Las aventuras de Hajime

2007-01-30T07:06:00.000-08:00

nature's a bitch. Current mood: crushed
and people and chickens too
I got here 10 months ago and live in a pretty small town. The population here is actually decreasing because everybody wants to move to bigger cities. My co-worker is leaving me tomorrow to go work in Fukuoka :( a bigger city with more opportunities and of course more money. So not much really happens in this part of Japan but check out my luck:
2 earthquakes, 1 typhoon, 1 tornado (around the corner from my house.. literally), a double murder. Bomb blasts in Bankok during my vacation and the latest.... bird flu :(
"The ministry on Jan. 25 confirmed Japan's second avian flu infection of the year at a poultry farm with 52,200 chickens in Miyazaki prefecture in the southern island of Kyushu. Birds there were infected with the H5N1 strain." http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-01/29/content_5670150.htm
The place mentioned above is about a half hour drive away from where I live. Only 2 months to go.. let's hope i get out of here aLIVE!!!

2007-01-21T07:34:00.000-08:00

My parents came to visit me in Japan :) and then we went to Thailand! yeepy! New Years was spent in our hotel room doing nothing since about 7 bombs exploded that evening.. not like we had planned to go clubbing or barhoping.. anyways, we all had a good time ;) They skipped the elephant washing and tiger petting though

2006-11-06T08:27:00.000-08:00

Get Your Own! | View Slideshow

2006-11-01T09:38:00.000-08:00

TOKYO!!! woohooo!
In Tokyo!! after Kyoto took a bus to Tokyo and headed off to another adventure. Note: book a place to stay before getting to Tokyo. I went to this so called Hostel, but daaamnnn was that place dodgy!!! it was a room smaller than my bedroom in VA and it had about 6 bunkbeds, no joke.. not even normal size bunks, but like midgett sized ones (no offence anyone) and all these people sleeping, except for this one girl that kept looking at me but not really. the manager was next to one of the bunkbeds on the floor and the kitchen was a foot behind him (a small fridge and a toaster) i didn't bother asking about the bathroom, i just left. F THAT!!! ran away as fast as i could. took a train to Shinjuku and looked for a Manga Kisa instead (these sort of comic book/internet libraries which are open 24 hours and usually charge u by the hour) some of these places are not all that, but this one i went to had a shower and all!!plus u get the all u can drink soft drinks, coffee, etc. i don't usually smell, but something told me i should shower :P maybe the stickiness or stinkiness...anyways, i made a 'day friend' trying to find this place and we ended up going drinking that night after a night of salsaing in Ruppongi. Towards the morning and right before a typhoon started my 'day friend' went home and i went to get some rest at another mangak. Wheww!! etc etc woke up, went to sleep for free at a starbucks.. blah blah blah and then went shopping at Shibuya... good night. btw HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Get Your Own! View Slideshow

2006-11-01T09:18:00.000-08:00

Get Your Own! | View Slideshow

2006-10-25T09:41:00.000-07:00

Get Your Own! | View Slideshow

2006-10-19T09:20:00.000-07:00

so it started raining.. the couple dropped me off and i kept on walking, the next victim was this 40 yr old guy and his 4 cuuuute little girls. They picked me up and drove me about 15 miles. He explained to them that i was a hitch-hicker and what a hitchhiker is, etc.. and they were like 'ooohh aaahhh' anyways they dropped me off :( i had to keep going straight,, but they had to turn into their small town. oh well... next: a guy and his wife and 4 year old son. I was about dying at this point, i was soooo tired i think it was around 6pm already. The couple's little kid was sleeping on the backseat and we didn't wanna wake him up so he just kept sleeping with his head on my lap.. eventually he woke up and i said HEllo! to him and he got all weired out as if thinking.. 'this person doesn't look like what i know' and after a second of confusion and borderline crying he turned to find his parents who were laughing at kid's reaction to his 'second' foreigner (his first foreigner is his elemtary school teacher). After being in the car for nearly 3 hours he got used to me and at the end we were all a happy family :D
Reached the Fukuoka (yes that's the name of the town) Train Station and said F THIS!!! and took a bus to Kyoto... Geisha hunting...
Slept on the bus (overnight bus) and arrived at Kyoto at around 7am. Bought a town bus city and off i went to find my sisters.. geisha sisters.. took a bus and covered most of the important temples, small stone paved ancient streets, castle ruins and old old old neighborhoods .. ok maybe not, but anyways after a day of serching i was so tired i needed some coffe and lo and be hold.. STARBUCKS! yes! :P in the middle of Kyoto.. as i was drinking my mocha latte frappucino grande with extra chocolate shavings and a bit of cinnamon on top there she was.. off in the distance, so i had to make a split second decission.. chase her or finish my coffee... damn starbucks. :(

2006-10-04T01:12:00.000-07:00

sorry!
ok first of all sorry for not having updated this thing in forever, but it's been sort of a busy last couple of months. Make that a nice busy summer :D
Let's begin with a little road trip i took up to Tokyo in August. It all started with another one of those 'it's now or never' thoughts. If you're not familiar with Japan (as many of us aren't) this is a big country. It may not seem like it, but it is. The town where I live is about 1,000 miles from Tokyo and that's only 1/2 of Japan. Anyways, I was hoping to take 1 week of off work and explore, which i did.
The plan was to begin early on a Sunday and hitchhike from my town up to Tokyo or so, then climb Mt. Fuji and then visit Kyoto and Hiroshima.
Things didn't go as planned... The saturday before leaving i got unusually :P wasted.. (yeah i know what you're thinking) anyways.. since the sun was about to come up i decided not to go to bed otherwise i was gonna waste a very valuable travelling day. So i got home around 7:00am and started packing... as u read this u'll find some valuable pieces of advice. (Number 1: never pack drunk) Why did i think i was gonna need my belly dancing skirt up in Mt Fuji? who knows.. the drunk mind works in mysterious ways. After i packed a little too much i headed off to the unknown. I had heard that hitching in Japan was easy, but this bag was not helping out at all... After walking about a block from home i turned around and got rid of whatever rocks i had in my backpack. Second try: Made it to the main road, walked for about 20 minutes and it was hot as a motha... lucky me this truck stopped and yeey!!! i got picked up. The driver was from a town about 2 hrs south of mine. I had gotten used to people speaking English to me where i live and having someone help me in case i needed anything translated. Well,.. not this time. this driver didnt speak a word of English and suddenly i realized my Japanese sucked. Thank goodness for the map i had with me and the confidence a sleepless-night out and a drunk morning gives you. We managed to understand each other and eventually he dropped me off at a Y and said good luck... (i think that's what he said) I took a left.
After walking about 15 minutes (time distorted) with my hitchhike finger at work and hating life because of my back and the hot ass morning a second car stopped. Sooo lucky! this time it was a couple in their late 40's. They were headed to this mountain which was on the way to where i was headed. The husband spoke a bit of English so i felt a lot better whhew. Anyways these people were soooooooo nice!! they took me sightseeing around my island and they even took me to lunch. what a blessing :D They ended up driving me across my island and even offered to buy my train ticket so that i wouldn't continue hitch-hiking, but once you start, it's hard to stop.... to be continued...

2006-07-31T10:51:00.000-07:00

i'm renting a room in Fairfax, VA. Yes i live in Japan, but one of my lovely tenants is moving out. Please send me an email if u know anyone interested in it. THAnk you!!!

2006-07-16T06:28:00.000-07:00

minie-volley.

my team won of course!

2006-07-16T04:42:00.000-07:00

during finals grrr!!!

this is my rival...

hey 2nd place is better than nothing right?

2006-07-16T04:32:00.000-07:00

this is at the doronko festival. aka mud fest (that's what i call it)

let the games begin!!!

2006-07-15T10:18:00.000-07:00

que hondas everybody! last night i jammed a little with a japanese street performer. he was hitchhicking his way around japan. he was cool as shiiiit!
i love this country. on my way home from going out (around 1am) i ran into my 4th drunk-dormido person on the road. all spread out missing his chancla, but with an aura of happiness around him. god i'm in heaven!!!!

2006-07-15T10:14:00.000-07:00

a cloudy day, but happy nonetheless :P

I can't believe it! i love it. tomorrow i'm going to a
country side festival. it's called the Doronko Matsuri.
We're gonna plant rice and then play games. Yes! i
think it's fun :P after that these peeps are gonna
show me how to make onigiris (rice cakes) and then i'm
going to dinner with one of my favorite students and her
family to a super japanese restaurant. on monday i'll
go to this other little town rated number 3 in the
country for "good vives" and then salsa near the beach
at night. tuesday is back to work, but the weekend
after that i'll be enjoying a local festival with
fireworks and all that is japanese! then i go on
vacation and off to climb mount fuji and visit tokyo!
oh my god i should have done this earlier.
unbelievable. although it's hot as balls i don't mind
it. i'm having the time of my LIFE!!! i almost forgot...
today i ate sashimi (raw fish) Which is the shit and i
ate RAW BEEF!!!!!!!!!!! I swear! it tasted like
chicken. just kidding. it tasted soooo gooooooooodddd!
i'm almost a cannibal. joke joke. anyways. come
visit if you want. you only have 8 months left! do it.
you will not regret it.

2006-07-09T10:45:00.000-07:00

some of my students and me at dinner. yes i'm the foreigner wearing a traditional japanes outfit called a Yukata. Basically a summer Kimono.

2006-07-06T09:01:00.000-07:00

told ya

2006-07-06T08:56:00.000-07:00

i love this country... ahhhh

2006-07-06T07:45:00.000-07:00

Things have changed. i do the peace sign when they take my picture, i bow to people that come towards me. i cross the street only at the crosswalks, i pour my friends drinks and wait for them to pour mine. i make an x with my hands and nod at the same time when i mean no. i hold my drinks with both hands, i step out of a room backwards, i look for chopsticks not a fork, at the store i also hand people money with both hands and bow a little and say dozoooo at the same time. i change from my 'outside' shoes to my 'inside' shoes when i get in my house, i don't make my bed but fold and put my futton away. oh and i've become much nicer :D

2006-07-03T07:53:00.000-07:00

gubinamanomo?!! at the 7-11

2006-07-03T07:51:00.000-07:00

i thought i posted this already... i guess not. how convinient!!!

2006-07-03T07:46:00.000-07:00

the Star Festival is coming this weekend.

write a wish and decorate away!

this is my boyfriend :D

2006-04-25T07:39:00.000-07:00

getting my lunch ready :) no lunch boxes or paper lunch bags here. They actually take care of their environment...!!! hint hint

2006-04-24T10:35:00.000-07:00

my town :)

2006-04-24T10:26:00.000-07:00

they put these flags during May to celebrate 'boy's day (or month) i forgot. cute no?

2006-04-19T08:27:00.000-07:00

The town of Hyuga. About 45 min. south of where I live. It was still kinda cold.

2006-04-19T08:21:00.000-07:00

at a festival in my town... Nobeoka :)

2006-04-19T08:20:00.000-07:00

i love it!!

2006-04-17T08:05:00.000-07:00

my apartment
my apato is not far from the school. i sometimes walk to it or ride my bike. it takes about 7 minutes to get there on a good day. in other words if it's not too windy. The other day i tried going over this bridge and ohhh man. .. i thought that was gonna be the end of it. the wind was sooooo strong!! so i just played it cool, got off my bike and walked it. oh right... my apt is also on top of a porn video store. i met the owner the other day. nice guy.

2006-04-17T07:33:00.000-07:00

oh right... i forgot i had one of these blog thingies. So i left Vancouver on March 21. Before leaving the airport I spent my last Can $ on a huge double whopper with cheese and extra bacon, large fries and a diet coke :D
i knew i wasn't gonna find burger king that easily here in Japan... not in Nobeoka.
So the first few weeks were interesting. Everything new and different. The town i'm in is located in the island of Kyushu (Southern Japan) . The other two girls i trained with in Vancouver are also in this Island, but we're about 2 hours away from each other. Whitney is in the middle of nowhere (Hita) big farm land and the other girl, Nicole is in Fukuoka (South of South Korea) big party place i hear.
The school i'm at is small. there's only 1 other teacher (she's Japanese) and a manager. I have about 25 students and i like all of them :D luckily teaching is getting easier and easier... except for the children's classes i have :( not sure what to do. my creativity is running kinda low there, but my co-workers are awsome and are making this move definitely smoother yeeeyyyy!!!!

2006-03-17T18:16:00.000-08:00

happy st. patrick's day!!! i leave to japan on tuesday :) march 21 woooohooooo!!!!!!!

2006-03-17T17:53:00.000-08:00

this is Vancouver eh?!

find the rainbow.

2006-03-17T17:48:00.000-08:00

a better picture of the house...

2006-03-13T20:17:00.000-08:00

in vancouver now staying for training until next tuesday with 9 other trainees.
we're staying at a huge house and this totally reminds me of the real world (although i've never seen one episode) everyone here is pretty cool (and young) but so am i :D
email me!!!

2006-03-12T01:48:00.000-08:00

ok i´m almost done packing... with mother and sister´s help of course :) i´m actually not stressed out or nothing, but that´s how it ususally is for me, i don´t deal with it until i´m actually there... then i crash.. hmmm .
i wanna let you all know that i´ll be thinking of you over there wherever it is that i am and that you can come visit. for real.
hopefully i´ll continue this blog thing since i´ve been told i´m A.D.D. and will find something else to entertain me in about a couple of weeks :P
let´s enjoy it while it lasts

2006-03-10T19:01:00.000-08:00

a baby

2006-03-08T08:23:00.000-08:00

Marlig y Francisco que i hadn't seen in about 5 years. Gusto en verlos again!

Yvette practicando con la bebe de Yadi :P

Dave found a song! yessss!!!

but Martin beat him to the mic ... :(

:)

2006-03-08T00:22:00.000-08:00

either i inspire amorrrrr or
le pusieron algo a los drinks.

beso! beso! no se hagan.

told ya

see? everyone's happy...

2006-03-08T00:17:00.000-08:00

Mis amigotes (notice the milf)

Mas amigotes, y un metido... pero no es el unico.

mas milfs..

el balloon se atraveso...

2006-03-08T00:09:00.000-08:00

This is the one, mi querida amiga Tesa, the one that started a 'let's get pregnant' game of tag...

you can't catch me....

Todos a modelar on the count of three..

Giovy the best!! Go "El Pike"!
B. let's learn how to match, learn from
Roger :P

2006-03-08T00:03:00.000-08:00

Entonces, cual es el papa?

Martin and i are just glad it's neither one of us... gracias a Dios, let's celebrate woohooo!

As i was telling you Leila... what was i saying?

Gracias Giovanita por todo!!! i really appreciate lo nice de gente que eres y te deseo lo mejor con el restaurante y con tu carrera. No trabajes tanto! Te queremos mucho Giovy! y el metiche de al lado quien es... (j.k.)

2006-03-07T23:58:00.000-08:00

So things started getting out of hand when drunk shmooky was told she couldn't sing anymore.

I tried to knock some sence into her,

but she almost knocked some something else into me...

so wow, i didn't know pregos could get like that...

i still love her though,

even if that's not my baby she's carrying.

2006-03-07T23:45:00.000-08:00

tan cute

for real... we can sing

Thank you MARIO!!!

the next day.

Thank you Miriam!!!

... the end

2006-03-07T01:42:00.000-08:00

So.. i'm starting this blog mainly porque some PEOPLE have been bugging me about the pictures from the party so here it goes...
The chau party started off fine and ended up..uhh with me drunk.. surprised? my liver wasn't. F it I had fund :D
I wanna thank everyone that showed up and tell you that you mean a lot to me :'( those who didn't show up because you're pregnant.. you're forgiven, those that didn't because you didn't are probably not reading this anyways, but if you are and you care... don't worry i know you care :) so enough talk.. let me figure out how to post this madre