian on weekends in September, making more money than at Gaba.

    2. I will possibly be on P-B in October, beginning an around the world cruise/adventure.

    3. If I'm not accepted for P-B, I'll consider riding my bike from here to Osaka (as test for riding farther. Across Europe or Eurasia or just ride back to Texas.)

11. It's pretty warm here in Tokyo these days. Sweat as soon as we step out of the shower room. People quietly melt on train platforms.

12. I haven't used my air conditioner this season.

13. For P-B, I've turned in my application, met super-genki Audrey, and am awaiting their response to see if I get to ride. My application didn't confirm to their specifications because I didn't receive the specifications when I first got the application information. Super-genki Audrey said it's all cool and will vouch for me.

14. I haven't yet told anyone at Gaba that I won't be working there on weekend days. I'm considering, naw - I've just decided: I will work at Gaba on weekend evenings, and if I oh wait a minute.. I was thinking about working from 7pm to close, thinking close was 10:40pm on the weekends, but it's not. I could work three classes on the weekends from 6:15 to 8:30, but.. fuckit I won't do it. I'll just get off early and get private students if anything.

15. Okay, so I've just decided that I will not work weekends at Gaba in September, and I still haven't told them yet.

16. Last month I got fifteen 5-5 evaluations, which should equal around 15,000 yen extra for me. (15,000 yen = 6 hours private student work)

17. I have no pets

18. I officially have no girlfriend, but have been hanging out a lot with that girl who wishes to remain nameless in my journal.

19. On occasion, I have felt old. But I have been careful to maintain proper posture while walking, and I carry my heavy back pack for exercise, and I use stairs for more exercise.

20. I have climbed Mt Fuji (July 12 - 13), but I have not finished my Mt Fuji journal entries.

21. I have lived in Tokyo for 17 months. In Japan I have visited Hiroshima, Kyoto, Nara, Nikko, and Kamakura. Still want to see Osaka (and the cool theme park there) and other places.

22. I have not been to any other countries in Asia.

23. I have visited Melbourne and Sydney Australia, Monte Verde and Quepos Costa Rica, London England, Paris France, a Texas-Mexico border town, and when I was pretty much too little for it to count, Ottawa (I think) Canada.

24. I've ridden Space Mountain at Disney Land (Tokyo, not LA nor Disney World Florida) and it was weak. Sigh.

25. Jen from Perth, Cute Shoko, Loud Jackie, Quiet Jo, Richard the Kiwi, Rikitake, Dave with a sportscar, Jon and Kaori, Colin the Absent, and new girl Ikumi live in my building. Oh and Gus. And Roger.

26. My journal is not RSSed.

chillin with Shoko and Jen

10:58am JST Wednesday 4 August 2004

I'm going with Shoko to take something to somewhere, hopefully to help her guy situation, at least in her heart. I'm hoping to practice a bit of Japanese on the way.

12:37pm

Now we are going to the pool with Jen.

fun fun fun fun fun

11:38pm JST Wednesday 4 August 2004

The pool was great fun today! Just as we arrived at the ticket gate, Dan called Jen, so he joined us after our first hour in the pool.

During the first hour, we hung out in the ring river pool. I clapped underwater for Jen, and we tested to see how far around the pool the clapping could be heard. Then Jen and I raced each other against the current, and she won, so I'm tempted to think she had an advantage, but it's difficult to be sure. (We raced at different times, with quite inaccurate time measuring technique: go upstream while the timer floats one lap around the pool.)

Shoko mostly just floated around the pool.

We hopped out to grab some expensive food up on the roof of the building as Dan was arriving. The rotting food/garbage smell was quite gross by the trashcans on the roof; sucks for the person asked to clean that. Yeek.

Shoko conked out on the benches on the roof while Dan, Jen and I played around talking and eating corn dogs (the call them "American Dogs") and ice cream.

We left her there (she had only gotten an hour of sleep the night before, so we figured any sleep would be better than swimming) when we went back down to swim, and she joined us after we had done a couple laps.

Dan was anxious to get a beach ball, and was even willing to borrow an apparently unused ball that could have been anyones... I wasn't willing to bat it around with them.

I wanted to play games like see who can hold breath underwater the longest, and who could withstand the torrent goooshing out of the vents to make the river ring run.

- - - -

ummm. I'm too tired to finish this entry at this rate.

Shoko was a bit cold and I hugged her once and enjoyed her hands on my shoulders while she floated behind me. I wanted to piggyback her, but that didn't happen.

Jen asked me later if I would shag Shoko, and I was like, "no, because she smokes."

- - - -

Dan and Jen stayed in the pool while I walked Shoko out and then sought a beach ball, which I found close to the pool (after walking far from the pool in search mode). I bought a super cool ball with Winnie the Pooh and Piglet drawn on the outside and little styrofoam balls on the inside that react wonderfully to static! It was surreal to see the styrofoam balls so dry inside the ball as we bounced it around.

In one game, we nearly got fifty hits before Dan missed it after 49. We still acted really pleased with big high fives and stuff. Jen was a bit nervous at our reaction (considering the simplicity of the game (take turns swatting the ball as it floated on the water) and considering Dan, being awesomely hilarious, intentionally missed the ball after 49 hits) but went along as best she could.

- - - -

Dan and I met back at his house and he shaved my head.

That was a bit of a trick cause his shaver only runs on the rechargeable batteries, and they were flat. Plugged it in, waited five minutes, shaved 1 minute. Plug, wait, shave.

I was late to see Hitomi, so it wasn't exactly fun to wait, and our phones kept cutting out when I was trying to tell her how to get from the station to Dan's apartment.

Shaved my head with a razor for good measure (or no measure) and high fives and out.

hitomi

12:26am JST Thursday 5 August 2004

Met Hitomi in Tsunashima station. Treated her to foodage from Lawsons, which we ate out by the river. It was nice chillin' with her.

Some high school girls got quite annoying as they brought firecrackers including some 40 meter vertical launchers and some roman candles. They were annoying cause they would shriek with each ball that shot out of the tube. Okay, the first one, I can understand. But not each fucking one. It was like, [foom] [shriek!]. [foom] [shriek!]. [foom] [shriek!]. [foom] [shriek!]. [foom] [shriek!]. [foom] [shriek!]. Alright, missy, get a grip.

But then it got worse as they were overtly being idiots and shooting the balls where other bystanders were standing. Come fucking on; have they got a single brain cell working?

I noticed my prejudice and my anger and tried really hard to see their side.. best I could get is that they were just in their own little world, where no one else existed. Which is really how Japanese society is built. So they are just being the way their society made them. But come on, society; get smart.

When one of the girls threw a spent tube into the river, I didn't know what to do. Yelling at her in English didn't seem like the answer, so I did nothing. Fuckin' hell.