Summer

School is out, Eric is here, we are getting this party started! Probably my blog will be silent until August so be patient :P

Three day weekend

So as several of you know my last weekend was a three dayer. It was sort of eventful. On Friday I went out with a friend Yasuyo "Sue" for dinner. She asked me to come out to meet her friend Hitomi (see first photo). We went to a very good Italian style restraunt and chatted it up a bit. Hitomi is a very nice woman who is interested in America and English (along with Chinese and Japanese). So that was Friday.
Saturday I had another lesson, my third, with elementary school kids at Glory. That went pretty well and I think the kids are a little less shy these days. After that one of the other teachers asked if I'd be interested in a little side work in the evening a couple times during the summer. I said sure and so he showed me the school. It's about a 15-20 min bike ride from my apartment. I'll get 16000¥ per day for 4 hours on Mondays and 3 hours on Thursdays. It's not as good as Glory, but nothing to spit at. The reason I'll be filling in is, he will be in America visiting family for several weeks in August. So I'll be teaching 3 or 4 lessons. The big thing is I'll be teaching completely alone on Monday(s). At Glory even though I don't have a team teacher there are parents and another Japanese administrator in the building. At this school it's just me and the students, which makes me a bit nervous (again).
After my tour of the other school I went back to my apartment and got ready for the farwell pot luck. All the American's leaving this summer kind of threw a pot luck party to let community members say good bye. That went for a few hours and then afterward we moved to Coast Bar. Coast was having a "Beach Party." By beach party I mean they filled the bar with sand and all with water balloons and water guns flying around in the mix.
Sunday was a bit calmer in the morning and then at 4:30 Avi (an ex-aussie neighbor) got married (see pictures 2 and 3). It was a bit disorganized because of the typhoon threat, but in the end it worked out. Afterward there was a reception at Roxy, which I didn't go to because I hate the cave and it's smokey atmosphere. Instead I met up with Chelsea, Michelle, Eiko and Allison for a drink at Hosanna's. This also happend to be Allison's last night in Japan (see picture 4) so wesaid good bye afterward and Allison went back to Roxy. Chelsea, Michelle, Eiko and I went to Time Machine and did 3 hours of Kareoke instead. My voice still hurts.
Monday was a real lazy day. The only major interesting thing was I went and got coffee with Hitomi. I learned more about her business and about her. She likes comdey movie, blues music, doesn't like novels, is 27, has been to many many countries around the world, studied Chinese in college and so on. So there you have it a glimps at my weekend.

To Blog or not to Blog

I don't really have much on the interesting side to say these days, but as my fans haven't heard from me in a while I felt it is my duty to check in anyway. The school year is nearly done and I am glad ^^. I long for a long break from getting up at 6 am to ride my bike and then the train and then walk to work. I have about 7 more classes to go before I am done at Ohtsu. I am glad it is over. I have been having a lot more fun there lately, which is a shame since the first 5 and a half months there really weren't that great. I am looking forward to returning to Shikama Higashi in the fall though :).
This coming weekend is a 3 dayer and I will be partying a lot because of it. Not because it’s 3 days, but because the fact there will be 3 nights available there are many events happening as a result. To top it all off Eric arrives in a week too! :P You know there will be trouble then … hee hee. I will be taking it easy this weekend, but I have to make appearances at least to say good bye and hello to many many peoples.
So there is my blog … not all that interesting, but that’s what you get for the moment.

Running

So short blog before bed. Most days after work I go on a run with two of my Aussie friends Tina and Bill. Bill usually leads the run as he is has the most wandering route choices so it's always new and exciting. Today though it was extra "interesting." First Bill decided our shoes were much too clean so we took a detour through the mud behind Himeji Castle. Then because our run was looking a bit short he decided it would be fun to follow a pink bus for a bit. Against Tina and my protests he followed it down a road that appeared to lead to a dead end ... and it did :(. BUT! Not just any dead end, it was the bus depot! So we ran around the edge of the bus depot with the Japanese yelling at us over the loud speaker "DAMÉ!" and finally one of the conductors came out and said "DAMÉ" gesturing for us to leave. It was quite an adventure. Running with Bill is never boring ...

David

So this is just a post to say that I will miss my soon to be ex-neighbor David. It has been a blast knowing him this year and the residence will be way too quiet without him. He has taught me many things Japanese and has bequethed me with many objects from his time as an ALT. So I wish him all the best of luck up in Yokohama and hopefully sometime in the future our paths will cross once more.

A shout out to the peeps!

So this post is of a humorous type nature. A couple days ago I was talking with one of neighbors who happens to read my blog often. It came out that several of my Aussie friends and some other random people in my complex read my blog as well. This is funny to me because when I started the blog I was only thinking it would be for people back home. Anyway my post yesterday was in responce to a comment from my neighbor (people back home could care less it seems :P), who said my Japan side readers are interested to know about Steve's love life again (since it had been several months since my last real post on the subject). So this is a shout out to my far east side readers.

*All names have been left out of this blog to protect the identity of my readers* :P